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If you are a normal Christian there
are areas in your life that you
aren’ t happy about . In this vividly
painted word-picture the author
tells how he surrendered the different
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ROBERT BOYD MUNGER Dr. Munger is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley (see Church of the Month, page 18). A popular con ference and young peoples speoker. Dr. Munger has found this message one of the most helpful for the average Christian.
areas of his life to Christ
promising His disciples that, just as He was going to heaven to prepare a place for them and would welcome them one day, now it would be pos sible for them to prepare a place for Him in their hearts and He would come and make His abode with them. They could not understand this. How could it be? Then came Pentecost. The Spirit of the living Christ was given to the Church and they under stood. God did not dwell in Herod’s temple in Jerusalem; God did not dwell in a temple made with hands; but now, through the miracle of the outpoured Spirit, God would dwell in human hearts. The body of the believer would be the temple of the living God and the human heart would be the home of Jesus Christ. It is difficult for me to think of a higher privilege than to make for Christ a home in my heart, to wel come, to serve, to please, to fellow ship with Him there. The Home At Bethany There is a picture in the Gospels of a home where our Lord was wel come and where He repaired again and again with delight. It was the home of Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus, just outside of Jeru salem. Often on His way to the great city, our Lord went to this home and found rest and refreshment from the weary journey. Or, returning from Jerusalem after having spent a day surrounded with antagonism, He sought the refuge and compan
ionship of the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. How grateful He must have been for the freedom, the warmth and the love which they offered Him in that home! There He was welcome; there He was roy ally received. But think also what our Lord must have brought into that home when He came. He brought His own radiant presence, His grace, His understanding, His peace, His power. He promised them — “ if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.” And they saw the glory of God and the power of Christ bringing Lazarus to life at His spoken word. Now this same Lord is with us. These hearts of ours may be just as truly a home for Jesus Christ as the house in which Mary and Martha and Lazarus dwelt so long ago. Let us think of our own bodies as a structure, the walls are flesh and blood, the door is the human will. If Jesus Christ is welcome there, He will settle down and be at home. Two Major Steps May I relate to you how I have come to think of Christ dwelling in my heart? And if I use the first per son singular, it is only to make it more vivid. There have been two ma jor steps in my life. There was the step of marriage. I recall my first reaction to the matter of matrimony. When I was single and had no idea of marrying, many u « DE k said to me, “You IV IUK fc ^ 7
In Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, we find these words: “That . . . [God] would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:16). Or, as another has translated, “ That Christ may settle down and be at home in your hearts by faith.” Without question one of the most remarkable Christian, doctrines is that Jesus Christ Himself, through the presence of the Holy Spirit will actually enter a heart, settle $own and be at home there. Christ will make the human heart His abode. Our Lord said to His disciples, “ If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” It was difficult for them to understand what He was saying. How was it possible for Him to make His abode with them in this sense? It is interesting that our Lord used the same word here that He gave them in the first of the fourteenth chapter of John. “ I go to prepare a place for you . . . that where I am, there ye may be also.” Our Lord was About the illustrator. Donald Jerome is a young artist who only recently became a Christian. After a tour with the Army he came to California and at a Merv Ro- sell meeting at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles (see King's Business for April) young Jerome found Christ.
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