Assemblies P.I.W.C Sunday School Character versus Circumstances | Character versus Circumstances |
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| Written by Yaw Appiah | |
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"But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3: 18 (NIV) To be faithful in a family, in a neighborhood in which almost all around us conspire to forget God -- to be in earnest in religion where our friends, and associates, and connections are careless and indifferent -- to forsake sin, and the world, and temptation, where everything invites us to love them and follow them, is no easy task. Memory verse: Daniel 3:18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."(NIV) The mass move with the stream, the few stand like a rock. To be faithful in a family, in a neighborhood in which almost all around us conspire to forget God -- to be in earnest in religion where our friends, and associates, and connections are careless and indifferent -- to forsake sin, and the world, and temptation, where everything invites us to love them and follow them, is no easy task. Circumstances were tremendously against them, but they were the kind of persons who did not give way to circumstances. Popular opinion was mightily against them, but they were the kind of youth that are uninfluenced by wrong public opinion. They had grit as well as grace; pluck as well as piety. The man of real Christian firmness admits not a thought of a compromise with sin or with error. Some of the most powerful obstacles in the path of the youthful Christian today are the allurements of pleasure, the commands of authority, the dread of persecution, and the specious solicitations of friendship and kindness.The person of the world bows down before the golden image. He adores that which seems nearest to him. Popularity, and power, pleasure and place are foremost in his thoughts. He makes an idol of the world. Nothing is "real" in his sight which cannot be coined into money, and which will not aid him in his ambitious plans. Brethren, You will never be a Caleb; you will never be a Joshua; you will never be a David -- never, never -- at this rate of it; hanging back and saving your life, and therefore losing it; taking so much of the program because it fits you, and scoring out certain other items that you do not like.. Go in for a full program, if you would enjoy Christian life.Joshua 14:6 "Remember what the Lord said to Moses about you and me when we were at Kadesh-barnea?" Caleb asked Joshua. 7 "I was forty years old at the time, and Moses had sent us from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land of Canaan. I reported what I felt was the truth, 8 but our brothers who went with us frightened the people and discouraged them from entering the Promised Land. But since I had followed the Lord my God 10 "Now, as you see, from that time until now the Lord has kept me alive and well for all these forty-five years since crisscrossing the wilderness, and today I am eighty-five years old . "The Lord hath kept me alive." I want you to notice this also about Caleb. He says, "I have wholly followed the Lord my God" interesting. This is the very keynote of Caleb from beginning to end. He was the man he was, from the beginning to the end, because he was out and out -- because there were no limitations and provisions with him. He was not a man who, as Paul would say, "Made provision for the flesh for the lust thereof"; but having been called by God to His service, he made it his meat and his drink. He "went in" for God and His cause, like a ship in full sail. He flung every power of body, and soul, and spirit like a free sheet to the winds of God's grace, and God's Spirit, and God's Providence. He "let go." Young fellow, it is the ruin of you that you are holding back. You will never be a Caleb; you will never be a Joshua; you will never be a David -- never, never -- at this rate of it; hanging back and saving your life, and therefore losing it; taking so much of the program because it fits you, and scoring out certain other items that you do not like.. Go in for a full program, if you would enjoy Christian life .They, who are strong in faith when young, and have the word of God abiding in them, are not likely to become weak in faith when old.. |
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