What it Cost to be a True Christian - Part 2

 By J. C Ryle

This also sounds hard. I do not wonder. Our sins are often as dear to us as our children: we love them, hug them, cleave to them, and delight in them. To part with them is as hard as cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye. But it must be done. The parting must come. “Though wickedness be sweet in the sinner’s mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; though he spare it, and forsake it not,” yet it must be given up, if he wishes to be saved. (Job 20:12, 13.) He and sin must quarrel, if he and God are to be friends. Christ is willing to receive any sinners. But He will not receive them if they will stick to their sins. Let us set down that item second in our account. To be a Christian it will cost a man his sins.

(3) For another thing, it will cost a man his love of ease. He must take pains and trouble, if he means to run a successful race towards heaven. He must daily watch and stand on his guard, like a soldier on enemy’s ground. He must take heed to his behaviour every hour of the day, in every company, and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imagination, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible reading, and his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace. In attending to these things he may come far short of perfection; but there is none of them that he can safely neglect. “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov. 13:4).

This also sounds hard. There is nothing we naturally dislike so much as “trouble” about our religion. We hate trouble. We secretly wish we could have a “vicarious” Christianity, and could be good by proxy, and have everything done for us. Anything that requires exertion and labour is entirely against the grain of our hearts. But the soul can have “no gains without pains.” Let us set down that item third in our account. To be a Christian it will cost a man his love of ease.

(4) In the last place, it will cost a man the favour of the world. He must be content to be thought ill of by man if he pleases God. He must count it no strange thing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted, and even hated. He must not be surprised to find his opinions and practices in religion despised and held up to scorn. He must submit to be thought by many a fool, an enthusiast, and a fanatic — to have his words perverted and his actions misrepresented. In fact, he must not marvel if some call him mad. The Master says — “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20).

I dare say this also sounds hard. We naturally dislike unjust dealing and false charges, and think it very hard to be accused without cause. We should not be flesh and blood if we did not wish to have the good opinion of our neighbours. It is always unpleasant to be spoken against, and forsaken, and lied about, and to stand alone. But there is no help for it. The cup which our Master drank must be drunk by His disciples. They must be “despised and rejected of men” (Isa. 53:3). Let us set down that item last in our account. To be a Christian it will cost a man the favour of the world.

Such is the account of what it costs to be a true Christian. I grant the list is a heavy one. But where is the item that could be removed? Bold indeed must that man be who would dare to say that we may keep our self-righteousness, our sins, our laziness, and our love of the world, and yet be saved!

I grant it costs much to be a true Christian. But who in his sound senses can doubt that it is worth any cost to have the soul saved? When the ship is in danger of sinking, the crew think nothing of casting overboard the precious cargo. When a limb is mortified, a man will submit to any severe operation, and even to amputation, to save life. Surely a Christian should be willing to give up anything which stands between him and heaven. A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing! A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown.

The Ministry Of The Inner Life - Part 1

Yesterday’s post (June 20) was done in preparation for today’s post. The reason being that in both Devotionals (June 20 & June 21) Oswald Chambers is talking about the inner life.

There was a time, reading about these things especially June 20^th devotional, if I want to be honest, I have to say they used to get on my nerves.  For instance, when you read the June 20 devotional, I used to feel the author was all over the place a little bit. Now I know,  all that Oswald Chambers is talking about is related to the ministry of the inner life. The ministry of the inner life is the whole of Christianity, it is where life resides, it is where we commune with Him, it is where we live and walk. It is proof of your Salvation because it differentiates you and me from the other religions out there which all, offer some sort of spirituality kind of thing. So, the inner life where our spirit and God’s spirit intersects, it is indeed “true Christianity.”

I used to be scared of the inner life simply because I started my walk with God when I was part of a conservative Baptist Church and they wanted to have nothing to do with God’s manifestation in us Christians. It was so bad that, after I was filled with the Holy Spirit, which is such a memorable day for me, during Church services, my worship time would be so filled with the Spirit that I would be trembling and trying very hard to control myself. It got so bad that I prayed for the Holy Spirit not to meet me there or perhaps to ease up a bit. “This is truly sad isn't? ” I remember after I prayed the Holy Spirit to stop meeting me in the Church, the only answer that I received was something like “you silly goose, the power you are feeling has nothing to do with the Church but it is in you, you bring me there with you”.  Now, you cannot read this statement without seeing  how stupid and ignorant I used to be. Most of my ignorance was due to the fact that I was walking a walk where I had no mentor, and no one to share those things with. Someone who would have been there already with Him and knew exactly what I was experiencing.  Worse, I never heard a sermon about how the spiritual growth works and what it was about. Over time I learned from the Holy Spirit, yes, this is a lonely path, but you are not alone my child.   

Sadly, the Church leadership was scared of any kind of spiritual manifestation coming from the flock, because way too many so called Christians out there have been using the Spirit’s manifestation fraudulently. From faking speaking in tongues to faking healing others, faking the gift of the spirit to the point we ascribe titles to ourselves without being consecrated by Him. And if you have been watching television you know the list goes on as people are caught up into doing things to feed their ego and to some, their wallets too.  As I walked in the Spirit, He took my fear away. 

