THE KI NG' S BUS I NES S
April, 1939
145
TWO LIFE-CHANGING WORDS [Continued from page 136] Your friends had deceived you—BUT GOD! Business had failed—BUT GOD! Loved ones had passed away—BUT GOD! And right there is the shame of our lives today, that when God has proved Himself again and again a very present help in time of trouble, we should leave Him out of our calculations and measure our undertakings without reckoning on that unseen factor—BUT GOD. Too often He is a last resort, and prayer is a final ex pedient as with the old lady who in her illness was told, "You must trust God” and who replied, “Has it come to that?” W e "reason” among ourselves "because we have no bread” and forget Him who spreads a table in the wilderness. W e measure the situation by the size of the enemy and forget to say, as did King Asa, “Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power.” W e decide just about how much we can or cannot do and be, and we limit it all with the old alibis, “Yes, but my family------ ,” “Yes, but my nerves------ ,” "Yes, but my circumstances------ .” Why not put it the other way, “Yes, but God!” "If God be for us, who can be against us?” What if everybody has failed us so that we must say with Paul, “No man stood with me, but all men forsook me”? Let us move on with him and say, “notwithstand ing the Lord stood with me”! What if men do conspire against us? Let us say to them as did Joseph to his brethren: “Ye thought evil against me; BUT GOD meant it for good”! So may our experiences be gin like the negro spiritual, "Nobody knows de trouble I see” but end as it ends with, “Glory, glory, hallelujah.” Adoniram Judson caught a vision of evangelizing Burma. "Impossible," you say. Certainly, if you leave out God. Moody, starting to England on his first evangelistic mission said, “I go to win ten thousand souls to Jesus Christ.” “Impos sible,” do you say? Yes, . . . BU T GOD! Why do we today not follow in the train of these giants of old? W e are afraid— afraid to attempt great things for God ex pecting great things from God. Moses argued with the Almighty in such terms as these: “Yes, but I am not eloquent: yes, but they will not listen to me.” God an swered, “Say . . . . I AM hath sent me unto you.” In other words, it is as if the Lord said, “It is not a matter of who you are but of who I AM.” So in our unworthiness, let us like Amos of old, say, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son: but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of syca more fruit: And the Lord took me.” "Nothing in myself . . . BUT GOD!” What God Does for the Lost Sinner To the sinner, let this picture reveal your lost condition. Read these terrific verses in Ephesians 2:1-3 again. You may seem to be very much alive, but God says you are “dead in trespasses and sins.” You may be moral and idealistic, but God says you walk "according to the course of this world.” You may recognize the fact of God and His Christ, but God says you
walk “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” You may seem decent and respectable and claim to be a character of integrity, but if you are without Christ, God says your manner of life is in the lusts of the flesh and mind. You may talk of the fatherhood of God and deny the fact of hell and judgment, but God says you are a child of wrath even as others. But, thank God, the Scripture does not end there. Wretched may be your state and hopeless your condition BUT GOD has done something about it. Black indeed was the night of sin BUT GOD sent His Son to be the Light of the world. Grievous in deed was our bondage to sin BUT GOD sent His Son to be our Deliverer. Awful indeed was the guilt of sin BUT GOD sent His Son to be our Substitute. Sin has abounded BUT GOD has seen to it that grace did much more abound. And if in simple faith we turn from sin to this Saviour and receive Him, then the rest of this precious passage becomes our own: “BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved:) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7). No human merit could earn this blessing: no works of the flesh could purchase this treasure, “for by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (v. 8 ). How blessed to be able to say, “Once I was blind BUT GOD touched me. Once I was lost BUT GOD found me. Once I was under wrath BUT GOD loved me. Once I was under guilt BUT GOD forgave me. Once I was dead BUT GOD gave me life. Once I walked according to the course of this world BUT GOD turned me and now I walk as He walked. Once I walked ac cording to the prince of the power of the air BUT GOD stopped me and now I fol low the Prince of Peace. Once I had my manner of life in the lusts of the flesh and mind BUT GOD gave me a new life and Christ liveth in me. Once I was by nature the child of wrath BUT GOD has begot ten me into the family of love.” And all of this is the free gift of grace if one will by faith in God’s Son come to that second birthday, the beginning of a new life that opens with those two precious words: "BU T GOD . . S
C R Y f r o m R U S S I A The cry for help from Russia is loud and urgent. The darkness of these people is dense, their suffering is intense and their need is appalling. The present opportunity to help our brethren in Russia and evangelise other Slavonic countries should interest all Christian people, everywhere. Let us send you eur magazine The Friend of Russians with authentic reports from all parts of the Russian Mission Field. God is working there mightily. We should enter into harmony with God’s mighty movements not only with our prayers, but also with our gifts and energies. The hearts of thousands of Russians have been deeply plowed by their distress and broken by their affliction and they are now calling for help and looking to Ged for Salvation. May we be able to say that the people of God are keeping step with their Leader and are entering the open doors as fast as God opens them? Or, will the Lord find us lagging on behind, because we are not willing to . do our part in this great work for fear of the sacrifice it will mean to us? God forbid! Send your gifts for this important soul-saving work to the oldest, fundamental and reliable Mission Work among Russians. The Russian Missionary Society MISS M. N. FETLER, Secretary 1844 W . Monroe S t , Rm . 2, Chicago, 111.
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