THOUGH DEAD, YET THEY SPEAK

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

(Romans 15:1-4)

The encouragement and admonition of the Word of God.

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

(Romans 8:38-39)

The written word.

Scripture and every other written word which has been left to their fellow believers by they who no longer have the wherewithal to speak.

The gold medal Olympian and missionary Eric Liddell, who died in a Japanese internment camp in China in WWII.

“Victory over the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort…so that when the days of hardship come, you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them.”

Peter Marshall, the Scottish preacher who migrated to America, pastored two great Presbyterian churches, and went on to become chaplain of the United States Senate.

“You are leaving port under sealed orders and in a troubled period. But why not take the Pilot on board who knows the nature of your sealed orders from the onset, and who will shape your entire voyage accordingly? He knows the shoals and the sand banks, the rocks and the reefs, He will steer you safely into the celestial harbor where your anchor will be cast for eternity. Let His almighty nail pierced hands hold the wheel, and you will be safe.”

The Irish missionary Amy Carmichael who having arrived in India never looked back, and never returned to her beloved homeland. This humble woman founded an orphanage which still exists some three quarters of a century after her death. Only a bird bath marks her final resting place, and the one word inscription, “Amma” (Mother).

“All the great temptations appear first in the region of the mind and can be fought and conquered there. We have been given the power to close the door of the mind. We can lose this power through disuse or increase it by use, by the daily discipline of the inner man in things which seem small and by reliance upon the word of the Spirit of truth. It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. It is as though He said, ‘Learn to live in your will, not in your feelings.”

Martin Luther, the 16^th century Catholic priest who, ultimately, became the father of the Protestant reformation.

“Discipleship is not limited to what you can comprehend--it must transcend all comprehension. Plunge into the deep waters beyond your own comprehension, and I will help you to comprehend even as I do. Bewilderment is the true comprehension. Not to know where you are going is the true knowledge. My comprehension transcends yours. Thus, Abraham went forth from his father and not knowing whither he went. He trusted himself to my knowledge, and cared not for his own, and thus he took the right road and came to his journey's end. Behold, that is the way of the cross. You cannot find it yourself, so you must let me lead you as though you were a blind man. Wherefore it is not you, no man, no living creature, but I myself, who instruct you by my word and Spirit in the way you should go. Not the work which you choose, not the suffering you devise, but the road which is clean contrary to all that you choose or contrive or desire--that is the road you must take. To that I call you and in that you must be my disciple.”

We stand on the shoulders of giants.

God grant that our fellow believers, not yet born, may discover the wherewithal to say much the same about us.

by William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "McDonald's Daily Diary." Vol. 77. Copyright pending.

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