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For Those Seeking The Truth
& Dynamic Living Christ is Victor |
March/April 2009
Volume 22, Number 2
“Trusting
in Our Own Strength”
“Then he answered and spake
unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the LORD of hosts”. (Zechariah 4:6)
We are so used to trusting our own strength. This
is a totally different principle. When you speak a lie you are depending on
your cleverness. We learn that from childhood. When we do our own will we are
leaning on our own mind and strength. We read in the Old Testament of the sons
of the prophets. They wanted to build a log house and wanted the prophet to go
with them. When their axe-head fell into the river they did not depend on their
devices to recover it. They were young fellows. They could have said,
"Come on, you are a good diver, dive in for the axe-head and if you don't
succeed, I will try." They did not seek a dragnet. But they sought for the
prophet's help. It is just natural for young people to trust in their own
strength.
"And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not,
stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to
day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you,
and ye shall hold your peace." (Exodus l4: 13). Whenever you do not put
the Lord first, there is something very wrong there. Lack of faith gives room
to lean on your own understanding. You put the cart before the horse. So your
whole life goes wrong. ''Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,"
says the Lord.
The Egyptians had held them in bondage for quite a long time. The Lord says, "You will see them no more for ever." How is it possible? There was a strong and unmovable bondage. Who could deliver them? There are certain bondages nobody can free us from. These are fixed bondages, which appear impregnable. But God says, "You will see them no more."
We see around us people who keep worrying about money, though they have so much. They cannot draw their little out of their bank. They cannot trust that God will provide. They would rather go and borrow from their relatives. They cannot sell what they own in jewels or land because they hold them as more precious than their lives. Their jewels are for their grandchildren who are not yet born. That is bondage! The Lord says, "You will see that bondage no more for ever." That bondage will completely cease. When you were a murderer that nature ruled you. Some of that nature may be still lurking in you. A murderer must always be careful. Even if he comes out of prison, it is very difficult to keep that man from committing another murder. A murderer told me how in his mind he was ready to murder anybody who came across his path: That is bondage. Deceit is bondage. Pride and a lying tongue are a state of bondage. By might it can never be removed. Impossible! There are certain bondages only the Spirit of God can dislodge.
"And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee. (I Samuel 17:34,37). "I was delivered from the paw of the bear and the paw of the lion and God will deliver me from this Goliath's hand." He did not say, "Well, by my own strength I will do it." The Lord had delivered him!
We must seek this kind of deliverance, which no earthly power can give. There is simply no way by which you can plan and produce the Christian life. Let the Holy Spirit have complete sway in your life and lead you in His way.
-Joshua Daniel
“Reality Check”
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5,6
“The Sin of Unforgiveness”
In her autobiographical book, "Climbing", missionary Rosalind Goforth tells of the internal rage she harboured against someone who had greatly harmed her and her husband, Jonathan. It was a serious injury, which the couple would never afterward talk about, but while Jonathan seemed to easily forgive the offender, Rosalind refused to do so.
For more than a
year, she would not talk to nor recognize that person who lived near them on
their missionary station in
One day afterward, Rosalind was reading to the children from Pilgrim's Progress. It was the passage in which a man in a cage moans, "I have grieved the Spirit, and He is gone: I have provoked God to anger, and He has left me." Instantly a terrible conviction came upon her, and for two days and nights she felt in terrible despair.
Finally, talking late at night with a fellow missionary, a young widower, she burst into sobs and told him the whole story. "But Mrs. Goforth," he said, "are you willing to write the letter?"
At length she replied, "Yes." "Then go at once and write it."
Rosalind jumped up, ran into the house, and wrote a few lines of humble apology for her actions, without any reference to his. The joy and peace of her Christian life returned.
"From that time," Rosalind wrote in her autobiography, "I have never dared not to forgive."
The sin of unforgiveness is a cancer that destroys relationships, eats away at one's
own psyche, and worst of all shuts us off from God's grace.
- Selected
“The True Vine”
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman." (John 15: 1)
''Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:2,3) ''Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." (Isaiah 5:1,2)
Jesus is the true vine. We must be careful to see whether we are connected with that vine or not. There are some who started a good Christian work but now they are bringing forth wild grapes. I know a man who built a church and was eager to do Christian work. But people who wanted prominence got in there. The founder withdrew and now that church is bringing forth wild grapes.
We brought a man to the Lord during his high school days and followed him through his college career and prayed over him and God healed him of a chronic disease. But he was not careful in his prayer life and would not submit to discipline. If you don't pray, some other spirit will take hold of you. ''Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (I Timothy 4:1). God told me that, that man would not remain in the Fellowship.
Be careful about people who feel that a deep repentance and deep prayer life are not important. If your faith is true, you will not take up spiritual responsibilities which are beyond your spiritual strength. After conversion one must be very careful. People want to preach to big congregations. Are they sure they have the wisdom to lead that large congregation to the Lord? It is one thing to march alone to hell and another thing to march a congregation to hell! Therefore we warn people lest they bring forth wild grapes.
Satan comes as an angel of light. His front is all light. At the back it is all darkness. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." (I John 4:1) Here in the Fellowship we try to be cautious. "What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes." (Isaiah 5:4).
We sometimes
gradually shift from the true vine and attach ourselves to vines that bring
forth wild grapes. When pride comes in, another strange spirit will lead you in
a way that appears similar to the way the Holy Spirit leads. You must therefore
listen to mature children of God. You must be attached to true children of God.
Grow in silence. Grow in obscurity. Jesus grew in obscurity for 30 years. Except once in the temple at the age of 12, He was not seen or
heard of.
