Beauty For Ashes 7-1

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Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn
The belief that the old nature can be eradicated, thus making the Christian believer unable to ever fall into sin again. This is not Scriptural. There is NO Scripture which supports the eradication of the old sin nature. The old nature is a part of the flesh and as such will naturally be dealt with by the Lord when the body itself is renewed at resurrection. God does not eradicate the old nature or the flesh now, any more than he is going right now to eradicate the world or the devil. The old nature (or flesh) is one of our foes, along with the world and the devil see Galatians 5:16; 1 John 4:4; 5:4. BUT Jesus Christ can give habitual and complete VICTORY over the old nature by the Spirit: .or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. .or what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be .UL.ILLED IN US, who walk not after the flesh [old nature], but after the Spirit. Romans 8: 2-4. IT IS POSSIBLE .OR ME TO NOT SIN, BUT IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE .OR ME TO SIN. There are very important reasons why we must not accept the erroneous doctrines of sinless perfection that says that eradication of the old nature is possible. Parents who had the sin nature eradicated would have children who were born with no sin nature passed onto them, unfallen children! There is no such thing. If we had our sin natures eradicated then we would not need the wonderful ministry of the Indwelling Christ at all. But the Bible is always informing us that we must walk by the Spirit and to be empowered by Christs Life. THE VICTORIOUS LI.E. The Bible teaches Jesus Christ can by the Spirit alone take away the pull to the bondage of sin. He puts into action His own righteousness and sin does not pull down the believer. This is not saying that the old nature has been eradicated, nor is it saying that the believer himself or herself has no sin. The old nature is ALL sin; God cannot deal with the old creation to clean up the old man. His Son is given to us through the Holy Spirit to do what we can never do as the fallen creation HE gives His Life as our holiness, for our daily walk. I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Romans 7:18. Scripture warns us that we must not say that we have NO SIN NATURE, or that we have not sinned as fallen humans, see 1 John 1:8 & 10. See 1 John 3:9 for these glorious words: Whosoever is born of God doth not commit [practice] sin; for his seed remaineth inMinistries...Christian Resource Centre [P.O.B. 1265, Burpengary.Q. 4505] Endtime him; he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
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SINLESS PER.ECTION IS:
The Beauty of the Ascended Christ

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things)
Ephesians 4:10
Publication of Endtime Web Site: http:www.despatch.cth.com.au/ Email: despatch@mail.cth.com.au Ministries ... Women for Christ Publish: Beauty for Ashes 4 issues @ $15p.a. [Despatch 4 issues @ $30]

A periodical spiritual handbook, which is presented in order to glorify Christ Jesus: 6o praise Him, and to offer thanksgiving; 6o show Him to be ALL that any true believer could need, or ever yearn for.
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up cended He ...as heavens, e all far abov might fill that he gs. all thin 0
Ephesia ns 4:1
to express the reality of the Exchanged Life: There is ] *A=KJO ^, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Whose Life is given for the Ashes of our own sin-destroyed lives; Jesus Christ, Who is Himself, the whole of renewal, sanctification, revival, the joy unspeakable of Christian holiness. The Life that satisfies the Christian, and pleases the Almighty God is found only in Him. The wonder-filled words of Isaiah 61:3 might have a primary interpretation pertaining to the restoration of Israel. However, they also have a delightful, awe-inspiring application to the Church Age Christian believer. Do you want to exchange ]*A=KJO^ for the Ashes of your own fruitlessness, independence, failure and striving to do better? Then come to the One Who is All you need.
Beauty for Ashes^ has also the aim
Wendy B. Howard
Editor of `Despatch
and then try to stir you up to get annoyed or irritated - thus proving for all to see (they might think) that your doctrine and experience with Christ are false! Just hid behind Jesus within you by the Holy Spirit, He can handle all that for you. 3. Other believers could go further, they might consider your testimony of deliverance just self-righteousness, holier-than-thou delusion. If you do not fall into sin at their provoking, they could accuse you of sin when you are not sinning in any way. This has happened to me already. They might say when you forget an appointment, or come late to a meeting through no fault of your own, or show disappointment or disapproval over something, or even eat a cream cake, that you are sinning! You can be accused of greed, thoughtlessness, judging, tardiness and a score of other things, when the Indwelling Christ has never let you down at all, He has never allowed you to fall into sin at all. Be aware that those who will not surrender fully to Christ for Victory can be jealous and guilty inside when they see the wonder that CHRIST alone is doing, for His glory alone. Enter into deep prayer for their deliverance from the bondage of sin. NOTE : a great disservice can be done to many sincere Christians by Pastors who call their flock Spirit-filled Christians , with the proof of this being dramatic experiences in their churches. People can imagine that all of the Life of Christ is in them in fullness because they think of themselves as Spirit-filled because of emotion and experiences. No one is Spirit-filled unless the .RUIT of the Spirit is filling them with power over SIN, righteousness as a gift is the fullness of Jesus Christ in the believer. Dont lose out on a blessing by embracing this error! Here we see the contrast between the very SEED of God, Jesus Christ the Son, Who can deliver us from the bondage of sin, and the old nature that makes those respectable sins of Christians so impossible to conquer - irritability, temper, worry, anxiety, self-love, impatience, envy, jealousy etc. Christ can deliver from the pull of sin and its awesome power, and set us free from the tyranny of the old nature, completely, but we could sin at any time if we attempted to live righteously by our own disciplining of the old nature - with Gods help? NO! God will not deal with the old nature at all, He will NOT patch up the old nature.
Email: despatch@mail.cth.com.au Web Site: http:www.despatch.cth.com.au/ Publish: Beauty for Ashes 4 issues @ $15p.a. [Despatch 4 issues @ $30]
Endtime Ministries is a Non-Profit, Independent Service Centre. A Salvation Gospel Ministry, not social Liberation orientated. No personal, financial gain received by any staff member. Presenting the TRUTH, a clear Trumpet call. Affirming that the Word of God, none other than the KJV Bible is the truth in its entirety.
Sitting at the feet of Jesus, Where can mortal be more blest? There I lay my sins and sorrows, And, when weary, find sweet rest. Sitting at the feet of Jesus, There I love to weep and pray, While I from His fullness gather, Grace and comfort every day.
(Source unknown).
Endtime Ministries...Christian Resource Centre [P.O.B. 1265, Burpengary.Q. 4505] Ph. (for redirect during this quarter only ring) 0754941672
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It is imperative that you believe that Jesus Christ will overcome ALL sin, not just the big kind. My own mistake has been to reject this ALL as unbiblical through misunderstanding 1 John 1:8 and 1 John 1:10. Remember; let no one talk you out of the entire victory. Christ cannot give entire control and victory, and lasting abundant life, if you hold back some sins as being too hard for Him. 1 John 1:8 means: that you must always recognize that the old man or the sin nature is always with you until eternity. It does not mean that you have to remain sinning the little sins regularly without expecting full deliverance. 1 John 1:9 means: you must keep before you that you came from a sinful, fallen race. Dont get cocky, Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1 Cor. 10:12). COMPARE 1 John 1:10 with the glory of 1 John 2:4. There are TWO LIARS in these two verses. If 1 John 1:10 really meant that we will never be free from the little sins all our days on earth, then 1 John 2:4 makes no sense at all. We know Jesus Christ intimately when we KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS by His mighty, perfect power. See verse 5, Christ can perfect the love of God in us by His GI.T of righteousness. Love is the overcoming of sin. The prayer for this booklet is that it will not be I. but WHEN you enter in, and are saved .ULLY from the dominion of sin! What may the response be from other Christians? 1. You may find that few casual friends or acquaintances notice a difference in you or accept your victory. It is so exciting to oneself; the joy of being saved from the power of sin so delightful, that one thinks everyone will see the vast difference in your face and behaviour. This may not be so at all. Your nearest and dearest most certainly will realize all is new, for your behavior and joy will be obvious to them. Remember that Christ Himself was perfect in holiness, in full sinlessness as God incarnate as Man on earth, yet his enemies accused Him of being a sinner! (John 9:16). 2. A general trend may be that other believers could try to make you sin! They may well be angered into joking about your witness,
I. YOU ENTER INTO VICTORIOUS LIVING.
Personal Revival...
... There was always before an escape hatch, a lifeboat waiting when I failed, which I expected to happen sometime during the day. Lifeboats are essential to every ocean liner, not because people expect to use them. A liner might never use lifeboats, and fully expects not to need them. I expected to use cleansing for sin according to 1 John 1:9 every day! I was living in the lifeboat, and not in the Liner! ...
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Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 TO GIVE A WARNINGAutumn
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It is this: Satan will do his utmost to cloud your mind. He will bring all sorts of doubts and difficulties to light. Why is this? Just because he is eager to prevent you from gaining Victory! Believe me, the devil does not mind your being religious, and he does not mind how much POWERLESS work you attempt so long as you fall short of the Victorious Life. So long as you go to the world for your pleasures, and so long as you fall into the usual sins of respectable people, THE MORE YOU ATTEMPT .OR CHRIST the more the DEVIL IS PLEASED. He simply revels in seeing defeated, worldly Christians desperately busy for Christ. But the devil will do his level best to discredit Victorious Life teaching and to keep you from even SEEKING to understand it. He is quite an adept in using - i.e., misusing - Scripture. But be confident of this very thing - that the teaching is striking home and striking him - the devil - when difficulties are suggested to your mind or some verse of Scripture comes to you, which seems to contradict some statement made in these chapters. No one is more anxious than the writer that only the truth as it is in Christ shall be heard. If any statement is not true to Scripture or to experience, none will be more delighted to have this pointed out than the writer, who is possessed with a consuming desire that every Christian shall be filled with all the fullness of God.
(End of quote) .rom How to Live the Victorious Life Endtime Ministries...Christian Resource Centre [P.O.B. 1265, Burpengary.Q. 4505] by An Unknown Christian, page 7. Ph. (for redirect during this quarter only ring) 0754941672
care less who criticizes this glory they are in darkness to the Truth revealed in the Scriptures! I have entered heaven on earth. .orget about the objections people have set up, it is as real as being bornagain. No, not a new born-again experience, a .ULL SALVATION reality! Would you let anyone talk you out of being Born Again because they had not entered in themselves?
Then dont let anyone talk you out of this.

DONT write and say, It didnt work for me.
If Jesus Christ does not take complete custody of you in full control as He indwells you to the uttermost, then the only reason is YOU have not fully surrendered, abandoned all sin and self. HE is no respecter of persons, if He did it for me, He will do it for you! He is willing, waiting and able...
Praise His name!
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The enjoyment of sexy, violent or trashy films? The cold, hard, pious heart that is too proud religiously to be kind to others, and humble?
The meanness you express when someone interrupts your study time, even the feeling of selfish irritability? I could go on and on.
If you do not have any desire to be free from the bondage of ALL sin, then you never will be free. The Victorious Life does not come in dribs and drabs i.e. this week I managed to control my temper with Gods help, next week I will get Him to help me to be more loving and patient, and so on. This is the traditional way of getting holiness, it does not work, it will never work. I have been a Christian for many, many years, it does not work for very long, and you never grow into holiness at all in the end, you only SUPPRESS your natural instincts. Jesus Christ gave to me in one glorious GI.T, whole deliverance from the power of sin instantly! .rom ALL sin, just like that in a moment. How? It is an exchanged life; I died and exchanged my life for His IN REALITY! I want you to have this wonderful gift too; will you believe the Bible on this? I have been formerly kept from victory and the abundant life in .ULL, never to go back, because I would not trust Jesus to deliver me from ALL sin, every moment and every day. I listened to criticisms about the sinless perfect bogey! Right now I am so thrilled by the reality of Victory as a gift that I couldnt
early beloved of God I am writing from a heart filled with joy unspeakable and unchanging! Since I wrote the last Beauty for Ashes in 2003 so many things have happened in my co-workers and my own life. Change of residence, and the trauma of such a transition; a complete life-style change; the loss of our cherished pets, two cats and a dog; building a new house; meeting with new friends and a closer interaction with old friends, many more changes. Until - the most happy and glorious period of my life so far began. I want to share some of it with you, as you are my close spiritual companions along the Way. I am writing sitting on a beach chair, looking out at Morton Island. The bay is sparkling with star-like beauty this morning. This sea change has been a mighty blessing in itself, but that is not the origin of joy unspeakable and unchanging. JESUS has Himself brought about the wonders of which I speak. This issue of Beauty for Ashes will be exclusively about the .REE GI.T that Jesus Christ gave me, and He is offering this gift to everyone who will take it. He wanted me to have it, and He wants you to have it just as much. I pray that you will take His gift; Grace is all about gifts from God. I pray that you the reader will want to be saved from the power of sin and have the Victorious Life. The .REE GI.T of righteousness through the Indwelling Christ, our Lord and Master. .irstly, let me insist that the reality of this life and joy is NOT sinless perfection. Neither is it something that is a concept that we can understand through study and merely growing in mental apprehension. It is more, much more; it is a revelation from God and Abundant Life given. A GI.T indeed, that is massively greater than a mere grasping of doctrine. It is the Living Word which is Jesus Christ revealing the Living Truth of the written Word of the Bible - God bestows this. I write of the VICTORIOUS LI.E. All right, let us get down to really dealing with what brought about a transformation for me that will never depart. My friend and co-worker found a little old book in a secondhand store, written by An Unknown Christian. It was first distributed back in 1966, called How to live the Victorious LI.E. She paid 25 cents for it! It contains no new teaching really, the same holiness by Grace through faith
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that has thrilled my soul for a long, long time. I read the book expecting nothing new - but it led me to a deeper surrender to the Lord than had ever happened before to me. Was God directing this surrender, even the buying of the little book? Yes, I believe He initiated everything that took place. I abandoned myself to the Lord in a way that I will explain in depth later on. I cried out to the Lord that I could no longer bear to live the way I had done for many years. This was by keeping a clean vessel by repentance and cleansing according to 1 John 1:9. My days would be like this, habitually. I would keep short accounts with God by being cleansed as soon as I fell into sin. These were always the so-called little sins of course. Not adultery, stealing, murder, lying, drunkenness and gross sins, but irritation, impatience, worry, anxiety, pride, envy, jealousy, bitterness, resentment, temper and so on. I would ask the Lord to cleanse me from these sins when I fell, and to fill me with the Holy Spirit when I was a clean vessel. And so my days would go, earnest and wanting God to make me righteous by Christs Life alone - but never expecting to be kept from the power of sin entirely. I said to God that there must be something better than this for Jesus Christ has promised that sin would have no dominion over us, no more power over us: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. .or sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Romans 6:11-15. I had been living a life where I had to be cleaned up from little sins every day! I could now see no reason that I should not have complete victory. I knew in my heart what the Bible said, and it was not sinless perfection at all. The New Testament states over and again that Christians should expect victory from the bondage to sin, not just until they could be made clean again after an inevitable fall, but entirely. (I will give you many Scripture verses on this as we proEndtime Ministries...Christian Resource Centre [P.O.B. 1265, Burpengary.Q. 4505] Ph. (for redirect during this quarter only ring) 0754941672
APPENDIX: 2
AN EARNEST ENTREATY.
Do you really want to be saved from the power of sin? Do you want with all your heart to be rid of ALL SIN forever?
SINS LIKE THESE:

