11. Bad temper. Perhaps you have abused your wife, or your children, or your family, or employees, or neighbors. Write it all down.
12. Hindering others from being useful. Perhaps you have, weakened their influence by insinuations against them. You have not only robbed God of your own talents, but tied the hands of somebody else. What a wicked servant is he who not only loiters himself but hinders the rest! This is done sometimes by taking their time needlessly; sometimes by destroying Christian confidence in them. Thus you have played into the hands of Satan, and not only showed yourself an idle vagabond, but prevented others from working.
If you find you have committed a fault against an individual, and that individual is within your reach, go and confess it immediately, and get that out of the way. If the individual you have injured is too far off for you to go and see him, sit down and write him a letter and confess the injury. If you have defrauded anybody, send the money, the full amount and the interest.
Go thoroughly to work in all this. Go now. Do not put it off; that will only make the matter worse. Confess to God those sins that have been committed against God, and to man those sins that have been committed against man. Do not think of getting off by going around the stumbling-blocks. Take them up out of the way. In breaking up your fallow ground, you must remove every obstruction. Things may be left that you think little things, and you may wonder why you do not feel as you wish to feel in religion, when the reason is that your proud and carnal mind has covered up something which God required you to confess and remove. Break up all the ground and turn it over. Do not "balk" it, as the farmers say; do not turn aside for little difficulties; drive the plough right through them, dig deep, and turn the ground up, so that it may all be mellow and soft, and fit to receive the seed and bear fruit 'an hundredfold."
When you have gone over your whole history in this way, throughly, if you will then go over the ground the second time, and give your solemn and fixed attention to it, you will feel that the things you have put down will suggest other things of which you have been guilty, connected with them, or near them. Then go over it a third time, and you will recollect other things connected with these. And you will find in the end that you can remember an amount of history, and particular actions even in this life, which you did not think you would remember in eternity. Unless you take up your sins in this way, and consider them in detail, one by one, you can form no idea of the amount of them. You should go over the list as thoroughly, and as carefully, and as solemnly, as you would if you were just preparing yourself for the Judgment.
As you go over the history of your sins, be sure to decide upon present and entire reformation. Wherever you find anything wrong, take care of it at once, in the strength of God, to sin no more in that way. It will be of no benefit to examine yourself, unless you determine to change in every particular that which you find wrong in heart, temper, or conduct.
If you find, as you go on with this duty, that your mind is still all dark, cast about you, and you will find there is some reason for the Spirit of God to depart from you. You have not been faithful and thorough. In the progress of such a work you have got to do violence to yourself and bring yourself as a rational being up to this work, with the Bible before you, and try your heart till you do feel. You need not expect that God will work a miracle for you to break up your fallow ground. It is to be done by means.
Fasten your attention to the subject of your sins. You cannot look at your sins long and thoroughly and see how bad they are, without feeling, and feeling deeply. Experience fully proves the benefit of going over our history in this way. Set yourself to work now; decide that you never will stop until you find you can pray. You never will have the Spirit of God dwelling in you until you have unraveled this whole mystery of iniquity, and spread out your sins before God. Let there be this deep work of repentance and full confession, this breaking down before God, and you will have as much of the spirit of prayer as your body can bear up under.
The reason why so few Christians know anything about the Spirit of prayer is because they never would take the pains to examine themselves properly, and so never knew what it was to have the hearts all broken up in this way. You see I have only begun to lay open this subject I want to lay it out before you, in the course of these Lectures, so that if you will begin and go on to do as I say, the results will be just as certain as they are when a farmer breaks up a fallow field, and mellows it, and sows his grain. It will be so, if you will only begin in this way and bold it on till all your hardened and callous hearts break up.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sins of Commission...Pt 2 by Charles Finney
6. Levity. How often have you joked before God as you would not have dared to joke in the presence of an important official? You have either been an atheist, and forgotten that there was a God, or have had less respect for Him, and His presence, than you would have had for an earthly judge.
7. Lying. Understand now what lying is. Any form of designed deception. If the deception be not designed, it is not lying. But if you design to make an oppression contrary to the naked truth, you lie. Put down all those cases you can recollect. Do not call them by any soft name. God call them LIES, and charges you with LYING, and you had better charge yourself correctly How innumerable are the falsehoods perpetrated every day in business, and in social intercourse, by words and looks, and actions, designed to make an impression on others, for selfish reasons that is contrary to the truth.
8. Cheating. Set down all the cases in which yon have dealt with an individual, and done to him that which you would not like to have done to you. That is cheating. God has laid down a rule in the case : "All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them." That is the rule. And if you have not done so you are a cheat. Mind, the rule is not that you should do "what you might reasonably expect them to do to you: for that is a rule which would admit of every degree of wickedness. But it is : "As you WOULD they should do to you.
9. Hypocrisy. For instance, in your prayers and confessions to God. Set down the instances in which you have prayed for things you did not really want. And the evidence is, that when you have done praying, you could not tell for what you had prayed. How many times have you confessed sins that you did not mean to break off and when you had no solemn purpose not to repeat them? Yes, have confessed sins when you knew you as much expected to go and repeat them, as you expected to live.
10. Robbing God. Think of the instances in which you have misspent your time, squandering the hours which God gave you to serve Him and save souls, in vain amusements or foolish conversation, in reading novels or doing nothing; cases where you have misapplied your talents and powers of mind; where you have squandered money on your lusts, or spent it for things which you did not need, and which did not contribute to your health comfort, or usefulness. Perhaps some of you have laid out God's money for tobacco. I will not speak of intoxicating drink for I presume there is no professor religion here that would drink it, and I hope there is n one that uses that filthy poison, tobacco. Think of teachers, of religion using God's money to poison themselves with tobacco!
7. Lying. Understand now what lying is. Any form of designed deception. If the deception be not designed, it is not lying. But if you design to make an oppression contrary to the naked truth, you lie. Put down all those cases you can recollect. Do not call them by any soft name. God call them LIES, and charges you with LYING, and you had better charge yourself correctly How innumerable are the falsehoods perpetrated every day in business, and in social intercourse, by words and looks, and actions, designed to make an impression on others, for selfish reasons that is contrary to the truth.
8. Cheating. Set down all the cases in which yon have dealt with an individual, and done to him that which you would not like to have done to you. That is cheating. God has laid down a rule in the case : "All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them." That is the rule. And if you have not done so you are a cheat. Mind, the rule is not that you should do "what you might reasonably expect them to do to you: for that is a rule which would admit of every degree of wickedness. But it is : "As you WOULD they should do to you.
9. Hypocrisy. For instance, in your prayers and confessions to God. Set down the instances in which you have prayed for things you did not really want. And the evidence is, that when you have done praying, you could not tell for what you had prayed. How many times have you confessed sins that you did not mean to break off and when you had no solemn purpose not to repeat them? Yes, have confessed sins when you knew you as much expected to go and repeat them, as you expected to live.
10. Robbing God. Think of the instances in which you have misspent your time, squandering the hours which God gave you to serve Him and save souls, in vain amusements or foolish conversation, in reading novels or doing nothing; cases where you have misapplied your talents and powers of mind; where you have squandered money on your lusts, or spent it for things which you did not need, and which did not contribute to your health comfort, or usefulness. Perhaps some of you have laid out God's money for tobacco. I will not speak of intoxicating drink for I presume there is no professor religion here that would drink it, and I hope there is n one that uses that filthy poison, tobacco. Think of teachers, of religion using God's money to poison themselves with tobacco!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Sins of Commission...by Charles Finney
1. Wordily mindedness. What has been the state of your heart in regard to your worldly possessions Have you looked at them as really yours-as if you had a right to dispose of them as your own, according to your own will? If you have, write that down. If you have loved property, and sought after it for its own sake, or to gratify lust or ambition, or a worldly spirit or to lay it up for your families, you have sinned, and must repent.
2. Pride. Recall all the times you can, in which you have detected yourself in the exercise of pride. Vanity is a particular form of pride. How many times have you detected yourself in consulting vanity about your dress and appearance? How many times have you thought more, and taken more pains, and spent more time about decorating your body to go to Church, than you have about preparing your mind for the worship of God?
You have gone caring more as to how you appeared outwardly in the sight of mortal man, than how your soul appeared in the sight of the heart-searching God. You have, in fact, set up yourself to be worshiped by them, rather than prepared to worship God yourself. You sought to divide the worship of God house, to draw off the attention of God's people to look at your pretty appearance. It is in vain to pretend flow, that you do not care anything about having people look at you. Be honest about it would you take all this pains about your looks if every person were blind?
3. Envy. Look at the cases in which you were envious of those whom you thought were above you in any respect. Or perhaps you have envied those who have been more talented or more useful than yourself. Have you not so envied some, that you have been pained to bear them praised? It has been more pleasant for to you to dwell upon their faults than upon their virtues, upon their failures than upon their success. Be honest with yourself; and if you have harbored this spirit of hell, repent deeply before God, or He will never forgive you.
4. Censoriousness and bitterness. Instances in which you have had a bitter spirit or harbored a grudge toward someone? How many times have you spoken of Christians in a manner completely lacking charity and love? Love always hopes for the best but count the time in which you suspected the worst.
5. Slander and gossip. The times you have spoken behind people's backs of the faults, real or supposed, of members of the Church or others, unnecessarily, or without good reason. This is slander. You need not lie to be guilty of slander: to tell the truth with the design to injure is to slander.
