How many more years will I live? By John MacDuff

(John MacDuff, "Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains") The king said to Barzillai, "Come over with me and stay with me in Jerusalem, and I will provide for you." But Barzillai answered the king, "How many more years will I live, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?" 2 Samuel 19:33-34 PLEASURE, shaking in her hands her crowns, cries, "Come over with me!"  MAMMON, clinking his bags of gold, cries, "Come over with me!"  AMBITION, pointing to the hazy mountaintop, and her coveted palace gleaming in the sun, cries, "Come over with me!"  The day will come when these things will yield no pleasure; when they shall be seen in their true light, as the empty baubles of an hour! Oh, what though you may have all that now caters to the pride of life . . .   affluence,   prosperity,   success in business,   "gaining the whole world;" are you imperilling or impoverishing your immortal soul? But Barzillai answered the king, "How many more years will I live, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?" 2 Samuel 19:34 What a solemn question for us all, amid the daily occurring proofs of our frailty and mortality. Oh, what a motto to bear about with us continually amid the wear and tear of life! YOUNG MAN! with the flash of young hope in your eye; existence extending in interminable vista before you; pause ever and always on the enchanted highway, and put the solemn question to yourself, "How many more years will I live?" MAN OF BUSINESS! in availing yourself of new openings in trade, accepting new responsibilities and anxieties, involving yourself in new entanglements, have you stopped at the threshold and probed yourself with the question, "How many more years will I live?" CHILD OF PLEASURE! plunging into the midst of foolish excitement; the whirl of intoxicating gaiety; have you ever, in returning, jaded, and weary, and  worn from the heated ballroom, flung yourself on your pillow, and sunk into a feverish dream, with the question haunting you, "How many more years will I live?" FRUITLESS PROFESSOR! who, with the mere form of godliness, are yet destitute of every practical active Christian virtue; you who have lived a useless life. Have you ever seriously pondered the question, "How many more years will I live?"

God Doesn't Need Help By Theodore Epp

By Theodore Epp

      

11 Samuel 1:1-16

      Second Samuel opens with the account of a messenger coming to David and telling him that Saul and Jonathan and many others were dead.

      Thinking to gain David's approval and possibly receive a reward from him, this messenger, who was an Amalekite, told David that it was at his hands Saul had died.

      He said he had come upon Saul, who was still alive even after falling on his own sword. Saul had pleaded with him to kill him before the Philistines came upon him and mutilated his body while he was still alive.

      The young man claimed he did as Saul requested. Some Bible students believe the young man told the truth; others believe he lied, but whatever the correct version is, he took his story to the wrong man.

      David had always had a strong aversion to raising his hand against God's anointed. Neither would he permit any of his own men to do it. So when this young Amalekite claimed to have killed Saul, David had him put to death.

      David did not want what the Lord did not give to him. He would not take by force what God had promised.

      So many of us make the mistake of feeling we have to help God fulfill His promises.

      "Thine, 0 Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine ,is the kingdom, 0 Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all" (1 Chron. 29:11).

Who's Ruling the World? By Warren Wiersbe

By Warren Wiersbe

      
Read Psalm 9:17-2

The humanist sings, "Glory to man in the highest." And sometimes it looks as if man is prevailing and God is a failure. You recall the slogan that was popular a few years ago that proclaimed "God is dead." Then the philosophers decided God was not really dead; He was simply sick and infirm and couldn't do much about what was going on in the world.

This mindset began in Genesis 3, when Satan said to Adam and Eve, "Look, why should you be a man? You can be like God." That's the same lie that runs the world today. Man is saying, "I will be like God."

But the psalmist tells us that man is not going to prevail. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (v. 17). Today it looks as though man is succeeding--truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. But notice what David prayed: "Arise, O Lord, do not let man prevail, . . . that the nations may know themselves to be but men" (vv. 19,20).

If we take the scepter out of God's hand, we make a mess of things. God runs this universe, and He has ordained us to be under His authority. The word David used for man in verse 19 means "frail man, weak man." The problem today is that men don't know they are mere mortals; they think they're the Creator. And they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. But the sad thing is this: When men try to be God, they don't become God--they become animals. They sink lower than men and start acting like animals. That's why our world is in such a mess today.

I rejoice that I'm just a frail person. I need God. I can come to Him and say, "O Lord, give me the strength I need to glorify Your name today."

