Over Jordan With Singing

Deut. 33:29  Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.

That archenemy, the devil, is a liar from the beginning; but he is so very plausible that, like mother Eve, we are led to believe him.

Yet in our experience we shall prove him a liar.

He says that we shall fall from grace, dishonor our profession, and perish with the doom of apostates; but, trusting in the LORD Jesus, we shall hold on our way and prove that Jesus loses none whom His Father gave Him.

He tells us that our bread will fail, and we shall starve with our children; yet the Feeder of the ravens has not forgotten us yet, and He will never do so, but will prepare us a table in the presence of our enemies.

He whispers that the LORD will not deliver us Out of the trial which is looming in the distance, and he threatens that the last ounce will break the camel's back.

What a liar he is! For the LORD will never leave us or forsake us.

"Let him deliver him now!" cries the false fiend: but the LORD will silence him by coming to our rescue.

He takes great delight in telling us that death will prove too much for us. "How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?"

But there also he shall prove a liar unto us, and we shall pass through the river singing psalms of glory.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Rest On The Word Of GOD

Psa 119:42  So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word.  

Just in proportion in which we believe that GOD will do just what He has said, is our faith strong or weak.

Faith has nothing to do with feelings, or with impressions, with improbabilities, or with outward appearances.

If we desire to couple them with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of GOD because faith needs nothing of the kind.

Faith rests on the naked Word of GOD. When we take Him at His Word, the heart is at peace.

GOD delights to exercise faith, first for blessing in our own souls, then for blessing in the Church at large, and also for those without.

But this exercise we shrink from instead of welcoming.

When trials come, we should say: "My Heavenly Father puts this cup of trial into my hands, that I may have something sweet afterwards."

Trials are the food of faith. Oh, let us leave ourselves in the hands of our Heavenly Father!

It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children.

But trials and difficulties are not the only means by which faith is exercised and thereby increased.

There is the reading of the Scriptures, that we may by them acquaint ourselves with GOD as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Are you able to say, from the acquaintance you have made with GOD, that He is a lovely Being?

If not, let me affectionately entreat you to ask GOD to bring you to this, that you may admire His gentleness and kindness, that you may be able to say how good He is, and what a delight it is to the heart of GOD to do good to His children.

Now the nearer we come to this in our inmost souls, the more ready we are to leave ourselves in His hands, satisfied with all His dealings with us.

And when trial comes, we shall say: "I will wait and see what good GOD will do to me by it, assured He will do it."

Thus we shall bear an honorable testimony before the world, and thus we shall strengthen the hands of others.

~George Mueller~

Obedience - The Way to GOD'S Fullness

John 4:31  In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.  

John 4:32  But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
 
John 4:33  Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
 
John 4:34  Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

Secondly: There is a link between the will of GOD and LIFE. “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.” 

We remember that at this time the LORD Jesus was hungry and very faint.

He sat down at the well weary from His journey.

When the disciples came back from the town where they had bought food, they found Him remarkably revived.

They thought that somebody had brought Him some food.

But the LORD explained to them that the renewal of His life had come from doing His Father’s will.

That shows a close connection between the doing of the will of GOD and ‘Life’.

Thirdly: The link between this is a divine purpose and the fulfilment of it. “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to accomplish His work”.

The Father’s will represented a divine purpose, and the LORD Jesus says that He was linked with that purpose.

To accomplish that divine purpose was a greater satisfaction to Him than earthly things.

We can say that He found His Life in doing the will of GOD.

Therefore, an important factor for us is that obedience is the way to GOD'S fullness.

It was so in the case of the LORD Jesus. When He said: “For this is the will of my Father, that every one that beholds the Son, and believeth on Him, should have eternal life”, it clearly shows that union with Christ, according to GOD'S will, means Life for us.

Thus GOD'S will is in vital relationship and oneness with the Son.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Do Not Yield To Discouragement

Exodus 16:20  Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

Get into the habit of looking for the silver lining of the cloud and when you have found it, continue to look at it, rather than at the leaden gray in the middle.

Do not yield to discouragement no matter how sorely pressed or beset you may be.

