Luk 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, as well as his own life, he can't be my disciple. Some commentary to follow.Dear Dian,You are a saint.From that moment on, I began to strive with all of my being to become Real.Yes! A thousand times yes!Had the same revelation in the midst of being caught up in so much twisted truth. Amazing how much we can purposefully suppress or at the least not want to listen to because the suspicion is, what if it is true? Then what? Think that is what is so utterly damaging about an easy believism. It keeps one from truly examining their heart. Will always be grateful to those few voices, those so called 'negative, critical, denouncers' of the non-sense that is passing for 'Christianity' these days. They touched the nerve of what I had to suppress to keep up with my little Pollyanna world of prosperity and self fulfilled happiness.I tried to be a witness for Jesus Christ and it was such a joke. How can you give someone something you don't have for yourself? But now, I realize that the true gospel is so offensive that hardly anyone will receive it.With you there and that is the way it will always be, more so in our day. It also makes it doubly damning when the world that is hurting looks to our modern day 'gospel' and laughs at the ridiculousness. It's often the equivalent of just another fad diet, another self-help program. On the flip side it just seems that the world has turned so hard into 2 Tim 3, that they could care less...death is so far off...'I'm a good person'.But the selected text denominations of our time, those may be the hardest to reach...it's like flunking High School and realizing you were in all the wrong classes.I must humble myself in repentance and turn away from this world. I must love him and reject the offer of this world for all the "life" here. It has left me feeling alone in a different kind of way. The folks in Christian City don't want you anymore. The folks out in the world probably don't want you either. The only folks who can embrace you are those who know the truth. And thank God, you are here. 2Co 11:16 I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. For all that we cannot do here I will never tire of boasting that this is more than just 'some website'. It is not a means unto itself, but I don't know of anywhere else where this convergence of hearts is expressed. I will be even more redundant. The day I first clicked on this site... Goldmine! Felt like I had just opened up the door to reality, to what I had been searching so long for. Truth! And I also knew it was going to be painful at times having to wrestle with those long suppressed areas, but I didn't care, I just had to understand just what was going on inside of me. Can remember it like it was yesterday..."Oh my!, Oh my!...Thank you Lord. Before I knew the half of it all these hearts after the Lord in Spirit and Truth began to gather, from all over the world, with much knowledge and experience, with a willingness to help and share not to force each other into a denominational box, but to grow and strive and press on in the Lord. It's what has kept me here rambling on and on, making a fool out of myself...I just want to try and give back from all the incredible things I have gained from all of you, from the messages. Sorry for the digress. But you are much embraced here Dian and I do understand what you talk of in that sense of 'abandonment' and just as surely as you already realize am confident that it will subside more and more until a different order will come into play, not just in your head but inwardly. The difficulty of that verse in Luke is manifold, but I believe that as the Lord changes our hearts it gets revealed in a different way than we might expect. Sometimes it seems we can try and force our minds into trying to live up to the things we read in scripture and we should without a doubt. But it is the Lord that changes us on His timetable as we cooperate with what He wants to do. I don't fully understand it, it's often that backward glance, sometimes it's right in the middle of it all, that revelation that life has changed...inwardly,...again! Praise God!I do 'hate' this world in the gigantic sense that it's all WRONG! It groans under the weight of it's own sin. All of it's 'happiness' is stained, it is never truly 'true'. These bodies we live in, no wonder ... 2Co 5:4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. God has issued me a new challenge. Will you follow me even if it means you are all alone? Will you follow me even if it means that you will be killed for following me? Will you follow me even if the world hates you? Will you follow me even if the religious community hates you? You know, I've realized that you cannot possibly follow Jesus like this unless you have settled, without a shadow of a doubt, what you believe. If there is one little bit of doubt left in you, you will faint when the going gets rough. This is where I am. I have to settle some things, once again. There is a wrestling going on inside me. I'm can hardly believe what God is asking me to do. I'm shocked and speechless. But...where else can I go? No one else has the words of life.Oh, the struggle of Paul again...Tried to snatch just a couple of verse's here and couldn't get around backtracking..."I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." "For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have." Phi 1:3-6, 8-11 and 18-30.My, this getting much longer than I had thought. May you be encouraged from whatever you can glean out of all this sister. To give a trite, shallow, glib, surface level...response, to what God is asking of you, of me, of all of us... The rambler is struggling here... If there is any parallel experience ahead for you, will just say that it is a blessed re-arrangement. I don't understand it, it's just ...changed. My prayers as always, for you, for all that traverse through here.The promised commentary:Luk 14:26 - If any man come to me,.... Not in a corporeal, but in a spiritual way; nor barely to hear him preach; but so come, as that he believes in him, applies to him for grace, pardon, righteousness, life, and salvation; professes to be his, submits to his ordinances, and desires to be a disciple of his; and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple: not that proper hatred of any, or all of these, is enjoined by Christ; for this would be contrary to the laws of God, to the first principles of nature, to all humanity, to the light of nature, to reason and divine revelation: but that these are not to be preferred to Christ, or loved more than he, as it is explained in Mat_10:37 yea, these are to be neglected and forsaken, and turned from with indignation and resentment, when they stand in the way of the honour and interest of Christ, and dissuade from his service: such who would be accounted the disciples of Christ, should be ready to part with their dearest relations and friends, with the greatest enjoyment of life, and with life itself, when Christ calls for it; or otherwise they are not worthy to be called his disciples. The Ethiopic version inserts, "his house", into the account.Gill's commentary.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The sense that we know this seems a bit like preaching to the choir and felt a bit at odds even with part of Mr. Gill's .."with indignation and resentment" it hearkens back to the Amy Carmichael, "If I can rebuke without a pang..." There seems to be a subtle line that could only be brought about dependent on the situation. Have seen enough wronged headed 'hatred' from Christians under the cloak of this verse as well as the opposite cowering to compromise..."Well, what is really meant here...."Maybe if we were to take the last part first, "his own life" and start there, the rest would get put in it's proper perspective.
