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Yo, what’s the difference between faith and faithfulness?
To me, faith is trust and faithfulness is remaining true to that trust.
It has been said that marriage is a quantum leap of faith into a life of commitment; that is, if divorce is kept out of the picture! Perhaps then the covenantal parties may fear and tremble at the thought of venturing into this brand new life of 2-in1! It takes a mountain of faith to get married! Perhaps the females may better relate to it for there have been instances of runaway brides. But to be fair, there have also been isolated cases of the male party backing out at the eleventh hour.
Nevertheless, could this be the reason God uses the marriage institution to depict our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ? Could this also be the reason God said to work out our salvation with fear and trembling? I wonder?
Whatever it is, don’t play play with marriage! It is either wedding bell or suffering in hell! No U-turn! Again, this is true if divorce has not been legalized. Is this why God said that whatever He had united let no one separate?
At this point, may I add that young and unsuspecting girls should be aware of what some men or boys out there would do to give you a position, if you know what I mean? You have something very precious that once given is forever lost. Don’t give in to peer-pressure or silly threats by the opposite sex. I once heard of this being told:
Lost-it Girl: You mean you have not done it before?!? You are a dinosaur! Hahaha….
Still-Intact Girl: To be what you are now, it only takes me one night. But for you to be what I am now, NEVER! So who’s laughing now?
You tell me, who is cool? And to those who blew it, take comfort in the covenantal promise of grace that your sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more!
Now back to where we were.
Marriage is serious. For good and for bad; in sickness and in health; till death do them part. This brings to mind Ruth 1:16-17: “Urge me not to leave you, or to return from following you: for whither you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge…where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried…but death part you and me.” Is not this just so beautiful!
Is it any wonder that our Lord Jesus Christ said something to the effect that if we cannot be faithful to those we can see how can we be faithful to those we cannot see? And therein lies the beauty of the Gospel.
We who are trapped in the flesh can never guarantee genuine faithfulness. But thank you gracious and merciful God for His Faithfulness; His real Faithfulness on which we can rest. Genuine stuff, cannot bluff kind of faithfulness. We may struggle with faith and faithfulness, but He remains steadfast in them. And our Father God is justified in doing so because our Lord Jesus Christ had made that possible by His perfect finished work on the Cross at Calvary!
The marriage institution is a lesson not so much to teach us faith and faithfulness but for us to appreciate the same of His and the wondrous work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Along with it, we begin to get a sense of sincere gratitude.
Some two years back, this word “gratitude” dawned on me. I have asked myself just how grateful I have been to our Lord Jesus Christ and just how sincere. Sadly, it was not there! Urgh.. You ungrateful insolent brat! How could you be so dull?!? Do you not know what that sacrifice on the Cross mean? How could you not feel a thing?!? If that did not move you, nothing in this world can!!!!
But that was really how I felt! I mean I could fake it but then again, who can ever do that before the all-knowing God?!? And I am not saying that I have arrived. No, no, no! I am beginning to scratch only the surface of it by the leading of the blessed Holy Spirit. But I have since realized:
1. Since God knows my heart, then I rather come clean with Him about everything.
2. I will never know what sincere gratitude for Jesus is unless the blessed Holy Spirit shows it to me. For that matter, I will not know the things of Christ unless the blessed Holy Spirit shows them to me!
By looking inward, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, I began to appreciate more of His grace.
When married, may we draw encouragement from His faith and faithfulness? If separated for whatever reasons, may we also draw comfort of the same from Him?
Our stay on earth is only temporal, an understatement really for the lack of a better word. All that we go through now is but part of the divine curriculum to prepare us to do His good works here and for our place in heaven. So, let’s cut more slack for each other.
Just stay cool, for He is cool! As He is, so am I in this world. Again, it is not how cool I am but how cool He is!
On my dear soul, why are you lamenting over your lack of faith?!?
Struggling with faith spells hope!
Would you agree with me that a problem can be solved only when you realize or admit that there is a problem in the first place?
If you are struggling with faith, I have good news for you!
The sense of unbelief or lack of faith you have been feeling for probably ages is a seal of your salvation; a saving grace from all things: hell and lack of anything.
The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not lack. [Psalms 23:1]
It signifies your awakening. It spells hope! It bears witness that the blessed Holy Spirit is working mightily within you!
To me, the Gospel or good news is just this: I have been saved from ALL EVILS by simply trusting in the faithfulness of God who cannot lie. [Numbers 23:19]. I rest on His faith and not mine.
