by Dr. Walter L. Wilson
WHAT ARE YOU
asked men to imitate Christ, and then he proceeded to live Christ himself. He was not a half-hearted Christian. He was satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was first with him. There was no second place. He gave the Lord the full devotion of his heart and his life, and he walked with God in the dark and in the light. Paul was DROP A PEBBLE Drop a pebble in the water, just a splash and it Is gone, But there's half a hundred ripples, circling on and on, Spreading, spreading, from the cen ter, flowing on out to the sea; And there's no way of telling, where the end is going to be. But the little waves are flowing, and the ripples circling yet, A ll the ripples flowing, flowing to a mighty wave have grown; And you've disturbed a forceful river, just by dropping in a stone. Drop a word, unkind or careless, in a minute it is gone, But there's half a hundred ripples circling on and on, and on. They keep s p r e a d i n g , spreading, spreading from the center as they go And there's no way to stop them, once you've started them to flow. Drop a word, unkind and careless, in a minute you forget, But the little waves are flowing, and the ripples flowing yet, And perhaps in some sad heart, a mighty wave of tears you've stirred, And disturbed a life that's happy, when you've dropped an unkind word. to the fullest extent all that he pro fessed to be. Then there are so many of us who claim to be Christians, but nobody would know it. A man came to me one night and wanted to be saved. I found out later that for twelve years he had 10
I n I C o r in t h ia n s 15:10, Paul says some wonderful words, “I am what I am.” When I was a boy, I tried to put on an Italian show. I loved the Italians and I learned the Italian lan guage. I got some brown powder to cover myself with so I would look like an Italian, and got a grind organ and a monkey. My father was a magician, and in between the acts of his magic shows, I would put on my little Italian show. When there were Italians there, however, they knew I wasn’t Italian. I just didn’t have that something about me that made me an Italian. I was a fraud. The same thing is true in spiritual things. There are those who claim to be Christians, but they’re not. Listen to their conversation. Look at their lives and see how they live, how they neglect the Bible, and how they care so little about the things that pertain to God. When you were saved, you were taken out of the kingdom of the devil and put into God’s kingdom, no longer a part of this world. You became a part of His household, a member of His family. When we start talking about it, folks can tell whether it is real or whether it is just a religious tendency. Men delight in honesty and in sincerity, and we should be what we profess to be. The watchmaker hangs out his sign and he should be able to repair a watch properly. The electrician who advertises his trade should be able to wire a house as it should be wired. The surgeon who opens an office should be able to suc cessfully handle cases that are put in his trust. Paul presented himself to the pub lic as a Christian. He lived like one. He let himself be known as a lover of Jesus Christ and he proved it. He allowed his name to be advertised as a preacher of the Gospel, and he preached it, and preached it well. He
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