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Eternal Life is to Live Christ - Norman Grubb
NORMAN GRUBB - Click On Stained Glass Window
Daily Thoughts - All I have to do is 'Be' - By Sandy Hatchell
Daily Thoughts
All I have to do is 'Be'
By Sandy Hatchell
This body that you see........is not the 'real' me,
You see...I have this 'treasure'
That has filled me with 'His' measure.
The King of life lives in me,
His light and love to share,
He loves His world right through me,
He sees the pain you bear.
My hands are His that touch you,
My smile is His you see,
Look into my eyes and see 'Him',
All I have to do is 'Be'.
All I have to do is 'Be'
By Sandy Hatchell
This body that you see........is not the 'real' me,
You see...I have this 'treasure'
That has filled me with 'His' measure.
The King of life lives in me,
His light and love to share,
He loves His world right through me,
He sees the pain you bear.
My hands are His that touch you,
My smile is His you see,
Look into my eyes and see 'Him',
All I have to do is 'Be'.
Notes from Norman - Milk or Meat? - By Norman P. Grubb
Notes from Norman
Milk or Meat?
By Norman P. Grubb
Folks desperately hungry because they have been fed on the milk of the Gospel, but not on the meat of the deeper aspects of truth. They have a faith, but not an intelligent faith which has given them a foundation of understanding which cannot be shaken......I am deeply convinced, although it sounds awful to say so, that even our deeper life teachers are not really giving the clear foundations, and as a consequence they put many hearers into bondage, because their emphasis to exhort the believer to get on with his consecration, prayer life, witnessing, etc. (really an exhortation to a Romans 7 life!) rather than unveiling to him a Christ who is all, and will surely mould those who recognize Him in their allness in them, into the pattern of life He intends to live in them.
From Knight of Faith, Volume I
Milk or Meat?
By Norman P. Grubb
Folks desperately hungry because they have been fed on the milk of the Gospel, but not on the meat of the deeper aspects of truth. They have a faith, but not an intelligent faith which has given them a foundation of understanding which cannot be shaken......I am deeply convinced, although it sounds awful to say so, that even our deeper life teachers are not really giving the clear foundations, and as a consequence they put many hearers into bondage, because their emphasis to exhort the believer to get on with his consecration, prayer life, witnessing, etc. (really an exhortation to a Romans 7 life!) rather than unveiling to him a Christ who is all, and will surely mould those who recognize Him in their allness in them, into the pattern of life He intends to live in them.
From Knight of Faith, Volume I
Daily Thoughts - In Christ: By Lynette Woods
Daily Thoughts
In Christ
By Lynette Woods
"In" is one of those little words that means an awful lot.
Being in Christ is to be...
In Truth
In Love (loved and loving)
In Joy (enjoyed and enjoying)
In Trust (entrusted and entrusting)
In Tenderness
In Faithfulness
In Heaven
In Revelation (revealed and revealing)
In Light (enlightened and enlightening)
In Glory (glorified and glorying)
In Resurrection
In Victory
In Peace
In Rest (rested and resting)
In Freedom (freed and freeing)
In Family (born and birthing)
In Fellowship
In Church
In Hope
In Comfort (comforted and comforting)
In Strength (strengthened and strengthening)
In Energy (energized and energizing)
In Wisdom
In Patience
In Grace
In Ability (enabled and enabling)
In Life (enlivened and enlivening)
In Fullness (filled and filling)
In Humility
In Faith
In the Word of God
In Power (empowered and empowering)
In Richness (enriched and enriching)
In Union (united and uniting)
In Jesus Christ Himself
In Eternity
In Christ
By Lynette Woods
"In" is one of those little words that means an awful lot.
Being in Christ is to be...
