There is a prophetic 'offense' that God allows, or even builds in, either something in the man that men can reject or find offense in, or in the message itself. Why would that be, that there is some defect, some weakness or some imperfection in the man or in the message that seems to be invariably part of the prophetic manner? The Scriptures speak of 'the holy prophets of old', that though they were holy and need now also to be, it would seem that they carry some kind of defect, some kind of flaw, either in their own person, their own history or even in their own speaking. If that is so, and that constitutes the prophetic offense, then why does God allow that and even require that?
I can think that everything about John the Baptist was an offense, namely, the way he dressed, the way he was outside of Jerusalem, his diet, his celibacy. If you heard him, you had to leave Jerusalem and come to some waste place, to some slimy bank of a river, where this untoward looking character was carrying on. I mean, if you ever want to find offense, you can go down a whole list of things that would rub people the wrong way. It is interesting that I should seize him as an example of a man laden with offense by the very nature of what he is in himself. Elijah is in the spirit of John the Baptist, and John the Baptist in Elijah, and the prophet 'Elijah' is yet to come as the forerunner of the Lord in the last days also.
We need, therefore, of all the prophetic models, to examine more the Elijah model and the wilderness prophet than any other as being the clear form that God will employ that precedes His coming. The very fact of being in the wilderness means outside the establishment. To the Scribes and Pharisees, who were being sent from Jerusalem to see what was taking place at the banks of the Jordan, the offense would be that how could anything of significance be happening outside of Jerusalem, outside of their establishment and outside of their priestly class. I cannot say that I can find a verse where it says that there is an inherent flaw or a structured offense that God installs in His prophets, but it seems that they have almost invariably been offensive to men. It is interesting that Jesus was accused of being a wine bibber and a glutton, so here would be an assault on His character. Whether imagined or real, the opponents of the prophetic man will find it, and God allows it to be found.
The prophetic word is different from the words that are spoken by other ministers of God. There is also a greater propensity for the hearer to be resistant to the prophetic word, where he might be more readily yielded to a word of teaching. A prophet's speaking will bring him into a disjuncture with things as they are, especially religious things, because the prophet is vehemently anti-religious and because he knows better than anyone that it was the religious world that crucified the Lord of glory. There is something in his make-up and his jealously for God and God's glory, that allows him to perceive things as they really are, even something which seems ostensibly to be from God, and is called God, and is employed in the realm of things about God, but it is yet inimical and opposed to God. It is the religious thing that is always the greatest obstruction and the greatest obstacle to the prophetic witness.
He speaks a radical word that always calls you to a disjuncture and to a degree of obedience that will be sacrificial and painful, and that will bring the prophet into some degree of reproach and misunderstanding, even by those who are ostensibly good Christians. It is a word that is painful both to hear, to consider and to receive. Men absolve themselves from such a word and avoid its implications by finding a way to discredit the word through finding a defect in the man. I would suspect that there is not a prophet that has ever been sent of God who does not provide that opportunity to his hearers.
Why would God allow an offense? Why should the prophet not be impeccable and above any criticism so that people would of necessity have to receive his word? Why would God allow either the manner of the man, his mode of being, his life, his character, imagined or real, to be something that people could seize upon, if they want to find offense and a point of rejection? I believe that it is in order to recognize the word of God as the word of God, despite the vehicle. I see it in my own experience. Sometimes I am embarrassed when something comes out of me that slips into the message that I myself would not have chosen, and if I could have edited it out, then I would have. I say to myself, "How did that happen?" I then find later that people fasten onto that thing so as to reject not only that error, but the entire word that went with it. I pondered that because it is painful to embarrassingly bring a defect, but what I am sensing is, that God gives men opportunity, if they want to seize upon it, to reject both the man and the message, and they can justify it by saying, "Look, he said this," or "He did this," or "He is this." It is part of the humiliation of being prophetic and that the flaw or defect has got to issue through you. At the same time, however, I want to say that it is not to be used to absolve the prophetic man from responsibility; that he must strive for impeccability, purity, holiness and not justify himself in places where he is responsible and say, "Well, that's the prophetic flaw." It works to give people a way to avoid the implications, but it does not absolve the prophet from his own responsibility before God for it. The prophet cannot throw it off, and yet he is responsible for it. It might even be in a certain sense sinful, or humiliating or embarrassing, and you are crying out for the deliverance from it, and yet you have got to bear it because it serves that function. Both things are true at the same time. We are still responsible and yet at the same time it is something that God can and will employ to give men an escape if they want to seize it-and they will.
Even within the fivefold ministries, there is built-in antagonism and offense. A prophet operates often from an intuitive place, rather than the kind of emphasis a teacher would give to the Word. That is not to say that he is indifferent to the Word, because he is eminently the bearer of the Word of God, but in his calling more than any other there is a place for intuition and apprehension of something by the Spirit that does not necessarily first come to him by Scripture. That one thing is very offensive to teachers. We have to understand that, and not condemn, as if somehow the intuitive man is Word-rejecting, and is a freelancer, and will just take anything off-the-wall. He needs to be under the observation of men who are careful in the Word, but the men who are careful in the Word need to make some latitude for the intuitive faculty that God Himself has given.
We need not think that because there is an intrinsic offense to prophetic obedience and faithfulness that we are under obligation to be offensive. There are a lot of amateurs who are acting like prophets; that is to say, creating offense and who are loudmouthed, insensitive and acting like 'bulls in a china shop'. That is an insult to the true thing. We are not to think that we have to create offense and that that authenticates our prophetic credentials. The offense will come in and of itself without even our consciousness, but if we think that this is a form, "I am a prophetic person and I am going to shake these people up", then we are amateurs and doing God a disfavor. We would do well to keep our mouth shut, and be silent, and come under the disciplines of God before there will ever be a release. We may well have a legitimate calling, but we are going out into it prematurely. We have not been in the wilderness of God. We have not been dealt with in the deepest entrails of our heart and life, and we are just prematurely ejaculating a lot of nonsense and a lot of unnecessary controversy, that does not serve the redemptive purposes of God.
Jesus Himself said, "Blessed is he who is not offended in Me." There is something intrinsic in His being offensive, something built in by being what He is. God is something 'other', and the world is offended by that 'otherness'. They cannot define it, but they resist it and are irritated by it. But "Blessed is he who is not offended in Me" implies that there will be offense, and necessary offense, but if you can rise above the offense or see through the offense, then you are blessed.
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article400.shtml
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
THE MEN OF GADARA (MARK 5:14-20)
Gospel of Mark, 33
THE MEN OF GADARA (MARK 5:14-20)
By G.A. Chadwick
"And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they came to see what it was that had come to pass. And they come to Jesus, and behold him that was possessed with devils sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion: and they were afraid. And they that saw it declared unto them how it befell him that was possessed with devils, and concerning the swine. And they began to beseech Him to depart from their borders. And as He was entering into the boat, he that had been possessed with devils besought Him that he might be with Him. And He suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how He had mercy on thee. And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel." MARK 5:14-20 (R.V.)
THE expulsion of the demons from the possessed, their entrance into the herd, and the destruction of the two thousand swine, were virtually one transaction, and must have impressed the swineherds in its totality. They saw on the one hand the restoration of a dangerous and raging madman, known to be actuated by evil spirits, the removal of a standing peril which had already made one tract of country impassable, and (if they considered such a thing at all) the calming of a human soul, and its advent within the reach of all sacred influences. On the other side what was there? The loss of two thousand swine; and the consciousness that the kingdom of God was come nigh unto them. This was always an alarming discovery. Isaiah said, Woe is me! when his eyes beheld God high and lifted up. And Peter said, Depart from me, when he learned by the miraculous draught of fish that the Lord was there. But Isaiah's concern was because he was a man of unclean lips, and Peter's was because he was a sinful man. Their alarm was that of an awakened conscience, and therefore they became the heralds of Him Whom they feared. But these men were simply scared at what they instinctively felt to be dangerous; and so they took refuge in a crowd, that frequent resort of the frivolous and conscience-stricken, and told in the city what they had seen. And when the inhabitants came forth, a sight met them which might have won the sternest, the man sitting, clothed (a nice coincidence, since St. Mark had not mentioned that he "ware no clothes,") and in his right mind, even him that had the legion, as the narrative emphatically adds. And doubtless the much debated incident of the swine had greatly helped to reassure this afflicted soul; the demons were palpably gone, visibly enough they were overmastered. But the citizens, like the swineherds, were merely terrified, neither grateful nor sympathetic; uninspired with hope of pure teaching, of rescue from other influences of the evil one, or of any unearthly kingdom. Their formidable visitant was one to treat with all respect, but to remove with all speed, "and they began to beseech Him to depart from their borders." They began, for it did not require long entreaty; the gospel which was free to all was not to be forced upon any. But how much did they blindly fling away, who refused the presence of the meek and lowly Giver of rest unto souls; and chose to be denied, as strangers whom He never knew, in the day when every eye shall see Him.
