June 12th — GETTING THERE
June 12th.GETTING THERE
Where the self-interest sleeps and the real interest awakens. "Master, where dwellest Thou? . . Come and see." "Come with Me." John 1:39
"They abode with Him that day." That is about al some of us ever do, then we wake up to actualities, self-interest arises and the abiding is passed. There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.
"Thou art Simon, thou shalt be cal ed Cephas." God writes the new name on those places only in our lives where He has erased the pride and self-sufficiency and self-interest. Some of us have the new name in spots only, like spiritual measles. In sections we look al right. When we have our best spiritual mood on, you would think we were very high-toned saints; but don't look at us when we are not in that mood. The disciple is one who has the new name written al over him; self-interest and pride and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.
Pride is the deification of self, and this to-day in some of us is not of the order of the Pharisee, but of the publican. To say "Oh, I'm no saint," is acceptable to human pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. It literal y means that you defy God to make you a saint, "I am much too weak and hopeless, I am outside the reach of the Atonement." Humility before men may be unconscious blasphemy before God. Why are you not a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe God can make you one. It would be al right, you say, if God saved you and took you straight to heaven. That is just what He wil do! "We wil come unto him, and make our abode with him." Make no conditions, let Jesus be everything, and He wil take you home with Him not only for a day, but for ever.