Dead Weight

I’ve been a dead weight many years

Around the church’s neck

I’ve let the others carry me,

And always pay the check.

I’ve had my name upon the rolls

For years and years gone by;

I’ve criticized and grumbled too;

Nothing could satisfy.

I’ve been a dead weight long enough

Upon the church’s back.

Beginning now I’m going to take

A wholly different track.

I’m going to pay and pray and work,

And carry loads instead;

And not have others carry me

Like people do the dead.

The Children of the Lord

            “Ye are the children of the Lord… Ye shall not cut yourselves” (Deut 14:1).

            What a blessed relationship – “ye are the children of the Lord!” We are the children of God by Divine choice:  “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people …but because the Lord loved you” (7:7, 8).  In love God has chosen us to be His own.  This covenant has been sealed by atoning blood.

            We are not sons and daughters because of something we did, but because of what He did.  The one condition on our part is faith-faith expressed in willingness to receive and willingness to obey.

            Because we are sons and daughters we are not to pattern after those who are not children of God.  “For thou art a holy people unto the Lord they God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself” (14:2).  The Christian’s one “peculiarity’ is to be like His Lord.  And if the Christian rejoice of God, this conformity to God will be a pleasure and not a cross.

Tell me not of heavy crosses

Nor of burdens hard to bear,

For I’ve found this great salvation

Makes each burden light appear.

And I love to follow Jesus,

Gladly counting all but loss;

Worldly honors all forsaking

For the glory of the cross.

            Fellow Christians, let us not be reluctant to reject the sinful patterns or our age – social patterns, fashion patterns, business patterns, recreation patterns – whenever these conflict with a likeness to our Lord.  Let us rejoice that we may like Him, disdaining every compromising suggestion of conformity to a passing and sinful age.

            Did it seem “peculiar” for the ancient Jew to refuse to eat “unclean meats”?  Well, he chose to eat “clean meats” to please his God.  And if one’s heart is only set on pleasing the Lord, the Christian will gladly count all things but loss that he may win Christ.

--George E. Failing, 1959

Train A Child In The Way He Shall Go....

This is Life

To have found an ideal which commands our highest love and loyalty, to have found a work, which commands our best endeavor in joyous enthusiasm, to have found a friend to whom we never need to make and explanation, to have found a faith which no personal disappointment can shake, to have mastered the myriad of forces that surge up within our own breast, to have won the victory over each day until we have some time for meditation and soul-growth, to have someone dependent upon us for their sweetest joys, to have the calm assurance of the friendship of the changeless Christ—this is life!

--R. H. Adams

Thou Openest Thy Hand

Thou openest Thy hand—the good sun pours

Its warmth and light upon us day by day;

The vaulted clouds release their precious stores,

To send the silver rain upon its way;

The grain is ripened, and the golden yield

Is like a benediction down each field.

Thou openest Thy hand. O blessed One,

Because of this men live and laugh and sing;

The flowers unfurl their petals in the sun,

The little birds take bright, ecstatic wing;

Thy love has kept Thy great and mighty hand 

Opened for every people, every land.

We acknowledge, Lord, Thy mercy through our days,

And give Thee our united, joyous praise.

Wake Up To Reality

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep” (Rom 13:11).

            “It is time to wake up to reality,” Phillips translate this text.  Too many of us are prone to rationalize-to avoid the facts of life.  We tend to live in a dream world.  It is easier not to face reality.  It is comfortable not to be stirred.  Therefore, too often, we are trying to avoid the pain of conditions as they are.

            Ed Murrow said he would like Americans to have some “itching pills” instead of tranquilizers!”  He may have a point.

            “Why all this stress on behavior?  Because, as I think you have realized, the present time is of the highest importance-it is time to wake up to reality….Let us live cleanly, as in the daylight…Let us be Christ’s men from head to foot, and give no chances to the flesh to have its fling” (Phillips, Rom 13:11-14).

            It is time to wake up to reality!

THE TIME

            In Ephesians 5:16 we are admonished that we should be “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”  Time plays an important part in the Word of God.

WHATE TIME IS IT?

            Several terms are used to describe the time-“Your salvation is nearer, “ “the night is far spent,” “the works of darkness,” “rioting and drunkenness,” “chambering and wantonness,” “strife and envying.”  There it is!

            The day of mercy is passing-time is getting short for all of us.  Life is short at the best.

            The time is perilous-It is filled with darkness and gross sin.  Sin is on every hand.  We have it called to our attention almost too much.  It is a dark, perilous, wicked time.

            The time is tense-“strife and envying.”  This is true even for Christians.  There is envy, jealousy, strife, sins of the spirit almost everywhere.  All of this produces a tension in Christian life which is not good.

            What time is it, then?  Short, perilous, tense is the answer.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

            Time means watchfulness-Just as someone who is on schedule must watch the time, so must we.  The timing of a turn at the steering wheel of a car is crucial.  The intricate timing of a huge airplane under the skilled direction of a pilot is a life and death factor.  In a day so short, so wicked, so tense we cannot afford the luxury of ease and inertia.  Our safety is watchfulness.

