A Call to Repentance - 2

6. CONCENTRATE ON ACCEPTANCE

A man who has become a world leader was defeated and discouraged and about to give up his work in India. He was sick in soul and in body. Then the verse spoke to him: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:3,14 NKJV)) He saw that this well of water within was a gift, began to drink by faith, and from that moment was completely changed. "I haven't had a discouraged or a blue hour in thirty years," he humbly and joyously testifies.

A dean of girls, inwardly tied up with fears and inhibitions and frustrations, sat reading these words: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:36 KJV)) She quietly let their significance sink in -- freedom was a gift which she could take. She did! "I felt like shouting it to the world!" she triumphantly said.

Faith is pure receptivity, alert receptivity, aggressive receptivity.

"O Christ, I come to Thee believing that Thou are completely trustable. I cannot trust myself. I am not trusting my faith, but my faith is trusting Thee. I rest my case, and myself, with Thee. Amen."

"For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:17 NIV)


CLEANSE YOUR PAST

7. CLEANSE YOUR PAST

Make restitution where it is necessary or possible. I say make it where "necessary or possible" because sometimes it is not possible. There are things beyond your recall. Do not sped time in useless worrying over a past you cannot change. He forgives; let that suffice. He wipes it from his "book of remembrance." Bury it all at the foot of the Cross, and put "No Resurrection" over it. The past is buried. Even those continuing effects He can help you counteract and cancel, by starting new redemptive influences. He restores the years which the caterpillar and the locusts have eaten.

Some things it is not necessary to bring up. If more harm than good comes from bringing things up, let them rest, especially if they involve others. Do not develop back-looking conscience, morbidly mourning over the past instead of bravely facing the present and the future in His name.

But some things may have to be straightened out before you can go on. . . You may be afraid of making an apology, of righting a wrong -- afraid of what people will think about you. But only small people are afraid to apologize. "I'd die before I would apologize," said a telephone operator. To which the superintendent of the hospital replied, "Oh, I do that a dozen times a day. It's the easiest thing I do." Result of these two attitudes? The telephone girl stayed a telephone girl; the other woman climbed to the top. The telephone girl got caught in herself; the superintendent was released from herself every time she made an apology.

"O Christ, Thou hast forgiven that past, and where Thy forgiveness is, there can be no infection. But show me if there is left anything for me to do in righting.

BRING CHRIST INTO YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

8. BRING CHRIST INTO YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

(Adapted from original text)

Take the spirit of the Way of God into your total life. You have now one more set of relationships to bring into line with His Way -- your present relationships. To be a Christian is to be in Christian relations. Of course, that must be qualified: Do it as far as it depends on you, for other wills are concerned, and you may not be able to establish Christian relations with them. "As much as it lieth in you, live peaceable with all men." (Rom. 12:18) This is important, but we are to do the Christian thing even though the other person doesn't respond. Here are four areas to consider:

a) The home: Where there are points of friction, talk over things objectively. Try to see the matter from the standpoint of the other person. Project yourself in imagination into the very self of the other person and see things from his or her position. That will take sympathetic imagination. Don't confess the other person's sins; confess your own. That will beget confession in the other person. Even if it doesn't, you have done something to yourself; your peace has returned to you. Next, go beyond talking over points of friction and come together each day in a spiritual quest -- a prayer time together. In that prayer time you will be melted into common purpose and a common mind. In God you will become one.

b) Your daily occupation: That daily occupation can be the extension of your spiritual life, your spiritual life become incarnate in material things. Your Christian character can be registered in the work that you are doing.

c) Your relationships with the person next to you. Become a witness to the new life. Nothing is yours that is not shared. The simplest and most effective thing you can give away is just the thing you have received. Share it.

d) Your relationships with the Church. If you are not in the church, get in. If you are marginally in, get into the center.

"O Christ, I am beginning to extend Thy life and purposes into my contacts which are the extensions of me. Help me to create no longer in my image, but in Thy image. That will not be impossible if Thou are in me -- wholly. Come in, then -- wholly. Amen."


CULTIVATE THE QUIET TIME

9. CULTIVATE THE QUIET TIME

Cultivate your quiet time -- preferably in the morning. We have talked about Christianizing your relationships; we come now to the central relationship, with God. When that relationship is intact, then every other relationship is toned up. If that relationship gets loose, then every other relationship goes loose with it. For the Christian, there is one responsibility and only one responsibility -- to keep in union with God. When that union with God is intact, everything flows from it. I know of no one thing that cultivates union with God more surely and constantly than the regular practice of the Quiet Time. If I have a Quiet Time, I have a quiet heart; but if the Quiet Time goes, the quiet heart goes with it. I can take it or leave it, but this is one of life's inexorables.

Close your eyes, drop into the silence of the heart, and then listen to God. He tells you how much time you can spend in the Quiet Time. Take the figure that fixes itself in your mind with a sense of approval, and start it. Pray by the clock. If it starts being mechanical, it will soon become medicinal -- it will heal your heart.

"O Lord, help me to be obedient in putting first things first, one day at a time. Please grant me the grace to create that space for You, early in the day, upon which I might then build. Thank You, Lord. Amen."


CREATE OUTLETS AND ACTIVITIES

10. CREATE OUTLETS AND ACTIVITIES

The Way is an outgoing way. The first law of life is intake, and the second law of life is outflow. If you try to continue the intake without a corresponding outflow, it will all end in an impasse. The inflow will cease.

The outlets and activities do not need to be great and significant. They may be small and insignificant. But the fact that they represent an outgoing attitude and a sharing purpose makes them significant. For the law of sharing, which is the law of love, which in turn is the law of life, is in operation.

We now sum up the steps: Consider your ways, change your direction, connect with Christ, consent to surrender, cease from struggling, concentrate on acceptance, cleanse your past, Christianize your relationships, cultivate the Quiet Time, and create outlets and activities. Your feet are now on the Way!

"O Christ, how can I thank Thee enough that I am taking these ten steps to freedom. For I feel in my bones that this Way is the way to freedom. For my bonds are breaking, my heart is being released. I know that I am in the process of redemption. I am on the Way. Amen."


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