2. Pride. Recall all the times you can, in which you have detected yourself in the exercise of pride. Vanity is a particular form of pride. How many times have you detected yourself in consulting vanity about your dress and appearance? How many times have you thought more, and taken more pains, and spent more time about decorating your body to go to Church, than you have about preparing your mind for the worship of God?
You have gone caring more as to how you appeared outwardly in the sight of mortal man, than how your soul appeared in the sight of the heart-searching God. You have, in fact, set up yourself to be worshiped by them, rather than prepared to worship God yourself. You sought to divide the worship of God house, to draw off the attention of God's people to look at your pretty appearance. It is in vain to pretend flow, that you do not care anything about having people look at you. Be honest about it would you take all this pains about your looks if every person were blind?
3. Envy. Look at the cases in which you were envious of those whom you thought were above you in any respect. Or perhaps you have envied those who have been more talented or more useful than yourself. Have you not so envied some, that you have been pained to bear them praised? It has been more pleasant for to you to dwell upon their faults than upon their virtues, upon their failures than upon their success. Be honest with yourself; and if you have harbored this spirit of hell, repent deeply before God, or He will never forgive you.
4. Censoriousness and bitterness. Instances in which you have had a bitter spirit or harbored a grudge toward someone? How many times have you spoken of Christians in a manner completely lacking charity and love? Love always hopes for the best but count the time in which you suspected the worst.
5. Slander and gossip. The times you have spoken behind people's backs of the faults, real or supposed, of members of the Church or others, unnecessarily, or without good reason. This is slander. You need not lie to be guilty of slander: to tell the truth with the design to injure is to slander.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Sins of Ommission...pt 4 by Charles Finney
14. Neglect o/ self-denial There are many professors who are willing to do almost anything in religion, that does not require self-denial. But when they are required to do anything that requires them to deny themselves-oh, that is too much I They think they are doing a great deal for God, and doing about as much as He ought in reason to ask, if they only doing what they do just as well as not; but they are not willing to deny themselves any comfort or convenience whatever for the sake of serving the Lord. They will not willing suffer reproach for the name of Christ. Nor will they deny themselves the luxuries of life, to save a world from hell.
So far are they from remembering that self-denial is a condition o! discipleship that they do not know what self-denial is. They never have really denied themselves a ribbon or a pin for Christ and the Gospel. Oh, how soon such people will be in hell! Some are giving of their abundance and are giving much, and are ready to complain that others do not give more; when, In truth, they do not themselves give anything that they need, anything that they could enjoy if they kept it. They only give of their surplus wealth; and perhaps that poor woman who puts in her mite, has exercised more self-denial than they have in giving thousands.
So far are they from remembering that self-denial is a condition o! discipleship that they do not know what self-denial is. They never have really denied themselves a ribbon or a pin for Christ and the Gospel. Oh, how soon such people will be in hell! Some are giving of their abundance and are giving much, and are ready to complain that others do not give more; when, In truth, they do not themselves give anything that they need, anything that they could enjoy if they kept it. They only give of their surplus wealth; and perhaps that poor woman who puts in her mite, has exercised more self-denial than they have in giving thousands.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
The True Meaning of Christmas...
1And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Sins of Ommission...pt 3 by Charles Finney
10. Neglect of family duties. Think how you have prayed before your family, how you have prayed, what an example you have set before them. What direct efforts do you habitually make for their spiritual good? What duty have you not neglected?
11. Neglect of social duties.
12. Neglect of watchfulness over your own life. In how many instances you have hurried over your private duties, and have not been fully responsible in preforming your duties, nor honestly made up your accounts with God; how often have you entirely neglected to watch your conduct, and, having been off your guard, have sinned before the world, and before the Church, and before God!
13. Neglect to watch over your brethren. How often have you broken your covenant that you would watch over them in the Lord ! How little do you know or care about the state of their souls! And yet you are under a solemn oath to watch over them. What have you done to make yourself acquainted with them? In how many of them have you interested yourself to know their spiritual state? Go over the list, and wherever you find there has been a neglect, write it down.
How many times have you seen your brethren growing cold in religion, and have not spoken to them about it? You have seen them beginning to neglect one duty after another, and you did not reprove them, in a brotherly way. You have seen them falling into sin, and you let them go on. And yet you pretend to love them. What a hypocrite I Would you see your wife or child going into disgrace, or into the fire, and hold your peace? No, you would not. What do you think of yourself, then, to pretend to love Christians, and to love Christ, while you can see them going into disgrace, and say nothing to them?
11. Neglect of social duties.
12. Neglect of watchfulness over your own life. In how many instances you have hurried over your private duties, and have not been fully responsible in preforming your duties, nor honestly made up your accounts with God; how often have you entirely neglected to watch your conduct, and, having been off your guard, have sinned before the world, and before the Church, and before God!
13. Neglect to watch over your brethren. How often have you broken your covenant that you would watch over them in the Lord ! How little do you know or care about the state of their souls! And yet you are under a solemn oath to watch over them. What have you done to make yourself acquainted with them? In how many of them have you interested yourself to know their spiritual state? Go over the list, and wherever you find there has been a neglect, write it down.
How many times have you seen your brethren growing cold in religion, and have not spoken to them about it? You have seen them beginning to neglect one duty after another, and you did not reprove them, in a brotherly way. You have seen them falling into sin, and you let them go on. And yet you pretend to love them. What a hypocrite I Would you see your wife or child going into disgrace, or into the fire, and hold your peace? No, you would not. What do you think of yourself, then, to pretend to love Christians, and to love Christ, while you can see them going into disgrace, and say nothing to them?
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sins of Ommission..pt2 by Charles Finney
6. Neglect of the means of grace. When you have made stupid and meaningless excuses to prevent your attending meetings, have neglected and poured contempt upon the methods of salvation, simply because you dislike spiritual duties?
7. The manner in which you have performed those duties. That is, with lack of feeling and lack of faith in a worldly frame of mind, so that your words were nothing but the mere chattering of a wretch who did not deserve that God should feel the least care for him. When you have fallen down upon your knees and "said your prayers" in such an unfeeling and careless manner that if you had been put under oath five minutes after, you could not have said for what you had been praying.
8. Lack of love for the souls of your fellow-men. Look around upon your friends and relatives, and remember how little compassion you have felt for them. You have stood by and seen them going right to hell, and it seems as though you did not care if they did go. How many days have there been, in which you did not make their condition the subject of a single fervent prayer, or display a glowing and devoted desire for their salvation?
9. Lack of care for the lost. Perhaps you have not cared enough for them to attempt to learn their condition; perhaps not even to take a missionary magazine. Look at this, and see how much you really care for the lost, and write down honestly the real amount of your feelings for them, and your desire for their salvation. Measure your desire for their salvation by the self-denial you practice, in giving of your substance to send them the Gospel. Do you deny yourself even the hurtful and unnecessary desires of life, such as tea, coffee, and tobacco? Do you cut back on your style of living, and hesitate not to deny yourself any inconvenience to save them? Do you daily pray for them in private? Are you putting money aside to put into the treasury of the Lord when you go up to pray? If you are not doing these things, and if your soul is not agonized for the poor benighted heathen, why are you such a hypocrite to pretend to be a Christian? Why saying you are a Christian is an insult to Jesus Christ!
7. The manner in which you have performed those duties. That is, with lack of feeling and lack of faith in a worldly frame of mind, so that your words were nothing but the mere chattering of a wretch who did not deserve that God should feel the least care for him. When you have fallen down upon your knees and "said your prayers" in such an unfeeling and careless manner that if you had been put under oath five minutes after, you could not have said for what you had been praying.
8. Lack of love for the souls of your fellow-men. Look around upon your friends and relatives, and remember how little compassion you have felt for them. You have stood by and seen them going right to hell, and it seems as though you did not care if they did go. How many days have there been, in which you did not make their condition the subject of a single fervent prayer, or display a glowing and devoted desire for their salvation?
9. Lack of care for the lost. Perhaps you have not cared enough for them to attempt to learn their condition; perhaps not even to take a missionary magazine. Look at this, and see how much you really care for the lost, and write down honestly the real amount of your feelings for them, and your desire for their salvation. Measure your desire for their salvation by the self-denial you practice, in giving of your substance to send them the Gospel. Do you deny yourself even the hurtful and unnecessary desires of life, such as tea, coffee, and tobacco? Do you cut back on your style of living, and hesitate not to deny yourself any inconvenience to save them? Do you daily pray for them in private? Are you putting money aside to put into the treasury of the Lord when you go up to pray? If you are not doing these things, and if your soul is not agonized for the poor benighted heathen, why are you such a hypocrite to pretend to be a Christian? Why saying you are a Christian is an insult to Jesus Christ!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sins of Ommission...by Charles Finney
Now begin, and take up first what are commonly, but improperly, called Sins of Omission.
1. Ingratitude. Take this sin and write down under that heading all the times you can remember where you have received favors from God and others for which you have never expressed gratitude or thankfulness. How many cases can you remember? Some remarkable change of events, that saved you from ruin. Write down the instances of God's goodness to you when you were in sin, before your conversion, for which you have never been half thankful enough; and the numerous mercies you have received since. How long the list of instances, where your ingratitude has been so black that you are forced to hide your face in confusion! Go on your knees and confess them one by one to God, and ask forgiveness. The very act of confession, by the laws of suggestion, will bring up others to your memory. Put these down. Go over them three or four times in this way, and see what an astonishing number of mercies there are for which you have never thanked God.
