Quiet Talks on John's GospelGordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Religion
Quiet Talks on John's Gospel
Gordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
It may be a "rest" that takes most of the waking hours with most of us,
most of our strength and thought. But there's an undercurrent in every
life. And the undercurrent is the controlling current. It makes us what
we really are. It may be quite different from the upper current
controlled by the outer necessities of circumstances. And with the true
Jesus-man _this_ is the undercurrent, this thing of witnessing.
Do you know something of Jesus? Do you know the cleansing of His blood?
Do you know the music of His peace in your heart? Do you know a bit of
the subtle fragrance of His presence? Do you know the power of His Name
when temptations come, when the road gets slippery, and your feet go out
from under you--almost. Then His Name, its power, and you hold steady.
Do you know something about such things?
Then _tell_ it. This is the plan--_telling_. It's a Gospel of _telling_.
Tell it with your lips tactfully, gently, boldly, earnestly. But tell it
far more, and most with your life. Let what you are, when you're not
thinking about this sort of thing, let that tell it. That's the greatest
telling, the best.
And, softly, now, when you get to the end of telling what you know,
listen quietly, don't go to digging into books for something to tell
your class or the meeting or the crowd. Don't do that. Books have their
place, good books, but it's always a sharply secondary place, or third,
or lower down yet. Poor crowd that must be fed on retailed books worked
over! Don't do that. _Know more._ Know Jesus better. Trust Him more
fully. Risk more on following where He clearly leads. Then you can tell
more and better.
Sometimes I'm asked, "How can I have more faith?" Well, not by thinking
about your faith. Not by books or definitions chiefly, however they may
help some. I can tell you how: _Follow where the Master's quiet voice is
clearly calling._ Go where it is plain to you that that pierced hand is
leading.
"Ah! but the way is a bit narrow," you think. "And it's steep. There are
sharp-edged stones under foot. And those bushes are growing rank on both
sides narrowing the path. And thorns scratch and hurt and sting. This
other road where I am now--this is a good Christian road. My Christian
brothers are here. I'd rather stay here."
And so you _stay_. You don't _say_ "no" to the calling voice. You simply
_act_ "no." No wonder you get confused and tangled. It's only in the
path of following clear leading that there comes sweetest peace, with no
nagging doubts and mental confusion. There only will you have more
faith, know more of Him, touch with whom is the realest faith. And so
only will the witness be told out to the crowd on the street of your
life, of the power and satisfying peace of this Jesus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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