AT HIS FEET
By John Bolten, SR.
In these days of tension, fear, and anxiety Christians often wish to escape the noise and calling of the world to reach higher ground, forgetting at times that God's marvelous grace and care have prepared us for the highest possible position. "We are seated in the heavenlies together with Christ."
Here, we are longing impatiently for the closest, most intimate communion with our Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness of our long days. That place is at His feet. There is nothing better here on earth for the believer, nothing more pleasing to the Lord and to the Father than this relationship. There is no place more full of joy, peace, rest, comfort, nearness, and security than at His feet.
Look at Martha and Mary in Bethany. Martha was very busy, looking after the comfort of her guest. Mary probably had helped her, but when the Lord entered it was a signal for her to stop all preparations. She took her place at His feet. All she did was to listen, to drink in His words. Soon Martha complained, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me." With all kindness the Lord answered, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:40-42).
In our day there is much activity everywhere -- and so little peace and quiet, sitting at His feet. How little it is understood that there is but "one thing" which is needful, that one thing is sufficient. Mary had a greater understanding of the person of our Lord than had Martha. She learned it at His feet. Nowhere is it said that Martha was ever at His feet -- but often when Mary is mentioned, she was seated there. She knew no better place.
In Luke, Mary is receiving instructions from the Lord about His Father and other hidden things. In John 11 we see her once more at His feet, weeping. In a little while He weeps with her. In John 12 again we find her at His feet, anointing them with costly ointments. She did it for His burial. She understood a great deal more of what He had revealed about His death, burial, and resurrection than had all the disciples. Perhaps He spoke with her about these things when she sat at His feet.
Oh, that we would know Him better! Oh, for a greater realization of His person, His love toward us, and His grace! In Him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. He wants us to be filled with His truth and Spirit. By serving? Working for it? By earning it? No. But by taking our place at His feet that He may fill us with His fullness. He delights to share His very power with His own who admit their own worthlessness and weakness.
Low at Thy feet, Lord Jesus,
This is the place for me;
Here I have learned deep lessons,
Truth that has made me free.
Free from myself, Lord Jesus,
Free from the ways of men;
Chains of thought that once bound me,
Ne'er can enslave again.
Only Thyself, Lord Jesus ,
Conquered my wayward will;
But for Thy love constraining,
I had been wayward still.
(Copyright 1965 by The Sunday School Times Foundation, Philadelphia, PA 19105. Reprinted by permission.)
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"He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities . . . and with his stripes we are healed."
-- Thus spake Isaiah of Jesus.
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HE THAT BOASTETH, LET HIM BOAST IN THE LORD
By L. R. Shelton
In this day when the world is pleasure mad and money crazy and lustfully insane, many are more or less surprised that I keep bragging on the Lord Jesus Christ and exalting His name above every name. It is because He is all in all to my heart and life. He is my Saviour (Matthew 1:21), my Deliverer (Colossians 1:13-14), my Redeemer (Ephesians 1:7), my Life (Colossians 3:4). He is my Bread of Life (John 6:35), and the water of Life to my thirsty soul (John 4:3-14). He is my Wisdom, my Righteousness, my Sanctification, and my Redemption (I Corinthians 1:30). He is my Strength (Isaiah 26:4). He is my Hope (Colossians 1:27), my Foundation (I Corinthians 3:11), my High Tower (Psalm 18:2). He is the Rock in a weary land (Isaiah 32:2), and in the shadow of that Rock do I rest. He is the Rock of Ages (Isaiah 26:4), and I am hid in the cleft of that Rock (Song of Solomon 2:14). He is my peace (Ephesians 2:14; Colossians 1:20). He is the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS before whom I bow in utter submission (Revelation 19:16).
One day I was dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), and by His Holy Spirit He quickened and made me alive. At the sound of His voice I was brought forth from the grave of sin (John 5:25). One day I was blinded by the god of this world (II Corinthians 4:3-4), and He commanded the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ to shine in, and I saw the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 4:5-6). One day I was a sinner, laden with my sins, and how they weighed me down!! (I Timothy 1:15), but in Him I found forgiveness, and found all my sins taken away (Acts 13:38-39). I found Him to be my Sin-bearer; on Him was laid all my sins, and He paid the price in full (Isaiah 53:5,6). One day I was a lost sinner on the road to hell (Luke 19:10), and He found me and put me on His shoulders and came home rejoicing that He had found His lost sheep (Luke 15:5). One day I was naked, and I saw my utter vileness, wretchedness, and corruption, and my shame (Revelation 3:17); and Christ became my Righteousness and clothed me with the best robe found in the wardrobe of heaven (Luke 15:22).
