Obedience

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 18th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Luke 3:22:

“And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, (that was Jesus) and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

This account is written in no less than three of the Gospel stories. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Why? Because Jesus was obedient. We serve a very humble Lord who leads by example always. 1 Samuel 15:22 says:

“… to obey is better than sacrifice,…”

John the Baptist did not want to baptise Jesus. He said, “I am not worthy”, but Jesus said, “Do it”, and he did it, and through Jesus’ obedience, the clouds opened up and the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and the Lord said He was well pleased with His Son. I want to say to someone today, God wants you to be obedient to what He has called you to. It doesn’t matter what it is, it doesn’t matter how big the task is, it doesn’t matter how small the task is, He really wants obedience. 

Now, many, many years ago, when I was a new Christian, I heard a testimony, a very, very powerful testimony that was sad, but at the same time it was victorious. It was about a young teenage farm boy who lived on a sugarcane farm in Kwazulu Natal, just north of where Shalom is positioned. His father had given him an off-road motorbike but he had told his son, very carefully, “I don’t want you ever to ride on a district road or a public road, only on the farm, on the sugarcane roads around the farm.” While his father was away one day, a report came to him that his son, who was riding his off-road motorbike, had been killed in a motor accident. Obviously, the father was devastated. When he got back, he asked one question, “Where was my son riding his off-road motorbike?” They said he was on the farm, a tractor had come around the corner, and they had a head-on collision. 

As devastating as that testimony was, the thing that touched my heart deeply was that his father was so grateful that his son was obedient. He was not riding on the main road, disobeying his father. He was riding on the farm and the accident took place. I want to say to you today, when we are obedient, irrespective of the conditions, our Lord Jesus Christ is very proud of us. 

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.