The World Should See Something Different in Us

The World Should See Something Different in Us

Quoting John Bunyan . . .

\tThe believer is the only person by whom God shows to the world the power of His grace and the operation of His people's faith. The unbelievers read indeed of the power of grace; of the faith, hope, love, peace, and satisfaction of the heart of the Christian; but they feel nothing of that sin-killing operation that is in these things; these are to them as a story of Rome or Spain. Wherefore to show them in others, what they find is not in themselves; God works faith, hope, and love in a generation that shall serve Him; and by them they shall see what they cannot find in themselves, and by this means they shall be convinced, that though sin, and the pleasures of this life, be sweet to them, yet there is a people otherwise minded.

Even such a people as these, that do indeed see the glory of that which others read of and from that sight take pleasure in those things which others read of and from that sight take pleasure in those things which they are most averse unto. To this, I say are Christians called; herein is God glorified; hereby are sinners convinced: and by this the world condemned.

\t
From: \t

Christian Behavior: The Fruits of True Christianity, 1674

Amen TJ.

The sentiment is understandable but the words are difficult to follow.

It seems to say - the world should see the hope, faith and love of God reflected from us and that serves to draw them to him, or else unable to give up their sin they turn away. Have I understood it correctly?

You folks are more practiced in reading these writings. It often makes those of us who have not had the advantages in education feel excluded.

Some of the Puritan Writers are easier to understand, like T. Watson.

Regards,
white stone

The first sentence really says it all. Many read the Bible, but without the witness of true Christians, the stories it contains are just that…stories. It is the new nature they must see; a new nature wrought through spiritual rebirth that places us in radical departure from what comforts and entertains the world. When we display a willingness to endure persecution for His sake, and cast our complete reliance on Him in times of trial, it speaks volumes to the unconverted…He speaks to them through us.

The problem is that many people today claim to be “Christians”, but the witness they often supply is far from the one we read of in the Bible and Church history. This “un-Christian”, Christian witness does not display God’s Gloria and more times then not, it has the disastrous affect of persuading the unconverted that they are no worse off than anyone else.

I pray that God grants a grand showing of genuine conversions and true regeneration to this world!

Sorry for going off like that, did not mean to sermonize…just rambling…

White_Stone wrote:
It seems to say - the world should see the hope, faith and love of God reflected from us and that serves to draw them to him, or else unable to give up their sin they turn away. Have I understood it correctly?

Hi White_Stone. I'll take this opportunity to say how much I enjoy your posts. You were the lone responder to the thread I did around Thanksgiving regarding 'hospitable friends - God's gift to us'. I thoroughly enjoyed your reply.

Now as to your question here. I think the point the writer was trying to make was simply that there are some who just don't get it when they read; the hope then, is that they are able to see it in us.

The world should see, the world should see, but we should also take heed that we practice the presence of God in private, private, private is really where it is.

The privacy factor is where we are pruned and prepared, or better yet let me not make it sound like a clich'e.

In the private is where n when the eye of the Lord brings us into a blaltant reality that no matter what we say in public, the privacy is as it's utmost exposure of our lives. It determines how we do, it is somewhat of a watchdog of the epitome of our reality.....

And brethren, it will be the indicator for our lives. Our hears are utterly and extremely exposed when we have to listen to our own thoughts. They have to be confronted, calmed and made peacefully settled.

We sit or whatever posture before a Holy God, and we must "Come up unto Him, on the mountain of our lives and be there", sit quietly, and grasp.......

This is what I am learning as it pertains to our quiet lives, we must have a truth that can only e revealed by God exposed to us and then God's life empowering us after that. NOT OURS! IT ILL BE FILTHY RAGS IF WE ATTEMPT IT! I AM SURE OF THIS

GodsFire wrote:
NOT OURS! IT ILL BE FILTHY RAGS IF WE ATTEMPT IT! I AM SURE OF THIS

At the end of the campaign Joshua led against their enemies, after God had given them rest from them, he makes the statement we are all familiar with; 'Choose for yourselves this day, whom you will sere'. After he made known his choice they too chimed in, 'We too will serve the Lord'.

Joshua's reply to them, 'You are not able to serve the Lord' - their reply, 'No! We will serve the Lord'.

I find it interesting that this comes on the heals of all the battles and victories and still a few verses later, Joshua tells them, 'throw away the foreign gods that are among you'. Even during their battle against their enemies, when you would think they would be at their purest, they had aquired and held foreign gods.

So Joshua's point, 'You are not able to serve the Lord'. We are not able on our own. You are right. I will take your private time one step further. It is not just an empowering of our will against sin, it is a displacement of it. As we spend more and more time with God, we become more and more full of Him. As we become full of Him, sin and its lure is desplaced. Our nature changes. It is no longer us, but Him. He has restored what the fall stole.

The responses on this thread are what I hoped to find when I joined this forum.

Do you not see, each of you gave your interpretation of the original text and by those, I could hear God speaking.

So many of the threads here are filled with pages of cut/copy/past Scripture quotes. Just book/chapter/verse is all that is usually necessary, perhaps a small verse or two, at most.

You see, I believe God reveals His will to each of us and our individual personality leads us to understand it in different shades. This is why people get into disagreements. (Well, one reason, anyway) Our understandings are colored by our life experiences. Perhaps the way someone can explain a particular part of the Gospel and be understood by a lost soul, when all others that spoke to him seemed to speak foolishness. Each of us are shaped to reach different souls. Think of the jagged edges of a jigsaw puzzle. Not all fit together with each other but all belong to the same puzzle.

Ya'll have a marvelous day, you are all in my prayers nightly,
white stone

MJones, White Stone,
I want to say how wonderful it is to not just to agree, but to agree in such wonder of spirit...

It is marvelous that we should not murmur and mumble against the truth, but to Support one another in the pursuit of Holiness.

MJONEs,

Displacement is absolutely correct, this is how we learn truly to relate to God the Father through the awesome Son JEsus.

It is like any relationship we truly desire to see come to fruition or success, you get fully out of it what you put fully into it, and like you said, this causes for extreme and radical displacement of our sin and shame.

Peace n Love to u all