SPIRITUAL HUNGER AND TRANSFORMATION

God has nothing to say to the frivolous man. His words are reserved for the earnest and the broken. The man who has met God is not looking for something; he has found it. Encounter ends the search. We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God. Nothing less is worthy of the redeemed. The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God's continuous speech. His Word written flows from His Word spoken. The Holy Spirit is the open secret of the Church. Without Him she has no life, no power, no witness. The moment we make up our minds that we are going on with the determination to exalt God, we soon find ourselves in blessed intimacy with Him. Pursuit ends in presence. God is not silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The silence is only on our side. The man who has God for his friend and heaven for his home can afford to smile at disaster. His security is unshakable. The Christian is called to live in a state of unbroken worship. Communion is not an hour on Sunday but a life in God. To know God is at once the easiest and the most difficult thing in the world. It is easy because He reveals Himself; it is difficult because it demands all. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God. The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We must simplify our approach to Him. The sacred-secular antithesis has no foundation in the New Testament. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them. The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply. One compromise here, another there, and soon enough the so-called Christian and the man in the world look the same. The man who would truly know God must give time to Him. A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself. The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof, and the worshiping heart needs none. The Christian who is not willing to die to self is not ready to live for Christ. True faith commits us to obedience. The curse of the Church has been half-converted men who have enough religion to keep them from sinning openly but not enough to make them want holiness. Holiness, as taught in the Scriptures, is not based upon knowledge on our part. Rather, it is based upon the resurrected Christ indwelling us and changing us into His likeness. Yet there is considerable truth in the idea that revivals are born after midnight. We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing. It is altogether doubtful whether any man can be saved who comes to Christ for His help but with no intention to obey Him. The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. A scared world needs a fearless Church. One of the greatest foes of the Christian is the complacent spirit. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost He came to stay. The church that cannot worship must be entertained, and men who cannot lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment. God dwells in His people; they are His abode. If revival is to come, it must begin in the Church, not in the world. KNOWING AND EXPERIENCING GOD What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God. Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous.