Just As I Am

Eugenia Price

Description

In these chaotic times, when many people who claim to be Christian are searching for “relevance” in the secular to justify their worldly aspirations, much of the Christian heritage is being ignored or discarded. But Miss Price turns time back for a moment and in these early Victorian lyrics she finds surprisingly sound, contemporary meaning that stands boldly above the ideas of today’s so-called radical thinkers.

Each line of this long-favored song responds to Miss Price’s interpretation with stirring impact—whether it be in strong yet soft tones that comfort the hearts of the lonely, the troubled, and the suffering or in stunning crescendo to rouse the inattentive and careless.

Through Miss Price’s weaving of the lyrics into her book, Just As I Am, the familiar music of the song accompanies the reader from page to page. Then she syncopates the theme, illuminating it for a fresh appraisal in the light of today’s burning issues. She does this by applying the song’s ethically and psychologically sound thesis both to her own life and to the lives of persons in tragically real confrontations with “fightings and fears within, without.” Each example shines like a beacon to guide the faltering to a Christian understanding and a peace unfulfilled by a secular situation ethic.

How should a Christian view the war? What course to consolations for the widow and parents of a young man killed in Vietnam? What choice for the guilt-ridden man who loves his wife, his children and his mistress? Is there a “correct” way to approach God? The answers are not found in protests, trips to the psychiatrist, divorce or even death. Miss Price seeks and finds answers in the deep abiding love and faith that “has broken every barrier down.”

Just As I Am will be acclaimed Eugenia Price’s finest contribution to the search for a meaningful Christian life.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Inspirational
• Philosophie et théologie
• Eugenia Price
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 27 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781684427260
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Just As I Am

