Cuts and Quotes, 02

God's Total Concentration The one object is Christ. God has, all-inclusively, committed Himself to fill His Son with all things, and to fill all things with His Son. To bring Christ in, and to increase the measure of Christ, both extensively and intensively, is God's sole object, and cooperation with Him in this is the only true service of God. . . Conversions are not ends and objects in themselves. Every new believer is a vessel of Christ. The fact in every "new birth" is that Christ has come in. But the Scriptures do not leave it there. The greater part of the New Testament is occupied with the increase of Christ in believers. That is the personal aspect.Beyond this the Church as a whole is brought into view as that which is to be "the fulness of Him." Then local churches are represented as vessels and vehicles of Christ beyond individual possibility and capacity. The whole idea of the Holy Spirit is to make the fullness of Christ a reality. . . The test of all Christian work will be its effectiveness in really enlarging the measure of Christ in this universe. March, 1962

The Importance of Seeing The Watchman in the Prophets was a man depicted or described as a man with a burden – “the burden of the word of the Lord.”So great are the issues of Purpose, so vital to life and work is the meaning of the Church's eternal vocation, that anyone who enters into it in reality will be one who has a deep sense of heavy responsibility. What he says is what he has seen! But it is unto the seeing that God would bring all His people, for only as they see can they fulfill their heavenly calling. The Church itself is meant to be a Body with eyes wide open. The quest of the great Church-Apostle must be the quest of the Church itself - "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the (full) knowledge of Him" (Ephesians 1:17). January, 1962

Having the Lord’s Hand Upon Us . . . It is not error, not false, and not a mistake to say that the Lord Jesus is making history by His hand being upon us. And if He can get His hand upon us, He will draw out spiritual values from these lives which will be for the good of His people. . . in a measure and in a sense, the Lord can draw values out of your life and mine for His people, beyond anything that we could produce - but for that hand of God upon us. Have you got hold of that? Is it not helpful? It is encouraging. May, 1966

The Basis of God’s Service In the Lord’s work we neither need to push ourselves forward nor to be pushed by others. Our first concern must consist of exercise Godward. If in your secret history you minister to His good pleasure, without the stimulus which comes from public applause, it will sooner or later become apparent. God will see to that. Do not worry too much about your life-work; if you have a hidden life of worship, then that will show itself in the outward service to which He has called you. God has always described His service as worship and regarded worship as basic to His service.

THE PRE-EMINENT MARK OF A LIFE GOVERNED BY THE SPIRITThe mark of a life governed by the Holy Spirit is that such a life is continually and ever more and more occupied with Christ, that Christ is becoming greater and greater, more wonderful as time goes on. The effect of the Holy Spirit's work in us is to bring us to the shore of a mighty ocean which reaches far, far beyond our range, and concerning which we feel: oh, the depths, the fulnesses, of the riches of Christ!If we live as long as ever man lived, we shall still be only on the fringe of this vast fulness that Christ is. That at once becomes a challenge to us before we go any further. These are not just words. This is not just rhetoric; this is truth. Let us ask our hearts at once: Is this true in our case? Is this the kind of life that we know? Are we coming to despair on this matter? That is to say, that we are glimpsing so much as signified by Christ that we know we are beaten, that we are out of this, and will never range all this. It is beyond us, far beyond us, and yet we are drawn on and ever on. Is that true in your experience? That is the mark of a life governed by the Holy Spirit. Christ becomes greater and greater as we go on. If that is true, well, that is the way of life.