Reformation Faith For The Final Crisis.
Lessons from the Life of a True Reformer
John the Baptist
Elder Saul Leacock
CHAPTER 1
Where Genuine Reformation Begins
“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Eph. 3:16, 17.
Stop! Think! Where were your thoughts just five minutes ago? Just five minutes before you picked up this booklet and began to read. What were you thinking or experiencing about two hours ago? Where were your thoughts? What feelings were you experiencing? How about yesterday and the day before or during this week? Just take a few moments or minutes to reflect on these questions before you continue to read.
Why am I asking such questions? Simply because, it is in this area of our lives, in “THE INNER MAN,” where character is formed.
“If the thoughts are wrong, the feelings will be wrong, and the thoughts and feelings combined make up the moral character. Mind, Character and Personality, p. 660.
It is not how I dress or eat. It is not my organizational ability. It is not my intellect or reasoning. It is not my attendance at church or even my Christian profession that determine my character. IT IS DETERMINED BY THE THOUGHTS AND RESULTING FEELINGS THAT I RAVE. That’s why we are told to “bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Cor. 10:5.
If we don’t bring our thoughts into captivity to obey Christ, our natural, human, fleshly tendency will be to think about ourselves — our “self” first in all situations. Even our thoughts of others will be relationship to how they affect us. Genesis 6:5 says it this way; “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that EVERY IMAGINATION (reasoning) of the thoughts of the heart (the inner man) was only evil continually (every day).” The thoughts of the people were self-centred. Their reasonings were self-motivated and actuated. Isn’t this the way it is today?
I remember clearly one Sabbath when we were driving to church. On the way, my wife said something that struck a cord in my heart. I didn’t agree and told her so. Then, she responded to my disagreement, and I to hers, and so it went back and forth, each time getting more intense, more calculated, more cutting. Each of our thoughts generated feelings and emotions that corresponded to them. SELF was very much ALIVE! My thoughts — my wife’s thoughts were centred on the self in each of us. In the back seat seeing and hearing were our two little boys. The ones we were raising to be Christians. The ones we told that it was not nice to quarrel and argue and that it was not like Jesus. We were now pulling into the churchyard and both of us got our last word in before we opened the car doors. Taking our little boys by the hands we walked into the children’s section and the first person that met us we both greeted with a big smile and said “Hi how are you doing? Have a pleasant Sabbath!”
What part of this little story do you think had the greatest impact on our character? Do you think our boys learned more by how we acted in the car or at church? You see our profession and all the outward display and reforms are valueless if our thoughts are not in Christ. Neither of us had true peace — the peace that radiates from our countenance from within. The aura that we may not see but is visible to others.
And where did all this manifestation of self begin? Right in my thoughts -in my wife’s thoughts. Each of us thinking, rehearsing and massaging our own thoughts inwardly with our feelings and emotions in active agreement with those thoughts. The two combined became our character and were allowed to find expression in the words we spoke to one another.
But brethren and friends, it doesn’t have to be this way. There is HOPE!There is FREEDOM for us from this bondage of selfish wrong thoughts. It is found in the working of God’s Spirit in our thoughts.
“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” Eph. 3:16.
Did you hear that? God will work in our minds and strengthen our minds (give us His thoughts to think) through His Spirit that we may receive His glory — His Character. But we must make the choice to surrender our own thoughts and take hold of the thoughts He will give us.
Sometimes under circumstances of disappointment, frustration and irritability we begin to make excuses, cast blame rather than take full responsibility. Right at that moment the Spirit of God is speaking, asking us to surrender those thoughts to Him that He may strengthen the inner man. It is on these occasions that our children and others are listening and watching to see if we are going to be “real living Christians.”
Remember, “It is the little things in life that reveal a person’s real character.” Our Father Cares p. 105.
“It is the little things of life that develop the spirit and determine the character. Those who neglect the little things will not be prepared to endure severe tests when they are brought to bear upon them.” Ibid p. 159.
“Those who are christians in the home will be christians in the church and in the world... if you are...to be the light of the world, that light is to shine in your home... the measure of your christianity is gauged by the character of your home life. Ibid p. 46.
“If the hearts were kept tender in our families, if there were a noble, generous deference to each other’s tastes and opinions, if the wife were seeking opportunities to express her love by actions in her courtesies to her husband, and the husband were manifesting the same consideration and kindly regard for the wife, the children would partake of the same spirit. The influence would pervade the household, and what a tide of misery would be saved in families.” Ibid p. 158.
