Lessons From The Life Of A Changed Man

Story source: A. KELLER, N. STARLING; NOVEMBER 27, 2022 CBS News

ILL: There's the story told by Watchman Nee, the Chinese evangelist where he was talking to another Christian in his home. They were downstairs, as was his friend's son. The friend's wife and mother were in an upstairs room. All at once the little boy wanted something and called out to his mother for it.

"It's up here," she said. "Come up and get it."

He cried out to her, "I can't, Mommy; it's such a long way. Please bring it down to me."

He was very small. So the mother picked up what he wanted and brought it down to him. It is just that way with salvation. No one is able to meet his own spirituality, but the Lord Jesus Christ came down to us so our need could be met. Nee writes, "Had he not come, sinners could not have approached him, but he came down in order to lift them up." (Watchman Nee, What Shall This Man Do? (London: Victory press, 1962), 37)

Be a friend to those who you are trying to win. Jesus showed himself as a friend to those who are lost. He was described as having been a friend to sinners and prostitutes. He could've kept aloof from those people but he wouldn't have won anyone that way. Instead, Jesus went to the sick, lost, lonely, distressed, and perishing, and moved among them as a friend.

I wonder if we are witnessing like that? Do you keep aloof or do you go to others? Another way of asking the same thing is to ask whether or not you have contact with non-Christians socially. Do you go to their homes, sit in their kitchens, and ask them about their interests?

ILL: Baptism Is A Sign of Submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ

When the early Christians declared their faith in baptism, they would shout out, “Jesus is Lord!” Baptism has always been a sign of submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. William Barker tells of a machinist at Ford Motor Company in Detroit many years ago who became a Christian and was baptized. Shortly after he got saved, the Holy Spirit convicted him of his need to make restitution for some car parts and tools he had stolen from the company before he had become a Christian. The next morning he brought everything back to his employer, explaining how he had just been baptized and wanted to make things right. His boss was dumbfounded so he sent a cable to Mr. Ford, who was out of the country, asking him how he should handle the situation. Mr. Ford sent an immediate reply: “Make a dam in the Detroit River, and baptize the entire city!”

From a sermon by Brian Bill, Taking the Plunge, 10/25/2009

FOUR WORDS

The great English statement and man of God William Wilberforce once wrote that "Christianity can be condensed into four words: admit, [Christ as Lord] submit, [To Christ as Lord] commit, [Our lives to doing His will] and transmit [The Love of God to a dying world]." (Draper's Quotes, Accessed QuickVerse Platinum 2010) Samuel Wilberforce (1805--1873)