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11/30/2011
Grace Makes All the Difference
By Max Lucado
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8
If life is “because I have to”—where’s the joy in that?
Too often I hear folks rejecting Christ because they think the Christian life is all about rules and regulations—all about stifling, suffocating ritual.
It happens when we confuse Christ with legalism. Legalism is joyless because it’s endless. There is always another class to attend, another person to teach, another mouth to feed.
Grace! It makes all the difference. I like this quote:
Gone are the exertions of law-keeping, gone the disciplines of legalism, gone the anxiety that having done everything we might not have done enough. We reach the goal not by the stairs but by the lift . . . God pledges his promised righteousness to those who will stop trying to save themselves.
Grace offers rest. Legalism? Never.
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"In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Phil. ii. 3).
When the apostle speaks of "the deep things of God," he means more than deep spiritual truth. There must be something before this. There must be a deep soil and a thorough foundation.
Very much of our spiritual teaching fails, because the people to whom we give it are so shallow. Their dee...per nature has never been stirred.
The beatitudes begin at the bottom of things, the poor in spirit, the mourners, and the hungry hearts. Suffering is essential to profound spiritual life. We need not go to a monastery or a leper hospital to find it. The first real opportunity for unselfishness will bring into your life the anguish of crucifixion, unless you are born of some different race from Adam's.
It is because men and women have not faced this that they know so little of suffering and death. We must have deep convictions. Truth must be to us a necessity, and principle a part of our very being. Lord, make me poor in spirit. Lord help me to be even as Thou wert when on earth, always the lowest, and therefore "highly exalted."
A. B. Simpson
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Achieving the Victory
"For this our light and transitory burden of suffering is achieving for us a weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). (Weymouth)
"Is achieving for us," mark. The question is repeatedly asked--Why is the life of man drenched with so much blood, and blistered with so many tears? The answer is to be found in the word "achieving"; these things are achieving for u...s something precious. They are teaching us not only the way to victory, but better still the laws of victory. There is a compensation in every sorrow, and the sorrow is working out the compensation.
It is the cry of the dear old hymn:
"Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee,
E'en tho' it be a cross that raiseth me."
Joy sometimes needs pain to give it birth. Fanny Crosby could never have written her beautiful hymn, "I shall see Him face to face," were it not for the fact that she had never looked upon the green fields nor the evening sunset nor the kindly twinkle in her mother's eye. It was the loss of her own vision that helped her to gain her remarkable spiritual discernment.
It is the tree that suffers that is capable of polish. When the woodman wants some curved lines of beauty in the grain he cuts down some maple that has been gashed by the axe and twisted by the storm. In this way he secures the knots and the hardness that take the gloss.
It is comforting to know that sorrow tarries only for the night; it takes its leave in the morning. A thunderstorm is very brief when put alongside the long summer day. "Weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning." --Songs in the Night
"There is a peace that cometh after sorrow,
Of hope surrendered, not of hope fulfilled;
A peace that looketh not upon tomorrow,
But calmly on a tempest that it stilled.
"A peace that lives not now in joy's excesses,
Nor in the happy life of love secure;
But in the unerring strength the heart possesses,
Of conflicts won while learning to endure.
"A peace there is, in sacrifice secluded,
A life subdued, from will and passion free;
'Tis not the peace that over Eden brooded,
But that which triumphed in Gethsemane."
From Streams in the Desert
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"Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Hebrews 7:25
If the gracious Lord did not live to make intercession for us, he could hardly be said to save us to the uttermost. But as he ever lives at God's right hand and is ever interceding, ever presenting the perfume of his acceptable mediati...on, this gives us a certain pledge of his love, his pity, and his power. Is not this very encouraging to all who come unto God by him? and may we not say, "Such are we, O Lord; we do come, we daily come to thee by Jesus Christ?" And do we not need all the encouragement that God may give us out of it? for we often sink very low through temptation and trial and the manifold afflictions of the way.
How blessed, then, it is if you can only trace this mark of grace in your soul when others seem almost lost out of sight. If you know anything of internal work, you know this--whether you have come, whether you are coming to God by Jesus Christ. It is very simple, yet very expressive. Have you come as an outcast? Have you come as ready to perish? for these are expressly spoken of as coming in that day when the great trumpet is blown, the great and glorious trumpet of the gospel, for its jubilee notes are sounded specially for them. Have you come in faith? have you come in hope? have you come in love? and have you found any measure of acceptance and approbation in your own bosom? "Yes," say some, "with all my doubts, fears, and questioning, I can answer your question with an honest heart and a firm front, that I have come to God by Jesus Christ, and have felt the blessedness of so doing." Then you have known something or will know something about the uttermost; and the more you know about the uttermost, the more you will prize salvation by grace, the more you will cleave to the Son of God, the more you will hang upon his finished work, and the more you will look unto him who has so kindly said, "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else."
J. C. Philpot
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Responsibilities Over Rights
Galatians 5:13
You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another
Nothing will distort relationships faster than emphasizing our rights over our responsibilities. For example, a husband may chip at his wife because he feels he has a right to expect her to be submissive. A wife may nag her husband because she expects him to be the spiritual leader. Parents harass their children because they feel it's their right to demand obedience. Members are offended in the local church when they think their rights have been violated by pastors, boards or other members.
Any time people insist on their rights at the expense of failing to assume their responsibilities, they are going down to defeat. For example, a pregnant woman may demand her right for an abortion. She says it is her body and she can do whatever she wants with it. Then she proceeds to demonstrate her irresponsible use of her body to everyone! We don't have an abortion problem; we have an irresponsible sex problem.
In God's system, our focus is to be fulfilling our responsibilities, not insisting on our rights. Husband, having a submissive wife is not your right; but being a loving, caring husband is your responsibility. Headship is not a right to be demanded but an awesome responsiblity to be fulfilled.
Similarly, wives, having a spiritual husband is not your right; but being a submissive, supportive wife is your responsibility. Parents, raising obedient children is not your right; but disciplining your children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord is your responsibility. Being a member of the Body of Christ and of a local church is an incredible privilege, not a right. This privilege comes with the awesome responsibility to behave as God's children and become a lover of people. When we stand before Christ, He will not ask us if we received everything we had coming to us. But He will reward us for how well we fulfilled our responsiblities.
Prayer: Lord, help me relinquish my rights and focus on my responsibilities in all my relationships today.
Neil T. Anderson
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God Is in the Front Line
"The LORD, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed" (Deuteronomy 31:8).
In the presence of a great work or a great warfare, here is a text which should help us to buckle on our harness. If Jehovah Himself goes before us, it must be safe to follow. Who can obstruct our progress ...if the LORD Himself is in the van? Come, brother soldiers, let us make a prompt advance! Why do we hesitate to pass on to victory? Nor is the LORD before us only; He is with us. Above, beneath, around, within is the omnipotent, omnipresent One. In all time, even to eternity, He will be with us even as He has been. How this should nerve our arm! Dash at it boldly, ye soldiers of the cross, for the LORD of hosts is with us! Being before us and with us, He will never withdraw His help. He cannot fail in Himself, and He will not fail toward us. He will continue to help us according to our need, even to the end. As He cannot fail us, so He will not forsake us. He will always be both able and willing to grant us strength and succor till fighting days are gone. Let us not fear nor be dismayed; for the LORD of hosts will go down to the battle with us, will bear the brunt of the fight, and give us the victory.
Charles Spurgeon
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God Loves Us Enough to Change Us
Who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.
—Malachi 3:2
God uses His refining fire to change us and make us into the people He wants us to be. I realize that it isn't easy to change. I have been studying God's Word for more than thirty years, and I still have to work at many things and allow God to change me in certain ways.
I'm still not where I need to be, but I thank God I'm not where I used to be.
If we become stubborn or unwilling to repent when God's refining fire comes to reveal a behavior that needs to be changed in us, then love gets stubborn. Let me explain. We know that God is love, and He is a jealous God. He doesn't want anything in us to occupy the place that belongs to Him. And love, God Himself, will be jealous enough and stubborn enough to stick with us until He gets His way.
Love (God) will show us things we don't want to see in order to help us be what we need to be.
Fire devours all impurities and leaves all that remains ablaze for God's glory. A lot of the old Joyce Meyer has been burned up in God's refining fire over the years. It definitely has not been easy, but it definitely has been worth it.
God's refining fire may come to you in different ways. You may have a nudge in your heart to stop doing something and start doing something else; you may feel convicted as He speaks to you through His Word; or you may hear from His Spirit directly in your spirit.
However it comes, God will bring His refining fire to your life. When it comes, don't resist it, but trust God and let the fire work.
God's word for you today: God is changing you daily and today you are better than you were yesterday.
Joyce Meyer
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11/29/2011
Keep It Real
By Max Lucado
They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.
Matthew 6:5.
Don’t make a theater production out of your faith. Hypocrisy is a real turn-off.
When someone enters your church to see God, yet can’t see Him because of the church, don’t think for a second God doesn’t react. Jesus said, “Be especially careful when you’re trying to be good so you don’t make a performance out of it.”
Let’s take hypocrisy as seriously as God does!
Ask yourself, if no one knew of the good I do, would I still do it?
How about giving financial gifts in secret? Money can sure stir the phony within us!
If you raise your hands in church, raise holy ones, not showy ones. Nothing nauseates more than a fake “praise the Lord” or a shallow “Glory be to God.”
It all might be good theater—but the God who made you won’t be applauding!
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"Could ye not watch with Me one hour?" (Matt. xxvi. 40)
A young lady whose parents had died while she was an infant, had been kindly cared for by a dear friend of the family. Before she was old enough to know him, he went to Europe.
Regularly he wrote to her through all his years of absence, and never failed to send her money for all her wants. Finally word came that dur...ing a certain week he would return and visit her.
He did not fix the day or the hour. She received several invitations to take pleasant trips with her friends during that week. One of these was of so pleasant a nature that she could not resist accepting it. During her trip, he came, inquired as to her absence, and left.
Returning she found this note: "My life has been a struggle for you, might you not have waited one week for me?" More she never heard, and her life of plenty became one of want. Jesus has not fixed the day or hour of His return, but He has said, "Watch," and should He come to-day, would He find us absorbed in thoughtless dissipation? May we be found each day, in the expectant attitude of those watching for a loved one.
A. B. Simpson
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Show Love
"Put on as the elect of God, kindness" (Col. 3:12).
There is a story of an old man who carried a little can of oil with him everywhere he went, and if he passed through a door that squeaked, he poured a little oil on the hinges. If a gate was hard to open, he oiled the latch. And thus he passed through life lubricating all hard places and making it easier for th...ose who came after him.
People called him eccentric, queer, and cranky; but the old man went steadily on refilling his can of oil when it became empty, and oiled the hard places he found.
There are many lives that creak and grate harshly as they live day by day. Nothing goes right with them. They need lubricating with the oil of gladness, gentleness, or thoughtfulness. Have you your own can of oil with you? Be ready with your oil of helpfulness in the early morning to the one nearest you. It may lubricate the whole day for him. The oil, of good cheer to the downhearted one--Oh, how much it may mean! The word of courage to the despairing. Speak it.
Our lives touch others but once, perhaps, on the road of life; and then, mayhap, our ways diverge, never to meet again, The oil of kindness has worn the sharp, hard edges off of many a sin-hardened life and left it soft and pliable and ready for the redeeming grace of the Saviour.
A word spoken pleasantly is a large spot of sunshine on a sad heart. Therefore, "Give others the sunshine, tell Jesus the rest."
"We cannot know the grief
That men may borrow;
We cannot see the souls
Storm-swept by sorrow;
But love can shine upon the way
Today, tomorrow;
Let us be kind.
Upon the wheel of pain so many weary lives are broken,
We live in vain who give no tender token.
Let us be kind."
"Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love" (Rom. 12:10).
From Streams in the Desert
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If men will persist in violating God's law, in breaking through the hedge of thorns, and in pursuing their own wild ways, they cannot possibly expect the blessedness of the Beatitudes. However, their hatred against those who warn them is really directed towards God. They are indignant that they cannot have their way; their proud spirit would like to overturn the very order of the universe rather t...han that it should be thwarted. They cannot endure the contrast between God's children and themselves. Do not be surprised if the world hate you. It shows that you are no more of the world than your Master was. Jesus said: "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."
F. B. Meyer
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The Moral Beauty of Christ
Observe too, that to the very end Christ never lost that moral beauty. It did not pass away as the dew passes, under the burning heat of the high sun. I know few things in life more saddening than to meet again some comrade of our youth, and to discover how the years have marred the likeness which we cherished in our memory. As we remember him, in school or ...college, he was one of the most delightful of companions. There was a charm in him, a happy winsomeness, that made him a universal favorite. And now after the lapse of years we meet him again, it may be unexpectedly, and we discover, in an afternoon, that the years have robbed him of his best. He is no longer the happy-hearted comrade whom we remember in the golden days. He is irritable or heavy-hearted now, or he is worldly and cynical and bitter. Everybody called him winsome long ago; nobody could call him winsome now. He has gone out to his battle with the world, and the grim world has beaten him. My brother, Jesus Christ entered that battle, and for Him the struggle was terrific. And it grew fiercer every year He lived, till the last hour of agony and blood. And I shall tell you what convinces me that He came out victorious at the end: it is that on to the end He never lost the sweet and winsome beauty of the morning. No bitterness, even in the thick of it. No cynicism, even at the darkest. No cold suspicion of His brother man, though He knew man as he was never known. No forfeiting of deep and happy peace; no dimming of the mystic radiance, even when under the olives of Gethsemane the bloody sweat was dropping to the ground. With words of grace His ministry began, and there were words of grace upon the cross. With a deed of grace His ministry began, and there were deeds of grace in the resurrection garden. I want you to feel as you have never felt before the magnificent persistence of Christ's winsomeness, that you may be ashamed at what the years have been plundering from you.
George H. Morrison
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"O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock." Song of Solomon 2:14
Jesus is the hiding-place, the only hiding-place from sin and self. "Thou art my hiding-place," said David of old. This was shewn to Moses, in figure, when the Lord put him into the cleft of a rock, which Toplady has so beautifully versified, to paint the longing desires of his soul:
"Rock of Ages, cle...ft for me, Let me hide myself in thee!"
It is on this "Rock of Ages" that God has built his Church. As a rock, he is deep as well as high--so deep as to have under-bottomed the depths of the fall, so high as to be God's fellow, seated at his right hand. As a rock, too, he is broad as well as long--broad enough to bear millions of living stones built on him, and long enough to reach from eternity to eternity. The Apostle, therefore, prays that the Church at Ephesus may comprehend with all saints, "what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
J. C. Philpot
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The Sword Of The Spirit
Ephesians 6:17
And take... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
The Word of God is the only offensive weapon mentioned in the list of armor. Since Paul used rhema instead of logos for "word" in Ephesians 6:17, I believe Paul is referring to the spoken Word of God. We are to defend ourselves against the evil one by speaking aloud God's Word.
Why is it so important to speak God's Word in addition to believing it and thinking it? Because Satan is a created being, and he doesn't perfectly know what you're thinking. By observing you, he can pretty well tell what you are thinking, just as any student of human behavior can. And it isn't difficult for him to know what you're thinking if he put the thought in. But he doesn't know what you're going to do before you do it. He can put thoughts into your mind, and he will know whether you buy his lie by how you behave.
Satan can try to influence you by planting thoughts in your head, but he can't read your thoughts. If you're going to resist Satan, you must do so verbally so he can understand you and be put to flight.
You can communicate with God in your mind and spirit because He knows the thoughts and intents of your heart (Hebrews 4:12). Your unspoken communion with God is your private sanctuary; Satan cannot eavesdrop on you. But by the same token, if you only tell Satan with your thoughts to leave, he won't leave because he is under no obligation to obey your thoughts. You must defeat Satan by speaking out. The good news is that most direct attacks occur at night or when you are alone.
One night I woke up absolutely terrified for no apparent reason, and I knew it was an attack from Satan. Without lifting my head from the pillow, I applied the two-step remedy suggested in James 4:7. In the sanctuary of my heart, I submitted to God. Then I was able to resist Satan with one spoken word--Jesus--and the fear was instantly and totally gone. I went back to sleep in complete peace.
Prayer: Lord, give me courage to take my stand in this world and defeat Satan by speaking Your Word.
Neil T. Anderson
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Know How to Wait
"He that believeth shall not make haste" (Isaiah 28:16).
He shall make haste to keep the LORD's commandments; but he shall not make haste in any impatient or improper sense. He shall not haste to run away, for he shall not be overcome with the fear which causes panic. When others are flying hither and thither as if their wits had failed them, the believer shall be quiet, calm..., and deliberate, and so shall be able to act wisely in the hour of trial. He shall not haste in his expectations, craving his good things at once and on the spot, but he will wait God's time. Some are in a desperate hurry to have the bird in the hand, for they regard the LORD's promise as a bird in the bush, not likely to be theirs. Believers know how to wait. . He shall not haste by plunging into wrong or questionable action. Unbelief must be doing something, and thus it works its own undoing; but faith makes no more haste than good speed, and thus it is not forced to go back sorrowfully by the way which it followed heedlessly. How is it with me? Am I believing, and am I therefore keeping to the believer's peace, which is walking with God? Peace, fluttering spirit! Oh, rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him! Heart, see that thou do this at once!
Charles Spurgeon
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11/28/2011
Uninterrupted Awareness of God
By Max Lucado
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
I Thessalonians 15:16-18
Unceasing prayer may sound complicated, but it needn’t be that way.
Change your definition of prayer—less an activity and more as an awareness of God. Uninterrupted awareness.
In line at the grocery store you can be thinking, “Thank you, Lord, for being here.” Or, doing dishes, “I welcome your presence, Lord.”
Brother Lawrence was a monk who called himself the “lord of all pots and pans.” In his book The Practice of the Presence of God, he wrote:
“The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees.”
Besides, it makes more sense to talk to God than mumble to yourself.
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"Without Me ye can do nothing" (John xv. 5).
How much can I do for Christ? We are accustomed to say.--As much as I can. Have we ever thought we can do more than we can?
This thought was lately suggested by the remarks of a Christian friend, who told how God had laid it upon her heart to do something for His cause which was beyond her power, and when she dared to obey Him..., He gave her the assurance of His power and resources, and so marvelously met her faith that she was enabled to do more than she could otherwise, and accomplish her heart's desire, and see a work fulfilled to which her resources were unequal.
The apostle says, "I can do all things through Christ, who is my strength," and yet He says we are not able to think anything, as of ourselves.
Oh, blessed insufficiency! Oh, blessed All-Sufficiency! Oh, blessed nothingness, which brings us all things! Oh, blessed faith, whose rich dowry is, "All things are possible to him that believeth"!
O to be found of Him in peace,
Spotless and free from blame.
A. B. Simpson
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His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. 2 Chron. xvii. 6.
SURSUM corda! Lift up your hearts! How beautiful is this ejaculation in the Communion Service of the Church of England, and the response, "We lift them up unto the Lord." I never hear it without the thrill of a holy impulse passing through me. It is possible, and it is meet and right, to lift up our hearts from the sor...did cares and pressing responsibilities of daily life, into the calm, serene presence of God our Father.
Lift up your heart to God, as a child its face to be kissed. Lift it up free from mistrust and sinful stain, and unkind feeling towards any. Lift it up in holy joy and inspiration. Lift it up as a censer filled with the hot coals, from which sweet fragrance exhales. And God will bend down to lift it higher, and fill it with his peace and joy and purity.
In hours of depression look up, be lifted. Sursum corda! When the foe is pressing you most severely, look up, your redemption draweth nigh. When the river has to be crossed, when the last farewell must be said, when the flesh fails, let your mind and heart thither ascend, and there continually dwell where Jesus has entered as your Forerunner.
If you would lift up your heart, you must be in the ways of the Lord, as the good Jehoshaphat. You must seek the Lord God, and walk in his commandments. You must take away the high places and groves of idolatry and impurity. Beware of the world's birdlime! Shake yourself from the bands and bonds that would detain you. Oh, heart of mine, why is thy flight so low? Lift thyself up and sit down with Christ in the heavenly places! "Unto Thee, 0 Lord, do I lift up my soul. Let not mine enemies triumph over me!"
F. B. Meyer
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Open the Trenches
"Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hands" (2 Kings 3:16-18).
To human thinking it was simply impossible, but nothing is hard for God.
Without a sound or sign, from sources invisible and apparently impossible, the floods came stealing in all night long; and when the morning dawned, those ditches were flooded with the crystal waters, and reflecting the rays of the morning sun from the red hills of Edom.
Our unbelief is always wanting some outward sign. The religion of many is largely sensational, and they are not satisfied of its genuineness without manifestations, etc.; but the greatest triumph of faith is to be still and know that He is God.
The great victory of faith is to stand before some impassable Red Sea, and hear the Master say, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord," and "Go forward!" As we step out without any sign or sound--not a wave-splash--and wetting our very feet as we take the first step into its waters, still marching on we shall see the sea divide and the pathway open through the very midst of the waters.
If we have seen the miraculous workings of God in some marvelous case of healing or some extraordinary providential deliverance, I am sure the thing that has impressed us most has been the quietness with which it was all done, the absence of everything spectacular and sensational, and the utter sense of nothingness which came to us as we stood in the presence of this mighty God and felt how easy, it was for Him to do it all without the faintest effort on His part or the slightest help on ours.
It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey. The ditches were made, and the water came pouring in from some supernatural source. What a lesson for our faith!
Are you craving a spiritual blessing? Open the trenches, and God will fill them. And this, too, in the most unexpected places and in the most unexpected ways.
Oh, for that faith that can act by faith and not by sight, and expect God to work although we see no wind or rain. --A. B. Simpson
From Streams in the Desert
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"So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." Mark 16:19
The right hand of God means the right hand of power, of dominion, of authority, and of acceptance. When our blessed Lord went back to the courts of bliss, and the gates of heaven lifted up their heads, and the everlasting doors were lifted up, and the King of gl...ory went in, he sat down at once at the right hand of the Majesty on high. But what did this place of preeminence imply? It certified to principalities and powers, and the whole bright and glorious throng of angelic hosts, that God had accepted his work and given him for his reward that exalted place of power, of honour, and of dignity. For remember this, that our gracious Lord went up to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God in his human nature. He did not go up to heaven as he came down from heaven only as the Son of God. He went up to heaven as the Son of man as well as the Son of God. He went up to heaven in a human nature united to the divine, and therefore entered the courts of bliss as the God-man, Immanuel, God with us. It is a point of great importance, and to be ever borne in mind by every spiritual worshipper, and by every true believer in the Son of God, that our blessed Lord sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high in the same human body which he wore upon earth--glorified indeed beyond all thought or utterance, but the same pure, spotless, holy, and immortal humanity which he assumed in the womb of the Virgin, and which he offered as a sacrifice upon the cross. To this point the Apostle would specially direct our thoughts, and bring it before us as the object and food of our faith (Rom. 8:34). And what an object of faith it is, for, as viewing Jesus at the right hand of God, we see there a mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; we see an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; we see a brother, a friend, a husband enthroned in glory, there ever living, ever reigning, ever ruling, until God shall have put all enemies under his feet.
J. C. Philpot
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The Helmet Of Salvation
Ephesians 6:17
And take the helmet of salvation
The next necessary piece of spiritual armor is the helmet of salvation . Should your shield of faith be a little leaky and your daily victory elusive, be confident that the helmet of salvation guarantees your eternal victory. In the metaphor of armor, the helmet also secures coverage for the most critical part of your anatomy: your mind, where spiritual battles are either won or lost. As you struggle with the world, the flesh, and the devil on a daily basis, stand firm knowing that your salvation does not come and go with your success or failure in spiritual battle; your salvation is your eternal possession. You are a child of God, and nothing can separate you from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35).
People experiencing spiritual conflict tend to question their salvation or doubt their identity in Christ. Satan may disrupt your daily victory, but he can do nothing to disrupt your position in Christ. However, if he can get you to believe that you are not in Christ, you will live as though you are not, even though you are secure in Him.
The Christian warrior wears the helmet of salvation in the sense that he is the receiver and possessor of deliverance, clothed and armed in the victory of his Head, Jesus Christ. Satan is the ruler of this world, and the whole world is in his power (John 12:31; 1 John 5:19). Therefore we are still in his territory as long as we are present in our physical bodies. But since we are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, the devil has no legitimate claim on us, for Christ has "delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13). The helmet of our position in Christ assures us of ultimate victory over Satan.
Prayer: I love You, Father, and thank You that I am united with Christ and spiritually alive in Him.
Neil T. Anderson
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Doing what God Can Bless
"The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto" (Deuteronomy 28:8).
If we obey the LORD our God He will bless that which He gives us. Riches are no curse when blessed of the LORD. When men have more than they require for their immediate need and begin to lay up in storehouses, the dry rot of covetousness... or the blight of hard-heartedness is apt to follow the accumulation; but with God's blessing it is not so. Prudence arranges the saving, liberality directs the spending, gratitude maintains consecration, and praise sweetens enjoyment. It is a great mercy to have God's blessing in one's iron safe and on one's banking account. What a favor is made ours by the last clause! "The LORD shall bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand unto." We would not put our hand to anything upon which we dare not ask God's blessing, neither would we go about it without prayer and faith. But what a privilege to be able to look for the LORD's help in every enterprise! Some talk of a lucky man: the blessing of the LORD is better than luck. The patronage of the great is nothing to the favor of God. Self-reliance is all very well; but the LORD's blessing is infinitely more than all the fruit of talent, genius, or tact.
Charles Spurgeon
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Understanding Kingdom Authority
“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19
A police officer weighing 160 pounds may effectively stand before a tanker truck and with an uplifted hand say, “Stop, in the name of the law.” The police officer certainly couldn’t stop the truck with his phy...sical force. He is appealing to an authority greater than himself — the law — to back him up. Your authority over Satan is the same way. Your authority does not rest in your strength. You cannot overcome Satan with your power but rather with Kingdom Authority from God. And you have that as a child of the King. You have His authority to overcome every attack of Satan.
Sing of the power of the Lord. Find a hymnal and sing or meditate on the verses of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”
Adrian Rogers
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11/27/2011
God Knows Us By Name
By Max Lucado
The Lord is my shepherd;
I have everything I need.
Psalm 23:1
Sheep aren’t smart. They tend to wander into running creeks for water, then their wool grows heavy and they drown. They need a shepherd to lead them to “calm water” (Ps. 23:2). They have no natural defense—no claws, no horns, no fangs. They are helpless. Sheep need a shepherd with a “rod and … walking stick” (Ps. 23:4) to protect them. They have no sense of direction. They need someone to lead them “on paths that are right” (Ps. 23:3).
So do we. We, too, tend to be swept away by waters we should have avoided. We have no defense against the evil lion who prowls about seeking whom he might devour. We, too, get lost.
We need a shepherd. We need a shepherd to care for us and to guide us. And we have one. One who knows us by name.
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"And the remnant of the oil ... shall pour upon the head" (Lev. xiv. 18).
In the account of the healing of the Hebrew leper there is a beautiful picture of the touching of his ears, hands and feet, with the redeeming blood and the consecrating oil, as a sign that his powers of understanding, service, and conduct were set apart to God, and divinely endued for the Master's work and wil...l.
But after all this, we are significantly told that "the rest of the oil" was to be poured upon his head.
The former anointing was from the oil in the hand of the priest, but the latter was to be from the log, or vessel of oil itself. It was to be literally emptied over him, until he was bathed with all its contents.
It is a figure of the large and boundless baptism of the Holy Ghost. It speaks of something more even than the ordinary experiences of the consecrated Christian. It tells of the abundant and redundant supply which God has for us out of His illimitable fulness.
Have we received "the rest oil"? Are we filled with the Spirit, and letting the overflow bless others?
A. B. Simpson
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The Second Coming
"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. 3:11).
George Mueller bears this testimony, "When it pleased God in July, 1829, to reveal to my heart the truth of the personal return of the Lord Jesus, and to show me that I had made a great mistake in looking for the conversion of the world, the effect that it p...roduced upon me was this: From my inmost soul I was stirred up to feel compassion for perishing sinners, and for the slumbering world around me lying in the wicked one, and considered, 'Ought I not to do what I can for the Lord Jesus while He tarries, and to rouse a slumbering church?"'
There may be many hard years of hard work before the consummation, but the signs are to me so encouraging that I would not be unbelieving if I saw the wing of the apocalyptic angel spread for its last triumphal flight in this day's sunset; or if tomorrow morning the ocean cables should thrill us with the news that Christ the Lord had alighted on Mount Olivet or Mount Calvary to proclaim universal dominion. O you dead churches wake up! O Christ, descend! Scarred temple, take the crown! Bruised hand, take the sceptre! Wounded foot, step the throne! Thine is the kingdom. --Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.
