The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - Introductions

There is no place for bitterness in this life. The blessing of the Lord outweighs the curse. Though there is much in life that merits endless rant and destructive rage, the one response that befits the man of God is restrained silence. Not all can or will be resolved. Not everything will be right, even with God on one's side. In truth, strife is certain where God is involved. Nevertheless this life must be lived, the strife must be endured and hope must never die. After the dark of the night comes the light of the day. But the joy of the light cannot precede the misery of darkness.

My career is over. So I've been told. "What career?" I ask in response.  "And what did I lose along with it?  I realise that I have spurned the opportunity to achieve the goals of my education, and have thus forfeited the rewards that the fulfilment of those goals ensured. I have forsaken the visible world for the invisible Word. I have spurned the usual life for the unusual. I have wandered far into something completely unpromising.

And here I am found doing the unpromising thing, speaking unpopular words in an unpopular way. And I find a certain joy in this. What I do is indeed highly privileged.

There is much I needn't say and haven't said. There is much I needn't do and haven't done.  Yet, in what I have said and done is that which I haven’t said and done. May the perceptive discern what cannot be plainly seen and heard. The power of suggestion is like none other, and the beauty of this game lies in the blurring of definition.

"Who is your master?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?"
I was just asked these questions. And this is my response: If a man had a single master, then he will not be in conflict. If a man could believe in Jesus Christ without the slightest degree of doubt, then there will be no inner struggle between darkness and light. I am a child of conflict and struggle. Does that now make me a man who serves two masters or a disbeliever in Christ? My voice has spoken for the sake of the Divine One to magnify His glory in response to His command. I call Him my Lord Christ.

Will I appreciate the slowness of my progress?  Will I savour the pungent defeats that precede success? Will I befriend despair that comes along with hope? Will I acknowledge the devil’s place in the garden of God?

After I languish in despair, will I embrace hope? After I lament over my fall, will I rejoice in my rise? After I sleep with the devil, will I uphold my vow to the Lord?

The Lord Christ is my God. And I am His servant, who has been enabled to speak. My voice belongs to Him, and has been created by Him to express the thoughts that He inspires in my mind.

The Voice is the struggle to express my gratitude for the love of Christ that has transformed me from voicelessness to voice and from wordlessness to words.

I was not always a believer in Christ. There was a time when I did not believe in God. And then I became a man, a man of God and a man of Christ.

My Lord Christ has not had a slight impact on me. He often reduces me to tears and inarticulateness. At times He enables me to speak. On this occasion I believe He has enabled me to speak though not with my physical voice. My spiritual voice conveys my vision of the One who is my Lord and my God.

A believer in Christ, a servant of the Lord God, a student and teacher of life and a man on a journey to light - these labels hopefully describe the man that I am now, or if not hopefully describe the man that I will one day be.

You awakened me, turned my voicelessness to voice and my wordlessness to words. You turned my confusion to coherence and my cravenness to courage. You are my Lord God; you are my Christ. It is to you I belong. I did walk away from you. I am a prodigal son that squandered your wealth on worthless things. Now profligacy and depravity sicken me, so I return disfigured and diseased to you, the origin of the peace, the truth and the beauty that I seek. I return to you my sweet Lord. I raise my voice to you and for you. Bless the one whom you have made alive. Bless the one who speaks your words of life. Bless those who hear the voice and receive life.

For many years a soul has wandered in darkness in search of its origin, its Master, its God. The wait is now over, the darkness is now dispelled and the cloud is now lifted. The thirst is finally quenched and the hunger is filled. A voice forged in the furnace of the Lord is quickened with the fire of its Creator. The message will be spoken. And those appointed to hear will hear.

My journey from darkness to light continues to be conducted in public. As I walk further into the light of the Lord Christ, I give my love to all who come to me. May God enable me to do His will. May I glorify Him with all my heart.

 

To the Lord Who empowers,

Who makes the mediocre best,

Who crafts the ungainly into a work of beauty,

Who turns a heart of stone into a heart of flesh,

Who achieves sublimity from simplicity,

Who relentlessly pursues His lost son

And returns him to his innocence,

The voice presents himself,

Behold the work of your hands.

Can the Giver of my voice, Who compels me to speak, be ignored? Shall I walk without my Lord, Who is the breath of my voice, the reason for my speech and the purpose of my action? Can the servant be separated from his Master? No, never. So here I come with my Lord and my God, Jesus Christ. And blessed is the one who receives us.

A celebration of undeserved love,
An untrained use of the generous gifts
Of a loving God who answered
The crude prayer of a nameless child,
An unrehearsed answer to the Call
That cannot be denied,
And a feeble act of gratitude
For a love that cannot be priced
Have quickened this voice to speak.

To the One whom I did not believe in, and who stayed despite the rejection,
And who knew the desires of my heart and fulfilled them,
To the One who pursues me relentlessly, and who compels me to act,
To the One who placed in me a love for a language that is not my own,
And who nourished it through the tempestuous years,
To the One who gave me a voice and a reason to use it,
To the Origin of my noblest impulses, to Jesus
This feeble act of love is dedicated.

I, Samuel Godfrey George, have emerged as "The Voice" created by God for God. I am happily commanded to glorify the name of the Lord God Jesus Christ, the Son of the Almighty Jehovah. I am stirred by the Spirit of the Most High to present my readings of the Bible to a world that needs to hear the Word of God again and again. So here I come in Christ to convey His love through my voice. To those who hear it, I say, "May God bless you with eternal life. May He grant you His peace and His joy. May His perfect love cast out all your fears. And may you be more than conquerors in Him."

In chaos I emerge. In pain I speak. In ugliness I produce beauty. In darkness I use my gift. I toil in silence and wait in silence. I wait for a particular response.

Into my darkness came light. To my despair attached the glow of hope. In my vast barren fields sprouted the crop of sustenance. In my numb senseless flesh drummed the beat of endless life.

To whom do I speak? I speak to myself. What do I speak of? I speak of a war in the mind between two opposing forces. What opposing forces are these? These are the forces of the two eternal warriors, who are also known as God and the Devil. What is the purpose of my speech? My speech will attempt to extract meaning from chaos, sanity from insanity and purity from filth. For whose benefit do I speak? I speak purely for my own benefit. However what benefits me may also benefit another. What is the desired response? Silence is the desired response. In deafening silence this mental struggle will meet its end.

Lord, may I live to glorify your name;
May your children be guided to you through my work.
May the man in me be the one you want me to be;
May everything in my life be according to your will.

In the middle of life, and in the midst of experience,
Before the dawn of the day and before the end of the night,
Even as the new man is raised, and the old man is put to rest,
Two lives, two souls merge,
Light and darkness blend to create the voice that is heard.

Do you see the beauty within these walls?
'Tis the work of the Lord.
He sculpts the lifeless with love,
And breathes into breathless nostrils,
Making the dead alive so that the work may voice its joy.

If I could be a friend or a brother, a son or a father, a student or a teacher, let me be. Anything but a stranger I would rather be. Have I not walked this far, felt and said this much so that I may not always be locked within the walls of silence?

Now that the voice has been sent out, let the man follow. May his passage be free and without obstacle. As freely as the man and his voice are given they will be received.

May I live this day as if it were my last. May I take the opportunity to offer a smile to the one who needs it, and my voice to the one who is willing to hear it.