With how sad a heart must Jesus have turned away. Yet one soul at least was won, for as He was entering into the boat, the man who owed all to Him prayed Him that he might be with Him. Why was the prayer refused? Doubtless it sprang chiefly from gratitude and love, thinking it hard to lose so soon the wondrous benefactor, the Man at whose feet he had sat down, Who alone had looked with pitiful and helpful eyes on one whom others only sought to "tame." Such feelings are admirable, but they must be disciplined so as to seek, not their own indulgence, but their Mater's real service. Now a reclaimed demoniac would have been a suspected companion for One who was accused of league with the Prince of the devils. There is no reason to suppose that he had any fitness whatever to enter the immediate circle of our Lord's intimate disciples. His special testimony would lose all its force when he left the district where he was known; but there, on the contrary, the miracle could not fail to be impressive, as its extent and permanence were seen. This man was perhaps the only missionary who could reckon upon a hearing from those who banished Jesus from their coasts. And Christ's loving and unresentful heart would give this testimony to them in its fullness. It should begin at his own house and among his friends, who would surely listen. They should be told how great things the Lord had done for him, and Jesus expressly added, how He had mercy upon thee, that so they might learn their mistake, who feared and shrank from such a kindly visitant. Here is a lesson for these modern days, when the conversion of any noted profligate is sure to be followed by attempts to push him into a vagrant publicity, not only full of peril in itself, but also removing him from the familiar sphere in which his consistent life would be more convincing than all sermons, and where no suspicion of self-interest could overcloud the brightness of his testimony.
Possibly there was yet another reason for leaving him in his home. He may have desired to remain close to Jesus, lest, when the Savior was absent, the evil spirits should resume their sway. In that case it would be necessary to exercise his faith and convince him that the words of Jesus were far-reaching and effectual, even when he was Himself remote. If so, he learned the lesson well, and became an evangelist through all the region of Decapolis. And where all did marvel, we may hope that some were won. What a revelation of mastery over the darkest and most dreadful forces of evil, and of respect for the human will (which Jesus never once coerced by miracle, even when it rejected Him), what unwearied care for the rebellious, and what a sense of sacredness in lowly duties, better for the demoniac than the physical nearness of his Lord, are combined in this astonishing narrative, which to invent in the second century would itself have required miraculous powers.
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article11642.shtml
THE MEN OF GADARA (MARK 5:14-20)
By G.A. Chadwick
"And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they came to see what it was that had come to pass. And they come to Jesus, and behold him that was possessed with devils sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion: and they were afraid. And they that saw it declared unto them how it befell him that was possessed with devils, and concerning the swine. And they began to beseech Him to depart from their borders. And as He was entering into the boat, he that had been possessed with devils besought Him that he might be with Him. And He suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how He had mercy on thee. And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel." MARK 5:14-20 (R.V.)
THE expulsion of the demons from the possessed, their entrance into the herd, and the destruction of the two thousand swine, were virtually one transaction, and must have impressed the swineherds in its totality. They saw on the one hand the restoration of a dangerous and raging madman, known to be actuated by evil spirits, the removal of a standing peril which had already made one tract of country impassable, and (if they considered such a thing at all) the calming of a human soul, and its advent within the reach of all sacred influences. On the other side what was there? The loss of two thousand swine; and the consciousness that the kingdom of God was come nigh unto them. This was always an alarming discovery. Isaiah said, Woe is me! when his eyes beheld God high and lifted up. And Peter said, Depart from me, when he learned by the miraculous draught of fish that the Lord was there. But Isaiah's concern was because he was a man of unclean lips, and Peter's was because he was a sinful man. Their alarm was that of an awakened conscience, and therefore they became the heralds of Him Whom they feared. But these men were simply scared at what they instinctively felt to be dangerous; and so they took refuge in a crowd, that frequent resort of the frivolous and conscience-stricken, and told in the city what they had seen. And when the inhabitants came forth, a sight met them which might have won the sternest, the man sitting, clothed (a nice coincidence, since St. Mark had not mentioned that he "ware no clothes,") and in his right mind, even him that had the legion, as the narrative emphatically adds. And doubtless the much debated incident of the swine had greatly helped to reassure this afflicted soul; the demons were palpably gone, visibly enough they were overmastered. But the citizens, like the swineherds, were merely terrified, neither grateful nor sympathetic; uninspired with hope of pure teaching, of rescue from other influences of the evil one, or of any unearthly kingdom. Their formidable visitant was one to treat with all respect, but to remove with all speed, "and they began to beseech Him to depart from their borders." They began, for it did not require long entreaty; the gospel which was free to all was not to be forced upon any. But how much did they blindly fling away, who refused the presence of the meek and lowly Giver of rest unto souls; and chose to be denied, as strangers whom He never knew, in the day when every eye shall see Him.
With how sad a heart must Jesus have turned away. Yet one soul at least was won, for as He was entering into the boat, the man who owed all to Him prayed Him that he might be with Him. Why was the prayer refused? Doubtless it sprang chiefly from gratitude and love, thinking it hard to lose so soon the wondrous benefactor, the Man at whose feet he had sat down, Who alone had looked with pitiful and helpful eyes on one whom others only sought to "tame." Such feelings are admirable, but they must be disciplined so as to seek, not their own indulgence, but their Mater's real service. Now a reclaimed demoniac would have been a suspected companion for One who was accused of league with the Prince of the devils. There is no reason to suppose that he had any fitness whatever to enter the immediate circle of our Lord's intimate disciples. His special testimony would lose all its force when he left the district where he was known; but there, on the contrary, the miracle could not fail to be impressive, as its extent and permanence were seen. This man was perhaps the only missionary who could reckon upon a hearing from those who banished Jesus from their coasts. And Christ's loving and unresentful heart would give this testimony to them in its fullness. It should begin at his own house and among his friends, who would surely listen. They should be told how great things the Lord had done for him, and Jesus expressly added, how He had mercy upon thee, that so they might learn their mistake, who feared and shrank from such a kindly visitant. Here is a lesson for these modern days, when the conversion of any noted profligate is sure to be followed by attempts to push him into a vagrant publicity, not only full of peril in itself, but also removing him from the familiar sphere in which his consistent life would be more convincing than all sermons, and where no suspicion of self-interest could overcloud the brightness of his testimony.
Possibly there was yet another reason for leaving him in his home. He may have desired to remain close to Jesus, lest, when the Savior was absent, the evil spirits should resume their sway. In that case it would be necessary to exercise his faith and convince him that the words of Jesus were far-reaching and effectual, even when he was Himself remote. If so, he learned the lesson well, and became an evangelist through all the region of Decapolis. And where all did marvel, we may hope that some were won. What a revelation of mastery over the darkest and most dreadful forces of evil, and of respect for the human will (which Jesus never once coerced by miracle, even when it rejected Him), what unwearied care for the rebellious, and what a sense of sacredness in lowly duties, better for the demoniac than the physical nearness of his Lord, are combined in this astonishing narrative, which to invent in the second century would itself have required miraculous powers.
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article11642.shtml
Samoan Father's Love Letter
Heilig777 — 22 May 2010 — Tusi Aualofa mai ia Tama Lo'u Afafine e / Lo'u Atalii e, A tonu e te leiloa a'u, ae oute iloa mea uma e uiga i...
Heilig777 — 22 May 2010 — Tusi Aualofa mai ia Tama
Lo'u Afafine e / Lo'u Atalii e,
A tonu e te leiloa a'u,
ae oute iloa mea uma e uiga ia te oe.