He taught me while the leaders of my Church are right in their assessment that most Christians out there are abusing what they think is the power of the Holy Spirit, but those leaders are equally wrong to let themselves be led by the spirit of fear to the point where everyone in the Church is affected by that mentality. He taught me, that as long as one walk in the Spirit, one has nothing to fear of the manifestation of the Spirit, simply because He is in charge of one’s life. After all, if you have the true Spirit at work in you, then you have the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of discernment, and the Spirit of light who is stronger than the spirit of darkness, why then should I fear? What the leaders did not know, if they themselves walked in the Spirit, there should not have been any reason to be scared of the Spirit's manifestation in other people, because the Holy Spirit would have taught them who is real and who was not.  After all, it is His job.

The ministry of the inner life will be your biggest ministry as you walk the Christian path. Because it is alive, and it is literally larger than life, it does not die and it does not get old, and keep rejuvenating on a daily basis. It swallows up the self, it takes charge of you, it fellowships with God in a way that makes you want to go see Him directly and be done with this life on earth. The inner life is the life, that the life of Christ living in you is constantly working on. It is the regenerated you, it is Christ being formed in you as He keeps growing bigger than the container you are. (Galatians 4:19.)

Even though sometimes we do not feel that we are making any advancement in our spiritual life, yet if God shows you amazingly how He is feeding, His life to your own inner life, you never doubt for a moment that you are growing constantly. The feeding of a baby in the womb of a mother is not felt, yet the child is being fed and strengthens daily, moment by moment. This inner life is so big, that we could live hundreds of years, while we grow every day, yet God would still have a lot to do within us. Because, the inner life is the life that He is conforming to His and since there is an unreachable vastness between Him and us, there will always be work to do. It is the reality of your redemption which is the true Gospel of God. It is a life that goes beyond common sense and reason. It is a life of faith and trust where the Word of God, along with the Holy Spirit found no limitation in the host, to move freely and work within. It is the holy life we are called to live out, and it is also about being prepared for eternity. Brothers and sisters the only end to our preparation for heaven and the only end to our spiritual growth is in our mind and the limitation of what we are willing to receive from Him.

On a side note, I know some of you will not feel comfortable with the fact that I said there is an unreachable vastness between Him and us. It is good that you believe the cross of Christ bridges the gap, and I agree wholeheartedly because only His blood can washes us clean, but that’s not the same thing as the vastness between us and Him that I am referring to.  One learns about the vastness that separates us and Him and will always separate us and Him even when we are in heaven, by going forward with Him while putting no restrictions on the Holy Spirit. I learned about the vastness that separated me from Him, the hard way and by then I was exhausted in the wilderness. As you grow with Christ, you get to that stage where there is a oneness with the triune God, but God the Father has become so big in your life that you can literally see it with the eyes of your heart, which is also the ministry of the inner life. He becomes so big in your life that you can see why the universe is way too small to contain Him.  Only then you can understand why He holds the universe in His hand and it is no longer something you say. 

As you cultivate your oneness with Him, He does not take that knowledge and picture away from you. He is holier than your mind can imagine, and His love is not only as big and mysterious as an abyss, but, the intensity alone is suffocating that you cannot remain there for ten seconds, in human time. One thing for sure, as one learns to see God in His majesty, one learns to heed to Paul’s word in Philippians 3:10-18. Once you can see Him with the eyes of your heart, the magnitude of this being who, by His grace has chosen to bring us into a relationship with Him, you give up your idea of what a saint should look like and take on God’s standards because you realize that your idea is totally irrelevant to God’s.  I could go on and on and on. But, I hope this explains what I mean by the vastness between Him and us. 

The Outer and Inner Life

The Outer and Inner Life

By J. R. Miller, 1895

In every man there are two men. There is an outer man that people can see; there is an inner man that no human eye can see. The outer man may be hurt, wounded, marred, and even destroyed, while the inner man remains an untouched, unharmed, and immortal. Paul puts it thus: "Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day." He is referring to his own sufferings as a Christian. His body was hurt by scourgings, by stonings, by exposure. It was worn by toil, and by endurance of hunger, of hardship. But these things which scarred his body, leaving marks upon it, making it prematurely old—had no effect on the inner man. His real life was not wounded by persecution. It even grew in strength and beauty as the outer man decayed.

There is quenchless life within our decaying life. The beating heart, the breathing lungs, the wonderful mechanism of the body—do not make up the real life. There is something in us which thinks, feels, imagines, wills, chooses, and loves. The poet lies dead. His hand will write no more. But it was not the poet's body that gave to the world the wonderful thoughts which have so wrought themselves into the world's life. The hand now folded shaped the lines—but the marvelous power which inspired the thoughts in the lines was not in the hand. The hand will soon moulder in the dust—but the poet is immortal. The outward man has perished; but the inner life is beyond the reach of decay, safe in its immortality.

The inner spiritual life of a Christian is not subject to the changes which come upon his outer life. The body suffers; but if one is living in fellowship with Christ, one's spiritual life is untouched by physical sufferings. The normal Christian life is one of constant, unchecked, uninterrupted progress. Unkindly conditions do not stunt it. Misfortunes do not mar it.

