AFTER a brief hiatus from our studies in The Complete Green Letters, I have decided to continue on in reviewing and commenting upon the spiritual growth writings of Miles Stanford in The Complete Green Letters. As a reminder, Miles wrote five small books on Christian growth that were eventually combined and published into this one volume. So far in Lessons for the Garden I’ve focused on my favorite, the first two sections titled, Part Two – Foundations of Spiritual Growth and Part One – Principles of Spiritual Growth.These were originally published separately as The Principle of Position and The Green Letters. The other three books were also originally given different titles than that found in The Complete Greens Letters. There is only one of the original five books still being published, and that may not be the much longer. But The Complete Green Letters volume with all five titles is available.
AFTER much prayer and consideration, I’m going to follow a different order in the way the titles are presented in the book, picking up here with the last section (Part Five) titled A Guide to Spiritual Growth. The original published title was Abide Above. As a point of information, I do have some issues with some of the content of these three “other” books which I will touch upon along the way. But even with the differences I may hold on a few points, this does not detract from the wealth of spiritual growth wisdom and instruction that can be gleaned from this material.
AS a reminder, we closed out our study in Principles of Spiritual Growth with the last chapter tilted “Continuance.” That final chapter finished with this gem:
“If our hearts are really true to Him we may be assured He will lead us on in the knowledge of Himself just as fast as we are able to advance. He knows how much we can take in, and He does not fail to minister to us the very food that is suitable to our present need. We may sometimes feel inclined to be impatient with ourselves because we do not make more rapid progress, but we have to learn to trust the Lord with our spiritual education. If our eyes are upon Him, and we follow with simple hearts as He leads us, we shall find that He leads us by a right way and brings us through all the exercises we need in order to form our souls in the appreciation of Himself, and of all those blessed things which are brought to pass in Him. We have to trust His love all through the process, and to learn increasingly to distrust ourselves” (C. A. C.).
WITH that in mind, let us know begin with Chapter 55 – A Guide to Spiritual Growth titled: The Way Up is Down. I will have more to say on this in the next posting.
In the inexorable blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2
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Chapter 55 – “The Way Up Is Down”
The two basic truths to be learned in spiritual progress are: the bankruptcy of self; our riches in Christ.
It is the utter faithfulness of the Father that so deeply impresses the awakened believer, the one who hungers to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations” (Ps. 89:1). Through all my failure, my Father is working for my victory.
And at first it seems quite the opposite of faithfulness when the sovereign Father sets the hungry one’s faith and feet upon the path of His purpose. That is because there is the negative side of death as well as the positive side of life in the working out of His purpose to conform us to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). He has decreed that “all things [both negative and positive] work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
The negative comes first, when the Father begins to transmit that purpose to the life of the Christian in terms of spiritual growth. This is when He may not seem to be very faithful. Nevertheless, “faithful are the wounds of a friend,” because “a friend loveth at all times” (Prov. 27:6; 17:17).
Failure Categorized
With some, the downward trend begins early in the Christian life. After a time of faithfulness in Bible study and memorization, church activity, prayer and witnessing, there comes a decline. Guilt-fostered attempts are made to regain the ground lost, but without avail. Heartbreaking as it is, the badly shaken Christian is being prepared early to realize the power of the self-life.
For most, the awakening comes much later. ……. To be continued