THE CALL

            “It is time to wake up to reality,” cried Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  It is as though he said “there is no time to lose.”

WHAT KIND OF SLEEP?

            What is the nature of this spiritual stupor form which God calls us?  We are confident that he does not mean the physical sleep which our bodies require, unless we are excessive in our practice of it.  We do not believe He means the normal times of relaxation and recreation so greatly needed in a frustrating world.

            It is a contentment with the stat quo.  Many are slumbering in this bed.  This is good enough.  Our accomplishments will do.  Things aren’t too bad.  We’ll rock along.  These ruts have been all right for years; they are good enough for us.  O how deadening, how frightfully deadening this can be!

            It is an acceptance of defeat-In this sleepiness we think there is no use anyway.  Things have gone too far.  Our efforts are in vain.  We can save ourselves the trouble.  We warm ourselves over occasionally but don’t expect to do anything with the world.  We are sleeping the sleep of despondency and discouragement.

            It is a dreamland of activity-Here things replace spirit.  There is a preoccupation with a multitude of things to do.  We are lulled into thinking we are spiritual because we are busy.  The sedative of busyness has overcome us.  We have lost spiritual consciousness in secular absorption.  Activity has dulled and fogged our alertness.

            This is our kind of sleep: contented to get by; dozing in defeat; dreaming busyness.  It is an unreal world.

THE AWAKENING

            From all of this we must “wake up to reality!”  God is not pleased!  God is disappointed.  Time is too short; sin is too powerful; tension is to frightening for us to be at ease.  There needs to be an awakening to reality.  The things of God, the experience of God, the taking hold of God, are real!

            The reality of full redemption-“Your salvation is nearer,” we are told; “your redemption draweth nigh,” we are promised.  It is important that we recognize the reality of the return of Jesus Christ.  Our testimony of His return is vital.

            The reality of God’s power-This is the assurance of His presence.  “Let us arm ourselves for the fight” is Phillips’ translation.  “Put on the whole armor of God” we are told elsewhere.  God’s presence is a power factor in our everyday lives. We only lack power because we are willing to have it so.  We are weak because we do not claim His strength.

            The reality of holy living-“Let us live cleanly,” “let us be Christ’s men from head to foot,” we are urged.  Peter admonished us, “Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of men ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.”  Loose living is not to be a part of our philosophy.  God expects purity, cleanness, holiness.  Just because we know we are human, we are in the flesh, we are weak, we are faulty, is no excuse for careless, flippant attitudes toward sin.  Ours is to be a commitment to the reality of holy living-right here on earth.

            The time is short, perilous, tense, with emphasis on the importance of watchfulness.  The call is to reality-a call from the sleep of contentment, defeatism, and deadening activity to the reality of Christ’s return, the power of God, and holy living.

            It is time to wake up to the reality.”  May God grant us awakening.

--Martin W. Cox 1959

Sometimes, Struggles Are Exactly What We Need.

Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life.  If we were to go through life without any obstacles, we would be crippled.  We would not be as strong as we could have been.  Give every opportunity a chance, leave no room for regrets.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble 

with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

For Just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives,

so also though Christ our comfort overflows.

If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation;

if we are comforted, it is for your comfort,

which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

And our hope for you is firm,

because we know that just as you share in our sufferings,

so also you share in our comfort.

II Cor. 1:3-7

How Do I Experience God - Dallas Willard

Catalyst West 2010: Dallas Willard Part 2 from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Gratitude

When all Thy mercies, O my God,

   My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view, I'm lost

   In wonder, love and praise.

When in the slippery paths of youth

  With heedless steps I ran,

Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe

  And led me up to man.

Through hidden dangers, toils and deaths

  It gently cleared my way;

And through the pleasing snares of vice, 

  More to be feared than they.

Through every period of my life

  Thy goodness I'll pursue;

And after death, in distant worlds

  The pleasing theme renew.

Through all eternity to Thee

  A grateful song I'll raise;

But oh, eternity's too short

  To utter all Thy praise.

--Joseph Addison

Why Was Jesus Filled With The Spirit? -- Part II

Christ’s Relations To The Holy Spirit

So far all is plain and within the circle of clear light from the “oracles of god.”  A new question here arises-a question which, to our knowledge, has not been put before.  The question is this:  Did the development of manifestation of the spiritual life in Christ depend upon the indwelling, and influence, and baptism of the Holy Spirit the same in all essential particulars as in us?  Did He seek and secure this divine anointing as the necessary condition and means of His “finishing the work which the Father had give him to do”-just as we are necessitated to seek and secure the same “enduement of power  from on high,” as  the immutable means and condition of our finishing the work which Christ has given us to do?

A reference to prophecy furnishes us a definite answer to all such questions:  “And there shall come forth a rod of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall be upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord: and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord” (Isa 9:1-3).  Here manifestations which shone through Christ were the result of the power of the Spirit which rested upon Him.

The same truth is taught in Isaiah 42:1 “Behold my servant, who I uphold!  Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.”  In Isaiah 61:1 Christ thus speaks of himself in the first person: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”  The fact that Christ was thus baptized of the Spirit implies that He needed that baptism, and that without it, in the relations in which He then was, He could not have finished the work which the Father had given him to do.  In seeking, and obtaining, and acting under the baptism, Christ is our example in respect to the spiritual and divine life which is required of us.