The irritability you feel in the morning, and express; The nasty criticism and gossip you enter into against your Christian friends so that others can pray for them, of course! The competition for recognition in Christian circles? Do you want to get rid of forever the rejection you feel when you are not used by the pastor? The impatient moaning when your husband or wife, or family, keep you waiting? The rush of pride when you do something well, and the superiority it engenders? The greed for material things, shop til you drop mentality? Greed for money in the bank?
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grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? No fear that His resources will be unequal to the emergency! And his resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me. All this springs from the believers oneness with Christ. And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart by faith, how happy I have been! I wish I could tell you, instead of writing about it. I am no better than before (may I not say, in a sense, I do not wish to be nor am I striving to be); but I am dead and buried with Christ - aye, and risen too and ascended; and now Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal.2: 20). I now believe I am dead to sin. God reckons me so, and tells me to reckon myself so. He knows best. All my past experience may have shown that it was not so, but I dare not say it is not sow, when He says it is. I feel and know that old things have passed away. I am as capable of sinning as ever, but Christ is realized as present as never before. He cannot sin, and He can keep me from sinning. I cannot say (I am sorry to have to confess it) that since I have seen this light I have not sinned, but I so feel there was no need to have done so. And further walking more in the light, my conscience has been more tender; sin has been instantly seen, confessed, pardoned; and peace and joy (with humility instantly restored: with one exception, when for several hours peace and joy did not return - from want, as I had to learn, of full confession, and from some attempt to justify self. .aith, I now see, is the substance of things hoped for (Heb. 11: 1, italics added) and not mere shadow. It is not less than sight, but more. Sight only shows the outward forms of things; faith gives the substance. You can rest on substance, feed on substance. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith (i.e. His word of promise credited) is power indeed, is life indeed. And Christ and sin will not dwell together; nor can we have His presence with love of the world, or carefulness about many things. And now I must close. I have not said half I would, nor as I would had I more time. May God give you to lay hold on these blessed truths. Do not let us continue to say, in effect, Who shall ascend into heaven? ( that is , to bring Christ down from above) (Rom. 10: 6). In other words, do not let us consider Him as afar off, when God has made us one with Him, members of His very body. Nor should we look upon this experience, these truths, as for the few. They are the birth-right of every child of God, and no one can dispense with them without dishonor to our Lord. The only power for deliverance from sin or for true service is Christ.
ceed). SO - I asked the Lord Jesus to save me from the dominion or power of sin entirely. I wanted to never return to any of my sins, ever again, full stop. No running to be cleansed a half dozen times a day, or even once or twice a day. I could never conquer sin fully, ever, so I trusted the Indwelling Christ to fill me wholly and to do it for me. What happened? The Lord instantaneously gave me the gift of righteousness through His Grace alone. He gave me instantaneously VICTORY over sin, all sin. Joy unspeakable filled me - and has remained unchanging for a number of weeks. I am stunned really, I cannot explain fully. .or days I walked as one on air, my soul is in precious joy until now. I expect this will remain for a lifetime. WHY? Because I am totally taken over by a willing Guest within, Who does not want to go, and He will keep me united to Him in this way. I have always wanted to live in the presence of Christ moment by moment but found this impossible in a sinful world of distractions. Now, without one thought or struggle to do so, I am filled with Christs sweet Presence both day and night. It is the things of the world that grow strangely dim not Jesus. We went to a lovely concert recently, and Jesus Christ was so close with me that I missed a lot of that concert because I was wrapped in love and adoration with my Beloved Saviour! I am in His Presence always - it just happens. What do I mean by instantaneous righteousness? As glorious as joy and ecstasy with Jesus is the true test of the Victorious Life is has sin lost its power? It has lost its power, it did from the moment I took the gift of Christs filling Life as my only righteousness. There is now no struggle or determination to overcome, no disciplining myself to overcome. Jesus is keeping me entirely from being pulled down by sin. There is no desire to sin, nothing rises up in me - it is a miracle of Grace. I can hardly believe what is happening; I did not realize that victory could be this complete. A momentary temptation sometimes comes, very seldom at this stage, and I hide myself behind the Christ Who dwells within through the Holy Spirit, and He smashes the temptation to pieces. There are now no irritations, temper, worry, self-pity, pride etc happening in me at all - all is rest and peace. I dont just repress sin - it is simply not there. A Quaker I read about once was complimented on her lack of temper. She said that she might be all smiles and calm on the outside when things upset her, but she is seethEmail: despatch@mail.cth.com.au Web Site: http:www.despatch.cth.com.au/ Publish: Beauty for Ashes 4 issues @ $15p.a. [Despatch 4 issues @ $30]
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ing on the inside. That is not victory in Christ. I am finding that with Christ in total control to save from the power of sin, the impossible is occurring - the temper or impatience is not there at all, I am at peace inside. I am set free from the bondage of sin just as the Bible promised: Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world (Satan). 1 John 4:4. I live, said Paul, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Gal. 2:20. Galatians 2:20 is telling us that righteousness does not come by the law, nor forced effort or works of the flesh. If we had to overcome sin ourselves, its guilt and its power as well, then why would Christ have to die at all? My life has become a delightful dream of a life, and I know that living like this with Jesus Christ as my entire Life is enough to meet every desire or need I have ever had or will have for eternity. He is the Pearl of Great Price - I would as soon lose everything and everyone in my life rather than lose such a glorious walk with Jesus. HE is the whole gift of God. I awake each day and say, Save me from the power of sin, Lord Jesus, for the whole day. Give me Your victory over all sin. And I trust Him to do it. Only once so far has sin entered, and I could have easily avoided it completely, there was no real reason to fall. The lapse seemed like the blackness of the pit of hell itself! I had anger in my heart which began with a temptation. I did not hide behind my Saviour right away, I entertained anger for a space of a few minutes, and then asked for cleansing according to 1 John 1:9. That has been the only time sin has had dominion over me. Am I claiming holiness and sinless perfection? Not of myself, indeed the very opposite. Jesus Christ has led me to see that I am totally incapable of any holiness or righteousness at all. God will not deal with me, I am the old creation - God cannot change ME bit-by-bit slowly molding ME to grow into Grace and righteousness. On the other hand, Jesus Christ is incapable totally of sin in any form. He came to live in me through the Holy Spirit when I was saved in the first place. When anyone completely abandons themselves to let Him fill them, HE cannot sin for He has become our Life, living through us, and we are dead. Is this
rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world - yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do? When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus, as I had never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the .aithful One. As I read I saw it all! If we believe not.he abideth faithful (II Tim.2: 13, italics added). I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, of, how joy flowed!) that He had said, I will never leave [you] (Heb.13: 5). Ah, there is rest! I thought. I have striven in vain to rest in Him. Ill strive no more. .or has He not promised to abide with me - never to leave me, never to fail me? And, dearie, He never will! . Oh, my dear sister, it is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Saviour, to be a member of Christ! Think what it involves. Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and the left poor? Or your head be well fed while your body starves? Again, think of its bearing on prayer. Could a bank clerk say to a customer, It was only your hand that wrote that check, not you, or I cannot pay this sum to your hand, but only to yourself ? No more can your prayer, or mine, be discredited if offered in the name of Jesus (i.e. not in our own name, or for the sake of Jesus merely, but on the ground that we are His, His members) so long as we keep within the extent of Christs credit - a tolerably wide limit! If we ask anything unscriptural or not in accordance with the will of God, Christ Himself could not do that; but, If we ask and thing according to his will, he heareth us: and.we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him (I John 5: 14-15). The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me of how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient. It little matters to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things, or the most expensive articles. In either case he looks to me for the money and brings me his purchases. So, if God place me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much
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get so fretted in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts and sometimes unkind words are all the more difficult to control. Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. To will was indeed present with me, but how to perform I found not. Then came the question, Is there no rescue? Must it be thus to the end - constant conflict and, instead of victory, too often defeat? How, too, could I preach with sincerity that to those who receive Jesus, to them gave he power to become the sons of God (John 1: 12)(i.e. godlike), when it was not so in my own experience? Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin; and no wonder, for faith and even hope were getting very low. I hated myself; I hated my sin; and yet I gained no strength against it. I felt I was a child of God; His Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, Abba, .ather, but to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless. I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to be gradually attained by a diligent use of the means of grace. I felt that there was nothing I so much desired in this world, nothing I so much needed. But so far from in any measure attaining it, the more I pursued and strobe after it, the more THE EXCHANGED LI.E it eluded my grasp, till hope itself almost died out, and I began to think that, perhaps to make heaven the sweeter God would not give it down here. I so not think I was striving to attain it in my own strength. I knew I was powerless. I told the Lord so and asked Him to hive me help and strength, and sometimes I almost believed He would keep and uphold me. But on looking back in the evening, alas! There was but sin and failure to confess and mourn before God. All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was how to get it out. He was rich, truly, but I was poor; He strong, but I weak. I knew full well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into my puny little branch was the question. As gradually the light was dawning on me, I saw that faith was the only prerequisite, was the hand to lay hold on His fullness and make it my own. But I had not this faith. I strove for it, but it would not come; tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Saviour my helplessness and guilt seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His Word, but
scriptural? The New Testament is filled with this, yet how many take these truths seriously as God meant us to do. Said Paul: It is no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me. What about If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8. This verse can keep us from walking into the loveliest life we can ever know on this earth! Look at the context, the verses around it. We see that God promises that Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all sin (v.7); if we confess He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness (v 9); and God says that He has written these things so that ye sin not. (1 John 2:1). Then God shows these amazing truths in chapter two hereby we do know that we know him (Christ) I. WE KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the LOVE O. GOD PER.ECTED: hereby know we that we are in him, And then the most amazing verse of all: He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he (Christ) walked. (1 John chapter two). WHAT! God expects saved people to keep His commandments always, keep His Word, to have His love perfected in us, to abide in Christ and to walk or live each day as Jesus Himself walked or lived! How could I have missed it. This is impossible for the old creation to do; we can never be like Christ. But Christ Himself can exchange His Life for ours, and we will NOT then imitate Him - He will live His Life in us and save us from the power of sin, entirely. Our sin nature can never be eradicated while we are on this earth; I would right now sin at any moment if I tried to be good myself, in my own enabling. But Christ is keeping me; He is doing it and giving a glorious victory as a free gift. Someone said years ago about being sanctified by Grace alone, It is possible for me not to sin, but it is not impossible for me to sin. Am I claiming to be perfect like Christ? No, I am a frail human being; I am experiencing a perfection within imperfection. An illustration from the book by the Unknown Christian can be of help here. A small boy might, with all his heart, write in his schoolbook what he perceives to be perfect writing, and it is at his stage of
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development. But compare his script with an educated adults fine copperplate handwritten letter - and we see how imperfect it really is. There is perfection within imperfection. God and Christ Jesus are holy beyond our wildest understanding, only eternity will reveal how pure and perfect. What Surrender or Abandonment to the Lord did I enter into? I want to spell this out clearly. Most sincere, dedicated Christians would be insulted if anyone said they were not fully surrendered to Christ. I also would have thought I needed no further depth of surrender before this period of my life. What was actually deeper and different about the surrender that started all this? I want to write about this because I believe doing so could help others to enter the life of Victory that has revolutionized my entire being. What surrender? I died. I gave everything material that was mine to God, never to take it back again. I gave Him the house we are building to do with what He wants, the money in our bank, the car - everything for Him to dispose of or use as he sees fit. It is ALL His, never to be taken back. Deeper than that, I told the Lord I wanted Him to live forever as me, I am dead to all plans of my own, initiatives of my own - my will is given freely over to Him forever and completely, never to be taken up again. And Jesus is keeping me there - as my Indwelling Life. The wonderful words you have just read are true! What has made my own heart sing is that the longing to please God all the time has been made possible for me. God can fulfill His entire will in little me of a fallen race, because His own Son is doing the living for me. This is abundant life that will not end. Why? Because I want to be saved to the uttermost from sin, and will not be deceived into believing this wonder is impossible. There was always before an escape hatch, a lifeboat waiting when I failed, which I expected to happen sometime during the day. Lifeboats are essential to every ocean
stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, all indeed. Aye, and far more too! He is the soil and sunshine, air and rain - more than we can ask, think, or desire. Let us not then want to get anything out of Him, but rejoice in being ourselves in Him - one with Him, and, consequently, with all His fullness. Not seeking for faith to bring holiness, but rejoicing in the fact of perfect holiness in Christ, let us realize that - inseparably one with Him - this holiness is ours, and accepting the fact, find it so indeed. But I must stop. Six weeks after these experiences, when Mr. Taylor was rejoicing in the abiding fullness of this new life, a letter reached him from England that specially touched his heart. It was from his sister, Mrs. Broomhall, the intimate friend and correspondent of his early years, who, now with a growing family round her, was sore pressed, as he had been himself, by outward responsibilities and inward conflict rather than at rest in spiritual things. With a great longing to help one so dear to him, Mr. Taylor took up his pen to reply. As he wrote, the whole story of his own extremity and deliverance was poured out in a letter that is so precious: October 17, 1869: So many thanks for your long, dear letter... I do not think you have written me such a letter since we have been in China. I know it is with you as with me - you cannot, not you will not. Mind and body will not bear more than a certain amount of strain, or do more than a certain amount of work. As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone. The last month or more has been, perhaps, the happiest of my life; and I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul. I do not know how far I may be able to make myself intelligible about it, for there is nothing new or strange or wonderful - and yet, all is new! In a word, Whereas [once] I was blind, now I see (John 9: 25). Perhaps I shall make myself more clear if I go back a little. Well, dearie, my mind has been greatly exercised for six or eight months past, feeling the need personally, and for our mission, of more holiness, life, power in our souls. But personal needs took first and was the greatest. I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God. I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for retirement and meditation - but all was without effect. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. I knew that if I could only abide in Christ all would be well, but I could not. I began the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye from Him for a moment, but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, often caused me to forget Him. Then ones nerves
Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn things in one who had long and truly known the Lord. Ah, was it not that very fact that made it possible? Nearness to Christ had been to him so real and blessed that any distance was unbearable. So deeply did he love that any clouding of the Masters face was felt, and felt at once with anguish of heart. It is the bride who mourns the absence of the bridegroom, not one who has been a stranger to His love. Reaching the little crowded house at Chinkiang, Mr. Taylor made his way as soon as possible to his room to attend to correspondence. There, amid a pile of letters, was one from Mr. McCarthy. We do not know if he was alone as he read it; we do not know just how the miracle was wrought. But As I read, I saw it all. I looked to Jesus; and when I saw, oh how joy flowed! It was Saturday, September 4, 1869; the house was full, and others were coming; somehow they must be put up and kept over Sunday, for this great joy could not but be shared. As soon as he could break away from his glad thanksgiving, Mr. Taylor went out, a new man in a new world, to tell what the Lord had done for his soul. He took the letters, Mr. McCarthys and one from Miss .aulding in the same strain, and, gathering the household together in the sitting room upstairs, told what his whole life was telling from that time onward to the glorious end. Other harts were moved and blessed; the streams began to flow. .rom that little crowded home in Chinkiang city, they flowed on and out, and are flowing still -rivers of living water (John 7: 38). .or whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, Jesus said, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4: 14). And he did more than tell. Pressed though he was with business matters, his correspondence took on a new tone. Here is one of the first letters written with that tide of joy and life more abundant sweeping through his soul. The penciled lines on half a sheet of notepaper show that he was very busy - but how at leisure in spirit! My dear sister - We had a very happy day here yesterday. I was so happy! A letter from Mr. McCarthy on this subject has been blessed to several of us. He and Miss .aulding also seem so happy! He says: I feel as though the first glimmer of the dawn of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust. The part specially helpful to me is: How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is, and all He is for us. His life, His death, His work, He Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a looking off to the .aithful One seems all we need. Here, I feel, is the secret: not asking how I an to get sap out of the vine into myself, but remembering that Jesus is the Vine - the root,
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liner, not because people expect to use them. A liner might never use lifeboats, and fully expects not to need them. I expected to use cleansing for sin according to 1 John 1:9 every day! I was living in the lifeboat, and not in the liner! But, the Bible does not present this expected failing at all. If we read 1 John 2:1 carefully we will see that John says that he is writing so that YE SIN NOT. Yet, if the unexpected happens and we let down the Indwelling Christ by yielding to a sudden temptation sometime, our advocate or lawyer, Jesus Christ, will plead our cause before the .ather, presenting His own righteousness imputed to us. We should never expect to ever need that lifeboat of cleansing. He wants to save us entirely from the power of sin, why would He not want to? Believe it! Dont expect to fail as a habit, HE cannot fail. Consider many of the old hymns of the .aith, written often in times of revival, thrilling times to read about. Here is one favourite:
Rock of Ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, .rom Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin a DOUBLE CURE, Save me from its guilt and POWER. NOTHING NEW??
One great barrier to entering into this Victorious Life could be that you feel that you have heard it all before, nothing new. Here is a quote from by An Unknown Christian that helps with this block: There is nothing new in all this! is the impatient, well-nigh querulous comment so often made concerning this teaching. But the very tone of voice betrays an unwillingness to attempt to really assimilate this ancient teaching. The real trouble is that so many people who deplore higher criticism, themselves indulge in what we venture to call Highest criticism.
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They must acknowledge that this Victorious Life is scriptural, but they openly declare that it is impossible. They do not deny the truth of the Word of God, but they tacitly believe that it is unworkable. Oh, if we could only just take Christ at His Word! If we only had a simple childlike faith in God! If our faith were but more simple we should take Him at His word; and our lives would be all sunshine in the glory of the Lord. (End of quote). If you have dealt with this barrier to faith, if you believe with all your heart that GOD wants you to have the free gift of righteousness that does not fall down under every test, then what are you to do?
APPENDIX: 1
THE EXCHANGED LI.E
EXTRACT: Spiritual
by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor. pp. 256 - 265 Whitaker House. USA. ISBN - 0-88368-387-3 (1832-1905)
Secret of Hudson Taylor,
HUDSON TAYLORS CON.ESSION.

