humility--a. murray

i posted this on my xanga journal...i know some of you might have read this book already but i just thought i'd post some highlights that really convicted me. i would recommend this book above many others (except the Bible of course :) )in Christ,arielleas i finish reading this (very good) book tonight (and, believe me i will read this book many more times...over and over again..) the Lord has opened my eyes to see what true humility is. not only what true humility is, but how much humility we, as Christians are lacking. i have found that once we finally find what true humility is (losing ourselves in Christ,) everything else will fall into place. missions, revival, evangelism, should be pushed aside until we are fully able to see the true light of Him and His humility. we can not make ourselves more holy, more righteous, more spirit-filled....it is only through His grace that we may humble ourselves before Him....then He will be able to work in and through us for His glory. if the Church was to preach the abundance of humility today! if the Church was to practice and live out true humilty! how our eyes would be opened...how our senseless wants and desires as Christians would pass away. oh Lord, may we lose ourselves--everything we are-- in finding all that You are....for there is none like You."he who humbles himself will be exalted." luke 14:11"God gives grace to the humble...humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." james 4:6,10"humilty is simply the sense of entire nothingness that comes when we see how truly God is everything. humility is the secret of blessedness, the desire to be nothing, that allows God to be all in all.humility is nothing but the simple consent of the creature to let God be all, the surrender of itself to His working alone.humility before God is nothing if it is not proven in humility before others. the one infallible test of our holiness will be our humility before God and others. humility is the bloom and beauty of holiness.humility is nothing but the dissapearance of self in the vision that God is all.it is the soul that finds God to be everything that is so filled with His presence there is no place for self.it is humility that brings a soul to be nothing before God and that also removes every hindrance to faith and makes it only fear lest it dishonor Him by not trusting Him completely.self has nothing good in it, except as an empty vessel for God to fill. the highest glory of the creature is in being a vessel, to recieve and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. it can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be everything.in God's presence, humility is not a posture we assume for a time-when we think of Him or pray to Him-but the very spirit of our life.the seemingly insignificant acts of daily life are the tests of eternity, because they prove what spirit possesses us. it is in our most unguarded moments that we truly show who we are and what we are made of. to know a truly humble person, you must follow that one in the common course of daily life.how little this is preached. how seldom it is practiced. how faintly the lack of it is felt or confessed. i cannot say how few attain to some regonizable measure of likeness to Jesus in His humility. but fewer ever think of making it a distinct object of continual desire or prayer. how little the world has seen it. how scarcely it is seen in the inner circle of the Church.to how many of us has it been a new joy in the Christian life to know that we may yield ourselves as servants, as slaves of God, and to find that His service is our highest liberty-the freedom from sin and self?is it any wonder that the Christian life is so often weak and fruitless, when the very root of the Christian life is neglected or unknown? is it any wonder that the joy of salvation is so little felt, when that by which Christ brings it is so seldom sought? until a humility that rests in nothings less than the end and death of self, and which gives up all the honor of man as Jesus did to seek the honor that comes from God alone (which absolutely makes and counts itself nothing) that God may be all, that the Lord alone may be exalted-until such a humility is what we seek in Christ above our chief joy, and welcome at any price, there is very little hope of a faith that will conquer the world." ~ andrew murray"the only hope of a decreasing self is an increasing Christ." f.b. meyer"God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, He can make something out of us." martin luther

The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility. Every seeker after holiness needs to be on his guard, lest unconsciously what was begun in the spirit be perfected in the flesh, and pride creep in where its presence is least expected. Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. There is no place or position so sacred but the Pharisee can enter there. Pride can lift its head in the very temple of God, and make His worship the scene of its self exaltation. Since the time Christ so exposed his pride, the Pharisee has put on the garb of the publican, and the confessor of deep sinfulness equally with the professor of the highest holiness, must be on the watch. Just when We are most anxious to have our heart the temple of God, we shall find the two men coming up to pray. And the publican will find that his danger is not from the Pharisee beside him, who despises him, but the Pharisee within who commends and exalts. In God's temple, when we think we are in the holiest of all, in the presence of His holiness, let us beware of pride. "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.""God, I thank thee, I am not as the rest of men, or even as this publican." It is in that which is just cause for thanksgiving, it is in the very thanksgiving which we render to God, it may be in the very confession that God has done it all, that self finds its cause of complacency. Yes, even when in the temple the language of penitence and trust in God's mercy alone is heard, the Pharisee may take up the note of praise, and in thanking God be congratulating himself. Pride can clothe itself in the garments of praise or of penitence. Even though the words, "I am not as the rest of men" are rejected and condemned, their spirit may too often be found in our feelings and language towards our fellowworshippers and fellow-men. Would you know if this really is so, just listen to the way in which Churches and Christians often speak of one another. How little of the meekness and gentleness of Jesus is to be seen. It is so little remembered that deep humility must be the keynote of what the servants of Jesus say of themselves or each other. Is there not many a Church or assembly of the saints, many a mission or convention, many a society or committee, even many a mission away in heathendom, where the harmony has been disturbed and the work of God hindered, because men who are counted saints have proved in touchiness and haste and impatience, in self-defense and selfassertion, in sharp judgments and unkind words, that they did not each reckon others better than themselves, and that their holiness has but little in it of the meekness of the saints?l In their spiritual history men may have had times of great humbling and brokenness, but what a different thing this is from being clothed with humility, from having an humble spirit, from having that lowliness of mind in which each counts himself the servant of others, and so shows forth the very mind which was also in Jesus Christ."Stand by; for I am holier than thou!" What a parody on holiness! Jesus the Holy One is the humble One: the holiest will ever be the humblest. There is none holy but God: we have as much of holiness as we have of God. And according to what we have of God will be our real humility, because humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all. The holiest will be the humblest. Alas! though the bare-faced boasting Jew of the days of Isaiah is not often to be found, even our manners have taught us not to speak thus, how often his spirit is still seen, whether in the treatment of fellow saints or of the children of the world. In the spirit in which opinions are given, and work is undertaken, and faults are exposed, how often, though the garb be that of the publican, the voice is still that of the Pharisee: "Oh God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men."-Humility (Andrew Murray)Sadly, I always find myself keeping watch for this in my own heart!!!In Him, Chanin

