“Forgiveness with God”

“Christ's blood draws us near to God and others”
His blood paid for our sins!

“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

Made nigh by the Blood of Christ! Is this an easy matter? Gone are the days when people earnestly sought God. And particularly in India, to what remote regions they went, executing dangerous journeys in order to meet with God! I saw many pilgrims going to Kashmir. It was said that in one of the caves, there was a kind of replica or a kind of image of God formed in ice and it was drawing thousands of people into an atmosphere which was fraught with danger, because the people of Kashmir did not want to have anything to do with Hinduism. But quite amusingly, that summer proved to be exceeding warm and that god melted away! My dear people, superstition always has its hold on people. But truth frees us from all bondages. Superstition fills us with fears. Superstition does not bring us to God. It is only the Blood of Jesus which brings us nigh unto God.

Change of government is not going to bring change of heart. Certain new administrative laws will replace the old ones. Being brought nigh to God is quite another matter. People talk of enlightenment. But can all your culture and education bring you nigh to God? No. We had a cook in my boyhood home. Oh, how he would pray! He had a little room next to the kitchen and the voice of prayer would rise from there. He was a Hindu and had driven away his wife, but did not know the injustice he was guilty of. The Lord Jesus met him and told him: “Send away this woman who is not your wife and take back your real wife.” Without the Blood, righteousness will not be there to cleanse us from all our sins.

The Bible says: “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another” (1 John 1:7). The Blood of Christ which brings us nigh to God brings us nigh to our brothers too. The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins and then we have fellowship with one another.

This Fellowship [which publishes this magazine] began way back in 1935, and it was called the Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship, meaning it is a common man’s fellowship. It was a strange name in those days. Today after 79 years, we see men of so many languages and from across the globe, having fellowship with one another. If you don’t have any fellowship with people around you, you are not cleansed by the Blood and you are not walking in the light. What an evil thing you are doing!

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). That is our Saviour—a cleanser, one who creates in us love for each other. The devil’s mission is to create some cleavage by some useless talk. I don’t know how many of you have summoned enough courage to rebuke such people: “Why do you talk wasteful and negative things here?” Please do so. Children, I tell you, when there is useless talk in your home, especially criticism against God’s children, say to your parents lovingly and respectfully, “What you are doing is not right.” When the devil comes into the house through such negative talk against God’s children, you must not keep quiet. One paralytic man, when he was seated on his chair, saw a big cobra entering the house. Though he was a paralytic, he could not keep his seat and attempted to rise up to kill the snake. That is how one reacts when one sees a cobra. But when the cobra of negative talk enters your heart or house, what should you do? You should rise up and kill the cobra, i.e., kill that negative or evil talk by rebuking such people and thus get rid of the poison quickly. When we are brought nigh to God, we are brought nigh to each other and all negativity and evil talk disappear.

“… for thou [Jesus] wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Yes, we are redeemed by His Blood. From the beginning of this Fellowship, we have depended on God’s promises. My father would sing:

Sin shall not have dominion over you.
Oh! What a blessed word, and it is true
Sin shall not have dominion over you.

We are redeemed by the Blood and we should not allow sin to have dominion over us.

We read in Revelation 12:10: “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” Some people continue the work of the devil today. They say, “He is wrong, she is wrong.” In their eyes, everybody is wrong. Well, does it mean you are the only one who is right with God? People write some long letters to me. They write about the sins of others. Rarely do I find one admission of their own wrongdoing in that letter. Is that honesty? No. Such people should not be allowed to take our time. They are accusers of brothers and sisters like the devil. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:11) .

We overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb. It is not just yoga or some self-reformed system or just the exercise of the will power. All these will fail. But they overcame Satan by the Blood and by the word of their testimony. So it is the Blood of Jesus that brings us nigh to God. It is the Blood that cleanses us and brings freedom between brother and brother. It is the Blood that redeems. It is the Blood by which we overcome. We must go forward claiming the victory of the Blood.

—Joshua Daniel

“Reality Check”

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake (Psalm 79:9).

“Eternity”

Eternity: the forever beyond this life.

