The Furnace Of Affliction

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.


The furnace of affliction is not for the ungodly. The fire of eternal judgment is for the ungodly, not the furnace of affliction.

The furnace of affliction is for those who by faith are in Christ.

What happens in the furnace of affliction? What is it that is dealt with in the fire? Is it you, and is it I, that are refined in the fire? Are you refined in the fire? Am I refined in the furnace of affliction? I say, No! emphatically NO!!

If we say, "Yes!" well, let us look at the furnace of affliction, the fire with the metal in the crucible. What are you doing with that metal? 

Well, you say, you heat the fire intensely and all the uncleanness, the corruption, comes to the surface; this is skimmed off, and when that process has been carried through to its end, there is left pure gold!

Then if you say that is you or that is me you will have to abandon your doctrine of total depravity, and you will have to come back to the place where you say there is good in us, after all! You will have to say there is good and bad in us, and the furnace of affliction is to get the badness out of us and leave the goodness! Is that true doctrine? No!

The furnace of affliction is not for the removal of the bad out of us so as to leave the good that is in us, and secure it!

Then what is its purpose? Is it to refine Christ in us? We need not discuss that! Christ needs no refining! What is it for? It is to divide between what is us in fallen nature, and what is Christ, and to get rid of the one in order to give full place to the other!

The furnace of affliction is the application of the Cross to the getting rid of you and me, in order to leave the whole place for Christ. It is the measure of Christ that God is after, not to cut in between the good and bad in us, but to cut in between what is Christ, and what is ourselves. 

That is what the Lord is doing. He is after increasing Christ, and in order to do that He has to displace self, the old creation.

It is all the measure of Christ in this realm. The realm of God is not going to be refined self, reformed self, or any kind of patching up of self. It is going to be none of self, and all of Christ.

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Holy Spirit Taking Possession Of The Money.

                                                                           

All that believed were together, and had all things common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all according as every man had need. Acts 2: 44, 45. And again, Acts 4: 34: "As many as were possessors of land or houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the Apostles' feet.

And Barnabas having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles' feet. 

Without any command or instruction, in the joy of the Holy Spirit, the joy of the love which He had shed abroad in their heart, the joy of the heavenly treasures that now made them rich, they spontaneously parted with their possessions and placed them at the disposal of the Lord and His servants.

It would have been strange had it been otherwise, and a terrible loss to the Church.

Money is the great symbol of the power of happiness of this world; one of its chief idols, drawing men away from God; a never-ceasing temptation to worldliness, to which the Christian is daily exposed.

It would not have been a full salvation that did not provide complete deliverance from the power of money. 

The story of Pentecost assures us that when the Holy Spirit comes in His fulness into the heart, then earthly possessions lose their place in it, and money is only valued as a means of proving our love and doing service to our Lord and our fellow men. 

The fire from heaven that finds a man upon the altar and consumes the sacrifice, finds his money too, and makes it all ALTAR GOLD, holy to the Lord.

We learn here the true secret of Christian giving, the secret, in fact, of all true Christian living -- the joy of the Holy Ghost.

How much of our giving then has there been in which this element has been too much lacking. 

Habit, example, human argument and motive, the thought of duty, or the feeling of the need around us, have had more to do with our charities than the power and love of the Spirit. 

It is not that what has just been mentioned is not needful. The Holy Spirit makes use of all these elements of our nature in stirring us to give. There is a great need for inculcating principles and fixed habits in regard to giving.

But what we need to realize is that all this is but the human side, and cannot suffice if we are to give in such measure and spirit as to make every gift a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God and a blessing to our own souls. 

~Andrew Murray~

THE VINE

John15:1  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.                                                              

All earthly things are the shadows of heavenly realities--the expression, in created, visible forms, of the invisible glory of God.

The Life and the Truth are in Heaven; on earth we have figures and shadows of the heavenly truths. When Jesus says: "I am the true Vine," He tells us that all the vines of earth are pictures and emblems of Himself. He is the divine reality, of which they are the created expression. They all point to Him, and preach Him, and reveal Him. If you would know Jesus, study the vine.

How many eyes have gazed on and admired a great vine with its beautiful fruit. Come and gaze on the heavenly Vine till your eye turns from all else to admire Him.

How many, in a sunny clime, sit and rest under the shadow of a vine. Come and be still under the shadow of the true Vine, and rest under it from the heat of the day.