A discouraged soul is helpless. He can neither resist the wiles of the enemy himself, while in this state, nor can he prevail in prayer for others.
     
Flee from every symptom of this deadly foe as you would flee from a viper.

And be not slow in turning your back on it, unless you want to bite the dust in bitter defeat.
     
Search out GOD'S promises and say aloud of each one: "This promise is mine."

If you still experience a feeling of doubt and discouragement, pour out your heart to GOD and ask Him to rebuke the adversary who is so mercilessly nagging you.
     
The very instant you whole-heartedly turn away from every symptom of distrust and discouragement, the blessed Holy Spirit will quicken your faith and inbreathe Divine strength into your soul.
     
At first you may not be conscious of this, still as you resolutely and uncompromisingly "snub" every tendency toward doubt and depression that assails you, you will soon be made aware that the powers of darkness are falling back.
     
Oh, if our eyes could only behold the solid phalanx of strength, of power, that is ever behind every turning away from the hosts of darkness, and turning God-ward, what scant heed would be given to the effort of the wily foe to distress, depress, discourage us!
     
All the marvelous attributes of the GODHEAD are on the side of the weakest believer, who in the name of Christ, and in simple, childlike trust, yields himself to GOD and turns to Him for help and guidance.

~Selected~
     
On a day in the autumn, I saw a prairie eagle mortally wounded by a rifle shot.

His eye still gleamed like a circle of light. Then he slowly turned his head, and gave one more searching and longing look at the sky.

He had often swept those starry spaces with his wonderful wings.

The beautiful sky was the home of his heart. It was the eagle's domain.

A thousand times he had exploited there his splendid strength. 

In those far away heights be had played with the lightnings, and raced with the winds, and now, so far away from home, the eagle lay dying, done to the death, because for once be forgot and flew too low.

The soul is that eagle.

This is not its home.

It must not lose the skyward look.

We must keep faith, we must keep hope, we must keep courage, we must keep Christ.

We would better creep away from the battlefield at once if we are not going to be brave.

There is no time for the soul to stampede. Keep the skyward look, my soul; keep the skyward look!
     
Keep looking up - The waves that roar around thy feet, Jehovah-Jireh will defeat...When looking up.
     
Keep looking up - Though darkness seems to wrap thy soul; The Light of Light shall fill thy soul...When looking up.
     
Keep looking up - When worn, distracted with the fight; Your Captain gives you conquering might...When you look up.
     
We can never see the sun rise by looking into the west. 

~Japanese Proverb~

Security In Storms

Mat 14:24  But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

Rude and blustering the winds of March often are. Do they not typify the tempestuous seasons of my life?

But, indeed, I ought to be glad that I make acquaintance with these seasons.

Better it is that the rains descend and the floods come than that I should stay perpetually in the Lotus Land where it seems always afternoon, or in that deep meadowed Valley of Avilion where never wind blows loudly. 

Storms of temptation appear cruel, but do they not give intenser earnestness to prayer?

Do they not compel me to seize the promises with a tighter hand grip?

Do they not leave me with a character refined?

Storms of bereavement are keen; but, then, they are one of the Father's ways of driving me to Himself, that in the secret of His presence His voice may speak to my heart, soft and low.

There is a glory of the Master which can be seen only when the wind is contrary and the ship tossed with waves.

Jesus Christ is no security against storms, but He is perfect security in storms.

He has never promised you an easy passage, only a safe landing.

Oh, set your sail to the heavenly gale, And then, no matter what winds prevail, No reef can wreck you, no calm delay;

No mist shall hinder, no storm shall stay; Though far you wander and long you roam, Through salt sea sprays and o'er white sea foam,

No wind that can blow but shall speed you Home.

~Annie Johnson Flint~

Receive All He Has For You

Gen 13:14  And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
 
Gen 13:15  For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

No instinct can be put in you by the Holy Ghost but He purposes to fulfill. Let your faith then rise and soar away and claim all the land you can discover.

~S. A. Keen~

All you can apprehend in the vision of faith is your own. Look as far as you can, for it is all yours. 