"It may be in the evening,
When the work of the day is done,
And you have time to sit in the twilight,
And watch the sinking sun,
While the long bright day dies slowly
Over the sea,
And the hours grow quiet and holy
With thoughts of Me;
While you hear the village children
Passing along the street
Among those passing footsteps
May come the sound of My Feet.
Therefore I tell you, Watch!
By the light of the evening star
When the room is growing dusky
As the clouds afar,
Let the door be on the latch In your home,
For it may be through the gloaming
I will come."
From Streams in the Desert
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What an exquisite thought is suggested by the allusion to the eyes of the Lord running to and fro throughout the whole earth! At a glance He takes in our position; not a sorrow, trial, or temptation visits us without exciting his notice and loving sympathy. In all the whole wide earth there is not one spot so lonely, one heart so darkened, as to escape those eyes. Oh for the perfect confidence which will allow Him to act! It is for lack of this that we remain unhelped, and spend our days in the midst of wars and tumults.
F. B. Meyer
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No Shortcuts
Patience is needed in peculiar measure for all development of human character. "In your patience possess ye your souls"--your selves. Every man, that is, has a true self hidden amid the ruins of his nature. And as a mother from a burning homestead saves her child, so man must win his life. And the only way to do it is the long way, the long and tedious and patient way--in... your patience ye shall win your souls. Just as there are no shortcuts to heaven, so are there no shortcuts to character. If it takes long to grow a mustard seed, it will take longer still to grow a man. And therefore we have need of patience when we are tempted to what is swift and flashy; tempted to forget that of all lengthy ways there are none so lengthy as the ways of God. "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." It was the great temptation of Christ as He looked out upon His opening ministry. And then He chose the long and lowly way by the garden of Gethsemane and Calvary, and so came to His kingdom and His crown.
George H. Morrison
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"As willows by the water courses." Isaiah 44:4
The willow, we know, cannot exist without water; it must be near the brook or river, or it withers and dies. Take a young willow and plant it upon a mountain top or in the sandy desert, and it soon droops and perishes. But take the barest twig off the willow, and plant it near a stream, so that the water may reach it, and it will soon sh...oot downwards and push a vigorous stem upwards. So it is with the child of grace: he must live by the river side; he must dip his roots into that "river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God," and by it he must be continually bathed, or he droops and dies. He cannot live in the world, away from Jesus, his word, ordinances, house, people, presence, Spirit, and grace, any more than a willow can live upon the mountain top; he cannot live among carnal men, cut off from union and communion with his great and glorious Head, any more than the willow can thrive and grow in the wilderness. How beautifully is this set forth by the prophet Jeremiah--"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit" (Jer. 17:7, 8). The saints of God, then, grow like "willows by the water courses."
How enduring, too, is the willow. What life in every branch! and even when pollarded, or cut down low, still reviving "through the scent of water" (Job 14:9), and shooting out its branches afresh. May we not see in this a fitting emblem of the child of God, and admire how, like the willow, he preserves life and vigour when the nobler trees of the forest are blown down by the storm or are cut down for fuel?
J. C. Philpot
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The Shield Of Faith
Ephesians 6:16
Taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one
Paul mentions three more pieces of armor that we must take up to protect ourselves from Satan's attack: the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. The first three (the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace) are established by our position in Christ; these last three help us continue to win the battle.
Contrary to popular perception, there is nothing mystical about faith. Biblical faith is simply what you believe about God and His Word. The more you know about God and His Word, the more faith you will have. The less you know, the smaller your shield will be and the easier it will be for one of Satan's fiery darts to reach its target. If you want your shield of faith to grow large and protective, your knowledge of God and His Word must increase (Romans 10:17).
These flaming missiles from Satan are nothing more than smoldering lies, burning accusations, and fiery temptations bombarding our minds. When a deceptive thought, accusation, or temptation enters your mind, meet it head-on with what you know to be true about God and His Word. How did Jesus deflect the missiles of Satan's temptation? By shielding Himself with statements from the Word of God. Every time you memorize a Bible verse, listen to a sermon, or participate in a Bible study, you increase your knowledge of God and enlarge your shield of faith.
We all struggle with tempting and accusing thoughts. If you are a healthy and mature Christian, they will bounce right off your shield of faith.
Prayer: Lord, I raise up the shield of faith today and stand against tempting and accusing thoughts from the evil one.
Neil T. Anderson
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Rest in All Thy Goings
"And He said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (Exodus 33:14).
Precious promise! LORD, enable me to appropriate it as all my own. We must go at certain times from our abode, for here we have no continuing city. It often happens that when we feel most at home in a place, we are suddenly called away from it. Here is the antidote for this ill. The... LORD Himself will keep us company. His presence, which includes His favor, His fellowship, His care, and His power, shall be ever with us in every one of our marchings. This means far more than it says; for, in fact, it means all things. If we have God present with us, we have possession of heaven and earth. Go with me, LORD, and then command me where Thou wilt! But we hope to find a place of rest. The text promises it. We are to have rest of God's own giving, making, and preserving. His presence will cause us to rest even when we are on the march, yea, even in the midst of battle. Rest! Thrice blessed word. Can it ever be enjoyed by mortals? Yes, there is the promise, and by faith we plead it. Rest comes from the Comforter, from the Prince of Peace, and from the glorious Father who rested on the seventh day from all His works. To be with God is to rest in the most emphatic sense.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/26/2011
A Plea for Mercy
By Max Lucado
The Lord is not…willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 NKJV
What of those who die with no faith? My husband never prayed. My grandpa never worshiped. My mother never opened a Bible, much less her heart. What about the one who never believed?
How do we know he didn’t?
Who among us is privy to a person’s final thoughts? Who among us knows what transpires in those final moments? Are you sure no prayer was offered? Eternity can bend the proudest knees. Could a person stare into the yawning canyon of death without whispering a plea for mercy? And could our God, who is partial to the humble, resist it?
He couldn’t on Calvary. The confession of the thief on the cross was both a first and final one. But Christ heard it. Christ received it. Maybe you never heard your loved one confess Christ, but who’s to say Christ didn’t?
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"He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit" (John xv. 2).
One day we passed a garden. The gardener had finished his pruning, and the wounds of the knife and saw were beginning to heal, while the warm April sun was gently nourishing the stricken plant into fresh life and energy. We thought as we looked at that plant how cruel it would be to begin next week and cut it down again....
It would bleed to death. Now, the gardener's business is to revive and nourish into life. Its business is not to die, but to live. So, we thought, it is with the discipline of the soul. It, too, has its dying hour; but it must not be always dying. Rather reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Everlasting.
Breathe Thine own breath through all my mortal frame,
Help me Thy resurrection life to claim,
Which, 'mid all changes, still abides the same,
And lead me in the way Everlasting.
Give me the heavenly foretaste here, I pray;
Let faith foredate the everlasting day,
And walking in its glory all the way,
O, lead me in the way Everlasting!
A. B. Simpson
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Who is Leading?
"O Lord , I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jer. 10:23).
"Lead me in a plain path" (Ps. 27:14).
...
Many people want to direct God, instead of resigning themselves to be directed by Him; to show Him a way, instead of passively following where He leads. --Madame Guyon
I said: "Let me walk in the field";
God said: 'Nay, walk in the town";
I said: "There are no flowers there";
He said: "No flowers, but a crown."
I said: "But the sky is black,
There is nothing but noise and din";
But He wept as He sent me back,
"There is more," He said, "there is sin
I said: "But the air is thick,
And fogs are veiling the sun";
He answered: "Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone."
I said: "I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say";
He answered me, "Choose tonight,
If I am to miss you, or they."
I pleaded for time to be given;
He said: "Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in Heaven
To have, followed the steps of your Guide."
I cast one look at the fields,
Then set my face to the town;
He said: "My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?"
Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light Divine,
The path I had feared to see.
--George MacDonald
From Streams in the Desert
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They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers. 2 Chron. xv. 12.
WE hear but little talk in the present day of the covenant, the mention of which was dear to God's people of olden time. There is this difference between it and the covenants which we make with God. That is permanent, these evanescent. That is founded upon the oath and promise of God; these on the res...olutions and endeavours of man. That is full of promises of what God will be and do; these recount what we are prepared to sacrifice and suffer. And though we sign them with blood drawn from our veins, they will disappoint and fail.
Do not think too much of entering into and keeping a covenant with God; but remember that the Lord Jesus, on our behalf, has entered into covenant relation with the Father, and the Father with us in Him. This is the new covenant. It is drawn out at length in Hebrews viii. Very little is said about our side, but it is full to overflowing of God's. Nothing is said of our fidelity to our obligations, because man has been too often weighed in the balances and found wanting; and because the Lord Jesus Christ, as our representative, has already fulfilled all the conditions of obedience and devotion on which its provisions depend. He has also graciously undertaken to realize those conditions by the Holy Spirit in us.
Every time we put to our lips the cup of the new covenant, we humbly remind God of all He has promised, and ask Him to do as He has said. At the same time we may confidently ask the great Surety of the covenant to accomplish in us such a mind as may love and keep our Father's law. And what He did for our fathers, who were naturally just such as we are, He will certainly do for us.
F. B. Meyer
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"Create within me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." That is not the crying of despair nor of the soul that has forfeited the everlasting mercy: it is the eternal crying of the human conscience that has been irradiated by the light of God. My brother and sister, if God has so come to you,... He will never leave you nor forsake you. He has a purpose of peace towards your soul that has been destined from the bosom of eternity. He has begun His saving work in you which only awaits the fullness of response to result in the blessedness of power and in the rest and liberty of heaven.
George H. Morrison
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Don't Stay Angry
Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not yourself—it tends only to evildoing.
—Psalm 37:8
The Word tells us another way to resist temptation: When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down. Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him] (Ephesians 4:26–27).
Paul said that we should forgive people to keep Satan from gaining an advantage over us (see 2 Corinthians 2:10–11). If someone offends you, get over it quickly so you won't leave open a door for the devil.
It is a sin to hold anger and bitterness, so never go to sleep mad. If you forgive everyone before you fall asleep, freedom from wrong attitudes in your heart will help you start your day right the next morning.
Joyce Meyer
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The Shoes Of Peace
Ephesians 6:15
Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace
The next piece of armor is the shoes of peace . When you receive Christ, you are united with the Prince of Peace. You have peace with God right now (Romans 5:1), but the peace of Christ must also rule in your heart if you are going to live victoriously, and that is possible only when you let the Word of Christ richly dwell in you (Colossians 3:15, 16).
The shoes of peace become protection against the divisive schemes of the devil when you act as a peacemaker among believers (Romans 14:19). Peacemakers bring people together by promoting fellowship and reconciliation. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9). Anyone can divide a fellowship, but it takes the grace of God to unite us in Him.
Too many Christians insist on common doctrine as the basis for fellowship. They reason that if we don't think the same and believe the same, there is no basis for peace. But common doctrine isn't the basis for fellowship; common heritage is. We're all children of God. If you wait to fellowship with someone until you agree perfectly on every point of doctrine, you'll be the loneliest Christian on earth. Instead of insisting on the unity of the mind, preserve the unity of the Spirit by taking the initiative to be the peacemaker in your relationships (Ephesians 4:3).
Some people like to play the devil's advocate in their relationships and churches. I ask, Why? He doesn't need any help! In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed, "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me" (John 17:23). We have the promise that "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Romans 16:20). Ask God to use you to bring unity to your relationships by making you a peacemaker.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, use me today to bring unity to Your family. Enable me to be a peacemaker.
Neil T. Anderson
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Heavenly Alchemy
"Your sorrow shall be turned into joy" (John 16:20).
Their particular sorrow was the death and absence of their LORD, and it was turned into joy when He rose from the dead and showed Himself in their midst. All the sorrows of saints shall be thus transmuted, even the worst of them, which look as if they must forever remain fountains of bitterness. Then the more sorrow, the mo...re joy. If we have loads of sorrow, then the LORD's power will turn them into tons of joy. Then the bitterer the trouble the sweeter the pleasure: the swinging of the pendulum far to the left will cause it to go all the farther to the right. The remembrance of the grief shall heighten the flavor of the delight: we shall set the one in contrast with the other, and the brilliance of the diamond shall be the more clearly seen because of the black foil behind it. Come, my heart, cheer up! In a little while I shall be as glad as I am now gloomy. Jesus tells me that by a heavenly alchemy my sorrow shall be turned into joy. I do not see how it is to be, but I believe it, and I begin to sing by way of anticipation. This depression of spirit is not for long; I shall soon be up among the happy ones who praise the LORD day and night, and there I shall sing of the mercy which delivered me out of great afflictions.
Charles Spurgeon
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The Cleansing, Healing Work of the Holy Spirit
“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise.” Jeremiah 17:14
There are two kinds of wounds to the human psyche. One is sorrow; the other is guilt. Sorrow is a clean wound. Somehow your heart will heal as the Holy Spirit applies His healing balm. He will pour in “the oil of gladness.” Time and the gr...ace of God will heal. But guilt is dirty and will never heal until it is confessed and cleansed by the antiseptic of Calvary. A slave only fears his master’s whip, but a son fears his father’s displeasure.
Are you suffering under a load of guilt? Allow the Holy Spirit to expose your sin. Then confess it and experience the joy of forgiveness in Christ.
Adrian Rogers
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11/25/2011
God Heals
By Max Lucado
We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. Romans 8:28
Prayer isn’t what heals us. God heals, not prayer. A matter of semantics? No. If you think the power is in the prayer and not the One who hears the prayer, you fault the pray-er for unanswered prayer. If I had prayed more, better, differently. It’s a depressing cycle.
Don’t assume that the faithful will never suffer.
Remember that Peter was in a storm before he walked on water. Lazarus was in a grave before he came out of it. In Matthew 26:39, Jesus himself prayed to be delivered from earthly pain.
Please don’t interpret the presence of your disease as the absence of God’s love. I pray he heals you. And he will, ultimately.
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"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come" (I. Cor. iv. 5).
Nothing will more effectually arrest the working of the Spirit in the heart than the spirit of criticism.
At the end of a meeting a young minister came forward and told us of the great blessing he had received that afternoon, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that had come into his heart and being, se...tting him free from the bondage of years.
And then he added, "It all came through your answer to that question, 'Will a criticizing spirit hinder the Holy Ghost from filling the heart?' "
As the question was asked and answered, he said, "I was sitting in the church criticizing a good deal that was going on, objecting to this thing and to that thing, finding fault with the expressions, and praises and testimonies, and feeling thoroughly unhappy.
The Lord brought the answer home to my heart and convicted me of my sin, and there and then I laid it down and began to see the good instead of the evil. Blessing fell upon me and my soul was filled with joy and praise, and I saw where my error lay, that for years I had been trying to see the truth with my head instead of my heart."
A. B. Simpson
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Set Apart
"He went up into a mountain apart" (Matt. 14:23).
One of the blessings of the old-time Sabbath was its calm, its restfulness, its holy peace. There is a strange strength conceived in solitude. Crows go in flocks and wolves in packs, but the lion and the eagle are solitaires.
Strength is not in bluster and noise. Strength is in quietness. The lake must be calm if the heavens are to be reflected on its surface. Our Lord loved the people, but how often we read of His going away from them for a brief season. He tried every little while to withdraw from the crowd. He was always stealing away at evening to the hills. Most of His ministry was carried on in the towns and cities by the seashore, but He loved the hills the best, and oftentimes when night fell He would plunge into their peaceful depths.
The one thing needed above all others today is that we shall go apart with our Lord, and sit at His feet in the sacred privacy of His blessed presence. Oh, for the lost art of meditation! Oh, for the culture of the secret place! Oh, for the tonic of waiting upon God! --Selected
"It is well to live in the valley sweet, Where the work of the world is done, Where the reapers sing in the fields of wheat, As they toil till the set of sun. But beyond the meadows, the hills I see Where the noises of traffic cease, And I follow a Voice that calleth to me From the hilltop regions of peace.
"Aye, to live is sweet in the valley fair, And to toil till the set of sun; But my spirit yearns for the hilltop's air When the day and its work are done. For a Presence breathes o'er the silent hills, And its sweetness is living yet; The same deep calm all the hillside fills, As breathed over Olivet."
"Every life that would be strong must have its Holy of Holies into which only God enters."
From Streams in the Desert
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It may be that your difficulties have been allowed to come to so alarming a pitch that you may be compelled to renounce all creature aid, to which in lesser trials you have had recourse, and cast yourself back on your Almighty Friend.
F. B. Meyer
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"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace." Romans 14:19
What a sweetness is contained in the word "peace." Bunyan well represents this in his Pilgrim's Progress, where he speaks of Christian, after having been entertained in the "house Beautiful," going to sleep in the chamber called "Peace." And what blessed sensations are couched in that word "Peace!" It was t...he legacy that Jesus left to his Church. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you;" and the Apostle says of it that it "passeth all understanding." Now many even of the Lord's people seem as if they wanted and were expecting raptures. There is, I believe, a vast deal of enthusiasm in the natural mind of man, as is evident from what I may call its religious history in all ages; and this leads many who, in other points, seem rightly taught to look for wonderful visions, ecstasies, and raptures, things which nature can imitate, or Satan, as an "angel of light," counterfeit to delude souls. But I believe Satan cannot speak gospel peace to the conscience; he cannot bring a holy calm into the soul. He could lash the waters of Gennesareth into a storm; but there was only One who could say to them, "Peace, be still." Satan may raise up a storm in our carnal mind, but he cannot allay it; he cannot pour oil upon the waves; nor calm the troubled breast, and enable it to rest upon God. Of all spiritual blessings, none seem preferable to peace; and I believe that it is what a child of God covets more than anything. For, O how much is implied in the word "peace!" Is not man by nature an enemy to God? Then to be saved he must be reconciled; and that implies peace. Is not his heart often troubled, as the Lord said, "Let not your heart be troubled?" Then he wants peace. And is not his mind often agitated and tossed up and down by conflicting emotions? Then he wants peace to calm it. And when he has to lie upon his dying bed, O, if he can but lie there in peace, peace with God through Jesus Christ, and a holy calm comes over his soul, flowing out of manifested mercy and felt reconciliation, it will beat all the raptures in the world! To be blessed with peace, through the blood of sprinkling, before the soul glides out of its earthly tabernacle to enter into the haven of peace above--this indeed will make a death-bed happy, this will extract every thorn from the dying pillow, and enable the departing believer to say, with holy Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."
J. C. Philpot
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The Breastplate Of Rightousness
Ephesians 6:14
Having put on the breastplate of righteousness . . .
The second piece of armor God has provided for us is the breastplate of righteousness . When you put on Christ at salvation, you are justified before our holy God. It's not your righteousness but Christ's (1 Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 3:8, 9). So when Satan aims an arrow at you by saying, "You're not good enough to be a Christian," you can respond with Paul, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies" (Romans 8:33). Your righteousness in Christ is your protection against Satan's accusations.
Even though we rejoice in our position of righteousness in Christ, we are well aware of our deeds of unrighteousness when we think, say, or do something apart from God. Standing firm in our righteousness requires us to live in continuous agreement with God according to 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Confession is different from saying "I'm sorry" or asking forgiveness. To confess ( homologeo ) means to acknowledge or to agree. You confess your sin when you say what God says about it: "I entertained a lustful thought and that's a sin"; "I treated my spouse unkindly this morning and that was wrong"; "Pride motivated me to seek that board position and pride doesn't belong in my life."
Satan will make confession as difficult for you as he can. He will try to convince you that it's too late for confession, that God has already erased your name out of the book of life. That's another one of his lies. You're in Christ; you're already forgiven. You are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), and He will never leave you. Your confession of sin clears the way for the fruitful expression of righteousness in your daily life. We should be like Paul, who said, "I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men" (Acts 24:16).
Prayer: Lord, I put on the breastplate of righteousness today and seek to maintain a blameless conscience before You and the people around me.
Neil T. Anderson
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Mountains Turned to Plains
"Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it" (Zechariah 4:7).
At this hour a mountain of difficulty, distress, or necessity may be in our way, and natural reason sees no path over it, or through it, or round it. Let faith come in, and straigh...tway the mountain disappears and becomes a plain. But faith must first hear the word of the LORD--"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts." This grand truth is a prime necessity for meeting the insurmountable trials of life. I see that I can do nothing and that all reliance on man is vanity. "Not by might." I see that no visible means can be relied on, but the force is in the invisible Spirit. God alone must work, and men and means must be nothing accounted of. If it be so that the Almighty God takes up the concerns of His people, then great mountains are nothing. He can remove worlds as boys toss balls about or drive them with their foot. This power He can lend to me. If the LORD bids me move an Alp I can do it through His name. It may be a great mountain, but even before my feebleness it shall become a plain; for the LORD hath said it. What can I be afraid of with God on my side?
Charles Spurgeon
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The Real Enemy
But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good.
—Romans 12:20-21
Placing blame is a problem, but placing blame in the wrong place is even worse. The Bible says our warfare is with the devil, not with people (Ephesians 6:12). We desire revenge when people hurt us, but if the devil is really the one behind all of our pain, how can we get him back?
The Bible also states we overcome evil with good. Satan is evil, and the way to get back at him is to aggressively be good to everyone we meet, including our enemies. It is not natural to pray for one's enemies or to bless them. It is not the response the devil expects or hopes for.
When we do become angry and bitter, we play right into his hands. We open a door for him to walk through and allow him to gain access to many areas of our lives through an unforgiving attitude. Our joy is adversely affected, as is our health, our peace, our prayer life, our sleep habits, our confidence, etc.
Unity and agreement produce power, so it stands to reason that disagreement and disunity produce powerlessness.
Lord, I need to see the real enemy who's behind the evil that comes my way. Help me to overcome it by doing good to others, even to those whom I perceive to be my enemies. Amen.
Joyce Meyer
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11/24/2011
He Became the Servant
By Max Lucado
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5
Jesus understood what it meant to be a servant.
Jesus dined out a few times in the Bible. What did he do?
At the feedings of the four and five thousand, Jesus played chef and asked the disciples to be the waiters. With the apostles at Passover, he played host and washed their feet. The host became the servant.
So how would Jesus treat a waiter?
He would be encouraging—to help him endure the struggles of his job. He’d give him a spoken word or an invitation to hear more. He’d offer forgiveness despite the mismatched orders and dirty spoon.
And I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be any hesitation to say “thanks” through a satisfactory gratuity of 15-20 percent.
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"I can do all things through Christ" (Phil. iv. 13).
A dear sister said one day: "I have so much work to do that I have not time to get strength to do it by waiting on the Lord." Surely that was making bricks without straw, and even if it was the name of the Lord and the church, it was the devil's bondage.
God sends not His servants on their own charges; but "He is able ...to make all grace abound towards us, that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work." The old story of the chieftain, fleeing from his foes and almost overtaken, but stopping in the midst of his flight to get a shoe upon his horse that he might fly more successfully is a true type and lesson for Christian workers.
The old Latin motto festina lente, "make haste slowly," has a great lesson for us. The more work we have to do, the more frequently we have to drop our head upon our desk and wait a little for heavenly aid and love, and then press on with new strength. One hour baptized in the love of the Holy Ghost is worth ten battling against wind and tide without the heavenly life.
A. B. Simpson
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Wait on God's Time
"Sarah bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him" (Gen. 21:2).
The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations" (Psalm 33:11). But we must be prepared to wait God's time. God has His set times. It is not for us to know them; indeed, we cannot know them; we must wait for them....
If God had told Abraham in Haran that he must wait for thirty years until he pressed the promised child to his bosom, his heart would have failed him. So, in gracious love, the length of the weary years was hidden, and only as they were nearly spent, and there were only a few more months to wait, God told him that "according to the time of life, Sarah shall have a son." (Gen. 18:14.)
The set time came at last; and then the laughter that filled the patriarch's home made the aged pair forget the long and weary vigil.
Take heart, waiting one, thou waitest for One who cannot disappoint thee; and who will not be five minutes behind the appointed moment: ere long "your sorrow shall be turned into joy."
Ah, happy soul, when God makes thee laugh! Then sorrow and crying shall flee away forever, as darkness before the dawn. --Selected
It is not for us who are passengers, to meddle with the chart and with the compass. Let that all-skilled Pilot alone with His own work. --Hall
"Some things cannot be done in a day. God does not make a sunset glory in a moment, but for days may be massing the mist out of which He builds His palaces beautiful in the west."
"Some glorious morn--but when? Ah, who shall say?
The steepest mountain will become a plain,
And the parched land be satisfied with rain.
The gates of brass all broken; iron bars,
Transfigured, form a ladder to the stars.
Rough places plain, and crooked ways all straight,
For him who with a patient heart can wait.
These things shall be on God's appointed day:
It may not be tomorrow--yet it may."
From Streams in the Desert
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Our enemies may shut us in on all sides, preventing reinforcements from north, south, east, and west; but no earthly power can ever shut off God from above us. The way upwards is always kept clear; the ladder which links the beleaguered soul with God and heaven can never be blocked, except by transgression and sin.
The Priest is always with thee, child of God. His help is always at ha...nd. Neither death, nor life, nor height, nor depth, nor principalities, nor powers, can ever separate thee from the down coming of God's love.
The battle is often before and behind. From behind come memories of past failure, the consequences of mistakes, the misunderstandings which have alienated us from others, and made it difficult for us to live as we would; on the other hand perplexities and anxieties seem to bar our future path. But when the battle is before and behind, remember that God besets his people behind and before, and covers them with his hand. The invisible film of his protection makes the soul invulnerable. The life that is hid with Christ in God is beyond the reach of harm.
F. B. Meyer
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"And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Luke 10:18
It deserves our utmost attention and prayerful consideration to see, by the eye of faith, the display of wisdom and power shining forth in the way in which the all-wise God sent his dear Son "to destroy" or, as the word is in the original, to unloose "the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Satan had, so ...to speak, spun a ravelled knot when he cast the cords of sin round man's heart. This tangled and tight-drawn knot could not be cut through as by a sword of omnipotent power; but had by infinite wisdom and patience to be unravelled through its whole length. The work which Satan had done was to be undone. Disobedience had to be repaired by obedience--the voluntary obedience of the Son of God, and therefore of infinite value. Sin had to be atoned for by sacrifice--the sacrifice of the nature which had sinned, in union with the Person of the Son of God, and therefore deriving from it unspeakable efficacy. Death had to be destroyed by the ever-living Son of God submitting to die. The law must be magnified by being obeyed by him who by his divine Person is above law. The Law-giver must be the Law-fulfiller. He who is the ever-blessed One must be made a curse; and the holy One of Israel, who knew no sin, must be "made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." "Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle?" asked the Lord "I would go through them," is his answer (Isa. 27:4). So our blessed Lord went through these thorns and briers set against him in battle. He thoroughly went through all that he undertook; and by going through unravelled the work of Satan.
J. C. Philpot
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The Belt Of Truth
Ephesians 6:14
Having girded your loins with truth
The first piece of armor for the Christian warrior is the belt of truth . Jesus said, "I am . . . the truth" (John 14:6). And because Christ is in you, the truth is in you. However, continuing to choose truth is not always easy. Since Satan's primary weapon is the lie, your belt of truth (which holds the other pieces of body armor in place) is continually being attacked. If he can disable you in the area of truth, you become as easy target for his other attacks.
You stand firm in the truth by relating everything you do to the truth of God's Word. If a thought comes to mind which is not in harmony with God's truth, dismiss it. If an opportunity comes along to say or do something which compromises or conflicts with truth, avoid it. Adopt a simple rule of behavior: If it's the truth, I'm in; if it's not the truth, count me out.
When you learn to live in the truth on a daily basis, you will grow to love the truth because you have nothing to hide. You never have to cover up to God or anyone else; everything you do is in the light. Furthermore, when you live in the truth you dislodge the lies of Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44). Remember that if Satan can deceive you into believing a lie, he can control your life.
Jesus prayed, "I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). How? "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth" (verse 17). You will only dislodge Satan's lies in the light of God's revelation, and not by human reasoning or research.
The only thing a Christian ever has to admit to is the truth. Walking in the light and speaking the truth in love may seem threatening to some. But in reality truth is a liberating friend and the only path to fellowship with God.
Prayer: Forgive me, Lord, for entertaining lies and walking in darkness. Give me courage to face the truth and to speak the truth in love.
Neil T. Anderson
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Pardon and Forgiveness
"He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever" (Psalm 103:9).
He will chide sometimes, or He would not be a wise Father for such poor, erring children as we are. His chiding is very painful to those who are true, because they feel how sadly they deserve it and how wrong it is on their part to grieve Him. We know what this chiding means, and we bow b...efore the LORD, mourning that we should cause Him to be angry with us. But what a comfort we find in these lines! "Not always" will He chide. If we repent and turn to Him with hearts broken for sin and broken from sin, He will smile upon us at once. It is no pleasure to Him to turn a frowning face toward those whom He loves with all His heart: it is His joy that our joy should be full. Come, let us seek His face. There is no reason for despair, nor even for despondency. Let us love a chiding God, and before long we shall sing, "Thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me." Be gone, ye dark forebodings, ye ravens of the soul! Come in, ye humble hopes and grateful memories, ye doves of the heart! He who pardoned us long ago as a judge will again forgive us as a father, and we shall rejoice in His sweet, unchanging love.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/23/2011
A Guide in the Storm
By Max Lucado
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Prov. 14:12
NKJV
Don’t make a decision in a storm that you wouldn’t make in calm weather.