In Truth
In Love (loved and loving)
In Joy (enjoyed and enjoying)
In Trust (entrusted and entrusting)
In Tenderness
In Faithfulness
In Heaven
In Revelation (revealed and revealing)
In Light (enlightened and enlightening)
In Glory (glorified and glorying)
In Resurrection
In Victory
In Peace
In Rest (rested and resting)
In Freedom (freed and freeing)
In Family (born and birthing)
In Fellowship
In Church
In Hope
In Comfort (comforted and comforting)
In Strength (strengthened and strengthening)
In Energy (energized and energizing)
In Wisdom
In Patience
In Grace
In Ability (enabled and enabling)
In Life (enlivened and enlivening)
In Fullness (filled and filling)
In Humility
In Faith
In the Word of God
In Power (empowered and empowering)
In Richness (enriched and enriching)
In Union (united and uniting)
In Jesus Christ Himself
In Eternity
Notes from Norman - The Warfare of faith: by Norman P. Grubb
Notes from Norman
The Warfare of Faith
By Norman P. Grubb
We have got to learn to keep our eyes steadily on the Indwelling Christ as our physical life and health, even though we may be receiving benefit from this or that treatment. We do not live by the outward appearance or feelings of our bodies, but by the fact that the inward living and life-giving Spirit is within us. The same with the needs of our unconverted loved ones. We have rolled the burden of them onto Him and leave them with Him. We must not judge by appearances in their wanderings, but by faith boldly see them in Christ, held by Him and worked upon by Him, until the victory is visibly won. All these are means of teaching ourselves this wonderful walk and warfare of faith.
From Knight of Faith, Volume I
The Warfare of Faith
By Norman P. Grubb
We have got to learn to keep our eyes steadily on the Indwelling Christ as our physical life and health, even though we may be receiving benefit from this or that treatment. We do not live by the outward appearance or feelings of our bodies, but by the fact that the inward living and life-giving Spirit is within us. The same with the needs of our unconverted loved ones. We have rolled the burden of them onto Him and leave them with Him. We must not judge by appearances in their wanderings, but by faith boldly see them in Christ, held by Him and worked upon by Him, until the victory is visibly won. All these are means of teaching ourselves this wonderful walk and warfare of faith.
From Knight of Faith, Volume I
Daily Thoughts - His Next Step: By Norman P. Grubb
Daily Thoughts
His Next Step
By Norman P. Grubb
You can't tell what God has for you, or what future purposes He might have in the experiences you are going through right now, so don't try to find out. Just keep doing what you feel at present He is giving you to do. He has a perfect purpose for all that is happening to you, even if at present it is not clear. So keep centered on this glorious freeing truth.
The single eye of faith of which Jesus spoke enables us to remain free within, regardless of outside circumstances and appearances. We are not to be double minded, frustrated by the circumstances. We are to accept fully the situation of the moment--the external situation He has us in, and the way we feel toward it--knowing that it is for the purpose of manifesting His life in us. Our sole job is to keep inwardly at rest in the midst of suffering and temptation--and in the midst of failure and seeming defeat--knowing that we walk with Him alone and that He walks in us and will cause us to walk in His ways.
Because He has determined to take us this way, He does not see the confusion, heaviness or perplexity, but only His next step in His perfect plan for us. And He in us is the one who will bring it to pass as we accept the present fully and rejoice in it, trusting that all things truly do work for good despite the appearance of the moment.
His Next Step
By Norman P. Grubb
You can't tell what God has for you, or what future purposes He might have in the experiences you are going through right now, so don't try to find out. Just keep doing what you feel at present He is giving you to do. He has a perfect purpose for all that is happening to you, even if at present it is not clear. So keep centered on this glorious freeing truth.
The single eye of faith of which Jesus spoke enables us to remain free within, regardless of outside circumstances and appearances. We are not to be double minded, frustrated by the circumstances. We are to accept fully the situation of the moment--the external situation He has us in, and the way we feel toward it--knowing that it is for the purpose of manifesting His life in us. Our sole job is to keep inwardly at rest in the midst of suffering and temptation--and in the midst of failure and seeming defeat--knowing that we walk with Him alone and that He walks in us and will cause us to walk in His ways.
Because He has determined to take us this way, He does not see the confusion, heaviness or perplexity, but only His next step in His perfect plan for us. And He in us is the one who will bring it to pass as we accept the present fully and rejoice in it, trusting that all things truly do work for good despite the appearance of the moment.
Daily Thoughts - God is Light: By St Symeon the New Theologian
Daily Thoughts
God is Light
By St. Symeon the New Theologian
We do not speak of things of which we are ignorant, but we
bear witness to that which we know. For the light already shines
in the darkness, in the night and in the day, in our hearts and minds. This light without change, without decline and never extinguished enlightens us; it speaks, it acts, it lives and gives life, and transforms into light those whom it illumes. God is Light and those whom He makes to see Him see Him as Light: those who receive Him,receive Him as Light.