All that you long to be as a Christian, all that you long to do for GOD, are within the possibilities of faith.

Then come, still closer, and with your Bible before you, and your soul open to all the influences of the Spirit, let your whole being receive the baptism of His presence; and as He opens your understanding to see all His fulness, believe He has it all for you.

Accept for yourself all the promises of His word, all the desires He awakens within you, all the possibilities of what you may be as a follower of Jesus. All the land you see is given to you.

The actual provisions of His grace come from the inner vision.

He who puts the instinct in the bosom of yonder bird to cross the continent in search of summer sunshine in the Southern clime is too good to deceive it, and just as surely as He has put the instinct in its breast, so has He also put the balmy breezes and the vernal sunshine yonder to meet it when it arrives.

He who breathes into our hearts the heavenly hope, will not deceive or fail us when we press forward to its realization.

~Selected~
     
Luk 22:13  And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

God Is In The Front Line

Deu 31:8  And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
 

In the presence of a great work or a great warfare, here is a text which should help us to buckle on our harness.

If Jehovah Himself goes before us, it must be safe to follow. Who can obstruct our progress if the LORD Himself is in the van?

Come, brother soldiers, let us make a prompt advance! Why do we hesitate to pass on to victory?

Nor is the LORD before us only; He is with us. Above, beneath, around, within is the omnipotent, omnipresent One.

In all time, even to eternity, He will be with us even as He has been. How this should nerve our arm! 

Dash at it boldly, ye soldiers of the cross, for the LORD of hosts is with us!

Being before us and with us, He will never withdraw His help. He cannot fail in Himself, and He will not fail toward us.

He will continue to help us according to our need, even to the end. As He cannot fail us, so He will not forsake us.

He will always be both able and willing to grant us strength and succor till fighting days are gone.

Let us not fear nor be dismayed; for the LORD of hosts will go down to the battle with us, will bear the brunt of the fight, and give us the victory. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Second Coming

Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
 
George Mueller bears this testimony, "When it pleased God in July, 1829, to reveal to my heart the truth of the personal return of the LORD Jesus, and to show me that I had made a great mistake in looking for the conversion of the world, the effect that it produced upon me was this:

From my inmost soul I was stirred up to feel compassion for perishing sinners, and for the slumbering world around me lying in the wicked one, and considered, 'Ought I not to do what I can for the LORD Jesus while He tarries, and to rouse a slumbering church?"'

There may be many hard years of hard work before the consummation, but the signs are to me so encouraging that I would not be unbelieving if I saw the wing of the apocalyptic angel spread for its last triumphal flight in this day's sunset;

Or if tomorrow morning the ocean cables should thrill us with the news that Christ the LORD had alighted on Mount Olivet or Mount Calvary to proclaim universal dominion.

O you dead churches wake up! O Christ, descend!

Scarred temple, take the crown! Bruised hand, take the sceptre! Wounded foot, step the throne! Thine is the kingdom.

~Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.~

It may be in the evening, When the work of the day is done, And you have time to sit in the twilight, And watch the sinking sun,

While the long bright day dies slowly Over the sea, And the hours grow quiet and holy, With thoughts of Me;

While you hear the village children, Passing along the street,  Among those passing footsteps May come the sound of My Feet.

Therefore I tell you, Watch!

By the light of the evening star, When the room is growing dusky, As the clouds afar, Let the door be on the latch In your home, For it may be through the gloaming I will come."

Wait On GOD'S Time

Genesis 21:2  For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

The counsel of the LORD standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations" (Psalm 33:11).

But we must be prepared to wait GOD'S time.

GOD has His set times. It is not for us to know them; indeed, we cannot know them; we must wait for them.

If GOD had told Abraham in Haran that he must wait for thirty years until he pressed the promised child to his bosom, his heart would have failed him.

So, in gracious love, the length of the weary years was hidden, and only as they were nearly spent, and there were only a few more months to wait, GOD told him that "according to the time of life, Sarah shall have a son." (Gen. 18:14.)

The set time came at last; and then the laughter that filled the patriarch's home made the aged pair forget the long and weary vigil.

