Basic HTML Version
Choose Christ for Yourself, November 22
Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.
Joshua 24:15
, NIV.
To effect the salvation of men, God employs various agencies. He speaks to
them by His Word and by His ministers, and He sends by the Holy Spirit messages
of warning, reproof, and instruction. These means are designed to enlighten the
understanding of the people, to reveal to them their duty and their sins, and the
blessings which they may receive; to awaken in them a sense of spiritual want, that
they may go to Christ and find in Him the grace they need. But many choose to
follow their own way instead of God’s way. They are not reconciled to God, neither
can be, until self is crucified and Christ lives in the heart by faith.
Every individual, by his own act, either puts Christ from him by refusing to
cherish His spirit and follow His example, or he enters into a personal union with
Christ by self-renunciation, faith, and obedience. We must, each for himself, choose
Christ, because He has first chosen us. This union with Christ is to be formed by
those who are naturally at enmity with Him. It is a relation of utter dependence, to
be entered into by a proud heart. This is close work, and many who profess to be
followers of Christ know nothing of it. They nominally accept the Saviour, but not
as the sole ruler of their hearts.
Some feel their need of the atonement, and with the recognition of this need,
and the desire for a change of heart, a struggle begins. To renounce their own will,
perhaps their chosen objects of affection or pursuit, requires an effort, at which many
hesitate and falter and turn back. Yet this battle must be fought by every heart that
is truly converted. We must war against temptations without and within. We must
gain the victory over self, crucify the affections and lusts; and then begins the union
of the soul with Christ. As the dry and apparently lifeless branch is grafted into the
living tree, so may we become living branches of the True Vine. And the fruit which
was borne by Christ will be borne by all His followers. After this union is formed, it
can be preserved only by continual, earnest, painstaking effort. Christ exercises His
power to preserve and guard this sacred tie, and the dependent, helpless sinner must
act his part with untiring energy....
Every Christian must stand on guard continually, watching every avenue of the
soul where Satan might find access. He must pray for divine help and at the same
time resolutely resist every inclination to sin. By courage, by faith, by persevering
toil, he can conquer. But let him remember that to gain the victory Christ must abide
in him and he in Christ.... It is only by personal union with Christ, by communion
with Him daily, hourly, that we can bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit (
Testimonies
for the Church 5:46-48
).
[341]
345