DISCIPLE

by William MacDonald True Christianity is an all-out commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Savior is not looking for men and women who will give their spare evenings to Him – or their weekends or their years of retirement. Rather He seeks those who will give Him first place in their lives. “He looks today, as He has ever looked, not for crowds drifting aimlessly in His track, but for individual men and women whose underlying allegiance will spring from their having recognized that He wants those who are prepared to follow the path of self-renunciation which He trod before them” H. A. Evan Hopkins. Nothing less than unconditional surrender could ever be a fitting response to His sacrifice at Calvary. Love so amazing, so divine, could never be satisfied with less than our souls, our lives, our all. The Lord Jesus made stringent demands on those who would be His disciples - demands that are all but overlooked in this day of luxury-living. Too often we look upon Christian...

“Now the people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.” 1 Samuel 6:13 Beth Shemesh was a city in the territory of the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:10), about 14 miles to the west of the city of Jerusalem. It was originally a city given to Sun worship, but when conquered by Joshua it was given to the Levites (Joshua 21:16). Therefore its inhabitants were Levites, and they had a problem. Israel foolishly took the ark into battle as a good luck charm, and the Philistines captured it. For seven long months the ark of the LORD had been in the land of the Philistines, leaving Israel “Ichabod” (“the glory departed”), as a mark of divine displeasure. Surely among the godly minority in Israel, no one longed for the return of Jehovah’s ark more than the Levites. But since the armies of Israel had lost the ark in battle, what could a group of Levites possibly do to secure its return? They cou...