Breaking Away From What We Were

Joshua 24:2-3

(2) And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods. (3) Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac.

This demonstrates a problem Abraham appears to have had at the beginning of his conversion, showing that he was not perfect in his obedience. It also reveals God's patience in dealing with us, as well as how little control we sometimes exercise over some circumstances. In such times, we must continue trusting God and fighting to overcome as He leads us through them and teaches us aspects of His character.

Abraham's family members were outright pagans, as was Abraham before his conversion. We need to add Genesis11:27-32 to the mix:

This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram, and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

Barnes Notes contains a fairly complex study of these verses, showing that Abraham actually received his initial calling when he was 70 while living in Ur of the Chaldeans. Why "initial"? Verse 31 says they left Ur and then came to Haran, adding that Abraham's family dwelt there. "Dwelt" indicates that they remained there for an extended period—it was no mere overnight stop by a group of pilgrims at a motel.

Stephen's speech in Acts 7:2-4 helps us to understand:

Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, "Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you." Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.

Stephen clearly states that God called Abraham before he dwelt in Haran, but Genesis 12:1 shows God then moved him from Haran after his father died. Apparently, Abraham's account to his father and others in the family—but most especially his father—of the things he was learning and believing in his calling persuaded them, despite being pagan to the core, that they, too, should emigrate to wherever God was leading Abraham.

Recall, however, from Isaiah 51:2 that God says that He called Abraham alone. Genesis 11:31 clearly shows Terah, the pagan patriarch of the family, leading the expedition, not Abraham. Abraham no doubt deferred to his father in this decision, but this was not God's will.

God knew that, because of Abraham's attitude, he would continue to defer to Terah. God did not want Terah's direct influence in what He was establishing through Abraham. Under Terah's pagan, patriarchal leadership, they got only as far as Haran from Ur, by itself an arduous 700-mile journey on foot!

Researchers speculate that the trip from Ur to Haran plus the sojourn there may have taken as long as five years before the party resumed the journey to Canaan. Perhaps Terah had a lengthy, lingering illness before dying. However, when the last leg of the journey was made, it was under Abraham's leadership.

God intends us to understand that the distance to the Promised Land—1,200 miles on foot from Ur to Canaan—plus the time spent getting there, illustrate the difficulty of breaking away from what we were to what God wants us to be. Unfortunately, some people never seem to accomplish the break.

— John W. Ritenbaugh

Called Unto Holiness # 11

Likeness to Christ

The Right Adjustment to the Holy Spirit

This work of sanctification can be carried on only through the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, that second great gift bestowed at to us. The moment you were brought into union with Christ, the wonderful Holy Spirit came to indwell you, and He is there for one purpose: to glorify Christ in you. How does He do this?

The Spirit of Truth Who Enlightens

As the Spirit of truth He enlightens us that we may know what we possess in Christ and what Christ possesses in us. Ephesians speaks  of a double inheritance, the saint's inheritance in Christ and Christ's inheritance in the saint.

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe" (Ephesians 1:17-19).

The Spirit of truth gives us a progressive revelation of Christ and of our riches in Him so that once having seen Him, we will want Him and Him only.

The Spirit of Power Who Enables

As the Spirit of power He enables us that we may possess what we know to be ours in Christ. He is the power who works in us to make Christ a living reality within and to fill us unto all the fullness of God.

"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; ... that ye might be filled unto all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:16-19). The Spirit of power works for a progressive realization of Christ within us as our life and our Lord.

The Spirit of Holiness Who Separates

As the Spirit of holiness, he separates us from the world. He shows us there can be no mixture between darkness and light, no friendship between the world and the Church. The Spirit makes us know that whoever is a friend of the world is in the light of God an adulteress, for that one has broken the marriage vow to Christ and, by so doing, has become the enemy of God.

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord" (2 Co. 6:14, 17).

"Ye adulteresses [who break your marriage vow to Christ], know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).

The Spirit of holiness works progressively to separate us from earthly things and from the love of the world and to strip us of everything of which Christ is not the source, the center, and the goal.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 12 - "The Spirit of Life Who Counteracts")

The God of Comfort

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee who passing through the valley of weeping, make it a well (Psalms 84:5-6).

Comfort does not come to the light-hearted and merry. We must go down into "depths" if we would experience this most precious of God's gifts--comfort, and thus be prepared to be co-workers together with Him.

When night--needful night--gathers over the garden of our souls, when the leaves close up, and the flowers no longer hold any sunlight within their folded petals, there shall never be wanting, even in the thickest darkness, drops of heavenly dew--dew which falls only when the sun has gone.