Salamo 139:1
Oute iloa taimi e te nofo ai i lalo,
ma taimi e te tula'i ai i luga.
Salamo 139:2
Oute masani i ou ala uma.
Samalo 139:3
E oo lava i lauulu o lou ulu ua faitaulia uma ia.
Mataio 10:29-31
Ona o oe na faia i lo'u lava faatusa.
Kenese 1:27
I totonu ia te a'u e te ola ma gaoioi
ai ma e tumau ai ia te oe lava.
Galuega 17:28
Aua o oe o se tasi o la'u fanau.
Galuega 17:28
Na ou iloa oe a o le'i faia oe.
Ieremia 1:4-5
Na ou tofia oe ina ua ou fuafuaina le galuega.
Efeso 1:11-12
E le'i lilo ona faia oe, aua o ou aso uma
o loo tusia lea i la'u tusi.
Salamo 139:15-16
Na ou fuafuaina le taimi tonu e te fanau
mai ai male mea ole a e nofo ai.
Galuega 17:26
Ua faia oe i ala mata'utia male matagofie.
Salamo 139:14
Na ou lalagaina ma ufiufi oe i
totonu ole manava o lou tina.
Salamo 139:13
Ma aumaia oe mai le manava o lou tina ile
aso na e fanau ai.
Salamo 71:6
Ua ta'u pepeloina a'u e ni tagata ae
latou te leiloa a'u.
Ioane:8:41-44
Oute le mamao pe ita foi, ae o a'u ole
alofa atoatoa lea.
1 Ioane 4:16
Ma o lo'u mana'o ia silisili ma tele
naua lo'u alofa mo oe.
1 Ioane 3:1
Aua o oe o se tasi o la'u fanau
ma o a'u o lou Tama.
1 Ioane 3:1
E sili atu mea lelei uma oute foa'iina mo oe nai
se mea e mafaia e lou tama faalelalolagi.
Mataio 7:11
Ona o a'u o le Tama ua silisili ona lelei.
Mataio 5:48
O mea alofa uma e atoatoa lona lelei e te maua ua
foaifuaina atu lea mai o'u lava lima.
Iakopo 1:17
Aua o a'u oute foaifuaina atu mea
aoga uma e te moomia.
Mataio 6:31-33
O o'u manatu mo le manuia o lou lumana'i
e tumu i faamoemoega lelei.
Ieremia 29:11
Ona oute alofa ia te oe ile alofa e faavavau.
Ieremia 31:3
O o'u manatu mo oe e le mafaitaulia
pei o oneone ole sami.
Salamo 139:17-18
Ma oute olioli ia te oe i viiga.
Sefanaia 3:17
E le uma lo'u agalelei mo oe.
Ieremia 32:40
Aua o oe o la'u oloa taua.
Esoto 19:5
Oute naunau ia totoina ia mautu lelei
oe ma lo'u loto atoa ma lo'u agaga atoa.
Ieremia 32:41
Oute fia faaali atu ia te oe mea
tetele male matagofie.
Ieremia 33:3
A e saili ia te a'u ma lou loto atoa,
ona e maua lea o a'u.
Teuteronome 4:29
Ia e fiafia mai ma olioli ia te a'u ona ou foaiina atu lea ia te
oe o mea uma e manao i ai lou loto.
Salamo 37:4
Aua o a'u na foaifuaina atu mea ia ua e loto i ai.
Filipi 2:13
E mafai ona ou faia mea e faasilisili
atu nai soo se mea e te ole mai ai.
Efeso 3:20
Aua o a'u o le e sili ona
faamalosi-au atu ia te oe.
2 Tesalonia 2:16-17
O a'u foi ole Tama e faamafanafana
atu i ou puapuaga.
2 Koronito 1:3-4
A e loto mafatia, o lea oute
latalata atu ia te oe.
Salamo 34:18
E pei ona sapaia e le leoleo mamoe lana tamai mamoe i ona lima,
ua faapena ona ou sapaia oe latalata i lo'u fatu.
Isaia 40:11
E iai le aso oute soloiesea ai loimata uma i ou mata.
Faaaliga 21:3-4
Ma ou aveesea uma puapuaga na
e mafatia ai i lenei lalolagi.
Faaaliga 21:3-4
O a'u o lou Tama, ma oute alofa ia te oe e faapei
ona ou alofa i lo'u lava atalii, o Iesu.
Ioane 17:23
Aua i totonu ia Iesu, ua faailoa
atu ai lo'u alofa mo oe.
Ioane 17:26
O Ia lea ua tutusa lelei ma a'u.
Eperu 1:3
Na Ia sau e faaali atu o a'u e au ma oe,
ae oute le faasagatau ia te oe.
Roma 8:31
Ma ta'u atu ia te oe oute
le o maitaua au agasala.
2 Koronito 5:18-19
Na maliu Iesu ina ia faaleleia ai oe ia te a'u.
2 Koronito 5:18-19
O lona maliu ole atoaga lena ole
faailoga o lo'u alofa mo oe.
1 Ioane 4:10
Ua ou foaia mea uma na ou manao
i ai ina ia ou maua lou alofa.
Roma 8:31-32
A e maua le mea alofa o lo'u atalii lea o Iesu,
ua e maua foi a'u.
1 Ioane 2:23
Ma e leai se mea na te toe
faate'aesea oe mai lo'u alofa.
Roma 8:38-39
Sau loa i lou aiga male olioli ma ole a ou saunia se fiafia sili
ona tele ua vaaia ile lagi.
Luka 15:7
Mai anamua o a'u ole Tama,
ma e faavavau lava o a'u ole Tama.
Efeso 3:14-15
O la'u fesili, e fia avea oe
ma se tasi o la'u fanau?
Ioane 1:12-13
Oute faatali atu mo oe.
Luka 15:11-32
Alofa tele atu, o lou Tama.
Le Atua e ona le mana uma.
Permission To Copy:
Please feel free to copy this text and share it with your friends as long as you do so free of charge and you include the following copyright information..."Father's Love Letter Used By Permission Father Heart Communications Copyright 2001-2008 Translated by Vui Muliagatele Kelemete Vitale www.FathersLoveLetter.com"
Sunday, June 6, 2010
The Great Confluence
EXCERPT
The previous Herescope post looked at the big picture of how the Emerging Church movement is connecting with the New Apostolic Reformation, as exemplified by the release of the new book Jesus Manifesto co-authored by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. There are even more troubling connections, and these lead straight into the New Age movement.
READ HERE:
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/06/great-confluence.html
The previous Herescope post looked at the big picture of how the Emerging Church movement is connecting with the New Apostolic Reformation, as exemplified by the release of the new book Jesus Manifesto co-authored by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. There are even more troubling connections, and these lead straight into the New Age movement.
READ HERE:
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/06/great-confluence.html
Friday, June 4, 2010
"How Know We the Way?"
By T. Austin-Sparks
From "This Ministry" - Messages given at Honor Oak - Volume 3
"Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5).
The chapter in which the above words occur is a chapter of questions. Mental perplexity prevails on the side of the disciples. Strange things are being said to them; things which represent the complete reversal of all their deeply rooted ideas; things which turn their world of expectation upside down. Disappointment, despair, disillusionment, and grief strive to submerge them. "We know not." "How know we?" "Show us." "What is come to pass?" These are some of their bewildered ejaculations. But they are only a very few of the many questions which are covered by the comprehensive answer. Indeed, a whole future life is embraced by what these questions elicit from the Lord.
1. Firstly, He makes it clear that the answer to their questions is not - in the first instance, nor in itself at all - a matter of teaching, doctrine, truths, or traditions, but union with a Divine Person; "I am"; "He that hath seen me, hath seen..." To have a living union with Christ in some indefinable way brings the answer to all questions. That is a statement of fact, and we shall wallow in our mental quagmire, and get deeper and deeper, until we come to know by living relationship through spiritual new birth that all-inclusive Person.