Take heart, waiting one, thou waitest for One who cannot disappoint thee; and who will not be five minutes behind the appointed moment: ere long "your sorrow shall be turned into joy."

Ah, happy soul, when GOD makes thee laugh! Then sorrow and crying shall flee away forever, as darkness before the dawn. 

~Selected~

It is not for us who are passengers, to meddle with the chart and with the compass.

Let that all-skilled Pilot alone with His own work.

~Hall~

Some things cannot be done in a day.

GOD does not make a sunset glory in a moment, but for days may be massing the mist out of which He builds His palaces beautiful in the west.

Some glorious morn - but when? Ah, who shall say?

The steepest mountain will become a plain, And the parched land be satisfied with rain.

The gates of brass all broken; iron bars, Transfigured, form a ladder to the stars.

Rough places plain, and crooked ways all straight, For him who with a patient heart can wait.

These things shall be on GOD'S appointed day: It may not be tomorrow - yet it may.

Turn Away From The Lovely Enchantress!

Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you...for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you.

For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions.

These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world." 1 John 2:15-16

Such is the world that assails the Christian, and which he must overcome or perish eternally!

For everyone born of God overcomes the world. 1 John 5:4.

The whole current of Scripture commands runs against the love of the world.

In every possible form, it is forbidden.

Worldliness is the most thronged road to everlasting ruin!

Worldliness does not merely consist in an intense love of money, and an excessive eagerness to be rich...but in a supreme regard to that which is visible and temporal,

Whether these relate to the quiet scenes of domestic comfort, or to those elegancies, splendors, and accumulations of wealth, which lead a man to seek his highest bliss in these!

The world is a foe which attacks us in various places!

In the shop - by all the temptations incident to trade and wealth.

In the halls of politics and public business - by all the enticements to pride and ambition.

In the places of amusement - by all the soft blandishments of pleasure.

In the haunts of vice - by all the gratifications of the flesh.

In the walks of science and literature - by all the delights of intellectual gratification.

In the social circle - by all the enjoyments of friendship.

Oh, how many are the scenes where the world meets man and subdues him!

Sometimes the world approaches the believer with a smiling face, making promises and offering caresses, like the serpent to our first mother in the garden;

Or like Satan to our LORD when he said, "All these things will I give you...if you will fall down and worship me!"

How difficult is it on such occasions to turn away from the lovely enchantress, to keep the eye steadily fixed on heavenly glories...

And instead of greedily quaffing the cup of poisoned sweets, to dash it to the ground!

If immorality slays its thousands...the world slays its tens of thousands!

Supreme love of the world will as certainly lead its possessor to the bottomless pit as the love of open vice!

Worldliness, I repeat, and repeat with emphasis, is...the smoothest, the most polished, the most fashionable, the most respectable path to the bottomless pit!

The Christian is aware of his danger from the strength, subtlety, and ever-present activity of this enemy of his soul. 

Victory over the world is subordination...of the creature to the Creator; of earth to heaven; of temporal blessings to spiritual ones; of time to eternity.

Victory over the world is the formation of an unearthly, spiritual, divine, and heavenly mind-set and character!

It was the sight of Thy dear cross, First weaned my soul from earthly things;

And taught me to esteem as dross, The mirth of fools and pomp of kings!

How all the splendor of earthly things pales before that infinitely more resplendent object - Jesus! 

~J. A. James~

Pressing Forward

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:
 
2Co 1:9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
 
Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length; Pressed so intensely it seems, beyond strength;
      
Pressed in the body and pressed in the soul, Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll.

Pressure by foes, and a pressure from friends. Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.

Pressed into knowing no helper but God; Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.

Pressed into liberty where nothing clings; Pressed into faith for impossible things.

Pressed into living a life in the Lord, Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured."

The pressure of hard places makes us value life.

Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man.

The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them.

There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who shrink from every trial;

But the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really means.

This is what Paul meant when he said, "Death worketh in you."

Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of the winds and waves.

~A. B. Simpson~

Out of the presses of pain, Cometh the soul's best wine;

And the eyes that have shed no rain, Can shed but little shine.

