Devotion of the Day

What Lack I Yet?

What lack I yet?
Matthew 19:20.

The rich young ruler had morals, manners and money. He would be welcomed readily into many churches today, with no questions asked. He would make a good “joiner,” but he would be a poor disciple.

Salvation is free but discipleship costs everything. Somehow, we have utterly lost sight of our Saviour’s drastic and often severe challenges to prospective disciples. Letting the dead bury the dead, denying self, hating loved ones, putting the hand to the plow—He used terms that demanded absolute obedience and unquestionable loyalty. Today we have tempered all this down and removed its sharp edge and have gathered a host of indifferent “joiners” who have not the faintest idea of what it means to “sell out” for Christ.

Jesus lost this prospect. The young man went away. Why didn’t our Lord take him on milder terms and later lead him into complete surrender? That is our techniques today, but Jesus was out for disciples, not “joiners.”

“What lack I yet?” Here is the painful lack in our churches, because it is the lack of so many of their members.

The daily devotions are from Day by Day by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953.

Devotion of the Day

The Technique of the Towel

If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
John 13:14.

Our Lord steps from magnificence to meniality: “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands…began to wash the disciples’ feet.” From sublimity to service!

In the early days of Communism one leader wanted to admit all who accepted the theory and purposes of the movement. Lenin insisted that only those who were so devoted as to be willing to do the most menial tasks be received. “Fewer but better” was his motto. He said, “Give me one hundred fanatics rather than a thousand indifferent followers.”

“The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” Considering how we have to coax and beg church members to do a few things for our Lord, we can easily see how we are loaded down with excess baggage, nominal disciples who agree in theory but have never learned our Saviour’s technique of the towel.

The average church member would do well to look in his concordance and see how many columns it takes to list all the “serve,” “servant,” “service” references. We come to church to sit but will not go out to serve.

The daily devotions are from Day by Day by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953.