Trust The LORD Only As We Enter Into This New Year!

                                                  
Deu 11:11  But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:

Deu 11:12  A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

Today, dear friends, we stand upon the verge of the unknown. 

There lies before us the new year and we are going forth to possess it. 

Who can tell what we shall find? 

What new experiences, what changes shall come, what new needs shall arise? 

But here is the cheering, comforting, gladdening message from our Heavenly Father, "The Lord thy God careth for it."

All our supply is to come from the Lord. 

Here are springs that shall never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off. 

Here anxious one, is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father. 

If He be the Source of our mercies they can never fail us. 

No heat, no drought can parch that river, "the streams whereof make glad the city of God."

The land is a land of hills and valleys. It is not all smooth nor all down hill. 

If life were all one dead level the dull sameness would oppress us; we want the hills and the valleys. 

The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. 

Ah, so it is grace and brings down the shower of blessing...

The hills, the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down showers. 

How many have perished in the wilderness, buried under its golden sands, who would have lived and thrived in the hill-country...

How many would have been killed by the frost, blighted with winds, swept desolate of tree and fruit but for the hill- stern, hard, rugged, so steep to climb. 

God's hills are a gracious protection for His people against their foes!

We cannot tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing.

Trust only. 

The Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way today. 

It shall be a good, a blessed new year!

He leads us on by paths we did not know...

Upward He leads us, though our steps be slow...

Though oft we faint and falter on the way...

Though storms and darkness oft obscure the day...

Yet when the clouds are gone, We know He leads us on.

He leads us on through all the unquiet years...

Past all our dreamland hopes, and doubts and fears...

He guides our steps, through all the tangled maze...

Of losses, sorrows, and o’er clouded days...

We know His will is done, And still He leads us on. 

~Nicholaus Ludwig Zinzendorf

So Shall We Ever Be With The LORD!

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are-and how transitory! 

One moment our eyes see Him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory...

But again a little time and we do not see Him, for our beloved withdraws Himself from us; like a roe or a young hart He leaps over the mountains of division...

He is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies.

If today He deigns to bless us With a sense of pardoned sin... 

He tomorrow may distress us, Make us feel the plague within.

Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold Him at a distance, but see Him face to face...

When He shall not be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of His glory. 

We shall not see Him for a little season, but... 

Millions of years our wondering eyes, Shall o'er our Saviour's beauties rove...

And myriad ages we'll adore, The wonders of His love.

In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin...

No weeping shall dim our eyes...

No earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts...

We shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing for ever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. 

Oh, if it be so sweet to see Him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face, and never have a cloud rolling between...

And never have to turn one's eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! 

Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? 

Rise, O unsetting sun! 

The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. 

If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus...

Then death is indeed gain...

And the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

~Charles Spurgeon

He Went Up To A Mountain Apart

Mat 14:23  And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

One of the blessings of the old-time Sabbath was its calm, its restfulness, its holy peace. 

There is a strange strength conceived in solitude. 

Crows go in flocks and wolves in packs, but the lion and the eagle are solitaires.

Strength is not in bluster and noise. 

Strength is in quietness. 

The lake must be calm if the heavens are to be reflected on its surface.

Our Lord loved the people, but how often we read of His going away from them for a brief season. 

He tried every little while to withdraw from the crowd. 

He was always stealing away at evening to the hills. 

Most of His ministry was carried on in the towns and cities by the seashore, but He loved the hills the best, and oftentimes when night fell He would plunge into their peaceful depths.

The one thing needed above all others today is that we shall go apart with our Lord, and sit at His feet in the sacred privacy of His blessed presence. 

Oh, for the lost art of meditation! 

Oh, for the culture of the secret place! 

Oh, for the tonic of waiting upon God!   

~Selected

It is well to live in the valley sweet, Where the work of the world is done, Where the reapers sing in the fields of wheat, As they toil till the set of sun.

But beyond the meadows, the hills I see Where the noises of traffic cease, And I follow a Voice that calleth to me From the hilltop regions of peace.

Aye, to live is sweet in the valley fair, And to toil till the set of sun; But my spirit yearns for the hilltop's air When the day and its work are done.