[cf Appendix for full Extract of this chapter Exchanged Life]
1832-1905
Hudson Taylor, when he was a missionary in China, wrote a letter to his sister confessing that he had searched and agonized to find holiness and that he could not find it, although the New Testament shows it very clearly, but he could not see. Here is what he wrote: I prayed, fasted, agonized, strove, made resolutions, read the Bible more diligently, sought more time for retirement and meditation [he meant quietness with God] - but all without effect. Every day - almost every hour - the consciousness of sin oppressed me. Then came the question: Is there no rescue? Must it be this to the end - constant conflict, and instead of victory, too often defeat? I hated myself, I hated my sin, and yet I gained no strength against it. I felt I was a child of God, but how to rise to my privileges as a child I was utterly powerless to see. I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to be gradually attained by a diligent use of the means of grace. I felt there was nothing I so much desired in the world, nothing I so much needed. When my agony of soul was at its height a sentence in a letter was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus.
Life was, if anything, especially full and busy for Mr. Taylor at this time. The outcry about the Yangchow riots had blown over, allowing him to resume work for the Inland Mission. He had returned from his journey round the older stations to an endless succession of duties that kept him on the move between Yangchow and Chinkiang. Both were now, in a sense, the headquarters of the mission, and the growing, church in the former and the demands of the printing press in the latter filled every moment that could be spared from account keeping, corres p on d ence and directorial matters. There had recently been baptisms in Yangchow, and Mr. Judd, who, along with his wife, had been first to volunteer to be in Yangchow after the riot, was glad of all the help Mr. Taylor could give in caring for the young converts. The heat of summer had taken its toll upon all the party, and Mr. Taylor himself had been laid aside by severe illness in the middle of August, 1869. Now, early in September, he was recovering, and trying to overtake the work that had accumulated. It was no time, surely, for an outstanding crisis in spiritual things. Yet, oh, how deep the heart-hunger, in and through all else! That did not diminish. It seemed to increase, rather, with all the need there was to minister to others. Leaving a full house in Chinkiang, Mr. Taylor had run up to Yangchow to see a patient and was returning now alone by a little boat chosen less for comfort than for speed. It was early in the morning, and he was eager to be in Chinkiang, where Mrs. Taylor was, in time for breakfast, so as not to lose a moment of the day for work. Coming down the Grand Canal and crossing the Yangtze (two miles wide) he had quiet for thought - thought and prayer. Were it not recorded in his own words, it would be difficult to believe, certainly impossible to imagine, such conflict, suffering, almost despair in spiritual
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of the flesh (5:16). In such a one this conflict exists, and though he is delivered from the lust of the flesh, it is because he is walking in dependence upon the Spirit.
Extract: p.201, L. S. Chafer, Major Bible Themes
WELL! so what did Hudson Taylor find? He had a revelation from the Lord because his desire was to be saved from ALL sin. Do you hate your sin and long to be saved from its power? Or are you really thinking those little sins are not too bad. Here is that letter Hudson referred to:
[cf Appendix for full Extract of this chapter Exchanged Life]
RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPARTED BY THE SPIRIT. When filled with the Spirit, the child of God will produce the righteous works (Rom. 8:4) of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23) and will manifest the gifts for service which are by the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7). These results are distinctly said to be due to the immediate working of the Spirit in and through the believer [this is the Indwelling Christ through the agency of the Spirit]. Reference is made, therefore, to a manner of life which is in one way produced by the believer; it is rather a manner of life which is produced through him by the Spirit. To those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, the righteousness of the law, which in this case means no less than the realization of the whole will of God for the believer, is fulfilled in them. It could never by fulfilled by them. When thus wrought by the Spirit, it is none other than a life which is the imparted righteousness of God. (End of quotes).
RE.ERENCES: How to Live the Vitorious Life, by An Unknown Christian * Copies of this public text book available from Endtime Ministries for cost of post & photocopying. $ 6 The Kneeling Christian, by An Unknown Christian * Copies of this public text book available from Endtime Ministries for cost of post & photocopying. $ 6.50 The Christians Secret of a Happy Life, by H. Whittal-Smith * Copies of this public text book available from Endtime Ministries for cost of post & photocopying. $ 9 * The Extract How to Enter In $2 posted. [*Her other book not used in this issue... The God of All Comfort, can be posted for $9.50] Bone of His Bone, by .. J. Heugel .rances Ridley Havergal, Biography & Victorious Life material $3
By faith a channel is formed by which Christs fullness plenteously flows down. The barren branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem. He is most holy who has most of Christ within. It is defective faith that clogs the feet and causes many a fall. Abiding - not struggling or striving - looking off to Him; trusting Him for present power; trusting Him to subdue ALL inward corruption; resting in the conscious joy of a COMPLETE salvation; a salvation from ALL SIN; willing that He should be TRULY SUPREME. This is not new, yet it is NEW TO ME. I seem to have got to the edge only, but to the edge of a sea that is boundless. Christ literally ALL seems to me now the power, the only power for service, the only ground for unchanging joy. Now, then, is this faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is and all that He is for us: His life, His death, His work, HIMSEL., as revealed to us in His Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a looking off to the .AITH.UL ONE seems all we need - a resting in the Loved One entirely for time and eternity. It DOES NOT APPEAR TO ME ANYTHING NEW - only formerly misapprehended. (Emphasis added). What sentence did the Holy Spirit enlighten in particular? This following sentence penetrated the blindness and gave Hudson Taylor the light he so desperately sought: Not a striving to have faith, but a looking off to the .aithful One who seems all we need. I, myself, am amazed by the fact that victory over sin, expecting not to fall, is taught clearly in scripture, yet I did not see it. When I was ready to jump over the devils objections and expect total deliverance, then all was as clear as a bell. I deceived myself that full deliverance was not possible, I let others deceive me (unintentionally in most cases).
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Extract: p.p.194-195, L. S. Chafer, Major Bible Themes
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Will you break down all barriers and believe that you can be saved fully from the power of sin? I pray that you will. Often people will say that they have never been delivered from the dominion of sin themselves, so it cannot be true! Let such a one truly yield utterly to the Lord, and be willing to let go all sin, such as pride, religious superiority, aggression and ill temper etc, let that one TRUST Jesus to be his/her very life and they will know the doctrine is true, because they will be living it with Jesus. God does not want His children to live under the bondage of sin, struggling by works and the law to do better. Amen and amen. Awake to righteousness, and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak to your shame. I Corinthians 15:34. .or he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. II Corinthians 5:21. ...perfecting holiness in the fear of God. II Corinthians 7:1b. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galations. 5:1.
THE ONLY WAY O. VICTORY. (Various teachings are suggested which attempt to secure deliverance for the Christian from the power of sin.) 1. It is claimed that the Christian will be compelled to live to the glory of God if he observes sufficient rules. This law principle is doomed to fail because it depends upon the very flesh from which deliverance is sought (Rom. 6:14). 2. It is widely claimed that the Christian may seek and secure the eradication of the old nature, being thus permanently free from the power of sin. There are objections to this theory. There is no Scripture upon which the theory of eradication may be based. THE PROBLEM O. SIN IN THE LI.E O. A CHRISTIAN. Having received the divine nature (II Pet. 1.4) while still retaining the old nature, every child of God possesses two natures, one is incapable of sinning, and the other is incapable of holiness. [Despatch comment: the old nature is YOU, the new nature is the Indwelling CHRIST] . The old nature sometimes called sin (meaning the source of sin ) and old man, is a part of the flesh; for, in scriptural usage, the term flesh, when used in a moral sense, refers to the spirit and as well as the body-especially of the unregenerate man. Therefore, the Apostle Paul states, .or I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing (Rom.7: 18,19). On the other hand, when considering the imparted divine nature, the apostle John writes, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit [practice] sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin! because he is born of God (1 John 3:9). This passage teaches that every Christian, being born of God, does not practice sins or keep on sinning. (The verb is in the present tense implying continuous action.) However. it should be observed that it is this same epistle which warns every child of God against professing that he has no sin nature (1:8), or that he has not sinned ( 1:10 ) . These two sources of action in the believer are again considered in Galatians 5:17, where both the Holy Spirit and the flesh are seen constantly to be active and in unceasing conflict: .or the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other. The apostle is not writing here of the carnal Christian, but of the. most spiritual, even of the one who is not fulfilling the lust
In Africa baboons are caught in a cunning way. A hole is made in a hollow log; fruit is placed in the log, and the hunter hides and waits. Soon a baboon might wander along, and then he smells the fruit and puts his hand into the log. When he grabs the fruit, and a heavy fist is formed with the fruit inside, the baboon cannot get away - why? Because he will not let go of the fruit in order to pull his fist out! He wont just walk away because he just cannot bear to lose his luscious meal. So the hunter has him! He is captured by his own foolishness and shortsightedness. He is just an animal, but human Christians can lack wisdom and be limited in their thinking - just like that baboon.
ARE YOU LIKE AN A.RICAN BABOON?
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unchangeable demands of His own righteousness through the sacrificial death of Christ. Grace is more than love; it is love set free and made to be a triumphant victor over the righteous judgments of God against the sinner. When He saves a sinner by grace, it is necessary that God shall deal with every sin. for they would otherwise demand judgment and thus hinder His grace. This He has wrought in the death of His Son. It is also necessary that every obligation be cancelled, and to this end salvation has been made a gift from God (l John I0:28; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:8)). Likewise it is necessary that every human merit shall be set aside, lest the thing which God accomplishes be in any measure based on the merit of men and not on His sovereign grace alone (Ron 11:32, Gal. 3). Since every human element is excluded, gospel of grace is the proclamation of the mighty redeem transforming grace of God, which offers eternal life and eternal glory to all who will believe. b. The divine program of safekeeping through grace demonstrates that through grace alone God keeps those who are saved. Having provided a way whereby He can act in freedom His own righteous demands against sin, having disposed of every human obligation for payment, and having set aside eternally every human merit. God has only to continue the exercise of grace toward the saved one to secure his safekeeping forever. This He does, and the child of God is said to stand in grace. (Rom. 5:2; 1 Pet. 5:12). c. God provides also a rule of life for the saved by the grace principle. God teaches those who are saved and kept, how they should live in grace and how they may live to His eternal glory. As the law provided a complete rule of conduct for Israel, so God has provided a complete rule of conduct for the Christian. Since all rules of life which are presented in the Bible are complete in themselves, it is not necessary that they be combined. Therefore the child of God is not under law as a rule of life, but he is under the counsels of grace. What He does under grace is not done to secure the favor of God, but it because he is already accepted in the Beloved. It is not undertaken in the energy of the flesh, but it is the outliving and manifestation of the power of the indwelling Spirit. It is a life lived on the principle of faith: The just shall live by faith
Are you holding onto something minor, some pet enjoyment or satisfying sin, so that you cannot surrender to Christ fully? Are you hanging onto a piece of fruit and wont let go, and so you cannot be free in Christ and know His liberty? It may be something very big in your fist, like a de facto relationship, a business based on fraud, or living some sort of major lie! No matter what it is, let go and abandon yourself to Christ, and be .REE from sin and failure in His power alone. He will handle all the complications Himself; dont be afraid of what will happen. Your piece of fruit might be just legalism, a determined insistence that you can be righteous by your own works, and that this Victorious Living malarkey is heresy. Drop your fruit and be .REE, Satan will do anything to keep you in bondage in your log.
Some of the lovely surprises that are occurring for me are that the sting has gone from various experiences in my life. .or instance, real suffering happened before if a person or persons denied some truth that was in the Bible, or some information about the New World Order or related scams in the churches. I mean, perhaps there was a disagreement over the Alpha Course, or whether the World Government was already in power, or maybe some discussion about Eternal Security ended in disagreement. I not only would be displeased, but also inside the sting of being disbelieved, challenged unjustly, or waved aside would be grievous. Especially if this happened without any investigative material presented to the adversary was accepted, or even glanced at, let alone read! The sting would hurt down in my spirit and this could go on for days if the adversary was, for instance, an old and trusted friend. That sting has gone! I can only reason that SEL. was the reason for this, and SEL. is the old-nature results that happened because of SIN. Jesus has Himself taken away the dominion of sin over me! Praise God. I will stress here that I am not talking about repression of this sting and hurt, anyone even in the world could do that, even unsaved people - no, the pain for SEL. has gone. What a miracle of Grace!
SOME SURPRISING RESULTS.
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Another lovely surprise that has occurred is that the reasons for everything I do are being readjusted. I can no longer plan or maybe daydream about what I want to do in the future, I must follow the Shepherd in a new and different way. He is showing me areas of my service that He must examine. Why do I want to do that, what is the real reason for doing this - I no longer want anything left in my life that is just about defining myself, or that is about gaining approval or acknowledgement from other humans. I am set free to be satisfied in just pleasing God, and letting Him define me. What a freedom this is, so much pain can come from being ignored or denounced by other people - but it cant hurt when Jesus lives instead of me. I have always wanted this, now it is mine through the GI.T of the Indwelling Christs righteousness. The harassing from sins has gone! What discomfort and wretchedness comes into our lives when we suffer from temper, pride, jealousy, anxiety, avarice or maybe lust. We try to deny that these sins are there, or we suppress them inside and pretend to others on the outside that we are not overcome by sin - but the suffering goes on. Often people can read our faces, anyway, our blush or turn of mouth, our eyes looking away and the forced mechanical smile. Jesus can and will take away the dominion and hurt of these sins - He is doing it for me, without one struggle or effort on my part, and I am not even having these things enter my mind!!!!! Last night, I had a flash of envy when a rich friend was speaking to me, a temptation came from the devil, and I hid behind the Indwelling Christ and He smashed it to smithereens. I can see now why the lovely walk with Jesus I had prior to this went away periodically. My revival did not include Victory over ALL SIN. I was living with my eye on 1 John 1:9 and never expected to be delivered from ALL SINS POWER. In How to Live the Victorious Life pp. 112,113: Now it is just as true that when we enter into death with Christ we are dead unto sin. We can, indeed, reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin. (Rom. 6:11) - i.e. to temper, pride, jealousy, avarice, lust. Hitherto such sins have been our taskmasters. The reason why many Christians are constantly falling into sin is because they try to obey
commands of the Mosaic system and the commands which are to govern in the kingdom are not now the guiding principles of the Christian. They have been superseded by a new and gracious rule of conduct which includes in itself all that is vital in the law, but restates it under the peculiar order and character of grace. 2. The child of God under grace has been delivered from the burden of a covenant of works. He is not now striving to be accepted, but rather is free to live as one who is accepted in Christ. (Eph. 1:6) 3. The child of God is not now called upon to live by the energy of his own flesh He has been delivered from this feature of the law and may live in the power of the indwelling Spirit. Since the Written law was addressed to Israel. she alone could be delivered from the Written commandments of Moses by the death of Christ. However, both Jew and Gentile were delivered by that death from the hopeless principle of human merit and from the useless struggle of the flesh 4. In contrast with law the word grace refers to the unmerited favor which represents the divine method of dealing with man that was introduced with Adam. Under grace, God does not treat men as they deserve, but He treats them in infinite mercy and grace without reference to their desserts. This He is free to do on the ground that the righteous punishment for sin, which His holiness would otherwise impose upon sinners as their just dessert, was borne for the sinner by the Son of God. Although the people of Israel experienced the grace of God in many ways as a rule of life they passed from a grace relationship to God to a law relationship to God. When they accepted the law as recorded in Exodus 19:3-2S, they foolishly presumed that they would be able to keep the law of God through ignorance of their need of grace as the only possible basis of being accepted before God. The experience of Israel under the law, accordingly, demonstrates to all men the impossibility of being delivered from the power of sin by the law of principle. 5. In contrast with law, grace is revealed in three difference aspects:
(a) salvation by grace, (b) safekeeping through grace, and (c) grace as a rule of life for the saved.
a. God saves sinners by grace and there is no other salvation offered to men (Acts 4:1). Saving grace is the limitless, unrestrained love of God for the lost acting in compliance with the exact and
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QUOTES .ROM SPERRY CHA.ER.