We know that God is sovereign in His universe. His purposes will prevail. We may confidently submit to His authority and rest in His love, wisdom and strength. Though we are frail, God is our strength. Let God be King of your life and glorify His name in all you do.

Have thou authority over ten cities By A.B. Simpson

By A.B. Simpson

      It is not our success in service that counts, but our fidelity. Caleb and Joshua were faithful and God remembered their faithfulness when the day of visitation came. For them it was a very difficult and unpopular position. For us, too. 

We are called in the crises of our lives to stand alone. In the very matter of trusting God for victory over sin and our full inheritance in Christ we all have to be tested as they. 

Even in the Church of God our brethren, while admitting in the abstract the loveliness and advantages of life-in Christ, tell us that it is impracticable and impossible. 

Many of us have had to stand alone for years witnessing to the power of Christ to save His people to the uttermost. Like Joshua and Caleb, we have had to follow God alone as we followed Him wholly. But this is the real victory of faith and the proof of our uncompromising fidelity. 

Let us not, therefore, complain when we suffer reproach for our testimony or stand alone for God. Let us, rather, thank Him that He so honors us and stand the test so that He can afterwards use us when the multitudes are glad to follow.

GOD'S CLOSING CALL By John MacDuff

By John MacDuff

      THE NIGHT WATCHES.

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." -- 2 Corinthians 6:2

Reader! How does it stand with you? Is the question of your soul's salvation finally and forever settled? Are you at peace with God? Can you say with Paul, in the prospect of death, "I am now ready?" Have you been led to feel the infinite peril of postponement and procrastination, and responded to the appeal -- "Behold, Now!" Ah, how many have found, when the imagined hour of deathbed preparation had come, that the tear of penitence was too late to be shed, and the prayer of mercy too late to be uttered! Let there be plain dealing between your conscience and your God. Seek not to escape from the pressing urgency of the question. You may dismiss it now, but there is a day coming when you dare not! Let it not merge in vague generalities -- let it be realized as matter of personal concern; of infinite importance to yourself -- "Am I saved, or am I not saved? Am I prepared, or am I unprepared, to meet my God?"

You may have, perhaps, an honest purpose of giving it some future deliberation at another and "more convenient season." Do we ever read of Felix's "more convenient season?" It were better not to risk the experiment of a dying hour for the solution of the problem -- "Is it safe today?" Take it on trust, that it is a difficult matter -- a conference about the soul on the brink of eternity! Remember, God's Spirit "will not always strive." All His other attributes are infinite, but His patience and forbearance have their "bounds and limits."

The invitation which is yours today, may be withdrawn tomorrow. The axe may be even now laid at the root of the tree, and the sentence on the wing -- "Cut it down!" How awful, if it really be, that you are yet living in this state of estrangement and guilt! What a surrender of present peace! What a forfeiture of eternal joy! Hurry! flee for your life, lest you be consumed! Your immortality is no trifle.

"The night is far spent." Who can tell how far? It may be now or never with you! You are about once more to lie down on your nightly pillow. What if your awaking tomorrow were to be "in outer darkness?" But, take courage, that night is not too far spent. Close this last of the "Night Watches," by fleeing, without delay, to Jesus -- the Sinner's Savior and the Sinner's Friend. It was on the last watch of the night, He came of old to His tempest-tossed disciples. Like them, receive Him now into your soul; and have all your guilty fears calmed by His omnipotent "Peace, be still!"

Are there not ominous signs all around, as if the world's last and closing "night-watch" has come? The billows are heaving high. We hear the footsteps on the waters. Amid the fitful moanings of the blast, the watchword is heard -- of joy to some, of terror to others -- "Maranatha" -- "The Lord is coming!"

Reader! are you ready? Is the joyous response on your tongue -- "Come, Lord Jesus; Come quickly"? If this night were indeed your very last, and the thunders of judgment were to break upon you before daybreak; would you be able, in the assurance of an eternal dawn, to say -- "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety." -- Psalm 4:8

The Necessity to Cover By Elisabeth Elliot

By Elisabeth Elliot

      

There are things which it is our duty to cover in silence. We are told nowadays that everything ought to be expressed if we are truly "honest" and "open."

Proverbs 11:13 says, "He who goes abroad as a talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing hidden."

Jesus sometimes refused to reveal the truth about Himself, even when it would have seemed to us "an opportunity to witness." He did not always answer questions. He did not always say who He was. He told some of those He healed to tell no one about it.

