The Shattered Interlock
God warned Adam: "In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17).
Did Adam die physically on the day when he fell to satan's temptation and ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? No, Adam did not die physically until he was more than nine hundred years of age. But when he defied and disobeyed God that day in the Garden of Eden, Adam did indeed die. What kind of death was it?
Death in the absence of life. What life did Adam lose that day? The Life of God! God withdrew His Holy Spirit from Adam's spirit. This was spiritual death.
As we have seen, God intended that a threefold moral interlock should govern our relationship to God and God's relationship to us.
1. Our love for God, reciprocating His love for us. The love is evidenced exclusively by -
2. Our dependence on God, because He created us in such a way that His presence is indispensable to our humanity and true function. This dependence can be expressed only by -
3. Our obedience to God.
This threefold moral interlock on that day in the Garden of Eden when man believed the devil's lie, the lie that man can somehow be man without God; that the Creator is not indispensable to the creature, that we can carve our own destiny, be kind in our own kingdom, be our own god.
At this point of moral option, Adam fell, and at once things went wrong and have been going wrong ever since.
Picture in your mind a beehive (to take one example in the amazing vastness of the animal kingdom) when tens of thousands of bees all operate by instinct in performing their particular jobs - the queen bee who lays eggs, plus the scout bees, the worker bees, the nurse bees, the guard bees, and others. They all carry out their individual tasks by God's design for the continuing health and propagation of the hive.
Now imagine that one day the rigid interlock between the instinctive thrust and each bee's soul suddenly snapped. All at once it was every bee for himself. What would happen?
The result, of course, would be anarchy, chaos, and self-destruction, which is precisely what has been evidenced in the history of mankind all down through the centuries. Through satan's lying subdery, mankind embarked upon the mad experiment of disobedience and human self-sufficiency, in which we are still today so heavily and tragically involved, with all its terrible consequences.
Without God, we are like an animal, only worse. God did not create man to be an animal, governed only by instinct. Our "natural" man, who we are in our flesh, is void of true spirituality.
As heirs to a fallen Adam, we are born without any conscious sense either of a relationship with God or a capacity to have that relationship, even though this lack leaves instinctively a religious longing within us. Inherently we know there is a sort of vacuum inside which we try to fill with anything and everything apart from God Himself (Ephesians 4:17-18), with full cooperation from satan.
It is amazing with what enthusiasm human beings are prepared to allow their humanity to be prostituted by the devil! Nevertheless, though they seek to justify themselves and be persuaded of the virtue of their actions, there is still an intangible restlessness within that leaves them baffled and perplexed.
Are there such moments of perplexity in your life - a restless soul whispering that all is not well with you?
"You should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindn4ess of their hearts" (Ephesians 4:17-18).
~W. Ian Thomas~
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Saturday, April 21, 2018
Classic Christian Authors # 1
Classic Christian Authors # 1
Hellish sin! Stupendous wickedness! Monstrous impiety!
(Thomas Doolittle, "Love to Christ Necessary to Escape the Curse at His Coming!")
"If any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ--he shall be accursed!" 1 Corinthians 16:22
What! not love the Lord! Hellish sin!
What! not love Jesus! Stupendous wickedness!
What! not love Christ! Monstrous impiety!
Not love Him who is both Lord, and Jesus, and Christ! What name might we call him by?
Is he a man--or a beast?
Is he a man--or a devil?
Do you love the world--and not Him? Do you love sin--and not him? This may be . . .
the astonishment of the heavens,
the amazement of the earth,
the wonder of angels,
the joy of devils,
the burden of the creation of God.
The earth groans to bear them;
the sun is grieved to give light unto them;
the air laments to be sucked into sin-filthy bodies, wherein are more filthy souls--because they are void of the love of Christ! Yes, all this world looks more like Hell than Heaven, because of the swarms of men therein who have no sincere love to Jesus Christ.