The Discipline Of Faith

Mark 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

The "all things" do not always come simply for the asking, for the reason that GOD is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith, and in our training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith.

Real moral fiber is developed through discipline of faith.
 
Keep on believing GOD'S Word; never be moved away from it by what you see or feel...

Often GOD delays purposely, and the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes.
 
In the lives of all the great Bible characters, GOD worked thus.
 
Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not great in the beginning, but were made great through the discipline of their faith, and only thus were they fitted for the positions to which GOD had called them.
 
For example, in the case of Joseph whom the LORD was training for the throne of Egypt, we read in the Psalms:
 
The word of the LORD tried him.
 
It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him, but it was the word GOD had spoken into his heart in the early years concerning elevation and honor which were greater than his brethren were to receive;
 
It was this which was ever before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible of fulfillment, until he was there imprisoned, and all in innocency, while others who were perhaps justly incarcerated, were released, and he was left to languish alone.
 
These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth and development, that, when his word came (the word of release), found him fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a love and patience only surpassed by GOD Himself.
 
No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these.
 
When GOD has spoken of His purpose to do, and yet the days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard;
 
But it is a discipline of faith that will bring us into a knowledge of GOD which would otherwise be impossible.
 

“To This Man Will I Look”

On the one side, it is terribly true: “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 16:5).

The haughty he knoweth from afar (Ps. 138:6)

It all sprang out of that proud heart that lifted itself up and said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; …I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:13, 14).

With that “I”, all the trouble began, and that one bit his poison into the race.

The poison of the human race is pride, and it has come all the way down.

It is sometimes almost untraceable: we are not able always to trace it out in all its forms, because pride has what we might call negative aspects as well as positive.

There are, of course, the obviously, manifestly proud, the ambitious, the assertive, the self-important, the self-sufficient.

But there are negative aspects and I use that word with regard to pride very carefully, because pride is positive whatever form it takes.

It is an ugly thing. A lot of our murmuring is pride; a lot of tears are pride; we think they are humility.

A lot of our criticism of other people springs from pride...

We think we could do better, we could go one better, setting ourselves up as the judge, the critic; pride is at the root.

Very much of our poor, miserable tone is, after all, pride.

Oh, how subtle and serpentine a thing this is!
 
It is there. So the LORD has to stand back.

On the other hand, look at humility.

To this man will I look - that is the beginning, the Lord even looking in anyone’s direction...even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit” (Isa. 66:2), and He dwells with them (Isa. 57:15).

And “the meek will he guide in judgement: and the meek will he teach his way” (Ps. 25:9).
 

And “the meek shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).

It is like that all the way through; vindication is on that basis.

Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth (Num. 12:3):

And you know when that was said at the time when his position was disputed, and GOD appeared at the entrance of the tabernacle and answered the challenge on the ground of the meekness of His servant.

GOD stands by and vindicates the meek.

Is not the LORD justified in taking any steps to clear up that situation breaking, emptying, humbling, withholding, deferring, delaying; in any way bringing us to naught...

To a place of utter dependence, where there is nothing we can rely upon at all but the LORD Himself?

Is He justified?

It is a tremendous process. It is a very real, very devastating work.

~T. Austin Sparks!

The Flesh, or Self-Principle~In The Feelings

In other cases the circumcision needs to take place in the realm of the feelings, the emotions, the desires.

That is the part of the being that gets in the way of so many people.

They are controlled entirely by the feeling-life, the affection-life...

They are in bondage to that part of their being; and they are very difficult people to handle.

But a true child of Heaven, the seed of His travail, is one in whom there has taken place, in that very realm of the feelings and desires, a deep work of circumcision.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Sing Praise To The LORD!

2Ch 20:22  And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

Oh, that we could reason less about our troubles, and sing and praise more!

There are thousands of things that we wear as shackles which we might use as instruments with music in them, if we only knew how.

Those men that ponder, and meditate, and weigh the affairs of life, and study the mysterious developments of God's providence, and wonder why they should be burdened and thwarted and hampered....