"For every activity under heaven its time...a time for silence and a time for speech" (Eccl 3:1,7 NEB). "A man of understanding remains silent" (Prv 11:12 RSV).

Lord, deliver me from the urge to open my mouth when I should shut it. Give me the wisdom to keep silence where silence is wise. Remind me that not everything needs to be said, and that there are very few things that need to be said by me.

Is Your Hope In God Faint And Dying? By Oswald Chambers

By Oswald Chambers

      'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose imagination is stayed on Thee.'
      Isaiah 26:3

      Is your imagination stayed on God or is it starved? The starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker's life. If you have never used your imagination to put yourself before God, begin to do it now. It is no use waiting for God to come; you must put your imagination away from the face of idols and look unto Him and he saved. 

Imagination is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. 

If you have been bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, it will be one of the greatest assets to faith when the time of trial comes, because your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. Learn to associate ideas worthy of God with all that happens in Nature - the sunrises and the sunsets, the sun and the stars, the changing seasons, and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses, but will always be at the service of God.

      "We have sinned with our fathers; . . . and have forgotten" - then put a stiletto in the place where you have gone to sleep. "God is not talking to me just now," but He ought to be. Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. 

Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God will increase tenfold; your imagination will not be starved any longer, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.

A SACRED GIFT OF SEEING By A.W. Tozer

By A.W. Tozer

         As God created us, we all have to some degree the power to imagine. That imagination is of great value in the service of God may be denied by some persons who have erroneously confused the word "imagination" with the word "imaginary." 

The gospel of Jesus Christ has no truck with things imaginary. The most realistic book in the world is the Bible. God is real. Men are real and so is sin and so are death and hell! The presence of God is not imaginary; neither is prayer the indulgence of a delightful fancy.

 The value of the cleansed imagination in the sphere of religion lies in its power to perceive in natural things shadows of things spiritual. 

A purified and Spirit-controlled imagination is the sacred gift of seeing; the ability to peer beyond the veil and gaze with astonished wonder upon the beauties and mysteries of things holy and eternal. The stodgy pedestrian mind does no credit to Christianity!

God's Messengers By Elisabeth Elliot

By Elisabeth Elliot

      How can this person who so annoys or offends me be God's messenger? Is God so unkind as to send that sort across my path? Insofar as his treatment of me requires more kindness than I can find in my own heart, demands love of a quality I do not possess, asks of me patience which only the Spirit of God can produce in me, he is God's messenger. God sends him in order that he may send me running to God for help.

      The Psalms are full of cries to God about enemies--but it was the enemies that drove the psalmist (for example, in Psalm 64) to cry. If he had had no enemies, he would have had no need of a Protector. God will go to any lengths to bring us to Himself.

      "Think of him who submitted to such opposition from sinners: that will help you not to lose heart and grow faint....You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood....The Lord disciplines those whom he loves" (Heb 12:3,4,6 NEB).

An apostolic face and a Judas heart-J. C. Philpot

                                 (Letters of J. C. Philpot)

Many think that a minister is exempt from such

coldness, deadness, and barrenness, as private

Christians feel. And the hypocritical looks and

words of many of Satan's ministers favor this

delusion. Holiness is so much on their tongues,

and on their faces, that their deluded hearers

necessarily conclude that it is in their hearts.

But, alas! nothing is easier or more common,

than an apostolic face and a Judas heart.

Most pictures that I have seen of the "Last Supper"

represent Judas with a ferocious countenance. Had

painters drawn a holy, meek-looking face, I believe

they would have given a truer resemblance.

Many pass for angels in the pulpit, who if the truth

were known, would be seen to be devils and beasts

in heart, lip, and life at home.

"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious

law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are so careful

to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside

you are filthy--full of greed and self-indulgence! You try

to look like upright people outwardly, but inside your

hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness."

Matthew 23:25, 28

No wonder the maidens love You-James Durham

No wonder the maidens love You!

(James Durham, "The Song of Solomon")

"Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth;

for Your love is more delightful than wine!

Pleasing is the fragrance of Your perfumes;

Your name is like perfume poured out.

No wonder the maidens love You!"

Song of Solomon 1:2-3

Believers are not soon satisfied in expressing Christ's

worth. Christ, and all that is in Him, is as refreshing as

a box that is full of the most precious perfume. Christ

is well stored with grace; it is poured into His lips.

This fragrance of Christ's graces is not felt by everyone.