Let all who are not sensual beasts, or incarnate devils--who have the understanding and hearts of men--stand and wonder--that a man should deny Christ his love. Good Lord! What a thing is this! What cursed wickedness is this! What wonder that you behold such a sight as this--a man without love unto your Son--and allow him to continue to be a man; or do not make him . . .
a sick man,
a poor man,
a tormented pained man on earth,
or a damned man in Hell!
When once I had got a view of Christ's transcendent loveliness!
(Thomas Doolittle, "Love to Christ Necessary to Escape the Curse at His Coming!")
The prophet Isaiah, speaking of graceless men as disliking, not desiring, nor loving Christ--brings them in as saying, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him!" Isaiah 53:2
What! No loveliness in Him who is "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person!" Yes! there was, there is--but they had no eyes to see it! It is as if a blind man should say that the sun is dark, because he has no eyes to behold it's light. It was, because in seeing--they did not see. How could they look upon Him with an eye of love--when they did not discern Him with an eye of faith?
But a holy soul, whose eyes are divinely opened, so sees that superlative goodness, beauty, and excellency in Christ--that all other things, which are good with an inferior goodness, seem to him as dross and dung! "But whatever was to my profit, I now consider lossfor the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things! I consider them rubbish," things cast to dogs, or dog's-food, "that I may gain Christ!" Philippians 3:7-8
The holy man, whose mind is savingly enlightened, can say: I see that goodness in the Savior, which far surpasses all the goodness of the creature! Though the stars in the coldest night might be seen--yet when the sun arises, they all disappear. Just so, in the night of ignorance, when my mind was blind, my heart hard, and my affections frozen--I was bewitched with the goodness of riches, of honors, and of worldly pleasures. Yet when the Sun of righteousness with His radiant rays shined into my soul, and with His warming influences thawed my benumbed frozen heart--when Christ the day-star arose in my soul--then, O then, the glory of these things which once dazzled my eyes, presently vanished and withered away! When once I had got a view of Christ's transcendent loveliness--then in comparison to Christ, I saw . . .
an emptiness and vanity--in all the creature's fullness;
beggary--in all the world's nobility;
shame--in all the world's glory;
poverty--in all the world's riches;
the world's greatest resplendent luster--to be darkness;
the world's wisdom--to be folly;
the world's beauty--appeared to me no better than deformity!
Yes, the soul whose love is fixed upon Christ, sees the superlative goodness, beauty, and excellency in Christ.
"Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16
_______________________________
Moral and spiritual parasites!
(Frederick Marsh)
There are moral and spiritual parasites which throttle, kill, injure, or retard the growth of the spiritual life!
1. The parasite of sloth will hinder the grace of watchfulness, as it did the five virgins. Matthew 25:5
2. The parasite of worldliness will kill the grace of devotion, as it did in Demas. 2 Timothy 4:10
3. The parasite of pride will devastate the grace of humility, as it did with the Devil. 1 Timothy 3:6
4. The parasite of unbelief will keep down the grace of faith, as is seen in the children of Israel. Hebrews 3:17-19
5. The parasite of prestige will kill the grace of self-denial, as is stated of Diotrephes. 3 John 9
6. The parasite of covetousness will strangle the grace of generosity, as is evidenced in Achan. Joshua 7:21
________________________________
Hellish sin! Stupendous wickedness! Monstrous impiety!
(Thomas Doolittle, "Love to Christ Necessary to Escape the Curse at His Coming!")
"If any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ--he shall be accursed!" 1 Corinthians 16:22
What! not love the Lord! Hellish sin!
What! not love Jesus! Stupendous wickedness!
What! not love Christ! Monstrous impiety!
Not love Him who is both Lord, and Jesus, and Christ! What name might we call him by?
Is he a man--or a beast?
Is he a man--or a devil?
Do you love the world--and not Him? Do you love sin--and not him? This may be . . .
the astonishment of the heavens,
the amazement of the earth,
the wonder of angels,
the joy of devils,
the burden of the creation of God.
