Master?

 

I continue to think that River of Doubt, by Candace Millard, ought to be read by all divinity students – and a paper required. Indeed, all those who would know Christ would do well to ponder this journey, for we must all, like Jacob – Israel, learn what it is to walk with a limp, and with Paul know what it is to “despair even of life.” (Genesis 32:24ff; 2 Corinthians 1:3 – 11).

 

I don’t expect divinity students to “get it” when they first read it, but later when they are given the opportunity to embark on their own “River of Doubt” they will know that others have gone before them.

 

Can we learn the lesson of Gandalf, in being transformed from “Gandalf the Grey” into “Gandalf the White”? We will certainly not learn this Way of Life unless we say with Paul, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).

 

When I first read Mark 8:34ff as I was coming to Christ, it was burned into my soul – it has kept me coming back, and back, and back to the Cross.

 

Is it any wonder, that when shortly thereafter I read Bonhoeffer, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him ‘Come and die,’” that I knew those words were true and meant for me?

 

O can we not see the seductive blasphemy that intoxicates us into the insanity of “personal freedoms” and “our best lives now” – if, if, if we belong to Christ then we are not our own for we have been “bought with a price.”

 

Who is your Master?