All this may seem so insignificant brethren, but this is how God wants to strengthen us “by His Spirit in the inner man.” It is too often the case that in these little things we let our natural, fleshly thoughts rule us and our feelings harmonize with them, making us and those around us very miserable. We rehearse our thoughts quietly in our own minds, even what we will say to such and such a person, the next time. Our feelings and emotions enter into action stimulated from our thoughts and soon such a small trial turns into a BIG DEFEAT in our Christian life. We let others’ actions determine our reactions. Why? Because we have not allowed the Spirit of God to work on the inner man, we just wanted to think and believe as we view it from our selfish perspective, not others or God’s.
“God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them into positions which are CALCULATED to reveal the motives of the heart. Some endure at one point but fall off at the next. AT EVERY ADVANCE STEP THE HEART IS TESTED AND TRIED A LITTLE CLOSER. If any find their hearts opposed to the STRAIGHT WORK OF GOD, it should convince them that they have a work to do in overcoming, or they will be finally rejected of the Lord.” M.C.P. p.347, 348.
Why is this so? Simply because our thoughts and feelings together make up our moral character. In the inner man, we have said no to the Spirit and our character becomes like our adversary. What an encouragement to be kept by the power of God through faith, kept in my thoughts and emotions, the inner me. Prov. 23:7 says, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Whatever our thoughts are, that is what we will become.
“To every soul things will come to provoke, to stir up anger, and if you are not under the full control of God, you will be provoked when these things come. But the meekness of Christ calms the ruffled spirit, controls the tongue, and brings the whole being into subjection to God. Thus we learn how to bear with the censure of others. We shall be misjudged, but the precious ornament of a meek and quiet spirit teaches us how to bear, how to have pity for those who utter hasty, unadvised words. Any unpleasant spirit displayed is sure to arouse the demon of passion in unguarded hearts. Unholy anger need not be strengthened, but bridled. It is a spark which will set on fire untamed human nature. Avoid speaking words which will stir up strife. Rather suffer wrong than do wrong. God requires every one of His followers as far as possible to live peaceably with all men.” Our Father Cares p. 109; OHC. p. 265.
Brethren and friends, are you holding onto wrong thoughts and feelings? Are you holding bitterness, hatred, anger towards someone or maybe just holding yourself aloof from a person who doesn’t see it “my way”? Are you Wives holding bitterness against your husband because of the way he has treated you? Are you husbands holding thoughts and feelings against your Wife because she isn’t meeting your needs as you perceive them?- Are you children holding onto feelings of resentment and rebellion against your parents? Are your thoughts pure? Or are you deceiving yourself to think that you can let your mind wander on in secret imagination or passion thinking that no one will ever know? Do you find yourself “feeling depressed?” How can we know if we are holding on to some of these things? The easiest way for me to know in my own heart is what THOUGHTS do I have about that person and what FEELINGS are associated with those thoughts? When we detect any wrong thought or feeling, we should immediately ask the Lord to take it away from us and to give us freedom from our natural heart. We must choose to banish the thought and the Lord will give us other thoughts to take their place and we should think on these things (Phil. 4:8). If we choose to hold onto our own thoughts, they will consume us and we will become what we think.
“It is a law both of the intellectual and the spiritual nature that by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence.” Mind, character and Personality, p. 331.
We may suppose that our thoughts, secret passions or desires are hid from others and that there is no harm in them, but they will at some point in our life be manifested if they are not overcome in the inner man. Luke 8:7. Be sure your sin shall find you out.
“The reason of temptation, under which, it may be, one falls into grievous sin, does not create the evil that is revealed but only develops or makes manifest that which was HIDDEN and LATENT in the heart.” TMB p. 60.
It is a reality too that there are some events which have occurred in our lives more than ten (10) years ago, which may still be fresh and alive within us with the accompanying hurt, anger, jealousy and bitterness which we felt then. When temptation comes in a specific form, all those feelings and emotions experienced then come back to life just as if the previous situation had just happened. Sometimes we may be shocked that all those old feelings and thoughts remained throughout the years. We thought we had dealt with them by not rehearsing them anymore.
Only when we ask God to remove them in all honesty and sincerity and really mean it, will God hear and answer our prayer. “If I regard iniquity (inner bent and inclination to sin) in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Psalm 66:18.
Immediately all thoughts and feelings will be gone and we will never see them return. O yes we may remember the thoughts of the experience but not the bondage of the old feelings and emotions.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” Prov. 4:23.
Brethren, it is not enough just to put a smile on our face, and try to say the right words to give the outward impression of being a Christian. True genuine reformation begin IN THE INNER MAN, in the LITTLE THINGS OF LIFE, in THE HOME and thence forth everywhere else.
“For which cause we faint not: but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” (2 Cor. 4:16) See also Col. 3:8-10; Eph. 4:22-24.
“Why is it that many who profess to have faith in Christ have no strength to stand against the temptations of the enemy? — It is because they are not strengthened with might BY HIS SPIRIT in the INNER MAN.” Our Father Cares p. 114; OHC p. 365.
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