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The Nature of Reconciliation " He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him " —2 Corinthians 5:21 Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation...

The Nature of Regeneration " When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . " —Galatians 1:15-16 If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His...

The Nature of Degeneration " Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned . . . " —Romans 5:12 The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26 ). The...

The Vision and The Reality " . . . to those who are . . . called to be saints . . . " —1 Corinthians 1:2 Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are...

The Place of Ministry " He said to them, ’This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting’ " —Mark 9:29 His disciples asked Him privately, ’Why could we not cast it out?’ " ( Mark 9:28 ). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. "This kind can come out by nothing but" concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the...

The Place of Humiliation " If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us " —Mark 9:22 After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation...

The Place of Exaltation " . . . Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . " —Mark 9:2 We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the...

The Assigning of the Call " I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . " —Colossians 1:24 We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for...

The Awareness of the Call " . . . for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! " —1 Corinthians 9:16 We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come...

The "Go" of Unconditional Identification " Jesus . . . said to him, ’One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor . . . and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’ " —Mark 10:21 The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which...

The "Go" of Renunciation " . . . someone said to Him, ’Lord, I will follow You wherever You go’ " —Luke 9:57 Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, "for He knew what was in man" ( John 2:25 ). We would have said, "I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!" Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness...

The "Go" of Reconciliation " If you . . . remember that your brother has something against you . . . " —Matthew 5:23 This verse says, "If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you . . . ." It is not saying, "If you search and find something because of your unbalanced sensitivity," but, "If you . . . remember . . . ." In other words, if something is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God— "First be reconciled to your brother, and then...

The "Go" of Relationship " Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two" —Matthew 5:41 Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a super-natural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that...

The "Go" of Preparation " If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift " —Matthew 5:23-24 It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in...

The Missionary’s Goal " He . . . said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . . ’ " —Luke 18:31 In our natural life our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him?". . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . ." ( Ephesians 4:13 ), not simply to...

The Missionary’s Master and Teacher " You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am . . . . I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master . . . " —John 13:13, 16 To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully....

The Missionary’s Predestined Purpose " Now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant . . . " —Isaiah 49:5 The first thing that happens after we recognize our election by God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our preconceived ideas, our narrow-minded thinking, and all of our other allegiances— we are turned solely into servants of God’s own purpose. The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest...

The Divine Commandment of Life " . . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect " —Matthew 5:48 Our Lord’s exhortation to us in Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections— some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another" ( 1 John 1:7 ), even those toward...

Are You Going on With Jesus? " You are those who have continued with Me in My trials " —Luke 22:28 It is true that Jesus Christ is with us through our temptations, but are we going on with Him through His temptations? Many of us turn back from going on with Jesus from the very moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We wear His name, but are we going...

His Temptation and Ours " We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin " —Hebrews 4:15 Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to...

Is There Good in Temptation? " No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man . . . " —1 Corinthians 10:13 The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply...

Praying to God in Secret " When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place . . . " —Matthew 6:6 The primary thought in the area of religion is— keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know...

What To Renounce " We have renounced the hidden things of shame . . . " —2 Corinthians 4:2 Have you "renounced the hidden things of shame" in your life— the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind— renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all....

Arguments or Obedience " . . . the simplicity that is in Christ " —2 Corinthians 11:3 Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put...

After Surrender— Then What? " I have finished the work which You have given Me to do " —John 17:4 True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will— and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person’s will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.Surrender for Deliverance. "Come to Me . ....

Going Through Spiritual Confusion " Jesus answered and said, ’You do not know what you ask’ " —Matthew 20:22 There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand. And it is only by going through the spiritual confusion that you will come to the understanding of what God wants for you.The Shrouding of His Friendship...

Missionary Weapons (2) " If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet " —John 13:14 Ministering in Everyday Opportunities. Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings.The things Jesus did were the most menial...

Missionary Weapons (1) " When you were under the fig tree, I saw you " —John 1:48 Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, "If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion"? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that...

Do It Yourself (2) " . . . bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . . " —2 Corinthians 10:5 Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, ". . . I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ . . . ." So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There...

Do It Yourself (1) " . . . casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God . . ." —2 Corinthians 10:5 Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to...

Fountains of Blessings " The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life " —John 4:14 The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to "be filled" ( Ephesians 5:18 ) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame— something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus...

