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For Those Seeking The Truth
& Dynamic Living Christ is Victor |
May/June 2005
Volume 18, Number 3
“Real Renewal”
“Renew our days as of old” Lam. 5:21
There are always certain danger signals which become quite evident, when one’s physical or spiritual health declines. We respond to signs of physical deterioration by running instantly to a trusted doctor for advice and treatment. We are certainly not indifferent to the danger signals which could mean an impending heart attack. I simply can’t understand, how thinking people can be indifferent to the moral decay around them and in their own families.
Jeremiah, who wept
over the sins of
I have noticed that in most people, when they have committed a tragic blunder or grieved God greatly, there comes a period of deep darkness, when they seem quite incapable of seeing or recognizing their fallen state. This period of spiritual blindness lasts long enough to do serious damage to a person or family. By the time they awake, it is often too late to undo the harm. Irreparable loss is sustained and the children are ruined. The pain and loss due to the initial disobedience remains for generations. The marks of our disobedience are plainly printed on our posterity.
When the fruit of youthful sins and the effects of the disobedience of later years are so devastating, how deeply one should repent for every deflection from the path of holiness and seek Christ’s pardon with real brokenness!
Jeremiah laments, “Renew our days as of old.” This is not a mere nostalgic reference to the “good old days.” Sometimes this phrase can be very misleading. In our days knowledge has greatly increased. Hence rapid changes are taking place around us. The strangle-hold of some superstitious traditions are broken and with the rubbish, some useful standards of conduct too have been discarded. The sacred institute of marriage is being belittled by those who break God’s laws and wreck their own homes.
From twenty years to thirty, it is a pretty fast lap in the race of life. By the time the wildly speculating and dashing twenty-year-olds crash through the thirty-year barrier, they are disillusioned, broken, haggard, weary and jaded. What is more, some of them are bitter and frustrated. They simply want to forget their teenage years and their wild-twenties.
Jeremiah knew that God
had promised His children that they would be the head and not the tail if they
would obey His laws and statutes (Deut. 28:13). Further, the unerring manner in which
God had led His children out of their slavery in
True spiritual renewal
is necessary for every child of God, for every church or missionary Fellowship
like ours. The Lord Jesus said that the
When the new life begins, significant things begin to happen. Where life had become dull, painful and boring, new strength and grace break forth. How many have told me of their thoughts and plans to end their lives. In the midst of their gloom and darkness, the Lord Jesus suddenly met them. Their lives were so completely transformed that none would recognize them as the same people.
It is the powers of darkness which tell you, “End it all, one leap, one plunge, one gulp of poison and it is all over. Your misery will end.” No, that is not true. Real misery begins in hell, ‘where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.’ It is an awful sin to attempt to kill yourself. God says, “Thou shall not kill.” Death is no cure for any one’s misery but it only adds agony and sorrow to those around you.
Let us be positive, let us give one chance to God. When you study the Bible and begin to tell your need to the Living and Loving God, hope begins to break out and trust in the Saviour who cares, begins to warm your cold heart.
Have you lost your health? Ask the Lord Jesus to give it back. I well remember the doctor who was brought to my boyhood home in a taxi. The sad-looking wife and the taxi-driver helped the paralytic into the house. My father prayed for him. A few days after, the same man walked away unaided from our house. Ask the Lord to renew your health.
There are many today who have weak nerves. I tell them, “Ask Jesus to give you new nerves, strong nerves.” Where there is lovelessness, much negative talk and bitterness, there is ample chance to get bad nerves. Love is the cure.
Our God is the God of new beginnings. He is the God of Renewal and Revival. When an old car is junked after several years of use, no one attempts to repair it. Your life may seem to be beyond repair, you have wrecked and damaged it so greatly, but Jesus is able to renew you completely. That is why the unique term is applied to Him. He is the Saviour indeed! Let us not allow our pride to be a stumbling block to our progress.
-Joshua Daniel
“Being Thankful”
A hungry man is more thankful for his morsel than a rich man for his heavily-laden table. A lonely woman in a nursing home will appreciate a visit more than a popular woman with a party thrown in her honor. A Russian who finally gets his own copy of the Holy Scriptures after seventy-five years of state-imposed atheism is more thankful for his little book than we are for all the Christian books and magazines and translations that overflow our shelves.
Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that if the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they are there every night, we barely give them a look.
One of the evidences of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is a gradual reversal of that twisted pattern. God wants to make us people who exhibit a thankfulness in proper proportion to the gifts and blessings we have received.
We exhibit a degree of thanksgiving in life in reverse proportion to the amount of blessings we have received. Martin Luther wrote in his book Table Talk: “The greater God’s gifts and works, the less they are regarded.”
The words “Thank” and “Think” hail from the same root, reminding us that thanksgiving comes from thinking about our blessings.
Helen Keller once said, “I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human beings were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at sometime during his early adult life. It would make him more appreciative of sight and the joys of sound?”
Senator Richard Neuberger once said the experience of contracting cancer changed him. A change came over me which I believe is irreversible. Questions of prestige, of political success, of financial status, became all at once unimportant. In their stead has come a new appreciation of things I once took for granted- eating lunch with a friend, scratching Muffet’s ears and listening for his purr, the company of my wife, reading a book or magazine in the quiet corner of my bed lamp at night, raiding the refrigerator for a glass of orange juice or a slice of coffee cake.
For the first time I think I am actually savoring life. I shudder when I remember all the occasions that I spoiled for myself- even when I was in the best of health- by false pride, synthetic values, and fancied slights.
Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
Thanks for all thou dost provide!
Thanks for time now but a mem’ry
Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
Thanks for dark and dreary fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
Thanks for peace within my soul!