2. Lack of love to God. Think how grieved and alarmed you would be if you discovered any lack of affection for you in your wife, husband, or children; if you saw another absorbing their hearts, and thoughts, and time. Perhaps in such a case you would nearly die with a just and virtuous jealousy. Now, God calls Himself a jealous God; and have you not given your heart to other loves and infinitely offended Him?
3. Neglect of the Bible. Put down the cases when for perhaps weeks, or longer, God's Word was not a pleasure. Some people, indeed, read over whole chapters in such a way that they could not tell what they had been reading. If so, no wonder that your life is spent at random, and that your religion is such a miserable failure.
4. Unbelief. Recall the instances in which you have virtually charged the God of truth with lying, by your unbelief of His express promises and declarations. God has promised to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Now, have you believed this? Have you expected Him to answer? Have you not virtually said in your hearts, when you prayed for the Holy Spirit: "I do not believe that I shall receive"? If you have not believed nor expected to receive the blessing which God has expressly promised, you have charged Him with lying.
5. Neglect of prayer. Think of the times when you have neglected secret prayer, family prayer, and prayer meetings; or have prayed in such a way as more grievously to offend God than to have omitted it altogether.
1. Ingratitude. Take this sin and write down under that heading all the times you can remember where you have received favors from God and others for which you have never expressed gratitude or thankfulness. How many cases can you remember? Some remarkable change of events, that saved you from ruin. Write down the instances of God's goodness to you when you were in sin, before your conversion, for which you have never been half thankful enough; and the numerous mercies you have received since. How long the list of instances, where your ingratitude has been so black that you are forced to hide your face in confusion! Go on your knees and confess them one by one to God, and ask forgiveness. The very act of confession, by the laws of suggestion, will bring up others to your memory. Put these down. Go over them three or four times in this way, and see what an astonishing number of mercies there are for which you have never thanked God.
2. Lack of love to God. Think how grieved and alarmed you would be if you discovered any lack of affection for you in your wife, husband, or children; if you saw another absorbing their hearts, and thoughts, and time. Perhaps in such a case you would nearly die with a just and virtuous jealousy. Now, God calls Himself a jealous God; and have you not given your heart to other loves and infinitely offended Him?
3. Neglect of the Bible. Put down the cases when for perhaps weeks, or longer, God's Word was not a pleasure. Some people, indeed, read over whole chapters in such a way that they could not tell what they had been reading. If so, no wonder that your life is spent at random, and that your religion is such a miserable failure.
4. Unbelief. Recall the instances in which you have virtually charged the God of truth with lying, by your unbelief of His express promises and declarations. God has promised to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Now, have you believed this? Have you expected Him to answer? Have you not virtually said in your hearts, when you prayed for the Holy Spirit: "I do not believe that I shall receive"? If you have not believed nor expected to receive the blessing which God has expressly promised, you have charged Him with lying.
5. Neglect of prayer. Think of the times when you have neglected secret prayer, family prayer, and prayer meetings; or have prayed in such a way as more grievously to offend God than to have omitted it altogether.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
How is the fallow ground to be broken?
2. How is the fallow ground to be broken?
It is not by any direct efforts to feel. There are great errors on the subject of the laws which govern the mind. People talk about religious feeling as if they could by direct effort, call forth religious affection. But this is not the way the mind acts. No man can make himself feel in this way, simply by trying to feel. The feelings of the mind are not directly under our control. We cannot just will or decide to have religious feelings. They are purely involuntary states of mind. They naturally and necessary exist in the mind under certain circumstances calculated to excite them. But they can be controlled indirectly otherwise there would be no moral character In our feelings, if there were not a way to control them.
We cannot say, "Now I will feel so-and-so toward such an object." But we can command our attention to it, and look at it intently, until the proper feeling arises. Let a man who is away from his family bring them up before his mind and will he not feel? But it is not by saying to himself, "Now I will feel deeply for family." A man can direct his attention to any object about which he ought to feel and wishes to feel, and in that way he will call into existence the proper emotions. Let a man call up his enemy before his mind, and his feelings of enmity will rise.
So if a man thinks of God, and fastens his mind on any of God's character, he will feel, emotions will come up by the very laws of mind. If he is a friend of Cod, let him contemplate God as a gracious and holy being, and he will have emotions of friendship kindled in his mind. If he is an enemy of Cod, only let him get the true character of God before his mind, and look at it, and fasten his attention on it, and then his bitter enmity will rise against God, or he will break down and give his heart to God.
If you mean to break up the fallow ground of your hearts, and make your minds feel on the subject of religion, you must go to work just as you would to feel on any other subject.
Instead of keeping your thoughts on everything else, and then imagining that by going to a few meetings you will get your feelings started, go the common-sense way to work, as you would on any other subject. It is just as easy to make your minds feel on the subject of religion as it is on any other. God has put these states of mind under your control. If people were as unphilosophical about moving their limbs as they are about regulating their emotions, you would never have reached this meeting.
If you mean to break up the fallow ground of your hearts, you must begin by looking at your hearts: examine and note the state of your minds, and see where you are. Many never seem to think about this. They pay no attention to their own hearts, and never know whether they are doing well in religion or not; whether they are gaining ground or going back; whether they are fruitful, or lying waste. Now you must draw off your attention from other things, and look into this. Make a business of it. Do not be in a hurry. Examine throughly the state of your hearts, and see where you are: whether you are walking with God every day, or with the devil; whether you are serving God or serving the devil most; whether you are under the dominion or the prince of darkness, or of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To do all this, you must set yourself to work to consider your sins. You must examine yourselves. And by this I do not mean you must stop and look directly within to see what is the present state of your feelings. That is the very way to put a stop to all feeling. That is just as absurd as it would be for a man to shut his eyes on the lamp, and try to turn his eyes inward to find whether there was any image painted on the retina. The man complains that he does not see anything! And why? Because he has turned his eyes away from the objects of sight. The truth is, our moral feelings are as much an object of consciousness as our senses. And the way to find them out is to on acting, and using our minds. Then we can tell our moral feelings by consciousness, just as I could tell my natural feelings by consciousness if I should put my hand in the fire.
Self-examination consists in looking at your lives, in considering your actions, in calling up the past, and learning its true character. Look back over your past history. Take up your individual sins one by one, and look at them. I do not mean that you should just cast a glance at your past life, and see that it has been full of sins, and then go to God and make a sort of general confession, and ask for pardon. That is not the way. You must take them up one by one. Get a pen and paper and write them down as you remember them. Go over them as carefully as a merchant goes over his books and as often as a sin comes before your memory, add it the list. General confessions of sin will never do. Your sins were committed one by one; and as they come to you, review and repent of them one by one. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you your past sins.
-Charles Finney
It is not by any direct efforts to feel. There are great errors on the subject of the laws which govern the mind. People talk about religious feeling as if they could by direct effort, call forth religious affection. But this is not the way the mind acts. No man can make himself feel in this way, simply by trying to feel. The feelings of the mind are not directly under our control. We cannot just will or decide to have religious feelings. They are purely involuntary states of mind. They naturally and necessary exist in the mind under certain circumstances calculated to excite them. But they can be controlled indirectly otherwise there would be no moral character In our feelings, if there were not a way to control them.
We cannot say, "Now I will feel so-and-so toward such an object." But we can command our attention to it, and look at it intently, until the proper feeling arises. Let a man who is away from his family bring them up before his mind and will he not feel? But it is not by saying to himself, "Now I will feel deeply for family." A man can direct his attention to any object about which he ought to feel and wishes to feel, and in that way he will call into existence the proper emotions. Let a man call up his enemy before his mind, and his feelings of enmity will rise.
So if a man thinks of God, and fastens his mind on any of God's character, he will feel, emotions will come up by the very laws of mind. If he is a friend of Cod, let him contemplate God as a gracious and holy being, and he will have emotions of friendship kindled in his mind. If he is an enemy of Cod, only let him get the true character of God before his mind, and look at it, and fasten his attention on it, and then his bitter enmity will rise against God, or he will break down and give his heart to God.
If you mean to break up the fallow ground of your hearts, and make your minds feel on the subject of religion, you must go to work just as you would to feel on any other subject.
Instead of keeping your thoughts on everything else, and then imagining that by going to a few meetings you will get your feelings started, go the common-sense way to work, as you would on any other subject. It is just as easy to make your minds feel on the subject of religion as it is on any other. God has put these states of mind under your control. If people were as unphilosophical about moving their limbs as they are about regulating their emotions, you would never have reached this meeting.