St. Symeon the New Theologian 949AD to 1022AD
From: Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology by F.C. Happold
God is Light
By St. Symeon the New Theologian
We do not speak of things of which we are ignorant, but we
bear witness to that which we know. For the light already shines
in the darkness, in the night and in the day, in our hearts and minds. This light without change, without decline and never extinguished enlightens us; it speaks, it acts, it lives and gives life, and transforms into light those whom it illumes. God is Light and those whom He makes to see Him see Him as Light: those who receive Him,receive Him as Light.
St. Symeon the New Theologian 949AD to 1022AD
From: Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology by F.C. Happold
Notes from Norman - Victory of faith: By Norman P. Grubb
Notes from Norman
Victory of faith
By Norman P. Grubb
There is no other way. In all life we are not sure first, and then believe afterwards. No, we believe first (and act as believing), and then we become sure. Hebrews 11.3, "By faith we understand…” not we understand and then have faith. You aren't sure of the chair you sit on until you first sit on it! So God demands of you and me that we bow our hearts and heads to His revealed Word, even when we feel we have reason to think that He has failed us. We simply obey Him, and we do that by taking Him at His Word, right against every feeling of rebellion. It is after we have stepped out in faith, accepted the fact that we in our independence have been crucified and buried with Christ, and now He lives and thinks His thoughts within us, that we find the assurance of faith within us.
From Knight of Faith, Volume I
Victory of faith
By Norman P. Grubb
There is no other way. In all life we are not sure first, and then believe afterwards. No, we believe first (and act as believing), and then we become sure. Hebrews 11.3, "By faith we understand…” not we understand and then have faith. You aren't sure of the chair you sit on until you first sit on it! So God demands of you and me that we bow our hearts and heads to His revealed Word, even when we feel we have reason to think that He has failed us. We simply obey Him, and we do that by taking Him at His Word, right against every feeling of rebellion. It is after we have stepped out in faith, accepted the fact that we in our independence have been crucified and buried with Christ, and now He lives and thinks His thoughts within us, that we find the assurance of faith within us.
From Knight of Faith, Volume I
Notes from Norman - Beliefs: By Norman Grubb
Notes from Norman
Beliefs
By Norman P. Grubb
I’m just convinced that the Holy Spirit is bigger than our dogmas, and that Christ lives in many who would not cross every doctrinal T that I cross, and lives in many of them more fully than he does in me. Therefore, I have to walk on two feet as it were: One is co-working with those who safeguard their faith by limiting it to the scriptures as God’s revealed word; the other is co-working with those of a like living faith basically, but who do not necessarily declare in words that the Scriptures are their sole authority.
Therefore I think my job is just to keep walking without letting one-foot trip over the other. It only gets more awkward when one foot seems to be openly proceeding in an opposite direction to the other!
Beliefs
By Norman P. Grubb
I’m just convinced that the Holy Spirit is bigger than our dogmas, and that Christ lives in many who would not cross every doctrinal T that I cross, and lives in many of them more fully than he does in me. Therefore, I have to walk on two feet as it were: One is co-working with those who safeguard their faith by limiting it to the scriptures as God’s revealed word; the other is co-working with those of a like living faith basically, but who do not necessarily declare in words that the Scriptures are their sole authority.
Therefore I think my job is just to keep walking without letting one-foot trip over the other. It only gets more awkward when one foot seems to be openly proceeding in an opposite direction to the other!
Notes from Norman - Praying: by Norman P. Grubb
Notes from Norman
Praying
By Norman P. Grubb
You ask some searching questions on Rees Howells. There are both types of prayer, what we might call responsible praying and co-operative praying. Responsible praying is intercession, for it means that God has so laid a thing on us that we know He is saying to us, “I will do it through you.” That type of praying is the one prayer R.H. refers to, and it is accompanied by paying the price - whatever God may require of us in taking the place of those we pray for. It is when there is death that there is life, so intercession has a death in it, death to self that others might live. You don’t make up that death, or think it out, but it is just something God gives in His own way, and not the least in our way, when He gives us an intercession. As the price is paid, the Spirit gives us the authority to claim the answer, even as Jesus had authority to claim the coming of the Spirit on the basis of His intercessory death.
