In step

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The best possible peace...

Mark 4:35-41

"... the waves broke over the boat ... Jesus was in the stern, sleeping ..." (vv.37-38)

We continue examining the essential differences between supernatural peace and certain other states of mind. Peace is not withdrawal. At recurring intervals in the life of the Christian Church, various forms of withdrawal have been practiced with a view to discovering inner peace.

Early Methodism was almost wrecked by a form of it known as "stillness." The idea was to withdraw from all activity and remain "still" before the Lord. This kind of "stillness" is not to be confused with the supernatural peace which the Spirit brings to the hearts of God's people. "Stillness" is something achieved; peace is something given.

Someone has said: "He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace." Note the words: "whose spirit is entering into living peace."

Peace, to be peace, must be a living peace -- not a dead peace of retreat out of responsibility, or an encasement into insensibility. Supernatural peace is, like joy -- entirely independent of circumstances.

This truth is brought out most clearly in today's passage. As the wind whips up the waves, the Son of God remains asleep in the stern of the boat. Why the emphasis on the "stern"? I am told that this is the worst place to be when a boat is being tossed about by a storm.

Yet in the worst possible place, Jesus enjoyed the best possible peace -- sleep. The peace of God does not require a mold of easy circumstances in which to operate. Nothing can push it under and nothing can push it over.

Prayer:
O Master, how I long for the same inner calmness and tranquility that pervaded Your life when You were here on earth. But I know the secret -- I must let You live Your life more fully in me. Help me to do that -- today and every day. Amen.

 

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How peace continues...

Isaiah 26

"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you ..." (v.3, NKJV)

We ended yesterday by saying that our Lord enjoyed the best possible peace -- sleep -- in the worst possible place -- the stern of the boat.

We see another demonstration of this deep serenity our Lord enjoyed when, as the ugly arms of the Cross stretched out to take Him, He said: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you" (John 14:27, NKJV).

Galilee in storm and Calvary in darkness both set it off. The issue we must now face is this -- although peace is something given rather than something achieved, its continuance is guaranteed only as we fulfill certain conditions.

If, for example, we decide to go on an immoral spree, we will soon find that peace will elude us. Scripture says: "There is no peace ... for the wicked" (Isa. 57:21, NKJV). Why? Because peace is conditional on obedience to morality -- biblical morality.

Our text for today gives us another condition on which continuing peace depends: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you." Note the words -- "stayed on you." This shows that in order to enjoy continuous peace, there must be a conscious centering on God.

He must not be the place of occasional reference but of continuous reference. Furthermore, He must be the center of our trust: "because he trusts in you." W. B. Yeats tells in these gripping lines the results of a lack of trust in God:Things fall apart, the center cannot hold,Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world ...

Things really do fall apart when the center does not hold -- and no center will hold if the center is not fixed on God.

Prayer:
O God, I see that unless I am held at the center of my being, then I am just not held. Hold me at my center, dear Lord -- today and every day. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

 

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Wholehearted belief

Mark 11:12-26

" 'Have faith in God,' Jesus answered" (v.22)

Today we look at another condition on which continuing peace depends -- complete and utter faith in God. A Christian who truly believes in God -- not pretends to believe, or half-believes -- will inevitably enjoy and experience God's perfect peace. But what does it mean to believe in God? What are the basic requirements?

A Christian believes -- and believes wholeheartedly -- that Jesus is God and that He is the Savior of the world (Rom. 10:9).

He believes also that the universe is in the keeping of Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Love, and that God is directing the course of his individual life (Psa. 139:16). He believes, too, that nothing can happen in the universe except as God permits. If it were possible to conceive of anything out of which God could not bring good, then God would not permit it (Rom. 8:28).

In the deepest possible sense, the Christian therefore says:"Whate'er events betideThy will they all perform."A Christian believes, further, that God holds the universe together.

Man may be free but his freedom is limited. He cannot extinguish the stars, pluck the sun from the sky, blow the earth to smithereens with atomic explosions, quench love in a mother's heart, prevent the return of spring or defeat the purpose of God which was revealed at Calvary.

