This is from A Disciple’s Study blog:

Unfortunately, the ten-cent-store Jesus being preached now by many men is not the Jesus that will come to judge the world. This plastic, painted Christ who has no spine and no justice, but is a soft and pliant friend to everybody, if He is the only Christ, then we might as well close our books, bar our doors and make a bakery or garage out of our church buildings.

The popular Christ being preached now is not the Christ of God nor the Christ of the Bible nor the Christ we must deal with finally. For the Christ that we deal with has eyes as a flame of fire. And His feet are like burnished brass; and out of His mouth cometh a sharp two-edged sword (see Rev. 1:14-16). He will be the judge of humanity. You can leave your loved ones in His hands knowing that He Himself suffered, knowing that He knows all, no mistakes can be made, there can be no miscarriage of justice, because He knows all that can be known… Jesus Christ our Lord, the judge with the flaming eyes, is the one with whom we must deal. We cannot escape it.

—A.W. Tozer, And He Dwelt Among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John

The Pursuit of God

This is from the Singapore Christian blog:

According to Joseph Prince, senior pastor of New Creation Church, “the Holy Spirit does not convict the believer of sin”.

However, speaking of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle John wrote: “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8).

Writing in year 1928, Frank Lindblade expanded on this truth in his book “The Spirit which is from God”

In dealing with the phenomenon of conviction of sin we have a subject that is not greatly understood by even many professed Christians. Convicting of sin is the greatest work the Holy Spirit can do upon an unsaved person, and is probably the greatest of all the Spirit’s manifestations. Because of the general ignorance concerning the Holy Spirit’s person and work as a whole, and therefore conviction included, the present condition of the general church has been arrived at. The Spirit has been given not only to brood over and care for the church, but also that the church may be added to through His activities. Because Peter was filled with the Spirit and preached under His anointing the church received three thousand adherents one day and five thousand another day. Acts 2:41 and 4:4. The church’s recruits are from the ranks of the unsaved. Before a person becomes a member of the church he must first be saved, and salvation cannot come until that person has first had knowledge and feelings of his sins and has been under conviction. So unless there is a conviction of sin there is no real addition to the church which is the body of Christ. Because of the predominating absence of the Spirit and therefore also His conviction of sin, the nominal church today is to a large extent adding to her members unregenerate persons who never have tasted of the grace of God and of the salvation that there is in Christ Jesus…

Because of the lack of the Spirit’s presence and the conviction that He brings, men have busied themselves searching for substitutes that will be just as good. But it happens that in this instance there is nothing just as good. The Spirit is not one of several persons or things that bring conviction. He is the only one who can do so. These others are but counterfeits. We live in an age of progress, evolution as men call it. They are attempting to evolute everything in these days. They have wonderfully progressed in the art of killing one another, of committing sin and covering up their crimes, of debauching their bodies and minds and serving the devil in general. Now they are trying to evolute the scriptures by removing certain portions obnoxious to themselves. They are also trying out this evolution program on the Spirit’s work of convicting of sin, but have only succeeded in making a fizzle of the whole affair and incidentally misguiding many people, and possibly sending many to destruction…

Man, after excluding the Spirit of God in his attempts at soul saving, has dragged in all manner of things. These at times have provided to be excellent instruments for the creation of interest, drawing the crowds and producing great mental and fleshly enthusiasm. But great interest and powerful widespread enthusiasm does not happen to be conviction of sin. A powerful presence and operation of the power of God will create great interest, draw crowds and produce much enthusiasm, but these in themselves will not bring the presence of the Holy Spirit. God can use some man’s strong personality, and most persons that have been used and are being used of God are of strong personality, but a strong personality in itself except as God honors it, can bring but little results towards real salvation. In fact, at times it may do great damage. Many a preacher’s so-called success consists of the use of more than usual natural talents and being born a leader among men, which gifts sway the multitudes. While under the influence of his preaching people feel dominated by his stronger will power and make a profession of religion which never came from their hearts. There has been altogether too much of this done, and thousands today have no more salvation that that received through the shaking of some man’s hand or signing some card.