There is also the other type of praying, the quick shaft of prayer for this or that, maybe the daily remembrance of things and people God puts on our hearts. I call that co-operative praying; and in the least prayer there is some proportion of travail and identification. I agree with you about the value of prayer, or even more of the attitude of faith and love to pass us by.
From Knight of Faith, Volume I
Praying
By Norman P. Grubb
You ask some searching questions on Rees Howells. There are both types of prayer, what we might call responsible praying and co-operative praying. Responsible praying is intercession, for it means that God has so laid a thing on us that we know He is saying to us, “I will do it through you.” That type of praying is the one prayer R.H. refers to, and it is accompanied by paying the price - whatever God may require of us in taking the place of those we pray for. It is when there is death that there is life, so intercession has a death in it, death to self that others might live. You don’t make up that death, or think it out, but it is just something God gives in His own way, and not the least in our way, when He gives us an intercession. As the price is paid, the Spirit gives us the authority to claim the answer, even as Jesus had authority to claim the coming of the Spirit on the basis of His intercessory death.
There is also the other type of praying, the quick shaft of prayer for this or that, maybe the daily remembrance of things and people God puts on our hearts. I call that co-operative praying; and in the least prayer there is some proportion of travail and identification. I agree with you about the value of prayer, or even more of the attitude of faith and love to pass us by.
From Knight of Faith, Volume I
Daily Thoughts - Christ in Our World: by Fred Pruitt
Daily Thoughts
Christ in Our World
By Fred Pruitt
We are not called to anything except to be Christ in our world. That is the meaning of the Incarnation and the meaning of the Cross. He died and rose again that He might live in us and bring many sons unto glory by us. Once the reality of "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" has overtaken us, there is ONLY Christ. We have died and risen again IN HIM, not "in ourselves," and what has emerged from that grave is a completely NEW MAN, a new CREATION, created in RIGHTEOUSNESS after the image of He who did the creating. What has come forth from the grave is not just a resurrected Jesus, but a resurrected humanity, a humanity which has been raised into the Godhead, which now sits at the right hand of the Father in the midst of the throne. That resurrected humanity in this world has been left in weakness, and not yet seeing all that to which is it heir. But that does not change the FACT that OUR humanity -- spirit, soul, and body -- IS NOW MADE the INSTRUMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Not by what we can do, by what we know, by how well we can regurgitate scriptural knowledge and doctrinal precepts, but purely and simply because He has now made us accepted in the Beloved, chosen in Him before the foundations of the earth, and that in Him IN OUR WEAKNESS we are heir to ALL THINGS.
Christ in Our World
By Fred Pruitt
We are not called to anything except to be Christ in our world. That is the meaning of the Incarnation and the meaning of the Cross. He died and rose again that He might live in us and bring many sons unto glory by us. Once the reality of "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" has overtaken us, there is ONLY Christ. We have died and risen again IN HIM, not "in ourselves," and what has emerged from that grave is a completely NEW MAN, a new CREATION, created in RIGHTEOUSNESS after the image of He who did the creating. What has come forth from the grave is not just a resurrected Jesus, but a resurrected humanity, a humanity which has been raised into the Godhead, which now sits at the right hand of the Father in the midst of the throne. That resurrected humanity in this world has been left in weakness, and not yet seeing all that to which is it heir. But that does not change the FACT that OUR humanity -- spirit, soul, and body -- IS NOW MADE the INSTRUMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Not by what we can do, by what we know, by how well we can regurgitate scriptural knowledge and doctrinal precepts, but purely and simply because He has now made us accepted in the Beloved, chosen in Him before the foundations of the earth, and that in Him IN OUR WEAKNESS we are heir to ALL THINGS.