If you mean to break up the fallow ground of your hearts, you must begin by looking at your hearts: examine and note the state of your minds, and see where you are. Many never seem to think about this. They pay no attention to their own hearts, and never know whether they are doing well in religion or not; whether they are gaining ground or going back; whether they are fruitful, or lying waste. Now you must draw off your attention from other things, and look into this. Make a business of it. Do not be in a hurry. Examine throughly the state of your hearts, and see where you are: whether you are walking with God every day, or with the devil; whether you are serving God or serving the devil most; whether you are under the dominion or the prince of darkness, or of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To do all this, you must set yourself to work to consider your sins. You must examine yourselves. And by this I do not mean you must stop and look directly within to see what is the present state of your feelings. That is the very way to put a stop to all feeling. That is just as absurd as it would be for a man to shut his eyes on the lamp, and try to turn his eyes inward to find whether there was any image painted on the retina. The man complains that he does not see anything! And why? Because he has turned his eyes away from the objects of sight. The truth is, our moral feelings are as much an object of consciousness as our senses. And the way to find them out is to on acting, and using our minds. Then we can tell our moral feelings by consciousness, just as I could tell my natural feelings by consciousness if I should put my hand in the fire.
Self-examination consists in looking at your lives, in considering your actions, in calling up the past, and learning its true character. Look back over your past history. Take up your individual sins one by one, and look at them. I do not mean that you should just cast a glance at your past life, and see that it has been full of sins, and then go to God and make a sort of general confession, and ask for pardon. That is not the way. You must take them up one by one. Get a pen and paper and write them down as you remember them. Go over them as carefully as a merchant goes over his books and as often as a sin comes before your memory, add it the list. General confessions of sin will never do. Your sins were committed one by one; and as they come to you, review and repent of them one by one. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you your past sins.
-Charles Finney
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Breaking Up the Fallow Ground...pt 1 by Charles Finney
Breaking Up the Fallow GroundBy Charles G. Finney
"Break up your follow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till He come and rain righteousness upon you." Hosea 10:12
The Jews were a nation of farmers, and it is therefore a common thing in the scriptures to refer for Illustrations to their occupation, and to the scenes with which farmers and shepherds are familiar. The prophet Hosea addresses them as a nation of backsliders; he reproves them for their idolatry, and threatens them with the judgments of God. My design in this Lecture is to show how a revival is to be promoted.
A revival consists of two parts: as it applies the Church, and as it applies the ungodly. I will speak on this occasion of a revival in the Church. Fallow ground is ground which has once been tilled, but which now lies waste, and needs to be broken up and mellowed, before it is it is ready to receive grain. I will show, as it applies to a revival in the Church:
1. What it is to break up the fallow ground, in the sense of the text.2. How it is to be performed.
1. What it means to break up fallow ground.
To break up the fallow ground, is to break up your hearts, to prepare your minds to bring forth fruit unto God. The mind of man is often compared to the ground in the bible. The word of God is the seed sown there, the fruit representing the actions and emotions of those who receive it. To break up the fallow ground therefore, is to bring the mind into such a state that it is fitted to receive the Word of God. Sometimes your hearts get matted down, hard and dry, until there is no such thing as getting fruit from them until they are broken up, and mellowed down, and fitted to the Word. It is this softening of the heart, so as to make it feel the truth, which the prophet calls break up your fallow ground.
"Break up your follow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till He come and rain righteousness upon you." Hosea 10:12
The Jews were a nation of farmers, and it is therefore a common thing in the scriptures to refer for Illustrations to their occupation, and to the scenes with which farmers and shepherds are familiar. The prophet Hosea addresses them as a nation of backsliders; he reproves them for their idolatry, and threatens them with the judgments of God. My design in this Lecture is to show how a revival is to be promoted.
A revival consists of two parts: as it applies the Church, and as it applies the ungodly. I will speak on this occasion of a revival in the Church. Fallow ground is ground which has once been tilled, but which now lies waste, and needs to be broken up and mellowed, before it is it is ready to receive grain. I will show, as it applies to a revival in the Church:
1. What it is to break up the fallow ground, in the sense of the text.2. How it is to be performed.
1. What it means to break up fallow ground.
To break up the fallow ground, is to break up your hearts, to prepare your minds to bring forth fruit unto God. The mind of man is often compared to the ground in the bible. The word of God is the seed sown there, the fruit representing the actions and emotions of those who receive it. To break up the fallow ground therefore, is to bring the mind into such a state that it is fitted to receive the Word of God. Sometimes your hearts get matted down, hard and dry, until there is no such thing as getting fruit from them until they are broken up, and mellowed down, and fitted to the Word. It is this softening of the heart, so as to make it feel the truth, which the prophet calls break up your fallow ground.
Friday, December 19, 2008
How A Nobody Became A Somebody
It is one of the shortest, simplest stories ever heard, and yet one of the sweetest and most wonderful, as told by Luke.
Jesus had been across the little sea and had cast a legion of devils out of a poor fellow. The devils, by His permission, went into a big herd of swine, and the swine rushed off down a precipice and drowned themselves in the sea. They preferred death to devils. Wise pigs!
The men who fed the pigs fled to the city and told what had been done. Then the people came out to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils had been cast, 'sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind'; but, and this seems passing strange, 'they were afraid.' Then the people poured in from all the country round about, and 'besought Him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear.'
Jesus did not insist on His right to stay among them, but gently and quietly withdrew, leaving the new convert to evangelize all that country.
When Jesus returned to His own side of the sea, He found the people all waiting for Him, and they 'gladly received Him.'
In the crowd was the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, who 'fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought Him that He would come into his house: for he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay dying.' Jesus went, but 'as He went the people thronged Him.' It was a crowd bursting with curiosity, wondering what He would do next, and determined not to miss the sight. Jairus was an important person, and that added to the interest.
But in the town was a poor, pale-faced, hollow-cheeked, ill-clad woman, who had been sick with an issue of blood for twelve years. The people, no doubt, had grown very tired of seeing her shambling along week after week to see the doctors, upon whom she had spent all her living in a vain twelve years' search and struggle for health. She was just a 'nobody ' -- everybody was tired of the sight of her, and here into the throng she came with her bloodless face and tired eyes and shuffling feet and threadbare, faded clothes.
The crowd jostled her, crushed her, trampled upon her slow, heavy feet, blocked her way; but she had a purpose. She was inspired by a new hope. If she could only reach Jesus, and touch but the hem of His garment, she was sure her long struggle for health would be ended. And so, dodging, ducking under arms, edging her way through the jam of the great, moving crowd, she at last got close to Him, and. stretching forth a wasted, bony hand, she touched his travel-stained, rough, workman's robe, and -- Oh, something happened! Instantly a thrill of health shot through her, and she was well!
And something had happened to Jesus! The crowd had been pressing upon and jostling Him, but that touch of His garment had thrilled through His rough robe, and He said, 'Who touched Me? ' They all denied, and then Peter spoke up: 'Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? The multitude had touched Him, but one timid touch was different from all the rest. Jesus said: 'Somebody hath touched Me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.'
Ah! The nobody had suddenly become 'somebody.' And somebody she was in very truth from that day forth. 'And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before Him she declared unto Him before all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed immediately.'
All eyes were turned upon her now. Jairus, the important ruler, was just one of the crowd. Other people were all 'nobodies.' No one in all that throng had eyes for anybody else than just that shrinking, trembling woman, and Jesus.
And then the sweetest words she ever heard dropped from His dear lips: 'Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole: go in peace.' And in peace she went.
I venture to think that from that hour she was by far the most interesting woman in all that town. The people would talk about her they would seek her out, and when she walked the street the children would stop their playing, the women their knitting and gossip, and the men their traffic, to look at her and watch her as far as their eyes could follow her.
Oh, she was now 'somebody ' eclipsing everybody else in that old town. No, not everybody! There was a twelve-year-old girl who was most interesting and much talked about, too -- Jairus' daughter. Jesus was on the way to heal her when this woman stopped the procession, and during the delay the little girl died.
Some one came and told Jairus, saying: 'Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.' But when Jesus heard it, He answered: 'Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.' And He went and raised her from the dead.
Now I am sure that while that woman was the most talked about and most interesting woman in the town, that girl was the most interesting child. Those were the two 'somebodies ' of that whole country round about, and the secret was that they had come into touch with Jesus. Real faith in Jesus, vital union with Him, will always make an interesting somebody out of a dull nobody.
The child couldn't go to Jesus; she was dead; so He went to her. But the woman had to go to Jesus, and this was not easy. The crowd was in the way, and possibly some of them purposely blocked her way. Others may have sneered at her; and asked her what was her haste, and what she meant by edging in front of folks who had as much right on the street as she. But she shut her ears, or heard as one who was deaf; she kept her own secrets and pressed on as best she could till she touched Him,and that touch gave her all her heart's desire and rewarded all her effort.
So, to-day, people who go to Jesus do not always find it easy. Other people get in the way. Sometimes they stoutly oppose; sometimes they sneer and ridicule. Cares and fears and doubts throng and press around the seeker; darkness of mind and soul obscures the way. But there is nothing else to do except to press on, right on and on; and the one who presses on and on will find Him, reach Him, touch Him, and will get all his heart's desire and be rewarded above all he asks or thinks.
It is true! I know it is, for I myself so sought and found Him, and was satisfied, and He satisfies me still. He is a wonderful Saviour! Hallelujah for ever and ever! Amen
By Samuel Logan Brengle
Jesus had been across the little sea and had cast a legion of devils out of a poor fellow. The devils, by His permission, went into a big herd of swine, and the swine rushed off down a precipice and drowned themselves in the sea. They preferred death to devils. Wise pigs!
The men who fed the pigs fled to the city and told what had been done. Then the people came out to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils had been cast, 'sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind'; but, and this seems passing strange, 'they were afraid.' Then the people poured in from all the country round about, and 'besought Him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear.'
