Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . .
— 1 Corinthians 13:6–8a
I am afraid of a new wave of religion that has come. It started in the United States, and it is spreading. It is a sort of esoteric affair of the soul or the mind, and there are strange phenomena that attend it. I am afraid of anything that does not require purity of heart on the part of individuals and righteousness of conduct in life. I also long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: 1. A beautiful simplicity. I am wary of the artificialness and complexities of religion. I would like to see simplicity. Our Lord Jesus was one of the simplest men who ever lived. You could not involve Him in anything formal.
He said what He had to say as beautifully and as naturally as a bird sings on the bough in the morning. That is what I would like to see restored to the churches. The opposite of that is artificiality and complexity. 2. A radiant Christian love. I want to see a restoration of a radiant Christian love so it will be impossible to find anyone who will speak unkindly or uncharitably about another or to another. This is carefully thought out and carefully prayed through. The devil would have a spasm. He would be so chagrined that he would sulk in his self-made hell for years. There should be a group of Christians with radiant love in this last worn-out dying period of the Christian dispensation, a people so loving that you could not get them to speak unkindly and you could not get them to speak uncharitably.
thought
Beautiful simplicity and radiant love will mean the end of trying to be what one is not. We are what we are but we can choose to love with Christ's love and that buries unkindness.
prayer
Transparency and love. How I need them, Lord. Will You keep on changing me into the image of Christ?
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
— John 17:18–19
On our farm in Pennsylvania there were cherry trees which were attacked by little parasites of some sort. A parasite would get into a little branch, pierce the bark and exude a gum. Then the branch would get a knot on it and bend. All over the trees were those little bent places with gummy knots. After two or three years, those cherry trees would not bloom. If they did, the blooms usually dropped early and the cherries did not come to fruition. If the blooms did not drop early, the cherries would be flat and undeveloped or only red on one side. My father was not too interested in fruit. He was interested in cattle, horses and grain.
If my father had known how he could have protected those trees before they got into that wretched condition and properly sprayed or treated them, he could have gotten rid of the worms and bugs and saved the trees and fruit. I believe that a pastor who is content with a vineyard that is not at its best is not a good husbandman. It is my prayer that we may be a healthy and fruitful vineyard and that we may be an honor to the Well Beloved, Jesus Christ the Lord, that He might go before the Father and say, "These are mine for whom I pray, and they have heard the Word and have believed on Me." I pray that we might fit into the high priestly prayer of John 17, that we would be a church after Christ's own heart so that in us He might see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. In order for us to be a vine like that, there must be basic purity. Each one must have a great purity of heart. I believe that there are no emotional experiences that do not rest upon great purity of heart. No one can impress me or interest me in any kind of spiritual manipulation if his or her heart is not pure—even if it is raising the dead. Sound righteousness in conduct must be at the root of all valid spiritual experience.
thought
Marcus Rainsford noted that "the sanctification of the believer consists as much in teaching him himself, and that he is nothing, as in teaching him that Christ is all and in all" [Lectures on St. John XVII, 368]. Purity of heart is understanding who we are in ourselves and that Christ is all and in all.
prayer
O Christ, You sanctified Yourself that I may be truly sanctified. The parasites don't have to dominate. I can be pure in heart through You!
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
— 2 Corinthians 12:9
I am cheered to know so many of you are with me on this. We are going to go to the New Testament and be Bible Christians. We are going to sell out to God and not the devil. We are going to pray more, read our Bible more and attend prayer meeting more. We are going to give more and break bad habits by the power of God. We are going to become Christians after God's heart. We are going to be protesters in an hour when the smooth, sickly, slippery, rotten, backslidden, degenerate, apostate Christianity is accepted.
We are going to stand for God, to act like simple Protestant Christians, to act like our Presbyterian Scottish forebears, to act like our English Methodist forebears, to act like the dear old Baptist who broke the ice in the creek and baptized people in the freezing water. They had a saying in those days, "Nobody ever caught a cold getting baptized in the ice." God Almighty saw to it that nobody ever died of pneumonia. Those Protestant forebears made these two nations, the United States and Canada. They made this continent. Are we going to be descendants of which they should be ashamed? Or are we going to say, "Lead on, we are following. You followed Jesus Christ, and we are following you." John Thomas was a dear old Welsh preacher I used to hear. While he preached he would raise his hands and say, "You supply the grit and God will supply the grace." He was right. You've got the grit; God has the grace.
thought
Through the centuries God's people have experienced His grace. He doesn't give it to us in large cartons to be stored somewhere until we think we need it. He gives grace day by day, moment by moment, just enough as we in our weakness look to Him.
