Topic : Romans

Romans Road

1. Every human is a sinner - Romans 3:23

2. God’s penalty for sin is death - Romans 6:23

3. In His great love, God has made provision for the salvation of sinners - Romans 5:8

4. Each person must put his trust in God’s Son, Jesus Christ - Romans 10:9-10, 13

Source unknown

Overview

1. All men have a knowledge of God from general revelation, and this renders all men guilty, since all men reject this revelation.

2. The Jews are guilty of rejecting God’s law as well, and thus are doubly guilty.

3. Since no man can be saved by his own righteousness, justification can only be by faith in the work of Jesus Christ.

4. The chief Old Testament example is Abraham, who was saved by faith.

5. The fruit of this justification is peace with God.

6. Free grace gives no license for sin, but rather provides resurrection power for a new life of righteousness.

7. Our regeneration produces a struggle against indwelling sin.

8. The Holy Spirit works with us in the war against sin, and guarantees us our final victory in the resurrection.

9. Our security in Christ is grounded in God’s choice of us, not our choice of Him.

10. God brings His elect people to Himself by means of evangelism and the preaching of the Gospel.

11. God has taken the Gospel to the Gentiles now, but there will come a time when Israel will also receive it.

12. Paul shifts from theological exposition to practical application. The appropriate response to such a great salvation is to present ourselves as living sacrifices and transformed people in the community of the church.

13. Believers live in submission to the civil magistrate.

14. Weak and strong believers need to live in harmony, understanding each other.

15. The apostle to the Gentiles hopes to visit Rome soon.

16. Paul gives greetings to the saints, and warnings against wolves.

Tabletalk, December, 1989, p. 50

Effect and Force

When the effect of the gospel is all important in the church, the force of the gospel is unstoppable in the world.

Source unknown

Frederick the Great

On one occasion Frederick the Great invited some notable people to his royal table, including his top-ranking generals. One of them by the name of Hans von Zieten declined the invitation because he wanted to partake of communion at his church. Some time later at another banquet Frederick and his guests mocked the general for his religious scruples and made jokes about the Lord’s supper. In great peril of his life, the officer stood to his feet and said respectfully to the monarch, “My lord, there is a greater King than you, a King to whom I have sworn allegiance even unto death. I am a Christian man, and I cannot sit quietly as the Lord’s name is dishonored, His character belittled, and His cause subjected to ridicule. With your permission I shall withdraw.” The other generals trembled in silence, knowing that von Zieten might be killed. But to their surprise, Frederick grasped the hand of this courageous man, asked his forgiveness, and requested that he remain. He promised that he would never again allow such a travesty to be made of sacred things.

Our Daily Bread

Resource

• Ashamed of the Gospel, J. MacArthur, pp. 127ff

Judah Ben Hur

If you were born after 1950, you might not know the story of Ben Hur. This classic book written by a Civil War general, Lew Wallace, in 1899, was turned into a movie starring Charleton Heston, which won the Academy Award for best movie in 1959. It is a towering story of love, of suffering, of the struggle of good against evil, and finally of triumph. Judah Ben Hur, the story’s hero, grows up with his boyhood friend, Marsalla. They are ancient, Mideastern Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Judah is, of course, a Jew, and Marsalla, a Gentile. Judah is the heir of a very great and wealthy house in Jerusalem. Marsalla is a promising military man who trained in Rome as a soldier, then returned to Jerusalem as the leader of the Roman occupation forces.

During a parade, a tile falls from the roof of Judah Ben Hur’s house and strikes the new Roman ruler of the area. Judah is falsely arrested and sent to row as a slave in a Roman military ship. Marsalla knew it was an accident and could have prevented Judah’s arrest, but because of his lust for power, didn’t. In addition, Judah’s mother and sister are imprisoned in Jerusalem.

Judah hates Marsalla, and while in the belly of the military ship, providing the power for naval warfare, he vows that he will live, return to Jerusalem and free his mother and sister. Slaves in such ships rarely lived for more than a year. Judah had been rowing for three years when, in the heat of a naval battle, his ship was sunk. He saved the commander of the ship, and as a reward, was given his freedom and adopted by the commander, who was the top naval officer in the Roman navy, a very powerful and wealthy man.

He returns to Jerusalem with all the wealth and power of his new identity, and confronts the astonished Marsalla, who assumed he had been dead for years. Ben Hur demanded that Marsalla find and release from prison his mother and sister. Marsalla finds them in prison, but they have leprosy, so he whisks them away to the leper colony outside Jerusalem to live out a pitiful existence. Ben Hur is told that they are dead. His hate for Marsalla grows, and in a chariot race in which Marsalla and Judah Ben Hur are the primary figures, Marsalla is killed. With his dying breath, Marsalla, out of spite, tells Judah the truth about his mother and sister.

Judah’s hate now no longer has an object to focus on. He generalizes his hatred and becomes a bitter shell of his former self. Finally, in desperation he goes to the leper colony to get his mother and sister to take them to Jesus, this great preacher who has been performing miracles. When they get to Jerusalem where they think they will find Him, they discover that He has just been crucified. Now, all hope is gone, and despair settles over them. However, in the hours and earthquakes rocked the city, Judah’s mother and sister are healed of the leprosy, and Judah’s heart, along with his mother’s and sister’s, is turned to Jesus. Their faith, their health and their lives are restored.

It is a towering story, deeply moving, and an exquisite portrayal of the power, grace and love of Jesus. Why did I tell you about Ben Hur? Because of this interesting twist. As Paul Harvey would say, this is “the rest of the story.” When Lew Wallace set out to study the life of Christ, he was not a Christian. In fact, writing a story such as Ben Hur was the farthest thing from his mind. Wallace was antagonistic toward Christianity, and determined he would study the life of Christ so thoroughly, and then write so convincingly, that he would be able to kill the story of Christ. He wanted to prove that Jesus, if He had lived, was not God, but merely a man, that He never rose from the dead, and that Christianity was a hoax.

So he studied. This great and enormous subject drew him further and further into his research until the evidence overwhelmed him. He dropped to his knees and cried out to Jesus to be his Savior and Lord. Then, instead of writing a book to prove to the world that Jesus was not God, he wrote Ben Hur, to try to prove to the world that Jesus was God.

Max Anders, Jesus, Knowing Our Savior, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publ., 1995), pp. 98-100

Righteousness of God

The righteousness of God that Paul spoke of in this passage was not the righteousness by which God was righteous in himself (that would be passive righteousness,) but the righteousness by which, for the sake of Jesus Christ, God made sinners righteous (that is, active righteousness) through the forgiveness of sins in justification.

Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus Through the Centuries, His Place in History of Culture, 1985, p. 158

Deceitfulness of Sin

The deceitfulness of sin is vividly seen in the life of the French philosopher Rousseau. He declared, “No man can come to the throne of God and say, ‘I’m a better man than Rousseau.’“ When he knew death was close at hand, he boasted, “Ah, how happy a thing it is to die, when one has no reason for remorse or self-reproach.” Then he prayed, “Eternal Being, the soul that I am going to give Thee back is as pure at this moment as it was when it proceeded from Thee; render it a partaker of Thy felicity!” This is an amazing statement when we realize that Rousseau didn’t profess to be born again. In his writings he advocated adultery and suicide, and for more than 20 years he lived in licentiousness. Most of his children were born out of wedlock and sent to a foundling home. He was mean, treacherous, hypocritical, and blasphemous.

Our Daily Bread, April 7

Stumbling Over the Truth

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

Winston Churchill, Source unknown

Amiable Agnostics

Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about ‘man’s search for God.’ To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse’s search for the cat.”

C. S. Lewis, Source unknown

No Excuse for Ignorance

It is a person’s duty to seek God, who comes to meet us in such a way that we can have no excuse for our ignorance. Surely nothing is more absurd than that people should be ignorant of their Author, especially people who have been given understanding principally for this use. And we must also note the goodness of God, in that He so familiarly introduces Himself, that even the blind may grope after Him. Because of this fact, the blindness of people, who are touched with no feeling of God’s presence, is even more shameful and intolerable. For God has not darkly shadowed His glory in the creation of the world, but He has everywhere engraven such marks that even the blind may know them.

Therefore we see that people are not only blind but blockheaded, when, being helped by such excellent testimonies, they profit nothing.

John Calvin

Deceitfulness of Sin

Man makes the same mistakes over and over, even though history repeatedly warns him about the folly of his sins. Paul pinpointed the problem in Romans 1. He said that although man has a limited knowledge of God in creation, he chooses not to glorify Him, nor is he thankful. As a result, he becomes vain in his imaginations and his foolish heart is “darkened.” He no longer discerns right from wrong, but actually begins to think that right is wrong.

The deceitfulness of sin is vividly seen in the life of the French philosopher Rousseau. He declared, “No man can come to the throne of God and say, ‘I’m a better man than Rousseau.’” When he knew death was close at hand, he boasted, “Ah, how happy a thing it is to die, when one has no reason for remorse or self-reproach.” Then he prayed, “Eternal Being, the soul that I am going to give Thee back is as pure at this moment as it was when it proceeded from Thee; render it a partaker of Thy felicity!”

This is an amazing statement when you realize that Rousseau didn’t profess to be born again. In his writings he advocated adultery and suicide, and more that 20 years he lived in licentiousness. Most of his children were born out of wedlock and sent to a foundling home. He was mean, treacherous, hypocritical, and blasphemous.

Daily Walk

Franz Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was present at the Vienna Music Hall, where his oratorio The Creation was being performed. Weakened by age, the great composer was confined to a wheelchair. As the majestic work moved along, the audience was caught up with tremendous emotion. When the passage “And there was light!” was reached, the chorus and orchestra burst forth in such power that the crowd could no longer restrain its enthusiasm.

The vast assembly rose in spontaneous applause. Haydn struggled to stand and motioned for silence. With his hand pointed toward heaven, he said, “No, no, not from me, but from thence comes all!” Having given the glory and praise to the Creator, he fell back into his chair exhausted.

Our Daily Bread, September 20, 1992

Aaron Burr

Aaron Burr, the third Vice President of the United States, was reared in a godly home and admonished to accept Christ by his grandfather Jonathan Edwards. But he refused to listen. Instead, he declared that he wanted nothing to do with God and said he wished the Lord would leave him alone. He did achieve a measure of political success in spite of repeated disappointments. But he was also involved in continuous strife, and when he was 48 years old, he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. He lived for 32 more years, but through all this time he was unhappy and unproductive. It was during this sad chapter in his life that he declared to a group of friends; “Sixty years ago I told God that if He would let me alone, I would let Him alone, and God has not bothered about me since.” Aaron Burr got what he wanted.