The box of His perfumes is not open to all, but only to

those who believe; for to them He is precious, and

everything that is in Him is most cordial and fragrant

to the believer. "Yes, He is very precious to you who

believe!" 1 Peter 2:7

The more Christ and His worth is known, it will fragrance 

the better, and be the more refreshing; for it is His name

which is this perfume. Christ, in His excellent worth, is

unknown to the world. They do not inquire into this

fragrant name. But if He were once known, they would

find in Him, that which would make them give over their

other unprofitable pursuits, and pant after Him!

"My Lover is radiant and dazzling, better than ten

thousand others!" Song of Solomon 5:10

"His mouth is sweetness itself! He is altogether lovely!

This is my Lover, this my Friend!" Song of Solomon 5:16

Paul's highest attainment-J. C. Philpot

                    (Letters of J. C. Philpot)

"I am nothing." 2 Corinthians 12:11

This was Paul's highest attainment

in the knowledge of self.

To be a daily pauper living on alms is humbling

to proud nature, which is always seeking to be

something, and to do something.

If this self-nothingness was wrought in us, we

would be spared much pain, in wounded pride.

People are building up religion all over the

country, but there is not one of a thousand who

has yet learned the first lesson--to be nothing.

Of all this noisy crowd, how few lie at Jesus' feet,

helpless and hopeless, and find help and hope

in Him!

If you can venture to be nothing, it will save you

a world of anxiety and trouble! But proud, vain,

conceited flesh wants to be something . . .

to preach well,

to make a name for one's self,

and be admired as a preacher.

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;

of whom I am the worst." 1 Timothy 1:15

"I am less than the least of all God's people." Eph. 3:8

"I am nothing." 2 Corinthians 12:11

Dig into these golden mines by Robert Leighton

Dig into these golden mines!

(Robert Leighton)

Let this commend the Scriptures much to our diligence
and affection--that their great theme is our Redeemer,
and redemption wrought by Him. They contain the doctrine
of His excellencies, and are the lively picture of His matchless
beauty. Were we more in them, we would daily see more of
Him in them--and so of necessity love Him more. But we
must look within them--the letter is but the case--the
spiritual sense is what we should desire to see.

We usually huddle them over, and see no further than
their outside, and therefore find so little sweetness in
them. We read them, but we don't search them as He
requires. Would we dig into these golden mines, we
would find treasures of comfort which cannot be spent,
but which would furnish us in the hardest times!

"My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands
within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your
heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and
cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for
silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you
will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge
of God." 
Proverbs 2:1-5

O blessed hurricane By Charles Spurgeon

O blessed hurricane!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep
Your word. It was good for me to be afflicted, so that
I could learn Your statutes." (Psalm 119:67, 71)

In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on
earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to
cast himself on God alone. When no human deliverance
can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to
the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks
a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that
drives the soul to God—and God alone!

When a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he
has nowhere else to turn—he flies into his Father's arms,
and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with
troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell
them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for
he will learn more of his Lord then, than at any other time.

Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that
drives you to your Father!

Hold me up By Alexander MacLaren

photo credit


(Alexander MacLaren, "Open Sins")

"Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Ps. 119:117

The first lesson we have to learn is that
without Divine help we cannot stand;
and that with it we cannot fall. We must
cultivate a spirit of lowly dependence, of
self conscious weakness.

We need a mightier strength than our own,
which shall curb all this evil nature of ours,
and restrain us from sin.

When God's Spirit comes into a man's heart,
He will deaden his desires after earth and
forbidden ways. He will bring blessed higher
objects for all our affections. He who has
been fed on "the hidden manna" will not be
likely to hanker after the leeks and onions
that grew in the Nile mud in Egypt, however
strong their smell and pungent their taste.

He who has tasted the higher sweetnesses of
God will have his heart's desires after lower
delights, strangely deadened and cooled.

My heart, touched by the Spirit of God dwelling
in me, will turn to Him, and I shall find little
sweetness in the otherwise tempting delicacies
that earth can supply.

God desires to cleanse us from the filth of the
swine trough and the rags of our exile, and
clothe us in fine linen, clean and white. If you
will put yourselves into His hands, He will give
you new powers to detect the serpents in the
flowers, and new resolution to shake off the
vipers into the fire.

"Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Ps. 119:117

The Desert Voice By Horatius Bonar

Horatius Bonar

"And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

—Matthew 3:10.