The earth groans to bear them;
the sun is grieved to give light unto them;
the air laments to be sucked into sin-filthy bodies, wherein are more filthy souls--because they are void of the love of Christ! Yes, all this world looks more like Hell than Heaven, because of the swarms of men therein who have no sincere love to Jesus Christ.
Let all who are not sensual beasts, or incarnate devils--who have the understanding and hearts of men--stand and wonder--that a man should deny Christ his love. Good Lord! What a thing is this! What cursed wickedness is this! What wonder that you behold such a sight as this--a man without love unto your Son--and allow him to continue to be a man; or do not make him . . .
a sick man,
a poor man,
a tormented pained man on earth,
or a damned man in Hell!
Oh what punishment waits for him! How do devils hope for his death, that they might drag him down to that hellish crew, where there is not one lover of Christ among them all!
"If any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ--he shall be accursed!" 1 Corinthians 16:22
"If any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ--he shall be accursed!" 1 Corinthians 16:22
____________________________
When once I had got a view of Christ's transcendent loveliness!
(Thomas Doolittle, "Love to Christ Necessary to Escape the Curse at His Coming!")
The prophet Isaiah, speaking of graceless men as disliking, not desiring, nor loving Christ--brings them in as saying, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him!" Isaiah 53:2
What! No loveliness in Him who is "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person!" Yes! there was, there is--but they had no eyes to see it! It is as if a blind man should say that the sun is dark, because he has no eyes to behold it's light. It was, because in seeing--they did not see. How could they look upon Him with an eye of love--when they did not discern Him with an eye of faith?
But a holy soul, whose eyes are divinely opened, so sees that superlative goodness, beauty, and excellency in Christ--that all other things, which are good with an inferior goodness, seem to him as dross and dung! "But whatever was to my profit, I now consider lossfor the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things! I consider them rubbish," things cast to dogs, or dog's-food, "that I may gain Christ!" Philippians 3:7-8
The holy man, whose mind is savingly enlightened, can say: I see that goodness in the Savior, which far surpasses all the goodness of the creature! Though the stars in the coldest night might be seen--yet when the sun arises, they all disappear. Just so, in the night of ignorance, when my mind was blind, my heart hard, and my affections frozen--I was bewitched with the goodness of riches, of honors, and of worldly pleasures. Yet when the Sun of righteousness with His radiant rays shined into my soul, and with His warming influences thawed my benumbed frozen heart--when Christ the day-star arose in my soul--then, O then, the glory of these things which once dazzled my eyes, presently vanished and withered away! When once I had got a view of Christ's transcendent loveliness--then in comparison to Christ, I saw . . .
an emptiness and vanity--in all the creature's fullness;
beggary--in all the world's nobility;
shame--in all the world's glory;
poverty--in all the world's riches;
the world's greatest resplendent luster--to be darkness;
the world's wisdom--to be folly;
the world's beauty--appeared to me no better than deformity!
Yes, the soul whose love is fixed upon Christ, sees the superlative goodness, beauty, and excellency in Christ.
"Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16
_______________________________
Moral and spiritual parasites!
(Frederick Marsh)
There are moral and spiritual parasites which throttle, kill, injure, or retard the growth of the spiritual life!
1. The parasite of sloth will hinder the grace of watchfulness, as it did the five virgins. Matthew 25:5
2. The parasite of worldliness will kill the grace of devotion, as it did in Demas. 2 Timothy 4:10
3. The parasite of pride will devastate the grace of humility, as it did with the Devil. 1 Timothy 3:6
4. The parasite of unbelief will keep down the grace of faith, as is seen in the children of Israel. Hebrews 3:17-19
5. The parasite of prestige will kill the grace of self-denial, as is stated of Diotrephes. 3 John 9
6. The parasite of covetousness will strangle the grace of generosity, as is evidenced in Achan. Joshua 7:21
________________________________
Worldliness!