SALVATION .ROM THE POWER O. SIN The Problem of Sin in the life of a Christian Having received the divine nature (11 Pet. 1.4) while still retaining the old nature, every child of God possesses two natures, one is incapable of sinning, and the other is incapable of holiness. [Despatch comment : the old nature The old nature sometimes called sin (meaning the source of sin) and old man, is a part of the flesh; for, in scriptural usage, the term flesh, when used in a moral sense, refers to the spirit and as well as the body-especially of the unregenerate man. Therefore, the Apostle Paul states, .or I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing (Rom.7: 18,19). On the other hand, when considering the imparted divine nature, the apostle John writes, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit [practice] sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin! because he is born of God (1 John 3:9). This passage teaches that every Christian, being born of God, does not practice sins or keep on sinning. (The verb is in the present tense implying continuous action.) However. it should be observed that it is this same epistle which warns every child of God against professing that he has no sin nature (1:8), or that he has not sinned (1:10 ) . These two sources of action in the believer are again considered in Galatians 5:17, where both the Holy Spirit and the flesh are seen constantly to be active and in unceasing conflict: .or the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other. The apostle is not writing here of the carnal Christian, but of the. most spiritual, even of the one who is not fulfilling the lust of the flesh (5:16). In such a one this conflict exists, and though he is delivered from the lust of the flesh, it is because he is walking in dependence upon the Spirit.
Extract: p.192-6, L. S. Chafer, Major Bible Themes Extract: p.190, L. S. Chafer, Major Bible Themes
is YOU, the new nature is the Indwelling CHRIST].
only one-half of Pauls injunctions, Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, says Paul. Yes, many Christians do not expect the Indwelling Christ to deliver them from ALL their sins, they will not even consider that they are yielding themselves to unrighteousness when they are irritated, anxious, puffed up with self-congratulations, suffering wounded self-esteem, are bitter from rejection and so on. I, formerly, would wait until I had got over the suffering and sin, and then ask for cleansing in the Blood from my lapse. I did not dream of expecting what the Bible plainly shows, being dead indeed unto sin Romans 6:11.
Take a look at Romans 6:10-14. ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your spirit to the meaning of these verses, filled with glory as they are. Apply these verses not just to half your sins, or three quarters of your personal sins, apply them to ALL your personal-living sins. Not just drinking, gambling, smoking, watching rude videos, or the grosser sins like shop-lifting, violence or adultery. Most Christians would not yield to those sins anyway. Let the promises of God and the commandments of God reach the all-encompassing ALL of your sins, including all the little sins that are wrecking your peace and witness. .or in that he [Christ] died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. .or sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6: 10-14). It is God that worketh in you both to will and TO DO. (Phil.2:13). Now unto him that is able TO KEEP YOU .ROM .ALLING [into sin], and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, (Jude 1:24).
THE ABUNDANT LI.E IS A SURRENDERED LI.E.
SALVATION .ROM THE POWER O. SIN Grace as a Rule of Life .or the child of God under grace, every aspect of the law is now done away- (John 1:16, 17 Rom. 6.14; 7:l6, 2 Cor. 3:1-18; Gal. 3:19-25; Eph. 2:15; CoI. 2:14). 1. The legal
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PRAYING HYDE & THE VICTORIOUS LI.E.

We have all heard of the man who was called Praying Hyde. A man who was so used of God in prayer that his intercession brought miracles of souls converted, and many lives were transformed in revival unto the Lord. John Hyde was just an average John Hyde 1865-1912 Christian until he surrendered completely to the Indwelling Christ and accepted entire deliverance from the power of sin through Him. Doesnt this make you think about PRAYER in the evaluation of what the Victorious Life can bring with it - with HIM? Jesus Christ will Himself intercede through us in mighty power, I. we let Him live instead of ourselves, if we fully surrender and abandon ourselves to Him. Doesnt the Bible tell us He will do so? Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25. I saw this verse in one way only until now. Yes, Jesus Christ is living to plead for the redeemed ones like ourselves before the .ather, but He will also take over and intercede for us, in our place, when we realize we ourselves cannot pray as God wants us to. Our families, friends, neighbours, churches, our country and the world need the INDWELLING CHRIST to intercede THROUGH us, so that miracles of Grace can occur. The following quote shows John Hyde receiving victory over the power of sin, complete victory, as the Indwelling Christ takes control. .rom The Kneeling Christian by An Unknown Christian: The missionary spoke, said John Hyde, and I was told that he was speaking about Jesus Christ as the real Saviour from sin. When he had finished his address, a respectable-looking man, speaking good English, asked the missionary whether he himself had been thus saved (from the POWER of sin, not from its guilt and punishment per se). The question went home to my heart; for if it had been asked me, I would have had to confess that Christ had not fully saved me, because I knew there was a sin in my life which had not
Perhaps the secret of Victory in Christ lies just here. God gives needed grace just when it is needed. Have you dying grace? a lady asked Charles Spurgeon. No, madam, and I do not want it now - but praise God, I have living grace, was his reply. Surrender ... Let go ... Then look to Christ in faith ... Let GOD! Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to crucify you and to give you His Resurrection Life. In that delightful little book, The Christians Secret of a Happy Life, by H. Whittal-Smith. there is a chapter on How To Enter In The way suggested is to pray, Lord Jesus, I believe that Thou art able and willing to deliver me from all the care and unrest and sin of my Christian life. Thou didst die to set me free, not only in the future, but here and now. I believe that Thou art stronger than sin and canst keep me from yielding to it. Lord, I am going to trust Thee to keep me. I have tried keeping myself and have failed grievously. I am also helpless. So now I will trust Thee. I give myself to Thee. I keep nothing back. ... And now I AM Thine. I believe that THOU dost accept this poor, weak, foolish heart; and that it has been taken possession of by Thee; and that Thou hast at this moment begun to work in me to will and to do of Thy good pleasure. I trust Thee utterly, I trust Thee now. AMEN. But be careful to remember that surrender is not simply making a promise to God to forsake sin and always to do His will. That would be living under the Law. Surrender is just turning over to God all that we are and have, .OR HIM TO DO WITH US whatever He wishes. Surrendered Christians are often defeated, because they think they can carry out their good resolutions by Gods help. No! Just hand yourself over to God, and then trust Christ to do His part. He is able to keep. It is not our surrender that gives us the victory. It is not even our faith! It is CHRIST HIMSEL. - the .aithful One. Surrender and trust, and Christ will never fail you. (End of Quotes: How to Live a Victorious Life.)
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3. How will this be affected? All unlove, bitterness, irritability, pride, jealousy, resentment, censoriousness -all must go, really go. An active lady worker said to the writer, Thats easy enough for me, for I havent an enemy in the world! The next day she was limping. Ive fallen down, she explained. I saw that horrid Miss K-coming along and I didnt want to acknowledge her, and in looking the other way, I slipped off the curb and fell in the gutter! Now we may be sure that if there is anyone against whom we harbor any ill-feeling or resentment, or owe a grudge - anyone to whom we could not show Christian love and kindliness - we are not living the Victorious Life. Dr. Schofield once said, If you have a sin in your life which you cannot let go, bring it to Jesus and let Him kill it. It may be some habit which others regard as harmless. Whenever you talk of surrender, said a man to the writer, I always think of my pipe. Not a word had been said about smoking but the pipe went. .orgive this remark - it is true or it would not be recorded here: You will find very few fully surrendered Christians whose consciences allow them to smoke. One word of warning: Do not allow any fear of the future to rob you of present victory. Ive surrendered all to Christ, said a missionary at Keswick last summer, And I am so happy. But Im fearful what will happen when I get home. Do you see, the future was not really surrendered. Dr. A. T. Pierson in his last address at Mildmay said, Believe me as a dying man, no one ever obtained as much as he might have obtained from God. Why? Because God cannot give all He would until we surrender all we have - and are. If you find any difficulty in this matter - then just surrender your surrender to the Lord Jesus.
THEN THERE IS THE PRESENT
been taken away. [Here he speaks not of the free gift of eternal life, but of victory over committing sins in his Christian walk]. I realized what a dishonour it would be on the name of Christ to have to confess that I was preaching a Christ that had not delivered me from [the power of] sin, though I was proclaiming to others that He was a Perfect Saviour. I went back to my room and shut myself in, and told the Lord that it must be one of two things: either He must give me VICTORY OVER ALL MY SINS, and especially over the sin that so easily beset me, or I must return to America and seek there for some other work. I said I could not stand up to preach the Gospel until I could testify of its power in my own lie. I realized how reasonable this was, and the Lord assured me that He was able and willing to deliver me from ALL SIN. He did deliver me, and I have not had a doubt of this since. (End of quote, emphasis added).
THE BACKGROUND TO MY OWN LI.E O. VICTORY.

Surrender is NOT just a promise made to God to forsake all that you have, and always to do His will! That would be works of the Law. Surrender is coming to God and turning over everything you are and have, to do absolutely whatever He wants to do with you - and with all that belongs to you. It is not wanting the glory of becoming a great evangelist or healer, or to be seen by others as a spiritual believer. What God does with you, after a real absolute surrender has been entered into, is entirely up to Him. It has nothing to do with you, you are dead. Christians often fail in their absolute surrender endeavours because they think they can carry out their commitment and dedication THEMSELVES. It is not you that fulfills your surrender it is only Christ Who can. Possibly many who speak against the Victorious Life teachings have come themselves to God to surrender, and then have gone on to discipline themselves to be the fully surrendered Christian that they feel they should be - with Gods help of course, they think. Naturally they fall down very soon under the power of sin, and then say, it does not work, this erroneous Victorious Living teaching.
The present is the time for Victory. Let your aim ever be to glorify the Lord Jesus now. So many Christians let present opportunities slip by unused, because their minds are fixed upon something they are going to do TOMORROW or next Sunday. School yourself to live in the present. How can Christ Jesus manifest forth His glory -Himself through me today - now, this very moment?
NOW IS THE DAY O. VICTORY
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All right what is wrong with a false surrender? It is nothing more than a good resolution, which is perceived to be something one must carry out oneself. It is NOT our surrender that gives victory, IT IS ONLY CHRIST WHO GIVES VICTORY - He will be faithful to do so if you surrender in your utter weakness and inability - surrender and trust, Jesus Christ can never fail. Then if He wants to use your money for some purpose of His own, or He wants you to be hidden away in your home to be a prayer warrior, or He wants to make you a soul winner; or a R.E. teacher; or a house cleaner or an unknown Christian, whatever, it is His own business. You will find as I am doing right now that only HE HIMSEL. matters, and He is sufficient for any lifetime to find fulfillment and happiness. I am not advocating sitting around and praying all day, and doing no active service for God, I am saying He is enough, and what He wants is all that matters. You will not want service for yourself, to fulfill you, make you happy or to define you as a fine Christian in other peoples eyes. My own testimony in all this is that, again, the Way up is the way down. The move from our old home in a country town to a new district near the sea was devastating for me. This seemed to be the prelude to what happened two months or so later. I found that I simply could not bear to leave the security of my old home, and lose my beloved animal friends. I became a virtual cot-case of grief, as though I was losing all my best friends in death. I was amazed at the intensity of this distress, and cried out to God that I had in no way grown any further in holiness in all the years I had lived with Him. God showed me that I did not received things like strength, love, long-suffering and holiness from Him, which were then attached to me, and I became holy. HE was there, HE was to handle everything, and I just got weaker and weaker as I realized afresh my own humble estate. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christs sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (II Cor. 12:10). The analogy that was in my mind at that time was of a poor Asian woman taken to a rich Western country. She cannot speak the language of her adopted home, she is small and without money at all. But she has married a powerful, extremely wealthy Western man. He cares for her and handles all her affairs. She does not take bits from him
seem to think that God will take advantage of them! That if they agree to obey all Gods wishes, God will make them miserable. They cannot trust God to fill their lives with joy - so they seek their pleasures from the world, and sometimes from deliberate sin. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full (John 15:11). What things had He been speaking about? Why, just abiding in Christ and keeping His commandments. His joy - the very joy of God! Could we desire anything more than that - better than that? Of course, if He dwells in us, and lives His life in us, we have His joy.
A wayward little boy climbed onto his fathers knees one evening and said, .ather, from tonight Im going to do all you ask of me. How did the father act? Did he think to himself, Now I have that boy in my power. Now I have the chance of making his life miserable! It is unthinkable. He drew the laddie closer to him and silently vowed he would do everything in his power to make that boy happy. Is a God of Love going to take advantage of us, if we surrender our all to Him? Will He deign to remain in our debt? Remember, God has not only the will, but the power to make us supremely happy. There are our future plans. Does not God know what is best for us? Yet how unwilling believers often are to trust Him to do what is best. When addressing a party of missionaries home on furlough last summer, the writer was struck by the miserable face of an elderly man. Why is he so miserable? Oh, replied the chairman, he longs to return to China to die in harness, but the committee refused to allow him to go back. A devoted servant of God - yet unwilling to leave his future in Gods hands. The result was not fullness of joy but misery. We might well pray, as one dear saint did, Oh, God! do not let anyone here be afraid of Thee. Are you afraid of God? Yes - if you know of anything you are not willing to give up, should God show you that it was His will you should do so. God knows, He loves, He cares; Nothing this truth can dim; He does the very best for those who leave the choice to Him.
.ROM TONIGHT, LORD
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A lady missionary who longed for Victory through Christ and confessed her deep yearning for it, was just broken-hearted over the matter. Why? Because of the sins of the past, she replied. But God has forgiven your past sins. They are blotted out. How can they hinder you? But you do not know the sort of failures I have made! she moaned. No - the past is too awful. When she had surrendered her past, the blessing came. There is a hymn which runs, When God forgives, He forgets. .or I will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins will I remember no more (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17). Why, then, should I remember my past sins? Surely no good can possibly come of it?
to strengthen and empower herself, he does everything for her. So it seems is the case with the Christian, Christ is within us, He is our own Companion, Supplier, billionaire Protector, Righteous Lord, Victorious One, Powerful Lover - we remain weak, yes die away, BUT He is strong and full of power.
What a .riend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TELL US ABOUT JOY?
The fullness of the Indwelling Christ bringing abundant life and victory over sin, also brings that miracle JOY. The New Testament speaks of JOY 60 times! This is not like the mere happiness that the world can give, i.e. had a wage raise at work and I am so happy; my daughter is back from overseas I am so happy; Ive moved to a house by the sea and I am so happy. No, the JOY the Bible speaks of is supernatural, it does not stop, and it is unchanging. It is a deep down delight in God and life with Him that is worth more than all the treasures of a million kings. The Lord wants us to have that joy unchanging, for that is real happiness, and it has nothing to do with our circumstances, whether we have money in the bank, whether people are unkind or cruel to us or not - indeed nothing makes that joy dissipate except SIN not dealt with by the Holy Spirit. Be honest with yourself right now, is the wonderful joy of the Lord .ULL in you, never leaving you? If not then sell everything you have and get the Pearl of Great Price. I mean by that dont let anything in your life keep you back from making Jesus Christ the .ULL Master of your life, your very Life itself and let Him save you from the power of sin as well as the guilt and penalty. When He is in control, sin has no power, JOY never goes, LOVE fills your heart, HOPE fills your being and you just do not fuss or have anxiety for the future - HE is in control of everything. And there is no effort in this, it just happens to you!
A momentary recollection of what God has saved us from may add to our praise of Him. But havent we enough to bless and praise His glorious name for, even without such backward glances? It is bad enough to have sinned in the past: but it is surely a terrible thing to allow past sins to mar present service. When you have forgiven your child some wrong-doing, do you wish him to grieve over it - to be miserable over it for days, weeks, months, years? Yet many children of God are doing this. Self-examination has its place, but to wreck the present by mourning over the past is sin. Look at Simon Peter. He denied our Lord with oaths and curses. Our Lord forgave him, reinstated him, and used him. The one of the eleven who fell the lowest was the very one chosen to be spokesman on the day of Pentecost. Nor did Peter allow his past fall to hamper him; for he accuses the Jews of the very sin he had himself committed. You denied Him, he cried. You denied the Holy and Righteous One (Acts 3:14). O let us thank God that the sins of the past are blotted out, and let us never grieve Him by spoiling the present by reproaching ourselves for the sad past. Looking unto Jesus must be our attitude. .orgetting the things that are behind;... I press on toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13).
THINGS THAT MAR SERVICE
2. Are we willing to leave that entirely in Gods hands? Many people

