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.

Quote of the Day

God’s chosen people in the Old Testament were a segregated people and His purchased people in the New Testament were bidden not to integrate with this world. This is not physical separation, for we must live among the souls we are to evangelize. We are to be utterly distinct in spirit. Our approach, our motives and objectives and attitudes toward everything must be totally different, for we have the mind of Christ. This goes deeper than non-participation in dancing, card-playing, social drinking. Paul list the incompatibles that take in everything. Righteousness and unrighteousness: today these have become not merely relative but nonexistent in the modern mind – “the new morality” proves that! Light and darkness: when light comes in, darkness goes out-today a twilight has been created, neither day nor night, and men creep around in conditions of low visibility. Christ and Belial: no “concord” there – today some thinkers would include the world in the church but the world’s friend is God’s enemy. The temple of God and idols: We have let Jezebel set up her altar to Baal beside the altar of Jehovah, mix the mystery of iniquity with the mystery of godliness. We need a new segregation of the church but the swing is entirely in the other direction of integration with the age. Thereby the church loses her identity and merges into the society she was meant to change. Of course it is part of the program of Antichrist, but God will have His faithful few in Sardis who shall walk with Him in white, for they are worthy.

The daily devotions are from Pepper ‘n Salt by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1966.