February 10: THY WORD—A TORCH!

Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Psalm 51:8-11

We continue from yesterday with the thoughtful young man from France. He understood that the “heretics” rested their faith solely upon the Bible, so he made a decision to study it to see if he could discover the secret behind that countenance of irrepressible joy. In it he found Christ!

“O Father! His blood has washed away my impurities; His cross has borne my curse; His death has atoned for me. We had devised for ourselves many useless follies, but Thou hast placed thy Word before me like a torch, and Thou hast touched my heart, in order that I may hold in abomination all other merits save those of Jesus!”

Quietly, the young man entered upon a firm devotion to the study of the Bible. The riches he discovered therein captivated and enthralled him! Those who were closest to him urged him to teach, but being timid of personality, he hesitated. At last, the earnest entreaties of his friends won his consent. “Wonderful it is,” he said, “that one of so lowly an origin should be exalted to so great a dignity.” That young man’s name: John Calvin.

The Holy Spirit of God gently leads people toward the light of truth. To the earnestly searching heart, He reveals all of the error, misunderstandings, and sin contained therein, but usually not all at once. While it is certainly possible to look back into the lives of those who led the charge in the Reformation and find fault or shortcomings, we cannot charge them with failing to act upon that light which the Spirit of God had made clear to them. To each of them we owe a great debt of gratitude. Each arose to live in his own life the specific point or points to which he was called. Each directed his energies to uplift and care for the spiritually hungry, praying for them and pointing them toward the written word. As fellow members of Christ’s body, are we—am I—to do any less?

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. John 16:12-13