In 2 Chronicles 3:1, we read that "Solomon
began to build the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah". Mount Moriah
was the place where Abraham had offered his son Isaac to God (Gen. 22). There
on that mountain Abraham understood God's way as the way of sacrifice and
submitted to it. God sanctified that spot and determined that His house would
be built on that very spot 1000 years later. And this is where God builds His
house (the church) even today - wherever he finds those who have the spirit and
the faith of Abraham. On Mount Moriah, Abraham said that his God and his
Creator was more precious to him than his dearest possession on earth (Isaac).
And he was willing to sacrifice Isaac in order to prove it. God will honour all
who live by this principle of sacrifice. It is by those who have been gripped
by this way that the true house of God is going to be built even today.
On Calvary's hill, it was not only true that Jesus
died for the sins of the world. There, Jesus demonstrated the principle of
sacrifice by which God does all His work. No-one can serve the Lord in any
other way.
"Christ loved the church and gave HIMSELF for
her" (Eph.5:25). To build the
church, we have to love the church in the same way. It is not enough to give
our money or our time. We have to give OURSELVES - our Self-life.
When God wanted to describe His love to man, He could
compare His love with only one earthly example - the love of a mother for her
newly-born child (See Isaiah 49:15). If you observe a mother, you will
see that her love for her baby is full of the spirit of sacrifice. From early
morning to late at night and right through the night, a mother sacrifices and
sacrifices and sacrifices for her baby. And she gets nothing in return. She
endures pain and inconvenience, year after year for her child, joyfully,
expecting nothing in return. That is how God loves us too. And that is the
nature He wants to impart to us.
But it is impossible to find a fellowship anywhere in
the world about which it can be honestly said that they all love one another
like that. Most believers know only how to love those who agree with them and
who join their group. Their love is human and is far removed from the
sacrificial love of mothers!! Yet Divine love is the goal towards which
we should be striving. So each time we sing the above lines, we should not only
honestly admit that our love is not yet like that, but also confess our hope
and longing that our love will become like that one day.
A mother does not care whether others around her are
sacrificing anything for her child or not. She joyfully sacrifices everything
herself. In the same way, one who has seen the church as his own baby will not
be bothered whether others around him are sacrificing anything for the church
or not. He will sacrifice himself joyfully, and he will have NO complaint or
demand against anyone else. Those who complain that others are not
sacrificing for the sake of the church are not mothers but hired nurses. Such
nurses have fixed working hours and will complain when the nurse for the next
8-hour shift does not come on time.
But a mother does not work 8-hour shifts each day. She
works a 24-hour shift daily - year after year - and she does not even get paid
for it. Even when her child is 20 years old, the mother's work is not over!!
Only mothers can have milk for their babies every day.
Nurses cannot produce milk for the babies they care for. In the same way, those
who are like mothers in the church will always have a word for their spiritual
children - in every meeting. Many elders have no word for the church because
they are nurses, not mothers.
A mother does not expect any payment from her
children. No child ever pays its mother for her service. In fact, if you were
to calculate the wages a mother should be paid, at the rate of Rs. 20 per hour
(as paid to nurses), you will find that every child owes its mother more than 3
million rupees, by the time it is 20 years old!! Which child can ever repay
such an amount to its mother?
Now the question that comes to us is: Who is willing
to work like that for the Lord and for His church - without receiving any
payment, but giving oneself, day after day, year after year, until Jesus
comes? If God can find just one person with that spirit anywhere, He will
use him to build the church, much more than He can use 10,000 half-hearted believers
who try to serve Him without the spirit of sacrifice.
When Jesus returns to earth and you stand before Him,
will you have any regrets over the way you lived, or will you will be able to
look back over a life spent usefully for the kingdom of God Many are drifting
along and wasting their lives on earth. Wake up before it is too late, and ask
God to show you that His way is the way of sacrifice.
He who has ears to hear let him hear.
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