What Shall I Do?

Mat 10:42  And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

What shall I do? I expect to pass through this world but once.

Therefore any good work, kindness, or service I can render to any person or animal, let me do it now. Let me not neglect or delay to do it, for I will not pass this way again.

~An Old Quaker Saying~

It isn’t the thing you do, dear, It’s the thing you leave undone, That gives you the bitter heartache At the setting of the sun;
 
The tender word unspoken, The letter you did not write, The flower you might have sent, dear, Are your haunting ghosts at night.
 
The stone you might have lifted Out of your brother’s way, The bit of heartfelt counsel You were hurried too much to say;
 
The loving touch of the hand, dear, The gentle and winsome tone, That you had no time or thought for, With troubles enough of your own.
 
These little acts of kindness, So easily out of mind, These chances to be angels, Which even mortals find—They come in nights of silence, To take away the grief, When hope is faint and feeble, And a drought has stopped belief.
 
For life is all too short, dear. And sorrow is all too great, To allow our slow compassion That tarries until too late.
 
And it’s not the thing you do, dear, It’s the thing you leave undone, That gives you the bitter heartache, At the setting of the sun.
 
~Adelaide Proctor~
 
Give what you have, for you never know—to someone else it may be better than you can even dare to think. 

~HenryWadsworth Longfellow~

Bow Down; Be Lifted Up

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
 
This is tantamount to a promise: if we will bow down, the LORD will lift us up. 

Humility leads to honor; submission is the way to exaltation.   

That same hand of God which presses us down is waiting to raise us up when we are prepared to bear the blessing.

We stoop to conquer. Many cringe before men and yet miss the patronage they crave; but he that humbles himself under the hand of God shall not fail to be enriched, uplifted, sustained, and comforted by the ever-gracious One.

It is a habit of Jehovah to cast down the proud and lift up the lowly.

Yet there is a time for the LORD's working. We ought now to humble ourselves, even at this present moment; and we are bound to keep on doing so whether the LORD lays His afflicting hand upon us or not.

When the LORD smites, it is our special duty to accept the chastisement with profound submission. 

But as for the LORD's exaltation of us, that can only come "in due time," and God is the best judge of that day and hour. 

Do we cry out impatiently for the blessing? Would we wish for untimely honor? What are we at? Surely we are not truly humbled, or we should wait with quiet submission. So let us do. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

We Shall Be Sure To Find Something To Annoy Us!

The believer is frequently exhorted to cultivate 
contentment, and there are many considerations by which the duty may be enforced.

One thing is very evident—that there is no condition in the present world, which is free from trouble!

Let us pitch our tent wherever we may—we shall be sure to find something to annoy us! 

And if there is no situation without some inconvenience—had we not better make up our minds to be satisfied with that condition in which we are now placed?

We are too much in the habit of judging by outward appearances. 

But things are often very different in reality to what they appear to be.

If we judge according to appearance, we shall be led to regard the most prosperous as the happiest individuals.
 
But we are assured by universal experience that to be great is one thing, and that to be truly happy is altogether another thing!

Under the glittering robes of the proudest
nobilities—there are hearts pierced with anguish, and wrung with grief!

In splendid palaces there are many broken hearts to be found.

To sit upon thrones may seem to be something very fascinating; but, "uneasy lies the head which wears a crown!" 

This is a truth which receives fresh confirmation, from every passing year.

Let us not then, regard those who occupy the high places of the earth, with feelings of envy. 

Instead of envying them—it befits us rather to pity them and pray for them!

Reader, learn to distinguish between things that differ; and be well assured that things as they appear outwardly, and as they really are do often differ, and that very substantially!

Such knowledge will tend, under God's
blessing to make you more contented with your present lot, notwithstanding its trials and privations.

It is not unusual to be exposed to things which are grievous and hard to be borne.

This is not some strange thing which is happening to us alone.

Let us lay aside, therefore, all murmurings and complainings—and ever remember that God's arrangements are the wisest and the best!

~John Macduff~

An Eternal Pledge

Hos 2:19  And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
 
Hos 2:20  I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
 
Betrothment unto the LORD! What an honor and a joy! My soul, is Jesus indeed thine by His own condescending betrothal? 

Then, mark it is forever. He will never break His engagement, much less sue out a divorce against a soul joined to Himself in marriage bonds. 

Three times the LORD says, "I will betroth thee." What words He heaps together to set forth the betrothal! 

Righteousness comes in to make the covenant legal; none can forbid these lawful bans. 