God would not allow any of the things I have listed, for they would be contrary to His design for the universe. The peace of a Christian is therefore set deep in the rock of reality. It is based on his complete and utter faith in God.

Prayer:
Gracious and loving heavenly Father, help me to check on my faith this day and see whether I am really believing or just pretending to believe. I want to be done with all pretense. O Lord, increase my faith. Amen.

 

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Three attitudes to God's will

Acts 22

"... The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will ..." (v.14)

Another condition of continuing peace in the heart of a Christian is this -- joyful abandonment to the Father's will. There are three main attitudes to the will of God found among believers. Some resign themselves to God's will, some rebel against God's will and some rejoice in God's will.

Those who resign themselves to it are the people who, having been caught up in some trouble or difficulty, fail to see that divine love and wisdom are at work, redeeming every situation and turning it to good -- hence their hearts are filled with irritation and resentment. Eventually they get over it and by grace resign themselves to the will of God.

They are not happy at what God has allowed, but they resign themselves to "putting up with the inevitable." One hears them say in half-hearted and grudging tones: "Well, I'm resigned to it now." But resignation is not a full Christian grace; beneath it lies an unconquered and unsubmissive spirit.

Others, as we said, rebel against the will of God. These are the people who don't just "put up with the inevitable" but take up arms against God and let Him know that they do not believe He is working in their best interests. Over the years I have met many Christians like this.

They do not bring out the rebellion they feel toward God in their conversations with other Christians or even in their public prayers, but it is quietly suppressed and can break out at any time. Such people never enjoy the peace of God because, quite simply, they have never truly believed that divine love and wisdom can turn all things to good.

Prayer: O Father, Your Word is plowing deep into my life today. Help me to face up to what Your Spirit is saying to me. I don't just want my attitudes to be challenged; I want them to be changed. Change me, dear Lord -- into Your image. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Utter abandonment

Luke 1:26-38

"... Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word ..." (v.38, NKJV)


Those who know peace are those who know how to rejoice in the divine will. It is the attitude of Mary who, in our text today, says: "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word."One great writer, Francis de Sales, puts it this way: "To rejoice in God's will suggests mobility -- the mobility of a voyager who moves with the motion of the vessel on which he has embarked.

It suggests also the abandonment of a servant in attendance on his lord, going only where his master goes. It is the attitude of a child leaving to his mother the care of willing, choosing and acting for him, content to be in her safe and tender keeping."

The biographer of Sadhu Sundar Singh, the great Indian Christian, says: "Realize that, to the Sadhu as to Paul, partnership with Christ was a passion and a privilege that transformed hardship, labor and loss from something which was to be accepted negatively as an unfortunate necessity into something positively welcomed for His sake -- and you will understand a little of the secret of the Sadhu's peace."Our Lord, of course, is once again the supreme example of this.

As Robert Nicoll puts it: "He did not merely accept the will of God when it was brought to Him and laid upon Him. Rather, He went out to meet that loving will and fell upon its neck and kissed it." Saints down the ages have illustrated through their lives the quality of this ripened peace. Oh, that we, His present-day saints, might show it too.

Prayer:
O Father, teach me the art of utter abandonment to Your will. Help me to be like Mary -- not just willing, but enthusiastically willing. I ask this for Your own dear Name's sake. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Good temper

Ecclesiastes 7

"... and patience is better than pride." (v.8)

The fourth fruit of the Spirit is patience. The central meaning of this word (Greek: makrothumia) is "good temper." It denotes a person who does not easily "fly off the handle." He maintains good temper amid the flux and flow of human events.

One commentator says of this word: "This fourth fruit of the Spirit expresses the attitude to people which never loses patience with them, however unreasonable they may be, and never loses hope for them, however unlovely and unteachable they may be."

