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lwpray
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Joined: 2003/6/22
Posts: 3318
Sweden

 Three Spiritual Laws



Three Spiritual Laws

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1–2)

THE BIBLE SAYS THAT WE ARE TO PRESENT our bodies “as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” Of course, if you give your body, you give everything it contains. That means giving yourself wholly to God, and the idea of giving yourself wholly to God contains three laws.
The first law is the law of surrender. If you do not surrender, it will be totally impossible for the Lord to do anything for you. Surgeons have to have the surrender of their patients. If I went to a surgeon and insisted that I was going to tell him how to do the job and not only that but stay awake and resist him, the surgeon could not work. It would be impossible. Surgeons must put their patients to sleep so they cannot resist, so they are in a state of surrender. That is the law of surrender.
A more beautiful and biblical description is the story of the potter and the clay, which illustrates the law of surrender further. The potter has soft, yielding clay, but if the clay does not surrender, the potter cannot do a thing with it. If there are burnt places, hard places or unsurrendered places in the clay, though the potter be a genius in making vessels, the artist still could not make anything useful and beautiful out of an unyielding blob of clay. It is possible for an object to be useful but not beautiful, like a garbage can. It is also entirely possible to be beautiful and not useful, like the lily. The lily has no utilitarian place in the world.
It is possible to have a vessel that is useful without being beautiful. The old cream crocks in our spring house on the farm were useful all right. You could pour the milk in them, wait for the cream to rise and skim it off. They were not beautiful, but they were quite useful. Everybody has in their home beautiful little knickknacks. They are utterly useless, simply to be enjoyed for their beauty. But God wants His vessels to be both useful and beautiful. If God is going to make those kinds of vessels out of us, however, we are going to have to yield to the law of surrender. Give yourself to God as a living sacrifice and let Him have you—all of you.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/11/7 13:02Profile
lwpray
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Joined: 2003/6/22
Posts: 3318
Sweden

 Re: Three Spiritual Laws



The law of concentration
Then there is the law of concentration. The secret of every successful person is concentration. Take a musician, for example. Most musicians are mediocre because they do not have time to concentrate. They might have greater ability than they are ever able to bring out because other things take their time. But an excellent musician must study and practice five and six hours a day. They must give themselves to it completely and concentrate.
Consider an athlete. The average person goes on the church picnic and plays softball or tosses horseshoes once or twice a year. That is not an athlete.
Athletes are people who live for sports all the time. They play with their teams during the season, and off season they hunt and fish, hustle about, take long hikes and keep themselves in shape. They always have to remember those arms, those hands, those biceps. They are always exercising. They could never say, “Give me two more helpings of pie with whipped cream,” or, “I’m going to sleep for a couple days.” They could never do that—their main concern would be to keep those muscles in shape. That is the law of concentration. Athletes have to concentrate on what they are doing. If they do not, they will only be mediocre sandlot athletes.
It is the same with scientists. Sometimes people have thought that scientists were a bit off because they gave themselves wholly to their research. Thomas Edison slept only four hours a night, since he was so totally given to his research and projects. He lived for nothing else. The result was that he managed to produce many important inventions. That is the law of concentration.
Musicians, athletes and scientists may do other things, but they have just one thing to which they are totally committed.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/11/7 15:14Profile
lwpray
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 Re: Three Spiritual Laws



