311
Juné 1943
The “ carnal” Christian acknowledges a Saviour but not a Lord. The “spirit ual” Christian has both a Saviour and a Lord. The "cafnal” Christian has stuck between the Passover and Pente cost; he is on the right side of the cross, but on the wrong side of the throne. He has life, but not liberty. He is out of Egypt, but he is not in Canaan. ■ Thespractical question for us is this: What is our relation to the purpose of God for us? To begin with, are we Christ’s .at all? Have we ever repented of sin and turned to God for for giveness? Have we ever by faith re ceived Christ, the life? It is possible for one to have a keen interest in thè Christian religion without being a Christian. It is possible for one to be a devoted church member without be longing to Christ. It is even possible for one to be in the Christian ministry and yet not be converted. Nothing can be a substitute for saving grace (Acts 16:31). Many Christians are tramps, not travelers; they are wanderers and not pilgrims. They are out of Egypt, but they are not in Canaan—they have stuck in the wilderness. The Holy Spirit is calling all such forthwith to “pass clean over Jordan” (Josh. 3:17) into the land of our inheritance. For this end were we redeemed. God brought us out that He might bring us in; and as by faith we came out, so by faith we must enter in. Shall we make the words of a fa miliar hymn* our prayer in this hour: ■"Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come; Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light, ■ Jesus, I come to Thee; Out of my sickness, into Thy health, Out of my want and into Thy wealth, Out of my sin and into Thyself, Jesus, I come to Thee. “Out -of my shameful failure and loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come; Into the glorious gain of Thy cross, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of e,arth’s sorrow, into Thy balm, Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm, Out of distress to jubilant psalm, Jesus, I come to Thee; “Out of unrest and arrogant pride, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come; Into Thy blesspd will to abide, Jèsus, I come to Theé; Out of myself, to dwell in Thy love, Out of despair into raptures above, Upward Tor aye on wings of a dove, Jesus, I come, to Thee.” - “He brought Us out from thence, that he mightybring us in.” Are you out? If you are “ but,” are you “in” ? If you are not “ in,” why not? If you are not “in,” • come in. , * Copyright,' 1915. Renewal. Hope publish - ina Comodini, owner. Used by permission .
all the Old Testament, .is continued also in the New. All the Epistles are addressed to believers, to converted men and women, and in all of them we are face to face with the disparity between what we are and what we should be. When the apostles speak of Christian experience, their thought moves on a very high level; but when they speal^ of the experience of Chris tians, the level is changed. Every true Christian has come “ out,” ' but not every one has gone “in” ! Paul1 makes it clear that one may cease to be “natural” without becoming “spirit ual”—that a Christian may throughout life remain “ carnal.” Between Egypt and.Canaan lies a wilderness in which regenerated souls may wander through life. It is tragically possible to haye a saved soul, and a lost life. Full Salvation I am one of those who take the view that the closing verses of Romans. 7 refer to the experience of Paul subse quent to his conversion, and that the reference is to a wilderness experience between first salvation and full sal vation. But what, follows, in Romans. 8, shows that 'a life of victory in Christ is God’s intention for us all. Each of us is living under one or other of three powers— the power of sin, or of self, or of the Spirit: The unconverted soul is under the power of sin and self. The unyielded Chris tian is under; the power of self, and only he who is fully yielded to God is living in the power of the Spirit. QUEST By HELEN FRAZEE-BOWER Vainly along the avenues of time. In secret or abroad. My questing eyes sought ever for one face— The face of God. Never among the milling tides of men Was He, nor even where His handiwork in sea or mountain loomed: Though ALMOST there. I saw gold suns burn high and fade to dusk, I felt the sudden night Loose throngs of stars and sighed, “He will be here"— But never, quite. And then I came unto a lonely hill, A place called Calvary: There was a Cross, a Light, and then there was The end of ME. The quest is over and 1 seek no more: That moment has sufficed To show me God forever in -the face Of Jesus Christ.
and the other at Peniel, when he was returning home. Jacob’s experience that night at Bethel wrought a spirit ual change in him .which was the equivalent of what we call conversion. Up to that time, he had had no vision. So occupied had he been with the local and material that he had re mained insensible to the vast and the spiritual. But that night, on the scar red upland where Bethel Stood, he got a 'glimpse of another world. He heard the voice, divine, and life could never be quite .the same again. The next day was in his spiritual experience a new day for him, and much would depend on what he did -then. What he should have done is clear. The thing that every man and woman should, do the day after conversion is to put right, so far as possible, what is wrong. The first effect of get ting right with God should be the getting right with our fellows. Now Jacob had grievously wronged both Isaac and Esau, and at this very time was fleeing from the wrath of his brother. After that Bethel vision, he should have retraced his steps, and by confession and renunciation have remedied, the wrong in so far as that was possible. But that was not what he did. He continued his journey to Padan-aram, and was there for the next twenty years, and the kind of life he lived there is recorded in Genesis 29-31. His duplifcity and craftiness durirjg that period were in spite of what he had seen and heard at Bethel, and during all those years he was disobedient to the heavenly vision. In a real sense he had come out of his Beersheba ex perience, ,but he had not entered into his Hebron experience. On the way home, however, God met him again, and by the brook Jabbok was completed what was be gun at Luz. Many have been at Bethel who have never been at Peniel. It is possible to go to the “house of God,” Bethel, without seeing the “face of God,” Peniel. It is possible, as Jacob did, to put twenty years between one’s conversion and one’s full sur render to the will of the Lord. Jacob’s own case is better than Terah’s, in that he did eventually reach the goal; but, in doing so, he lost twenty years of his life—years which, in one sense, never could be recovered. Then, there is the illustration of the Israelites to which the text refers. God, by a wondrous demonstration of His power, had delivered them from Egyptian bondage, and guided them to the margin of the land of promise. There, they rebelled and returned to the wilderness, where they wandered for thirty-eight years, and where a whole generation perished. God had brought them all out, but half of them never went in. This sad story, which runs through
i
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker