The Exchanged Life
Hermano
Cisco BABYLONFALLS.ORG
Table of
Contents
I have come that they
may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10b)
Is it possible to
consistently enjoy an abundant, victorious Christian life? We offer testimony and explanation from two sources which affirmatively answer this question.
Friends, the time is short. Let us pray for each other to
understand these crucial testimonies, to believe them, and to make them our
own.
J. Hudson Taylor
(1832-1905), founder of the China Inland Mission.
The following quotes were taken from a
biography written by his son and daughter-in-law, entitled Hudson Taylor’s
Spiritual Secret (bold emphases added):
June, 1849 Conversion,
followed by call to life service.
new man!” [From Taylor’s life chronology at end of book.]
[Regarding a life-changing letter] Amid a pile of letters awaiting Mr. Taylor in Chinkiang, had
been one from John McCarthy [another missionary in China].
[McCarthy wrote to
I do wish I could have a talk with you
now about the way of holiness. At the
time you were speaking to me about it, it was the subject of all others
occupying my thoughts, not from anything I had read…so much as from a consciousness
of failure—a constant falling short of that which I felt should be aimed at; an unrest; a perpetual striving...
[but now he realizes]…Abiding, not
striving or struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present
power;…resting in the love of an almighty Saviour, in
the joy of a complete salvation, “from all sin”—this is not new, and yet
‘tis new to me. I feel as though
the dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with
trust. I seem to have got to the edge only,
but of a boundless sea; to have sipped only, but of
that which fully satisfies. Christ literally
all seems to me, now, the power, the only power for service, the
only ground for unchanging joy….Not a striving to have faith…but a looking off
to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for
time and for eternity.
[after
reading McCarthy’s letter of
Andrew Murray (1828-1917), South
African minister, author, revivalist.
Several quotes from his book, Abide
in Christ (bold emphases added):
Observe especially, it was not that He
said, “Come to me and abide with me,” but, “Abide in me.” The intercourse was not
only to be unbroken, but most intimate and complete (p. 12).
No less essential than it is for the commencement
is faith for the progress of the spiritual life. Abiding in Jesus can only be by faith…There
are earnest Christians who do not understand this; or, if they admit
it in theory, they fail to realize its application in practice. They are very zealous for a free gospel with
our first acceptance of Christ, and justification by faith alone. But after this, they
think everything depends on our diligence and faithfulness. While they firmly grasp the truth “The sinner
shall be justified by faith,” they have hardly found a place in their scheme
for the larger truth “The just shall live by faith (p. 35).
Often the believer struggles hopelessly for years, until he
listens to the teaching of the Spirit as He glorifies Christ again and reveals
Christ, our sanctification, to be appropriated by faith
alone (p. 62).
How many there are who can witness
that this faith is just what they need! They continually mourn the variableness of their spiritual life.…Could
they but understand that their very efforts are the cause of their
failure—because it is God alone who can establish us in Christ
Jesus—they would see that, just as in justification they had to
cease from their own working and to accept by faith the promise that God would
give them life in Christ, so now, the matter of their
sanctification, their first need is to cease from striving themselves to
establish the connection with Christ more firmly and to allow God to do it
(pp. 79-80).
The way in which souls enter into the
possession may differ. To some it
may come as the gift of a moment…To others it comes by a slower and more
difficult path. Day by day, amid
discouragement and difficulty, the soul has to press forward. Be of good cheer; this way too leads to the
rest. Seek but to keep your heart set
upon the promise, “I THE LORD DO KEEP IT, night and day” [Isa. 27:2-3] (p. 88).
It was an act of wondrous though
simple faith in which the soul yielded itself at first to the Saviour…In that same wondrous faith, wondrously simple but
wondrously mighty, the soul learns to abandon itself entirely to the keeping
of Christ’s almighty power … (p. 201).
Please
take time to read this important discussion of Grace versus Legalism. These principles will also help the seeker
enter into the Exchanged Life.
Deuteronomy 33:27
(NIV)
The eternal God is your refuge, and
underneath are the everlasting arms.
Psalm 46:10
(NASB)
Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
Matthew 11:28-30
(NIV)
“Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
John 6:27-29
(NIV)
“Do not work for food that spoils, but
for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On
him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." Then they asked him,
"What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered,
"The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
John 15:5-8
(NIV)
"I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will
bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone
does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers;
such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in
me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will
be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
Galatians
I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The
life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.
Ephesians 3:14-21
(NIV)
..I kneel before the Father, from whom
his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of
his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your
inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all
the saints, to grasp how wide and
long and high and deep is the love of
Christ, and to know this love that
surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness
of God.
Now to him who is able to do
immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout
all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Hebrews 4:9-11
(NIV)
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest
for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own
work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter
that rest, so that no one will fall by following their
example of disobedience.
Bibliography (please consider
purchasing the following:)
Taylor, Dr. & Mrs. Howard.
Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual
Secret.
Press, 1989.
Murray,
Andrew. Abide in Christ. Fort Washington, Pa.: CLC
Publications, 2003.
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