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THERE IS THE .UTURE
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If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my .ather glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the .ather hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my .athers commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:11). The above verses from Scripture contain a promise that we can ask what we will and it will be done for us - no conditions BUT that GODS will is being done in our lives. We are TO CONTINUE in His love; we are TO KEEP His commandments, and ABIDE in CHRISTS LOVE. We can only do this if Christ Jesus is in total control, that He lives instead of ourselves, that we abide or habitually live in Him. We cannot do that if we think we must fall into those little sins habitually every day. If we believe Him instead, and expect Him to give us Victory over sin little and big, our JOY will remain and it will be full. In other words, joy will not then come and go, it will be constant, and we will be .ILLED with joy. Can this be real in a sinful world of trial and conflict etc, YES, it is happening to me. If only I had entered into .ULL Victory over sin as a free gift 30 years ago! But I guess I would not have been ready back there to receive! DO NOT let the old bogey of sinless perfection keep you back from such a life. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13). Now HOPE is the opposite of worry and anxiety about the future. Before this wonderful liberty in Christ I would find worry creeping in about something or other in the future. I would sometimes let it conquer me and then I would claim 1 John 1:9 after maybe a selfpity session with myself and a struggle to get back trust in God. Now I am filled by the Indwelling Christ with HOPE, it is part of the gift. I have no worries to be suppressed or cleansed, the Indwelling Christ
KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS.
just taken offense because of the conduct of a fellow-Christian (who had been both courteous and right - but firm). Irritation, censure and divergence from the truth were all exhibited in five minutes. Then as he left the room, he turned and said in a surprised tone, By the way, what did you mean by that hint in your letter that I am not entirely surrendered to God? I AM entirely surrendered to Him. It was quite obvious that he knew little about surrender. Yet he seemed perfectly satisfied with himself.
Many readers of this paper may be equally satisfied. But many, we know, are yearning for a victory they do not possess, although they have sought it for many years. Will you examine your surrender? What does it mean? If we wish to be entirely yielded up to Christ, we must leave three things with Him: the Past, the .uture and the Present. This involves the surrender of SEL. - not merely of things. Surrender your very selves unto God (Romans 6:13, Weymouth). A cleric in the USA once said, Do you know that Campbell Morgan came to this country and preached one sermon that destroyed 40 years of my sermons? .or 40 years I had been preaching on the duty of sacrifice -the denying things to ourselves; giving up this and that. We practiced it in our family. We would give up butter one week and try to use the money in some way that God might bless. Another week we would give up something else, and so on. Campbell Morgan said that what we needed to give up, was not things but SEL.: and that was the only thing we had not given up in our home. We had given up everything under the sun, but self. We were giving up so many things that we had become proud of our humility! So let us look at self. Am I willing to surrender it entirely to God, and just Let go?
WHAT SURRENDER MEANS
1. But, you exclaim, the past is dead and gone. Oh, no; far from it! The sins of the past are forgiven, but oh, what a weight they are about our necks! said a worker for Christ. This ought not to be. Are we willing to let the past go?
THERE IS THE PAST
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world of sin. Christ found us in Egypt, and by His death in our stead delivered us from the penalty of sin. But even after our conversion some of these sins followed us and harassed us - temper, pride, jealousy, lust, worry, avarice - causing discomfiture and misery, and occasionally temporary defeat. Where is there any escape, any real victory? Only through the Red Sea - baptism, or what baptism implies; i.e., a death to sin and a rising again to righteousness. That is a crucifixion with Christ, so as to be able to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin.
is making me abound with the delight of what God is going to do in the future, it is supernatural HOPE. It is through the POWER of the Holy Spirit. Joy and Peace abound too, and I have no part even in trying to believe. Nothing is being suppressed, I just get up in the morning and He does it all for the whole day. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit [inform] of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. (11 Cor. 8: 1-2). See the verse above, it shows that those who trust Jesus to give them complete victory over the dominion of sin will not lose Holy Spirit joy in times of peril, affliction or poverty. The supernatural work of Christs through the Holy Spirit within will make joy abound through His Grace. Abundance is supply that is overflowing, we are filled with joy that is more than enough for ourselves and spills out everywhere for others, even in times of trial. We will luxuriate in the riches of His Life, so much so that we flow out with riches in those times that will enable us to be generous in material and spiritual gifts to others. The Abundant Life is the whole answer to living in these perilous days of the end times. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:7,8). There are those today who tell us that God HASNT got a wonderful plan for our lives. They say that we Christians always suffer and may become martyrs in this present world. The message seems to me to be all is gloom ahead, dont expect happiness in this world, it only exists in the next, in Heaven. Expect to suffer and grit your teeth and be a good soldier for Christ by enduring life here with all your trials, say the false teachers of fundamentalism. Now this is not Scriptural at all. The 60 references to JOY in the New Testament show that immediately. God HAS got a wonderful plan for your life; it is the best and
The Egyptians were seen DEAD upon the seashore. An Israelite might have gone back and have recognized his old taskmaster lying there. There he is DEAD: he will never trouble me any more. Another might have said, Yes, and there is my taskmaster; no more will he oppress me!
WHERE MANY CHRISTIANS .AIL
How to Live the Victorious Life pages 43-50.
SURRENDER ALL TO CHRIST

WHAT ABSOLUTELY SURRENDERED TO GOD REALLY MEANS, AND THE RESULTS THAT .OLLOW THIS ATTITUDE O. .AITH We have again and again declared that before anyone can enter into the Victorious Life, two things are necessary - surrender and faith: mans part and Gods part. .irst of all, we must be willing to give up all known sin and all self-will and surrender ourselves entirely into Gods hands. Then we must in faith look to God to sanctify us. So the entrance in may be summed up in two simple mottoes: LET GO AND LET GOD Now it is extraordinary how difficult it is to make people understand what surrender is. And when they DO understand, it is still more difficult to persuade them that it is for their good! The writer sent a business letter to a Christian friend a week ago and in it put this question: May I ask if you are entirely surrendered to Christ? He called round the following day. He had
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greatest in all eternity. It is for joy unspeakable to flood your being with hope and faith and blessing. That joy unspeakable is to Gods glory. Christ will fill us with delight in the midst of any trial and give us true happiness that has nothing to do with our surroundings or difficulties. God may indeed lead us into martyrdom for His sake, but HE is in control and HE knows what He is doing. Satan is not in control of our future, and anything God allows is all right with me. We wont have to struggle to have faith either, if we believe that Jesus Christ Who indwells us can so take over that He will save us completely from the bondage to the power of sin in our every day lives. When we enter full salvation from sins power, Jesus gives .AITH as part of the gift of righteousness. How do I know? I was instantly filled with faith, nothing to do with myself trying to trust, no repressing unbelief, HE does it all for me. Glory to God, what a way to live. I am speaking the truth, beloved of God, not exaggerating or fudging my testimony.
save himself. His struggles and efforts avail nothing. Salvation is all of grace. Then came Gods deliverance through the shedding of blood. That Passover Lamb was a type of Christ. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). The lamb was slain and the blood shed. That was substitution. That lamb dies instead of me, a Jew might have truly said. Yet that blood SHED saved no one. To effect salvation, it must be sprinkled upon the doorposts and upon the lintel. That is to say, there must be an individual claiming and acceptance of that substitution sacrifice. Only the blood SPRINKLED saved anyone. Christ died for the ungodly. But if I am not to die for my sins, I must accept Christs death in my stead. As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God (John 1:12). THE RED SEA. - Then came that miraculous passage through the Red Sea, which Paul likens unto baptism. Our fathers were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2), although neither the waters of the sea nor the cloud touched them, and not until the passage of the Jordan did they become fully sanctified. What did the Red Sea accomplish for the Israelites? Before they crossed it they were redeemed by the shed blood appropriated, but were still living and moving amongst their foes.
THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINES EXPLAINED.

Salvation has been completed by Christ Jesus, in all areas. Salvation is a THREE.OLD WORK by Christ alone, no works allowed. All is done by Christ alone: 1. Justification, 2. Sanctification. 3. Glorification. Let us examine in depth the wonders of Christs salvation. These doctrines are all spelled out clearly in Gods Word, and have been attested to by sound Bible teachers, authors and preachers, throughout the years. I would not dare to deviate from sound doctrine in any of my own writings or teachings. The doctrines are all in Scripture, but in these modern times few have believed and acted upon ALL that the Bible teaches. Keep an open mind, read the scripture references carefully.
Those of us who are born-again know that salvation is by Grace alone, through faith. None of us would have been saved if we did not
1.
JUSTI.ICATION.
They were subjected to a merciless pursuit and a determined attempt to drag them back into bondage. When once they had passed through the sea, however, they were delivered from all dominion, all control of their foes. They never again had trouble from them or conflict with them. Their oppressors lay DEAD on the seashore. What does this mean for us? Remember that there are two aspects of Christs death. He died for our sins. He died for us substitution. But then Paul tells us that we are also to die with Him. I have been crucified WITH CHRIST (Galatians 2:20); Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin (Romans 6:11). The Israelites in bondage were delivered by the blood shed and sprinkled. But they are pursued by certain of their foes. These foes are slain at the Red Sea, but they themselves escape and are free. Egypt stands for the
TWO ASPECTS O. CHRISTS DEATH
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But if our joy is in HIM and what HE is, that cannot change or fluctuate, and we can always abound in joy. Rejoice in the Lord: Jesus Christ, Whom having not seen ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8); He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31); O magnify the LORD with me! Think often of Him. Let His wondrous glory be the theme of your thoughts and your songs. Ever recollect that it is HE - This glorious One -Who dwells in your heart by faith. And if He is supreme, then you can say, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and joyfully add, TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST.
CHAPTER 15: How to Live the Victorious Life

.ROM THE GLOOM AND DISAPPOINTMENT O. THE WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE TO THE GLORY AND ABUNDANCE O. THE PROMISED LAND There is only one thing now to be considered, and that is the sort of life God expects His children to live. .OR OUR ADMONITION Before we look at that ideal - a POSSIBLE ideal - we must just give a glance at the wonderful object lesson given us in the redemption of Gods people, Israel. Paul tells us that the experiences of the children of Israel, in their deliverance from Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land, and are examples, or types, and that they are written for our admonition (1 Corinthians 10:11). They are full of instruction. God means us to study the failures and failings of His chosen people, and to take warning lest we also suffer for having an evil heart of unbelief. Egypt is a type of the world -Sin. Canaan, the land of promise, is a type of Sanctification - the Victorious Life here below. No Egyptian taskmaster was ever more merciless and cruel than sin is. The Israelites could not save themselves. The more they struggled to get free, the harder their burdens became. So likewise the sinner cannot
have that revealed to us by God. Our initial salvation has nothing to do with works, or our own righteousness. We cannot earn it or add to it in any way, we do not have to endure to the end in order to be saved, we are instantly saved when we receive eternal life through the shed Blood of Christ Jesus alone. We have POSITIONAL SANCTI.ICATION when we accept Christ as Saviour, this is accomplished the moment the believer accepts Gods Grace. In our STAND before God he sees us as holy as Christ is holy, even through the IMPUTED Righteousness of our Saviour. He bore ALL our sin, He became SIN for us, and we become the RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ before a Holy God.
DAYS O. HEAVEN ON EARTH
SALVATION BY GRACE GRACE: perfection in POSITION, Redemption, future glorification, reconciliation, regeneration, propitiation, imputation, forgiveness, justification, positional sanctification,
HAS MANY PHASES O.
We share by Grace alone in the inheritance of the saints, Col. 1:12; We are made acceptable in the Beloved, Eph.1: 6; made the righteousness of God, 11 Cor.5:21, made to be near to God, Eph.2:13; are now sons of God, John 1:12; we are by Grace citizens of Heaven, Phil. 3:20; now a new creation, 11 Cor. 5:17; made the family and household of God, Eph. 2:19; 3:15; we are complete by Gods work alone in Christ, Col.2:10. We are already in the kingdom of Gods own Son, Col.1:13; and the saved one possesses all spiritual blessing in the Son, Eph.1:3. THAT IS OUR POSITIONAL SANCTI.ICATION.
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This sanctification is our WALK whilst on earth, which leads into eternity when God will have made us into the very image of Christ: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2. Because these doctrinal points are so important to this booklet, the theological verification will be upheld by the recognized Biblical scholar, teacher and lecturer, Lewis Sperry Chafer, who was the president and founder of Dallas Theological Seminary in the days when it was a glory to the Lord, a solid place of Scriptural teaching. *cf. Extract: pp.67-72.* Read his words carefully, recognize the TWO NATURES as presented in Scripture, what these mean to you in your daily WALK with the Indwelling Christ. Understand the ONLY WAY O. VICTORY, and relate this to your own walk and think together with God why you can trust Christ to deliver you from the POWER of SIN in its fullness each day, day by day. It is all there in Scripture. There could be presented here as well, but space does not permit it, many more teachers of doctrine and their confirmation of the Bible soundness of what is presented in Beauty for Ashes this issue. Write and ask for more if you must have extra confirmation, please pay our costs. It is about time we got these doctrines out of our heads and into our lives as life-transforming realities. The world needs to see the Christ, Who lives within us by the Holy Spirit, living out the Beautiful Life that only He can produce. The world can smell a hypocrite a mile away. The world is going into the Tribulation period very soon, let CHRIST and His RIGHTEOUSNESS be seen by all you encounter, the world has seen through the pious and proud Christian, the snappy and quick-tempered Christian, the selfish and uncaring Christian need I go on? Let Christ LIVE the Life, dont just witness by your words, witness by His Life transforming you. Reject the little sins that are ruining your testimony, and expect Jesus to save you from the dominion of SIN and its power .ULLY.
2.
PROGRESSIVE SANCTI.ICATION.
verse, My grace is sufficient for thee, which led that veteran Christian warrior, Preb. Webb-Peploe, into the Victorious Life. After the crushing sorrow of losing a beloved child, he tried to prepare a sermon with this as his text. But he could not cast his burden upon the Lord. Rising to his feet he cried out to God in his agony, Oh, God, it is not true. I do not find Thy Grace sufficient for me in this heavy sorrow that has befallen me. But, oh, MAKE it sufficient.
What I entered into in the Victorious Life was about DEATH to the self. No, not choosing to put others first, or living unselfishly, or
3.
THE CROSS AND OUR DEATH!
.alling on his knees, he repeated this prayer. Then through his tears he saw over the mantelpiece an illuminated text card, My grace is sufficient. In a flash he saw his mistake! What a fool I am, he cried. How dare I ask God to MAKE what is! I will get up and trust Him. And he did trust Him. We all know what the entrance into the Victorious Life meant for Webb-Peploe, and through him, for the whole world! So also Paul, who knew that Gods grace was sufficient, could promise this: My God shall fulfill every need of yours according to HIS RICHES IN GLORY (what a treasury!) IN CHRIST JESUS (what a Savior!) (Philippians 4:19). .ellow-Christian, can you conceive any greater promise? This supply is moment by moment. The manna just fell day by day. As one dear saint has said, God gave me a great fortune - placed thousands and millions to my credit. But gave me a cheque-book with this one condition, You never can draw more than you need at the time. We have to learn to take from Him our spiritual life every second. Just one other command - as binding as thou shalt not steal. It is this. Rejoice in the Lord. Have you thought out what these words mean? It is not a call to rejoice in our oneness with Him; or in the means of grace given us; or His work in us; or in our fellowship with Him. We are not bidden so much to rejoice in what He is to us, or what He is working in us, but just to rejoice in HIM in HIM HIMSEL. - to rejoice in what He is and has in Himself. Do you not see what a wonderful cause of rejoicing this is? If our joy consists in His giving us victory over sin, our joy goes if we are overtaken in a fault. If our joy rests upon His work in and through us, we may not always be conscious of just what He is accomplishing, and we may be exalted or cast down unduly.
A GREAT EXPERIENCE
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which show that Christians need not commit known sins. One is in Ephesians 6:16, Taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. The other is this: God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that we are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13). These are really very wonderful statements. What a glorious possibility is here held out to us! .or this includes the great root sin of unbelief. Every sorrow comes through sin - every worry comes through sin. And there is a possible Victory over every sin through Jesus Christ our Lord. The question is, do we believe Gods Word or do we not? The usual up-and-down experience of the Christian is not Gods plan for him. If we really believe that the indwelling Christ can do this thing for us, then let us trust Him to do it. There is another comforting .ACT given in the Bible. God says, My grace is sufficient for thee (II Corinthians 12:9). This is not a promise; it is a .ACT - an unchangeable, unmoving fact. The writer made this remark at a meeting, and a lady came up to him immediately afterwards and said, But you left out the condition. What condition? Why, there must be faith before Gods grace can be sufficient, said she. But, dear reader, whether you have faith or whether you have not, does not and cannot alter a .ACT! Gods grace is sufficient for you, whether you believe it or not. There was always bread enough and to spare in the .athers house, even when the prodigal was in a far country desiring to be fed upon the husks the swine did eat! Always enough and to spare: he had only to go and share it. Gods grace is always sufficient. God Himself has declared it to be so. When sudden temptation comes upon you unawares, do you stop to pray for deliverance from it - or do you look to Christ for victory over it? Someone has said, When tempted, do not begin to ask HOW can I get out of it?, but WHAT can I get out of it? The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and YOUR THOUGHTS in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7 RV). The Lord Jesus is dwelling in the heart to banish even the thought of evil before it can become sin. If you are troubled with evil thoughts, claim this promise - that the indwelling Christ can indeed guard our thoughts. It was this
saying to myself I must say no to self. It was much more than that. After the fiasco of our move from the house at Landsborough I had had my fill of myself! I was nearly having a breakdown over the move, leaving the home I had lived in for 15 years, losing the animals, leaving my sons family for another district. I had come down in disaster, and experienced a total failure to live with holiness or triumph. I could see I would never make any headway towards holiness in myself, even with all the help God could give me! So I entered into the death of self, the utter, absolute uncompromising, all-inclusive negation of the self-life [.. J. Heugel] which only the Cross of Jesus Christ could work within me. When He died on the Cross Jesus Christ took our punishment so that we could be set free from the penalty and guilt of sin. But, He also brought the self-life, the carnal life, the old man, the old creation to an end- what ever you like to call it. He did away with the old creation, and I was a part of that old creation! That means I could reckon myself dead, I could count on it as already happened at the Cross of Calvary, 2000 years ago. Now, I have never understood this mysterious teaching in the Bible, but God just made me understand in a revelation. I did not have to yield to the old flesh life any more, the Cross had broken its power. I was that old man and Jesus Christ was the New Man within. This morning I woke up thinking of that chorus Pentecostals sometimes sing: Im the new creation, Im the brand new man, All things are passed away, I am born again. More than a conqueror, Thats what I am, Im the new creation, Im the brand new man. There is no death of self in the above chorus, SEL. is saying that it is new, the conqueror, the new man, and so on. NO, it is CHRIST that is the New Creation, the Conqueror, the New Man. No revival can ever reach unto God which does not go by the way of the Cross and death to all the hollow triumphs of the self-life! Christ does not empower the self-life, He consigns it to the tomb! Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. .or in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let
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not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. .or sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:8-14). Here is how .. J. Huegel puts it: Our death to self is the gate-way to a larger, fuller life - the more abundant life. As we sign our death-warrant and consign to the grave (we are sharers of Christs tomb.) the old life, it is only to find that we are recipients of a life infinitely more wonderful - the life of the ages. We become once more temples of the living God. That element of discord - self, the flesh-life which, however religious, is still at enmity with God, for they that are in the flesh cannot please God, the carnal mind is enmity with God - that element of discord once removed, God comes again into His own in us and we truly live. Ephesians 2:6. Marvelous truth! Glorious fact! (End of quote).
HOW TO LIVE THE VICTORIOUS LI.E -
EXTRACTS .ROM THE BOOK. How To Live The Victorious Life pages 71-80.
... NOT SINLESS PER.ECTION... HOW THE DEVIL USES THE BOGEY O. SINLESS PER.ECTION TO SCARE AWAY MANY SINCERE SOULS .ROM SEEKING A LI.E O. HOLINESS. HAVE WE REALLY GRASPED THE .ACT THAT VICTORIOUS LI.E IS A GI.T .ROM GOD? We may think of it as the fullness of the Holy Spirit, or we may think of it as Jesus Christ dwelling in the heart. Personally, the writer finds the greatest help from the fact of the indwelling Christ, and the consciousness of this indwelling. After all, the Holy Spirits chief work
THE
you (1 Peter 5:7). Yet here he was, anxious and troubled over his physical condition, when Gods very plain and definite command is In nothing be anxious. There was clearly something wrong with the spiritual life. What was it? Not blind unbelief, but blank unbelief! We may be quite sure of three things, says .rances Ridley Havergal. .irst, that whatever our Lord commands us, He really means us to do. Secondly, that whatever He commands us 1836-1879 is for our good always. And thirdly, that whatever He commands, He is able and willing to enable us to do, for all Gods biddings are enablings. Now is there any reason for the slightest anxiety in one wholly surrendered to God? Dare we ever doubt His love or His ability to provide for us? Why, if a believer only obeys this one command of God, In nothing be anxious, he finds heaven begun on earth below. But it is impossible for ME to keep that command. So Christ just comes to dwell in my heart, to live His life in me, and to do what I myself cannot do. Said the sparrow to the robin: I should really like to know Why these anxious human beings Rush about and worry so. Said the robin to the sparrow: .riend, I think that it must be That they have no Heavenly .ather Such as cares for you and me. Now we DO know our Heavenly .ather, Who gave us His own SON. Shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32). Then why be anxious? If you really desire the Victorious Life, you must Cast - roll off the word means - all your anxiety upon Him. .or if you keep any of your worry, there is something wrong with your spiritual life and you cannot enjoy the life more abundant; for you fail to trust God. Now Christ, living in you, can alone give you miraculous power to obey His command, In nothing be anxious.
We were speaking a little time back about the possibility of freedom from sinning. There are two very definite statements in Scripture
DO WE BELIEVE GODS WORD?
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Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn is to take of the things of Christ, and show them to us.
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not even strangers be attracted by our joy?
But do not wait for the future. Let victory be yours NOW. Just live in such communion with Christ that He can always show forth His glory through you. Unto me was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, to make ALL MEN see what is the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God ... that NOW might be made known through the Church [i.e., through you and me] the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:9-10). Yes - and His wondrous life and ineffable glory. ... ...If our faith were but more simple We should take Him at His word; And our lives would be all sunshine In the glory of the Lord. Let us explain what we mean by highest criticism. We mean absolutely refusing to believe that it is possible to obey all Gods commands. Now the joy which is inseparable from the Victorious Life is from just taking God at His word. Take such a definite command as Philippians 4:6, In nothing be anxious. Do we obey it? Do we believe it is Gods will that we should never have an anxious thought? Many Christian people must sadly confess that their experience is that they are anxious about everything. The writer a few years back consulted an eminent physician, who expressed an opinion - wrongly, as events proved - that the heart was overstrained and that a long rest was imperative. Anxiety was clearly noted by the doctor, for he said, May I make a remark about you clergy? Many people consult me, but I find that you leaders of religion are JUST AS ANXIOUS about your bodies as men who profess no religion at all. What a rebuke! The writer stood condemned - and felt condemned; but his anxiety still remained! Why? Simply because he did not know the secret of the indwelling Christ.
IN COMMUNION WITH CHRIST
But however we may regard it, the Victorious Life is a gift. If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly .ather give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? If thou knewest the gift of God, said our Lord to a sinful woman, and Who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water (John 4:10). NOW WHAT MUST I DO TO SECURE A GI.T? Just take it. If a gift is offered me for the asking, will it please the giver if, instead of taking the gift, I spend long weeks, or months, or years begging and praying and agonizing for it? Would it give pleasure to a father and mother if their children sat up all night agonizing in prayer for the Christmas gift they had promised to give them? If they did such a thing, their agonizing would have absolutely nothing to do with their receiving the gifts. One could well imagine the distressed father telling his children that if they didnt cease their petitions and get to bed and trust him, they should get no gifts at all! Jesus Christ is the great Christmas Day Gift. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift (II Corinthians 9:15). That gift is ours. Someone has said, Our Lord wants our lives on earth to be one long Christmas Day of receiving His gift of Himself as our victory. We do not need to agonize about it; we do not need to work for it. Provided we are wholly surrendered to God, we have simply to receive, take the Gift of Christ Himself. But did not Jesus Christ tell His disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until [they were] endued with power from on high? Yes, He did. Wait, said He, for the promise of the .ather. But that was BE.ORE Pentecost.
HOW TO GET A GI.T
He was not acting up to what he professed to believe. He had often quoted to others the God-given command, Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain THEE (Psalm 55:22). Casting ALL your ANXIETY upon Him, for He careth for
How to Live the Victorious Life
SURE O. THREE THINGS -
We never hear of the disciples after Pentecost telling believers to wait for this gift. In fact, we read in the 10th chapter of the Acts
READY .OR OUR ACCEPTANCE
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that the gift of the Holy Spirit fell upon all them that heard the word, while Peter was yet speaking to the household of Cornelius, although none of them was yet baptized. The Holy Spirit was given to Gentiles without delay, on simple faith in Jesus Christ. There is no need today to wait at all. If we fulfill the conditions, we can claim the gift. The earliest disciples did not at first appreciate the value and necessity of this gift. Our Lord seems to have told more than 500 brethren to tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high. Yet only 120 obeyed the command, and consequently only 120 received the gifts on the day of Pentecost - the gift meant for all. Let us today make no mistake about this. Our Lord is longing to fill every believer with His Holy Spirit. Christ is desirous of dwelling in our entire hearts by faith. Not until we have surrendered our wills to Him and have yielded our bodies to Him as well as our souls can He fill us with Himself. This is what St. Paul means when he prays that He would grant you to be strengthened by His Spirit with power penetrating to your inmost being (Ephesians 3:16, Weymouth). That ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God (Eph. 3:19), till we all attain unto the measure... of the fullness of Christ (4:13), the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (1:23).
But every such act of opposition is an opportunity for us to show, not by our lip, but by our life, the Christ-life; to prove that there IS victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. And even if some oppose and criticize and condemn, many around us, seeing our victory through Christ, will be glad thereof and rejoice; because they will see the mighty power of God - mighty to the overthrowing of strongholds.
THE MOMENT O. VICTORY