Our Daily Bread

Ladder to Heaven

Those using the law as their ladder to heaven will be left standing in hell.

Source unknown

Martin Luther

“The question is asked: How can justification take place without the works of the law, even though James says: ‘Faith without works is dead’? In answer, the apostle distinguishes between the law and faith, the letter and grace. “The ‘works of the law’ are works done without faith and grace, by the law, which forces them to be done through fear or the enticing promise of temporal advantages. But ‘works of faith’ are those done in the spirit of liberty, purely out of love to God. And they can be done only by those who are justified by faith.

“An ape can cleverly imitate the actions of humans. But he is not therefore, a human. If he became a human, it would undoubtedly be not by virtue of the works by which he imitated man but by virtue of something else; namely, by an act of God. Then, having been made a human, he would perform the works of humans in proper fashion.

“Paul does not say that faith is without its characteristic works, but that it justifies without the works of the law. Therefore justification does not require the works of the law; but it does require a living faith, which performs its works.”

Martin Luther, Source unknown

Do Not Have Mercy

“Although we know that God is merciful, please God, do not have mercy for those people who created this place.”

Auschwitz survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis’ Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

U.S. News & World Report, February 6, 1995, p. 26

Reckless Driving

In a Connecticut city, fifty-three residents of a certain neighborhood signed a petition to stop reckless driving on their streets. The police set a watch. A few nights later five violators were caught. All five had signed the petition.

The Grace Awakening, C. Swindoll, (Word, 1990), p. 165

Unbroken Series of Transgressions

“Our guilt is great because our sins are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely outward acts of unkindness and dishonesty with which we are chargeable. Our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God.

“Our pride and indifference to His will and to the welfare of others and our loving the creature more than the Creator are continuous violations of His holy law. We have never been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had delight in that fixed purpose to do the will and promote the glory of God. We are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God.

“If we have never loved Him supremely, if we have never made it our purpose to do His will, if we have never made His glory the end of our actions, then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious violations of duty; they are as numerous as the moments of our existence.”

Charles Hodge, Source unknown

It’s Too Late

An Englishman by the name of Ebenezer Wooten had just concluded a preaching service in the village square. The crowd had dispersed, and he was busily engaged in loading the equipment. A young man approached him and asked, “Mr. Wooten, what must I do to be saved?” Sensing that the fellow was trusting his own righteousness, Wooten answered in a rather unconcerned way, “It’s too late!” The inquirer was startled. “Oh don’t say that, sir!” But the evangelist insisted, “It’s too late!” Then, looking the young man in the eye, he continued, “You want to know what you must DO to be saved. I tell you it’s too late now or any other time. The work of salvation is done, completed, finished! It was finished on the cross.” Then he explained that our part is simply to acknowledge our sin and receive by faith the gift of forgiveness.

Our Daily Bread

Resource

• Biblical Sermons, H. W. Robinson, Baker, 1989, p. 201

Abraham’s Faith

It was a marvelous promise that this childless couple should have a child, and become progenitors of a great nation. It was enough to stagger anyone to be told of it. But Abraham staggered not. How was this'

It did not arise from ignoring the difficulties that obstructed its realization. He might have done so. Whenever the natural obstacles arose in his mind, he might have ignored them.

But this was not Abraham’s policy. He quietly and deliberately considered the enormous difficulties that lay in the path of the divine purpose, and in spite of them he staggered not.

But his unstaggering faith arose from his great thoughts of Him who had promised. He knew God would not have said what He could not perform. He knew that God was Lord of the nature that He had made. He fed his faith by cherishing lofty and profound thoughts of God’s infinite resources.

Throughout Abraham’s life God was continually giving new glimpses into His own glorious nature. With every temptation, call to obedience, or demand for sacrifice, a new and deeper revelation was entwined. This fed his faith, and gave it unstaggering strength.

Child of God, feed your faith on the promises of God. For every look at your difficulties, take ten at God.

F. B. Meyer, Source unknown

Jehovah-Shalom The Lord send peace (Judges 6:24)

Jesus! whose blood so freely stream’d
To satisfy the law’s demand;
By Thee from guilt and wrath redeem’d,
Before the Father’s face I stand.

To reconcile offending man,
Make Justice drop her angry rod;
What creature could have form’d the plan,
Or who fulfill it but a God'

No drop remains of all the curse,
For wretches who deserved the whole;
No arrows dipt in wrath to pierce
The guilty, but returning soul.

Peace by such means so dearly bought,
What rebel could have hoped to see'
Peace, by his injured Sovereign wrought,
His Sovereign fasten’d to a tree.

Now, Lord, Thy feeble worm prepare!
For strife with earth, and hell begins;
Confirm and gird me for the war;
They hate the soul that hates his sins.

Let them in horrid league agree!
They may assault, they may distress;
But cannot quench Thy love to me,
Nor rob me of the Lord my peace.

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

Martin Luther

Martin Luther’s struggle with the guilt of sin helped prepare him for the great freedom he found when the truth of justification by faith finally dawned on him. This poem by Luther expresses it well:

I do not come because my soul is free from sin and pure and whole and worthy of Thy grace;
I do not speak to Thee because I ever justly kept Thy laws and dare to meet Thy face.

I know that sin and guilt combine to reign o’er every thought of mine and turn from good to ill;
I know that when I try to be upright and just and true to Thee, I am a sinner still.

I know that often when I strive to keep a spark of love alive for Thee, the powers within
Leap up in unsubmissive might and oft benumb my sense of right and pull me back to sin.

I know that though in doing good I spend my life, I never could atone for all I’ve done;
But though my sins are black as night, I dare to come before Thy sight because I trust Thy Son.

In Him alone my trust I place, come boldly to Thy throne of grace, and there commune with Thee.
Salvation sure, O Lord, is mine, and, all Unworthy, I am Thine, for Jesus died for me.

Our Daily Bread

We Have Access!

The word “access” is found only 3 times in the N.T. (Rom. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:18, Eph. 3:12). These 3 passages teach us 4 things about access.

1. We have access into grace (Rom. 5:2) God’s throne is the throne of grace (Heb 4:16).

2. We have access unto the Father (Eph. 2:18). Though He is sovereign, we can still approach Him as a child does a father (Luke 11:11-13, Rom. 8:15).

3. We have access through Jesus Christ (I Tim. 2:5). The blood gives us boldness (Heb. 10:19).

4. We have access by our faith (Rom. 5:2; Eph 3:12). The essential ingredient is prayer (Heb. 10:22).

Walter L. Spratt, Galt, Missouri

Condemnation and Justification Contrasted

The New Unger’s Bible Handbook, Merrill F. Unger, Revised by Gary N. Larson, Moody Press, Chicago, 1984, p. 479

William Carey

After William Carey was well established in his pioneer missionary work in India, his supporters in England sent a printer to assist him. Soon the two men were turning out portions of the Bible for distribution. Carey had spent many years learning the language so that he could produce the scriptures in the local dialect. He had also prepared dictionaries and grammars for the use of his successors. One day while Carey was away, a fire broke out and completely destroyed the building, the presses, many Bibles, and the precious manuscripts, dictionaries, and grammars. When he returned and was told of the tragic loss, he showed no sign of despair or impatience. Instead, he knelt and thanked God that he still had the strength to do the work over again. He started immediately, not wasting a moment in self-pity. Before his death, he had duplicated and even improved on his earlier achievements.

Source unknown

He Couldn’t Swim

One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the floundering child.

Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child’s arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray’s free hand felt something—possibly a rock—protruding from one bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. “If I can just hang on until help comes,” he thought.

He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock. On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard’s Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew. Ray Blankenship can’t swim.

Paul Harvey, Los Angeles Times Syndicate

Justification

“A murderer may stand at the bottom of a mine and you on the highest peak of the Rock Mountains, but you are as little able to touch the stars as he. You cannot reach the righteousness that God demands, no matter how far you climb. “Forgiveness is the removal of our unrighteousness, and unclothing or putting away of sin. Justification is the act of being clothed with the righteousness of God’s own providing. It is perfect. It depends upon something done outside of us, something done on the cross of Calvary.

“Justification takes care of all the sin and guilt upon us, buries all this sin and guilt in the grave of Jesus Christ, and then sets us in heavenly places with our Savior. None of us likes the idea of being called a sinner. But we must face what we are.

“Listen to what Paul says in Romans 5:12-21. We were born sinners. Adam, the head of our race, was not created that way. He deliberately sinned, and his sinful nature was passed on to us all. But over against Adam, the head of the natural race, we find Christ, the Head of a spiritual race. If one man’s sin made it possible for all the race to die, one Man’s righteousness made it possible for all the race to get out of this condition.”

Henrietta Mears, Source unknown

Purpose of Law

Purpose of law not to save man from slavery to sin, but rather increase his bondage.

Source unknown

Make a Trail

When a woman called Police Constable Crawford in Owen Sound, Ontario, to report a skunk in her cellar, he advised: “Make a trail of bread crumbs from the basement to the yard and wait for the skunk to follow it outside.”

A little later the woman called back: “I did what you told me. Now I’ve got two skunks in my cellar.”

Source unknown

Love Constraining to Obedience

No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toil’d the precept to obey,
But toil’d without success.

Then, to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its power within,
I feel I hate it too.

Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.

“What shall I do,” was then the word,
“That I may worthier grow?”
“What shall I render to the Lord?”
Is my inquiry now.

To see the law by Christ fulfill’d
And hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

Augustine

The story is told that when Augustine was still without God and without hope, the Holy Spirit convicted him on the basis of Paul’s words in Romans 13:14, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Augustine acknowledged his sinfulness, accepted Jesus as his Savior, and became a different person. His entire outlook on life began to change because of his new nature. One day he had to attend to some business in his old haunts in Rome.

As he walked along, a former companion saw him and began calling, “Augustine, Augustine, it is I!” He took one look at the poor, disreputable woman whose company he had formerly enjoyed, and he shuddered. Reminding himself of his new position in Christ, he quickly turned and ran from her, shouting, “It’s not I! It’s not I!” Augustine had found the secret of Paul’s words: “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Our Daily Bread

Waylon Jennings

Country music is not usually my cup of tea, but when Waylon Jennings described himself in “The Gemini Song,” he was describing all of us:

When I’m bad, I’m bad
And when I’m good, I’m the best you ever seen.
There’s two sides to me, and we ain’t even friends.