2. The next thing in the answer is that the Way is inside. "I come to you." "I in you." It is not a matter of precepts and legal systems imposed from the outside; but One dwelling within Who is the power of the Way. The Way, the How, the What is all answered by a Life Way, a Truth Way, Who governs from within, and just MAKES us know. This is not conscience. Conscience says different things to different people. To the conscience of one a thing is wrong; to another there is no trouble about that thing (see 1 Cor. 10:23-33). But Christ within will say the same thing to all, and everything becomes a matter of obedience to Him. This may deliver from the bondage and tyranny of an imperfectly enlightened and instructed conscience, and all the terrors and misery suffered therefrom.
3. How do we know anything at all as to God's mind, as to right and wrong according to it? The answer here is: "I am the... life" (v. 6). "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you" (v. 27). In brief, it is by life and peace within, or the contrary. When we are in the will of God, when He has gained His place over our own will, there is a sense of life and peace. When there is conflict between our wills, our ways, our souls and God, there is unrest and inward death. The Lord in John 14 is speaking of the coming day of the Spirit (in which we now live) and He says, "He shall be in you." The Spirit witnesses to the will of God by life. We KNOW God and Christ in terms of what they are - life; and where that life is dominant there is peace.
4. Then there comes the change from head to heart. "Love" - verses 23, 24, 28. "Heart" - 1, 27. A heart relationship, i.e., that of love: not a head relationship, i.e., that of question: is the key to spiritual knowledge. Love for Christ opens the door to His self-revelation and impartation.
5. The place of faith. Verses 1, 10, 11, 12. In effect the Lord says, If you will trust Me, trust My Spirit within you, I will see that you get where I would have you - "I AM the way"; I will see that you come to know all that is necessary to realise the purposes of my Father - "I am the truth"; I will see that you do not go under but triumph - "I am the life," and "Because I live, ye shall live also."
In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore, we ask if you choose to share them with others, please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article1440.shtml
From "This Ministry" - Messages given at Honor Oak - Volume 3
"Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5).
The chapter in which the above words occur is a chapter of questions. Mental perplexity prevails on the side of the disciples. Strange things are being said to them; things which represent the complete reversal of all their deeply rooted ideas; things which turn their world of expectation upside down. Disappointment, despair, disillusionment, and grief strive to submerge them. "We know not." "How know we?" "Show us." "What is come to pass?" These are some of their bewildered ejaculations. But they are only a very few of the many questions which are covered by the comprehensive answer. Indeed, a whole future life is embraced by what these questions elicit from the Lord.
1. Firstly, He makes it clear that the answer to their questions is not - in the first instance, nor in itself at all - a matter of teaching, doctrine, truths, or traditions, but union with a Divine Person; "I am"; "He that hath seen me, hath seen..." To have a living union with Christ in some indefinable way brings the answer to all questions. That is a statement of fact, and we shall wallow in our mental quagmire, and get deeper and deeper, until we come to know by living relationship through spiritual new birth that all-inclusive Person.
2. The next thing in the answer is that the Way is inside. "I come to you." "I in you." It is not a matter of precepts and legal systems imposed from the outside; but One dwelling within Who is the power of the Way. The Way, the How, the What is all answered by a Life Way, a Truth Way, Who governs from within, and just MAKES us know. This is not conscience. Conscience says different things to different people. To the conscience of one a thing is wrong; to another there is no trouble about that thing (see 1 Cor. 10:23-33). But Christ within will say the same thing to all, and everything becomes a matter of obedience to Him. This may deliver from the bondage and tyranny of an imperfectly enlightened and instructed conscience, and all the terrors and misery suffered therefrom.
3. How do we know anything at all as to God's mind, as to right and wrong according to it? The answer here is: "I am the... life" (v. 6). "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you" (v. 27). In brief, it is by life and peace within, or the contrary. When we are in the will of God, when He has gained His place over our own will, there is a sense of life and peace. When there is conflict between our wills, our ways, our souls and God, there is unrest and inward death. The Lord in John 14 is speaking of the coming day of the Spirit (in which we now live) and He says, "He shall be in you." The Spirit witnesses to the will of God by life. We KNOW God and Christ in terms of what they are - life; and where that life is dominant there is peace.
4. Then there comes the change from head to heart. "Love" - verses 23, 24, 28. "Heart" - 1, 27. A heart relationship, i.e., that of love: not a head relationship, i.e., that of question: is the key to spiritual knowledge. Love for Christ opens the door to His self-revelation and impartation.
5. The place of faith. Verses 1, 10, 11, 12. In effect the Lord says, If you will trust Me, trust My Spirit within you, I will see that you get where I would have you - "I AM the way"; I will see that you come to know all that is necessary to realise the purposes of my Father - "I am the truth"; I will see that you do not go under but triumph - "I am the life," and "Because I live, ye shall live also."
In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore, we ask if you choose to share them with others, please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article1440.shtml
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Forgiveness Sought for Sins of Japan, America, Church
EXCERPT
A prominent Japanese church leader appealed for forgiveness on behalf of his country in the emotional final day of the Tokyo 2010 Global Missions Consultation on Friday.
Pastor Reiji Oyama, one of the founders of Japan Evangelical Association, requested time on the closing day of the four-day gathering to reconcile with fellow believers in countries that Japan previously occupied.
Standing on stage, Oyama expressed repentance to representatives of Asian nations that Japan previously colonised as well as countries that it hurt. He specifically mentioned the countries of Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, and China.
“Japan repeatedly killed, murdered, stole, robbed, raped – just humiliated her neighbours,” Oyama said. “Therefore, as a Japanese, I really want to express my feelings of repentance. Not only do I want to repent to countries that Japan invaded and bombed and killed, but also as a Christian I want to really repent towards Israel.”
Oyama explained that Christians for a long time have hated Jewish people because they killed Jesus.
“The thing the Lord desires the most is that we get rid of those barriers and we come together and reconcile and become one,” the Japanese pastor said.
Mission leaders in attendance were asked to pray to remove anger and bitterness toward others from their heart. Japanese church leaders were specifically encouraged to extend a hand to mission leaders of Asian countries that Japan hurt while they prayed.
READ HERE:
http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/missions/1756/section/1.htm
A prominent Japanese church leader appealed for forgiveness on behalf of his country in the emotional final day of the Tokyo 2010 Global Missions Consultation on Friday.
Pastor Reiji Oyama, one of the founders of Japan Evangelical Association, requested time on the closing day of the four-day gathering to reconcile with fellow believers in countries that Japan previously occupied.
Standing on stage, Oyama expressed repentance to representatives of Asian nations that Japan previously colonised as well as countries that it hurt. He specifically mentioned the countries of Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, and China.
“Japan repeatedly killed, murdered, stole, robbed, raped – just humiliated her neighbours,” Oyama said. “Therefore, as a Japanese, I really want to express my feelings of repentance. Not only do I want to repent to countries that Japan invaded and bombed and killed, but also as a Christian I want to really repent towards Israel.”
Oyama explained that Christians for a long time have hated Jewish people because they killed Jesus.
“The thing the Lord desires the most is that we get rid of those barriers and we come together and reconcile and become one,” the Japanese pastor said.
Mission leaders in attendance were asked to pray to remove anger and bitterness toward others from their heart. Japanese church leaders were specifically encouraged to extend a hand to mission leaders of Asian countries that Japan hurt while they prayed.
READ HERE:
http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/missions/1756/section/1.htm
Sunday, May 30, 2010
THE WOMAN OF THE SHATTERED ROMANCES, THE WOMAN OF SYCHAR
Biblical Characters, 6 - THE WOMAN OF THE SHATTERED ROMANCES, THE WOMAN OF SYCHAR
By Clovis G. Chappell
John 4:4-26
Look, will you, at this picture. There sits a man in the strength and buoyancy of young manhood. He is only thirty or thereabouts. About him is the atmosphere of vigor and vitality that belong to the spring-time of life. But to-day he is a bit tired. There is a droop in his shoulders. His feet and sandals are dusty. His garment is travel stained. He has been journeying all the morning on foot. And now at the noon hour he is resting.
The place of his resting is an old well curb. The well is one that was digged by hands that have been dust long centuries. This traveller is very thirsty. But he has no means of drawing the water, so he sits upon the well curb and waits. His friends who are journeying with him have gone into the city to buy food. Soon they will return and then they will eat and drink together.