Archbishop Trench defined the word as "a long holding out of the mind before it gives room to action or to passion, the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong." And Moffatt describes it as "the tenacity with which faith holds out."Good temper must not, however, be confused with apathy. In the days of the early Church, the group called the Stoics made indifference a virtue.

They said: "Nothing is worth suffering for, so build a wall around your heart and keep out all sense of feeling." The early Christians did not share that view, however, for Christians care -- and because they cared, they suffered. Through the ministry of the Spirit in their lives, they found poise and good temper amidst their sufferings.

The more we care, the more sensitive we will be to things that tend to block our goal of caring -- that is why the quality of patience is so essential. An evangelist addressing a meeting was subjected to persistent heckling. Unfortunately, he lost his temper -- and also his audience. They saw he had little to offer except words.

Prayer: O Father, help me to become a person of good temper. Dwell deep in me so that I shall be the peaceful exception amid the disturbed surroundings that I encounter day by day. Amen.

 

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"I would have been -- B.C."

1 Thessalonians 5:12-24

"... encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone." (v.14)

Mary writes of the change that the Holy Spirit wrought in her after conversion: "I went out to shut the chickens up for the night and found that the boys had closed the door and turned out the light, and all the chickens were outside. Chickens can't see in the dark, and if you shine a light on them, it blinds them.

Three years ago I would have given the boys a good spanking, and made them get the chickens in. Tonight, I didn't even stop singing! I went to turn the light on and found that the bulb was burned out. Instead of being disgusted, as I would have been B.

C. (before Christ), I just got a new one and then I got those chickens in with such tenderness that I even surprised myself. When the last chicken was in, I thanked my Father for helping me get them all in so easily by controlling, not the chickens, but me." What the Spirit did for Mary, He can do for you.

Another woman, after finding Christ, went through a time of great persecution from her family. She said: "I used to have a violent temper and my family used to be careful how they talked to me.

It was a goal of mine always to have the last word. Following my conversion, my family used to test me by saying all the things they knew used to annoy me. If it had not been for the presence of the Spirit in my life, I know I would not have had the patience to handle their remarks. I still have the last word -- but the last word is silence."

Prayer:
Father, at those times when the last word needs to be silence, help me to have that last word. Drive this thought deep into my heart -- that I always lose when I lose my temper. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Looking around with anger

Mark 3

"He looked round at them in anger ..." (v.5)

Did Jesus ever lose His temper? Some, looking at the passage before us today, might think so. In fact, I once heard a Christian defending his temper by saying: "If Jesus could not control His temper when faced with the scorn of the Pharisees in Mark 3, why should I be condemned for my inability to control mine?"

Did the behavior of Jesus on this occasion result from a loss of temper? Of course not. One luminous phrase lights up the story and puts the matter in its proper perspective: "being grieved by the hardness of their hearts" (v.5, NKJV).

The reason why Jesus "looked around at them with anger" was because He was "grieved by the hardness of their hearts." The cause of His anger was grief, not loss of temper -- grief at their insensibility to human need. It was grief at what was happening to someone else, not personal pique at what was happening to Him.

Whenever we get angry, it is usually because our ego has been wounded and hits back, not in redemption but in retaliation. There is a temper that is redemptive and there is a temper that is retaliatory.

The redemptive temper burns with the steady fire of redemptive intention; the retaliatory temper simply burns you up. It was intended to burn the other person up, but all it serves to do is to burn you. Patience, the fruit of the Spirit, works in us -- if we let it -- to temper our purposes to the Kingdom, and to Kingdom purposes alone.

Prayer:
My Father and my God, dwell so deeply in me by Your Spirit that my temper shall be tempered and produce no tempests -- either in myself or in others. For Jesus' sake I ask it. Amen.

 

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How Jesus handled tension

Luke 12:35-53

"But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!" (v.50)

Jesus' behavior when He looked around at the Pharisees "with anger" was not the result of a bad temper but the fulfilling of a redemptive purpose. The cutting was not to hurt, but to heal. When we display anger, it is usually for purposes of destruction rather than construction.