What in the world are you talking about?!? It is precisely this lack of trust that I have having trouble with!
Hold your horses, dear soul.
The spirit of unbelief is impregnated in the air which we breathe; in the realm where spiritual forces of evil rule. This is evident in Genesis 1:6: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." For each of the 6 days of work, God pronounced each as good except the 2nd day. Why?
He did not pronounce the second day’s work good because the firmament or air is somewhat related to Satan. Is not Satan "the prince of the powers of the air" (Eph. 2.2)? Seeing that this firmament would be the habitation of Satan and his evil spirits, God did not sum up this day’s work as being good. The air thus becomes the headquarters for the kingdom of darkness.
These powers of darkness are constantly oppressing us. They are working through every person and every circumstance in our lives. Like a frog trapped in a boiling pot that is slowly heating up, we do not even realize that we are being cooked alive! (That is before we receive the gift of faith and the desire to receive Jesus into our lives.)
But thanks be to God. In His grace and mercy, he ordained a salvation plan to snatch us out of that sinister boiling pot. His one and only beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, descended on earth and set the machinery of salvation in motion. With that perfect finished work of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary, the Holy Spirit can now dwell within us.
Oh, come on! Can you tell me something I do not already know?!?
Sure.
With that breath of eternal life of the blessed Holy Spirit, we now feel the oppression. Suddenly, we begin to feel uncomfortable. We are no longer stone cold dead! We are now alive to that condition.
Repentance!
What an all encompassing word! It means to change the way we think. But what is it about what we think that needs changing?
Everything!
We need to change how we think about God, Jesus, the blessed Holy Spirit, even our salvation and our faith!
Praise be to God if you already know this in the heart!
Of course I know this cliché. Everything I have heard is about knowing it in the heart! But it’s not working! And what you said so far is not helping with my faith struggles either! So do you have anything useful for me or not?!?
What I know has proven useful. Have you forgotten? But you are right to feel you are not receiving anything. It is only the Holy Spirit who can teach us ALL things. I thank God for this privilege of using me as a vessel to write about this. For I believe that penning my thoughts would help to reinforce the goodness of God. And I pray that the best Teacher anyone can ever have will Himself teach us.
I am not here to profess that I know everything that there is to know. But I do hope for us to bring our questions to the Holy Teacher. If the blessed Holy Spirit has managed to make His presence known to us by the vessel of my hands, Hallelujah!
So what has He taught you?!?
In this business of faith, I have come to know this. That it is the faith of God that counts. It is never my faith or the faith of anyone else. Knowing this, why then should I struggle with my own faith or the lack of it?
Do I trust that God is faithful? Yes! He is faithful to personally see to it that I enjoy all the covenant blessings of grace.
Why that trust? Well, I have not seen with my own eyes Jesus crucified. Yet I believe that He died for me and as me so that I may have abundant life. And I did not struggle with having faith to believe in that in the first place. It was the merciful God who Himself first planted this seed of desire and given me this gift of faith to do so. This is grace!
Now, since it was my God Himself that started me on this journey of salvation by giving the gift of faith to do so in the first place, why would He not continue to give me the same gift of faith for everything else? It is from faith to faith; from one gift to another from the generous Father God. And since it is a gift, I do not have to earn or merit it. I just stay still and know that He is the faithful God; that He would not give me a snake when I ask for bread. Sometimes, we do not realize He has given us bread when we have asked for a snake! Think about it for a while. He is my God and I am His people.
Do I see God as someone with nothing better to do than to start something in me and then just leave it undone? Oh, this thought of God so doing is a filthy lie straight from the pit of hell! Away from me Satan! For whatever God Himself has started, He will personally see to its completion! He watches over His Word to perform it!
Then why am I not seeing the blessings in my life?!?
Repentance! How do you think about blessings?
His wonderful grace is sufficient for each day. Give us this day our daily bread. Wasn’t it God Himself who said it?
If we were to look at our supplies beyond a day, we would naturally shiver. But if we were to look at the same supplies on a daily basis, we would soon realize that it is more than sufficient. This is how God has taught us to look at our provisions. My God shall supply our every need!
On the contrary, if we were to take the daily supplies for granted and venture to look into the demands of future weeks, months or years ahead, I wonder who would not struggle with faith.
If our idea of blessings, in the area of finances especially, is to have lots of them in our store where we can see, touch and feel, then we may set ourselves up for a shocking disappointment.
