Spiritual in Christian preaching refers to the inner life of faith, growth, and communion with God, often contrasted with the natural or fleshly life. Illustrations use vivid pictures like sowing and harvesting, freedom like a bird, and overcoming trials to convey growth, perseverance, and divine guidance (Galatians 5:16-25; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The subject highlights the unseen yet powerful reality of the Spirit's work within believers.
A dear old lady was asked what she used to make her complexion so
beautiful and her whole being so bright and attractive. She answered
in short:
I use for my lips, truth;
I use for my voice, kindness;
I use for my eyes, compassion;
I use for my hands, charity;
I use for my figure, uprightness;
I use for my heart, love;
I use for any who do not like me, prayer.
Try this make-up and see what it will do for you.
Robert G. Lee, {Lee Lines, }(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1937)
18-19
In Gore Vidal's {Lincoln}, President Lincoln's oldest son, Bob, wanted to join the army and fight for the Union. His mother objected strenuously, and his father supported her decision. They had already lost two sons at an early age, and she could not bear the thought of losing another. Robert protested that soon General Burnside would be marching against Fredricksburg and would take Richmond by Christmas. Then the war would be over. His father replied, "Oh, no! No, boy, there will be war enough to go around."
- Paul W. Powell, "Basic Bible Sermons on Handling Conflict" (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992) 11
The Academy-Award-winning movie, {Patoon}. It was about the
United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. It depicted not only
the cruel and inhumane way some of our soldiers treated the enemy, but
also how brutally they treated one another.
In the closing scene, one of the American soldiers who survived the
war was reflecting on his experiences in Vietnam, and he said, "I
think now, as I look back, we didn't fight the enemy, we fought
ourselves. The real enemy was within us."
Isn't that how it most often is? The greatest enemy we have is
ourselves, and the biggest battles we fight are within.
- Paul W. Powell, {Basic Bible Sermons on Handling Conflict,
}(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992) 21
A man at war with himself will be at war with everyone else.
- Dag Hammarskjold, former general secretary of the United Nations
- Paul W. Powell, {Basic Bible Sermons on Handling Conflict,
}(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992) 21
Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.
- Paul W. Powell, { Basic Sermons on Handling Conflict,
}(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992) 66
Years ago I heard the supposedly true story of a pastor who had a
woman in his church who didn't like anything he did. She didn't like
his sermons. She didn't like the way he dressed. She didn't like the
way his children behaved. And she didn't like the program he
proposed. She had a cantankerous spirit and was a thorn in his side
from the minute he arrived.
He tried to talk with her on several occasions but she would no
communicate. He did everything he knew how to do but there seemed to
be no way to get along with her.
One day he was visiting in her neighborhood and decided to go by
her house. Her car was parked in the driveway so he determined to
visit her and see if they could work out their problems.
He rang the doorbell but no one answered. He then knocked on the
door, thinking the doorbell might be out of order. But still she did
not answer. When you've knocked on as many doors as most preachers
you can almost always tell when somebody is inside. It is like a
sixth sense. And he was sure she was at home.
So, he went around to the backdoor and knocked again. He called
the lady by name saying, "It's the pastor and I would like to talk to
you for a minute." But still there was no response.
He went back to the front door again and decided to ring the
doorbell one more time. Still there was no answer. Then on an
impulse, he said, "I dropped down on my knees and looked through the
keyhole." And, what do you suppose he saw? He said, "I saw an eye
staring right back at me."
He continued, "She then opened the door and we were both
embarrassed." Then he said, "I looked at her and said, 'Isn't it
interesting that the first time we got down on our knees together we
saw eye to eye?'"
There is more truth than fiction to that. If we would pray more
together we would more likely stay together longer.
- Paul W. Powell, { Basic Sermons on Handling Conflict,
}(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992) 67-68
Several suggestions for handling confrontations when they emerge:
1. Take the initiative. 2. Pick a time when you will be unhurried
and a place where no one will be embarrassed. 3. Never accuse, rather
ask questions that get to the heart of the matter. This allows you to
face the issues without putting the other person on the defensive. 4.
Be candid. Be sure you lay all the cards on the table.
- Paul W. Powell, { Basic Sermons on Handling Conflict,
}(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992) 69
Two little men stood looking at a hill, One was named Can't and the
other was named Will. Can't said, "I never in the world can climb this
hill." So there he is now at the bottom of it still.
Will said, "I'll climb to the top because I will." So there he is now
at the top of the hill. Two little men are living by the hill; At the
bottom is Can't, at the top is Will.
- Selected
Since 1994, when Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul began its 150-week run on The New York Times best-seller list, there have been nearly 800 books published on the soul of this and the soul of that. The granddaddy of them all is Aritotle’s De Anima (Treatise on the Soul), out in a new English translation but not yet booked for Oprah. The really hot reads are books by the therapy industry’s reigning household gods. To name a few that are coming soon to bookstores near you: Denial of the Soul, by the well-traveled M. Scott Peck; Buddha Nature: Death of the Soul, by the Dalai Lama, who says we don’t really have one, and The Soul Is Here for Its Own Joy: Sacred Poems From Many Cultures, by Robert Bly, who says we do. They’ll be competing with Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul, the current No.1 paperback on the New York Times list in the advice category. That’s not to be confused with the five previous volumes in the Chicken Soup series, which has 12 million copies in print.
In an episode of the {Peanuts} cartoon strip, Snoopy sat
droopy-eyed at the entrance of his doghouse. He sighed, "Yesterday I
was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog.
There's such little hope for advancement."
The inventor of the pencil addressed his finished product as
follows: "I want you to remember four things: "First, your goodness or
true worth is within you. Secondly, you'll need to be sharpened as you
go through life. Thirdly, you'll be in someone else's hand, otherwise
you'll make an awful mess. Finally, you'll be expected to leave a
mark."
- James A. Feehan, {Story Power!, }(San Jose, CA: Resource
Publications, Inc, 1994) 42
Terry Fox was a twenty-two-year-old university student in Canada.
A keen sportsman, he was on the college basketball team when in 1977
he contracted bone cancer and had to have his right leg amputated.
While he was in the hospital, someone sent him a newspaper clipping
telling about an amputee who ran in the New York City Marathon.
This fired Terry's imagination so much that he wanted to do
something useful with the few remaining years of his life. He dicided
to run across Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific to raise money
for the fight against cancer. He spent eighteen months practicing
running with his artificial leg and then on 12 April 1980 he began to
run. He dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic in Newfoundland and
set out with pledges for over one million dollars in his pocket.
Then tragedy struck when he was 114 days and 3,000 miles into the
run. The cancer spread to his lungs and he was forced to give up.
Like Stephen Roche, he became a hero overnight. As he lay in the
hospital pledges totaling twentyfour million dollars came pouring in.
When he died, a stamp was issued in his honor and the nation's highest
accolade, the Order of Canada, was conferred on him.
But the story does not end there. Donal Marrs, a postman in
Cincinnati, decided to complete the run. Like Terry, he too was a
cancer victim with just a short time to live. He began in the
mid-west and ran to San Francisco. As he dipped his hand in the
Pacific Ocean people noticed a large rainbow arched across the sky.
Terry and Donal could have the darkness - instead they decided to
light a candle.
- James A. Feehan, {Story Power!, }(San Jose, CA: Resource
Publications, Inc, 1994) 33-34
There is a story about a man who was blind. Every night he walked
home through a very dark alley, but he always carried a lighted
lantern. A friend once asked, "Why do you carry a lantern when you
cannot see the light?" The man answered, "I carry it so others may
see."
Hazel never considered herself to be a lampighter. She loved to
sing, but couldn't carry a tune in a wash bucket. That didn't bother
her; she sang anyway. She sang in the choir until they asked her to
please praise God in some other capacity. That didn't faze her. Out
in the congregation she still sang out, often leading the less musical
congregants to be either sharp or flat.
Sixty years old and on a fixed income, when Hazel's rent went up
she was forced to move into a run-down apartment house on a rough side
of town. She couldn't afford gasoline so she sold her car and began
riding the bus.