Judgment sanctions the alliance with its decree: none can see folly or error in the match.

Lovingkindness warrants that this is a love union, for without love betrothal is bondage and not blessedness.

Meanwhile, mercy smiles and even sings; yea, she multiplies herself into "mercies" because of the abounding grace of this holy union. 

Faithfulness is the registrar and records the marriage, and the Holy Spirit says "Amen" to it as He promises to teach the betrothal heart all the sacred knowledge needful for its high destiny, What a promise!

~Charles Spurgeon~

THE LORD MY PORTION

It is our great privilege, beloved, that we live in a portionless world. This is both our distinctive badge and our Christian charter.

When God parceled out the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel, He made an exception in the tribe of Levi, to whom He said, You shall have no inheritance in the land, neither shall you have any part among them;" assigning as His reason, "I am your share and your inheritance.

The gospel teaching of this is obvious and significant. 

As the Lord's true priesthood, this world is not our portion, nor earth our rest.

It may have required some painful discipline, and no small measure of faith, on the part of the devout Levite, as he gazed upon the fertile meadows, the watered plains, and the vine-clad hills of the Promised Land, before he was made willing to relinquish it all for Him who is invisible.

And it needs no little teaching and discipline of our God, and no little faith on our part, before we are led to give up the world, the creature, self, and all, for Christ--satisfied to have the Lord alone as our Portion, and heaven only as our inheritance.

But the Lord will not put His people off with anything unworthy of Him to give, or them to accept.

He has set them apart for Himself, and Himself apart for them. 

All believers are the Lord's CLERGY; and as they are His portion, so He is theirs.

The Lord's portion is His people, Israel is the lot of His inheritance. 

The Lord is my portion, says my soul. His love to us was so great, that when He could give no greater proof of that love, He gave HIMSELF. 

Nothing more could have expressed the yearnings of His heart, nothing less could have satisfied the desires of ours. 

And oh, what a Portion is God!

All that He is and all that He has is ours! 

Every attribute of His being is over us, every perfection of His nature encircles us, every pulse of His heart beats for us, every glance of His eye smiles upon us.

We dwell in God, and God dwells in us. 

It is not the world which is our portion, but HE who made, upholds and governs the world.

It is not the creature who is our portion, but the Lord of angels and the Creator of men.

Infinite portion! illimitable power! immeasurable grace! boundless love! all-satisfying good! all, all is ours!

And what a Portion, O my soul, is Christ! A divine Christ, a redeeming Christ, a full Christ, a sympathizing, ever-present, ever-precious, ever-loving Christ.

Lord, I bless You for the discipline that brought me to realize what a divine, all-satisfying Portion I have in Yourself.

You took from me an earthly portion, only to enrich me with a Heavenly one. 

You removed from me the human prop upon which I too fondly and idolatrously leaned, that I might learn what Christ was, as my soul's all-sufficient, all-satisfying, and everlasting Portion.

I can now admire the wisdom and adore the love that blasted my gourds and emptied me from vessel to vessel, that, rising superior to the broken staff, the drooping flower, and the failing spring of creature good, I might claim my portion as a true spiritual Levite in Yourself alone.

Believer in Jesus! make the most of your portion. It is all-sufficient for all your need.  

God has, perhaps, made you poor in this world, that you might be rich in faith and an heir of that kingdom of glory, the New Jerusalem, He has prepared for you--whose foundations are precious stones, whose walls are jasper, whose gates are pearls, whose streets are pure gold, and through which softly flows the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb, in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river is the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruit, and yielding her fruit every month.

All this awaits you! Hope in the Lord, hope in adversity, hope in trial, hope against hope, for God in Christ is your present and eternal Portion. 

The Lord is my Portion, says my soul; therefore I will HOPE in Him.

~Octavius Winslow, 1870~

"The Little While"

Remember the words of the Lord Jesus  

John 16:16  A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.

Long seem the moments when we are separated from the friend we love. An absent brother---how his return is looked and longed for!

The "Elder Brother"---the "Living Kinsman" sends a message to His waiting Church and people---a word of solace, telling that soon ("in a little while"), and He will be back again, never again to leave them!

There are indeed blessed moments of communion which the believer enjoys with His beloved Lord now; but how fitful and transient!  

Today, life is a brief Emmaus Journey---the soul happy in the presence and love of an unseen Savior.

Tomorrow, He is gone; and the bereft spirit is led to interrogate itself in plaintive sorrow, "Where is now your God?"

