of our Lord is exhilarating to think about as far as they are concerned, but you must keep away from controversy on occa sions like this. A plain state ment of your convictions on the disputed point is usually enough. The conversation can be brought again with gentle firmness to the area where it is likely to be most effective. You must show people that Christ can deal with the par ticular problem of their own life. Theological controversy will be sterile; an honest facing of per sonal need will lead to victory. £%Bring people to a decision. ^ “ Decision is not conversion. It is an act of the human will and not an act o f God. It is not, however, to be despised. It is a great thing to get people to lay themselves open to Christ, to invite Him to come in, to ask His help and to dedicate all they have and are. An act of decision for Christ is not of itself an inflooding o f God’s Spirit that may tarry awhile, but it is a great event, nevertheless, on one’s spiritual pilgrimage. Most Christians date their real growth in Christ from that hour. As a small boy, perhaps a little afraid of my own father, I some times hesitated to ask him the things I dearly wished, and con fided my hopes to my mother in stead. Practically always she used to say, “ Ask him.” She knew the character of my father’s heart better than I did, and she believed in the direct approach. I remem bered that advice through the years both in my dealings with God and with others. When fool ish hesitations and fears have hampered my speaking to the Lord and to others, I’ve remem bered that word, “Ask Him.” So I would seek to ask God for men, and men for God. Times without number fearful souls have often admitted that they were just waiting to be asked. I dread to think how many people I have failed in that way. C^Teach people how to be quiet with God.
Listening to the Lord is still a mystery to many who claim to be in the Christian life. They think it is all a metaphor. But we need to learn how to get beyond know ing about God to knowing God personally. The secret of disci pline of prayer and Bible study, which is so rich that after half a lifetime there is still much to know, is at the same time so sim ple that it has been given away in half an hour. Without this dis cipline they will miss their way. No spiritual life worth mention ing can be maintained without much secret intercourse. The saints o f every communion are one in this, for love and prayer are the keynote. The people who are looking for some “ new” se cret o f spiritual growth are quite foolish, for if it is a new secret, how can we explain the old saints? Love and prayer are the way. What words these are: Love: that means more will than feel ing. P r a y e r : more adoration than asking. We can but whet the appetite o f a new disciple to put him on the right road. I f we do that we have done our work as a personal evangelist. Few tasks to which a pastor gives himself are more rewarding than the hours spent in his study when he makes it a clinic for souls. How they come: the sin- stained, the inferior, the proud, the resentful, the perverted, the obsessed, the prayerless, the sel fish, the divorcee, the lonely, the unbelieving, the hypocrite. The Lord Jesus is the answer to them all. But this is no pastoral monop oly. God will aid and equip any man for this service even though the range o f his usefulness will vary with the natural gift he pos sesses, and on which the Holy Spirit chooses to work. The privi lege and challenge o f personal evangelism are open to everybody, and the resources are the same for all. —From August 1967 issue of CBMC Contact. Used by permission. by Alan tledpath
and not about yourself. It would startle some o f us if we knew how much o f our testi mony was about ourselves. Some times there is a touch of spiritual pride in it. “ I was this; I am now that.” “ I did this; I now do that.” It is done, of course, in an attempt to illustrate the difference which Christ has made, but talk of self should be the undertone and all the stress should be about the Lord. If you were to go to Westmin ster Abbey and see the Poets’ Corner, you would note an inter esting memorial to John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost. It runs like this: “ In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1737, this bust of the author o f Paradise Lost was placed there by William Benson, etc., one of the two audi tors of the imprest to His Majes ty King George II, formerly Sur veyor General of the Works to His Majesty, King George I. Rysbrack was the statuary who cut it.” When I first looked at that I read it two or three times and said, “What on earth is this all about? Who is it about?” Then I got it: it is all about William Ben son. He placed the memorial as a device to get his own unimpor tant name noticed. Milton is merely the excuse — the stress falls on Benson. He had discov ered a new way of blowing his own miserable trumpet. He was using the name o f a Puritan poet to parade himself before the pub lic eye. He got into Westminster Abbey, but not by his own dis tinction, for he had none, but by using the name o f a very great man. "V Avoid controversy. ■ The devices men use to escape the challenge of Christ are legion, and argument .is a common one. If they can get the conversation away from the sensitive area of their personal failings into theo logical issues, they are only too keen to do it. The profound doc trine of the Holy Trinity is much more attractive to them than the Ten Commandments. The Deity
SEPTEMBER, 1968
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