Between Two Truths - Living with Biblical Tensions, Klyne Snodgrass, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 41

Both Right and Wrong

We desire both the right and the wrong. As the Roman philosopher Seneca put it, “People love their vices and hate them at the same time; they hate their sins and cannot leave them.”

Between Two Truths - Living with Biblical Tensions, Klyne Snodgrass, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 42

Freedom Granted

I was in Ohio a few years ago, I was invited to preach in the State prison. Eleven hundred convicts were brought into the chapel, and all sat in front of me. After I had got through the preaching, the chaplain said to me:

“Mr. Moody, I want to tell you of a scene which occurred in this room. A few years ago, our commissioners went to the Governor of the State, and got him to promise that he would pardon five men for good behavior. The Governor consented, with this understanding—that the record was to be kept secret, and that at the end of six months the five men highest on the roll should receive a pardon, regardless of who or what they were. At the end of six months the prisoners were all brought into the chapel.

The commissioners came; the president stood on the platform, and putting his hand in his pocket, brought out some papers, and said: ‘I hold in my hand pardons for five men.’

The chaplain told me he never witnessed anything on earth like it. Every man was a still as death. Many were deadly pale. The suspense was awful; it seemed as if every heart had ceased to beat. The commissioner went on to tell them how they had got the pardon; but the chaplain interrupted him.

“Before you make your speech, read out the names. This suspense is awful.”

So he read out the first name, “Reuben Johnson will come and get his pardon”’ and he held it out, but none came forward.

He said to the warden: “Are all the prisoners here?”

The warden told him there were all there.

Then he said again, “Reuben Johnson will come and get his pardon It is signed and sealed by the Governor. He is a free man.”

Not one moved. The chaplain looked right down where Reuben was. He was well known; he had been nineteen years there, and many were looking around to see him spring to his feet. But he himself was looking around to see the fortunate man who had got his pardon. Finally the chaplain had caught his eye, and said: “Reuben, you are the man.”

Reuben turned around and looked behind him to see where Reuben was. The chaplain said the second time, “Reuben, you are the man”; and the second time he looked around, thinking it must be some other Reuben. He had to say three times, “Reuben, come and get your pardon.”

At last the truth began to steal over the old man. He got up, came along down the hall, trembling from head to foot, and when he got the pardon he looked at it, and went back to his seat, buried his face in his hands, and wept. When the prisoners got into the ranks to go back to the cells, Reuben got into the ranks, too, and the chaplain had to call him back. “Reuben get out of the ranks; you are a free man, you are no longer a prisoner.” And Reuben stepped out of the ranks. He was free!

Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. 45-47

Gospel of Grace

The radical gospel of grace as it is found throughout Scripture, has always had its critics. Jimmy Swaggart told me a few years ago that by trusting in God’s justifying and preserving grace, I would end up living a life of sin before long—and thus, lose my salvation and be consigned to hell. Paul anticipated that reaction from the religious community of his own day after he said, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20, NKJV). So he asked the question he expected us to ask: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (6:1) Should we sin so that we can receive more grace? In other words, “If people believed what you just said in Romans 5, Paul, wouldn’t they take advantage of the situation and live like the dickens, knowing they were ‘safe and secure from all alarm’?” That’s a fair question. But it reveals a basic misunderstanding of the nature of God’s saving grace. Paul’s response is unmistakable: “Certainly not? How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:2, NKJV).

Someone confronted Martin Luther, upon the Reformer’s rediscovery of the biblical doctrine of justification, with the remark, “If this is true, a person could simply live as he pleased!”

“Indeed!” answered Luther. “Now, what pleases you?”

Augustine was the great preacher of grace during the fourth and fifth centuries. Although his understanding of the doctrine of justification did not have the fine-tuned precision of the Reformers, Augustine’s response on this point was similar to Luther’s. He said that the doctrine of justification led to the maxim, “Love God and do as you please.” Because we have misunderstood one of the gospel’s most basic themes, Augustine’s statement looks to many like a license to indulge one’s sinful nature, but in reality it touches upon the motivation the Christian has for his actions. The person who has been justified by God’s grace has a new, higher, and nobler motivation for holiness than the shallow, hypocritical self-righteousness or fear that seems to motivate so may religious people today.

The Agony of Deceit by Michael Horton, Editor, (Moody Press, 1990), pp. 143-144

Distraction

John Mason Brown was a drama critic and speaker well known for his witty and informative lectures on theatrical topics. One of his first important appearances as a lecturer was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Brown was pleased, but also rather nervous, and his nerves were not helped when he noticed by the light of the slide projector that someone was copying his every gesture. After a time he broke off his lecture and announced with great dignity that if anyone was not enjoying the talk, he was free to leave. Nobody did, and the mimicking continued. It was another 10 minutes before Brown realized that the mimic was his own shadow!

Was Brown’s shadow real? Of course. Does a shadow have the power to control a person’s actions? Of course not. It can only mimic us. But in Brown’s case, his shadow did take control momentarily. Why? Because he allowed himself to be so distracted—“addicted,” if you will - by it that he completely forgot what he was supposed to be about.

That’s a pretty good description of the sin nature we carry within us as redeemed people. It can cause havoc, even though it has been made powerless by our identification with Christ.

Today in the Word, May 17, 1992

Source of Fire

A used car may have thousands of useful miles left in it. But try as you might, you’ll have difficulty coming up with a useful function for a used match.

Lighting a new fire demands a new source of fire.

In a similar way, the Christian life is more than a “warmed over” existence. It is life anew, a rebirth, a fresh source of life released in someone who was formerly dead.

And the best way to live that life is not by going back to the old life of sin. Matthew Henry explores the dynamic difference in the life of the Christian:

Newness of life supposes newness of heart, for out of the heart are the issues of life.

Walking in Scripture stands for the course and tenor of one’s life, which must be new. Walk by new rules, towards new ends, from new principles. Make new choices of direction. Choose new paths to walk in, new leaders to walk after, new companions to walk with.

Old things should pass away, and all things become new. Such a person is something he formerly was not, does things he did not.

And this newness is to be alive to God through Christ. To converse with God, to have a regard for Him, a delight in Him, a concern for Him; this is to be alive to God.

The love of God reigning in the heart is the life of the soul towards God. It is to have the affections and desires alive toward God.

Christ is our spiritual life; there is no living to God but through Him. Through Christ as the Head from whom we receive vital influence, through Christ as the Root by which we derive sap and nourishment, and so life. In living to God, Christ is all in all.

Matthew Henry, Source unknown

It Only Hurts When I Laugh

In her book It Only Hurts When I Laugh, Ethel Barrett tells how four outstanding servants of God died to self and sin. George Mueller, when questioned about his spiritual power, responded simply, “One day George Mueller died.” D. L. Moody was visiting New York City when he consciously died to his own ambitions. Pastor Charles Finney slipped away to a secluded spot in a forest to die to self. And evangelist Christmas Evans, putting down on paper his surrender to Christ, began it by writing: “I give my soul and body to Jesus.” It was, in a very real sense, a death to self.

John Gregory Mantle wrote, “There is a great difference between realizing, ‘On that Cross He was crucified for me,’ and ‘On that Cross I am crucified with Him.’ The one aspect brings us deliverance from sin’s condemnation, the other from sin’s power.”

Recognizing that we “have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20), we should, as Paul admonished in Romans 6:11, consider ourselves “to be dead indeed to sin.” We still have sinful tendencies within, but having died to them, sin no longer has dominion over us. We die to our selfish desires and pursuits. But believers must also think of themselves as “alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:11). We should do those things that please Him.

Victorious Christians are those who have died—to live! - R.W.D.

Our Daily Bread, Saturday, July 30

Sinful Body

Through union with Christ in his death, says Paul, our old self was put to death with him so that our sinful body might be brought to nothing and cease to be the decisive controlling factor of our lives. This is one aspect of the change in us that is called regeneration.

Here, speaking of the sinful body, Paul is not referring to the physical frame; he means a person’s total self, a human individual. “Body,” like “soul,” can signify the whole person in Scripture, and there are traces of this broadened meaning in our ordinary speech. Perhaps you know the word boss derives from the words body master—the title given to a person in charge of a slave gang. And when we speak colloquially of so many “bods” (or bodies), we mean so many people.

So when Paul speaks of the sinful body, he means the sinful self—the sinful person I was in my natural, fallen state with my God-dishonoring, self-serving, sin-dominated disposition. That, says Paul, was brought to an end by my union with Christ in his death. The person I used to be was crucified with Christ so that my sinful self (disposition, character) might be brought to nothing, so that from now on I would no longer be sin’s slave, living under sin’s domination. I am a new person now, for Christ’s inclination and instinct to love and serve and honor his heavenly Father has also become the core of my character through my union with him in his risen life.

It is important to understand that this is the work of God. We are to consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11) because God has made us so, and this radical change that he has worked in us now has to be lived out. So henceforth we must crucify and mortify each sinful habit that once held us captive (Rom. 8:13), and use all our liberated powers to serve God in righteousness (Rom. 6:12-13; 12:1-2)—something that we could not do before.

Your Father Loves You by James Packer, (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), page for February 26

Freedom

Years ago when slavery was officially abolished in Jamaica, some of the slaves in the remote areas did not know of their freedom. Years after their release had been announced they still continued to serve their masters, oblivious to the fact that they were legally free. Their owners kept the news from the slaves as long as possible, hoping to extract every ounce of work from their captives. The slaves wouldn’t have had to put up with their drudgery—except for their ignorance of the facts.

Christian author and teacher Dr. Bill Gillham likes to illustrate how our behavior is linked to our position and identity in Christ through a humorous analogy. He describes a scene in which a man is suddenly accosted by a ferocious bear while on a walk through the woods. The man runs into a shack. Though the structure is securely buttressed by thick timbers, he is unaware of that fact, and he thinks the grizzly will burst through at any moment. This man was safe the moment he fled into the shack. However, since he was ignorant of that fact, he trembled in terror. As Dr. Gillham points out, the poor man could have died of a fear-induced heart attack even though he was secure. Dr. Gillham’s premise is: If we do not understand who we are in Christ and our security in Him, we will act accordingly.

In Touch, May, 1989

Wright Brothers

On December 17, 1903 something occurred which many people believed impossible. But the event, which would change the course of history, almost passed by unnoticed. Only three or four newspapers even mentioned it. Amazingly, the hometown newspaper of the two men involved made no reference to their accomplishment. Yet during the early morning hours of that day, Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully flew their power-driven, heavier-than-air machine four times. Just as people thought no heavier-than-air machine could overcome the pull of gravity, many feel it impossible to overcome the downward pull of sin.