The inner growth of a Christian should be continuous. The renewal is said to be "day by day." No day should be without its line. We should count that day lost, which records no victory over some fault or secret sin, no new gain in self discipline, in the culture of some virtue, no enlargement of the power of serving, no added feature of likeness to the Master. "The inward man is renewed day by day."

This does not mean that all days are alike in their gain. There are special dates in every spiritual history which are memorable forever for their special advance—days when decisive battles are fought, when faults are discovered and conquered, when new visions of Christ are granted, when the heart receives a new accession of divine life, when one is led into a new field of service, when a new friend comes into the life, when one takes new responsibilities, or enters into new relations.

Then there are days in every life, when there would seem to be no spiritual advancement. We all have our discouraged days. We have days which are stained by folly, marred by mistakes, blurred and blotted by sin; and these seem to be lost days. There are days when we appear to fail in duty or in self-control, or in struggle with temptation. The inner man would appear to be crippled and hurt in such experiences as these; and the days would seem to be idle and useless, without profit or progress. We come to the evening with sad confessions of failure, and with painful regret and disheartenment. But even such times as these are really gaining times, if we are living near the heart of Christ. We are at least learning our own weakness and frailty, the folly of self-dependence, the feebleness of our own best resolves. Often times our defeats prove our greatest blessings. No doubt many of our richest gains are made on the very days on which we weep most sorely over our mistakes and failures.

Then there are days that are broken by sorrow. The lights go out in our sky, and leave us in darkness. The friends of many years are taken away from us. Prosperity is turned to adversity. Misfortune touches our interests. Our circumstances become painful. Is not the growth of the inner life interrupted by such experiences? Not if we are truly abiding in Christ, and receiving from him the grace he has to give. No doubt many of the best, the divinest blessings of spiritual life come to us on just such days. The photographer takes his sensitive plate into a dark place to develop his picture. Sunlight would mar it. God often draws the curtain upon us—and in the darkness brings out some rare beauty in our life, some delicate feature of his own loveliness.

The teaching of the Scripture is that, whatever the experience of the outer life, the growth and enrichment of the inner life should never be interrupted or hindered. This is the divine purpose for us. Provision is made in the grace of God for this continuous work. We need never be harmed by anything which breaks into our life. Indeed, there is nothing which touches us in any way that may not be made to minister good to us. Woundings of the outer life—may become pearls in the soul. Losses of earthly things may become gains in the spiritual realm. Sickness of the body, may result in new health and increased vigour in the inner man. It is the privilege and the duty of the child of God—to move upward and forward day by day, whatever the day's experience may be.

This is the meaning of the promises of peace which are found so frequently in the Bible. We have no assurance of a life without strife, trial, trouble, earthly pain, and loss; but we are assured that we may have unbroken peace within, while the outer life is thus beset. "In the world you shall have tribulation." "In Me you shall have peace." The blessing of such a life in this world is incalculable. It becomes a source of strength, of shelter, of comfort, of hope, to many other lives.

We can be truest and best blessings to others only when we live victoriously ourselves. We owe it therefore to the needy, sorrowing, tempted world about us, to keep our inner life calm, quiet, strong, restful, and full of sweet love, in whatever outer turbulence of trial or opposition we must live. The only secret is to abide in Christ.

The lesson has a special application to sickness. Sickness is common. Not always does it prove a means of grace. There are some who are not spiritually benefited by it. Yet it is the duty and the privilege of every Christian so to meet the experience of illness or invalidism as ever to grow in it into Christlier character. The secret is a living faith in Christ. Restlessness or distrust will mar the divine work that Christ would do in the heart; but quiet submission to the will of God and peaceful waiting for him will ensure continual renewal of the inner life, even while the outer life is being consumed.

It is well, therefore, that those who are called to endure sickness should learn well how to relate themselves to it, so as not to be harmed by it. Sickness is discouraging. It is not easy for one with life broken, unable longer to run the race with the swift, to keep his spirit glad, cheerful, and wholesome. It is hard not to be able to do the heroic things which the unquenched spirit longs to do. Life seems now to be useless. They appear lost days, in which no worthy service can be done for Christ.

Too often those who are called to invalidism lose out of their heart the hope, the enthusiasm, the zest of living—and become depressed, unhappy, sometimes almost despairing. But this is to fail in true and noble living. When we cannot change our conditions, we must conquer them through the help of Christ. If we are sick, we would better not fret nor chafe. Thereby we shall only make our illness worse, retarding our recovery, while at the same time we shall mar the work of grace going on in our inner life. The captive bird that sits on its perch and sings, is wiser than the bird that flies against the wires of the cage, and tries to get out, only bruising its wings in its unavailing efforts. The sick-room may be made a holy of holies instead of a prison. Then it will be a place of blessing.

The lesson has its application, also, for those who are growing old. Old age ought to be the most beautiful period of a good life. Yet it is not always so. There are elements in the experience of old age which make it hard to keep the inner life ever in a state of renewal. The bodily powers are decaying. The senses are growing dull. It is lonely. There is in memory a record of empty cribs and vacant chairs, of sacred mounds in the cemetery. The work of life has dropped from the hands. It is not easy to keep the joy of living in the heart, in such experiences. Yet that is the problem of true Christian living.

