Passive
When I write, I am forever being told by my grammer program that I write in the "passive voice". I assume it wants me to be more assertive!
It may be right!,
Tozer writes "By moral action, we mean a voluntary response to the Christian message: not merely the acceptance of Christ as our personal Savior but a submission to the obligation implicit in the doctrine of the Lordship of Jesus. We must free ourselves from the inadequate concept of the gospel as being only 'good news,' and accept the total meaning of the Christian message centering in the cross of Christ. We must restore again to the church the idea that the offer of salvation by faith in Christ carries with it the condition that there must be also a surrender of the life to God in complete obedience.
Anything less than this puts the whole thing in the passive voice. A lifetime of passive listening to the truth without responding to it paralyzes the will and causes a fatty degeneration of the heart."
As followers of the Christ, we must remove the blinkers of our pre-saved life, and accept the responsiblity that comes with being a child of God. One lesson from the interpreation of the parable of the good Samaritan (by no means the only lesson) teaches us to watch for the care of others, to think outside of our own direct interests, to be the "hands and feet" of God to those who need to see him.
A famous prayer says
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."
It maybe should be prefixed with ... God open my eyes to see as you do
and closed by "To serve and enlarge your kingdom, and never my own"
While both of these are often implied, they may not often be practiced.
We often get upset by the things which upset us, and not by what concerns our Father in heaven!
Often about His concerns we are to passive and about our own to "assertive"
wisdom is needed indeed!
It may be right!,
Tozer writes "By moral action, we mean a voluntary response to the Christian message: not merely the acceptance of Christ as our personal Savior but a submission to the obligation implicit in the doctrine of the Lordship of Jesus. We must free ourselves from the inadequate concept of the gospel as being only 'good news,' and accept the total meaning of the Christian message centering in the cross of Christ. We must restore again to the church the idea that the offer of salvation by faith in Christ carries with it the condition that there must be also a surrender of the life to God in complete obedience.
Anything less than this puts the whole thing in the passive voice. A lifetime of passive listening to the truth without responding to it paralyzes the will and causes a fatty degeneration of the heart."
As followers of the Christ, we must remove the blinkers of our pre-saved life, and accept the responsiblity that comes with being a child of God. One lesson from the interpreation of the parable of the good Samaritan (by no means the only lesson) teaches us to watch for the care of others, to think outside of our own direct interests, to be the "hands and feet" of God to those who need to see him.
A famous prayer says
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."
It maybe should be prefixed with ... God open my eyes to see as you do
and closed by "To serve and enlarge your kingdom, and never my own"
While both of these are often implied, they may not often be practiced.
We often get upset by the things which upset us, and not by what concerns our Father in heaven!
Often about His concerns we are to passive and about our own to "assertive"
wisdom is needed indeed!
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