Steve P. Holcombe, the Converted Gambler: His Life and WorkAlexander, Gross
Religion
Steve P. Holcombe, the Converted Gambler: His Life and Work
Alexander, Gross
Holcombe, Steve P., 1835-; Methodists -- United States -- Biography
in heart turned away from evil and from sin. Meanwhile, ask God to help
you repent, tell Him you are nothing but sin and that you look to Him
for grace to repent right and to turn away from all sin. And as long as
you cleave to one sin, you need not expect to get any relief. Many give
up one thing and another, but think they can hold on to one sin--one
darling sin, one idolized sin--and that God will excuse this one, if
they give up all others. "But be not deceived; God is not mocked," nor
can you trifle with Him. Having thus let go your hold of sin, of your
secret darling sins, and turned away from them with hope of mercy from
God, you can trust in Jesus Christ, His Son crucified for your sins, and
in your stead, and you will surely have peace, and that quickly.
Observe, Paul says he preached faith, not in God the Father, but faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that God reconciles the world
unto Himself, And if you do not accept Jesus and trust in God's mercy,
as shown in Jesus, you will get no relief and no peace. God has promised
nothing outside of Jesus. But He has promised everything to him who
accepts Jesus Christ's suffering and sacrifice as the sufficient and
satisfactory penalty due to his own sins, and believes that Jesus bore
his sins in His body on the cross. If Jesus satisfied Paul, He ought to
satisfy you, and be worthy of your confidence and trust and worship.
Turn from sin, then, with humility and shame that you have so long
grieved God, and trust in Jesus, and Jesus alone, and keep doing so for
days if necessary, and you can not, and shall not, fail to obtain
salvation.
ON SELF-DENIAL.
LUKE IX: 23.
"And He said unto them all, if any man will come after Me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me."
Religion depends on this more than on any other one thing. If we are
willing to give up all our own preferences and to deny all our desires
and inclinations, we shall not have much trouble at any other point. The
greatest hindrance to getting religion or _keeping_ religion is our own
desire for ease, comfort and self-gratification, and our aversion to
enduring any hardship or privation or suffering. The reason why
self-denial is necessary is that our very nature is corrupted and
diseased and we are blinded by sin. Once the will of man was the same as
the will of God; but, since the fall, the will of man and that of God
are directly opposed; and if we live according to God's will, we must go
directly against our own.
Self-denial is necessary in avoiding sin to which we are inclined and
which we find give us pleasure.
But it is necessary also, when no sin or temptation is present, to
preserve that frame of mind which keeps us in readiness for temptation
and enables us to resist it when it does come.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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