The Attractiveness Of Christ

  ''Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with." John 4:11

       The woman of Samaria has struck the marvel in the life of Jesus; He had nothing to draw with. The most attractive figure in the fields of time had no outward cause for His attractiveness. He says so Himself, ''I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." His drawing will be proportionate to His withdrawing, to His shrinking within Himself, to His sacrifice. The greatest compliment you can pay to man or woman is to say that they attract without adornment. There are some who would reveal their birth in any garb‚ in the meanest, in the poorest. You might clothe them in rags; you might lodge them in hovels; you might surround them with the humblest furniture; but their speech would betray them to be "not of Galilee." They have nothing to draw with, but they themselves draw. They may stand before the judgment-seat of a Pilate; but their attitude says "I am a king."
       So is it with Thee, Thou Son of the Highest. Thou hast nothing to attract but Thine own beauty. Thou hast put off the best robe of the Father; Thou hast assumed the dress of the prodigal son. It is in a soiled garment that Thou hast solicited my love. Thou hast come to me footsore and weary - a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Thou hast offered me no gifts of material glory. Thou hast asked me to share Thy poverty. Thou hast said: ''Wilt thou come with me to the place where the thorns are rifest, to the land where the roses are most rare? Wilt thou follow me down the deep shadows of Gethsemane, up the steep heights of Calvary? Wilt thou go with me where the hungry cry for bread, where the sick implore for health, where the weary weep for rest? Wilt thou accompany me where pain dwells, where danger lurks, where death lies? Wilt thou walk with me through the lanes and alleys where the poor meet and struggle and die? Wilt thou live with me where the world passes by in scorn, where fashion pauses not to rest, where even disciples have often forsaken me and fled? Then is thy love complete, my triumph perfected. Then have I reached the summit of human glory; for thou hast chosen me for myself alone, and without the aid of earth I have drawn thy heart to heaven." Reverend Matheson

Paul Baloche sings at Worship Circle. 

Here is 'Open the Eyes of My Heart'

Groundless Fear Of God

  "Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border." Numbers 20:21.

Matthew 15:18

       The world has all along been refusing to let Christ through. It has never had room for Him within the inn; it has relegated Him to the manger. It wants Him to be kept apart. It is willing to visit Him occasionally in the manger - even, at times, to bring a little gold and frankincense. But it does not wish Him to become a force in its own affairs. Why so; what is it afraid of? The same thing which Edom feared. Edom was afraid that the hordes of Israel would tear up her cultivated fields and destroy her national produce. The world fears that Christ will tear up human instincts and make men unnatural. The world is wrong; we are never so natural as when we are Christians. What kills naturalness is self-consciousness; it makes us either too confident or too shy. When I am too confident I am thinking about myself; when I am too shy I am equally thinking about myself. In both cases the mirror of myself is the prominent thing. What will break the mirror? A larger environment. Why are traveled people so nice? It is because they are so natural. And why are they so natural? It is because their eyes have rested on a wider sphere. They have forgot their own greatness; they have forgot their own humility; they have forgot to think about themselves at all - they have smashed their mirror.

       So shall it be with thee, my soul, if thou wilt let Christ in. Thou shalt become for the first time perfectly natural. Thou shalt be a traveled man - the most traveled of all men. Before thee shall stretch the general assembly of the firstborn - the biggest scene in the universe. The things around thee shall lose their importance either as a cross or as a crown. Thou shalt forget to be proud, thou shalt forget to be humble. There shall come to thee a larger love, which shall destroy both vaunting and shrinking. Perfect health neither says '' I am sick "nor" I am well; " it is unconsciousness of its own breathing. So shall it be with thee when Christ shall enter in. Thou shalt become spontaneous, natural, free. Thine shall be the singing of the brook, the warbling of the bird, the kindling of the flower. There shall be no pausing for effect, no posing for attitudes, no angling for favor, no trying to seem. No more shalt thou study the right thing to say; it shall be given thee in the moment - love's moment. Thy goodness shall be grace - something native to thy life. Thy kindness shall be instinctive - born in thy blood. Thy sacrifice shall be unconscious - part of thy being. Thy service shall be easy - an expression of thine own heart. It is sin that has made thee unnatural; thou shalt be a child of nature again when thou hast let Christ in.

Max Lacado's "You Are Special" is the children's 

message in the form of a picture book that tells 

the same message related above by Reverend

 Matheson for adults! In this video, Diane 

Hobbs reads the story aloud at YouTube.

The Postponement of The Beatific Vision

  "They drank of that spiritual rock which followed them." 1 Corinthians 10:4

       It is ever so. The blessing of our good deeds does not accompany them; it follows them. It often seems at the time as if they were done in vain. Our good actions appear for the present to have a death in the desert. You give a coin to a beggar who seems to be starving. He thanks you profusely. You watch his receding form, and see him vanish into the first gin-shop. You say ''my charity has all gone for nothing." No; it is only your money that has. Do not identify your money with your charity. The one, through the force of long habit, may be spent in an ale-house within five minutes; the other may be laid up in the heart for years, and bear rich interest after many days. I have seen a kind advice bring forth at the time only a storm of temper; but on the morrow it was weighed and accepted. "Light is sown for the righteous" is a beautiful phrase. It tells me that I must expect my good deeds to lie underground a while. Like the disciples, I must begin the journey to Emmaus ere I have heard of the risen flower. Yet my Christ shall overtake me on the way, and at evening, when the day is far spent, the fruits of the morning shall abide with me.