Even when there is no such experience of darkness and depression, how much there is in the world around to fill the believer with sadness!

His Lord rejected and disowned---His love spurned---His providences slighted---His name blasphemed---His creation groaning and travailing in pain---disunion, too, among His people. His loving heart wounded in the house of His friends!

But, in just a little while all this mystery of iniquity will be finished!

The absent Brother's footfall will soon be heard no longer "as a wayfaring man who turns aside to tarry for a night," but to receive His people into the permanent "mansions" His love has been preparing, and from which they shall never leave!

Oh, blessed day! when creation will put on her resurrection robes---when her Lord, so long dishonored, will be enthroned amid the Hosannas of a rejoicing universe.

Angels lauding Him---saints crowning Him; and sin, the dark plague-spot on His universe, extinguished forever---death swallowed up in eternal victory!

And it is but "in a little while!" "Yet in a little while," we elsewhere read, "and He who shall come---will come, and will not tarry."

He will stay not a moment longer, says Goodwin, "than He has dispatched all our business in Heaven for us."

With what joy will He send His mission-Angel with the announcement, "the little while is at an end!"

And to issue the invitation to the great festival of glory, "Come! For all things are now ready!"

Child of sorrow! think often of this "little while."  

The days of your mourning will soon be ended. There is a limit set to your suffering time, "After you have suffered for a while."

Every wave is numbered, between you and the haven; and then when that haven is reached, oh, what an apocalypse of glory!

The "little while" of time merged into the great and unending "while" of eternity! 

To be forever with the Lord---the same unchanged and unchanging Savior!

In a little while and you shall see Me!  

Would that the eye of faith might be kept more intently fixed on "that glorious appearing!"

How the world, with its guilty fascinations, tries to dim and obscure this blessed hope!

How the heart is prone to throw out its tendrils into the earth, and get them rooted in some perishable object! 

Reader! seek to dwell more habitually on this the grand consummation of all your dearest wishes!

Stand on the edge of your nest pluming your wings for flight!

~John Macduff~

Is The Altar Of Sacrifice Calling You?

Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
 
Is the altar of sacrifice calling you?

Why not ask God to bind you to it, so you will never be tempted to turn away from a life of consecration, or dedication, to Him?

There are times when life is full of promise and light, and we choose the cross; yet at other times, when the sky is gray, we run from it.

Therefore it is wise to be bound to the altar.
 
Dear blessed Holy Spirit, will You bind us to the cross and
fill us with such love for it that we will never abandon it? 

Please bind us with Your scarlet cord of redemption,Your gold cord of love, and the silver cord of hope in Christ’s second coming.

We ask this so we will not turn from the cross of sacrifice, or
desire becoming anything but humble partners with our Lord
in His pain and sorrow!

The horns of the altar are inviting you.Will you come?
 
Are you willing to continually live a life of total surrender, giving
yourself completely to the Lord?

~Selected~
 
I once heard a story of a man who attended a tent revival
meeting and tried to give himself to God. Every night at the
altar, he would dedicate himself to the Lord.Yet as he left each
evening, the Devil would come to him and convince him that
since he did not feel changed, he was not truly redeemed.
 
Again and again he was defeated by the Adversary. 

Finally one evening he came to the meeting carrying an ax and a large wooden stake.

After dedicating himself once more, he drove the stake into the ground where he had knelt to pray. 

As he was leaving the tent, the Devil came to him as usual, trying to make him believe that his commitment to God was not genuine.
 
He quickly returned to the stake, pointed to it, and said,“Devil, do you see this stake? This is my witness that God has forever accepted me.”
 
Immediately the Devil left him, and he never experienced doubts again. 

~From The Still Small Voice~

Beloved, if you are tempted to doubt the finality of your salvation experience, drive a stake into the ground and then let
it be your witness before God, and even the Devil, that you have
settled the question forever.
 
Are you groping for a blessing, Never getting there?
Listen to a word of wisdom, Get somewhere.
 
Are you struggling for salvation By your anxious prayer?
Stop your struggling, simply trust, and—Get somewhere.

Does the answer seem to linger To your earnest prayer?
Turn your praying into praise, and—Get somewhere.
 
You will never know His fullnes Till you boldly dare To commit your all to Him, and—Get somewhere.
 
~Songs of the Spirit~

Faith Is The Basis

Faith is the ground upon which Christ as all  becomes real to us.

Let us ask the Lord to give us a real, spiritual, quick, living apprehension of this great truth concerning our Lord Jesus, the great realm of the new creation into which we are brought, and let us apply it, practice it, put it into operation from day to day.

