Quietness In The Midst Of The Storm

He giveth quietness. (Job 34:29 KJV)
 
He gives quietness in the midst of the raging storm. 

As we sail the lake with Him, reaching deep water and far from land, suddenly, under the midnight sky, a mighty storm sweeps down.
 
Earth and hell seem mobilized against us, and each wave threatens to overwhelm our boat. 

Then He rises from His sleep and rebukes the wind and the waves. He waves His hand, signaling the end of the raging tempest and the beginning of the restful calm.

His voice is heard above the screaming of the wind through the ropes and rigging, and over the thrashing of the waves.“Quiet! Be still!” (Mark 4:39). Can you not hear it? And instantly there is a great calm.

He giveth quietness—quietness even in the midst of losing our inner strength and comforts.

Sometimes He removes these because we make too much of them.
 
We are tempted to look at our joys, pleasures, passions, or our
dreams, with too much self-satisfaction.

Then through His gracious love He withdraws them, leading us to distinguish between them and Himself. 

He draws near and whispers the assurance of His presence, bringing an infinite calm to keep our hearts and minds.“He giveth quietness.”

He giveth quietness. O Elder Brother, Whose homeless feet have pressed our path of pain, Whose hands have borne the burden of our sorrow, That in our losses we might find our gain.
 
Of all Your gifts and infinite consolings, I ask but this: in every troubled hour To hear Your voice through all the tumults stealing, And rest serene beneath its tranquil power.
 
Cares cannot fret me if my soul be dwelling In the still air of faith’s untroubled day; Grief cannot shake me if I walk beside you, My hand in Yours along the darkening way.
 
Content to know there comes a radiant morning When from all shadows I will find release; Serene to wait the rapture of its dawning— 

Who can make trouble when You send me peace?

Seven Marks of a Right Heart Before God

                                                                              

1) A right heart is a NEW heart (Ezek. 36:26). It is not the heart with which a person is born—but another heart put in them by the Holy Spirit. It is a heart which has new tastes, new joys, new sorrows, new desires, new hopes, new likes, new dislikes.

 

It has new views about the soul, sin, God, Christ, salvation, the Bible, prayer, heaven, hell, the world, and holiness.

 

It is like a farm with a new and good tenant. “Old things are passed away. Behold all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

2) A right heart is a BROKEN and CONTRITE heart 
Psalm 51:17. It is broken off from pride, self-conceit, and self-righteousness.

Its former high thoughts of self are cracked, shattered, and shivered to atoms. It thinks itself guilty, unworthy, and corrupt. 

Its former stubbornness, heaviness, and insensibility have thawed, disappeared, and passed away.

It no longer thinks lightly of offending God.

It is tender, sensitive, and jealously fearful of running into sin
2 Kings 22:19.

It is humble, lowly, and self-abased, and sees in itself no good thing.

3) A right heart is a heart which BELIEVES on Christ alone for salvation, and in which Christ dwells by faith (Rom. 10:10; Eph. 3:17). 

It rests all its hopes of pardon and eternal life on Christ’s atonement, Christ’s mediation, and Christ’s intercession.

It is sprinkled in Christ’s blood from an evil conscience
Heb. 10:22. It turns to Christ as the compass-needle turns to the north.

It looks to Christ for daily peace, mercy, and grace—as the sun-flower looks to the sun. 

It feeds on Christ for its daily sustenance, as Israel fed on the manna in the wilderness. It sees in Christ a special fitness to supply all its needs and requirements. 

It leans on Him, hangs on Him, builds on Him, cleaves to Him, as its physician, guardian, husband, and friend.

4) A right heart is a PURIFIED heart (Acts 15:9; Matt. 5:8). It loves holiness, and hates sin. It strives daily to cleanse itself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1). 

It abhors that which is evil, and cleaves to that which is good. It delights in the law of God, and has that law engraved on it, that it may not forget it (Psalm 119:11).

It longs to keep the law more perfectly, and takes pleasure in those who love the law. It loves God and people. Its affections are set on things above.

It never feels so light and happy as when it is most holy; and it looks forward to heaven with joy, as the place where perfect holiness will at length be attained.

5) A right heart is a PRAYING heart. It has within it “the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15). Its daily feeling is, “Your face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8).

It is drawn by an habitual inclination to speak to God about spiritual things—weakly, feebly, and imperfectly perhaps—but speak it must.

It finds it necessary to pour out itself before God, as before a friend, and to spread before Him all its needs and desires. It tells Him all its secrets. It keeps back nothing from Him. 

You might as well try to persuade a person to live without breathing, as to persuade the possessor of a right heart to live without praying.

6) A right heart is a heart that feels CONFLICT within it 
Gal. 5:17. 

It finds within itself two opposing principles contending for the mastery—the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

It knows by experience what Paul means when he says, “I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind” 
(Rom. 7:23). 

The wrong heart knows nothing of this strife. The strong man armed keeps the wrong heart as their palace, and their goods are at peace (Luke 11:21).

But when the rightful King takes possession of the heart, a struggle begins which never ends until death.

The right heart may be known by its warfare, quite as much as by its peace.