Turner Publishing Company
Nashville, Tennessee
www.turnerpublishing.com
Copyright 1968, 2020 Eugenia Price
Just As I Am
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to Turner Publishing Company, 4507 Charlotte Avenue, Suite 100, Nashville, Tennessee, [phone], fax [phone], E-mail: [e-mail] .
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Cover design: Bruce Gore
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Upon Request
9781684427246 paperback
9781684427253 hardback
9781684427260 ebook
For My Friend ,
Agnes Wishart Holt
Contents
1. Just as I am, without one plea,
2. But that Thy blood was shed for me,
3. And that Thou bidd st me come to Thee,
4. Just as I am, and waiting not, To rid my soul of one dark blot,
5. Just as I am, though tossed about With many a conflict,
6. many a doubt.
7. Fightings and fears within, without,
8. Just as I am-poor, wretched, blind;
9. Sight, riches, healing of the mind, Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
10. Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
11. Because Thy promise I believe,
12. Just as I am, Thy love unknown
13. Thy love unknown Hath broken every barrier down;
14. Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
15. O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Books by Eugenia Price
DISCOVERIES
THE BURDEN IS LIGHT
NEVER A DULL MOMENT
EARLY WILL I SEEK THEE
SHARE MY PLEASANT STONES
WOMAN TO WOMAN
WHAT IS GOD LIKE?
BELOVED WORLD
A WOMAN S CHOICE
FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF
GOD SPEAKS TO WOMEN TODAY
THE BELOVED INVADER
THE WIDER PLACE
MAKE LOVE YOUR AIM
JUST AS I AM
Just As I Am
Just As I Am
1 . Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
2 . Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
3 . Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
4 . Just as I am-poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
5 . Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
6 . Just as I am, Thy love unknown
Hath broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
Charlotte Elliott 1789-1871
1
Just as I am, without one plea,
There is no necessity for pleading, no need whatever to make a case for ourselves with God. We are not the determining factor. God is.
Almost none of us seems to have this straight. Almost everyone attempts to be his own lawyer when he faces the Creator.
I can t get through to God when I pray. I plead with him to help me, I plead for forgiveness, but nothing happens.
I know all the religious routines, all the Scriptures on which to base my appeal I have doctrine and I am sincere, but my spirit is cut off from God s spirit.
There must be something I m not doing right. I pray. I read my Bible every day. I am active in the church, but my case before God is a weak one. Somewhere I am failing miserably.
I plead with God to make me a more effective Christian. I try to explain to him where I have failed.
All wasted effort. All unnecessary. All based on the erroneous assumption that somehow, in some way, we need to explain ourselves to the One who created us in the first place. All slanted toward us as the determining factor in our relationship with God. All bearing on the efficacy of our case as we bring it before him.
In anguish and sincerity, sometimes simply, sometimes eloquently, before our own bar of justice we make our pleas and apologies for being as we are. We struggle to make it clear to the omniscient God that we are weak, selfish, jealous, dishonest, impatient, immoral, futile. Time after time we remind him that we are dust: prone to falseness and inconstancy, fickle, self-indulgent. We explain to him that our parents before us warped our characters by not loving us enough or by spoiling us or by setting up standards for us which we could not possibly reach. We plead with him to remember how many times our friends have let us down, how often our dreams have collapsed, how deeply we have been hurt. We may not mention our good deeds in so many words, but when we state our case we feel deserving in some areas, secretly expecting our virtues to stand us in good stead.
God is never unmindful of what we say to him or of what we think or feel in his presence. He is attentively mindful of everything about us. But this is not the point. The point is that we could be using this energy to act according to the truth about both God and ourselves, and our lives could be simplified and strengthened beyond belief. We could, if we saw the truth about God, begin to act in his energy, with peace replacing the anguish of defending ourselves before a nonexistent bar of justice.
We could use. the effort spent in begging for mercy in a thousand creative ways; ways that would bring about our own healing, while we blessed and encouraged the lives of those around us.
In no way do I mean to imply that we have nothing to do. We have everything to do, but if our actions and our insights are contrary to the truth as anyone can know it in Jesus Christ, we waste, we dissipate. Most of us are active enough, but in the wrong ways.
God stands before us in Jesus Christ offering every grace, every power, every healing, every strength, every joy we need. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. The all-encompassing need of every human being has already been met in Christ. He is there, available, waiting-even moving toward us, prodding us to receive. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus Christ is not a religious theory concocted by the mind of man. He is the living God and he is there with you now, waiting for you to receive. Waiting for me to receive. Waiting for us to grasp the difficult simplicity of acceptance from his hands. But this kind of childlike acceptance has been made difficult by our own failure to believe the willingness of God. It has been made hard by our own tendency to complicate by futile and wasteful explaining, cajoling, pleading.
God, when he came to earth in the person of his Son, Jesus, did everything in his power to simplify. The ancient necessity for sacrificial offerings on our part was wiped out. God, himself, became the offering for us. God, himself, came . Came to us offering. His coming to live among us as God knocked over every barrier, opened the door to the holy of holies. Now, any man can not only enter the presence of the Lord God but also live there hour by hour, day by day, through every year of his earthly life. There are no specially anointed among us now: everyone is welcome. The door is open because Christ himself is the door. The gate to the Garden of Eden is no longer shut. We can go back to walk with the Lord God in the cool of the evening. We can be glad for his presence and never have to think of hiding again.
Forgiveness is abroad on the earth forever, now that Christ has come, and it is not for a select few, not only for those whom God has particularly called-God is calling everyone every minute. He is not willing that any should perish. He is indifferent to no one. He is unmindful of no one. His back is turned toward no one. And he is confused by no one. God knows us just as we are . He knows you just as you are. He knows me just as I am. And once this begins to come clear, the futility of the earnest plea breaks over us. The foolishness of the lengthy explanation to the Father of why we are as we are, how we came to be this way, the extent of our limitations and our capabilities begins to appear ridiculous, even to us.
Of course, we need to learn about ourselves as we really are-as much as we can bear to learn-but we are not discussing the need for self-knowledge here. Anyone interested in a close relationship with God has already come to see enough of his own need if he is attempting to plead his case with the Father. Self-knowledge is necessary, but it can be disastrous unless one is simultaneously learning more about God. The sudden knowledge that we are spiritually proud, that we tend to boast humbly about our sacrifices, that we have been using God to build our own stock in any way, can be a devastation. Unless we see his hand in the new degree of self-knowledge. Unless we have learned enough about him to have