Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Abraham's Dagger

"The parting with my Wife and poor Children hath often been to me in this place [jail], as the pulling of the Flesh from my Bones; and that not only because I am somewhat too fond of these great Mercies, but also because I should have often brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries, and wants that my poor Family was like to meet with, should I be taken from them, especially my poor blind Child, who lay nearer my heart than all I have besides. O the thought of the hardship I thought my blind one might go under, would break up my heart to pieces...But yet, recalling my self, thought I, I must venture you all with God, though it goeth to the quick to leave you; O I saw in this condition, I was a man who was pulling down his House upon the head of His wife and Children; yet thought I, I must do it, I must do it." - John Bunyan

I am the husband of a beautiful woman, and the father of a daughter and a son. I love my family so much that laying down my life for them--literally--would be the easiest decision that I could make. And yet, I love Christ more, or at least I should. The Lord has not tested me and revealed my heart in this matter, and I pray that He wouldn't have to; but I love Christ, and to love Him means to have other affections seem like hatred in comparison.

Bunyan's statement moves me to tears. It is Abraham with his dagger poised over Isaac, ready and willing to lose a love over a greater Love--No, the greatest Love. And it is the Father laying down His Son, for the redemption of man, and for the showcasing to the universe of what love essentially means.

Loving Christ more than our families is loving them the best that they could be loved.

4 comments:

  1. nawa matuyo ang
    ating mga sampay
    umani ng sagana
    ang ating mga
    pananim
    makamit ang
    ating mga
    panaginip..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Never thought you for a poet, bro. Hehehe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. amen brother...amen. There are times I wrestle in my mind over the strength of 'my' love for
    God and family...and the truly great question...would I die for God? would I die for family?
    Then the harder, perhaps, question comes..will I live for God and for family..as a bondservant?
    By God's grace He enables both responses by faith.
    ...Thank you, brother, for this blog/blog site. I am often ministered to in what God brings you to post here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brother Tim,

    There indeed comes a point, and the coming is all by the hand of God, when a Christian is stripped of everything except God. And that is when he realizes that all he ever really had in the first place was God, and Him alone.

    May the Lord continue to minister to you through the words that He provides.

    Soli Deo Gloria!

    ReplyDelete

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