Many, in these days, often mistake enthusiasm for evidence of the presence of God. Because they sing fast, because there are good collections, because many are boosting the cause, because some or many are free in shouting “Hallelujah” or “Amen”, because someone jumps and makes much noise, because the preacher works up a tremendous fervor, removes his coat, jumps and runs to and fro, therefore God must be there! God surely is there doing all that He can, or as much as they will allow Him to do, but very often the largest part of all of this is nothing but plain everyday flesh. When the greatest conviction comes, there is a hush over the audience and a silence so deep as to be literally felt, broken only by sobs of those with whom the Spirit is dealing. Even the infants strangely become quiet or fall asleep.

Others will play upon the emotions, telling narratives planned to awaken sympathy and cause tears and when this condition is on, urge the people to make a decision. Robert Ingersoll could make an audience laugh or weep, but who would dare to say that weeping was God? A person may weep because of having his sympathy played upon through hearing of some poor widow losing her only son or of the death of some orphan child, but that does not necessarily mean that these are tears of repentance. Stirred emotions and tears of sympathy are not always an indication that the individual has godly sorrow in his heart because he lied, stole, mistreated his parents, or served the devil in general, and rejected Jesus Christ. Godly sorrow works repentance, and unless there had been godly sorrow for sin, there is no true repentance unto salvation. Evidently there are many who know little or nothing of true repentance or salvation.

Oregon Outback

Yesterday I walked several miles north of Lakeview, Oregon on U.S. 395.  I put my backpack down and stood on the side of the road for half an hour and this car pulled over to give me a ride.

The guy’s name was Jim and he had come from Whiskeytown, California that morning.  After a few minutes of talking, we found out that we were both Christians and had some good fellowship.

We talked about Oswald Chambers, Smith Wigglesworth and about this other guy who had a healing ministry.  As we talked, I thought that Jim looked vaguely familiar.

Jim told me that he was from South Dakota.  I asked him if he knew where Murdo, South Dakota was, as I have hitchhiked through there many times over the years.  He said that he lived near Murdo.

Then Jim told me that he had picked up this hitchhiker several years ago north of North Platte, Nebraska.  The hitchhiker told him that he had been hitchhiking for twelve years.  Jim took the hitchhiker home and let him stay overnight.  The next morning the hitchhiker told him that he didn’t sleep at all that night because the Presence of God had been so strong—and he wasn’t tired at all (I thought, that sounds like something I would have said).

Jim and I drove up the road past Valley Falls and to the Christmas Valley intersection.  We stopped to let his dog walk around a bit.  I then asked what Jim’s last name was.  He told me his last name and I told Jim that his name rung a bell.  When he told me that he went to a Bible college in Colorado for a short while, then I told him that Jim had picked me up before—maybe back in 2009 or 2010.  Later I told him that maybe he picked me up in 2007 or 2008.

I told Jim that when I left his house several years ago, I walked to I-90 and got a ride with this truck driver.  That truck driver had picked me up a few years before.  He drove us to Bridger, Montana where I stayed for one night with his wife and kids.  Small world—especially when you know that the Lord is in control.

Jim and I drove through Burns and then Ontario, Oregon.  We drove to Boise where he dropped me off at a truck stop on Federal Way.  I camped out a mile or so east of the truck stop that night.

So what is the significance of this post?  God’s perfect timing; God’s perfect will:  the Kingdom of Heaven.

It’s a Small World

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Ezekiel 1:1: Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

There are seven types of visions of God that we can experience: mind picture; Dream vision; waking dream vision; trance vision; spiritual vision; transportation vision, open vision.

A vision generally defined is a divine communication. In the words of Joel quoted by Peter: In the last days the Lord will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh and the result will be speaking revelation (prophecy), seeing revelation (vision), dreaming revelation (dreams) (Acts 2:14-21). By the Spirit of God visions are multiplied, the communication between heaven and earth is enhanced.

