Book Review
I am currently reading Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray. The book was written because the author saw a lack of effectiveness in the church of his day. He addresses the problem by focusing on the individual. I personally have been convicted and uplifted in every section so far. I think the book is so effective because of the humility and sincerity of Andrew Murray. I would recommend this book to everyone.
Here is a small excerpt that impacted me.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love.” Why? Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness.
Self is the great curse, whether in its relation to God, or to our fellow-men in general, or to fellowChristians, thinking of ourselves and seeking our own. Self is our greatest curse. But, praise God, Christ came to redeem us from self. We sometimes talk about deliverance from the self-life-and thank God for every word that can be said about it to help us, But I am afraid some people think deliverance from the self-life means that now they are no longer going to have any trouble in serving God. They forget that deliverance from self-life means to be a vessel overflowing with love to everybody all the day.
And there you have the reason why many people pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. They get something, but oh, so little! because they prayed for power for work, and power for blessing, but they have not prayed for power for full deliverance from self. That means not only the righteous self in fellowship with God, but the unloving self in fellowship with men. And there is deliverance.
Our self is imperfect. Realistically, I don’t think that anyone could be “overflowing with love to everybody all the day”. Sure, people can act all they want, but is it humanly possible to be genuinely overflowing with love all the time? We can strive all we want, but even with Christ living in us and in our spirit, we are still human. How can we have total deliverance from self? Absolutely no one I have ever known or heard of has been able to do that.
Kristi
26 Aug 05 at 4:24 pm
Well. except Jesus himself, that is.
Kristi
26 Aug 05 at 4:26 pm
Kristi, sounds to me like you need to read the book. I want to. And so does dad. He doesn’t know it yet, though.
ma ma j
26 Aug 05 at 4:47 pm
I agree the its not humanly possible to be rid of self but thats the whole point of the book. It is God who works in us. The chapter I’m in now starts out with “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24,25) and that is the great apostle Paul speaking.
Kristen
26 Aug 05 at 5:24 pm
I think it sounds like the point isthat it isn’t humanly possible. That’s where the spirit comes in. But, as J said we need to read the book to have better insight into what the author says.
Martha
27 Aug 05 at 7:48 am
coulld you order 7 ot 8 of them and we could all read them. let’s have a book study! wanna? huh? wanna?
ma ma j
28 Aug 05 at 9:44 pm