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Reflection.....
"It is not
won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears. It is attained by confessions
of sin, and much heart searching and humbling before God; by self-surrender,
a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold, deathless, uncompromising,
and uncomplaining embracing of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering
looking unto Jesus crucified.
"It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but rather,
like Paul, by counting those things that are gain to us as loss for
Christ. That is a great price, but it must be unflinchingly paid by
him who would be not merely a nominal but a real spiritual leader of
men, a leader whose power is recognized and felt in heaven, on earth,
and in hell. Spirituality does not equal infallibility.
"The fact that a person is indwelt by the Spirit and seeks to be
led by the Spirit will doubtless mean that he is less liable to make
mistakes than those who do not; but since he is still in the flesh,
he is not infallible. Even the divinely called and Spirit-filled apostles
made mistakes that required divine overruling."
(Samuel Logan Brengle - A former leader of the Salvation Army)
Reason, however cultivated and improved,
cannot produce the love of God.... It is then only when we behold by faith
"what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, in giving His only
Son that we might not perish but have everlasting life," that "the love
of God is shed abroad in our heart" by the Holy Ghost which is given unto
us.
(John Wesley, Sermon
on 1 Cor. 14 v 20)
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