The law of fascination
Third, there is the law of fascination. This is a little harder to understand, but it is just as real. To be fascinated, according to the dictionary, is to be held spellbound by some irresistible charm. If something does not fascinate us, we can take it or leave it. It is like the various art exhibitions. I can take them or leave them. Some people think a lot of the exhibitions, and I will go if somebody invites me; but I am not fascinated by them. I am not drawn to them by a charm that I cannot break. But in the kingdom of God there is the law of fascination, the law of irresistible charm. Christians who do not know the law will never be anything but half-Christians all their lives. They will always be in the rut.
The law of fascination as seen in the world is often a personal tragedy. Being fascinated by something evil, base or unworthy can be a terrible tragedy.
For example, some young girls may be determined that they are going to be movie stars. They start at thirteen to pluck out their eyebrows and paint themselves up and stand in front of those tall mirrors trying to look like Jayne Mansfield. I suppose all girls go through a phase sometime where they want to be something they will never be, and we will not be too hard on them. But if they do not get over it, and if they begin to want it so badly they sell themselves for it, they may concentrate on it to a point where they are so fascinated by it, their fascination leads them to dismiss their parents as old fogies. They leave home, as many do, and go to the big city to try to make good, determined that they will see their names out in front of the theater. That can be a great curse.
Many men want to be rich. The average businessman wants to make enough money to keep his family comfortable and to have a little left for a rainy day. We can understand that desire. John Wesley used to say, “Make all you can so you can give away all you can.” Wesley wanted his people to work hard and make a lot of money so they could use it for the Lord’s work. That may be a pardonable reason for making as much as possible. But there have been men who have become so enamored of gold that they sold themselves out on the market, sold their hearts and souls in order that they might be rich.
The most pitiful creature in the world is the gambler. The gambler is enamored of gambling, utterly fascinated by it. Fascination can lead to a person’s inability to escape, caught by the wicked charm that evil things have.
Our Lord turns it around and says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–29). In effect He says, “Come to me and be fascinated by me. Concentrate upon me, surrender to me, and yield so completely to me that you can give all to me.”


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/11/8 0:45Profile
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 Re: Three Spiritual Laws



Who has a right to say this? Who has the right to talk like this? Those who knew Him best try to tell us. I suppose they have not succeeded very well, even though the Scriptures are inspired. I am quite sure they do not tell us all that can be known about God. They only tell us as much as they can. Because those inspired men were human and those to whom they wrote were human, there was imperfection and limitation in both the inspired ones and those who read the inspired words. God was not able to say all that He could say about Himself. I am sure the archangels that burn before the throne of God could tell us more about God than we know, even though we have an inspired Bible to tell us. Nevertheless, those who knew Him best tried to tell us.
Moses took us back to the beginning of all that we see, all that we call the universe. He took us back before the stars and moon were, before space was and before time was, and said, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). So Moses said that the One who calls us to Himself has a right to do so because He antedates time, He transcends space, He fills His universe and He is God.
The psalmist also wrote what he knew.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
He wraps himself in light as with agarment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.
He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment.
(Psalm 104:1–6a)

David, in Psalm 103, showed that this God is not only a God who makes mountains, hills, rivers and streams, who rides upon the wings of the clouds, but He loves His people. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him” (Psalms 104: 11). “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts” ( Psalms 104: 17–18). David tried to impart the incommunicable, tried to tell what cannot be told of the wonder of God.

Isaiah asked who could compare with God.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand
marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
Who has understood the mind of the LORD,
or instructed him as his counselor?
Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge
or showed him the path of understanding?
(Isaiah 40:12–14)


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/11/8 8:10Profile
lwpray
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Joined: 2003/6/22
Posts: 3318
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 Re: Three Spiritual Laws



In the New Testament, John tried to tell us about God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” ( John 1:1). “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14). John the Mystic tried to tell us how great God is.
The Apostle Paul also gave us insight on who God is.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. (Colossians 2:9–10)
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (2:15–17)
Why am I giving you all these passages of Scripture? Because I want to tell you who it is who says, “Present your bodies to me. Take your cross and follow me. Give yourself wholly to me. Surrender to me. Concentrate upon me and learn to be fascinated by me.” He is the only One who can say it.
There is only one Man whom we can trust to follow. That Man is Jesus Christ. Why is He different from any other person? Why do I refuse to follow other people, and yet follow this Man? Of no other person can it be said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” ( John 1:14). Of no other person from Adam to now can it be said, “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Of no one else can it be said that three days after He had gone into the grave He rose again. Of no other person can it be said that while they beheld Him,
he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”(Acts 1:9–11)


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/11/8 10:19Profile





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