Although Jesus was free from bad temper, however, He was not free from tension, that is: "a state of moderate stress." Moffatt, in fact, translates our text for today in this way: "What tension I suffer, till it is all over!"

A certain amount of tension is a necessary part of life. Jesus experienced it, and so will we. And it is not necessarily a bad thing. The violin string that is free from tension is incapable of music, but when tightened gives forth a sound that delights the ear.

The tension that Jesus felt was a tension that was harnessed to the interest of others. He was on His way to a cross and the tension was not to be loosed until He pronounced the words: "It is finished."The tension, however, did not leave Him frustrated and bad-tempered; it left Him calm and composed, with a prayer for the forgiveness of His enemies upon His lips.

It drove Him, not to pieces, but to peace -- the peace of achievement and victory. This was so because the tension was harnessed to God's perfect will -- hence it was a constructive urge.

Unfortunately, many of our tensions drive us, not toward God's will but toward our own will. We are more concerned for ourselves than for the divine interests. This kind of driving will succeed only in driving us "nuts."

Prayer:
Dear Lord and Master, teach me how to harness my tensions to Your purposes, so that they are transformed into rhythm and song. In Christ's Name I ask it. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

Two Ways to Honk a Horn

James 1:19-27

"... man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." (v.20)

We continue meditating on the fourth fruit of the Spirit -- patience or good temper. "Temper," someone has said, "turns to bad or good according to what is behind it."

Remember that the word "temper" simply means "a disposition of mind" and really requires the words "good" or "bad" to be prefixed to it if it is to be clearly identified. Dr. Stanley Jones says that there are two ways to honk a horn -- the Christian way and the non-Christian way.

The Christian way calls attention to a situation; the non-Christian way not only calls attention to the situation but it also calls attention to what the honker feels about it. In the USA I once saw a sign on a car that said: "Honk away -- it's your ulcer." Ulcers are usually visible signs of an ulcerated spirit -- ulcerated by irritation and bad temper.

Whenever we lose our temper and take it out on people around us, we do the utmost harm, not to them, but to ourselves. The one who is out of sorts with someone else is usually out of sorts with himself.

He projects his inner problems on to others and fails to see that the cause and remedy are in himself. I once witnessed a Sunday School superintendent lose his temper in a committee meeting, and when reprimanded by another for his bad spirit said: "I have to lose my temper in order to get anything done around here."

Our text for today contradicts that view. Listen to it again, this time in the Phillips translation: "For man's temper is never the means of achieving God's true goodness." Wrong means lead to wrong ends -- inevitably.

Prayer:
O Father, help me to meet all impatience with patience, all hate with love, all grumpiness with joy and all bad temper with good temper. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

 

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"I got saved last night"

Ephesians 4:8-21

"... be filled with the Spirit ... always giving thanks to God the Father for everything ..." (vv.18 & 20)

The greatest single influence in turning a bad temper to a good temper is to be indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Our text makes that abundantly plain. When the Spirit is allowed to dwell in us, He influences our reactions so that we respond to life's situations with praise rather than with pique.

A miner was notorious for his bad temper. His job was to look after the pit ponies, and whenever they did anything wrong, he would swear and hit out at them with a stick. When he got like this, strong men would keep out of his way, for they knew that he could as easily turn on them as he did on the horses.

One night he went to a Welsh revival meeting, got gloriously converted and experienced a mighty encounter with the Holy Spirit. Next day, at work, one of the horses stepped on his foot. The men with him waited for the explosion -- but nothing happened.

One man asked: "Are you sick?" "No," replied the miner, "why do you ask?" "Well," said the man, "I know how quickly you get upset about things, and when the horse stepped on your foot and you didn't lose your temper, I thought you must be unwell." "I'm not unwell," said the miner, "I got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit last night.

"There is an interesting moment recorded in the life of Saul in 1 Samuel 10:27: "But some rebels said, 'How can this man save us?' So they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace" (NKJV). Had Saul maintained that same spirit, he would have been a great man!