(Frederick Marsh)
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:15-17
1. Worldliness is evil in its nature. Galatians 1:4
2. Worldliness is downward in its tendency. Ephesians 2:1-4
3. Worldliness is contaminating in its influence. James 1:27
4. Worldliness is antagonistic to God. James 4:4
5. Worldliness is corrupting in its association. 2 Peter 4:1; 2 Peter 2:20
6. Worldliness is unsatisfying in its pleasures. 1 Corinthians 7:31; 1 John 2:17
7. Worldliness is hateful in its opposition. 1 John 3:13
Separation from the world is the Lord's clear and definite direction. To be specific in our desires and efforts to be separate from the world--the following rules should be followed:
(Frederick Marsh)
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:15-17
1. Worldliness is evil in its nature. Galatians 1:4
2. Worldliness is downward in its tendency. Ephesians 2:1-4
3. Worldliness is contaminating in its influence. James 1:27
4. Worldliness is antagonistic to God. James 4:4
5. Worldliness is corrupting in its association. 2 Peter 4:1; 2 Peter 2:20
6. Worldliness is unsatisfying in its pleasures. 1 Corinthians 7:31; 1 John 2:17
7. Worldliness is hateful in its opposition. 1 John 3:13
Separation from the world is the Lord's clear and definite direction. To be specific in our desires and efforts to be separate from the world--the following rules should be followed:
1. Go to no place where the Lord would not take you.
2. Be found in no company that is not helpful to your Christian life.
3. Be no party to any transaction upon which you cannot seek your Lord's approval.
4. Listen to no voice which would lead you away from the truth of God's Word.
5. Allow no pleasure to interfere with your attendance at the means of Grace.
6. Whatever you do--do all to the glory of God!
Strive to do the will of God, as found in His Word--nothing less, nothing more, nothing else!
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Instinct for Animals, the Holy Spirit for Man
Instinct for Animals, the Holy Spirit for Man
God created every human being with a body, a physical form. This is something we share with all forms of created life on earth, with animals as well as plants.
God also gave every human being the capacity to think, react, and decide - mind, emotion, and will. We can group these psychological behavior mechanisms and think of them together as the "soul". It is within the soul that human behavior is determined, for it is here where decisions are made, plans are conceived, and the will is exercised to bring the body into action. The will is exercised under the influence of the mind and the emotions, whatever influence controls our mind and emotions will ultimately control our will. Through the behavior that results from this active operation of our soul, the thoughts and intents of our heart are communicated to the outside world.
The soul as so defined is a characteristic that we share with animals, but not with plants. It may surprise you to think of animals as having souls - minds to think with emotions to react with, and wills to decide with. If so, here is a simple experiment you can try; Find a stick, then find a wasps' nest and poke it with it with the stick. You will discover that wasps have a highly developed emotional capacity: They can get very angry. You will also see that wasps have a highly developed intellectual capacity to determine exactly who is stirring up their nest. Not only that, but you will find they have a highly developed volitional capacity, a will to wreck vengeance on their enemy. Though by that time, in all probability, you will not be hanging around to find out anything more.
So animals are like human beings in that they have a soul, a capacity to think, react, and decide. God however did not create animals with the capacity to be inhabited by their Creator, as man was. Instead, God built into animals a unique and wonderful mechanism called "instinct". This is the indispensable means by which He protects them and governs their behavior.
Because of instinct, the behavior patterns of animals are repetitive and predictable. but there is no moral relationship between the animals and their Creator, as there is between human beings and God. Every bird or beast or insect does what it does because it must. It is governed by a law of compulsion that operates in the soul of every animal to teach its mind, control its emotions, and direct its will.
