"As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."
Refreshing insights from former missionary Ruth Paxon point the way to a full and satisfying life in the Spirit of the living Lord, who cleanses our souls and quenches our thirst, that we may never thirst again.
"As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."
Refreshing insights from former missionary Ruth Paxon point the way to a full and satisfying life in the Spirit of the living Lord, who cleanses our souls and quenches our thirst, that we may never thirst again.
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Overview
"As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."
Refreshing insights from former missionary Ruth Paxon point the way to a full and satisfying life in the Spirit of the living Lord, who cleanses our souls and quenches our thirst, that we may never thirst again.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780802489951 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Moody Publishers |
| Publication date: | 05/07/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Sales rank: | 875,567 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Rivers of Living Water
How Obtained â" How Maintained Studies Setting Forth the Believer's Possessions in Christ
By Ruth Paxson
Moody Press
Copyright © 1941 The Moody Bible Institute Of ChicagoAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8024-8995-1
CHAPTER 1
THE MARKS OF A CARNAL CHRISTIAN
THERE ARE TWO KINDS of Christians clearly named and described in Scripture. It is of the utmost importance that every Christian should know which kind he is and then determine which kind he wishes to be. Paul, in I Corinthians 3:1-4, speaks of Christians as either carnal or spiritual.
And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
Which kind of Christian are you? Have you ever had your picture taken in a group? Were you eager to see it? And you quickly found the picture of one person. If the picture of that one person was good, then the whole picture was good, but, if not, then the picture was poor, and you did not care to own one. Well, tonight, we are going to have a photograph taken of the carnal Christian, and I wonder if you will see yourself in it. It will be an absolutely accurate one because it is to be taken by the Divine photographer who knows each of us through and through.
THE MARKS OF THE CARNAL CHRISTIAN
IT IS A LIFE OF UNCEASING CONFLICT
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members (Rom. 7:22-23).
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these arecontrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would (Gal. 5:17).
Two diverse laws warring against one another in the same personality; two forces absolutely contrary to each other, contesting for its control—this is indeed the language of conflict. Two natures, the divine and the fleshly, are engaged in deadly warfare within the Christian. Sometimes the spiritual nature is in the ascendancy, and the believer enjoys a momentary joy, peace, and rest. But more often the fleshly nature is in control, and there is little enjoyment of spiritual blessings.
May I illustrate this conflict which is so common? A friend told me this story of her six-year-old nephew James, who had the bad habit of running away from home. One day his mother told him she would have to punish him if he ran away again. The temptation to do so soon came and he yielded to it. Upon his return home his mother said, "James, didn't you remember that I said if you ran away again I would punish you?" "Yes," said James, "I remembered." "Then why did you do it?" asked his mother. James replied, "It was this way, mother. As I stood there in the road thinking about it, Jesus pulled on one leg and the devil pulled on the other, and the devil pulled the harder!" The Lord Jesus pulling on one leg and Satan pulling on the other is the constant experience of the Christian, but habitually yielding to the devil and giving him the control of the life is the wretched condition of the carnal Christian. Is yours a life of such unceasing wearying conflict?
IT IS A LIFE OF REPEATED DEFEAT
For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice: but what I hate, that I do (Rom. 7:15, R.V.).
For the good which I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I practice (Rom. 7:19, R.V.).
Romans 7 is someone's spiritual biography. It was no doubt Paul's. But could it not have been yours and mine as well? It is the revelation of a true desire and an honest attempt to live a holy life, but it is surcharged with the atmosphere of deadly defeat; a defeat so overpowering as to burst forth in that despairing cry for deliverance.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24).
Who of us has not uttered it? We have made countless resolutions at the dawn of a new day or of a New Year regarding the things we would or would not do. But our hearts have been repeatedly heavy with the humiliating sense of failure. The things we steadfastly determined to do were left undone, and those we solemnly resolved not to do were repeatedly done. Sins of both commission and omission, like evil spirits, haunt our bedchamber and rob us even of the balm of sleep. We have lost our temper, we have been as full of pride, selfishness, and worry this year as we were last year. We have neglected to study the Bible and pray, and we have had no more concern for souls today than we had yesterday.
The trouble is not with the will, for it was very sincere in the decisions made and fully purposed to carry them out.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh.) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not (Rom. 7:18).
But there is a divided control over the carnal Christian's life and that always spells defeat. He may have deliverance, if he will, but it must be a deliverance out of Romans 7 into Romans 8. Is such a deliverance yours?
IT IS A LIFE OF PROTRACTED INFANCY
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able (I Cor. 3:1-2).
The carnal Christian never grows up. He remains a mere "babe in Christ." The Corinthian Christians should have been fullgrown, strong, meat-eating grown-ups: instead, they were immature, weak, milk-drinking infants. They did not measure up in either stature or strength to what they should have.
