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Is Christianity Positive or Negative?

Posted by Tkulp , 19 October 2020 · 0 views

As a C&MA youth, my father a C&MA Pastor, I used to hated the Negativeness of Christianity. No movies, No dancing, no cards, no pool, etc.

 

I was always struggling to do right and do good. It was hard to take time or to spend time reading the Bible. I was a failure and things were getting worse every year of my life. The harder I tried to do good the worse the failures.

 

Then I was told about the power of the Holy Spirit, in a Pentecostal Church, that could live inside your body and encourage and empower you to do what you know was right.

 

What a change happened, when I gave up and surrendered to the control of the Holy Spirit! (I did not speak in tongues.) I could not wait to read the Bible (It was liike an adventure novel) and find out about Jesus and His life. The things that used to take up all of my time slowly faded in value and disappeared from my life.

 

Instead of seeing all the Negatives and trying not to do them, my life was absorbed in walking with the Holy Spirit and all that He was bringing into my life. My desires changed as I sat under the influence of the Word of God, as the Word was opened up to my mind, by the Holy Spirit.

 

I rarely thought about the old negatives as my life focus became upon Jesus Christ and all of His Positives!

 

The thing that is foolishness to the world is that in order to see Jesus' Positives, and find eternal life, one must die to self and all selfishness. Jesus must really be the Master, Ruler, of your life; Who is obeyed at all cost.

 

Instead of being in bondage to your senses, the flesh and selfishness; when you surrender to Christ as your absolute leader, You become a bond servant to Jesus.

 

I do not often read devotionals, but was impressed to read the following, which led to the idea that I should share them with those that the Holy Spirit led here to read them and have their eyes, ears and understanding opened.

 

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October 19

 

Our Daily Walk by F.B. MEYER THE FAR COUNTRY
"When he came to himself, he said... I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned..."-- Luk_15:17-19.

 

WE NEED not travel far to reach the far country--the thought of sin, the wings of passionate evil desire, the lightning flash of a look, may land us as far from God as the east is from the west. The essence of the far country is selfishness. Notice the stress of the prodigal's emphasis upon himself--"give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.'" It is not wrong to make use of and enjoy all the good and perfect gifts with which God strews our life, so long as they are held in thankful recognition of and fellowship with Himself. But when we depart from God, there is waste, for we lack the one object which gathers up all our activities for a worthy focus; riot, because in the absence of God there is no sufficient corrective or antidote for strong and masterful passion; want, because the soul was made for God, and can never be satisfied till it rests in Him.

 

How foolish it is for a man to disjoin himself from God, and to join himself to a citizen in the land of forgetfulness! The citizens of this world have nothing to give to the starving soul of man, save to send it forth to feed the swine, which stand for the lower desires of our nature. This is the alternative which too many wiseacres suggest: "See life, take your fill of pleasure; fill the passing hours with revelry, amusement, dissipation." But the hunger of the soul cannot be appeased thus. Though husks are good for swine, they wilt not suffice for the sons of men. Like the wise man of old, we cry, "He hath put eternity in my heart--vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" We cannot rest in that which contents others. From the putrid swine-troughs we long for the food which the servants enjoy in our Father's home; from the stagnant pools we thirst for the crystal water.
It is under such circumstances that we come back to ourselves--that we come back to our Father. Let us believe in the love of God our Father, which yearns after us in our absence from Him, which sees us while we are yet a great way off, and will run to welcome us, as we return, with forgiveness and restoration.

 

PRAYER
Thou knowest, O Lord, what most I require; help me, and out of the treasury of Thy goodness, succour Thou my needy soul. AMEN.

 

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Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 19, 2020

 

Let us say no to the flesh, the world and the love of self, and learn the holy self-denial of which so much of the life of obedience consists. We must make no provision for the flesh, give no recognition to our lower life. We must say no to everything earthly and selfish. How very much of the life of faith consists in simply denying ourselves.

 

We begin with one great yes to God, and then we conclude with an eternal no to ourselves, the world, the flesh and the devil.

 

Nearly every commandment of the Decalogue is a Thou shalt not. In First Corinthians 13, with its beautiful picture of love, most of the characteristics of love are in the negative-what love does not, thinks not, says not, is not. And so you will find that the largest part of the life of consecration is really saying no.

 

I am not my own,
I belong to Him.
I am His alone,
I belong to Him.
Scripture
Denying ungodliness —Titus 2:12






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