Christ
is Victor
March/April 1999
Vol. 12, No.2
"Finishing
the Work"
"For which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth
not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Luke 14:28
This man began to build and was not able to finish.
Nobody wants such a comment to be passed about his efforts. An unfinished
work is a very tragic thing. Even the most beautiful building on the drawing
board if it is unfinished it will never look beautiful. We must be very
careful.
Life is not for such a long span. How quickly 1998 is over! How do we know
that this New Year 1999 is not our last year. It is
human to think ‘we will do this, we will do that, there
is time’. There is time and therefore they allow time to pass away and
face the grave danger of an unfinished work. Some people leave an unfinished
book. It is very difficult for one author to finish a book, which someone else
had begun; likewise in other departments too. Has God given us a work? We should
try to finish our work. Jesus Christ was sure that He had finished the work,
which God gave Him. "I have finished the work" John
Surely every one of us must have the joy of saying, "I have finished
the work that God had given me". The Lord Jesus Christ also said "The
works that God gave me to finish, they testify of me" John 5:36. You can
always tell a man by the work he is doing. You would not find a ward-boy in the
hospital with a scalpel at the operation table. That must be the surgeon! If you
see a man bent over a designing board and designing a very intricate engine,
you will say, he is a design engineer. So the Lord Jesus says, "From the
work that God has given me to finish, you can say who I am". Even a child
is known by his work, says the Bible. When someone looks at you, can he say you
have been given a work from God?
"This man began to build". Some people leave a lot of confusion
for their children to inherit. I am sure no father likes to do that. Which
father wants to leave trouble for his children? But suddenly they are overtaken
by death. It is not their design to leave confusion for their children. But the
end of their days can suddenly come upon them and they have to finish their
work. To be able to finish your work you must have started your work early. Our
Lord was doing His Father’s will. His brothers said, "Why
don’t you go to
How much wastage is eliminated, when you do God’s will.
When we look at such lives as William Carey’s we can see that they
accomplished so much as though they lived 20 or 30 lifetimes. God eliminates
wastage. One of the Prime ministers of
Are we going to finish the work God has given to us before we close our eyes
on Earth? The Lord Jesus Christ gives us the recipe for success.
"…Whoever he be of you that forsaketh not
all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple," (Luke
People spend a lot of time suspecting God. "What is the Lord going to
do?". Yes, that is what they think and they find
it very difficult to put everything in the hands of God, as if the Lord were a
big thief.
Is God a pawnbroker? How many people go and give their thing to pawnbrokers!
But when you come to God why are you so afraid? When revival began in Guntur District, amazing things took place. A wonderful
atmosphere prevailed there. One poor woman told my father she was selling some
groundnuts. Someone came and said "Amma"
and put out his hands as if for alms. The woman gave him some nuts. That person
poured them back into her basket and her basket was full. When she looked up,
that person was gone. It was the Lord. It is just like Him.
When you put anything in His hands your basket will be full. Do you think He
is going to deprive you of anything? No. He wants you to be a person who
finishes His work.
"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I
have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of
God." (Acts
-Joshua Daniel
"Forging
Forward"
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I
do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those
things which are before." Philippians 3:13
"Forgetting those things which are behind."
This is a further step to be reached. What are those things which are behind?
Our failures are behind. Once we have humbly confessed our sins and been
forgiven, we need not think of them and be discouraged. They must not prevent
you from reaching forward to things before. Those who run the hundred yards
sprint do not look back. They cannot win if they do so. The devil wants us to
look back. When anyone has done us evil we must not think of it. As quickly as
possible we must forgive and forget.
Evil will never succeed. We often think it does, and try to defend ourselves
against it. Evil is a defeated power. There is no place for evil in a
Christian’s philosophy of life. We must never resort to evil. Matthew
In the lives of Joseph and Daniel there is no negative thinking. Theirs are
lives of great victory because they did not resist evil. Joseph never brooded
over the evil done to him. Daniel did not brood over the evil done to him. He
did not even care to defend himself but left it to God to prove him to be
right. Blessed is the man who can forgive. Forgiving, one must go forward. A
man who believes the Word of God must believe that God is always thinking of
him.
