For Those Seeking The Truth & Dynamic Living

Christ is Victor

May/June 2010                                                                                        

Volume 23, Number 3

 

“God’s Kingdom”

           

We live in the times of streamlined management methods and well oiled organizational machinery. We like to think that we can improve vastly even upon God’s wisdom. This is nothing but unpardonable conceit.

Businessmen that run their business superbly are voted into leadership and church boards, and they feel certain that the church will be run thereafter on a very fine financial basis. Businessmen may know how to run their business; but the living God knows better how to run His church. In fact, it is a great misconception to think that we are running and managing the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says, “And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily” (Acts 16:5). Let us notice the order. The people were first established in holy living. In the 15th chapter, the council of the church decreed that they ‘abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.’ Here was God’s regimen to practice holy living. Communion with God would not be possible if these men would once again turn to idolatrous practices or fornication. When any church cleanses itself and begins to walk in obedience to God, there will be blessed increase. Then all focus of attention will be upon the ways and means to exalt the Living Savior. When your heart is full of the desire to glorify Jesus, then many distractions and frivolous and foolish vanities will be just kept far from you. Your spirit is in touch with God and your soul becomes sharp to seek the lost. Thus it automatically follows that sinners are continually transformed and churches too spring up in new and hard areas and soul winning activity extends even to remote and hitherto unreached places.

It is most unfortunate that most people imagine that it is money which does God’s work. I must emphasize that this is not true. On the contrary, as money and an abundance of things come into one’s possession, more and more, his spiritual life often takes a nosedive. Money can build buildings. Money can build costly monuments, and money can build impressive tombs. But money can never change the heart of one sinner. When people in the East see large numbers of men and women turning to Christ, or follow Christ, they immediately jump to the conclusion, that there must be a lot of money behind it all.

The Lord Jesus Christ did His work without even possessing on His person the money to pay off the taxman. He had to send Simon Peter to cast a hook in the sea and to collect the coin from the fish which he first caught. Peter and John went to pray in the temple with hardly a coin in their pockets which they could give to the lame man who laid at the gate of the temple. 5000 men got converted that day as a sequel to the miracle that took place in that lame man and the preaching of God’s word which followed.

Yes, God gave manna to His children daily according to their need. Today, we need daily a fresh measure of faith, love and holiness and then we shall see daily souls being added to the kingdom of God. A stalemate in any department of Christian life and activity is dangerous, unnatural and very disastrous. If we do not grow daily in faith, the devil will soon put us in a state of dread, uncertainty and inadequacy. If we do not gather in the Bread of Life every day at the feet of Jesus, the warmth of love and the fire will burn low and we don’t reach out to souls daily, our prayer will lose its ardor and our whole spiritual machinery will get rusty and even unusable.

—    Joshua Daniel

 

“Reality Check”

 

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23


“Battling Criticism”

 

Few preachers have experienced the kind of criticism that Charles H. Spurgeon did when he began his ministry in London. A steady stream of magazine articles and pamphlets examined the young preacher’s character, words, works, and motives, and most of them were anything but sympathetic. More than one writer expressed doubts that Spurgeon was even converted!

His sermons were called “trashy,” and he was compared to a rocket that would climb high and then suddenly drop out of sight! “What is he doing?” one writer asked. “Whose servant is he? What proof does he give that, instrumentally, his is a heart-searching, a Christ-exalting, a truth-unfolding, a sinner-converting, a church-feeding, a soul-saving ministry?”

At first this criticism deeply hurt Spurgeon, but then the Lord gave him peace and victory. Hearing slanderous reports of his character and ministry week after week could have led him into defeat; but he fell to his knees and prayed, “Master, I will not keep back even my character for Thee. If I must lose that, too, then let it go; it is the dearest thing I have, but it shall go if, like my Master, they shall say I have a devil, and am mad, or like Him, I am a drunken man and a wine-bibber.”

Mrs. Spurgeon, knowing the trials her husband was going through, prepared a wall-motto to hang in their room, with Matthew 5:11-12 as the text. “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” The Word of God did its work, and the preacher won the battle.

Luther was right when he said that “the love of a woman is a great help in days of discouragement; and blessed is that pastor’s wife who knows when her husband needs that extra touch of love and understanding.

-Selected

 

“Colgate”

 

The Colgate-Palmolive Company is one of the oldest in America, going back nearly two hundred years. It was started by a young man named William Colgate. He left home at sixteen years of age to seek his fortune, and everything that he owned in this world was tied in a bundle that he carried in his hand. But as he walked along on his way to the city, he met an old neighbor, the captain of a canal boat, and the words the old man spoke to him on that day stayed with him his entire life.

“Well, William, where are you going?” asked the canal-boat captain.

“I don’t know. Father is too poor to keep me at home any longer, and says I must make a living for myself now.” William went on to say that he had no skills, that he didn’t know how to do anything except make soap and candles.

“Well,” said the old man, “let me pray with you and give you a little advice.”

There in the pathway, the two of them—a teenager and an old man— knelt down and the man prayed earnestly for William. Then, rising up, the boat captain said this:

“Someone will soon be the leading soap maker in New York. It can be you as well as anyone. Be a good man; give your heart to Christ; give the Lord all that belongs to Him of every dollar you earn; make an honest soap; give a full pound; and I am certain you will yet be a prosperous and rich man.”

When William arrived in New York, he had trouble finding a job, but he followed the old man’s advice. He dedicated himself to Christ, joined a church, and began worshiping there. The first thing he did with the first dollar he earned was to give 10 percent of it to the Lord’s work. From that point on, he considered ten cents of every dollar as sacred to the Lord. In fact, he soon began giving 20 percent of his income to the Lord, and then he raised it to 30 percent, then to 40 percent, then to 50 percent. And late in his life, he had become so successful that he devoted the whole of his yearly income—100 percent of it—to the Lord.