Instinct is indispensable to animals in the same way that the Holy Spirit is indispensable to us in our humanity. Human beings are uniquely made with the capacity to be governed by God Himself dwelling within the human spirit in intimate identity with the human soul, so that God, within the human spirit, gains access to the human soul. There He plays that role in man's soul which instinct plays in the animal- teaching the mind, controlling the emotions, and directing the will. In this way, according to His intended design and purpose, He governs our behavior, so that He in us is the origin of His own image,source of His own activity, dynamic of His own demands, and cause of His own effect.
God has created us to be functional only by virtue of His presence, exercising His divine sovereignty within our humanity so that out of our love for Him, we live in utter dependence upon Him. Moreover, the only evidence any of us can give of such dependence on Him is our unquestioning obedience to Him.
That is the threefold moral relationship - love for Him, dependence upon Him, and obedience to Him - that allows God to be God in action within a human being.
This is also the threefold moral relationship which Jesus Christ, for thirty-three years on earth, expressed toward His Father. His love for the Father demanded absolute, unquestioning dependence upon the Father and total obedience to the Father. That is why He said that without His Father, He could do nothing (John 5:19, 30). The true sinlessness of Jesus was His constant reliance on the Father, never falling back on Himself.
If you and I are to be functional, this same relationship that existed between Jesus Christ and His Father in heaven must also be the relationship between ourselves and the Lord Jesus.
None of us are essential to God, but He is essentially indispensable to each of us. God so engineered you and me that His presence is indispensable to our humanity, teaching our minds, controlling our emotions, directing our wills, and governing our behavior.
Your new birth puts God into action IN you. It lets all of God loose, clothed with the redeemed humanity of your own flesh and blood as a forgiven sinner, so that at last you become a normal human being as Jesus was.
"God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work" (2 Corinthians9:8)
~W. Ian Thomas~
God created every human being with a body, a physical form. This is something we share with all forms of created life on earth, with animals as well as plants.
God also gave every human being the capacity to think, react, and decide - mind, emotion, and will. We can group these psychological behavior mechanisms and think of them together as the "soul". It is within the soul that human behavior is determined, for it is here where decisions are made, plans are conceived, and the will is exercised to bring the body into action. The will is exercised under the influence of the mind and the emotions, whatever influence controls our mind and emotions will ultimately control our will. Through the behavior that results from this active operation of our soul, the thoughts and intents of our heart are communicated to the outside world.
The soul as so defined is a characteristic that we share with animals, but not with plants. It may surprise you to think of animals as having souls - minds to think with emotions to react with, and wills to decide with. If so, here is a simple experiment you can try; Find a stick, then find a wasps' nest and poke it with it with the stick. You will discover that wasps have a highly developed emotional capacity: They can get very angry. You will also see that wasps have a highly developed intellectual capacity to determine exactly who is stirring up their nest. Not only that, but you will find they have a highly developed volitional capacity, a will to wreck vengeance on their enemy. Though by that time, in all probability, you will not be hanging around to find out anything more.
So animals are like human beings in that they have a soul, a capacity to think, react, and decide. God however did not create animals with the capacity to be inhabited by their Creator, as man was. Instead, God built into animals a unique and wonderful mechanism called "instinct". This is the indispensable means by which He protects them and governs their behavior.
Because of instinct, the behavior patterns of animals are repetitive and predictable. but there is no moral relationship between the animals and their Creator, as there is between human beings and God. Every bird or beast or insect does what it does because it must. It is governed by a law of compulsion that operates in the soul of every animal to teach its mind, control its emotions, and direct its will.
Instinct is indispensable to animals in the same way that the Holy Spirit is indispensable to us in our humanity. Human beings are uniquely made with the capacity to be governed by God Himself dwelling within the human spirit in intimate identity with the human soul, so that God, within the human spirit, gains access to the human soul. There He plays that role in man's soul which instinct plays in the animal- teaching the mind, controlling the emotions, and directing the will. In this way, according to His intended design and purpose, He governs our behavior, so that He in us is the origin of His own image,source of His own activity, dynamic of His own demands, and cause of His own effect.