I have a friend who recently learned to fly. His teacher wanted to train him to trust the instrument panel because storms and fog can distort the pilot’s judgment. She may think she’s flying safely when actually the plane is descending toward the earth. It can have devastating consequences.
The same happens to us. Circumstances and struggles bounce us around. Our perspective gets distorted and our equilibrium gets out of whack. Do we cheat? Or stay honest? Do we compromise? Or take a stand?
Can we trust our instincts in the storm? The Bible says we can’t. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12 NKJV).
We need an outside force. A guide that is unaffected by storms.
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"It is high time to awake out of sleep" (Rom. xiii. 11).
One of the greatest enemies to faith is indolence. It is much easier to lie and suffer than to rise and overcome; much easier to go to sleep on a snowbank and never wake again, than to rouse one's self and shake off the lethargy and overcome the stupor. Faith is an energetic art; prayer is intense labor; the effectual working p...rayer of the righteous man availeth much.
Satan tries to put us to sleep, as he did the disciples in the garden; but let us not sleep as do others, but let us wake and be sober, continuing in prayer and watching therein with all perseverance, stirring up ourselves to take hold of His strength, "not slothful, but followers of them, who, through patience, inherit the promise." It is the wind that carries the ship across the waves; but the wind is powerless unless the hand of the boatman is held firmly upon the rudder, and that rudder is set hard against the wind.
In like manner we hold the rudder, God fills the sails. It is not the rudder that carries the ship; but it is the rudder which catches the wind that carries the ship, so God keeps us in perfect peace while we are stayed upon Him.
A. B. Simpson
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At Wit's End
"At their wit's end, they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out" (Ps. 107:27, 28).
Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner,"
... Christian, with troubled brow?
Are you thinking of what is before you,
And all you are bearing now?
Does all the world seem against you,
And you in the battle alone?
Remember--at "Wit's End Corner"
Is just where God's power is shown.
Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner,"
Blinded with wearying pain,
Feeling you cannot endure it,
You cannot bear the strain,
Bruised through the constant suffering,
Dizzy, and dazed, and numb?
Remember--at "Wit's End Corner"
Is where Jesus loves to come.
Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner"?
Your work before you spread,
All lying begun, unfinished,
And pressing on heart and head,
Longing for strength to do it,
Stretching out trembling hands?
Remember--at. "Wit's End Corner"
The Burden-bearer stands.
Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner"?
Then you're just in the very spot
To learn the wondrous resources
Of Him who faileth not:
No doubt to a brighter pathway
Your footsteps will soon be moved,
But only at "Wit's End Corner"
Is the "God who is able" proved.
--Antoinette Wilson
Do not get discouraged; it may be the last key in the bunch that opens the door. Stansifer
Form Streams in the Desert
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Oh to say with David, "My heart is fixed, 0 God, my heart is fixed"! But this steadfastness is one of those preparations of the heart which can only be obtained through the gracious indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Hence we pray with David, "Renew a steadfast spirit within me." And while we pray, we must never forget our Lord's command to watch also.
F. B. Meyer
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The Full Armor Of God
Ephesians 6:13
Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm
A primary element in our protection from Satan and evil is the armor that God has provided for us and instructed us to put on in Ephesians 6:13-17. When we put on the armor of God, we are really putting on Christ (Romans 13:12-14). And when we put on Christ, we take ourselves out of the realm of the flesh, where we are vulnerable to attack, and we place ourselves within the dominion of Christ, where the evil one cannot touch us. Satan has nothing in Christ (John 14:30), and to the extent that we put on Christ, the evil one cannot touch us (1 John 5:18). He can only touch that which is on his own level. That's why we are commanded, "Make no provision for the flesh" (Romans 13:14), meaning "Don't live on Satan's level."
It would appear from the verb tenses in Ephesians 6;14, 15, that three of the pieces of armor--belt, breastplate and shoes--are already on you: "having girded . . ."; "having put on . . ."; having shod. . . ." These pieces of armor represent the elements of your protection made possible when you receive Jesus Christ and in which you are commanded to stand firm. The Greek tense of "having" signifies that the action it refers to was completed before we were commanded to stand firm. That's the logical way a soldier would prepare for action: He would put on his belt, breastplate and shoes before attempting to stand firm. Likewise, we are to put on the full armor of God after having already put on Christ.
When you read through Ephesians 6:10-20, you will notice the emphasis on the active part we must play on behalf of our own spiritual defense: "be strong" (verse 10); "put on" and "stand firm" (verse 11); "take up," "be able," "resist," and "stand firm" (verse 13); "stand firm" (verse 14); "taking up" (verse 16); "take" (verse 17)' "pray at all times" and "be on the alert" (verse 18).
Prayer: Teach me my responsibility in spiritual warfare, Lord, that I may be strong in You and in the strength of Your might.
Neil T. Anderson
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Acquiring Perseverance
"The LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little" (Deuteronomy 7:22).
We are not to expect to win victories for the LORD Jesus by a single blow. Evil principles and practices die hard. In some places it takes years of labor to drive out even one of the many vices which defile the inhabitants. We must carry on the war with all our might, eve...n when favored with little manifest success. Our business in this world is to conquer it for Jesus. We are not to make compromises but to exterminate evils. We are not to seek popularity but to wage unceasing war with iniquity. Infidelity, popery, drink, impurity, oppression, worldliness, error; these are all to be "put out." The LORD our God can alone accomplish this. He works by His faithful servants, and blessed be His name. He promises that He will so work. "Jehovah thy God will put out those nations before thee." This He will do by degrees that we may learn perseverance, may increase in faith, may earnestly watch, and may avoid carnal security. Let us thank God for a little success and pray for more. Let us never sheathe the sword till the whole land is won for Jesus. Courage, my heart! Go on little by little, for many littles will make a great whole.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/22/2011
Hang In There
By Max Lucado
Is anything too hard for the Lord? No!
Genesis 18:14
Hang in there. Don’t give up! Is anything too hard for the Lord? No!
Just when you least suspect it—the God of surprises strikes again. God does that for the faithful. Just when the womb gets too old for babies, Sarah gets pregnant. Just when the failure is too great for grace, David is pardoned.
The lesson? Three words. Don’t give up!
Is the road long? Don’t stop.
Is the night black? Don’t quit.
God is watching. For all you know right at this moment … the check may be in the mail. The apology may be in the making. The job contract may be on the desk.
Don’t quit. You may miss the answer to your prayers.
God is faithful—He’s always on time
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"Cast the beam out of thine own eye" (Matt. vii. 5).
Greater than the fault you condemn and criticise is the sin of criticism and condemnation. There is no place we need such grace as in dealing with an erring one.
A lady once called on us on her way to give an erring sister a piece of her mind. We advised her to wait until she could love her a little more.
...
Only He who loved sinners well enough to die for them can deal with the erring. We never see all the heart. He does, and He can convict without condemning, and reprove without discouraging.
Oh, for more of the heart of Christ! Take care, brother, how you speak of another's fault. Ere you know, you may be in the same or deeper condemnation. Very significantly does the Master say that the man that sees a mote in his brother's eye, usually has a rafter in his own eye! One of the two unpardonable sins of the Bible is unforgiving lovelessness.
"Give me a heart like Thine,
Give me a heart like Thine,
By Thy wonderful power,
By Thy grace every hour,
Give me a heart like Thine."
A. B. Simpson
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He Worketh
"He worketh" (Ps. 37:5).
The translation that we find in Young of "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass," reads: "Roll upon Jehovah thy way; trust upon him: and he worketh."
...
It calls our attention to the immediate action of God when we truly commit, or roll out of our hands into His, the burden of whatever kind it may be; a way of sorrow, of difficulty, of physical need, or of anxiety for the conversion of some dear one.
"He worketh." When? Now. We are so in danger of postponing our expectation of His acceptance of the trust, and His undertaking to accomplish what we ask Him to do, instead of saying as we commit, "He worketh." "He worketh" even now; and praise Him that it is so.
The very expectancy enables the Holy Spirit to do the very thing we have rolled upon Him. It is out of our reach. We are not trying to do it any more. "He worketh!"
Let us take the comfort out of it and not put our hands on it again. Oh, what a relief it brings! He is really working on the difficulty.
But someone may say, "I see no results." Never mind. "He worketh," if you have rolled it over and are looking to Jesus to do it. Faith may be tested, but "He worketh"; the Word is sure! --V. H. F.
"I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me" (Ps. 57:2).
The beautiful old translation says, "He shall perform the cause which I have in hand." Does not that make it very real to us today? Just the very thing that "I have in hand"--my own particular bit of work today, this cause that I cannot manage, this thing that I undertook in miscalculation of my own powers--this is what I may ask Him to do "for me," and rest assured that He will perform it. "The wise and their works are in the hands of God." --Havergal
The Lord will go through with His covenant engagements. Whatever He takes in hand He will accomplish; hence past mercies are guarantees for the future and admirable reasons for continuing to cry unto Him. --C. H. Spurgeon
From Streams in the Desert
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Amid wide disunion and disparity of every kind, there is one mighty bond which draws believers of every nation, kindred, tribe, and people together. Each morning we all ascend the steps of the same temple of prayer; each evening we join in one great hymn of praise; at each Lord's Supper we sit at the same table. Eating of one Bread, we know that we are one Loaf; drinking of one Cup, we profess our indebtedness to the same precious Blood for our hope and ground of acceptance (1 Cor. x. 17).
We must set our hearts, if we desire to execute any great purpose in our life: otherwise we shall be daunted and checkmated by the strong opposition of men and things.
F. B. Meyer
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Christ's Temptations Were Real
That our Lord's temptations were intensely real is the accepted faith of Christendom. He was tempted in all points like as we are. Unless He was really and cruelly tempted and knew the full meaning of resistance, He can never, in any helpful way, be the brother of tempted men and women. And if He be not Brother then He is not Savior, for a Savior, whatev...er else he be, must be vitally identified with man. Our Lord's sinlessness was not endowment. It was rather an unparalleled achievement. It was not a gift bestowed on Him by heaven. It was a moral and spiritual victory. It was wrought out, moment after moment, by a will sustained in perfect poise with God, instantly and unswervingly obedient. Now always, where the heart is, there is the sorest onset of temptation.
George H. Morrison
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The Temptation to Come Down from the Cross
Lastly our Lord was tempted to come down from the cross. "Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him" (Mat 27:42). When these voices broke upon His ear, were they not fraught with terrible temptation? Think of the agony He was enduring in His so sensitive and sinless frame. Think how the very passion of His heart was that t...hese men and women should believe in Him. And as these cries rang upon His ear did they not carry with them the suggestion that in one instant He might escape His torture, and doing it win the allegiance of His own? Tempted in every prospect of the cross, our Lord was tempted on the cross itself. By one swift action might He not end His agony and win the great ambition of His life? And the wonderful thing is that on the cross as in the desert at the opening of His ministry, He steeled Himself against these tempting voices. They said "Come down, and we will believe in you." We believe, because He did not come down. To us the glory is in His hanging there till He cried in a loud voice "It is finished." And when we are tempted, as we so often are, to release ourselves when "crucified with Christ," what a comfort that we can quietly say, "He was tempted in all points like as we are."
George H. Morrison
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"By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew." Proverbs 3:20
When the Lord said, "Let there be light," instantly there was light. So when the Lord says, "Let the earth open," the heart immediately opens, the conscience is made tender, and the soul hears and receives what God speaks. And what follows this opening? The heart receives the dews and showers... of God's grace that fall into it; and these dews and showers of God's grace communicate to it softness, fertility, and productiveness. O how we have to learn this by painful experience! Is not our heart as hard sometimes as the nether millstone; and to our feelings, utterly destitute of light, life and power, without one grain of brokenness, contrition, godly sorrow, spiritual desire, or fervent breathing after the Lord? This painful experience the Lord's people have to pass through perpetually, that they may know that "in them, that is, in their flesh dwelleth no good thing," and that" power belongeth unto God." Could I make my own heart soft, should I want the Lord to do it for me? Could I communicate fertility to my own soul, should I ever pant after the dews and showers of the Holy Ghost? Could I bring pardon and peace into my own conscience, should I need the Lord himself to speak with power? Could I believe, hope, rejoice, and have at my own command every gracious and blessed feeling that I desire to experience, there would be no pleading the Lord's own promises, no wrestling in importunate prayer, no taking the kingdom of God by violence, no longing and panting for the Lord to appear in our souls. The Lord therefore sees fit that we should walk in these paths, that we may know, "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."
J. C. Philpot
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Prophetic Messages
Jeremiah 23:29
"Is not My word like fire?" declares the LORD, and like a hammer which shatters a rock?"
If you attend a Christian fellowship where prophecies are part of public worship, I wonder if we should expect from God generic messages like, "I love you, My children" or "I'm coming soon." These statements are certainly true, but why would they need to be prophesied, since the Bible already clearly asserts God's love and Christ's imminent return? I have heard "prophecies" like these given in churches where many people were living in sin, lulling them into an unrighteous complacency.
The voice of a prophet is a consuming fire and a shattering hammer. A prophetic message should motivate people to righteousness, not placate them in their sin (1 Peter 4:17). God is more concerned about church purity than about church growth. Comfort only comes to those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake by allowing God's Word to purge their sin and shatter their self-centeredness.
Jeremiah relates two other evidences of false prophets: "'Behold, I am against the prophets,' declares the LORD, 'who steal My words from each other'" (23:30). That's plagiarism: taking what God gave someone else and using it as if it were your own. "'I am against the prophets,' declares the LORD, 'who use their tongues and declare, "the Lord declares"'" (verse 31).
Declaring that what you are saying is directly from the Lord when it isn't is an incredible offense to God. If God wants me to know something He will tell me directly. I believe in the priesthood of believers; however, God can and will encourage us and confirm His Word to us through others. "There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). If someone says to you "God told me to tell you . . ." that person may be functioning as a medium. The gift of prophecy should reveal the secrets of the heart so people will fall on their faces and worship God (1 Corinthians 14:25). Then God will guide them by His Holy Spirit.
Prayer: Lord, teach me not to quench Your Spirit nor to despise prophetic utterances but to examine everything and hold fast to what is good.
Neil T. Anderson
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11/21/2011
The Lord blessed me with this poem as I was awakening from sleep.
Every Morning
Every morning when I first awake,
I thank my Lord, who is my life, and my love.
For He has given me another day,
to serve Him from above.
He has granted me this day,
to be His hands, His feet and His Word.
To share with others that has not known,
the sweetest Gospel ever heard.
To help the needy and the poor,
to help heal the broken hearts.
To share His love with all I meet,
as He did with me from the start.
See, the reason He has granted me,
this day in which here to live,
is because it is how on this earth
He can still reach the lost and still give.
Yes, give the gift of Salvation,
that through His grace we all can receive.
For through that special gift is also found,
deliverance, health, prosperity, if only you’d believe.
E. P. Shagott
11/21/2011
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Hidden in His Love
By Max Lucado
He … loads me with love and mercy Psalm 103:4
It’s time to let God’s love cover all things in your life. All the secrets. The hurts.
The mornings you awoke in the bed of a stranger? His love will cover that. The years you peddled prejudice and pride? His love will cover that. Every promise broken, drug taken, penny stolen. Every cross word, cuss word, and harsh word. His love covers all things.
Let it. Discover along with the psalmist: “He … loads me with love and mercy” (Ps. 103:4). Picture a giant dump truck full of love. There you are behind it. God lifts the bed until the love starts to slide. Slowly at first, then down, down, down until you are hidden, buried, covered in His love.
“Hey, where are you?” someone asks.
“In here, covered in love.”
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"Consider the lilies how they grow" (Matt. vi. 28).
It is said that a little fellow was found one day by his mother, standing by a tall sunflower, with his feet stuck in the ground. When asked by her, "What in the world are you doing there?" he naively answered, "Why, I am trying to grow to be a man."
His mother laughed heartily at the idea of his getting planted in the ...ground in order to grow, like the sunflower, and then, patting him gently on the head, "Why, Harry, that is not the way to grow. You can never grow bigger by trying. Just come right in, and eat lots of good food, and have plenty of play, and you will soon grow to be a man without trying so hard."
Well, Harry's mother was right. Mrs. H. W. Smith never said a sweeter thing than when she answered the question--"How do the lilies grow?" by simply adding, "They grow without trying."
Our sweetest spiritual life is the life of self-unconsciousness through which we become so united to Christ, and live continually on His life, nourished, fed and constantly filled with His Spirit and presence and all the fulness of His imparted life.
A. B. Simpson
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Remember My Song in the Night
"I call to remembrance my song in the night" (Psalm 77:6).
I have read somewhere of a little bird that will never sing the melody his master wishes while his cage is full of light. He learns a snatch of this, a bar of that, but never an entire song of its own until the cage is covered and the morning beams shut out.
A good many people never learn to sing until the darkling shadows fall. The fabled nightingale carols with his breast against a thorn. It was in the night that the song of the angels was heard. It was at midnight that the cry came, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him."
Indeed it is extremely doubtful if a soul can really know the love of God in its richness and in its comforting, satisfying completeness until the skies are black and lowering.
Light comes out of darkness, morning out of the womb of the night.
James Creelman, in one of his letters, describes his trip through the Balkan States in search of Natalie, the exiled Queen of Serbia.
"In that memorable journey," he says, "I learned for the first time that the world's supply of attar of roses comes from the Balkan Mountains. And the thing that interested me most," he goes on, "is that the roses must be gathered in the darkest hours. The pickers start out at one o'clock and finish picking them at two.
"At first it seemed to me a relic of superstition; but I investigated the picturesque mystery, and learned that actual scientific tests had proven that fully forty per cent of the fragrance of roses disappeared in the light of day."
And in human life and human culture that is not a playful, fanciful conceit; it is a real veritable fact. -Malcolm J. McLeod
From Streams in the Desert
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All is under law. God doeth according to his will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Without contravening the action of man's free choice He carries out his great designs and works his sovereign will. Let us trust in this Almighty Providence, which underlies all events and catastrophes, and pursues its beneficent objects undeterred by our sins. He makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and weaves the malignant work of Satan into his plans.
F. B. Meyer
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"That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." Luke 1:74, 75
Holiness consists mainly of two points:
1. being made a partaker of the spirit of holiness whereby, as born of God, we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the ...saints in light; set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; have our conversation in heaven; put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him which created him; live a life of faith in the Son of God, and beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. To be thus spiritually-minded, to be thus brought near unto God through his dear Son, to walk before him in the light of his countenance, and to know something of spiritual communion with the Lord of life and glory as sitting on his mercy-seat in the fulness of his risen power, and in the heights, depths, lengths, and breadths of his dying love--this to taste, to handle, to experience, and to enjoy is to be made a partaker of true holiness, and to be sanctified by the Spirit of God as an indwelling Teacher, Guide, Advocate, and Comforter. And if we know nothing of these things, at least in some small measure, or are not looking after and longing for them to be brought into our heart by a divine power, we give but little evidence that the grace of God has reached our heart and renewed us in the spirit of our mind.
2. The second branch of holiness is a life, conduct, and conversation agreeable to the precepts of the gospel; and the one springs out of the other. "Make the tree good," said our blessed Lord, "and his fruit good, for the tree is known by his fruit." Gospel fruit must grow upon a gospel tree, and thus the fruits of a holy and godly life must spring out of those divine operations of the Holy Ghost upon the heart of which we have just spoken. Thus to speak, live, and act is to be "holy in all manner of conversation," that is in our daily walk; and is a fulfilling of the precept which God gave of old to his typical people Israel, and quoted in the New Testament to shew that it is spiritually fulfilled in that peculiar people whom he calls by his distinguishing grace under the gospel.
J. C. Philpot
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Lord, Touch Me
Mark 8:25
Then again He laid His hands upon his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly
One of the greatest personal crises I have faced in the ministry revolved around the issue of forgiveness and a board member. I struggled relating to this man, and I knew that I couldn't continue on the way things were. So I decided to resign my pastorate.
The week before I was going to read my resignation to the congregation, I got sick. I was flat on my back with a temperature of 103.5 and I totally lost my voice. It was easy to recognize that God wasn't pleased with my decision. I began reading the Gospels and came upon Mark 8:22-26 where Jesus healed the blind man. I noticed that after Jesus' first touch, the man said, "I see men . . . like trees" (verse 24). I suddenly realized that I saw this man like that: a big tree, an obstacle blocking my path.
Then Jesus touched the blind man again and he began to see people clearly, not as trees. I got the message. "Lord, I don't love this man. I know You do, and I want to. But You will have to touch me like You did that blind man. Lord, I need You to touch me so I can be the person You want me to be." And God did! I chose at that moment to forgive the man completely.
The next Sunday I went to church, not to resign, but to preach. My voice was still so husky that I almost couldn't speak. I confessed to the congregation my own independence and my desire for the Lord to touch me, to see people as people, not as obstacles to my goals. At the end of the sermon, I invited anyone who desired a touch from the Lord to join me at the altar. Soon the altar area and the aisles in the front were packed with people. Eventually all but a few people had come forward. It was a revival!
Guess who was one of the few? To my knowledge he never changed, but I did. And I thank God to this day that He put me flat on my back to make me the pastor He wanted me to be. If I had had my way, I would probably be out of the ministry today.
Prayer: Lord, touch me today that I may love the difficult people in my life as You do.
Neil T. Anderson
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The Outward, Upward Look
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:22).
This is a promise of promises. It lies at the foundation of our spiritual I life. Salvation comes through a look at Him who is "a just God and a Saviour." How simple is the direction! "Look unto me." How reasonable is the requirement! Surely the creature sh...ould look to the Creator. We have looked elsewhere long enough; it is time that we look alone to Him who invites our expectation and promises to give us His salvation. Only a look! Will we not look at once? We are to bring nothing in ourselves but to look outward and upward to our LORD on His throne, whither He has gone up from the cross. A look requires no preparation, no violent effort: it needs neither wit nor wisdom, wealth nor strength. All that we need is in the LORD our God, and if we look to Him for everything, that everything shall be ours, and we shall be saved. Come, far-off ones, look hither! Ye ends of the earth, turn your eyes this way! As from the furthest regions men may see the sun and enjoy his light, so you who lie in death's borders at the very gates of hell may by a look receive the light of God, the life of heaven, the salvation of the LORD Jesus Christ, who is God and therefore able to save.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/20/2011
God Knows the Answers
By Max Lucado
If any of you needs wisdom,
you should ask God for it.
James 1:5
Thomas came with doubts. Did Christ turn him away?
Moses had his reservations. Did God tell him to go home?
Job had his struggles. Did God avoid him?
Paul had his hard times. Did God abandon him?
No. God never turns away the sincere heart. Tough questions don’t stump God. He invites our probing.
Mark it down. God never turns away the honest seeker. Go to God with your questions. You may not find all the answers, but in finding God, you know the One who does.
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"The disciple whom Jesus loved leaned on His breast" (John xxi. 20).
An American gentleman once visited the saintly Albert Bengel. He was very desirous to hear him pray.
So one night he lingered at his door, hoping to overhear his closing devotions. The rooms were adjoining and the doors ajar.
The good man finished his studies, closed his books, knelt down for a moment and simply said: "Dear Lord Jesus, things are still the same between us," and then sweetly fell asleep.
So close was his communion with his Lord that labor did not interrupt it, and prayer was not necessary to renew it. It was a ceaseless, almost unconscious presence, like the fragrance of the summer garden, or the presence of some dear one by our side whose presence we somehow feel, even though the busy hours pass by and not a word is exchanged.
"O blessed fellowship, divine,
O joy, supremely sweet,
Companionship with Jesus here,
Makes life with joy replete;
O wondrous grace, O joy sublime,
I've Jesus with me all the time."
A. B. Simpson
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Receive the Cup of Sorrow
"Shall I refuse to drink the cup of sorrow which the Father has given me to drink?" (John 18:11, Weymouth).
God takes a thousand times more pains with us than the artist with his picture, by many touches of sorrow, and by many colors of circumstance, to bring us into the form which is the highest and noblest in His sight, if only we receive His g...ifts of myrrh in the right spirit.
But when the cup is put away, and these feelings are stifled or unheeded, a greater injury is done to the soul that can ever be amended. For no heart can conceive in what surpassing love God giveth us this myrrh; yet this which we ought to receive to our souls' good we suffer to pass by us in our sleepy indifference, and nothing comes of it.
Then we come and complain: "Alas, Lord! I am so dry, and it is so dark within me!" I tell thee, dear child, open thy heart to the pain, and it will do thee more good than if thou wert full of feeling and devoutness. --Tauler
"The cry of man's anguish went up to God,
'Lord take away pain:
The shadow that darkens the world Thou hast made,
The close-coiling chain
That strangles the heart, the burden that weighs
On the wings that would soar,
Lord, take away pain from the world Thou hast made,
That it love Thee the more.'
"Then answered the Lord to the cry of His world:
'Shall I take away pain,
And with it the power of the soul to endure,
Made strong by the strain?
Shall I take away pity, that knits heart to heart
And sacrifice high?
Will ye lose all your heroes that lift from the fire
White brows to the sky?
Shall I take away love that redeems with a price
And smiles at its loss?
Can ye spare from your lives that would climb unto Me
The Christ on His cross?"
From Streams in the Desert
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To Him is given riches and wisdom, and He is made unto us wisdom. Before the touch of his light the darkest perplexities must resolve themselves. Though He speak no audible word, the hardest questions are answered to the eyes and ears of such as wait before Him.
Those who would get from Christ must be willing to give to Him. There must be a reciprocity; and if we hope to receive from Him from tho...se infinite stores of which He has the key, we must count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and must be prepared to count them as refuse if only we may win Him.
To each of us life is full of perplexities, to which we can find no solution, however much we strain our eyes and weary our minds. But away there in the light Christ stands, with the perfect plan of every maze in his possession, with a key for every riddle, and solution for every enigma. Wait patiently.
F. B. Meyer
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Misapplications of Scripture
It would be an interesting but a melancholy study to consider the texts of Scripture which have been misapplied. It would not only illuminate many a heresy; it would lead also to the secret springs of conduct. Some misapplications we should group together as arising from the imperfections of our version. Others we should find taking their rise in the sinfu...l bias of the will. Others rather owe their origin to the proverbial character of certain words of Scripture and to the constant tendency of men to use proverbs in a mistaken way. It takes more wit to use a proverb wisely than it took originally to coin that proverb. It is far easier to strike out an apothegm than in some complex moment to apply it.
George H. Morrison
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"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations." 2 Peter 2:9
Few will sincerely and spiritually go to the Lord, and cry from their hearts to be delivered from the power of a temptation, until it presses so weightily upon their conscience, and lies so heavy a burden upon their soul, that none but God can remove it. But when we really feel the burden of a temptation; whe...n, though our flesh may love it, our spirit hates it; when, though there may be in our carnal mind a cleaving to it, our conscience bleeds under it, and we are brought spiritually to loathe it and to loathe ourselves for it; when we are enabled to go to the Lord in real sincerity of soul and honesty of heart, beseeching him to deliver us from it, I believe, that the Lord will, sooner or later, either remove that temptation entirely in his providence or by his grace, or so weaken its power that it shall cease to be what it was before, drawing our feet into paths of darkness and evil. As long, however, as we are in that state of which the prophet speaks, "Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty" (Hosea 10:2); as long as we are in that carnal, wavering mind, which James describes, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways;" as long as we are hankering after the temptation, casting longing, lingering side glances after it, rolling it as a sweet morsel under our tongue, and though conscience may testify against it, yet not willing to have it taken away, there is no hearty cry, nor sigh, nor spiritual breathing of our soul, that God would remove it from us. But when we are brought, as in the presence of a heart-searching God, to hate the evil to which we are tempted, and cry to him that he would, for his honour and for our soul's good, take the temptation away, or dull and deaden its power; sooner or later the Lord will hear the cry of those who groan to be delivered from those temptations, which are so powerfully pressing them down to the dust.
J. C. Philpot
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Signs And Wonders
John 13:35
By this all men will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another
Signs and wonders validated the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. After quoting from the prophet Joel and demonstrating that the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost was biblical, Peter preached about Jesus of Nazareth as "a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst" (Acts 2:22). Of the apostles, Paul said, "the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles" (2 Corinthians 12:12).
However, signs and wonders would also accompany false teachers and false prophets (Matthew 7:21-23; 2 Peter 2:1-22). In fact, biblical references to signs and wonders in the last days are nearly all credited to false teachers, false prophets and false Christs (Matthew 24:11, 24). The false prophet in the tribulation "deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform" (Revelation 13:14).
