REFLECTIONS

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REFLECTIONS

Impoverishment, Empowerment

and Life in the Light of the Lord

Rev. Dr. Robert E. Donaldson

Published by World Wide Web Witness Inc.

February 2010

ISBN 978-0-9807675-2-0

PREFACE

There is a time to reflect. There are many things which may be seen in systems of thought, understood in perspectives, but which for all that have an individuality, an integrity, a savour, feel and disposition of their own. In this volume, one hopes to be able to point to some of these, that we may the better appreciate some of the aspects of the word of God and His teaching who is the author of us all.

Of necessity, on entering the kingdom of God, one loses much; for it is like having your old house demolished by a flood; and you have to learn to live in the new one. On the other side, as in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, rebuilding a nation, so for the individual new Christian, there is a rebuilding of the centre and outposts of one's life. The work of the Holy Spirit is vast in such undertakings, as He illuminates, comforts, strengthens, reinforces, draws, convicts, convinces and equips. Yet it is the Lord Himself, who through the Spirit first inspired His words for man (I Peter 1:10ff., II Peter 1:19ff.), who is the final disposer of one's new household, from whom comes the inheritance which is made sure (Ephesians 1:11), as one is sealed by the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14).

In this, one is empowered (Ephesians 1:19, 3:14-21) and given some scope for co-operation (Ephesians 2:19-22). One loses what would not last, and gains what will; and it is surely like a flood that overwhelms, but no less like a Spring of building, wrought in ways sublime and majestic, competent and beautiful, so that one may grow; until the mildew comes, and then this must be dismissed under heavy pain, if one so slips (I Peter 4:12-19, 1:6-7); and if one is persecuted, this must be borne with patience; and then there is the bloom and the fruit. The way of life in the Lord is in one sense like another childhood, when this time one's father is not to live for some years, but for ever.