Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2024 7:25:28 GMT -5
Obedience
The motives of all you do and strive to do may never be found in your desires but always an d unconditionally in the Lord .
As long as your complaints about the church, and your efforts to improve the church are motivated by self ,because the imperfections annoy you or displease you, because the church falls short of your ideals, then you are on the wrong path.
Then, if your efforts fail, you will grumble because your needs are not filled and your rights are not honored. And eventually you will perhaps withdraw yourself as from something unworthy of your laborers.
But once you realize that not my honor, but the honor of God is the true motive for the battle against evil, then the beauty of simple obedience will become clear to you.
Then you will no longer say the church must change because I cannot endure this lack of concentration
But you will say I may not be idle, for I am in the service of my God, who commands me to battle incessantly and undauntedly against the desecration of his church.
Then too, it is no longer matters if there are no immediate results upon your efforts and protests against evil. That makes no difference at all.
For you realize that you have no right or claim to a model church.
You acknowledge yourself a humble sinner whose imperfections add to the corruption of the church.
Whether you live to see the church sink deeper into the mire. Or if you see it lifted to higher planes makes no difference.
You are in duty bound to defend her against her enemies. All the days of your life with all of God's children. You obey. God bids you labor and his vineyard, and you do so with all the strength he gives you. He bids you not to sit with the scoffers and the ungolly and you separate yourselves from them.
He bid you resist the onslaught of evil upon his house and you resist them. When you have learned thus to obey the battle for the Lord goes without pause.
Yet calmly and steadily, it is a labor that looks not upon the results.
You are no longer striving for what you want ,or deem necessary.
You are not impatient, not worried with the complaining or unmanned by disappointment .
You simply obey.
You are not less zealous, but more: not less constant, but more persevering. And God, who is merciful, will crown your efforts in home and heart and church with his blessing. by nature, we crave freedom.
We say I shall be master of my fate, and I shall do as I please.
We chafe under rules and laws. Hence we also protest that the church must not interfere with individual self expression. And by nature we are also inclined to slothfulness.
It is so much more pleasant to sit idle than to exert ourselves. We love our ease.
Imagine the activity, the upheavals, the changes, the disruptions that would ensue if all Christians obediently put into actual practice the will of Christ.
We admire the men of old who gave all and dad to risk their very lives But our admiration seldom produces willingness to part with our own earthly possessions.
The craving for freedom, plus the distaste for exertion and danger, Make it easy for us to accept the teaching. Sit still and see what the Lord will do.
But we should be up and doing And the word says whatsoever your hand finds to do,Do it with all your might. And all who would live godly shall suffer persecution.
May he, before whom we humbly confess our own guilt and for whose name and honor we have striven also in the writing of these essays. Use our words to open the eyes of many to their calling as members of the Church of Jesus Christ[/font][/font]. [/font][
The motives of all you do and strive to do may never be found in your desires but always an d unconditionally in the Lord .
As long as your complaints about the church, and your efforts to improve the church are motivated by self ,because the imperfections annoy you or displease you, because the church falls short of your ideals, then you are on the wrong path.
Then, if your efforts fail, you will grumble because your needs are not filled and your rights are not honored. And eventually you will perhaps withdraw yourself as from something unworthy of your laborers.
But once you realize that not my honor, but the honor of God is the true motive for the battle against evil, then the beauty of simple obedience will become clear to you.
Then you will no longer say the church must change because I cannot endure this lack of concentration
But you will say I may not be idle, for I am in the service of my God, who commands me to battle incessantly and undauntedly against the desecration of his church.
Then too, it is no longer matters if there are no immediate results upon your efforts and protests against evil. That makes no difference at all.
For you realize that you have no right or claim to a model church.
You acknowledge yourself a humble sinner whose imperfections add to the corruption of the church.
Whether you live to see the church sink deeper into the mire. Or if you see it lifted to higher planes makes no difference.
You are in duty bound to defend her against her enemies. All the days of your life with all of God's children. You obey. God bids you labor and his vineyard, and you do so with all the strength he gives you. He bids you not to sit with the scoffers and the ungolly and you separate yourselves from them.
He bid you resist the onslaught of evil upon his house and you resist them. When you have learned thus to obey the battle for the Lord goes without pause.
Yet calmly and steadily, it is a labor that looks not upon the results.
You are no longer striving for what you want ,or deem necessary.
You are not impatient, not worried with the complaining or unmanned by disappointment .
You simply obey.
You are not less zealous, but more: not less constant, but more persevering. And God, who is merciful, will crown your efforts in home and heart and church with his blessing. by nature, we crave freedom.
We say I shall be master of my fate, and I shall do as I please.
We chafe under rules and laws. Hence we also protest that the church must not interfere with individual self expression. And by nature we are also inclined to slothfulness.
It is so much more pleasant to sit idle than to exert ourselves. We love our ease.
Imagine the activity, the upheavals, the changes, the disruptions that would ensue if all Christians obediently put into actual practice the will of Christ.
We admire the men of old who gave all and dad to risk their very lives But our admiration seldom produces willingness to part with our own earthly possessions.
The craving for freedom, plus the distaste for exertion and danger, Make it easy for us to accept the teaching. Sit still and see what the Lord will do.
But we should be up and doing And the word says whatsoever your hand finds to do,Do it with all your might. And all who would live godly shall suffer persecution.
May he, before whom we humbly confess our own guilt and for whose name and honor we have striven also in the writing of these essays. Use our words to open the eyes of many to their calling as members of the Church of Jesus Christ[/font][/font]. [/font][