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Week 7 Sunday

Week 7 Sunday

First Steps Out of the Old Life

Luke 19:1-10; John 1:35-42

We ended last week at the place of acting on what little faith we had and trusting it to grow in the process.

A Chinese engineer sat down with me and abruptly said: “What are you going to do with me? I am a man without any religion. The old is dead and I haven’t anything new to take its place. In America no church would take me, for I cannot believe in the divinity of Christ.”

I could almost see him inwardly stiffen to meet my arguments to prove Christ divine. So I used none. Instead I asked: “What do you believe? How far along are you?”

“Well,” he said, “I believe that Christ was the best of men.”

“Then let us begin where you can. If he is the best of men, then he is your ideal. Are you prepared to act according to that ideal? To cut out of your life everything that Christ would not approve?”

He was startled, and said, “But that is not easy.”

“I never said the way of Christ is easy. Are you prepared to let go everything he will not approve?”

“If I am honest, I must,” he quietly replied, “and I will.”

“Then, whoever Christ turns out to be, man or more than man, wouldn’t you be stronger and better if he were living with you, in you, all the time?”

“Of course, I would be different.”

“Then will you let him into your life?”

“I don’t know how.”

“Then pray this prayer after me, sentence by sentence.”

He did. “This is different,” he said as we arose, “for they always told me I had to believe first. Now at least here is something for me to begin on.”

The next day he came again, his face radiant. “I didn’t know a man could be as happy as I have been today. All my questions and doubts as to who Christ is have gone. And, moreover, I have been talking to my wife and she wants it too.”

Christ had verified himself. He does, when we give him a chance.

O soul of mine, full of doubts and fears, arise and take the first steps. Here and now I consent to cut from my life everything you cannot approve, O Christ. Amen.

Week 7 Monday

What Is Conversion?

Psalm 86:11; Acts 2:37-38; 3:19; Romans 8:1-2

This young engineer had undergone the change called conversion. What do we mean by it? Just when the church was allowing conversion to slip into the background through lack of emphasis, modern psychology stepped in and reemphasized it. Not in the same language, and often not with the same belief in God attached to it. Psychology tells us that the subconscious mind is the place of the driving instincts, which have come down through a long racial history. These instincts think only of the pleasure of their own fulfillment, apart from any moral considerations. But in the conscious mind is built up what Freud calls “the reality principle,” or ego ideal, a conscious life-purpose. A conflict between the conscious and the subconscious minds thus ensues. This cleavage at the very center of life brings disturbance and unhappiness.

This conflict can be resolved in one of two ways: either the ideal side is brought down and forgotten, and the instinctive side given full play (in which case the personality would be unified); or else the instinctive side is subordinated to and made to contribute to the ideal side of life. This latter process is called sublimation. It unifies the life. The first alternative is impossible for us, for if we take it, we return to the beast where the instinct rules. Besides, we can never fully forget the ego ideal. The conflict will continue. The second is the only way out. The process by which this is done is called by Freud “reeducation”; by Adler, “reorientation to reality”; by Jung, “readaptation”; by McDougall, “reintegration”!

When Jesus puts within it the content of the moral and spiritual as well as the psychological, he calls it “conversion”! All of these are driving toward the same goal, namely, unifying of the personality and bringing harmony into the center of life. All life says we must undergo a change.

O Christ, you did put your finger on our need. We must be born again and born different. Help us, we pray, to know this change through a living experience of it. Amen.

Week 7 Tuesday

We Continue to Look at Conversion

John 3:1-11

Jesus said, “Unless someone is born anew, [from above] it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom” (John 3:3).” What did he mean by being “born from above” (the alternate translation of the Greek term)?

According to modern psychology, life can be “born from below.” The instincts and drives that reside in the unconscious can control the conscious mind, in which case life is literally “born from below.” And let it be remembered that these instincts may not be merely the raw material of human life; they can be warped and twisted by what we might call a “sin-bias”: the nesting place of fears, inhibitions, a sense of guilt. To be born from below would, at its best, make us animal; at its worst, it would make us beastly, and, mind you, guilty.