Jesus did not insist on His right to stay among them, but gently and quietly withdrew, leaving the new convert to evangelize all that country.
When Jesus returned to His own side of the sea, He found the people all waiting for Him, and they 'gladly received Him.'
In the crowd was the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, who 'fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought Him that He would come into his house: for he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay dying.' Jesus went, but 'as He went the people thronged Him.' It was a crowd bursting with curiosity, wondering what He would do next, and determined not to miss the sight. Jairus was an important person, and that added to the interest.
But in the town was a poor, pale-faced, hollow-cheeked, ill-clad woman, who had been sick with an issue of blood for twelve years. The people, no doubt, had grown very tired of seeing her shambling along week after week to see the doctors, upon whom she had spent all her living in a vain twelve years' search and struggle for health. She was just a 'nobody ' -- everybody was tired of the sight of her, and here into the throng she came with her bloodless face and tired eyes and shuffling feet and threadbare, faded clothes.
The crowd jostled her, crushed her, trampled upon her slow, heavy feet, blocked her way; but she had a purpose. She was inspired by a new hope. If she could only reach Jesus, and touch but the hem of His garment, she was sure her long struggle for health would be ended. And so, dodging, ducking under arms, edging her way through the jam of the great, moving crowd, she at last got close to Him, and. stretching forth a wasted, bony hand, she touched his travel-stained, rough, workman's robe, and -- Oh, something happened! Instantly a thrill of health shot through her, and she was well!
And something had happened to Jesus! The crowd had been pressing upon and jostling Him, but that touch of His garment had thrilled through His rough robe, and He said, 'Who touched Me? ' They all denied, and then Peter spoke up: 'Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? The multitude had touched Him, but one timid touch was different from all the rest. Jesus said: 'Somebody hath touched Me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.'
Ah! The nobody had suddenly become 'somebody.' And somebody she was in very truth from that day forth. 'And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before Him she declared unto Him before all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed immediately.'
All eyes were turned upon her now. Jairus, the important ruler, was just one of the crowd. Other people were all 'nobodies.' No one in all that throng had eyes for anybody else than just that shrinking, trembling woman, and Jesus.
And then the sweetest words she ever heard dropped from His dear lips: 'Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole: go in peace.' And in peace she went.
I venture to think that from that hour she was by far the most interesting woman in all that town. The people would talk about her they would seek her out, and when she walked the street the children would stop their playing, the women their knitting and gossip, and the men their traffic, to look at her and watch her as far as their eyes could follow her.
Oh, she was now 'somebody ' eclipsing everybody else in that old town. No, not everybody! There was a twelve-year-old girl who was most interesting and much talked about, too -- Jairus' daughter. Jesus was on the way to heal her when this woman stopped the procession, and during the delay the little girl died.
Some one came and told Jairus, saying: 'Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.' But when Jesus heard it, He answered: 'Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.' And He went and raised her from the dead.
Now I am sure that while that woman was the most talked about and most interesting woman in the town, that girl was the most interesting child. Those were the two 'somebodies ' of that whole country round about, and the secret was that they had come into touch with Jesus. Real faith in Jesus, vital union with Him, will always make an interesting somebody out of a dull nobody.
The child couldn't go to Jesus; she was dead; so He went to her. But the woman had to go to Jesus, and this was not easy. The crowd was in the way, and possibly some of them purposely blocked her way. Others may have sneered at her; and asked her what was her haste, and what she meant by edging in front of folks who had as much right on the street as she. But she shut her ears, or heard as one who was deaf; she kept her own secrets and pressed on as best she could till she touched Him,and that touch gave her all her heart's desire and rewarded all her effort.
So, to-day, people who go to Jesus do not always find it easy. Other people get in the way. Sometimes they stoutly oppose; sometimes they sneer and ridicule. Cares and fears and doubts throng and press around the seeker; darkness of mind and soul obscures the way. But there is nothing else to do except to press on, right on and on; and the one who presses on and on will find Him, reach Him, touch Him, and will get all his heart's desire and be rewarded above all he asks or thinks.
It is true! I know it is, for I myself so sought and found Him, and was satisfied, and He satisfies me still. He is a wonderful Saviour! Hallelujah for ever and ever! Amen
By Samuel Logan Brengle
Thursday, December 18, 2008
O wretched man that I am...pt 5 by Andrew Murray
THE ALMOST-DELIVERED MAN
The man has tried to obey the beautiful law of God. He has loved it; he has wept over his sin; and he has tried to conquer. He has tried to overcome fault after fault, but every time he has ended in failure. What did he mean by "the body of this death"? Did he mean, my body when I die? Surely not. In the eighth chapter, you have the answer to this question in the words: "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). That is the body of death from which he is seeking deliverance.
And now he is on the brink of deliverance! In, the twentythird verse of the seventh chapter, we have the words: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." It is a captive that cries: "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body I of this death?" He is a man who feels himself bound. But look to.the contrast in the second verse of the eighth chapter: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That is the deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord, the liberty to the captive which the Spirit brings. Can you keep captive any longer a man made free by the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"?
But you say, the regenerate man did not have the Spirit of Jesus when he spoke in the sixth chapter. Yes, he did not know what the Holy Spirit could do for him.
God does not work by His Spirit as He works by a blind force in nature. He leads His people on as reasonable, intelligent beings. Therefore, when He wants to give us that Holy Spirit whom He has promised, He first brings us to the end of sel brings us to the conviction that though we have been striving to obey the law, we have failed. When we have come to the end of that, then He shows us that in the Holy Spirit we have the power of obedience, the power of victory, and the power of real holiness. God works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but many Christians misunderstand this.
They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be received each moment from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own weakness as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life. This man is on the brink of that great deliverance; the way has been prepared for the glorious eighth chapter. I now ask this solemn question: Where are you living? With you, is it, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? " with now and then a little experience of the power of the Holy Spirit? Or is it, "I thank God through Jesus Christ! The law of the Spirit hath set me free from the law of sin and of death"?
What the Holy Spirit does is to give the victory. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). It is the Holy Spirit who does this-the third Person of the Godhead. It is He who, when the heart is opened wide to receive Him, comes in and reigns there, and mortifies the deeds of the body, day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment.
I want to bring this to a point. Remember, dear friend, what we need is to come to decision and action. There are in Scripture two very different sorts of Christians. The Bible speaks in Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians about yielding to the flesh; and that is the life of tens of thousands of believers. All their lack of joy in the Holy Spirit, and their lack of the liberty He gives, is just owing to the flesh. The Spirit is within them, but the flesh rules the life. To be led by the Spirit of God is what they need. If only I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting God has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust.
If only I could make His children understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you every moment to remember Jesus, and to trust Him! The Spirit has come to keep the link with Him unbroken every moment. Praise God for the Holy Spirit! We are so accustomed to thinking of the Holy Spirit as a luxury, for special times, or for special ministers and men. But the Holy Spirit is necessary for every believer, every moment of the day. Praise God you have Him, and that He gives you the full experience of the deliverance in Christ as He makes you free from the power of sin.
Who longs to have the power and the liberty of the Holy Spirit? Oh, brother, bow before God in one final cry of despair: "0 God, must I go on sinning this way forever? Who shall deliver me, 0 wretched man that I am! from the body of this death?"
Are you ready to sink before God in that cry and seek the power of Jesus to live and work in you? Are you ready to say: "I thank God through Jesus Christ"?
What good does it do that we go to church or attend conventions, 'that we study our Bibles and pray, unless our lives are filled with the Holy Spirit? That is what God wants. Nothing else will enable us to live a life of power and peace. When a minister or parent is using the catechism, and a question is asked, an answer is expected. How sad that many Christians are content with the question put here: "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" but never give the answer.
Instead of answering, they are silent. Instead of saying: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," they are forever repeating the question without the answer. If you want the path to the full deliverance of Christ, and the liberty of the Spirit-the glorious liberty of the children of God-take it through the seventh chapter of Romans. Then say: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Do not be content to remain ever groaning, but say: "I, a wretched man, thank God, through Jesus Christ. Even though I do not see it all, I am going to praise God. "
There is deliverance; there is the liberty of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is "joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
The man has tried to obey the beautiful law of God. He has loved it; he has wept over his sin; and he has tried to conquer. He has tried to overcome fault after fault, but every time he has ended in failure. What did he mean by "the body of this death"? Did he mean, my body when I die? Surely not. In the eighth chapter, you have the answer to this question in the words: "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). That is the body of death from which he is seeking deliverance.
And now he is on the brink of deliverance! In, the twentythird verse of the seventh chapter, we have the words: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." It is a captive that cries: "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body I of this death?" He is a man who feels himself bound. But look to.the contrast in the second verse of the eighth chapter: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That is the deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord, the liberty to the captive which the Spirit brings. Can you keep captive any longer a man made free by the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"?
But you say, the regenerate man did not have the Spirit of Jesus when he spoke in the sixth chapter. Yes, he did not know what the Holy Spirit could do for him.
God does not work by His Spirit as He works by a blind force in nature. He leads His people on as reasonable, intelligent beings. Therefore, when He wants to give us that Holy Spirit whom He has promised, He first brings us to the end of sel brings us to the conviction that though we have been striving to obey the law, we have failed. When we have come to the end of that, then He shows us that in the Holy Spirit we have the power of obedience, the power of victory, and the power of real holiness. God works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but many Christians misunderstand this.