While the outward man decays, the inward man should be renewed day by day. This is possible, too, as many Christian old people have proved. Keeping near the heart of Christ is again, as always, the secret. Faith gives a new meaning to life. It is seen no more in its relation to earth and what is gone—but in its relation to immortality and what is to come. The Christian old man's best days are not behind him—but always before him. He is walking, not toward the end—but toward the beginning. The dissolving of the earthly tabernacle is a pledge that the house not made with hands is almost ready.

The lesson has its application also for death. That seems to be the utter destruction of the outer man. The body returns to the dust whence it came. What of the inner life? It only escapes from the walls and fetters which have confined it on the earth. It is as when one tears a bird's cage apart, and the bird, set free, flies away into the heavens. Death is not misfortune; it is not the breaking up of life; it is growth, development, the passing into a larger phase of life. We need death for life's completing.

"Death is the crown of life;
Were death denied, poor man would live in vain;
Were death denied, to live would not be life;
Were death denied, e'en fools would wish to die.
Death wounds to cure; we fall; we rise; we reign;
Spring from our fetters; hasten to the skies,
Where blooming Eden withers in our sight.
Death gives us more than was in Eden lost;
This king of terrors—is the prince of peace."

As I was reading this Spurgeon piece, so much came to mind and really I do not want to say too much. I would rather let the words of such a godly man penetrate your heart and let you ponder on them.

This college that Spurgeon referred to, some godly Christian writers call it a University. But whether it is University or College they are all one in the same. The goal is to study and be trained by Him, at His feet so that He can knock religion out of you as you become spiritually real.

As you lay down your life, you find out He takes you on as His pupil and you are shedding this life that you used to know, layer by layer. Anyone who has become spiritually real in Him knows the pain of this process too well. So many great men of the Bible have been to this University. Men like David, Paul, Joseph, Moses and so many more we have before us as examples. But, because I bought into this saying in the Church “God prepares us according to the plan He has in mind for each one of us” Christians just love throwing those words around without understanding what they truly means to God. Sadly, I found the moment you tell someone about spiritual growth and if they know they are not there, especially when they have been calling themselves Christian for a while, they tend to find shelter through those words.

So, even when God took me to the wilderness, I did not expect it to be as intense, painful and long as it has been because I knew “I was nothing” and God’s plan for me is way too small to go through what these people have been through. So, when this harsh reality of His University training came to my door steps, I painfully accepted it and I was truly thinking, since He took me to this harsh path, He must have a big ministry in mind for me. To my surprise, this path where He strips you off of all those layers and brings you to ruin inwardly to rebuild you has nothing to do with anything specific to one person. It is just the beginning of a process to rebuild you and put you back to the way you should have been to begin with, if Adam and Eve did not sin.

The making of the holy man or woman He wants you to be, the making of that being in a close relationship with Him as you walk with Him like a friend, is no less painful than  those men who walked the path before us. Sure He customizes it a little bit. Like David needed to learn to be skilful in battles and leadership to become the King. Moses needed to know the back of the wilderness really well to lead His people, and he also needed time to shed those egotistical years he spent as the Pharaoh’s son, so his training lasted forty years before God calls him to Himself. But shedding the self-life to become holy and start this life that Adam and Eve shared with Him before their sin, is for all of us. It is a training that prepares us for so much that I would need several posts to talk about them. Nevertheless, once you go through this training, you understand fully well what the Scriptures tell us in 1 John 3:6. It is also a training where once you go through it, you can see how easy it is for Him to work out the sermon of the mount within you.

Suffice to say, when God takes you to this path, you find yourself saying over and over again “oh! This is what you meant?”  It never gets old. That’s when you understand  and you feel like a fool for having tried to work out those little bits and pieces that we set out to throw together to make up our own idea of Christianity, have nothing to do with His plans, if only we would let Him show us and teach us.  I need to stop there because this post is about showcasing the words of Spurgeon. 

Spurgeon In "The College OF Christ"

"Then He opened their understanding—that they might understand the Scriptures." Luke 24:45

Many teachers can bring the Scriptures to the mind—but the Lord alone can prepare the mind to receive the Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus differs from all other teachers; they reach the ear—but He instructs the heart; they deal with the outward letter—but He imparts an inward taste for the truth, by which we perceive its savor and spirit. The most unlearned of men—become ripe scholars in the school of grace—when the Lord Jesus by His Holy Spirit unfolds the mysteries of the kingdom to them, and grants the divine anointing by which they are enabled to behold the invisible!

Happy are we if we have had our understandings cleared and strengthened by the Master! How many men of profound learning—are ignorant of eternal things! They have a veil upon their hearts which the eyes of carnal reason cannot penetrate.

Such was our case a little time ago; we who now see—were once utterly blind! Truth was to us—as beauty in the dark, a thing unnoticed and neglected. Had it not been for the love of Jesus—we would have remained to this moment in utter ignorance—for without His gracious opening of our understanding, we could no more have attained to spiritual knowledge than an infant can climb the Pyramids, or an ostrich fly up to the stars!

The College of Christ is the only one in which God's truth can be really learned. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus, and by earnest prayer call in His blessed aid that our dull wits may grow brighter, and our feeble understandings may receive Heavenly things.