This is the voice of one crying in the wilderness; the voice of a second Elijah; the man of the desert; the burning and shining light; the forerunner of Messiah; the prophet of warning. He spoke to Israel; he speaks to us.

It is the voice of warning; a trumpet voice; prelude to the last trumpet; herald of coming wrath and woe. It spoke first to Israel; it speaks to the church; it speaks to Christendom; it speaks to the world; it speaks to each of us.

I. The axe. This is judgment; destruction. The axe is not for planting, or pruning, or dressing, or propping, or protecting, but for cutting down. It is spoken of as used for trees (Deuteronomy 20:19); for the carved work of the temple (Psalm 64:6); for towers (Ezekiel 26:9); for a whole forest (Jeremiah 66:22, 23); for a battle-axe (Jeremiah 51.20). In all cases for overthrow, utter overthrow. The axe against Israel was the Roman host, and many such axes has God wielded, age after age. Every judgment is an axe; pestilence is God's axe; famine God's axe; adversity God's axe. At Christ's second coming will be the uplifting of the axe against antichrist, against Christendom, against every false church. There is a great difference between the axe and the pruning knife. Yet some of God's judgments are both in one. An axe to the ungodly; a pruning knife to the saint. It is God's axe, not man's; its edge is sharp; it is heavy; it will do its work well.

II. The forest. He is speaking, not of a tree, but trees; a forest. He is likening Israel to a forest. It may be an olivewood or a palm-wood, the oaks of Bashan or the cedars of Lebanon. Israel is the forest, God's forest, planted by God, on God's own hills and valleys. So also is the church; and each member is a tree in that forest. On that forest God has his eye; from its trees God comes seeking fruit. From the forest of Lebanon trees were once cut down for the temple; but this is for destruction, not for building nor ornament,

III. The warning. The axe lies at the root of these trees. He who placed it there placed it for a warning. He saw his trees not prospering, not growing, not bearing fruit, and He resolved to proceed against them. He cannot tolerate fruitlessness, for which there is no excuse. But He is patient; so He contents himself simply with laying down the axe, leaving it to speak its own lesson, to tell its own tale, a tale of coming judgment, which yet may be averted by fruitfulness. It is laid down and left to lie; not cast down, as if hastily or at random. It is laid down at the root, for it is not against leaves or branches, but against the root that the vengeance is to be directed.

IV. The execution. The axe lies idle for a time, its sharp edge glittering in the sun. But it is to be lifted up. The forest is to be cut down, not stripped as by the hurricane, nor blasted as by lightning, but cut down at the very root; laid upon the ground; no longer its waving branches and leaves making a goodly show, but "cut down," separated from that soil out of which it was extracting no fruitfulness. "Cut it down" is the command! Why does it pretend to be a fruitful tree with its leaves and branches? Cut it down; why does it thus impose upon the eye? why cumbereth it the ground?

V. The doom. Cast into the fire. Not left to wither, but cast out to be consumed. It cumbered the ground when living; it must not do so when dead. Let it be burned! Nothing for it but the fire. Its end is to be burned. And the fire is everlasting; it shall not be quenched; and yet the tree shall never be consumed. Awful doom. Never quenched, never consumed! It's smoke rising up forever and ever. No possibility of restoration! No hope of this tree (as in that of which Job speaks, 14:7); no water to make it bud again. Nothing but the ever-consuming fire.

VI. The cause. Unfruitfulness in good. Not extreme wickedness, but simple unfruitfulness in good! How searching this announcement. O ye that count on heaven because you have done no harm, look here. If you have done no good, borne no good fruit, that is enough! And the sentence is as sweeping as it is searching, for it is "every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit." No exception, no sparing, "They shall not escape."

This, then, is the process that is now going on; this is the nature of the present dispensation. If it were to be depicted by emblem, it would be an axe lying at the root of a tree!

Christ, at his first coming, laid the axe there; at his second coming He will lift it up and smite! The axe was laid down when Israel least thought of such a thing; when they were boasting of privilege, and calling themselves children of Abraham; so it shall be lifted up to smite, when men are saying "peace and safety;" boasting of progress and reform, and deliverance from the bigotry of narrow-minded men.

Now is the age of trial, of probation. Israel's forest was found barren, and was cut down. Now Christendom is on its trial. Shall it be cut down? It has been long spared. Is it fruitful? Thou, O man, art on thy trial! What is to be the issue when the Lord comes?

