Today's
selection comes from a book given to me by a fellow missionary friend in
Honduras many years ago. We were walking along the shoreline of a coastal
island discussing the struggles of ministry, the knowledge of our own
sinfulness, and thus our mutual sense of feeling unworthy for the task, when
suddenly he voiced the phrase I myself have used so often: "Hey, I
have a short little book you should read...." Not much
later it was in my hands, and like many other books I've read, I found it very
helpful.
So
these many years later I will share with you some of the parts I found helpful
and highlighted about 20+ years ago. (Yes, to the horror of many fellow
book lovers, I do mark up all my books, and love picking up used ones where
others have done the same!) The book is called "Principles of Spiritual Growth,"
and was written by Miles J. Stanford. Each builds upon
the others. Enjoy."Many Christians mourn over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well. The idea that our failure to lead a holy life is due to our impotence, leads naturally to a false conception of the way of deliverance. If we are preoccupied with the power of sin, and with our inability to overcome it, then we naturally conclude that to gain victory over sin we must have more power. 'If only I was stronger,' we say, 'I could overcome my violent outbursts of temper." And so we plead with the Lord to strengthen us that we may exercise self-control. But this is altogether wrong. This is not Christianity. God's means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker. 'This is surely a peculiar way of victory,' you say, but it is the divine way. God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man, but by crucifying him. Not by helping him to do anything, but by removing him from the scene..."
"Immaturity
considers the Lord Jesus to be a Helper. Maturity knows Him to be Life
itself. Dr. J. E. Conant wrote, "Christian living is not our living
with Christ's help, it is Christ living His life in us. Therefore, that
portion of our lives that is not His living is not Christian living; and that
portion of our service that is not His doing is not Christian service; for all
such life and service have but a human and natural source, and Christian life
and service have a supernatural and spiritual source." Paul insisted,
"I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives
in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20)."
"In
preparation, there is a tearing down before there can be a building up.
"Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, and He will heal us, He
has smitten and He will bind us up" (Hosea 6:1). This applies to
both growth and service. J. C. Metcalfe writes: "It is more than
comforting to realize that it is those who have plumbed the depths of failure
to whom God invariably gives the call to shepherd others. This is not a call
given to the gifted and highly trained, or the polished as such. Without a
bitter experience of their own inadequacy and poverty they are quite unfitted
to bear the burden of spiritual ministry. It takes a man who has discovered
something of the measures of his own weakness to be patient with the failings
of others. Such a man also has first-hand knowledge of the loving care of the
Chief Shepherd, and His ability to heal one who has come humbly to trust in Him
and Him alone. Therefore he does not easily despair of others, but looks beyond
sinfulness, willfulness, and stupidity, to the might of unchanging love. The
Lord Jesus does not give Peter the charge "Shepherd my lambs" on
hearing Peter's self-confident affirmation of undying loyalty (Matthew 26:33).
He gives it after Peter has utterly failed to keep his vows and has wept
bitterly in the streets of Jerusalem."
"The
first step in getting out of the struggle of the seventh chapter of Romans, and
into the victory of the eighth chapter, is to pass through the struggle spoken
of in the seventh. Of all the needy classes of people, the neediest of this
earth are not those who are having a heartbreaking, agonizing struggle for
victory, but those who are having no struggle at all, and thus no victory, yet
do not know it. Those who are satisfied and jogging along in a pitiable absence
of almost all the possessions that belong to them in Christ. J. C.
Metcalfe gives this same fact an added witness: "Many a young Christian,
who has not been warned of this necessary voyage of discovery upon which the
Holy Spirit will certainly embark him (Rom. 7), has been plunged into almost
incurable despair at the sight of the sinfulness which is his by nature.
He
has in the first place rejoiced greatly in the forgiveness of his sins, and his
acceptance by God; but sooner or later he begins to realize that not all is
well, and he has failed and fallen from the high standard he set for himself to
reach in the first flush of conversion. He begins to know something of the
experience Paul so graphically describes: "The good I want to do, that I
do not do, but what I hate, that I do" (Rom. 7:15). And, in consequence,
he feels that the bottom has fallen out of his Christian life. Then, perhaps,
the Devil whispers to him that it is just no good in going on, because he will
never be able to make the grade. Little does he know how healthy his
condition is, and that this shattering discovery is but the prelude to a
magnificent series of further discoveries of things which God has expressly
designed for his eternal enrichment.
All
through life God has to show us our own utter sinfulness and need, before He is
able to lead us on into the realms of grace, in which we shall glimpse His
glory. Self-revelation (regarding our sin) precedes divine revelation -- that
is a principle for spiritual birth and spiritual growth. The believer who is
going through struggle and failure is the Christian who is being carefully and
lovingly handled by his Lord in a very personal way. He is being taken through
the experience (years in length) of self-revelation, and into death -- the only
basis upon which to "know Him" and the power of His resurrection...
(Phil 3:10).
God
works by paradox. Success comes via failure; life springs out of death, etc.
The only element in the believers life that crumbles is that which has to go
anyway. New life can never be harmed or affected. This disintegration is
something the believer cannot enter into or engineer on his own. Self can
never cast out self. He has to be led into it by the mercy of the Holy
Spirit -- into failure; abject and total...
So
often the means utilized by the Spirit is an unsaved mate, or even a saved
one! Or poor health, yes, and good health too! A thousand and one
things are used by Him -- in fact, everything (Rom. 8:28-29), to bring out the
worst in us, ultimately enabling us to see that the Christian life has to be,
"not I, but Christ." People, circumstances, etc., are never the
cause of failure. Self's reaction to them is the cause, and the one problem to
be dealt with. "It's me, it's me, O Lord."
Just
some helpful contrary-to-the-ways-of-the-world Gospel truth to chew on and be
encouraged by!
With
you in the Bonds of this life's struggles, Pastor Jeff
