Immortal Till Work Done

Psa 118:17  I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.  

A fair assurance this! It was no doubt based upon a promise, inwardly whispered in the psalmist's heart, which he seized upon and enjoyed.

Is my case like that of David? Am I depressed because the enemy affronts me? 

Are there multitudes against me and few on my side?

Does unbelief bid me lie down and die in despair-a defeated, dishonored man?

Do my enemies begin to dig my grave? 

What then? Shall I yield to the whisper of fear, and give up the battle, and with it give up all hope?

Far from it. There is life in me yet: "I shall not die." Vigor will return and remove my weakness: "I shall live."

The LORD lives, and I shall live also. My mouth shall again be opened: "I shall declare the works of Jehovah." 

Yes, and I shall speak of the present trouble as another instance of the wonder-working faithfulness and love of the LORD my God.

Those who would gladly measure me for my coffin had better wait a bit, for "the LORD hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death."

Glory be to His name forever! I am immortal till my work is done.

Till the LORD wills it, no vault can close upon me. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Specialize In The Impossible

Jos 17:18  But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.
 
There is always room higher up. When the valleys are full of Canaanites, whose iron chariots withstand your progress, get up into the hills, occupy the upper spaces.

If you can no longer work for God, pray for those who can.
If you cannot move earth by your speech, you may move Heaven.

If the development of life on the lower slopes is impossible, through limitations of service, the necessity of maintaining others, and such-like restrictions, let it break out toward the unseen, the eternal, the Divine.
    
Faith can fell forests. Even if the tribes had realized what treasures lay above them, they would hardly have dared to suppose it possible to rid the hills of their dense forest-growth.

But as God indicated their task, He reminded them that they had power enough.

The visions of things that seem impossible are presented to us, like these forest-covered steeps, not to mock us, but to incite us to spiritual exploits which would be impossible unless God had stored within us the great strength of His own indwelling.
    
Difficulty is sent to reveal to us what God can do in answer to the faith that prays and works.

Are you straitened in the valleys? Get away to the hills, live there; get honey out of the rock, and wealth out of the terraced slopes now hidden by forest.

~Daily Devotional Commentary~
    
Got any rivers they say are uncrossable, Got any mountains they say 'can't tunnel through'?

We specialize in the wholly impossible, Doing the things they say you can't do.

~Song of the Panama builders~
    
Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say,Rejoice.

It is a good thing to rejoice in the Lord. Perhaps you have tried this, and the first time seemed to fail.

Never mind, keep right on and when you cannot feel any joy, when there is no spring, and no seeming comfort and encouragement, still rejoice, and count it all joy.

Even when you fall into divers temptations, reckon it joy and delight and God will make your reckoning good.

Do you suppose your Father will let you carry the banner of His victory and His gladness on to the front of the battle, and then coolly stand back and see you captured or beaten back by the enemy? NEVER!

The Holy Spirit will sustain you in your bold advance, and fill your heart with gladness and praise, and you will find your heart all exhilarated and refreshed by the fullness within.

Lord teach me to rejoice in Thee, and to "rejoice evermore."

~Selected~
    
The weakest saint may Satan rout, Who meets him with a praiseful shout.
    
Eph 5:18  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Eph 5:19  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

Here the Apostle urges the use of singing as one of the inspiring helps in the spiritual life.

He counsels his readers not to seek their stimulus through the body, but through the spirit; not by the quickening of the flesh, but by the exaltation of the soul.
    
Sometimes a light surprises The Christian while he sings.
    
Let us sing even when we do not feel like it, for thus we may give wings to leaden feet and turn weariness into strength.

~J. H. Jowett~
    
Act 16:25  And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

Oh, Paul, thou wondrous example to the flock, who could thus glory, bearing in the body as thou didst "the marks of the Lord Jesus"!

Marks from stoning almost to the death, from thrice beating with rods, from those hundred and ninety-five stripes laid on thee by the Jews, and from stripes received in that Philippian jail, which had they not drawn blood would not have called for washing!

