DOING W H A T VO L C A N T
By Rev. Leslie E. M axw ell*
S HE was very shy and self-conscious, so naturally timid that anything like personal work was well-nigh impossible. “ God finally got me so con victed,” she said, “that .I should be giv ing away gospel tracts, I answered, ‘Lord, I simply can’t do it; if ever I give away any tracfs, Thou art the One who must do it.’ Later while I was doing some business at the bank, the Lord said to me as I faced the bank teller, ‘Here is someone to whom you can give a tract.’ Immediately my heart asked, ‘Lord, art Thou going to give this man a tract?’ Even as I cried to God, my hand went out, and I gave him a tract. Since then I have passed on my secret of victory to others, and they too find that it works.” “Stretch forth thine hand.” Impos sible? Yet Christ was always command ing men to do similar things. The story of Christ’s dealing with “ a man who had his hand withered” is full of the deepest spiritual lessons. That man’s hand was useless, limp, helpless. He could grasp nothing. He could not put that withered hand to the plow. That poor helpless hand symbolizes souls ev erywhere calling for healing and resto ration. They sense how limp and useless and helpless they are. They feel their deep and awful need. Like a bolt out of the blue comes the definite command, “Stretch forth thine hand.” This called for an impossible thing. And if impossible, was it not utterly unreasonable? “ Stretch forth thine hand.” But how could he? Per haps he had come to the synagogue on that Sabbath day to have Jesus heal him, to have Jesus put strength into that withered hand for him. But to have the Lord Jesus ask him to stretch it out —well, that was impossible and there fore unreasonable. “ Stretch forth thine hand.” How absurd! Was not that the one thing he had long desired to do, but the one thing he could not do? Yet he was commanded to do it. It was the way of the Lord Jesus throughout His ministry. Christ picked out, shall I say, the man’s one great and conspicuous inability, and there de manded the impossible. How we feel for this fellow! How embarrassed he must have been before that critical crowd in the synagogue! He had been conscious for many years of that shrunken and limp member hanging helplessly by his side, a mere mockery of a hand. Sud- *President of Prairie Bible Institute, Three Hills, Alberta, Canada. Reprinted from Tabernacle Bulletin, Omaha, Neb. S E P T E M B E R , 1 9 5 2
denly there rang in his ears the com mand, “ Stretch forth thine hand.” Im possible? But he did it! And his hand was made whole like unto the other. You are a Christian. What is your withered hand? the one great impos sible? the one thing Christ commands? Did you ever notice that God does not ask you to do something easy and agree able to the flesh? Christ was continually bringing men face to face with the im possible. He laid upon men commands which were utterly contrary to the flesh, to human understanding. God calls you to deal with souls and hand out tracts. Perhaps He commands you to “ Stretch forth thine hand” on the street corner while declaring the un searchable riches of Christ. And He calls you to stretch forth your hand to your purse and promote the cause of missions. But there your hand hangs and hugs your side—and your purse. Your trouble, of course, is not in your hand. God is reaching for your heart— through your withered hand. You excuse yourself: If only Christ had asked me to do something else! But that some thing else would not have reached your heart. Christ wants you to know His power and grace. He therefore asks you to do something that will require His sufficiency and help. You could do some thing else without faith and without grace, perhaps without even being right with God. So, in asking you to do the one impossible thing, Christ crosses your will through your withered limb. F. B. Meyer said, “We never test the resources of God until we attempt the impossible.” God specializes in impossibilities. Per haps that is the reason God has chosen you to do something for Him. You are naturally impossible. Your close friends will agree. Perhaps you feel that God has made a mistake when He has asked you to do the utterly impossible and un reasonable. Do your circumstances seem contrary? your possibilities very un likely? your capabilities utterly inade quate? You must remember that God in His infinite wisdom brings His grace to perfect display through your human weakness and inability. Is your foot too limp and lame to walk in the path of obedience? You say you cannot go where He asks you to go. You complain, “Anywhere but there, Lord.” You suggest, “ I’ll go to anybody but so and so; I could never go to that person.” Yet God holds you to it. His word of command to you is: “ This do and thou shalt live.” The particular “ this do” that Christ asks of you might
be better rendered, “ this death and thou shalt live.” The particular thing Christ asks you to do spells death to your own ability and will and wisdom. The divine command comes to you just where you ,are so limp and so lame and so helpless that you must come into contact with Christ. Your poor withered foot will soon walk and leap and run in the way of His commands when God enlarges your heart. Christ is at the end of God’s command to you. What is it God asks you to do? You will find Christ just at the end of the command. Any other command would not bring you into touch with Christ. Any other self-chosen duty would be only self-righteous works. But God gives you a doing that is your un doing. He brings you into the dust of death, the death of self. Just there at the end of yourself and at the end of the divine command, you find Christ. There He meets you with all the author ity and power and ability to enable you to do the impossible. A missionary stood up in our meeting in Africa a year ago and with deep con vulsions cried, “ There has not been a single day when the Lord has not con victed me of not warning these people about their lost condition. I have not been willing that it be just Christ living in me; I feared what it would cost me.” A nurse confessed, “ I wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit before the con ferences began so that I would have nothing to confess—would not get into this mess. But I was glad when the Mission recently assigned me work in the hospital so that I could do some thing without needing to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” The first missionary had deliberately disobeyed the command to witness to the heathen and warn them of their condition. The nurse de liberately disobeyed the command: “ Be filled with the Spirit.” Both found Christ just at the end of the divine command. And you will too. Do you measure your obedience and tell God just how far He should go? how much He should demand ? how much you can give to missions? Will God have to let you go blundering on until you break the neck of your stubbornness and ignorance over some obstacle? As God faces you with some impossible task, do you complain “ I’d rather die than do it” ? Do both. Die in doing it— die and come to life. Dr. J. H. Jowett said: “ I very much like an epitaph which is found upon a woman’s grave in New England: ‘She hath done what she couldn't!’ ” Page Thirteen
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