Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers 2

Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers 2

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3 NIV)

The new creation is a company, it is a Body indwelt by the Holy Spirit, actuated by the Holy Spirit, actually made one by the Holy Spirit. “In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13). The oneness is the oneness of the Holy Spirit. “Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3), not to make it but to keep it. A new creation.

Well now, of course that is just the key that opens the door to everything when you see what new creation Life means. And with that you introduce the whole matter of the proper order, the proper regulated order of heavenly Life. Heavenly Life is according to heavenly law. It is not lawless. Each member of this body is not a law unto himself or herself. We are bound by this integrating, regulating law, that we are not allowed to be independent. Here the Holy Spirit forbids it. We are not allowed to take the law into our own hands. We are not allowed to act as individuals; the Holy Spirit will not allow it. There is a regulating order with this Life. This Life expresses itself according to its own laws, as life does in every part of the organic creation. It follows its own lines. That part of the creation follows the laws of the life which it possesses, and this is the Life of the Spirit, and you have not to organize or systematize this. Immediately you begin to do it, you bring death in. It is as fatal to try and make a New Testament church after the New Testament pattern as it is to have no pattern at all! It can be deathly to do that. The thing happens if the Life has its way. We have learned this, yet, much as we know about the truth, we are still so much governed by our own natural life, even in our spiritual activities. There is disorder and running before the Spirit. However, we are all in the school, and we are just stating the laws, the principles and the truth that here you have no need to go and organize something on a New Testament basis. It will come about if the Holy Spirit is really having His way in terms of Life.

~T. Austin-Sparks~
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BIBLE MEDITATION: And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16 DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: If you asked a Christian brother or sister why God made us, they would probably say that we were made to serve God. But don’t you believe it. If God wanted servants, He could do a lot better than mere mortals. When the scribes asked Jesus what was the first commandment, He said, “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:29-30). The first commandment is not to do something for God, but to love God. He made you and me in the likeness of His image, that He might have fellowship with us and that we would praise Him. ACTION POINT: Meditate throughout the day on this wonderful thought: God isn’t asking for your performance. He wants your love. ~Adrian Rogers~ ______________________ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. (Ephesians 1:3 NLT) Some people seem to think that spirituality is a kind of mystical or mythical "something" – that spirituality is something remote from reality, a kind of frame of mind. Well, spirituality is certainly not a frame of mind in the first place. We speak of a calm and heavenly frame... and there may be something of this kind as a fruit of it... but spirituality is not a nebulous, mythical, or abstract thing. Spirituality is the most practical thing. When men or women are called by God into some piece of Divine ministry and, in the face of the demand, are conscious to the last degree that they have no ability, no resource, no power to fulfill that ministry, that in themselves the thing is utterly impossible, that for them to essay to do it would be the utmost folly and absurdity – when in such circumstances they recognize that they have a living Christ in whom are resources more than enough to meet that demand... and by faith lay hold of Him and go forward into the ministry with that consciousness... that is spirituality; and that is practical, tremendously practical. The issues prove that it is practical. It is in that way heavenly things are done. ~T. Austin-Sparks~ ___________________ An independent spirit wreaks havoc in a church. When all the members of a church focus on their common union with Christ, follow Him as their head, and use their individual gifts to serve one another with an attitude of humility and love, the church functions properly, believers are blessed, and God is glorified. But if some members choose not to use their spiritual gifts, whether through feelings of inadequacy or indifference, the church as a whole is robbed of what God placed them there to contribute. Discover the importance of having a humble spirit in this month’s From the Pastor’s Heart. ~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~