The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life " He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water " —John 7:38 A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, "rivers of living water" will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8 ) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow— "This is the work of God, that you believe. ....

Watching With Jesus " Stay here and watch with Me " —Matthew 26:38 Watch with Me." Jesus was saying, in effect, "Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me." In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular "Gethsemane" experience of our own. But we refuse to...

His! " They were Yours, You gave them to Me . . . " —John 17:6 A missionary is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has brought about this realization: "You are not your own" ( 1 Corinthians 6:19 ). To say, "I am not my own," is to have reached a high point in my spiritual stature. The true nature of that life in actual everyday confusion is evidenced by the deliberate giving up of myself to another Person through a sovereign decision, and that Person is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit interprets and explains the nature of Jesus to...

Pouring Out the Water of Satisfaction " He would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord " —2 Samuel 23:16 What has been like "water from the well of Bethlehem" to you recently— love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing (  2 Samuel 23:16 )? Have you taken whatever it may be, even at the risk of damaging your own soul, simply to satisfy yourself? If you have, then you cannot pour it out "to the Lord." You can never set apart for God something that you desire for yourself to achieve your own satisfaction. If...

A Life of Pure and Holy Sacrifice " He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow . . . " —John 7:38 Jesus did not say, "He who believes in Me will realize all the blessings of the fullness of God," but, in essence, "He who believes in Me will have everything he receives escape out of him." Our Lord’s teaching was always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a person— His purpose is to make a person exactly like Himself, and the Son of God is characterized by self-expenditure. If...

Destined To Be Holy " . . it is written, ’Be holy, for I am holy’ " —1 Peter 1:16 We must continually remind ourselves of the purpose of life. We are not destined to happiness, nor to health, but to holiness. Today we have far too many desires and interests, and our lives are being consumed and wasted by them. Many of them may be right, noble, and good, and may later be fulfilled, but in the meantime God must cause their importance to us to decrease. The only thing that truly matters is whether a person will...

"My Joy . . . Your Joy" " These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full " —John 15:11 What was the joy that Jesus had? Joy should not be confused with happiness. In fact, it is an insult to Jesus Christ to use the word happiness in connection with Him. The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to His Father— the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do— ". . . who for the joy that was set...

Usefulness or Relationship? " Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven " —Luke 10:20 Jesus Christ is saying here, "Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me." The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ....

The Unsurpassed Intimacy of Tested Faith " Jesus said to her, ’Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ " —John 11:40 Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as different as the natural life and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture...

The Purpose of Prayer " . . . one of His disciples said to Him, ’Lord, teach us to pray . . .’ " —Luke 11:1 Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and...

Living Your Theology " Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . " —John 12:35 Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" ( Matthew 6:23 ). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into...

Are You Ever Troubled? " Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you . . ." —John 14:27 There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always "spirit, and they are life" ( John 6:63 ). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? ". . . My peace I give to you. . ."—...

Sacrifice and Friendship " I have called you friends . . . " —John 15:15 We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, "I’ll surrender if . . . !" Or we approach it by saying, "I suppose I have to devote my life to God." We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit...

The Spiritual Search " What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? " —Matthew 7:9 The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (seeMatthew 5:45 ). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search...

Prayer— Battle in "The Secret Place" " When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly " —Matthew 6:6 Jesus did not say, "Dream about your Father who is in the secret place," but He said, ". . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . ." Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult...

"I Indeed . . . But He" " I indeed baptize you with water . . . but He . . . will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire " —Matthew 3:11 Have I ever come to the point in my life where I can say, "I indeed . . . but He . . ."? Until that moment comes, I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Spirit means. I indeed am at the end, and I cannot do anything more— butHe begins right there— He does the things that no one else can...

The Ministry of the Unnoticed " Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . " —Matthew 5:3 The New Testament notices things that do not seem worthy of notice by our standards. "Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . ." This literally means, "Blessed are the paupers." Paupers are remarkably commonplace! The preaching of today tends to point out a person’s strength of will or the beauty of his character— things that are easily noticed. The statement we so often hear, "Make a decision for Jesus Christ," places the emphasis on something our Lord never trusted....

Christ-Awareness " . . . and I will give you rest " —Matthew 11:28 Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all. Beware of allowing...

Self-Awareness " Come to Me . . . " —Matthew 11:28 God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new...