Today in the Word, May, 1990, p. 38

Resource

• The Grace Awakening, C. Swindoll, 1990, pp. 20, 49, 58

Source unknown

Newness of Life

“Newness of life supposes newness of heart. Walking in Scripture stands for the course and character of one’s life, which must be new. Walk by new rules, towards new ends, from new principles. Make new choices of direction. Choose new paths to walk in, new leaders to walk after, new companions to walk with. “Old things should pass away, and all things become new. Such a person is something he formerly was not, does things he did not. And this newness is to be alive to God through Christ.

To converse with God, to have a regard for Him, a delight in Him, a concern for Him: This is to be alive to God. “The love of God reigning in the heart is the life of the soul towards God. Christ is our spiritual life; there is no living to God but through Him—through Christ as the Author and Maintainer of this life; through Christ as the Head from whom we receive vital influence; through Christ as the Root by which we derive sap and nourishment, and so live. In living to God, Christ is all in all.”

Matthew Henry, Source unknown

Resources

• The Grace Awakening, C. Swindoll, Word, 1990, pp. 114-5, Story of Dr. J. Vernon McGee

The Three Edwards

Thomas Costain’s history, THE THREE EDWARDS, described the life of Raynald Ill, a fourteenth-century duke in what is now Belgium. Grossly overweight, Raynald was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means “fat.” After a violent quarrel, Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against him. Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him. Instead, he built a room around Raynald in the Nieuwkerk castle and promised him he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave the room.

This would not have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size, and none was locked or barred. The problem was Raynald’s size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter.

When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty, he had a ready answer: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.” Raynald stayed in that room for ten years and wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined he died within a year. . . a prisoner of his own appetite.

Dave Wilkenson, Source unknown

Converted Saloonkeeper

“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death” (Rom. 6:21).

Many years ago, when I was a young Salvation Army officer, it was my privilege to participate in a most unique service at a wide street intersection in the heart of the city of San Diego, California.

We had among our adherents a lovely Christian girl, who was saved out of a very ungodly family. Her father was a saloonkeeper and, while kind to his family and in many respects an admirable character, he had no use for “religion,” as he called it, nor for the church. But, through the consistent life of his daughter, he was at last awakened to see his need of a Saviour. He realized that she had something of which he knew nothing, and one night we were all surprised to see him in our audience.

At the close of the service, he came forward, weeping, to confess his sins and seek Christ as his Saviour. We pointed him to the Lord and before the meeting closed, he was rejoicing in the knowledge of sins forgiven.

At once he was faced with the fact that the business in which he was engaged was utterly inconsistent with the Christian life. Some suggested that he should sell out and put the proceeds into some other business. He indignantly spurned the suggestion. Realizing that the saloon was a detriment to humanity, he said he could not, since he had accepted Christ as his Saviour and his Lord, allow himself to profit in any way from the stock of what he afterwards called “liquid damnation.” Instead of this, he went to the city authorities and got a permit for what some might have thought was a rather fantastic service.

At the intersection of four streets, near his saloon, he rolled out all the beer barrels and made of them quite a pyramid. The Salvation Army surrounded this rather remarkable spectacle and with band playing and Salvationists singing, soon attracted an immense crowd. The converted saloonkeeper had boxes full of liquor piled up by the pyramid, to the top of which he climbed. “Praise God,” he exclaimed as he began his testimony, “I am on top of the beer barrel. For years I used to be under its power, but now I can preach on its head.” Then he told the story of his own conversion and pleaded with sinners to come to his Saviour.

As the liquor bottles were passed up to him, he broke them and spilled their contents over the barrels. Then descending, he set fire to the whole pyramid which went up in a great blaze as a the song of the Lord continued. What a remarkable testimony to the power of the gospel of Christ to completely change a life! No longer a saloonkeeper, our friend went into a legitimate business, where his life was a bright testimony to the reality of God’s salvation.

Illustrations of Bible Truth by H. A. Ironside, (Moody Press, 1945), pp. 29-31

Cruel King

The following story was often told by Charles Haddon Spurgeon: “A cruel king called one of his subjects into his presence and asked him his occupation. The man responded, I’m a blacksmith.’ The ruler then ordered him to go and make a chain of a certain length.

“The man obeyed, returning after several months to show it to the monarch. Instead of receiving praise for what he had done, however, he was instructed to make the chain twice as long.

“When that assignment was completed, the blacksmith presented his work to the king, but again was commanded, ‘Go back and double its length!’ This procedure was repeated several times. At last the wicked tyrant directed the man to be bound in the chains of his own making and cast into a fiery furnace.”

Like that cruel king, sin exacts from its servants a dreadful price: “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). But the good news is the last part of that verse: “The gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” If you are not a Christian, consider the consequence of your sin. Then “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). - RWD

Our Daily Bread, December 28, 1996

The Daredevil

In 1919, British actor Sir Ralph Richardson was an office boy for an insurance company in Grighton. To relieve the tedium of the job, he decided one day to see if he could walk around the building on a narrow ledge several stories above the street. He meant for his exploit to coincide with his boss’s absence from the office—but unfortunately, as the young daredevil was edging his way past his boss’s window, the man entered the room and froze. Richardson gave him a cheery wave and called, “ I was chasing a pigeon.”

Why did young Richardson feel compelled to offer his boss an excuse, and a silly one at that, for his foolish escapade? The answer to that question reveals a lot about human nature. Not only does the sinful nature within us provoke us to foolish behavior. It also urges us to point the finger at someone else. Is that what Paul was doing when he said that the Law provoked his sin? In other words, was Paul implying that God’s Law was somehow faulty?

The Apostle proposed that notion himself, and answered it in characteristic fashion: “Certainly not!” Here he seemed to have the Mosaic code more clearly in view, for he quoted one of the Ten Commandments as an example. He then noted three functions of the Law:

1. it reveals sin (v.7);

2. it provokes sin (v.8); and

3. it condemns sin (vv. 8-12).

The Law of Moses isn’t the problem. Instead, God’s commands are a reflection of Hisholiness and goodness. No, it’s sin which causes death (v. 13). Why? Because an unspiritual person can’t obey spiritual statues. It’s like teaching calculus to a baby. Paul went on to prove it with two lines of evidence. First, he drew on his own inability to keep from doing wrong (vv. 15-17), giving this struggle its classic statement in verse 15.

Second, he was also incapable to doing right (vv. 18-21). Paul’s internal conflict seemed to doom him and all mankind to failure (vv. 22-24). But thankfully, he didn’t stop there —because there is One who gives victory (v. 25)!

Romans 7 makes it plain that as “slaves to sin,” we were in desperate need of a new identity in Christ! We have spent a lot of time this month dealing with harmful things that can get a foothold in our lives. But the opening declaration of verse 25 is so positive that we want to continue in that spirit. Today, look back over your recent Christian experience. Can you recall an area where God has given you victory over a problem? Can you see other clear signs of growth and progress in your walk with Christ? As you go to prayer today, begin with praise!

Today in the Word, May 21, 1992

Present or Past Tense

In Romans 7:14-25 Paul speaks in the present tense, having previously spoken in the past. “I was” (v. 9) gives place to “I am” and “I do” (vv. 14, 16). So what he is telling his readers here is that the principle of which he spoke in verses 7-13—that God’s law defines, detects, and damns sin in us, showing us how far sin dominates us—still applies now that he’s a Christian.

Many commentators feel that in verses 14-25 Paul is simply saying again in present tense what he said in past tense in the preceding seven verses. I don’t agree. Anyone who regards Paul as a good communicator must see his shift to present tense as a sign that, having spoken of the past, he is now moving on to speak about his present experience as a Christian. Any rejection of this, the most obvious explanation, accuses Paul of not knowing how to say clearly what he meant. Besides, a person who is not a Christian would never to able to claim truthfully that he delights in the law of God in his inmost self (v. 22) because “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God” (8:7).

Nor do I believe, as some claim, that Paul is here speaking as a Christian in poor spiritual health. Don’t ask me to accept that when Paul dictated any part of Romans he was in a low spiritual state! In reality, it is a mark of spiritual health passionately to desire to be perfect for the glory of God and then to be deeply distressed when one finds that sin, though dethroned and no longer dominant, remains within, marauding and trying to regain control, so that one cannot fully achieve righteousness. This healthy distress at the way in which, morally speaking, what one aims for always exceeds what one actually grasps is what Romans 7:24-25 portrays.

Your Father Loves You by James Packer, (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), page for March 21

Strong Foes

As Christians, we face strong foes that would bring us into spiritual defeat. Our greatest enemy, however, lurks within. Even though we have been born again, we are deeply aware of our inclination toward evil. The apostle Paul wrote, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (Rom. 7:18). He added, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (vv.22,23).

In Victor Hugo’s story, “Ninety-Three” a ship is caught in a storm. The frightened crew hears a terrible crashing sound below. Immediately the men know what it is: a cannon has broken loose and is crashing into the ship’s side with every smashing blow of the sea! Two men, at the risk of their lives, manage to fasten it down again, for they know that the unfastened cannon is more dangerous than the raging storm. Hillery C. Price made this application: “Many people are like that ship—their greatest danger areas lie within their own lives.”

Source unknown

The “Want To”

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit (that is, practice) sin; for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).

It is the grace of God working in the soul that makes the believer delight in holiness, in righteousness, in obedience to the will of God, for real joy is found in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember a man who lived a life of gross sin.

After his conversion, one of his old friends said to him, “Bill, I pity you—a man that has been such a high-flier as you. And now you have settled down; you go to church, or stay at home and read the Bible and pray; you never have good times any more.”

“But, Bob,” said the man, “you don’t understand. I get drunk every time I want to. I go to the theater every time I want to. I go to the dance when I want to. I play cards and gamble whenever I want to.”

“I say, Bill,” said his friend, “I didn’t understand it that way. I thought you had to give up these things to be a Christian.”

“No, Bob,” said Bill, “the Lord took the ‘want to’ out when He saved my soul, and he made me a new creature in Christ Jesus.”

When we are born of God we receive a new life and that life has its own new nature, a nature that hates sin and impurity and delights in holiness and goodness.

Illustrations of Bible Truth by H. A. Ironside, (Moody Press, 1945), p. 43

The Eagle

While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to fly. Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an eagle.

“Still it has the heart of an eagle,” replied the naturalist, “and can surely be taught to fly.” He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.”

The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.

The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.”

But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food. Finally the naturalist took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly.”

The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.

It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken.