You may have to go into a place where there is not much spiritual wealth on the outside, not much upon which to feed.

Remember you have Christ, the whole land, lying before you. 

You may have to go into scenes where there is anything but rest, spiritual rest; where all is fret, care, drive, strain. 

Remember that you are in the land; you are in Christ; you have Him as your Rest.  

You may have to go into the conflict, into the battle, into the tremendous activities of the enemy to overthrow you. 

Remember you are in Christ, Who is victory, complete, final victory. That remains true, whatever the enemy may say about it.

Christ is all that we need for a life which is glorifying to Him. 

It is what Christ is, what we have in the new creation. 

~T. Austin Sparks~

FIRMNESS IN TEMPTATION

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Mat 4:10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

There is a dreadful intensity of meaning in the words, as applied to Jesus, "He suffered, being tempted!"

Though incapable of sin — there was, in the refined sensibilities of His holy nature, that which made temptation unspeakably appalling. 

What must it have been to confront the Arch-traitor? To stand face to face with the foe of His throne, and His universe?

But the "prince of this world" came, and found "nothing in Him."

Billow after billow of Satanic violence spent their fury, in vain, on the Living Rock!

Reader! you have still the same malignant enemy to contend with; assailing you in a thousand insidious forms; astonishingly adapting his assaults to your circumstances, your temperament, your mental bent, your master passion!

There is no place, where "Satan's seat" is not; The whole world lies in wickedness. 

(1 John 5:19)

He has his whispers for the ear of childhood; hoary age is not inaccessible to his wiles. "All this will I give you"---is still his bribe to deny Jesus and to "mind earthly things." 

He will meet you in the crowd; he will follow you to the solitude; his is a sleepless vigilance!

Are you bold in repelling him as your Master was? 

Are you ready with the retort to every foul suggestion, "Away from me, Satan!" Cultivate a tender sensitiveness about sin. 

The finest barometers are the most sensitive. Whatever your besetting frailty is---whatever bitter or baleful passion you are conscious aspires to the mastery---watch it, crucify it, Nail it to your Lord's cross! 

You may despise "the day of small things"---the Great Adversary does not.

He knows the power of littles---that little by little consumes and eats out the vigor of the soul. 

And once the downwards movement in the spiritual life begins who can predict where it may end?

The going on "from weakness to weakness," instead of "from strength to strength."

Make no compromises; never join in the ungodly amusement, or venture on the questionable path, with the plea, "It does me no harm.

The Israelites, on entering Canaan, instead of obeying the Divine injunction of extirpating their enemies, made a hollow truce with them. 

What was the result? Years upon years of tedious warfare. "They were scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes!"

It is quaintly but truthfully said by an old writer, "Sin indulged, in the conscience, is like Jonah in the ship, which causes such a tempest, that the conscience is like a troubled sea, whose waters cannot rest." — (Thomas Brooks.)

"Keep," then, "your heart with all diligence," or, (as it is in the forcible original Hebrew,) "keep your heart above all keeping, for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). 

Let this ever be our preservative against temptation, "How would Jesus have acted here? Would He not have recoiled, like the sensitive plant, from the remotest contact with sin?

Can I think of dishonoring Him by tampering with His enemy---incurring from His own lips the bitter reflection of injured love---'I am wounded in the house of My friends!'"

He tells us the secret of our preservation and safety, "Simon! Simon! Satan has desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not!"

"Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind."

~John Macduff~

Companions Of The SON Will Go Into The Hard School

God does not see us in ourselves - He sees us in Christ. He does not see us, He sees Christ in us. We don't believe that! If we really did we would be delivered from ourselves and would indeed be triumphant Christians.

Of course, that does not mean that we can just behave anyhow. 

We may speak and act wrongly, but for every Christian there is a refuge - a mercy-seat. It has not to be made; it is there with the precious Blood. That has not to be shed; it is shed. 

There is a High Priest making intercession for us. There is everything that we need. The work is finished, completed. 

Oh, we Christians must believe our beliefs! We must take hold, with both hands, of the things which are of our Christian faith.

But I know you have problems when I say that: 'What about this old man?' Perhaps you are one of those people who believe that sin has been absolutely rooted out of you and that it is quite impossible for you to sin - well , if you believe that, the Lord bless you! 

I think you may be tripped up one day and find that there is an old man there after all. 

But leaving that aside, most of us do know that there are two things in us - there is the new and there is the old, there is the spiritual man and there is the natural man, and this natural man is a very troublesome fellow!