Jesus is no longer with us in the flesh and there are no more apostles. Jesus identified the sign of a disciple as markedly different: "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).
Does this mean that signs and wonders have ceased? I certainly don't want to be identified with an evil generation that seeks only after a sign, but I also don't want to be associated with the powerless, anti-supernaturalism evidenced in Western rationalism. Both the power of God and the wisdom of God are expressed in Christ. Paul said, "For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:22-24).
Prayer: Lord, reveal to me the true source of my spiritual experiences. If they are not from You, I renounce them and command Satan to leave my presence.
Neil T. Anderson
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Hunger Satisfied
"For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9).
It is well to have longings, and the more intense they are the better. The LORD will satisfy soul-longings, however great and all-absorbing they may be. Let us greatly long, for God will greatly give. We are never in a right state of mind when we are contented with ourselves and are f...ree from longings. Desires for more grace and groanings which cannot be uttered are growing pains, and we should wish to feel them more and more. Blessed Spirit, make us sigh and cry after better things and for more of the best things! Hunger is by no means a pleasant sensation. Yet blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Such persons shall not only have their hunger relieved with a little food, but they shall be filled. They shall not be filled with any sort of rough stuff, but their diet shall be worthy of their good LORD, for they shall be filled with goodness by Jehovah Himself. Come, let us not fret because we long and hunger, but let us hear the voice of the psalmist as he also longs and hungers to see God magnified. "Oh, that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men."
Charles Spurgeon
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11/19/2011
Fix Your Eyes On Jesus
By Max Lucado
May he enlighten the eyes
of your mind so that you can see
what hope his call holds for you.
Ephesians 1:18 NIV
What does it mean to be just like Jesus? The world has never known a heart so pure, a character so flawless.
His spiritual hearing was so keen he never missed a heavenly whisper. His mercy so abundant he never missed a chance to forgive.
No lie left his lips, no distraction marred his vision. He touched when others recoiled. He endured when others quit. Jesus is the ultimate model for every person.
God urges you to fix your eyes upon Jesus. Heaven invites you to set the lens of your heart on the heart of the Savior and make him the object of your life.
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"We would see Jesus" (John xii. 21).
When any great blessing is awaiting us, the devil is sure to try and make it so disagreeable to us that we shall miss it.
It is a good thing to know him as a liar, and remember, when he is trying to prejudice us strongly against any cause, that very likely the greatest blessing of our life lies there.
...
Spurgeon once said that the best evidence that God was on our side is the devil's growl, and we are generally pretty safe in following a thing according to Satan's dislike for it. Beloved, take care, lest in the very line where your prejudices are setting you off from God's people and God's truth, you are missing the treasures of your life.
Take the treasures of heaven no matter how they come to you, even if it be as earthly treasures generally are, like the kernel inside the rough shell, or the gem in the bosom of the hard rock.
I have seen Jesus and my heart is dead to all beside,
I have seen Jesus, and my wants are all, in Him, supplied.
I have seen Jesus, and my heart, at last, is satisfied,
Since I've seen Jesus.
A. B. Simpson
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Attitude of Trust
"And it came to pass, before he had done speaking...and he said, Blessed be Jehovah...who hath not forsaken his lovingkindness and his truth" (Gen. 24:15, 27).
Every right prayer is answered before the prayer itself is finished--before we have "done speaking." This is because God has pledged His Word to us that whatsoever we ask in Christ's name (that is..., in oneness with Christ and His will) and in faith, shall be done.
As God's Word cannot fail, whenever we meet those simple conditions in prayer, the answer to our prayer has been granted and completed in Heaven as we pray, even though its showing forth on earth may not occur until long afterward.
So it is well to close every prayer with praise to God for the answer that He has already granted; He who never forsakes His loving-kindness and His truth. (See Daniel 9:20-27 and 10:12.) --Messages for the Morning Watch
When we believe for a blessing, we must take the attitude of faith, and begin to act and pray as if we had the blessing. We must treat God as if He had given us our request. We must lean our weight over upon Him for the thing that we have claimed, and just take it for granted that He gives it, and is going to continue to give it. This is the attitude of trust.
When the wife is married, she at once falls into a new attitude, and acts in accordance with the fact; and so when we take Christ as our Savior, as our Sanctifier, as our Healer, or as our Deliverer, He expects us to fall into the attitude of recognizing Him in the capacity that we have claimed, and expect Him to be to us all that we have trusted Him for. --Selected
"The thing I ask when God doth bid me pray,
Begins in that same act to come my way."
From Streams in the Desert
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The blessedness of the marriage tie depends on whether the twain are one in spirit, in a common love for Christ, and endeavour for his glory. Nothing is more terrible than when either admits in the secresy of the heart, concerning the other, My husband or my wife cannot accompany me into the holy places where I was reared, and in which my best life finds its home.
All friendship shoul...d follow the same law. We must abide together in the secret place of the Most High, if our friends and we are to be friends indeed. All places may be made holy where the Ark of God's covenant comes. Where it goes, love may safely follow; but woe to the love that cannot! Its inability proves its lack of elements of permanence and perfect satisfaction.
F. B. Meyer
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"Underneath are the everlasting arms." Deuteronomy 33:27
The "everlasting arms" of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the divine Jehovah, are "underneath" every one of his people, and, being underneath them, they can neither fall through them nor out of them; but they are borne, and supported, and carried along by them until they are brought to the eternal enjoyment of a Three-One God.... Now, if these "everlasting arms" were not underneath a man, so deceitful is his heart, so desperately wicked is his corrupt nature, such awful stratagems does Satan lay for his feet, and such numerous perils encompass every step, that he must infallibly perish. But what we want to feel is, that these arms are underneath us. What good will the doctrine do us? The doctrine of the "everlasting arms" being underneath us will not satisfy our souls, if we feel that we are sinking fathoms. If we keep sinking, sinking, sinking, and are afraid, at times, that we shall sink at last into hell, the bare doctrine that the "everlasting arms" are underneath God's people will not satisfy us; but we want to feel them under us, so that we can rest upon them, and enjoy a blessed support in them and coming out of them. How secure the babe lies in its mother's arms as long as it can feel the arms touching and supporting its body; but let the mother withdraw the arm, the babe is in fear; it cries out in alarm; but so long as it feels the pressure of the mother's arms, it sleeps on calm and secure. So with living souls; if they cannot find the "everlasting arms" underneath them, they cannot rest in the mere doctrine of God's upholding the Church; but when they can feel a support given; when in trouble, in affliction, in sorrow, in temptation, there is a sensible leaning upon the everlasting arms, and a sensible support communicated by them, then they can rest calmly and contentedly upon them.
J. C. Philpot
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How Faith Affects Our Lives
Ephesians 2:8, 9
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
After Jesus claimed to be sent by God, some were seeking to seize Him, having come to the conclusion that He was not a good man. But others did believe in Him, "and they were saying, 'When the Christ shall come, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?'" (John 7:31). All the evidence was there. Some chose to believe; others chose not to. People do the same today. Faith is a choice. We choose to believe or not believe.
Faith is the operating principle of life. It is the means by which we relate to God and live our lives in freedom. Notice the variety of ways stated in Scripture by which faith affects our lives.
First, we are saved by faith (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
Second, we "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Third, being found faithful is a prerequisite for ministry: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service" (1 Timothy 1:12). Paul then adds, "And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2). This is more than being reliable, since a person could be counted on to follow through on an assignment and not be a believer. The added ingredient in faithful people is that they know the truth and can be counted on to be reliable.
Fourth, the quality of any relationship is determined by faith or trust: "Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy man?" (Proverbs 20:6). The words faith , trust and believe are all the same word ( pistis ) in the original language. The man who has faith believes in something. The one who believes also trusts, or he doesn't truly believe. There is no concept that looms larger in life than faith because what we believe determines how we live.
Prayer: Lord, I affirm that I cannot please You without faith. I choose today to believe in You and trust in Your name.
Neil T. Anderson
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From Obedience to Blessing
"From this day will I bless you" (Haggai 2:19).
Future things are hidden from us. Yet here is a glass in which we may see the unborn years. The LORD says, "From this day will I bless you." It is worthwhile to note the day which is referred to in this promise. There had been failure of crops, blasting, and mildew, and all because of the people's sin. Now, the LORD s...aw these chastened ones commencing to obey His word and build His temple, and therefore He says, "From the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider. From this day will I bless you." If we have lived in any sin, and the Spirit leads us to purge ourselves of it, we may reckon upon the blessing of the LORD. His smile, His Spirit, His grace, His fuller revelation of His truth will all prove to us an enlarged blessing. We may fall into greater opposition from man because of our faithfulness, but we shall rise to closer dealings with the LORD our God and a clearer sight of our acceptance in Him. LORD, I am resolved to be more true to Thee and more exact in my following of Thy doctrine and Thy precept; and I pray Thee, therefore, by Christ Jesus, to increase the blessedness of my daily life henceforth and forever.
Charles Spurgeon
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Through tears and pain
Through sunshine and rain
Through shouts of anger
and moments of joy
Through laughter and grief
Through days of no relief
Through it all the good and the bad
Praise you Jesus, you were all I had.
E. P. Shagott
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11/18/2011
Change the Way You Look—at You
By Max Lucado
He has covered me with clothes of
salvation and wrapped me with a coat of goodness.
Isaiah 61:10
Unnoticed? Neglected? Ignored?
Not even close to how God sees you.
If you are feeling unnoticed and under-appreciated, take a look at how God sees you in I Peter 2:9: “You are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.”
Or how about this description from Isaiah 61:10: “He has covered me with clothes of salvation and wrapped me with a coat of goodness, like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding, like a bride dressed in jewels.”
When your self-esteem sags—remember what you’re worth. Remember that you were bought with a price, not with something that ruins like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, the pure and perfect lamb.
Remember that. Meditate on it. Focus on it.
Allow God’s love to change the way you look at you.
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"And He that sat upon the throne said, It is done" (Rev. xxi. 5, 6).
Great is the difference between action and transaction. We may be constantly acting without accomplishing anything, but a transaction is action that passes beyond the point of return, and becomes a permanent committal.
Salvation is a transaction between the soul and Christ in which the matter passes bey...ond recall. Sanctification is a great transaction in which we are utterly surrendered, irrevocably consecrated and wholly committed to the Holy Ghost, and then He comes and seals the transaction and undertakes the work.
Our covenant for our Lord's healing should be just as explicit, definite and irrevocable. And so of the covenants to which God is leading His children from time to time in regard to other matters of obedience and service.
God grant that during this hallowed day many a consecrated life may be able to say with new significance and permanence, "'Tis done, the great transaction's done."
For the living Vine is Jesus,
In whose fulness we may hide;
And find our life and fruitfulness
As we in Him abide.
A. B. Simpson
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Pressing Forward
"I was crushed...so much so that I despaired even of life, but that was to make me rely not on myself, but on the God who raises the dead" (2 Cor. 1:8, 9).
"Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length;
Pressed so intensely it seems, beyond strength;
Pressed in the body and pressed in the soul,
Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll.
Pressure by foes, and a pressure from friends.
Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.
"Pressed into knowing no helper but God;
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed into faith for impossible things.
Pressed into living a life in the Lord,
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured."
The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them.
There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really means. This is what Paul meant when he said, "Death worketh in you."
Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of the winds and waves. --A. B. Simpson
"Out of the presses of pain,
Cometh the soul's best wine;
And the eyes that have shed no rain,
Can shed but little shine."
From Streams in the Desert
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The fire came down from Heaven, and consumed the Burnt Offering. 2 Chron. vii. 1.
IT was a very gracious and immediate response to the prayer of King and people. If we make room for God, He always comes and fills. If we seek Him, He is instantly with us. Directly the soul confesses, it is forgiven; or consecrates itself, it is accepted; or claims deliverance from the power of sin, it ...is cleansed. Do you really want the Lord to come to you? His glory has even now begun to shine in on you, to grow and enlighten you for evermore.
The fire stands for the Divine Presence. Oh to have always a consciousness of it! Nothing would so soon arrest and destroy the impurity and evil within; as sunshine does fungus growth. We are told that the fire was to be kept burning on the altar: it was never to go out. Thus, we should always perpetuate and practise the presence of God, feeding the fire with the fuel of prayer and meditation.
Fire also stands for the Divine Purity. As the Plague of London was stamped out by the Great Fire which destroyed the nests where it had bred: and as the furnace rids the ore of dross so the Holy Spirit in thy heart and mine is a guarantee of holiness and righteousness all our days.
Fire also stands for Divine Fellowship. It consumed that part of the offering which was placed on the altar; and it seemed as if the Divine nature was therefore feeding upon the sacrifice, whilst the remainder of it was consumed by the offerer. Thus, also, we have communion with Cod, as we eat the bread and drink the wine in the Lord's Supper. We feed on Christ in adoration, faith, and identification. God feeds on the completeness of Christ's obedience, ar.the glory of his character. Thus we have fellowship with the Father and the Son, by the Holy Ghost.
F. B. Meyer
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"And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation." Psalm 107:7
"He led them forth." Forth out of the world--forth out of sin--forth out of a profession--forth out of a name to live--forth out of everything hateful to his holy and pure eyes. "To go to a city of habitation." They had no city to dwell in here below; but they were journeying to a city o...f habitation above, whose walls and bulwarks are salvation, and whose gates are praise; where there are eternal realities to be enjoyed by the soul; where there is something stable and eternal; something to satisfy all the wants of a capacious and immortal spirit, and give it that rest which it never could find while wandering here below. If we have a city here, we want no city above; and if we have a city above, we want no city here.
This then must be our state and case; either to be pilgrims, journeying onwards, through troubles, to things above, or taking up our abode below; seeking heaven here, or heaven hereafter; resting upon the world, or resting upon the Lord; panting after the things of time, or panting after the things of eternity; satisfied in self, or satisfied only in Christ. One of the two must be our state and case. The Lord decide it clearly in the hearts of his people that they are on his side; and give us to know and feel that our very restlessness and inability to find food and shelter in the things of time and sense, are leading us more earnestly and believingly to seek after the things that have reality in them; that finding no city to dwell in here below, we may press forward to be manifestly enjoying testimonies of being citizens of that city which is above, "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God!"
J. C. Philpot
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The Oldest Lie of Satan
Deuteronomy 32:17, 18
They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread. You neglected the Rock who begot you, and forgot the God who gave you birth.
The New Age Movement cloaks the occult in the description of New Age enlightenment: "You don't need God; you are God. You don't need to repent of your sins and depend on God to save you. Sin isn't a problem; you just need to turn off your mind and tune in to the great cosmic oneness through harmonic convergence." The New Age pitch is the oldest lie of Satan: "You will be like God" (Genesis 3:5).
This thirst for knowledge and power has lured a fallen humanity to seek guidance from mediums and spiritists, and from such occultic practices as fortune-telling, tarot cards, palm-reading, Ouija boards, astrology, magic charming and automatic writing. People all around us are ignoring the God who loves them and wants to guide their lives and are instead seeking light and peace in the kingdom of darkness. Peace can only be found in the Prince of Peace, not in the prince of darkness.
Don't be carried away by the prospect of knowledge and power which is luring so many people in our culture today away from God. People such as the devotees of Simon in Acts 8:9, 10, will continue to be astonished by those who practice New Age sorcery. Others, such as the customers of the demon-possessed slave girl in Acts 16:16-18, will contribute to the profit of those who exercise a spirit of divination. As in these examples from the early church, those who seek knowledge and power from the dark side will greatly interfere with the work of God, deceiving many by the counterfeit forces they employ. Other people will thirst after power to such an extent that they will sacrifice to the "goat demons" (Leviticus 17:7) and even sacrifice their own children to demons (Psalm 106:36-38).
Let the words of Deuteronomy 32:17, 18, sober us to the reality that even believers are vulnerable to being lured away from the knowledge and power of God by our enemy.
Prayer: Lord, I refuse to participate with the powers of darkness. You are my life and the light of my world.
Neil T. Anderson
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Clearly Supernatural
"In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them" (Zechariah 12:8).
One of the best methods of the LORD's defending His people is to make them strong in inward might. Men are better than walls, and faith is stronger t...han castles. The LORD can take the feeblest among us and make him like David, the champion of Israel. LORD, do this with me! Infuse Thy power into me, and fill me with sacred courage that I may face the giant with sling and stone, confident in God. The LORD can make His greatest champions far mightier than they are: David can be as God, as the angel of Jehovah. This would be a marvelous development, but it is possible, or it would not be spoken of. O LORD, work with the best of our leaders! Show us what Thou art able to do--namely, to raise Thy faithful servants to a height of grace and holiness which shall be clearly supernatural! LORD, dwell in Thy saints, and they shall be as God; put Thy might into them, and they shall be as the living creatures who dwell in the presence of Jehovah. Fulfill this promise to Thine entire church in this our day, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Charles Spurgeon
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Release from the Ghosts of Guilt
“Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 1:21
Guilt dogs the footsteps of mankind. It gnaws. It growls. It eats away at the joy God intends for us. Is there no peace from guilt? Will the ghosts of our guilt always lurk nearby? Not with the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and the healing power ...of our Lord in us! The devil is the prosecuting attorney who is going to point his bony finger of accusation at you. But the Holy Spirit is not the accuser. He is the Convictor. In love, He convicts to lead us to confession. Then we can confidently come to God and ask for cleansing. No psychologist or psychiatrist can take away guilt. Only Christ Jesus can.
Read the story of the adulterous woman in John 8:1-11. Praise God for His lovingkindness and generous mercy!
Adrian Rogers
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The Spirit of God lives in our hearts and speaks to our hearts, not our heads. His gifts are not intellectual or operative in our minds; they are spiritual and they operate in our spirits. We must follow what we sense in our spirits, not what we think in our minds should be right. This is why God gives us discernment.
Joyce Meyer
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11/17/2011
A Tiny Seed, A Tiny Deed
By Max Lucado
Do not despise…small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin. Zechariah 4:10 NLT
Against a towering giant, a brook pebble seems futile. But God used it to topple Goliath. Compared to the tithes of the wealthy, a widow’s coins seem puny. But Jesus used them to inspire us…
Moses had a staff.
David had a sling.
Samson had a jawbone.
Rahab had a string.
Mary had some ointment.
Aaron had a rod.
Dorcas had a needle.
All were used by God.
What do you have? Much more than you might think. God inhabits the tiny seed. He empowers the tiny deed. Never discount the smallness of your deeds.See More
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"The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them" (Num. x. 33).
God does give us impressions but not that we should act on them as impressions. If the impression be from God, He will Himself give sufficient evidence to establish it beyond the possibility of a doubt.
How beautifully we read, in the story of Jeremiah, of the impression that came to him respecting the ...purchase of the field of Anathoth, but Jeremiah did not act upon this impression until after the following day, when his uncle's son came to him and brought him external evidence by making a proposal for the purchase. Then Jeremiah said: "I knew this was the word of the Lord."
He waited until God seconded the impression by a providence, and then he acted in full view of the open facts, which could bring conviction unto others as well as himself.
God wants us to act according to His mind.
We are not to ignore the Shepherd's personal voice, but like Paul and his companions at Troas, we are to listen to all the voices that speak, and "gather" from all the circumstances, as they did, the full mind of the Lord.
A. B. Simpson
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Season of Waiting
"And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness...an angel of the Lord...saying....now come, I will send thee into Egypt" (Acts 7:30-34).
Often the Lord calls us aside from our work for a season, and bids us be still and learn ere we go forth again to minister. There is no time lost in such waiting hours.
Fleeing from his enemies, the ancient knight found that his horse needed to be re-shod. Prudence seemed to urge him on without delay, but higher wisdom taught him to halt a few minutes at the blacksmith's forge by the way, to have the shoe replaced; and although he heard the feet of his pursuers galloping hard behind, yet he waited those minutes until his charger was refitted for his flight. And then, leaping into his saddle just as they appeared a hundred yards away, he dashed away from them with the fleetness of the wind, and knew that his halting had hastened his escape.
So often God bids us tarry ere we go, and fully recover ourselves for the next stage of the journey and work. --Days of Heaven upon Earth
Waiting! Yes, patiently waiting!
Till next steps made plain shall be;
To hear, with the inner hearing,
The Voice that will call for me.
Waiting! Yes, hopefully waiting!
With hope that need not grow dim;
The Master is pledged to guide me,
And my eyes are unto Him.
Waiting! Expectantly waiting!
Perhaps it may be today
The Master will quickly open
The gate to my future way.
Waiting! Yes, waiting! still waiting!
I know, though I've waited long,
That, while He withholds His purpose,
His waiting cannot be wrong.
Waiting! Yes, waiting! still waiting!
The Master will not be late:
He knoweth that I am waiting
For Him to unlatch the gate.
--J. D. Smith
From Streams in the Desert
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When Thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk. 2 Chron. vi. 27
THIS sentence is exactly parallel with the previous one, When Thou dost afflict them. The obvious meaning then is, that God sometimes taught Israel the good way wherein they should walk, by afflicting them and shutting up the heaven so that there was no rain. This was notably the case in the day.s of Elijah.... Possibly, these words were in his heart, when be prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not for the space of three years and six months. Perhaps the prophet felt that in no other away could the people be brought back to their senses, and reconciled to God, except by learning the futility of idol worship. So he asked God to teach them the good way, by shutting up the bad one.
What a lesson for ourselves: God often teaches us by bitter disappointment and pain. Our familiar paths are barricaded by thorns, our familiar hidingplaces are blocked up, our fountains are poisoned, and all our pleasant things are laid waste. We sometimes suppose that this is in wrath; may it not rather be in love? God is reaching us the good by us the evil; is urging us to tread in the pleasant ways of wisdom, by allowing us to prove the sharp flints and thorns of transgression. Then Ephraim bemoans himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed to the yoke: turn Thou me, and I shall be turned. Then the soul cries, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.
Sit in God's school, and learn from his Word and Spirit, that He may not be compelled to have recourse to such severe measures as these. Why shouldst thou be afflicted, when He is willing to instruct and teach thee in the way that thou shouldst go!
F. B. Meyer
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Blessed are the pure in heart, He said, for they shall see God. Now, to see God is not to set our eyes on Him. It is to have a living faith that He exists. It is to believe, what Christ Himself believed, that He is a loving and redeeming Father. It is to believe that just because He loves us He is guiding us with perfect understanding and carrying out His purpose in the world. A faith like that al...ters the whole of life and makes the sun shine in the darkest day. A faith like that is better than a fortune. It inspires serenity and courage. And the one condition of that faith, according to the teaching of our Lord, is not intellectual but moral. To be pure of heart is not to be perfect, else were there no hope for any man. It is to be sincere and single-eyed. It is to refuse to juggle with our conscience. It is to hold to it through every temptation that the imperious voice of conscience must be heeded, and that love and truth and purity and loyalty are demanded at whatsoever cost. Live like that, says Jesus, and you will never live long in a godless universe. Do your duty, as conscience tells you to, and God will surely bless in your life. The strange thing is that with Jesus, as with Paul, there is no word of intellectual processes. The conditions of belief are moral.
George H. Morrison
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"Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses." Psalm 107:5, 6
Until they wandered in the wilderness--until they felt it to be a solitary way, until they found no city to dwell in, until hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them--there was no cry. There might have been prayer, a desir...e, a feeble wish, and now and then a sigh or a groan. But this was not enough. Something more was wanted to draw forth lovingkindness out of the bosom of the compassionate Head of the Church. A cry was wanted,--a cry of distress, a cry of soul trouble, a cry forced out of their hearts by heavy burdens. And a cry implies necessity, urgent want, a perishing without an answer to the cry. It is the breath of a soul bent upon having eternal realities brought into the conscience, or perishing without them. It is this solemn feeling in the heart that there is no other refuge but God. The Lord brings all his people here--to have no other refuge but himself. Friends, counsellors, acquaintance--these may sympathise, but they cannot afford relief. There is no refuge, nor shelter, nor harbour, nor home into which they can fly, except the Lord. Thus troubles bring us to deal with God in a personal manner. They chase away that halfhearted religion of which we have so much; and they drive out that notional experience and dry profession that we are so often satisfied with. They chase them away as a strong north wind chases away the mists; and they bring a man to this solemn spot that he must have communications from God to support him under, and bring him out of his trouble; and if a man is not brought to this point by his troubles, they have done him no good. But what a mercy it is when there is a cry! and when the Lord sends a cry in the trouble, he is sure in his own time and way to send deliverance out of it.
J. C. Philpot
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Safety, Security And Belonging
Philippians 4:19
My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus
Not only was Adam given a significant, authoritative role at creation, he also enjoyed a sense of safety and security. All his needs were provided for (Genesis 1:29). Adam was completely cared for in the garden. He had plenty to eat and there was plenty for the animals. He could eat of the tree of life and live forever in God's presence. He lacked nothing.
When Adam sinned, he lost that sense of safety and security. Before, he was naked and unashamed. After, he wanted to hide from God and cover up. The first emotion expressed by fallen humanity was fear.
Safety and security is another facet of our inheritance in Christ. We have the riches of His kingdom at our disposal and His promise to supply all our needs.
Adam and Eve also experienced a sense of belonging in that perfect garden. Adam apparently enjoyed intimate, one-on-one communion with God before Eve was created. Then God said it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). So He gave Eve to Adam--and Adam to Eve--to enrich his experience of belonging.
Before the Fall, Adam and Eve had a sense of belonging. But after the Fall they felt rejected, experiencing a need to belong. It is one of our greatest needs today. Notice that what were attributes before the Fall became needs after the Fall.
I believe that a true sense of belonging today comes not only from knowing that we belong to God, but also from belonging to each other. When God created Eve He established human community. It's not good for us to be alone. Aloneness can lead to loneliness. God's preventative for loneliness is intimacy--meaningful, open, sharing relationships with one another. In Christ we have the capacity for the fulfilling sense of belonging which comes from intimate fellowship with God and with other believers.
Neil T. Anderson
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God Never Forsakes
"For the LORD will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance" (Psalm 94:14).
No, nor will He cast even so much as one of them. Man has his castoffs, but God has none; for His choice is unchangeable, and His love is everlasting. None can find out a single person whom God has forsaken after having revealed Himself savingly to him. This grand truth is m...entioned in the psalm to cheer the heart of the afflicted. The LORD chastens His own; but He never forsakes them. The result of the double work of the law and the rod is our instruction, and the fruit of that instruction is a quieting of spirit, a sobriety of mind, out of which comes rest. The ungodly are let alone till the pit is digged into which they will fall and be taken; but the godly are sent to school to be prepared for their glorious destiny hereafter. Judgment will return and finish its work upon the rebels, but it will equally return to vindicate the sincere and godly. Hence we may bear the rod of chastisement with calm submission; it means not anger, but love.
God may chasten and correct,
But He never can neglect;
May in faithfulness reprove,
But He ne'er can cease to love.
Charles Spurgeon
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What to Do When Trouble Comes
Fight the good fight of the faith.
1 Timothy 6:12
... Sooner or later we all have some trouble in life. We all have some trials and some tribulations. Everybody goes through times of testing. And not every storm shows up in the forecast. Some days we can wake up and think everything is going to be great. Before that day is over, we may be tested by all kinds of trouble that we were not expecting.
Trouble is part of life, so we simply have to be ready for it. We need to have a planned response to trouble, because it is more difficult to get strong after trouble comes. It is better to be prepared by staying strong.
The first thing you need to do when trouble comes is pray, "God, help me stay emotionally stable." Do not let your emotions overwhelm you. The next thing you need to do is trust God. The instant that fear rises up, pray.
Stay emotionally stable, trust God, and pray. Then while you are waiting for God to answer, simply keep doing good. Keep your commitments. Do not stop serving the Lord just because you have a problem.
The greatest time in the world to keep your commitments to God is in the midst of difficulty and adversity. When the devil sees that trials and tribulations won't stop you, he will stop troubling you for a while.
To be prepared for the next time you find yourself in a difficult situation, practice saying, "I am going to be faithful to God, and God is going to give me double for my trouble. Satan, you thought you were going to hurt me, but I am going to get a double blessing, because I am one who diligently seeks the Lord."
Joyce Meyer
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11/16/2011
Don’t Leave Feeling Unforgiven
By Max Lucado
He called you to share in his glory in Christ, a glory that will continue forever.
1 Peter 5:10
To believe we are totally and eternally debt free is seldom easy. We doubt. And as a result, many are forgiven only a little, not because the grace of God is limited, but because the faith of the sinner is small. God is willing to forgive all. He’s willing to wipe the slate clean.
He invites you to a pool of mercy and invites you to bathe. Plunge in. Don’t just touch the surface. Don’t leave feeling unforgiven.
Where the grace of God is embraced, forgiveness flourishes.
I Peter 5:10 says, “He called you to share in his glory in Christ, a glory that will continue forever.”
And what you’ll discover is—the more you immerse yourself in grace, the more likely you are to give grace.
