“Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self
in the vision that God is all”
Andrew Murray
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross”
Philippians 2:5,8
“He is despised and rejected of men;
a man of sorrows…”
Isaiah 53:3
“To identify with our plight, He came to see the darkness of this world, to touch our infirmities, to know our sorrows, and to reveal to us the heart of His heavenly Father. He was the Holy One walking amid depravity, the pure One feeling the oppression of religion and politics and the darkness and sin of fallen man. He was power wrapped in humility. He was the shining forth of the Light and Life of God Himself into a lost world. As God incarnate, He could fully realize the weakness of the human heart into which He breathed the power of the Love and Mercy of God.”
– Brian Troxel – The Paths of the Lord
“Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
uttered or unexpressed;
the motion of a hidden fire
that trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech
that infant lips can try,
prayer the sublimest strains that reach
the Majesty on high.
Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
the Christian’s native air,
his watchword at the gates of death:
he enters heaven with prayer.
Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
returning from his ways;
while angels in their songs rejoice,
and cry, ‘Behold, he prays!
The saints in prayer appear as one,
in word and deed and mind;
while with the Father and the Son
sweet fellowship they find.
Nor prayer is made on earth alone:
the Holy Spirit pleads,
and Jesus on the eternal throne
for sinners intercedes.
O Thou by whom we come to God,
the Life, the Truth, the Way,
the path of prayer thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray!”
– George Montgomery (1818)
“Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.” — Luke 14:33.
“THREE TIMES over in this chapter, our Lord says these solemn words: “he cannot be My disciple.” There are three conditions of discipleship. First, we must be prepared to put first things first; second, we must be willing to suffer daily crucifixion; third, we must be detached from all things, because attached to Christ. The conditions seem severe, but they must be fulfilled, if we would enter Christ’s School.
Disciple stands for learner. Our Lord is prepared to teach us the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; but it is useless to enter His class unless we have resolved to do as He says. Put first things first. When our Lord uses the word hate, He clearly means that the love we are to have for Him is to be so much greater, that comparatively our natural affection will be as if it were hate. No one could have loved His Mother more than our Lord did. In His dying agony His special thought and care was for her, but on three different occasions He put her aside. We are sometimes called to put aside those who are nearest and dearest, if their demands conflict with the claims of Christ.
The daily cross. In each of us there is the self-principle, and for each of us there is a perpetual necessity to deny self. Some talk about bearing the cross in a glib fashion, but its true meaning is shame, suffering, and sorrow, which no one realizes but God, and which perhaps strikes deeper down into the roots of our being as we grow older. There is an opportunity in your life, in respect to some person or circumstance, for an ever-deepening appreciation of union with Christ in His death, and for which you must be daily prepared to surrender your own way and will.
Renunciation. It may be necessary to surrender all we have for Christ, or it may be that He will ask us to hold all as a steward or trustee for Himself and others. No one can lay down the rule for another. The main point to decide is this: “Am I willing to do what Christ wants me to do; to yield my will for Him to mould it, and my life for Him to work through it?” If so, all else will adjust itself.”
– F.B. Meyer
Deliberate Identification
“Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself
with God’s interests in other people”
Oswald Chambers
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
Philippians 2:3 (ESV)
Wisdom of the Ages 