AFTER TWENTY YEARS
On one of the Clyde River steamers, a Christian on his holidays, was giving away tracts. Among those who received one was a man from Glasgow, who remarked as he received it that he feared such efforts did little permanent good. "I am not opposed to such work," he said. "In my younger days I did a good deal of it myself, but I cannot say that I ever saw any fruit from it."
The tract distributor was somewhat "damped" by that remark, coming from one who evidently was a Christian of many years standing. But he instantly remembered that his own conversion was brought about by means of a tract, which he received when a boy of twelve, as he walked along the street one wintry night.
As he passed the door of a Mission Hall, a young man standing evidently for the purpose of getting passers-by to go in, handed him a tract, and asked him to go inside and hear the Gospel. He did go in and heard words that awakened him to think of eternity and his state before God, and he went home in deep trouble. In his anxiety, he turned to the tract he received, read it, surrendered to Christ, and was saved. The tract distributor told his story to the Christian who listened with evident interest, and when it was finished he said, "May I ask where this most interesting event took place?"
The man named the street, the hall and the very night on which he received the tract, and was invited inside. The gentleman's eyes filled with tears; he grasped the distributor's hand, and said with great emotion, "It was my work many a night, when a young man newly converted, to stand at that door giving tracts and inviting passers-by; and well I remember inviting the bright-eyed boy that wintry night. But I lost heart soon after that and gave it up, thinking such work was almost useless. Now, after twenty years, God has let me know it was not in vain, and if He spares me to return to the city, I shall by His grace return to the service He gave me long ago, confessing my faithlessness in leaving it."
"Let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9).
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"Christ in you, the hope of glory."
-- Colossians 1:27
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That fruit is only rottenness which is not sanctified
by Christ's blood, and consecrated to His glory.
-- Things Concerning Himself
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SPIRITUAL BIOGRAPHY
OF WAYNE LeBAR
I was born and grew up in the Minneapolis area. My childhood was normal except for a bout with rheumatic fever at the age of ten, after which I could not participate in athletics or keep up physically with other children my age. Through these years I attended Sunday school regularly, was baptized and confirmed, and had a growing interest in and knowledge of the Bible. By the time I was seventeen I believe I was a Christian but was insecure and unsure of my relationship with God. From the bout with rheumatic fever to my junior year in high school, I had been having a slowly-increasing inability to get around and had earned the nickname, Speedy, because I wasn't. This problem prompted our family physician to refer me to a specialist.
The specialist painted a grim picture; he said I had muscular dystrophy and perhaps had two to five years to live. I felt as though my life was at an end and that an overwhelming burden had been placed upon me. My feeling of despair led me to quit school (which I later finished by correspondence). I went to work in a machine shop but within a year my employer moved, placing me out of work. I made excuses to myself and others for not actively seeking other employment, but actually it was because of an intense fear of new situations -- untried situations which could be embarrassingly physically difficult or even impossible. I stayed at home and avoided contact with people other than my family, and built a shell around myself to insulate myself from reality. I was angry and resentful toward God, feeling that He had deserted me and was punishing me for some unknown and seemingly unjust reason. In this emotionally unstable, spiritually depressing, and socially isolated state, I remained for about three years.
One day I heard a radio program concerning the Christian League for the Handicapped which aroused my interest. I had just recently read in the local paper an article which featured a fellow who was an officer in the local League chapter. I called him and he invited me to a meeting. My reluctance to attend was overcome by inner compulsion and at the meeting was confronted by a group of people with various handicaps, but who all appeared to be happy despite their disability. How I envied the happiness that was so evident. Up to this point I had no excuse for living. I was dead for all practical purposes, and I was only marking time until the whole ugly thing would be over. It was apparent after returning to two more meetings, that their happiness was directly related to their love for and commitment to Christ.
