Highway Of Holiness Truth 16

I WILL BE THAT MAN

"Follow me, and I WILL MAKE YOU . . ." (Matthew 4:19).

One of the ways in which Jesus MAKES US what He wants us to be is to lovingly give us glimpses of WHAT HE CAN MAKE US -- if we simply obey and follow Him.  Yes, it is true that Christ often first shows us what we ARE, but sometimes it is the exact opposite that a fallen man needs to see.  ALL TO WELL he knows what he IS -- a fallen, wicked wretch, unfit for earth or heaven -- and in love Jesus shows such what THEY CAN BE, by His grace.

Robert Schuller tells a story about a banker who always tossed a coin in the cup of a legless beggar who sat on the street outside the bank.  But, unlike most people, the banker would always insist on getting one of the pencils the man had beside him.  "You are a merchant," the banker would say, "and I always expect to receive good value from merchants I do business with."  One day the legless man was not on the sidewalk.  Time passed and the banker forgot about him, until he walked into a public building and there in the concessions stand sat the former beggar.  He was obviously the owner of his own small business now.  "I have always hoped you might come by someday," the man said.  "You are largely responsible for me being here.  You kept telling me that I was a 'merchant'.  I started thinking of myself that way, instead of a beggar receiving gifts.  I started selling pencils -- lots of them.  You gave me self-respect, caused me to look at myself differently."

Here is another touching story illustrating the same truth -- adapted from McCartney.

In order to be really transformed by God's grace, it is not only important to see what we now are, but also important for us to see what Christ can make of us by His grace:   A melancholy lawyer moved into a new community and immersed himself in his new law practice.  Townspeople sometimes observed him walking alone at the eventide with his head bowed, and a look of mental distress upon his face.  One day he confessed to an artist, who had a downtown studio, that he had made one, sad, terrible mistake in his life.  The artist said nothing, but weeks later he invited the forlorn lawyer to view a portrait in his studio.

Accepting the invitation, the lawyer was surprised to see there a portrait of himself, only there, in the portrait, he stood erect, with his shoulders thrown back, and his head lifted up.  Ambition, desire, and hope were written on his face in that portrait.  Regarding this sunny, positive portrait of himself for a few moments, the vision of what he could become was born in his heart, and he said, to himself, "If he sees that in me, then I can see it.  If he thinks that I can be that, then I CAN be that man; and what is more, I WILL BE!" -- Selected

Dear Reader, have YOU reached the place in your life where you feel that you are a complete and hopeless failure?  LET JESUS SHOW YOU WHAT HE CAN MAKE YOU!  Stop looking in the mirror that can only show you what you ARE!  Hear Jesus calling to you: -- "LOOK UNTO ME, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:22).

The songwriter wrote:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace."

Spiritually, LOOK FULL IN THE WONDERFUL FACE OF JESUS! and He will show you WHAT HE CAN MAKE YOU, if you will simply obey and follow Him.  Then, after Christ gives you a loving vision of the man He can make you by His grace, say with that forlorn lawyer:

"If He sees that in me, then I can see it.  If He thinks that I can be that, then I CAN be that man; and what is more, I WILL BE!"  HALLELUJAH  If you haven't done so already, do this RIGHT NOW!  You'll never regret it!

"His pow'r can make you what you ought to be;

His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free;

His love can fill your soul, and you will see

'Twas best for Him to have His way with thee.

-- Cyrus S. Nussbaum