For a Presence breathes o'er the silent hills, And its sweetness is living yet; The same deep calm all the hillside fills, As breathed over Olivet.

Every life that would be strong must have its Holy of Holies into which only God enters.

I Will Praise Thee, O LORD!

Psalm 9:1  To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David. I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

Praise should always follow answered prayer; as the mist of earth's gratitude rises when the sun of heaven's love warms the ground.

Hath the Lord been gracious to thee, and inclined His ear to the voice of thy supplication? 

Then praise Him as long as thou livest. 

Let the ripe fruit drop upon the fertile soil from which it drew its life. 

Deny not a song to Him who hath answered thy prayer and given thee the desire of thy heart.

To be silent over God's mercies is to incur the guilt of ingratitude...

It is to act as basely as the nine lepers, who after they had been cured of their leprosy, returned not to give thanks unto the healing Lord. 

To forget to praise God is to refuse to benefit ourselves...

For praise, like prayer, is one great means of promoting the growth of the spiritual life.

It helps to remove our burdens, to excite our hope, to increase our faith. 

It is a healthful and invigorating exercise which quickens the pulse of the believer, and nerves him for fresh enterprises in his Master's service.

To bless God for mercies received is also the way to benefit our fellow men; "the humble shall hear thereof and be glad." 

Others who have been in like circumstances shall take comfort if we can say, "Oh! magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together; this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." 

Weak hearts will be strengthened, and drooping saints will be revived as they listen to our "songs of deliverance." 

Their doubts and fears will be rebuked, as we teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. They too shall "sing in the ways of the Lord," when they hear us magnify His holy name.

Praise is the most heavenly of Christian duties. 

The angels pray not, but they cease not to praise both day and night...

And the redeemed, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, are never weary of singing the new song, "Worthy is the Lamb."

~Charles Spurgeon

The Tyranny Of The Customary

In the Old Testament, the enemy that threatened Israel the most was the dictatorship of the customary. 

Israel became accustomed to walking around in circles and was blissfully content to stay by the safety of the mountain for a while. 

To put it another way, it was the psychology of the usual. 

God finally broke into the rut they were in and said, "You have been here long enough. It is time for you to move on."

To put Israel's experience into perspective for our benefit today, we must see that the mountain represents a spiritual experience or a spiritual state of affairs. 

Israel's problem was that they had given up hope of ever getting the land God had promised them. 

They had become satisfied with going in circles and camping in nice, comfortable places. 

They had come under the spell of the psychology of the routine. 

It kept them where they were and prevented them from getting the riches God had promised them. 

If their enemy, the Edomites, would have come after them, the Israelites would have fought down to the last man and probably would have beaten the Edomites...Israel would have made progress. 

Instead they were twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the customary to keep on being customary.

~A. W. Tozer

An Undecided Man Is A Halting Man!

1Ki 18:21  And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.  

It is strange that people will not get over the idea that a consecrated life is a difficult one.

A simple illustration will answer this foolish impression. 

Suppose a street car driver were to say, "It is much easier to run with one wheel on the track and the other off," his line would soon be dropped by the public, and they would prefer to walk.

Of course, it is ever so much easier to run with both wheels on the track, and always on the track, and it is much easier to follow Christ fully than to follow with a half heart and halting step.

The prophet was right in his pungent question, "How long halt ye between two opinions?" 

The undecided man is a halting man. 

The halting man is a lame man and a miserable man

And the out-and-out Christian is the admiration of men and angels, and a continual joy to himself.

Say, is it all for Jesus, As you so often sing, Is He your Royal Master, Is He your heart's True King?

~A. B. Simpson

Stripped Lying At The Feet Of Jesus

Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

The literal translation of that phrase in Hebrews is, "all things are stripped and stunned." 

Such is the force of the Greek words. 

The figure is that of an athlete in the Coliseum who has fought his best in the arena, and has at length fallen at the feet of his adversary, disarmed and broken down in helplessness. 

There he lies, unable to strike a blow or lift his arm. 

He is stripped and stunned, disarmed and disabled, and there is nothing left for him but to lie at the feet of his adversary and appeal to him for mercy.

Now this is the position to which God wants to bring us, where we shall cease our struggles and our attempts at self-defense or self-improvement and throw ourselves helplessly upon the mercy of God. 