As he looks along the road that leads into the city he sees somebody coming. That somebody is not one of his disciples. It is a woman. As she comes closer he sees that she is clad in the cheap and soiled finery of her class. At once he knows her for what she is. He reads the dark story of her sinful life. He understands the whole fetid and filthy past through which she has journeyed as through the stenchful mud of a swamp.
As she approaches the well she glares at the Stranger seated upon the curb with bold and unsympathetic gaze. She knows his nationality at once. And all her racial resentment is alive and active.
A bit to her surprise the Stranger greets her with a request for a favor. "Give me a drink," he says. Christ was thirsty. He wanted a draught from Jacob's well. But far more He wanted a draught from this woman's heart. She was a slattern, an outcast. She was lower, in the estimation of the average Jew, than a street dog. Yet this weary Christ desired the gift of her burnt out and impoverished affections. So He says, "Give me to drink."
There is no scorn in the tone, and yet the woman is not in the least softened by it. She rather glories in the fact that she has Him at a disadvantage. "Oh, yes," she doubtless says to herself, "you Jews with your high-handed pride, you Jews with your bitter contempt for us Samaritans--you never have any use for us except when you need us." "How is it," she says, "that you being a Jew ask drink of me who am a woman of Samaria? You don't mean that you would take a drink at the hand of an unclean thing like me, do you?"
But this charming Stranger does not answer her as she had expected. He makes no apology for His request. Nor does He show the least bit of resentment or contempt. He does not answer scorn with scorn, but rather answers with a surprising tenderness: "If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water."
Mark what the Master says. It is one of those abidingly tragic "ifs"--"If thou knewest." "The trouble with you," He says, "is that you do not know the marvelous opportunity with which you now stand face to face. Your trouble is that you are unaware of how near you are to the Fountain of Eternal Life. You do not realize how near your soiled fingers are to clasping wealth that is wealth forever more."
"If thou knewest"--if you only knew how He could still the fitful fever of your heart. If you only knew the message of courage and hope and salvation that He could speak through your lips, you would not be so listless and so careless and so indifferent as the preacher is trying to preach. If you knew the burdens that are ahead of you--if you knew the dark and lonely places where you will sorely need a friend, you would not lightly ignore the friendship and abiding companionship that is offered you in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
"If thou knewest." Do you not hear the cadences of tenderness in the voice of our Lord? Do you not get a glimpse of some bit of the infinite compassion that looks out from those eternal eyes? "If you only knew the gift of God, if you only knew who I am, instead of my having to beg you, instead of my having to stand at the door and knock--you would be knocking. You would be asking of me."
Now, isn't that a rather amazing thing for Christ to say about this fallen woman? There she stands in her shame. Once, no doubt, she was beautiful. There is a charm about her still in spite of the fact that she is a woman of many a shattered romance. Five times she has been married, but the marriage relationship has had little sacredness for her. Her orange blossoms have been dipped in pitch and to-day she is living in open sin.
Who would ever have expected any marked change in this woman? Who would ever have dreamed that underneath this cheap and tarnished dress there beat a hungry heart? Who would ever have thought that this outcast heathen had moments when she looked wistfully toward the heights and longed for a better life? I suppose nobody would ever have thought of it but the kindly Stranger who now sat upon the well curb talking to her. He knew that in spite of her wasted years, in spite of her tarnished past, in spite of the fact that the foul breath of passion had blown her about the streets as a filthy rag--there still was that within her that hungered and thirsted for goodness and for God.
And, my friend, you may assume that that thirst belongs to every man. There is not one that is not stirred by it. It belongs to the best of mankind. It belongs to the elect company of white souled men and women that have climbed far up the hills toward God. It belongs to the great saints like David who cries, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God," who sobs out in his intensity of longing, "As the hart panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."
And thank God it does not belong to the saints alone. It belongs also to the sinners. It does not belong simply to those who have climbed toward the heights, but also to those who have dipped toward the lowest depths. About the only difference between the saint and the sinner in this respect is that the saint knows what he is thirsting for. He knows who it is that can satisfy the deepest longings of his soul, and the sinner does not know. But both of them are thirsting for the living God.
Jesus Christ knew men and women. He knew the human heart, and knowing man at his deepest, He knew what we sometimes forget. He knew that in every man, however low, however degraded he may be--that in every woman, however soiled and stained she may be, there is an insatiable longing for God. They do not always realize that for which they are thirsting. But I am absolutely sure that Augustine was right when he said that "God has made us for Himself and we never find rest till we rest in Him." Every human soul that is in the Far Country is in want, is hungry for the Bread of Life and thirsty for the Water of Life.
Do you remember what the Greeks said to Andrew that day at Jerusalem? "'Sir, we would see Jesus.' We would have a vision of the face of God's Son." And this is a universal longing. It is a thirst that has burned in the heart of man from the beginning of human history. It is older than the pyramids. It is a cry that is the very mother of religion.
As we sit by our Lord and see this unclean woman coming with her earthenware pot upon her shoulder we would fain warn Him. We would whisper in His ear, "Look, Master, yonder comes a degraded woman, yonder comes that creature that in all the centuries has been the most loathed and the most despised and who has been regarded as the most hopeless. Yonder comes an outcast." But Jesus said, "You see and know only in part. Your knowledge is surface knowledge. You do not know her in the deepest depths of her soiled soul. Yonder comes one, who in spite of her sin longs to be good and pure and holy. Yonder comes an immortal soul with immortal hungers and thirsts. Yonder comes a possible child of mine that longs ignorantly but passionately for the under-girding of the Everlasting Arms."
And believe me, my friends, when I tell you that this longing is universal. You have feared to speak to that acquaintance of yours who seems so flippant, who seems so utterly indifferent to everything that partakes of the nature of religion. But that is not the deepest fact about him. Whoever he is and wherever he is, there are times when he is restless and heartsick and homesick. There are times when he is literally parched with thirst for those fountains that make glad the city of God. Dare to speak to him as if he wanted Jesus Christ. For he does want Him, though he may not know it and may be little conscious of it.
"If thou knewest the gift of God . . . thou wouldest have asked of Him." That was absolutely and literally true, though I seriously doubt if the woman herself would have believed it of herself. If you knew the gift of God, if you knew what God could do for you, how much he could mean to your wasted and burnt out affections--you would ask Him. You would seek for Him. You would change this well curb into an altar of prayer. You would change this noon-tide glare into an inner temple, into a holy of holies where the soul and God would meet and understand each other.
This reply of the Stranger awakens the interest of the woman while at the same time it mystifies and bewilders her. He is evidently sincere, and yet what can He mean? And in puzzled wonderment she asks Him, "Whence then hast thou living water? You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his sons and his cattle? Jacob was a great prince, a man of power with God and man. Do you know a secret that he did not know? Can you do what he could not do?"
And this winsome Stranger does not hesitate to say that He can. Will you listen to the claim that He makes to this woman. No other teacher however great and however egotistical ever made such a claim before or since. "Yes," He replies, "I am greater than your father Jacob. I am greater because I can give a gift that is infinitely beyond his. 'Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.'"
Did you notice here the two-fold declaration of the Master? He said in the first place that this old well would not satisfy permanently. And what is true of that well is true of all wells that have ever been digged by human hands. What is wrong with them? For one thing, they never satisfy. They never slake our thirst. To drink from them is like drinking sea water--we become only the more parched and thirsty as we drink.
Do you remember "The Ancient Mariner"? He is on a ship in the ocean and he is parched and dying with thirst. What is the matter? Has the sea gone dry? No--
"Water, water everywhere And all the boards did shrink; Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink."
There is water, but it is not water that will satisfy.
And so men have digged their wells. They have been real wells. They had held real water of a kind, but it has been water that was utterly powerless to slake the thirst of the soul. Here is a man who has digged a well of wealth. Treasure is bubbling up about him like the waters of a fountain. He is rich beyond his hopes, but is he satisfied? Listen! "Soul, thou hast much good laid up for many days, eat, drink and be merry." But his soul has no appetite for that kind of bread. His soul has no thirst for that brackish and bitter water. It is hungry and thirsty for the living God, and nothing else can satisfy.
Here is another who has made the same tragic blunder.