Notes from Norman - God's Mercy: By Norman P. Grubb
Notes from Norman
God's Mercy
By Norman P. Grubb
God is in all this ---- every bit of it ---- the evil as well as the good. He shuts us up in unbelief, that He may have mercy on us, so when folks walk Satan’s way, they are being taken that way by a God who has designs of mercy on them----Romans11:32
From Knight of Faith Volume I
God's Mercy
By Norman P. Grubb
God is in all this ---- every bit of it ---- the evil as well as the good. He shuts us up in unbelief, that He may have mercy on us, so when folks walk Satan’s way, they are being taken that way by a God who has designs of mercy on them----Romans11:32
From Knight of Faith Volume I
Daily Thoughts: All is centered in Christ: By Norman P. Grubb
Daily Thoughts
All is centered in Christ
By Norman P. Grubb
Life in the human must always be a tension, a constant propounding of problems with no adequate solution, a constant oscillation between the pleasurable and the painful. But when we raise our sights from the human to the divine, the whole picture changes. All started with God, all ends with God, and there is only One with whom He has to do: from eternity to eternity all is centered in Christ. Therefore whatever intervenes in history, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be caught up into the stream of His purposes of grace in in Christ.
All is centered in Christ
By Norman P. Grubb
Life in the human must always be a tension, a constant propounding of problems with no adequate solution, a constant oscillation between the pleasurable and the painful. But when we raise our sights from the human to the divine, the whole picture changes. All started with God, all ends with God, and there is only One with whom He has to do: from eternity to eternity all is centered in Christ. Therefore whatever intervenes in history, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be caught up into the stream of His purposes of grace in in Christ.
THE WORD OF FAITH - by NORMAN P. GRUBB
THE WORD OF FAITH - by NORMAN P. GRUBB
It was a big surprise for me when I found I had things upside down in my prayer and faith life. Formerly I had thought that living life was mainly my responsibility, and that it was God’s responsibility to lend a hand when the going got rough. But when my eyes were opened, I realized that living life primarily means being aware of what God wants me to do, and being certain to go along with Him as He brings His purposes to pass. As soon as I was aware of that, I felt relieved of a heavy burden.
It was no longer, “Lord, move into this or that situation and change it.” It now was, “Lord, what are you working out in this situation? You caused it, so you have a perfect purpose in it.”
In other words, the primary functions of prayer and faith do not involve my trying to get God to move into action. Instead, they are means by which God gets me ready to let Him through in His already purposed action.
I saw that in the first revelation given us in the Scriptures of the spoken word of faith by “The Word” at creation. He merely said, “Let there be...” nine times over. As a result, the Father’s love-purposes in creation came into nine forms of manifestations. “Let there be” does not indicate that the Son was in some way trying to persuade the Father to do something. On the contrary, the Father was pressing His love-purposes into visibility, and the Son’s word of faith was letting Him through - His universal self-coming through in particular forms.
We are not afraid of following our own thoughts and assessments of our problems and challenges, as we look at them with His eyes. And so we come to the place where we say, “This seems to us what God calls us to take action about.” We boldly say with the church at
So to me prayer and faith have taken these simple forms. I always start with, “What are you doing in this situation?” Or, if we are a company of people, we seek the answer as a company. Our guidance comes not as a voice from heaven, but by the fact that we have the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5), which must mean that He is doing His thinking by our minds.
If we believe he is stirring us to ask and take something, we do not hold back. Did He not say to His disciples, “Whatsoever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive.” (Mk. 11:24) Not whatsoever He desires, but what we desire!
When we see ourselves as He sees us, His Spirit-indwelt Sons, we know that our desires will be His desires; and that He awakens desires in us in order that He can fulfill them.
Too often we have been suspicious about our motives. Basically we do not accept ourselves as His liberated sons, and we unconsciously adopt the idea that our God is rather niggardly. Consequently we are wary of expressing our desires to Him, because we think that He will ignore them and that we will never receive what we want.
Then the crisis moment is that “word of faith.” What do we mean by that Pauline phrase? (Rom. 10:8) We don’t move into action by abstract thoughts, but by selecting from our thoughts what to do, and we say, “I’ll go here. I’ll do that...”
That is the word of faith, for faith is my free capacity of attaching myself inwardly to something I believe in and I can make my own; something I will do, or take, or go to. The word of faith is the decisive moment of inwardly uniting myself to something about which I then take action.
Now lift that to the levels of the Spirit in the prayer of faith. We have been on the thought level in finding out what God wants to make of a particular situation. Now we move onto the word level. We boldly maintain that if God has given us certain desires in certain situations, if God has put us there and thus caused us to have these needs and desires, then it means that He already has purposed to supply those needs. “Before they call, I will answer.”
