Others May . . . You Cannot

Earlier this week I had the privilege to speak to seminary students on the topic of "The CounterIntuitive Christ" from Mark 8:27-38.  One of the ideas in this text is that we are to follow Christ in his death by denying ourselves.  That means that we will need to obey God no matter the circumstances, outcomes, or "success" of our work on his behalf. This may mean that we will find ourselves ministering in obscurity while looking only to our Master for approval regarding the success or failure of our ministry.  As I've thought about living under the sentence of death for Jesus, I remembered an old tract a friend once sent to me. The tract was entitled "Others May, You Cannot." I have reprinted it hear as a reminder that the only applause we should seek is the smile and pleasure of our Lord that results from our complete obedience to and dependence on him. Enjoy!

"If God has called you to be really like Jesus he will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways he will seem to let other people do things he will not let you do.

"Other Christians and ministers, who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

"Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence of Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

"The Lord may let others be honored and put forward and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get all the credit for it, but make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious he may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

"The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is sovereign and can do what He likes with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in his dealing with you, but if you absolutely sell out to be His servant, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow on you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

"Settle it forever, then, that you deal directly with the Holy Spirit and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hands, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to do with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven."

Thanks for reading!