CHRIST-CENTEREDNESS

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

—Rev. 12:11

650 Century-Old Prayer

There is a fifteen-hundred-year-old prayer which still stirs our hearts. It is particularly inspiring and helpful to those who want to follow Christ. It is called “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.”

Here is part of it: Christ be with me, Christ in the front, Christ in the rear, Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me, Christ at my right hand, Christ at my left, Christ in the fort, Christ in the Chariot seat, Christ at the helm, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

651 Dr. Gordon’s Dream

Dr. A. J. Gordon, while preparing his Sunday sermon, was so tired that he fell asleep in his study. He dreamed that it was the next morning in the pulpit and the church was packed. A stranger walked in and a deacon let him have his seat. The stranger was so commanding yet attentive, and Gordon found himself as if speaking to him alone. He decided to meet this stranger after church.

As the congregation filed out one by one, the pastor (in his dream) looked in vain for the stranger until everyone was home. “Do you know him?” he asked the deacon. “Why, yes. He is Jesus Christ.” “Oh. how I wished I could have talked with him!” Gordon lamented. “It is alright, pastor,” assured the deacon, “He’ll be back next Sunday.”

Gordon awoke, realizing in a new way that everytime he preaches and speaks about Christ Christ is in the midst and hears every word. This dream revived both pastor and church. Gordon preached with a new power. He established “Salvation Centers” in Boston, gave great sums to missions, to weak churches, to the Jews, to the Chinese. He started a school to train missionaries. He died at age 59 with “Victory” on his lips.

652 I Wish I were Blind

The hymnwriter Fanny Crosby gave us more than 8000 Gospel songs. Although blinded at the age of 6 weeks, she never held any bitterness in her heart because of it. Once a preacher sym pathetically remarked, “I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you.”

She replied quickly, “Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind?” “Why?” asked the surprised clergyman. “Because when I get to Heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!”

653 Leonardo Da Vinci’s Cup

When Leonardo da Vinci was forty-three years old, the Duke Ludovinco of Milan asked him to paint the dramatic scene of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples:

Working slowly and giving meticulous care to details, he spent three years on the assignment. He grouped the disciples into threes, two groups on either side of the central figure of Christ. Christ’s arms are outstretched. In his right hand, He holds a cup, painted beautifully with marvelous realism.

When the masterpiece was finished, the artist said to a friend, “Observe it and give me your opinion of it!”

“It’s wonderful!” exclaimed the friend. “The cup is so real I cannot divert my eyes from it!”

Immediately Leonardo took a brush and drew it across the sparkling cup! He exclaimed as he did so: “Nothing shall detract from the figure of Christ!”

654 Patriotism Not Enough

Edith Cavell, the British nurse killed by Germans in World War I, was captured. Just before the bandage was placed over her eyes for the firing squad, she said: “I am glad to die for my country. But I realize that patriotism is not enough.” Then she gave clear and definite testimony to her personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and assurance of salvation. She died under the firing squad in 1915.

655 Lord Stamp’s Chief Interest

Lord Stamp, British authority on economics and finance, was also a Methodist lay preacher. In one of his last speeches which he made before he was killed in a bombing attack, he was talking without noticeable feeling about something connected with the gold standard.

Suddenly his tone changed, and he brought his speech to a close with these words: “Before I finish, I should like to say one other thing, and it is this: I have not the smallest interest in what I have been talking about tonight; not the slightest interest in this or any other scale of values excepting only as it may subserve that other scale of values introduced into this planet by Jesus of Nazareth. That is the one and only scale of values which ultimately matters, and which no man now listening to my voice can ever afford to ignore on peril of his soul.”

—Alliance Weekly

656 “We Would See Jesus” On Pulpit

In the Grace Baptist Church, Philadelphia, Dr. Russell Conwell, was moving the city mightily from his pulpit. To this day one sees inscribed upon the back of the pulpit the simple words, “We would see Jesus.” These words, visible only to the preacher, stared Conwell in the face every time he rose to preach. They were placed there at his own request. It was his desire to present Christ to the great congregation.

He was voted the first citizen of Philadelphia in recognition of the Christlikeness of his character and the breadth of his philanthropies in founding the Temple University for the education of the poor and the founding of Temple Hospital.

—Benjamin P. Browne

657 Simple Preaching Of Brainerd

David Brainerd, the famous missionary to the American Indians, proclaimed this truth throughout his ministry. He said, “I never got away from Jesus and Him crucified in my preaching. I found that once these people were gripped by the great evangelical meaning of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, I did not have to give them many instructions about changing their behavior.”

When Charles Spurgeon lay on his deathbed, he testified to a friend, “My theology now is found in four little words: “JESUS died for ME.” I don’t say this is all I would preach if I were to be raised up again, but it is more than enough for me to die upon.”

—Our Daily Bread

658 For Dr. Gordon—Preach Christ First

When interviewing Dr. A. J. Gordon as a prospective pastor of a Boston church, the pulpit committee asked: “If you are called to the pastorate of our church will you preach against the cards, the theater, and dancing?” “I will,” solemnly affirmed Dr. Gordon. He was called.

Months passed and he didn’t say a word against the cards, the theater, and dancing. The official board of the church said, “Almost a year has gone by and you have said nothing against cards, the theater, and dancing. We wonder why.”

Dr. Gordon replied essentially as follows: “Gentlemen, it is true that I have said nothing against these things, but I have preached Christ who is the only Saviour from all evils. When He comes into one’s heart all evil things vanish from the life like the mist before the hot breath of the noonday sun.”