Nothing on earth could be more perfect to loving parents than a baby in babyhood, but oh, the indescribable heartache endured by the parents if that precious child remains a baby in body or in mind! Nothing on earth sets the joy bells of heaven ringing as the birth of one into the family of God, but oh, what pain it must cause the heavenly Father to see that spiritual babe remain in a state of protracted infancy!
Which are you, my friend, a spiritual babe or an adult? To answer this question you may have to answer another. What are the marks of a baby? A baby is helplessly dependent upon others. A baby absorbs attention and expects to be the center of his little world. A baby lives in the realm of his feelings. If all goes well, he is pleased and smiling, but he is exceedingly touchy and, if his desire is crossed at any point, he quickly lets it be known in lusty remonstrance. The carnal Christian bears these selfsame marks.
Hebrews 5:12-14 shows us that the carnal Christian is still dependent upon others. He ought to be far enough advanced to be teaching others: instead, he is still having to be taught, and has not even come to the place where he can take meat instead of milk. He is incapacitated to either receive or impart the deep things of God.
Why were the Corinthian Christians such babes? Paul tells us clearly in the first two chapters of I Corinthians. They were following human leaders, esteeming the wisdom of men more highly than the wisdom of God. They were substituting fodder for food and attempting to satisfy hunger on husks.
The average Christian does not go first-hand to the Bible for food, trusting the Holy Spirit to give him the strong meat of the Word. He is looking only to human teachers for his spiritual nourishment and gulps down whatever they give him. He is a spiritual parasite living on predigested food, consequently he is underfed and anemic. In this weakened state he is open to all forms of spiritual disease. He is an easy prey for temper, pride, impurity, selfishness; and because of his close relationship to other members of the body of Christ, the result is often just such an epidemic of sin as existed in the Corinthian church. Which are you, still a helpless babe or a mature Christian able to be used by God to help others?
IT IS A LIFE OF BARREN FRUITLESSNESS
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit (John 15:2).
The influence of the carnal Christian is always negative. Because of the inconsistency of his life he is unable to win others to Christ or set a true example to other Christians. He is, therefore, a fruitless branch in the Vine.
IT IS A LIFE OF ADULTEROUS INFIDELITY
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4).
This language is very drastic. God plainly states that any Christian who is a friend of the world is His enemy, nay even an "adulterer" or "adulteress." To realize the force of this statement one must know what is meant by "the world." What the church is to Christ, the world is to Satan. It is his eyes, ears, hands, feet combined to fashion his most cunning weapon for capturing and holding the souls of men. It is Satan's lair for the unsaved and his lure to the saved to keep them from God. "The world" is human life and society with God left out.
What, then, should be the Christian's relationship to the world? The answer is found in the Christian's relationship to Christ. Christ and the Christian are one. They are joined together in such an absolute identification of life that the Holy Spirit says the love relationship they bear to one another is analogous to that of marriage.
Is it any wonder, then, that Gods says that friendship with the world on the part of a Christian is tantamount to spiritual adultery? Hobnobbing with the world in its pleasures, entering into partnership with it in its pursuits, fashioning one's life by its principles, working to carry out its program, all make one an accomplice of the evil one against one's own Beloved. Such adulterous unfaithfulness in love marks one as a carnal Christian.
But perhaps you ask, "What constitutes worldliness?"
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (I John 2:15-16).
The acid test of worldliness is given here. Worldliness is "all that is not of the Father." Whatever would not be as fitting to Christ's life in the heavenlies as to the Christian's life on earth is worldly.
Worldliness is also "the lust of the flesh," "the lust of the eyes" and "the pride of life." Worldliness may be manifested in one's conversation, in one's style of hairdress, in one's clothes, in one's friendships, in one's pleasures, in one's possessions, in one's reading, in one's appetites and in one's activities. Anything which feeds or pampers the flesh, the animal part of man, is "the lust of the flesh." Anything that caters merely to the fashions of the world, that stimulates desire for possessions, that keeps the eyes fixed on the seen rather than the unseen is "lust of the eyes." Anything that exalts self, that fosters pride and pomp and that clips the wings of the soul so that it grovels in the dust of earth instead of soaring heavenward is "the pride of life."
Do you love the world and the things of the world? Then you are a carnal Christian.
IT IS A LIFE OF DISHONORING HYPOCRISY
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light (Eph. 5:8).
Are ye not carnal, and walk as men? (I Cor. 3:3).
The carnal Christian says one thing and does another; his walk does not correspond with his witness. He walks as those who make no profession of being Christian, so he has no power to win them to Christ.
