Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

thought, word and deed he had committed became a heavy burden
bearing down so hard upon him, that he fell down at the knees of Jesus
and said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Simon
Peter was deeply overwhelmed by a sense of God’s holiness.
Dear reader, no matter how righteous and upright you have been, if
you were to come face to face with God right now, you too would feel
this dreadful sense of your own sinfulness. And it is an awful feeling to
stand before God with all your sins fully exposed to His penetrating
sight. In the blinding light of God’s perfect holiness, you would just
cringe with your own unworthiness, fearing even to look up at Him, and
saying, “Woe is me! for I am undone” (Isa 6:5) and “Depart from me;
for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Like a candle melting in the hot
noonday sun, you would feel your sinful self being consumed by His
great light. This is how you would feel in God’s holy presence until God
Himself utters those wonderful words, “fear not, thou art cleansed from
all thy sins; thine iniquity is taken away; thy transgressions have been
removed as far as the east is from the west!” (cf Ps 103:12).
And then in gratitude all that you can say is, “What great mercy,
what great grace! That God should condescend to cleanse me from all
my sins and allow me to stand right here in His presence.” This was the
way that Simon Peter might have felt, as he heard the words of Jesus in
Luke 5:10, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
“Lord, dost thou mean that thou would really will take me, sinful as
I am, to serve Thee?”
“Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
“But Lord, how can it be? Thy service is too great a privilege for
one such as I. I am not worthy to be Thy servant.”
“Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
We have so far seen two persuasive reasons for us to forsake all and
follow Christ. The first is that God will use whatever we yield to Him
for His glory. And the second is that a life of obedient trust in God
brings the greatest blessings. But now we come to the third and the most
persuasive of all reasons.
106 A Consecrated Life