Are you playing with psychology here? This sounds like how the ugly ones console themselves by saying that beauty is only skin deep! This looks like self-denial!
But soul, isn’t this what repentance entails? The world says that seeing is believing. But God says believing is seeing. Who do you believe? Haven’t you had enough of believing what the world says?!?
Could this be the reason why God says that faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]? [Hebrews 11:1 Amplified].
Down through the ages, men and women greatly used by God have grasped this in their hearts and lived it out.
George Mueller [1805-1898] built orphanages for multitudes of homeless children costing more than a million dollars in the 1800s , without asking for a penny. He did it by faith in God. He started in faith and ended in reality. Was he in a state of self denial when he first began? History and fact speak for themselves.
Jackie Pullinger, a young lady, left her family in Britain to venture alone into the darkest area of Hong Kong in the 1960s without any resources at her disposal. God led multitudes of sinners to salvation by her. God supplied all the demands on her ministry. She started out in faith and ended in reality. The fact speaks for itself.
The list goes on if you would spend the time looking for it.
I don’t know. I don’t feel you have helped me at all!
Dear soul, take all your doubts and questions to the Holy Spirit. Allow Him to teach us. For the blessed Holy Spirit shall take all things of our Lord Jesus Christ and show them to us! Do it! Our very life depends on it!
After the initial receipt of salvation, the rest of our journey is learning to trust in God. One step at a time, we learn to live a brand new life of pure trust in the faithful God. Yes, we will tremble with wobbling legs as we walk the path. A resounding yes to the feeling of fear doing what we are not accustomed to doing. But wouldn’t this experience shed some light on what is meant by working out our salvation with fear and trembling? I believe this fear and trembling are signposts that we are on the right track. With each wobbling step, we grow in confidence and therein faith.
To believe is to trust. We trust because we have faith in the object of our trust. We can have faith because there is an assurance. And this assurance can come in varied forms:
1. Testimonies of many witnesses or power of sheer numbers in testimony;
2. Our own experiences;
3. Avenue of redress should the trust be betrayed.
Dear soul, you have been used to gaining trust through assurances. We fear of being played out, betrayed and being made used of. And what has God done to earn our trust?
To begin with, He sent His one and only beloved Son to die for us.
Well, I didn’t see it and this is not helping.
Then, there have been many eye witnesses and testimonies recorded in the Bible.
I don’t know them and it is so far back in time that I cannot relate to them.
What about the fact that 30 million people willingly gave up their lives to preserve the Bible. Wouldn’t that speak volumes of the trustworthiness of God’s recorded Word?
Well, I applaud their sacrifices but I still do not have that faith I need.
What then has been your experience of Christian life?
All I know now is that I am struggling with faith. I don’t see much of God’s blessings manifesting in my life! I don’t feel and live the abundant life.
Dear soul, are you referring to financial blessings?
Err, not really that. I just want to feel happy, problem free, stress free, no physical lack, you know what I mean, don’t you? But it seems that most problems arise from the lack of money. And if Satan is controlling the world with money, why don’t God just give us the money? In that way, Satan would have lost much of his control over us, right?
Why it sounds like you are placing your trust in money! Didn’t God say that the love of money is the root of all evil?!? Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps God is dealing with this evil root that is so deeply entrenched in you?!?
Has God come short in the area of finances in our lives? No! So far, you have more than enough to spend each day. Why worry about the future? Didn’t God Himself beseech us not to worry about what we eat or drink or wear? Didn’t God Himself say that He knows we need them? Didn’t God Himself tell us to seek first His kingdom and righteousness and ALL these things shall be added to us?!? Didn’t God say that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit?!? Didn’t God say that we are His righteousness in our Lord Christ Jesus? Don’t we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus prayed to our Father God to give us?!? It was Jesus Himself who prayed for it! How can anyone doubt that His prayers will not be answered?!? So, since we already have what is needed for “ALL these things to be added”, why worry?!? The thief comes in order to steal and to kill and to destroy but our Lord Jesus has come that we may have life and have it more abundantly! Someone once said that if you know help is on the way, there is no need to worry. But if you know that there is no help, then what’s the use of worrying? A word of wisdom.
But if you are indeedy cash strapped, have you considered how you have steward the money that God has given you all this time? Ah ha, you probably have not imagined that the money that you have was given to you by God right? You probably missed the part that it is God who gives you the power to prosper right?!? You probably have thought that you are the one who earned and worked for it right? Therefore you deem it your right to spend it as you wish right?