Surely the grace which enabled thee to sing praises under such suffering is all-sufficient grace.

~J. Roach~
    
Oh, let us rejoice in the Lord, evermore,When darts of the tempter are flying,

For Satan still dreads, as he oft did of yore, Our singing much more than our sighing.

Trust Amid The Silence

It may be a child of God is reading these words who has had some great crushing sorrow, some bitter disappointment, some heart-breaking blow from a totally unexpected quarter.

You are longing for your Master's voice bidding you "Be of good cheer," but only silence and a sense of mystery and misery meet you---"He answered her not a word."
     
God's tender heart must often ache listening to all the sad, complaining cries which arise from our weak, impatient hearts, because we do not see that for our own sakes He answers not at all or otherwise than seems best to our tear-blinded, short-sighted eyes.
     
The silences of Jesus are as eloquent as His speech and may be a sign, not of His disapproval, but of His approval and of a deep purpose of blessing for you.
     
"Why art thou cast down, O...soul?" Thou shalt yet praise Him, yes, even for His silence.

Listen to an old and beautiful story of how one Christian dreamed that she saw three others at prayer. As they knelt the Master drew near to them.
     
As He approached the first of the three, He bent over her in tenderness and grace, with smiles full of radiant love and spoke to her in accents of purest, sweetest music.
     
Leaving her, He came to the next, but only placed His hand upon her bowed bead, and gave her one look of loving approval.
     
The third woman He passed almost abruptly without stopping for a word or glance.

The woman in her dream said to herself, "How greatly He must love the first one, to the second He gave His approval, but none of the special demonstrations of love He gave the first; and the third must have grieved Him deeply, for He gave her no word at all and not even a passing look.
     
I wonder what she has done, and why He made so much difference between them?

As she tried to account for the action of her Lord, He Himself stood by her and said: "O woman! how wrongly hast thou interpreted Me.

The first kneeling woman needs all the weight of My tenderness and care to keep her feet in My narrow way. She needs My love, thought and help every moment of the day. Without it she would fail and fall.
     
The second has stronger faith and deeper love, and I can trust her to trust Me however things may go and whatever people do.
     
The third, whom I seemed not to notice, and even to neglect, has faith and love of the finest quality, and her I am training by quick and drastic processes for the highest and holiest service.
     
She knows Me so intimately, and trusts Me so utterly, that she is independent of words or looks or any outward intimation of My approval.

She is not dismayed nor discouraged by any circumstances through which I arrange that she shall pass; she trusts Me when sense and reason and every finer instinct of the natural heart would rebel;--because she knows that I am working in her for eternity, and that what I do, though she knows not the explanation now, she will understand hereafter.
     
I am silent in My love because I love beyond the power of words to express, or of human hearts to understand, and also for your sakes that you may learn to love and trust Me in Spirit-taught, spontaneous response to My love, without the spur of anything outward to call it forth."
     
He "will do marvels" if you will learn the mystery of His silence, and praise Him, for every time He withdraws His gifts that you may better know and love the Giver.

~Selected~

Not Of The Extraordinary

Exo 3:1  Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
 
Exo 3:2  And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
 
The vision came in the midst of common toil, and that is where the Lord delights to give His revelations.

He seeks a man who is on the ordinary road, and the Divine fire leaps out at his feet. The mystic ladder can rise from the market place to Heaven. It can connect the realm of drudgery with the realms of grace.

My Father God, help me to expect Thee on the ordinary road. I do not ask for sensational happenings. 

Commune with me through ordinary work and duty. Be my Companion when I take the common journey. 

Let the humble life be transfigured by Thy presence.

Some Christians think they must be always up to mounts of extraordinary joy and revelation; this is not after God's method. 

Those spiritual visits to high places, and that wonderful intercourse with the unseen world, are not in the promises; the daily life of communion is. And it is enough. We shall have the exceptional revelation if it be right for us.

There were but three disciples allowed to see the transfiguration, and those three entered the gloom of Gethsemane.