"I'm an alien--I'm an alien to the faith my mother taught me; I'm an alien to the God that heard my mother when she cried; I'm a stranger to the comfort that my 'Now I lay me' brought me, To the Everlasting Arms that held my father when he died. I have spent a life-time seeking things I spurned when I had found them; I have fought and been rewarded in full many a winning cause; But I'd yield them all--fame, fortune and the pleasures that surround them; For a little of the faith that made my mother what she was.
"When the great world came and called me I deserted all to follow, Never knowing, in my dazedness, I had slipped my hand from His-- Never noting, in my blindness, that the bauble fame was hollow, That the gold of wealth was tinsel, as I since have learned it is-- I have spent a life-time seeking things I've spurned when I have found them; I have fought and been rewarded in full many a petty cause, But I'd take them all--fame, fortune and the pleasures that surround them, And exchange them for the faith that made my mother what she was."
Here is one who has dug a well of fame, but he cannot count up twelve happy days. And though he has drunk draughts that might have quenched the thirst of millions, he is dying of thirst because there is no more to drink.
"Oh, could I feel as once I felt, And be what I have been, And weep as I could once have wept O'er many a vanished scene.
"As springs in deserts found seem sweet, All brackish though they be; So midst the withered waste of life Those tears would flow to me."
"Oh, what is fame to a woman," said another. "Like the apples of the Dead Sea, fair to the sight and ashes to the touch." Here is another and he has digged wells of wealth and fame and power and pleasure. He seems afloat upon a very sea in which all the streams of human power and glory and wisdom mingle. He tastes them all only to dash the cup from his lips in loathing and disgust as he cries, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity and vexation of spirit."
And so Jesus says to this woman, "This well can never permanently satisfy you. No well of this world can. But if you are only willing, I can give you a well that will satisfy. I can impart that which will meet every single need and every single longing of your soul." What a claim is this! How marvelous, how amazing! And yet this tired young man, sitting here by the well, makes this high claim, and through the centuries He has made it good.
"I can give you," says He, "a well that will satisfy you now. I can touch the hot fever of your life into restfulness now. I can satisfy the intensest hunger of your starved soul even now. And not only can I do this for the present, but I can satisfy for all eternity. I can give you a fountain that will never run dry. I can bless your life with a springtime where the trees will never shed their leaves and the petals of the rose will never shatter upon the grass."
"If you will allow me, I will give you that which will enrich and satisfy your life to-day and to-morrow and through all the eternal to-morrow." In all world feasts there comes a time when we have to say, "There is no wine." There comes a time when the zest is gone, when the wreaths are withered. There comes a time when joy lies coffined and we have left to us only the dust and ashes of burnt out hopes. But Christ satisfies now and ever more. And this He does in spite of all circumstances and in the presence of all difficulties. For His is not an external fountain to which we have to journey again and again and from which we may be cut off by the forces of the enemy. His is a fountain within. It is that which makes us independent of our foes and even, when need be, of our friends. Dr. Jowett tells how he visited an old, ruined castle in England and found far in the inner precincts of that castle a gurgling and living spring.
What a treasure it was to the man who lived in that castle! His enemies might besiege him and shut him in, but they could never cut off his water supply. No foes however great were able to overcome him by starvation for water because he had a fountain within. There was within the castle a well of water springing up, and he was independent of all outside sources.
Now, when Jesus had told this woman of the wonderful gift that He had the power of imparting it is not at all strange that she answered, "Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come all the way here to draw." And that is just what Jesus desires above all else to do for her. But there is one something in the way. Before Christ can impart His saving and satisfying gift the woman must be brought face to face with her need. She must be made to face her own sin eye to eye and to hate it and confess it. She must be willing to turn from it to Him who is able to cleanse from all sin by the washing of His blood.
And how tactfully does Christ bring her face to face with her past! Nothing could be more tenderly delicate than His touch here. "Go call thy husband," He says. "I have no husband," is the ready response. And then He compliments her.
If you are to be successful as a soul winner, if you are to be successful as a worker anywhere--it is fine to have an eye for that which is praiseworthy. There is something commendable about everybody if we only seek for it and find it. A disreputable dog came to our house the other day. My wife looked at him and said, "What a horrible looking dog!" But our small boy looked at him with a different eye and found something good about him and remarked that he could wag his tail well.
There was not much in this woman to compliment. But Jesus picked out one thing that was commendable. He complimented her on the fact that she had told Him the truth. He said, "You have been honest in this. You have no husband. You have had five husbands, but the man that thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly." And now the woman stands looking her soiled and stained past eye to eye. She does not like it. She would like to get away from it. She wants to start a theological discussion. She is ready to launch out into an argument over the proper place to worship God. But Christ holds her face to face with her sin till she loathes it, and utters that deepest cry of her inner nature, the longing for the coming of the Messiah. And then it is that Christ made the first disclosure of Himself that He ever made in this world. He seems to lift the veil from the face of the infinite as He says, "I that speak unto thee am He."
And this woman has found the Living Water. She forgot her old thirst. She forgot the errand that brought her to the well. She left the empty water pot by the curbstone and bounded away like a happy child into the city. She is under the compelling power of a marvelous discovery. She has a story infinitely too good to keep. And in spite of the fact that her past had been a shameful and sordid past--she would not let it close her lips. She gave her testimony, and as a result we read these words, "Many believed because of the saying of the woman."
Heart, this woman never had your chance and mine. She was placed in a bad setting. She wasted the best years of her life. She never found Jesus till the sweetest and freshest years of her life had been squandered in sin. She only met him in the last lingering days of autumn or maybe in the winter time of life. Though she met Him so late, when she stood in His presence a little later in glory she had her hands full of sheaves.
You have had a great chance. Is there anybody that believes because of what you have said? Has any life been transfigured and transformed by the story that you have told? Will you not give a little more earnestness and a little more thought and a little more prayer and a little more effort to the doing of this work that Jesus Christ did not think was beneath Himself as the King of Heaven and the Savior of the world?
And if you have never found the fountain that satisfies, if you know nothing of the spring that flows within--will you not claim that blessed treasure now? Will you not do so, first of all, because of your own needs? Then will you not do so not only because of your own needs but because of the needs of those about you? You are thirsty men and women, and this is a thirsty world. You need God and God needs you. Will you give Him a chance at you?
Remember that this well of water is not to be yours on the basis of merit. It is not to be bought. It is not to be earned. It is not found in the pathway of the scholar or of the rich or of the great or of the gifted. It is God's gift. If you want wages serve the devil, for "the wages of sin is death." "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."
In oriental cities, where water is often scarce, water carriers go through the streets selling water at so much per drink. And their cry is this: "The gift of God, who will buy? Who will buy?" And sometimes a man will buy the whole supply, and then allow the water carrier to give it away. And as he goes back down the street, he no longer says, "The gift of God, who will buy?" but "The gift of God, who will take? The gift of God, who will take?" That is my message to you: "The gift of God, who will take?" It is yours for the taking. May God help you to take it now.
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article11053.shtml
By Clovis G. Chappell
John 4:4-26
Look, will you, at this picture. There sits a man in the strength and buoyancy of young manhood. He is only thirty or thereabouts. About him is the atmosphere of vigor and vitality that belong to the spring-time of life. But to-day he is a bit tired. There is a droop in his shoulders. His feet and sandals are dusty. His garment is travel stained. He has been journeying all the morning on foot. And now at the noon hour he is resting.
The place of his resting is an old well curb. The well is one that was digged by hands that have been dust long centuries. This traveller is very thirsty. But he has no means of drawing the water, so he sits upon the well curb and waits. His friends who are journeying with him have gone into the city to buy food. Soon they will return and then they will eat and drink together.
As he looks along the road that leads into the city he sees somebody coming. That somebody is not one of his disciples. It is a woman. As she comes closer he sees that she is clad in the cheap and soiled finery of her class. At once he knows her for what she is. He reads the dark story of her sinful life. He understands the whole fetid and filthy past through which she has journeyed as through the stenchful mud of a swamp.
As she approaches the well she glares at the Stranger seated upon the curb with bold and unsympathetic gaze. She knows his nationality at once. And all her racial resentment is alive and active.
A bit to her surprise the Stranger greets her with a request for a favor. "Give me a drink," he says. Christ was thirsty. He wanted a draught from Jacob's well. But far more He wanted a draught from this woman's heart. She was a slattern, an outcast. She was lower, in the estimation of the average Jew, than a street dog. Yet this weary Christ desired the gift of her burnt out and impoverished affections. So He says, "Give me to drink."