I have been through the valley of weeping,
The valley of sorrow and pain;
But the 'God of all comfort' was with me,
At hand to uphold and sustain.
As the earth needs the clouds and sunshine,
Our souls need both sorrow and joy;
So He places us oft in the furnace,
The dross from the gold to destroy.
When he leads thro' some valley of trouble
His omnipotent hand we trace;
For the trials and sorrows He sends us,
Are part of His lessons in grace.
Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning,
Forgetting the Husbandman knows
That the deeper the cutting and paring,
The richer the cluster that grows.
Well He knows that affliction is needed;
He has a wise purpose in view,
And in the dark valley He whispers,
"Hereafter Thou'lt know what I do."
As we travel thro' life's shadow'd valley,
Fresh springs of His love ever rise;
And we learn that our sorrows and losses,
Are blessings just sent in disguise.
So we'll follow wherever He leadeth,
Let the path be dreary or bright;
For we've proved that our God can give comfort;
Our God can give songs in the night.

~L. B. Cowman~

Called Unto Holiness # 10

A Choice Between Sovereigns

You and I are called to make a choice of sovereigns. As a sinner we had to choose between our sins and our Saviour; now as a Christian we must make the choice between the continued sovereignty of that old mater, sin, and that of our new Master, Christ.

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Romans 6:12).

Have you made this choice? Has it been a deliberate, final choice of Christ as the sole Sovereign over your life? If not, will you do it today?

Christ Yielded to as Lord

Having chosen Christ as our Master, then He commands us to yield to Him as Lord.

"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God (Romans 6:13).
"Yield yourselves," spirit, soul, and body. Yield your whole human personality to Christ. Have you done it? Or have you parceled out a little bit and told Him what He could have, and what you intended to reserve for yourself?

"Yield your members." In order that there may be no loophole, He goes on to say we are to yield every member of the body - the eyes, the ears, the feet, the hands, the lips, the tongue. Have you done it? Perhaps someone here is living in defeat because of one unyielded member of the body. An unyielded tongue, what unlimited harm it can do! Here is our Lord's command, have we obeyed it? Have we yielded ourselves entirely to Him? If not, will you do it now?

Then we must yield everything that has any relationship whatsoever to our life, all our habits, our practices, our appetites, our pleasures, our championships, our homes, our possessions, our children, our money.

Last year, after a message on yielding, a gentleman came up to me and said, "Miss Paxson, tonight I have yielded my old pipe." Can you not see that old pipe? The Lord had asked him for it, perhaps many a time. He thought he had yielded it, but he took it home and put it up on he shelf. What he ought to have done with the old pipe was have thrown it, with everything that appertained to it, into the fire. That is yielding, but, when he saw the old pipe, perhaps he was tempted to think, "May I not take down the old pipe just once again for one more puff?"

Have you yielded your old pipe? It may not be one you put in your mouth, but you may have a blood relation to it, that you do puff away at, which the Lord is asking you to yield. This is the shame of even many Christian women today! How can you distinguish a woman of the Church, the Body of Christ from a woman of the world, the body of satan, if she is puffing a cigarette? What is there to mark her off as belonging to the glory of life?

What is your old pipe, my friend? I will tell you what it is. It is that thing for which the Lord has been asking you for weeks and months, maybe for years, and you will not give it up; that little insignificant thing that is not worth more than the puff of a pipe, and you will not give it up for this eternal Son of God, that His glory may be manifested more fully in you. That is why He brought you here; to get rid of that old pipe. I do not know what it is, but He knows and you know. It is that which is keeping you in defeat and it is that which is hindering Him from manifesting His glory in your life today. Will you yield that old pipe to the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you yield yourself, your members, all that you are and have, to the Lord now?

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 11 - "The Right Adjustment to the Holy Spirit")

To Enlarge Our Hearts

	Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

—Matthew 24:30

Some people really get into Bible prophecy, attending every Bible prophecy conference and reading every Bible prophecy book. But if it isn't changing the way they live, then they are missing the point. Prophecy wasn't given to inflate our brains; it was given to enlarge our hearts. It was given to draw us closer to God. And the bottom line is that judgment is coming.

As believers, we will finish our lives on this earth one day and will give an account for how we have lived. We will give an account for what we have done with our time and for what we have done with the gifts that God gave us. Did we develop them? Did we cultivate them? Did we use them for His glory? What did we do with our resources? Did we invest in His kingdom? What did we do with our lives in general? We will be rewarded—or not rewarded—according to how we have lived.

There is also coming a day when nonbelievers will stand before God. The Book of Life will be opened, and for them it will be too late. They will not be judged on the basis of their deeds, but according to what they did with Jesus.

In the end, it is not so much a sin question as it is a Son question: What did you do with Jesus Christ, the Son of God? If you believed in Him, then you have been forgiven. You are going to heaven. But if you rejected Him, then you won't be.

The first time, Jesus came to this earth in humility and died on the cross. But the second time, He will come to this earth with power.

So live your life well. Live it for the glory of God.

~Greg Laurie~

Called Unto Holiness # 10

Likeness To Christ (continued)

Fruit is Christ in us manifested in His glory. But there are so many Christians one can only describe as drab, and I do not like drab. Do you? You do not like a drab Christian either. We all like to see a glory Christian. Are you one?