Prayer:
Dear Father, let Your Spirit invade and take up His abode deep within me, so that in the hour of pressure and crisis, I shall react to everything in a truly Christian way. In Christ's Name I pray. Amen.

 

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No reason to smile

Proverbs 17:17-28

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." (v.22)

A surprising thing takes place in those whose temper is tempered by the Holy Spirit -- bad temper is replaced by a growing sense of humor.

God has given us the power of humor, not only to laugh at things, but to laugh off things. I am not suggesting that we ought to use laughter to deny realities, but humor often reduces things to their proper size.

I once heard a preacher say: "There is no good in a movement or a person where there is no good humor, for goodness has laughter as a corollary." There is something basically wrong with a person who, at appropriate times, cannot break out into hearty laughter. I heard recently of a member of the Irish Republican Army who was wonderfully converted.

He spent the first month after his conversion in the home of a minister who said of him: "It was two weeks before I saw him smile, and when I spoke to him about this, he said: 'I have been in a grim business, plotting against people -- and the way I was living, there was just no reason to smile.' " How tragic -- "just no reason to smile." Depend on it, where you cannot smile, you cannot live -- you just exist.

Over the years, I have watched many groups come to the CWR Institutes in Christian Counselling. Many are tied up with fears, guilts and apprehension. We invite them to share their fears and get them up and out.

They do. Then the laughter begins. They grow progressively happier as the week goes on. By the end of the week, they are ready to laugh at anything -- themselves included.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, it is said of You that You were anointed "with the oil of gladness more than your companions." Let that same anointing rest and remain upon me today -- and every day. For Your own dear Name's sake. Amen.

 

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"Dont let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould '" (v.2, Phillips)

Keep up the good work. Wait.... don't think u can cos u are banned hahahahaha

 

[RiverOL]

What kindness is not

Ephesians 4:17-32

"Be kind and compassionate to one another ..." (v.32)

We saw yesterday how a group of young people had a wrong concept of kindness, viewing it as just maudlin sentimentality. It is surprising how debased the word "kindness" has become, in both Christian and non-Christian thought.

Some Christians accept the word because it is used in Scripture, but have no real desire to acquire the virtue because, to them, it smacks of sentimentality and weakness.

The world uses the word but, separated as it is from any thought of God, "kindness" comes out as a mild compensation for a lack of firmness and clear thinking. People say, rather patronizingly in some cases: "Oh, he's a kind fellow" -- and they leave it there.

The word has come to wear thin in the currency of the world (and in some parts of the Church), so there is a great need to see it minted afresh and gleaming bright in the commerce of modern-day Christian life.

Think with me still further about what kindness, the fruit of the Spirit, is not. Kindness is not being a "do-gooder." In fact, the word in the original Greek does not imply active goodness but a disposition of goodwill, although active goodness may be one expression of it.

Many think of kindness as giving money to people who have a financial need, but just giving money to people who appear to need it, without being guided by the Spirit, can result in great harm.

Giving to people at the wrong time can take away from them something more precious than is being given. There are few things in which we have more need of the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit than in our giving.

Prayer:
O Father, help me to discern between what is true and what is counterfeit. I want my kindness to be genuine kindness -- the sort of kindness that helps people, not hurts them. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

A debased word

Romans 2

"... not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?" (v.4)

We continue looking at counterfeit forms of kindness. Kindness is not indulgence. Supernatural kindness can be severe -- severe because it loves so deeply that it can come up with a hard refusal.

It is based on God's kindness, which can cut when, just like a surgeon, He insists on cutting out of us moral tumors that threaten our spiritual health. But always God's severity is our security. It is redemptive; He loves us too much to let us go. Kindness, which is the fruit of the Spirit, is like that.

Again, kindness is not a substitute for clear thinking. In being "kind" to one person, people can often be unkind to another.