They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be received each moment from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own weakness as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life. This man is on the brink of that great deliverance; the way has been prepared for the glorious eighth chapter. I now ask this solemn question: Where are you living? With you, is it, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? " with now and then a little experience of the power of the Holy Spirit? Or is it, "I thank God through Jesus Christ! The law of the Spirit hath set me free from the law of sin and of death"?
What the Holy Spirit does is to give the victory. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). It is the Holy Spirit who does this-the third Person of the Godhead. It is He who, when the heart is opened wide to receive Him, comes in and reigns there, and mortifies the deeds of the body, day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment.
I want to bring this to a point. Remember, dear friend, what we need is to come to decision and action. There are in Scripture two very different sorts of Christians. The Bible speaks in Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians about yielding to the flesh; and that is the life of tens of thousands of believers. All their lack of joy in the Holy Spirit, and their lack of the liberty He gives, is just owing to the flesh. The Spirit is within them, but the flesh rules the life. To be led by the Spirit of God is what they need. If only I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting God has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust.
If only I could make His children understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you every moment to remember Jesus, and to trust Him! The Spirit has come to keep the link with Him unbroken every moment. Praise God for the Holy Spirit! We are so accustomed to thinking of the Holy Spirit as a luxury, for special times, or for special ministers and men. But the Holy Spirit is necessary for every believer, every moment of the day. Praise God you have Him, and that He gives you the full experience of the deliverance in Christ as He makes you free from the power of sin.
Who longs to have the power and the liberty of the Holy Spirit? Oh, brother, bow before God in one final cry of despair: "0 God, must I go on sinning this way forever? Who shall deliver me, 0 wretched man that I am! from the body of this death?"
Are you ready to sink before God in that cry and seek the power of Jesus to live and work in you? Are you ready to say: "I thank God through Jesus Christ"?
What good does it do that we go to church or attend conventions, 'that we study our Bibles and pray, unless our lives are filled with the Holy Spirit? That is what God wants. Nothing else will enable us to live a life of power and peace. When a minister or parent is using the catechism, and a question is asked, an answer is expected. How sad that many Christians are content with the question put here: "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" but never give the answer.
Instead of answering, they are silent. Instead of saying: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," they are forever repeating the question without the answer. If you want the path to the full deliverance of Christ, and the liberty of the Spirit-the glorious liberty of the children of God-take it through the seventh chapter of Romans. Then say: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Do not be content to remain ever groaning, but say: "I, a wretched man, thank God, through Jesus Christ. Even though I do not see it all, I am going to praise God. "
There is deliverance; there is the liberty of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is "joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
O wretched man that I am...pt 4 by Andrew Murray
THE WRETCHED MAN
Not only is the man who makes this confession a regenerate and a weak man, but he is also a wretched man. He is utterly unhappy and miserable. What is it that makes him so utterly miserable? It is because God has given him a nature that loves Himself. He is deeply wretched because he feels he is not obeying his God. He says, with brokenness of heart: "It is not I that do it, but I am under the awful power of sin, which is holding me down. It is 1, and yet not 1: alas! alas! it is myself; so closely am I bound up with it, and so closely is it intertwined with my very nature." Blessed be God when a man learns to say: "0 wretched man that I am!" from the depth of his heart. He is on the way to the eighth chapter of Romans.
There are many who make this confession a pillow for sin. They say that if Paul had to confess his weakness and helplessness in this way, who are they that they should try to do better? So the call to holiness is quietly set aside. Pray God that every one of us would learn to say these words in the very spirit in which they are written here! When we hear sin spoken of as the abominable thing that God hates, do not many of us wince before the word? If only all Christians who go on sinning and sinning would take this verse to heart.
If ever you utter a sharp word say: "0 wretched man that I am!" And every time you lose your temper, kneel down and under stand that God never meant His child to remain in this state. If only we would take this word into our daily life, and say it every time we are touched about our own honor! If only we would take it into our hearts every time we say sharp things, and every time we sin against the Lord God, and against the Lord Jesus Christ in His humility and in His obedience and in His self-sacrifice! Pray God that we could forget everything else, and cry out: "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Why should you say this whenever you commit sin? Because it is when a man is brought to this confession that deliverance is at hand. And remember, it was not only the sense of being weak and taken captive that made him wretched. It was, above all, the sense of sinning against his God. The law was doing its work, making sin exceedingly sinful in his sight. The thought of continually grieving God became utterly unbearable. It was this that brought forth the piercing cry: "0 wretched man!" As long as we talk and reason about our inability and our failure, and only try to find out what Romans, chapter seven, means, it will profit us little. But once every sin gives new intensity to the sense of wretchedness, and we feel our whole state as one of not only helplessness, but actual, exceeding sinfulness, we will be pressed not only to ask: "Who shall deliver us?" but to cry: "I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord."
Not only is the man who makes this confession a regenerate and a weak man, but he is also a wretched man. He is utterly unhappy and miserable. What is it that makes him so utterly miserable? It is because God has given him a nature that loves Himself. He is deeply wretched because he feels he is not obeying his God. He says, with brokenness of heart: "It is not I that do it, but I am under the awful power of sin, which is holding me down. It is 1, and yet not 1: alas! alas! it is myself; so closely am I bound up with it, and so closely is it intertwined with my very nature." Blessed be God when a man learns to say: "0 wretched man that I am!" from the depth of his heart. He is on the way to the eighth chapter of Romans.
There are many who make this confession a pillow for sin. They say that if Paul had to confess his weakness and helplessness in this way, who are they that they should try to do better? So the call to holiness is quietly set aside. Pray God that every one of us would learn to say these words in the very spirit in which they are written here! When we hear sin spoken of as the abominable thing that God hates, do not many of us wince before the word? If only all Christians who go on sinning and sinning would take this verse to heart.
If ever you utter a sharp word say: "0 wretched man that I am!" And every time you lose your temper, kneel down and under stand that God never meant His child to remain in this state. If only we would take this word into our daily life, and say it every time we are touched about our own honor! If only we would take it into our hearts every time we say sharp things, and every time we sin against the Lord God, and against the Lord Jesus Christ in His humility and in His obedience and in His self-sacrifice! Pray God that we could forget everything else, and cry out: "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Why should you say this whenever you commit sin? Because it is when a man is brought to this confession that deliverance is at hand. And remember, it was not only the sense of being weak and taken captive that made him wretched. It was, above all, the sense of sinning against his God. The law was doing its work, making sin exceedingly sinful in his sight. The thought of continually grieving God became utterly unbearable. It was this that brought forth the piercing cry: "0 wretched man!" As long as we talk and reason about our inability and our failure, and only try to find out what Romans, chapter seven, means, it will profit us little. But once every sin gives new intensity to the sense of wretchedness, and we feel our whole state as one of not only helplessness, but actual, exceeding sinfulness, we will be pressed not only to ask: "Who shall deliver us?" but to cry: "I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord."
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
O wretched man that I am...pt 3 by Andrew Murray
THE WEAK MAN
Here is the great mistake made by many Christian people-they think that when there is a renewed ,will, it is enough. But that is not the case. This regenerate man tells us: "I will to do what is good, but the power to perform I find not." How often people tell us that if you set yourself determinedly, you can perform what you will! But this man was as determined as any man can be, and yet he made the confession: "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not" (Romans 7:18).
But, you ask: "How is it God makes a regenerate man utter such a confession? He being with a right will, with a heart that longs to do good, and longs to do its very utmost to love God?"
Let us look at this question. What has God given us our will for? Had the angels who fell, in their own will, the strength to stand? Surely, no. The will of man is nothing but an empty vessel in which the power of God is to be made manifest. Man must seek in God all that is to be. You have it in the second chapter of the epistle to the Philippians, and you have it here also, that God's work is to work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here is a man who appears to say: "God has not worked to do in me." But we are taught that God works both to will and to do. How is the apparent contradiction to be reconciled?
You will find that in this passage (Romans 7:6-25), the name of the Holy Spirit does not occur once, nor does the name of Christ occur. The man is wrestling and struggling to fulfill God's law. Instead of the Holy Spirit and of Christ, the law is mentioned nearly twenty times. In this chapter, it shows a believer doing his very best to obey the law of God with his regenerate will. Not only this; but you will find the little words, I, me, my, occur more than forty times. It is the regenerate I in its weakness seeking to obey the law without being filled with the Spirit. This is the experience of almost every saint. After conversion, a man begins to do his best, and he fails. But if we are brought into the full light, we no longer need to fail. Nor need we fail at all if we have received the Spirit in His fullness at conversion.
God allows that failure so that the regenerate man should be taught his own utter inability. It is in the course of this struggle that the sense of our utter sinfulness comes to us. It is God's way of dealing with us. He allows man to strive to fulfill the law so that, as he strives and wrestles, he may be brought to this: "I am a regenerate child of God, but I am utterly helpless to obey His law." See what strong words are used all through the chapter to describe this condition: "I am carnal, sold under sin" (Romans 7:14); "1 see another law in my members bringing me into captivity" (Romans 7:23); and last of all, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). This believer who bows here in deep contrition is utterly unable to obey the law of God.