What about him over against the finished work? This Letter tells you all about that when it says: God dealeth with you as with sons (12:7), and God loves sons.

Are you a child of God? Has there been in your history that deep action of new birth? 

Have you received the Lord Jesus? The Word of God says: "John 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"

If you have received the Lord Jesus you are a child of God. The spirit of sonship has come in and dwells in you.

This Letter says that God loves His sons, and therefore He chastens them:

He child-trains them, and 'no child-training', says the Letter, 'for the present is pleasant'. 

God's dealings with His own family are not always pleasant, and when they are unpleasant there is a little demon sitting on our shoulder who will whisper in our ear: 'You see, God does not love you. He would not deal with you like this if He loved you.' 

The devil is always out to turn the loving works of God into evil things.

Yes, God is dealing with us as with sons. It is discipline, and it goes against the flesh. 

The Letter says: 'It is not for the present pleasant.' Indeed, it might have said: 'It is very unpleasant!' 

What father is he, says this Letter, 'who does not chasten his son?'

What I am saying is not easy to say, because I may be exposing myself to the rod. 

We have enough experience to know that we have to say some things very carefully, because we are often tested on the things that we say. 

But here is the statement that it is a totally unkind father who never chastens his child. 

Have you seen children who are never chastened or corrected? Those children are going to have a bad time in this world, as people are not going to like them, and they will discover that. Their parents have spoilt them.

This Letter says that God's love is expressed in His using the rod to His children.

He does not always put His good things, His best things, into a nice form.

I heard the other day of a little boy who had to take some medicine, and it was not very nice. 

His father said: 'There are many vitamins in this medicine.' The little boy said: 'Daddy, why must all the good things be put into nasty things? Why can't they be put into ice-cream?' 

The Lord does not always put the good things into ice-cream. Sometimes the vitamins are in the nasty medicine.

Now that is exactly what this Letter says. God is not condemning us when He deals with us like that. He is working to deliver us. 

If you think that these talks here are going to save you, you are making a mistake! They are only to explain what God is doing. 

God never saves by theory. You can read everything that has ever been written on Christian doctrine and still be the same man or woman. 

God's ways are very practical, and He teaches us by experience. That experience is sometimes very difficult and is called here 'the training of sons'.

May the Lord Jesus just impress our hearts again with these things! God is still speaking in His Son, and His speaking is in order to get companions of His Son. 

Companions of this heavenly calling and of Christ will go into the hard school and have to learn many hard lessons, but in learning them they will come to understand how great is their inheritance in the Lord Jesus.

I may add this: My experience is that no one really has spiritual knowledge without suffering. I am not speaking about head knowledge. I am speaking about real knowledge of the Lord in the inner life. 

I do not know of anyone who has come into that knowledge apart from suffering.

Perhaps that is a depressing thing to say, but there it is - it is a law in God's Word. 

We have this treasure in earthen vessels  
(II Corinthians 4:7), and how poor this vessel is we learn through trial and affliction, but then we learn how wonderful the Lord is. 

The Letter to the Hebrews says: "Afterward" (that is, after the chastening) "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (12:11). 

What a wonderful phrase! Those fruits come along the line of chastening and by way of suffering.

So let us ask for that grace which the Apostle had to rejoice in suffering.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Those That Walk In Pride He Is Able To Abase

Among all the evils which lie naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, pride seems especially to incur his holy abhorrence.

And the outward manifestations of it have perhaps drawn down as much as, or more than, any other sin, his marked thunderbolts.

Pride cost Sennacherib his army and Herod his life; pride opened the earth to Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and hung up Absalom in the boughs of an oak.

Pride filled the breast of Saul with murderous hatred against David, and tore ten tribes at one stroke from the hand of Rehoboam. 

Pride drove Nebuchadnezzar from the society of his fellow-men, and made him eat grass as oxen, and his body to be wet with the dew of heaven, until his hairs were grown as eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.

And as it has cut off the wicked from the earth, and left them neither son nor nephew, root nor branch, so it has made sad havoc even among the family of God.

Pride shut Aaron out of the promised land, and made Miriam a leper.

Pride, working in the heart of David, brought a pestilence which cut off seventy thousand men.

Pride carried captive to Babylon Hezekiah's treasure and descendants, and cast Jonah into the whale's belly, and, in his feelings, into the very belly of hell. 

It is the only source of contention; the certain forerunner of a fall; the instigator of persecution; a snare for the feet; a chain to compass the whole body; the main element of deceitfulness, and the grave of all uprightness. 