Over against this stands what English botanist Sir Arthur Tansley called “the ethical self.” The Christian would say that this “ethical self” is the beginning of the operation of a higher environment, namely, the kingdom of God. The pressure of a higher kingdom is producing an “ethical self”: the place where the higher ideals and motives reside.

Now life depends upon correspondence to environment. To which environment? Shall we make life correspond to the environment that arises from below—in which case we shall have to sacrifice and slay the ethical self at the shrine of the Beast? Or shall we make life correspond to the higher environment, the ultimate order for human living, the kingdom of God—in which case we shall have to slay our sins and offer our instincts as a living sacrifice upon the altar of the new creation?

The choice is in your hands. In the quietness of your heart, you must make that choice between the high and the low. I said that once to a student, and he replied, “I have no quietness of heart.” And neither he nor you will ever have quietness of heart in the deepest, fullest sense until you decide that your life shall be born from above.

O Christ of the gently pressing kingdom, we open our hearts to it and to you. We cannot go back to the beast, we must go forward to the new creation. We do. Amen.

Week 7 Wednesday

Empty

Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 13:6-9

It may be that some of you do not feel the need of a change because of the uprush of clamoring instincts. The lower-born storms do not drive you to the feet of Christ, for you feel no such storms. Life to you is not the Great Struggle, but the Great Emptiness. Your difficulty is not the innate but the inane. Jesus had a word for this type of person. He told of a house that was “swept and garnished” and “empty” (Matt. 12:44 KJV). Modern civilization is “swept.” It has banished superstitions held by its ancestors. It is “swept”—it doesn’t believe in this, that, and the other—it is freed from magic and superstition.

It is also “garnished”—with intellectual facts and mechanical toys. Look at our achievements in science and culture and comfort! Our stores and shops are crammed with the mechanical, and we are urged to buy the latest toy, which will be sure to bring us final happiness.

Yes, modern civilization is both “swept and garnished.” But—and this is the point—it is also “empty,” empty of any constructive philosophy of life. We are all dressed up and don’t know where to go! We look with disdain on the barbarous, superstitious ages “swept” away; we point with pride to our “garnished,” not to say garish, civilization and its achievements; and yet modern civilization is empty—and it knows it!

This pagan magnifies a mindless world

And searches there for rest,

He is like an infant tugging at

A lifeless mother’s breast.*

Why do I say modern civilization is empty? Let’s bring it closer to home; perhaps you are empty. You need to be reborn just to know what life is. Moreover, I know this emptiness will not last long. Modern civilization is drawing to itself the seven devils—unrest, jazzy pleasure, exploitation, materialism, selfishness, war, and crime—to fill the emptiness. So will you. Nature and the soul both abhor a vacuum. To fill the emptiness you must choose between these (or some other seven devils) and Christ.

O Christ, I choose you. My house, my soul is empty. I cannot fill it with other than you. I loathe emptiness and I fear devils, but I can trust you. I do. Amen.

* Source unknown.

Week 7 Thursday

Is Conversion a Manifestation of the Sex Urge?

1 Corinthians 5:9-11; Galatians 5:16-17

Some modern psychologists trace almost everything to the sex-instinct, including the phenomenon called conversion. They point out that most conversions take place in adolescence, and, as this is the period of the awakening of the sex-instinct, conversions are caused by it and are founded on it.

The answer is obvious. Adolescence is not only the period of the awakening of the sex-instinct; it is the period of the awakening of the total personality. The self-instinct, with its restlessness with and revolt against authority, and the herd-instinct, with its tendency to form gangs, are also awakened along with the sex-instinct. It is the period of the awakening of the whole of life.

Now, religion, as we saw, is a cry for life—for complete, fuller, more qualitative life. It is therefore not strange that youth, feeling the awakening of life, should turn to religion to guide and complete and satisfy that life-urge. That turning to religion often means conversion. It does not come out of the sex-urge, but out of the life-urge. Of course, it does come partly out of the sex-urge, which is the creative urge. The sex-urge, sublimated by conversion, creates on higher levels; it turns life to higher creative channels. The sex-urge is a part of it, but it is not the whole of it. Moreover, religion holds the sex-urge in restraint. How, then, could it be identified with it?