Has God shown you your photograph tonight? Are you a carnal Christian? Do you wish to continue to be one? There is abundant hope for the Christian who, wearied with the conflict, humiliated with the defeat, chagrined by, the immaturity, distressed by the fruitlessness, convicted of the infidelity, and pained by the hypocrisy, turns to God and cries out for deliverance from the wretched captivity of carnality into the glorious liberty of true spirituality.
CHAPTER 2MARKS OF A SPIRITUAL CHRISTIAN
AS YOU FOLLOW ME through the message tonight you will see that the life of the spiritual Christian is in strong contrast to that of the carnal Christian.
IT IS A LIFE OF ABIDING PEACE
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).
There is still conflict in the life of the spiritual Christian, for growth comes through conquest in conflict. But there is peace through conscious victory in Christ. The spiritual Christian does not continue in the practice of known, wilful sin, so he lives in the unclouded sunshine of Christ's presence. His communion with the Father is unmarred by the gnawing consciousness of soiled hands, by the pricking of a wounded conscience, or by the condemnation of an accusing heart. So he enjoys abiding peace, deepening joy and satisfying rest in the Lord. Do you have it in your life?
IT IS LIFE OF HABITUAL VICTORY
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:57).
Note it does not say "victories" but "the victory." The victory of the resurrection is an all-inclusive one. He, who has ever given you a victory over one sin, can give you the victory over all sin. He, who has kept you from sin for a moment, can with equal ease keep you from that same sin for a day or a month. The victory over sin is a gift through Christ which is ours as we claim it.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Rom. 8:37).
It would have been very wonderful had He said we were just conquerors. But He declares we are "more than conquerors." This is victory with a plus sign. This means enough and to spare. This verse tells us we do not have to live on the ragged edge of a victory that we have to strain and struggle to keep.
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place (II Cor. 2:14).
Note the word "always." This victory is not restricted to certain times, places and circumstances. God says He can cause us always to triumph in Christ. I can almost hear some person in this audience say, "It is all right for you to stand there and preach that such victory is possible, but you do not know what a cantankerous person I have in my family with whom I have to live all the time." No, I do not know the circumstances of your life, but God does and He put the word "always" in that verse. Dare you accept it and believe that God can cause you to "always triumph in Christ"?
The words "habitual victory" were carefully chosen. By "habitual" I mean that victory is the habit of the Christian's life. This does not mean that the possessor of such victory is not able to sin but he is able not to sin. Continuous sinning will not be the practice of his life.
What is the real, inward meaning of "victory"? Well, it does not mean mere outward control over the expression of sin, but a definite dealing with the inner disposition to sin. Real victory makes a change in the innermost recesses of the spirit that transforms the inner disposition and attitude as well as our outward deed and act. "Real victory never obliges you to conceal what is inside." Many of us do not call sin sin. Of course, we are obliged to call some glaring offense against God or man, that becomes more or less public, sin. But what about that black, defiling thing hidden away in the innermost spirit. Is that sin? God says it is.
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me (Ps. 51:6, 10).
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (II Cor. 7:1).
Let us face a few simple tests and see if we have been "cleansed from all filthiness of the spirit." You used to lose your temper and give way to violent outburst; now there is a large measure of outward control, but a great residue of inward irritation and secret resentment. Is that real victory?
Someone says something unkind or unjust to you; you do not answer back and outwardly you appear polite, but inwardly you are angry, and say to yourself, "I'd like to give her a piece of my mind!" It that freedom from sin?
A sixteen-year-old girl came to a meeting once, where we were speaking of complete victory in Christ. She lived with a cantankerous aunt who was quite addicted to scolding. The girl often tried her aunt's patience by being late home from school. When scolded for it, she always answered back. She went from the meeting determined to be victorious, both in returning from school on time and in answering back, and told her aunt so. The skeptical aunt replied that she would believe in the victory when she saw it. A few days later, she was late home again. The aunt tauntingly said, "Ah, this is your victory, is it?" But not a word escaped the girl's lips. You say "What wonderful victory." But listen! A few days later, I received an exultant letter from the girl saying, "Oh! Miss Paxson, now I know the meaning of real victory, for when my aunt scolded me I not only didn't answer back but I didn't want to." This is victory indeed.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Rivers of Living Water by Ruth Paxson. Copyright © 1941 The Moody Bible Institute Of Chicago. Excerpted by permission of Moody Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
1. THE MARKS OF A CARNAL CHRISTIAN,2. THE MARKS OF A SPIRITUAL CHRISTIAN,
3. TWO CONTRASTING SPHERES,
4. THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE—SELF OR CHRIST?,
5. CHRIST OUR LIFE,
6. THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE,
7. THE PREREQUISITE TO FULLNESS: CLEANSING,
8. THE BELIEVER'S PART IN BECOMING SPIRITUAL: YIELDING,
9. THE BELIEVER'S PART IN BECOMING SPIRITUAL: FAITH,