If indeed you are now short of money, have you considered it a possibility that God is teaching you how to spend His money?!? Have you envisaged that God would give you more money to perpetuate your wayward pattern?!? Have you thought about what you really would have done if God had given you financial abundance? Would you have rushed to sins; puffing up your pride by showing off?
Oh blessed Holy Spirit, show us how we should steward the Lord’s money. Help us see money as only a tool. Help us view it as the least of God’s blessings. Help us not to idolize it. Help us dear blessed Holy Spirit to see our life the way God would want us see it. Help us hear the heart beat of God.
Look at what our Lord Jesus said in Luke 16:10-14:
10He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest and unjust also in much.
11Therefore if you have not been faithful in the [case of] unrighteous mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions), who will entrust to you the true riches?
12And if you have not proved faithful in that which belongs to another [whether God or man], who will give you that which is your own [that is, the true riches]?
13No servant is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches, or anything in which you trust and on which you rely).
14Now the Pharisees, who were covetous and lovers of money, heard all these things [taken together], and they began to sneer at and ridicule and scoff at Him.
Hey, you are putting me in a very bad light you know?!? I am not like what you say! Come on, give me some credit will you!
Dear soul, I am not running you down. There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But shouldn’t we recall why we first come to Jesus? It was because we were sick and tired of the kind of life that the world has to offer. We have considered our ways and how they fared. They were horrendous!
And since we have concluded that our old way of living has not done us any good, shouldn’t we now concentrate on this new life that God has given us? As in anything new, we need to learn it before we can master it. Our Christian walk is one of pure trust. God knows what we are like. He has assured us of His goodness by giving us our Lord Jesus as surety.
Hey, isn’t this a chicken and egg thingy? Are you telling me to just trust. But my problem is I don’t have the faith to trust! I need faith to trust and are you saying that I need to trust before I can have faith?!?
Dear soul, what I am about to say may sound like the chicken and egg thingy. If you are looking for assurance, it is in Christ Jesus. If you fear the Jesus will fail you, then I am afraid you have not fully given up on the world. It seems that you have more trust in the world system that in God’s system. Then perhaps you should consider going back to the world. When you have completely come to the end of yourself after the world system has utterly failed you, then come back to Jesus. He will not turn away any that come to Him. Until such time, Jesus cannot pour new wine into old wine skin. He would rather you be hot or cold but not lukewarm for He will spit that out! A lifeguard cannot save a drowning person who is still struggling.
As for me, I will stand on the unfailing faithfulness of God. In saying the impossible, even if I should perish, I rather perish standing on His Word. But that is an oxymoron! For no one can ever perish standing on His Word! Just look at the Book of Esther.
Esther 4:16
Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast for me; and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I also and my maids will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.
To put it extremely, I rather die a poor man standing on His Word to heaven then to live rich trusting in the world to hell. Just look at the rich man in Luke 16:19-31:
19There was a certain rich man who [habitually] clothed himself in purple and fine linen and reveled and feasted and made merry in splendor every day.
20And at his gate there was [carelessly] dropped down and left a certain utterly destitute man named Lazarus, [reduced to begging alms and] covered with [ulcerated] sores.
21He [eagerly] desired to be satisfied with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs even came and licked his sores.
22And it occurred that the man [reduced to] begging died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
23And in Hades (the realm of the dead), being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have pity and mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.
25But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime fully received [what is due you in] comforts and delights, and Lazarus in like manner the discomforts and distresses; but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.
26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who want to pass from this [place] to you may not be able, and no one may pass from there to us.
27And [the man] said, Then, father, I beseech you to send him to my father's house--
28For I have five brothers--so that he may give [solemn] testimony and warn them, lest they too come into this place of torment.
29But Abraham said, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear and listen to them.
30But he answered, No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent (change their minds for the better and heartily amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins).
31He said to him, If they do not hear and listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded and convinced and believe [even] if someone should rise from the dead.
So you are saying that Christians should expect to be poor?!? If that is the case, what kind of Gospel is that?!? Come and believe in Jesus to be poor?!?
Nope! I am not saying that. Does it make any sense that my God should give us His most treasured and beloved Son but not give us financial riches? I believe that God is love. Everything He does is done out of love. I believe He will definitely give us the least blessing of financial prosperity when He knows we are ready. I may even venture to say that we already have it. But to manifest the riches at the point when He knows we would use them for sins is definitely not an act of love! I know that God know our heart better than we would like to imagine. We may well be asking for a snake when we pray for riches! But let it come according to His time and season.