This is the sinner's only hope, and when he thus lies at the feet of mercy, Jesus is ready to lift him up and give him that free salvation which is waiting for all.

This, too, is the greatest need of the Christian who seeks a deeper and higher life...

To come to a full realization of his nothingness and helplessness and to lie down, stripped and stunned, at the feet of Jesus.

~A. B. Simpson

Former Blessing No Argument For Present Compromise

The whole question of spiritual fullness is at stake. 

 

I have spoken of what might have been in the case of Jonathan. 

 

David came to the kingdom in fullness, and Jonathan might have been there at his side, his strength and support in the kingdom...

 

But no; instead of that, he passes out in this tragic way. 

 

In a sense, there is nothing wrong with Jonathan; but he has become involved in compromise with another one and another instrument and another order of things, because he did not make a clean cut. 

 

It is not for us to judge why, but it does seem that it must have been that he argued on the ground of natural reasoning about this thing. 

 

What does it all amount to? 

 

If spiritual fullness is to be reached, we have to be governed by Divine and heavenly principles, and not by human considerations. 

 

Divine principles; not...What will the consequences be? 

 

Not, What shall we lose? 

 

Not even, What will the Lord lose? - because that is a very subtle argument. 

 

The Lord does not ask us to reason this thing out on that level at all. 

 

He says, 'What is the Divine principle? Let that principle govern and guide.' 

 

You may not see at all how it is going to work out. 

 

If you are governed by Divine principles you may seem to lose a lot here; you may, for a time, have to go out with David and wait. 

 

But in the end the principles will be vindicated. 

 

You Have To Recognize That Compromise On Principle Only Brings Disaster. 

 

You see it everywhere.

The need is to seek to know what the Divine principle is in any matter. 

Has God revealed His own thought and mind?...

Then I Must Not Pursue Some Other Way on the ground that the Lord has blessed and the Lord has used that other way. 

That was true of Saul; that was true of Jonathan. 

But there came a point at which an ultimate issue was raised on principle by the revealing of God's full mind. 

Now I cannot argue that because people have been blessed and used of the Lord though they have not at given times and in given ways stood for that full mind, therefore it is not necessary for me to be abandoned to God's full thought. 

That is human argument. We must not do it.  

The Lord blesses when the heart is wholly for Him, but that does not mean that everything is there that He wants. 

The very people whom He is using He will presently bring to see something more of His will and how much more deeply His thoughts go. 

Then it is no less an issue than Amalek...

Human judgment must be utterly put away, in the light of the Divine mind then revealed.

I have no doubt you can see through what I am saying a great deal more...

If you do not grasp the whole thing, just take this as a guiding lesson in life, that where Divine fullness is concerned, the fact that the Lord blesses does not warrant us in arguing that we can stay in a certain position, that there is nothing more required. 

The point is, has the Lord revealed something more than is actually represented in the sphere where we have known His blessing? 

If so, it is for us to go on in the light of all that the Lord has revealed, and take the consequences. 

In the end it will be seen whether the principle was vindicated by God.

This story of Jonathan is, I say, a terribly pathetic and tragic story. 

No doubt he had a good argument for what he did, but he certainly did not argue from the heavenly standpoint. 

He did not say, 'God has made it perfectly clear that it is through David that His full purpose is to be realized. 

I knew from the beginning that David was the anointed, and not my father; I have had it confirmed again and again...

I told David that he was going to have the throne and the kingdom; my heart is with him...

And yet he is out there in the wilderness and I am here with my father. 

What am I doing here?

He did not argue, 'That is the direction in which the Lord's full purpose lies; it is for me to be there.' 

He doubtless had his arguments and his reasons and could probably have been very plausible as to why he was still sticking to his father and to the kingdom from which God had departed. 

He Was Compromising...

His Loyalty Was Divided...

And He Was Involved In The Tragedy.

It is a fresh call to us to act on principle with the Lord and not to argue from any other standpoint, on any other ground. 

We must say, 'What has the Lord revealed? 

It will mean this, it will cost that, it will involve me thus; but that is not the point. 

I am not going to be influenced or governed by consequences at all. 