No one can stay on the mount of privilege. There are duties in the valley. 

Christ found His life-work, not in the glory, but in the valley and was there truly and fully the Messiah. 

The value of the vision and glory is but their gift of fitness for work and endurance.

 ~Selected~

Borrowing Trouble

Many have a sinful desire to see into the future. Rather than not know what was coming, men have resorted to astrology, palm reading, witchcraft, spiritualism and the wildest conjectures. This disposition is still common. 

Some spend much time in these wild imaginations, none of which will ever be realized.

But in sad moods, men's minds go to the other extreme, and take gloomy views of all the future. Then they anticipate many calamities.

It is in mercy that God has hid from our view coming events.

We often misunderstand things that have already occurred. 

Still more frequently do we make a frightful thing of what is now passing before us.

But could we, with our narrow capacities, look into the future so as to tell the general course of providence towards us in years to come—we would be very wretched.

It was a peculiar bitter ingredient of the sufferings of our blessed Lord, that He foresaw all His trials (Luke 12:50). 

But we know not what shall be on the morrow, and on many accounts it is best for us not to indulge in idle anticipations.

1. We have something else to do. Our duties are pressing, solemn, numerous. If we can meet the responsibilities of the present hour, that will be as much as we can reasonably expect. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

2. When great trials come to true Christians, they have a promise of assistance according to their necessities. "As your days, so shall your strength be." Dying grace is seldom given except to dying believers. To them it is never denied.

3. By idle anticipations, we greatly enhance our sufferings. Porteus says: "He who foresees calamities, suffers them twice over!"

4. We are positively forbidden to pry curiously into the future. 

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law Deut. 29:29. 

Our great wisdom is found in entire submission to the sovereign will of God in all coming events.

5. There is no end to the torment we may thus inflict upon ourselves. 

Seneca was right when he said: "The state of that man's mind who feels so intense an interest as to future events, must be most deplorable." 

Johnson says: "Many philosophers imagine that the elements themselves may be in time exhausted; that the sun, by shining long, will effuse all its light; and that, by the continual waste of aqueous particles, the whole earth will at last become a sandy desert.

I would not advise my readers to disturb themselves by contriving how they shall live without light and water."

Sometimes folly seems to know no bounds.

6. A good writer says: "You may live through tomorrow.

Then be prepared for it, prosecute your plans, pursue your business, be industrious and enterprising.

But be not unmindful that there is another branch of the alternative. 

You may not live through tomorrow. Be prepared equally for that.

Tomorrow may introduce you into the presence of God, may close the account of life, may withdraw the offer of mercy, may cut short the opportunity of salvation.

What if it shall? Are you ready for that interview and that reckoning?

A similar error is committed by those who spend their time in trying to discover how they shall be delivered from distresses now pressing upon them.

Mordecai was a godly man. He greatly feared God and trusted Him also. 

He was persuaded that enlargement and deliverance would come. 

He thought the queen might be the instrument of rescue to God's chosen people. But he was not sure. 

He told his cousin that at present the finger of providence seemed to point to her.

At the same time he freely told her that if she entirely declined, ruin would overtake her and her house, while it should be seen that God would not forsake His ancient people.

One very proper way of disposing of such temptations respecting the future, is to dwell much on the eternity which is before us.

What is all time? 

What are all the trials of time? 

It will not be long until every living man will look back on the worldly things which made him glad or sorrowful—and see and say that they are things of nothing. 

The wicked and the righteous in a future state will alike wonder that such vanities could ever have engrossed their attention.

Let any thoughtful man even here say, "What importance will I attach to this or that event—to this or that possession a thousand years from this time?" and he will at once see how idle are his intense feelings.

Eternity! you pleasing dreadful thought!
 
Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass?

The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me; But shadows, clouds and darkness rest upon it.

Then let us gird up the loins of our minds, stand in our lot, cheerfully committing everything to the God of all grace and mercy. 

We see not, but He sees what is coming, and has made full provision for it.