prayer
Lord, I feel so inferior to those giants of faith who have gone on before. But You remind me that out of their weakness they, too, trusted You step by step.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
— Hebrews 12:1
Read history and see how the covenanters stood and died rather than give up to the enemy. Are we satisfied to be degenerate sons of great fathers? Consider A. B. Simpson who walked the shores of the Atlantic Ocean with cardboard in the soles of his shoes because he did not have money to buy new ones. He prayed and groaned in spirit and cried to God for people of all nations who had not heard the gospel. He prayed, "Oh God, I believe Jesus Christ thy Son is the same yesterday, today and forever." We are his descendants, but we ought to spend a day in sackcloth and ashes. At 36, Simpson was a Presbyterian preacher so sick that he said, "I feel I could fall into the grave when I have a funeral." He could not preach for months at a time because of his sickness. He went to a little camp meeting in the woods and heard a quartet sing, "No man can work like Jesus/ No man can work like Him." Simpson went off among the pine trees with that ringing in his heart:
"Nobody can work like Jesus; nothing is too hard for Jesus. No man can work like Him." The learned, stiff-necked Presbyterian threw himself down upon the pine needles and said, "If Jesus Christ is what they said He was in the song, heal me." The Lord healed him, and he lived to be 76 years old. Simpson founded a society that is now one of the largest evangelical denominations in the world, the Christian and Missionary Alliance. We are his descendants and we sing his songs. But are we going to allow ourselves to listen to that which will modify our faith, practices and beliefs, water down our gospel and dilute the power of the Holy Spirit? I, for one, am not!
thought
How much we owe to those who have gone on before, who make up that great cloud of witnesses. And we may experience God for ourselves in personal encounter.
prayer
I cannot rest on the incredible experience of others, Lord. I must experience You for myself through Christ.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.
— Hebrews 11:1-2
Our church is going to go the way of the gospel. We are not radicals nor fools. We do not fast 40 days. We dress like other people, drive vehicles and have modern homes. We are human and like to laugh. But we believe that God Almighty has not changed and that Jesus Christ is the same. He is victorious, and we do not have to apologize for Him. We do not have to modify, adjust, edit or amend. He stands as the glorious Lord, and nobody needs to apologize for Him. ... I say now, shall we believe the ringing words, "I the LORD do not change" (Malachi 3:6)? I believe them. Shall we believe that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)? I do.
We must believe the words that say, "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7b). "He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death" (2:11b). "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne" (3:21a). We are not going to be sheep running over the precipice because other dumb sheep are running over it. We see the precipice?we know it is there. We are listening to the voice of the shepherd, not the voice of terrified sheep. The terrified, intimidated sheep are going everywhere. I stand solidly and protest this. I believe we need a reformation back to the belief that God knew what He was talking about in the first place. We need to get back to the belief that Jesus Christ did not miss anything but foresaw it all, back to the belief that the apostles spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. We must return to the belief that our fathers who gave us the great creeds were not fools but wise saints who knew what they were talking about. We must get back to the belief that Protestants are to protest, dissenters are to dissent and nonconformists must refuse to conform.
thought
It was Frederick W. Faber who wrote: "Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death." Of course, not all of our fathers were holy or faithful but it is our steadfast faith that places us in the train of those who, through the centuri
prayer
Father, I choose the "faith" way and trust in You and Your Word no matter how contrary the winds blow.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
— Hebrews 13:8
The contemporary world is a result of radical changes down the generations amounting to revolution: the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, the communications revolution, the philosophical revolution and the social revolution. Are we going to accept the belief that the Bible must be interpreted anew in the light of these developments? Are we going to allow ourselves to accept the doctrine that the prophets and apostles were mistaken about God? Are we going to allow society to tell us that the Bible is outmoded and largely irrelevant and must therefore be reassessed in the light of modern advancements? Has God changed? Are we going to accept it? Is there a change in the purpose of God? Have the changes in human society startled or shocked God? Must we, in order to remain intellectually respectable and have good standing with these who doubt the Word, humbly say, "Well, I do not believe in miracles"?
Or have we got enough of our Protestant protest and courage to stand up and say, "I believe in miracles whenever God Almighty wants to perform them. I believe that whenever God wants to do anything that is out of the ordinary and contrary to or at least above the common processes of nature, He is able to do it. I believe the miracles of Jesus Christ were real miracles. I believe the miracles of the Old Testament were real miracles." Are we going to allow ourselves to be brainwashed along with all the rest? Or are we going to dare to stand and protest and be known over the country as being Protestant indeed? We would be people who refuse to adjust but who make the world adjust to us. When you adjust, you are dead. The same is true if a church adjusts to these ideas. If you adjust, you are done. But if you dare to stand, the world will adjust to you. I can promise you that. Not all will adjust to you, but at least some will.
thought
God has not changed but we mortals sometimes try to change Him. We want to make God more acceptable to contemporary thought and culture, to technological revolution and postmodern perspective.
prayer
Lord, You do not change. Change me to be a man, a woman of the changeless God.
Instead, they were longing for a better country?a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
— Hebrews 11:16
The second prominent tragedy is that the gospel churches are confused and intimidated by numbers. They accept the belief that there has been change and that Christians must adjust to the change. The word used is adjustment. We must get adjusted, forgetting that the world has always been blessed by the people who were not adjusted. The poor people who get adjusted cannot do much anyhow. They are not worth having around. In every field of human endeavor progress has been made by those who stood up and said, "I will not adjust to the world." The classical composers, poets and architects were people who would not adjust. Today society insists that if you do not adjust you will get a complex. If you do not get adjusted, you will have to go to a psychiatrist. Jesus was among the most maladjusted people in His generation. He never pretended to adjust to the world. He came to die for the world
thought
Those spiritual heroes of Hebrews 11 never became adjusted to the here and now. They kept looking for a country, a heavenly one, a city God had prepared for them.
prayer
Oh for a holy dissatisfaction with what is and a consuming yearning for what in You, Father, can be.
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity . . .
— Hebrews 6:1a
I challenge the idea that we are advanced. I know the majority of modern educators, newspaper writers, TV personalities, radio reporters, politicians and all the rest do not agree with me. Nevertheless, I challenge the idea that we are any further advanced than they were in the days of Jesus. If we are so advanced, then I want to ask some questions. Why do we kill thousands of human beings each year with automobiles? Because we ride automobiles instead of donkeys, we are advanced? If we are so advanced in our day, why are the penitentiaries packed full and the mental hospitals crowded?
If we are so advanced, why is the whole world a powder keg? If we are so advanced, how is it that we have weapons that can annihilate the world? If we are so advanced, why is it that people cannot walk alone in the parks anymore? Why is it that workers who get out at midnight never walk home alone anymore? Why is it in this advanced age that drugs, violence, abortion and divorce are soaring? There is a mind-set that thinks every motion is progress. Every time you move you are progressing. Then there is the mind-set that thinks whenever you move in a straight line you are going forward, forgetting that you can move in a straight line and be going backward. The tragedy of the century is that Protestants have accepted this as progress and actually believe it. ...
thought
Has humanness changed over the centuries? Are we who are living today inherently different than those who lived before?
prayer
Lord, in another 50 years this modern age will not be so modern. But heart thirst remains constant and finds fulfillment only in You. I want to go on, Lord, on to maturity.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.
— Isaiah 40:8
...Here is where we need a reformation, a purgation, a removal of the faults and a restoration again of the faith of Christians to a belief in the truth. May Christians say, without a question, "Yes, that is true." Actually, I suppose they would not like to have it put to them like that: People do not like the most realistic constructions. What would the liberals and modernists say if you backed them in a corner with the question, "Do you think God has been forced to change His mind?" I do not think anybody would quite have the courage to say yes. Nevertheless, they do say it little by little until they have brainwashed their people. In effect, they say that the Bible must be interpreted in the light of new developments. A book that was written in the day when people rode donkeys must be reinterpreted to mesh with contemporary society. They say that the prophets and apostles mistook what God intended to do. The Bible is outmoded and largely irrelevant. Irrelevant means that it is not related to anything
Outmoded means we have new modes of thinking and living now, so the Bible is out-of-date?a back-issue magazine. We must, therefore, reassess its teachings and rethink our beliefs and hopes. I am not overstating this at all. This is what is being taught today. It gets into the newspapers, and people are saying that the Bible must be interpreted in the light of all these changes. The apostles and prophets were mistaken. They had ideas that were good and advanced for their day, but not advanced for our day. We know more about ourselves, human motivation and the nature of things than they did back then. Therefore a book written when people thought the earth was flat and the sun rose in the morning, crossed over the earth and went down into the sea cannot possibly be taken seriously. While it certainly contains some beautiful poetry and some marvelously inspiring thoughts about human nature and the world in which we live, nevertheless all this is to be understood and reinterpreted, reassessed and rethought.
thought
Each generation in its peculiar context must understand God's universal truth, translate it into their particular situation and live it out.
prayer
Lord, open my mind to understand Your self-disclosure, to distinguish eternal truth from its particular context and to apply that truth to my own context in order that I may grasp Your truth and digest it. In Christ's name.