Page 8 - How to Be a Victorious Christian - eBook
P. 8
On the contrary, those who walk in triumph through heaven's wide-swinging gates
will do so because they will have gained the victory over the world, the flesh, and the
devil. And to do so will take everything they have.
No one will be borne upward without stern, persevering effort in his own
behalf. All must engage in this warfare for themselves. Individually we are
responsible for the issue of the struggle; though Noah, Job, and Daniel were in the
land, they could deliver neither son nor daughter by their righteousness.
-Testimonies, vol. 8, pp. 313, 314.
We have great victories to gain, and a heaven to lose if we do not gain them.
-Ibid., vol. 5, p. 267.
In pondering my approach to this book I recognized a problem-indeed, a danger-
inherent in writing a manuscript of this nature: the problem of balance and the
danger involved in imbalance.
A certain emphasis will be found in this book because of the very nature of my
subject. This emphasis could lead to misunderstanding on the part of some. The
apostle James, in his accentuation of works in his theme of working faith, caused
Martin Luther to belittle his letter as "an epistle of straw." Others have had similar
problems with James. And there are those who have problems with other parts of the
Holy Scriptures for similar reasons.
Moreover, I remember Ellen White's caution to "Brother K," as found in Selected
Messages, book 1, pages 176, 177. Her admonitions there regarding the expressing
of ideas in such a way as to be misunderstood and to cause problems must be taken
very seriously.
In writing, I recalled words by Konrad Adenauer, former Chancellor of West
Germany: "We are all under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon."
This book is written from the particular point where I see the horizon. It is penned as
growing from my study, my observations, my experience. In doing this, I have tried
to keep my eyes as much as possible away from the horizon, and toward the sky that
covers us all. I have also tried to look beyond the sky we see, to Him who knows and
respects us all as individuals, remembering at the same time that His conditions and
standards are immovable, eternal.
8