GOD MAKES TE
By Vane
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Peter Boehler asked John Wesley whether or not Christ was his Saviour. Wesley answered, “ I believe that He is the Saviour of the world.” “ BUT IS HE YOUR SAVIOUR?” Boehler pressed the question. He knew what makes the difference. “He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” John Wesley had much in his favor, but he was not ready to preach until he came into a conscious possession of salvation. With that and the enduement of the Spirit he had what makes the difference. GOD MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN MEETINGS ,, Years ago I was preaching in a Georgia town. A preacher friend of mine dropped into a morning service. He told me later that he had not been there ten minutes before he turned to his wife and said, “ God is here.” I have thought of that many times since. Our Lord promised to be where two or three gather in His Name. I have heard that verse used in prayer-meetings where I was afraid that some discouraged brother was more conscious of the absence of the people than of the presence of God. The infidel says, “ God is nowhere.” The Christian moves two letters and says “ God is now here!” We are often more conscious of many other things at church. Some wit has put it, “ Some come to close the eyes, others to eye the clothes.” The most important thing in any church gather ing is a sense of God. If we do not have that, we might as well have stayed at home. In the little country church of my boyhood the farmer folk gatherd each July for a week of meetings. They used to sing, “Brethren, we have met to worship And adore the Lord our God. They knew what makes the difference! “UNLESS THE SPIRIT . . .” that is it. And when we came away from that humble meeting we knew what did it. The preaching was often ordinary, the singing off-key but souls had been saved, faces shone, loads had been lifted, heaven was nearer. God was there, and God had made the difference. GOD MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN PREACHERS A pleasing personality, an impressive appearance, pulpit, ability, several post-graduate courses, all have their value, but they do not spell the difference. D. L. Moody had few of the graces of a great preacher. His appearance was plain, his education limited, his style blunt, but he moved Won’t you pray with all your power W hile we try to preach the Word? ALL IS VAIN UNLESS THE SPIRIT OF THE HOLY ONE COMES DOWN; Brethren, pray and. holy manna W ill be scattered all around.”
I n a l it t l e meeting on a mountain top a dear brother prayed, “ Lord, give us what makes the difference.” He did not elaborate but his prayer stuck in my mind. He knew that there is a difference in prayer-meetings. We were praying for the evening service, and he knew that there is a difference in evening services. He knew that one night the going is hard, the chariot wheels drag heavily, there is no sense of God; but maybe the next night the heavens open and the Lord comes down. So he prayed for that which makes the difference. Some things make a great deal of difference. We have made many false distinctions of our own. We have put up many fences which God does not recognize. On the other hand God has made some eternal distinctions. It is God Himself Who makes the big difference. GOD MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN CREATION The Bible opens with “ In the beginning GOD . . .” There are those who say that we came from nowhere and are going nowhere, that life is only a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, but signifying absolutely nothing. They like to speak of the human race as “ small masses of impure carbohydrates headed for oblivion.” They speak of this earth as “ a lost ironclad ship with a crew of fools and mutineers left to drift between the cold forts of the stars.” But most of us do not believe that this universe is only a concourse of chemical elements, the joke of a meaningless fate. What makes the difference is God. The heavens declare His glory and the firmament shows His handiwork. Nor did He merely wind up this work to let it run down with the passing centuries. He is not only behind it, He is in it, He is carrying out His purpose. God makes the difference in creation, and because God is in it, there is sense to it. “ Life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not the goal.” GOD MAKES THE ETERNAL DISTINCTION BE TWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG. We try to smudge moral black and white into an indefinite gray, but God never mixes them. And there is THE EVERLASTING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING SAVED OR LOST. Until a man is a Christian he is a sinner. He may be an educated sinner, a baptized sinner, a religious sinner, but still a sinner. No one can be more lost than lost. The most decent characted without Christ is as unsaved as the worst character in Sing Sing. Nicodemus was as lost as Barabbas, and the rich young ruler needed salvation as much as the unrepentant thief on the Cross. Whether from the backwoods or the boulevards, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, “ THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE, FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.” What makes the difference is JESUS CHRIST. “ He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because He hath not
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