You Can Do Nothing By Andrew Murray

 Andrew Murray

Apart From Me Ye Can Do Nothing—John 15.5


In everything the life of the branch is to be the exact counterpart of that of the Vine. Of Himself Jesus had said: “The Son can do nothing of himself.” As the outcome of that entire dependence, He could add: “All that the Father doeth, doeth the Son also likewise.” As Son He did not receive His life from the Father once for all, but moment by moment. His life was a continual waiting on the Father for all He was to do. And so Christ says of His disciples: “Ye can do nothing apart from me.” He means it literally. To everyone who wants to live the true disciple life, to bring forth fruit and glorify God, the message comes: You can do nothing. What had been said: “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit,” is here enforced by the simplest and strongest of arguments: “Abiding in Me is indispensable, for, you know it, of yourselves you can do nothing to maintain or act out the heavenly life.”

A deep conviction of the truth of this word lies at the very root of a strong spiritual life. As little as I created myself, as little as I could raise a man from the dead, can I give myself the divine life. As little as I can give it myself, can I maintain or increase it: every motion is the work of God through Christ and His Spirit. It is as a man believes this, that he will take up that position of entire and continual dependence which is the very essence of the life of faith. With the spiritual eye he sees Christ every moment supplying grace for every breathing and every deepening of the spiritual life. His whole heart says Amen to the word: You can do nothing. And just because he does so, he can also say: “I can do all things in Christ who strengtheneth me.” The sense of helplessness, and the abiding to which it compels, leads to true fruitfulness and diligence in good works.

Apart from me ye can do nothing.—What a plea and what a call every moment to abide in Christ! We have only to go back to the vine to see how true it is. Look again at that little branch, utterly helpless and fruitless except as it receives sap from the vine, and learn that the full conviction of not being able to do anything apart from Christ is just what you need to teach you to abide in your heavenly Vine. It is this that is the great meaning of the pruning Christ spoke of—all that is self must be brought low, that our confidence may be in Christ alone. “Abide in me”—much fruit! “Apart from me”—nothing! Ought there to be any doubt as to what we shall choose?

The one lesson of the parable is—as surely, as naturally as the branch abides in the vine, You can abide in Christ. For this He is the true Vine; for this God is the Husbandman; for this you are a branch. Shall we not cry to God to deliver us forever from the “apart from me,” and to make the “abide in me” an unceasing reality? Let your heart go out to what Christ is, and can do, to His divine power and His tender love to each of His branches, and you will say evermore confidently: “Lord! I am abiding; I will bear much fruit. My impotence is my strength. So be it. Apart from Thee, nothing. In Thee, much fruit.”

Apart from Me—you nothing. Lord, I gladly accept the arrangement: I nothing—Thou all. My nothingness is my highest blessing, because Thou art the Vine, that givest and workest all. So be it, Lord! I, nothing, ever waiting on Thy fullness. Lord, reveal to me the glory of this blessed life.

The Illogic of Complaining By A.W. Tozer

By A.W. Tozer

      Among those sins most exquisitely fitted to injure the soul and destroy the testimony, few can equal the sin of complaining. Yet the habit is so widespread that we hardly notice it among us. 

The complaining heart never lacks for occasion. It can always find reason enough to be unhappy. The object of its censure may be almost anything: the weather, the church, the difficulties of the way, other Christians or even God Himself. A complaining Christian puts himself in a position morally untenable. 

The simple logic of his professed discipleship is against him with an unanswerable argument. Its reasoning runs like this: 

First, he is a Christian because he chose to be. There are no conscripts in the army of God. He is, therefore, in the awkward position of complaining against the very conditions he brought himself into by his own free choice. 

Secondly, he can quit any time he desires. No Christian wears a chain on his leg. Yet he still continues on, grumbling as he goes, and for such conduct he has no defense.

A great nothing By Thomas Brooks

Thomas Brooks

"The next day Agrippa and Bernice arrived at the auditorium
with great pomp." Acts 25:23. That is, with great phantasy
or vain show. All the honor, pomp, and accolade of this world
is but a phantasy. Worldly honor is but a great nothing—a
glorious illusion, a shadow, a dream.

Great swelling titles are but as so many rattles, or as
so many feathers in men's caps. Worldly honor is but
a wind, which will blow a man the sooner to hell.

Adonibezek, a mighty prince, is quickly made to eat
scraps from under the table with the dogs. Judges 1:7.

Nebuchadnezzar, a mighty conqueror, turned a-grazing
among the oxen. Daniel 4:28.