How different and how much more joyful would be their lives, if, instead of forever indulging in self-revolving and inward thinking, they would take their experiences, day by day, and lift them up, and praise God for them.

We can sing our cares away easier than we can reason them away.

Sing in the morning. The birds are the earliest to sing, and birds are more without care than anything else that I know of.

Sing at evening. Singing is the last thing that robins do.

When they have done their daily work; when they have flown their last flight, and picked up their last morsel of food, then on a topmost twig, they sing one song of praise.

Oh, that we might sing morning and evening, and let song touch song all the way through.

~Selected~

Giving In Adversity

At the end of the last century a very godly and liberal merchant in London was one day called on by a gentleman, to ask him for some money for a charitable object.

The gentleman expected very little, having just heard that the merchant had sustained heavy loss from the wreck of some of his ships.

Contrary, however, to expectation, he received about ten times as much as he had expected for his object.

He was unable to refrain from expressing his surprise to the merchant, told him what he had heard, how he feared he should scarcely have received anything, and asked whether after all there was not a mistake about the shipwreck of the vessels.

The merchant replied..."It is quite true, I have sustained heavy loss, by these vessels being wrecked, but that is the very reason, why I give you so much; for I must make better use than ever of my stewardship, lest it should be entirely taken from me."
 
How have we to act if prosperity in our business, our trade, our profession, etc., should suddenly cease, notwithstanding our having given a considerable proportion of our means for the Lord's work?

My reply is this: "In the day of adversity consider."

It is the will of God that we should ponder our ways; that we should see whether there is any particular reason, why God has allowed this to befall us.

In doing so, we may find, that we have too much looked on our prosperity as a matter of course, and have not sufficiently owned and recognized practically the hand of God in our success.

Or it may be, while the Lord has been pleased to prosper us, we have spent too much on ourselves, and may have thus, though unintentionally, abused the blessing of God.

I do not mean by this remark to bring any children of God into bondage, so that, with a scrupulous conscience, they should look at every penny, which they spend on themselves; this is not the will of God concerning us;

And yet, on the other hand, there is verily such a thing as propriety or impropriety in our dress, our furniture, our table, our house, our establishment, and in the yearly amount we spend on ourselves and family. 

~George Mueller~

The Two “Israels”

Now this comprehends GOD'S whole conception of a spiritual Israel.

Why have we taken that fragment - “the Israel of GOD”?

You know, Paul was almost invidious when he used that phrase.

If you look at the letter to the Galatians, you will see that he is dealing with two Israels, and in that phrase he is saying that there is a true Israel and a false. 

I think Phillips, in his "Letters to Young Churches", has put in a word which, while it is not in the text, is what is generally believed to give the meaning of Paul.

His rendering is: “To the TRUE Israel of GOD”. 

That is exactly what Paul meant. There is another Israel, which Paul says is not the true one.

But there are those who “walk by this rule”, this measure, this standard.

What standard is this? If you look at the letter you will see. “My little children, of whom I am again in travail till Christ be formed in you…” (4:19).

As many as walk by this measure… the true Israel of GOD.

The measure of Christ is made complete by travail.

The true Israel of GOD is the “seed” which is of the travail of his soul.

We see, then, that, whether we like it or not, this is an established law.

We can, of course, do many things in order to avoid or get rid of the travail, but GOD'S law means that there is something of preciousness that comes out when it is suffered for, when you suffer for it.

May we never get to the place where we try to make the Christian life cheap and easy...a perpetual holiday.

While there is the joy...and it should be there; while there should be the deep worship, thanksgiving and praise to GOD: surely the truest reality even of the joy is that it comes from deep experience through suffering.

It is not the superficial, flippant, frivolous kind of Christian who really knows the LORD most. 

No: “We rejoice”, said Paul, “in our tribulations” (Rom. 5:3). 

There is something precious for the LORD bound up with suffering, and you and I have to face that.

A few months ago I received, as out from China, a message given by brother Watchman Nee just before he was put in prison about four years ago.

The subject of that message was - the necessity for the breaking of the vessel in order to reveal the preciousness of the treasure within.

