The wisdom of A.W. Tozer never ceases to astound me. Let me share some words of his I recently read: “Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will be judged not by how much I have done, but by how much I could have done! In God’s sight, my giving is measured not by how much I have given, but by how much I had left after I made my gift.” He goes on to say that “[Jesus] sacrificed many pure enjoyments to give Himself to the holy work of moral rescue. His conduct was determined not by what was legitimate or innocent, but by our human need. He pleased not Himself but lived for the emergency; and as He was so are we in this world!” (“Renewed Day by Day Volume 1”, 2/19)
In the grand scheme of things, we give so little of our time, money, and ourselves to the mission of God. We’re living as if there is no emergency. Even though we understand the good news of Jesus Christ and the consequences for those who reject Him, we spend our days more concerned with the errands we have to run than with what is truly important. We have been charged to further the mission of Jesus in this world, but we live as if we have no interest or desire to do so.
If you are a follower of Jesus, you understand that Heaven and Hell are very real. You know that people who die without Jesus are destined to spend eternity in the unimaginable suffering of being separated from Christ with no way to ever reach Him. The deepest longing of their souls will never be fulfilled, and that anguish will continue without end. I dare say none of us would wish such a fate on our staunchest foe, yet we live in contradiction to that fact.
There is an emergency. People are dying without Jesus. Billions of people have never seen His love demonstrated in their lives. That’s tragic and unacceptable! Worse, we are too self-absorbed and self-consumed to spare more than a cursory glance at the situation. We have been blessed with an incredible abundance but we give so little of it to alleviate the suffering and spiritual doom experienced by so many in our world. We claim to be disciples of Jesus but give only a small portion of our lives to actually serving Him. How much are you holding back from His service?
It’s not about us or the things we can enjoy. It’s all about Jesus and His salvation. If we don’t tell the world, no one will. If we don’t demonstrate His love for the masses, they will never see it. We’ve got to leap out of our comfort zones and go directly into crisis mode. We must sacrifice the pleasures of this world and dedicate the entirety of our lives to the emergency at hand. We dare not give any less than Jesus gave. He is our model and our Master. He deserves nothing less than everything we’ve got. From this day forward, let’s live for the emergency.