Let us sing: "I see not a step before, As I tread the days of the year; But the past is still in God's keeping, The future His mercy will clear;
 
And what seems dark in the distance May brighten as I draw near.

So I go on, not knowing—I would not if I might;
 
I would rather walk with God in the dark Than walk alone in the light;
 
I would rather walk with Him by faith Than walk alone by sight.

My heart shrinks back from trials Which the future may disclose;
 
Yet I never had a sorrow But what my dear Lord chose;
 
So I send the coming tears back With the whispered words, "He knows." 

 ~William S. Plumer~

Who May Abide The Day Of His Coming?

His first coming was without external pomp or show of power, and yet in truth there were few who could abide its testing might. 

Herod and all Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of the wondrous birth.

Those who supposed themselves to be waiting for him, showed the fallacy of their professions by rejecting him when he came. 

His life on earth was a winnowing fan, which tried the great heap of religious profession, and few enough could
abide the process. 

But what will his second advent be? 

What sinner can endure to think of it?

He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

When in his humiliation he did but say to the soldiers, “I am he,” they fell backward; what will be the terror of his enemies when he shall more fully reveal himself as the “I am?” 

His death shook earth and darkened heaven, what shall be the dreadful splendour of that day in which as the living Saviour, he shall summon the quick and dead before him?

O that the terrors of the Lord would persuade men to forsake their sins and kiss the Son lest he be angry! 

Though a lamb, he is yet the lion of the tribe of Judah, rending the prey in pieces; and though he breaks not the bruised reed, yet will he break his enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 

None of his foes shall bear up before the tempest of his wrath, or hide themselves from the sweeping hail of his indignation;
 
But his beloved blood washed people look for his appearing with joy, and hope to abide it without fear:

To them he sits as a refiner even now, and when he has tried them they shall come forth as gold.

Let us search ourselves this morning and make our calling and election sure, so that the coming of the Lord may cause no dark forebodings in our mind.
 
O for grace to cast away all hypocrisy, and to be found of him sincere and without rebuke in the day of his appearing.


~Charles Spurgeon~

Desperate Situations

Act 12:7  And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.

Act 16:25  And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

Act 16:26  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

This is God's way.

In the darkest hours of the night, His tread draws near across the billows.

As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter's cell.

When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the favored race.

Ah, soul, it may have to come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou wilt be delivered!

God may keep thee waiting, but he will ever be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfill His inviolable Word.

~F. B. Meyer~

There's a simplicity about God in working out His plans, yet a resourcefulness equal to any difficulty, and an unswerving faithfulness to His trusting child, and an unforgetting steadiness in holding to His purpose.

Through a fellow-prisoner, then a dream, He lifts Joseph from a prison to a premiership. And the length of stay in the prison prevents dizziness in the premier.

It's safe to trust God's methods and to go by His clock.

~S. D. Gordon~

Providence hath a thousand keys to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a desperate case.

Let us be faithful; and care for our own part which is to suffer for Him, and lay Christ's part on Himself, and leave it there.

~George MacDonald~

Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle-it is miracle in its first stage.

If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty but impossibility.

The clinging hand of His child makes a desperate situation a delight to Him.

Spirit Of Prayer

Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
 
The Holy Spirit becomes to the consecrated heart the Spirit of intercession. 

We have two Advocates. We have an Advocate with the Father, who prays for us at God's right hand; but the Holy Spirit is the Advocate within, who prays in us, inspiring our petitions and presenting them, through Christ, to God.
 
We need this Advocate. We know not what to pray for, and we know not how to pray as we ought, but He breathes in the holy heart the desires that we may not always understand, the groanings which we could not utter.

But God understands, and He, with a loving Father's heart, is always searching our hearts to find the Spirit's prayer, and to answer it. 

He finds many a prayer there that we have not discovered, and answers many a cry that we never understood. 

And when we reach our home and read the records of life, we shall better know and appreciate the infinite love of that Divine Friend, who has watched within as the Spirit of prayer, and breathed out our every need to the heart of God.