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"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day" (Matt. xxv. 13).
Jesus illustrates the unexpectedness of His coming by the figure of a thief entering a house when the master was not there. Life, like the old Jewish night, may be divided into three watches, youth, maturity, old age. The summons to meet God may come to us in either of these watches.
A writer tells us of his... experience with a camping party, of which he was a member, and which, he tells us, always arranged to have watches at night. "We became especially careful after what I am about to narrate happened. During the first night, from sunset to sunrise, we had in turn carefully guarded our camp.
But when the next night came, so impressed were we with the orderly character of the neighborhood, that we concluded that no guard was needed until bedtime.
Within our main tent the evening was spent in story-telling, singing and general amusement. When the hour to retire arrived, it was discovered that our other tents had been robbed and everything of value stolen. The work was done before we thought a guard necessary." It is never too soon to begin watching against sin.
A. B. Simpson
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Instant Obedience
"In the selfsame day, as God had said unto him" (Gen. 17:23).
Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Every time God calls us to any duty, He is offering to make a covenant with us; doing the duty is our part, and He will do His part in special blessing.
...
The only way we can obey is to obey "in the selfsame day," as Abraham did. To be sure, we often postpone a duty and then later on do it as fully as we can. It is better to do this than not to do it at all. But it is then, at the best, only a crippled, disfigured, half-way sort of duty-doing; and a postponed duty never can bring the full blessing that God intended, and that it would have brought if done at the earliest possible moment.
It is a pity to rob ourselves, along with robbing God and others, by procrastination. "In the selfsame day" is the Genesis way of saying, "Do it now." --Messages for the Morning Watch
Luther says that "a true believer will crucify the question, 'Why?' He will obey without questioning." I will not be one of those who, except they see signs and wonders, will in no wise believe. I will obey without questioning.
"Ours not to make reply,
Ours not to reason why,
Ours but to do and die."
Obedience is the fruit of faith; patience, the bloom on the fruit. --Christina Rossetti
From Streams in the Desert
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Then the house was filled with a Cloud. 2 Chron. v. 13.
THIS was the bright Shekinah cloud, the symbol of the Divine Presence, which had shone for Moses in the bush, and led the march through the desert. It was as though God had found a rest. And as it settled upon the Most Holy Place, it was as though God said, This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it.
...
The Most Holy Place is the symbol of our spirit, meant to be the abiding place and home of God; and shall we not invite the blessed Shekinah cloud to enter thither, addressing it in the words of the Psalm, "Arise, 0 Lord, into thy resting place, Thou and the ark of thy strength." Because where He comes to abide He abundantly blesses the provision, and satisfies the poor with bread; He clothes his priests with salvation, and makes his saints shout aloud for joy; He erects the horn of strength and prepares the lamp of light. What were the conditions of this incoming?
First, UNITY. "The trumpeters and singers were as one." We must put away strife, divisions, variance, and evil speaking. Our heart and life must be full of love. When the disciples were with one accord,. in one place, the Spirit descended.
Second, HEARTINESS. "They lifted up their voice." There was every symptom of sincerity and fervour.
Third, THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE. "They praised the Lord, saying, He is good, for his mercy endureth for ever." No refrain occurs oftener in the Bible than this. It is an exquisite expression of the heart's joy and rest in God. Let us sing it in our darkest, as well as gladdest hours, full of trust, thanksgiving, and praise.
F. B. Meyer
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There must be peace within, and the joy that comes from peace, if the smallest task is to be well done. And that is why the Gospel of Christ Jesus which through the precious blood brings peace of conscience, has given the world a new ideal of work and enriched the humblest worker with new joy. Study to be quiet, then, and do your business. Make it your ambition to have the rest of Christ. A heart tumultuous and burning and restless is a sorry comrade for the leaden days. But a heart at peace, and passions in subjection, and a conscience void of offence towards God and man, will send a man whole-heartedly to duty and help to make that duty a delight.
George H. Morrison
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"They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in." Psalm 107:4
"They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way;"--a way not tracked; a path in which each has to walk alone; a road where no company cheers him, and without landmarks to direct his course. This is a mark peculiar to the child of God--that the path by which he travels is, in his own fe...elings, a solitary way. This much increases his exercises, that they appear peculiar to himself. His perplexities are such as he cannot believe any living soul is exercised with; the fiery darts which are cast into his mind by the wicked one are such as he thinks no child of God has ever experienced; the darkness of his soul, the unbelief and infidelity of his heart, and the workings of his powerful corruptions, are such as he supposes none ever knew but himself. To be without any comfort except what God gives, without any guidance but what the Lord affords, without any support but what springs from the everlasting arms laid underneath; in a word, to be in that state where the Lord alone must appear, and where he alone can deliver, is very painful. But it is the very painful nature of the path that makes it so profitable. We need to be cut off from resting upon an arm of flesh; to be completely divorced from all props to support our souls, except that Almighty prop which cannot fail. And the Lord will take care that his people shall deal only with himself; that they shall have no real comfort but that which springs from his presence, and no solid testimonies but those which are breathed into their conscience from his own lips. His object is to draw us away from the creature; to take us off from leaning on human pity and compassion; and to bring us to trust implicitly on himself, "whose compassions fail not,"--to lean wholly and solely upon him.
J. C. Philpot
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The Significant Dominion
Genesis 1:26
Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth
... In the original creation, Adam didn't search for significance; he was significant. He was given rule over all His creatures. Was Satan on the scene at creation? Yes. Was he the god of this world at that time? Not at all. Who had the dominion in the garden? Under the authority of God, Adam did, that is until Satan usurped his dominion when Adam and Eve fell. That's when Satan became the god of this world.
Do you realize that the significant dominion Adam exercised before the Fall has been restored to you as a Christian? That's part of your inheritance in Christ. Satan has no authority over you, even though he will try to deceive you into believing that he has. Because of your position in Christ, you have authority over him. You are seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6).
First John 3:8 says, "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil." The whole plan of God is to restore fallen humanity and establish the kingdom of God where Satan now reigns. This work of God is not just for our personal victory but for all of creation. "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:19-21).
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that I am part of Your redemptive plan. Show me my responsibility so I may live a life of purpose.
Neil T. Anderson
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Weapons Doomed to Fail
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn" (Isaiah 54:17).
There is great clatter in the forges and smithies of the enemy. They are I making weapons wherewith to smite the saints. They could not even do as much as this if the LORD of saints did not allow them; for He has created th...e smith that bloweth the coals in the fire. But see how busily they labor! How many swords and spears they fashion! It matters nothing, for on the blade of every weapon you may read this inscription: It shall not Prosper. But now listen to another noise: it is the strife of tongues. Tongues are more terrible instruments than can be made with hammers and anvils, and the evil which they inflict cuts deeper and spreads wider. What will become of us now? Slander, falsehood, insinuation, ridicule-these are poisoned arrows; how can we meet them? The LORD God promises us that, if we cannot silence them, we shall, at least, escape from being ruined by them. They condemn us for the moment, but we shall condemn them at last and forever. The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped, and their falsehoods shall be turned to the honor of those good men who suffered by them.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/15/2011
Received—Not Earned
By Max Lucado
For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:17
Can you imagine prospective parents saying, “We’d like to adopt Johnny, but first we want to know a few things. Will he be a good child? Healthy always? Oh, and can he fix his own meals? Do his own laundry?”
No agency would stand for such talk. They’d say, “Wait a minute. You don’t understand. You don’t adopt this child because of what he has; you adopt him because of what he needs. He needs a home.”
The same is true with God.
John 3:17 says, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
He doesn’t adopt us because of what we have. He doesn’t give us His name because of our intelligence, or our wallet or good attitude.… Adoption is something we receive, not something we earn.
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"Oh, man of desires" (margin) (Dan. x. 11).
This was the divine character given to Daniel of old. It is translated in our version, "O man, greatly beloved." But it literally means "O man of desires!" This is a necessary element in all spiritual forces.
It is one of the secrets of effectual prayer, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them...." The element of strong desire gives momentum to our purposes and prayers. Indifference is an unwholesome condition; indolence and apathy are offensive both to God and nature.
And so in our spiritual life, God often has to wake us up by the presence of trying circumstances, and push us into new places of trust by forces that we must subdue, or sink beneath their power. There is no factor in prayer more effectual than love. If we are intensely interested in an object, or an individual, our petitions become like living forces, and not only convey their wants to God, but in some sense convey God's help back to them.
May God fill us to-day with the heart of Christ that we may glow with the Divine fire of holy desire.
A. B. Simpson
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~Can Thine Heart Endure?
"We know not what we should pray for as we ought" (Rom. 8:26).
Much that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the answer to our prayers. We pray for patience, and our Father sends those who tax us to the utmost; for "tribulation worketh patience."
...
We pray for submission, and God sends sufferings; for "we learn obedience by the things we suffer."
We pray for unselfishness, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking on the things of others, and by laying down our lives for the brethren.
We pray for strength and humility, and some messenger of Satan torments us until we lie in the dust crying for its removal.
We pray, "Lord, increase our faith," and money takes wings; or the children are alarmingly ill; or a servant comes who is careless, extravagant, untidy or slow, or some hitherto unknown trial calls for an increase of faith along a line where we have not needed to exercise much faith before.
We pray for the Lamb-life, and are given a portion of lowly service, or we are injured and must seek no redress; for "he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and...opened not his mouth."
We pray for gentleness, and there comes a perfect storm of temptation to harshness and irritability. We pray for quietness, and every nerve is strung to the utmost tension, so that looking to Him we may learn that when He giveth quietness, no one can make trouble.
We pray for love, and God sends peculiar suffering and puts us with apparently unlovely people, and lets them say things which rasp the nerves and lacerate the heart; for love suffereth long and is kind, love is not impolite, love is not provoked. LOVE BEARETH ALL THINGS, believeth, hopeth and endureth, love never faileth. We pray for likeness to Jesus, and the answer is, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." "Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?" "Are ye able?"
The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving Father; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the Throne, and to look down from the Glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed. --Selected
I prayed for strength, and then I lost awhile
All sense of nearness, human and divine;
The love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart,
The hands I clung to loosed themselves from mine;
But while I swayed, weak, trembling, and alone,
The everlasting arms upheld my own.
I prayed for light; the sun went down in clouds,
The moon was darkened by a misty doubt,
The stars of heaven were dimmed by earthly fears,
And all my little candle flames burned out;
But while I sat in shadow, wrapped in night,
The face of Christ made all the darkness bright.
I prayed for peace, and dreamed of restful ease,
A slumber drugged from pain, a hushed repose;
Above my head the skies were black with storm,
And fiercer grew the onslaught of my foes;
But while the battle raged, and wild winds blew,
I heard His voice and Perfect peace I knew.
I thank Thee, Lord, Thou wert too wise to heed
My feeble prayers, and answer as I sought,
Since these rich gifts Thy bounty has bestowed
Have brought me more than all I asked or thought;
Giver of good, so answer each request
With Thine own giving, better than my best.
--Annie Johnson Flint
From Streams in the Desert
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Ah, what a God is ours, who loves with a love that passeth knowledge; and when He gives, exceeds abundance, however much we may have asked or thought. How truly may we say with the psalmist, "Many, 0 Lord my God, are the wonderful works that Thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us ward. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."
F. B. Meyer
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Remember you can be a comfort to another though you never know anything about it. Just as the finest influence we exercise is often that of which we are unconscious, so the greatest comfort that we bring is often the comfort we know nothing of--not our preaching nor our words of cheer, but the way in which we bear ourselves in life when the burden is heavy and the sky is black. "No man liveth to h...imself." Let men or women behave gallantly and behave so because they trust in God when life is difficult, when things go wrong, when health is falling, when the grave is opened; and though they may never hear a whisper of it, there are others who are thanking God for them. Every sorrow borne in simple faith is helping other men to bear their sorrows. Every burden victoriously carried is helping men and women to be braver. Every cross, anxiety, foreboding, shining with the serenity of trust, comes like light to those who sit in darkness. People say sometimes, "I would give anything to comfort so and so." Dear friend, if you walk in light and love, you are a comfort when you never know it. And other people, writing their epistle (though it will never be equal to Colossians), will put your name in to your intense surprise and say,"You were a comfort unto me."
George H. Morrison
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"But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark." Genesis 8:9
What a restless being is a tempted child of God! How unable he often is even to rest locally, to take his chair, and sit quietly by his fire-side! Like Noah's dove, he can find no rest for the sole of his foot on the floating carcases of a ruined world. It is recorded of the pri...soners, who in the first French revolution were awaiting in their dungeons the summons to the dread tribunal of blood, that some passed nearly the whole of their time in walking up and down their cells. So sometimes under trials and temptations, we pace up and down the room as if we sought to dissipate the exercise of our minds by the exercise of our bodies; or rush into the streets and fields to pour the heart out in sighs and groans, the restless mind acting and reacting upon the body. And as an exercised child of God often cannot rest locally, so cannot he rest spiritually. He cannot rest in his own righteousness, nor in a sound creed, nor in a form of godliness, nor in the opinions of men, nor in anything that springs from or centres in the creature. There is always something uneasy, either in himself or in the ground on which he would repose. Sometimes it is strewed with thorns and briers; sometimes beset with sharp and rugged rocks. And yet, but for these restless, uneasy feelings, how many even of the Lord's own family would settle down short of gospel rest! Some would settle down in false religion; others in the world; some would make a god of their own righteousness; and others, like the foolish virgins, would securely sleep whilst their lamp was burning out. But there is that restless, painful exercise where the life and grace of God are, that the soul cannot, if it would, settle down in any rest but that of God's own providing. "There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God." That rest is Christ; the blood, righteousness, love, and grace of the Lamb of God.
J. C. Philpot
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As parents, we must help our children establish their relationship with God so they know what it means to be a child of God. Once they go off to school, you can't go with them, but God can and does. If we don't help them establish their identity in Christ, they will establish their identity in the world. If we don't give them an eternal purpose and meaning in life, they will establish a temporal purpose and meaning.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, guard my children from the conflicting messages and compromising values being thrown at them in the world today.
Neil T. Anderson
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Limitless Riches
"My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
Paul's God is our God and will supply all our need. Paul felt sure of this in reference to the Philippians, and we feel sure of it as to ourselves. God will do it, for it is like Him: He loves us, He delights to bless us, and it will glorify Him to do so. His pity, His po...wer, His love, His faithfulness, all work together that we be not famished. What a measure doth the LORD go by: "According to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." The riches of His grace are large, but what shall we say of the riches of His glory? His "riches of glory by Christ Jesus"-who shall form an estimate of this? According to this immeasurable measure will God fill up the immense abyss of our necessities. He makes the LORD Jesus the receptacle and the channel of His fullness, and then He imparts to us His wealth of love in its highest form. Hallelujah! The writer knows what it is to be tried in the work of the LORD. Fidelity has been recompensed with anger, and liberal givers have stopped their subscriptions; but he whom they sought to oppress has not been one penny the ~ nay, rather he has been the richer; for this promise has been true, "My God shall supply all your need." God's supplies are surer than any bank.
Charles Spurgeon
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The Will of God
“For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother.” Mark 3:35
Major Ian Thomas, English author and founder of a worldwide missionary fellowship, once wrote, “Which of these things in the life of Jesus is more spiritual? When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount? When He raised Lazarus from the dead? When He washed His disciples’ feet? O...r when He spat on the ground and made clay to anoint the blind man’s eyes? None was more spiritual than the other. Jesus did not divide His life up into little segments of spirituality. He was simply available to do whatever His Father willed.” The will of God is not a road map. It is a relationship! You just simply set yourself apart to do the will of God.
Are you segregating your life into activities that are more spiritual than others? Surrender all you are to Him and make yourself available for whatever He calls you to do today.
Adrian Rogers
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11/14/2011
A Fire Burning
By Max Lucado
“The Lord hates what evil people do, but He loves those who do what is right.” Proverbs 15:9
Without forgiveness, bitterness is all that’s left.
Maybe it’s an old wound. A parent abused you. A mate betrayed you. And you’re angry.
Perhaps the wound is fresh. The friend who owes you money just drove by in a new car. The boss who hired you with promises of promotions has forgotten how to pronounce your name.
And you’re hurt! There’s a fire burning in your heart. It’s the fire of anger. And you’re left with a decision.
Do I get over it or get even? Do I let my hurts heal, or do I let hurt turn into hate?
Proverbs 15:9 says “The Lord hates what evil people do, but He loves those who do what is right.”
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"The things which are seen are temporal" (II. Cor. iv. 18).
How strong is the snare of the things that are seen, and how necessary for God to keep us in the things that are unseen! If Peter is to walk on the water, he must walk; if he is going to swim, he must swim, but he cannot do both. If the bird is going to fly it must keep away from the fences and the trees, and trust to its bu...oyant wings. But if it tries to keep within easy reach of the ground, it will make poor work of flying.
God had to bring Abraham to the end of his own strength, and to let him see that in his own body he could do nothing. He had to consider his own body as good as dead, and then take God for the whole work, and when he looked away from himself, and trusted God alone, then He became fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.
This is what God is teaching us, and He has to keep away encouraging results until we learn to trust without them, and then He loves to make His word real in fact as well as faith.
Let us look only to Him to-day to do all things as He shall choose and in the way He shall choose.
A. B. Simpson
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The Discipline of Faith
"All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).
The "all things" do not always come simply for the asking, for the reason that God is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith, and in our training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith, and often... many stages are passed before we really realize what is the end of faith, namely, the victory of faith.
Real moral fibre is developed through discipline of faith. You have made your request of God, but the answer does not come. What are you to do?
Keep on believing God's Word; never be moved away from it by what you see or feel, and thus as you stand steady, enlarged power and experience is being developed. The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction as to God's Word and being unmoved from your position of faith make you stronger on every other line.
Often God delays purposely, and the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes.
In the lives of all the great Bible characters, God worked thus. Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not great in the beginning, but were made great through the discipline of their faith, and only thus were they fitted for the positions to which God had called them.
For example, in the case of Joseph whom the Lord was training for the throne of Egypt, we read in the Psalms:
"The word of the Lord tried him." It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him, but it was the word God had spoken into his heart in the early years concerning elevation and honor which were greater than his brethren were to receive; it was this which was ever before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible of fulfillment, until he was there imprisoned, and all in innocency, while others who were perhaps justly incarcerated, were released, and he was left to languish alone.
These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth and development, that, "when his word came" (the word of release), found him fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a love and patience only surpassed by God Himself.
No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these. When God has spoken of His purpose to do, and yet the days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard; but it is a discipline of faith that will bring us into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.
Streams from the Desert
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He set up the pillars before the Temple, . . . Jachin and Boaz. 2 Chron. iii. 17.
THE meaning of these names is significant He shall establish, and In it is strength. Each speaks of Him of whom the whole temple was a type. The Lord Jesus has established the work of redemption so that it shall never be removed; has established the covenant, ordered in all things and sure; has establish...ed his Church, so that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it; has established us before the face of his Father for evermore.
There is much in the New Testament about the established life. It is the desire of Peter that the scattered saints should be perfected, established, and strengthened. Paul desires to see the Roman Christians, that he may impart some spiritual gift so that they may be established: he desires that the Colossians may be built up in Christ, and established in the faith. The Epistle to the Hebrews says that it is good for the heart to be established with grace. Let us ask that Jesus should establish us in the Divine life, rooting and grounding us in love and faith, so that we may not be moved away from the Gospel, but abound therein with thanksgiving.
It is only as we abide in Jesus, that we shall become steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding.
But Christ is also our strong Helper. We have no strength of our own; but He is strong; and in Him we have righteousness and strength. Let its make our refuge in Him, as the conies, who are a feeble folk, do in the rock. They who abide in Jesus derive from Him fresh supplies of strength for each moment's need. They hear Him saying, "Fear not, I will strengthen, yea, I will help thee"; and they learn to say with Paul: "I can do all things in Christ that strengtheneth me."
F. B. Meyer
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There was an enthusiasm and a concentration about Paul which have won the admiration of men of all time. "One thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, I press towards the mark," says the apostle; and whatsoever he did, he did it heartily as unto the Lord who loved him so. It is so easy to preach and never intend to practice. It is so hard to practice first and then to preach.
George H. Morrison
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Prune thou thy words, thy thoughts control
That o'er thee swell and throng;
They shall condense within thy soul
And change to purpose strong.
George H. Morrison
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I believe that the secret of all worthwhile living lies in the company of Jesus Christ. And for making us earnest, thorough, quietly resolute, no matter what fickleness or cowardice we start with, there is really nothing like fellowship with Him. Do you want to be truer? Get a little closer. Are you ashamed of your half-heartedness? Get nearer. Then back to your work again, alone yet not alone: for the time flies and eternity is near, and you shall pass this way but once.
George H. Morrison
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"And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables." Mark 4:11
By "the kingdom of God" is meant the same thing as "the kingdom of heaven," that is, the internal kingdom set up in the heart by the power of the Spirit--that kingdom which shall stand for ever and ever, and last whe...n time shall be no more. This the Lord calls a mystery. And if it is a mystery, it will have these three marks; it will be beyond nature, sense, and reason, will be hidden from the wise and prudent, and will be revealed unto babes. Let us see if we can find these marks belonging to the kingdom of heaven set up in the heart. It certainly is above nature, sense, and reason, that God should dwell in a man's heart, as the Apostle says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory;" and again, "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (2 Cor. 6:16). That God should take up his abode in a man's heart; that Christ should be in a man; and the Holy Ghost should make the body of his saints his temple; how can nature, sense, and reason understand such a mystery as this? When one of the ancient martyrs, I think it was Polycarp, was brought before Trajan, when the Emperor asked him his name, he answered, "I am Polycarp, the God-bearer, for I carry God in me!" At this answer the Emperor laughed, and said, "Let him be thrown to the wild beasts." That was the only answer a persecuting tyrant could give. That a man frail and feeble, whom a lion could tear to pieces in a few moments, carried God in his bosom!--how could the wise and prudent Trajan believe a thing so unheard of? Yet it is a mystery revealed to babes; for they receive it in the love of it under divine teaching, as one of the mysteries that God the Spirit makes known in the heart.
J. C. Philpot
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Standing Firm with Jesus
John 10:7-10
In our daily routine, it is easy to live with a worldly mindset. When our thoughts turn away from God, we can become dangerously self-dependent. In such situations, there is a spiritual battle ensuing, with high stakes. Victory demands more than floating through each day. This war requires our alert and purposeful reliance upon Christ.
First Peter 5:8 warns us, "Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." The Enemy knows our nature and weaknesses. He whispers doubt and deception in order to accomplish his goal.
We know that the ultimate victory is God's, but Satan's traps still lead many astray. How can we avoid giving in to the temptation that leads away from God's best for our lives and causes devastation?
Jesus was tempted during His 40-day fast in the wilderness. Consider how He stood firm against the Enemy: He stayed connected to His Father and submitted to God's will. We can likewise surrender daily to the Father's way, dying to our own desires and plans. And notice that when our Lord encountered a temptation, He resisted Satan with Scripture. The best weapon for fighting falsehood is truth. And we can emulate Jesus, who knew He had authority over Satan and commanded him to flee.
Don't let the world lull you into managing life on your own. There's a battle raging, and you have an enemy whose goal is to take your eyes off Christ, to destroy your life, and to steal glory from God. Our King has the victory, but we must remain alert and connected to His truth.
Charles Stanley
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From Generation To Generation
Exodus 20:5
I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me
The fact that demonic strongholds can be passed on from one generation to the next is well-attested by those who counsel the afflicted. This is not to deny that many problems are transmitted genetically or acquired from an immoral atmosphere. All three conditions can predispose an individual to a particular sin.
When you tear down a satanic stronghold which has been established in your family, expect resistance. One of my seminary students sat stunned after praying through this issue. "I can't believe it," he exclaimed. "I had to hang onto my chair to keep from running out of the room during that last prayer."
"What's your family heritage?" I asked.
"My mother is a psychic, totally into New Age!"
The devil doesn't want to give up his territory and will try to interrupt you when you take authority over him.
A very mature and responsible couple approached me at a couples' retreat and expressed their frustration for not being able to resolve their conflicts. I learned that the woman's mother was into Christian Science and had expressed at her birth, "This is not my child!" I led this dear woman in renouncing any familiar spirits passed on intergenerationally. The change in her life was remarkable as she claimed her position in Christ.
If you suspect that a satanic stronghold was established in your family, pray the following prayer:
Prayer: Lord, I ask You to point out any satanic strongholds that may have been established in my family. Give me Your courage to stand up to the resistance I will encounter.
Neil T. Anderson
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The Name to Use
"If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:14).
What a wide promise! Anything! Whether large or small, all my needs are covered by that word anything. Come, my soul, be free at the mercy seat, and hear thy LORD saying to thee, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." What a wise promise! We are always to ask in the name of Jesus. While this encourages us, i...t also honors Him. This is a constant plea. Occasionally every other plea is darkened, especially such as we could draw from our own relation to God or our experience of His grace; but at such times the name of Jesus is as mighty at the throne as ever, and we may plead it with full assurance. What an instructive prayer! I may not ask for anything to which I cannot put Christ's hand and seal. I dare not use my LORD's name to a selfish or willful petition. I may only use my LORD's name to prayers which He would Himself pray if He were in my case. It is a high privilege to be authorized to ask in the name of Jesus as if Jesus Himself asked; but our love to Him will never allow us to set that name where He would not have set it. Am I asking for that which Jesus approves? Dare I put His seal to my prayer? Then I have that which I seek of the Father.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/13/2011
Let Him Change Your Mind
By Max Lucado
Set your mind on the things above,
not on the things that are on earth.
Colossians 3:2 NASB
God…changes the man by changing the mind. And how does it happen? By…considering the glory of Christ…
To behold him is to become like him. As Christ dominates your thoughts, he changes you from one degree of glory to another until—hang on!—you are ready to live with him.
Heaven is the land of sinless minds…Absolute trust. No fear or anger. Shame and second guessing are practices of a prior life. Heaven will be wonderful, not because the streets are gold, but because our thoughts will be pure.
So what are you waiting on?...Give him your best thoughts, and see if he doesn’t change your mind.
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"Delight thyself in the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. 4).
There is a beautiful promise in the thirty-seventh Psalm, "Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart," which it is, perhaps, legitimate to translate, that not only does it mean the fulfilment of our desires, but even the inspiration of our desires, the inbreathing of His thoughts into us, so that our prayers shall... be in accord with His will and so shall bring back to us the unfailing answer of His mighty providence.
Teach me Thy thoughts, O God!
Think Thou, Thyself, in me,
Then shall I only always think
Thine own thoughts after Thee.
Teach me Thy thoughts, O God!
Show me Thy plan divine:
Save me from all my plans and works,
And lead me into Thine.
A. B. Simpson
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When first affliction comes upon us, how everything gives way! Our clinging, tendril hopes are snapped, and our heart lies prostrate like a vine that the storm has torn from its trellis; but when the first shock is past, and we are able to look up, and say, "It is the Lord," faith lifts the shattered hopes once more, and binds them fast to the feet of God. Thus the end is confidence, safety, and peace. --Selected
The adverse winds blew against my life;
My little ship with grief was tossed;
My plans were gone--heart full of strife,
And all my hope seemed to be lost--
"Then He arose"--one word of peace.
"There was a calm"--a sweet release.
A tempest great of doubt and fear
Possessed my mind; no light was there
To guide, or make my vision clear.
Dark night! 'twas more than I could bear--
"Then He arose," I saw His face--
"There was a calm" filled with His grace.
My heart was sinking 'neath the wave
Of deepening test and raging grief;
All seemed as lost, and none could save,
And nothing could bring me relief--
"Then He arose"--and spoke one word,
"There was a calm!" IT IS THE LORD..
--L. S. P.
From Streams in the Desert
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Because the Lord loveth His people, He hath made thee King over them. 2 Chron. ii. 11
HOW truly might these words be addressed to our blessed Lord! Because God loved the world, He gave his only begotten Son, his well beloved, to be both Prince and Saviour. And it is in knowing, loving, and serving Him that we can realize our supreme blessedness.
God's loving appointment in making Jesus King will be apparent when we remember how beautiful He is in his personal character; how closely He is identified with our nature; the might of his arm with which He shields, the patience wherewith He bears, the redemption which He has wrought out and brought in for all who believe. What could God's love have done better to approve itself?
Is He your King? Never till He is so, will you know the fulness of God's love. Those who question or refuse his authority are always in doubt about the love of God to themselves and to the world. Those, on the other hand, who acknowledge his claims, and crown Him as King, suddenly find themselves admitted to a standpoint of vision in which doubts and disputations vanish, and the secret love of God is unfolded. Then they experience the wise and gentle tendance of the Divine love in its most entrancing characteristics. All is love where Jesus reigns.
Nothing is more indicative of God's benevolence than his incessant appeal to men to make Jesus King. The demand may sometimes involve severe agony and suffering for those who have acknowledged other lords too long; but God persists in his demand, because only in serving Jesus can the human heart be truly blessed.