Some useful Quotes:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer    "Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer   "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

 Meaning of a Believer: “A believer is someone who responds by accepting this relationship and binding him/herself to Jesus Christ. In practice this means a voluntary surrender of life to Jesus Christ; it is to completely sacrifice your life to the One who has offered Himself” 

A Call To Prayer

by J. C. Ryle
"Men ought always to pray." Luke 18:1 

"I will that men pray everywhere." 1 Timothy 2:1 

These words are from J. C. Ryle so they are not mine. However I used his words because I could not say them better. The practice of prayers that he penned there, I apply them in my life on a daily basis. Is it easy? Not at all. In fact it is a daily striving to constantly be in prayer. But, I know one thing for sure is that if we do not force ourselves to pray and learn to intercede, we are in major trouble and if Christ felt the need to pray without ceasing, I think we need it more.  While those words belong to Ryle, I mean them with all the Agape love that I feel for you in my heart.

Learn to pray everywhere, even in the bathroom, during bath time, while I wash my face, while in the car, while shopping, walking etc. All it takes is a few seconds to talk to God. You purposely turn your face to Him constantly and daily. This doe not mean you need to neglect your morning quiet time with Him though. But, daily you put into practice what you find in this post, I promise you before you know it, you will become a prayer warrior.

I love you all and I am grateful He found us, so let’s pray for those in darkness and bondage as a way to say thank you to our big, merciful, loving and generous God. Let’s not horde Salvation all to ourselves and understand that a lot are in darkness because Satan has them in its grasps. Let’s help them through our prayers.

Let me speak TO THOSE WHO HAVE REAL DESIRES FOR SALVATION, but know not what steps to take, or where to begin.

I cannot but hope that some readers may be in this state of mind, and if there be but one such I must offer them affectionate counsel.

In a journey there must be a first step. There must be a change from sitting to moving forward…….If you desire salvation, and want to know what to do, I advise you to go this very day to the Lord Jesus Christ, in the first private place you can find, and earnestly and heartily entreat him in prayer to save your soul.

Tell him that you have heard that he receives sinners, and he has said, "Him that comes unto me I will in nowise cast out." Tell him that you are a poor vile sinner, and that you come to him on the faith of his own invitation. Tell him you put yourself wholly and entirely in his hands: that you feel vile and helpless, and hopeless in yourself: and that except he saves you, you have no hope of being saved at all. Beseech him to deliver you from guilt, the power, and the consequences of sin. Beseech him to pardon you, and wash you in his own blood. Beseech him to give you a new heart, and plant the Holy Spirit in your soul. Beseech him to give you grace and faith and will and power to be his disciple and servant from this day forever. Oh, readers, go this very day, and tell these things to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are really in earnest about your soul.

Tell him in your own way, and your own words. If a doctor came to see you when you were sick you could tell him where you felt pain. If your soul feels its disease indeed, you can surely find something to tell Christ. Doubt not his willingness to save you, because you are a sinner. It is Christ's office to save sinners. He says himself, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luke 5:32.

Wait not because you fell unworthy. Wait for nothing. Wait for nobody. Waiting comes from the devil. Just as you are, go to Christ. The worse you are, the more need you have to apply to him. You will never mend yourself by staying away.

Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you. Just as a mother understands the first lispings of her infant, so does the blessed Savior understand sinners. He can read a sigh, and see a meaning in a groan.

Despair not because you do not get an answer immediately. While you are speaking, Jesus is listening. If he delays an answer, it is only for wise reasons, and to try if you are in earnest. The answer will surely come. Though it tarry, wait for it. It will surely come.

Oh, reader, if you have any desire to be saved, remember the advice I have given to you this day. Act upon it honestly and heartily, and you shall be saved.


Let me speak, lastly, TO THOSE WHO DO PRAY.

I trust that some who read this tract know well what prayer is, and have the Spirit of adoption. To all such, I offer a few words of brotherly counsel and exhortation. The incense offered in the tabernacle was ordered to be made in a particular way. Not every kind of incense would do. Let us remember this, and be careful about the matter and manner of our prayers.

I commend to you the importance of perseverance in prayer. Once having begun the habit, never give it up. Your heart will sometimes say, "You will have had family prayers: what mighty harm if you leave private prayer undone?" Your body will sometimes say, "You are unwell, or sleepy, or weary; you need not pray." Your mind will sometimes say, "You have important business to attend to to-day; cut short your prayers." Look on all such suggestions as coming direct from Satan. They are all as good as saying, "Neglect your soul." I do not maintain that prayers should always be of the same length; but I do say, let no excuse make you give up prayer. Paul said, "Continue in prayer and, "Pray without ceasing."

He did not mean that people should be always on their knees, but he did mean that our prayers should be like the continual burned-offering steadily preserved in every day; that it should be like seed-time and harvest, and summer and winter, unceasingly coming round at regular seasons; that it should be like the fire on the altar, not always consuming sacrifices, but never completely going out. Never forget that you may tie together morning and evening devotions, by an endless chain of short ejaculatory prayers throughout the day. Even in company, or business, or in the very streets, you may be silently sending up little winged messengers to God, as Nehemiah did in the very presence of Artaxerxes. And never think that time is wasted which is given to God. A nation does not become poorer because it looses one year of working days in seven, by keeping the Sabbath. A Christian never finds he is a loser, in the long run, by persevering in prayer.

