To live above this world

“It is true that as long as we are in this world the truth will cause division,” writes Bible scholar C.R. Stam in his 1963 book The Controversy. “Truth draws a straight line. Either you believe it or you don’t. It cuts right through business and social friendships and even family ties.

“Truth is the greatest divider on earth. Thank God, however, it is also the greatest uniter. It constantly reconciles bitterest enemies and brings together those once farthest apart . . .

“Let us take stock. Where are the Bible teachers of yesterday? They are vanishing fast. And the pastors: more and more their sermons are ‘devotional’ and ‘inspirational’ while their hearers long for food and light from the Word.”

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Paul writes in I Timothy 1:4, [4] Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.  

“When he says ‘don’t give heed to fables,’ he’s saying, ‘Don’t pay attention to experience-based, experience-oriented stories,” explains Jordan. “A fable is a story that teaches a truth based upon an experience. Don’t be a storytelling preacher. I don’t mean a liar, I mean a fellow who bases everything on human experience . . .

“The preaching of the Cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Romans 1:16 says, [16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

“Paul isn’t saying, ‘I’m not ashamed; I stand on the street corner and pass out tracts.’ He’s not saying, ‘I’m never embarrassed to speak up for Jesus.’ He’s saying, ‘That message I preach works for everybody who believes it and I’m not ashamed to have anybody believe it because anybody who will believe it, it will work for.’ ”

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Paul writes in Romans 8:32, [32] He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Quoting the verse, Stam writes, “He would have me live above this world—above all its sorrows as well as its ‘joys,’ and so asks me to have the greatest faith and leave it all to Him.

“You may have ‘whatsoever ye ask,’ if you will—and if you can get it! But I do not want to be so foolish to give away a dollar for a dime. I want to join Paul in singing that great doxology:

[20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
[21] Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

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In her 1916 book Christ and His Bride; An Exposition of the Song of Solomon, Cora Harris MacIlravy writes, “As we look up that shining, living way, and begin to see faintly that which has been provided for us, we cling to the Rock in abandonment, in closer fellowship and communion.

“As our eyes look upward and are fixed upon the recompense of the reward, unseen arms bear us over the hardest places and plant our feet upon the next higher step, which to us appeared so inaccessible. We feel the everlasting arms carrying us upward, upward, while we can only cling to the Rock, hide away in His pierced side, love and adore Him for the ‘Exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think.’

“Not only are we protected, but there are rivers of water flowing out of the Rock, and the Rock follows us. All through our journeys in the wilderness here below, the Rock, Christ Jesus, follows us as we drink abundantly of living waters.

“In Him is all we need, and if by faith, we take that place and abide there, we shall have everything that God has for us, and we can have it no other way. It is not easy to go up that shining way, but it is blessed. It is not an easy path, but it is wonderful; and it becomes more wonderful as we more fully understand that we are upon the stairway, which will bring us from earth to Heaven, from weakness and humiliation to strength and glorification.

“O precious clefts, O wondrous secret stair, which can only be found when new vision is given at the new birth! . . . What strength and power, what refreshing and holy swiftness are to those who ever abide in the clefts of the Rock, and hasten upon that hidden stair, which their Beloved has set up for them through the shedding of His own blood.

“He calls her to set her face steadfastly toward Him, to run with patience the race set before her, looking away to Jesus who alone is the Author and Finisher of her faith. As she steadfastly obeys, she hears His voice speaking to her. ‘Thy countenance is beautiful, thou art fair, My love; there is no spot in thee.’ "