ABOUT TURN

Lake County Mail, Issue 24, 5 November 1947, Page 7

ABOUT TURN

It was reported of the early Christians that they had “turned the world upside down.” It was because they themselves were turned round so completely that they were able to have this effect on the world. They were converted —“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt. 18, 6). Conversion is necessary for all Christians. Perhaps if I were to ask you if you were converted you would imagine what used to be called a “ revival meeting,” where a very able speaker stirred up the feelings of the people, and they were converted, sometimes even throwing themselves on the ground in their spiritual fervour. Unfortunately there are those religious bodies who think that this type of conversion is necessary. They misuse the word “ conversion,” and use it, just applying it to the feelings. This kind of feeling-conversion is very much on the surface, like, for example, a banana palm the roots of which do not go down deep into the soil, and they have to be supported by a cleft stick to prevent their being blown down in a heavy wind. They have no tap roots. There are other trees; however, which have taproots going sometimes yards down into the soil and when the wind, blows they stand up sturdily and strong. Our Lord told a story about it too, when He compared the house built on the sand (emotions only) with the house built on the rock. .The real meaning of conversion is something deep —an act of the will, when we are converted with our minds and wills. Conversion is a turning from and a turning to—a turning from Satan and a turning to God. Most people are selfish, self-willed, and self-centred. They pray “ Thy will be done ” with the mental reservation that it shall not interfere with what they themselves want to do, and they fulfill that prayer in their life, for example, in going to Church to worship God (which is His will) so long as it does not interfere with their tennis, or their picnics, or their golf. A truly converted Christian is one who gives up his own will to follow God’s will. There are two ways of conversion. One is a sudden crisis in

a person’s life such as that of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Actually Saul’s conscience had been aroused by the stoning of Stephen, and I doubt whether he .could ever forget the part he played in that event; but he fought against anything that he thought was wrong. He thought the followers of Christ were wrong, and so he put them in prison and persecuted them, but I do not think he was ever happy about it. He was fulfilling his own desires under the cover of doing God’s will, and you remember that our Lord had said that they would persecute the church thinking that they were doing God service. It all worked up to a climax, and on the road to Damascus Saul’s mistake was pointed out to him by our Lord. He gave himself up to follow the will of God and became S; Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. The other way of conversion is equally effective, valid and real. It is the slow growth of a seed. Many of us are what I choose to call “ Secondhand Christians ”--we have been brought up in the church and we know it is respectable to go to church; we have been baptised; we would not think of being married anywhere but in a church; we support it (or rather patronise it), but we are really unconverted. We have not surrendered our wills to God. The other day I planted a row of seeds in my garden—only a few have come up, because of the birds and lack of moisture. There are many who have had the grace of God implanted in them in Baptism, but it has not grown because of the condition of the soul in which it was sown. Whether the process is sudden or gradual, we all need conversion, we need to surrender our wills to God, to give up self and selfish interests to follow God. Conversion is a real turning to God, and what the world needs to-day is to be turned upside down. It was turned upside down in the early church by converted men and women, men and women, that is to say, who were trying to follow God’s will, as He revealed it to them, not their own; who were entirely self-surrendered. The world to-day can only be set right by being turned upside down again by the same kind of people—really converted people. Are you converted? Philip C. Williams.