TCM - Training Christians for Ministry - GPS Journal

June 24, 2010

Vol 2, Issue 12

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Dear Friend,

When was the last time you realized you were really wrong and in need of forgiveness?

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GUIDANCE

Reading William Law's Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life on the airplane the other day was just such an experience for me. He convinced me that I'm sometimes guilty of lying and stealing. And there is no justification for this. Especially in someone who teaches and leads.

PERSPECTIVE

"Since we neither are nor can be anything of ourselves, to be proud of anything that we are or of anything that we do and to ascribe glory to ourselves for these things has the guilt both of stealing and of lying. It has the guilt of stealing as it gives to ourselves those things which only belong to God. It has the guilt of lying as it is the denying of the truth of our state and pretending to be something that we are not" (p. 105).

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

When people talk about TCM and what God is doing through TCM, there is sometimes a part of me that feels proud. I don't think it is wrong to feel pleasure in work well done, especially if He is so gracious as to include me in it. But I think Law is right. It is lying and stealing to take even the smallest amount of glory, honor, or praise that rightly belongs to God. And any time I do this, it makes me a liar and thief.

All glory, praise, and honor are rightly His. He alone deserves these. Like everything else, TCM is His creation. He plants, sustains, grows, prunes, matures, and uses as He wills. For the sake of His glory, honor, and praise. This is a simple, indisputable fact.

This means that every accomplishment and advancement of TCM belongs to Him. Not to me, not to the board, faculty, staff, students, donors, nor anyone else He uses.

So, I must NEVER take credit for His work. Doing so really does make me a thief and liar. I had really not thought of it in these terms. But William Law has hit the nail on the head. And the President of TCM between the eyes.

Tony