Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

     “If trouble rubs the polish off a man he ought to stay home.”
               --Frank Bonham ("The Seventh Desert")

     "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."
               --1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV)
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Do you want the Holy Spirit to accomplish God's will and purpose in your life?
     If so, then look at the road you are on. If you are on the right road it is called sanctification. That's a term not heard much in churches today. It is a doctrine that is largely ignored for it has no hoopla and people much prefer to do "right in their own eyes." Most will cry "legalism" when sanctification is preached. The truth of the matter is that sanctification is actually obedience, growing in grace, doing the will of the Lord.
     There is an urgency and a necessity for a life in the fulness of the Spirit. It is not the waving of hands, the hopping up and down in front of the church along with a feel-good sermon. It is not listening to "worship" music, and feeling good all over. No, it is an onward and upward trek guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
     Today, there is an "awful blindness to spiritual matters and to spiritual needs amongst the people of God." (T. Austin-Sparks) This was written over half a century ago and it is even more true today. The tragedy is that people are ignorant of the fact or they disregard it; for them their "feel-good" Christianity is enough.
     In the message to the lukewarm Laodicean church (Rev. 3:14-22) there is a very important phrase found in verse 21, "He who overcomes." The person who overcomes the lukewarmness. Sparks does better explaining it.

              "Overcometh what? This awful state of things, this tragic spiritual weakness; this decline; this blindness; this indifference! The Spirit says in effect: 'In the midst of this, I want some to rise up and throw this thing off, and get to God in desperation to save the situation.' Will that have our response? The Spirit said, 'To him that overcometh.' Do we respond? Have we an ear to hear what the Spirit saith?"

The devil has deceived many with the idea that sanctification is legalism. Ponder the two verses I leave with you in closing today's Echo.

          "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
               --John 14:15 (NASB)

           "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.'"
               --1 Peter 1:14-16 (NASB)

D. C. Adkisson