7) A right heart is HONEST, UNDIVIDED, and TRUE 
Luke 8:15;1 Chron. 12:33; Heb. 10:22. 

There is nothing about it of falsehood, hypocrisy, or image-acting. It is not double or divided. 

It really is what it professes to be, feels what it professes to feel, and believes what it professes to believe.

Its faith may be feeble. Its obedience may be very imperfect. But one thing will always distinguish the right heart. Its religion will be real, genuine, thorough, and sincere.

A heart such as that which I have now described, has always been the possession of all true Christians of every name, nation, people and tongue. 

They have differed from one another on many subjects but they have all been of a right heart. 

Some of them have fallen, for a season, like David and Peter but their hearts have never entirely departed from the Lord.

They have often proved themselves to be men and women laden with infirmities but their hearts have been right in the sight of God. 

They have understood one another on earth. They have found that their experience was everywhere one and the same. They will understand each other even better in the world to come.

All that have had right hearts upon earth, will find that they have one heart when they enter heaven.

~ J.C. Ryle~

Believe Trust And Rest

Gen 8:9  But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
 
Gen 8:10  And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
 
Gen 8:11  And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

God knows exactly when to withhold or to grant us any visible
sign of encouragement.

How wonderful it is when we will trust Him in either case!

Yet it is better when all visible evidence that He is remembering us is withheld. He wants us to realize that His Word His promise of remembering us is more real and dependable than any evidence our senses may reveal.

It is good when He sends the visible evidence, but we appreciate it even more after we have trusted Him without it.

And those who are the most inclined to trust God without any evidence except His Word always receive the greatest amount of visible evidence of His love.

~Charles Gallaudet Trumbull~
 
Believing Him; if storm clouds gather darkly ’round, And even if the heavens seem hushed, without a sound?
 
He hears each prayer and even notes the sparrow’s fall. And praising Him; when sorrow, grief, and pain are near, And even when we lose the thing that seems most dear?
 
Our loss is gain. Praise Him; in Him we have our All.

Our hand in His; e’en though the path seems long and drear We scarcely see a step ahead, and almost fear?
 
He guides us right—this way and that, to keep us near. And satisfied; when every path is blocked and bare, And worldly things are gone and dead which were so fair?
 
Believe and rest and trust in Him, He comes to stay.
 
Delayed answers to prayers are not refusals. Many prayers are received and recorded, yet underneath are the words,“My time has not yet come.”

God has a fixed time and an ordained purpose, and He who controls the limits of our lives also determines the time of our deliverance.

~Selected~

"I Am Here"

John 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

Jesus said to the woman, "the hour cometh, and now is." Then He dismissed the whole system that had existed up to that time. It was the whole system of Judaism according to the Old Testament. In one sentence, He dismissed the whole dispensation. And He introduced an altogether new order of things.

What did He mean? Because when He said the hour cometh, and now is, He did not mean literally just an hour and so many minutes. He meant that it was the first hour of the new day. With this hour an altogether new day has come. 

What is the new day? If you would have asked Jesus to put it into a short sentence, He would have said, "Well, I am here."

The hour is not just a matter of time but a matter of PERSON.

The new dispensation is the dispensation of Jesus Christ. Christ is the new dispensation.

I am here, He said. You go through that Gospel of John. He is centering everything in Himself. I am the Way; I am the Truth; I am the Life; I am the Shepherd; I am the Vine; I am the Resurrection. It is a Person. 

It is that which lies behind everything. Christianity is Christ. Christ is Christianity. That is where it all begins and it never departs from HIM.

The development of the Christian life is only the development of Jesus Christ in the life.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Age Long Conflict

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

These two are in age-long conflict, in antagonism. It is ever so. 

When you have a fresh experience of the Holy Spirit, the next thing you find is that you are in a new conflict against the old flesh-life in yourself.

This rising up of the flesh within is provoked by the devil because he sees the inheritance in view, for when the Spirit comes, the inheritance comes into view. 

He has come to bring to the inheritance. So do not be surprised if after an experience of the Spirit the next thing you have to face is this conflict with the assertion of the flesh across the path to hinder your going into possession.

It is only when you have received the Holy Spirit that you know the conflict of the flesh and what is the withstanding of the flesh.

Those who have not the Spirit have no such conflict of flesh and Spirit; they are not in that realm, but wholly in the flesh realm.

The Holy Spirit has come in relation to the end, and the end is the inheritance in Christ, and flesh moved by Satan rises up to frustrate that end, and to rob you of the inheritance. 

The peril is that having begun in the Spirit, you might turn aside to make some compromise with Amalek, because of the hardness of the way, the greatness of the cost, by reason of the conflict and forgetting God's word "utterly destroy Amalek" (1 Samuel 15:3).

Walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Rom. 8:4).

Purity of Heart and Life

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

Purity, even purity of heart, is the main thing to be aimed at.

We need to be made clean within through the Spirit and the Word, and then we shall be clean without by consecration and obedience.

There is a close connection between the affections and the understanding:

If we love evil we cannot understand that which is good.

If the heart is foul, the eye will be dim. 

How can those men see a holy God who love unholy things?

What a privilege it is to see God here!  A glimpse of Him is heaven below!