From what she saw on her walks to the bus stop, Hazel knew she
hadn't landed in the best of neighborhoods. There was lots of noise
at night, and lots of tough, unpredictable looking characters hanging
around. One man living in her building scared everybody. he looked
big, and mean, and scruffy, and maybe even a little crazy. hazel was
afraid of him, but she refused to let her fears stop her from coming
and going as she pleased. Nothing would keep her away from church,
and from singing on Wednesday nights.
Hazel had no place to run; and no one to call for help. So she
stepped forward. She walked right through the front door, and as she
did she started singing at the very top of her lungs. She sang "When
you walk through a storm, keep your head up high and don't be afraid
of the dark." She forgot most of the words and verses but picked up
at the chorus, "Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart and you'll
never walk alone."
She walked right by the hulking shadow, up the stairs and into her
apartment. As she closed the door behind her she was trembling, but
she was safe. Much later, she calmed herself enough to fall asleep.
The next morning she found a note that had been slipped under her
door during the night. It read:
{Dear Lady: I don't know who you are, but I want to thank you
for} {singing to me last night. I was ready to cash it in -
to take my life.} {Then I heard you singing out there in the
hall. It sounded like you } {didn't have a care in the
world. you got me to thinking about never} {walking alone.
You saved my life. I'm going home to start over. It's} {time
for me to go back to my parents and let them know I'm okay. }
{I'm leaving today. I just wanted to thank you for your
song.}
The writing was almost illegible, but the signature was clear. It
was written by the big scary man who lived in the building. He hadn't
been in the hallway the night before, but he had been listening.
Hazel never suspected that her song would poke a hole in anyone's
darkness.
- Peter J. Flamming, {Preaching, }November, December, 1994,
54-55
When the nineteenth-century American evangelist Asahel Nettleton was asked what he considered the best safeguard against spiritual
pride, he replied, "I know of nothing better than to keep my eye on my great sinfulness."
During the Depression, Charles Darrow could find no work. Although he was broke and his wife was expecting a baby, he wasn't discouraged. Every evening they played a game which he had devised. Remembering happy vacations in nearby Atlantic City, he laid out his own little boardwalk on a square piece of cardboard and pretended to be rich. On his "properties" he put miniature houses and hotels he had carved out of small pieces of wood. The game, called "Monopoly," was later marketed by Parker Brothers and ultimately made Darrow a millionaire.
Christians may not have earthly wealth, but they have a wealth that should cause us to never get discouraged. We have the wealth of our heavenly Father.
I am the new year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.
All that you sought and didn't find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it but with more determination.
All the good that you tried for and didn't achieve is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.
All that you dreamed but didn't dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith that you claimed but did not have -- these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.
I am your opportunity to renew you allegiance to Him who said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
See: Jeremiah 17:7-8
*
One day a man was hiking in the mountains when he came upon the hut of a hermit who had isolated himself from other human beings. He struck up a conversation with the hermit who told the visitor that he was completely self-sufficient to meet his own needs. He said, "I cut the trees and hewed the logs for my cabin, and I put it together with wooden pegs. I grow or hunt all my own food, and I get along just fine. I don't need anybody else."
The man looked at him for a moment, then said, "Tell me, how did you cut the trees you used for your cabin?"
The hermit replied, "With my axe."
Then the visitor said, "But wasn't someone else responsible for making that axe and your other tools, and for mining the iron that was used to make them? What about your clothes, do you make all of them?"
"No," replied the hermit, "I have to make a trip outside about once a year to get new clothes."
"Then," said the man again, "what about the shells that you use in your gun when you hunt your food, and what about the gun itself?
Weren't you dependent on someone else for both?"
"Well," said the hermit reluctantly, "I guess so."
"The truth is," said the visitor, "that you are not as independent of others as you like to think. Even if you could sustain yourself completely without any of the things we've mentioned, you're still forgetting one vital thing which you could never supply or maintain by yourself."
"What's that?" asked the hermit.
Looking him full in the face, the man said, "Your own life." Whereupon the hermit fell silent and had little else to say.
Edward Fudge tells this story:
One day through the primeval wood, a calf walked home as good calves should. But made a trail all bent askew, a crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then 300 years have fled, and I infer the calf is dead. But still he left behind his trail-and thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day by a lone dog that passed that way.