Vision is what is seen/observed in a spiritual sense. Vision is a spiritual thing. This is different from what is referred to as “vision” for a corporation or a person, which is self-generated based on knowledge wisdom and understanding as possessed by the individual, family, organisation or business. The word vision, as used in the focus verse is about creating a link between our spirit and our mind for a period of time. Vision is not self-constructed or initiated; it is directed by the Holy Spirit. It is a reflection of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

To be able to see the visions of God we need to clean up our inner eye, the eye of our imagination. We need to increase our meditation on the word of God, prayer and fasting. Praying in the Holy Spirit which is praying with our spirit (speaking in tongues) serves to sharpen us; because it is through that that we build up ourselves spiritually to be ready to experience spiritual vision.

Vision can come in the form of direct message (clear instruction [Matthew 2:13]), figurative message (full of symbols [Acts 16:9]), and word of knowledge (knowing facts in the past [John 1:47-48]), word of wisdom (knowing the future [A lot of the book of revelation]), and encouragement (Matthew 1:20). In whatever form it is, we need God to tell us the meaning of the revelation. It is erroneous to jump to conclusions when it comes to visions.

An example is the spiritual vision that Jeremiah had (Jeremiah 1:11-16). (In a spiritual vision we are fully aware of our physical surrounding, but we are also enabled to see something spiritual as well, as the spiritual realm [in 3Dimensions/video] is opened to us).

In that vision, he saw an almond fruit, and the meaning God gave was: I watch over my word to perform it. Any other interpretation would have been false. You need God to give you the interpretation to that vision.

Joseph who was a dream interpreter (a dream happens during sleep; waking dream happens at the point of coming from sleep to wakefulness, to enhance retentiveness), interpreted three dreams that were recorded in the bible.

At each point, he says the source of right dream interpretation is God. Also Daniel, who interpreted a number of visions and dreams for kings while he was in exile, always acknowledges God as the true interpreter, since the dream/revelation came from him in the first instance.

The first one he would interpret is the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. God revealed both the original dream that the king refused to share and the interpretation to Daniel. And that came as a result of corporate prayers (Daniel 2:16-30).

Daniel himself had revelations, for which that he prayed with fasting for the interpretation to come from God. He did not try to be smart, deciding to use his experience (Daniel 10:11-14). He fasted and prayed for interpretation. And in that story we know that if the devil cannot prevent us from having the visions of God, he wants to prevent us from having the correct interpretation. The only valid interpretation is the one God gives you not what you come up with by conjecture and hearsay.

It is a mind picture when you see a still picture that you are see within yourself (it is so close to the imagination, that if you are not careful you will miss it); when you are seeing it in form of internal pictures while awake but also fully aware of your surroundings. In a spiritual vision (video), you are aware of spiritual occurrence/events within you at the same time you are aware of physical events around you.

The vision that Elisha and his servant had of angels in chariots and horses of fire fall to the category of spiritual vision. They were still aware of their surrounding when they saw what they saw in video (moving pictures) (2Kings 6:12-18).

Seeing that vision made a difference in the perspective of the servant; before he was afraid that a foreign army was going to destroy them, now he was fearless; He was sure that greater are they who are with them than any army of the enemy.

Paul spoke of having a revelation when he was taken up to heaven (2Corinthians 12:3-4); he said that he does not know if that was in the body or outside the body, where he heard things which were not lawful for him to declare. If it were in the body, that means it was transportation vision, where time is temporarily suspended for you and you are taken to another place, in split seconds, in the time of the earth but maybe hours in the timeless zone of the heavenlies that you are taken to.

But if it is outside the body, in which your senses, awareness of your environment is suspended and you are seeing things. It happened to Peter, while staying in the house of Simon the tanner (Acts 10). God used that to prepare, Peter to go and minister to gentiles; what he would never had done on his own accord.

In the trance (a trance also have audio, a spiritual vision is only video), God showed Peter a platform descending from heaven full of ceremonially unclean animals according to the Old Testament. He was told to arise and eat them, to which he said he can’t eat what is unclean. And God told him: what I have cleansed, don’t call unclean.

After that the Holy Spirit told him that certain people are coming to fetch him, and he was to follow them compulsorily. So through a trance vision and an instruction from the Holy Spirit, Peter was led to where he does not want to go. He was brought to a new understanding of God and his plans based on that vision. That vision helped him to take the right action along the path of the will of God.

