Week 52 Sunday
Week 52 Sunday
A Ladder for Youth
Matthew 19:16-22
In this last week of traveling as comrades of the Way, we give a series of ladders or steps that those who have not yet joined us may take to become committed as comrades of the Way. Perhaps some are on the Way but hobbling along on only one foot. We want you to be, as one person put it, “I’m on the Way with both feet.” These ladders will be miscellaneous, but we hope that in them the last straggling seeker may find one that meets the need.
We will begin with youth. As you start out in life, you will need five things: (1) a faith to live by; (2) a cause to serve; (3) a fellowship in which that faith can be nourished and through which that cause can be served; (4) a decision to accept that faith, serve that cause, and enter that fellowship; (5) a life dedicated to that faith, to that cause, to that fellowship—now. Therefore, here and now, accept that faith—Christ. Give yourself to that cause—the kingdom of God. Enter that fellowship—the church, with a life dedication now. That means you have a life pattern.
A boy hit a baseball, ran to first, on to second, then hesitated and yelled, “Fellows, where’s third base?” He had no pattern of the diamond in his mind, and so he broke down in confusion halfway. You have a pattern; you know what you want, and where you want to go. Then go!
Maybe there are blocks. In Mark 10:21, Jesus spoke to a young man who wanted to find eternal life: (1) “Go”—face the block, face your life. (2) “Sell”—get rid of the things that stand in the way. (3) “Give”—change your center from yourself to others. These are the three steps away from the old ways.
Now there are three more steps, and you are on the Way: (4) “Come”—you renounce to reconstruct; you give up to take up. (5) “Take up your cross”—it will cost you something, in the beginning. Afterward it becomes easy. (6) “Follow me”—your center is in Christ, not in this, that, or the other person. People may let you down; Christ never will. You now have an utterly dependable center of life—Christ.
The first three steps that are away from the old life are steps into the void. The next three steps are into the victory. You are on the Way!
O Christ, I thank you for your gracious invitation to come to you. For I sense that in you I have everything I need in earth and in heaven. You are my satisfaction, and I know it. So here goes! I fling away every paltry thing that keeps me from you. I come. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am on the Way with both feet and with my whole heart.
Week 52 Monday
Various Ladders for Various People
Isaiah 1:18-20
We continue our suggestions of steps “out of” and “into” the Way.
All steps down begin with a wrong idea: (1) mixed up, (2) messed up, (3) screwed up, (4) tied up,
(5) fed up. Remedy? Give up! Result? Fixed up!
Perhaps life is not so much mixed up and messed up as empty. You are not bad, but you are not overflowing. Then here is a simple ladder for finding: (l) “Ask” (2) “Seek” (3) “Knock” (Luke 11:10). There are three stages of intensity here, “Ask,” the stage of inquiry about what you want. Then the stage of “seeking,” setting the life in the direction of finding what you want. Jesus said, “On that day you will not ask me any questions. . . . Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23-24 Moffatt). You will turn from questions to quest. You get beyond the question period to the questing period. Then you come to the third stage where you “knock.” At the door, you press for immediate entrance—now.
Take another statement of Jesus, “Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like. . . . A man [who] laid his foundation on the rock” (Luke 6:47-48 Moffatt). Here are the steps: (1) “comes to me”—not to this, that, or the other doctrine, rite, or church. You may get mixed up in these and never get to Jesus. Jesus said, “comes to me.” (2) “Listens to my words.” Some are always talking to God instead of listening to God. As someone has said, “Suppose you have an appointment with the president, and for fifty-five minutes you talk on and on, and then as you are about to go, you say. ‘Perhaps, Mr. President, you’d like to get in a word.’ ” The art of listening is the art of living. For we “live . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4), not by the words that proceed out of our mouths. (3) “Acts upon them.” If we do not act upon what we hear, we will hear nothing. The speaking begins again when we act.
When we come to Christ, listen to his words, and act upon them, then we are on a rock; life sustains us.
O God, I thank you that in coming to Jesus I am coming to you, in listening to him I am listening to you, and when I do so, you are sustaining me, backing me to the utmost. I am on the Rock. Come wind, come flood, I’m on the Rock. I thank you, thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Yet I am always beside you; thou holdest my right hand, guiding me with thy counsel” (Ps. 73:23-24 Moffatt).
