“Seekest thou great things for thyself; seek them not.”(Jer. 45:5)
There is a subtle temptation, even in Christian service, to become great, to see one’s name in the magazines or hear it over the radio. But it is a great snare. It robs Christ of glory. It robs ourselves of peace and joy. And it makes us prime targets for the Devil’s bullets.
It robs Christ of Glory. As C. H. Mackintosh said, “There is always the utmost danger when a man or his work becomes remarkable. He may be sure Satan is gaining his objective when attention is drawn to aught or anyone but the Lord Jesus Himself. A work may be commenced in the greatest possible simplicity, but through lack of holy watchfulness and spirituality on the part of the workman, he himself or the results of his work may attract general attention, and he may fall into the snare of the devil. Satan’s grand and ceaseless object is to dishonor the Lord Jesus. And if he can do this by what seems to be Christian service, he has achieved all the greater victory for the time.” Denney also said it well, “No man can at one and the same time prove that he is great and that Christ is wonderful.”
We rob ourselves in the process. Someone said, “I never knew real peace and joy in service until I ceased trying to be great.”
And the desire to be great makes us sitting ducks for Satanic attack. The fall of a well-known personality brings greater reproach on the cause of Christ.
John the Baptist assiduously renounced any claims to greatness. His motto was, “He must increase; I must decrease.”
We too should sit down in the lowest place until the Lord calls us to go up higher. A good prayer for each of us is, “Keep me little and unknown, loved and prized by Christ alone.”
Nazareth was a little place—
And so was Galilee.
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His more than over eighty-four works published in North America are characterized by a clarity and economy of words that only comes by a major time investment in the Word of God.
MacDonald graduated with an AB degree from Tufts College (now University) in 1938 and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1940. During the 1940's he was on active duty in the US Navy for five years.
He was President of Emmaus Bible College, a teacher, preacher, and Plymouth Brethren theologian alongside his ministry as a writer. He was a close friend and worker with O.J. Gibson.
MacDonald last resided in California where he was involved in his writing and preaching ministry. He went to be with the Lord in 2007.