House Church Talk - zealously affected

[David Anderson]

    Hello to YOU! I know you're out there. LOL.

Gal. 4:18 But it is GOOD to be zealously affected always in a good thing, 
and not only when I am present with you.

I mentioned the possibility of looking further into 'excellence,' which 
is I believe is closely related to 'zeal'. Zeal should produce excellence 
in some endeavors, anyway. 

Some folks, btw, have looked at the house church community and seen an 
aversion to anything which involves effort. So, where does zeal fit into 
the scheme of things? Surely, all can agree that the world is supposed to 
see our good works and glorify God.

Check out this amazing extract. Shows how determined God's enemies are 
AND how just a few people can change the course of history. Therefore, if 
you're a part of a small home group, don't feel that you cannot be 
greatly used of God. He seeks availability more than (excellent) ability.

     David Anderson

You remember that back in 1917, a small handful of men set out to bring 
about a world-wide revolution.  And within just a few decades, they have 
succeeded.  

Now, there's no question that their mission and the outcome of their 
efforts were totally evil.  But the rise of the Communist Party, I think, 
is one of the most powerful examples of the meaning of total commitment 
in all of history.  

Douglas Hyde was, at one time, a Communist Party leader in England.  In 
1947, he defected from the Party and spent the rest of his life trying to 
expose the Communist Party for what it was.  He wrote a book years ago 
called Dedication and Leadership.

In that book, he outlined some of the principles that the Communist Party 
had used to achieve its revolution.  

There's a thread that runs through that whole book and it's the theme of 
wholeheartedness, devotion, sacrifice, dedication to a cause.  For 
example, he described Communists as being 100-percenters in a world  of 
50-percenters.  

And then he said this, he said, "Practically every Communist Party man is 
a dedicated man.  In his life from the time he rises in the morning until 
the time he goes to bed at night for 365 days a year, communism is the 
dominant force."  

Years ago, I came across a letter that was written by a Communist Party 
member to his fiance, breaking off their engagement and explaining why he 
felt that he had to do that.  This letter, I remember my dad reading this 
to us when we were kids, illustrates the type of sacrificial mind-set 
that was characteristic of many of those who devoted their lives to the 
Communist cause.  

Here's what that letter said.  He wrote to his fiance and he said, "There 
is one thing about which I am in dead earnest and that is the Socialist 
cause.  It is my life, my business, my religion, my  hobby, my 
sweetheart, my wife, my mistress, my bread and my meat.  I work at it in 
the daytime; I dream of it at night.  Its hold on me grows, not lessens, 
as time goes on.  I shall be in it for the rest of my life."  

He went on to say "When you think of me, it's necessary to think of 
Socialism as well because I am inseparably bound to it.  Therefore, I 
can't carry on a friendship, a love affair, or even a conversation, 
without relating it to this force, which both drives and guides my life.  
I evaluate people," he said, "and books and ideas and notions according 
to how they affect the Socialist cause and by their attitude toward it."  

He said, "I've already been in jail because of my ideas and if necessary, 
I'm willing to go before a firing squad.  A certain percentage of us get 
killed or imprisoned.  Even for those who escape these harsher ends, life 
is no bed of roses.  

"A genuine radical," this young Party member said, "a genuine radical 
lives in virtual poverty.  He turns back to the Party every penny he 
makes above what is absolutely necessary to keep him alive.

Radicals don't have the time or the money for many movies or concerts or 
t-bone steaks or decent homes or new cars.  We've been described as 
fanatics.  We are.  Our lives are dominated by one great overshadowing 
factor:  the struggle for Socialism."