I MADE a brief opening comment last time leading into this chapter, Service and Reckoning. I’m inclined to do so again, even though I feel a strong affinity for what our author is saying here, wanting to reinforce his observations with some of my own.
ONE thing however, I did err in the previous comment in that the eBook I’m using for this blog omitted the first paragraph of the chapter found in the original hard copy. I just now noticed that. So to correct that, here is that missing first paragraph:
Most of us have been warned at one time or another about “the barrenness of a busy life.” Well-intentioned as the admonition may be, busyness does not necessarily produce a barren life. Rather, barrenness of life produces busyness!
NOW, plug that back into the beginning of the previous reading and you will see the significance of that statement along with what follows. Our author, Miles Stanford makes some important points here about “doing” before “being” and the sad results. And again, I could add my own affirmations on this point. But, I’m going to hold off for now, and let us get on with our reading and prayerful consideration from where we left off.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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Chapter 44 — Service and Reckoning – Part 2
In our early years most of us place service far ahead of growth. It is true that there are “results” of a sort during this period, but the main lesson we learn in all this eager activity is how not to do things. We are quietly being taught and trained by the Spirit through failure. After a time, our soul-winning becomes more difficult; there are not as many “decisions” as there once were. Worse still, most of these decisions turn out to be just that, and nothing more. Our natural reaction is to place the blame upon those with whom we deal, but the patient Holy Spirit finally enables us to face up to the fact that we are the hindrance. We are failures after all; we cannot serve acceptably.
It is usually this Spirit-planned failure in service by which we are brought to realize our need for growth and maturity. Then arises the heart-burden to become conformed to His image, and have Him do His work through us. The extended Romans Seven failure in this realm also is the Spirit’s means of bringing us to the responsibility of reckoning. Instead of struggle and work, resulting in failure, the pattern becomes reckon and rest, resulting in growth.
Certainly we seek to keep the lost from going to hell, by winning them to the Savior. However, our responsibility in service is not to force decisions, but to allow the Holy Spirit to beget healthy souls through the Word and the testimony of our lives. We are first to be witnesses, then soul-winners. When the Lord Jesus is reigning and manifest in us, others will hunger for Him: “Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21). When the Holy Spirit has convicted them of their need for the Savior, they will freely exercise “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Thus, they will not be badgered into a decision to get saved before they are convicted of being lost; neither will they be coming to Him to get, but to give. At his conversion, Paul, “trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6).
This pattern of service is outlined in the Word. In Acts 2:32, Peter said, “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.” The Holy Spirit used witnesses to convict hearts concerning Christ. “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (v. 37). When hearts were convicted of sin through the loving boldness of believers and the witness of the Word, and they reached out, “Then Peter said unto them, … Repent —“ (v. 38). There was no actual soul-winning attempt until Peter’s witness had effectively prepared hearts, then “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (v. 47).
When our witnessing and personal work is under the control of the Holy Spirit, the burden and aim of our outreach will be not only that others may be brought to the Lord Jesus, but that they may be built up in Him. “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7). …to be continued
