roniya“Live for the glory of God and the good of many.”

DIRECTION OF DISCIPLINE

“And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Matthew 5:30

Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off the right hand, but – If your right hand offends you in your walk with Me, cut it off. There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but, says Jesus, if it hinders you in following His precepts, cut it off. This line of discipline is the sternest one that ever struck mankind.

When God alters a man by regeneration, the characteristic of the life to begin with is that it is maimed. There are a hundred and one things you dare not do, things that to you and in the eyes of the world that knows you are as your right hand and your eye, and the unspiritual person says – Whatever is wrong in that? How absurd you are! There never has been a saint yet who did not have to live a maimed life to start with. But it is better to enter into life maimed and lovely in God’s sight than to be lovely in man’s sight and lame in God’s. In the beginning Jesus Christ by His Spirit has to check you from doing a great many things that may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for you. See that you do not use your limitations to criticize someone else.

It is a maimed life to begin with, but in v.48 Jesus gives the picture of a perfectly full-orbed life – “Ye shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

~Oswald Chambers

From my quiet time with Jesus…

After reading Oswald Chamber’s devotional for the day, the Lord brought practical application from the devotional for my life.

“Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isaiah 40:10-11

He gathers the lambs with His arm and carries them in His bosom – there is an aspect to the character of Jesus that is only seen by the lambs, by the weak ones, and by the needy.  They who are strong do not know what it is to rest in His bosom.

And so it is in His faithfulness that Jesus Christ, our Shepherd, brings trials into our lives that show us our weakness and needs.  Sometimes He has to maim us, or tell us to cut off our right hand, our place of strength.  He does it because it is His way of bringing His sheep to the pasture of perfection.  We must be willing to embrace the pain and to cut off our right hand, the best thing we have, but it hinders our following hard after God.  For me, it is the right hand of good health, a clear mind.  My mind is my strong point, but right now it must be maimed lest it hinder the process of perfection that Jesus is doing in my life.

Sometimes He takes our ‘right hand’ and then asks us to cut it off by surrendering our rights to it and even the hope of getting it back.  Other times we must take the ax and cut it off as we resolutely turn our back on something that everyone else has a legitimate right to, but for us it is a hindrance.  The point isn’t what each person’s right hand is; the point is, will we be obedient to say, ‘yes, Lord,’ and cut off what He shows to be our ‘right hand’?  The place of perfection can only be found through maiming, weakness, trials and testings.  I haven’t done an exhaustive study…but I think we will find that as we study the lives of Christians who walked closely with the Lord, we will find that they were reduced to a place of weakness and dependency in at least one part of their life.  And it was through that point of weakness that Christ was able to work perfection in their lives.

As the Son learned obedience through the things which He suffered, so must we.  And it is on Jesus Christ that we must keep our eyes!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” Hebrews 12:1-3

A dear friend shared this with me earlier this evening.  She has graciously given permission for me to share it and I thank her for it.

“You know, I was thinking today that life is like the changing sky.  We like the sunshine in this part of the US because we don’t see if very often, but I have learned to appreciate the clouds that cover the sky.  There is greater beauty is those clouds than in the clear sky.  The sun can tint them, gild the edges, and put a hundred shades of gray in them that is very beautiful to behold.  The blue sky is just blue.  But the clouds give character and hues that are lovely and uplifting.  God’s grace through the clouds is a beautiful thing, and much more lovely and enduring than the unclouded day.  I say, praise God for the clouds, they are what makes you into the image of Christ.”  Mrs. Hargett