Later, after talking with Bob Lovering of the Minneapolis chapter, I came to realize that I could know this joy if I committed the living of my life to Christ, trusting Him to meet every need. As much as I knew how I did this. I began to sense a peace and a new meaning to life -- my attitude of despair was gone -- I was certain that God had saved me, loved me, and would help me no matter what the future might hold. An evidence of that change was that the words "cripple" and "dystrophy" no longer haunted me and for the first time in my life I spoke in front of others of what Christ meant to me and had done for me. I would never have been able to do that before.
It had been nine years since I came to that first League meeting. I have since married and have the responsibility of a home; I have studied and passed requirements for accounting and for becoming a licensed general insurance agent and have been developing an accounting/insurance business in my home since 1962. Physical mobility problems continue to mount and the simple routine tasks of yesterday one by one become strange and different, posing new barriers that must either be hurdled or accepted. I have found that my faith in Christ has grown and that He has never failed to give me a wholesome outlook toward these circumstances in my life that are confusing and frustration. The League has helped me during these years to grow spiritually, to accept my physical disability without guilt or despair, and to develop socially. A line from a current gospel song written by John Peterson poetically expresses my conclusion: "I believe in miracles,/I've seen a soul set free,/miraculous the change in one redeemed through Calvary." Not only have I witnessed this miracle in my life, but in many others as well.
In "Christian League Announcer," Minneapolis, MI. Used by permission.
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JESUS IN SIMON'S HOUSE
BY F. W. KRUMMACHER
Six days before the Passover, and, consequently, four before the awful day of crucifixion, we find our Lord in the peaceful village of Bethany, on the other side of the Mount of Olives, where He was wont so willingly to stay. We meet with Him in the house of a man named Simon, where His followers had prepared Him a feast. He appears before us in the unassuming form of a guest, invited with others; but look a little more narrowly, and you will see Him, even there, as John afterward saw Him in vision only in a somewhat different sense, as "walking amid the candlesticks."
The Lord Jesus has no need to testify of Himself; for those who are present bear witness of Him in the most eloquent manner. Look, first, at Mary and her sister Martha. They are women possessing true nobility of soul, respected by all, sensible, clear-sighted, and sober-minded. Martha, cheerful, active, and busy; Mary, thoughtful and contemplative. Both, however, rest all their hopes on Jesus. He is, to both, the living pillar which supports their heaven; their prospects of a blissful futurity arises solely from His mediation; and the peace and comfort, which refreshes them in life and death, they derive from Christ alone as the source. What a high idea must this fact alone afford us of the Man of Nazareth.
Look around you further. There are the disciples, Peter, Andrew, John, James, Nathanael, Thomas, and the rest. You formerly saw them listening to the Baptist in the wilderness, like a flock of scattered and helpless sheep. You learned to know them as people who were incited to seek for help, by a very different motive than a mere thirst for knowledge. You found them to be men whose hearts were grievously burdened by sin, and by the anticipation of the "wrath to come," and whose inward peace was entirely at an end, after having seen God in the fiery splendor of His law, with its requirements and threatenings. Neither man nor angel was able to comfort them; but since they had found Jesus, their thoroughly humbled souls were like the sparrow which has found a house, and the swallow, a nest, where they may drop their weary wings. They are now elevated above all anxiety. What bright rays of light does this fact also shed upon Jesus! How highly does it exalt Him above the idea of being a mere mortal!
But alas! among the disciples we still find Judas, the child of darkness, the son of perdition. He, indeed, was never, in his own eyes, a helpless sinner; he had never thirsted after God; he was never truly devout; nor had ever set his affections on things above. It may be asked what induced him to force himself into the immediate vicinity of Jesus? Assuredly, first, the irresistible and overpowering impression of the superhuman greatness and dignity of the Son of David, and then doubtless, also, an ambitious desire of being called to act some important part in the new kingdom, to establish which Jesus had evidently come. Thus, the presentiments of the traitor aided in glorifying the person of the Lord. The divine majesty of Immanuel shone so powerfully through His human form that its rays penetrated even into the darkness of Iscariot's soul.