Week 52 Tuesday
A Ladder of Five “Ts”
Luke 14:25-35
We continue our ladders for triumphant living. Perhaps you have been going in the wrong direction: (1) Turn around. No use going on if it gets you nowhere fast. Rufus Jones tells of a foot traveler who asked a youth he saw by the wayside how far it was to a certain destination and received this answer, “If you go on the way you are headed, it will be about twenty-five thousand miles, but if you turn right about-face, it will be about three.” (2) Turn down. It is of no use to turn around if you don’t turn down the old habits and ways. You have to say no to some things to say yes to others, the real things. (3) Tune in. You are now set to hear. God will speak if you get God’s wavelength and tune in. (4) Tone up. Your life needs constant toning up to standard tones. We get flat and out of tune. The Quiet Time is the time for toning up every chord, for one chord off will make a discord. (5) Turn out. The end of life is to get you beyond yourself, turned out toward others. Psychologically all this is sound, for the self-centered are the self-disrupted, and the other-centered are the healthy-minded. A student had the letters “G.O.S.” on his wall and wouldn’t tell what they meant. He said they were given to him by his mother, and he was trying them out. At the end of the semester, he would give the result. At the end he said, “It works. G.O.S. = God first, others second, self last.”*
Perhaps the whole could be summed up in a simple ladder of three steps: (1) Repent. (2) Receive. (3) Release. The end is released—from yourself.
The same end can be seen in the statement about Jesus and the loaf (Luke 24:30 Moffatt). (1) “He took the loaf.” Your life is no longer in your hands, it is in his; he takes it. (2) “Blessed it.” He blesses your life with forgiveness, with power and usefulness. In his hands, life is blessed; out of his hands, it is cursed. (3) “Broke it.” He often has to break us before he can give to us. He breaks us by sorrow and disappointment. (4) “Handed it.” He passes on our lives to others. We are outgoing.
O Christ, take my life and bless it and break it and hand it on to others, for I would be free of an inner tied-up condition. I would be free—to give. You have given me all; help me to give all. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Let me live unhampered, for I study thy behests” (Ps. 119:45 Moffatt).
*Rufus Jones (1863–1948), a Quaker, was an American writer and college professor. No published source was found for this story.
Week 52 Wednesday
Study, Obey, Teach
2 Timothy 2:15, 24-26
There are three steps for the Christian worker or minister, “Ezra had set his heart upon studying the law of God, upon obeying it, and upon teaching its rules and regulations in Israel” (Ezra 7:10 Moffatt). Note the steps: (1) “Study it.” When we cease to learn, we cease to live. No Christian can influence others who hasn’t a growing mind and a growing experience of God. I saw a “dead glacier” in Alaska, a glacier that had ceased to push on and was receding. We are receding, if we are not studying. (2) “Obeying.” We must obey what we learn, or we will cease to learn. “If any man willeth to do [God’s] will, he shall know of the teaching” (John 7:17 ASV). If you are not willing to do, then the knowledge ceases. God shuts off the lessons if we shut off the living. (3) “Teaching.” If we study and obey, then we can teach, and only then. The content of the teaching is determined by the studying and the living. In the teaching is our own illustration. “Character is caught, not taught.”
For the Christian worker or minister, we find three steps to getting a hearing, “Then Jerusalem and the whole of Judaea . . . went out to him” (Matt. 3:5 Moffatt). (1) A message of divine authority, “Repent, the Reign of heaven is near” (v. 2). John’s message was the kingdom, and in that framework, he called for repentance. The authority of a totalitarian Order spoke in him. (2) A message of human equality, “Level the paths for him” (v. 3). Equality of opportunity; “level the paths.” We cannot speak for God unless we are speaking for people, and for all people of every race, color, and creed. (3) Identification with the people in his own life: John ate locusts and wild honey, was clothed with camel’s hair, and lived in simplicity. As he pleaded, “Let everyone who possesses two shirts share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise” (Luke 3:11 Moffatt). There was conviction in his words, for he was living his message. “Then”—note the “then”—“Jerusalem and the whole of Judaea . . . went out to him” (v. 5). You get a hearing if you have a divine message, a human sympathy, and a life that illustrates the message.
O Christ, we thank you that we are drawn to you, for you are the message you proclaim. We see you as the Word made flesh, and we are drawn. Help me to be this Word made flesh too. For I must be the answer as I proclaim the Answer. Help me. In your name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: If I ask people to obey, I must embody.
Week 52 Thursday
A Ladder for the Commissioned
Acts 26:12-20
Paul has had a world hearing. Why? In Acts 26:17-18 (Moffatt), he tells us the points in the commission: (1) Rescued “from the People and also from the Gentiles” to whom he was sent: The first deliverance was a deliverance from a domination of the herd. Surrender to the herd instinct is the most dangerous thing in life. Jesus was crucified by it, “Their shouts carried the day. Pilate gave sentence that their demand was to be carried out” (Luke 23:23-24 Moffatt). Surrender to the herd murdered James, “James . . . he slew with the sword, and when he saw this pleased the Jews, he went on to seize Peter” (Acts 12:2-3 Moffatt). It kept Paul in prison, “As Felix wanted to ingratiate himself with the Jews he left Paul still in custody” (Acts 24:27 Moffatt). The dominance of the herd over the individual is responsible for more collapsed moral standards and lowered tones of the spiritual life than any other single thing. “Everybody does it” is sufficient to wipe out all the Christian standards and spirit from the individual. No minister, who isn’t delivered from the people to whom he or she is sent, can help people. Herd instinct must be fastened on the kingdom of God as the supreme loyalty. All lesser loyalties must fit into that.