From Theology News and Notes, October, 1976, quoted in Multnomah Message, Spring, 1993, p. 1

The Prairie Chicken

An American Indian tells about a brave who found an eagle’s egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the changeling eagle, thinking he was a prairie chicken, did what the prairie chickens did. He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. He clucked and cackled. And he flew in a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that’s how prairie chickens were supposed to fly.

Years passed. And the changeling eagle grew very old. One day, he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.

“What a beautiful bird!” said the changeling eagle to his neighbor. “What is it?”

“That’s an eagle—the chief of the birds,” the neighbor clucked. “But don’t give it a second thought. You could never be like him.”

So the changeling eagle never gave it another thought. And it died thinking it was a prairie chicken.

The Pursuit of Excellence, Ted W. Engstrom, (Zondervan Corporation,1982), pp. 15-16

Resource

• Difficult Passages in the Epistles, R. Stein, Baker, 1988, p. 93, “If we are already dead to sin, why the exhortation?”

Source unknown

The Spirit’s Witness

The Spirit’s witness is not ordinarily an experience in the sense in which orgasm or shock or bewilderment or being “sent” by beauty in music or nature or eating curry are experiences—datable, memorable, short-lived items in our flow of consciousness, standing out from what went before and what came afterward. Yet there are moments of experience in which the Spirit’s witness becomes suddenly strong.

Such was the famous experience of Blaise Pascal on November 23, 1654, the record of which he began thus:

From about half-past ten in the evening till about half-past twelve

FIRE

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars (savants).

Certainty. Certainty (certitude). Feeling (sentiment). Joy. Peace.

Such too was Wesley’s equally famous experience on May 24, 1738. While listening to Luther’s preface to Romans, he felt his heart “strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Such experiences intensify a quality of experience that is real in some measure for every believer from the first. Paul speaks of the Spirit’s witness in the present tense, implying that it is a continuous operation that imparts permanent confidence in God. Though not always vividly felt and sometimes overshadowed by feelings of doubt and despair, this confidence remains constant. The Spirit himself sees to that!

Your Father Loves You by James Packer, (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), page for January 23

The Merit of Christ

If we consider the greatness and the glory of the life we shall have when we have risen from the dead, it would not be difficult at all for us to bear the concerns of this world. If I believe the Word, I shall on the Last Day, after the sentence has been pronounced, not only gladly have suffered ordinary temptations, insults, and imprisonment, but I shall also say: “O, that I did not throw myself under the feet of all the godless for the sake of the great glory which I now see revealed and which has come to me through the merit of Christ!”

Martin Luther

Illiterate Janitor

Somerset Maugham, the English writer, once wrote a story about a janitor at St. Peter’s Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him. Jobless, the man invested his meager savings in a tiny tobacco shop, where he prospered, bought another, expanded, and ended up with a chain of tobacco stores worth several hundred thousand dollars. One day the man’s banker said, “You’ve done well for an illiterate, but where would you be if you could read and write?” “Well,” replied the man, “I’d be janitor of St. Peter’s Church in Neville Square.”

Bits and Pieces, June 24, 1993, p. 23

Resources

• Ask Him Anything, L.J. Ogilvie, Word, 1981, pp. 60ff
• The Upside of Down, Joe Stowell, (Moody, 1991), pp.127ff

Source unknown

Beethoven

The great composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) lived much of his life in fear of deafness. He was concerned because he felt the sense of hearing was essential to creating music of lasting value.

When Beethoven discovered that the thing he feared most was coming rapidly upon him, he was almost frantic with anxiety. He consulted doctors and tried every possible remedy. But the deafness increased until at last all hearing was gone.

Beethoven finally found the strength he needed to go on despite his great loss. To everyone’s amazement, he wrote some of his grandest music after he became totally deaf. With all distractions shut out, melodies flooded in on him as fast as his pen could write them down. His deafness became a great asset.

Daily Walk, August 9, 1993

Valuable Quarantine

In 1832, French engineer Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps was traveling on the Mediterranean Sea. When a fellow passenger became sick with a contagious disease, the ship was quarantined. The confinement was terribly frustrating for de Lesseps. To help pass the time he read the memoirs of Charles le Pere, who had studied the feasibility of building a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. That volume led the engineer to devise a detailed plan for the construction of the Suez Canal, which was completed under his leadership in 1869. That quarantine 37 years earlier proved to be immensely valuable to de Lesseps—and to the world.

Daily Walk, April 25, 1992

My Web of Life

No chance has brought this ill to me;
‘Tis God’s sweet will, so let it be,
He seeth what I cannot see.

There is a need for each pain;
And He will one day make it plain
That earthly loss is heavenly gain

Like as a piece of tapestry
Viewed from the back appears to be
But tangled threads mixed hopelessly,

But in the front a picture fair
Rewards the worker for his care,
Proving his skill and patience rare.

Thou art the workman, I the frame;
Lord, for the glory of Thy name,
Perfect Thine image in the same.

Source unknown

Positives Amidst Troubled Times

One man’s life provides a dramatic answer to the question, can God indeed bring positives out of troubled times? This young man’s name is David, and he is an awesome picture of God’s using difficulties for good. For years he viewed trials as something that affected only his external world, and any blow to what he owned or how he looked would discourage him and leave him feeling cheated. Today, David travels around the world, talking with people about how he discovered that no matter what happens to the outside, it’s the internal life that trials really touch. Just like what happened in Jerry’s life (whose story we shared in the last chapter), the bigger the trial, the more potential to see God’s power and peace at work in the inner person.

During the Vietnam War, David went through rigorous training to become part of the ultra-elite special forces team the Navy used on dangerous search-and-destroy missions. During a nighttime raid on an enemy stronghold, David experienced the greatest trial of his life. When he and his men were pinned down by enemy machine-gun fire, he pulled a phosphorus grenade from his belt and stood up to throw it. But as he pulled back his arm, a bullet hit the grenade, and it exploded next to his ear. Lying on his side on the bank of a muddy river, he watched part of his face float by. His entire face and shoulder alternately smoldered and caught on fire as the phosphorus that had embedded itself in his body came into contact with the air.

David knew that he was going to die, yet miraculously he didn’t. He was pulled from the water by his fellow soldiers, flown directly to Saigon, and then taken to a waiting plane bound for Hawaii. But David’s problems were just beginning.

When he first went into surgery—the first of what would become dozens of operations—the surgical team had a major problem during the operation. As they cut away tissue that had been burned or torn by the grenade, the phosphorus would hit the oxygen in the operating room and begin to ignite again! Several times the doctors and nurses ran out of the room, leaving him alone because they were afraid the oxygen used in surgery would explode!

Incredibly, David survived the operation and was taken to a ward that held the most severe burn and injury cases from the war. Lying on his bed, his head the size of a basketball, David knew he presented a grotesque picture. Although he had once been a handsome man, he knew he had nothing to offer his wife or anyone else because of his appearance. He felt more alone and more worthless than he had ever felt in his life. But David wasn’t alone in his room. There was another man who had been wounded in Vietnam and was also a nightmarish sight.

He had lost an arm and a leg, and his face was badly torn and scarred. As David was recovering from surgery, this man’s wife arrived from the States. When she walked into the room and took one look at her husband, she became nauseated. She took off her wedding ring, put it on the nightstand next to him, and said, I’m so sorry, but there’s no way I could live with you looking like that.” And with that, she walked out the door. He could barely make any sounds through his torn throat and mouth, but the soldier wept and shook for hours. Two days later, he died.

That woman’s attitude represents in many respects the way the world views a victim of accident or injury. If a trial emotionally or physically scars someone or causes him to lose his attractiveness, the world says “Ugly is bad,” and consequently, any value that person feels he has to others is drained away.

For this poor wounded soldier, knowing that his wife saw no value in him was more terrible than the wounds he suffered. It blew away his last hope that someone, somewhere, could find worth in him because he knew how the world would perceive him.

Three days later, David’s wife arrived. After watching what had happened with the other soldier, he had no idea what kind of reaction she would have toward him, and he dreaded her coming. His wife, a strong Christian, took one look at him, came over, and kissed him on the only place on his face that wasn’t bandaged. In a gentle voice she said, “Honey, I love you. I’ll always love you. And I want you to know that whatever it takes, whatever the odds, we can make it together.” She hugged him where she could to avoid disturbing his injuries and stayed with him for the next several days. Watching what had happened with the other man’s wife and seeing his own wife’s love for him gave David tremendous strength. More than that, her understanding and accepting him greatly reinforced his own relationship with the Lord.

In the weeks and months that followed, David’s wounds slowly but steadily healed. It took dozens of operations and months of agonizing recovery, but today, miraculously, David can see and hear. On national television, we heard David make an incredible statement. I am twice the person I was before I went to Vietnam. For one thing, God has used my suffering to help me feel other people’s pain and to have an incredible burden to reach people for Him. The Lord has let me have a worldwide, positive effect on people’s lives because of what I went through. I wouldn’t trade anything I’ve gone through for the benefits my trials have had in my life, on my family’s life and on countless teenagers and adults I’ve had the opportunity to influence over the years.

David experienced a trial that no parents would wish on their children. Yet in spite of all the tragedy that surrounded him, God turned his troubled times into fruitful ones.

The Gift of Honor, Gary Smalley & John Trent, Ph.D., pp. 56-58

Nothing Happens By Chance

F. B. Meyer was scheduled to preach at Chiswick Baptist Chapel, but when he arrived, he discovered the church door shut and locked. Somebody had made a mistake and announced the meeting for the following Thursday and the pastor’s letter to Meyer had arrived too late to prevent Meyer from coming. In reply to the pastor’s letter of apology, Meyer wrote: “Do not trouble, nothing happens by chance, and the rather long walk, in the calm autumn air, did me good.”

The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 193

A Thing of Beauty

In a small pub in the highlands of Scotland a group of fishermen gathered one afternoon and were enjoying a round of ale. Just as one was showing, with his hands, how big one fish was that had gotten away, a waitress passed. His hand hit a glass of ale she was carrying on a tray and some of the dark brew spilled on the white wall of the pub. It began to run down.

The waitress hastily took a cloth from her apron and began to wipe, but the ale had left an ugly dark stain. At another table, a man rose and came over. He took a crayon from his pocket and as all in the pub watched, began to sketch around the stain. In a few moments, he had drawn the head of a magnificent stag with spreading antlers. Under his hand, the mistake had become a thing of beauty. The artist was Sir Edwin Landseer. At that time he was England’s foremost painter of animals.