What countless numbers rejoice in the fruit of the vine! Come, and take, and eat of the heavenly fruit of the true Vine, and let your soul say: "I sat under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste."

I am the true Vine.--This is a heavenly mystery. 

The earthly vine can teach you much about this Vine of Heaven. 

Many interesting and beautiful points of comparison suggest themselves, and help us to get conceptions of what Christ meant. But such thoughts do not teach us to know what the heavenly Vine really is, in its cooling shade, and its life-giving fruit. 

The experience of this is part of the hidden mystery, which none but Jesus Himself, by His Holy Spirit, can unfold and impart.
    
I am the true Vine.--The vine is the living Lord, who Himself speaks, and gives, and works all that He has for us.

If you would know the meaning and power of that word, do not think to find it by thought or study; these may help to show you what you must get from Him to awaken desire and hope and prayer, but they cannot show you the Vine.

Jesus alone can reveal Himself. He gives His Holy Spirit to open the eyes to gaze upon Himself, to open the heart to receive Himself. He must Himself speak the word to you and me.
     
I am the true Vine.--And what am I to do, if I want the mystery, in all its heavenly beauty and blessing, opened up to me?

With what you already know of the parable, bow down and be still, worship and wait, until the divine Word enters your heart, and you feel His holy presence with you, and in you. The overshadowing of His holy love will give you the perfect calm and rest of knowing that the Vine will do all.

I am the true Vine.--He who speaks is God, in His infinite power able to enter into us. He is man, one with us. 

He is the crucified One, who won a perfect righteousness and a divine life for us through His death. He is the glorified One, who from the throne gives His Spirit to make His presence real and true. 

He speaks--oh, listen, not to His words only, but to Himself, as He whispers secretly day by day: "I am the true Vine!  

All that the Vine can ever be to its branch, "I will be to you." 

Holy Lord Jesus, the heavenly Vine of God's own planting, I beseech Thee, reveal Thyself to my soul. 

Let the Holy Spirit, not only in thought, but in experience, give me to know all that Thou, the Son of God, art to me as the true Vine. 

~Andrew Murray~

THE WOUND OF COMPASSION

Now compassion is an emotional identification, and Christ had that in full perfection. 

The man who has this wound of compassion is a man who suffers along with other people.

Jesus Christ our Lord can never suffer to save us any more. This He did, once for all, when He gave Himself without spot through the Holy Ghost to the Father on Calvary's cross. He cannot suffer to save us but He still must suffer to win us. He does not call His people to redemptive suffering. That's impossible; it could not be. Redemption is a finished work.

But He does call His people to feel along with Him and to feel along with those that rejoice and those that suffer. He calls His people to be to Him the kind of an earthly body in which He can weep again and suffer again and love again. 

For our Lord has two bodies. One is the body He took to the tree on Calvary; that was the body in which He suffered to redeem us. But He has a body on earth now, composed of those who have been baptized into it by the Holy Ghost at conversion. In that body He would now suffer to win men. Paul said that he was glad that he could suffer for the Colossians and fill up the measure of the afflictions of Christ in his body for the church's sake.

Now, my brethren, I don't know whether I can make it clear or not. I know that things like this have to be felt rather than understood, but the wounded man is never a seeker after happiness.

There is an ignoble pursuit of irresponsible happiness among us. Over the last years, as I have observed the human scene and have watched God's professed people live and die, I have seen that most of us would rather be happy than to feel the wounds of other people's sorrows.

I do not believe that it is the will of God that we should seek to be happy, but rather that we should seek to be holy and useful. 

The holy man will be the useful man and he's likely to be a happy man too; but if he seeks happiness and forgets holiness and usefulness, he's a carnal man. I, for one, want no part in carnal religious joy. There are times when it's sinful to be happy. 

When Jesus our Lord was sweating it out there in the garden or hanging on the tree, He could not be happy. He was the "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."

And the great saints of the past, who conquered and captured parts of the world for Jesus, when they were in travail were not happy.

The woman, said Jesus, who is giving birth is not happy at the time of her travail, but as soon as the child is delivered she becomes happy because a man is born into the world. 

You and I are, in a sense, to be mothers in Israel, those through whom the Lord can suffer and grieve and love and pity again to bring children to birth.

~A. W. Tozer~

You Are Where GOD Has Placed You For A Purpose

Every child of God is where God has placed him for some purpose, and the practical use of this first point is to lead you to inquire for what practical purpose has God placed each one of you where you now are?

