I n o u r L o r d ’ s in t e r c e s s o r y p r a y e r , in verses four, six and eight of the seventeenth chap ter o f John, is found one of the most beauti ful outlines in the New Testament: “ THE WORK which Thou gavest me” (v. 4) “THE MEN which Thou gavest me” (v. 6) “ THE WORDS which Thou gavest me” (v. 8). Our Lord is speaking of three great gifts which the Father who sent Him gave unto Him, and which He in turn who sent us has also given to us. They are: What a wondrous thought that God has given to every man in Christ a definite work and service from all eternity (Eph. 2:10) ; then He has given to him a little circle of men whom He can touch through him as He can through no one else; and then He has given to him a message, witness, and testimony which He will use for His own glory and his unspeakable blessing if he will only let Him give it through his yielded lips and life! “The God-given Work.” “ The God-given Men.” “The God-given Message.”
times this summer since I came with you I was so pressed and convicted by the Spirit of God that I came near falling on my knees in the furrow and crying to God for mercy.” I saw that God had been hearing my prayer and was working. By this time we were near home. We got out and went into the library. We got down on our knees. I showed him the way of salvation as simply as I could. He accepted, and was blessedly saved. For more than thirty years he has been a pillar in his church, in the little home town where he and I lived to gether for years. Now, William was my God-given man by the sheer circumstances of the case. I was his employer; he was my employee: a close rela tionship. If God could not count on me to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to him, whom could He count upon? Circumstances constitute a peculiar gift by God to us of men and women. And not only by circumstances but also— THESE ARE GOD-GIVEN MEN BY THE DRAWING OF THE SPIRIT You know that tender drawing of the heart at times towards unsaved men and women. You
& Q D -\*IVEN M EN
by James H. McGonkey
THE GOD-GIVEN MEN Your Christian life is in touch with an encir cling group of other lives. They are the inner circle of your intimates. They are bound to you by ties of kinship, friendship, business relations, social fellowship, and a score of other ties and daily con tacts. God has, in a peculiar sense, given them to you. They are in a true and profound sense your God-given men. THEY ARE YOUR GOD-GIVEN MEN BY THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF GOD When I was a young man, I had the care of a large farm. I hired a young man .to farm it. All through the summer he wrought faithfully. He was not a Christian, as I soon found out. Not un til the summer was ended did the opportune mo ment seem to come to speak to him about Christ. Then riding home in the cool of a beautiful summer evening, I brought to him the great theme o f all time, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I said: “William, have you never been drawn by the Spirit of God to accept Jesus Christ? He said: “ A couple of OCTOBER, 1966
are conscious of that gentle urge in the heart to go and speak to that young man; to give that young woman the gospel; and urge of lofty duty, the call of God within us to give the gospel to the lost one. That drawing of the Spirit is the drawing of God towards the God-given men and the God-given women. Years ago I stepped into a ministerial meeting in a Southern town. A minister arose to give his testimony. His face was radiant with joy. He told how he had felt the urge to go speak to a certain man about Christ ; how he found him ill in bed, but ready to accept the gospel; and how the man had taken it and been gloriously saved. Then an other minister arose. His whole bearing was dif ferent, a man who seemed depressed and who was giving a testimony to 'which some inner power was urging him. He went on to say that he had a neighbor, toward whom he had again and again this inner urge of the Spirit to go speak to him about his soul. But he had persistently postponed it. Finally, one day he w'ent out on the bay on a fishing trip. At sunset he came back. As he drew 21
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