“The gospel thrives on persecution. It makes better headway against a world that fights it than against a world that trifles with it. Bitter hostility is better than half-hearted endorsement.”

~ Vance Havner

 

Don’t Settle Here!

By Vance Havner

 

Demas hath forsaken me, having loved his present world.
II Timothy 4:10

Demas had to forsake something, for no man could follow Paul and the world at the same time. Paul was a stranger and a pilgrim, and “he sought a country.” He had not driven his tent pegs down in these lowlands of earth, nor had he hung his stocking for the Santa Claus of this age to fill. All who follow him as He follows Christ make this present world their passage and not their portion, as Matthew Henry puts it.

The angels from their place on high
Look down on us with wondering eye,
That where we are but passing guests
We build such firm and solid nests;
But where we hope to live for aye
We scarce take heed one stone to lay.
Don’t feather your nest down here. The path of the Word and the path of the world do not run parallel. You must forsake one to follow the other.