A word defining Cliff Hartley. Romans 7:14-16
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. (NKJV) Paul said this about himself, but it sounds so much like me.
For some time after being saved, I thought when I sinned, I must not really be saved. But deep down in inside there was a strong desire to do right, be right, and stay right. Little did I know then there were two of me. One that was carnal and the other that was spiritual. With this being true, I’m convinced I’m saved beyond any shadow of a doubt because God’s ways are always contradicting my ways.
I asked an old preacher friend, Rev. Jerry Bruce, how long he had been a Christian. He said to me, “Now brother Cliff, if you had asked me how long I have been saved, I could tell you. But I’m only a Christian when I act like one”. That one word “Christian” is what I should be all the time, but it does not give definition about me. Saved and Christian are redundant terms in me, but not always.
I have been a student and in love with the Bible since 1963. For more than 40 years I have been studying, memorizing, and learning the Bible. Since 1975 I have made it a practice to read my Bible through at least once a year. This book tells me, if I love God, I will keep his commandments (I John 5). Being a lover of the Bible does not say very much about me when I’m disobedient to His word.
The term soul-winner is really what I want to known for. However, it dawned on me one night after reading an obituary in the paper of a man who died and failing to witness to him, that I was not much of a soul-winner.
Nothing makes me any more proud than for Jeanie to introduce me as her husband for more than 43 years, or my two sons Brett or Todd to say: “This is my Dad“. There have been times I have had to ask for their forgiveness. During those times it seemed being a husband or father had a hollow sound to it.
The word that defines Cliff Hartley more than being saved, a student of the scriptures, a soul-winner, or a husband or father, is the word: “forgiven”! Of all the inconsistencies found in my life, this one word remains constant—by the grace of God I stand forgiven of my sin that nailed Jesus to a cross. My sins have been hurled behind God’s back. They have been cast in the depths of the sea. I have been forgiven of my iniquities and they are remembered no more. I have trusted the gospel, repented of my sin, covered by his blood, justified in the spirit and forgiven forever more. So, when in the flesh I do those things which I hate, I rejoice in that His law contradicts my life style. This alarm quickens the truth as to what I am: Forgiven! What I am, I am by His grace and His forgiveness.