God has created us to be functional only by virtue of His presence, exercising His divine sovereignty within our humanity so that out of our love for Him, we live in utter dependence upon Him. Moreover, the only evidence any of us can give of such dependence on Him is our unquestioning obedience to Him.
That is the threefold moral relationship - love for Him, dependence upon Him, and obedience to Him - that allows God to be God in action within a human being.
This is also the threefold moral relationship which Jesus Christ, for thirty-three years on earth, expressed toward His Father. His love for the Father demanded absolute, unquestioning dependence upon the Father and total obedience to the Father. That is why He said that without His Father, He could do nothing (John 5:19, 30). The true sinlessness of Jesus was His constant reliance on the Father, never falling back on Himself.
If you and I are to be functional, this same relationship that existed between Jesus Christ and His Father in heaven must also be the relationship between ourselves and the Lord Jesus.
None of us are essential to God, but He is essentially indispensable to each of us. God so engineered you and me that His presence is indispensable to our humanity, teaching our minds, controlling our emotions, directing our wills, and governing our behavior.
Your new birth puts God into action IN you. It lets all of God loose, clothed with the redeemed humanity of your own flesh and blood as a forgiven sinner, so that at last you become a normal human being as Jesus was.
"God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work" (2 Corinthians9:8)
~W. Ian Thomas~
Saturday, April 7, 2018
How To Live A Beautiful Christian Life # 1
How To Live A Beautiful Christian Life # 1
We have only successfully acquired the art of living a Christian life - when we have learned to apply the principles of true religion, and enjoy its help and comfort in our daily life. It is easy to join in devotional exercises, to quote Bible promises, to extol the beauty of the Scriptures; but there are many who do these things - whose religion utterly fails them in the very places and at the very times - when it ought to prove their staff and stay!
All of us must go out from the sweet services of the Sunday - into a week of very real and very commonplace life. We must mingle with people who are not angels. We must pass through experiences that will naturally worry and vex us. Those about us, either wittingly or unwittingly, annoy and try us. We must mingle with those who do not love Christ. We all meet many troubles and worries in ordinary week-day life. They are continual irritations and annoyances.
The problem is to live a beautiful Christian life - in the face of all these hindrances! How can we get through the tangled briers which grow along our path - without having our hands and feet torn by them? How can we live sweetly - amid the vexing and irritating things and the multitude of little worries and frets which infest our way, and which we cannot evade?
It is not enough merely to "get along" in any sort of way, to drag to the close of each long, wearisome day, happy when night comes to end the strife. Life should be a joy - and not a burden. We should live victoriously, ever master of our experiences, and not tossed by them like a leaf on the dashing waves. Every earnest Christian wants to live a truly beautiful life, whatever the circumstances may be.
A little child, when asked "what it was to be a Christian," replied, "For me, to be a Christian is to live as Jesus would live - and behave as Jesus would behave - if he were a little girl and lived at our house." No better definition of practical religion could be given. Each one of us is to live just as Jesus would - if he were living out our little life in the midst of its actual environment, standing all day just where we stand, mingling with the same people with whom we must mingle, and exposed to the very annoyances, trials and provocations to which we are exposed. We want to live a life that will please God, and that will bear witness on its face to the genuineness of our piety.
How can we do this? We must first recognize the fact that our life must be lived just in its own circumstances. We cannot at present change our surroundings. Whatever we are to make of our lives - must be made in the midst of our actual experiences. Here we must either win our victories - or suffer our defeats. We may thing our lot is especially hard - and may wish it were otherwise. We may wish that we had a life of ease and luxury, amid softer scenes, with no briers or thorns, no worries or provocations. Then we would be always gentle, patient, serene, trustful, happy. How delightful it would be - never to have a care, an irritation, a cross, a single vexing thing!