Of course you may get it from the world by the means of the world. But what do we have to sacrifice to get it? What is the use of winning the world and yet lose you, my dear soul?!? I will never forget what I had to do to get the meager sum! And who knows what kinds of headache accompany such riches?!? I would rather have it from God who gives financial riches without any sorrows attached to them.
You have said too much. Can you simplify it for me? So what is my problem with faith?
Dear beloved soul, do we dare stand on God’s Word in the face of contradictory circumstances? There will always be two sets of evidence placed before us: circumstances and God’s unfailing love preserved in His Word.
If we are hoping for a life free from problems and stress, that would be a life in heaven. Didn’t our Lord Jesus say that there will be trials and tribulations but fear not for He had conquered the world? What does that mean to us? We do not fear because He has conquered the circumstances. And “fear not” doesn’t mean an absence of fear but rather, pressing on in the face of fear. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall not fear for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me. Oh yes, we will have those problems and stress. But they do not affect us when we rest in the faithfulness of God.
I believe this business of lacking faith is one of fear; the ultimate fear that God will not honor what He had promised. For whatever it is worth to you my dear soul, I have this to say: that God is not a man that He should lie, neither the Son of man that He should repent; for has He said and shall He not do it, or has He promised and shall He not make it good?!?
Through it all, I shall rely on the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit whom our Father God was able to give through the perfect finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.
Thanks and praise to the ever loving Triune God!
Resources:
“Robber of the Cruel Streets” – The Prayer Life of George Muller by Clive Langmead
“All of Grace” by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“The Two Kinds of Faith” by Dr E W Kenyon
“Chasing the Dragon” by Jackie Pullinger
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The Gospel is so very attractive in so many different ways. It is impossible to take in all its glory at one go.
Each believer is attracted to certain aspect of its beauty. Whatever it may be that first attracted a sinner to Christ Jesus, let that be the platform or anchor point from which the full glory of the Gospel can be gradually revealed by the Holy Spirit. And who can set a time line or schedule as to how much and how soon that should be done? Let the Triune God do His work according to His time and season for His thoughts are way above ours!
Remembering always that I am the object of Jesus’ earthy walk and I have been saved by the same precious blood.
To look at the behavior of a believer and hastily conclude that a fellow believer has not been saved is saying that the precious blood of Jesus could not save him. If that is the case, I shiver at the thought that the same precious saving blood might not have saved me too!
And to look at an unbeliever and judge him condemned is to say that the purpose of Jesus’ earthly walk has not been fulfilled. Again, I tremble as the thought that if Jesus could not fulfill His purpose in that unbeliever, perhaps the same purpose has not been fulfilled in me!
I shall be saved even as they!
Could I not remember how I was first called by His Grace? Was it not at a time when I was at the peak of rebellion and lawlessness? And yet the hope of salvation has already taken shape in me then. How then can I be sure that the same is not happening in the life of that unbeliever right now?! How was the Apostle Paul called?
Therefore to judge and condemn others is really to judge and condemn myself! Let’s not judge others!
You may purchase a copy at Amazon.
Used copy available from $7.02 [Correct at time of posting].
I was reading the book written by Andrew Murray on the Holy Spirit when something he wrote struck me.
Paraphrasing it, Andrew Murray wrote that God loves Jesus so much that sending Him to die was the highest and most wonderful part of God's love for Christ.
I couldn't understand that. Not until a Hokkien song by one of Taiwan's most celebrated singers was brought to my mind. The lyrics of that song goes something like this: " Who can be more important to me than you. But I would rather you die before me so that you would not have to bear the pain and grief of losing a loved one". It seems to say: "Let me bear that pain and grief for I love you too much to have you go through it".
Then, I began to skim the surface of what Andrew Murray meant.
As painful as was the ordeal that our Lord Jesus had to bear for us, it was even more shattering for God the Father to see His only beloved Son go through it and to have to turn His back on Him when He was at the peak of the excruciating pain of torment. It occurred to me that God the Father had taken on the most painful part of the redemption plan for us. Thus demonstrating His love for us and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps this is love can be best understood only be those who have experienced the pain of losing a loved one.
At the point of writing this, it dawned on me that each Person of the Holy Trinity has taken on a painful part for our salvation:
- God the Father taking on the pain as just mentioned;
- God the Son bearing all that crushing and suffering when He walked the earth; and
- God the Holy Spirit having to bear with us as He strives to help us who are grieving Him.