And then a wise bellwether sheep pursued the trail o'er vale and steep, and drew the flock behind him, too, as good bellwethers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade, through those old woods a path was made. And many men wound in and out, and dodged and turned and bent about, and uttered words of righteous wrath because 'twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed the first migrations of that calf, who through this winding woodway stalked-because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane, that bent and turned and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road, where many a poor horse with his load toiled on beneath the burning sun, and traveled some three miles in one. And thus a century and a half they trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet. The road became a village street; and this, before men were aware, a city's crowded thoroughfare. And soon the central street was this of a renowned metropolis. And men two centuries and a half trod in the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout followed this zigzag calf about, and over his crooked journey went the traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led by one calf, near three centuries dead. They followed still his crooked way, and lost 100 years a day.
For thus such reverence is lent to well-established precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach were I ordained and called to preach.
For men are prone to go it blind along the calf paths of the mind, and work away from sun to sun to do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track, and out and in, and forth and back, and still their dubious course pursue, to keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove, along which all their lives they move. But how the wise old woods do laugh, who saw the first primeval calf.
Ah, many thing this tale might teach, but I am not ordained to preach!
The closer to God we are, the more peace and happiness we shall experience. A baker never expects to get a better cake than the ingredients he puts into it. Yet many people who complain that life is not as rewarding as they expected it to be, forget that in leaving out God they have left out that which alone can give life its glory, hope, love, and joy.
Two friends, meeting after a long time, were discussing the current breakdown in morals, especially among the younger generation. "What do you suppose really causes it?" asked one who in the past had openly declared she felt no need of God in her life. Her Christian friend hesitated, feeling it would be useless to give her own opinion as a believer since the other had so often rejected her attempts in the past to speak of religious matters. Before she could formulate a reply, however, her friend advanced her own theory. "Don't you think the breakdown in religious values has something to do with it?" "Yes, I do," agreed the other quickly. "If young people have turned their backs on religion and feel that God doesn't exist, they no longer have any absolute standards of right and wrong, no authority to turn to for direction, and the result is confusion. Everyone does that which is right in his own eyes." Surprisingly, her friend agreed with her. Even unbelievers are beginning to realize that if God doesn't exist, society has nothing on which to base its ethics.
Public opinion has its own valid functions, but it is inappropriate and insufficient in guiding a Christian worker. A broom, for instance, is not adapted to clean an oil painting. It has its own function, that of cleaning a floor, and it discharges this much more efficiently than if it were a paintbrush. How disastrous it would be if a body of well-meaning and earnest persons, armed with brooms, were to burst into an art gallery with a view to improving the paintings. The best intentions won't enable a rough instrument to accomplish work for which it is unfit. Similarly, public opinion, by reason of its conglomerate nature and massive force, is unfit to deal with the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.
The Second Book of Kings and the sixth chapter tells us of an interesting event. Elisha, the prophet of God, was given knowledge of the planned activities of the Syrian King to destroy Israel. Elisha warned Israel, which angered the Syrian King, who then sought to kill Elisha. The servant of Elisha awoke one morning, looked out and saw the Syrian army surrounding the city. He became very frightened. But Elisha was not afraid because he could see the Lord's protection.
Then, in verse 17, Elisha prayed that the Lord would open the eyes of the servant that he, too, would see what Elisha saw. In this prayer, Elisha was not referring to physical sight. The servant had that, for he could see the army, but he had no spiritual sight to see the Lord's protection.
Now there are many people who have perfect vision in the natural eyes, but they are blind spiritually, just as this young servant of Elisha.
Only the Lord can give men spiritual eyes to see their lost and ruined condition. Only the Lord can show men the holy wrath of God against their sin. Only the Lord can reveal the glory of a beaten, scourged, and crucified Christ. Only the Lord can give men a revelation of the exalted, risen, Christ, ruling the universe and providing for, protecting, and caring for His redeemed. Without this revelation, no man will come to Christ in saving faith.
Have your eyes been opened to see the glorious person and work of the blessed Son of God? The young servant of Elisha could not see the mountains full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha until the Lord opened his eyes. Neither can the sinner see the glory of Christ until the Lord opens his blind eyes.