But meanwhile this fact remains - that our aspiration cannot be realized, and that whatever our life is to be made, beautiful or marred, we must make it just where we are. No restless discontent can change our lot. We cannot get into any "paradise" merely by longing for it. Other people may have other circumstances, possibly more pleasant than ours - but here are ours. We may as well settle this point at once, and accept the battle of life on this field - or else, while we are vainly wishing for a better chance, the opportunity for victory shall have passed.
The next thought is that the place in which we find ourselves is the place in which the Master desires us to live our life.
There is no haphazard in this world. God leads every one of his children by the right way. He knows where and under what influences each particular life will ripen best. One tree grows best in the sheltered valley, another by the water's edge,another on the bleak mountain-top swept by storms. There is always adaptation in nature. Every tree or plant is found in the locality where the conditions of its growth exist, and does God give more thought to trees and plants than to his own children? He places us amid the circumstances and experiences in which our life will grow and ripen the best. The peculiar discipline to which we are each subjected - is the discipline we each need to bring out in us the beauties and graces of true spiritual character. We are in the right school. We may think that we would ripen more quickly - in a more easy and luxurious life - but God knows what is best; He makes no mistakes.
There is a little fable which says that a primrose growing by itself in a shady corner of the garden, became discontented as it saw the other flowers in their mirthful beds in the sunshine, and begged to be moved to a more conspicuous place. Its prayer was granted. The gardener transplanted it to a more showy and sunny spot. It was greatly pleased - but there came a change over it immediately. Its blossoms lost much of their beauty and became pale and sickly. The hot sun caused them to faint and wither. So it prayed again to be taken back to its old place in the shade. The wise gardener knows best where to plant each flower, and so God, the divine Gardener, knows where His people will best grow into what he would have them to be. Some require the fierce storms, some will only thrive spiritually in the shadow of worldly adversity, and some come to ripeness more sweetly under the soft and gentle influences of prosperity, whose beauty, rough experiences would mar. He knows what is best for each one.
The next thought, is that it is possible to live a beautiful life anywhere. There is no position in this world in the allotment of providence, in which it is not possible to be a true Christian, exemplifying all the virtues of Christianity. The grace of Christ has in it, potency enough to enable us to live godly, wherever we are called to dwell. When God chooses a home for us - He fits us for its peculiar trials. There is a beautiful law of adaptation that runs through all God's providence. Animals made to dwell amide arctic snows are covered with warm furs. The camel's home is the desert, and a wondrous provision is made by which it can endure long journeys across the hot sands without drink. Birds are fitted for their flights in the air. Animals made to live among the mountain-crags, have feet prepared for climbing over the steep rocks.In all nature this law of special equipment and preparation for allotted places prevails.
~J. R. Miller~
continued with # 2
We have only successfully acquired the art of living a Christian life - when we have learned to apply the principles of true religion, and enjoy its help and comfort in our daily life. It is easy to join in devotional exercises, to quote Bible promises, to extol the beauty of the Scriptures; but there are many who do these things - whose religion utterly fails them in the very places and at the very times - when it ought to prove their staff and stay!
All of us must go out from the sweet services of the Sunday - into a week of very real and very commonplace life. We must mingle with people who are not angels. We must pass through experiences that will naturally worry and vex us. Those about us, either wittingly or unwittingly, annoy and try us. We must mingle with those who do not love Christ. We all meet many troubles and worries in ordinary week-day life. They are continual irritations and annoyances.
The problem is to live a beautiful Christian life - in the face of all these hindrances! How can we get through the tangled briers which grow along our path - without having our hands and feet torn by them? How can we live sweetly - amid the vexing and irritating things and the multitude of little worries and frets which infest our way, and which we cannot evade?
It is not enough merely to "get along" in any sort of way, to drag to the close of each long, wearisome day, happy when night comes to end the strife. Life should be a joy - and not a burden. We should live victoriously, ever master of our experiences, and not tossed by them like a leaf on the dashing waves. Every earnest Christian wants to live a truly beautiful life, whatever the circumstances may be.
