| The Christian Life | January 1941 |
Spiritual Housecleaning
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer.”—Psalms 19:14
OUR text puts into words the earnest and sincere prayer of each Christian, who is seeking to fulfill his consecration vows. In this harvest time, a flood of light has been shed on God’s Word, revealing to us not only the Divine Plan of the Ages but through it giving us also a clearer appreciation of the love and mercy and kindness of our Heavenly Father. This, in turn, instills in our heart this earnest prayer to be like Him so that not only our words but also our innermost thoughts may be acceptable to our God.
If we had glass heads, so that our friends and associates could look right through them and see what we are thinking about, we would be careful not to think thoughts of which we would be ashamed. But so far as God is concerned each one of us, figuratively speaking, has a glass head. God can look right into our heads and see what we are thinking. This means that when we offer the prayer stated in our text, the meditations of our hearts must be really acceptable to Him. He knows on what we are allowing our thoughts to dwell.
To help us cleanse our words and thoughts, let us go back to the typical passover where every Spring the house of each Israelite was cleansed from leaven in preparation for the observance of the passover. The housewife with candle in hand would go through her house in search of any old crusts of bread or anything with leaven in it. This would have to be thrown out as there was to be no leaven in the house when the passover was eaten. So the Apostle tells us in I Corinthians 5:7,8: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
In connection with the passover there was first the type which was offered once when all the first-born of the Egyptians were destroyed by the angel of death. Second, is the memorial of the type. This memorial the Jews observed once each year. Third is the memorial of the antitype which we observe every day. Every day we feast on the roasted lamb—appropriate to ourselves the merit of Jesus Christ. Every day we eat the bitter herbs representing trials and difficulties which only serve to whet our appetites for the unleavened bread representing the precious promises in God’s Word, assuring us of His provision for us in Christ, His love and care and over-ruling providences. The Israelites observing the feast with their staffs in their hands and with all things ready to start traveling, picture that we, as Christians, realize we have no continuing city here—that our hopes and aims and ambitions are not set on things of this world but on things above. It further shows that our goal is to reach the Kingdom beyond the veil where we shall “ever be with the Lord.”—I Thess. 4:17
As the Jewish housewife took her candle in hand and went through the house looking for leaven, so let us take our candle—God’s Word—and go through the different rooms of our houses—our hearts—looking to see if there is any leaven, any wrong, sinful spirit there. Let us rid ourselves not only of the old crusts, representing prejudices and hates and grudges of long standing, but also any new leaven, any roots of bitterness that may be springing up in our hearts. (Heb. 12:15) True, the robe of Christ’s righteousness covers the imperfections of our flesh. But we are to keep our hearts with all diligence, developing the spirit of humility, love and obedience to God. In other words, see that there is no leaven there.
The first room in our hearts into which we will go, looking for leaven, is what might be considered as the consecration room. Are we today fully consecrated to the Lord? It is not enough that we made a consecration vow to the Lord some time ago, but are we today living up to that consecration? If we should grasp anything of a material character and hold on to it tenaciously, it would be tantamount to saying:
“All that I have my own I call,
I hold it for my pleasure;
My heart, my strength, my life, my all,
Are mine, and mine forever.”
When we made our consecration to the Lord, we relinquished all our right, title and interest in such things, and could say without reservation:
“Naught that I have my own I call,
I hold it for the Giver;
My heart, my strength, my life, my all,
Are His, and His forever.”
—Hymns of Dawn—129—2nd verse.
The Lord then makes us stewards over our time, our money, our influence, etc., and tells us to use them in the way we can best serve Him, as outlined in His Word. Are we now retracting our covenant vows and endeavoring to recapture the old material advantages we so gladly and willingly surrendered? If so, let us get rid of that sort of leaven so that we can truly sing:
“All for Jesus! All for Jesus!
All my being’s ransomed pow’rs;
All my thoughts and words and doings,
All my days and all my hours.”
—Hymns of Dawn—8
In a naval battle in the Revolutionary War, the American Admiral, John Paul Jones, was asked the question by the British: “Are you ready to surrender?” He replied, “Surrender? We have only begun to fight.” And so, if the adversary asks us if we are ready to give up our consecration to the Lord, we will by God’s grace, answer with a similar degree of assurance.
PEACE ROOM
The next room in our hearts which we will explore for leaven we will call the Peace Room. In Psalms 119:165, we read, “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” If we do not have this peace fully in our hearts, it indicates that there is some leaven there. In crossing a steel bridge but with wooden walks under repair, a little boy said to his mother, “Oh mother, I am afraid that this bridge will break and that we will fall into the river.” She said, “Just hold my hand and walk close to me and you will be all right.” The boy did so and lost his fears because of his confidence in his mother. So, if we have confidence in God and trust him fully we can share in God’s peace as this boy could share in his mother’s peace and confidence.
Did you ever notice that in Romans 8:28 it does not say that we feel that all things work together for good to those that love God? It says we know that all things work together for good. There are times, perhaps, when we don’t feel so much that way, but if we have full trust in God, we will know that this is so.
