God's Appointments - Part 2

I will do it again. His prints had melted. You know, there were molded letters in those days. Total loss. But he said, I will do it again. My dear people, I don't know how much of your life you can characterize as being ashes. You know, I wasted 15 precious years in my life. There is not much to show for it at all. But, when the Spirit of God appointed beauty for ashes, it was a new thing that took place in my life. Aimlessness was gone. Purpose came into my life. What was that purpose? You know, in the Lord's prayer, we have some of the heavenly purposes of God put to us in small sentences. We have prayed that prayer many times. All of us would like to say, glorify me. That is the old nature of man. And you will find that old nature sticking up its head every now and again, unless your old man is really crucified with Christ and then he is buried. So, it is a deep disappointment to me to find a converted man who will not admit and acknowledge his failure. Some people imagine that it is demeaning for them to acknowledge their failures or weaknesses. But what does the Bible say? Confess your sins one to another. So that you may be healed. So that they can pray for you. I have found great blessing in a humble admission of failure. And I am always open to see wherein I have failed. And at this point in my life, I must be very quick to retrieve the situation. Otherwise, my failures will be chiseled on time and in the lives of others. Suppose one of us here leaves this world and people ask, what really did he leave behind? What is his legacy? And the reply comes just mere ashes. Big talk. Big show. But mere ashes. My dear friends, you know you can reduce your life by resistance to the Spirit of God to that sad state. No, that is no legacy to leave behind. Whatever he touched turned to ashes. And eventually he left nothing but ashes. Well, that could have been the description of my life. But whatever difference there would be, it is purely because of the Redeemer, the Savior, that redeemed me from destruction. But this is His way of appointing to people who are just ashes. Beauty. God's own appointed beauty. It is not a skin deep beauty. Some people have a very pleasing appearance. Many Indians think a dark skin is a terrible thing. They are really very color conscious. I say to them, and I often think of them this way, if the same countenance were covered with a white complexion, a white skin, how beautiful some of them would appear at first sight. But really they are so beautiful. It is not the skin that makes you beautiful.