"Go, spread your trophies at his feet, And crown Him Lord of all!"
F. B. Meyer
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"Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens." Psalm 123:1
O how simple, suitable, complete, and blessed a remedy is this for all our distresses, when the Lord is pleased to open our eyes, and fix them on himself. He must do it all. If the eyes are to be upon him, he must first give us eyes; if lifted upon him, he must raise them upwards; if kept upon him, he must hold them waking. It is good to be in this spot. There are times and seasons, perhaps, when we seem to have no religion whatever; when we look, and look, and look, and cannot find a grain. Where is our spirituality? where our heavenly affections? where our prayerfulness of spirit? where our tenderness of conscience? where our godly fear? where our meditations upon God's word? We look, and look, and look--they seem gone. Now, perhaps, in the midst of this uncertainty we are brought into some painful exercise, some affliction, some temptation, some apprehension, something that lies with weight and power upon the soul. Now is the time we want our religion. But it is gone, it is gone, leaving us empty, needy, naked, and bare; religion, as regards its blessedness and comfort, we seem to have none. This is emptying work; this is stripping the soul as it were to the very bone. But what a preparation to receive the religion which is from above! How the vessel must be emptied of the dirty water of creature religion, well rinsed, and washed out, to have the pure water of heavenly religion communicated from the divine fountain. God never mingles the pure stream of heavenly religion with the dirty, filthy water of our own creature religion. We must be emptied of every drop, so to speak, of our natural religion, to have the holy and spiritual religion, which is from above, poured into the soul. But to look, and look, and look, and find nothing but emptiness, nakedness, barrenness, and destitution--to have a "great company" of enemies all coming against us, and we as weak as water--what an emptying for divine filling, what a stripping for divine clothing, and what a bringing down of self for the raising up of Christ. True religion consists mainly in two points--to be emptied, stripped, made naked and bare; and then to be clothed and filled out of Christ's fulness.
J. C. Philpot
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Complete In Christ
Colossians 2:10
In Him you have been made complete
... Colossians 2:6-10 reveals three levels in our relationship with Christ. If we are going to present every believer complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28), our discipleship must acknowledge the following order.
Level One ensures that our identity is firmly rooted in Him . This entails:
Leading individuals to Christ and directing them to their scriptural assurance of salvation; Guiding them to a true knowledge of God and who they are in Christ; Helping them see the ways they are still playing God or rebelling against God's authority; Breaking down their defenses against rejection by accepting and affirming them.
Level Two deals with the issue of maturity in Christ, which Paul alluded to as "being built up in Him" (verse 7). The second level of discipleship is to accept God's goal of sanctification and grow in Christlikeness. This entails:
Helping people learn to walk by the Spirit and by faith; Helping them get off the emotional roller coaster by focusing their thoughts on God instead of their circumstances; Encouraging them to develop self-control; Challenging them to resolve personal problems by forgiving others and seeking forgiveness.
Level Three reflects the issue of our daily walk in Christ, which is possible when our identity and maturity are in Christ. The third level of discipleship is to help believers live responsibly in Christ in their homes, on their jobs, and in society. The effective Christian walk involves the proper exercise of spiritual gifts, talents, and intellect in serving others and being a positive witness in the world.
Prayer: Lord, I desire to be firmly rooted and built up in Christ today so I may walk in Him.
Neil T. Anderson
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The Unfailing Watch
"Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:4).
Jehovah is "the Keeper of Israel." No form of unconsciousness ever steals over Him, neither the deeper slumber nor the slighter sleep. He never fails to watch the house and the heart of His people. This is a sufficient reason for our resting in perfect peace. Alexander said that he slept becaus...e his friend Parmenio watched; much more may we sleep because our God is our guard. "Behold" is here set up to call our attention to the cheering truth. Israel, when he had a stone for his pillow, fell asleep; but His God was awake and came in vision to His servant. When we lie defenseless, Jehovah Himself will cover our head. The LORD keeps His people as a rich man keeps his treasure, as a captain keeps a city with a garrison, as a sentry keeps watch over his sovereign. None can harm those who are in such keeping. Let me put my soul into His dear hands. He never forgets us, never ceases actively to care for us, never finds Himself unable to preserve us. O my LORD, keep me, lest I wander and fall and perish. Keep me, that I may keep Thy commandments. By Thine unslumbering care prevent my sleeping like the sluggard and perishing like those who sleep the sleep of death.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/12/2011
Honest with God
By Max Lucado
... If you hide your sins, you will not succeed. Proverbs 28:13
Our [high school] baseball coach had a firm rule against chewing tobacco. We had a couple of players who were known to sneak a chew, and he wanted to call it to our attention.
He got our attention, all right. Before long we’d all tried it. A sure test of manhood was to take a chew when the pouch was passed down the bench. I had barely made the team; I sure wasn’t going to fail the test of manhood.
One day I’d just popped a plug in my mouth when one of the players warned, “Here comes the coach!” Not wanting to get caught, I did what came naturally, I swallowed. Gulp.
I added new meaning to the Scripture, “I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long.…” I paid the price for hiding my disobedience.
My body was not made to ingest tobacco. Your soul was not made to invest sin.
May I ask a frank question? Are you keeping any secrets from God? … Take a pointer from a nauseated third baseman. You’ll feel better if you get it out.
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"The earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (II. Cor. i. 22).
Life in earnest. What a rare, what a glorious spectacle! We see it in the Son of God, we see it in His apostle, we see it in every noble, consecrated and truly successful life.
Without it there may be a thousand good things, but they lack the golden thread that binds them all into a chain of power and permanence.... They are like a lot of costly and beautiful beads on a broken string, that fall into confusion, and are lost in the end for want of the bond that alone could bind them into a life of consistent and lasting power.
O for the baptism of fire! O for "THE EARNEST, THE SPIRIT!" O for lives that have but one thing to do or care for! O for the depth and everlasting strength of the heart of Christ within our breast, to love, to sacrifice, to realize, to persevere, to live and die like Him!
We are going forth with a trust so sacred,
And a truth so divine and deep,
With a message clear and a work so glorious,
And a charge--such a charge--to keep.
Let it be your greatest joy, my brother,
That the Lord can count on you;
And if all besides should fail and falter,
To your trust be always true.
A. B. Simpson
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Lie Still and Trust
"I had fainted unless...!(Ps. 27:13).
"FAINT NOT!"
How great is the temptation at this point! How the soul sinks, the heart grows sick, and the faith staggers under the keen trials and testings which come into our lives in times of special bereavement and suffering.
"I cannot bear up any longer, I am fainting under this providence. What shall I do? God tells me not to faint. But what can one do when he is fainting?"
What do you do when you are about to faint physically? You cannot do anything. You cease from your own doings. In your faintness, you fall upon the shoulder of some strong loved one. You lean hard. You rest. You lie still and trust.
It is so when we are tempted to faint under affliction. God's message to us is not, "Be strong and of good courage," for He knows our strength and courage have fled away. But it is that sweet word, "Be still, and know that I am God."
Hudson Taylor was so feeble in the closing months of his life that he wrote a dear friend: "I am so weak I cannot write; I cannot read my Bible; I cannot even pray. I can only lie still in God's arms like a little child, and trust."
This wondrous man of God with all his spiritual power came to a place of physical suffering and weakness where he could only lie still and trust.
And that is all God asks of you, His dear child, when you grow faint in the fierce fires of affliction. Do not try to be strong. Just be still and know that He is God, and will sustain you, and bring you through.
"God keeps His choicest cordials for our deepest faintings."
"Stay firm and let thine heart take courage" (Psa. 27:14, --After Osterwald).
Stay firm, He has not failed thee
In all the past,
And will He go and leave thee
To sink at last?
Nay, He said He will hide thee
Beneath His wing;
And sweetly there in safety
Thou mayest sing.
-Selected
From Streams in the Desert
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I will give thee riches. 2 Chron. 1. 11, 12
SOLOMON had chosen wisdom and knowledge that he might honour God in the sight of his people. And in return God honoured him, and supplemented his choice with abundant wealth.
This reminds one of the constant teaching of Jesus. He who seeks his life loses it; but to lose it is to save it in the best and deepest sense. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added.
The conception of life given in the Bible differs by a whole heaven from the maxims and practices of some good and earnest people. Their notion is that they must work for their living, "keep the wolf from the door," educate their children for successfully meeting the demands of life. These objects are legitimate; but they were never meant by God to be the supreme aim of his servants.
His object in our creation, redemption, and regeneration, was that we might serve his redemptive purposes in the world, manifest his character, do his will, win souls for his kingdom, administer the gifts with which He had entrusted us. He asks us to rise to this high calling, and give our whole life to its realization. He will be responsible for all else. It is surely his will that we should give ourselves to useful trades, and fill our days with honest toil; but the main purpose should ever be his glory, and the exemplification in word and act of his holy character. It we ask for wisdom to do this well, we shall get all eIse into the bargain. God is a being of perfect honour and integrity. And if we dare to make his service the main end of life, we shall find that no good thing will fail. He paves the streets of heaven with gold, and will not withhold it from his children, if they really need.
F. B. Meyer
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"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32
I have thought sometimes of the sweet figure of Solomon, as a type of Christ, in his royal munificence to the queen of Sheba. We read of him that he "gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave h...er of his royal bounty." So our Royal Benefactor gives more to the sons of men than is in their heart to ask for. And what he gives, he gives freely, out of his royal bounty. As freely as the rain drops from the sky; as freely as the sun casts forth his glorious beams and ripens the fruits of the field; as freely as the wind courses over the earth; as freely as the dew drops upon the morning grass; so free are the gifts of God to his Church and people. Indeed, in giving Christ, God gave everything. The Apostle declares, he "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." We must never look upon spiritual blessings as broken fragments of the love of God, mere shreds and patches, scattered crumbs, waifs and strays, like floating pieces of some shipwrecked vessel; but we must look on the blessings of the gospel as all stored up in Christ our covenant Head. Whatever is given, is given out of Christ, in whom it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell; and it is by virtue of union to him, and out of his fulness, that all these blessings are received. How can we lift up our thoughts--how raise up our hearts--adequately to conceive of the gift of God's only-begotten Son--his eternal Son--the Son of the Father in truth and love--given out of the bosom of God that he might become incarnate, suffer, bleed, and die; and by a suffering life and meritorious death offer a sacrifice acceptable to God, a sacrifice whereby the sins of God's people were for ever put away? The grand source of all the admiration and adoration and the eternal blessedness of the saints, will be the holy enjoyment of the mystery of an incarnate God. The incarnation of the second Person in the glorious Trinity--the eternal Son of the eternal Father--his taking human nature into union with his own divine Person--will be the mystery that will ravish the hearts and fill the lips of God's saints with an endless theme of admiration and joy through the countless ages of eternity.
J. C. Philpot
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Five Hindrances
James 1:25
One who looks intently at the perfect law . . . not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does
While God has given us an infallible guide to life--His Word--the truth he wants us to follow for our freedom can be obscured by our bias and selfish indulgence. In the twentieth-century Western church, I see at least five major hindrances which affect our understanding and application of the Word of God.
First, there is a tendency to make doctrine an end in itself. Christian maturity is not understanding the principles of the Bible; Christian maturity is character. If what we come to accept as truth doesn't affect our love for God and man, something is radically wrong (1 Timothy 1:5). "Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies" (1 Corinthians 8:1).
Second, we can learn a lot about God from Scripture and not know Him at all. Before his conversion, Paul knew the law, but he didn't recognize God in Christ when he saw Him. We're not asked to fall in love with doctrine. We're asked to fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Third, we often encourage memorizing Scripture instead of thinking scripturally. Our model should be, "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). We are to incarnate the Word of God. We are to have our lives transformed by it, and our minds renewed by it.
Fourth, we often hear the Word and then don't do it. The will of God is thwarted by educating people beyond their obedience. Jesus taught: "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them" (John 13:17).
Fifth, like the Pharisees, we tend to neglect the commandment of God and hold to the traditions of men (Mark 7:8). I believe this is one of the most serious problems affecting our churches today. Many seminary graduates are called as "new wine" (zealous to serve God according to the truth of His Word) to "old wineskin" churches (rooted in the traditions of men), and the results are disastrous for both.
Prayer: Lord, renew me today by Your Word. I want to grow in my love for You, not just the truth about You.
Neil T. Anderson
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Sanctified Souls Are Satisfied
"My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 31:14).
Note the "My" which comes twice: "My people shall be satisfied with My goodness." The kind of people who are satisfied with God are marked out as God's own. He is pleased with them, for they are pleased with Him. They call Him their God, and He calls them His people; He is satisfi...ed to take them for a portion, and they are satisfied with Him for their portion. There is a mutual communion of delight between God's Israel and Israel's God. These people are satisfied. This is a grand thing. Very few of the sons of men are ever satisfied, let their lot be what it may; they have swallowed the horse-leech, and it continually cries, "Give! give!" Only sanctified souls are satisfied souls. God Himself must both convert us and content us. It is no wonder that the LORD's people should be satisfied with the goodness of their LORD. Here is goodness without mixture, bounty without stint, mercy without chiding, love without change, favor without reserve. If God's goodness does not satisfy us, what will? What! are we still groaning? Surely there is a wrong desire within if it be one which God's goodness does not satisfy. LORD, I am satisfied. Blessed be Thy name.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/11/2011
Taking No Chances
By Max Lucado
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
For I am the Lord your God.
Isa. 43:2–3 NASB
With God—chance is eliminated.
God knows what is best. No struggle will come your way apart from his purpose, his presence, and his permission.
Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.”
What encouragement! You are never the victim of nature or the prey of fate. Chance is eliminated. You are more than a weather vane whipped about by the winds of fortune. Would God truly abandon you to the whims of drug-crazed thieves, greedy corporate raiders, or evil leaders? Perish the thought!
You live beneath the protective palm of a sovereign King who superintends every circumstance of your life, and delights in doing you good.
Remember this. Nothing comes your way that has not first passed through the filter of God’s love.
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"Reckon yourselves dead, indeed" (Rom. vi. 11).
Our life from the dead is to be followed up by the habit and attitude henceforth which is the logical outcome of all this. "Reckon yourselves dead indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, and yield yourselves unto God," not to die over again every day, "but, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as ins...truments of righteousness unto God."
Further His resurrection life is given to fit us for "the fellowship of His sufferings and to be made conformable unto His death."
It is intended to enable us to toil and suffer with rejoicing and victory. We "mount up with wings as eagles," that we may come back to "run and not be weary, to walk and not faint."
But let us not mistake the sufferings. They do not mean our sufferings, but His. They are not our struggles after holiness, our sicknesses and pains, but those higher sufferings which, with Him, we bear for others, and for a suffering church and a dying world. May God help us, henceforth, never to have another sorrow for ourselves, and put us at leisure, in the power of His resurrection, to bear His burdens and drink His cup.
A. B. Simpson
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Love Perfects Service
If one were asked to explain what life is, it might be difficult to give an answer. Perhaps we get nearest to life's deepest meaning when we interpret it in terms of service. All life is service. We all must serve to live. Obedience is the first condition of all progress. Hence Christ, the consummation of humanity, was among men as one who serveth.
George H. Morrison
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Love Perfects Relationships
If you were to ask me what it is that makes life rich, I should answer that chiefly it is life's relationships. It is in the ties which link it to the lives of others that life enlarges to its greatest measure. Just think how poor your life would be today if the cords were cut which bind you to your friends. Son, father, sister, brother, friend and comrade--what would life be without such words as these? For no man liveth to himself--when he attempts it he is no longer living. It is in its wide and various relationships that life is ennobled and enriched.
George H. Morrison
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Love Perfects Religion
It is just that and nothing else which makes ours the perfect religion. For the perfecting of religion love is needed, and that love has been revealed in Christ. God commendeth His own love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish. When we have gaz...ed upon the face of Christ, there are a thousand things we still may doubt; but there is one thing we can never doubt again, and that is the love of God. Love is the perfect bond between man and man. Love is the perfect bond between man and God. How shall we win it where everything is dark and a thousand divine providence's so baffling? Blessed Savior, we turn our hearts to Thee. We gaze upon Thy pierced hands and feet. He that hath seen Thee hath seen the Father. We rest at last upon the love of God.
George H. Morrison
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The Way Of Escape
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it
First Corinthians 10:13 is the shining good news in the midst of our fears and concerns about temptation. Where is the escape hatch that Paul is talking about here? In the same place temptation is introduced: in your mind. Every temptation is first a thought introduced to your mind by your own carnality or by the tempter himself. If you ruminate on that thought and consider it an option, you will eventually act on it, and that's sin. The first step for escaping temptation is to apprehend every thought as soon as it steps through the doorway of your mind.
Once you have halted a penetrating thought, the next step is to evaluate it on the basis of Paul's eightfold criterion for what we should think about in Philippians 4:8. Ask yourself, "Does this thought line up with God's truth? Is it suggesting that I do something honorable? Right? Pure? If this thought becomes action, will the outcome be lovely and contribute to excellence in my life? Will other believers approve of my actions? Is it something for which I can praise God?" If the answer to any of those questions is no, dismiss that thought immediately. Don't have anything more to do with it. If it keeps coming back, keep saying no. When you learn to respond to tempting thoughts by stopping them at the door of your mind, evaluating them on the basis of God's Word, and dismissing those which fail the test, you have found the way of escape that God's Word promises.
In contrast, if a thought enters your mind and it passes the Philippians 4:8 test of truth, honor, righteousness, etc., "let your mind dwell on these things" (verse 8) and "practice these things" (verse 9). "And the God of peace shall be with you" (verse 9), which is an infinitely better result than the pain and turmoil which follows when we yield to tempting thoughts and become involved in sinful behavior.
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for providing a way of escape from all my temptations. I am determined to win the battle for my mind.
Neil T. Anderson
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The LORD's Free Men
"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
Sin will reign if it can: it cannot be satisfied with any place below the throne of the heart. We sometimes fear that it will conquer us, and then we cry unto the LORD, "Let not any iniquity have dominion over me. This is His comforting answer: "Sin shall not have domin...ion over you. " It may assail you and even wound you, but it shall never establish sovereignty over you. If we were under the law, our sin would gather strength and hold us under its power; for it is the punishment of sin that a man comes under the power of sin. As we are under the covenant of grace, we are secured against departing from the living God by the sure declaration of the covenant. Grace is promised to us by which we are restored from our wanderings, cleansed from our impurities, and set free from the chains of habit. We must lie down in despair and be "content to serve the Egyptians" if we were still as slaves working for eternal life; but since we are the LORD's free men, we take courage to fight with our corruptions and temptations, being assured that sin shall never bring us under its sway again. God Himself giveth us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/10/2011
Pray!
By Max Lucado
Anyone who is having troubles should pray. Anyone who is happy should sing praises.
James 5:13
When a believing person prays—great things happen.
If you want to deepen your prayer life—pray. Don’t prepare to pray. Just pray. Don’t read about prayer. Just pray. Don’t attend a lecture on prayer or engage in discussion about prayer. Just pray.
James 5:13 says anyone who’s having troubles should pray. Anyone who’s happy should sing praises.
Posture, tone, and place are personal matters. Do what works for you. Just don’t overthink it. In other words, don’t be so concerned about wrapping the gift that you never give it. Better to pray awkwardly than not at all.
And if you feel you should only pray when you’re inspired, that’s okay. Just see to it that you are inspired every day.
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"But prayer was made without ceasing, of the church unto God for him" (Acts xii. 5).
But prayer is the link that connects us with God. This is the bridge that spans every gulf and bears us over every abyss of danger or of need.
How significant the picture of the apostolic church: Peter in prison, the Jews triumphant, Herod supreme, the arena of martyrdom awaiting the daw...ning of the morning to drink up the apostle's blood,--everything else against it. "But prayer was made unto God without ceasing." And what the sequel? The prison open,--the apostle free,--the Jews baffled,--the wicked king eaten of worms, a spectacle of hideous retribution, and the Word of God rolling on in greater victory.
Do we know the power of our supernatural weapon? Do we dare to use it with the authority of a faith that commands as well as asks? God baptize us with holy audacity and Divine confidence. He is not wanting great men, but He is wanting men that will dare to prove the greatness of their God.
But God! But prayer!
A. B. Simpson
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The Road Uphill
"Walking in the midst of the fire" (Daniel 3:25).
The fire did not arrest their motion; they walked in the midst of it. It was one of the streets through which they moved to their destiny. The comfort of Christ's revelation is not that it teaches emancipation from sorrow, but emancipation through sorrow.
...
O my God, teach me, when the shadows have gathered, that I am only in a tunnel. It is enough for me to know that it will be all right some day.
They tell me that I shall stand upon the peaks of Olivet, the heights of resurrection glory. But I want more, O my Father; I want Calvary to lead up to it. I want to know that the shadows of this world are the shades of an avenue the avenue to the house of my Father. Tell me I am only forced to climb because Thy house is on the hill! I shall receive no hurt from sorrow if I shall walk in the midst of the fire. --George Matheson
"'The road is too rough,' I said;
'It is uphill all the way;
No flowers, but thorns instead;
And the skies over head are grey.'
But One took my hand at the entrance dim,
And sweet is the road that I walk with Him.
"The cross is too great,' I cried--
'More than the back can bear,
So rough and heavy and wide,
And nobody by to care.'
And One stooped softly and touched my hand:
'I know. I care. And I understand.'
"Then why do we fret and sigh;
Cross-bearers all we go:
But the road ends by-and-by
In the dearest place we know,
And every step in the journey we
May take in the Lord's own company."
From Streams in the Desert
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"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:5
God's people require many severe afflictions, harassing temptations, and many powerful exercises to hew them into anything like shape, to chisel them into any conformity to Christ's image. For they are not like the passive m...arble under the hands of the sculptor, which will submit without murmuring, and indeed without feeling, to have this corner chipped off, and that projecting angle rounded by the chisel; but God's people are living stones, and, therefore, feel every stroke. We are so tender-skinned that we cannot bear a thread of trouble to lie upon us, we shrink from even the touch of the probe. To be hewed, then, and squared, and chiselled by the hand of God into such shapes and forms as please him, O what painful work it is! But could the pillar know, could it tell what the sculptor was doing, would it not see that not a single stroke was made in vain? The sculptor, we know, must not make a single hair's breadth too little or too much in some parts of the marble, or he will spoil the statue. He knows perfectly well where to place the chisel, and in what direction, and with what force to strike it with the mallet. And does not God, who fixes the spiritual pillars each in its destined spot, that they may be "as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace" (Ps. 144:12), know where to inflict the stroke, what carnal projection to chip off, and how to chisel the whole column, from the base to the capital, so that it shall wear the very shape and the very same proportion which he designs that it should wear? If the Lord, then, is at work upon our souls, we have not had, we are not now having, we shall never have, one stroke too much, one stroke too little, one stroke in the wrong direction, but there shall be just sufficient to work in us that which is pleasing in God's sight, and to make us that which he would have us to be. What a great deal of trouble should we be spared if we could only patiently submit to the Lord's afflicting stroke and know no will but his.
J. C. Philpot
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The Virtue of Forbearance
Forbearing one another--Col 3:13
Three Necessary Virtues
...
If a man is to live with any joy and fullness and to find what a noble abode this world may prove, there are three virtues which he must steadily pursue. The first is faith in God, for without faith existence will always be a tangled skein; the second is courage, for every life has its hills and we face them poorly if our heart is faint; and the third is forbearance--forbearing one another.
George H. Morrison
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Fertile Soil For Growth
1 Timothy 1:5
The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith
Perhaps the greatest service performed by trials and tribulations in our lives is to reveal wrong goals. It's during these times of pressure that your emotions raise their warning flags signaling blocked goals, uncertain goals, and impossible goals which are based on our desires instead of God's goal of proven character.
People say, "My marriage is hopeless," then "solve" the problem by changing partners. But if you think your first marriage is hopeless, be aware that second marriages are failing at a far higher rate. Others feel their jobs are hopeless. So they change jobs, only to discover that the new job is just as hopeless. People tend to look for quick-fix solutions to difficult situations. But God's plan is for you to hang in there and grow up.
Is there an easier way to being God's person than through enduring tribulations? Believe me: I've been looking for one. But I must honestly say that it has been the dark, difficult times of testing in my life which have brought me to where I am today. I thank God for the occasional mountaintop experiences, but the fertile soil for growth is always down in the valleys of tribulation, not on the mountaintops. Paul says, "The goal of our instruction is love" (1 Timothy 1:5). Notice that if you make that your goal, then the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy (instead of depression), peace (instead of anxiety), and patience (instead of anger)(Galatians 5:22, 23).
How would you give hope to a woman whose husband just left? "Oh, we will win him back," you say. Great desire; wrong goal. Trying to manipulate that husband or the circumstance is probably why he left in the first place. It is better to say to the woman, "If you haven't committed yourself to be the wife and mother God has called you to be, would you now?" According to Romans 5:3-5, our hope lies in the proven character that come through perseverance.
Prayer: Father, enable me today to persevere through the trials of life and thereby develop strong character and hope.
Neil T. Anderson
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Walk Without Stumbling
"He will not suffer thy foot to be moved" (Psalm 121:3).
If the LORD will not suffer it, neither men nor devils can do it. How greatly would they rejoice if they could give us a disgraceful fall, drive us from our position, and bury us out of memory! They could do this to their heart's content were it not for one hindrance, and only one: the LORD will not suffer it; and... if He does not suffer it, we shall not suffer it. The way of life is like traveling among the Alps. Along the mountain path one is constantly exposed to the slipping of the foot. Where the way is high the head is apt to swim, and then the feet soon slide; there are spots which are smooth as glass and others that are rough with loose stones, and in either of these a fall is hard to avoid. He who throughout life is enabled to keep himself upright and to walk without stumbling has the best of reasons for gratitude. What with pitfalls and snares, weak knees, weary feet, and subtle enemies, no child of God would stand fast for an hour were it not for the faithful love which will not suffer his foot to be moved.
Amidst a thousand snares I stand
Upheld and guarded by thy hand;
That hand unseen shall hold me still,
And lead me to thy holy hill.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/09/2011
Contentment
By Max Lucado
I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens.
Philippians 4:11
What if God’s only gift to you were his grace to save you? Would you be content? You beg him to save the life of your child. You plead with him to keep your business afloat. You implore him to remove the cancer from your body. What if his answer is, “My grace is enough.” Would you be content?
From heaven’s perspective, grace is enough. If God did nothing more than save us from hell, could anyone complain?
Having been given eternal life, dare we grumble at an aching body? Having been given heavenly riches, dare we moan about what we don’t have?
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"Because I live ye shall live also" (John xiv. 19).
After having become adjusted to our Living Head and the source of our life, now our business is to abide, absorb and grow, leaning on His strength, drinking in His life, feeding on Him as the Living Bread, and drawing all of our resources from Him in continual dependence and communion.
The Holy Spirit will be the great ...Teacher and Minister in this blessed process. He will take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, and He will impart them through all the channels and functions of our spiritual organism.
As we yield ourselves to Him He will breathe His own prayer of communion, drawing out our hearts in longings and hungerings, which are the pledge of their own fulfilment, calling us apart in silent and wordless prayer and opening every pore, organ, sense and sensibility of our spiritual being to take in His life.
As the lungs absorb the oxygen of the atmosphere, as the senses breathe in the sweet odors of the garden, so the heart instinctively receives and rejoices in the affection and fellowship of the beloved One by our side. Thus we become like a tree planted by the rivers of waters.
A. B. Simpson
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Beginning Without Finishing
"He spoke a parable unto them...that men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).
No temptation in the life of intercession is more common than this of failure to persevere. We begin to pray for a certain thing; we put up our petitions for a day, a week, a month; and then, receiving as yet no definite answer, straightway we faint, a...nd cease altogether from prayer concerning it.
This is a deadly fault. It is simply the snare of many beginnings with no completions. It is ruinous in all spheres of life.
The man who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has simply formed the habit of failure. The man who begins to pray about a thing and does not pray it through to a successful issue of answer has formed the same habit in prayer.
To faint is to fail; then defeat begets disheartenment, and unfaith in the reality of prayer, which is fatal to all success.
But someone says, "How long shall we pray? Do we not come to a place where we may cease from our petitions and rest the matter in God's hands?"
There is but one answer. Pray until the thing you pray for has actually been granted, or until you have the assurance in your heart that it will be.
Only at one of these two places dare we stay our importunity, for prayer is not only a calling upon God, but also a conflict with Satan. And inasmuch as God is using our intercession as a mighty factor of victory in that conflict, He alone, and not we, must decide when we dare cease from our petitioning. So we dare not stay our prayer until the answer itself has come, or until we receive the assurance that it will come.
In the first case we stop because we see. In the other, we stop because we believe, and the faith of our heart is just as sure as the sight of our eyes; for it is faith from, yes, the faith of God, within us.
