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IN TOUCH WITH GOD    by Edward Heppenstall

 
Good Success NOVEMBER 7

WHEN GOODNESS COMES NATURALLY

The Prince of this world approaches. He has no rights over me. John 14: 30, N.E.B.

We are secure in the perfect righteousness of Christ. He gives its victory over evil, not by increasing demands but by giving us His mind and life—the love of that which is true, righteous, and elevating. This makes it impossible for us to desire and enjoy the defiling ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

We are like a musician who has perfect pitch. He steps into a room filled with musicians. Automatically he detects out-of-tune notes and reacts against them. We Christians need to develop the same delicate spiritual sense. We become invulnerable to evil in proportion to our degree of spiritual life and health.

The Christian life is not a sheltered, isolated life. We do not live in a cloister. There is no way we can withdraw physically from the world. We walk where sin is. It invades our homes on television. It is shed abroad in the drivel and slush of filthy literature. We can eliminate the television set and refuse the literature, but there will be other temptations and dangers. But we have the Holy Spirit as a wall of fire in our minds, and the love of righteousness in our hearts. In the midst of a world of sin, we abound in love for Christ and His righteousness.

We will not willfully expose ourselves to the ways of sin. We are not to gamble with our spiritual lives by leaving the light and walking in the darkness of the enemy. We are to keep our garments unspotted from the world. We are to fill our minds with truth, our imagination with beauty, our hearts with love, our hands and time with the work of God. We are to renew our strength daily by waiting upon God.

We are to set our affections on things above and not on the earth. We delight ourselves in the Lord and in His service. We are privileged to walk on the high places of the earth. The Lord has promised this to us. God's way is to fill our hearts and Minds with goodness. Let us trust in Him whom our spiritual fathers trusted, who so often proved the power of Christ's righteousness over all unrighteousness.

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