Seite 54 - Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing (1896)

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Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing
God is the fountain of life, and we can have life only as we are in
communion with Him. Separated from God, existence may be ours
for a little time, but we do not possess life. “She that liveth in pleasure
is dead while she liveth.”
1 Timothy 5:6
. Only through the surrender
of our will to God is it possible for Him to impart life to us. Only
by receiving His life through self-surrender is it possible, said Jesus,
for these hidden sins, which I have pointed out, to be overcome. It is
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possible that you may bury them in your hearts and conceal them from
human eyes, but how will you stand in God’s presence?
If you cling to self, refusing to yield your will to God, you are
choosing death. To sin, wherever found, God is a consuming fire. If
you choose sin, and refuse to separate from it, the presence of God,
which consumes sin, must consume you.
It will require a sacrifice to give yourself to God; but it is a sacrifice
of the lower for the higher, the earthly for the spiritual, the perishable
for the eternal. God does not design that our will should be destroyed,
for it is only through its exercise that we can accomplish what He
would have us do. Our will is to be yielded to Him, that we may
receive it again, purified and refined, and so linked in sympathy with
the Divine that He can pour through us the tides of His love and power.
However bitter and painful this surrender may appear to the willful,
wayward heart, yet “it is profitable for thee.”
Not until he fell crippled and helpless upon the breast of the
covenant angel did Jacob know the victory of conquering faith and
receive the title of a prince with God. It was when he “halted upon
his thigh” (
Genesis 32:31
) that the armed bands of Esau were stilled
before him, and the Pharaoh, proud heir of a kingly line, stooped to
crave his blessing. So the Captain of our salvation was made “perfect
through sufferings” (
Hebrews 2:10
), and the children of faith “out
of weakness were made strong,” and “turned to flight the armies of
the aliens” (
Hebrews 11:34
). So do “the lame take the prey” (
Isaiah
33:23
), and the weak become “as David,” and “the house of David ...
[63]
as the angel of the Lord” (
Zechariah 12:8
).
“Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?”—Matthew 19:3.
Among the Jews a man was permitted to put away his wife for
the most trivial offenses, and the woman was then at liberty to marry