A Sacrifice of Obedience was written through the years 2002 and 2003 as an intended sequel to Make Me Like Jesus. It was never published.
Fifteen years have now passed. As I look at the world around me, it seems less likely than ever that Christians in very large numbers will be drawn to a message about sacrifice or obedience. And I am no different. I resist both imperatives just like everyone else. I had hoped by this time in my life to be a little further along.
But obedience remains the bull’s eye of the Christian faith, and the very personal bull’s eye of my own life. Thus, the time at last seems right to revisit this manuscript and share it with whatever fellow pilgrims there may be on that isolated and occasionally lonely path.
You who read these words may be few. Even in Christendom, where the image of the cross looms large in the imaginations and theologies of its many churches and their members, the actual cross-life of sacrifice and obedience is not so well known.
Yet to such a life we are called. It is the only life to which we are called.
Let us, then, courageously explore together a few high points along the Lord’s earthly Calvary road to see what they have to reveal about that life.
This is an immensely practical book about successfully coping with your busy schedule… and then moving beyond coping to successful goal reaching!
This book is geared to busy homemakers, harried students, overworked pastors, and pressured businesspeople, whatever their temperaments or personalitites.
Part One gives you the three keys of discipline, efficiency, and decisiveness, the bases for coping with daily duties.
Part Two tells you how to supervise other people—your children, the members of your church group, or your employees. The basic principles are the same for all.
Part Three gives principles for problem-solving. Sample worksheets help you to see what needs doing and how to do it.
Questions throughout the book help the reader to apply the principles to daily life.
Here’s how to get done what you have to get done so you have time to do what you really want to do!