December 2016
eyes or before the Lord. Whoever defends himself
will have himself for his defense, and he will have no
other; but let him come defenseless before the Lord
and he will have for his defender no less than God
Himself. Let the inquiring Christian trample under
foot every slippery trick of his deceitful heart and
insist upon frank and open relations with the Lord.
Then he should remember that this is holy business.
No careless or casual dealings will suffice. Let him
come to God in full determination to be heard. Let
him insist that God accept his all, that He take things
out of his heart and Himself reign there in power. It
may be he will need to become specific, to name
things and people by their names one by one. If he
will become drastic enough he can shorten the time of
his travail from years to minutes and enter the good
land long before his slower brethren who coddle their
feelings and insist upon caution in their dealings with
God.
Let us never forget that such a truth as this
cannot be learned by rote as one would learn the facts
of physical science. They must be experienced before
we can really know them. We must in our hearts live
through Abraham's harsh and bitter experiences if we
would know the blessedness which follows them.
The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the
tough old miser within us will not lie down and die
obedient to our command. He must be torn out of our
heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted
in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must
be expelled from our soul by violence as Christ
expelled the money changers from the temple. And
we shall need to steel ourselves against his piteous
begging, and to recognize it as springing out of selfpity, one of the most reprehensible sins of the human
heart.
If we would indeed know God in growing
intimacy we must go this way of renunciation. And if
we are set upon the pursuit of God, He will sooner or
later bring us to this test. Abraham's testing was, at
the time, not known to him as such, yet if he had taken
some course other than the one he did, the whole
history of the Old Testament would have been
different. God would have found His man, no doubt,
but the loss to Abraham would have been tragic
beyond the telling. So we will be brought one by one
to the testing place, and we may never know when we
are there. At that testing place there will be no dozen
possible choices for us; just one and an alternative,
but our whole future will be conditioned by the
choice we make.
“Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward
heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them
without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from
Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I
do come. Please root from my heart all those things
which I have cherished so long and which have
become a very part of my living self, so that You may
enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt You
make the place of Your feet glorious. Then shall my
heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for
Yourself will be the light of it, and there shall be no
night there.”
In Jesus' Name, Amen.
A Self- Examination Towards The End of The
Year
1. Was my time with the Lord consistent in the year
gone by ? (Ps 105,4 Acts 10:2, Heb 13:15)
2. Did I get involved in new works/projects/jobs
which has reduced my time with the Lord? (1 Tim
6:6-10, Ecc 2:11)
3. Did I spend sufficient time for the study of the
Word of God? (Jos 1:8, Ps 1:2)
4. Has any new sin crept into my life? (Heb 12:1, 2
Tim 3:1-5, 1 Tess 5:22)
5. Do I still have a grudge towards any person? (1
John 2:11, 1 John 3:15, Mat 5:23)
6. Have I learnt to control my tongue? (Pro 18:21, Ps
34:13, Jam 3:2)
7. To how many people have I shared the
Gospel individually this year? (Luk 15:7, Dan
12:3)
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