Receiving Better than Renouncing
It is better to make people desire the Christian life than to make them afraid of it. And they are more likely to desire it if our lives show them what Christ can bring to them, than if we are constantly telling them what He is going to take away from them. The heart message of the gospel, after all, is what God gives us, not what we give Him. Some are doubtless antagonized and turned away from the real meaning of Christianity43by being told too insistently that they must surrender, and give up things that mean much to them, instead of being shown the delights and privileges and possessions and freedom and power of the Christian life. A person whose whole life is a constant song of joy because of what Christ is to him, is a better “epistle” of Christ to the world than one who talks chiefly about what we must give up in order to have Christ in His fulness. It is easy to give up everything after we see that we are to receive more than we could ever give up.—Sunday School Times.