Bits and Pieces, November, 1991

It Holds True

Professor E. C. Caldwell ended his lecture, “Tomorrow,” he said to his class of seminary students, “I will be teaching on Romans 8. So tonight, as you study, pay special attention to verse 28. Notice what this verse truly says, and what it doesn’t say.” Then he added, “One final word before I dismiss you—whatever happens in all the years to come, remember: Romans 8:28 will always hold true.”

That same day Dr. Caldwell and his wife met with a tragic car-train accident. She was killed instantly and he was crippled permanently. Months later, Professor Caldwell returned to his students, who clearly remembered his last words. The room was hushed as he began his lecture.

“Romans 8:28,” he said, “still holds true. One day we shall see God’s good, even in this.”

Our Daily Bread, 12-19-91

He Writes

He writes in characters too grand
For our short sight to understand;
We catch but broken strokes, and try
To fathom all the mystery

Of withered hopes, of death, of life,
The endless war, the useless strife—
But there, with larger, clearer sight,
We shall see this—His way was right.

John Oxenham, Source unknown

Snoballs in Summer

Stanley Arnold was a man with million-dollar ideas. Peter Hay tells us about one of them in the Book of Business Anecdotes (Facts on File Publications, NYC and Oxford, England). Some years ago, Arnold was managing one of his father’s 15 Pick-N-Pay stores in Cleveland, Ohio, when a blizzard hit town. The city was paralyzed, and all 15 stores were empty. Employees who had reported to work didn’t have much to do—until Arnold came up with his idea. He had the employees make snowballs—7,900 of them. They he had the snowballs packed into grapefruit crates and transported to a deep-freeze facility. Then he asked the Weather Bureau when he could expect the hottest day of the year. They told him mid-July. Armed with this information, Arnold took a train to New York and went to see Charles Mortimer, then president of General Foods. He proposed a joint promotional sale of General Food’s newly introduced Birds Eye frozen foods. The sale was to be held in mid-July, and young Mr. Arnold wanted General Foods to provide an array of prizes. The sale was to be called “A Blizzard of Values.” As his contribution, Arnold proposed to give away snowballs. General Foods agreed to cooperate.

Summer came, and it turned out to be 100 degrees on the sale date. Police had to be called to control the crowds. During the five days of Pick-N-Pay’s “Blizzard of Values,” some 40,000 General Foods samples were given away, along with 7,900 grapefruit-sized snowballs. Thousands of customers were introduced to the new products, and the food industry discovered what excitement could do for sales.

Bits and Pieces, January, 1990, p. 17

Braille

It was 1818 in France, and Louis, a boy of 9, was sitting in his father’s workshop. The father was a harness-maker and the boy loved to watch his father work the leather. “Someday Father,” said Louis, “I want to be a harness-maker, just like you.”

“Why not start now?” said the father. He took a piece of leather and drew a design on it. “Now, my son,” he said, “take the hole-puncher and a hammer and follow this design, but be careful that you don’t hit your hand.”

Excited, the boy began to work, but when he hit the hole-puncher, it flew out of his hand and pierced his eye! He lost the sight of that eye immediately. Later, sight in the other eye failed. Louis was now totally blind. A few years later, Louis was sitting in the family garden when a friend handed him a pine cone. As he ran his sensitive fingers over the cone, an idea came to him. He became enthusiastic and began to create an alphabet of raised dots on paper so that the blind could feel and interpret what was written.

Thus, Louis Braille opened up a whole new world for the blind—all because of an accident!

Bits and Pieces, June, 1990, pp. 23-4

Resource

• Difficult Passages in the Epistles, R. Stein, Baker, 1988, p. 71,

A Faithful Father

I trust him so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul, and he will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because he is almighty God; he desires to do this because he is a faithful Father.

The Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 26

Boll Weevils

I once read about farmers in southern Alabama who were accustomed to planting one crop every year—cotton. They would plow as much ground as they could land plant their crop. Year after year they lived by cotton.

Then one year the dreaded boll weevil devastated the whole area. So the next year the farmers mortgaged their homes and planted cotton again, hoping for a good harvest. But as the cotton began to grow, the insect came back and destroyed the crop, wiping out most of the farms. The few who survived those two years of the boll weevil decided to experiment the third year, so they planted something they’d never planted before—peanuts. And peanuts proved so hardy and the market proved so ravenous for that product that the farmers who survived the first two years reaped profits that enabled them to pay off all their debts. They planted peanuts from then on and prospered greatly.

Then you know what those farmers did? They spent some of their new wealth to erect in the town square a monument—to the boll weevil. If it hadn’t been for the boll weevil, they never would have discovered peanuts. They learned that even out of disaster there can be great delight.

Roger Thompson, Source unknown

The Lighthouse

Auguste Bartholdi went from France to Egypt in 1856. He was awestruck by the grandeur of the pyramids, the magnitude of the mighty Nile, and the beauty of the stately Sphinx of the desert. His artistic mind was stimulated. While on this trip he met another visitor to Egypt, Ferdinand de Lesseps. Ferdinand was there to sell an idea. An idea to cut a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea that would save merchant ships the long journey around the tip of the African continent.

Auguste was taken by the concept. He decided to design a lighthouse to stand at the entrance to this canal. It wouldn’t be an ordinary lighthouse. It would symbolize the light of the Western civilization flowing to the East. It took 10 years to build the Suez Canal. For 10 years Auguste worked on his idea. He drew plans, made clay models. He scrapped plan after plan. Then he had the right one. It was the perfect design. Only one problem remained. Who would pay for it? He looked everywhere, but no one was interested. The Suez Canal was opened—without a lighthouse.

Auguste went back to France defeated. Ten years of toil and effort wasted. You would have liked his idea. It was a colossal robed lady that stood taller than the Sphinx in the desert. She held the books of justice in one hand and a torch lifted high in the other to light the entrance to the canal. After Auguste returned to France, the French government sought his artistic services. His planning and designing culminated in the Statue of Liberty lighting the New York harbor. His disappointment had turned to delight.

Joseph Stowell, Through The Fire, Victor Books, 1988, p. 48

No Portrait

On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is a portrait with the following inscription:

“James Butler Bonham—no picture of him exists. This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle. It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.”

No literal portrait of Jesus exists either. But the likeness of the Son who makes us free can be seen in the lives of His true followers.

Bill Morgan, Source unknown

We Have an Intercessor

Sometimes we see people make professions of faith, come into the church, get excited about evangelism and other things, only to later renounce the faith. We wonder: Will this happen to us? A Christian is capable of a radical fall, but never of a total and final fall.

Consider Peter and Judas. Peter rejected Christ, as did Judas. Peter denied Christ, as did Judas. But Christ was praying for Peter, while Christ said that Judas was a son of perdition from the beginning. Judas was never truly converted, while Peter was. Thus, Peter returned to Christ after his season of sin and apostasy. Judas never did. Because Christ intercedes for us, we can have confidence that we also will never fully depart from Him.

Tabletalk, August 25, 1985

God’s Preservation

What makes our regeneration permanent is not our perseverance, but God’s preservation. Ultimately it is not how diligently we persevere, and persevere we must, but how well God preserves us in faith.

Tabletalk, August 14, 1989

Cheese Sandwiches

Author Peter Kreeft tells the story of a poor European family who saved for years to buy tickets to sail to America. Once at sea, they carefully rationed the cheese and bread they had brought for the journey.

After 3 days, the boy complained to his father, “I hate cheese sandwiches. If I don’t eat anything else before we get to America, I’m going to die.” Giving the boy his last nickel, the father told him to go to the ship’s galley and buy an ice-cream cone.

When the boy returned a long time later with a wide smile, his worried dad asked, “Where were you?”

“In the galley, eating three ice-cream cones and a steak dinner!”

“All that for a nickel?”

“Oh, no, the food is free,” the boy replied. “It comes with the ticket.”

Our Daily Bread, January 11, 1995

He’s Praying for Me

Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843), pioneer missionary to America, testified, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me!”

Our Daily Bread, May 28, 1995

Active or Passive Hardening

To understand this, we have to distinguish between active hardening and passive hardening. What we have in this verse is an example of God’s punitive judgment against a wicked man. Pharaoh was already wicked. Pharaoh already had an evil heart, out of which came evil continually. Pharaoh delighted in doing evil. If Pharaoh ever did anything good at all, it was as a result of the constraining and restraining work of God’s common grace.

One of the ways God punishes evil is to allow men to do what they really want, which is to become even more evil. As Paul puts it in Romans 1:24, 26, and 28, God “gave them over” to the evil they want to do. God does this by withdrawing His restraint, which has the result of allowing men’ hearts to harden against Him. Thus, God does not cause men to sin, nor does He make them bad. Rather, He simply lets them harden themselves, as a punishment for their wickedness.

R.C. Sproul, Tabletalk, August, 1989, p. 51

Genuine Faith

“A person becomes righteous by believing God’s record concerning His Son. But the evidence that this faith is genuine is found in the open confession of the Lord with the mouth. “Confession of Christ is as necessary as faith in Him, but necessary for a different purpose. Faith is necessary to obtain the gift of righteousness. Confession is necessary to prove that this gift is received.

“In saying, then, that confession is made unto salvation, the apostle does not mean that it is the cause of salvation, or that without it the title to salvation is incomplete. When a person believes in his heart, he is justified. But confession of Christ is in effect of faith, and will be evidence of it at the last day. Faith which interests the sinner in the righteousness of Christ is manifested by the confession of His name in the face of danger.”

Robert Haldane, Source unknown

Resource

• So Great Salvation, Charles Ryrie, Victor Books, 1989, pp. 70ff

Christ in a Tuxedo

Many years ago in a Moscow theater, matinee idol Alexander Rostovzev was converted while playing the role of Jesus in a sacrilegious play entitled Christ in a Tuxedo. He was supposed to read two verses from the Sermon on the Mount, remove his gown, and cry out, “Give me my tuxedo and top hat!” But as he read the words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,” he began to tremble. Instead of following the script, he kept reading from Matthew 5, ignoring the coughs, calls, and foot-stamping of his fellow actors. Finally, recalling a verse he had learned in his childhood in a Russian Orthodox church, he cried, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom!” (Luke 23:42). Before the curtain could be lowered, Rostovzev had trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.

Why Christians Sin, J. K. Johnston, Discovery House, 1992, p. 121

Less Complicated Design

Alfonso X, the king of Castile and Leon known as “Alfonso the Wise,” was particularly famous for his patronage of the arts and sciences. The most celebrated work done under Alfonso’s sponsorship was the compilation of the “Alfonsine Tables,” which were published on the day of his ascension to the throne and remained the most authoritative planetary tables in existence for three centuries. The preparation of the tables was very laborious, and Alfonso remarked that if God had consulted him during the six days of creation, he would have recommended a less complicated design.