To me, He is most lovely, the Loveliest of the lovely, altogether lovely (Song of Solomon 5:16). The clothes I wear He gave to me, the best that heaven could produce. One day He said, "I have found My child; bring forth the best robe and put it on him." One day I was guilty, under the sentence of sin, which was death (Ezekiel 18:4). Yes, I deserved to die (Romans 6:23), deserved to go to hell, but for Christ's sake God the Father pardoned me (Romans 5:1; Isaiah 55:7). Just for His sake He set aside the penalty of sin with all its guilt, and just for His sake He let me go free. As I sit here, I am just a pardoned sinner, pardoned for Jesus' sake. I deserved to die, but He died in my place (Romans 5:6), and because of His death the Lord God of Heaven pardoned me. I won't have to die because Christ tasted death for every believer (Hebrews 2:9).
One day I was a son of Satan (John 8:44). I was indwelt by Satan, motivated by Satan, energized by Satan, led by Satan, but Christ became my Deliverer and delivered me from the power of darkness, and Satan cannot return. Are you beginning to see, my friend, why I love Him, why I praise Him, why I can never get over what He means to my soul? I know quite well what He has done for me. One day I found myself vile and unclean (Job 40:4; Isaiah 6:5, 64:6), and He washed me in His blood (Revelation 1:5; I Peter 1:18-19), washed my sins away, cleansed me from all unrighteousness (I John 1:7,9). One day He opened the fountain of cleansing to me (Zechariah 13:1); one day He plunged me into the fountain of cleansing and washed me whiter than snow (Isaiah 1:18). He said, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." One day I was an outcast (Ezekiel 16:5) -- yes, a contemptible, worthless outcast (Revelation 3:17), I found myself on the outside of the city walls (Hebrews 13:13), a leper filled with the leprosy of sin (Isaiah 1:5,6), crying, "Unclean, unclean!" and the Christ of Heaven came by and fell in love with such a wretch! He covered me with His own skirt; He cleansed me with His own blood (Ezekiel 16:8). He adopted me into His family as His child (Ephesians 1:5) and gave me the spirit of adoption that I could look up into His face and say, "Abba, Father. My Father and my God!" (Romans 8:15-17). Do you wonder now why I love Him? He has provided my every need (Philippians 4:19). He has kept me from falling (Jude 24). His grace is the only barrier to my sins. He loves me in spite of all my sins and mistakes. I cannot help but love and adore and worship Him, and be a bondslave to such a lovely Individual, who is my Lord, my God, my Saviour, and my King.
As you sit there and read this personal testimony to the Son of man, the Christ of God, let me ask you, What is He to you? Is He your Lord and your Saviour? Do you bow before Him and call Him Lord? (Acts 9:5,6; Philippians 2:9-12). Oh, saint of God, isn't it marvelous to know Him? Oh, awakened sinner, I would that you knew Him; Oh, that you would fall at His feet and cry, "My Lord . . . be Thou my Lord! Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? Take me! Make me Thine forevermore, to have and to hold, from this day forward!"
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ONLY TWO SIDES
By D. L. Moody
The cross of Christ divides all mankind. There are only two sides, those for Christ, and those against Him. Think of the two thieves; from the side of Christ one went down to death cursing God, and the other went to glory.
What a contrast! In the morning he is led out, a condemned criminal; in the evening he is saved from his sins. In the morning he is cursing -- Matthew and Mark both tell us that those two thieves came out cursing -- in the evening he is singing hallelujahs with a choir of angels.
In the morning he is condemned by men as not fit to live on earth; in the evening he is reckoned good enough for Heaven. In the morning nailed to the cross; in the evening in the paradise of God. In the morning not an eye to pity; in the evening washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb.
In the morning in the society of thieves and outcasts; in the evening Christ is not ashamed to walk with him down the golden pavements of the eternal city.