10. NOW - NOT TOMORROW. May we remind our readers of a very simple fact, and yet one so often forgotten. It is this: The only time you can live the Victorious Life is Now. The only way to have Victory through Christ is to get it Now - at this very moment. This life is not merely one for emergencies. So many dear people are waiting for future opportunities to manifest the indwelling Christ. They wait for a prayer meeting, or an open-air, or for a conversation with another congenial spirit. But Now is the only moment of victory. God is Light as well as Love. And our Lord said, LET your light shine -not MAKE it shine as occasion arises. LET IT shine always, everywhere. When you spring out of bed each day and say joyously to yourself and your God, To me to live is Christ, make up your mind to manifest something of the glory of Christ to everyone you meet that day. Keep a watch over yourself. Let the people in the home see the light - the victory. Let your fellow-workers in the office or yard, in the shop or the ship, the factory or the school; see that Christ is dwelling in your heart. Why should not the tradesman, the postmen, the bus-conductors detect your secret? Be epistles of Christ, known and read of all men (II Corinthians 3:2). A dear friend of the writers - a cultured man brought literally to the gutter through drink - was converted at a tramps mission. The day following, he boarded a tram. The conductor was mystified, for the passengers clothes told of beggary, while his face reflected heaven! Why, mate, he exclaimed, you look as if someones died and left you a fortune! You are right there, came the quick reply. Jesus Christ has died for me and has given me His riches in glory. Well, he might dress you better, was the sneer - and HE DID. Shall
It is very wonderful that He should be willing to come. But it is a glorious thing that He should be willing to take absolute responsibility in our lives, because He cannot make a mistake, and He cannot fail. It seems incredible that any believer should refuse such a gift. Again we urge you - receive Him in His fullness by faith. Do not wait for or expect any thrill, any ecstasy. You may feel one, and you may not. But take Christ at His word, and believe that He has come into your heart to be your life. Then rely upon Him to supply all your need. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him (Revelation 3:20). Bear in mind that Christ is already in the heart of every believer - even in the heart of one who is only following afar off. But in so many cases He is not filling the WHOLE heart. He has only
CHRIST IN HIS .ULLNESS
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feelings. He would save us from the peril of testing our victory, or testing His indwelling, by any preconceived notions of ours as to HOW His presence shall be felt or manifested. Think less of the victory, less of the blessing, and more of the Blesser. You remember Spurgeons apt remark, which is worth repeating just here. I looked at Jesus, and the dove of peace flew into my heart. I looked at the dove of peace, and she flew away. Do not then be examining or testing your victory. Maintain a simple and constant trust in Christ - HE cannot fail. It is really better to enter into the Victorious Life by simple faith unaccompanied by ecstasy or thrill. .or when the thrill subsides, and life seems humdrum and commonplace, we may be tempted to think that the victory has vanished with the thrill! .act -faith - feeling: that is the order. 9. DO NOT BE SURPRISED I. OTHERS .AIL TO SEE OUR VICTORY. Only One Man ever lived a sinless life - a really Victorious Life all through - and that is the Man Christ Jesus. But the leaders of religion in His days on earth were so blinded that they failed to see the Victorious Life in Him. They called Him a wine-bibber. We know that this man is a sinner, said they of Christ. So we must not be surprised if men fail to recognize the Victorious Life in us. We must be very humble, and when others thwart us or oppose us, and deny our sincerity or orthodoxy, no spirit of un-love or root of bitterness must come in; no holier-than-thou feeling must be entertained for a moment - or our victory is broken. We are certain to be misunderstood, and our greatest opponents will be not the world, but the Church! The devil has sown tares in the field of the Church, and only God Himself knows what are tares and what is wheat. It is from these - the children of the wicked one in the Church - that the greatest opposition is to be expected. [Our Lord never calls mere unbelievers children of the devil, but only religious unbelievers (see Matthew 13:25,38; 23:15; John 8:38-44). It is an awful thought, but must be noted.] The servant is not greater than his Lord. If Christ received opposition from religious people, so shall we.
partial possession; He has not complete control. There are often chambers of the heart which are shut against Him. And not only closed, but with a lodger within, and that lodger a burglar waiting his time to gain entrance to other rooms within. If any man... open the door. We Christians sometimes sing: O Jesus, Thou art standing Outside the fast closed door, In lowly patience waiting To pass the threshold oer: Shame on us, CHRISTIAN brothers, His name and sign who bear: Oh, shame thrice shame upon us, To keep Him standing there. And with the great majority of believers this is true of some part of the heart. But it isnt so much the shame as the utter folly of it. .or we know that He wishes to gain access to the whole of our hearts simply to bring richest blessing. Paul implores the Roman Christians, Yield yourselves unto God. He himself did so, and heard His voice, with no closed door between - words unutterable; he felt joy unspeakable and full of glory, and in the fullness of his heart he cries, Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.
Is it possible to lose the Victorious Life? is a question often asked. Indeed, it is possible. Temptation will certainly come, and failure may occur. A great Christian leader of men told the writer, a few days ago, how he had sometimes temporarily lost the victory. But, said he, whenever Ive failed, it has always been through the sin of worrying. Yet there NEED be no failure. We have a perfect Savior. When we look back upon a break in this wonderful communion with Christ, we shall always have to confess that the failure need not have occurred.
TEMPTATION AND .AILURE
There are many saintly souls who openly declare that they never sin. They claim sinless perfection. They also claim that St. John teaches such a thing.
SINLESS PER.ECTION?
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We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not, but He that was begotten of God (i.e., Jesus Christ) keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not (1 John 5:18). Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because His seed (Jesus Christ) abideth in Him, and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God (I John 3:9). These statements refer not to single acts of sin, but to habitual sin. The tense used in the Greek does not imply that he cannot commit one definite act of sin, but that he cannot continue sinning; he cannot make a practice of sinning, or frequently repeat acts of sin; it is not his habit to sin. John is here speaking of known and voluntary sins, not of sins of infirmity or the falling short of the glory of God.
He wishes us to enjoy our meals, our work, and our recreation. The marvelous realm of nature, the wonderful infinitude of space peopled with suns, the cadence of music and the color of sky and sea and landscape are for our enjoyment. All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all for our pleasure as well as for His glory. The world is so full of a number of things Im sure we should all be as happy as kings, says the childs poet. God expects His children to be careful about their dress and manners. Surely, He desires us to be attractive Christians? The Kings business requires haste, but it never requires discourtesy or lack of proper attentiveness to our fellows.
Any man can sin. Any man can tell a lie. But we know what we mean when we say, An honest man cannot lie. We do not accuse George Washington of untruth when he declared I cannot tell a lie! Every sin is against a good mans nature. We say the wood cannot sink. this is true. The tendency of wood is always to float. Yet there is always the possibility of its sinking. The hand of a child may submerge it; when sodden with water it will lie on the bottom. When the child releases it, it floats again. When a man is living the victorious life - a life maintained and actually lived for him by the indwelling Christ - there is no tendency to sin. He desires always to do those things which are pleasing to God. But there is always the awful possibility of his sinning. He may become absorbed in the world; he may allow temptation to gain entrance and the hand of Satan upon him may drag him down. So long, however, as a man is fully surrendered to Christ and in full communion with Him, he cannot sin. But such a life is a moment-by-moment victory through a moment-by-moment faith. At any time he can partially withdraw his surrender or break his communion.
TENDENCY OR POSSIBILITY
The writer met a godly major on a voyage to India. He had been converted from a life of dissolution, and was now ever engrossed in his Bible. He avoided every kind of amusement - even deck quoits. Writing to me from a public school in England, a son of the dear major said, I AM SO glad you have met my father. Do try to convert him to the Church of England, his religion makes him so miserable. No wonder the high-spirited lad found little happiness in his fathers company, and was a little shy of religion. GODS religion never yet made a man miserable! Nor does the Lord Jesus delight in misery! Did not the Savior say, These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full? (John 15:11) There is a RIGHT way of making the most of both worlds.
IS RELIGION MISERY?
NOT TRUSTING TO THRILLS