Today in the Word, May 1, 1993

Honor to God

David Brainerd was an American colonial missionary to the Indians who died at the age of twenty-nine. His diary reveals a young man intensely committed to God. Brainerd once said to Jonathan Edwards: “I do not go to heaven to be advanced but to give honor to God. It is no matter where I shall be stationed in heaven, whether I have a high seat or a low seat there. My heaven is to please God and glorify Him, and give all to Him, and to be wholly devoted to His glory.”

Today in the Word, November 19, 1997

Moral Behavior or Christians

A study conducted by The Roper Organization for High Adventure Ministries in 1990 found that the moral behavior of born again Christians actually worsened after their conversions. Examined were incidences of illegal drug use, driving while intoxicated and marital infidelity. The problem can be solved, says one researcher, with a new commitment to accountability and discipleship.

New Man, November/December, 1994, p. 13

Submission

O Lord, my best desire fulfill,
And help me to resign
Life, health, and comfort to Thy will,
And make Thy pleasure mine.

Why should I shrink at Thy command,
Whose love forbids my fears'
Or tremble at the gracious hand
That wipes away my tears'

No, rather let me freely yield
What most I prize to Thee;
Who never hast a good withheld,
Or wilt withhold, from me.

Thy favour, all my journey through,
Thou art engaged to grant;
What else I want, or think I do,
‘Tis better still to want.

Wisdom and mercy guide my way,
Shall I resist them both'
A poor blind creature of a day,
And crush’d before the moth!

But ah! my inward spirit cries,
Still bind me to Thy sway;
Else the next cloud that veils the skies
Drives all these thoughts away.

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

Consecration

“Will you please tell me in a word,” said a Christian woman to a minister, “what your idea of consecration is?”

Holding out a blank sheet of paper the pastor replied, “It is to sign your name at the bottom of this blank sheet, and to let God fill it in as He will.”

The Baptist Challenge

Tattered Umbrella

Several years ago I read an article about Queen Mary, who made it her practice to visit Scotland every year. She was so loved by the people there that she often mingled with them freely without a protective escort. One afternoon while walking with some children, she went out farther than she’d planned. Dark clouds came up unexpectedly, so she stopped at a nearby house to borrow an umbrella. “If you will lend me one,” she said to the lady who answered the door, “I will send it back to you tomorrow.” The woman didn’t recognize the Queen and was reluctant to give this stranger her best umbrella. So she handed her one that she intended to throw away. The fabric was torn in several places and one of the ribs was broken.

The next day another knock was heard at the door. When the lady opened it, she was greeted by a royal guard, who was holding in her hand her old, tattered umbrella. “The Queen sent me,” he said. “She asked me to thank you for loaning her this.” For a moment the woman was stunned, then, she burst into tears. “Oh, what an opportunity I missed,” she cried. “I didn’t give the Queen my very best!”

Our Daily Bread

Turning Point

The surrender of one’s will to Jesus is essential to a life of joy and victory. Oswald Chambers called this “giving up my right to myself.” We hold nothing back—no earthly life, no material gain, no pride-filled position—but simply say, “Jesus, do with my life whatever You want.” Many Christians hold back from yielding all to Christ because they fear that it will bring terrible consequences, the death of a loved one or some other great loss.

F. B. Meyer reflected on a turning point to his spiritual life and how he overcame this fear. “The devil said, ‘Don’t do it!. There is no knowing what you may come to.’ At first I thought there was something to it, then I remembered my daughter, who was a little willful then, and loved her own way. I thought to myself as I knelt, Supposing that she were to come and say—‘Father, from tonight I am going to put my life in your hand. Do with it what you will.’ Would I call her mother to her side and say, ‘Here is a chance to torment her’? .I knew I would not say that. I knew I would say to my wife, ‘Our child is going to follow our will from now on. Do you know of anything that is hurting her?’ ‘Yes, so and so.’ ‘Does she love it much?’ ‘Yes,’ ‘Oh, she must give it up. But we will make it as easy for her as we can. We must take from her the things that are hurting her, but we will give her everything that will make her life one long summer day of bliss.’“

Our Daily Bread

Resources

• Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, pp. 71ff
• Ask Him Anything, L. J. Ogilvie, Word, 1981, pp. 46ff
• Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 215

Lessons From a Tree

If Thou canst make so wonderful
This thrilling thing—a tree,
I wonder, Lord, what Thou couldst make
If man should yield to Thee;

If every time earth-born root
Drank from the wells of God,
If all day long his every breath
Answered Thy slighted not'

Bent, twisted, gnarled, time-eaten,
But a glorious thing this tree,
With hands and heart uplifted
Seeking the face of Thee!

O Thou who made s wondrous fair
This trilling thing, my tree,
Because its every hour is lived
an offering unto Thee,

Oh, take me, root and branch and all
(The years go on apace!)
Grow up in me that radiant life
That shines, Lord, from Thy face!

Resource, Sept./Oct., 1992, p. 9

Transformation not Information

The Scriptures were not given for our information, but for our transformation.

D. L. Moody, Source unknown

Padarewski

On a visit to the Beethoven museum in Bonn, a young American student became fascinated by the piano on which Beethoven had composed some of his greatest works. She asked the museum guard if she could play a few bars on it; she accompanied the request with a lavish tip, and the guard agreed. The girl went to the piano and tinkled out the opening of the Moonlight Sonata. As she was leaving she said to the guard, “I suppose all the great pianists who come here want to play on that piano.”

The guard shook his head. “Padarewski [the famed Polish pianist] was here a few years ago and he said he wasn’t worthy to touch it.”

Today in the Word, June 20, 1992

Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor was scheduled to speak at a large Presbyterian church in Melbourne, Australia. The moderator of the service introduced the missionary in eloquent and glowing terms. He told the large congregation all that Taylor had accomplished in China, and then presented him as “our illustrious guest.” Taylor stood quietly for a moment, and then opened his message by saying, “Dear friends, I am the little servant of an illustrious Master.”

Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching and Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 243

Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw was wandering through Bloomingdales’ New York store one day, shortly after earning a promotion to the co-host spot on the Today Show. Brokaw’s new position was another peak in a rapidly-rising career in television journalism after plodding faithfully up the ranks, first in Omaha, then for NBC in Los Angeles and Washington. It wouldn’t be lying to say he was feeling pretty good about himself. As he browsed through the store, he noticed a man watching him intensely. The man continued to stare, and finally, when the man approached him, Brokaw prepared himself to reap the first fruits of television stardom in New York.

The man pointed at him and asked, “Tom Brokaw, right?”

“Right,” said Brokaw.

“You used to do the morning news on KMTV in Omaha, right?”

“That’s right,” said Brokaw, getting ready for the warm praises destined to follow.

“I knew it the minute I spotted you,” the fellow said. Then he paused and added, “Whatever happened to you?”

Soundings, Vol. A, No. 1

God Be Merciful

John Wesley made this entry in his diary on his seventy-second birthday, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

Resource, July/August, 1990

Oscar Hammerstein

When he was 46 years of age, Oscar Hammerstein had worked with thirty different composers. Nothing took off. There was no successful song. It was a despairing, dispiriting time for him. Finally, Oscar Hammerstein tied in with Richard Rogers. The following year they wrote the musical Oklahoma. He was a success. In fact his success was so enormous in its impact that he went out and bought a full page ad in Variety magazine. To keep himself humble, he bought this headline: “I’ve done it before and I can do it again!” He then listed every single one of his failures.

Robert H. Schuller, Be an Extraordinary Person in an Ordinary World

High Opinion

A man who had a high opinion of himself stepped on a coin-operated scale that dispensed a card, giving his weight and comments about his personality. After reading the card, he handed it to his wife and said, “Here, look at this!” She took it and read aloud, “You are dynamic, a born leader, handsome, and much admired by women for your personality.” Giving it a second look, she added, “Hmmm, I see it’s got your weight wrong too!”

Our Daily Bread, July 3, 1989

Good Advice

When Harry Truman was thrust into the presidency at the death of F.D.R., Sam Rayburn gave him some fatherly advice: “From here on out you’re going to have lots of people around you. They’ll try to put a wall around you and cut you off from any ideas but theirs. They’ll tell you what a great man you are, Harry. But you and I both know you ain’t.”

Bits and Pieces, Vol. F, #41

Fishing for a Compliment

One Sunday on the way home from church the pastor turned to his wife and tried to fish a complement out of her. “Well dear, what did you think of the sermon this morning?” She was very non-committal in her response, “Oh, it was fine.” The pastor wouldn’t let it drop so easily. “Mrs. Smith said on the way out of church that I must be one of the great preachers of our generation.” Still no response from the wife. The pastor pushed on. “How many great preachers do you think there are in our generation?” Without a moment’s hesitation she fired back, “One less than you think.”

Source unknown

The Boy Scout

A noted brain surgeon, Dr. Bronson Ray, was taking a stroll when he saw a boy on a scooter smash headfirst into a tree. Realizing that the boy was seriously injured, the doctor told a bystander to call an ambulance. As he proceeded to administer first aid, a boy not much older than the injured one nudged through the crowd that had gathered and said to Dr. Ray, “I’d better take over now, sir. I’m a Boy Scout and I know first aid,”

Source unknown

New Record

Forty thousand fans were on hand in the Oakland stadium when Rickey Henderson tied Lou Brock’s career stolen base record. According to USA Today Lou, who had left baseball in 1979, had followed Henderson’s career and was excited about his success. Realizing that Rickey would set a new record, Brock said, “I’ll be there. Do you think I’m going to miss it now? Rickey did in 12 years what took me 19. He’s amazing.”

The real success stories in life are with people who can rejoice in the successes of others. What Lou Brock did in cheering on Rickey Henderson should be a way of life in the family of God. Few circumstances give us a better opportunity to exhibit God’s grace than when someone succeeds and surpasses us in an area of our own strength and reputation.

Our Daily Bread, June 19, 1994

Samuel Beckett

Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett received great recognition for his work—but not everyone savored his accomplishments. Beckett’s marriage, in fact, was soured by his wife’s jealousy of his growing fame and success as a writer. One day in 1969 his wife Suzanne answered the telephone, listened for a moment, spoke briefly, and hung up. She then turned to Beckett and with a stricken look whispered, “What a catastrophe!” Was it a devastating personal tragedy? No, she had just learned that Beckett had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature!

