Categories
Christian Living

Jesus Wants You To Own Nothing

A photo of sunlight breaking through the clouds symbolizing God and His desire for us to own nothing and to turn everything over to Him
My last post was about the fact that Jesus is worth everything. And I used an illustration from R.A. Torrey to help show how Abraham had learned this truth. Today, I want to share with you the rest of what Torrey said about what happened in Abraham’s life. I want to tell you that Jesus wants you to own nothing and for you to give Him complete ownership of everything you have. If you missed the previous post and want to read the first half to “catch up,” click here: Brian’s Previous Post

At this point, Abraham has followed God’s commands, he has taken Isaac to a mountain, and he has prepared to sacrifice his son, believing that God could somehow raise him from the dead. He has raised his hand to kill Isaac, but at the very last moment God stopped Abraham. He tells him:

    I never intended that you should actually slay your son. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there…. Now you may have the boy, sound and well…seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

    The old man of God lifted his head to respond to the Voice, and stood there on the mount strong and pure and grand, a man marked out by the Lord for special treatment, a friend and favorite of the Most High. Now he was a man wholly surrendered, a man utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing. He had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son, and God had taken it from him. God could have begun out on the margin of Abraham’s life and worked inward to the center.

    But He chose rather to cut quickly to the heart and have it over in one sharp act of separation…. It hurt cruelly, but it was effective. I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was his still to enjoy: sheep, camels, herds, and goods of every sort. He had also his wife and his friends, and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side.

    He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation. The books on systematic theology overlook this, but the wise will understand. After that bitter and blessed experience I think the words “my” and “mine” never again had the same meaning for Abraham. The sense of possession which they connote was gone from his heart. Things had been cast out forever. They had now become external to the man. His inner heart was free from them. The world said, “Abraham is rich,” but the aged patriarch only smiled. He could not explain it, but he knew that he owned nothing, that his real treasures were inward and eternal.

    There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural, it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is. But its outworkings are tragic. We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety. This is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save.

    Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.

Abraham committed all He had to God. He retained ownership of nothing – not even the life of His own precious child. No matter what God commanded, Abraham was willing to do. Am I a person who has committed everything to God for safe-keeping? Have I turned all that I possess over to Him so that I am now one who owns nothing and yet find myself rich in Him?

What are the things that you have refused to give to Him?

Categories
Jesus

Homeless Savior

bird nest with blue eggs
“Birds have nests, Foxes have holes… but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Homelessness.

I have never been without a place to lay my head at night. But along with many of my friends, I did lose my house in a hurricane and didn’t have a home for a while. Being homeless in that way wasn’t a lot of fun. We were dependent on others and on their hospitality for several months.

After a couple of months, we were able to move into a FEMA trailer. It was certainly a blessing to have, but it still wasn’t home. And what we found is that you are never truly comfortable until you reach your true home. You are not comfortable in a borrowed trailer, in a friend’s converted garage, in a relative’s house. You are thankful for these options, but you aren’t comfortable until you are back in your home.

Stone Feeding Trough - Jesus' First Bed. (image from evidenceoftruthministries.org)
Stone Feeding Trough – Jesus’ First Bed.
(image from evidenceoftruthministries.org)

Jesus, the Savior, left His heavenly home. And even as He arrived on the earth, He seemed homeless – he was not born in the comforts of his family’s home, but rather in a stable and placed in a feed trough for his first basinet. He and his family would become refugees in another country while He was still a baby. And during His ministry, He lived as a traveling preacher without a home base. He knew what it was to be homeless.

But today, though Jesus has ascended back into Heaven – our God is still looking for a place to dwell on the earth as He now inhabits human hearts. Have you let Him take ownership of yours?

And just because you let Him in, have you given Him full control to redecorate as He sees fit? Or have you only let Him into certain rooms and allowed Him limited freedom there – more like a tenant than an owner?
Have you given Him a true home in your heart?

“Birds have nests
Foxes have dens
The hope of the whole world rests
On the shoulders of a homeless man
You had the shoulders of a homeless man
You did not have a home”
          –Rich Mullins

The question remains – Have you given the Homeless Savior full ownership of the home He wants in your heart?