Reflections

We must begin Right

The deeper we go into the subject of discipleship the more we can see that no school was ever so strictly guarded, and yet there is no one so easy of access. No bar of race, colour, caste, or age stands across the entrance-all may come providing they submit to the entrance conditions.

This raises the point:Why does Christ insist on such complete and utter  self-surrender when first approaches our hearts? Would it not be better if He approached the more gently, then having got us in tempered  His challenge to our rate of progress? The answer is simple. If He is to keep us free from evil, then He must have the whole territory of our lives fully surrendered into His hands. Temptation seeks to find a foothold in our lives on which it can fasten, then when this accomplished, it goes on to establish a bridgehead over which it sends its sappers to fortify the position and take over control. Christ makes it clear from the beginning that He cannot consent to be excluded from territory from which the enemy would use to undermine His authority and weaken His control. Many of the troubles which some Christians have stem simply from the fact that they came into the Kingdom of God too easily. They never learned how important it is in those early stages to deal a death blow to self- centredness and they limp along the Christian life, with no real understanding of what it is all about. The stern words of Christ in Matt. 16:24 which He utters to all those about to submit to Him, are not to frighten us but to fortify us.