So now we move right on by the spoken word of faith. We “say unto this mountain, be you removed...“ And we see it already accomplished. With God, we “call the things that be not as though they were.” (Rom. 4:17); and we do this against all soul-feelings of its absurdity, and all human reasonings.
It is quite evident that this is how the men of the Bible operated. Moses at the
Elijah said to King Ahab, “As the Lord God of
We have spoken the word of faith in these ways in our missionary crusade ever since I learned something of the secret of faith through my friend Rees Howells. We were at the bottom of things 40 years ago, and our small mission was about to collapse. But through Rees Howells I had caught the secret of listening first for what God had to say, and then following through by taking positions of faith according to need.
On that basis, instead of giving up in our almost helpless position - we had at the time 35 missionaries and hardly $10 each for the whole month’s needs - we were reminded, as we waited on God, that the commission given to our founder C.T. Studd, was to the whole unevangelized world. Recognizing this to be God’s word to us, we took steps of concrete faith, not just to continue the small existing work in the heart of Africa, but advance worldwide.
Specifically in that first year we spoke the word of faith in Mark 11:24, faith that we should be receiving ten new workers that year. We declared this in print, praised God in faith, and did not appeal for funds. Within three days of the end of the year the ten workers, with full financial support, had joined us. The next year 15 joined us, the next 25, the next 50 and the next 75. All of them came by the end of the year and all went to newly opened fields.
From these beginnings, without appeal to men or special church backing, we proved in uncountable instances that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Since that time, 40 new fields, almost one each year, have been opened to us, and hundreds of national churches, with many Spirit-filled members, have been formed. Our missionary staff has increased to 1200 and, through our Literature Crusade, millions of dollars worth of Christ-centered books are reaching 35 different countries.
It is no idle thing to say that the biblical principles of achieving faith are as operative today as in the days when the Letter to the Hebrews was written. This is true because they are the principles of the Eternal Spirit operating through human spirits.
In the final simple terms, it means first, the startling Bible-based recognition that all things that happen in this world, good or evil, are God’s determined happenings, and are part of the workings of His perfect will. We, as His functioning sons, recognize that as inner spirit-persons nothing can touch us from without except insofar as we inwardly accept it. We are solely controlled by the way we inwardly see and believe things to be.
If we allow our believings to be dependent on the distorted outward appearance of things or people, that negative believing is master of us and binds us as its slaves. If instead we determine to take our established place in “the heavenlies” and to see everything with the eyes of God, as His perfect way and purpose, then we can praise Him for everything. “In everything we give thanks.”
We are now free from negative thinking and can consider why God has put us in this situation, and what we would like Him to do about it. (“Whatsoever you desire.”) Having got that desire clear, we then take our royal prerogative as Sons with all the resources of the Father at our disposal (Jn. 17:10) and speak the word of faith.
The supply already is there. The victory is won. To all those who may accuse us of being presumptuous, or say that we are tempting God, we may point to Matthew 6:25-35: .... Take no thought...”
With this we move into whatever action goes along with the situation - for faith is acting on facts. This means moving forward to our next objective, accepting it as ours by faith. The same thing should happen in a church fellowship moving forward in faith-action, or any of the forward movements of the Spirit these great days.
If it is a matter of a more personal faith transaction, then our word of faith may release us from anxious human pressures on a soul in need; for we are seeing Him as already among the redeemed by faith; or we release a sick person to God on the word of faith; or whatever else.
Once we have understood that speaking the word of faith is the living Spirit in action by our spirits, we go forward without looking around to see how or when it happens, or still less, what if it hasn't happened. It is God in action, and He hasn’t been found to fail in fulfilling His own perfect purpose in His own time. That’s my best understanding of prayer and faith.
GOING TO HELL FOR GOD - By Norman P. Grubb
GOING TO HELL. . . FOR GOD
BY: NORMAN P. GRUBB
Turn to the end of Romans 8 and into Romans 9. Now I want you to notice this striking difference. The end of Romans 8 is occupied in comforting us with the fact that we shant be separated. Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Comfort yourselves - it’s all right. No one can separate you - tribulations, distress, peril, nakedness, and so on. That won’t separate you. It’s all right! And then verses 38, 39, “For I am persuaded that neither death, life, etc. shall be able to separate you. You’re all right, all right. All right, be comforted, nothing will separate you.”