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JESUS CHRIST
HIS PRE-EXISTENCE
By "pre-existence" we mean that Christ had personal conscious existence before He was born in Bethlehem's manger. He lived before He lived on this earth. Obviously something which can be said of no one else. For proof let us call forth some competent witnesses from among His earthly contemporaries in the New Testament.
We hear first from His trustworthy forerunner, John the Baptist. John, what have you to say on this question? "This is he of whom I said, He that cometh after me (in time) is become before me (in importance): for he was before me (in existence)." Thus John confirms the pre-existence of Christ.
Next from some of His apostles. Apostle John, what do you say? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." Who is this "Word" you speak of, John? It is none other than the "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS," the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, whom John in the Revelation again calls "The Word of God." What "beginning" do you mean, John? Do you refer to HIS beginning? Of course not, John refers to the beginning we all know about, the beginning of creation, and He was already there -- "the same was in the beginning with God." So when the Bible starts out by saying, "In the beginning God . . . " it has reference to none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Apostle Paul, let's hear from you. " . . . Christ Jesus, who, existing (before) in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself . . . " Is that all, Paul? No. "And he is before all things." Thank you, Paul, for your unbiased testimony.
We have yet to hear from one more witness, Jesus Christ Himself. What have you to say of yourself, Christ Jesus? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am." Do you mean to say that you lived before the ancient patriarch Abraham was born, and you are not yet 35 years old?
Let's hear more. "And now, (prayed Jesus to the Father), "glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." "I am the living bread which came down out of heaven." Enough! Quite enough! Either this is the ranting of a madman or else He is speaking phenomenal truth. He proved without a doubt that He wasn't a madman. Then we must accept His testimony and that of His contemporaries that He really was pre-existent.
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
In the Old Testament also His pre-existence is affirmed. "Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb. And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush." This "angel of Jehovah" who appeared to Moses was none other than Jesus Christ in His pre-existent state.
Don't let the word "angel" disturb you. We usually think of an angel as a creature with womanish features and two large wings, but this is unscriptural. "Angel" in the Bible means "messenger," one sent from God. It may indeed on occasions be one of God's creatures called angels, but when this title appears, "the angel of Jehovah," it refers to Christ who was God's special Messenger to men.
"The angel of Jehovah" never appears in Scripture after the birth of Christ, and for an obvious reason, He has now appeared in human flesh. And He was other than a created angel, for He demanded worship of Moses at the burning bush, something angels never dared to do. "See thou do it not," said the angel to John on Patmos as John fell down at his feet to worship, for he said, "I am a fellow-servant with thee."
A comparison of two Scriptures from the Old Testament should prove conclusively that "the angel of Jehovah" refers to Christ in His pre-existent state.
In Judges we read of Manoah's conversation with this heavenly Messenger. "And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name . . . And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, Wherefore askest thou after my name, seeing it is wonderful?"
Isaiah, speaking of the coming Messiah, says, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called Wonderful . . . " "There is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord -- for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son -- and Jesus came . . . saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth." Who then is this One with the name "Wonderful," who appeared on several occasions in the Old Testament as "the angel of Jehovah"? It is our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
This truth ought to inspire us to read our Old Testament Scriptures, knowing that in them we can see Jesus. When we read the Gospels we see Christ in His humiliation. When we read the Epistles we see Him in His glorification. When we read the Old Testament, the picture of our Lord is completed, and we see Him in His pre-existent state. The truth ought also to inspire us to renewed comfort and confidence, as we realize that "the angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear (reverence) him, and delivereth them."
Finally, this truth of Christ's pre-existence, presented by both the Old and New Testaments, ought to inspire in us renewed hope, knowing that as Christ existed in eternity past, so were we even then part of His plan for the future. The Bible declares: "He (God the Father) chose us in him (the Lord Jesus Christ) before the foundation of the world . . . unto adoption as sons . . . unto himself." And Jesus prayed, "Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." "I come again," is His promise, "and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
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SUICIDE
TRAGEDY, NOT A SCANDAL
Anonymous
In years of reading articles on the Christian and suicide, I have yet to come upon one that touched the heart of the matter. Most make much of the cowardice of suicide; some claim that such a sin is proof that the person concerned could not really have been born from above; at best, he was insane.
Yet much more can be said on this subject. The temptation to suicide comes to many a troubled pilgrim. That so few Christians have any deep understanding of the matter may be one reason why Christian deaths all too often fall into this sad category.