Here is the great mistake made by many Christian people-they think that when there is a renewed ,will, it is enough. But that is not the case. This regenerate man tells us: "I will to do what is good, but the power to perform I find not." How often people tell us that if you set yourself determinedly, you can perform what you will! But this man was as determined as any man can be, and yet he made the confession: "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not" (Romans 7:18).
But, you ask: "How is it God makes a regenerate man utter such a confession? He being with a right will, with a heart that longs to do good, and longs to do its very utmost to love God?"
Let us look at this question. What has God given us our will for? Had the angels who fell, in their own will, the strength to stand? Surely, no. The will of man is nothing but an empty vessel in which the power of God is to be made manifest. Man must seek in God all that is to be. You have it in the second chapter of the epistle to the Philippians, and you have it here also, that God's work is to work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here is a man who appears to say: "God has not worked to do in me." But we are taught that God works both to will and to do. How is the apparent contradiction to be reconciled?
You will find that in this passage (Romans 7:6-25), the name of the Holy Spirit does not occur once, nor does the name of Christ occur. The man is wrestling and struggling to fulfill God's law. Instead of the Holy Spirit and of Christ, the law is mentioned nearly twenty times. In this chapter, it shows a believer doing his very best to obey the law of God with his regenerate will. Not only this; but you will find the little words, I, me, my, occur more than forty times. It is the regenerate I in its weakness seeking to obey the law without being filled with the Spirit. This is the experience of almost every saint. After conversion, a man begins to do his best, and he fails. But if we are brought into the full light, we no longer need to fail. Nor need we fail at all if we have received the Spirit in His fullness at conversion.
God allows that failure so that the regenerate man should be taught his own utter inability. It is in the course of this struggle that the sense of our utter sinfulness comes to us. It is God's way of dealing with us. He allows man to strive to fulfill the law so that, as he strives and wrestles, he may be brought to this: "I am a regenerate child of God, but I am utterly helpless to obey His law." See what strong words are used all through the chapter to describe this condition: "I am carnal, sold under sin" (Romans 7:14); "1 see another law in my members bringing me into captivity" (Romans 7:23); and last of all, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). This believer who bows here in deep contrition is utterly unable to obey the law of God.
Monday, December 15, 2008
O wretched man that I am...pt 2 by Andrew Murray
THE REGENERATE MAN
There is much evidence of regeneration from the fourteenth verse of chapter seven on to the twenty-third verse. "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (Romans 7:17). That is the language of a regenerate man-a man who knows that his heart and nature have been renewed, and that sin is now a power in him that is not himself. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22). That again is the language of a regenerate man. He dares to say when he does evil: "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth me." It is of great importance to understand this,
In the first two great sections of the epistle, Paul deals with justification and sanctification. In dealing with justification, he lays the foundation of the doctrine in the teaching about sin. He does not speak of the singular sin, but of the plural, sins-the actual transgressions. In the second part of the fifth chapter, he begins to deal with sin, not as actual transgression, but as a power. Just imagine what a loss it would have been to us if we did not have this second half of the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans-if Paul had omitted in his teaching this vital question of the sinfulness of the believer. We should 'have missed the question we all want answered as to sin in the believer. What is the answer? The regenerate man is one in whom the will has been renewed, and who can say: "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."
There is much evidence of regeneration from the fourteenth verse of chapter seven on to the twenty-third verse. "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (Romans 7:17). That is the language of a regenerate man-a man who knows that his heart and nature have been renewed, and that sin is now a power in him that is not himself. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22). That again is the language of a regenerate man. He dares to say when he does evil: "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth me." It is of great importance to understand this,
In the first two great sections of the epistle, Paul deals with justification and sanctification. In dealing with justification, he lays the foundation of the doctrine in the teaching about sin. He does not speak of the singular sin, but of the plural, sins-the actual transgressions. In the second part of the fifth chapter, he begins to deal with sin, not as actual transgression, but as a power. Just imagine what a loss it would have been to us if we did not have this second half of the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans-if Paul had omitted in his teaching this vital question of the sinfulness of the believer. We should 'have missed the question we all want answered as to sin in the believer. What is the answer? The regenerate man is one in whom the will has been renewed, and who can say: "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."
Sunday, December 14, 2008
O wretched man that I am...Part 1 by Andrew Murray
"0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 7:24,25
You know the wonderful location that this text has in the epistle to the Romans. It stands here at the end of the seventh chapter as the gateway into the eighth. In the first sixteen verses of the eighth chapter, the name of the Holy Spirit is found sixteen times. You have there the description and promise of the life that a child of God can live in the power of the Holy Spirit. This begins in the second verse: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
From that, Paul goes on to speak of the great privileges of the child of God who is to be led by the Spirit of God. The gateway into all this is found at the end of chapter seven: "0 wretched man that I am!" There you have the words of a man who has come to the end of himself. He has in the previous verses described how he had struggled and wrestled in his own power to obey the holy law of God, and had failed. But in answer to his own questions, he now finds the true answer and cries out: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." From that he goes on to speak of what that deliverance is that he has found.
I want, from these words, to describe the path by which a man can be led out of the spirit of bondage into the spirit of liberty. You know how distinctly it is said: "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear" (Romans 8:15). We are continually warned that this is the great danger of the Christian life, to go again into bondage. I want to describe the path by which a man can get out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Rather, I want to describe the man himself.
First, these words are the language of a regenerate man; second, of a weak man; third, of a wretched man; and fourth, of a man on the border of complete liberty.
You know the wonderful location that this text has in the epistle to the Romans. It stands here at the end of the seventh chapter as the gateway into the eighth. In the first sixteen verses of the eighth chapter, the name of the Holy Spirit is found sixteen times. You have there the description and promise of the life that a child of God can live in the power of the Holy Spirit. This begins in the second verse: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
From that, Paul goes on to speak of the great privileges of the child of God who is to be led by the Spirit of God. The gateway into all this is found at the end of chapter seven: "0 wretched man that I am!" There you have the words of a man who has come to the end of himself. He has in the previous verses described how he had struggled and wrestled in his own power to obey the holy law of God, and had failed. But in answer to his own questions, he now finds the true answer and cries out: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." From that he goes on to speak of what that deliverance is that he has found.
I want, from these words, to describe the path by which a man can be led out of the spirit of bondage into the spirit of liberty. You know how distinctly it is said: "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear" (Romans 8:15). We are continually warned that this is the great danger of the Christian life, to go again into bondage. I want to describe the path by which a man can get out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Rather, I want to describe the man himself.
First, these words are the language of a regenerate man; second, of a weak man; third, of a wretched man; and fourth, of a man on the border of complete liberty.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Daily Bread
Proverbs 30:18-19 (KJV):18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.
These verses from Proverbs state that there are four things that are very wonderful, and yet, mysterious: how an eagle flies, how a serpent slithers, how a ship sails, and how a man and woman are attracted to one another. Solomon respected these observations by Agur and included them in his own book. We all wonder at times why things are the way they are. The only and final answer is that God created them to act this way. God's creation is truly amazing and we can learn many things by observing it.
First, looking at the eagle, he is an amazing bird, not only in the way he flies, but also in his other characteristics, as well. He is a bird who mounts up on wind currents to soar and fly in the heights. Storms create the best wind drafts, so he flies the best, when the winds are contrary. The Bible uses the eagle to describe "overcoming Christians," because we can also fly above any storm of life by mounting up in the presence of God.
This daily devotion was taken from Bible.com
These verses from Proverbs state that there are four things that are very wonderful, and yet, mysterious: how an eagle flies, how a serpent slithers, how a ship sails, and how a man and woman are attracted to one another. Solomon respected these observations by Agur and included them in his own book. We all wonder at times why things are the way they are. The only and final answer is that God created them to act this way. God's creation is truly amazing and we can learn many things by observing it.
First, looking at the eagle, he is an amazing bird, not only in the way he flies, but also in his other characteristics, as well. He is a bird who mounts up on wind currents to soar and fly in the heights. Storms create the best wind drafts, so he flies the best, when the winds are contrary. The Bible uses the eagle to describe "overcoming Christians," because we can also fly above any storm of life by mounting up in the presence of God.