Deprivation marked the young life of Arthur Stace, born in 1884 in Sydney, Australia. His parents and four siblings were alcoholics, and while they drank, Arthur would curl up at night on bags under the house. He would steal milk off doorsteps, rummage through garbage for food, and shoplift. He did not go to school and was unable to read and write.

A wandering drunk, Arthur was first put into prison at the young age of 15. He had managed to find work in a coal mine but the first pay cheque was spent in a hotel; the job did not last long. After prison, Arthur worked on the criminal scene: small in size, he acted as a “cockatoo” (one who warns of approaching police) for illegal gambling dens, as a scout and alcohol courier for his sisters’ brothels, and as a lookout for burglary gangs.

In 1916, Arthur joined in the First World War effort and served in France. Yet he returned partially blind in one eye and suffering the effects of poisoned gas. During the 1920s until the middle of the Great Depression, Arthur’s alcoholism worsened. Homeless, dirty, and unhappy, he would beg for money to buy a bottle of menthylated spirits. It seemed to block out his woes for a while.

Arthur later told a reporter that in 1930 he appeared before the Central Court again. “Do you not know that I have power to put you in Long Bay jail or the power to set you free?” the magistrate said. “Yes, Sir,” Arthur replied. One word from the magistrate’s question stuck with Arthur: “power”. It was “power” he needed to break free from drink. Time and again he had signed the Pledge but it was of little use. One day he walked to Regent Street Police Station and begged a sergeant to lock him up: “Sergeant, put me away. I am no good, and I haven’t been sober for eight years. Give me a chance, and put me away.”

One summer day that year, Arthur passed by a church where some fellow alcoholics were waiting. Free food would apparently be served at the church hall—a precious gift in the 1930s. Yet first one had to listen to a message.

The hall contained about 300 grubby-looking men, mostly down-and-outs. Yet Arthur was intrigued by six clean men sitting on the stage. Turning to a notorious criminal beside him, he asked, “Who are they?” “I’d reckon they’d be Christians,” was the reply. “Well look at them and look at us,” Arthur said, “I’m having a go at what they’ve got.” Sliding down on his knees, Arthur prayed. His life was in a mess and he needed help.

After the service, Arthur made his way to a park and knelt down by a fig tree. He repented of his sins toward God and received Christ Jesus as the sin-bearer for his sins and as his Saviour. Peace entered in. In a few weeks, Arthur was free from alcohol. His life had been transformed. Soon he found a job and began to earn honest money.

Some two years later, Arthur heard the preacher John G. Ridley give a powerful message based on a text from the prophet Isaiah (eighth-century BC): “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” “Eternity,” declared the preacher, “I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. You've got to meet it, where will you spend Eternity?”

Arthur decided he had to share his faith. “Eternity went ringing through my brain,” he said, “and suddenly I began crying and felt a powerful call from the Lord to write Eternity.” In a supernatural way, God granted this illiterate man the ability to write the word “eternity” (later spelt with a capital “E”) in a beautiful, elegant copperplate script.

At 4.00 a.m., Arthur would wake up and pray about where he should start his mission. He would then take a yellow chalk and crouching down every few yards, write “eternity” on the pavements of Sydney. He would also write at train station entrances, wherever he could think of. By 10.00 a.m. he would finish and set off for work. It has been estimated that he wrote the word “eternity” 500,000 times over the course of 35 years.

Sydney City Council was not keen on the defacement of pavements. Arthur came close to arrest on 24 occasions. Yet whenever he was caught he would say, “But I had permission from a higher source.” He became known as “the man who writes eternity” and as “Mr. Eternity”. Few knew the identity of this one-word sermon writer, until the pastor of the church where he worked as a cleaner discovered him.

Arthur died in 1967 at the age of 83. He was a shy man but began to preach from a street corner on Saturday nights. If asked what he was doing, he would explain that humankind was made by God for eternal life. Whether that life was spent in Heaven or Hell was the Big Question.