If religion were a manifestation of the sex-urge, then when life ripens into old age and the sex-urge dims, we should expect the religious side of life to dim with it. But does it? Just the opposite. Youth and old age are the most religious periods of life. Why? In youth we want fuller life; in old age we want lasting life. In each it is the cry for life.

O Christ, you are creative Life moving upon lesser life and awakening it. Make me into a new person, with a new goal and a new power to move toward that goal. Amen.

Week 7 Friday

Do Conversions Conform to One Pattern?

Matthew 18:3; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

This has bothered a great many souls, for they have seen a type of conversion that greatly moves them, and they are dissatisfied because they cannot find that pattern in their own lives. This is a mistake. No two conversions are exactly alike, for no two persons are exactly alike, and no two persons come up under exactly the same circumstances. After God made you, God broke the pattern. You are unique. Your conversion will therefore be unique.

Nevertheless, conversions do fall into two great categories—the gradual and the sudden—with shades between. After questioning groups of Christian workers in many lands, I find the usual proportion is about 60 percent gradual and 40 percent sudden.

The gradual types usually come out of the home, where from childhood they are taught to know and love Christ. They cannot tell where they crossed the line, for they have seen no line. It has always been so. They have opened like a flower to the sun. That they do belong to Christ they are sure. When they began to belong to him they are not sure. But their lives are different from the life around them. They belong to the converted.

Then there are others—and I am among them—to whom conversion came all of a sudden. I had come up through a religious childhood with constant attendance at Sunday school and church, but like some vaccinations, it didn’t “take.” Then there came the Great Change. Nothing after that was the same, except perhaps my name. My wandering planet had swung itself into a new orbit, forever caught by a Love that would not let it go.

Which of these is the valid type? Either one may be. It is not the phenomena that surround conversion, but the facts that underlie it and the fruits that come from it make it valid.

O Christ, who calls to the child in its innocence and the older ones in their iniquities, we all come to you. To whom else can we go, for you have the words of eternal life? So we come and find you satisfying, because you are saving. Amen.

Week 7 Saturday

The Central Thing in Conversion

Matthew 11:29-30; 23:10; John 13:13-14; Romans 14:4

Psychology tells us that there is a master sentiment* around which life is organized. It may fasten itself to one of the instinctive urges: self, sex, or the herd. If the master sentiment is fastened on the self-urge, then life is egotistical and self-centered. Or it may fasten itself upon the sex-urge, and the whole of life becomes sex-centered. Or it may fasten itself upon the herd, and life may be lived out under the dominance of what people will say and do; fear of the herd will be the deciding factor. There may be a mixture of all three, but in the end the master sentiment decides and dominates.

Modern psychology tells us that in curing a patient of inward conflict or complex it is necessary to have a patient transfer sentiment from oneself to someone outside, usually to the psychoanalyst. This is called transference. The patient is thus loosed from problems by the expulsive power of a new affection.

Now, the central thing in conversion is just that—transference. Conversion involves breaking with this sin, that habit, this relationship, that attitude; yet all these things are the negative side. The real thing that happens is the transference of the master sentiment from self to Christ. It is the conversion of the master sentiment. Life is no longer self-centric, sex-centric, or herd-centric, but Christ-centric. He is the master of the master sentiment.

Jesus quietly said to men long ago, “Follow me”—not a set of doctrines, however true; or a rite or ceremony, however helpful; or an organization, however beneficial—but “Follow me.” The disciples did it. The transference was made. A strange new word came to their lips, “Savior,” for he was saving them from their complexes, their gloom, their despair, their sins—yes, from their very selves. Conversion was a fact, made so by the conversion of the master sentiment.

O Christ, you have our master sentiment—and as you have it you have us. We dare not give our love wholly to anyone save the Divine. Take it and us. Amen.

*In psychology, sentiment means more than an emotional response. It is an experience of both sensation and ideas. See Howard Crosby Warren, Elements of Human Psychology (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922), 218-19.