The Secret by Festo, submitted by the McJunkin's

THE SECRET

By Festo Kivengere
What is the secret of keeping zeroed in on Christ in the midst of everyday pressures? That’s a million-dollar question and a beautiful one. I wish I had a very simple way of telling you. The only way I know for a distracted mind to keep zeroing in on Christ is by the work of the blessed Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

How does he do it? Some of us think that it is by giving us more and more gifts. No, no, no. There is only one magnet which God uses, and the magnet is the Lord Jesus Christ. He can keep your attention when you are tending to wander. He can hold you when you cannot hold yourself. His love is stronger than death, and when it holds a poor man with a wandering mind and with tendencies to fall, that man, that woman, can stand through eternity.

That is the secret. The practical aspect is that I am not always full of love, not always seeing Him. I am many times thoroughly empty. But He loves to fill empties! All you need to do is keep open, that’s all. You keep open by admitting frankly how empty you are. This is where respectable Christianity fails. God does not deal with respectability. He deals with reality. Here I am with an empty heart, or with thoughts that have invaded the inner man and have interrupted the flow of the Holy Spirit. The Comforter is grieved; what do I do?

Go to the hospital. The hospital has one medicine: the love of Jesus Christ. His love breaks me, convicts me and releases me all at once. We Anglicans have a prayer in our liturgy in which we confess that we are “miserable offenders.” We forget that in the New Testament sense, you can weep and laugh at the same time. In other words, Christian repentance does not include a long period of remorse, being put into a sort of quarantine, before you come into grace. You turn from the sin which made you miserable and to the Lord all at once. Joy comes instantly. The two go together in one act. When you are explaining it theologically, it may give the impression that repentance starts a slow process called redemption while, in the meantime, you are left grieving. Not at all! Repenting without looking to Jesus is what Judas did. It turned him into a vacuum, into committing spiritual suicide.

Repenting which turns and sees Jesus is what Thomas did on that second Lord’s day (John 20:26-29). After bitter depression and a week of unbelief, he saw the outpoured love of the Son of God in the wounded hands reaching out to him. Repentance, forgiveness, faith and flooding joy came all in one breath: “My Lord and my God!” When I find I have not kept zeroed in, I turn from my sin or emptiness to the crucified Lord. Forgiveness and fullness come together.

A precious moment with Chuck and Marge,

A heart-warming letter from Chuck and Marge, dear brother and sister of many wonderful years.  Don Jacobs.

Dear Saints in fellowship....

Just a bit of news from Higgins’ Diggins. We do enjoy the lovely place God has provided for us these days of daily renewal. And, we desperately need such days which we receive as one of our Entitlements provided by God’s abundant grace.

Marge and I are suffering the deteriorating effects of our mortality for a while. Marge has been suffering from dizziness for the past 4 years and it isn’t improving in spite of her going to various Dr’s. She is now taking a therapy trying to find the reason for all this hoping this will make a difference. Since I can no longer drive due to neuropathy in legs and feet, in spite of her dizziness, she is my chauffeur and doing very well. If you know of any good “dizzy” doctors let us know!

As I have mentioned I have neuropathy in my legs and feet that began 30 years ago and has slowly increased. I need a walker to get around and am advised by the doctor I should be using a wheelchair later on. Don’t take all this as an organ recital but I’m like an old car with parts wearing out. The most I travel is now going either to the clinic or the Dr. Fatigue seems to take over in my daily routine. I am sleeping with the aid of equipment for “sleep apnea” starting 2 months ago. I hesitate to mention all this knowing as you are reading this you are saying, “I know what you’re saying. You’re not telling me anything.” It’s like the man in reply to the question, how are you, said “Well I’m better than I was but I’m not as good as I used to be before I got as bad as I am now. You know what I mean”?

But you know, through all this God is bringing us such a sense of His presence. I was going through a very dry spell. I didn’t know how to get through it. I opened a book recently I’ve treasured for the past 40 years. It’s written by Dr. Joe Church on the life of an African named Blasio, entitled “Awake”. He was wise during his short years about the way of repentance which burned on his heart. There was something Joe Church wrote about striving in the context of Blasio’s ministry as it referred to the brethren in their fellowship. As I read it, it seemed the Spirit said, “That’s you. You need to repent of that.” I knew what he was writing about because I’ve preached that...given testimonies of victory over that. But as one of the prophets said about straying Israel, “They have forgotten why they had repented.” I realized I had forgotten some very important issues. I had so many dreams of what I’d like to do when I retired. But, as I attempted to bring those dreams to pass I became dry....it was striving. You know, you can have the assurance of salvation without the joy of salvation. I was striving. As I repented in faith of that, the door to the joy of the Lord and the peace of Jesus opened and flooded my soul.... In short, I opened the door to Jesus, He came in and we supped together! You know how it is when you repent, especially from striving in the flesh, there is such a restful rest filled with joy. Praise the Lord!

We’ve been hearing from the politicians what entitlements we should abandon. It came to me that God seems to have an “entitlement” for every need we bring to Him. And, everyone of them is paid for by the precious blood of Jesus. What sense of security this brings us. We often wonder if perhaps the social security offered by our government will have provided enough before we die. Aren’t we privileged to be recipients of the Plan God has provided for our security that extends beyond the moment we leave this corrupted earth! That Plan has been signed by Jesus in His own blood...and has been confirmed by God raising Him from the dead.... giving us a Hope that is reserved for us in heaven! Politicians here make many promises that are impossible for them to fulfill. Nothing like God’s promises that are “yea and amen” forever. So, by His grace we are making God’s “say so” our “say so”. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, “we can even thank God in the midst of pain and distress because we share the lot of those who are living in the light.” (Phillips) I keep chewing on that to get all the juice I can out of it!

I’m sorry for such a long email. But, it’s been on my heart to do it. I bless each of you to the glory of God.

chuck

Charles E. Higgins

clerhig1@cox.net