You have been wishing for another position where you could do something for Jesus: do not wish anything of the kind, but serve him where you are.

If you are sitting at the King’s gate there is something for you to do there, and if you were on the queen’s throne, there would be something for you to do there; do not ask either to be gatekeeper or queen, but whichever you are, serve God therein.

Brother, are you rich? God has made you a steward, take care that you are a good steward. Brother, are you poor? God has thrown you into a position where you will be the better able to give a word of sympathy to poor saints.

Are you doing your allotted work?

Do you live in a godly family? God has a motive for placing you in so happy a position. Are you in an ungodly house? You are a lamp hung up in a dark place; mind you shine there.

Esther did well, because she acted as an Esther should, and Mordecai did well, because he acted as a Mordecai should. I like to think, as I look over you all,-God has put each one of them in the right place, even as a good captain well arranges the different parts of his army, and though we do not know his plan of battle, it will be seen during the conflict that he has placed each soldier where he should be.

Our wisdom is not to desire another place, nor to judge those who are in another position, but each one being redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus, should consecrate himself fully to the Lord, and say, “Lord, what would thou have me to do, for here I am, and by thy grace I am ready to do it.” 

Forget not then the fact that God in his providence places his servants in positions where he can make use of them.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Pressed Out Of Measure

                            

2Co 1:8  For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

The Lord Jesus said "I am the true Vine," and it was prophesied of Him that He would tread the winepress alone. 

The Cross was His winepress.

How He was pressed in the Cross! He was crushed and broken, but out of that breaking has come the Life which you and I have, and which so many in all the nations have received.

That is true, in a measure, of His Church. It was out of the breaking and crushing of the Church that the Life came to the world. 

And that is true of every member, every branch of the vine. 

If we are to fulfill this true, living ministry, it will only be through suffering, through the winepress, through pressure and through breaking. 

Paul said: "We were pressed out of measure above strength 2Corinthians 1:8 – but what Life has come out of that man's pressure! It is like that. We are not talking about preaching and Bible teaching, but about this great ministry of Christ giving His Life through us. 

It may be passed on to others through preaching, or through teaching, or through living, but if it is His Life it will come out of experiences of suffering.

A preacher or a teacher who has never suffered will never minister Life.

Well, this may not seem a very pleasant outlook, but it is true. The best doctors and nurses are those who know something about suffering themselves.

Some are just professional, treating you as a case – you are just case number blank. But, ah! there are others who treat you as a person, a human being, who care for you. 

If you ask why, you may find that they have a background of suffering themselves. They know just a little of what you are going through.

We have read in the Letter to the Hebrews: "We have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are... He is able to succor them that are tempted" Hebrews 4:15, 2:18. 

He has been the way of the winepress and we have received the benefit.

~T. Austin Sparks~

INEXPENSIVE LOVE

When I use the word "lukewarm" to describe a person's love for Jesus, I don't mean he is cold toward the Lord. Rather, I mean his love is "inexpensive"—not costly.                                                     

Let me give you an example:
When Jesus addresses the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, He first commends them for all they have done. He acknowledges that they have labored hard in the faith—hating sin and compromise, refusing to accept false doctrines, never fainting or giving up when persecuted, always taking a stand for the gospel. But, Christ says, He holds one thing against them: They have forsaken their fervent, expensive love for Him!

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love Rev. 2:4

Somehow amid all their good works, they left behind their loving, disciplined walk with Jesus. And now He tells them, "You have left your first love and forsaken the costly discipline of coming into My presence to commune with Me."
 
Please note: Jesus is speaking here of believers who started out with a burning love for Him, not to cold, nominal Christians who never loved Him in the first place. He is saying, "It's possible for someone who once had a heart of love for Me to let his zeal become lukewarm, seldom praying at all."

Think about how insulting this must be to Christ, our Bridegroom. What kind of marriage can there be when a husband and wife have no private times of intimacy? And that's just what Jesus is talking about here. He wants moments with you all to Himself!

It does not matter how loudly you praise the Lord in church, how much you say you love Him, how many tears you shed. You can give generously, love others, hate sin, rebuke wrongdoers, but if your heart is not being continually drawn to Christ's presence, you have lost your love for Him.

All our works are in vain unless we return to our bright, burning love for Jesus. We have to realize, "Loving Jesus isn't just about doing things. It involves the daily discipline of maintaining a relationship, and that will cost me something."


~David Wilkerson~