Monday, November 13, 2017

A Winning Life

There is only one life that wins; and that is the life of
Jesus Christ. Every man may have that life; every 
man may live that life.

To explain what I mean, I must simply tell you a very
personal and recent experience of my own. I think I 
am correct when I say that I have known more than 
most men about failure, betrayals, dishonoring Christ, 
and falling short of that which I saw others attaining.

The conscious needs of my life, before there came a
new experience of Christ were these:

1 There were great fluctuations in my spiritual life of
feeling close to God and then far away. I saw other 
men doing as I was not doing. Those men were ex-
ceptional; they were in the minority. Why not me?

2 Another lack was in the matter of besetting sins. Yet
I had prayed, oh, so earnestly, for deliverance and the
deliverance had not come.

3 A third conscious lack was in the matter of spiritual
power that would change others. I was not seeing re-
sults. I didn't see lives made over by Christ, revolution-
ized and turned into firebrands for Christ. Other men 
had such an impact, why not I?

About a year before I found myself intimidated by men
who seemed to have a conception of Christ that I did not
have. How could anyone have a better idea of Christ than
I? Did I not believe in Christ and worship Him as Savior
for more than 20 years? Did I not believe that in Him
alone was eternal life, and I had given up my whole life
to Him? Did I not ask His help and guidance constantly?
Was He not my only hope? I knew that I needed to serve
Him far better than ever, but that I needed a new concep-
tion of Him I would not admit.

Yet it kept coming to me from various directions. One day 
I came to know another minister whose work had been 
greatly blessed. He told me that his greatest spiritual asset 
was his habitual consciousness of the actual presence of
Jesus. His presence was with Him regardless of his failings. 
Moreover, he said that Christ was the home of his thoughts. 
Whenever his mind was free, it would turn to Christ. So 
real was the presence of his Savior.

Several months later in Edinburgh, I heard a man whose
opening statement set my heart to singing with a new joy.

'The resources of the Christian life, my friends, are just--
Jesus Christ.'

Later as I talked to the speaker he said to me, 'Oh, Mr.
Trumbull, if we would only step out upon Christ in a more
daring faith, He could do so much more.'

Before leaving Great Britain I was confronted once more
with the thought that was beyond me, a Christ I did not
know. The text was Philippians 1:21: ' To me to live is 
Christ.' It was the same theme--the unfolding of 'the life 
that is Christ,' Christ as the whole life and the only life. I 
did not understand all that he said, and I knew vaguely 
that I did not have as my own what he was talking about.

A few months later a Bishop spoke to us on the Water of 
Life. He told us it was Christ's wish and purpose that every 
follower of His should be a wellspring of living, gushing 
water of life all the time to others--a continuous irresistible 
flow.

The next morning, alone in my room, I prayed it out with 
God, as I asked Him to show me the way out. I studied the 
sermon, 'For me to live is Christ,' then I prayed again. He 
gave me a new Christ--wholly new in the conception and 
consciousness of Jesus that now became mine.

Wherein was the change? To begin with, I realized for the
first time that there are many references to, Christ in you,
and you in Christ. Christ our life, and abiding in Christ,
are literal, actual, a blessed fact and not a figure of speech.
I had always known He was my Savior, but I thought of
Him as being external to me, one who was ready to come
close and stay by me giving me power and strength. At
last I realized that Jesus Christ was actually within. More
than that He had constituted Himself as my very life, tak-
ing me into union with Himself--my body, mind and spirit--
while I still had my own identity and free will. Was this 
not better than having Him as an external Savior: to have
Him, the Son of God, as my own very life? It meant that
I need never again ask Him to help me, but simply do His
work, His will in me, and with me and through me. What
He asked me to recognize was, 
I have been crucified with Christ,
and it is no longer I who live,
but Christ liveth in me.  Galatians 2:20
Charles G Trumbull

Reader, can you begin to grasp this? This is the best
news I have ever heard! In the next blog we will look
at a few more things.



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