The FaithFul of God

The FaithFul of God

My Dear Dr. Cole:
LETTER TWO BY MRS. MARJORIE
BOND
1505 Scotland Street
Calgary, Alberta
November 6, 1959
Dear Dr. Cole:
Do you think you can stand another letter from me? I shall try
not to be so verbose this time!
Your wonderful and most helpful letter came two weeks ago
tomorrow, so you can see it was in plenty of time for our
meeting last night. I was going to acknowledge it immediately;
then it occurred to me that if I waited till after the meeting, I
could “kill two birds with one stone”, so to speak–thank you for
the letter and report on the meeting as well.
I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate the time and
trouble you have taken to help a complete stranger–and yet,
perhaps, we are not such strangers after all, as we are related
through the bonds of the gospel. But you went to a great deal
of work, I am afraid, to answer my letter at such length and in
such detail and I appreciate it more than I can say. But above
all, I feel I owe you a debt of boundless gratitude for your
article on Election which sparked off my interest in it and
subsequent study of it. I feel as if a completely new world has
opened up to me; I get almost excited over it all, Dr. Cole. I do
hope it is not wrong to attach so much importance to it, but
somehow, I feel as if it is the most significant and personal
doctrine in the whole Bible. Nothing should eclipse the
Atonement I know; but I feel that even my conversion,
somehow, never made the impression on me that Election
has. When you have been brought up in a Christian family,
heard the Scriptures from childhood and been active in the
Church, there isn’t the marked cleavage, somehow, when one
becomes a Christian that there is if you have been turned
from a life of vice. Is it because we don’t feel, in the innermost
recesses of our being, that we need Christ as badly as the
other type does?
I don’t know; but I have often felt that I didn’t have the joy in
my Christian life that I should. It seemed stale and flat, so
often; one did things for the Lord from a sense of duty.
Sometimes I have even wondered if I were saved at all. Now
all that is changed. The very fact that my salvation is all of
grace–in the application of it as well as the provision of it–has
transformed everything for me. And I have you to thank for it.
Oh, how wonderful it must be to a minister to be so used of
God.
When I first read your pamphlet, in addition to all my other
objections to Election, I didn’t like the idea that (in a sense) I
had nothing to do with becoming a Christian. I had always
supposed that, with the Spirit’s help, I had had sense enough
and intelligence enough to recognize something worthwhile
and take it! It didn’t appeal to me at all to think that if I had
been elected, I really had nothing to do with my salvation at
all–even in the accepting of it. But now that is almost the best
part of it! It is humbling and breath-taking and frightening and
thrilling all at once. I just can’t get over it, Dr. Cole. To think
that all these years (I am 41), I have missed this tremendous
teaching and the thrill and joy of it.
It has made my salvation and conversion much more real and
personal. I have always envied people who spoke with such
joy of their conversion and felt that something had happened,
I never could. I couldn’t remember a time when I didn’t
believe, if you know what I mean. And it has worried me; I’ve
had a sneaking fear that maybe all I had was a head or credal
belief because I was brought up in a Christian home and
accepted that as I did other patterns of behaviour and thought.
I have prayed off and on for months that if I were saved the
Lord would make me realize it beyond all shadow of doubt
and give me “the joy of His salvation”. Not just a barren
orthodoxy.
Never did I dream of getting the “witness of the spirit” through
the doctrine of Election. I wouldn’t want the Lord to think I’m
not grateful for salvation. I am; but right now, I feel as if I’m
more grateful for Election. Is that wrong?
Over and over I keep saying to myself, like someone rescued
from a sinking vessel, when others are lost, “Why me? Why
me?”. When I wake up in the morning, I used to feel tired and
exhausted and wish I didn’t have to go to work (I am a war
widow); now, almost as soon as I am conscious, I have the
feeling that something new and exciting has happened–and
then it flashes across my mind in a wave of remembrance–
“you are elected” and I get so excited I am wide awake
instantly and ready to be up and doing.
I cannot explain it–but somehow as long as you feel that you
had the least little bit to do with your own conversion, it takes
away some of the thrill and bloom of it. But when the full
impact of the thought and realization hits you–that not only the
provision of salvation is due to God’s grace but also His
choice of you as recipient, one can only stand back and
marvel–lost in wonder, love and praise.
Now, I must tell you about last night. There were nearly 30
women out. Nothing that we have studied in the 7 or 8 years
that I have taught that class has so stirred them as this
Doctrine! They came with Bibles and pens…and objections! I
went all over it again very carefully, reminding them first that:
1. The depravity of man required it (election) elaborating on
your point that we are just deceiving ourselves if we think any
of us would ever want or seek God in our unregenerate state
apart from the Holy Spirit and election. (Gen. 6:5; Ps. 14:3;
Isa. 64:3; Rom. 3:10; Eph 2:1 –I had them look up and read

aloud these references).

“Only one life to live and soon is past
Only what’s done for Christ will last!”
Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.
Doctrine of Election By C.d. Cole Part 10

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