And even today, this very morning, nearly two hundred years later, some of you brushed your teeth or washed your faces with products from that young man’s factory.

-Selected

 

“Sealed by the Holy Spirit”

 

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4.30)

 

When one is born again he is conceived and brought forth into the Kingdom by the mystic operation of the Holy Spirit—an operation on the mind and heart of a man. This is a transcendental and unreachable action of God which brings into a man Christ’s qualities. From that time on the Holy Spirit guides and sustains him and gives him the spiritual propensity of loving the company of God’s children. The likes and dislikes of man are compared to the likes and dislikes of the Holy spirit. 

The Holy Spirit brings under subjection the soul-forces and uses them for the extension of the Kingdom. The Holy Spirit takes control of your thoughts, imaginations, will, affections and desires and makes them those of God. If the flesh reigns in any region by resisting the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will be grieved. The Holy Spirit is leading you into a region where you can call God, “Abba Father.”

According to your obedience to the will of God, the Spirit of God takes control of you and your consciousness  of sonship will increase. It will be a thing well known to you that you are no longer your own. You are being guided and mastered by the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit will be seen in you. You will see the world around you being conquered by your thought and life, though it may oppose you in the beginning. Those around you will know, the way you have chosen is the better one and the true one. They will be convinced in their heart and will heed to your words. When? When you obey the Spirit, there will be such a harmony between your words and life which no one can resist. But we allow ourselves to be drawn by the world.

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29). Those things which do not edify others you need not utter. You do not throw a stone into a dirty pool to prove to others that it is dirty. It will splash on your clothes and on those around you. When we speak uncouth things, which do not edify others, it grieves the Holy Spirit. When I asked God if I should speak certain things, God said it was wrong even to ask such a thing. Blessed is the man who can put his tongue under the control of the Holy Spirit. Real success comes to us when we do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Your life will have a terrific impact on those around. A blind man ten miles away from an atomic explosion became conscious of the flash. The spiritual forces that begin to operate through us become mighty. “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:2,3).

If our Fellowship comes to this level, we need not be many. Let us aim at quality. I know that each of you wants your family members to be converted. Be true to God and pray for them and they will be converted. Pray without grieving the Holy Spirit. You must love your kith and kin. You must tell them in gentle words that they should be born again in a spirit of meekness, and not with a sense of spiritual superiority. They must know that the incongruities of their life can be set right by a supreme mind who knows all the complications of their life. Christian life finally resolves itself to utter obedience to the Word of God. This body is always a hindrance. Hitherto the spirit of the world was riding on it. Now that spirit tries to throw off the Holy Spirit that is ruling it. Christ had ultimately to obey the will of God on dying for sinners.

There had to be a concrete death. There had to be a concrete fulfillment of the Word of God. It is only in the spirit of prayer that a spirit of contrition can exist. A contrite heart is a teachable heart and becomes an obedient heart. In the spirit of prayer, transcendental forces come into operation. Miracles will become normal and you will become accustomed to them. Your presence will be felt wherever you go.

The powers of darkness will be disturbed wherever you go. Jesus knew that wherever He went, the powers of darkness would be disturbed and devil possessed people would scream and critics would speak out. There will always be critics on your way. You must not mind them. In our conversation and fellowship with others, let us not be led away or be pulled down by others. The field before you is too vast for any unnecessary waste of time. If a doctor has a hundred beds to visit, he cannot go on discussing politics with some visitor. He goes about his business till it is over. There are many spiritual patients for you in God’s mind. Before you finish your life you must attend to them.

Sundar Singh said, “For a man who prays, miracles are normal happenings.” Prayer must go beyond the reach of the mind to spiritual regions. The Holy Spirit will take you to those regions where things not available in the lower levels are made available for you. Once you are converted you must know that you have made a great discovery and started to possess the treasury of God. It is so vast you cannot see it all. You must maintain your spiritual life at all costs. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.

-N. Daniel

 

“Anesthesia”

 

Imagine surgery before the day of anesthesia. Patients were strapped down while scalpel and saw cut through tissue and bone, every slice and turn of the knife causing unimaginable pain.

One Christian physician determined to do something about it. Sir James Young Simpson (1811—1870) practiced medicine in Scotland. He became Senior President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh when only twenty-four, and in time received virtually every possible honor and position. He dreamed of finding a way of putting patients to sleep during surgery. On Monday evenings, Simpson periodically invited small groups of physicians to his home to experiment with chemicals, crystals, and powders, which were placed over a burning brazier while the doctors inhaled the fumes. Nothing worked until November 4, 1847.

One of the men had purchased a crystal called chloroform in Paris. As the doctors sniffed the burning substance, they fell to the floor unconscious. Simpson had his answer, but he soon encountered another problem. He was attacked by fellow Christians who claimed that pain was a God-ordained part of life. Freedom from pain comes only in heaven, and it is immoral to devise dangerous ways of escaping it on earth!

Sir James went to the Scriptures, seeking answers. He no sooner opened his Bible then he came to this verse: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.” Carefully studying the text, Simpson wrote an article entitled, “Answer to the Religious Objections Advanced Against the Employment of Anesthetic Agents in Midwifery and Surgery.” He ended his paper saying, “We may rest fully assured that whatever is true on point of fact or humane and merciful in point of practice, will find no condemnation in the Word of God.”

His critics were silenced, and a new day dawned in medical science.

-Selected

 

This newsletter is produced six times per year by the Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship International. It is printed and distributed in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, Canada, and Australia and is supported by unsolicited sacrificial gifts of young people. For a free subscription or for other enquiries, please contact any of the addresses below.

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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