8. DO NOT RELY ON THRILLS. It often happens that when a believer enters upon a life of victory over voluntary sin that he experiences a joy, and an ecstasy and a thrill which make him feel as if he were treading on air. But this is not always the case, and we must not suppose that an absence of thrills is a proof that Christ has not come in His fullness. God wants us to trust Him and His Word, and not to rely upon
A railway coach attached to a moving locomotive cannot stop. But at any moment the coupling may break and a stoppage ensue. Let us, however, repeat the statement that no man need commit any
IN THE .ATHERS HANDS
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Men living the Victorious Life are the happiest and humanist of people, overflowing with the joy of the Lord -bubbling over with innocent fun and mirth. We are here to make this world a happier world. The joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). We are to rejoice evermore, and that means we are to begin now, here on earth. A mother sat searching her Bible, trying to probe the secrets of a life of holiness. She spent so much time seeking spiritual help that the duties of her household became irksome and were either hurried through or neglected. The homeliness of the home was gone. One day, as she was deep in study, her little girl toddled up to her side with a broken doll. Mummy, please mend dolly for me. With an impatient gesture, the mother brushed the little one aside. Ive more important things to do than trouble about dolly! The little one turned sadly away, and the mother continued her search for holiness. But the search was a fruitless one, and the mother closed her book with a sigh, and sought the little child. She was lying on the hearthrug clutching her darling doll, and with the tears still wet on her pretty face. The mothers heart was smitten. God spoke to her then and there. Tenderly stooping over the little one, she woke her with her kisses. Then taking her into her arms, she breathed a prayer to God for forgiveness. She saw that holiness could not thrive on neglected duties. Her devotion to her Lord was henceforth seen in her care of the household, and shone out even in mending broken toys! Home became home again. And the very page of Scripture was lighted up with a fresh glory. Yes, and victory shone in the mothers radiant face.
HAPPY AND HUMAN
33 Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn known and voluntary sin. He is able to keep (guard) that which I have committed unto Him. The marginal reading is, He is able to guard that which He hath committed unto me (IITimothy 1:12).
Both statements are true - praise be to God. He is able to keep you from stumbling (Jude 24). Moreover our Lord Himself says of His followers, No man shall snatch them out of My hand ... And no one is able to snatch them out of the .athers hand (John 10:28-29). And it is evident that our Savior has made every provision for guarding us lest we snatch ourselves out of His hand. The victory over sin which is secured from faith in Christ is, however, a moment by moment victory, and we must ever be looking unto Jesus, the Beginner and .inisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). But thanks be to God, it isnt our looking unto Jesus that gives us the victory, but His looking unto us. Peter could see the Lord despitefully used, and whilst looking at Him could curse and deny that he knew Him. But when our Savior turned and looked upon Peter, no further denial was possible. Not our faith, but His faithfulness, is our safeguard. The indwelling Christ is more than equal to all emergencies. So long as we trust Him fully and obey His smallest behest - so long shall we continue in victory. Why then should a man ever commit any voluntary sin? And why are we surprised when a fully sanctified Christian man tells us he never sins knowingly?
We believe that the Lord Jesus, Who watched the children at their play, and the fishermen and farmers at their work, Who worked Himself and yet made time to be present at a wedding feast, wishes us to take a real and lively interest in all the concerns of life - our own and those of our friends. He has given us a capacity for pleasure, and He longs to see us enjoy His gift of life. He has given us a physical frame which needs food, and work, exercise, and relaxation.
THE CHRISTIAN HERITAGE
The reason why even fully consecrated Christians are sometimes overtaken in a fault is because the majority of believers are not fully surrendered to the will of God. It would be safe to say that most Christians think very little of such sins as pride, anger, irritability, impatience, jealousy, self-seeking, un-love and suchlike. It is, therefore, such an easy thing for a man living the Victorious Life to fall into any of these sins; so many of his fellow-Christians do so unblushingly. And should he fall probably no one is in the least surprised at it! Moreover, no one but a wholly sanctified man can reprove such a one, or he will get the reply, Physician, heal thyself, or even be
THE CAUSE O. .AILURE
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referred to the beam and the mote. In fact, only a spiritual man can help him. As St. Paul says, If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one (Galatians 6:1). Yet how easy it is to live the life of victory when in the company of wholly sanctified men and women! Oh, that there were many more such! Why are we surprised when a man says he has reached a state of sinless perfection? Well, as a rule it is perfectly obvious to anyone but himself that he has not reached such an ideal. Sooner or later he is overtaken in a fault. A saintly Christian man was recently arguing this point at a big luncheon party, and he claimed sinless perfection for himself. A fellow guest quietly said, whether in sincerity or as a test I know not, .orgive me for saying so, but I was thinking you were a little greedy over your food! Ive never yet been accused of greed over anything, flashed out the reply, nor will I allow YOU to accuse me! The warmth with which the retort was made raised a smile on the faces of all who heard it; practice and profession so evidently disagreed. This little story proves both the statements made above. The sinlessly perfect man is sometimes irritable and angry, and when he is overtaken in a fault the average Christian is both amused and pleased!
Let us recognize that we are fallible. We may be mistaken. This does not mean that the majority is always right. Ten men once said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. While only two men urged, Let us go up at once and possess it: for we are well able to overcome it (Numbers 13:30). The people sided with the ten and years of misery and rebellion ensued, because the two were right and had the mind of God.
THE WORLD AND ITS CLAIMS

7. DO NOT IGNORE THIS WORLD. A consecrated man of God lives in a house called Torthorwold. His neighbors say that is what he lives for: Tother world. But all who know him are aware that he leads a most strenuous life trying to make this world and its inhabitants better. We live in two worlds at the same time and have a duty to each. Do you think it is wrong of me to play marbles with my little boy of four? asked a white-haired saintly father. We wonder what answer our readers would give. How it would delight the heart of Satan if he could persuade all wholly sanctified people that all pleasures were sinful! Dear man of God, by all means play marbles - if you are not tempted to cheat! We are living not only a spiritual life, but a bodily life, and whether we like it or not, a very large part of our time and interests is taken up with things which concern the body. Moreover, we are placed in communities. God never meant man to live alone. God made two statements about the first man, Adam, right at the beginning of his existence. The first was that he was very good. The next remark was this, it is not good that the man should be alone (Genesis 2:18). Every man is born into a family - every man has his human relationships. Each of us is to show love to all men. All the little social amenities of life are points of contact with those around us. Love manifests itself in deeds, and we must be human as well as divine. We can only show our love to God by deeds of love to our fellow-men. By all means romp with the little ones and play with the big ones!
The writer has had the privilege of meeting believers who claim sinless perfection. He sat at a table with one at every meal for a week. To be quite frank he must acknowledge that he saw no outward trace of any sin. But this dear child of God took the writer to task in a kindly way for not preaching sinless perfection. This led to a long chat on the subject. My critic declared that a violent temper had been completely eradicated by the Lord Jesus. But he confessed to occasional feelings of impatience, irritability, and un-love. These, however, I regard as IN.IRMITIES and not as sins, said he. My experience is that when men who profess sinless perfection are tackled about it, they always maintain that little things which WE call sins are only infirmities. Brothers, take your infirmities to Christ, and let the strength of Christ rest upon you (II Corinthians 12:9).
SINS OR IN.IRMITIES
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CHAPTER 13: How to Live the Victorious Life

THAT BESET THE PATH O. THE TRUE SEEKER A.TER HOLINESS There are other perils in the path of holiness in addition to those already dealt with. Let us look at them. 6. DO NOT ASSUME IN.ALLIBILITY. We can picture many of our readers smiling at such a ridiculous counsel. But this is a real danger! There is such a joy in unbroken communion with our Lord, and often such a consciousness of power - not our power, but that of the indwelling Christ - that there is a danger of our supposing that we always know Gods will in any matter - that we are always right. The writer once had occasion to live with four consecrated men of God -all of them far more experienced in holy living than himself. One of them was, indeed, deeply taught of God and used to spend long hours in prayer. But in our deliberations he always quietly assumed that he had the mind of Christ, and that any proposal which conflicted with his ideas must necessarily be wrong; and this, even if four of us felt led another way to that suggested by him. Not infrequently, subsequent events showed that we were right and he was wrong. One morning our leader quietly and kindly remarked, My dear, some of us think that we also are led to God. Do not misunderstand me. The reference here is not to an obstinate, dogmatic, self-opinionated man who wished to have his own way. Our friend in question was holy, humble, and unselfish to a degree - but was infallible. He always assumed that he was absolutely guided by God in all his proposals. The best of us is not a little deaf spiritually, and we do not always catch Gods message; just as a deaf person does not always catch the right message through a telephone. There must be a perfect doing of Gods will before there is a perfect knowing of the doctrine (John 7:17).
SOME MORE O. THE PERILS
WHERE MANY BLUNDER
Sometimes, alas! great harm is done to the cause of Christ by men professing sinless perfection, and boasting about it, even while allowing things in their lives which give the lie to their profession. One such came to a friend of the writer to consult him on a business question. It was such an obvious case of sharp practice, if not of downright dishonesty, that my friend said in surprise, How does such an act fit in with your profession of sinless perfection? Oh, business is business, came the impatient reply. And I will have nothing to do with this piece of business, then, answered my friend. We have dealt at length on this point because the devil uses the bogey of sinless perfection to scare away many sincere souls from seeking a life of holiness. Our position is just this: So long as a fully surrendered believer simply trusts the Lord Jesus to keep him and to conquer his temptations for him, he need not commit willful sin. It is, therefore, quite legitimate and right and fitting that we should pray every morning, Grant that this day we fall into no sin. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin. And Christ is able to keep us even from stumbling (Jude 24). And He does keep us just so long as we trust Him to do so.
THIS LI.E IS A GI.T.

THE VICTORIOUS LI.E IS ALL A GI.T RECEIVED IN .AITH AND IS NOT OBTAINED BY STRIVING AND STRUGGLING This victorious life is a GI.T and is not to be secured by any struggling or striving on our part. It is not a thing to be attained to by long and laborious effort. It is not a thing we can reach gradually by growing more and more like Christ. This must be clearly seen. All life comes as a gift. Our physical life - we just receive it. Our spiritual life is the gift of God (Romans 6:23). The life more abundant is a gift. We cannot receive a gift GRADUALLY. There may be hesitation or delay in taking it, there may be a struggle before we are willing to receive it. But a gift is accepted not gradually, but in a moment. It is obtained not attained. The Victorious Life, then, can be received by a definite act.
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There is, of course, a growth in grace in the man who is wholly sanctified - a going on to perfection as his capacity increases. But this life is in His Son (1 John 5:11). When we accept the Son as the Lord of all our being, we receive (as a gift) the LI.E. It is something God does for us - IN US. There is, however, often a long struggle before surrender. Many a Christian has a terrific struggle before he is willing to yield himself wholly to Christ. But this is before the Victorious Life begins. Victory begins only when struggling ceases. The moment you surrender yourself entirely to Christ and look to Him in faith to dwell in your entire heart, that moment He comes and takes control of you.
infinite. The assurance of our continuance in victory is not our good record, but the grace of our Lord. Our continued record in victory adds nothing to our assurance of victory.
THE NECESSITY O. OBEDIENCE

Moreover our victory for any length of time does not weaken Satan. He is just as powerful and active and spiteful, and just waits his opportunity. And his opportunity is any over-confidence or spiritual pride in us. 5. DISOBEY NOT OUR LORDS COMMAND. A radiantly happy couple wished to speak to me after an address on the indwelling Christ. We have known and experienced the truth of the Victorious Life for many months now, said the husband, and it has completely revolutionized our lives. All this time we have been staying away from the Lords Table. We never go to the Holy Communion now. But are we right in keeping away? What is your REASON for absenting yourselves? I asked. Because Paul tells us there is no further need of the Holy Communion when once Christ has come to dwell in the heart, was the astonishing reply. With much curiosity the writer asked for the reference to such a command. And this was the answer: Paul said, As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye proclaim the Lords death TILL HE COME (1 Corinthians 11:26). Well, now that he HAS come to abide IN us, we have refrained from partaking of the Holy Communion. That godly man and woman were delighted to learn that those words Till He come evidently refer to the Second Coming of our Lord. Paul himself was then living and preaching the Victorious Life, but he still partook of the Holy Communion. We ALL partake of the one bread, says he (1 Cor.10: 17). We must never disobey any command of our Lord. Yet how gracious our Lord is! The dear people mentioned above were radiantly happy and were bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit, although they were disobeying God. They did it ignorantly, but not in unbelief, and the Savior graciously blessed them and in due time showed them the better way.
This indwelling is quite independent of any feeling on your part. It is independent of any ideas of your own as to how He should manifest His presence. You must just take Him at His word and rest upon that - not upon any feeling. You may feel a wonderful thrill of joy. You may feel nothing unusual. Can you trust His promise? Every Christian has to decide whether he will be wholly consecrated to God, or whether he will remain content to live the Christian life on a low level - which is ALWAYS a powerless one, and a perilous one.
TAKING CHRIST AT HIS WORD
THE CRISIS AND THE PROCESS

This DECISION .OR HOLINESS is a crisis in a Christians life. With it comes an instantaneous revelation of God to him, that Christ can be all in all; that Christ can and does give Victory over all known sin: not gradually but INSTANTANEOUSLY. Having therefore these promises let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord (II Corinthians 7:1). The tense in the Greek shows that this is done at once as a definite and decisive act. This is the CRISIS of sanctification. But after this definite step of whole-hearted dedication of ones self to God, there comes a life-long process of sanctification - a going
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of past sins is one of the greatest hindrances to present holiness and usefulness. Such recollection weakens our confidence, prevents our usefulness, and reminds us of the pleasures of sin: so there follow feeble witness, fruitless work, and fresh falling into sin. Moreover, remorse, or agony of feeling, or self-condemnation, cannot do aught to heal the wound. The atoning blood of Christ is sufficient for that. In fact, so sufficient - if one may use such an expression - that after the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost Christians are nowhere told to pray for the forgiveness of their sins. The command is simply to confess them to God, and their forgiveness is assured. The reason is obvious. When the Holy Spirit of Christ dwells in the heart, sin is abhorrent, and a longing for forgiveness always accompanies confession. 4. DO NOT PRESUME. The truth about the indwelling Christ, or rather the consciousness of His indwelling, gives you such wonderful confidence, said a venerable cleric to the writer, that the danger is that you get TOO confident. We see his point. But we cannot be too confident! What this man of God meant is this: There is a danger of relying upon past victory to keep us safe in the present. We may have - and Christ desires us to have - a long period of unbroken victory. But the longer the period, the safer and stronger we are apt to .EEL ourselves to be. Paul knew the danger full well, Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). We must bear in mind that OUR weakness is never made strong. Our sufficiency is from God. We are NEVER sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves (II Corinthians 3:5). It is All of Christ and always of Christ. It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do (Philippians 2:13). As Mr. C. G. Trumbull puts it, in his Perils of the Victorious Life. Christ and Christ alone is our victory. Ten years of unbroken record does not add a particle to the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ; it does not increase the sufficiency of His grace, for that sufficiency is
on from strength to strength, from glory to glory. A PROCESS under which the believer becomes more and more conformed to the life and character of Christ.
We have dwelt long on this point because the mistake the writer made (and which many of his readers have probably made) was to try to experience the process without first experiencing the crisis of sanctification. There is little - if any - growth in grace until we have claimed by surrender and faith the life that is Christ. Have you experienced the crisis? Have you obeyed the command, Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord? (1 Peter 3:15.) Christ is in the heart of every believer as JESUS - Savior. But is He indeed Lord? It is not a question of re-conversion; it is just a question of recognizing the indwelling Christ as Master in His own house - my heart. Remember, however, that surrender alone, that is, decision, is not enough. That is only our part in giving up all hindrances to blessing. If surrender sufficed, then we should make sanctification to be a mere act of the WILL. We are neither saved nor sanctified by what we give up, but by what we receive. It is the very God of peace Who sanctifies us wholly. After surrendering ourselves, we must look to Christ to crucify us and to raise us from the death to sin to live the resurrection life. Let go - surrender: then let God do His part. But God will not allow any effort or struggle on your part to help Him. Salvation is entirely a gift of God: entirely of grace. Now salvation is a threefold work: Past, Present and .uture. Justification, sanctification and glorification.
WHERE MANY BLUNDER
And it is all by faith. You cannot earn, or get, any part of it by your own efforts or struggles. .or by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, that no man should glory (Ephesians 2:8-9. See Romans 11:6). Paul goes even further than this. Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law (i.e., effort) (Galatians 5:4). When a man accepts Christ as a Savior from the penalty of sin, he
ETERNAL LI.E A GI.T
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learns that Christs forgiveness is absolutely and entirely through faith. Sorrow for sin, good resolutions, and tears, often accompany repentance. But repentance does not save a man. We have to leave that to Christ. Justification is entirely the work of Christ; and faith in Him secures this salvation. We can do nothing whatever to gain or merit it. We accept it as a gift. When Christ shall come again, we shall be glorified. This is the future of salvation. In this work of glorification, we know we can do absolutely nothing. It is all of Christ.
Bible is full of Victorious Life teaching. This dangerous heresy was taught by Christ, and shows itself again and again in St. Pauls Epistles and those of St. John. Remember that God gave us the Victorious Life after many, many falls. Will He then withhold it forever because of one more fall? Surely not!
What about the present? That is, our sanctification (which is first a crisis and then a process). We have called this the Victorious Life. When we claim it by faith, there is the crisis. When we live it day by day, there is the process. Our Blessed Savior justified us, and will glorify us by His own power entirely. Does He need or demand our help in the matter of sanctification? How much will our struggling and striving or agonizing avail against the devil? Absolutely nothing. He is far stronger than we are. Does Christ, the Almighty Savior, need my struggles to assist Him? Remember, our weakness will never be made strong. A dear Christian lady in an address on this subject said, Is not the Christian life a long struggle? But thank God He gives us power to struggle! Exactly the reverse is true. While we struggle, He cannot help us as He would, we limit and restrain His power. The Victorious Life is simply salvation in the present; and all salvation is entirely of grace -entirely of Christ - a GI.T. As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, SO walk in Him (Colossians 2:6). How did we receive Him? By simple faith. How are we to walk in Him; that is, live a Victorious Life? By simple .AITH. If we live by the Spirit (i.e., eternal life is ours as a gift by the power of the Spirit), by the Spirit let us also walk (Galatians 5:25). Do get hold of this truth: we may not, cannot in the smallest degree, share with Christ the work of accomplishing any part of our salvation. Yet so many of us imagine that in the matter of sanctification we must paddle our own canoe.
LI.E MORE ABUNDANT - A GI.T
But if Satan fails in dissuading you from again attempting to live a life of victory, he will try to delay your recovery. He will whisper that after such a grievous failure you must lie low for a while; it will take a long time for you to get back again into the life of victory; there must be an arduous climb, a tedious and humbling process of recovery. What answer will you give him? Now we have conclusively shown that no striving or struggling on our part will ever bring us victory in the first place. It must, therefore, be obvious that such effort and struggling will never reinstate us! If we fall into any sin, our Savior wishes us at once to turn to Him in faith for forgiveness. Instant forgiveness and instant restoration. Even in the Old Testament dispensation this was so. I have sinned against the Lord, said the penitent king David. The Lord also hath put away thy sin, replied the prophet Nathan immediately (II Samuel 11, 12). If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Your fall does not weaken Christ. He is (still) able to keep. HE has not failed. Nor will He fail you. And once you are forgiven, turn your thoughts away from that sin and try never to think of it again. One thing I do, said Paul, forgetting the things [he might well have said sins] that are behind ... I press on toward the goal (Philippians 3:13).
SATANS WHISPERINGS
TRUST, NOT STRUGGLE
This is not minimizing or under-rating the sin. No one has such a horror of sin as he who is living the Victorious Life. Nor does it mean complacency under defeat. But we feel strongly that the recollection
A HINDRANCE TO HOLINESS
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(Matthew 10:16). Why? Because HE is our defence and our shield. 2. NO .REEDOM .ROM TEMPTATION. The Victorious Life is not an untempted life. Only ONE Man has ever lived an unbroken Victorious Life, and that was our Lord Himself. And He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. The sinless angels were tempted, and some fell. Adam and Eve in their sinless state were tempted, and also fell. So let us not be surprised when the devil tempts us. He will do all in his power to drag us down, because the Victorious Life is the only one that really counts. Every child of God will be tempted, but we can count it all joy, for we are told that the shield of faith is able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16).
A CONSTANT ATTITUDE O. .AITH