Policy must have no place with me. 

What God has revealed - that is the only argument for me.

So Amalek became the occasion for bringing up the whole question of obedience to the Lord, involving the necessity for the setting aside of a great deal of natural judgment. 

Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 

Beyond all outward observance and profession, the LORD  looks for Full and Uncompromising Obedience to His Revealed Will.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Quicken Us!

                

Psalm 71:20  Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.   

God shows us the troubles. 

Sometimes, as this part of our education is being carried forward, we have to Descend into "the lower parts of the earth"...

Pass through subterranean passages...

Lie buried amongst the dead...

But never for a moment is the cord of fellowship and union between God and us strained to breaking...

And from the Depths God will Bring Us Again.

Never doubt God! 

Never say that He has forsaken or forgotten. 

Never think that He is unsympathetic. 

He WILL Quicken Again. 

There is always a smooth piece in every skein, however tangled. 

The longest day at last rings out the evensong. 

The winter snow lies long, But It Goes At Last.

Be Steadfast; Your Labor Is Not In Vain.  

God Turns Again, And Comforts. 

And when He does, the heart which had forgotten its Psalmody breaks out in jubilant song, as does the Psalmist: "I will thank thee, I will harp unto thee, my lips shall sing aloud."

~Selected

Though the rain may fall and the wind be blowing, And old and chill is the wintry blast...

Though the cloudy sky is still cloudier growing, And the dead leaves tell that the summer has passed...

My face I hold to the stormy heaven, My heart is as calm as the summer sea...

Glad to receive what my God has given,Whate'er it be. 

When I feel the cold, I can say, 'He sends it,' And His winds blow blessing, I surely know...

For I've never a want but that He attends it...

And my heart beats warm, though the winds may blow.

Love The Cause Of Redemption

                                                 

 

John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Everything that God does is done without effort or strain. 

He does all his acts with equal ease and tranquillity. 

We are often tempted to wonder how God could love us, but honest as this feeling is, it is nevertheless the result of a wrong way of looking at things. 

God does not love us because we are hard or easy to love; He loves us because He is God, not because we are good or bad or more attractive or less so. 

God's love is not drawn out of Him by its object; it flows out from God in a steady stream because He is love. 

"God so loved the world," not because the world was lovable but because God is love. 

Christ did not die for us that God might love us; He died for us because God already loved us from everlasting. 

Love is not the result of redemption; it is the cause of it. 

One question may demand to be answered: Does God love some people more than others? 

If not, what was meant by calling John "the disciple Jesus loved," as if to say that He loved John more than the rest? 

The answer is simple. 

John was more responsive to the love of Christ and could receive and enjoy it to a greater fullness. 

The divine love could operate toward this loving man with a joyous freedom not possible with others who had not his simplicity and faith. 

The sunflower that turns its face to the sky all day long gets more sun than the violet that hides among the leaves. 

But the same sun shines in fullness upon both.

God has no favorites, except as some of His children by their loving response make it possible for Him to shower more love upon them.

God loves us because He is God. 

He does not love some of us more or less than others. 

He loves each one. 

Out of His love He has provided redemption. 

Are we running to His love or running from it?

Father, You so love me that You gave Christ for me. 

He so loved me that He paid the penalty of my sin by dying for me. 

In thanks and worship I bow before You.

~A. W. Tozer

The Divine Approval Of Faithfulness

But what is it that brings out this divine approval? 'I am going to make them know that I have loved thee'.

There is a partiality of God - not just for persons, for people, as such; it is not a selectiveness among people which draws out His partiality.

But there is a partiality of the Lord towards faithfulness itself.

It is that which draws out this word, "I have loved thee".

I am sure it must have been very heartening to the saints at Philadelphia to get a message like that.

It must almost have startled them in their difficulties, in everything that seemed to say that the Lord was not with them and was not prospering them.

There is so much that is against them; there are so many difficulties.

Then suddenly a letter arrives, and in it the Lord says: "I have loved thee".

Almost startling! Why?

Here are the oppressed saints at Philadelphia, and the Lord says, "thou hast a little power".

They themselves are more conscious of weakness than of power, seeming to be very much weaker than otherwise, and yet there is that there which speaks of the Lord, something that the Lord can light upon and say...