Sometimes we have great faith before we get to the trial, but when we get right up to it our faith falters. You remember how Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.” (John 11:21-22) But when Jesus prepared to raise Lazarus from the dead and ordered the stone removed, what became of Martha’s faith? It left her completely and she said, “Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four days.”
But note, in sharp contrast, the faith of Jesus who thanked the Father in advance and said, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. … and when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.” And so, when we come right up to trials and difficulties let us not be weak in faith like Martha, but let Jesus be our example, and, like Him, let us thank the Father in advance for His grace to help in time of need.
If we are in good health and should happen to step on a rusty nail, we would pull it out of our shoe and foot and while it would hurt and inconvenience us, it would not be long before the wound would be healed and forgotten. But if our blood is in poor condition, it would take only a little scratch to cause serious consequences, perhaps a very serious infection. So if our spiritual health is good and we are seeking to do God’s will and are fully trusting Him, we may have hard trials, disappointments, and unpleasant experiences; but in them all, we will be able to sing:
“I am trustful in my trials
I am smiling on my foes
For the mighty God of Daniel
Is my Friend.”
On the other hand, if we have not this sweet acquiescence in the will of God, every little annoyance will cause us to worry and fret, causing us to become ill tempered. If, some one fails to shake hands with us at the meeting, we will start to imagine how we have been abused. Let us keep this room always free from leaven so that we can always have the peace which passeth all understanding.
STUDY ROOM
We will now inspect a room which we will call the Study. No matter how clearly we understand the truth, if we stop going to the study meetings and fail to continue to read the Scripture Studies, Reprints, etc., we will soon get buried in other things and lose our clear grasp of the Dispensational Harvest doctrines. Note what Brother Russell says in the preface to the Daily Heavenly Manna: “If Christians allow the rush and crush of selfish ambition to deprive them of their daily portion of heavenly food, they must not be surprised if they grow spiritually leaner day by day and if ‘the peace of God’ gives place in their hearts to the discontent which is growing in the world, notwithstanding the multiplication of their comforts and privileges.”
Are we so free from leaven in our hearts that we are getting the fullest blessings from the Study and Testimony meetings? If one went to the river with a little bucket he could carry away only a little water, but if he went with a large /bucket, he could carry away that much more water. So it depends on our heart condition, how much blessing we carry away from the meetings. The large bucket would represent a heart condition which is teachable and which seeks to find the truth and seeks to do God’s will. Let us come to the meetings with large buckets, looking for a blessing and endeavoring to be a blessing. Such earnestness and diligence cannot be other than profitable and edifying, making for the success of the meeting.
Let us look at the thought the brethren are bringing out in their testimonies and their answers at the study lessons rather than at the poor English or grammar they use. To illustrate: Suppose a beautiful delivery truck should pull up at your door and bring a package containing a pair of overalls worth about one dollar and that on the next day a dilapidated delivery wagon should drive up to your home and bring a present of a diamond ring worth five hundred dollars or more. One of your neighbors might say, “Did you see the truck that stopped at that man’s home yesterday? It must have been a wonderful package that he received. But I am sure that it was a package of very little value that he received today because it came in an old broken-down wagon.” How foolish to judge the package by the delivery wagon! Likewise how foolish to judge the helpfulness of the thoughts expressed at the meetings by the ones who express them.
Have you ever seen an old-fashioned water wheel? The wheel has many little trough blades on its circumference. A little water dropping on each paddle trough keeps the wheel spinning, generating power to be used for helpful purposes. Likewise at each meeting we receive a little water of truth. If we attend the meetings regularly and go to enough of them, the little truth received at each meeting will keep the wheel turning and keep us active in the truth and full of the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.
Let us not miss any opportunities to testify. Each testimony plays its part in making the meeting one beautiful anthem of praise to our Heavenly Father. Sometimes at night, when we approach some dangerous bridge or curve, we can see the light of our automobile lighting up the reflector posts. Each post, for just a second or two, reflects the light but all the posts together form a beautiful curve and help us keep on the road. So each one who testifies, is on his feet for only a minute or two, but the combined testimonies of all those who speak make the meeting a great blessing and enable us to see more clearly the path we should take, and that our God is still caring for us.
“We noted the look in each other’s face,
So loving, and glad, and free;
We felt His touch when our heads were bowed,
We heard His ‘Come unto Me!’
Nobody saw Him lift the latch,
And none unbarred the door;
But ‘Peace’ was His token in every heart,
And how could we ask for more?”
OVERCOMING ROOM
The next room in our heart in which we will search, to get rid of leaven we will call the Over-coming Room. Brother Russell in the Daily Heavenly Manna tells us, “For although the New Creature masters the mortal body by the Lord’s grace and strength repeatedly, nevertheless until death there can be no cessation of the conflict.” This is reminiscent of our boyhood swimming days. We used to try to submerge a log in the water. When we got one end down, the other end would bob up. And when we got the other end down the first end would come up. When we would finally get the whole log under, we would lose our own balance, and the log would be floating again. We can never get all the selfishness and pride and quick temper out of our flesh so that we can say, “See how I have brought my flesh up to perfection. I don’t have to watch my tongue any more because I can now say only kind, loving words. I don’t have to watch my temper because I have it fully tamed. I have no more pride and will never again be hurt or offended.” Oh, no, dear friends, we will need to be continually on the alert to keep the flesh under control.