The wrong kindness -- that is, kindness which does not operate on clear guidelines and right thinking -- can deride justice. For example, a businessman remarked to his wife that he was dismissing the chauffeur on the grounds that he was an unsafe driver. "He nearly killed me today," he said.

"That is the third time." His "kind" wife answered: "Oh, don't dismiss him, dear -- give him one more chance."Another example of misguided kindness comes out of the law courts. A woman on trial for murdering her husband was acquitted chiefly because of the efforts of one "kind" lady on the jury.

Explaining her attitude to someone after the trial, she said: "I felt so sorry for her. After all, she had become a widow." By such examples as these, "kindness" has become a debased word -- a fact that can hardly be denied. People have found it easier to be "kind" than truthful. Howdesperately the word cries out to be redeemed.

Prayer:
O God, take my hand and lead me through the fog and confusion that surrounds this word. Help me understand that true kindness can be a cutting kindness -- kindness that gives life and not lenience. Amen.

 

[RiverOL]

The kindly rain

Matthew 5:38-48

"... your Father in heaven ... sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (v.45)


The word "kindness" in Scripture is used more of God than of anyone else. William Barclay says: "It is something of a joyous revelation to discover that when the King James Version calls God good, again and again the meaning is not just moral goodness but kindness."

The goodness of God is not something we need shrink away from in fear, but something that draws us to Him with cords of love.

This does not mean, of course, that God is indifferent concerning our sins and moral violations; it means that He is so warmly disposed toward us that He has provided through the Cross a way whereby our sin can be forgiven and forgotten. In the Old Testament, especially the Psalms, the expression "loving kindness" is often used.

A little boy explained the difference between kindness and loving kindness like this: "Kindness is when your mother gives you a piece of bread and butter; loving kindness is when she puts jam on it as well."In the New Testament, however, a content has gone into kindness which has made the adding of the word "loving" unnecessary.

The Moffatt translation brings out this thought most beautifully when it says: "Treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). Not merely the same actions, but the same spirit in the actions as was in Jesus. This shows kindness to be more than just actions -- but attitudes. I can think of no better definition for kindness than this -- kindness is treating others the way God has treated us.

Prayer:
Father, just as you let Your kindly rain fall on the evil and the good, help me to rain kindliness on everyone I meet today -- regardless of who or what they are. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

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What this sad world needs

Proverbs 19:20-29

"What is desired in a man is kindness ..." (v.22, NKJV)

Now that we have put into the word "kindness" the content of Jesus -- "treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus" -- we must now consider how to develop and grow in kindness. Ella Wheeler Wilcox has said:So many gods, so many creedsSo many paths that wind and windWhen all that this sad world needsIs just the art of being kind.

Human kindness may be important, but supernatural kindness is even more important. It is what "this sad world needs." The importance of kindness is seen by the fact that an act of kindness lingers on in the memory.

Once, when about to step on to the platform of the Colston Hall, Bristol, to speak to a large audience and feeling a little weighed down by personal circumstances at the time, a few ladies who represented an organization called "Women Aglow" handed me a little box in which was a beautiful flower.

Along with it was a message: "We love you and are praying for you." That kindness and the spirit that prompted it stood out like a star on a dark night. I have never forgotten it and will never forget it. It will live on within me until the day I die.

If kindness can minister such comfort and encouragement, then how imperative it is that we ask God to ripen this fruit within us. Of the many things surrounding Paul's shipwreck on Malta, Luke recalls in particular that the "islanders showed us unusual kindness" (Acts 28:2).

Prayer:
O Father, help me to demonstrate the fruit of kindness this day so that somebody, somewhere, may use it as a light to lighten their darkness. In Christ's Name I ask. Amen.

 

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The great peril of the saints

Matthew 25:31-46

"... whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (v.40)

How does kindness grow in us? It depends on how deeply we live in God. Some Christians set out to be kind but kindness which is the fruit of the Spirit is not the result of self-effort but comes from abiding in Christ. The Christian abides in Christ and the fruit grows and ripens of its own accord.