There is also the open vision which has to do with the opening of the eyes to see and interact with the spiritual world as if, it is natural world. What Moses saw in the wilderness in the burning bush was an open vision (Exodus 3:1-5); also interactions with angels (in this natural realm) are open visions. Philips was told by an angel to go in a specific direction to meet an Ethiopian enough to preach Christ to him (Acts 8:26). When Paul said that an angel of his God was beside him giving him God’s word, it was an open vision.

The revelation of John was transportation vision. He was taken to another realm to experience things and write the book of revelation. It started with an open vision, seeing Jesus on the island of Patmos, and it ended with a transportation vision- he was taken to the heavenly realm of God.

So in increasing intensity, we have dream (possibility of forgetting is high and it may just be as a result of multitudes of activities during the day, but it can also be a message from God), waking dream (you have it in between waking and sleeping [greater retention]), inner picture (still photo), spiritual vision (video inside yourself), trance (video and audio, senses suspended), open vision (video and audio, interacting with the spiritual world as if it is natural, senses intact), transportation vision (there is video, audio, senses fully aware in the outer spaces/the timeless realm).

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This is from The Latter Days blog:

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“Remember Lot’s wife.” Luke 17:32

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This is one of the shortest verses in the Bible, but clearly Jesus felt that it had meaning for those in the end times. What was Jesus telling us here and how does it relate to His second coming?

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In Genesis Chapter 18, three Heavenly messengers (whom Abraham collectively calls Lord) speak of the evils occurring in Sodom and Gomorrah. We have discussed previously how the wickedness at that time is reflected in man’s nature at the end of time, with men being lovers of their own selves.

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While certainly a literal historical event, in a lot of ways the story of Sodom and Gomorrah can also be seen as a symbolic illustration of the salvation experience itself.

In such an illustration, Sodom and Gommorah represents the world. It is described as a place whose sin was so grievous, it required a visitation from the Lord.

The angelic messengers represent the presentation of the Gospel. It gives light to those with eyes to see and points to the way of salvation, away from destruction. Yet, the very same results in blindness for those who are unrepentant (II Corinthians 4:1-4; Hebrews 3:7-8).

“And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.” Genesis 9:11

This blindness is so profound, that those who are unrepentant cannot even find the door, which is Christ Himself (John 10:7-9). Even those who receive the message still have no ability in and of themselves to affect their own salvation.

“And while he [Lot] lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.” Genesis 19:16

Lot recognized the messengers as Godly and had received them unto himself.  Yet, although they repeatedly told them to flee, he still lingered. The angels had to physically take hold of Lot and his family and compel them out of Sodom.

Man is a slave to sin and has no power to separate himself from sin. If God does not intervene and bring man out by His own power, man would be ever lost. Receiving the truth of the Gospel is not an act of man deciding to save himself; it is man acknowledging the one thing that reveals to us the door (Christ) whereby we might be saved. It is then God’s mercy alone which brings us through that door unto salvation. In doing so, God sets us outside of the contaminations of the world and sin.

Notice, however, that being saved from Sodom was not the end of their journey.

“And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” Genesis 19:17

Once freed from the boundaries of the world/sin, they are then instructed not to stay where they are or even to look behind them, but to run to higher ground (Psalm 61:2; Isaiah 55:8-9; Philippians 3:14). This wasn’t just a nice thing to do, but was necessary that they still not be consumed by the coming destruction (Isaiah 52:11; Jeremiah 51:6, 45, 50; Matthew 24:16; II Corinthians 6:17; Revelation 18:4)! They are told to escape for their lives to the mountain, which in Scripture is often a figure for God (Numbers 16:24-33; Psalm 2:6; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 125:2; Isaiah 2:2-3; Revelation 21:10).

Once we are separated from the world by God, we too must then run the race which takes us ever closer to God (Luke 16:16; Philippians 3:13-14; Hebrews 6:1; II Timothy 4:7). We cannot stand still in the Lord and we must not look back. The result of not heeding this warning is visible in Lot’s wife.