"Lord, I pray Thee, open their eyes, that they may see."
A young man living in New York, whose eyes had been troubling him, consulted an optometrist.
"What you want to do," said the specialist, "is to take a trip every day on the ferry, or in New Jersey, Long Island-any place where you can see long distances. Look up and down the river, across the fields, or, if it comes to the worst, go to the top of a skyscraper, and scan the horizon from that point. The idea is to get distance. You can use your eyes a great deal and always at close range. You can't use them any other way in town. Even when not reading and writing, the vision is limited by small rooms and narrow streets. No matter in what direction you look, there is a blank wall not far away to shut off the sight."
Even so it is true in the matter of our spiritual vision. The reason so many of us do not understand the things of God better is because we do not get distance. We confine truth, we limit the divine to what we know-to what is immediately about us. Get out and get "distance."
Begin with a part of the Church instead of attempting to move the whole mass together. Those of us who were country boys know how impossible it is to make a fire out of green logs alone; but if we can get some dry sticks kindled around and underneath these green logs, we can make a very hot fire with them. Don't begin your revival by trying to rouse the whole unseasoned mass of Church members, but begin with a few of the most spiritual, and from these work out towards the others. Lyman Beecher said, in answer to the question, How can we promote a revival in the Church? "First get revived yourself, then get some brother Church member revived, and the work has begun." That is practical wisdom.
-A. J. Gordon
Some men remind me of a poor immigrant who was discovered walking on the tracks of a railroad in New Jersey. On his back he carried a huge bulk and as he trudged on, worn and weary, he resembled Bunyan's pilgrim with his burden. In passing a station an agent ordered him off the track, reminding him that he was liable to arrest for trespassing. The man demurred and produced a railroad ticket good for passage from Jersey City to Scranton. The agent looked at him in amazement and asked why he was walking when he might ride. The stranger replied that he thought the ticket gave him only the privilege of walking over the road. His right was explained to him and the tired man with delight boarded the first train for his destination. Surely the angels must look with wonderment at the thousands who trudge along, anxious and careworn, bearing life's burdens without divine help and future hope, for every soul carries in the conscience the ticket of divine promise: "Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 22:21).
An old man living on a gentleman's estate in Glamorganshire, used to go to the chapel along the gentleman's private walk, because he saved a considerable distance by going that way. Some unkind neighbor told the gentleman, who was a magistrate, about it. One day, when the poor old man was going to the house of God, he met him on his private walk, and said:
"What right have you on this path?"
"No right at all, sir," he answered; "but I thought you wouldn't mind an old man who has lived on your estate so many years going this way to the house of God, especially as it's so far the other way."
"Give me your stick!" said he sternly.
The trembling old saint gave him his stick, not knowing what to expect next. Then to his surprise, the gentleman, with a kind smile and in the gentlest tones, said to him, as he gave him in return his own walking-stick mounted with gold and bearing his own crest:
"Here, my good man, when anyone asks you again what right you have this way, show them this, and tell them I gave it to you!"
That was what the father did to his returned prodigal son. He put a ring on his finger. It was a sign of sonship which he could show to anyone who might tell him he had no right there.
There lived in a poor village a girl of sixteen. She was never more than six months at school, but she thirsted for knowledge. She almost learned by heart the few books within her reach, and then turned to study the Bible. The result was conversion, and with the experience of forgiveness, a great desire to serve her Savior. She thought of her brothers, and read to them, over and over again, the Bible lessons she had learned herself. She had heard of Sabbath schools, and determined to establish one for her scattered neighbors. Her father permitting the use of the kitchen, it was soon filled, the old and middle-aged coming for instruction as well as the young. Years passed, and in place of scores, hundreds were seen in that school every Sabbath. A neat church, too, grew up beside the old kitchen. That teacher has gone to her rest, but her work continues. One brother, who learned the truth from her lips, devoted himself to the ministry; others are useful Christians, and one of her scholars became a foreign missionary.
That is a splendid appeal of St. Paul, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above" (Colossians 3:1). One may be very much alive in every other department of his being, and yet share no spiritual life with Jesus Christ. Dr. C. A. Berry, of Wolverhampton, England, has given utterance to this striking sentence: "It is possible to be intellectually great, ethically enthusiastic, and spiritually dead."
