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Heb. 4:12
Discipleship
innocent suffering and death on the cross. Jesus gave his blood so that every repentant heart might receive forgiveness of sins. His arms are wide open, as they were on the cross, for all repentant believers. We know that many things depend on our will, and yet we know we are unable to bring ourselves to a rebirth of the Holy Spirit such as the people experi enced at Pentecost. We must give our souls, minds, and hearts to God and say, “Change them!” We need to be changed in all that concerns the past, the present, and the future, to be gripped by Christ’s painful death and by his resurrection. It is because we are concerned with ourselves – because our hearts are full of self-love, envy, and other things – that we cannot respond as the people at Pentecost did. At that time the Spirit came and pierced their hearts like a sword cutting through bone and marrow. And so it must be our plea today: Give us thy Holy Spirit and pierce us. Have mercy on us, and change us to the depths of our being!
if we want to tread in the footsteps of Jesus, we must recognize that there is an hour of God for everything, whether it is marriage, mission, persecution, or death itself. We may no longer determine our own timing for these things, for we have surrendered ourselves in such a way that God’s hour is our own hour – whether of joy, sorrow, or drinking a bitter cup to the dregs with Jesus.