Used copy available at USD3.88 [Correct at time of posting].
For those interested to listen to that Hokkien Song
Or a slightly more "Rock" Version
I was thinking about the person of the Holy Spirit when two specific experiences of my Basic Military Training (BMT) came to my mind:
- Negative and Positive Demonstrations; and
- Night shoot.
During my BMT, the army instructors would use these two methods of instructions to teach recruits new things; for example shooting the M16 rifle. The instructor would show us the wrong method before he contrasted it with the right one. But the funny thing was the majority of us would eventually end up using the wrong method! Much to the frustration of the Hokkien-speaking, expletive rich instructors!
It then dawned on me that our Father God also uses the same method: that is Adam, the negative demonstration and our Lord Jesus, the positive demonstration. And the funny thing again is that most of us end up following Adam's footsetps in their varied forms! According to Andrew Murray, "self" was the one and only cause of Adam's failure.
I believe the answer lies in the illuminating light of the Holy Spirirt or rather, the lack of it.
Night Shoot
One of the regular activities of the BMT days was night shoot, or shooting the rifle in the night. Each recruit would be required to fire the first shot with a bullet (a tracer) that would illuminate the target. Typically, there would be 16 recruits firing in one detail at the same time. After the tracer has been fired, it would be pitch darkness and we would have to rely on our instincts.
What I did was to wait for the 15 others to fire their tracers. This would allow me to aim at my target and lock in my aiming position. I would then fire my tracer to confirm my target location. Thereafter, I simply fired my shots based on faith. And what was the result? I scored full marks!
I remember my Hokkien speaking instructor telling us this: "In front one dark patch, can see, you shoot, cannot see, anyhow shoot." This was his golden advice. Many followed and failed!
The tracer reminds me so much of the Holy Spirit. Father God has given each of us one such tracer to illuminate our targets. Once we see the target and lock in our aiming position, what follows would seem to be complete darkness. We need to rely on faith in what the Holy Spirit has shown us and fire off accordingly.
At times, we depend on the illuminations of the Holy Spirit on others to give us an idea of our target location. But it is still our own tracer that would confirm it.
We listen to sermons, read books written by men used greatly by God and study the Bible. But all these mean nothing unless the Holy Spirit reveals the truth to us.
And therein lies the importance of the Holy Spirit.
When reading the book written by R A Torrey on "The Presence & Work of the Holy Spirit", I realised that I have never really treated Him as a Person. Rather, I have always treated the Holy Spirit as a kind of power and influence. That power that I could use at my disposal for what I will.
Perhaps it is time that the doctrine on the Person of The Holy Spirit be revived?
When this thought came to my mind, I immediately shrunk from it as I imagined that I would then be Anti-Christ. But R A Torrey mentioned in the same book that it is not so. For our Lord Jesus has said that The Holy Spirirt will take of the things of Christ and show it to us. In fact, we can never truly understand our Lord Jesus Christ if we do not first get to know the Person of the Holy Spirit.
I am not sure if this would strike a cord of resonance with most but I am pursuing Christ Jesus along this line.
Thank you blessed Holy Spirit for showing this to me by the mercy and grace of my Father God that came to me in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Used copy available from USD5.25. [Correct at time of posting]
It is with a cheeky intent on pun that I am sharing with you one of the writings of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
While reading one of his many Spirit inspired writings: "Grace - God's Unmerited favor", I took a quantum leap in understanding grace in all its fundamentality.
For the longest time, I have taken pride in the fact that I have received salvation through the Finished Work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But now, I know that it was God who first planted that desire and given me that gift of faith to believe. At that moment of revelation, all hints of pride vanished. Then it occurred to me that until that time, my understanding of grace has been smacked right in the midst of self-righteousness. It was then that I know what it means that the flesh will not and cannot understand the things of God.
Natural men in all its self will never think of God, let alone receive salvation. It is the touch of God's mercy, the source of His grace that flows into me through the channel of faith that He alone has given me in the first place.
It was at the point that I understood what is meant by our Lord being the Author and Finisher of Faith. And I take comfort in knowing that what He has began, He will definitely complete. It was then that I felt relieved of the constant lamenting over my lack of faith.
"From faith to faith" has since then taken on a brand new life in me!
Well, that's all I have to share for today. Thanks for stopping by.
God Bless.
Used copy available from USD2.91. [correct at time of posting].
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