The Cross and Your Heart: by TA Sparks
For the message of
the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God. 1
Corinthians 1:18
The Cross, as the instrument of
spiritual circumcision, has to be applied to this self-life deeper and ever
more deeply, because there seems to be no end to it. But that is the painful
side, the dark side. What is happening on the other side? Is it not that room
is being made for Christ? The real seed, the seed of Christ, is growing,
becoming more and more manifest. The opposite of the characteristics which we
have been considering – strength of intellect or emotion or will – is meekness.
He said: “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart” (Matt. 11:29). Pursue this right through, and you cannot fail to
recognize that there was something radically different in the very depths of
His being.
I have said that we cannot calculate the whole range
of this self-principle, in its myriad forms of self-expression and self-occupation
and self-attention and self-pity and self-consciousness and self-satisfaction.
Even in our Christian life, in our devotion to the Lord, we are so happy that
other people see how devoted we are, and how humble we are! And it is the self,
the wretched – may I use the word? – the stinking self, coming up all the time.
For a true child of God is oblivious of himself, has lost consciousness of
himself in every way. If other people point out something good about them, they
had not realized it, they were not aware of it. They are surprised that anyone
could say anything good about them; they are not conscious of that. And on the
other side, should people be critical and point out failings, well, they only
say, “Yes, I know: I had that out with the Lord,” or “I have got that before
the Lord right now. I am not deceiving myself about that.” This is the true
child of Heaven
May I never
boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has
been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14
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