More and more, as we live the prayer life, shall we come to experience and recognize this God-given assurance, and know when to rest quietly in it, or when to continue our petitioning until we receive it. --The Practice of Prayer
Tarry at the promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of His promises. --Selected
From Streams in the Desert
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"Accepted in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:6
We are ever looking for something in self to make ourselves acceptable to God, and are often sadly cast down and discouraged when we cannot find that holiness, that obedience, that calm submission to the will of God, that serenity of soul, that spirituality and heavenlymindedness which we believe to be acceptable in his sight. Our crooked temp...ers, fretful, peevish minds, rebellious thoughts, coldness, barrenness and death, our alienation from good, and headlong proneness to ill, with the daily feeling that we get no better but rather worse, make us think that God views us just as we view ourselves. And this brings on great darkness of mind and bondage of spirit, till we seem to lose sight of our acceptance in Christ, and get into the miserable dregs of self, almost ready to quarrel with God because we are so vile, and only get worse as we get older. Now the more we get into these dregs of self, and the more we keep looking at the dreadful scenes of wreck and ruin which our heart presents to daily view, the farther do we get from the grace of the gospel, and the more do we lose sight of the only ground of our acceptance with God. It is "in the Beloved" that we are accepted, and not for any good words, or good works, good thoughts, good hearts, or good intentions of our own. And a saving knowledge of our acceptance "in the Beloved," independent of everything in us good or bad, is a firm foundation for our faith and hope, and will keep us from sinking altogether into despair.
J. C. Philpot
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Becoming The Person God Wants
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all . . . are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit
When you begin to align your goals with God's goals and your desires with God's desires, you will rid your life of a lot of anger, anxiety and depression. The homemaker who wants a happy, harmonious family is expressing a godly desire, but she cannot guarantee that it will happen. So she'd better not base her identity and sense of worth on it or she will be a basket case of anger or resentment toward her sometimes less-than-harmonious family.
Instead she could decide, "I'm going to be the wife and mother God wants me to be." That's a great goal! Is it impossible or uncertain? No, because it's also God's goal for her and nothing is impossible with God. Who can block her goal? She's the only one who can. As long as she cooperates with God's goal for her, her success is assured.
"But what if my husband has a mid-life crisis or my kids rebel?" she may object. Problems like that aren't blocking her goal of being the wife and mother God wants her to be, but they will put her goal to a serious test. If her husband ever needs a godly wife, and if her children ever need a godly mother, it's in times of trouble. Family difficulties are merely new opportunities for her to fulfill her goal of being the woman God wants her to be.
The pastor whose worth is based on his goal to win his community for Christ, have the best youth ministry in town, or increase giving to missions by 50 percent is headed for a fall. These are worthwhile desires, but they are poor goals by which to determine his worth because they can be blocked by people or circumstances. Rather he could say, "I'm going to be the pastor God wants me to be." That's a great goal because nothing can block him from achieving it.
God's basic goal for your life is character development: becoming the person God wants you to be. Because it's a godly goal, no one can block it except you.
Prayer: Lord, I want to be the person You called me to be today. Thank You that by Your grace I can be that person.
Neil T. Anderson
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Necessary Knowledge
"Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are My people, saith the LORD God" (Ezekiel 34:30).
To be the LORD's own people is a choice blessing, but to know that we are such is a comfortable blessing. It is one thing to hope that God is with us and another thing to know that He is so. Faith saves us, but assurance... satisfies us. We take God to be our God when we believe in Him; but we get the joy of Him when we know that He is ours and that we are His. No believer should be content with hoping and trusting; he should ask the LORD to lead him on to full assurance, so that matters of hope may become matters of certainty. It is when we enjoy covenant blessings and see our LORD Jesus raised up for us as a plant of renown that we come to a clear knowledge of the favor of God toward us. Not by law, but by grace do we learn that we are the LORD's people. Let us always turn our eyes in the direction of free grace. Assurance of faith can never come by the works of the law. It is an evangelical virtue and can only reach us in a gospel way. Let us not look within. Let us look to the LORD alone. As we see Jesus we shall see our salvation. LORD, send us such a flood-tide of Thy love that we shall be washed beyond the mire of doubt and fear.
Charles Spurgeon
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From God's heart, to mine, to yours!
When It Rains It Pours
When it rains it pours
is what they say.
Sometimes our problems are few,
sometimes they never go away.
Problems like raindrops,
may just sprinkle down.
Then all of a sudden,
there is no relief to be found.
But God in all His mercy,
knew troubles like rain there would be.
That is why my friends, He cries out,
“Please, just believe in Me!’
See, He will shelter us in the down pours.
He will keep us dry with His Word.
His Gospel message assures us of that,
what a message that is, to be heard.
E. P. Shagott
11/9/2011
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From God's heart, to mine, to yours! ~ Those Not As Lucky As Me
Those Not As Lucky As Me
I opened my eyes and saw
all the things I could see.
Then I stopped and thought of
those not as lucky as me.
I reached out my hand
and could grab just what I need.
Then what came to mind was,
those not as lucky as me.
I started to walk,
then I started to run.
So many things I take for granted
that make this life fun.
But what is important,
for me to know and to see,
I could lose what I take for granted
just like those did, not as lucky as me.
So be grateful for what you have,
share with others that are in need.
For someone might look at you and say,
you’re surly not as lucky as me!
E. P. Shagott
11/9/2011
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11/08/2011
A Crown of Life
By Max Lucado
... God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more
death, sadness, crying, or pain.
Revelation 21:4
Why all the effort to stay fit? To stay alive? We pop pills, pump pecks, pass on the pie, and pursue the polyunsaturates.…
Why? Because we are worried about staying alive. In heaven that won’t be a worry.
In fact, you won’t be worrying at all. You won’t worry about your kids getting hurt. In heaven there will be no pain. You won’t worry about getting old. We’ll all be ceaselessly strong.
Scripture describes heaven as a place where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death, sadness, crying or pain.
We are not made of steel, we are made of dust. And this life is not crowned with life, it is crowned with death.
The next life, however, is different. Jesus urges us to “be faithful, even if you have to die, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).
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"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free" (Rom. viii. 2).
There is a natural law of sin and sickness, and if we just let ourselves go and sink into the trend of circumstances we shall go down and sink under the power of the tempter.
But there is another law of spiritual life and of physical life in Christ Jesus to which we can rise and through which we can counterpoise and overcome the other law that bears us down. But to do this requires real spiritual energy and fixed purpose and a settled posture and habit of faith.
It is just the same when we bind the power in our factory. We must turn the belt on and keep it on. The power is there, but we must keep the connection and while we do so the law of this higher power will work and all the machinery will be in operation. There is a spiritual law of choosing, believing, abiding and holding steady in our walk with God which is essential to the working of the Holy Ghost either in our sanctification or healing.
There is a word that saves the soul,
"I will trust";
It makes the sick and suffering whole.
"I will trust."
A. B. Simpson
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The Secrets of Providence
"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him" (Ps. 25:14).
There are secrets of Providence which God's dear children may learn. His dealings with them often seem, to the outward eye, dark and terrible. Faith looks deeper and says, "This is God's secret. You look only on the outside; I can look deeper and see the hidden meaning."
...
Sometimes diamonds are done up in rough packages, so that their value cannot be seen. When the Tabernacle was built in the wilderness there was nothing rich in its outside appearance. The costly things were all within, and its outward covering of rough badger skin gave no hint of the valuable things which it contained.
God may send you, dear friends, some costly packages. Do not worry if they are done up in rough wrappings. You may be sure there are treasures of love, and kindness, and wisdom hidden within. If we take what He sends, and trust Him for the goodness in it, even in the dark, we shall learn the meaning of the secrets of Providence. --A. B. Simpson
"Not until each loom is silent,
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the pattern
And explain the reason why
The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver's skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
For the pattern which He planned."
He that is mastered by Christ is the master of every circumstance. Does the circumstance press hard against you? Do not push it away. It is the Potter's hand. Your mastery will come, not by arresting its progress, but by enduring its discipline, for it is not only shaping you into a vessel of beauty and honor, but it is making your resources available.
From Streams in the Desert
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"Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." When God forgives, He blots out from the book of his remembrance. The sin is gone as a pebble in the ocean; as a cloud in the blue of a summer's sky.
F. B. Meyer
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There are men who can think themselves any day into a paradise, and others who think themselves into a fever. Have we not known or met or read of men and women who seemed to have everything this world could give, yet only to look at their faces or their portraits was to read the story of frustration and discontent? But St. Francis of Assisi, the sweetest of all saints, sitting down to dine by the ...roadside on a few crusts of bread, was so exquisitely and radiantly happy that he could not find words enough for thankfulness. That then is an integral part of happiness--the discipline and the government of our thoughts. Basically, it is not things themselves, it is our thoughts about them, that constitute the gentle art of being happy.
George H. Morrison
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Relationships First
Romans 13:8
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law
... Many people demonstrate that their need to win when trying to resolve conflicts with others is greater than their regard for relationships. Why is winning so important to us? Why must we always be right? The person who is driven to win, to be right, or to be first is insecure. Insecure people are driven to perform.
Security comes from relationships, not achievements. A secure person is a person who is comfortable with himself and others. It is easy to communicate with a secure person, but you often end up clashing with a driven person. Would you rather be a lover or an achiever? Which would you prefer your spouse, children, coworkers and friends to be?
Relationships are more important than achievements to God. Jesus declared that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love people (Matthew 22:36-40). The purpose of the Word of God is to govern our relationships with God and man. If our achievements in life don't enhance our relationships with God, our spouse and children, and others, then we are not fulfilling God's commandments.
Is there ever a time when we need to assert ourselves in conflicts? Yes, we need to stand our ground on moral issues. But we never have the right to violate the fruit of the Spirit in doing so. If what you do can't be done in love and self-control, then maybe it's better left undone. And remember: Your authority does not increase with the volume of your voice. When you resort to shouting in conflict, you are reacting in the flesh. You have lost control of the only person you can control: yourself.
Anyone who accomplishes something at the expense of people or elevates tasks over relationships will sow the seeds of their own destruction and the destruction of those around them. Governments, institutions and organizations exist for the cause and needs of people. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. How easy it is to turn our priorities upside down.
Prayer: Gracious Lord, help me today to love people and use things, and not to love things and use people.
Neil T. Anderson
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The Magnitude of Grace
"My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Our weakness should be prized as making room for divine strength. We might never have known the power of grace if we had not felt the weakness of nature. Blessed be the LORD for the thorn in the flesh, and the messenger of Satan, when they drive us to the strength of God. This is a precious word from our LORD's own lip. It has made the writer laugh for joy. God's grace enough for me! I should think it is. Is not the sky enough for the bird and the ocean enough for the fish? The All-Sufficient is sufficient for my largest want. He who is sufficient for earth and heaven is certainly able to meet the case of one poor worm like me. Let us, then, fall back upon our God and His grace. If He does not remove our grief, He will enable us to bear it. His strength shall be poured into us till the worm shall thresh the mountains, and a nothing shall be victor over all the high and mighty ones. It is better for us to have God's strength than our own; for if we were a thousand times as strong as we are, it would amount to nothing in the face of the enemy; and if we could be weaker than we are, which is scarcely possible, yet we could do all things through Christ.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/07/2011
Christians in the Workplace
Philippians 2:5-8
One of the greatest hindrances to the gospel's effectiveness is Christians who act one way at church and another way elsewhere. The way we live for God should permeate all areas of life. The workplace is no exception.
The way we act reflects our faith. So if we claim to be Christians, our coworkers, bosses, and employees will equate our attitudes and actions with Jesus. Do those around you at the office see a positive reflection of God in your work ethic?
Let's look at a scriptural model for the believer to follow. For one thing, we should view ourselves as servants. Next, our true boss is Christ; therefore, we work diligently and with integrity, knowing that our reward
is from Him. Then, since all authority on earth is God-given (John 19:11), we should obey our superiors gladly—unless, of course, our boss tells us to do something that goes against Scripture. And finally, all those we work with and for have worth from the Creator, and we should treat them with respect.
Think about how the golden rule—"Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you"—applies here. Putting it a different way, imagine yourself as the boss and ask, How would I like employees to work, even when I wasn't watching them?
Even when jobs or coworkers are hard to like, we are to work as though God is our boss. That means doing tasks with joy, a servant attitude, respect for others, diligence, and obedience to those in authority. Imagine what the workplace could be if all believers approached their jobs this way.
Charles Stanley
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Held by His Omnipotent Hand
“Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.” Psalm 139:10
I’ve heard people say, “Pray for us that we’ll hold out faithful to the end.” I think I know what they mean, but I always smile. I picture Noah’s ark, and I can see Noah and his wife and family. Rather than being on the inside, they’re holding on to some slimy pegs on the outside of the ark. And Noah says to Mrs. Noah, “Honey, pray for me that I’ll hold out faithful to the end.” But God said to Noah, “Come into the ark,” and the same God that shut the water out, shut Noah in. Now Noah may have fallen down inside that ark, but he never fell out of it. It’s not that we hold on to Him, but that He holds on to us.
Spend some time today simply praising God for His faithfulness, His steadfastness, and His unconditional love for you.
Adrian Rogers
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"I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee" (Isa. xli. 10).
God has three ways of helping us: First, He says, "I will strengthen thee"; that is, I will make you a little stronger yourself.
And secondly, "I will help thee"; that is, I will add My strength to your strength, but you shall lead and I will help you. But thirdly, when you are ready..., "I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness"; that is, I will lift you up bodily and carry you altogether, and it will neither be your strength or My help, but My complete upholding.
Hence it must be quite true, that when we come to the end of our strength, we come to the beginning of His, and that in Him the weakest are the strongest, and the most helpless the most helped.
"He giveth power to the faint," but to "them that have no might" at all "He gives more strength," and His word forever is, "My grace is sufficient for thee." The answer is a paradox of contradictions, and yet the most practical truths, "Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me; for when I am weak, then am I strong."
A. B. Simpson
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Sing Praise to the Lord!
"When they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushments...and they were smitten" (2 Chron. 20:22).
Oh, that we could reason less about our troubles, and sing and praise more! There are thousands of things that we wear as shackles which we might use as instruments with music in them, if we only knew how.
Those men that ponder, and meditate, and weigh the affairs of life, and study the mysterious developments of God's providence, and wonder why they should be burdened and thwarted and hampered--how different and how much more joyful would be their lives, if, instead of forever indulging in self-revolving and inward thinking, they would take their experiences, day by day, and lift them up, and praise God for them.
We can sing our cares away easier than we can reason them away. Sing in the morning. The birds are the earliest to sing, and birds are more without care than anything else that I know of.
Sing at evening. Singing is the last thing that robins do. When they have done their daily work; when they have flown their last flight, and picked up their last morsel of food, then on a topmost twig, they sing one song of praise.
Oh, that we might sing morning and evening, and let song touch song all the way through. --Selected
"Don't let the song go out of your life
Though it chance sometimes to flow
In a minor strain; it will blend again
With the major tone you know.
"What though shadows rise to obscure life's skies,
And hide for a time the sun,
The sooner they'll lift and reveal the rift,
If you let the melody run.
"Don't let the song go out of your life;
Though the voice may have lost its trill,
Though the tremulous note may die in your throat,
Let it sing in your spirit still.
"Don't let the song go out of your life;
Let it ring in the soul while here;
And when you go hence, 'twill follow you thence,
And live on in another sphere."
From Streams in the Desert
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Unbelief always brings many other bitter sorrows in its train, and leads the soul to cry,
"How long, 0 Lord? Wilt Thou forget me for ever?
How long wilt Thou hide thy face from me?"
Let us beware of losing heart, as David did. Look not at Saul, but at God, who is omnipotent; not at the winds and waves, but at Him who walks across the water; not at what may come, but at that which is for the gIorious Lord is round about thee to deliver thee. He shall deliver thy soul from death, thine eyes from tears, and thy feet from falling. He that has helped will help. What He has done, He will do. God always works from less to more, never from more to less. Dost thou not hear hast thou not heard his voice saying, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee? What, then, can man do unto thee? Every weapon used against thee shall go blunt on an invisible shield!
F. B. Meyer
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"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8
There will be no thorough destruction of sin within until the body drops into the grave, and the soul mounts aloft to be with the Lord; nor a full destruction of its effects in the body until the resurrection morn, when the body shall be raised from the sleeping dust and changed into the glorious image of the body of the Son of God, meet companion for the immortal soul. Then will the victory be complete; then will Christ appear, shining forth with the lustre of a million suns; then will be the glorious manifestation of the Son of God, and the works of the devil thoroughly destroyed. The burden of heaven's anthem, the grand theme of eternal adoration, will be the manifestation of the Son of God to destroy the works of the devil. The redeemed will look down from the battlements of heaven and see what works have been executed by the devil; they will see millions of fellow-beings consigned to eternal misery, weltering in hell, whilst they view themselves safe in the arms of eternal love. They will see the Son of God, without a veil between, manifested to their eyes in such heart-ravishing glory as the three disciples had but a feeble, dim view of on the Mount of Transfiguration. It will be their joy to see him as he is. He will always wear his human nature; he will never lay that aside. That will always shine resplendent with all the glory of Godhead; that will be the object of eternal admiration and love; and to that glory of the God-man all the saints in bliss will be for ever looking and for ever adoring, for sin will no longer have a being in them, but they will be conformed to the glorified image of the Son of God, and be celebrating for ever the grand triumph of the cross.
J. C. Philpot
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True Humility Rewarded
"He that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke 18:14).
It ought not to be difficult for us to humble ourselves, for what have we to be proud of? We ought to take the lowest place without being told to do so. If we are sensible and honest, we shall be little in our own eyes. Especially before the LORD in prayer we shall shrink to nothing. There we cannot speak of merit, for we have none; our one and only appeal must be to mercy: "God be merciful to me a sinner." Here is a cheering word from the throne. We shall be exalted by the LORD if we humble ourselves. For us the way upward is downhill. When we are stripped of self we are clothed with humility, and this is the best of wear. The LORD will exalt us in peace and happiness of mind; He will exalt us into knowledge of His Word and fellowship with Himself; He will exalt us in the enjoyment of sure pardon and justification. The LORD puts His honors upon those who can wear them to the honor of the Giver. He gives usefulness, acceptance, and influence to those who will not be puffed up by them but will be abased by a sense of greater responsibility. Neither God nor man will care to lift up a man who lifts up himself; but both God and good men unite to honor modest worth. O LORD, sink me in self that I may rise in Thee.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/06/2011
The Arms of God
By Max Lucado
I’ve already run for dear life straight to the arms of God. Psalm 11:1, The Message
I’ve noticed that those who serve God most joyfully are the ones who know him most personally. Those who are quickest to speak about Jesus are those who realize how great has been their own redemption.
God is an exalted friend, a holy Father, an elevated King. How do we approach him—as king, as father, or as friend? The answer: yes!
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"Bless the Lord, O, my soul" (Ps. ciii. 1).
Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me be stirred up to magnify His holy name.
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Who so well can sing this thanksgiving song as we, rejoicing as most of us do, we trust, in this full salvation, and praising God for the glorious health of a risen Lord and a continual youth?
This psalm and its opening verses is in the very center of the Scriptures by an exact count of letters and verses. So let it stand in our lives, as we look backward and forward and upward in grateful thanksgiving as we sing in its closing strains, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." Lord, center my heart in Thee and in the spirit of love and praise.
A. B. Simpson
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The Mountain After the Quake
"He maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth and his hands make whole" (Job 5:18).
The ministry of a great sorrow.
As we pass beneath the hills which have been shaken by the earthquake and torn by convulsion, we find that periods of perfect repose succeed those of destruction. The pools of calm water lie clear beneath their fallen rocks, the water lilies gleam, and the reeds whisper among the shadows; the village rises again over the forgotten graves, and its church tower, white through the storm twilight, proclaims a renewed appeal to His protection "in whose hand are all the corners of the earth, and the strength of the hills is his also." --Ruskin
God ploughed one day with an earthquake,
And drove His furrows deep!
The huddling plains upstarted,
The hills were all aleap!
But that is the mountains' secret,
Age-hidden in their breast;
"God's peace is everlasting,"
Are the dream-words of their rest.
He made them the haunts of beauty,
The home elect of His grace;
He spreadeth His mornings upon them,
His sunsets light their face.
His winds bring messages to them
Wild storm-news from the main;
They sing it down the valleys
In the love-song of the rain.
They are nurseries for young rivers,
Nests for His flying cloud,
Homesteads for new-born races,
Masterful, free, and proud.
The people of tired cities
Come up to their shrines and pray;
God freshens again within them,
As He passes by all day.
And lo, I have caught their secret!
The beauty deeper than all!
This faith--that life's hard moments,
When the jarring sorrows befall,
Are but God ploughing His mountains;
And those mountains yet shall be
The source of His grace and freshness,
And His peace everlasting to me.
--William C. Gannett
From Streams in the Desert
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Then said Saul, I have sinned. 1 Samuel 26: 21
The Apostle makes a great distinction, and rightly, between the sorrow of the world and the sorrow of a godly repentance which needeth not to be repented of. Certainly Saul's confession of sin belonged to the former; whilst the cry of the latter comes out in Psalm li., extorted from David by the crimes of after years.
The dif...ference between the two may be briefly summarized in this, that the one counts sin a folly and regrets its consequences; whilst the other regards sin as a crime done against the most Holy God, and regrets the pain given to Him. "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight."
Obviously Saul's confession was of the former description, "I have played the fool." He recognised the unkingliness of his behaviour, and the futility of his efforts against David. But he stayed there, stopping short of a faithful recognition of his position in the sight of God, as weighed in the balances of eternal justice.
Many a time in Scripture do we meet with this confession. The Prodigal, Judas, Pharaoh, David, and Saul, uttered it; but in what differing tones, and with what differing motives! We need to winnow our words before God; not content with using the expressions of penitence, unless we are very sure that they bear the mint mark of heaven, and deserve the master's Beatitude, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."
When sin is humbly confessed, the Saviour assures us: "Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee, go in peace." "lf we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. "
F. B. Meyer
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"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy."
Micah 7:18
God delighteth in mercy. It is not drawn from him unwillingly; it is not forced out of him even by importunity; it is not dragged out of his heart by the cries of his famil...y; but he delights in it as being his darling attribute, the very pleasure of God being in shewing mercy to the miserable. How hard it is for us to believe this until mercy visits the soul and a sweet sense of it is felt in the conscience. How we represent to ourselves God in his anger, in his justice, in his terrible displeasure against sin and sinners; how unable to believe that there is mercy for us, and that he delights in manifesting mercy to poor miserable, penitent sinners. Whoever would have thought of mercy unless it had first been in the bosom of God? Who could have ventured to entertain or suggest such a thought, that "there is forgiveness with God;" that he can "pardon iniquity, and transgression, and sin;" that he can cast all our sins behind his back, and blot them out as a cloud, yea, as a thick cloud? This is what God has revealed of himself in his word, but it is only as mercy visits the troubled breast, and God displays his goodness and love in the revelation of his dear Son, that we can rise up into any sweet apprehension of what his mercy really is, and rejoice in it not only as suitable but as saving.
J. C. Philpot
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The Ultimate Reality
Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of the things which are visible.
... Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is the present assurance of some future good: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Biblical faith is not a preference for what we would like to see, but a conviction that what is unseen is real. Biblical faith enables us to see the reality of the spiritual world we presently live in, with the assurance of heaven. Only with that kind of faith can we say with Paul, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18).
According to Scripture, the invisible world is more real than the visible world (Hebrews 11:3). The ultimate reality is spiritual, not physical. God is a spirit. Every physical thing we see is only temporal and passing away (2 Corinthians 4:18).
When Jesus appeared to the frightened band of disciples after His resurrection, He showed them both His hands and His side. Later the disciples informed Thomas of what they had seen, but he responded, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe" (John 20:25). Thomas was determined to walk by sight, not by faith. The only thing that was real to Thomas was what he could see.
Eight days later Jesus appeared again and said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing" (John 20:27). Thomas responded, "My Lord and my God!" (verse 28). Then Jesus blessed those of us who believe without seeing: "Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed" (verse 29).
The object of our faith is not the tangible reality of this physical world. The object of our faith is the invisible God and His revealed Word.
Prayer: Lord, You are the ultimate reality. I choose to evaluate everything in my life in the light of Your Word.
Neil T. Anderson
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Delight and Desires
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalm37:4).
Delight in God has a transforming power and lifts a man above the gross desire of our fallen nature. Delight in Jehovah is not only sweet in itself, but it sweetens the whole soul, till the longings of the heart become such that the LORD can safely promise to fulfill them. Is... not that a grand delight which molds our desires till they are like the desires of God? Our foolish way is to desire and then set to work to compass what we desire. We do not go to work in God's way, which is to seek Him first and then expect all things to be added unto us. If we will let our heart be filled with God till it runs over with delight, then the LORD Himself will take care that we shall not want any good thing. Instead of going abroad for joys let us stay at home with God and drink waters out of our own fountain. He can do for us far more than all our friends. It is better to be content with God alone than to go about fretting and pining for the paltry trifles of time and sense. For a while we may have disappointments; but if these bring us nearer to the LORD, they are things to be prized exceedingly, for they will in the end secure to us the fulfillment of all our right desires.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/05/2011
The Rest of the Story
By Max Lucado
Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. John 11:25, NLT
Mourning is not disbelieving. Flooded eyes don’t represent a faithless heart. A person can enter a cemetery Jesus-certain of life after death and still have a Twin Tower crater in the heart. Christ did. He wept, and he knew he was ten minutes from seeing a living Lazarus!
And his tears give you permission to shed your own…So grieve, but don’t grieve like those who don’t know the rest of this story.
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Call Upon the Lord
"And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered" (Joel 2:32).
Why do not I call on His name? Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call? Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans? Why not at once roll myself and my burden upon the Lord?
Straightforward is the best runner--why do not I run at once to the living God? In vain shall I look for "deliverance anywhere else; but with God I shall find it; for here I have His royal shall to make it sure.
I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, for that word "Whosoever" is a very wide and comprehensive one. Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. I will therefore follow the leading of the text, and at once call upon the glorious Lord who has made so large a promise.
My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. He who makes the promise will find ways and means of keeping it. It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. I am His servant, not His solicitor. I call upon Him, and He will deliver. --C. H. Spurgeon
From Streams in the Desert devotional
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"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John 14:23
There are two grand vital points that every Christian should seek to be established in. The first is,--Is he a believer in Christ? Has the blessed Spirit made Christ known to his soul? Has he embraced Jesus in the... arms of living faith? The second point which he should seek to have established in his soul is,--Does he abide in Christ? This he may know by having some testimony that Christ abides in him, and produces the fruits that flow out of this inward abiding. If Christ abide in him, his heart will not be like the nether mill-stone. He cannot rush greedily into sin; he will not love the world, and the things of time and sense; he cannot happily love idols, or do those things which ungodly professors do without one check or pang. Jesus in the soul is a guest that will make himself known; yea, abiding there, he is King therein. He is Ruler in Zion, and when he comes into the heart, he comes as King. Being, therefore, its rightful Sovereign, he sways the faculties of the soul, and makes it obedient to his sceptre; for "thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power" (Psalm 110:3). "O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name" (Isaiah 26:13)
J. C. Philpot
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1 Timothy 1:12
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service
... When D.L. Moody found his life in Christ, he looked for some opportunities to teach at a church, but no one wanted to use the uneducated man. He started his own Bible study in a shoe store, and it wasn't long before kids were coming out of the woodwork. People couldn't help but notice him because he was bearing fruit, and few have left such an imprint as his upon the world.
Paul said, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service" (1 Timothy 1:12). Show yourself faithful by exploiting the opportunities around you. The needs of people are everywhere so what are you waiting for?
A man in my church often expressed his frustration with his job. For 20 years he'd been working as a construction worker and he hated it! Frustrated with his career, he wondered why God wouldn't call him out of it.
I asked him if he had ever expressed dissatisfaction about his job with his fellow employees who weren't Christians. He said, "Oh, sure. I complain right along with the rest of them."
I continued, "What do you suppose that does to your witness?" He was a little startled by my question. I added, "Do you realize that God has you exactly where He wants you? When you assume your responsibility to be the person God wants you to be as a construction worker, He may open a new door for you."
The Holy Spirit must have brought conviction because this man became a missionary at work. He displayed concern for the needs of his coworkers and their families and soon had a series of witnessing experiences to share. Within six months an opportunity arose and he left construction work. And all because he started to bloom where he was planted.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me see the needs of my coworkers, friends and family, and enable me to be Your ambassador to them.
Neil T. Anderson
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Faithful in Little Things
“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Luke 16:10
There was a man who was going to be made a chief executive. The Board of Directors talked about it, and it was a “done deal.” In the company cafeteria one day, the existing CEO was behind this man in line. Unbeknownst to the man, t...he CEO saw him take a pat of butter that cost about 3 cents, then put a slice of bread over the butter so that no one would see it. The CEO went back to the Board and told them they had the wrong man. He told them that he didn’t have integrity. And for 3 cents the man lost a monumental promotion!