A little child, when asked "what it was to be a Christian," replied, "For me, to be a Christian is to live as Jesus would live - and behave as Jesus would behave - if he were a little girl and lived at our house." No better definition of practical religion could be given. Each one of us is to live just as Jesus would - if he were living out our little life in the midst of its actual environment, standing all day just where we stand, mingling with the same people with whom we must mingle, and exposed to the very annoyances, trials and provocations to which we are exposed. We want to live a life that will please God, and that will bear witness on its face to the genuineness of our piety.
How can we do this? We must first recognize the fact that our life must be lived just in its own circumstances. We cannot at present change our surroundings. Whatever we are to make of our lives - must be made in the midst of our actual experiences. Here we must either win our victories - or suffer our defeats. We may thing our lot is especially hard - and may wish it were otherwise. We may wish that we had a life of ease and luxury, amid softer scenes, with no briers or thorns, no worries or provocations. Then we would be always gentle, patient, serene, trustful, happy. How delightful it would be - never to have a care, an irritation, a cross, a single vexing thing!
But meanwhile this fact remains - that our aspiration cannot be realized, and that whatever our life is to be made, beautiful or marred, we must make it just where we are. No restless discontent can change our lot. We cannot get into any "paradise" merely by longing for it. Other people may have other circumstances, possibly more pleasant than ours - but here are ours. We may as well settle this point at once, and accept the battle of life on this field - or else, while we are vainly wishing for a better chance, the opportunity for victory shall have passed.
The next thought is that the place in which we find ourselves is the place in which the Master desires us to live our life.
There is no haphazard in this world. God leads every one of his children by the right way. He knows where and under what influences each particular life will ripen best. One tree grows best in the sheltered valley, another by the water's edge,another on the bleak mountain-top swept by storms. There is always adaptation in nature. Every tree or plant is found in the locality where the conditions of its growth exist, and does God give more thought to trees and plants than to his own children? He places us amid the circumstances and experiences in which our life will grow and ripen the best. The peculiar discipline to which we are each subjected - is the discipline we each need to bring out in us the beauties and graces of true spiritual character. We are in the right school. We may think that we would ripen more quickly - in a more easy and luxurious life - but God knows what is best; He makes no mistakes.
There is a little fable which says that a primrose growing by itself in a shady corner of the garden, became discontented as it saw the other flowers in their mirthful beds in the sunshine, and begged to be moved to a more conspicuous place. Its prayer was granted. The gardener transplanted it to a more showy and sunny spot. It was greatly pleased - but there came a change over it immediately. Its blossoms lost much of their beauty and became pale and sickly. The hot sun caused them to faint and wither. So it prayed again to be taken back to its old place in the shade. The wise gardener knows best where to plant each flower, and so God, the divine Gardener, knows where His people will best grow into what he would have them to be. Some require the fierce storms, some will only thrive spiritually in the shadow of worldly adversity, and some come to ripeness more sweetly under the soft and gentle influences of prosperity, whose beauty, rough experiences would mar. He knows what is best for each one.
The next thought, is that it is possible to live a beautiful life anywhere. There is no position in this world in the allotment of providence, in which it is not possible to be a true Christian, exemplifying all the virtues of Christianity. The grace of Christ has in it, potency enough to enable us to live godly, wherever we are called to dwell. When God chooses a home for us - He fits us for its peculiar trials. There is a beautiful law of adaptation that runs through all God's providence. Animals made to dwell amide arctic snows are covered with warm furs. The camel's home is the desert, and a wondrous provision is made by which it can endure long journeys across the hot sands without drink. Birds are fitted for their flights in the air. Animals made to live among the mountain-crags, have feet prepared for climbing over the steep rocks.In all nature this law of special equipment and preparation for allotted places prevails.
~J. R. Miller~
continued with # 2
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