Beloved of God,
With this issue of
"A WITNESS AND A TESTIMONY" another year is entered
upon. While we are not children of time, but of eternity, by
reason of "the eternal life" which we have received as
the gift of God's grace, our connection with this world is at
present marked out in years and days. We send you our greetings
and prayerful assurances of fellowship, praying that this year
may indeed be one of "his increase".
We do rejoice in
all the assurances and appreciations which have come from your
side through the past years, and are constantly checked from
despairing of fruitfulness by the flow of letters telling of help
received. It is against our principle to say anything that would
look like advertisement, propaganda, or 'glorying in the flesh',
but we can - for your own strengthening - say that there are very
few countries in this world to which this little paper does
not go by the personal request of those who declare its
helpfulness to their spiritual life and ministry. It is a
wonderful story of something that the Lord has been doing for
over a quarter of a century, and is still doing in a spontaneous
way.
What is its
purpose? In this creation the whole natural trend is downward.
Nothing is elevated, improved, or developed without a battle and
a cost. This is particularly true in the realm of spiritual
fulness. The whole battle is against the forces of declension,
retrogression and mediocrity. Every Christian knows how true that
is, and every special effort and provision for spiritual
helpfulness is a witness to it. This ministry is reactionary in
the right sense, reactionary against this whole tendency. It is
thrown into battle for "the fulness of Christ" against
earth-boundness, against nominalism, against spiritual
complacency, false contentedness; against all that is less or
other than all that Christ represents of God's eternal purpose.
If the forces of
evil can cause the people of God to accept a position, measure,
and occupation less than all the vast fulness eternally intended,
they will do so by any means, foul or fair. It is
therefore essential that the people of God shall have a ministry
which keeps them in vision, for "where there is no vision
the people go to pieces".
Thus, the message
on vision in this issue [Vision and Vocation], and those which follow [The Mount of Vision], constitute the
real ministry to which we feel called. Everything is related to
that, and no one who reads these pages can say that the vision is
small or indefinite. It is by vision that inspiration destroys
despair; by vision unification destroys disintegration; by vision
boldness supplants cowardice; and much more.
We pray that you,
through these pages, may see "the heavenly vision", and
in seeing be "not disobedient" to it. So, when we have
spent our years, and fulfilled our ministry in the light of the
ever-growing revelation of "his fulness", may we -
"his servants... serve him" (yet) and "see his
face"; having missed nothing of all His glorious purpose.
The Lord be with
you.
Yours in His
grace,
T. Austin-Sparks