There is no scorn in the tone, and yet the woman is not in the least softened by it. She rather glories in the fact that she has Him at a disadvantage. "Oh, yes," she doubtless says to herself, "you Jews with your high-handed pride, you Jews with your bitter contempt for us Samaritans--you never have any use for us except when you need us." "How is it," she says, "that you being a Jew ask drink of me who am a woman of Samaria? You don't mean that you would take a drink at the hand of an unclean thing like me, do you?"
But this charming Stranger does not answer her as she had expected. He makes no apology for His request. Nor does He show the least bit of resentment or contempt. He does not answer scorn with scorn, but rather answers with a surprising tenderness: "If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water."
Mark what the Master says. It is one of those abidingly tragic "ifs"--"If thou knewest." "The trouble with you," He says, "is that you do not know the marvelous opportunity with which you now stand face to face. Your trouble is that you are unaware of how near you are to the Fountain of Eternal Life. You do not realize how near your soiled fingers are to clasping wealth that is wealth forever more."
"If thou knewest"--if you only knew how He could still the fitful fever of your heart. If you only knew the message of courage and hope and salvation that He could speak through your lips, you would not be so listless and so careless and so indifferent as the preacher is trying to preach. If you knew the burdens that are ahead of you--if you knew the dark and lonely places where you will sorely need a friend, you would not lightly ignore the friendship and abiding companionship that is offered you in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
"If thou knewest." Do you not hear the cadences of tenderness in the voice of our Lord? Do you not get a glimpse of some bit of the infinite compassion that looks out from those eternal eyes? "If you only knew the gift of God, if you only knew who I am, instead of my having to beg you, instead of my having to stand at the door and knock--you would be knocking. You would be asking of me."
Now, isn't that a rather amazing thing for Christ to say about this fallen woman? There she stands in her shame. Once, no doubt, she was beautiful. There is a charm about her still in spite of the fact that she is a woman of many a shattered romance. Five times she has been married, but the marriage relationship has had little sacredness for her. Her orange blossoms have been dipped in pitch and to-day she is living in open sin.
Who would ever have expected any marked change in this woman? Who would ever have dreamed that underneath this cheap and tarnished dress there beat a hungry heart? Who would ever have thought that this outcast heathen had moments when she looked wistfully toward the heights and longed for a better life? I suppose nobody would ever have thought of it but the kindly Stranger who now sat upon the well curb talking to her. He knew that in spite of her wasted years, in spite of her tarnished past, in spite of the fact that the foul breath of passion had blown her about the streets as a filthy rag--there still was that within her that hungered and thirsted for goodness and for God.
And, my friend, you may assume that that thirst belongs to every man. There is not one that is not stirred by it. It belongs to the best of mankind. It belongs to the elect company of white souled men and women that have climbed far up the hills toward God. It belongs to the great saints like David who cries, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God," who sobs out in his intensity of longing, "As the hart panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."
And thank God it does not belong to the saints alone. It belongs also to the sinners. It does not belong simply to those who have climbed toward the heights, but also to those who have dipped toward the lowest depths. About the only difference between the saint and the sinner in this respect is that the saint knows what he is thirsting for. He knows who it is that can satisfy the deepest longings of his soul, and the sinner does not know. But both of them are thirsting for the living God.
Jesus Christ knew men and women. He knew the human heart, and knowing man at his deepest, He knew what we sometimes forget. He knew that in every man, however low, however degraded he may be--that in every woman, however soiled and stained she may be, there is an insatiable longing for God. They do not always realize that for which they are thirsting. But I am absolutely sure that Augustine was right when he said that "God has made us for Himself and we never find rest till we rest in Him." Every human soul that is in the Far Country is in want, is hungry for the Bread of Life and thirsty for the Water of Life.
Do you remember what the Greeks said to Andrew that day at Jerusalem? "'Sir, we would see Jesus.' We would have a vision of the face of God's Son." And this is a universal longing. It is a thirst that has burned in the heart of man from the beginning of human history. It is older than the pyramids. It is a cry that is the very mother of religion.
As we sit by our Lord and see this unclean woman coming with her earthenware pot upon her shoulder we would fain warn Him. We would whisper in His ear, "Look, Master, yonder comes a degraded woman, yonder comes that creature that in all the centuries has been the most loathed and the most despised and who has been regarded as the most hopeless. Yonder comes an outcast." But Jesus said, "You see and know only in part. Your knowledge is surface knowledge. You do not know her in the deepest depths of her soiled soul. Yonder comes one, who in spite of her sin longs to be good and pure and holy. Yonder comes an immortal soul with immortal hungers and thirsts. Yonder comes a possible child of mine that longs ignorantly but passionately for the under-girding of the Everlasting Arms."
And believe me, my friends, when I tell you that this longing is universal. You have feared to speak to that acquaintance of yours who seems so flippant, who seems so utterly indifferent to everything that partakes of the nature of religion. But that is not the deepest fact about him. Whoever he is and wherever he is, there are times when he is restless and heartsick and homesick. There are times when he is literally parched with thirst for those fountains that make glad the city of God. Dare to speak to him as if he wanted Jesus Christ. For he does want Him, though he may not know it and may be little conscious of it.
"If thou knewest the gift of God . . . thou wouldest have asked of Him." That was absolutely and literally true, though I seriously doubt if the woman herself would have believed it of herself. If you knew the gift of God, if you knew what God could do for you, how much he could mean to your wasted and burnt out affections--you would ask Him. You would seek for Him. You would change this well curb into an altar of prayer. You would change this noon-tide glare into an inner temple, into a holy of holies where the soul and God would meet and understand each other.
This reply of the Stranger awakens the interest of the woman while at the same time it mystifies and bewilders her. He is evidently sincere, and yet what can He mean? And in puzzled wonderment she asks Him, "Whence then hast thou living water? You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his sons and his cattle? Jacob was a great prince, a man of power with God and man. Do you know a secret that he did not know? Can you do what he could not do?"
And this winsome Stranger does not hesitate to say that He can. Will you listen to the claim that He makes to this woman. No other teacher however great and however egotistical ever made such a claim before or since. "Yes," He replies, "I am greater than your father Jacob. I am greater because I can give a gift that is infinitely beyond his. 'Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.'"
Did you notice here the two-fold declaration of the Master? He said in the first place that this old well would not satisfy permanently. And what is true of that well is true of all wells that have ever been digged by human hands. What is wrong with them? For one thing, they never satisfy. They never slake our thirst. To drink from them is like drinking sea water--we become only the more parched and thirsty as we drink.
Do you remember "The Ancient Mariner"? He is on a ship in the ocean and he is parched and dying with thirst. What is the matter? Has the sea gone dry? No--
"Water, water everywhere And all the boards did shrink; Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink."
There is water, but it is not water that will satisfy.
And so men have digged their wells. They have been real wells. They had held real water of a kind, but it has been water that was utterly powerless to slake the thirst of the soul. Here is a man who has digged a well of wealth. Treasure is bubbling up about him like the waters of a fountain. He is rich beyond his hopes, but is he satisfied? Listen! "Soul, thou hast much good laid up for many days, eat, drink and be merry." But his soul has no appetite for that kind of bread. His soul has no thirst for that brackish and bitter water. It is hungry and thirsty for the living God, and nothing else can satisfy.
Here is another who has made the same tragic blunder.
"I'm an alien--I'm an alien to the faith my mother taught me; I'm an alien to the God that heard my mother when she cried; I'm a stranger to the comfort that my 'Now I lay me' brought me, To the Everlasting Arms that held my father when he died. I have spent a life-time seeking things I spurned when I had found them; I have fought and been rewarded in full many a winning cause; But I'd yield them all--fame, fortune and the pleasures that surround them; For a little of the faith that made my mother what she was.
"When the great world came and called me I deserted all to follow, Never knowing, in my dazedness, I had slipped my hand from His-- Never noting, in my blindness, that the bauble fame was hollow, That the gold of wealth was tinsel, as I since have learned it is-- I have spent a life-time seeking things I've spurned when I have found them; I have fought and been rewarded in full many a petty cause, But I'd take them all--fame, fortune and the pleasures that surround them, And exchange them for the faith that made my mother what she was."
