Human beings have come to believe that human beings are the measure of all things and that all that there is of value is that which the natural senses can discern.
Followers of Christ know that this is not true, but sadly, many certainly seem to be living as if it is. The church of Jesus Christ has allowed the things of this world to cloud the eyes of it's heart from seeing the Holy One high and lifted up. Believers have chosen to imitate the world and accept it's tenets as if they were the teachings of the Master. Living according to the commands and desires of the Prince of this world has led many Christians to shipwreck their faith and witness upon the jagged rocks of transgression and sin. Christian leaders today are content to live and lead as if there will be no accountability for leading the sheep in confusing circles of infantile faith.
The sheep, on the other hand, act as if they need neither the Great Shepherd nor earthly shepherds to lead them while they wander from the pen and are devoured by wolves. Many look within or to some temporal leader and worldly wisdom for solutions and direction. They will not be found there. Our problems and their solutions are spiritual and we must find them by looking to the invisible - to God and His eternal Word. How easy to say and how difficult to do! We must strive to life the paradoxical life. We must realize that the principles of heaven stand antithetically as far from earth as the unknown end of the universe - and beyond. The eloquence of 2oth century Christian seer A.W. Tozer speaks to the incredulity and uniqueness of the Christian and his calling:
The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, yet he is more alive than before and he fully expects to live forever. He walks on earth while seated in heaven and though born on earth he finds that after his conversion, he is not at home here. Like the nighthawk, which in the air is the essence of grace and beauty, but on the ground is awkward and ugly, so the Christian appears at his best in the heavenly places, but does not fit well into the ways of the very society into which he was born.
The Christian soon learns that if he would be victorious as a son of heaven among men on earth he must not follow the common pattern of mankind, but rather the contrary. That he may be safe he puts himself in jeopardy, he loses his life to save it and is in danger of losing it if he attempts to preserve it. He goes down to get up. If he refuses to go down he is already down, but when he starts down he is on his way up.
He is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strong. Though poor he has the power to make others rich, but when he becomes rich his ability to enrich others vanishes. He has the most after he has given most away and has least when he possesses most.
He may be and often is highest when he feels lowest and most sinless when he is most conscious of sin. He is wisest when he knows that he knows not and knows least when he has acquired the greatest amount of knowledge. He sometimes does most by doing nothing and goes furthest when standing still. In heaviness he manages to rejoice and keeps his heart glad even in sorrow.
The paradoxical character of the Christian is revealed constantly. For instance, he believes that he is saved now, nevertheless he expects to be saved later and looks forward joyfully to future salvation. He fears God but is not afraid of Him. In God's presence he feels overwhelmed and undone yet there is nowhere he would rather be than in that presence. He knows that he has been cleansed from his sin, yet he is painfully conscious that in his flesh dwells no good thing.
He loves supremely One whom he has never seen, and though himself poor and lowly he talks familiarly with One who is King of all Kings and Lord of all lords and is aware of no incongruity in so doing.
He cheerfully expects before long to enter that bright world above, but is in no hurry to leave this world and is quite willing to await the summons of his Heavenly Father. And he is unable to understand why the critical unbeliever should condemn him for this: it all seems so natural and right in the circumstances that he sees nothing inconsistent about it.
Oh, that we might be constantly reminded of the supremacy of Christ and the power and wisdom of God in our thoughts and in our lives. We must begin anew to rest in God and plumb the depths of our understanding of Him. We must commit ourselves afresh to wanting to know Him and the power of His resurrection, but we are afraid to do so because Scripture tells us that to possess such intimacy means that we must also share in His sufferings, even unto death. Paul cried out that he might have it all, knowing that to die to the things of this world meant true life, abundant life on the far side of death. To die to self is simultaneously the key to being released from the chains of bondage and the salve that opens the eyes of the soul.
Christian, are you ready to dedicate yourself to God and His word again? Do you acknowledge that for far too long you have allowed the flame of your faith to flicker and chill like a dying ember? It is not too late! Fan it into flame and watch it rise to consume your sin, fuel your holy desire, and light the word unto righteousness.
At an early age, the great champion of abolition William Lloyd Garrison had already known intense discouragement and persecution in the cause of freedom. His entire life would be devoted to the immediate freedom and equality of the American slave and he would live to see the extinction of that great American sin. Along the way, he was tireless in his defiance, insisting that the great ideals of this nation's founding were the birthright of every man.
He never ceased to demand that God's truth and His blessing of freedom be applied to all and he was willing to lose every friend, every possession, every right of his own unto that realization. He was often abrupt and always abrasive in the great cause of agitation, determined thereby to break through the chains and release the prisoner. When asked to speak and act in moderation, he always responded immoderately:
“I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
He insisted that moderation toward sin meant compromise and it was never appropriate to compromise with sin. At a Fourth of July celebration in 1854, when it seemed as if the nation was moving not toward the restriction and extinction of slavery but to it's extension, Garrison went so far as to burn a copy of the Constitution of the United States, stating, "So perish all compromises with tyranny!"
One might disagree with his decision to go this far in his thinking and in his zeal, as Lincoln and other did; but one can never question his devotion to the cause of liberty for all men and his willingness to press on with God alone. As he said, “The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers.” Additionally, he was revolted at the apathy that he saw all around him and cried out for the dead to awake: “I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead." May God raise up a multitude of Christians today who have the zeal and the courage of Garrison and the soldiers of abolition.
May all of God's children stop to hearken unto a sidewalk conversation between Garrison and his friend Samuel May, a dedicated co-laborer in freedom's cause. May once questioned Garrison regarding the tone of his writings and speeches on behalf of the slave, stating that Garrison was being too harsh. Garrison's response was simply that he would 'only soften his language when the downtrodden slave said that he was too harsh.' May retorted, "O my friend, do try to moderate your indignation, and keep more cool; why, you are all on fire." Garrison is said to have stopped, put a hand on May's shoulder, looked his friend directly in the eye and replied, "Brother May, I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt." Forty years later, in retelling the tale, May wrote, 'I have never (again) said another word to Mr. Garrison in complaint of his style.'
May all of God's children be 'all on fire,' and may the flame burn high to the glory to God.
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