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.