For Those Seeking The Truth & Dynamic Living

Christ is Victor

July/August 2003                                                                                Volume 16, Number 4

“Thus It Must Be”

 

“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”

    

     There was a “Thus it must be,” about the Lord.  All who are chosen of God or called of God have also a very definite purpose which has been appointed by the Lord. You and I must say to ourselves "How can I fail to submit to the purposes of God? How can I?  My Lord had a great purpose and He was going to bring it to pass through His death. The Scriptures say so. And how can I fail to submit to this plan of God? How can I fail to submit to the Scriptures?" If we had this attitude,  how  much power we would wield for God! "Lord, I am going to obey your Word whatever it costs me!"  The outcome of such obedience nobody can measure.

     The Lord said, "It is within my power to try to find an alternative. I can ask My Father and He will give Me twelve legions of angels. But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled?" We usually try to find alternatives to Scriptures- some kind of self-justification for self-chosen paths:  "I could not help but do like this." People find it so difficult to submit! Some of you are teachers.  I do hope, you submit to your headmaster or headmistress. But if you do not submit, if you are going to display your insubordination, you will get a black mark in your service record.  You do not want a black mark and perhaps to avoid it, you submit. It is not a willing whole-hearted submission. It is a submission to avoid a black mark.

     But submission to God and God's word is very different. An awful strug­gle may take place in your heart. But God brings you to a place where you willingly, whole-heartedly submit to Him.  If you do not come to that point, God cannot use you in a full measure.

      I think many people have come to this point—“Well, I shall submit to God willingly and whole-heartedly!  If I do not submit, there will be some setbacks, some difficulties. But if I submit whole-heartedly then it is the end of my self-life. Then I must forget life.”  The devil may be telling you such things: “If you submit completely you must forget life itself.” No. You must always attack the devil with the Word of God. Then you can silence him.  The Bible says, “He that loseth his life for My sake and for the gospel, will find it.” You must tell the devil, “Devil, you are telling me, my life is finished.  But Jesus says, I will find life. I will believe Jesus rather than believe you.” Will you submit to God with all your heart?

     Obedience to Christ, to the simplicity of Christ will make you see great things. Jesus saw Peter’s defense with his sword as an attempt to annul God’s plans. “If I do not obey God, how then can the Scriptures be fulfilled?” We had better ask God that question. “If I fail God at this juncture, if I disobey God in His call, if I disobey God in self-denial and sacrifice, how then will God’s purpose to save millions of people, be fulfilled?”

     Can you think of an alternative? Can you think of a way without the cross? Can you think of a world without the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus? I shudder even to think of such a possibility.  Can you then imagine the magnitude of failure when you refuse to fulfill God’s word?

We cannot bear to think what would have happened if my father had not obeyed God. To thousands of us it would have been uninterrupted dark­ness, unmitigated misery. My father's obedience was not an unwilling obedience. My father was whole-hearted in his obedience to God. We see the example of our Lord who first obeyed God in that fashion. “Come on, Peter, put your sword in its sheath. How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?”

I do not know how many thousands of people are going to say, “What would have happened if this sister had not obeyed God? The devil’s purpose is always to try and spoil God’s purposes, plans and His will. While we believe in the sovereignty of the Lord, we must not forget that the devil was trying to thwart even Jesus Christ our Lord in the beginning of His ministry.

So the devil will be after you and after me. “You obeyed up to this point. That is enough. Do not go all the way to the cross.” That is what the devil is trying to do with many of us. And this is the time to emphatically say “No” to the devil and “Yes” to the Lord: “Yes, Lord. I will go all the way. I will fulfill all Your Word.” How wonderful that will be! If all of us wholly fulfill God’s will for our lives, what a glorious victory we are going to see!

-Joshua Daniel

The Prayer of Faith Answered

     I arrived at Mewry one Saturday evening, soon after I came to the Charlemount circuit, and was informed that I must visit a lady who was supposed to be dying, as soon as I could make it convenient. I was informed that she had been ill a considerable time of a dropsical complaint, and had often expressed a wish to converse with our people, and especially to be visited by our preachers; but her husband had refused his consent, dreading the reproach that he thought would follow. He was a Socinian, and a man of some eminence in the town, and in his congregation; but the hopeless case of a wife that he loved had at length roused him to comply with her wishes.

     I accordingly went, and was introduced to a most interesting person; a young lady whose every look seemed to say, “who will show me any good?” Her swollen state, with the emaciation of her still beautiful countenance, proclaimed her case to be desperate; and two most lovely children added to the afflictive scene.

