Amish Voice, July 2016

The Amish Voice 15

wicked hearts. Our hearts are stained and

cannot be cleaned—no matter how hard

we try to clean them or how good we try

to be. The only answer is a new heart to

replace our wicked heart.

A new heart also will I give you, and

a new spirit will I put within you: and

I will take away the stony heart out of

your flesh, and I will give you an

heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit

within you, and cause you to walk in

my statutes, and ye shall keep my

judgments, and do them

(Ezekiel

36:26-27).

You cannot clean up your old heart.

Notice that God says that He will give us

the new heart, and then He will cause us

to walk in His ways. We do not first walk

in His ways and then get the new heart as

a reward. All the good that we try to do

with our old sinful hearts counts as

nothing—or worse than nothing.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and

all our righteousnesses are as filthy

rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and

our iniquities, like the wind, have taken

us away

(Isaiah 64:6).

I was recently reading a book by 19

century pastor, Ichabod Spencer. In that

book, he tells of a lady reminding him of

a sermon that he once preached that

helped to lead her to Jesus. The lady

reminded him:

I know you represented us in that

sermon as lost sinners, lost in the

woods, wandering over mountain

after mountain, in dark and

dangerous

places

among the rocks and

precipices,

not

knowing where we

were going. It grew

darker and darker. We

were groping along,

sometimes on the

brink of a dreadful

precipice, and didn't

know it. Then some of

us began to fall down

the steep mountains,

and thought we should

be dashed to pieces. I

know I thought so. But

we caught hold of the

bushes

hold

ourselves up by them.

Some bushes would

give way, and then we

would catch others,

and hold on till they gave way,

broke, or tore up by the roots; and

then we would catch others, and

others. . . .

You said our friends were calling to

us, as we hung by the bushes on the

brink, and we called to one another,

“Hold on—hold on.” Then, you said

this cry, “Hold on—hold on,” might

be a very natural one for anybody to

make, if he should see a poor

creature hanging over the edge of a

precipice, clinging to a little bush

with all his might, if the man didn't

see anything else. But you said there

was another thing to be seen, which

these "hold on” people didn't seem

to know anything about. You said the

Lord Jesus Christ

was down at the

bottom

the

precipice, lifting up

both hands to catch

us, if we would

consent to fall into

his arms, and was

crying out to us,

“Let go—let go—

let go." Up above,

all around where

we were, you said

they were crying

out, “Hold on—

hold on.” Down

below, you said,

Jesus Christ kept

crying out, “Let

go—let go”; and if

we only knew who

he was, and would

let go of the bushes of sin and self-

righteousness, and fall into the arms

of Christ, we should be saved. And

you said we had better stop our

noise, and listen, and hear his voice,

and take his advice, and “let go.”

Are you holding on or letting go? Are

you in spiritual darkness holding on to

your own righteousness, your church

membership, or your traditions? Will

you not look and see Jesus calling out to

you to let go of those things and fall into

His arms and trust in Him alone? As

long as you are holding on, you cannot

be saved. It is only when you let go and

have nothing else to hold on to that you

are safe in the arms of

Jesus. —Paul Miller

END

Let Go

, Continued from back cover

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