Dig Deep
Second in a Four-Part Series of Devotionals at Urbana 51by Northcote Deck
"In such a hurry, such a rush of life, you cannot go deep. You and I are not going to count for God in the years to come if we don't learn to first dig deep and then dwell deep."
I came across a most important sentence written by Samuel Rutherford, one of the great men of his generation. Speaking to young people as most of you are, he said, "Be sure that you dig deep." That came from a man who had great experience. "Be sure when you are about your foundation to dig deep.”
I am sure that student days are foundation days. They are days that will never be repeated, they are days when habits are being formed, and when our minds are more plastic than they are later on. I am quite sure that that is one of our great needs today - that we should, when we are about the foundation, dig deep.
I remember hearing of a graduate in Scotland, a brilliant man who passed with high honors in Greek and Hebrew. His first charge was a village of fishermen on the coast of Scotland, godly men and women who knew not one word of Greek. He wrote to an older minister and friend saying, "I seem to be in a dead end. Life seems to be passing me by. These people don't know anything about scholarship yet they know God."
The older friend wrote to him and said, "You thank God for those proud years following your graduation when you can learn
to know God as you couldn't in the rush and bustle of a city pastorate. And then he wrote this interesting sentence which I want you to write down too: "I have long learned that early popularity means early barrenness."
That again came from a man of wide experience. You may have a glib tongue, you may have the command of words, you may be able to wave your arms and conduct a chorus, and yet you may have very little knowledge of the Word of God. If so, you are starting out in life with very poor equipment. Early popularity may carry you off your feet. And then I think of what is brought out in the parable of the sower. When they hear the word they immediately receive it with gladness but have no root in themselves. They are not rooted and grounded in God. They have no root in themselves and so endure but for a time, and when friction or persecution arises for the Word's sake immediately they are offended.
I believe that can certainly be applied to believers and it is sadly and commonly true. As I look back on student days those that started out in the race for God with me years ago - how many fell by the wayside. How many were not rooted and grounded in the things of God.
Why is it that we are so superficial these days? Why is it that we are not so thorough as our fathers or grandfathers who had more time for God, who were mighty men of God. I think we have a common complaint of modern days which I found in Luke 4:38: "And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever." Galen, one of the early physicians of repute distinguished between a great fever which endangered life and a small fever which would come as a minor infection.
This you notice is a great fever, and this indeed is a feverish age. We have no time to be quiet. We have no time to be alone. We live in company almost entirely and this great feverishness characterizes the age we live in. If we are going to go so fast we can't go deep. In such a hurry, such a rush of life, you cannot go deep. You and I are not going to count for God in the years to come if we don't learn to first dig deep and then dwell deep.
I remember reading of a man on trek in Africa. He hired a number of carriers and with restless energy they traveled from daylight to dark for three long days. The fourth day the carriers refused to start. The traveler said, "Why don't you start? I've hired you, I am paying you." They said, "We can't start, we've got to wait. We have to wait for our souls to catch up with our bodies." You'd better write that down. That's one of your problems.
Now I believe we have to come as little children to find the Saviour. You needn't worry about brains at first. Except a man come as a little child he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. You can't think yourself into Christianity. As Job said, "canst thou by searching find out God?" And the answer is "no." We come in by faith. But having come in by faith, then we shall have to-do a great deal of thinking and pondering if we are really to know the principle with which God works with men and women.
We must learn to dwell deep. I'm quite sure this thing can be done. You'll get as much out of Christianity as you put into it. That's about all. But if you don't put much in, you won't get much out. And if you and I are going to be (as we can be so easily) so much with men, we really haven't time to be with God. We won't count. We've got the inverse ratio of things altogether. The early apostles said, "We will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word." They were not going to be hurried. They were going to put first things first. And, my friend, it can be done.
If our heart is in it we can do it. We can make the time. Of course it might mean going to bed a little earlier, unless you are studying. That's allowable, but if you are not studying, why waste so much time in conversation? What we need in America is some bright American who will invent a clock that at ten o'clock in the evening will sing out, "All hands ashore! Everyone go home! Let me get to bed so I can get up in the morning and have my quiet time with God." But we've got to make the time.
May I speak out of a little experience with God? I remember my student days - I had an awful struggle to get honors in medicine, but I gave God an hour every morning before breakfast in self defense, and I had no time like that hour in the morning. Nothing could take its place. I do urge you who are starting out to get properly equipped, founded and grounded on the Word that you may have something to give.
If you're going to be superficial, you'll soon be returned empty. You can't become disciples in the real sense of the word without time and pain and prayer and dead earnestness. We've got to make time and we can make the time. The old hymn is out of date for America, "Take time to be holy." It just must be made and it can be. While you're about your foundation this is the time to dig deep and then you'll be able to dwell deep.
Then, thank God, nothing, nothing in heaven or earth can move you away from your confidence. And you and I will have enough knowledge of the Word of God to pass on to somebody else: there's nothing I've seen that counts for God that's done without this Book of God. All this so-called superficial Christianity is so much froth. It doesn't stand the storm of life and won't stand the climate of a mission field. It won't stand the loneliness that you and I'll be called to go through sometimes. We've got to learn to be independent of everyone but God.
When you go away from here, you remember the man who came to the church door late. He said, "How far have they got? Is the sermon done yet?" And the man said, "Oh, no. The preacher's done. The sermon's got to be done." And when you leave here the sermon's got to be done. And you can be independent men when you learn to depend on God.
I remember as a medical student, going to a conference held on the grounds of my uncle's mountain home in Australia. There were lots of opportunities for teaching there by the best men available. I said, "I'm done with you men. I've got God. I'm going to go home just now. I'll come back to these meetings for more, but I want to work this out in my own life."
And that's true, when we find some of these principles of God's dealing with us, we're independent of men. We can go away and work it out. God says, "Work out your own salvation" to believers, as God works it in you. I do trust you will go away and learn to be independent of men and women and teachers. We need them. God gives them. But we've got to learn to depend on God alone and we can. Though we have the need and will have that need supplied by God's ministers we must learn to stand alone with God. Then only are we safe. Then we are on the Rock Christ Jesus.
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