It is true. Now he is experiencing it. But: “He shall see his seed… He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied”.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Because Of Us

                                                       
Mat 24:22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

For the sake of His elect the LORD withholds many judgments and shortens others.

In great tribulations the fire would devour all were it not that Out of regard to His elect the LORD damps the flame.

Thus, while He saves His elect for the sake of Jesus, He also preserves the race for the sake of His chosen.

What an honor is thus put upon saints! How diligently they ought to use their influence with their LORD!

He will hear their prayers for sinners and bless their efforts for their salvation.

He blesses believers that they may be a blessing to those who are in unbelief.

Many a sinner lives because of the prayers of a mother, or wife, or daughter to whom the LORD has respect.

Have we used aright the singular power with which the LORD entrusts us?

Do we pray for our country, for other lands, and for the age? 

Do we, in times of war, famine, pestilence, stand out as intercessors, pleading that the days may be shortened?

Do we lament before God the outbursts of infidelity, error, and licentiousness?

Do we beseech our LORD Jesus to shorten the reign of sin by hastening His own glorious appearing?

Let us get to our knees and never rest till Christ appeareth.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Plead His Own Promise

2Sa 7:29  Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken it: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.
 

This is a promise pleaded, and so it yields double instruction to us.

Anything which the LORD GOD has spoken we should receive as surely true and then plead it at the throne.

Oh, how sweet to quote what our own GOD has spoken! How precious to use a "therefore," which the promise suggests, as David does in this verse!

We do not pray because we doubt but because we believe.

To pray unbelievingly is unbecoming in the LORD's children. 

No, LORD, we cannot doubt Thee: we are persuaded that every word of Thine is a sure foundation for the boldest expectation.

We come to Thee and say, "Do as Thou hast said." Bless Thy servant's house.

Heal our sick; save our hesitating ones; restore those who wander; confirm those who live in Thy fear.

LORD, give us food and raiment according to Thy Word. 

Prosper our undertakings; especially succeed our endeavors to make known Thy gospel in our neighborhood.

Make our servants Thy servants, our children Thy children. 

Let the blessing flow on to future generations, and as long as any of our race remains on earth may they remain true to Thee.

O LORD GOD, "let the house of thy servant be blessed."

~Charles Spurgeon~

Delayed

Gen 15:12  And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
 
Gen 15:13  And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
 
Gen 15:14  And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 

An assured part of GOD'S pledged blessing to us is delay and suffering.

A delay in Abram's own lifetime that seemed to put GOD'S pledge beyond fulfillment was followed by seeming unendurable delay of Abram's descendants.

But it was only a delay: they "came out with great substance." The pledge was redeemed.

GOD is going to test me with delays; and with the delays will come suffering, but through it all stands God's pledge: His new covenant with me in Christ, and His inviolable promise of every lesser blessing that I need.

The delay and the suffering are part of the promised blessing; let me praise Him for them today;

And let me wait on the LORD and be of good courage and He will strengthen my heart.

~C. G. Trumbull~

Unanswered yet the prayer your lips have pleaded In agony of heart these many years?

Does faith begin to fail? Is hope departing? And think you all in vain those falling tears?

Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer; You shall have your desire sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Nay do not say ungranted; Perhaps your work is not yet wholly done.

The work began when first your prayer was uttered, And GOD will finish what He has begun.

If you will keep the incense burning there, His glory you shall see sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered, Her feet are firmly planted on the Rock;

Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted, Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock.

She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer, And cries, "It shall be done"--sometime, somewhere.

~Miss Ophelia G. Browning~

The Carnal Mind Is Enmity Against GOD

The flesh is incurably bad. "It is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be." It never can be any better. It is no use trying to improve the flesh. 

You may educate it all you please. You may train it by the most approved methods, you may set before it the brightest examples, you may pipe to it or mourn to it, treat it with encouragement or severity; its nature will always be incorrigibly the same.

Like the wild hawk which the little child captures in its infancy and tries to train in the habits of the dove, before you are aware it will fasten its cruel beak upon the gentle fingers that would caress it, and show the old wild spirit of fear and ferocity.