659 “Him, Him, Him”

Dr. S. D. Gordon tells of an old Christian woman whose age began to tell on her memory. She had once known much of the Bible by heart. Eventually only one precious bit stayed with her. “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I committed unto him against that day.”

By and by part of that slipped its hold, and she would quietly repeat, “That which I have committed unto him.” At last, as she hovered on the borderline between this and the spirit world, her loved ones noticed her lips moving. They bent down to see if she needed anything. She was repeating over and over again to herself the one word of the text, “Him, Him, Him.”

She had lost the whole Bible, but one word. But she had the whole Bible in that one word.

—American Holiness Journal

660 Loving God’s Son

In his splendid book of anecdotes entitled Bible Windows, Ivor Powell tells the story of a rich man who died and left no heirs. When his household goods were auctioned off, an elderly lady dressed in shabby garments was the only one to bid on the picture of the dead man’s son. It had been greatly cherished by the wealthy father because his only child had died at an early age. But the crowd that had gathered for the sale showed no interest in it. When the woman who bought the portrait was asked why she wanted it, she said she had been the boy’s nurse many years before, and had loved him dearly.

Later she examined the picture closely and noticed a bulge in the heavy paper on the back. Making a small cut, she removed an envelope which turned out to be the man’s missing will. The document very clearly stated that he wanted to leave his property to the person who still held dear the memory of his beloved son.

—Our Daily Bread

661 The Great Stone Face

Hawthorne has given us a great scientific fact in the story of the Great Stone Face:

A certain people had been so well governed that when their king died they determined never to have another until they could find a man that looked and acted just like the dead monarch, and to keep his picture before the people they had a great profile of the king carved on a cliff.

For years and years a commission of men hunted through the realm for a man that could qualify, but without success, until one day they stopped at a humble cottage at the base of the Great Stone Face to rest and secure food, and there to their great joy found a stalwart youth whose face was just the same as that of the monarch on the cliff.

Day in and day out as this simple boy had plowed his little fields and cut his wood, he had gazed up at the wonderful profile that bespoke courage and purity and determination, and day by day, shaped by the thoughts he allowed to dwell in his mind, he became like the dead king.

—Selected

662 Old John Jasper’s First Desire In Heaven

Old John Jasper, that former slave after the War between the States pastored the Sixth Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. Somebody asked him if there had been five preceding Mt. Zion Baptist Churches and that was why they called it the “Sixth.” He said, “No, we just liked the name.”

Old John Jasper pastored a great church. He was speaking to his congregation one day on heaven and the joys which will await us on the other side. He tried to describe those beauties, the joys ineffable and full of glory. His vivid imagination and his emotions were caught up and as he opened his mouth to speak he couldn’t say a word. He tried several times and the great crowd sat there in anticipatory silence. He tried again but still no sound.

Then they saw the tears roll down his black cheeks. Still as he would try to articulate, not a sound could he make. Finally, he shook his head and waved his crowd toward the exit, but that great audience just sat there as if enthralled. After several attempts to no avail, he walked back to the side of the pulpit and had his hand upon the door which led to his study, and again he waved the crowd toward the exit but they still waited there.

Seeing that they wouldn’t leave, he composed himself and walked back toward the edge of the pulpit and leaning over it said something like this, “Brothers and sisters, when I think of the glory which shall be revealed in us, I can visualize that day when old John Jasper’s last battle has been fought and the last burden has been borne. I can visualize that day when this tired servant of God shall lay down his burdens and walk up to the battlements of the City of God. Then as I stand outside the beautiful gate, I can almost hear the Mighty Angel on guard say, “John Jasper, you want your shoes?”

“I’se gonna say, “Course I wants ma shoes, ma golden slippers to walk the gold-paved streets of the City of God, but not now.”

“Then I can hear the Mighty Angel as he says, “John Jasper, don’t you want your robe?”

“I’se gonna say, “Course I wants ma robe, that robe of linen clean and white which am the righteousness of the saints, but not now.”

“Then the Angel would say, “John Jasper, you want your crown?”

“I shall say, “Course, Mighty Angel, I wants all the reward that’s comin’ to me, this poor black servant of the Lamb, but not now.”

“Then the Angel would say, “John Jasper, wouldn’t you like to see Elijah, the great prophet, who called down fire from heaven, wouldn’t you like to shake hands with John the beloved disciple who leaned on the Master’s breast at the Last Supper? Wouldn’t you like to shake hands with Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, the greatest church establisher and soul-winner of all time?”

“I’ll say, “Course, Mighty Angel. I wants to know and to shake hands and to commune with those, the saints of God who have won the incorruptible crown. Yes, I have some loved ones over here I wants to see, too, but not now. Fust, I wants to see Massa Jesus. … I wants to see Him fust of all.””

—G. Beauchamp Vick

663 Epigram On Christ-Centeredness

•     Christ is not valued at all unless he is valued above all.

—Augustine

•     “I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting.”

—Shakespeare

•     “All that I think, all that I hope, all that I write, all that I live for, is based upon the divinity of Jesus Christ the central joy of my poor, wayward life.”

—William Gladstone

•     Never have a meeting you cannot invite Christ to.

•     “I have suffered through many a dull and tedious sermon, but no sermon is poor or long when the preacher is showing me the beauty of Jesus.”

—A. W. Tozer