 I commend to you the importance of intercession in our prayers. We are all selfish by nature, and our selfishness is very apt to stick to us, even when we are converted. There is a tendency in us to think only of our own souls, our own spiritual conflicts, our own progress in religion, and to forget others. Against this tendency we all have need to watch and strive, and not the least in our prayers. We should study to be of a public spirit. We should stir ourselves up to name other names besides our own before the throne of grace. We should try to bear in our hearts the whole world, the heathen, the Jews, the Roman Catholics, the body of true believers, the professing Protestant churches, the country in which we live, the congregation to which we belong, the household in which we sojourn, the friends and relations we are connected with. For each and all of these we should plead. This is the highest charity. They love me best who loves me in their prayers. This is for our soul's health. It enlarges our sympathies and expands our hearts. This is for the benefit of the church. The wheels of all machinery for extending the gospel are moved by prayer. They do as much for the Lord's cause who intercede like Moses on the mount, as they who fight like Joshua in the thick of the battle. This is to be like Christ. He bears the names of his people, as their High Priest, before the Father. Oh, the privilege of being like Jesus! This is to be a true helper to ministers. If I must choose a congregation, give me a people that pray.

I offer these points for your private consideration. I do it in all humility. I know no one who needs to be reminded of them more than I do myself. But I believe them to be God's own truth, and I desire myself and all I love to feel them more.

I want the times we live in to be praying times. I want the Christians of our day to be praying Christians. I want the church to be a praying church. My Heart's desire and prayer in sending forth this tract is to promote a spirit of prayerfulness. I want those who never prayed yet, to arise and call upon God, and I want those who do pray, to see that they are not praying amiss

Complete & Effective Dominion

I had no intention of touching Oswald Chambers subject this morning. But during my time with God, the Holy Spirit had decided otherwise. I found myself learning through Oswald Chambers and the Holy Spirit something that I did not realize at the time I wrote my book “Apprehended & Apprehending”.

When I wrote my book “Apprehended & Apprehending” which by the way is not for people who are interested in sampling Christianity but rather for those truly yearning to know Him personally, those who already know Him personally and those who have reached the stage in their Christian walk with Him that Oswald talked in his devotional of April 11 & 12. Otherwise, the book would be meaningless to you.  By the time I had written the book, I had experienced that true Salvation will always lead us to find the “Pearl of Great Price” which to my surprise I found is God the Father. Believe me every bit of this verse is true and it is so GRAND that when you find the pearl of great price in Matthew 13:46 your life will never, ever be the same again. And whether we like it or not shoddy Christianity is left behind and you can only go forward with the Father.  “Who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”   

In my book, my writing was based on what the triune God taught me and my experiences of it though Him. This is one of the beautiful things about learning directly from God. I was taught what Oswald Chambers teach today in his devotional where he used Romans 6:9-11.  In my book I used the same analogy but I learned it from Philippians 3 as God set out to impart to me what He meant through Paul in verses 10-12. 

I don’t know about you but I am excited as I see the beauty of God’s Word and how everything stands by itself yet everything is intertwined together. Oswald said today that eternal life is not a gift from God but it is THE GIFT OF GOD. My dear friends, it is about possessing God Himself, that’s what Oswald means. While it is true eternal life is a gift from God but the gift is HIM.  You see, when you make the decision to leave it all behind, meaning intellect, pride, sin, knowledge, understanding etc and go forward with God to find out what those annoying people keep going on about, as if they know God better than the average Christian, you find God the Father, in the process. (Actually to a certain extend it is the story of the great C.S Lewis)

It is only when you find God the Father, you realize the goal of Salvation, the whole idea behind Salvation which God showed me is as big as the ocean, is in effect about finding God the Father. He is the endless gift behind it all.  Oh I wish you could see the beauty of it all with the eyes of your heart. I wish you could go on to experience the depth, the length, the strength, the width and so on, that is involved in finding the Father.  Make no mistake, I did not find Him when I was standing by myself under the law, and doing my things apart from Christ. He revealed Himself to me while I was inside of Christ. Understand what I am saying, we were both, inside of Christ. I found out He was always there all along, but could not reveal Himself to me until I was ready, because as much as it is a friendship and relationship with our father, it is also a process. This process it is the reason Oswald Chambers is pleading with us in his devotional to go forward apprehending what Christ had apprehended us for. The strange thing is, once you apprehend the reason why Christ apprehended us for which means possessing God the father, you are driven by that ambition to apprehend more and more of Him. It is so strange, you find that you can never get too much of Him and you cannot be quenched.

In my book I explained how the life that is in Christ is imparted to us. It is as if God is changing your very own DNA with His life. He feeds it to you slowly as if you were an infant in the mother’s womb, Christ becomes the mother here. I still find it mind boggling the idea of me being in Christ, Christ being in me, Christ being in God and God being in Christ. While in my walk with Him I have experienced it, but it still gives me a headache to think about it. I cannot wait for God to take away the limitation when I die so that my little pea brain does not explode with this beautiful truth.