-Selected
“Reality Check”
“My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.” Proverbs 3: 1-4
“Heavenly Riches”
“A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” Psalm 37:16
These days men always seek after riches. Their trust is in riches. But the Lord says that the little a righteous man has, brings him security and happiness. Those who know God wish to be rich in divine nature which is a great blessing. Such a man spreads joy and health wherever he goes. He is a stable man. “Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” (Psalm 37:3,4)
You can only delight yourself in the Lord by delighting in His way of life. “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in His commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon the earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed” (Psalm 112:1,2).
Delighting in the commands of the Lord—not grudgingly following the Lord. They may not make you rich—they may not make you big and prominent, but they will secure to you the nature of God, which was revealed in Jesus Christ. This is a great blessing. It will give you peace. “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” Psalm (34:12-14).
Seek peace and pursue it because you are the children of the Prince of peace. You may live in a hut and eat the simplest food, but if you have the peace of God and the nature of Christ, you are a blessed man. There can be no peace in the forest among the wild beasts. There is no peace in the hearts of men. There is war in the heart. “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” James 4:1. Man is a disturbed being. He does not know himself or what he wants. He seeks riches. That will not bring him peace. Those who seek the nature of Christ will have peace. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. A truly righteous man will not set his mind on riches.
All the laws of God
contribute to the health of man.
There are several principles to be followed when you build a house. Even to build a wall one has to follow
certain rules. Other principles are
used in fixing the beams and so on.
Similarly in building up your life, God gives you several principles and
one of them is not to seek riches but to seek God’s nature. “I have seen the wicked in great
power, and spreading himself like
“The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and the inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” Psalm 37:18,19,25. God is very particular about the children of a righteous man. A man who does not stretch out his hand for unrighteous money but works hard and looks to God will be filled. He seeks the riches of heaven and exercises himself to seek these riches morning, noon and night. He will have no war in his heart.
God promises ultimately to put His Law in your mind and write them on your heart. The mind controls the nervous reactions. The heart controls your desires and will. Men run after wealth and do not seek the eternal wealth—the righteousness of God. How can a man who does not give thought to set right his moral and spiritual life be a righteous man? People give all sorts of excuses to come and worship God. Has anyone in the world suffered by spending time for God? Have they not gone forward and become leaders? Some of you will surely become missionaries. A man who knows his Bible and knows to pray will surely become a missionary some day. Do not run here and there to all meetings. Your time is limited. It is better to grow steadily in one place. Those who run here and there and everywhere gather nothing. We do not feel superior to others.
God has a special purpose for us and we have to fulfill it. The work of Moses was different from that of Joshua, and the work of Joshua was different from that of Nehemiah. If Nehemiah had followed Joshua what would have happened? He would have gone on fighting battles and winning more land to no purpose. God has got a purpose for us. We do not claim to know much. But unfalteringly by His grace, we are following the truth revealed.
-N. Daniel
“Gritty Integrity”
Some of my happiest days came when it was decided that I could work in the shop as an assistant to my kindly, bearded father. I loved being with him and I loved the shop itself.
There were many ups and downs in the watch making business. Father loved his work, but he was not a money-maker, and times were often hard. Once I remember we were faced with a real financial crisis. A large bill had to be paid, and there simply wasn’t enough money. Then one day a well-dressed gentleman came into the shop and asked to see some very expensive watches. I stayed in the workshop and prayed, with one ear tuned to the conversation in the front room.
“Mmm…this is a fine watch, Mr. ten Boom,” the customer said, turning a very costly timepiece over in his hands. “This is just what I’ve been looking for.”
I held my breath as I saw the affluent customer reach into his inner pocket and pull out a thick wad of bills. Praise the Lord- cash! (I saw myself paying the overdue bill and being relieved from the burden of anxiety I had been carrying for the past few weeks.)
The customer looked at
the watch admiringly and commented, “I had a good a watchmaker here in
Father nodded his
head. He knew almost everyone in
“When van Houten died and his son took over the business, I kept on doing business with the young man. However, I bought a watch from him that didn’t run at all. I sent it back three times, but he couldn’t seem to fix it. That’s why I decided to find another watchmaker.”
“Will you show me that watch please?” Father said. The man took a large watch out of his vest and gave it to Father.
“Now, let me see,” Father said, opening the back of the watch. He adjusted something and handed it back to the customer. “There, that was a very little mistake. It will be fine now. Sir, I trust the young watchmaker. Someday he will be just as good as his father. So if you ever have a problem with one of his watches, come to me. I’ll help you out. Now I shall give you back your money and you return my watch.”
I was horrified. I saw Father take back the watch and give the money to the customer. Then he opened the door for him and bowed deeply in his old-fashioned way.
My heart was where my feet should be as I emerged from the shelter of the workshop.
“Papa! How could you?”
Father looked at me patiently through his steel-rimmed glasses.
“Corrie,” he said, “you know that I brought the Gospel at the burial of Mr. van Houten.”
Of course I
remembered. It was Father’s
job to speak at the burials of the watchmakers in
“Corrie, what do you think that young man would have said when he heard that one of his good customers had gone to Mr. ten Boom? Do you think the name of the Lord would be honored? As for the money, trust the Lord, Corrie. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and He will take care of us.”
I felt ashamed and I knew that father was right. I wondered if I could ever have that kind of trust instead of blind determination to follow my own stubborn path. Could I really learn to trust God?
“Yes, Father,” I answered quietly. Whom was I answering? My earthly father or my Father in Heaven?
-Corrie ten Boom
“Striking Antithesisses”
The Life of Moses presents a
series of striking antithesis. He
was the child of a slave and a son of a queen. He was born in a hut, and enjoyed
unlimited wealth. He was the leader
of armies, and the keeper of flocks.
He was the mightiest of warriors, and the meekest of men. He was educated in the court, and dwelt
in the desert. He had the wisdom of
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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