3. I. WE .ALL. There is always the possibility of sinning, and there is the provision for it. If the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin... (Leviticus 4:3). Doesnt this prove that sin is inevitable? asked an inquirer. Surely not. Every ship that sails is provided with a supply of lifeboats, lest there should be a shipwreck or a collision. This does not imply that it is the captains intention to wreck his ship; nor does it mean that therefore every ship must be wrecked. So, then, it is possible for both priest and people to sin. The Victorious Life is secured by an act of faith: and it is only maintained by a constant attitude of faith. Suppose, then, there is a momentary failure and we fall into some sin. What then? Why, Satan immediately tries to follow up his victory by trying to persuade us that there is no such thing as the Victorious Life; or that if there is, then we never had the blessing; or if we had - well, it is gone forever: weve lost it. And our fellow-Christians who have never seen the only way of victory will gladly back him up in his assertions. Even devout and earnest believers will assure us that such teaching is a dangerous heresy. Do not listen either to Satan or them. We have seen that the
Blaze it out in letters of fire, that Christ can, and will, save us from the power of sin every day and every hour without struggling, striving and agonizing. If you struggle, you do not trust. Have not most of us learned from our own experience how useless our struggles are? Some besetting sin gets the better of us. How we struggle against it! How we agonize in prayer over it - even standing on the promises of God as we think. Yet we get up from our knees only to fall again and again into sin! Christs promises cannot give us power. Even faith cannot save us. Only Jesus Christ can do it. Are we willing to look to Him and trust Him to conquer our sin for us? He has conquered sin and Satan. HE - the Conqueror - is willing to come and fill our hearts and be OUR LI.E. Sin shall NOT have dominion over you, says Gods Word (Romans 6:14). We may be more than conquerors - not by struggling, but entirely through HIM that loved us (Romans 8:37). What does it mean? Not only that the besetting sin will be conquered - but also the very DESIRE to sin will be taken away. Only Christ can do this. It is a wonderful MIRACLE. Some of us have proved this. A well-known character in London has recently passed to the life beyond the grave. He was a notorious drunkard, but marvelously saved by Christ. .or weeks after his conversion he had an intense desire to drink coming upon him with almost overwhelming power. He fought and struggled against the temptation. Although an untutored man, he felt that God had a better way than this. Kneeling in a field in North London, he cried out, O God, cant you make a better job of me than this? And God at once took away all desire to drink and the craving never returned. The saintly Bishop Moule confessed in an address to confirmation candidates that a severe and terrible temptation assailed him in the street. He added, I stopped dead and said quickly, Holy Spirit, come in. Then I said to myself, The evil spirit, who is strong, is here. But I have the Holy Spirit, Who is Almighty, and I can leave Him to deal with the temptation. Christ does not give us power apart from Himself. All power is given unto ME said Christ. And lo! I am WITH YOU all the days
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(Matthew 28:18,20).
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.or if while we were yet enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more being reconciled shall we BE SAVED BY HIS LI.E (Romans 5:10) i.e., by the living Christ living in us. He will keep us safe from the power of sin, if we will let Him. Christ can do this. He will do it. He does it in every life that trusts Him to do it.
We have proved by our own experience that we cannot be good by self-effort. Stop trying to be good. Stop struggling, and let the Savior do the great work for you. He came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). We can reckon on Him. The promise is to him that worketh not, but believeth (Romans 4:5). It is GOD that worketh in you both to will and to do (Philippians 2:13). My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Dear Christian, is your most urgent NEED just deliverance from this awful sin? How you have struggled and agonized! Yet the supply is IN YOU! Ah, you cry, but you do not know how weak I am. No - but we thank God for your weakness. My grace is sufficient for you for My POWER is made perfect in weakness (II Corinthians 12:9). Your weakness, which has been your lament, shall be your highest glory. Most gladly therefore will I glory in my weakness, that the power of Christ may cover me (II Corinthians 12:9). We can be kept ONLY by the power of God through faith (I Peter 1:5). Thanks be unto God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).
SEL.-E..ORT MEANS .AILURE
Christ, we shall lose Him. Perhaps this comes from regarding the Victorious Life as a blessing - a possession we can forfeit or lose. Satan always tries to get us to regard it as such. It may slip from our grasp. No. It is a Person, not a thing. It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who comes not so much for us to possess Him, but that He may possess us. He cannot slip from our grasp. He holds us. He has promised, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee (Hebrews 13:5). That is why the writer likes to dwell upon the abiding Christ rather than the fullness of the Spirit. Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord; Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word. Once His gifts I wanted. Now the Giver own; Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone. He keeps us - it is not we who keep Him, and He is able to keep. Of course, we must allow the Lord Jesus to be the home of our thoughts. But looking unto Jesus in faith and love does not mean strenuous effort to retain Him - a willing guest. Our look of faith is not with strained eyes, but with a restful gaze.
Does this mean, then, that we need do nothing but sit down and sing psalms? .ar, far from it! We have been speaking only of the matter of our own personal salvation - past, present, future. ALL of this must be accepted as a gift. But when Christ comes into the heart, He comes with power. Ye shall be endued with power [Greek: DYNAMIS,
PRESSING TOWARDS THE GOAL
Abide in Me, says our Lord. Just rest peacefully in Him so far as your life of victory is concerned. At every alarm, at every approach of temptation, just hide in Him, the Rock of Ages, just as the coney takes cover in his rock of defence. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow - not by self-effort, toiling or striving. They just abide in the sunshine and drink in its life. Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature? asks our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. And in His mind was something more than physical stature. It is not our faith but His faithfulness that maintains the Victorious Life. Trust in the Lord, and then do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed (Psalm 37:3). We may remark in passing that even in our conflict with evil around us our trust must be entirely in Him, and not in our own power and effort. How remarkably this is brought out in our Lords instructions to His Apostles. Behold, I send you forth as sheep amidst wolves, says He. Now how does He proceed? Be ye therefore armed to the teeth? NEVER. Be ye therefore harmless as doves
IN THE PLACE O. SA.ETY
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CHAPTER 12 How to Live the Victorious Life

SOME O. THE PERILS THAT BESET A LI.E O. HOLINESS AND HOW THEY MAY BE MET AND CONQUERED The Victorious Life is not something which is obtained once for all - a summit reached from which nothing can dislodge us. This victory is secured from moment to moment by a moment-by-moment faith. There is constant victory for the believer so long as he trusts Christ entirely - and only so long. The moment that simple faith is lost, that moment the victory over sin is broken. That is why our Lord seems to sum up sin in the one word unbelief. The Holy Spirit when He is come shall convict the world of sin... of sin, because they believe not on Me (John 16:8). And this is why St. John says, This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our .AITH (1 John 5:4). Since, then, there is no such thing as a once-for-all victory, it is evident that this life is beset with perils, and we must be constantly on our guard. Or, to be strictly accurate, we must ever allow the peace of God to guard our hearts. An earnest laboring man used to insist upon quoting that verse as A piece of God shall guard your hearts -and his idea was right. .or it is the indwelling Christ, the Son of God, Who does this for us.
THE PERILS O. THIS LI.E -
What are some of the dangers that beset a life of holiness? To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Nor need we fear to face any danger. .or in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us (Romans 8:37). There is, first of all 1. SEL.-E..ORT. In the first flush of joy at realizing the possibility of such a life of victory, there is a tendency to attempt to hug our possession - to make a continuous and conscious effort to cling to it. A feeling that if we do not strenuously concentrate our thoughts upon the indwelling
THE ABIDING CHRIST
like dynamite or dynamo] from on high (Luke 24:49). Power is a thing which makes itself felt. Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16) says Paul, whose teaching we have given above. We cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard (Acts 4:20). Struggling and agonizing play no part in our personal salvation. They merely hinder and hamper it. But we are in the midst of a wicked generation. The devil is strongly entrenched in the lives of men and women around us. They encourage temptation and welcome it. They find their greatest enjoyment in sin. They do not want to conquer sin. So Paul, who declares that salvation is all of faith, also warns us that we have a fight to wage, a race to win, a wrestling to engage in. The God of peace shall bruise Satan says Paul: but it is under OUR .EET. (Romans 16:20). The enemys Conqueror working in you will make the struggle short and decisive. He Who made peace .OR you, works peace IN you. All our powers of body, soul and mind are to be brought to bear upon this great task. In this race Paul presses on towards the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). What IS this prize? Certainly not forgiveness of sin, or power over temptation, or the gift of eternal life. The runner has already laid aside every weight and sin (Hebrews 12:1), or he would not be in the race at all. No! The prize is not eternal life - that is a gift. The race, the fight, the wrestling (against the rulers of the darkness of this world - Ephesians 6:12) is what we experience when we are fellow-workers with Christ, who came to destroy the works of the devil. (See Galatians 5:19-21 for some of them.) Never forget that even in all this outward activity, it is fruitful only as Christ inspires IT and empowers US.
Our Lord Himself strove in this way. He it was Who resisted unto blood, striving against sin (Hebrews 12:4). But HE had not to struggle against any inward desire or any temptation to sin. HE did not find it hard to be good. TO SUM UP - there may be fierce conflicts in a Christian mans heart before he is willing to surrender himself entirely to Christ. And there IS a great conflict to be waged against the devil, in our efforts
OUR LORDS EXAMPLE
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to snatch others out of his bondage. But the Victorious Life, as it concerns our own souls, in one free from all struggle. He is able to keep. When the writer was a boy, he spent much time walking on stilts. He gained considerable freedom in their use. But although he walked it required constant effort, and sometimes struggle, to keep from falling. A little thing brought collapse. Contact with anyone usually meant a fall. That is a picture of the walk of many a Christian. Effort, struggle, slow progress, constant falls and new starts, and an almost total inability to help anyone else. It is an unnatural walk. Claim the Victorious Life - Victory through the Indwelling Christ - and the Christian walk will be found as easy as walking on our feet. Some shell-shocked soldiers with normal limbs believe that they are unable to walk - and they cannot. The skillful physician makes them BELIEVE they can walk - and they do. The power of Christ to walk by faith is at our disposal. Can we not trust Him? A little girl of 13 was asked what difference the Victorious Life meant to her in times of temptation. After a little pause she replied, Before I saw this truth, I used to argue with the tempter, and he usually got the better of me. But now, when he knocks at the door of my heart, I say, Lord Jesus, will you answer the door for me? And when Satan sees the Lord Jesus within, he says, Im sorry; I think Ive come to the wrong house - and he flees.
being so, every Christian who is living the Victorious Life will be much in prayer and in communion with God over the pages of His Holy Word. Before we bring this chapter to a close we ought just to ask what effect the Victorious Life in us will have on others. So far, we have been dealing with ourselves. If we stopped there, we should still exclaim, Its worth having. But we are saved to serve. And every one of the many letters sent to the writer asking for help has come from Christians; from men and women trying to work for Christ, yet not equipped for service.
LOVE, THE CONQUEROR

No one is beyond the reach of love. The power of Divine Love is infinite. In the days of the American war, there lived at Ephrata, a plain Baptist minister, Peter Miller, who enjoyed the friendship of Washington. There also dwelt in that town one Michael Wittman, an evil-minded man who did all in his power to abuse and oppose that minister. But Michael Wittman was involved in treason and was arrested, and sentenced to death. The old preacher started out on foot and walked the whole seventy miles to Philadelphia that he might plead for that mans life! He was admitted into Washingtons presence and begged the life of the traitor. No, Peter, said Washington, I cannot grant you the life of your friend. My friend! exclaimed the preacher, he is the bitterest enemy I have! What? cried Washington. You have walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in a different light. I will grant the pardon. And he did. And Peter Miller took Michael Wittman from the very shadow of death, back to his own home in Ephrata - but he went no longer as an enemy but as a friend. And so it came to pass that LOVE brought a reviler from the foot of the gallows to the foot of the cross. Christian worker, listen! Are you getting the success you would like to see in your work for Christ? Are you getting ANY apparent success? If not, is it not worthwhile - for your own sake, for your works sake, for the Saviors sake, for lost sinners sake - to enter the life of Victory? Surrender: .aith: Taking: Praising the Giver.
HOW THE VICTORY COMES

And what is true of our Victory over temptation through Christ alone is also true of the warfare we wage with the works of the devil around us. It is Christ - and not we ourselves - Who wins the Victory. What do you consider the most dangerous heresy of today? was a question asked of the Editor of the SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES. He passed by Christian Science, spiritism, higher criticism and other isms, and gave this answer: The most dangerous heresy is the emphasis that is being given by professing Christians on WHAT WE DO .OR GOD, instead of on WHAT GOD DOES .OR US. In our work for the Master let us remember that it is not we who are doing His work, but HE Who is working through us. This

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Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

SINLESS PER.ECTION IS:

The Beauty of the Ascended Christ

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes^  has also the aim

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

I. YOU ENTER INTO VICTORIOUS LIVING.

Contd page 10...

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 TO GIVE A WARNINGAutumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Then dont let anyone talk you out of this.

Praise His name!

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

SINS LIKE THESE:

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Secret of Hudson Taylor,

HUDSON TAYLORS CON.ESSION.

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

ARE YOU LIKE AN A.RICAN BABOON?

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

SOME SURPRISING RESULTS.

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

QUOTES .ROM SPERRY CHA.ER.

is YOU, the new nature is the Indwelling CHRIST].

THE ABUNDANT LI.E IS A SURRENDERED LI.E.

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

PRAYING HYDE & THE VICTORIOUS LI.E.

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

THEN THERE IS THE PRESENT

THE BACKGROUND TO MY OWN LI.E O. VICTORY.

NOW IS THE DAY O. VICTORY

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

.ROM TONIGHT, LORD

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

Beauty for Ashes ~ Vol. 7:1 Autumn

THINGS THAT MAR SERVICE

Beauty for Ashes^ has also the aim