Nevertheless, because of watchfulness and prayer and growth in grace we should have greater and greater victories in overcoming. Not long ago a company, advertising gasoline, showed on the sign boards a picture of a man driving up a steep hill and saying, “There used to be a hill here.” So, things that would formerly make us fly off the handle, or lose our peace and joy, we can now overcome with such ease that we are surprised and we too may say, “There used to be a hill here.”
Now let us turn to John 18:11, where we hear Jesus say, “The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” Notice that He did not say the cup which Judas poured, or the cup the Jewish leaders poured. No, He did not look at second causes but at the first cause. It was the Father who had arranged these experiences for Him and even if they were bitter He would willingly partake of them. If we can always see the Father as the one who is pouring the cup for us, how much easier it will be for us to drink it. How much easier it would be for us to say, “Thank you, Lord, this cup is just what I need. What lesson do you want me to learn from this trial?”
A few years ago, while on a trip through a very hilly country, we came to a detour. We had only gone a few hundred feet when we said, “This cannot be the right road. The ones who routed this U.S. highway would not detour us over a road as bad as this one.” But when we looked at the road signs, we saw that this was exactly what they had done. This detour was about eight miles long, and it took us at least an hour to travel the entire length of it. But it led us along a mountain road where we saw some very beautiful scenery which we otherwise would have missed. But it brought us again to an even better main highway and when we saw how smooth and wide it was, we were not sorry we had taken the side road, for the detour was really a short cut to a better road.
This pictures how sometimes we find ourselves in some trial or bitter experience and we say, “This must be some mistake. God would never arrange for me to have a trial like this. Others may have experiences like this, but such an experience is not for me.” But then we look again at the sign posts, and we find that the Lord has arranged for us to have this very experience. So we say, “Where He leads me, I will follow.” And just as on this detour we saw scenery we otherwise would have missed, so through this experience we get views of our Heavenly Father’s love and sympathy and grace to help that we would otherwise not gain.
The lessons of submission, patience, kindness and sympathy we learn from these experiences, bring us nearer to our God and enable us to sympathize with the brethren when they go through a similar experience. We also see more clearly how transitory are the things of this life; and, as a result, we count them “not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” Taking the experiences as from the Lord, and seeking to do His will, we find that instead of becoming sour, and disgruntled, we grow in love and patience and humility. Then when we get on the better highway again, oh, how much more we appreciate the truth, the meetings and our fellowship with God in prayer. We are stronger in character and better able to overcome in the trials that are ahead.
We don’t want any leaven in this Overcoming Room, because we want each trial to make us more like Christ in character, and in zeal for His cause.
PRAYER ROOM
Let us now come into the Prayer Room. We do not want any leaven in this room. We want to have sweet fellowship with God so that we can talk to Him “as a man speaketh unto his friend.” (Ex. 33:11) Anytime, we may lift up our hearts to the Lord in a brief prayer and thank Him for some blessing, or ask His guidance in some perplexity, or implore Him to give us grace to help in time of need, or ask His forgiveness if we slip.—Heb. 4:16
On visiting Niagara Falls some years ago, we changed our clothes and put on rubber suits and then went down to the foot of the Falls in an elevator. Here a stairway led us up step by step higher and nearer to the Falls. The closer we got the louder we could hear the roar of the wind and feel the mist blowing into our faces. At times it would almost take away our breath. O how we hung on to the railings, for without them we would have slipped off the wet steps. Blinded with the water blowing into our faces, we could not see which way to go, but the railing was our guide. The railing can well represent how we may hold on to the Lord in prayer for guidance and strength in our trials.
“’Tis sweet to keep my hand in His
While all is dim;
To close my weary, aching eyes
And follow Him.”
BROTHERLY LOVE ROOM
Let us next examine the Brotherly Love room. Is there any leaven there of fault finding, evil speaking or unkind criticism? Are we always seeking ways and means to lay down our lives for the brethren? Are we always looking at their hearts and overlooking the weaknesses of their flesh?
If we were listening to a phonograph record that was old and cracked, would we say, “My what a poor singer that man is? Just hear how he keeps repeating, and what a scratchy noise he makes, and listen to how he makes a clicking sound every once in a while.” No, we would say, “O, that man is a wonderful singer! It’s too had the record is so marred.” So we should say, “O, that brother is a wonderful Christian! He has a heart of gold. It’s too bad he has such a poor body through which to express himself.”
WITNESSING ROOM
Lastly let us visit the Witnessing Room. Are we making full use of the days of the present harvest time with their golden opportunities for service to lift the royal banner of the truth and bear the “things new and old” to yet others of the “household of faith”? Those who love much will do much. Those who love little will do little. Let us get rid of any leaven of lukewarmness.
Not only should we continue to pray, “Let the … meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,” but we should continually search our hearts to keep them free from leaven. There should be not only Spring housecleaning, but every day our house should be kept clean. Then we can “keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”