     Her husband, a fine young man, hung over her with every appearance of strong affection; but I could perceive that there was a feeling concerning me that was not comfortable. I spoke to the lady as to a dying person, and in a way that I supposed he would perhaps account enthusiastic.

     But I was encouraged to hope for the sufferer, as I found she was indeed “poor in spirit”. We engaged in prayer, but I think I never felt myself so embarrassed. I attempted to pray for her as a dying person, but could hardly utter a sentence without hesitation. My prayer had, indeed, no wings; and the thought that the husband was watching over me, so greatly added to my embarrassment, that I thought I must give over.

     At length the thought of her recovery came with strange force into my mind, and I ventured to indulge it. Immediately words poured  upon me faster than I could utter them. I felt that was indeed "the prayer of faith," which. St. James says, "shall save the sick." I seemed to claim in her behalf a return to life at the Lord's hand. I at length  concluded;  but was almost immediately tempted to think  I had given way to a delusion  that  would render me ridiculous, and do harm to unprepared minds.

     I took my leave, the afflicted lady requesting that I would soon call again; and the husband, with an astonished countenance, was hardly able to utter even the common civilities usual at parting.

On returning to my quarters, I had some very  painful  thoughts;  fearing that the tender mind of the  sufferer might be wounded by the remarks that would probably be made,  in such a family,  upon my  visionary  conduct. The hope of her recovery seemed, how­ever, to abide with me; but I thought I would keep it to myself, and pray for her in the family, as for a dying person. But it was in vain.

The same strong influence set my prudence at defiance; and I was con­strained to ask life for her as at her own habitation, to the great amaze­ment of my pious host and his family.

     On the Lord’s Day evening after the services were over. I again visited my patient, and again amazed all who were assembled by the strange confi­dence and importunity of my faith. I took leave of her, however,  with a strong exhortation to fix her mind on the divine atonement,  and to aim, at conformity to the Son of God in His prayer to the Father-- "Not my will but thine be done."

     I returned in my course, at the end of six weeks, and found my very am­iable sufferer in a state rather beyond convalescence, and a member of the society! The husband had dismissed all opposition; he received me with joy, and expressed his gratitude in strong terms. He would have me to dine with him; and I made one of a very hap­py family. In the afternoon I met my recovering patient at the class, all al­ive to the things which make for our peace.

     She made swift progress, and soon rejoiced in “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of her sins."

-Life of Rev. H. Moore

Reality Check

 

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  James 5:16

 

The Reason Why

(An article from John Woodbridge’s “More Than conquerors”)

 

     Dunedin, in the deep south of New Zealand, was largely settled by immigrants from Scotland. One such was Robert Laidlaw, who in 1886 came with his wife and their firstborn son, Robert Junior. The Laidlaws, both earnest Christians, brought up their six children in the knowledge and love of god. So when young Robert left school at the age of sixteen and commenced his business career as a junior clerk in the firm Laidlaw and Gray, Hardware Merchants, he already had a good many Bible texts stored up in his mind, but no heart commitment to Christ. It was a year later, in the Torey Alexander Mission, that he opened his heart to the Lord.

     It was no emotional flash in the pan for Robert Laidlaw. It was a deliberate choice, which set the course for the rest of his life. Two years later, after the rest of the family had moved to Auckland, nineteen-year-old Robert took the position of senior wholesale traveler, covering the provinces of Otago and Southland. He did so with some trepidation. Those were hard-drinking days, and commercial travelers were expected to scour clients in local pubs.

     In later life, Laidlaw never tired of relating the story of his first meeting with one client, a blacksmith by the name Nat Bates. When he arrived, Bates was shoeing a Clydesdale draught stallion which was kicking violently. {perspiration was running off the smithy’s face, and the air was sulphurous with his oaths. Presently he remarked, “I don’t hear you swearing, young fellow.” “No, Mr. Bates,” Robert replied, “I don’t swear. I get along fairly well with the King’s English.”

     A bit later, “Don’t you smoke, young fellow?” “No, Mr. Bates, I don’t smoke either. And in a minute you will ask me if I drink, and I will say, ‘No. Mr. Bates, I don’t drink.’ ” With tongs in his left hand the blacksmith was holding the red-hot shoe on the horn of the anvil, and his right hand raised his hammer. He stopped as though petrified, then he put down the hammer on the anvil, and placing his big, dirty, sweaty hand on Robert’s shoulder, said, “Stick to it, laddie. Stick to it.”