While we sit there like a dog with a bone claiming one or two verses here and there to stand our ground and make excuses not to go forward, if we only bothered going forward, God would show us that all those things we tend to think are made up by other people to rock the boat, and our enjoyment of complacency. We would learn the depth of certain verses that escape us in the Bible. What I mean by that, some people would say, well, we do not need that and it is apostasy. This is why we have to test the spirits. We do not gobble up everything people say because we like them, or that they look good, or perhaps they agree with our idea of Salvation which keeps us in complacency with God to begin with.  If we do that, we are no better than unbelievers trying to decipher the Bible to make fun of us and show how stupid we are and how bad our God is. When we do not test the spirits first through the Holy Spirit, we are nothing less than fools. We give Satan’s ammunitions and he tightens up the chain that keeps us in bondage and in ignorance of the true God.

What Oswald wrote today, in the same way I concluded in my book that we need to go forward to claim the life we have in Him we can find one instance in the Bible where Paul said the same thing as well. Galatians 4:19 expressed so nicely why Paul was suffering like a pregnant woman about to give birth. He knew they were missing a big component which was needed. Hence “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,” this is a beautiful verse pregnant with meaning directly related to our eternal life. You are free to see this verse as the word of God and admit and commit to it. Or, you are free to see it as Satan wants you to. The choice is yours. Be forewarned that choosing Satan’s side by minimizing the meaning of this verse does not change God’s truth and does not let you and I off the hook.

Matthew Henry’s commentary is my favourite. Here is what he said about it 4:19, 20 “The Galatians were ready to account the apostle their enemy, but he assures them he was their friend; he had the feelings of a parent toward them. He was in doubt as to their state, and was anxious to know the result of their present delusions. Nothing is so sure a proof that a sinner has passed into a state of justification, as Christ being formed in him by the renewal of the Holy Spirit; but this cannot be hoped for, while men depend on the law for acceptance with God. The truth is every single time we walk without Him,  provide explanations and decipher the Bible on our own apart from the Holy Spirit, all we do is put ourselves right back under the law.

The beauty of all this captivates me so much that I could go on deciphering Oswald’s devotional because I lived it all out with Him in the wilderness. But, I want to make something clear. My comparing myself with the same deductions that I came up with Oswald has nothing to do with me thinking that I am close to walk in Oswald’s shoes. On the contrary, one of the reasons I got excited is because I can see that God can teach me in the smallest and the biggest things. I got excited because I learned something new today through the devotion and I am happy because I am learning from the same God who taught Oswald His Word. I am well aware that I have a long way to go and one will never arrive in this life.

The Doctrine Of Repentance - Part 7

By Thomas Watson, 1668

 

The Nature of true repentance

Ingredient 4. SHAME for Sin

The fourth ingredient in repentance is shame: "that they may be ashamed of their iniquities" (Ezek. 43:10). Blushing is the color of virtue. When the heart has been made black with sin, grace makes the face red with blushing: "I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face" (Ezra 9:6). The repenting prodigal was so ashamed of his sinfulness, that he thought himself not worthy to be called a son any more (Luke 15:21). Repentance causes a holy bashfulness. If Christ's blood were not at the sinner's heart, there would not so much blood come in the face. There are nine considerations about sin which may cause shame:

(1) Every sin makes us guilty, and guilt usually breeds shame. Adam never blushed in the time of innocency. While he kept the whiteness of the lily, he had not the blushing of the rose. But when he had deflowered his soul by sin—then he was ashamed. Sin has tainted our blood. We are guilty of high treason against the Crown of heaven. This may cause a holy modesty and blushing.

(2) In every sin there is much unthankfulness, and that is a matter of shame. He who is upbraided with ingratitude will blush. We have sinned against God when he has given us no cause: "What iniquity have your fathers found in me?" (Jer. 2:5). Wherein has God wearied us, unless his mercies have wearied us? Oh the silver drops which have fallen on us! We have had the finest of the wheat; we have been fed with angels' food. The golden oil of divine blessing has run down on us from the head of our heavenly Aaron. And to abuse the kindness of so good a God—how may this make us ashamed!

Julius Caesar took it unkindly at the hands of Brutus, on whom he had bestowed so many favors, when he came to stab him: "What, you, my son Brutus?" O ungrateful—to be theworse for mercy! One reports of the vulture, that it draws sickness from perfumes. To contract the disease of pride and luxury, from the perfume of God's mercy—how unworthy is that! It is to requite evil for good, to kick against our feeder, "He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape. Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation" (Deut. 32:13-15). This is to make an arrow of God's mercies—and shoot at him! This is to wound him with his own blessing! O horrid ingratitude! Will not this dye our faces a deep scarlet? Unthankfulness is a sin so great, that God himself stands amazed at it: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: I have nourished and brought up children—and they have rebelled against me!" (Isaiah 1:2).

(3) Sin has made us naked, and that may breed shame. Sin has stripped us of our white linen of holiness. It has made us naked and deformed in God's eye—which may cause blushing. When Hanun had abused David's servants and cut off their garments so that their nakedness appeared, the text says, "the men were greatly ashamed" (2 Sam. 10:5).

