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~