     During his travels, Robert came across a Montgomery Ward mail-order business in New Zealand. His opportunity came in 1909, after he had rejoined his family in Auckland. For several months he worked arduously, preparing what he hopefully called “Laidlaw Leeds Catalogue No. 1” of 125 pages, and then opened up for business in a rented room, twenty by thirty feet. The catalogue claimed to supply everything in the wide world, underwear to groceries, cosmetics to farm equipment, and all at bargain-basement prices. The response to something completely new to largely agricultural New Zealand was electric. Orders poured in. The rented room was soon too small. Three times within seventeen months Laidlaw Leeds had to move to larger premises.

     By 1913 accommodation was critical. A large site was purchased, and Auckland’s largest commercial building was erected. It had five stories and a basement, total floor space of over seven and a half acres. The firm opened in the new premises in April 1914, three months before World War I broke out. It was four and a half years since the first order from Catalogue No. 1 had been received. In 1918 it was merged with the Farmer’s Union Trading company, with Robert Laidlaw as General Manager, a post which he held for over fifty years.

     Robert Laidlaw was a successful businessman. But that was not the most important thing to Robert. He was called to be a businessman for God. In his youth, soon after his conversion, he made an entry in his diary, promising to give ten percent of all he earned to God’s work, and to increase that proportion on a graduated scale if his income increased. And later, when the Laidlaw Leeds business was starting to boom, he duly made a fresh entry in his diary: “September 1919, age twenty-five. I have decided to change my earlier graduated scale, and start now giving half (fifty percent) of all my earnings.”

     This he maintained for the remaining sixty years of his life, setting up the Bethesda Charitable Trust, which through the years dispersed countless thousands of dollars to all sorts of missionary outreach and evangelism.

     Evangelism was always close to Robert’s heart. In 1913, when Charles Alexander conducted a mission in Auckland Town Hall, Laidlaw asked his associate missioner, Wilber Chapman, to address a special noon-day meeting for his staff, now numbering about two hundred. When introducing Dr. Chapman, Laidlaw told his staff about his own conversion, and said, “I cannot speak to each one of you individually about your relationship to Jesus Christ, so I promise to write in detail the reason why I am a Christian.” To keep that promise he wrote “The Reason Why”, which is perhaps the most effective evangelistic tract ever written. It is a forty-six page booklet. Translated into thirty languages, with more than twenty million copies sold or given away, this little book has been instrumental in helping many hundreds of thousands of people “clinch the deal” with Jesus Christ.

     Robert Laidlaw was always eager to speak for Christ. As Oswald Sanders recalls, “He was the only New Zealander I knew in those days who could go into an evangelistic rally in any Town Hall in New Zealand and pack it out. Robert always thanked God for the privilege of using his life to win men and women to Jesus Christ.

 

“ Raincoats, Watches and Fountain Pens”

 

     Men like Billy Bray are few and far between.  The tragedy is seen in lost and dying souls.  Unbelievers who look at us often see only wavering, doubt-filled Christians.  James proclaimed “… ask in faith nothing wavering…”  (James 1:6).  Moffat translates this, “…let him ask in faith with never a doubt…”  True prayer, powerful prayer, is doubt-less prayer.

     Rees Howells lived doubt-less faith.  He became a dedicated twentieth-century intercessor, establishing orphanages and a Bible school during the trying years of World War II.  In “Rees Howells: Intercessor” a masterpiece by Norman Grubb, Howells’ stirring story of doubt-less faith in action is related.

     Once Mr. Howells made ready his departure for Africa as a missionary.  He and his partner were ready to board a train for London to make connections with an ocean-going vessel for the lengthy journey.  They had only ten shillings between them, enough to take them twenty miles on the train. 

     “We felt sure the money would come so we went to the platform to wait for its arrival,” relates Howells.  “The time for the train to depart came and we decided to go as far as possible.”

     Leaving the train twenty miles later, they met friends who invited them to breakfast.  Surely, thought Howells, God had sent these friends to pay the way, but departure time arrived and no offers of financial aid were given.

     Rees Howells testified, “The Spirit spoke to me and said, ‘If you had the money what would you do?’”

     “’Well, are you not preaching that My promises are equal to the need?  You had better take your place in the line.’”

     Rees Howells stood in line as if he had the money for the ticket.  “When there were only two before me,” related Howells, “a man stepped out of the crowd and said, ‘ I’m sorry I can’t wait any longer… I must open my shop.’  He said good-bye and put thirty shillings in my hand.” 

     This indeed was a remarkable victory, as Satan did all he could to place the obstacle of unbelief before Howells.  Each time Satan came, however, Howells’ faith defeated the devil’s arduous attempts.  Time and again God blessed Howells with added extras because of unwavering faith.