Look at two verses later on, 9:1. This man changes his whole tone. He says, “I say the truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost... ” In other words, this is coming from the Holy Ghost. My conscience bears me witness that this is the Holy Ghost. “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were separated from Christ for my brethren.” The word “accursed” is in the margin. “Separated.” The same person who just said, “Comfort yourself. It’s all right. You can’t be separated,” says, “God, I’ll say that to you. I am ready to be separated from yourself. Separate me yourself unless you save
That’s intercession. That’s the Intercessor within who says, “I don’t want to go alone to heaven, and I don’t intend to go alone to heaven.” That’s separation. You know, when a person talks about eternal security, and is sort of very anxious to get to heaven, I say, “Brother, forget it. Don’t be anxious about you getting to heaven. Be anxious over getting other people to heaven.” You know, old C.T. Studd was an old queer. He was so queer some of his missionaries thought he had more of the devil than the Lord in him. And so he said to them once, “Oh, some people say that I’ve the devil in me. That means I can go and live where the devil is.” “My,” he said, “if I go live where that devil is, I’ll so preach the gospel in hell, I’ll make it so hot for him he’ll open the door and say, ‘Clear out quick before you get my devils saved.’”
That’s the way - he wasn’t thinking of any eternal salvation, he was thinking of the salvation of other people. We’re a poor lot. You meet people who say, “Oh, I don’t know if I've lost my salvation.” I say, “Brother, if Jesus wants you to go to hell, go to hell for Jesus! Don’t moan and groan about it. Go, go where He wants you. I don’t want to go to heaven for heaven, do you? I want to go to heaven for Jesus. The golden streets don’t mean that [snap of the fingers - Ed.] to me! The golden Person means something to me. I know one thing - if Jesus wasn't in heaven, I’d rather not go there, that’s all. I’m not going up to a place, and if Jesus would walk with me better in hell, by His grace I’d rather Him take me to hell.
So I’m not out to get myself secure. I’m out to forget all about that business and get somebody else in. That’s this life. That’s intercession - that’s priesthood. Clean out of comforting yourself in sanctification, comforting yourself in salvation. Clean out of that. Immerse in, “I’ve to get these people saved!”
The GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD
THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD
BY: NORMAN P. GRUBB
CHAPTER 21 (LAST) OF "THE SPONTANEOUS YOU"
And the last word - back to our beginnings - "faith that worketh by love." If faith wins the battles within, love wins them without. Faith in action is love in action, and we are the eternal love. Our active life is now lived by this new motivation. Everything we do is part of a life of outpoured love. That is what the Bible calls doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus, doing it as being He doing it.
We are enthusiasts, wholehearted, thorough, because there is a meaning to it, a purpose in it. We do not use the word sacrifice, because love enthusiastically gives its all to meet others' needs. It has seen and found the great prize -- the secret of the universe: to be as God who is love. Certainly love claims all and we are the self-given. Everything we have, everything we are, is already given. We accept the principle of the corn of wheat - that if it die, it brings forth much fruit. Life for us for eternity is others living.
Does that mean years at the machine or desk or kitchen? It may do, as the wage-earner or the housewife, in private or public life, where normal duties fulfilled in honesty, efficiency, reliability, enthusiasm, bear witness to a dedication beyond ourselves; and the special opportunities arise to give the reason why; and where love turns the full-timer into the over-timer, when the hours of relaxation open doors for further service.
Love knows no discrimination. Love thy neighbor, for I am to see all as Jesus Christ. Self-love has its favorites, for it is really the self it is loving, "my" parents, "my" wife, for all we really own is our self-reaction to things; that is why Jesus tells us to "hate father, mother, wife", because what we really hate is the self-love which loves them for itself. But when the Other Self is my real self, Christ in me, then my love is self-giving and I love my loved ones for their benefit, not mine, and I love all men like that. All I still have is my self-reactions to things and people, but now they are Christ-reactions, self-giving, not self-seeking. That love possesses all. Possessiveness is to serve all, not be served by all. That love owns the world, because nothing and nobody can stop me from loving with the love which gives, not gets, and nothing is outside the reach and ownership of such love. That is God's love which owns all by giving Himself to all.