We find the same truth set forth with equal clearness in the new Testament.  In John 3:34, we are told, for example, that the reason why Christ spake as he did, and what he did, was owing to the measureless effusion and power of the Spirit which was vouchsafed to Him: “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Sprit by measure unto him.”  God, we repeat, does not bestow gifts no influences where and when they are not needed.  Christ received this measureless effusion of the Spirit at the beginning and during the progress of His mission, because they were a necessity to Him-just as similar baptisms are a necessity to us in our life missions.

We here have, no doubt, one reason for the fact that our Savior spent so much time alone with God and in prayer to Him.  Christ teaches us that god gives the Holy Spirit  to those who seek, and ask, and knock at the door  of mercy for this anointing.  In this respect also, God has made Christ our example, giving the Spirit to Him when He consciously needed His special divine influence and sought for it, just as he gives us the Spirit as we consciously need and seek His anointing.

Not to be misled here, we must carefully distinguish between the state of Christ when, as the eternal Word, He “was made flesh and dwelt among us.”  In the former state, He had infinite all-sufficiency in Himself; in the later, He “was in all respects made like unto his brethren,” and had the same need of the baptism of the Spirit that we have, and obtained “power from on high” on the same conditions on which the same blessings are promised to us.

--Asa Mahan

Why Was Jesus Filled With The Spirit? -- Part I

For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.  John 3:34

The doctrine of “God manifest in the flesh” is a profound mystery, and will no doubt be such to human and angelic minds to eternity.  There are certain facts connected with this subject, however-facts clearly ascertainable by us, because we know them on the authority of inspiration.  When Christ, for example, voluntarily “took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,” least, to human conditions of growth and development.  Hunger and thirst oppressed, and labor and travel wearied Him as they do us; and he had the same need for sleep and rest that we have.

If we will push our inquiries still farther, and that without attempting to be “wise above what is written,” we shall find, we judge, that mental and spiritual development and manifestation in Hi8m were subject to similar conditions as in us.  Of one fact we are absolutely assured, “He was in all points tempted like as we are.”  He must have been tempted, therefore, within Himself, from physical and mental propensities, and from without, through worldly and satanic influences.  The difference between us and Him lies here:  “He was tempted in all points like us we are, yet without sin”; we have sinned through temptation.

If Christ was “tempted like as we are,” He had to war against and overcome temptations as we do when we maintain our integrity; and as He himself informs us, His victory in the hour to trial was obtained upon the same conditions on which ours must be obtained.  “He lived by the Father,” spiritual life was conditioned upon the indwelling of the Father in Him, just as our spiritual life is conditioned upon Christ’s living in us.  He overcame temptation through absolute respect for “what is written,” just as we must overcome “through the blood of the lamb and the word of his testimony.”  Were this not the case, His example would be of no avail to us in the matter of “life and godliness.”  Christ, by His example has taught us not only what kind of lives we must live, but how to “walk even as he walked.”

In Christ were two forms of manifestation equally conspicuous, to wit; Deity “in the brightness of his glory” and “the express image of his substance”; and humanity in absolute beauty and perfection.  In the former relation, He is “the Lord our righteousness.”  In the latter, He is our divine-human example, teaching us not only what we shall do and become, but how to do and become all that is required of us.

--Asa Mahan

O How Love I Thy Law

O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Ps 119:97

     To love law—this seems unbelievable! The law lifts up the standards for human conduct, higher standards than many people are interested in.

     To love law—this seems impossible! The law threatens punishments and exacts penalties. How can I love that which condemns me?

     First, the law I love is God’s law. That law reflects the unity, the orderliness, the holy love of His own nature. God’s law outlines the external measurements of His holiness and justice. If I love divine holiness, then I love God’s law.

     Second, I realize that God’s law must be loved before it can be obeyed. Romans 7 is the classic statement of a man’s struggles after holiness apart from supreme love for God. But God’s law can be obeyed when it is loved, for “love is the fulfilling of the law.” If a man keeps the first commandment—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart”—he can keep the rest. Love is no substitute for obedience, but only by love can the law be obeyed.

     Of course, some object that God’s law cannot be obeyed. If one takes only a technical or mathematical view of the law, then it is impossible for us in human frailty to keep it. But love can be a fully opened blossom while the plant of conduct is only partly grown.

     Third, love wants to know what the law says, because love wishes to respect and please another. So, the one who loves another does “keep the commandments,” that is, observes the desires of the one loved. Love is the spirit of law keeping, just as sin is the spirit of law breaking.

     He only truly loves God’s law who hates and crucifies the carnal mind within, stilling the inward resentments to God’s will.

     He who loves God does not dread God’s law or its penalties. As God’s child he lives subject to divine chastening but not to divine wrath. The Christian stands in freedom from the technicalities and terrors of legalism. This is that perfect love that casteth out fear.

     God’s commandments are not grievous to those who love Him. And, living God’s law, we will rejoice with the Psalmist, “Thy statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage.” (Ps. 119:54)

--George E. Failing