     Upon arriving at the dock, to leave for Africa, these missionaries had everything for their trip except three small items.  They each needed a watch, a raincoat and a fountain pen.  They had not mentioned these needs to anyone.  Before leaving, a friend asked, “What kind of watches have you?  My son wants to supply both of you with a watch.”

     Amazingly his next question was, “Have you prepared for the rainy seasons in Africa by getting raincoats?”  When Howells replied negatively the friend wrote an address informing them to pick up two fine raincoats at his expense.  Finishing writing the address, he asked, “Have you seen this kind of fountain pen?”

     “No,”  Howells replied, and immediately each was given a new fountain pen.  How accurate are the words of Paul, “…even God… calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17).

     Can you imagine Rees Howells’ joy as each need was provided through believing prayer?

-   Selected.

“Watch and Pray”

“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the son of man.”

 

     “Watch ye therefore, and pray always.”  How is this possible for a student?  How is this possible for a working-man?  God trains the subconscious to be always in communion with Him.  This undercurrent in us unites us with all the saints.  Your prayer exercises at set times are there to keep your subconscious always connected with God.

     In Rangoon, in the river Irawady, there is an undercurrent.  The ships on the surface are not affected by it.  But if a man falls in, he is dragged away by the undercurrent and therefore he cannot be rescued.  In spiritual life also there is such a thing- an undercurrent of prayer.  Your subconscious is always in prayer.  Even in your dreams there will be an undercurrent of prayer. 

     In Kolar Gold Fields, they never stop the engines.  Once these machines stop, it takes six months to reheat them.  So they are always at work.  A praying man, when he grows in exercising himself in prayer, has this undercurrent of prayer always.  You must come to this stage.  Nothing comes to such a one as a shock.  Everything is revealed before hand.  There is a mystic communion with the Divine Spirit and you pray the mind of God.

     “Watch and pray.”  This can also be put this way:  Watch about what you pray.  Is it for worldly, selfish things?  Come up to higher things and God says that He will take care of the lower, mundane things.

     Watch how you pray.  With what attitude?  Is it a self-complacent, self-satisfied attitude?  You must always be a broken man.  Do you pray without the strain of sin?

     Watch when you pray.  Are you too lazy to get up and pray?  Do you want God to follow you rather than your following God’s way and the way of the saints?

     How much are you praying?  How deep is your prayer?  How deep is your desire?  How earnest is your desire?  Are you one with the mind of God?  You must always pray earnestly for what you pray, and in oneness with the mind of God.  To what extent are you one with us?  Then man on the battle field and the man in the ammunition factory are engaged in the same thing.  One cannot exist without the other.  You who are praying are working with us who go out to do the revival work.  We have to pray more.  We must be equal to the need.  Are we going to conquer or be defeated?  What is the amount of fight you are putting into prayer?

-Late Mr. N. Daniel

 

 “My Mother Prayed”

 

     Someone has said, “God’s best men and women have been reared by a mother’s prayers and views, and a father’s solemn consecration.  Blessed indeed, is the life of a man or woman, boy or girl, who has been heralded into the world not only by pain but also by prayer- their advent prefaced by the hand of a father or mother laying hold upon God.”

     Nine lovely children of the Scudder family served Christ as missionaries because a mother prayed.  Mr. Scudded reflects, “Our children were literally prayed into the Kingdom by their mother.”  Mrs. Scudder had a custom of spending each child’s birthday in prayer. 

     Impact of a praying mother is certainly seen in John Newton’s life.  Friends say he learned to pray beside his mother’s knee, where prayer’s influence became staggering.  His mother died when John was only eight years old, but the impact of her testimony never departed.  Once when lost at sea he simply prayed, “My mother’s God, thou God of mercy, have mercy upon me.”

     From youth I recall the manner in which I awoke for school.  No alarm was set to wake me.  Daily at 6:00 A.M. the cry of prayer would rouse me from sleep.  It was mother praying again.  Looking back at my youthful years, I do not remember all the schools I attended, nor the names of my teachers.  The names of most of my early friends have vanished from my memory.  Many things are vague in my memory save one fact which is vividly clear.  Mother prayed!  And she prayed persistently.  Her prayers were never voiced in swift and careless fashion.  Many hours drifted away in tear-filled rivers while mother prayed.  The result is the family of ministers.  Every child grew to serve God.  Each has his special ministry- a clear result of persistent prayer.

- selected from Dick Eastman’s ‘No Easy Road’

 

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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