There are many pertinent helps for such sufferers. It is tragic that so few compelling ones seem to be generally known, or are so submerged in censure as to be useless.
I know whereof I speak. I have been chronically ill from childhood and have never known normal family love. I suffer increasingly seizures of desperate pain which doctors cannot alleviate, let alone stop or cure. I am never free from weariness and can scarcely imagine a feeling of physical well-being. This specter of suicide has peered over my shoulder many times. Although I have been an earnest Christian since youth, I never know when I shall be called upon to do mortal combat with this grim Adversary.
I was past 40 before I once mentioned this problem even to my Christian physician, so great is the horror registered by the Christian public, even, by its ministry, at the faintest reference to such temptation. I have fought my desolate battles in utter darkness; and it is to God's glory alone that I have been kept from this grievous sin. But, oh, if the troubled spirit could but pour out its anguish to another believing soul, could but grasp the hand of fellowship and faith rather than shrink from censorious recoil, how much easier could be the road to victory!
A sympathetic approach, combined with an absence of criticism so complete as to restrain even an expression of surprise, is the first requisite for the Christian who would help one beset with this trouble. If you have never sat where the sufferer must sit, you may never be able really to understand his problem; but you must earnestly seek the Spirit's enlightening aid, and must not in any way condemn if you would be used of God to bring release to his needy soul.
You must recognize the fact that this temptation is not in itself sin. The soul in such trouble needs urgently to talk his problem out with another believer. When faced in the light, and in fellowship, the powers of darkness and loneliness lose much of their strength. This is one of God's appointed ways of delivering His tempted children; it is unspeakable pity that so few Christians are themselves spiritually equipped to deal with the soul haunted by suicide.
Many practical things can help. Don't spend too much time talking over the pros and cons of the matter; the life situations that give rise to such temptations are usually very real, and can seldom be resolved by mere talk. But you can make the sufferer aware of your sympathetic interest; your understanding, insofar as you have it; above all, your friendship, your willingness to stand by. You can seek to give him something definite to do -- some work geared to his abilities, which may be sharply limited, since physical frailties so often play a major part in such trouble. But give him a missionary to write to, a needy home to visit, a book to read. Call him often; invite him to lunch; go for a walk with him. Keep him conscious of your compassion, your love, your readiness to be "one called alongside to help." And supremely, seek to build up within him an awareness of God, and to strengthen his general spiritual life.
How? Let me share some of the spiritual truths which the Holy Spirit has taught me, by means of which He had strengthened me to resist this sometimes almost overwhelming temptation.
It is not the cowardice of suicide that comes foremost in my thinking: one may fight with unfaltering courage for many years, and yet go down in one desperate moment. Surely the Judge of all the earth, who shall do right, will not let that one moment of cowardice -- if that is what it is -- overwrite the long decades of pain or sorrow nobly borne, and name that soul only coward.
It is not the unique preciousness of the gift of life that makes it to me a sin beyond thought to terminate that gift by one's own volition; for the cold fact is, as thousands of doctors can attest, that for some people physical life may be, and is, an almost intolerable burden, infinitely harder to bear than to lay down.
It is not just the fact of the sin of suicide that gives me pause in the face of black temptation, telling as that is to one who truly loves his Lord; for I am not convinced that this is the most serious sin of which the Christian may be guilty. Hatred, bitterness, malice, unforgiveness -- these, and other such evils harbored in Christian hearts, with their tragic intermingling and ever-widening circles of woes, frequently visited upon innocent children, may one day be declared to be deserving of greater judgment than one desolate, desperate sin of self-destruction. No, there are reasons far deeper and stronger than these for striving unto blood against the dark Enemy; and Christians who would learn to deliver tempted souls should think deeper than these superficialities. Indeed, we would all do well to give earnest thought to these matters; for one never knows when the grim specter of suicide may knock at one's own door.
I think what has helped me most is a deep and growing understanding of and reverence for the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God. A stern remedy to offer to one whose heart and mind is obviously in poor condition to receive it, you say. But have you experienced its power in your own life? Severe illnesses require stern remedies. Might it be for lack of knowledge of such remedy that so few Christians seem able to help others in dire spiritual need?