Arthur’s “Eternity” tag in distinctive yellow is still chalked inside the bell of the GPO clock tower in Sydney. On the eve of the Millennium (2000), the gigantic, fiery letters of the word “Eternity” in Arthur’s God-given script blazed across Sydney Harbour Bridge. This tribute to him was seen by billions around the world.

Friend, where will you spend eternity?

“Prayer meeting in a schoolroom”

Revival is when God comes down through His Spirit to save people from their sins. In 1857-8, such a revival came to Connecticut. A young boy named Michael was converted to following God.

Michael desired others to know about the wonder of belonging to God. He did not want to be a passive Christian, or simply on the defensive for his faith; he really wanted to see his friends turning to Christ.

To that end, Michael announced that a lunch-time prayer-meeting would take place in the school house. Some of the children were curious, others wished to tease him. Michael would select songs, read a passage of Scripture, and pray aloud. He tried to convey the Gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ—to the other pupils. Some listened, others ridiculed.

One day, the teacher checked on the pupils inside the school house. Seeing Michael’s determination and desire to help the others, he told off those who only attended to disturb. Soon some of the children became anxious about their souls and repented of their sins. The Lord saved them.

This had an impact on parents who noticed the change in their children: they were more obedient and quick to ask for forgiveness when they did wrong. Parents began to join the little prayer meetings and sought God’s mercy. Christian ministers came to see and later took over. About sixty people received salvation.

In the simplest of ways, God uses His children to save more souls from eternal punishment. “The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

—See Diana Kleyn, Sowing the Seed

“The power of the bended knee”

Birds go to sleep on their perches, but they never fall off. This is because of the tendons in the bird’s legs. They are so constructed that when the leg is bent at the knee the claws contract and grip like a steel trap. The claws refuse to let go until the knees are unbent again. The bended knee gives the bird the ability to hold on to his perch so tightly.

Isn’t this also the secret of the holding power of the Christian? Daniel [one of God’s people taken captive to Persia in the seventh century BC] found this to be true. Surrounded by a pagan environment, tempted to compromise with evil, urged to weaken his grip on God, he refused to let go. He held firm when others faltered because he was a man of prayer. He knew the power of the bended knee.

From sleeping birds we can learn the secret of holding things which are most precious to us: honesty, purity, thoughtfulness, honour,and character. That secret is the knee bent in prayer, seeking to get a firmer grip on those values, which make life worth living. When we hold on firmly to God in prayer, we can rest assured that He will hold on tightly to us.

“A mother healed”

C. T. and Priscilla Studd were a couple who served God in a number of countries, including China in the late nineteenth century. They desired that people know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. C. T. opened an opium refuge for victims of the drug, some of whom went away saved and cured.

When Priscilla was due to expect their first child, there was no doctor or nurse within days. They had decided not to move closer to a doctor in preparation for the baby’s birth; it could cost five months of time away from where they were serving Jesus. Why not have Dr. Jesus?

The Lord helped Priscilla to be her own doctor at the time of birth, and an assistant prayed for them. A lady missionary later arrived and helped with nursing but there was a relapse. Something went wrong and Priscilla suffered fearfully.

Miss Kerr, who had joined them, tried all she could but Priscilla grew weaker and weaker. Miss Kerr told C.T.: “She is just breaking up altogether and can never live in China. You had better take her home, if she can come through this.” C. T. was then awoken from his sleep of sorrow, anxiety, and tiredness. “We will give our lives out here willingly,” he declared, “but we will not go home unless the Lord distinctly sends us home.”

C. T. felt that God must hear and heal; they had trusted Him and He is faithful. C. T. said: “Well, let us anoint [Priscilla] and ask God to raise her up.” (The Bible says in James 5:14-16: “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.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.”)

Miss Kerr did not join in, but C. T. knelt down and anointed his wife in the name of the Lord with oil. The trouble ceased immediately.

When Miss Kerr came to nurse Priscilla in the morning, she found her to be well. Priscilla told her that C. T. had anointed her and prayed, and Miss Kerr’s response was “Well, it is marvellous”.

“[A]lthough we are poor sinners and nothing at all,” C. T. later declared, “the Lord nevertheless hears us when we cry”.

—See Norman Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer

About Us

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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