"I have read somewhere of a wild duck on migration that came down into a barnyard where tame ducks were feeding. He liked the food so well that he stayed a day, a week, a month, then the whole season. One day he heard a familiar honking high overhead an he recognized the call of his erstwhile companions winging their way home. his eyes sparkled, his heart beat faster, and he rose to join them. But, alas, he had fed too well and could get no higher than the eaves of the barn! The story goes that he said to himself, "Oh, well, what difference does it make? I like it here." So he spent the rest of his life in a barnyard. The day came when his old companions passed over and he never even heard their call.Our God has called us to soar with the eagles, not to be satisfied with a fouled pond on earth with the ducks! God will give us the strength to answer His call if we will seek and trust Him. May followers of Christ remain as untamed by the world as He is. Do what comes supernaturally!
I have seen men and women who once mounted up with wings as eagles but who are now content to live in the barnyard of this world. Sometimes, in an old-fashioned meeting under the spell of powerful preaching, they catch a few notes of the life they used to know, "the song of saints on higher ground." Their hearts may beat a little faster and their eyes may fill with tears. There may even be a momentary impulse to sing: 'My heart has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fears dismay.' But alas, they have fed too well on the fleshpots of Egypt! They like it too well down here, and finally they reach that sad state where they no longer respond to the call from on high.
I beg you, do not settle down in the barnyard of this world. We Christians have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. We have no home down here." (Why Not Just Be Christians?, Pages 122-123)
20 August 2009
Don't Settle!
We should refuse to settle down when the Spirit stirs us up. Lot settled down in Sodom, but Abraham kept his gaze fixed on a city not made with hands where God reigns. I've been reading a book of sermons by Vance Havner that contains a wonderful illustration I thought I'd share:
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That is such an excellent reminder! Thank you! I have been meditating on Heb 11:13-16 lately, and I think about how it says that all those, if they had been thinking of the country they had come out of, they would have had opportunity to return, but they looked for a better country, a heavenly one. And therefore God is not ashamed of them. May we all confess that we are strangers here!
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