It is a hawk by nature, and it can never be made a dove.

For the carnal mind is enmity against GOD. It is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be.

The only remedy for human nature is to destroy it, and receive instead the divine nature.

GOD does not improve man. He crucifies the natural life with Christ, and creates the new man in Christ Jesus

~A. B. Simpson~

Don't Fret

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

Not a few Christians live in a state of unbroken anxiety, and others fret and fume terribly.

To be perfectly at peace amid the hurly-burly of daily life is a secret worth knowing.

What is the use of worrying? It never made anybody strong; never helped anybody to do GOD'S will; never made a way of escape for anyone out of perplexity.

Worry spoils lives which would otherwise be useful and beautiful.

Restlessness, anxiety, and care are absolutely forbidden by our LORD, who said: "Take no thought," that is, no anxious thought, "saying what shall we cat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?"

He does not mean that we are not to take forethought and that our life is to be without plan or method; but that we are not to worry about these things.

People know you live in the realm of anxious care by the lines on your face, the tones of your voice, the minor key in your life, and the lack of joy in your spirit.

Scale the heights of a life abandoned to GOD, then you will look down on the clouds beneath your feet.

 ~Rev. Darlow Sargeant~

It is always weakness to be fretting and worrying, questioning and mistrusting.

Can we gain anything by it? Do we not unfit ourselves for action, and unhinge our minds for wise decision?

We are sinking by our struggles when we might float by faith.

Oh, for grace to be quiet! Oh, to be still and know that Jehovah is GOD!

The Holy One of Israel must defend and deliver His own.

We may be sure that every word of His will stand, though the mountains should depart.

He deserves to be confided in.

Come, my soul, return unto thy rest, and lean thy head upon the bosom of the LORD Jesus.

~Selected~

Peace thy inmost soul shall fill Lying still!
     

Leaning Sides

Song Of Solomon 8:5  Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.

Some one gained a good lesson from a Southern prayer meeting. 

A colored brother asked the Lord for various blessings--as you and I do, and thanked the Lord for many already received-as you and I do; 

But he closed with this unusual petition: "And, O Lord, support us! Yes support us Lord on every leanin' side!"

Have you any leaning sides?

This humble man's prayer pictures them in a new way and shows the Great Supporter in a new light also.

He is always walking by the Christian, ready to extend His Mighty arm and steady the weak one on "every leanin' side."

Child of My love, lean hard, And let Me feel the pressure of thy care,  I know thy burden, child.

I shaped it; Poised it in Mine Own hand; made no proportion In its weight to thine unaided strength,

For even as I laid it on, I said,  'I shall be near, and while she leans on Me, This burden shall be Mine, not hers;

So shall I keep My child within the circling arms.

Of My Own love.' Here lay it down, nor fear To impose it on a shoulder which upholds the government of worlds.

Yet closer come: Thou art not near enough. I would embrace thy care; So I might feel My child reposing on My breast.

Thou lovest Me? I knew it. Doubt not then; But Wing Me, "lean hard."

Reflections Of The LORD's Beauty

Psa 17:15  As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. 

The portion of other men fills their bodies and enriches their children, but the portion of the believer is of another sort.

Men of the world have their treasure in this world, but men of the world to come look higher and further.

Our possession is twofold. We have GOD'S presence here and His like-ness hereafter.

Here we behold the face of the LORD in righteousness, for we are justified in Christ Jesus. 

Oh, the joy of beholding the face of a reconciled GOD! The glory of GOD in the face of Jesus Christ yields us heaven below, and it will be to us the heaven of heaven above.

But seeing does not end it: we are to be changed into that which we gaze upon.

We shall sleep a while and then wake up to find ourselves as mirrors which reflect the beauties of our LORD.

Faith sees GOD with a transforming look.

The heart receives the image of Jesus into its own depths, till the character of Jesus is imprinted on the soul.

This is satisfaction. To see God and to be like Him-what more can I desire?

David's assured confidence is here by the Holy Ghost made to be the LORD's promise.

I believe it. I expect it. LORD, vouchsafe it. Amen.

~Charles Spurgeon~