(4) Our sins have put Christ to shame, and should not we be ashamed? The Jews arrayed him in purple; they put a reed in his hand, spit in his face, and in his greatest agonies reviled him. Here was "the shame of the cross". And that which aggravated the shame, was to consider the eminency of his person—as he was the Lamb of God. Did our sins putChrist to shame—and shall they not put us to shame? Did he wear the purple—and shall not our cheeks wear crimson? Who can behold the sun as it were blushing at Christ's passion, and hiding itself in an eclipse—and his face not blush?

(5) Many sins which we commit are by the special instigation of the devil—and should not this cause shame? The devil put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ (John 13:2). He filled Ananias' heart to lie (Acts 5:3). He often stirs up our passions (James 3:6). Now, as it is a shame to bring forth a child illegitimately, so too is it to bring forth such sins as may call the devil father. It is said that the virgin Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35)—but we often conceive by the power of Satan. When the heart conceives pride, lust, and malice—it is very often by the power of the devil. May not this make us ashamed to think that many of our sins are committed in copulation with the old serpent?

(6) Sin turns men into beasts (2 Peter 2:12), and is not that matter for shame? Sinners are compared to foxes (Luke 13:32), to wolves (Matt. 7:15), to donkeys (Job 28 11:12), to swine (2 Pet. 2:22). A sinner is a swine with a man's head. He who was once little less than the angels in dignity—has now become like the beasts. Grace in this life does not wholly obliterate this brutish temper. Agur, that good man, cried out, "surely I am more brutish than any!" (Proverbs 30:2). But common sinners are in a manner wholly brutified; they do not act rationally, but are carried away by the violence of their lusts and passions. How may this make us ashamed, who are thus degenerated below our own species? Our sins have taken away that noble, holy spirit which once we had. The crown has fallen from our head. God's image is defaced, reason is eclipsed, conscience stupified! We have more in us of the brute, than of the angel.

Christian Progress - Part 7

John A James, 1853

2. Distress is sometimes felt in consequence of mistaking a clearer view and deeper sense of depravity, for an actual increase of sin. This is by no means an uncommon case. The young Christian seems sometimes to himself to be growing worse, when in fact it is only that he sees more clearly what in fact he really is. In the early stages of true religion we have usually but a slender acquaintance with the evil of our sin or the depravity of our heart. The mind is so much taken up with pardon and eternal life, and even, indeed, with the transition from death to life, that it is but imperfectly acquainted with those depths of deceit and wickedness which lie hidden in itself. And the young convert is almost surprised to hear older and more experienced Christians talk of the corruptions of their nature. It is almost one of the first things one would suppose they would feel, yet it is one of the last they effectually learn, that true religion is a constant conflict in man's heart—between sin and holiness.


At first they seem to feel as if the serpent were killed—but they soon find that he was only asleep—for by the warmth of some fiery temptation, he is revived and hisses at them again, so as to require renewed blows for his destruction. Nothing astonishes an inexperienced believer more than the discoveries he is continually making of the evils of his heart. Corruptions which he never dreamt to be in him, are brought out by some new circumstances into which he is brought. It is like turning up the soil, which brings out worms and insects that did not appear upon the surface. Or to vary the illustration, his increasing knowledge of God's holy nature, of the perfect law, and the example of Christ, is like opening the shutters, and letting light into a dark room, the filth of which the inhabitant did not see until the sunbeams disclosed it to him.


3. Sometimes the young convert is discouraged, because he does not increase as fast as he expected; and supposes because he does not accomplish all, and as speedily as he looked for, that he does not advance at all. The expectations of young Christians are sometimes as irrational as the child's who sowed his seed in the morning, and went out in the evening to see if it was above ground. The recent convert sometimes imagines that sanctification is easy to work. He imagines that advance is a thing to be accomplished by a succession of strides, if not, indeed, by one bound after another. But the remains of old Adam within him soon prove too strong to allow this unimpeded course of Christian progression. 

He knew he had difficulties to surmount—but he calculated on getting over them with ease—that he had enemies to conflict with—but then he hoped to go on by rapid victories from conquering to conquer. He is disappointed—and now imagines he makes no way at all. But why should he so hastily decide against himself? All growth is slow, and that is slowest of all which is to last the longest. The mushroom springs up in a night—so did Jonah's gourd—and in a night it perished! The oak requires centuries for its coming to perfection.


4. Some mistake by supposing they do not advance at all because they do not get on so fast as some others. We would by no means encourage neglect, indifference, or contentment with small measures of grace. On the contrary, we urge the greatest diligence. We say go on unto perfection. They who are contented with what grace they suppose they have, give fearful evidence that they have none at all. To be self-satisfied is to be self-deceived. Still, as in nature so in grace, all do not grow with equal rapidity, or advance to equal strength and stature. I

t is so with flowers in a garden; trees in a plantation; children in a family; boys at school; ships at sea; or travelers upon the land. There is progress in all—but in different degrees. Yet of which of all these can it be said, they make no advance because they do not advance as fast as the foremost. The use we should make of the superior attainments of the more eminent of God's servants is neither to envy them, nor to discourage our hearts—but to find in them a stimulus and an encouragement to seek larger measures of faith and holiness for ourselves.