In all your consciousness of weakness, in the seeming overwhelming insufficiency, there is that there which is My foothold, which speaks of Me'.

Thou hast a little power, and didst keep my word...

You have been faithful to My revealed thoughts and mind...

And didst not deny my name - the Name of absolute supremacy and honour and glory... 

And "didst keep the word of my patience".

~T. Austin Sparks

Blessed Are They That Have Not Seen, And Yet Have Believed!

John 20:29  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
 
How strong is the snare of the things that are seen, and how necessary for God to keep us in the things that are unseen! 

If Peter is to walk on the water he must walk; if he is going to swim, he must swim, but he cannot do both. 

If the bird is going to fly it must keep away from fences and the trees, and trust to its buoyant wings. 

But if it tries to keep within easy reach of the ground, it will make poor work of flying.
 
God had to bring Abraham to the end of his own strength, and to let him see that in his own body he could do nothing. 

He had to consider his own body as good as dead, and then take God for the whole work...

And when he looked away from himself, and trusted God alone, then he became fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able to perform.
 
That is what God is teaching us, and He has to keep away encouraging results until we learn to trust without them...

And then He loves to make His Word real in fact as well as faith.
 
~A. B. Simpson
 
I do not ask that He must prove His Word is true to me...
 
And that before I can believe He first must let me see.
 
It is enough for me to know Tis true because He says 'tis so...
 
On His unchanging Word I'll stand And trust till I can understand.
 
~E. M. Winter

All That He Has, And All That He Is, Is Theirs

Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Child of God, let me urge you to make use of your God. 

Make use of him in prayer; I beseech you, go to Him often, because He is your God. 

He has made Himself over to you, and He has become the property of all His children, so that all that He has, and all that He is, is theirs. 

O child of God, will you let your treasury lie idle, when you need it?

No! go and draw from it by prayer.

Fly to Him, tell Him all your needs. 

Use Him constantly by faith, at all times.

Oh! I beseech you, if some dark providence has come over you-use your God as a sun, for He is a sun.

If some strong enemy has come out against you-use your God for a shield, for He is a shield to protect you.

If you have lost your way in the mazes of life-use Him for a guide, for the great Jehovah will direct you.

If you are in storms-use Him, for He is the God who stills the raging of the sea, and says unto the waves, "Be still."

If you are a poor thing, knowing not which way to turn-use Him for a shepherd, for the Lord is your Shepherd, and you shall not want.

Whatever you are, and wherever you are, remember that God is just what you need.

I beseech you, then, make use of your God!

~Charles Spurgeon

"Try Thanksgiving"

John 11:41  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 

This is a very strange and unusual order. 

Lazarus is still in the grave, and the thanksgiving precedes the miracle of resurrection. 

I thought that the thanksgiving would have risen when the great deed had been wrought, and Lazarus was restored to life again. 

But Jesus gives thanks for what He is about to receive. 

The gratitude breaks forth before the bounty has arrived, in the assurance that it is certainly on the way. 

The song of victory is sung before the battle has been fought. 

It is the sower who is singing the song of the harvest home. 

It is thanksgiving before the miracle!

Who thinks of announcing a victory-psalm when the crusaders are just starting out for the field? 

Where can we hear the grateful song for the answer which has not yet been received?

And after all, there is nothing strange or forced, or unreasonable in the Master's order. 

Praise is really the most vital preparatory ministry to the working of the miracles. 

Miracles are wrought by spiritual power. 

Spiritual power is always proportioned to our faith.
 
~Dr. Jowett
 
PRAISE CHANGES THINGS

Nothing so pleases God in connection with our prayer as our praise, and nothing so blesses the man who prays as the praise which he offers. 

I got a great blessing once in China in this connection. 

I had received bad and sad news from home, and deep shadows had covered my soul. 

I prayed, but the darkness did not vanish. 

I summoned myself to endure, but the darkness only deepened. 

Just then I went to an inland station and saw on the wall of the mission home these words: "Try Thanksgiving." 

I did, and in a moment every shadow was gone, not to return. 

Yes, the Psalmist was right, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord."
 
~Rev. Henry W. Frost