The Christian's ambition!
(Alexander Smellie, "The Hour of Silence" 1899)
2 Corinthians 5:9
"It has always been my ambition to preach
the gospel where CHRIST was not known"
Romans 15:20
"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet
life, to mind your own business and to
work with your hands" 1 Thessalonians 4:11
the gospel where CHRIST was not known"
Romans 15:20
life, to mind your own business and to
work with your hands" 1 Thessalonians 4:11
Three times over in his Epistles, Paul speaks
of the Christian's ambition. I may learn much
from every one of his three messages.
What should be the ambition of my personal life?
It should not be to be merely pardoned, nor
simply permitted to escape from eternal wrath.
"We make it our ambition," the apostle says,
"to please HIM."
What should be the ambition of my church life?
It should be to further the prosperity and to enlarge
the boundaries of my LORD'S kingdom on earth.
It should be to proclaim HIS Evangel, and to
extend HIS realm, and to win some new
captives and subjects for HIM.
"It has always been my ambition,"
the apostle says again,
"to preach the gospel where
CHRIST was not known."
And what should be the ambition
of my social life? It should be,
in my ordinary duties, in my simplest
and lowliest occupations, to exhibit
Christlikeness and my heavenly
citizenship. If I cannot be holy
at my daily work, it is scarcely
worth while taking trouble to be
holy at other times.
"Make it your ambition," says
the apostle to me once more,
"to lead a quiet life, to mind your own
business and to work with your hands."
These are the apostolic ambitions.
LORD, let them be mine. Towards
such goals, to gain such prizes--
I would lay aside every weight, and
run the race with perseverance!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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"By the grace of God I am what I am!"
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