The kindest Christians are those who have no ambition to be kind and hold no such thought. This is not to say that they do not desire to be kind, but they do not try to manufacture their kindness. Consumed with a longing to be more like Jesus every day, their thought is not on their personal sanctity but on how they can reflect their Lord.

They come across as people who were so self-forgetful that it could be said of them what was said of Samuel Barnett of Toynbee Hall: "He forgot himself even to the extent of forgetting that he had forgotten.

"The great peril of the Christian life is that we may become selfish in our consuming longing to be unselfish. Only as our roots go down daily into God through prayer and meditation in His Word can we be kept secure from the temptation to focus on growth for its own sake -- rather than for His sake.

The person whose kindness is an appetite for praise gives up when the praise does not come. And they give up more quickly still if people say: "What are you getting out of this yourself?" The Christian whose kindness flows out of his relationship with God never gives up. He just can't help being kind.

Prayer:
O Father, help me to spend time with You so that in the legislature of my heart, You may write the law of kindness. Help me to come under its sway forever. Amen.

 

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The essential flavoring

2 Corinthians 6

"In purity, understanding, patience and kindness ..." (v.6)

Nothing else we do can atone for a lack of kindness. Many people excuse themselves for a lack of kindness by pointing to the things they do for someone -- "I am working my fingers to the bone for him." Yes, but the fleshless fingers will not atone for unkind words and attitudes.

Even ministers who work hard but lack this essential kindness are no exception. Paul lists well over twenty-five things in the passage before us that are marks of a true servant of God, and notice how he puts "kindness" right in the middle of them.

At the center of all his "proofs" is kindness. I do not think it is by chance that this virtue of kindness is also the middle virtue of the nine fruits of the Spirit. Without kindness, there is no virtue in the other virtues. This one puts flavor in all the rest -- without it, they are insipid and tasteless. So to grow in kindness is to grow in virtues that are flavored with a certain spirit -- the spirit of Jesus.

It remains a fact, however, that multitudes of Christian people are not kind. Some eminent Christian leaders have not been as eminent in this fruit of the Spirit as in others, and have worn their halo a little askew.

Many are stern and unfeeling. They grow hard with sinners. Disciplined as they are in virtue, they become censorious and critical and their passion for righteousness makes it hard for them to show tenderness to violators of God's law. Jesus upheld God's laws more than anyone -- yet He was called "the Friend of sinners."

Prayer:
My Father and my God, although I never want to lessen the gravity of sin, I do want to be a person who shows tenderness to those who are enmeshed in it. Help me become that kind of person. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

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"Secret death"

Romans 6:1-14

"Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." (v.7)

We are seeing that "goodness" is essential goodness -- goodness in the inner parts.

William Sangster, in my view, comes closest to grasping the content of this sixth fruit of the Spirit when he says: "Goodness is the impression a Christian makes as he moves on his way, blissfully unaware that he is reminding people of Jesus Christ." Perhaps we can get no nearer to a definition of supernatural goodness than that -- reminding people of Jesus Christ.

But note the words -- "blissfully unaware ..." A Christian is largely unconscious of this fruit at work within him, for it is not something he tries to manufacture but something that flows out of his deep relationship with Jesus Christ.

George Muller of Bristol, the man who cared for so many stranded orphans, was said to demonstrate the fruit of "goodness" to a remarkable degree. Dr. A.

T. Pierson says in his biography of the great man that one day, Muller was pressed to share what he considered to be the power behind his ministry, and he surprised his questioner by talking about his secret death. "There was a day," he said, "when I died; utterly died" -- and as he spoke, he bent lower until he almost touched the floor.

He continued: "I died to George Muller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved of God."

In those who manifest the fruit of goodness, one thing is always clear -- they have "died" to their own interests and have returned to "live" for Christ's.

Prayer:
Gracious and loving Father, help me also to "die" to my own interests so that I might return and live for Your interests. Whatever I need to bring me to this place, lead me toward it -- today. In Christ's Name I ask it. Amen.