Love loves its enemies, for, as we have said, an enemy is one that wrongfully hurts me. But as I see with God's eyes I know it is not I that he has hurt, but himself. The killer kills himself, not the one he kills. So seeing with God's eyes, if a man cheats me, thinks he cleverly deceives me, robs me, I am not the cheated, deceived, robbed: he is, for he has done these things against himself. So I can love him, for I see his real need - of the Christ of God. That is how I can fulfill Jesus' words to turn the other cheek, go the second mile, give the cloak when he takes the coat. Because I can see that he is the hurt and needy, not I, and instead of being primarily bothered by my temporary human hurt or loss, I can look to see how I can be more concerned with loving him than with my losses.
Love edifies, which means builds up. You do not build up a foundation, you build a foundation, and then build up from it. So loves builds up in my brother Christian by always recognizing his foundation. When I see him, no matter how externally obscured by cloudy humanity, I see through and see Christ. There I am one with him. There I can hold to our unity when many externals of outlook, viewpoint, and behavior may separate. That is how I can be positive, not majoring on weaknesses, but building on the fact of our one foundation.
"He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" I may have some fantastic idea of the unseen God and love my fantasy: I can see my brother as he is, no fantasy about that; and I am to love him as he is, not as I would like him to be, because I am to see deeper than the external and see the real Christ in him. I accept him as he is, and it is not for me to try to change him, but to love him as being Christ to me, and leave Christ to do the changing. In doing that I love God, for that is where God is - in my brother.
And once again, love is a debt. "Owe no man anything but to love one another." Love is ministry to others, because we love our neighbor as being ourselves. Love exists only to meet need, so love always owes because need always has a claim. Love has to pay, and the secret is that love is the eternal satisfaction, the eternal joy, the eternal freshness and gaiety, the answer to the meaning of life, for God is this eternal life and God is love.
Supposing our lives are taken from us as it has been with some of my beloved co-workers in the Congo
For a reward? Love is its own reward. It asks nothing except the privilege of loving more. That is the eternal crown. We do not look for some kind of heavenly coronation which will bring some special credit or place of prominence for ourselves, but one crowning day only - Browning's"
"So shall crown THEE the topmost, ineffable, uppermost crown -
And thy love fill infinitude wholly, nor leave up nor down":
and our crown to be "like him for we shall see Him as he is": and to be like Him is to be love as He is love.
So life in its fullest meaning consists of two absolutes. The first is the fact that we are not we, but He. The second, built on the first, that life is not He and we, but others.
Our final response to these absolutes is thankful recognition. We commit ourselves to him, yes; but far more important, He has committed Himself to us, and what He takes He holds, and what He holds he moulds, and what He moulds He uses.
So we launch out into the deep of God. We launch out by recognizing that He has already seized hold of us and launched us out in His beloved Son, in who we are and He in us. "The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them."
FAITH: - By Norman P. Grubb
FAITH
BY: NORMAN P. GRUB
There is a laboring faith and there is a resting faith. What Jesus called little faith, for instance, was the action of the disciples in the storm, when He lay asleep on a pillow in the boat and they awoke Him, crying out: ''Master, carest Thou not that we perish?'' The disciples believed that He could save them, but doubted that He wanted to! There was faith, but of a very watery consistency.
Great faith was what Jesus called the attitude of the centurion, for he not only believed that Christ's word was with saving power, but that He would speak if asked to. He believed Christ could and would. But perfect faith is the description given of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. There it is seen that when God told Abraham to go and offer his only son as a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains of Moriah, Abraham obeyed. It is plain that he had full intention of carrying out God's word to the letter, for he not only bound his son and laid him on the altar, but also raised the knife to plunge it in him; and not till then, in the last split second, did God withhold his hand.
And the comment in Hebrews eleven is that so sure was he of God's promise of seed through Isaac that he knew if he slew him at God's word God would raise him up again. In other words, the faith of Abraham always HAD his son and never let him go. God not only could and would, but could and would and had. It was all settled before he started out. He and the lad would come back.
Taken from The Law of Faith by Norman Grubb
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