ARE YOU STAYING OR LEAVING??

Are you staying or leaving?

Verse for Today: Sunday, September 25, 2011

2 Timothy 4:10 – Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

There are many zealots in faith who passionately follow their masters. But over the years, their passion turns cold and their zeal taken away by extraneous factors like position, possession, power, prestige, prominence and popularity. They fall a prey to such attractions which promise instant elation and satisfaction of their egoistic mind. Their eyes become blind to the spiritual realities that they clung to once upon a time. Demas was one such zealot who was willing to identify himself with Apostle Paul and was part of a missionary movement. But the world entered him and he ran after the filthy lucre to make him rich and famous. He sadly lost his vision and passion for the Lord Jesus, deserted the suffering Apostle rather than identifying with his sufferings for the Lord. While his brothers Crescens and Titus labored for the Lord as Apostolic delegates, Demas went after the soap bubbles of wealth and fame and the resultant false sense of satisfaction. Demas is a great warning to us today to keep away from the riches and fame promised by the world and Satan. Our flesh might desire such comfort zones and push us forward to capitalize on such opportunities. Someone might advise us that this might be an opportunity the Lord has brought to us. But those who go after riches and fame drink from those broken cisterns the world offers but never quench their thirst. The more they have it, the more they will crave for it. Demas was like some of the disciples of Jesus who decided to go back from Him even after tasting His glory. Let us today take the warning from the life of Demas to ward off any such temptation to become rich and famous. Let us not go near these attractions sold in the Vanity Fair which is a tactic to lure us into becoming their slaves.

Dear friend, are you like Titus and Crescens who served the Lord till the very end or like Demas who has deserted the Lord and His Apostle? The enemy who sells fame and fortune in the vanity fair of this world will try to attract you to buy from him. But it will surely cost you the life and the plans God has for you in His field. The enemy will slowly dim your eyes and take away your capacity for spiritual discernment. He who tempted and led away people like Lot, Gehazi, Achan and Demas will try to make you also stumble. You will be given intelligent reasons why there is nothing wrong to go after the world to make some extra unrighteous mammon. We are instructed to be content with food and clothing and to live for the Lord by practicing austerity. Our security in this world is not the fortune that we find in the Vanity Fair, but in the Lord and His immense riches in Heaven. What we are offered in the Vanity Fair is not blessings from God because we are already blessed with all the blessings of the heavenly places. Our God shall supply all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. So let us not succumb to temptations to desert the Lord’s business because if we look after His business, He will look after our needs. Let us not be tempted to go for the extra that the world offers, but go the extra mile for the Lord who went forward a few more steps for us in Gethsemane and walked the Calvary Road. By rejecting the filthy lucre offered by the world, let us once gain show our allegiance to the Lord and His cause. Let us reaffirm full contentment with the little that we enjoy here on earth from the Lord and wait for a day when He will bestow upon us all the glittering glories of Heaven, over and above the rewards that He will give us at His Judgment Seat.

John 6:66 & 67 – From this time, many of (Jesus’) disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. “You do not want to leave too, do you”? Jesus asked the Twelve.

Thought for Today
The world offers soap bubbles to lure us to itself whereas the Lord has already given us His riches in glory.

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