~A. B. Simpson~

Never Alone

Isa 62:4  Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
 

"Forsaken" is a dreary word. It sounds like a knell. It is the record of I sharpest sorrows and the prophecy of direst ills. An abyss of misery yawns in that word forsaken.

Forsaken by one who pledges his honor! Forsaken by a friend so long tried and trusted! Forsaken by a dear relative! Forsaken by father and mother! Forsaken by all!

This is woe indeed, and yet it may be patiently born if the LORD will take us up.

But what must it be to feel forsaken of God? Think of that bitterest of cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 

Have we ever in any degree tasted the wormwood and the gall of "forsaken" in that sense? If so, let us beseech our LORD to save us from any repetition of so unspeakable a sorrow. Oh, that such darkness may never return!

Men in malice said of a saint, "God hath forsaken him; persecute and take him." But it was always false. 

The LORD's loving favor shall compel our cruel foes to eat their own words or, at least, to hold their tongues. 

The reverse of all this is that superlative word Hephzibah "the LORD delighteth in thee." This turns weeping into dancing. 

Let those who dreamed that they were forsaken hear the LORD say, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

 

~C.H. Spurgeon~

The Leadership Of Our Guide

John 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
 

Truth is like a vast cavern into which we desire to enter, but we are not able to traverse it alone.

At the entrance it is clear and bright; but if we would go further and explore its innermost recesses, we must have a guide, or we shall lose ourselves. 

The Holy Spirit, who knows all truth perfectly, is the appointed guide of all true believers, and He conducts them as they are able to bear it, from one inner chamber to another, so that they behold the deep things of God, and His secret is made plain to them. 

What a promise is this for the humbly inquiring mind! We desire to know the truth and to enter into it. 

We are conscious of our own aptness to err, and we feel the urgent need of a guide. 

We rejoice that the Holy Spirit is come and abides among us. He condescends to act as a guide to us, and we gladly accept His leadership.

"All truth" we wish to learn, that we may not be one-sided and out of balance. 

We would not be willingly ignorant of any part of revelation lest thereby we should miss blessing or incur sin. 

The Spirit of God has come that He may guide us into all truth: let us with obedient hearts hearken to His words and follow His lead.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Progressiveness In God's Dealings

In the course of our spiritual history God deals with us in ever-deepening ways. 

Down, down, down, He goes, until He touches bottom to have things true at our very depth. 

He undercuts all our professions, doctrines, assumptions, pretensions, illusions, and customs.
 
There is no mere formalism about this; no mere Jewish ritual in this; no mere outward observance of rites and ceremonies in this! No! 

This has got to go right into the inmost being, in the inward parts. God works toward that. God is ever working toward the most inward parts. Do you recognize that? Do you understand what He is doing with us?

Oh, He will meet us with blessing on a certain level, as we walk before Him, like the man in Psalm 1. He will meet us with His gracious provision when we transgress and trespass and fail, and do wrong - He will meet us there in grace. 

But God is going to pursue this matter to the most inward place of our being, and register there His work of grace and redemption.
 
"Thou desirest...", and David did not come to that until he reached the profoundest, the deepest place of need, of failure, of conscious weakness and worthlessness. Then he cried. 

It is not enough to just please God in ordinary ways; it is not enough to observe the ritual of the Law, and go to the ceremonies, and carry out all that which is external. 

God is after truth in the inward parts, right down into the depths of our being. Why? Why? Because truth is a major feature and constituent of the Divine nature. 

God is called the God of Truth; Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Godhead, called Himself the Truth - "I am... the truth"; "To this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth".

The Holy Spirit is described as the Spirit of Truth - "when He, the Spirit of truth, is come...".
 
The Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are characterized by this one feature - truth!

And God desires and has set His heart upon having people who are partakers of the Divine nature, and so He is working ever more deeply toward this end:

What is true of Himself shall be true of His children - those begotten of Him - that they should be true sons of God in this sense.

~T. Austin Sparks~