His

 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word." John 17:6...."Our Lord makes a disciple His own possession." Oswald Chambers

I was struck today by something Oswald Chambers said in his wonderful devotional, My Utmost For His Highest. He said that we may well be saved, converted, even transformed on some level, but that does make us His. I think this flies in the face of a great deal of our thinking, because the average believer does consider himself as belonging to Christ. And they are right....in part, because parts of them may well belong to Him, while other parts belong to someone or something else. We're not really "His" at all. We're more like a "timeshare," where we have Him as a guest, but not as a full resident. Like a timeshare property, others have a stake in us as well. We're no more His than we are theirs. Everyone and everything has a piece of us.

Jesus gave a very hard saying to His disciples in the Gospel of Luke. He said that unless someone hated their mother, father, sister, or brother, even themselves, they could not be His disciple. We're repelled by that, but we need to have a deeper understanding of what He meant. He didn't mean a literal hate, but He did mean that nothing, absolutely nothing, even those we are most intimately related to, could have an equal or greater claim to us than Him. People are "owned" by so many things today; relationships, possessions, jobs, even ministries. They, not Christ, have the greater part of us. Jesus meant that when it came to following Him, He would lead us in ways that other people might not wish us to go. For His disciple, that could not deter their following, no matter how much they might love or value that person. Loyalty to Christ was absolute and following Him might mean, will mean, rejecting what other people think we should do. For the other people, that might look like hate. It is not. It is complete trust and love for the Lord, and a trust that our following and obeying would not only be for our good, but theirs as well. To be His disciple means He has our absolute commitment and loyalty. The apostle Paul said he was a bondslave of Christ's. He belonged to Him completely. He was not his own. Neither are we, but too often, we live as though we are.

Someone said that we have many believers these days, but few disciples. We believe in Him, but we give ourselves to Him in degrees, to a point. You don't have to be rich to be in the same place as the rich young ruler in the gospel. He wanted to follow Christ, and he was willing to keep all the "rules," but when Jesus directed him to sell all he owned and then come follow him, Scripture says that "he went away sad." His ultimate loyalty was to his money and possessions. Where is ours?

As concerns our relationship with Him, what defines it is not how we describe it, but how He does? Does He know us as believers, or as sold out followers? Does He know us and call us His disciples? One who is content to be a believer can have a nominal walk with Christ, but they can never be His friend. That is reserved for those who are His. His disciples. Has His friendship been reserved for you, and for me?

Blessings,
Pastor O