But let us further inspect the circle of guests. Who is the master of the house? He is called Simon, and bears the sur-name of "the Leper." He bears it to the honor of Jesus; for the name betokens what he was, before the Lord pronounced over him the almighty words. "Be clean!" Simon had once been infected with that horrible disease which no earthly physician was able to heal, and which He alone could remove who had inflicted it -- the Almighty, He who could testify, saying, "I and my Father are one."
Simon, stand forward, and show thyself to every skeptic as a living monument of the divine fullness which dwelt in Christ! All Bethany knows that he had prepared this feast for the Lord Jesus, solely from feelings of gratitude for the marvelous cure which he had experienced through Him; and even His enemies cannot deny that, in this man, a monument is erected to the Lord Jesus, which speaks louder and more effectually than any inscription is able to do.
But look! Who is it that sits next to Jesus? -- the young man with piercing eye and sunny countenance. Oh, do you not recognize him? Once you saw him lying shrouded on the bier. You were present when his corpse was carried out, followed by his weeping sisters and a mourning crowd. You looked down into the gloomy vault into which it was lowered. But you were equally witnesses of that which took place four days after, when One approached the grave who called Himself "the Resurrection and the Life," and then commanded the stone to be taken away from its mouth. You heard the words of Martha, "Lord, by this time he stinketh," and the majestic reply, "Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory of God?" and then, after the stone had been removed, how the Lord, lifting up His eyes toward heaven, over the putrifying corpse, exclaimed, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me!" and then how, with a loud, commanding, and creating voice, he called down into the sepulcher, "Lazarus come forth!" and you know what followed.
He that was once dead, now sits among the guests, having escaped from the adamantine prison of the tomb. He lives, and is vigorous and happy; and it never occurs, either to friend or foe, to deny that Lazarus once lay as a corpse in the grave, and now lives again at the omnipotent word of Jesus. We find abundant traces that the Pharisees were beside themselves with rage and envy at this miracle, but not the smallest that any one ventured to deny or even to doubt the fact itself. There he sits, and completes the row of lights amid which Jesus walks.
Oh, then, go to Jesus, my dear readers, as the Lord from heaven, the Prince of Life, the Conqueror of Death, for such He is, when regarded even in the light that streams upon Him from the circle which surrounds Him at Bethany.
In "The Suffering Saviour," copyright 1947 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. Used by permission of Moody Press.
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THE OVERCOMER
"To him that overcometh" -- Revelation 2:7.
There is no reason why any child of God should be defeated: there is no necessity for our being overcome of evil, for Christ has given us power over all the power of the enemy. His victory in the wilderness was not only His testing and proof as Man, but our assurance of victory over all our foes, and a revelation of the secrets of that victory. "He was tempted in all points like we are without sin." He was tempted over the whole field of His nature, body, soul, and spirit. On all these planes we too are put to the test, and we can overcome as our Great Champion did. No man filled with the Divine Spirit and skillful with the Word of God can be overcome of evil. Oh, that we would drop our modern straw swords and enter into that moment by moment victory of the Lamb. This is an open secret; may God help all of us to learn what it is to be an overcomer through His name.
-- Dr. G. R. Paterson.
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JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF
BY C. H. SPURGEON
Beloved, the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ contains in it nothing so wonderful as Himself. It is a mass of marvels, but He is the miracle of it; the wonder of wonders is "The Wonderful" Himself. If proof be asked of the truth which He proclaimed, we point men to Jesus Christ Himself. His character is unique. We defy unbelievers to imagine another like Him. He is God and yet man, and we challenge them to compose a narrative in which the human and divine shall be so marvelously apparent, without the one overshadowing the other.
They question the authenticity of the four Gospels; will they try and write a fifth? Will they even attempt to add a few incidents to the life which shall be worthy of the sacred biography, and congruous with those facts which are already described? If it be all a forgery, will they be so good as to show us how it is done? Will they find a novelist who will write another biography of a man of any century they choose, of any nationality, or of any degree of experience, or any rank or station, and let us see if they can describe in that imaginary life a devotion, a self-sacrifice, a truthfulness, a completeness of character at all comparable to that of Jesus Christ Himself? Can they invent another perfect character even if the divine element be left out? They must of necessity fail, for there is none like unto Jesus Himself.
