The online Bible teaching
ministry of Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
A
daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and
exhortation.
Wednesday,
January
5,
2022
"The
Greatest Resignation"
(Part
1)
Message
summary: The greatest
resignation is resigning from following Christ and being
His disciple.
Listen
to this message on your audio player.
“From
that time many of His disciples went back and walked
with Him no more” (John 6:66).
Last
night Harry and Ruth came over to our place for a visit.
We met because I will be conducting their wedding ceremony
in several weeks. They're a Christian couple, both
widowed, and have found new love in their later years.
Brooksyne knows Ruth from our local Mount Joy Gift and
Thrift where she serves as a volunteer cashier and where
Ruth also works. Ruth is especially admired for her
decorating skills in displaying donated items in such a
way they have the look and appeal of a purchase you might
make at your local department store.In seeking
to get to know them better, I asked Harry what he had done
for a living, assuming he was retired. He told me, "Oh,
I'm still working", which initially embarrassed me since
he appeared to be older than me and I was concerned I
might have offended him assuming he no longer worked. I
was relieved when he told me he was 80. But he still works
35 hours a week at the same wire factory he has worked at
for 59 years! How often do you hear a story like that
these days?
He enjoys
working and staying active but he also told me how much
the company values his work. Growing up on a dairy farm he
had learned early the practice of working hard and being
responsible, character qualities any company will value.
But his
company, like many others all around the country, is now
dealing with the difficulty of finding workers. Lately
I've been hearing the term, "Great Resignation" such as
this headline in yesterday's USA Today newspaper, "Great Resignation: The number of people
quitting jobs hit an all-time high in November as
openings stayed near record".
This great
resignation describes the mass exodus from the workforce.
It's an interesting and troubling phenomenon but in a
nutshell it has spiritual causes. Far too many no longer
ascribe to the "work ethic" nor practice the first part of
the fourth commandment which states "six days thou
shalt work".
But today
let us consider an even greater resignation. Resigning
from following Christ and being His disciple.
Surely
our first daily text is one of the saddest expressions in
the Bible. “From that time many of His disciples went
back and walked with Him no more” (John
6:66). This was the response by many who, upon hearing the
teachings of Jesus, responded this way, “This is a
hard teaching. Who can accept it?” (John
6:60). This remains the reaction of many when confronted
with His teaching.Some of Christ's teaching indeed seems hard in the sense of being hard to understand. Some issues make sense to us, others we accept by faith, not fully understanding with our mind. However I have learned that there are many previously hard teachings that become easier to grasp after a period of maturation and experience as a Christian.
But some of His teaching is "hard" in the sense of it being hard to live by. The call to serious discipleship is hard. I believe that's the sense in our daily text. Many years ago I read a book dealing with discipleship. The author, with deep conviction, expressed the teachings of Christ without any soft-pedaling so that each point brought about some discomfort in my usual "comfort level" of following Christ. I believe the sense in the text is “hard to live by”. We can see from some of the disciple's response: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
Mike Ratliff writes in “The High Cost of Discipleship”,
“The message
of salvation that is normally preached or taught in the
vast majority of churches these days has been
contaminated with Humanism. The focus is on becoming a
Christian for some great benefit or reward from God
based upon little to no personal cost. Masses of people
respond to that false gospel as well. The genuine gospel
that our Saviour preached during His earthly ministry
may have mentioned the benefits of being saved, but He
emphasized the cost of becoming His disciple in such a
way that it caused many of His hearers to not follow Him
anymore. In fact, whenever He saw that the people were
flocking to Him to have their felt needs met, He would
speak a message to them that expressed that those who
are His disciples are the ones who have counted the cost
and seen that the eternal is all that truly matters.”
After many of His disciples walked away, “Jesus then said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’” (v.67).
Peter spoke up and uttered one of the greatest faith statements in the entire Bible: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (vv.68,69).
Amen, that’s
my belief today as well and I want it to be every day! Let
us, like Peter, consecrate ourselves to God and continue
as His follower. “A faithful follower I would be, for by
His hand He leadeth me.” By the grace of God let us
resolve never to go back to our old way of life or be a
part of the greatest resignation.
Be
encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)
Stephen
& Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer:
Father, there is no one or no thing that deserves
our complete allegiance, but You, our Lord, have the
words of eternal life. Though others may refuse to
listen or turn away from the message of salvation we
choose to persevere. We persevere in trial and in
victory, in the ups and downs and in the course of
everyday life. We do not want to be among those who
walk with You no more. We seek to steadfastly follow
you and do Your will in all things so that we bring
honor to Your name. Amen.
He’s an ex-con and told me what he does whenever he is tempted to go back to his old way of life. He takes out his faded inmate ID card which reminds him of his past.
Although I am sure most of us don’t carry a prison ID card that got me thinking and I will pose it to each reader today. What do you have as a disincentive to ever going back to your old way of life?
Today's
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