       Lord, if Thou wilt go before me, I shall be content that Thy goodness and mercy follow me. I should not like to postpone obedience to Thy command till I can see the good of it. There are times when to me, as to Abraham, there comes the mandate, "Get thee out of thy country into a land which thou knowest not." At such times I cry, like Moses, ''I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory; let me see the gain of Thy command before I go." But Thou sayest: ''No, my child, I go before; the gain follows. I know there are things in the journey to appal thee. I have pointed thee to the red heights of Moriah; I have spread for thee the stone pillow of Bethel; I have prepared for thee the lonely peak of Nebo. What then? Wilt thou insist beforehand on seeing the ram in the thicket? Wilt thou insist on beholding in advance the ladder from heaven? Wilt thou insist on having a previous view of the Promised Land? Nay, let my voice to thee precede my light. Plunge into the sea, and thy Christ will follow. Dive into the night, and the morning will follow. Stride into the desert, and the world will follow. Thy glory shall come after thee. Thy buried Christ shall meet thee in the evening. Thou shalt drink at twilight of that fountain which was sealed to thee at dawn.'' Matheson.

"I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go' 

sung by a Mennonite congregation.

The Ground of Human Hope

  "A promise being left us of entering into His rest." Hebrews 4:1

       What is my promise of entering into rest? It is not my possessions, but my wants. When you ask men the ground of their immortal hope they often point you to the powers of the human soul - proud reason, lofty imagination, clear judgment, far memory. That is a vain boast. To the inhabitant of another star these might seem but the movement of a midge's wing. My brother, you have mistaken the secret of your true dignity. It is not the sense of what you have, but the sense of what you have not, that makes you a man, that divides you from the beast of the field. What do you mean by a ''boy of promise"? Not a boy who has reached great knowledge, but a boy who wants more knowledge than he can yet get; we call such "a promising lad." Your heavenly Father has a like estimate - whether for boys or girls, for men or women. He measures your promise by your wants. Not he that is content with the treasures within his door is the Father's promising son. It is he that batters on the door and cries " Let me out, let me out; it is too narrow here, too dull, too lonely." The boy is above his environment. He is beyond his playthings, but not yet ready for his prizes. He is in the desert between Egypt and Canaan. Egypt is past; Canaan is not yet come; yet his cry is not to get back, but to get forward. The land of the Pyramids would not please him now. He has no rest in all the yesterdays; he wants something from to-morrow.

       My Father, I understand now why it is to the ''poor in spirit" that Christ promises the kingdom. The proof of my royalty is my unsatisfied soul. The promise of my rest is my unrest. My claim to Thee is my longing for Thee. I could not long for Thee if Thou wert not in me; my want is the shadow of Thy sunshine. I am the only creature on earth that is not content with its environment. The bird carols all the day, and asks not larger wing. The fish swims upon the wave, and desires no friendlier bosom. The cattle browse in the meadow, and find the meadow ample room. But neither the air nor the water nor the land has been a rest to me. I have refused to sing where the lark sings - outside the gates of heaven. I have beat against the bars; I have demanded to get in. The gate that bars me from Thee has spoiled my song. My want of Thee is my prophecy of Thee. Why do I refuse to sing on the outside of the heavenly gate? Because within the gate is my Father's house, with its warm fires of welcome, with its many mansions of gold. My thirst for Thee is the cry for "home, sweet home;" and the cry is itself the promise that I shall enter into Thy rest. Matheson

Return Unto Thy Rest.

Christian Emulation

  "Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church." I Corinthians 14: 12. 

"I will stick to Christ as a burr 
to cloth" Katherine Von Bora

       "Seek to excel." What a strange precept for a gospel of love! Is not the wish to excel, a very bad thing? Is it not the root of most of the evil in the world? Is it not the cause of jarrings and jealousies and jostlings? Does it not raise heart-burnings different from those of the disciples on the road to Emmaus? Yes; but look at the passage again. Look at the reason given for the precept: Forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts. Paul says if they had been zealous for material gifts he would have given very different advice. To excel in a material gift means to excel others. The possession of outward fame depends on your superiority; the beauty of a particular type of face lies in its rarity.

       But to excel in spiritual gifts is not to excel others; it is to surpass our former selves. The value of a spiritual gift depends on its diffusiveness - on the number of people that have it besides myself. Joy dies unless it is shared. Love breaks the heart unless it is reciprocated. Knowledge makes a solitude if it is possessed by one alone - the solitude of the Son of Man. The gold of the outward world is precious 'from its scarcity; but the gold of the kingdom of God grows precious as it becomes ample.

       My soul, wouldst thou know whether thy gift is spiritual or temporal? Ask thyself the question, Why do I wish to excel in it? Is it that men may say, "He walketh among the golden candlesticks; he is the chief among ten thousand"? Then thy gift is temporal - a poor fragile, earthly thing. But is it that thou mayst make others rich? Is it that thou mayst share with those around thee? Is it that men may cease to say of thee, ''He is the chief among ten thousand"? Is it that thou mayst make thy brother glad? Is it that thy voice may cheer the toiling, that thy song may brighten the invalid, that thy reading may instruct the blind, that thy painted flower may gladden the infirmary, that thy music may beguile a sister's hour of weariness, that thy poetry may kindle the aspiring of drooping souls? Then is thy gift spiritual, whatever it may be. Be it stone and lime, be it verse and rhyme, be it earth and time, if it is meant for ''the edifying of the Church" it is a gift of the Spirit of God. Reverend Matheson

All Spiritual Gifts Explained in less than 

10 minutes by the Whitboard Series.