Christ declares that where one's treasure is there the heart will be also. We cannot at the same time serve God and Mammon. Many times, without intending it, the Christian loses the sweetest treasure of his spiritual life by being drawn away by the things of the world. A young lady in Kansas City lost the gold ring which had been given to her by her husband at the time they became engaged. She advertised for the trinket, and offered rewards greatly in excess of its value, but with no result. Some time after another lady went into a store and commenced to try on kid gloves. Her surprise may be imagined when, in removing a glove from her hand, she found a strange gold ring upon one of her fingers. The ring was engraved "From Willis to Emma," and was at once recognized as the one lost by her friend, who had been trying on gloves in the same store, and left the ring in the glove when withdrawing her hand.
God has not given us vast learning to solve all the problems, or unfailing wisdom to direct all the wanderings of our brothers' lives; but He has given to every one of us the power to be spiritual, and by our spirituality to lift and enlarge and enlighten the lives we touch.
-Phillips Brooks
Unless the Spirit of God be upon us, we have no might from within and no means from without to rely upon. Wait upon the Lord, beloved, and seek strength from Him alone. There cannot come out of you what has not been put into you. You must receive and then give out.
-C. H. Spurgeon
A Christian worker in Arizona tells of a fierce looking cowboy who came to him asking for copies of Mark's Gospel, and who told him this story: "I went to San Francisco and threw away much money in rough revelry. I slept late after a night of dissipation. When I awoke I saw a little Book on the table near my bed: the Gospel of Mark. I angrily threw it on the floor. I did the same thing the second morning. Awaking the third morning, I saw that same little Book. This time I took it with me to a nearby park and began to examine it. I spent the day reading it. I heard the Son of God say to a leper, 'Be thou clean' (Mark 1:41). I heard him say to a paralytic, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee' (Mark 2:5, Mark 2:9). I heard him commend the widow for her mite (Mark 12:43). I saw him take little children in his arms and bless them. I heard him say, 'Couldst thou not watch one hour?' (Mark 14:37). I saw him die. It broke my heart and changed my life. I am a different man. Now, Stranger, I spend much time giving away copies of the Gospel of Mark."
Years ago there was discovered in Jerusalem a deep cavern close by the Damascus Gate, and those who have explored it have come to the conclusion that it is the spot from which the stones were taken to build the glorious Temple of Solomon. It was there that the hammering and the cutting were done. It was there that the stones were shaped, and from thence, by some process that we do not now understand, they were brought from their deep grave, and separately placed in position upon Mount Zion. The blocks of stone were taken one by one out of the bowels of the earth and out of darkness, and then carried by mighty power to the temple walls, until, when the last stone was cut out and placed in position, with shoutings of "grace unto it," the whole building was complete. This forms a beautiful illustration of the way in which the Lord builds His spiritual temple. The Spirit of God goes into the deep black quarry of fallen nature, and there hews out the hidden stones, and by His own almighty power bears them to the foundation stone and places them in a living temple to go no more out forever.
Mr. Spurgeon once preached what in his judgment was one of his poorest sermons. He stammered and floundered, and when he got through felt that it had been a complete failure. He was greatly humiliated, and when he got home he fell on his knees and said, "Lord, God, thou canst do something with nothing. Bless that poor sermon." And all through the week he would utter that prayer. He would wake up in the night and pray about it. He determined that the next Sunday he would redeem himself by preaching a great sermon. Sure enough, the next Sunday the sermon went off beautifully. At the close, the people crowded about him and covered him with praise. Spurgeon went home pleased with himself, and that night he slept like a baby. But he said to himself, "I'll watch the results of those two sermons." What were they? From the one that had seemed a failure he was able to trace forty-one conversions. And from that magnificent sermon he was unable to discover that a single soul was saved. Spurgeon's explanation was that the Spirit of God used the one and did not use the other. We can do nothing without the Spirit who "helpeth our infirmities" (Romans 8:26).
