I found this little gem of wisdom tucked within the archives of the Holiness Messenger and I wanted to share it!! Enjoy—
The Wall Within by Bro. Bill Parks
A Dutch city in the olden days was besieged by the Spaniards. The attacking army used the battering ram to try to break through the walls.
The people inside saw that the attempt would be successful unless the wall was strengthened. So the Dutch went to work and quietly built up an inner wall. The Spanish succeeded in getting through the outer wall, only to be confronted by a stronger wall within. The Dutch were safe.
Is not the lesson plain? The outer walls of society are good, but they are not enough. Walls within the character are needed. Inner fortifications are necessary, if one would guard ones own purity. A city building has inner iron doors and shutters for fire protection.
In our spiritual warfare, the greatest defense is the wall within or the convictions that we live by and govern our life. A man without a conviction has no defense against the subtle temptation of our foe!
Rules in the home or school, curfew laws, reforms in the city government, statutes for the protection of society, acts against greed and graft, all are good and beneficial; but more important still are moral and religious teachings and counsels.
Respect for rules and laws are an important part of family instruction, but more importantly is the emphasis that children need the laws of God written upon the fleshy tables of the heart. Our society needs more than just civil law to govern it. Our country needs more citizens who live by an inner law of God inscibed upon their conscience.
In our country one may be perfectly law abiding and still be disobedient to the Word of God. One may legally have an abortion, but to do so is in violation of God's respect for Life. Our children desperately need an experience where they choose to live according to a conscience that is dictated by the Word of God.
St. Paul must have been thinking of the wall within when he wrote, strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. "My little children, of whom I travail in birth until Christ be found in you." Christ indwelling in us IS the wall within.
Do our Children live our standards because they are forced to conform to a rule or is it something that they have in their heart?
We must strive to build up an inner wall to withstand the attacks of our own spiritual enemy!! We are no match for Santa in our own strength! We must be (and stay) full of the Spirit!!
Comentários