A fter we have made the effort to discover the secret to true spirit ual beauty, it is necessary for us to keep on. This is what a successful dietor knows. Once the unwan t ed weight is shed, he will need to con tinue his effort or he will lose even more ground. The Christian will need to forsake his past, his desires, and his easy ways while learning to discipline him self. To keep fit we must emphasize the fact that it is a case of forsaking the old and putting on the new. When the Lord Jesus said “Come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men,” we discover what it cost His disciples: “And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him.” They made a clean break from the past and turned from what they had known previously. How about you? Have you left your “nets,” your old way of life? This is where our great problem comes in. Too many people try to have a foot in both worlds, and a person cannot straddle earth and heaven in this way without meeting dire results. It is physically impossible to walk two different ways at the same time. The disciples de cided to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and in order to do this, they forsook all. We have another illustration of this in the life of the apostle Paul. Before He came to a saving knowledge of the Lord, he had much about which he could boast. As an outstanding Jew, a brilliant scholar, and a strict sepa ratist, he could glory in his religious position. But, meeting the Saviour, he decided to forget the past and to look only at the future. Listen to his testi mony, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philip- pians 3:7, 8). He found, even as did the fishermen of the Gospels, that there was nothing to be compared with Christ. 11
Radio Series: "The Secret of Spiritual Beauty"
KEEPING FIT by Dr. Ralph L. Keiper
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