Are you faithful in the little things? Let this be the beginning of a new day of faithfulness in your life. Remember the little things. God is watching to find you faithful.
Adrian Rogers
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You Make the Trenches
"And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts" (2 Kings 3:16-17).
Three armies were perishing of thirst, and the LORD interposed. Although He sent neither cloud nor rain, yet He supplied an abundance of water. He is not dependent upon ordinary methods but can surprise His people with novelties of wisdom and power. Thus are we made to see more of God than ordinary processes could have revealed. Although the LORD may not appear for us in the way we expect, or desire, or suppose, yet He will in some way or other provide for us. It is a great blessing for us to be raised above looking to secondary causes so that we may gaze into the face of the great First Cause. Have we this day grace enough to make trenches into which the divine blessing may flow? Alas! We too often fail in the exhibition of true and practical faith. Let us this day be on the outlook for answers to prayer. As the child who went to a meeting to pray for rain took an umbrella with her, so let us truly and practically expect the LORD to bless us. Let us make the valley full of ditches and expect to see them
Charles Spurgeon
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11/04/2011
God’s Thoughts
By Max Lucado
Lord, you have done such great things! How deep are your thoughts! Psalm 92:5
God’s thoughts are not our thoughts—we aren’t even in the same neighborhood.
Psalm 92:5 sets the standard. “Lord, you have done such great things. How deep are your thoughts.”
When we’re thinking, Preserve the body; God’s thinking, Save the soul. We dream of a pay raise. He dreams of raising the dead. We avoid pain and seek peace. God uses pain to bring peace. “I’m going to live before I die,” we resolve. “Die, so you can live,” he instructs. We love what rusts. He loves what endures. We rejoice at our successes. He rejoices at our confessions. We show our children the Nike star with the million-dollar smile and say, “Be like him.” God points to the crucified carpenter with bloody lips and a torn side and says, “Be like Christ.”
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"Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" (I. Sam. xv. 22).
Many a soul prays for sanctification, but fails to enter into the blessing because he does not intelligently understand and believingly accept God's appointed means by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. Many a prayer for the salvation of others is hindered because th...e very friend takes the wrong course to bring about the answer, and resorts to means which are wholly fitted to defeat his worthy object.
We know many a wife who is pleading for her husband's soul, and hoping to win him by avoiding anything that may offend him, and yielding to all his worldly tastes in the vain hope of attracting him to Christ. Far more effective would be an attitude of fidelity to God and fearless testimony to Him, such as God could bless.
Many a congregation wonders why it is so poor and struggling. It may be found that its financial methods are wholly unscriptural and often unworthy of ordinary self-respect.
When we ask God for any blessing, we must allow Him to direct the steps which are to bring the answer.
A. B. Simpson
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The Key to the Wind
"The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all" (Ps. 103:19).
Some time since, in the early spring, I was going out at my door when round the corner came a blast of east wind--defiant and pitiless, fierce and withering--sending a cloud of dust before it.
...
I was just taking the latchkey from the door as I said, half impatiently, "I wish the wind would"--I was going to say change; but the word was checked, and the sentence was never finished.
As I went on my way, the incident became a parable to me. There came an angel holding out a key; and he said:
"My Master sends thee His love, and bids me give you this."
"What is it?" I asked, wondering. "The key of the winds," said the angel, and disappeared.
Now indeed should I be happy. I hurried away up into the heights whence the winds came, and stood amongst the caves. "I will have done with the east wind at any rate--and that shall plague us no more," I cried; and calling in that friendless wind, I closed the door, and heard the echoes ringing in the hollow places. I turned the key triumphantly. "There," I said, now we have done with that."
"What shall I choose in its place?" I asked myself, looking about me. "The south wind is pleasant"; and I thought of the lambs, and the young life on every hand, and the flowers that had begun to deck the hedgerows. But as I set the key within the door, it began to burn my hand.
"What am I doing?" I cried; "who knows what mischief I may bring about? How do I know what the fields want! Ten thousand things of ill may come of this foolish wish of mine."
Bewildered and ashamed, I looked up and prayed that the Lord would send His angel yet again to take the key; and for my part I promised that I would never want to have it any more.
But lo, the Lord Himself stood by me. He reached His hand to take the key; and as I laid it down, I saw that it rested against the sacred wound-print.
It hurt me indeed that I could ever have murmured against anything wrought by Him who bare such sacred tokens of His love. Then He took the key and hung it on His girdle.
"Dost THOU keep the key of the winds?" I asked.
"I do, my child," He answered graciously.
And lo, I looked again and there hung all the keys of all my life. He saw my look of amazement, and asked, "Didst thou not know, my child, that my kingdom ruleth over all?"
"Over all, my Lord!" I answered; "then it is not safe for me to murmur at anything?" Then did He lay His hand upon me tenderly. "My child," He said, "thy only safety is, in everything, to love and trust and praise." --Mark Guy Pearse
From Streams in the Desert
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Opportunity does not make a wrong thing right.
F. B. Meyer
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"He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory." 2 Samuel 2:8
A man can never reach heaven unless he travel heavenwards, Zionwards, in the way that God has marked out for his people to walk in. It is a delusion to think that we are going to heaven unless we know something of... divine teaching in the soul. But if we know anything of divine teaching, we know what it is to be poor and needy, we know what it is, more or less, to have our mouth in the dust. But many people do so mistake the way to heaven. The ordinary way is to set up a ladder to reach from earth to heaven, and progressively clambering up the different rounds, at last to climb up into the abode of God. But that is not the way of God's people. They have to go down, down, down, that they may be raised up. It is not with them first "up, up, up," to scale the battlements of heaven. Every such step upwards in self is in reality only a step downwards; but, on the other hand, every step downwards in self, downwards into the depths of poverty, downwards into felt misery, downwards into soul-trouble and the real groanings of a broken heart--every such step downwards in self is, in fact, a step upwards in Christ. Until we get to the very bottom there is no promise. "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust." But how? He does it in a moment. The Lord does not raise up his people round by round, enabling them to clamber and crawl with their hands and feet to him. But, when he lifts up the poor out of the dust, he gives them a smile which reaches, so to speak, to the very bottom of their hearts; and that smile has such a miraculous power, such a drawing efficacy, that it lifts them in a moment out of the dust into the very bosom of God. When, therefore, the Lord raises up the poor out of the dust, he does not lift them up by a gradual process, step by step as they went down. They were, perhaps, many years going down; but they are raised up in a moment. The God of all grace, by one word, or by one smile, lifts them up in a moment out of the lowest depths of felt degradation, "sets them among princes, and makes them inherit the throne of glory."
J. C. Philpot
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11/03/2011
Revamped Expectations
By Max Lucado
... The ways of God are without fault. Psalm 18:30
It’s not easy when God doesn’t do what we want, is it? Never has been. Never will be. But faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life and He will get us through it.
Remember, disappointment is cured by revamped expectations.
I like the story about the fellow who went to the pet store in search of a singing parakeet. Seems he was a bachelor and his house was too quiet. The store owner had just the bird for him, so the man bought it.
The next day the bachelor came home from work to a house full of music. He went to the cage to feed the bird and noticed for the first time that the parakeet had only one leg. He felt cheated. So he called and complained.
“What do you want,” the store owner responded, “a bird who can sing or a bird who can dance?”
Good question for times of disappointment.
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"This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend" (Song of Solomon v. 16).
He is our Friend. "Which of you shall have a friend at night?" This has deep significance through the experience of each one of us. Who has not had a friend, and more of a friend in some respects than even a father?
There are some intimacies not born of human blood that are the most intense and lasting ...bonds of earthly love. One by one let us count them over and recall each act and bond of love, and think of all that we may trust them for and all in which they stood by us, and then as we concentrate the whole weight of recollection and affection, let us put God in that place of confidence and think He is all that and infinitely more.
Our Friend! The one who is personally interested in us; who has set His heart upon us; who has come near to us in the tender and delicate intimacy of unspeakable fellowship; who gave us such invaluable pledges and promises; who has done so much for us, and who is ever ready to take any trouble or go to any expense to aid us--to Him we are coming in prayer, our Heavenly Friend.
A. B. Simpson
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The Prayer of Faith
"God that cannot lie promised" (Titus 1:2).
Faith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then rejoicing to know that it is true, and just resting because God has said it.
...
Faith turns the promise into a prophecy. While it is merely a promise it is contingent upon our cooperation. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy, and we go forth feeling that it is something that must be done because God cannot lie. --Days of Heaven upon Earth
I hear men praying everywhere for more faith, but when I listen to them carefully, and get at the real heart of their prayer, very often it is not more faith at all that they are wanting, but a change from faith to sight.
Faith says not, "I see that it is good for me, so God must have sent it," but, "God sent it, and so it must be good for me."
Faith, walking in the dark with God, only prays Him to clasp its hand more closely. --Phillips Brooks
"The Shepherd does not ask of thee
Faith in thy faith, but only faith in Him;
And this He meant in saying, 'Come to me.'
In light or darkness seek to do His will,
And leave the. work of faith to Jesus still."
From Streams in the Desert
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Let us inquire of the Lord. The answer will surely come, if we wait for it. If we are not sure of it, let us still wait, for it will come not so early as to save us from using our faith, not so late as to permit us to be overwhelmed. Direction will come in the growing conviction of duty, in the drift of circumstances, in the advice of friends, in the perceptions of a sanctified judgment. None that wait on God can be ashamed. Whether our duty be to arise and pursue, to sit still, or to escape "the meek He will guide in judgment; the meek He will teach his way." He gives us a white stone in which a name is written, which only they know who receive.
F. B. Meyer
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"O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?" Hosea 6:4
Most of the Lord's people have some peculiar thing that they want to have granted. Most living souls have some peculiar temptation from which they want to be delivered. If some of the Lord's family could sum up all their desires in one petition, it would be to have the pardon of their sins sealed upon the conscience. If others of God'...s people could crowd up in one sentence all the wants of their soul, it would be to be brought into the enjoyment of gospel liberty. If others could condense in one short prayer the chief desire of their heart, it would be to be delivered from some powerful temptation, or be preserved from some peculiar besetment. And if others could get into one request the longings that heave in their bosom, it would be to be relieved from some special trial or trouble that at times seems as though it would weigh them down to the dust. When the Lord, then, does but enable them to come before him and tell him what is working in their hearts, it is as though he said, 'Be not afraid to tell me: I know it already: I have the power to grant thy request: I have the will to bestow the desired answer. "What shall I do unto thee?" Tell me what it is!' The Lord encourages and enables every one that he thus draws near to himself to tell him what he most needs; and when he is enabled to lay it before his throne, it is half answered. The needed blessing is on its way: like Gabriel, it has left the palace, and is speeding its course to the soul.
J. C. Philpot
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Our Only Valid Weapon
John 8;31, 32
If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free
We are more vulnerable to Satan's deception than to any of his other schemes. Why? Because when he tempts you or accuses you, you know it, but when he deceives you, you don't know it. If he can enter your church, your home, or your mind undetected and get you to believe a lie, he can control your life, home and ministry. Sad to say, he is doing just that across our land by deceiving many people.
You cannot overcome Satan's deception by human reasoning; you can only do it by God's revelation. Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31, 32). Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word s truth" (John 17:17). It is critical that when you put on the armor of God, you start with the belt of truth (Ephesians 6:14). The light of truth is the only valid weapon against the darkness of deception.
Here's an encouraging letter from a young woman who was trapped in deception until Jesus Christ set her free as we walked through the steps to freedom:
Dear Dr. Anderson: I will always remember the day I came to you for counsel and prayer. Ever since that day I have felt such freedom. There are no more voices or feelings of heaviness in my brain. I'm even enjoying a physical sense of release. Satan has returned many times trying to clobber me with those old thoughts, but his hold on me has been broken.
I'll never forget what you told me. You said that those negative thoughts about God and myself were lies from Satan. You said I have the power through Jesus Christ to rebuke Satan and get rid of the evil thoughts. It has taken me awhile to really believe that with all my heart, but lately I've decided to fight back--and it works!
Prayer: Today, Lord, I purpose not to lean on my own understanding or put more confidence in my reasoning than in Your revelation.
Neil T. Anderson
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In God's Time
"For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry" (Habakkuk 2:3).
Mercy may seem slow, but it is sure. The LORD in unfailing wisdom has appointed a time for the outgoings of His gracious power, and God's time is the best time. We are in a hurry; the vision of the blessings excites our desire and hastens our longings; but the LORD will keep His appointments. He never is before His time; He never is behind. God's word is here spoken of as a living thing which will speak and will come. It is never a dead letter, as we are tempted to fear when we have long watched for its fulfillment. The living word is on the way from the living God, and though it may seem to linger, it is not in reality doing so. God's train is not behind time. It is only a matter of patience, and we shall soon see for ourselves the faithfulness of the LORD. No promise of His shall fail; "it will not lie." No promise of His will be lost in silence; "it shall speak." What comfort it will speak to the believing ear! No promise of His shall need to be renewed like a bill which could not be paid on the day in which it fell due-"it will not tarry." Come, my soul, canst thou not wait for thy God? Rest in Him and be still in unutterable peacefulness.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/02/2011
The Father’s Love
By Max Lucado
... The Lord said, “I have loved you.” Malachi 1:2
Father, your love never ceases. Never.
Though we spurn you, ignore you, disobey you, you will not change. Our evil cannot diminish your love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does not earn it anymore than our stupidity jeopardizes it. You don’t love us less if we fail. You don’t love us more if we succeed.
Your love never ceases.
I love you, He said,
as the first nail went in.
I do this for you
because of your sin.
The shame that I bear
I do this for you,
He said this as
the mallet hit nail number two.
The reason I came
was so all would be free.
I love you, He said
as they hit nail three.
He hung there for hours,
then bowed His head.
“My Father,why have You forsaken me?
I love You, He said!”
E. P. Shagott
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"Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (II. Cor. x. 5).
If we would abide in Christ we must have no confidence in self. Self-repression must be ever the prime necessity of divine fulness and efficiency.
Now you know how quickly you spring to the front when any emergency arises. When something in which you are interested comes up, you say what you think under some sudden impulse, and then perhaps you have weeks of taking back your thought and taking the Lord's instead.
It is only when we get out of the way of the Lord that He can use us. So, be out of self, always suspending your will about everything until you have looked at it and said: "Lord, what is your will? What is your thought about it?"
Those who thus abide in Christ have the habit of reserve and quiet; they are not rattling and reckless talkers, they will not always have an opinion about everything, and they will not always know what they are going to do. There will be a deferential holding back of judgment, and walking softly with God. It is our headlong, impulsive spirit that keeps us so constantly from hearing and following the Lord.
A. B. Simpson
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Fresh Touch with God
"And the ill favored and lean-fleshed kine did eat up the seven well favored and fat kin...and the thin, ears swallowed up the seven rank and full ears" (Gen. 41:4, 7).
There is a warning for us in that dream, just as it stands: It is possible for the best years of our life, the best experiences, the best victories won, the best service rendered, to be swallowed up by times of failure, defeat, dishonor, uselessness in the kingdom. Some men's lives of rare promise and rare achievement have ended so. It is awful to think of, but it is true. Yet it is never necessary.
S. D. Gordon has said that the only assurance of safety against this tragedy is "fresh touch with God," daily, hourly. The blessed, fruitful, victorious experiences of yesterday are not only of no value to me today, but they will actually be eaten up or reversed by today's failures, unless they serve as incentives to still better, richer experiences today.
"Fresh touch with God," by abiding in Christ, alone will keep the lean kine and the ill favored grain out of my life. --Messages for the Morning Watch
From Streams in the Desert devotional
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Till I know what God will do for me. 1 Samuel 22: 3.
We shall never get to the end of all that God will do for us, if only we perfectly give ourselves up to Him. David had a very imperfect vision of all that was in God's plan for him; he had an inkling, but that was all. And we have still less. Yet let us recapitulate some of the things which God will do for us.
He waits to give us the spirit of Sonship: so that we may ever be conscious of his Fatherhood, and look up into his face in the garden of Gethsemane, and on the Mount of Transfiguration alike, calling Him Abba, Father.
He longs to lead us to full consecration; to lead us into such close association with Jesus in his redeeming purpose, that we may become his willing bond servants, with no other purpose and aim in life than his service and glory.
He desires to deliver us from all known sin: that we may be blameless and harmless, his children without rebuke in this sinful world, who walk before Him in holiness and righteousness all our days.
He wants to anoint us with the Holy Spirit: so that our ministry to men may have more of the savour of Christ; may plough deeper furrows in human hearts; may have more abiding results.
He desires us to come into partnership with his Son here in his redemptive purpose, yonder in his throne. To this indeed He calls us.
Who can know all that God waits to do, not here only, but yonder, when life has entered upon its eternal stage! "Now are we children of God; and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be" (1 John iii. 2, R.V.).
F. B. Meyer
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"I will cry unto God most High; unto God that performeth all things for me." Psalm 57:2
In the word "most High," there is something to my mind very expressive. It is to "God most High" that prayers go up from broken hearts, in all parts of the world where the Lord has a quickened people. "Unto God most High" every eye is pointed, every heart is fixed, and every breath of living prayer flows. Jesus sits in glory as "God most High," hearing the sighs and cries of his broken-hearted family, where they dwell in the utmost corners of the earth; and he is not only sitting on high to hear their cries, but also to bestow upon them the blessings which he sees suitable to their case and state. Now when shall we thus come "unto God most High?" When we are pleased and satisfied in self? when the world smiles? when all things are easy without and within? when we are in circumstances for which our own wisdom, strength, and righteousness are amply sufficient? We may, under such circumstances, appease our conscience by prayer, or rather its form; but there is no cry "unto God most High." Before there is a real, spiritual cry raised up, we must be brought to that spot, "Refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul" (Psalm 142:4). Here all the saints of old were brought; Job upon his dunghill, Hezekiah upon his bed, Hannah by the temple gate. All were hopeless, helpless, houseless, refugeless, before they cried "unto God most High." And we must be equally refugeless and houseless before we can utter the same cry, or our prayers find entrance into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. "Unto God that performeth all things for me." If God did not perform something for us; nay more, if God did not perform all things for us, it would be a mockery, a delusion to pray to him at all. "The Hope of Israel" would then be to us a dumb idol, like Ashtaroth or Baal, who could not hear the cries of his lancet-cutting worshippers, because he was hunting or asleep, and needed to be awakened. But the God of Israel is not like these dumb idols, these dunghill gods, the work of men's hands, the figments of superstition and ignorance; but the eternal Jehovah, who ever lives to hear and answer the prayers that his people offer up.
J. C. Philpot
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There is a faith that is part and parcel of our being. It is ours without any conscious effort. We believe quite naturally when the sower sows his seed that there will be a harvest in the autumn. But to believe, when life is stem and sorrowful, that God is with us and loves us as a Father, that is not natural to sinful man. We have to take it up, in the apostle's words. We have to summon up the re...sources of the soul. We have to use our will in a deliberate effort, if such a faith is to be part of life. And it is just there that the Lord Jesus makes all the difference to us in our weakness, for God commendeth His love to us in this, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
George H. Morrison
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We must assume our responsibility for choosing the truth. We can't always tell whether the thought comes from the TV set, our memory bank, our imagination or a deceiving spirit. Regardless of where a thought originates, examine it in the light of God's Word and choose the truth.
Prayer: Lord, help me today as I assume my responsibility to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Neil T. Anderson
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Heavenly Wealth
"No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11).
Many pleasing things the LORD may withhold but "no good thing." He is the best judge of what is good for us. Some things are assuredly good, and these we may have for the asking through Jesus Christ our LORD.
...
Holiness is a good thing, and this He will work in us freely. Victory over evil tendencies, strong tempers, and evil habits He will gladly grant, and we ought not to remain without it.
Full assurance He will bestow, and near communion with Himself, and access into all truth, and boldness with prevalence at the mercy seat. If we have not these, it is from want of faith to receive and not from any unwillingness of God to give. A calm, a heavenly frame, great patience, and fervent love--all these will He give to holy diligence.
But note well that we must "walk uprightly." There must be no cross purposes and crooked dealings; no hypocrisy nor deceit. If we walk foully God cannot give us favors, for that would be a premium upon sin. The way of uprightness is the way of heavenly wealth-wealth so large as to include every good thing.
What a promise to plead in prayer! Let us get to our knees.
Charles Spurgeon
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11/01/2011
"We will come unto him and make our abode with him" (John xiv. 23).
This idea of trying to get a holiness of your own, and then have Christ reward you for it, is not His teaching. Oh, no; Christ is the holiness; He will bring the holiness, and come and dwell in the heart forever.
When one of our millionaires purchases a lot, with an old shanty on it, he does not fix up the old shanty, but he gets a second-hand man, if he will have it, to tear it down, and he puts a mansion in its place. It is not fixing up the house that you need, but to give Christ the vacant lot, and He will excavate below our old life and build a house where He will live forever.
Now that is what we mean when we say that Christ will be the preparation for the blessing, and make way for His own approach. It is as when a great Assyrian king used to set out on a march. He did not command the people to make a road, but he sent on his own men, and they cut down the trees and filled the broken places, and levelled the mountains. So He will, if we will let Him, be the Coming King, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
A. B. Simpson
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Praying
"Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are" (James 5:17).
Thank God for that! He got under a juniper tree, as you and I have often done; he complained and murmured, as we have often done; was unbelieving, as we have often been. But that was not the case when he really got into touch with God. Though "a man subject to like passions as we are," "he prayed p...raying." It is sublime in the original--not "earnestly," but "he prayed in prayer." He kept on praying. What is the lesson here? You must keep praying.
Come up on the top of Carmel, and see that remarkable parable of Faith and Sight. It was not the descent of the fire that now was necessary, but the descent of the flood; and the man that can command the fire can command the flood by the same means and methods. We are told that he bowed himself to the ground with his face between his knees; that is, shutting out all sights and sounds. He was putting himself in a position where, beneath his mantle, he could neither see nor hear what was going forward.
He said to his servant, "Go and take an observation." He went and came back, and said--how sublimely brief! one word--"Nothing!"
What do we do under such circumstances?
We say, "It is just as I expected!" and we give up praying. Did Elijah? No, he said, "Go again." His servant again came back and said, "Nothing!" "Go again." "Nothing!"
By and by he came back, and said, "There is a little cloud like a man's hand." A man's hand had been raised in supplication, and presently down came the rain; and Ahab had not time to get back to the gate of Samaria with all his fast steeds. This is a parable of Faith and Sight--faith shutting itself up with God; sight taking observations and seeing nothing; faith going right on, and "praying in prayer," with utterly hopeless reports from sight.
Do you know how to pray that way, how to pray prevailingly? Let sight give as discouraging reports as it may, but pay no attention to these. The living God is still in the heavens and even to delay is part of His goodness. --Arthur T. Pierson
Each of three boys gave a definition of faith which is an illustration of the tenacity of faith. The first boy said, "It is taking hold of Christ"; the second, "Keeping hold"; and the third, "Not letting go."
From Streams in the Desert
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There is none like that; give it me. 1 Samuel 21:9.
What David said of the sword of Goliath we may say of Holy Scripture the sword of the Spirit "There is none like that."
There is no book like the Bible for those convinced of sin. The Word of God assures the sinner of God's love in Christ, whilst it refuses to condone a single sin, or excuse one shortcoming. The Bible is as stern as conscience herself against sin, but as pitiful as the heart of God to the sinner. It, moreover, discloses the method by which the just God becomes the justifier of those who believe.
There is no book like the Bible for the sorrowful. It tells of the Comforter; it reminds us that in all our sorrow God also is sad; it points to the perfect plan according to which God is working out our blessedness; it insists that all things are working together for good; it opens the vision of the blessed future, where all the griefs and tears of men shall be put away for ever.
There is no book like the Bible for the dying. "Read to me," said Sir Walter Scott, on his dying bed, to his friend. "What shall l read?" "There is only one book for a dying man," was the answer; "read to me from the Bible." The Book which tells of the Lord, who died and rose again; of the mansions which He has gone to prepare; of the reunion of the saints; of the fountains of water of life is the only pillow on which the dying head can rest softly.
In these days of debate and doubt there is no such evidence for the Divine authority of the Bible as that which accrues from its perpetual use, whether in our own life, or in the conviction of the ungodly.
F. B. Meyer
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Brethren, who name the Name of Christ with me, do you always remember that that is not our faith? We believe in the Holy Ghost and in the Catholic church and in the resurrection of the body. That is one thing which Jesus never doubted. That is one mystery He never questioned. And now it has passed from the consciousness of Christ into the consciousness of ail His people. If there is any meaning in His empty grave and if our bodies are a living sacrifice, then in the future, body, soul, and spirit, we shall be forever with the Lord. It was that mystery, touching a thousand hearts, which set a halo of glory on the body. It was the thrill of resurrection-doctrine, and the open secret of the empty grave. It was the certainty that the glad day was coming when the body of our humiliation would be changed and would be fashioned by the power of God into the likeness of the body of Christ's glory.
George H. Morrison
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"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." John 17:24
Nothing short of the revelation and communication of this glory could satisfy the heart of God; and nothing short of the partaking of this glory can satisfy the heart of man. Heaven short of this would be no heaven to his soul. Not to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; to have no view of the glory of an incarnate God; not to be conformed to his glorious image, so as to be perfectly holy both in body and soul--were these things denied, there would be no heaven at all for the redeemed among the children of men. But God, in giving the saints heaven as their happy home, gave them with it an eternal weight of glory. He has designed that all whom he has chosen unto salvation should reach the heavenly shore; that none should suffer shipwreck by the way; that sin should not be their ruin; that Satan should not succeed in any of his devices against their eternal safety; but that every member of the mystical body of Christ should be for ever with their glorious Head in the realms of bliss, to behold and to be partakers of the glory which shall be revealed when he comes and all his saints with him. It is the prospect of this glory which animates the Christian in all his battles against sin, and encourages him never to quit the field until victory crown the strife. It nerves his heart in all the troubles and trials of this mortal state, still to press forward to win this immortal prize, that he may safely reach that land where tears are wiped from off all faces, and where the glory of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost will be seen and enjoyed through the glorified humanity of Jesus without a cloud to dim its rays, or intercept its eternal lustre.
J. C. Philpot
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A Change Of Beliefs
Ephesians 2:4, 5
God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us . . . made us alive together in Christ
... Twenty-three-year-old Jenny was a pretty Christian young woman with a seemingly pleasant personality. She had loving parents and came from a good church. But she was torn up inside, having never experienced anything but a depressive life. She had bombed out of college and was on the verge of being fired from her job. She had suffered from eating disorders for several years and medical treatment for her problems seemed futile.
I was in the midst of planning an intensive one-month spiritual retreat for some of our seminary students, and somehow I knew that Jenny needed to be there even though she wasn't a seminary student. I invited her, and to my surprise, she agreed to attend.
Shortly after we arrived, I sat down with Jenny privately. "I didn't invite you here to change your behavior, Jenny," I said. "Your behavior isn't your problem."
"I've always been told that my behavior is my problem," she answered, looking a little surprised at my statement.
"I'm not worried about your behavior. It's your beliefs I'm interested in. I'm praying that you will change your beliefs about God and who you are in Christ. You're not a failure. You are a child of God, no better and no worse than any other person at this retreat. I want you to start believing it because it's the truth."
For the first time in her life Jenny had been affirmed as the person of value to God that she was. And she began to believe it. During the next 30 days, a miraculous transformation took place in Jenny. Her circumstances didn't change, but she did.
Too often we try to change our behavior without changing our beliefs. It doesn't work that way. We must change our beliefs before we can make significant changes in our behavior. Nothing will change your behavior more than a true knowledge of God and who you are as His child.
Prayer: Father in heaven, what a liberating privilege it is to call You my Father and realize that I am Your child.
Neil T. Anderson
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Perfection and Preservation
"Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
What will He do? He will sanctify us wholly. See the previous verse. He will carry on the work of purification till we are perfect in every part. He will preserve our "whole spirit, and soul, and body, blameless unto the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ." He will not allow us to fall from grace, nor come under the dominion of sin. What great favors are these! Well may we adore the giver of such unspeakable gifts.
Who will do this? The LORD who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, out of death in sin into eternal life in Christ Jesus. Only He can do this: such perfection and preservation can only come from the God of all grace.
Why will He do it? Because He is "faithful"--faithful to His own promise which is pledged to save the believer; faithful to His Son, whose reward it is that His people shall be presented to Him faultless, faithful to the work which He has commenced in us by our effectual calling. It is not their own faithfulness but the LORD's own faithfulness on which the saints rely.
Come, my soul, here is a grand feast to begin a dull month with. There may be fogs without, but there should be sunshine within.
Charles Spurgeon
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