“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” Genesis 19:24-26

Now we see the importance of the angels’ commands that they run to the mountain.  The cities, the inhabitants of the cities, the plains surrounding the cities, and all that grew upon the ground around the cities were destroyed.  When judgment comes, the only safe place to be found is in Christ.

Scripture does not say why Lot’s wife looked back.  It could have been a longing for family, friends, possessions, or anything from that former life which was being left behind.  Per the angels’ warning, she was indeed “consumed”.

Perhaps this is why Jesus’ very next warning to us after this is:

“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” Luke 17:33

We cannot go forward into new life in Christ while looking backwards.  Attempting to do so merely compromises our walk with the Lord (Proverbs 14:14; Hebrews 10:38). We are called by God to be the salt of the earth, but when we nurture within us a longing for the things in the world, we become unusable. Instead of being salt poured out to preserve the way of the Lord in the earth, we become stoic and fortified within ourselves.  The direction of our focus shows us to still be lovers of our own selves and our own lives.

In the last days, when speaking of His imminent return, Jesus tells us to remember Lot’s wife. Let us really consider these words and redeem the times.  Set your face like a flint to draw nearer to God and not be entangled in the affairs of this worldly life.

“And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

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The pornification of our world & the death of history

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This is from The Latter Days blog:

The following sermon is from Pastor Gary C. Price and is called, “What Was Crucified at Calvary?”

We know that Jesus came as the second Adam to crucify the old sin nature which man was born with as a result of the fall.  However, Scripture also makes plain what exemplifies that nature and Pastor Gary C. Price reviews these texts in order to show exactly what was crucified on the cross.

• The forbidden fruit was a forbidden nature.  Eve and Adam ingested the fruit or words of Satan and became a partaker of his defiled nature.
• God’s answer is to kill off that nature via crucifixion.
• Religion creates a holding tank for you to indulge your lusts without being crucified.  It was instituted by man to make him think he is serving God when he is not.
• Most churchfolk are not saved; they are just churchfolk.  The devil has learned the church game.
• The way to be safe from deception is to know the real.
• Satan couldn’t come to the head (Adam) to deceive, so he used the weaker vessel (Eve) to destroy Godly headship.  The devil can only rule through abdication by men.
• The spiritual legacy birthed in the Garden of Eden (when Adam abdicated authority to Eve) can be seen historically throughout the Scriptures, culminating in the harlot and the beast we see in the book of Revelation.
• Grace doesn’t keep you in sin; grace pulls you out of sin.
• The purpose of Jesus dying on the cross was not only for Him to die in your place, but to provide the means for taking you to the cross so that the old nature can be killed off.
• After coming to the cross, we need to go through the cross.
• The importance of Jesus’ crucifixion was not horror of His death, but the miracle of His resurrection.  Jesus is not presently dead; He is alive!
• When you repeatedly expose yourself to a thing, you are programming your soul to be fed by the same.
• Sin will “talk” to you, which is why we must cast down imaginations.
• The law serves to show us how sinful we really are so that we will understand why we need Christ.
• We can be set free when God renews our mind.
• Don’t go to church, become the church and then He can lead you to the fellowship He has for you.
• The sin nature and the manifestation of its perverse spirit is what Jesus killed on the cross.
• Religion uses spiritual sodomy (accessing you emotionally through your soul rather through your spirit) to keep you  bound to the preacher in the pulpit and bound in sin.
• The return of Godly character as reflected in fatherhood is what is needed for the church to be endowed with spiritual power and to set captives free.

Painting by David Koch

This is from the blog 43: 19:

I am amazed by the first disciples of Jesus.  I recently re-read the stories of their call in the early pages of the gospels and considered the simplicity of their responses.  These men were not normal, or at least there was something totally abnormal about the incidents in which they surrendered so instantly to follow a man whom they did not know.  What made these men abandon their entire livelihood and personal connections in such a radical way, and with such unreserve?

Immediately they left their nets and followed Him… (Matthew 4:20)

Something about Jesus was so totally irresistible.

