C hapter N ine E very believer should be cognizant of the fact that these days are amazingly revolutionary. This is something that hasn’t been true in past generations. Having accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour, we need to watch that we don’t lose our testi mony for the Lord. We need to be filled with a faith which reaches out above and lays hold of God’s power through His indwelling Holy Spirit. Dr. J. Oswald Smith declared, “To obtain God’s best we must give our best; to win we must surrender; to live we must die; to receive we must always give.” Too often preachers will talk about a lot of wonderful things without bringing people to a face-to-face encounter with the fact that they need to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. That is a divine imperative. Paul had this de sire for every believer as he points out in Romans 12:1-2. Christ must be Lord. The apostle is talking about a spiritual life of surrender to God. It is the will of God that every be liever should invite Jesus Christ to take over the reins of Lordship in his daily life. Two words stand out in this passage. “Beseech” is the translation of a Greek word which means “to call to the side of.” God calls us to His side to make request of us here. This is the very thing you have often done as a parent. The second word is “present.'' It means “to place at the side of” or “beside” something. The idea is to put something at the disposal of an other. The Lord wants the Christian to come to Him. It is to be an act of complete surrender. We are to be “a living sacrifice." The offerings of the Old Testament were of little value ceremonially while they were still alive. The animal had to be killed and his blood spilt. In contrast, God wants believers in the New Tes tament age so to liv.e that every aspect of their being will be sur rendered to the Lord as a sacrifice.
Thus we put ourselves at God’s dis posal. This is holy and acceptable un to Him. In verse 2 there is to be a renun ciation of the world. Jesus Christ will never accomplish more through your life in its totality than you have permitted Him to accomplish in you by surrender to His will. This is often a way of shutting one’s eyes to today’s needs. The believer in Christ is to be separated unto Jesus Christ in a life of complete surren der, according to the will of God. So, as we live in these days, facing the Second Coming of the Lord, let us be careful that we are minding spiritual things. C hapter T en T he W ord op G od has a great deal to tell us about our relationship to the New Testament church which is the Body of Christ. Acts 2:41-47 shows us the company of born-again believers who were gathered togeth er. They gladly received His Word and were baptized. “They continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (v. 42). Evangelizing the lost is the bur den of the heart of God. It is the passion of the Lord, the patient searching ministry of the Holy Spir it, and the commission of the New Testament church. If the local church is characterized by evangelism, the entire program of the church catches fire and moves ahead for God. A cold orthodoxy lacks any real persuasive power. When believers are filled with the Holy Spirit, they’re brought un der His divine control. God is able to speak through them. When the Church was born on the day of Pen tecost, as we believe it was, not only the body of Christ, but also the visible, earthly manifestation of the heavenly Body as well, was formed. When a number of believers who love the Lord Jesus Christ are 23
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