Resist not evil. Do not recognize evil as a power.
Love, faith, holiness and purity- these are powers and these last. Hatred,
anger, and envy will perish. They destroy those that entertain them. They ruin
your personality. You have to fight a big battle against negative thoughts. God
Almighty has got great things for you. Do not think of lower things. When God
has a palace for you, why are you angry with those that have denied you a room
in a hut?
Forgive those who have acted negatively. Think of God who has wonderful
blessings and a wonderful place for you. Matthew 5:39-48. These are statements
of a God that won the battle. When we are trying to be perfect like our Father
in Heaven, even nature will co-operate with us. Let us not make much of our
enemies in our thoughts when a mighty God is prepared to give us all things. I
have seen people going down, down, down in their spiritual life and becoming
wicked by thinking of the evil done to them. Do not look back. Jesus, even at
the point of death, forgave His enemies. Let us think well of our enemies. They
know not what they do. Let us keep ourselves from evil.
What a privilege it is to be like Jesus! He has called us into His marvelous
light that we may be like Him. Do not allow hatred, anger and vengeance in you.
Do not brood over your failures. "I shall do all things through Christ who
strengtheneth me."
-Late Mr. N. Daniel
"Answered Prayers"
When I was a boy of about fourteen, my father was seriously sick. We lived
in
One night they announced to my stepmother that my father would not live till
morning; that there was no hope. I knew little about the Bible, although I had
been saved. But I knew that God answered prayer. I think I may never have read
James 5:12-16.
Certainly I had never heard a sermon nor read an article about divine healing.
Yet my father was a devout, believing Christian, and I knew that he had often
told of remarkable answers to prayer. As instinctively as a child asks his
father or mother for food, I felt I must pray.
I went out to the barn, and as I passed the buggy shed I heard a voice; I
listened, and my sister, two years older than I, was weeping and begging God to
spare our father. I went to the barn, knelt down in a horse stall and prayed. I
came back into the house, and in the front room I heard someone praying; it was
my stepmother. I went to bed and to sleep with a calm assurance that the
doctors were mistaken, and that my father would live. The next morning my
father opened his eyes and looked around him strangely. As I
recall, he had for days been either half-conscious or delirious. Now he
sat up in bed and said, "Where are my trousers?" My stepmother,
half-laughing, half crying, said, "Why do you want your trousers? You are
sick; you must stay in bed."
"I am going to town," he said. "I am alright." And he
would not be denied. He got up dressed, and went to town while my stepmother
frantically called the doctors. After he returned to the house, the doctors saw
him and marveled and said it was simply unreasonable, and went away
dumbfounded.
I do not remember that I told anybody about our prayers; I think God let me
hear my sister and stepmother praying because He planned for me to tell it. How
warm it makes my heart feel now to remember it! My father lived nearly twenty
years longer to the glory of God.
-Selected
Say What?
"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the
will of God abideth for ever."
1 John 2:17
"Perseverance
Pays"
An eighteen-year-old Canadian girl, Barbara Ann Scott, won the skating
championship in the winter Olympics. Many an eighteen-year-old must have read
the story of her triumph and envied the acclaim she would receive.
But I wonder how many skipped over one important line in the newspaper
account. Barbara estimated that in preparation for this event, she had spent
20,000 hours in practice. She was already the greatest skater in
Fritz Kreisler (a great violinist) said that even
after he had reached world fame he still spent eight hours a day in practice. He
said, "If I neglect my practice for a day I can tell the difference. If I
neglect it for a week, my wife can notice the difference; but if I were to
neglect it for a month, my audiences could tell the difference."
Whether in the field of skating, playing a violin, or in prayer, one great
truth stands out. Nothing great was ever achieved without effort and
perseverance.
-Selected
"The
Artist and the Gypsy Girl"
Many years ago in the city of
He had been engaged to paint great pictures of crucifixion, and this he was
doing, not from real love for Christ, or faith in Him, but for money and fame.
One beautiful morning Stenburg was seeking
recreation in the forest where he came upon a gypsy girl plaiting straw
baskets. She was gifted with more than usual beauty, and the artist determined
to engage her as a model for a picture of Spanish dancing girl. So he bargained
with Pepita to visit his studio three times a week to
pose as a model.
At the appointed hour she arrived. Her eyes roved the studio and she was
filled with wonder as she looked at the pictures. The large
one (that of the crucifixion) caught her eyes. Gazing at it intently,
she asked in an awed voice, as she pointed to the figure on the cross in the
centre, "Who is that?"
"The Christ", answered carelessly.
"What is being done to him?"
They are crucifying Him"
"Who are those about Him with the bad faces?"
"Now look here," said the artist, "I cannot talk. You have
nothing to do but stand as I tell you." The girl dared not speak again,
but she continued to gaze and wonder.
Each time she came to studio, she was more fascinated by the picture. Then
again she ventured to ask a question; for she longed to learn more concerning
the meaning of the picture.
"Why did they crucify Him? Was he bad—very bad?"
"No, very good."
That was all she learned at one interview, but it added a little to her
knowledge of that wonderful scene.
At last, seeing that she was eager to know the meaning of the picture, Stenburg one day said, "Listen I will tell you once
for all, and then ask no more questions!" He told her the story of the
cross—new to Pepita, though so old to the
artist that it had ceased to touch him. He could paint dying agony, and not of
a nerve of his quivered, but the thought of his Saviour’s
sacrifice wrung Pepita’s heart. Tears filled
her eyes, and she could scarcely control her emotion. On her last visit to the
studio she stood before the great picture, loath to leave it,
‘Come,’ said the artist, here is the money
and a gold piece over.’
"Thanks, master," then again turning to the picture, she said,
"You must love Him very much when He has done all that for you; do you
not?"
"Stenburg could not answer. Pepita, her heart sad, went back to her people, but her
words had pierced Stenburg like an arrow. God’s
Spirit sent the gypsy girl’s words home to his heart. He could not forget
them. ‘All that for you,’ rang in his ears. He became restless and
sad. He knew he did not love the Crucified One. He did not know the peace of
God.
Some time after, Stenburg was led to follow a few
poor people who gathered in a retired place to hear the Bible read and the
Gospel preached. There, for the first time; he met those who had a living
faith. He was made to realize why Christ hung upon the Cross for sinners; he
realized that he was a sinner, and therefore Christ was there for him, bearing
his sins. Thus God led the artist to the knowledge of salvation, and he began
to know the love of Christ and could say, "He loved me, and gave Himself
for me."
Now he longed to make that wondrous love known to others but how could he do
it? Suddenly an idea flashed upon him. He could paint! Praying for God’s
help in the work, he painted as never before; and the picture was placed among
other paintings in the famous gallery of Dusseldorf.
Underneath he placed the words: "All this I did for thee: what hast thou
done for me?"
One day Stenburg saw a poorly dressed girl weeping
bitterly as she stood beside the picture. It was Pepita.
"O master, if He had but loved me so!" she cried.
Then the artist told her how He died for her, poor little gypsy girl though
she was, as well as for the rich and great. Stenburg
did not weary now of answering all her questions: he was as eager to tell as
she was to hear of the Love of Christ: and as it was presented to her, she
received it, and went from that room a sinner saved, rejoicing, in that
wonderful love. Thus the Lord used Pepita’s
words to bring the artist to Himself and then used the artist’s words to
reveal Himself to her.
Long after this, a wealthy young nobleman found his way into that picture
gallery, and as he gazed upon that picture and the words underneath it, God
spoke to his heart. He was Count Zinzendorf, who from
that day became an earnest Christian and the father of the Moravian Missions,
by means of which God led thousands of souls to Himself.
-Selected