It is very strange that people who modestly
decline to risk an opinion on matters which do not closely concern
them at all, such as philosophy or science for instance-are often ready
and eager to pronounce with finality on matters of religion, which
above all
else is vital to their welfare for this world and that which is to
come.
This follows the popular notion that everyone is capable of
discovering the true way to Heaven for himself--and that one man's
belief is as good as another's.
A second tenet in this creed, is that no one has the right to
question the belief of anyone else, or to try to influence him in any
way in religious matters.
This leads naturally to the third tenet, which is that we should
practice complete acceptance toward every expression of religious
belief, however base or ill-founded it may be, and accept it as a legitimate way of worshiping God, even if it isn't ours.
All this has about it a certain savor of charity and slips well off
the lips of politicians, who are forced to try to please
everyone--and liberal ministers who find it profitable to do so.
But the True Christian can Never bring himself to Sell Out his soul in
that
manner.
The man who has heard the
voice of Jesus saying, "I am the way and the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through Me"--can never get the
consent of his heart to thus trifle
with religion.
He has been smitten with the love of God, and
the wonder of the cross--and he can never again be flexible in
things which concern his soul and the souls of his fellow men.
He will live beside, be patient with, minister to, pray for and love
any religionist of whatever color or creed--from a Catholic
Cardinal, to a medicine man from the bush--but Never
will he Compromise the Truth to stay on good terms with anyone. He will never trifle with men's souls!
The only power God recognizes in His Church, is the power of His Spirit.
Whereas the only power actually recognized today by the majority of
evangelicals, is the power of man.
God does His work by the
operation of the Spirit--while Christian leaders attempt to do
theirs by the power of trained intellect.
Bright personality, has
taken the place of the divine influence.
But only what is done
through the Eternal Spirit, will abide eternally.
For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly
entertainment, recognizing it for what it was...
A device for wasting time...
A refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience...
A scheme to divert attention from moral accountability.
But of late she appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the
great god entertainment--she may as well join forces with him
and make what use she can of his power.
Christianity is so entangled with the world, that millions never guess how
radically they have missed the New Testament pattern.
Compromise is
everywhere!
Evangelical Christianity is now tragically below the New Testament
standard.
Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life.
Our religious mood is social, instead of spiritual.
We have lost the art of worship.
We are not producing saints.
Our models are successful business men, celebrated athletes and
theatrical personalities.
We carry on our religious activities after the methods of the modern
advertiser.
Our homes have been turned into theaters.
Our literature is shallow, and our hymnody borders on sacrilege. And scarcely anyone appears to care!
Psa 139:1 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
God also has a way of searching us
by lifting our eyes from the detail to the whole.
He sets the detail in
its true perspective, and seeing it thus, we come to see ourselves.
You
know how the writer of this psalm proceeds: "Thou knowest my downsitting
and my uprising," he says.
These are details, little particular
actions, the unconsidered events of every day.
But the writer does not
stop with these details-he passes on to the survey of his life...
Thou
compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my
ways.
You will remember that it was through details
that Christ revealed the Samaritan woman to herself.
She had been hiding
her guilt from her own eyes by busying herself in the details of the
day.
And then came Jesus with His enlarged vision in which the days are
all parts of the one life, and in the eyes of Christ she saw herself
because she saw the details as a whole.
Come, see a man, she went and
cried, "who told me all things that ever I did."
Actually, it was an
exaggeration, for Christ had not spoken to her very long.
But when you
get down to the spirit of the words, you never think of their
exaggeration for they reveal the way that Jesus took in searching her
and showing her to herself.
He would not let her hide in the detail...
He
wanted her to have a vision of the whole.
He wanted to show her what her
life was like when looked at closely.
And so this woman was searched
and self-revealed through detail in its true perspective, and her
conscience, which had long been slumbering, awoke.
I
think that is often the way the Lord deals with you and me...
We are all
prone to be blinded by details so that we scarcely realize what we are
doing.
There are lines of behavior which we would never take, if we only
realized all that they meant.
There are habits and certain sins to
which we would never yield if we only saw them in their vile
completeness.
But the present is so tyrannical and sweet and the action
of the hour is so absorbing, that we cannot see the forest for the
trees, nor see ahead the path that we are taking.
We
often say when looking back upon our sufferings, "We wonder how we ever
could have borne it."
One secret of our bearing it was that we only
suffered one moment at a time.
And in looking back upon our foolish
past, we sometimes say, How could we have ever done it!..
And one
secret of our doing it was that we only acted one moment at a time.
When
a man is dimly conscious that he is wrong, he has a strange ability to
forget yesterday.
When a man is hurrying to fulfill his passion, he
shuts his ears to the call of tomorrow.
And the work of God is to revive
that yesterday and tear the curtain from the sad tomorrow and show a
man his action of today set in the general story of his life.
Sometimes
He does it through sickness...
Sometimes in a quiet hour such as this...
Sometimes He does it in a mysterious way by the immediate working of the
Holy Ghost.
But when He does it, then we know ourselves and see things
as they are, and we are ashamed.
Only then we can cry with David, "O
Lord, thou hast searched me and known me."
Jos 3:13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.
The Israelites were not to wait in the camp until the Jordan was opened but to “walk by faith”.
2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
They were to break camp, pack up their belongings, form a marching line,and actually step into the river before it would be opened.
If they had come down to the riverbank and then stopped, waiting for the water to divide before stepping into it, they would have waited in vain.
They were told to “set foot in the Jordan” before “its waters...will be cut off.”
We must learn to take God at His word and walk straight ahead in obedience, even when we can see no way to go forward.
The reason we are so often sidetracked by difficulties is that we expect to see barriers removed before we even try to pass through them.
If we would only move straight ahead in faith, the path would be opened for us.
But we stand still, waiting for the obstacle to be removed, when we ought to go forward as if there were no obstacles at all.
~From Evening Thoughts~
What a lesson Christopher Columbus taught the world...a lesson of perseverance in the face of tremendous difficulties!
Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind the gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores, Before him only shoreless seas.
The good Mate said:“Now we must pray, For lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?” “Why, say,‘Sail on! sail on! and on!’”
My men grow mutinous day by day; My men grow ghastly pale and weak!”
The strong Mate thought of home; What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, If we sight only seas at dawn?
Why, you shall say at break of day, ‘Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’”
They sailed.They sailed.Then spoke the Mate: “This mad sea shows its teeth tonight.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait, With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Admiral, say but one good word; What shall we do when hope is gone?”
The words leapt like a leaping sword: “Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck And peered through darkness.
Ah! that night Of all dark nights!
And then a speck...A light! A light! A light! A light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”
Job 22:23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. Eliphaz, in this utterance, spoke a great truth, which is the summary
of many an inspired Scripture.
Reader, has sin pulled you down?
Have you
become like a ruin?
Has the hand of the LORD gone out against you so
that in estate you are impoverished and in spirit you are broken down?
Was it your own folly which brought upon you all this dilapidation?
Then
the first thing to be done is to return to the LORD.
With deep
repentance and sincere faith find your way back from your backsliding.
It is your duty, for you have turned away from Him whom you professed to
serve.
It is your wisdom, for you cannot strive against Him and
prosper.
It is your immediate necessity...
For what He has done is nothing
compared to what He may do in the way of chastisement, since He is
Almighty to punish. See what a promise invites you!
You shall be "built up."
None but the
Almighty can set up the fallen pillars and restore the tottering walls
of your condition...
But He can and He will do it if you return to Him.
Do
not delay.
Your crushed mind may quite fail you if you go on to rebel;...
But hearty confession will ease you, and humble faith will console you.