"Send ye
the Lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the
wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of
-N. Daniel
“The Cottage Floor”
During a visit
in 1904 to a remote part of the
On retiring to rest at night, I could not help noticing the extremely dirty state of the bedroom floor. It looked as if it had not been cleaned for months. I determined that the following day I would call the landlady's attention to it, and ask her to have it scrubbed.
The next morning, however, I saw what had escaped my notice the evening before. The floor was of such a nature that no scrubbing could make it any cleaner. It was made of big clods of dirt, dried and hardened in the sun, and trodden down till a solid surface was formed, as level and smooth as any ordinary floor.
Of course I gave up my idea of asking the landlady to scrub it. The more such a floor was scrubbed the worse it would become. No amount of soap and water would do it any good. Will you be surprised, reader, if I tell you that that bedroom floor aptly sets forth your condition in the sight of God?
I wonder if you are prepared to acknowledge that in God's sight you are so bad, so unclean, so corrupt, that you can no more improve yourself, or do anything to amend your condition than the bedroom floor could be made clean by scrubbing it?
That is a truth that many are very slow to learn. They labour under the delusion that if only they try hard enough, and persevere long enough, they can make themselves more fit for God's presence. They might as well imagine that if only they could get a good scrubbing-brush, and plenty of soap and water, they would at last succeed in improving the condition of the bedroom floor. "For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD." (Jeremiah 2:22)
Multitudes of men and women are engaged in a hopeless task of this sort, and many are the various kinds of scrubbing-brushes that they use.
There is, for instance, the scrubbing brush of Self-Restraint. Have you not sometimes used this brush? You have tried to control your temper, and put a curb upon your unruly tongue. You have kept a strict watch over your actions, and have endeavored to restrain your passions. In this way you have been scrubbing away at the dirty floor. But you have utterly failed to effect any real improvement. You are as far from God as ever. Your heart is just as bad as when you began.
Perhaps it is the scrubbing-brush of Moral Living
that you are trying. You do not swear or cheat, or get drunk. No impure
speech ever soils your lips. You never do anything that men would call wicked.
But all this makes no difference in your condition before God. Your moral
living has not changed the evil character of your heart. Who can say, "I
have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?"
Many fancy that where other scrubbing-brushes fail, the brush of Religion will succeed. So they read their Bibles and say their prayers. They are regular attendants at Church, and take the sacrament. Perhaps they sing in the choir. They may become Sunday-school teachers. But all this leaves their carnal nature unchanged. Their religious garb serves but to cover up the uncleanness within.
If the scrubbing-brush of Religion could make anyone clean, it should have made Saul of Tarsus so. Zealous beyond all his contemporaries, rigid in his observance of ceremonies and ordinances, devoted in his obedience to the priests, he might well have claimed to be the most religious man of his day.
But all the
while there raged in his heart a bitter hatred against Christ. When at last his
eyes were opened, and he found how terribly mistaken he had been, he confessed that he was the chief of sinners. In
spite of all his religiousness he had to acknowledge, "In me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no
good thing"- (Romans 7:18).
Do not, then, make a scrubbing-brush of religion
as it can never make the sinner clean. It can never wash away his sin.
But if neither self-restraint, nor moral living,
nor religion, nor any other scrubbing-brush of a similar kind can make you
clean, there is One who can.
The LORD JESUS CHRIST is the only Saviour. There is power in His precious blood to wash all
your foul stains away.
"Ye must be born again," are the words
that confront every Christless soul. They were
addressed to a most religious man. And they are as true today as ever.
What you need reader, is to be born again. Nothing short of that will do.
Own your exceeding sinfulness. Pass sentence upon yourself unsparingly. Then look away from yourself altogether to Christ "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His blood" -(Revelation 1:5). "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" -(l John 1:7). Happy is the heart that can say:
Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee Whose blood can cleanse each spot:
O Lamb of God, I come
- Selected
“Asleep in the Boat”
Years ago at
“The god of this world (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
“Awake thou that sleepest”- (Ephesians 5:14). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved"-(Acts 16:31).
-Selected
“Two Goats”
Martin Luther reportedly told of two mountain goats that met each other on a narrow ledge just wide enough for one of the animals to pass. On the left was a sheer cliff, and on the right a steep wall. The two were facing each other, and it was impossible to turn or to back up.
How did they solve their dilemma? If they had been people, they would have started butting each other until they plunged into the chasm together. But according to Luther, the goats had more sense than that. One of them lay down on the trail and let the other literally walk over him-- and both were safe.
“Second Fiddle”
British pastor
George Duncan says that one of the most important lessons in Christian service
is that of learning to play the second fiddle well. "Think for a
moment," he writes, "how often we come across those whose worth is
seldom recognized by men, but I am sure will never be overlooked by God, and
will certainly not go unrewarded. Many are prepared to recognize the prominent
part played by Simon Peter among the disciples, but forget that if there had
not been an Andrew who 'brought him to Jesus' there would never have been a
Peter! The church universal gives thanks to God for Paul, the greatest
Christian who ever lived, but forget that if there had not been a Barnabas
there might never have been a Paul!"
This
newsletter is produced six times per year by the Laymen’s Evangelical
Fellowship International. It is printed and distributed in the
This Fellowship is an inter-denominational missionary and
prayer group working for revival in churches and amongst students in several
countries. We invite every layperson to become God’s ally in changing his
or her corner of the world. We train people in evangelistic work and to be
self-supporting missionaries.
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