Fruit is Christ in us manifested in the glory of holiness. Now let us bring these two great truths together; oneness in Christ - "Ye in me," and likeness to Christ - "I in you." The two are indivisible and inseparable. oneness in Christ demands likeness to Christ. Fruit is Christ-likeness, and much fruit is the fullest measure of Christ likeness; and Christ likeness is Christ in you, and Christ in you is manifested glory. Are you in Christ? Then what are you? Are you like Christ/ Are you bearing fruit? Can others see Christ in you? To what measure are you bearing fruit? Only fruit, or more fruit, or much fruit?  Would the members of your family know you are a Christian if you did not go to church? Would your friends know that you are a Christian if you did not testify or pray? Would any one know it if he just looked into your face?

Friends, it ought to be seen. If Christ lives in us, there should be something in the expression of the eye, something in the very lines of the face; we should bear the mark in our faces of the presence of the glorified Christ within. Would one know it from our conversation or from watching our daily walk? When you enter a room, do you cast a chill over the atmosphere or do you flood it with sunshine? A glory Christian will flood every place he goes with sunshine, the sunshine of the presence of the glorified Christ. Is Christ the very life of your life?

I am sure that we all want to be Christians who are bearing much fruit, who flood every place we go with the sunshine of His presence. Some of us came here for the very purpose of finding out how to live such a life. How, then, may we live it? Likeness to Christ through progressive sanctification requires two things of us: first, a right relationship to Christ, our sanctification; and second, a right adjustment to the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier.

A Right Relationship to Christ

To be like Christ requires that we come into a full relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough just to accept Him as Saviour. That is simply taking the first step. We must go on to let Christ become the life of our life, and above all, to let Him be Lord of our life. We read in Romans 5 of three things that sin did. Sin entered, sin abounded, sin reigned. Sin reigned. Do you get the full force of the word "reigned"? Sin was the absolute dictator over your life and mine; sin possessed us, sin controlled us, sin used us.

But now Christ is our Saviour and we are in Him. Is sin still to reign over us? Are we to continue to live in sin? Inconceivable! Who but One has the right to reign, the One who has been made Head over all things to the Church and to the Christian? Christ now has the right to possess us fully, to control us completely, and to use us exclusively. In order that He may do so, He must become Lord. But sin, that stubborn old ruler, will contest His claim every step of the way. But did God make provision for the dethronement of that old master sin?

"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Romans 6:6).

What does that word "destroyed" mean? To be rendered inoperative. In modern terms, to be put out of employment, out of a job as ruler over your life. And for what purpose is this dethronement? That we might no longer serve sin. We have a new Master, the Lord Jesus, and Him only are we to serve now.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 11 - "A Choice Between Sovereigns")

The Spirit-filled Life: Is It Thine?

And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection (Acts 4:31-33).

Christmas Evans tells us in his diary that one Sunday afternoon he was traveling a very lonely road to attend an appointment, and he was convicted of a cold heart. He says,

"I tethered my horse and went to a sequestered spot, where I walked to and fro in an agony as I reviewed my life. I waited three hours before God, broken with sorrow, until there broke over me a sweet sense of His forgiving love. I received from God a new baptism of the Holy Ghost.

As the sun was westering, I went back to the road, found my horse, mounted it and went to my appointment. On the following day I preached with such new power to a vast concourse of people gathered on the hillside, that a revival broke out that day and spread through all Wales."

The greatest question that can be asked of the "twice born" ones is, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" This was the password into the early Church.

O the Spirit filled life; is it thine, is it thine?
Is thy soul wholly filled with the Spirit Divine?
O thou child of the King, has He fallen on thee?
Does He reign in thy soul, so that all men may see
The dear Savior's blest image reflected in thee?
Has He swept through thy soul like the waves of the sea?
Does the Spirit of God daily rest upon thee?
Does He sweeten thy life, does He keep thee from care?
Does He guide thee and bless thee in answer to prayer?
Is it joy to be led of the Lord anywhere?
Is He near thee each hour, does He stand at thy side?
Does He gird thee with strength, has He come to abide?
Does He give thee to know that all things may be done
Through the grace and the power of the Crucified One?
Does He witness to thee of the glorified Son?
Has He purged thee of dross with the fire from above?
Is He first in thy thoughts, has He all of thy love?
Is His service thy choice, and is sacrifice sweet?
Is the doing His will both thy drink and thy meat?
Dost thou run at His bidding with glad eager feet?
Has He freed thee from self and from all of thy greed?
Dost thou hasten to succor thy brother in need?
As a soldier of Christ dost thou hardness endure?
Is thy hope in the Lord everlasting and sure?
Hast thou patience and meekness, art tender and pure?
O the Spirit filled life may be thine, may be thine,
In thy soul evermore the Shekinah may shine;
It is thine to live with the tempests all stilled,
It is thine with the blessed Holy Ghost to be filled;
It is thine, even thine, for thy Lord has so willed.

~L. B. Cowman~