man sin and impotence, lifting man up and placing him again on the bank. He says, “ This is the way; walk ye in it." Man's free will comes in our de sire. Because of this realization of our need for the Lord, He reaches down and lifts us up so that we become a new creation in Christ Jesus. This is what salvation is all about. We receive new life in Christ, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13). Jesus Him self testified, "No man can come unto Me except the Father who hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:44). Apart from the supernatural work of God in human hearts, no body would come to know the Lord. We come only because He enables us to come. The same God who works in you to will also now works in you that your will might do His good pleasure. There are some works of men which are condemned be cause they come out of us and are therefore contaminated by sin. The other kind of work is encour aged because it comes from God as He works within the Christian's life through the Holy Spirit (Ephes ians 2:8-10). Although God can never be satisfied with any good that comes out of men, He is sat isfied and pleased with the good that is done by Christian people through the power of His Son, our Saviour. Through this power the tyranny of sin is broken, the pos sibility of choosing for God is re stored, and a new life of commun ion with Him is established. Have you had this experience? Have you felt the power of God within, en abling you to do what He desires?
You can, for He lives within every born-again child of God. We are called to a life of holiness and pur ity. "He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me." It goes without saying that we are living in a tremendously diffi cult period in history. The Apostle Paul exhorts us, "Do all things without murmurings and disput- ings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:14, 15). One of the ways in which anyone becomes proficient at something is by con tinual practice. To become more adept at our life of faith requires steadfast patience and obedience. This is not something to be learned from a book, sitting on the side lines. We need to be out where the action is. While we are not to be of this world yet we know that we are in this world. Such is made crystal clear to us in the Word of God. We are not to retreat from society but we are to live for the Lord before those around us. The first thing is to recognize that conditions exist as we have seen them. Are you constantly aware of the spiritual darkness which pervades this planet? The world has its goals of pleasure, success, sex, money, social pres tige and all of the rest. Such should not be the aims of the believer. We know that God grants us pleas ure in many instances and yet our
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