“He Who Would Be A Christian Must Be So At the Risk of All He Counts Dear In This Life”

The world is never pleased with the people of God. 

The son of the bond-woman still strives with the son of the free-woman. 

Opposition to all that is godly...is stern, constant, and determined. 

Nothing but divine grace can ever enable a child of God to endure the fearful hostility of the enemy. 

Our Savior’s word is still fulfilled:

Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.  

The offense of the cross has not ceased! 

It never can cease but by the conversion of the soul to God. 

John 15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Men of the world have no better attitude towards Christianity than when they crucified its Author, and cast his followers to the wild beasts! 

He who would be a Christian must be so at the risk of all he counts dear in this life. 

The world will heap hatred upon him, will vex his righteous soul from day to day; and if possible, turn him away from his tender walk with God.

~William S. Plumer

It Takes God Time To Answer Prayer

Psalm 37:5  Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

I once thought that after I prayed that it was my duty to do everything that I could do to bring the answer to pass.

He taught me a better way and showed that my self-effort always hindered His working...

And that when I prayed and definitely believed Him for anything, He wanted me to wait in the spirit of praise,...

And only do what He bade me.

It seems so unsafe to just sit still, and do nothing but trust the Lord...

And the temptation to take the battle into our own hands is often tremendous.

We all know how impossible it is to rescue a drowning man who tries to help his rescuer...

And it is equally impossible for the Lord to fight our battles for us when we insist upon trying to fight them ourselves.

It is not that He will not, but He cannot.

Our interference hinders His working. 

~C.H.P. 

Spiritual forces cannot work while earthly forces are active.

It takes God time to answer prayer.

We often fail to give God a chance in this respect.

It takes time for God to paint a rose.

It takes time for God to grow an oak.

It takes time for God to make bread from wheat fields.

He takes the earth. He pulverizes. He softens. He enriches.

He wets with showers and dews.

He warms with life.

He gives the blade, the stock, the amber grain, and then at last the bread for the hungry.

All this takes time.

Therefore we sow, and till, and wait, and trust, until all God's purpose has been wrought out.

We give God a chance in this matter of time.

We need to learn this same lesson in our prayer life.

It takes God time to answer prayer. 

~J. H. M.

 

He Will Not Spoil His Child By Sparing His Rod!

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

When our expectation is too much raised on account of Any Creature...

The Lord Jesus in wisdom disappoints it...

He disappoints it that we may seek our whole happiness in Him. 

He expects that our whole dependence should be placed on Him. 

He Will have it, and is Worthy of it. 

The human heart would gladly be roosting a little on some earthly thing...

But Jesus will Unroost it...

And He will bring it fluttering to Himself like the dove to Noah's ark...

Where ALONE it can find Rest.

If the heart happens to seek delight elsewhere...

Well then it is a kindness of the Lord to deny us our desires.

During our earthly warfare, troubles will come by sixes and sevens-a gracious company...

But not one too many. 

If we could live well without afflictions-we would not have them...

But we cannot, and therefore Jesus in love sends them.

You are an afflicted family to be sure-but mercy, much mercy attends you. 

If you see no family so afflicted as yours, can you find any family so blessed?

All of one heart and one mind seeking after Jesus. 

Surely the Lord delights in you, and bestows His best blessings on you, a healthy soul...

While the world is satisfied with just a healthy body.

Yet the best Need Correction, and Will have it. 

Whom the Lord loves, He rebukes and chastens. 

Some foolishness is bound up in the hearts of His children...

And He Will Not Spoil His Child By Sparing His Rod!

~John Berridge

Glorify The LORD In The Fire!

Isa 24:15  Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

Mark the little word "in"! 

We are to honor Him in the trial-in that which is an affliction indeed...

And though there have been cases where God did not let His saints feel the fire, yet, ordinarily, fire hurts.

But just here we are to glorify Him by our perfect faith in His goodness and love that has permitted all this to come upon us.

And more than that, we are to believe that out of this is coming something more for His praise than could have come but for this fiery trial.

We can only go through some fires with a large faith; little faith will fail. 

We must have the victory in the furnace.

~Margaret Bottome

A man has as much religion as he can show in times of trouble. 

The men who were cast into the fiery furnace came out as they went in-except their bonds.

How often in some furnace of affliction God strikes them off! 

Their bodies were unhurt-their skin not even blistered. 

Their hair was unsinged, their garments not scorched, and even the smell of fire had not passed upon them. 

And that is the way Christians should come out of furnace trials-liberated from their bonds, but untouched by the flames.