(2) “That their eyes may be opened”: You cannot open people’s eyes if you see with their eyes. Only as you see and act differently can you make them different. (3) “Turn from darkness to light”: It is not enough to let people see they are in darkness. They must turn. Conversion must be produced. (4) “From the power of Satan to God”: Our message must bring light and life; it must bring power to break all tyrannies. (5) “Get remission of their sins.” The estranged souls of people need forgiveness, reconciliation. (6) “Consecrated by faith”: The end is a consecrated personality, delivered from and dedicated to the consecration of all ransomed powers. The end of evangelism is to produce an evangelist.
Another ladder leads to the same ends. (1) Receptivity—the first law of life. (2) Resources—keeping them intact by contact. (3) Reserves—always enough, and to spare, a plus. (4) Release—the end of the process is for your ransomed powers to be released for others.
O Christ, give me a deliverance from the people to whom I am sent. Save me from their standards and spirit and help me to help them by being different and better. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I have surrendered to God; therefore, I surrender to nothing else.
Week 52 Friday
“For as These Qualities Exist and Increase”
2 Peter 1:3-11
How do we “participate in the divine nature,” become “active and fruitful”? Second Peter 1:3-8 (Moffatt) gives eight steps: (1) “Faith”—belief, surrender, obedience.(2) “Resolution”—second, after surrender. The Way is not primarily the whipping up of the will but its surrender, and then resolution. (3) “Intelligence”—What does not hold the mind will soon not hold the emotion and the will. (4) “Self-control”—Now self-control, following self-surrender, is God-control. (5) “Steadfastness”—no tentative attitudes. (6) “Godliness”—This is Godward, the God-contact through prayer. (7) “Brotherliness”—This is toward humanity, the human contact through brotherly and sisterly attitudes. (8) “Christian love”—This is the atmosphere and attitude of the whole. “For as these qualities exist and increase with you, they render you active and fruitful.”
Here is a daily exercise:
Begin the day with God:
Kneel down to Him in prayer;
Lift up thy heart to his abode
And seek His love to share.
Open the Book of God,
And read a portion there;
That it may hallow all thy thoughts
And sweeten all thy care.
Go through the day with God,
Whate’er thy work may be;
Where’er thou art—at home, abroad,
He still is near to you.
Converse in mind with God,
Thy spirit heavenward raise;
Acknowledge every good bestowed,
And offer grateful praise.
Lie down at night with God,
Who gives His servants sleep,
When thou tread’st the vale of death
He will you guard and keep.
O Christ, help me to draw on the power of habit to reinforce these resolves. Help me to become natural in good, at home in the kingdom. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My habits, being dedicated, work with me. Soon they shall make me automatic in my Christian responses.
Week 52 Saturday
“They Get Stronger as They Go”
Psalm 84 (Moffatt)
For our last day together on the Way we will meditate on parts of the eighty-fourth psalm (Moffatt). It sums up our experience together.
“Now soul and body thrill with joy over the living God” (v. 2). In another song a psalmist said, “Body and soul, I thirst, I long for you” (Ps. 63:1 Moffatt). In one “body and soul thirst”; in the other “soul and body thrill.” The “thirst” had turned to “thrill.” Perhaps one reason is that, in the first case, “body” was first and “soul” was second; in the second, “soul” was first and “body” second. When the body is first, it all ends in thirsts; when the soul is first, it all ends in thrills. But note that now “soul and body thrill”—the whole person in accord. No longer do soul and body fight each other. Both have the same Lord, obey the same laws, and thrill with the same thrills.
“Happy are they who live within thy house. . . . Happy are they who, nerved by thee, set out on pilgrimage!” (vv. 4-5). Life has found its rhythm of living “within thy house,” the passive, receptive; and setting “out on pilgrimage,” the active, outgoing. Here again are the alternate beats of the Christian heart: receptivity/response; receptivity/response. Mary and Martha in the same home and at harmony.
“When they pass through Weary-glen, fountains flow for their refreshing” (v. 6). We have found the secret of “how never to be tired.” A woman doing the washing for twelve people asked if she didn’t get tired, replied, “I am convinced that to say one is tired is to say one is discouraged. I am not discouraged, by the grace of God, so I am not tired.” “Fountains flow [from within] . . . blessings [from above].” Heaven and earth become one.
“They are the stronger as they go” (v. 7). For they are not living on their reserves, but on Resources—God’s infinite Resources. Every step and every triumph make more possible the next step and the next triumph, until we can say, “Wherever I go, thank God, he makes life a constant pageant of triumph” (2 Cor. 2:14 Moffatt).
O Christ, you are the Way. From my depths I thank you that I am on an endless Way, with endless Resources, with endless Happiness, with endless Gratitude, under the process of an endless Growth. I thank you, thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18 KJV). The Perfect Way becomes the Perfect Day.