What is even more remarkable is that this seems to have been the expectation with which Jesus approached each one.  Consider for a moment what Jesus said to a disciple whose name we are never given, who in response to the call of the Lord said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”

Follow me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead. (Matthew 8:22)

I think that in the modern world, we offer much more trivial excuses for our delay to respond to the call of Jesus.  We say that we have an appointment, that our schedule is full, or that we want a few more minutes browsing Youtube, Facebook, etc.  We want to see the oh-so important final episode of our favourite tv subscriptions on Netflix.  We say this with our hearts every time we choose these comforts over His voice.  But Jesus was not satisfied even with the request to be present at the funeral of this disciple’s father.  Instead, He uses the man’s response to illustrate the absolute demands of His call, and the emptiness of a life without it.  Jesus calls everything which pulls us away from an immediate and total acceptance of His call ‘dead’.  And everyone whose life is made up of a life apart from following Him, He also calls ‘dead’.  That is stunning.  Are you totally submitted to Jesus’ leadership?  If not, He says you are dead, and living among the dead.  There is no room left for reserve in His call.

In the modern day, we accommodate a very half-hearted approach to Christianity.  We ‘encourage’ new believers not to be ‘too extreme’ and to stay ‘balanced’.  But there is nothing even slightly balanced about Jesus’ command to follow Him.

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:37)

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26)

The call of Jesus is the call to reject all competing affections, personal and material.  It is the call to hate and refuse to be drawn aside by everything in our lives that wrestles with His call.  Saying yes to His call to follow requires that we refuse everything else.  It is not possible to simply live.  Every part of life must be lived through Him.  Anything less amounts to a rejection of His call.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:24)

There seems to be a very prevalent attitude that we can have Jesus as a convenient and helpful addition to our lives, which can otherwise remain essentially unchanged.  This is a fundamental misunderstanding.  The call of Jesus has to be an interruption.  Things cannot continue as they were on any level.  There must be a death.  Everything must initially be put to an end, and then there must be a subsequent holy upheaval.  Everything must be disturbed and reordered.  All our associations in life prior to the call of Jesus essentially master us.  When the perfect Master invites us to be mastered by Him, we must despise all of our old masters.  We must count them, and ourselves as dead.

We often try to have many leaders and many masters in our lives – the most dominant one being self.  I think this is the source of much of our sense of entitlement, which in itself amounts to no less than rebellion.  We still think we are entitled to our opinions.  We still think we are entitled to our decisions and our place in the world’s social structures.  But Jesus says, ‘Come and die that you may live!’

This same sense of entitlement often causes us to refuse God’s heart and our prayers become weak and selfish.  We are stuck in the affections of the world, and do not see that things that constantly break His heart – abortion, human trafficking, antisemitism and the global maligning of Israel, divorce, extreme poverty and epidemics that steal the lives of millions.  Where is the gospel’s outworking?  Too often it is bowed at the knees of comfort and complacency, or even legitimate natural affections which are given a place higher than His heart.

I am reminded of the cry of Elijah on Mount Carmel, “If Baal is God, then follow Him!”  But Baal is not God.  He is a deaf and dumb idol that cannot speak and cannot hear – he can give no remedy to the desperate need of the world for Jesus.  It is time to call an end to Christianity that tries to dip its sore feet into the soothing waters of salvation after a long day working for Baal.

The call of Jesus is a death and rebirth, represented in the burial of the waters of Baptism.  May the work of the Cross take effect in every place in our hearts and lives that we serve the perfect Master with total devotion.  May our answer to the call of Jesus be like Elisha’s response to Elijah.  He was plowing with oxen when Elijah threw his mantle upon him.  It says that Elisha slaughtered the oxen, boiled their flesh and gave it to the people.  Elijah knew the heavy demand that he had placed on this man.  He said, ‘What have I done to you?’ (1 Kings 19:19-21).  We must know the intensity of the call which is given by Jesus.  If this kind of absolute service was demanded by Elijah, how much more is it demanded by the Saviour of the world and God Himself.  May the grace of God empower us to understand the costliness of His call, and to say a radical yes to that cost in the same way as the twelve, that God’s power may flow freely through our lives.