This daily devotion was taken from Bible.com
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Today's Word
Today's WordThursday, December 11, 2008
Ignoring The Obvious
Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? May it never be. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience, resulting in righteousness? Romans 6:15-16
Obey – What is the name for a Christian who doesn’t obey the Word of God? No, it’s not “carnal.” Louis Sperry Chaffer made up that moniker about sixty years ago. The apostles had a different name for a person who claims Christ as Lord but has no outward signs of transformation. They called this person a liar! If that seems too harsh for you, it’s time for you to re-read the Scriptures. Faith without works isn’t immature or deficient. It’s dead! It’s as good as being in the grave. Paul uses another metaphor of the same thing – slavery. If you want to know the truth about someone’s claim to be a follower of the way, examine his behavior. You’ll know right away whose slave he is. It’s obvious, isn’t it?You’ll notice something else about Paul’s use of the slave metaphor. I don’t stop being a slave just because I become a Christian. Being under grace does not remove the need for obedience. I am not free to follow my own heart. Grace redeems me from the consequences of sin in order that I may become an obedient slave. Being an obedient slave doesn’t save me. God saves me. But He saves me so that I can be the obedient slave I was supposed to be. In other words, grace makes obedience possible. God doesn’t deliver me so that I can go to heaven. God delivers me so that I can be His slave.Paul’s metaphor focuses on the Greek word hypakoe. Yes, it means “to obey,” but there is something in this verb that we should notice. It comes from the root word akouo that means “to hear.” Now you can see the connection to Paul’s Hebraic background. When Paul says that we are slaves to the one we obey, he uses a word that recalls the Shema. To hear and to obey are the same word in Hebrew. What Paul suggests is that our behavior demonstrates who we are listening to. We might say what we believe, but we do what we really value, and it is in the doing that our true allegiance is shown. The apostolic writings are filled with this concept. In fact, it’s impossible to miss – if you read what the text actually says rather than ignoring what doesn’t fit the carnal Christian modification. There are no fence-sitters in the Kingdom. I am either aligned with God’s will, striving to be obedient because He has rescued me, or I am a slave to another voice. I am either listening to (and obeying) God or I am listening to (and obeying) some other master. There is no middle ground.Too often our preoccupation with entry passes at the pearly gates clouds the obvious requirement of obedience. We get confused because we know that salvation is not a matter of meritorious effort. But we forget that grace has a purpose, and it’s not catching the train out of here. Just as God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt in order that Israel might serve Him as a royal priesthood, so we are delivered from bondage in order that we might serve Him as a holy nation. That part of the plan has never changed. It’s just become more obvious over the last five thousand years.There is a fine line between grace and obedience. Effort doesn’t save us, but once saved, effort is the name of the game. You and I get to walk that fine line, maintaining our status as slaves of the Most High God by listening and obeying. We are privileged to be His. Now we get to show it.Topical Index: Slave
Printer-friendly Version
Copyright 2003-2008 © Skip Moen and AtGodsTable.com. All Rights Reserved.Articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with a link to http://www.atgodstable.com/ 2) Content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.
If you have not subscribed to "Today's Word", signup with us online at http://www.atgodstable.com
Ignoring The Obvious
Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? May it never be. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience, resulting in righteousness? Romans 6:15-16
Obey – What is the name for a Christian who doesn’t obey the Word of God? No, it’s not “carnal.” Louis Sperry Chaffer made up that moniker about sixty years ago. The apostles had a different name for a person who claims Christ as Lord but has no outward signs of transformation. They called this person a liar! If that seems too harsh for you, it’s time for you to re-read the Scriptures. Faith without works isn’t immature or deficient. It’s dead! It’s as good as being in the grave. Paul uses another metaphor of the same thing – slavery. If you want to know the truth about someone’s claim to be a follower of the way, examine his behavior. You’ll know right away whose slave he is. It’s obvious, isn’t it?You’ll notice something else about Paul’s use of the slave metaphor. I don’t stop being a slave just because I become a Christian. Being under grace does not remove the need for obedience. I am not free to follow my own heart. Grace redeems me from the consequences of sin in order that I may become an obedient slave. Being an obedient slave doesn’t save me. God saves me. But He saves me so that I can be the obedient slave I was supposed to be. In other words, grace makes obedience possible. God doesn’t deliver me so that I can go to heaven. God delivers me so that I can be His slave.Paul’s metaphor focuses on the Greek word hypakoe. Yes, it means “to obey,” but there is something in this verb that we should notice. It comes from the root word akouo that means “to hear.” Now you can see the connection to Paul’s Hebraic background. When Paul says that we are slaves to the one we obey, he uses a word that recalls the Shema. To hear and to obey are the same word in Hebrew. What Paul suggests is that our behavior demonstrates who we are listening to. We might say what we believe, but we do what we really value, and it is in the doing that our true allegiance is shown. The apostolic writings are filled with this concept. In fact, it’s impossible to miss – if you read what the text actually says rather than ignoring what doesn’t fit the carnal Christian modification. There are no fence-sitters in the Kingdom. I am either aligned with God’s will, striving to be obedient because He has rescued me, or I am a slave to another voice. I am either listening to (and obeying) God or I am listening to (and obeying) some other master. There is no middle ground.Too often our preoccupation with entry passes at the pearly gates clouds the obvious requirement of obedience. We get confused because we know that salvation is not a matter of meritorious effort. But we forget that grace has a purpose, and it’s not catching the train out of here. Just as God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt in order that Israel might serve Him as a royal priesthood, so we are delivered from bondage in order that we might serve Him as a holy nation. That part of the plan has never changed. It’s just become more obvious over the last five thousand years.There is a fine line between grace and obedience. Effort doesn’t save us, but once saved, effort is the name of the game. You and I get to walk that fine line, maintaining our status as slaves of the Most High God by listening and obeying. We are privileged to be His. Now we get to show it.Topical Index: Slave
Printer-friendly Version
Copyright 2003-2008 © Skip Moen and AtGodsTable.com. All Rights Reserved.Articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with a link to http://www.atgodstable.com/ 2) Content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.
If you have not subscribed to "Today's Word", signup with us online at http://www.atgodstable.com
Monday, December 8, 2008
Member of The Fellowship of the Unashamed
I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me – my banner will be clear.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Let It Go (by T D Jakes)
LET IT GO!Please find the time to read this. It is very powerful!Let it go for 2009...by T. D. JakesThere are people who can walk away from you.And hear me when I tell you this!When people can walk away from you: let them walk.I don't want you to try to talk another person into staying with you,loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you, stayingattached to you.I mean hang up the phone.When people can walk away from you let them walk.Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left.The bible said that,They came out from us that it might be made manifest that they werenot for us.For had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us.[1John 2:19]People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they arenot joined to you, you can't make them stay. Let them go.And it doesn't mean that they are a bad person, it just means that theirpart in the story is over. And you've got to know when people's partin your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead.You've got to know when it's dead. You've got to know when it's over.Let me tell you something. I've got the gift of good-bye. It's thetenth spiritual gift, I believe in good-bye. It's not that I'm hateful,it's that I'm faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have,He'll give it to me. And if it takes too much sweat I don't need it.Stop begging people to stay.Let them go!!If you are holding on to something that doesn't belong to you and wasnever intended for your life, then you need to ..LET IT GO!!!If you are holding on to past hurts and pains .. LET IT GO!!!If someone can't treat you right, love you back, and see your worth...LET IT GO!!!If someone has angered you ..LET IT GO!!!If you are holding on to some thoughts of evil and revenge ..LET IT GO!!!If you are involved in a wrong relationship or addiction ..LET IT GO!!!If you are holding on to a job that no longer meets your needs ortalents .. LET IT GO!!!If you have a bad attitude...LET IT GO!!!If you keep judging others to make yourself feel better...LET IT GO!!!If you're stuck in the past and God is trying to take you to a newlevel in Him...LET IT GO!!!If you are struggling with the healing of a broken relationship....LET IT GO!!!If you keep trying to help someone who won't even try to help themselves.. LET IT GO!!!If you're feeling depressed and stressed ...LET IT GO!!!If there is a particular situation that you are so used to handlingyourself and God is saying "take your hands off of it," then you needto... LET IT GO!!!Let the past be the past. Forget the former things.GOD is doing a new thing for 2009!!!LET IT GO!!!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Twas' the Night Before Jesus Came...
Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.
The children were dressing to crawl into bed
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.
When out of the East there arose such a clatter.
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!
When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!
The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.
In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "it's not here" my head hung in shame.
The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound.
While all the rest were left standing around.
I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.
In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!
-Author Unknown
-Author Unknown
Friday, December 5, 2008
Daily Bread
I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important. My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have. Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free. Today I can feel sad that I don't have more money or I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste. Today I can grumble about my health or I can rejoice that I am alive. Today I can lament over all that my parents didn't give me when I was growing up or I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born. Today I can cry because roses have thorns or I can celebrate that thorns have roses. Today I can mourn my lack of friends or I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships. Today I can whine because I have to go to work or I can shout for joy because I have a job to do. Today I can complain because I have to go to school or eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge. Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework or I can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body and soul. Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping. - Unknown
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Daily Bread
Jesus can turn water into wine, but He can't turn your whining into anything.
Do all things without murmurings and disputings. -Philippians 2:14
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God. -Phillipians 1:11
Do all things without murmurings and disputings. -Philippians 2:14
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God. -Phillipians 1:11
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Daily Bread
The Oyster
There once was an oyster Whose story I tell,
Who found that some sand Had got into his shell.
It was only a grain, but it gave him much pain,
For oysters have feelings although they're so plain.
Now, did he berate the working of fate that had brought him to such a deplorable state?
Did he curse the government , cry for election, and claim that the sea should have given him protection?
"No," he said to himself as he lay on a shelf.
Since I cannot remove it, I shall try to improve it.
Now the year rolled around, as the years always do,
and he came to his ultimate destiny, stew.
And this small grain of sand that had bothered him so, was a beautiful pearl all richly aglow.
Now this tale has a moral, for isn't it grand, what an oyster can do with a grain of sand?
What could we do, if we would begin, with some of the things that get under our skin?
He hath made everything beautiful in His time. -Ecclesiastes 3:11
He hath made everything beautiful in His time. -Ecclesiastes 3:11
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Daily Bread
That we are alive today is proof positive that God has something for us to do today.
This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
-Psalm 118:24
This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
-Psalm 118:24
Monday, December 1, 2008
Daily Bread
The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