...speaking of pharisee...something i just read by francois fenelon is brought to mind:"it is not surprising that you have a strong ambition to move ahead in spiritual things, and to be closely acquainted with well-known Christians. it is very flattering to self when it can gain some esteem by being very religious, and it eagerly seeks such esteem. oh, how careful we need to be our motives! the progress we are making in the Christian life and the celebrated Christian friends we are making may be all wrongly motivated if we are simply gratifying self. our aim should be to die to the flattering delights of self-love. our aim should be not greatness, but humility. we must learn to love personal obscurity and cotempt, so that our only concern is to glorify God.we can listen to endless sermons about Christian growth, and become perfectly familiar with the language, and yet be as far from its attainment as ever. our great aim should be to be deaf to self, to listen quietly to God, to renounce every but of pride and to devote ourselves to living. let's learn to talk less and do more without caring whether anyone sees us or not.God can teach more than even the most experienced Christians know. He can teach you better than all the books that the world has ever seen. but be careful about your motives in this eager chase after knowledge. all we need is to be poor in spirit, and to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. although being a know-it-all makes us feel important, what is really need to strengthen Christian character is love. so don't be satisfied with anything less than love. you certainly don't think it possible that the love of God and the dethroning of self can only be reached through the acquisition of knowledge. you already know more knowledge than you can use. you would do better to put into practice what you already know. oh how we decieve ourselves when we suppose that we are growing in grace because our vain curiosity is being gratified by the enlightment of our intellect! we need to be humble, and understand that we cannot recieve God's gifts from man. the love of God comes to us only from Jesus." ~francois fenelonin Christ,arielle

Arielle, Bless you.I am sorry, there is a tremendous sadness that pervades the soul in lack of perception and it often raises its ugly head here. It's very failure to be recognized and summed up in this that you brought forth and not surprisingly went largely unnoticed or perhaps it just got bumped in the rush to force another argument... Sigh...There is room for discussion and all, but the wonder is that for all that, how the mechanics can be misplaced for the issues of the heart, the intents and purposes and results of what we have to do with Him...the seemingly insignificant acts of daily life are the tests of eternity, because they prove what spirit possesses us. it is in our most unguarded moments that we truly show who we are and what we are made of. to know a truly humble person, you must follow that one in the common course of daily life.How is this so ... shoved to the side?our aim should be to die to the flattering delights of self-love. our aim should be not greatness, but humility. we must learn to love personal obscurity and contempt, so that our only concern is to glorify God.God can teach more than even the most experienced Christians know. He can teach you better than all the books that the world has ever seen. but be careful about your motives in this eager chase after knowledge. all we need is to be poor in spirit, and to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. although being a know-it-all makes us feel important, what is really need to strengthen Christian character is love. so don't be satisfied with anything less than love. you certainly don't think it possible that the love of God and the dethroning of self can only be reached through the acquisition of knowledge. you already know more knowledge than you can use. you would do better to put into practice what you already know. oh how we decieve ourselves when we suppose that we are growing in grace because our vain curiosity is being gratified by the enlightment of our intellect! we need to be humble, and understand that we cannot recieve God's gifts from man. the love of God comes to us only from Jesus." For all that the Lord came to expose and to fulfill and broaden the understanding of our corrupt selves, the manner and issues of the heart, the inner sin before the outward show, still it gets missed. Lack of concern for others, the shear simplicity and required honesty that Jesus Himself even stooped to, though he needed none of it... Phi 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: Phi 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The equivalent of a New Testament Pharisee, Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel., pride, swagger, haughty ...2Ti 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 2Ti 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 2Ti 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 2Ti 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Somehow that gets interpreted to mean everyone else without it ever being taken to heart... "Is it I?" Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand. ~ Mark Twain