LIFE CHANGING READ

This book compiles 20 short biographical sketches of great men. The authors goal was to chronicle the time in each man's life when he entered into what he called the "exchanged life". 

J. Hudson Taylor wrote, "I am frustrated that sometimes I follow Jesus at such a distance - and it has taken so long for me to imitate my Master. Yet, I do know that I love God and desire to serve Him in all things."

God used a man named John McCarthy to show Taylor the way into the spirit-filled life. It was like a light switch turned on in his heart. Taylor wrote "It was so clear - so simple. I don't know how I could've missed it." The secret is abiding. The Christian life is a life of abiding in Christ. But what does this mean? How do we simply abide?

Not by striving after faith, but by resting in the Faithful One. Taylor wrote, "As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the Spirit poured into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in having wished to get the sap, the fullness out of Him. I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.

The vine now I see, is not the root merely, but all—root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit: and Jesus is not only that: He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth!

“The sweetest part is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine.

God’s grace is indeed sufficient, and the heart that has come to know personally and intimately the risen Lord Jesus experiences the reality of “rivers of living water.” With Isaiah he knows that “thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” Their hope and trust rest solely on what He is willing and able to do for them; on nothing that they suppose themselves able and willing to do for Him.

Such is the “exchanged life,” the abiding, fruitful life, the life that is Christ, which should be the possession of every believer. Galatians 2:20 should be, and can be, a glorious reality.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave himself for me."