JUST AS I AM

This is one of the most beloved hymns of the church.  Probably more people have moved forward to accept Jesus while singing this song than any others.

The words were written by Charolotte Elliott, who was a semi-invalid which caused her great depression.   The story goes that while she was visiting friends in West End of London, she met the eminent minister. Cesar Malan.  While seated at supper, the minister said he hoped that she was a Christian.  She said that she did not know how to come to Christ. His famous response was, “Come to Him just as you are.”  Her depression continued. One night, distressed by her uselessness as an invalid and doubt concerning her spiritual life, she decided to do something about it   She remembered the words of the evangelist and wrote down the words to the song, “Just As I Am.”  This song has been a comfort to millions and our faith is strengthened knowing that He invites us to come to Him, just as we are.

“Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thy love unkown has broken every barrier down.
Now to be Thine, yea Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Sam Stone tells of this incident:  A little girl was unable to walk well.  She had to wear leg braces.  One day she became quite discouraged with her condition.  She asked her father if she could quit physical therapy, but he said “no.”  She fell into his arms and asked, “Daddy, don’t you love me just the way I am?”  Knowing how she felt, he hugged her and replied,  “Yes, Honey, I love you just the way you are.  But I love you too much to let you stay that way.”

God loves each of us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to let us remain in our sins.  He makes possible through His Son’s death, burial and resurrection our salvation.  We must trust in Jesus and strieve to live for Him in order to be forgiven of our sins.  Turn to Jesus, be obedient to Him and have the promise of eternal life with Him.  Come to Him just as you are and allow Him to make you into what He would have you to be.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOU?

Steve Goodier writes about some people who did not listen to their critics.  They rose above criticism.

Did you know that Albert Einstein could not speak until he was four years old and did not read until he was seven?  His parents and teachers worried about his mental ability.
Or that Beethoven’s music teacher said about him, “As a composer he is hopeless”?  What if young Ludwig believe it?    When Thomas Edison was a young boy, his teachers said he was so stupid he could never learn anything. He once said, “I remember I used to never be able to get along at school. I was always at the foot of the class…my father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided that I was a dunce.”  What if young Thomas Edison believed what they said about him?   When F. W. Woolworth was 21, he got a job in a store, but was not allowed to wait on customers because, according to his boss, he “didn’t have enough sense.”  I wonder if the boss was around when Woolworth became one of the most successful retailers of his day.   When the sculptor Auguste Rodin was young he had difficulty learning to read and write.  Today, we may say he had a learning disabiltiy, but his father said of him, “I have an idiot for a son.”  His uncle agreed.  “He’s uneducable, ” he said. What if the boy had doubted his ability to excel?    A newspaper editor once fired Walt Disney because he was thought to have no “good ideas.”
The great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso was told by one music teacher,  “You can’t sing.  You have no voice at all.”
And an editor told Louisa May Alcott just a few years before she wrote the classic novel “Little Women,” that she was incapable of writing anything that would have popular appeal.

I don’t know about you, but I am utterly amazed when I read of this list of people who could have well been defeated by what people said of them.  However, they were very successful inspite of doubters.  They would not allow the discouraging voices of others to put them down or hold them back.   They made something of themselves and have made the world better because of it.

We all have potential and it is your desire to make something good of yourself, to be the best that you can be.
Someone said, “Success is doing the best you can, with what you have, where you are, to the glory of God.”

Seek God’s help to grow, to become all that you can be.

BATTLE OF THE MIND

  “You may not be what you think you are, but you are what you think.”

  Jesus said it, “As a man thinks in his heart (mind) so is he.” Proverbs 7:23 KJV

  May I confess to you that I believe it is becoming increasingly difficult to be spiritually strong. Our culture has a tendency to undermine us and if you please to brain wash us. Our minds are diluted by our world.

  A chemistry professor said, “The solution to pollution is dilution.” 
The effect of a contaminate is lessened as it becomes less and less a percentage of the material as pure substance is added in.
The same is true with the mind.  We are subject to having our minds polluted by the society around us. We must be diligent to put up barriers and protect ourselves from such mind pollution.
What do you read?  What do you allow yourself to see?  What do you allow yourself to think about? 

  Focus on scripture.  Fill your mind with God’s Word.  The word will begin to dilute the garbage that is already there.  It will change your way of thinking.  Your prospective is changed.  You look at things differently, giving you new direction for living.
It will take effort, work, persistence.  Hear, read, memorize, study, meditate on the Word of God. 

  In the model prayer which Jesus taught as an example for His disciples to prayer, He urged them to ask,
“Give us this day our daily bread.”  I don’t think that He meant primarily material bread. He gave us strength and wisdom to work for our eats.  I believe He meant the Bread of Life, spiritual food, His word.

  In Matthew 4:4 Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

  John 6:53-57 are amazing words of Jesus.  “Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.”

  He is not asking us to be cannibals, but rather to internalize Him in us.  He must become a part of our thinking.  We must have the mind of Christ. As Christians, we have the mind of Christ because we have His Word and Spirit living in us.  We have to think right in order to live right. Behaviour is a manifestation of how you think.  THINK LIKE JESUS.