In Christ Jesus the pure in heart behold the Father.

We see Him, His truth, His love, His purpose, His sovereignty, His covenant character, yea, we see Himself in Christ.

But this is only apprehended as sin is kept out of the heart. 

Only those who aim at godliness can cry, "Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord."

The desire of Moses, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory," can only be fulfilled in us as we purify ourselves from all iniquity.

We shall "see him as he is," and "every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself."

The enjoyment of present fellowship and the hope of the beatific vision are urgent motives for purity of heart and life. 

Lord, make us pure in heart that we may see Thee!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Inward and Spiritual Circumcision

In the New Testament circumcision is regarded as spiritual and inward. Paul said it quite emphatically, "Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh... circumcision is that of the heart" (Rom. 2:28-29).

We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God (Phil. 3:3).

It is a spiritual thing, an inward thing; it is of the heart.

And it simply means that in the Cross of the Lord Jesus, the natural life and the reasoning of the natural life, or the self-life - the willing of the self-life, the desiring of the self-life - has been cut off by the Cross.

Every expression and aspect of the self-life has been cut through by the Cross and is put in the place where the door is shut.

There is no open door to any expression of the natural life. The Cross says, 'The door is closed; death rests upon that'. That is spiritual circumcision.

Stephen, in that matchless discourse of his which resulted in his murder, cried at one point to those who were persecuting and about to stone him, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart" (Acts 7:51).

What did he mean by "uncircumcised in heart and ears"? He just meant this, that they were only willing and minded to have what they wanted and nothing more.

Prejudice is a certain mark of an uncircumcised heart. Bigotry is the same, and anything that you can find that made up the situation which brought Stephen to his death is a mark of an uncircumcised heart. That is the thought.

Still there is the reasoning and the arguing of the Self, of the natural life. There is still the desiring and the feeling of the Self obtruding itself.

The Cross, spiritual circumcision, says "No!" to it all.

Now, you see that is the position to which Abraham came as recorded in Genesis 17 when God made the covenant and then gave circumcision as the sign of the covenant.

~T. Austin Sparks~

ONLY By The SPIRIT

2Co 5:15  And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

We can only know Christ after the Spirit, so that Christ for us in this dispensation is spiritual in the sense that all that we know of Him or can have to do with Him can only be in the Spirit. 

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
 

He is known after the Spirit. Our resources are spiritual. 

The weapons of our warfare are spiritual.

Everything has got to come to us from above.

The one great effort of the enemy, which is again and again successful through this dispensation, has been to bring the things of God down to the attachment with this world, attachment to this earth, to make them something here....

You only need to read John to see how unattached everything is, how everything is lifted clean out of this world, and everything is bound up with the fact that Christ is in heaven, and that the Lord’s people are here, but not here; here, but not known; in the world, but not of it; a mystery people in this world so far as the world is concerned... unrecognized, unknown.

And yet by that very means and for that very reason, the most potent force that this universe knows: the spiritual, hidden, secret people of God in this earth.

To take hold of Christianity and mold it, and shape it, and systematize it, and crystallize it, and make it some mighty movement here; with its roots here, with all its associations such as man can see, appreciate and approve; to register itself upon the ordinary consciousness of this world as being something; all of that is contrary to the Word of God and is contrary to spiritual life and spiritual power.

Christ is in heaven, and we are lifted out, translated, seated together with Him in the heavenlies.

Our present purpose in this world is testimony only, by which others will be taken out of the nations, a people for His name.

~T. Austin Sparks~

The LORD Is The Source Of Supply

Deut. 11:11  But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
 
Deut. 11:12  A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.   

Today we stand at the threshold of the unknown. Before us lies
a New Year, and we are going forward to take possession of it.
Who knows what we will find? What new experiences or changes will come our way? What new needs will arise?

In spite of the uncertainty before us, we have a cheerful and comforting message from our heavenly Father:“The Lord your God cares for [it]; the eyes of the Lord . . . are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.”
 
The Lord is to be our Source of supply. In Him are springs,
fountains, and streams that will never be cut off or run dry.

To those who are anxious comes the gracious promise of our heavenly Father: If He is the Source of our mercies, mercy will never fail us. No heat or drought can dry the “river whose streams make glad the city of God” (Ps. 46:4).
 
Yet the land we are to possess is a land of valleys and hills. It
is not all flat or downhill. 

If life were always smooth and level, the boring sameness would weigh us down.We need the valleys and the hills.The hills collect the rain for hundreds of fruitful valleys. And so it is with us!

It is the difficulty encountered on the hills that drives us to the throne of grace and brings the showers of blessing.Yes, it is the hills, the cold and seemingly barren hills of life that we question and complain about,that bring down the showers.

How many people have perished in the wilderness valley, buried under its golden sand, who would have thrived in the hills?

And how many would have been killed by the cold, destroyed or swept desolate of their fruitfulness by the wind, if not for the hills—stern, hard, rugged, and so steep to climb?

God’s hills are a gracious protection for His people against their foes!
 
We cannot see what loss, sorrow, and trials are accomplishing.
We need only to trust.The Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way today.

It will be a good and blessed New Year!