Dag Heward-Mills
READ: Matthew 10:32-39
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
In this Scripture, Jesus is clearly saying that there is a time when hatred for father, mother, wife and children will be a necessary qualification to be His disciple. We all know that Jesus is love and yet we find Him saying that there will be a time and a place for hatred.
God’s Word teaches us to honour our fathers and our mothers. How can Jesus now speak of hatred for fathers and mothers? But there is a place and a time where you must hate your own father and own mother in order to please God. Hate your wife? The Word teaches us to love our wives yet here we find Jesus telling us that you may have to hate your wife in order to be His disciple. Hate your children? Are we reading aright?
Jesus who said, suffer the little children to come unto me now says you will have to hate your children. Jesus ends by saying, you must hate even your own life! The instruction to hate your own life is contrary to an earlier instruction that Jesus gave where He said you must love your neighbor as you love yourself.
If you want to stay with your tree of information, of good and evil, you are likely to lose contact with God at a point. Christianity is not based on reasonable logic. It is not logical to send your son to a brutal death at the hands of wicked murderers. If God had followed that protocol, none of us would be saved. I believe with all my heart that the ministry will fail to save mankind if the bearers of the Gospel become traditional and steeped in old ways, unable to change, unable to bend and unable to flow with the Lord.
Credit: Dag Heward-Mills
Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (13th June, 2016)
Posted: June 13, 2016 in Bible, Bible Commentary, Christianity, Devotional, Quiet Time, ReligionTags: Bible, Dag Heward-Mills, Devotion, Quiet time, Religion
LIFE’S WORK
Dag Heward-Mills
READ: 1 Samuel 3:1-10
And the Lord came, and stood, and called…
1 Samuel 3:10
At five o’clock in the morning on January 1st 1987, I decided to obey the call of God on my life. It was in the early hours of the first day of that New Year when I decided to take up the mantle and become a pastor. I knew that I had been called, so I had decided to obey and become a pastor.
At the time, I was in the fourth year of medical school. I began the church with a few nursing and laboratory students in the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where I was studying medicine. I had no one to direct or guide me so I struggled quite a bit during that first year.
By the end of 1987, many friends had expressed their lack of confidence in me and deserted me. I was criticized until I felt like killing myself, just to make my enemies happy. I had very little guidance, but I was sincere and had a lot of faith, and many enemies. It is amazing how people hate you when you decide to follow the call of God.
This was the precarious and doubtful beginning of my ministry. I started out by faith and began teaching and preaching what I knew. A few nursing students responded.
In the beginning, the church met in a little classroom at the School of Hygiene. After a while, many people left and some stayed. The little church stabilized with about forty members. You must persist as you serve God and obey the call of God. By and by you will begin to bear much fruit.
Credit: Dag Heward-Mills
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