To me the Sovereignty of God has become an all-embracing Haven of Refuge. What God is: That great, pulsing, giving Heart of love and wisdom, whose infinite tenderness and measureless self-sacrifice are so palpably ours in Bethlehem and Calvary -- that awareness, growing in scope and preciousness with the years, has for me quite overshadowed the questions that His inscrutable providences in my own life call forth. "This God" -- and everything depends on what lies behind that little word, 'this' -- "this God," "infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth" -- "this God is my God for ever and ever." This is the unshaken and, pray God, unshakeable conviction of my soul; my shelter in the time of storm.
When everything he owned was swept away in one sudden stroke of desolation by the God he loved and unfailingly served, we read of Job that "he fell down and worshiped." And so it must ever be. The soul that knows God for what He truly is cannot but acknowledge His Sovereignty, can only bow and worship, no matter what He may send. This, in essence, is the strongest, perhaps the only real reason, why a Christian cannot agree to suicide; and he who would help the tempted soul must seek to bring him to such a realization, in dependence on the Holy Spirit.
But there are other reasons: God has invested His honor in His saints. The Eternal God, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, whom angels delight to worship, before whom seraphim and cherubim continually do cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," has seen fit to entrust His honor, the glory of His Name, the immutability of His Word, to the frail, erring, but believing sons of earth. The soul tempted to suicide, in a peculiar sense, holds that inestimable wonder in his trembling hands. This is why the Adversary so frequently tempts in this way.
To one who truly knows God, His honor is unspeakably precious. Oftentimes the reminder of that sacred trust is enough to turn the force of the Tempter's blow. For His name's sake, His Word's sake, His holy honor's sake, His child who truly loves Him will suffer, will bear, will endure, will refuse to do the final evil that would proclaim His insufficiency.
When Abraham, though 90 years of age, had yet not received the thrice-promised son, God revealed Himself as El-Shaddai, the All-Sufficient, the Satisfier, the Nourisher, the Strength-Giver, the God Who is Enough. So to the soul grown old in suffering, not having received the promise of deliverance and knowing well that it can never be his this side of eternity, God is still El-Shaddai, the God Who is Enough. In that strength we must live; and the honor of that promise, God's own honor, than which He has no higher gift to bestow, invested in our weak and aching bodies and faltering, weary hearts, we must defend against Satan to the end. Not to everyone is such high and terrible mission given. If it is ours, we must know that even for this, there is a God Who is Enough; and to that end we must seek His grace.
When Saul, smitten to his knees, tremblingly asked, "What wilt Thou have me to do?" God sent him a strange answer. "I will show . . . what things he must suffer for My sake." It is human to want to do for God; it is godlike to learn to suffer for His sake. Even the Saviour, "though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." So often it is to those seemingly best qualified by nature to do for God -- the most sensitive, perceptive spirits, the keenest minds, the most artistic, creative souls -- that this strange command comes instead to suffer; and life becomes one endless battle of frustration. To many such souls comes Satan with the suggestion of Giant Despair, and instead of the sacrifice of service, there is asked the sacrifice of praise through denial of all that is natural and right and good, the acceptance of a lifetime of heartbreak instead.
Yet such sacrifice, if offered up with a true heart, willingly (and only those who must do it day in, day out, can know how hard this is!), finds its holy way to the very throne of God Himself. And who can tell but what it may bring more joy to the heart of the Father than all the service offered by others in strength and gladness? But such devotion must not be cut short before its time if it is to reach its full fruition.
The last point is, to me, most pertinent of all. Our eternal destiny and reward is now being shaped. Our capacity for God, now being formed by the hammer and chisel of these God-given, seemingly cruel circumstances, and by our attitude to them, is that in which we shall one day glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Should we terminate our time of enlarging that capacity, who can measure our eternal loss? For while in heaven all shall be filled with the fulness of God, shall not the souls with the greater capacity have the greater fulness?
Our future service for God depends on our present faithfulness, whether in service or suffering. If we cut short our time of training, the celestial service for which He would have schooled us must pass to another. To him that is faithful in little -- and in the vast undimmed light of eternity we shall know, as He knows, that our present trials are indeed little compared to the glory that shall be revealed -- to him shall much be entrusted. God keep us faithful to His appointed end!
(Copyright 1962 Evangelical Foundation, 1716 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA. Used by permission from May 1962 issue. Condensed from ETERNITY by THE CHRISTIAN READER.)
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