Here is one who has dug a well of fame, but he cannot count up twelve happy days. And though he has drunk draughts that might have quenched the thirst of millions, he is dying of thirst because there is no more to drink.
"Oh, could I feel as once I felt, And be what I have been, And weep as I could once have wept O'er many a vanished scene.
"As springs in deserts found seem sweet, All brackish though they be; So midst the withered waste of life Those tears would flow to me."
"Oh, what is fame to a woman," said another. "Like the apples of the Dead Sea, fair to the sight and ashes to the touch." Here is another and he has digged wells of wealth and fame and power and pleasure. He seems afloat upon a very sea in which all the streams of human power and glory and wisdom mingle. He tastes them all only to dash the cup from his lips in loathing and disgust as he cries, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity and vexation of spirit."
And so Jesus says to this woman, "This well can never permanently satisfy you. No well of this world can. But if you are only willing, I can give you a well that will satisfy. I can impart that which will meet every single need and every single longing of your soul." What a claim is this! How marvelous, how amazing! And yet this tired young man, sitting here by the well, makes this high claim, and through the centuries He has made it good.
"I can give you," says He, "a well that will satisfy you now. I can touch the hot fever of your life into restfulness now. I can satisfy the intensest hunger of your starved soul even now. And not only can I do this for the present, but I can satisfy for all eternity. I can give you a fountain that will never run dry. I can bless your life with a springtime where the trees will never shed their leaves and the petals of the rose will never shatter upon the grass."
"If you will allow me, I will give you that which will enrich and satisfy your life to-day and to-morrow and through all the eternal to-morrow." In all world feasts there comes a time when we have to say, "There is no wine." There comes a time when the zest is gone, when the wreaths are withered. There comes a time when joy lies coffined and we have left to us only the dust and ashes of burnt out hopes. But Christ satisfies now and ever more. And this He does in spite of all circumstances and in the presence of all difficulties. For His is not an external fountain to which we have to journey again and again and from which we may be cut off by the forces of the enemy. His is a fountain within. It is that which makes us independent of our foes and even, when need be, of our friends. Dr. Jowett tells how he visited an old, ruined castle in England and found far in the inner precincts of that castle a gurgling and living spring.
What a treasure it was to the man who lived in that castle! His enemies might besiege him and shut him in, but they could never cut off his water supply. No foes however great were able to overcome him by starvation for water because he had a fountain within. There was within the castle a well of water springing up, and he was independent of all outside sources.
Now, when Jesus had told this woman of the wonderful gift that He had the power of imparting it is not at all strange that she answered, "Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come all the way here to draw." And that is just what Jesus desires above all else to do for her. But there is one something in the way. Before Christ can impart His saving and satisfying gift the woman must be brought face to face with her need. She must be made to face her own sin eye to eye and to hate it and confess it. She must be willing to turn from it to Him who is able to cleanse from all sin by the washing of His blood.
And how tactfully does Christ bring her face to face with her past! Nothing could be more tenderly delicate than His touch here. "Go call thy husband," He says. "I have no husband," is the ready response. And then He compliments her.
If you are to be successful as a soul winner, if you are to be successful as a worker anywhere--it is fine to have an eye for that which is praiseworthy. There is something commendable about everybody if we only seek for it and find it. A disreputable dog came to our house the other day. My wife looked at him and said, "What a horrible looking dog!" But our small boy looked at him with a different eye and found something good about him and remarked that he could wag his tail well.
There was not much in this woman to compliment. But Jesus picked out one thing that was commendable. He complimented her on the fact that she had told Him the truth. He said, "You have been honest in this. You have no husband. You have had five husbands, but the man that thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly." And now the woman stands looking her soiled and stained past eye to eye. She does not like it. She would like to get away from it. She wants to start a theological discussion. She is ready to launch out into an argument over the proper place to worship God. But Christ holds her face to face with her sin till she loathes it, and utters that deepest cry of her inner nature, the longing for the coming of the Messiah. And then it is that Christ made the first disclosure of Himself that He ever made in this world. He seems to lift the veil from the face of the infinite as He says, "I that speak unto thee am He."
And this woman has found the Living Water. She forgot her old thirst. She forgot the errand that brought her to the well. She left the empty water pot by the curbstone and bounded away like a happy child into the city. She is under the compelling power of a marvelous discovery. She has a story infinitely too good to keep. And in spite of the fact that her past had been a shameful and sordid past--she would not let it close her lips. She gave her testimony, and as a result we read these words, "Many believed because of the saying of the woman."
Heart, this woman never had your chance and mine. She was placed in a bad setting. She wasted the best years of her life. She never found Jesus till the sweetest and freshest years of her life had been squandered in sin. She only met him in the last lingering days of autumn or maybe in the winter time of life. Though she met Him so late, when she stood in His presence a little later in glory she had her hands full of sheaves.
You have had a great chance. Is there anybody that believes because of what you have said? Has any life been transfigured and transformed by the story that you have told? Will you not give a little more earnestness and a little more thought and a little more prayer and a little more effort to the doing of this work that Jesus Christ did not think was beneath Himself as the King of Heaven and the Savior of the world?
And if you have never found the fountain that satisfies, if you know nothing of the spring that flows within--will you not claim that blessed treasure now? Will you not do so, first of all, because of your own needs? Then will you not do so not only because of your own needs but because of the needs of those about you? You are thirsty men and women, and this is a thirsty world. You need God and God needs you. Will you give Him a chance at you?
Remember that this well of water is not to be yours on the basis of merit. It is not to be bought. It is not to be earned. It is not found in the pathway of the scholar or of the rich or of the great or of the gifted. It is God's gift. If you want wages serve the devil, for "the wages of sin is death." "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."
In oriental cities, where water is often scarce, water carriers go through the streets selling water at so much per drink. And their cry is this: "The gift of God, who will buy? Who will buy?" And sometimes a man will buy the whole supply, and then allow the water carrier to give it away. And as he goes back down the street, he no longer says, "The gift of God, who will buy?" but "The gift of God, who will take? The gift of God, who will take?" That is my message to you: "The gift of God, who will take?" It is yours for the taking. May God help you to take it now.
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article11053.shtml
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Progressive Growth
By G. Campbell Morgan
Whenever a new vision is presented to the trusting soul a new crisis is created for that soul, and the soul will either obey and march into larger life, or disobey and turn backward. The man or woman who has the largest, fullest knowledge of Christ is the man or woman who is most conscious that he or she has hardly yet begun to see His glory. The Holy Spirit . . . is forever unveiling to the eyes of faithful, watching souls the glory of Christ; and as each new glory is revealed it calls the soul to some new adventure, to some new sacrifice . . . to some new area of spiritual growth.
Every response to light means fuller understanding and enlarged capacity for further revelation. The true Christian life is a growth, which finds no maturity in this world; the ultimate is never reached in this land of shadows. There is no exhausting of the light and glory and beauty of Christ, and if He has not startled and shamed me recently it is because somewhere in the past I disobeyed and have lost my power to see. Sanctification is progressive, the Spirit of God patiently leading us from point to point in life of faith and light and love, and forevermore astonishing us with new unveilings of the glory of our Master.
For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article323.shtml
Whenever a new vision is presented to the trusting soul a new crisis is created for that soul, and the soul will either obey and march into larger life, or disobey and turn backward. The man or woman who has the largest, fullest knowledge of Christ is the man or woman who is most conscious that he or she has hardly yet begun to see His glory. The Holy Spirit . . . is forever unveiling to the eyes of faithful, watching souls the glory of Christ; and as each new glory is revealed it calls the soul to some new adventure, to some new sacrifice . . . to some new area of spiritual growth.
Every response to light means fuller understanding and enlarged capacity for further revelation. The true Christian life is a growth, which finds no maturity in this world; the ultimate is never reached in this land of shadows. There is no exhausting of the light and glory and beauty of Christ, and if He has not startled and shamed me recently it is because somewhere in the past I disobeyed and have lost my power to see. Sanctification is progressive, the Spirit of God patiently leading us from point to point in life of faith and light and love, and forevermore astonishing us with new unveilings of the glory of our Master.
For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article323.shtml
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