The character of Jesus has commanded respect even from those who have abhorred His teaching. It has been a stumbling-stone to all objectors who have preserved a shade of candor. Jesus' doctrine they could refute, they say; His precepts they could improve, so they boast; His system is narrow and outworn, so they assert; but Himself -- what can they do with Him? They must admire Him even if they will not adore Him; and having done so they have admired a Personage who must be divine or else He willfully led His disciples to believe a lie. How will they surmount this difficulty? They cannot do so by railing at Him, for they have no material for accusation. Jesus Christ Himself silences their cavillings. Beyond all argument or miracle, Jesus Christ Himself is the proof of His own gospel.
And as He is the proof of it, so, He is the marrow and essence of it. When the apostle Paul meant that the gospel was preached he said, "Christ is preached," for the gospel is Christ Himself. If you want to know what Jesus taught, know Himself, He is the incarnation of that truth which by Him and in Him is revealed to the sons of men. Did He not Himself say, "I am the way, the truth and the life" You do not have to pore over mysterious sentences of double meaning in order to know what out great Teacher has revealed, you have but to turn and gaze upon His countenance, behold His actions, and note His spirit, and you know His teaching. He lived what He taught. If we wish to know Him we may hear His gentle voice saying, "Come and see." "To know him and the power of his resurrection" is the highest degree of spiritual learning. He is the end of the law and the soul of the gospel, and when we have preached His word to the full, we may close by saying, "Now, of the things which we have spoken this is the sum -- we have an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens."
Nor is He alone the proof of His gospel and the substance of it, but He is the power and force by which it spreads. When a heart is truly broken for sin, it is by Him that it is bound up. If a man is converted, it is by Christ, the power of God. If we enter into peace and salvation it is by the gracious manifestation of Jesus Himself. If men have enthusiastically lived Christianity, it is because first of all they loved Christ; for Him apostles laboured, and for Him confessors were brave; for Him saints have suffered the loss of all things, and for Him martyrs have died. The power which creates heroic consecration is "Jesus Christ Himself." The memories stirred by His name have more influence over men's hearts than all things else in earth or heaven. He causes the wheel of providence to revolve in such a manner as to help His cause; He abridges the power of tyrants, overrules the scourge of war, establishes liberty in nations, opens the mysteries of continents long unknown and breaks down systems of error.
It is from heaven that He shall shortly come, and when He cometh, when Christ Himself shall put forth all His might, then shall the wilderness rejoice and the solitary place be glad.
"Jesus Christ Himself" should always be the prominent thought of our minds as Christians. Our theology should be framed upon the fact that He is the Center and Head of all. Jesus Christ Himself is to us precept, for He is the way; He is to us doctrine, for He is the truth; He is to us experience, for He is the life. Let us make Him the pole star of our religious life in all things. Let Him be first, last and midst; yea, let us say, "He is all my salvation and all my desire." And yet do not, I beseech you, disdain the doctrine, lest in marring the doctrine you should be guilty of insult to Jesus Himself.
To trifle with truth is to despise Jesus as our Prophet. Do not for a moment underrate experience, lest in neglecting the inner self you also despise your Lord Himself as your cleansing Priest; and never for a moment forget His commandments lest if ye break them ye transgress against Jesus Himself as your King. All things which touch upon His Kingdom are to be treated reverently by us for the sake of Himself, His book, His day, His Church, His ordinances, must all be precious to us, because they have to do with Him; but in the front of all must ever stand "Jesus Christ Himself," the personal, living, loving Jesus; Christ in us the hope of glory, Christ for us our full redemption, Christ with us our guide and our solace, and Christ above us pleading and preparing our place in heaven.
Jesus Christ Himself is our captain, our armor, our strength, and our victory. We inscribe His name upon our banner, for it is hell's terror, heaven's delight, and earth's hope. We bear this upon our hearts in the heat of the conflict, for this is our breastplate and coat of mail.
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