I’ve started reading a book about Rees Howells (who I’d never heard of before this book), and while I have some reservations about elements recounted in it, it is nonetheless a challenging book with some great quotes in it.
“You may live in a crowd but you meet God and face eternity alone” (page 24).
In his younger life, Howells almost died from Typhoid fever, and this led him to give himself to Christ. Afterwards, he recounted how he was grateful that he was alone; his parents were in Wales, while he was in America. He was pleased that there was not the sympathy of others around him to cloud his thinking and judgement – he recognized that when it comes down to ultimate reality, it is between us and God. We can surround ourselves with those who reinforce our beliefs or support us during our days, but at the end of it all, they won’t be there when we face our maker and any support or distractions they provide will be gone. We are individually responsible before God.
What Howells found when put through this difficult time was that although he was raised in a Christian home he found “that I only had an historical Christ, not a personal savior” (page 25). This is a great discovery to make, and one which many more Christians need to make. It is so very easy to be deceived when we are surrounded by Christains, raised by Christians and are taught by Christians, but we each need to know Christ personally. It is not enough to know about Him, nor is it enough to be intellectually convinced that He exists. We need to know Him, trust Him and believe Him, and we need Him to know us as His own.
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Rom 4:3). Abraham didn’t merely believe in God – he believed what God had said and lived accordingly. Conversely, Jesus said “On that day many will say to me: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matt 7:22-23). He also said “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me”.
Rees Howells moved from believing in God to believing God. But only when he got alone with God as he struggled for his life.
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