A man builds him a house two stories high; but money fails, and he does not put on any roof. What is he going to do now? Live in it? He cannot live in it. Until somebody can put a roof on it, and close it in, it is not good to live in. Honesty, kindness and neighborliness are good things. Care for the laws of life is a very good thing. If this was all of our life, if these external and bodily relationships represented the sum total of all our experience, all that we should want would be morality. But we live again. We live in a populous realm more crowded with entities and realities than that which we see. We are living in this world conformably to the world. It is very well as far as the world is concerned; but we are not of this world only. Man, a creature of two worlds, must conform to the necessary laws of this, and also to the laws of that other which is higher, and more important to his spiritual and intellectual manhood.
Suppose we saw an enemy sitting down before a granite fort, and they told us they intended to batter it down. We might ask them "How?" They point to a cannon ball. "Well, but there is no power in that. It is heavy, but not more than half-a-hundred, or perhaps a hundred weight. If all the men in the army hurled it against the fort they would make no impression." They say, "No; but look at the cannon." "Well, there is no power in that. A child may ride upon it, a bird may perch in its mouth. It is a machine, and nothing more." "But look at the powder!" "Well, there is no power in that. A child may spill it, a sparrow may peck it." Yet this powerless powder and powerless ball are put into the powerless cannon; one spark of fire enters it and then, in the twinkling of an eye, that powder is a flash of lightning, and that ball a thunderbolt, which smites as if it had been sent from heaven." It is yours, then, to forge the cannon, to mold the ball, to make the powder, and to lay the charge ready for the sudden flash.
A Christian has been renewed and enlightened by the Spirit. He may be expected to walk in the light, no more doing the deeds of darkness. This is acceptable to the Lord; and to those so walking God gives usefulness. They set an example; they witness for God; they show that the fear of God purifies heart and life. But this is not done in their own wisdom or power. It is "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9). Would we be good, righteous, true? Then let the Spirit work within us. Let us be led and guided by this divine Counselor. Walk in the Spirit.
In this mixture of good and evil which we call man, this motley and medley which we call human character, it is the good and not the evil which is the foundation color of the whole. Man is a son of God on whom the devil has laid his hand, not a child of the devil whom God is trying to steal.
The great truth of redemption, the great idea of salvation, is that the realm belongs to truth, that the lie is everywhere and always an intruder and a foe. He came in, therefore he may be driven out. When he is driven out, and man is purely man, then man is saved. It is the glory and the preciousness of the first mysterious, poetic chapters of Genesis that they are radiant all through their sadness with that truth.
There are hours of mental darkness and depression for us in this sin-laden world. What shall we do? Resort to fiction, fashion, or forgetfulness produced by the winecup and the like? No; let us look up. The Lord is our light. There are times of fear and apprehension; but He is our salvation. We are sometimes painfully conscious of our weakness in presence of many hostile forces, from Satan, the world, and our own remaining and selfish love of sin. But let us not be afraid. He is the strength of our life. Reader, are you leaning on Him?
To learn what it is to be a genuine Christian, and why such a Christian does not go to wreck amid all the temptations of the present evil world, we need only go to our Bibles. In the thirty-third chapter of Isaiah we light, for example, on this grand description of the righteous man: "He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." Every word of this is worth studying; it tells the secret of spiritual strength and security, and simply because there is a divine support and a divine supply.
Have you ever felt like you were "in the dark"?
The lights finally went back on on November 10, 1966. The night before, nine states in the Northeastern U.S. experienced the greatest power failure in history.
The newspapers read, "Most traffic signals gave out; intersections jammed. Skyscraper elevators halted between floors. As of midnight, untold numbers were still trapped in them. Operating rooms went dark. Airplanes circled darkened landing strips." While most adults were paralyzed, one child would later write, "It was dark! We had popcorn in the fireplace! It was fun!"
Your Creator describes everyone who doesn't walk with him as "being in darkness." You can be in constant illumination from external sources, but if you are not wired to God through His Son, Jesus Christ, you are living in an unending spiritual power failure. The Bible says, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth" (1 John 1:5, 1 John 1:6 NIV. Jesus is the "Ultimate Power Source" that will guarantee that you will never be "in the dark" again!
Remember: Light up your life by plugging into Jesus Christ.
Reflections
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