The very opposite to charity, pride is not patient, and is never kind; she always envies, and ever boasts of herself; is continually puffed up, always behaves herself unseemly, ever seeks her own, is easily provoked, perpetually thinks evil, rejoices in iniquity, but rejoices not in the truth; bears nothing, believes nothing (good in a brother), hopes nothing, endures nothing. 

Ever restless and ever miserable, tormenting herself and tormenting others, the bane of churches, the fomenter of strife, and the extinguisher of love.

May it be our wisdom to see, our grace to abhor, and our victory to overcome her.

And may the experience of that verse in Deer's hymn be ours–"Your garden is the place Where pride can not intrude For should it dare to enter there, Would soon be drowned in blood." 

~J. C. Philpot~

A Dearth In The Land

It was a time of straitness, a time of pressure,  a time when things were anything but easy. 

And all such times are perilous times.  

A time of pressure, time of adversity, time of difficulty, time of straitness, when things are hard... that is a perilous time in this sense: 

That we are very often found governed by the necessity of the time, and we yield to the pressure of circumstances and do something or try to do something.

We've been occupied with Abraham on our Thursday evenings; the situation was a very difficult one for Abraham. Indeed, humanly impossible, and he yielded to the pressure of circumstances, or of what seemed to be a necessity. 

He took action... and we know the terrible result of that in Ishmael. 

We have quite a number of such instances in the Bible, and perhaps the most outstanding of all, it is a comfort to know that our Lord Jesus did not escape this temptation for there is no doubt that the temptation of the devil in the wilderness to Him was to act under the pressure of necessity. 

And He hungered...after forty days and forty nights fasting, and the devil came and said: "Command these stones that they become bread; if you don't you'll die; it's necessary for you to do something! Your circumstances demand that you do something."

It's always a perilous time to be under pressure, duress, and a time of adversity. 

This was a time of dearth, and so they must do something and they go out to do it. 

And you see what happened; it's a part of the whole story - it's only a part - it leads on to the very blessed sequel.

But the next feature: this inadvertent wrong, mistake. As they gathered, one gathered this wild vine, and it says that, "They knew it not". 

Under pressure doing something and inadvertently making a mistake, which involves in real peril of a threat to the whole life itself.

Out there in that world, the curse was lurking secretly... for all wild things and poisonous things came from that initial curse, when God said "Cursed shall be the ground because of you". 

The curse was lurking, as it always is; that curse which has in it the very element of death - it's about, it's there - we are not always able to detect, to identify. 

It is in the world, it is everywhere; the deadly thing... just waiting for them, shall we put it like this: to act like this, indiscriminately, or by sheer force of seeming necessity, for their very life. A trap waiting!

Do you notice that this inadvertent error, mistake, not only involved the one who gathered the vine; it involved all those who were in relation with the testimony. 

The enemy is very subtle. If he can only drive just one child of God, one servant of God, along this line and entangle him or her, he knows that this is a communal pot, that it's not an isolated thing - he has got others in view - and they were all involved in this mistake.

The result: the touch of death. Evidently they drew out and tasted, and detected that there was something poisonous: the touch of death, Of course, that is the point of this whole story, and of all these stories, you see death in some form or another abounding - the work of the curse.

But then the end. And this is where this message turns from being one that is sombre, and perhaps not very helpful, although enlightening; where it turns to become, I think, tremendously helpful. 

When, discerning their mistake, recognizing that they had become involved in something evil quite unintentionally - they did it under pressure, under seeming necessity - they made a mistake. 

And I suggest, dear friends, that there are not many of us here today, who, looking back over our lives, are unable to see more than one occasion when it was like that with us: we were driven, we were harassed, perhaps distraught, pressed out of measure; we felt that we must do something, and we did something on that ground. And we regret it to this day. 

What it involved us in, and others too... well, it's a very real-to-life story, this is. But that is not the message. It may be a warning; it may be enlightening, but the message comes at the end.

They cried out: "O man of God, there is death in the pot" and he said, "Then, bring meal". And he cast it in the pot. They drew out, and there was no evil. 

What's the message? I hope I'm not reading something into this, but if the rest of the story is true to principle, I think its issue is true. 

I have to go back to the book of Leviticus for the real clue to this issue and I will find it in the second chapter - those chapters dealing with the various offerings to be brought to the Lord by His people, all of which, as you know, are related to the one thing: Life - Life with God.

~T. Austin Sparks~