Today in the Word, February, 1991, p. 15

Law Suit

The story is told of a rich man in Springfield, Illinois, who insisted that a certain poor man owed him $2.50. When the claim was denied, the rich man decided to sue him. He contacted a young lawyer named Lincoln, who at first hesitated to take the case. On second thought he agreed—if he’d be paid a fee of $10 cash in advance. The client readily produced the money, whereupon Lincoln went to the poor man and offered him $5 if he would immediately settle the alleged debt. Thus Lincoln received $5 for himself, the poor man got $2.50, and the claim was satisfied. The rich man foolishly paid three times the original debt, just to gain his rights.

Our Daily Bread

Prize Chickens

In today’s text, the apostle Paul said that by helping our enemies we heap “coals of fire” on their heads. He certainly didn’t mean that this is a good way to hurt them—to get even. He meant that by using kindness we might secure their repentance, thus showing our sincere desire for their eternal good.

A Christian lady owned two prize chickens that got out of their run and busied themselves in the garden of an ill-tempered neighbor. The man caught the hens, wrung their necks, and threw them back over the fence. Naturally, the woman was upset, but she didn’t get angry and rush over and scream at him. Instead, she took the birds, dressed them out, and prepared two chicken pies. Then she delivered one of the freshly baked pies to the man who had killed her hens. She apologized for not being more careful about keeping her chickens in her own yard. Her children, expecting an angry scene, hid behind a bush to see the man’s face and hear what he’d say. But he was speechless! That chicken pie and apology filled him with a burning sense of shame. But she wasn’t trying to get even. Her motive in returning good for evil was to show her neighbor true Christian love, and maybe even bring about a change of heart. H.V.L.

Our Daily Bread, April 15

Unexpected Kindness

In 1818 a man named Tamatoe, King of the South Sea island of Huahine, became a Christian. Shortly thereafter, he discovered a plot to seize him and other converts and burn them to death.

Tamatoe organized a band that attacked the conspirators, captured and bound them—and then set before them a feast! The unexpected kindness so impressed his enemies that they burned their idols and confessed Christ.

Today in the Word, June 30, 1992

Good Testimony

Bruce Goodrich was being initiated into the cadet corps at Texas A & M University. One night, Bruce was forced to run until he dropped—but he never got up. Bruce Goodrich died before he even entered college.

A short time after the tragedy, Bruce’s father wrote this letter to the administration, faculty, student body, and the corps of cadets: “I would like to take this opportunity to express the appreciation of my family for the great outpouring of concern and sympathy from Texas A & M University and the college community over the loss of our son Bruce. We were deeply touched by the tribute paid to him in the battalion. We were particularly pleased to note that his Christian witness did not go unnoticed during his brief time on campus.”

Mr. Goodrich went on: “I hope it will be some comfort to know that we harbor no ill will in the matter. We know our God makes no mistakes. Bruce had an appointment with his Lord and is now secure in his celestial home. When the question is asked, ‘Why did this happen?’ perhaps one answer will be, ‘So that many will consider where they will spend eternity.’”

Our Daily Bread, March 22, 1994

Leniency

Georges Clemenceau was twice the prime minister of France, and played a major role in the treaties that concluded WWI. At the Versailles conference, Clemenceau was on his way to a meeting with President Woodrow Wilson’s adviser when he was shot at by a young anarchist named Emile Cottin. As Clemenceaus’s car sped away Cottin fired at least six more shots, one of which struck Clemenceau near his heart. Cottin was captured and the death penalty demanded, but Clemenceau asked for leniency, recommending eight years in prison,” with intensive training in a shooting gallery.”

Today in the Word, February, 1991, p. 11

Battle of the Buldge

World War II was at its height. Forces were engaged in what was known as, “The Battle of the Bulge”—or “The Christmas War of 1944.” The fighting was fierce in the bitter cold and snow.

The Allied Forces bombed and established control of a strategic area. The commanding officer turned to several of his men and said, “Sweep across that field, and kill all German soldiers still entrenched in the snow. I want no prisoners. Absolutely none!”

One of the American soldiers selected gives his account of what happened next. “As I walked, I immediately shot and killed two wounded and suffering soldiers.” He continues, “Then, suddenly I approached a tall, young guy with a broad Teutonic forehead.

“He was leaning against a tree. He wasn’t wounded—simply exhausted. He had no food, no water, no comrades in sight, no ammunition. Fear, fatigue, defeat, and loneliness overwhelmed him. He spoke English with a beautiful vonderful-vorld-type accent.

“When I noticed a little black Bible in his shirt pocket,” he reminisces, “we started to talk about Jesus and salvation. “Wouldn’t you know it, that lanky German soldier turned out to be a born-again Christian who deeply loved the Lord.

“I gave him water from my canteen; I even gave him crackers. Then, we prayed and read God’s Word together. And we wept together too.”

His voice began to tremble, as tears splashed down his cheeks. His face began to reflect anguish.

“It seems like only yesterday. We stood a foot or so apart, as he read a Psalm from his German Bible. Then, I read Romans 12 from my King James translation. He showed me a black-and-white picture of his wife and daughter.”

The soldier took a deep breath. “You see, in those days, I was a young man in my early twenties. I had just graduated from a Christian college in Illinois and hadn’t had time to sort out my thoughts on the war.

“Maybe that’s why I did what I did.“I bid my German brother farewell, took several steps away, then returned to the soldier. Romans 13, the ‘thou shalt not kill’ commandment, the promises of eternal life, the Prince of Peace, the Sunday school distinction between killing and murder, the irrationality of war—all swirled in my mind.

“When the German soldier saw me returning, he bowed his head and closed his eyes in that classic prayer posture.

“Then it happened. I said three crisp sentences that I still repeat once or twice a week when I have nightmares about the war, ‘You’re a Christian. I am too. See you later.’”

“In less than a second, I transformed that defenseless Christian soldier into a corpse.”

Courage - You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear, Jon Johnston, 1990, SP Publications, pp. 155-157

Resource

• Difficult Passages in the Epistles, R. Stein, Baker, 1988, p. 77, “Is every Government from God?”

Tests

1. THE WORLD TEST. Is it worldly? Will it make me worldly to do it (John 15:19, 1 John 2:15- 17)'

2. THE QUALITY TEST. Is it good for me physically, emotionally, and spiritually (Rom. 12:9b)'

3. THE TEMPLE TEST. Can I do it when I remember my body is God’s temple and must not be marred or misused (1 Cor. 6:19)'

4. THE GLORY TEST. Will it glorify my Lord, or will it on the other hand possibly bring shame to His name (1 Cor. 6:20, 10:32)'

5. THE BLESSING TEST. Can I honestly ask God’s blessing on it and be sure I’ll not regret doing it (Prov. 10:22, Rom. 15:29)'

6. THE REPUTATION TEST. Is it apt to damage my testimony for the Lord (Phil. 2:15)'

7. THE CONSIDERATION TEST. Am I being considerate of others and the effect this might have on them (Rom. 14:7, 21)'

8. THE APPEARANCE TEST. Will it look bad? Does it have the appearance of what is wrong or suspicious (1 Thess. 5:22)'

9. THE WEIGHT TEST. Could this slacken or sidetrack me in running the Christian race (Heb. 12:1, 1 Cor. 9:24)'

10. THE COMING OF CHRIST TEST. Would I be ashamed to be found doing this when He comes again (1 John 2:28)'

11. THE COMPANION TEST. Can I invite Christ to go with me and participate with me in this (Matt. 28:20b, Col. 3:17)'

12. THE PEACE TEST. After having prayed about it, do I have perfect peace about doing it (Col. 3:15a, Phil. 4:6-7)'

Taken from Basic Bible Beliefs, Bible Baptist Church, Auburn, Wn., 1975, unpublished. From Training Manual for Local Church Visitation, Eugene A. Wood, DTS, ThM Thesis, 1980

Resources

• Between Two Truths, Klyne Snodgrass, Zondervan, 1990, p.127
• Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, pp. 99ff
• The Grace Awakening, C. Swindoll, 1990, p. 67

Definition of Sin

J. Wilbur Chapman said, “My life is governed by this rule: Anything that dims my vision of Christ or takes away my taste for Bible study or cramps my prayer life or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it.”

Source unknown

Susannah Wesley

This was how Susannah Wesley defined “sin” to her young son, John Wesley: “If you would judge of the lawfulness or the unlawfulness of pleasure, then take this simple rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, and takes off the relish of spiritual things—that to you is sin.”

Resource, July/August, 1990

Resource

• Restoring Fellowship, Ken & Joy Gage, Moody, 1984, p. 66

Resource

• The Grace Awakening, C. Swindoll, Word, 1990, pp. 158ff

Unfairly Judged

We sometimes criticize others unfairly. We don’t know all their circumstances, nor their motives. Only God, who is aware of all the facts, is able to judge people righteously.

John Wesley told of a man he had little respect for because he considered him to be miserly and covetous. One day when this person contributed only a small gift to a worthy charity, Wesley openly criticized him.

After the incident, the man went to Wesley privately and told him he had been living on parsnips and water for several weeks. He explained that before his conversion, he had run up many bills. Now, by skimping on everything and buying nothing for himself he was paying off his creditors one by one. “Christ has made me an honest man,” he said, “and so with all these debts to pay, I can give only a few offerings above my tithe. I must settle up with my worldly neighbors and show them what the grace of God can do in the heart of a man who was once dishonest.”

Wesley then apologized to the man and asked his forgiveness.

Our Daily Bread, July 20, 1992

Resource

• Taking The Guesswork Out of Applying The Bible, J. Kuhatschek, IVP, pp. 68ff

Doubtful Is Dirty

“He that doubteth is condemned if he eat” (Rom. 14:23, R.V.).

Sandy was a thrifty Scot who objected to needless laundry expense, so when he wore a dress shirt to a banquet, he put it away carefully for future use. On one occasion when dressing for such an event, he took a used shirt out of the drawer and examined it with care, hoping to be able to wear it that evening. Not being quite sure of its strict cleanliness, he took it to a window, where he was looking it over under a better light than the room afforded. His wife, Jean, noticed him shaking his head as though fearful that it would not pass careful scrutiny.

“Remember, Sandy,” she called to him, “if it’s doubtful, it’s dirty.”

That settled it. The shirt went into the discard and another—a fresh one—took its place. Jeans’ words may well speak to every believer concerning things about which conscience raises any question whatsoever.

Illustrations of Bible Truth by H.A. Ironside, Moody Press, 1945, p. 9

Resource

• Loving Across Our Differences, by Gerald L. Sittser, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), pp. 27ff