Herod is reduced from a conceited god—to be the most
loathsome of men, a living carrion attacked by worms,
the vilest of creatures. Acts 12:23.

Great Haman feasted with the king one day, and
made a feast for crows the next day. Esther 7:10.

The Spider In Palaces By T. De Witt Talmage

By T. De Witt Talmage

Read full article here: The Spider In Palaces

EXTRACT

      "The spider taketh hold with her hand, and is in kings' palaces" (Proverbs 30:28).

What God does, He does well.   What you do, do well, be it a great work or a small work. If ten talents, employ all the ten.   If five talents, employ all the five, if one talent, employ the one.   If only the thousandth part of a talent, employ that.   "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life." I tell you if you are not faithful to God in a small sphere, you would be indolent and insignificant in a large sphere.

      Again, my text teaches me that repulsiveness and loathsomeness will sometimes climb up into very elevated places. You would have tried to have killed the spider that Solomon saw.   You would have said: "This is no place for it.   If that spider is determined to weave a web, let it do so down in the cellar of this palace, or in some dark dungeon." Ah! the spider of the text could not be discouraged.   It clambered on, and climbed up, higher, and higher, and higher, until after awhile it reached the king's vision, and he said: "The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." And so it often is now that things that are loathsome and repulsive get up into very elevated places.

      The Church of Christ, for instance, is a palace.   The King of Heaven and earth lives in it.   According to the Bible, her beams are of cedar, and her rafters of fir, and her windows of agate, and the fountains of salvation dash a rain of light.   It is a glorious palace - the Church of God is; and yet, sometimes unseemly and loathsome things creep up into it - evil speaking, and rancor, and slander, and backbiting, and abuse, crawling up on the walls of the Church, spinning a web from arch to arch, and from the top of one communion tankard to the top of another communion tankard.   Glorious palace in which there ought only to be light, and love, and pardon, and Grace; yet a spider in the palace!

      Home ought to be a castle.   It ought to be the residence of everything royal, kindness, love, peace, patience, and forbearance ought to be the princes residing there; and yet sometimes dissipation crawls up into that home, and the jealous eye comes up, and the scene of peace and plenty becomes the scene of domestic jargon and dissonance.   You say: "What is the matter with the home?" I will tell you what is the matter with it.   A spider in the palace.

      A well developed Christian character is a grand thing to look at. You see some man with great intellectual and spiritual proportions. You say: "How useful that man must be!" But you find, amid all his splendor of faculties, there is some prejudice, some whim, some evil habit, that a great many people do not notice, but that you have happened to notice, and it is gradually spoiling that man's character - it is gradually going to injure his entire influence.   Others may not see it, but you are anxious in regard to his welfare, and now you discover it. A dead fly in the ointment.   A spider in the palace.

     

 Again, my text teaches me that perseverance will mount into the king's palace.   It must have seemed a long distance for that spider to climb in Solomon's splendid residence, but it started at the very foot of the wall and went up over the panels of Lebanon cedar, higher and higher, until it stood higher than the highest throne in all the nations - the throne of Solomon.   And so God has decreed it that many of those who are down in the dust of sin and dishonor shall gradually attain to the King's palace.   

We see it in worldly things.   Who is that banker in Philadelphia?   Why, he used to be the boy that held the horses of Stephen Girard while the millionaire went in to collect his dividends. Arkwright toils on up from a barber's shop until he gets into the palace of invention.   Sextus V toils on up from the office of a swineherd until he gets into the palace of Rome.   Fletcher toils on up from the most insignificant family position until he gets into the palace of Christian eloquence.   Hogarth, engraving pewter pots for a living, toils on up until he reaches the palace of world renowned art.  

 And God hath decided that, though you may be weak of arm, and slow of tongue, and be struck through with a great many mental and moral deficits, by His almighty Grace you shall yet arrive in the King's palace - not such an one as is spoken of in the text - not one of marble - not one adorned with pillars of alabaster and thrones of ivory, and flagons of burnished gold - but a palace in which God is the King and the angels of Heaven are the cup bearers.   

The spider crawling up the wall of Solomon's palace was not worth looking after or considering, as compared with the fact that we, who are worms of the dust, may at last ascend into the palace of the King Immortal.   

By the Grace of God may we all reach it. Oh, Heaven is not a dull place.   It is not a worn out mansion with faded curtains, and outlandish chairs, and cracked ware.   No; it is as fresh, and fair, and beautiful as though it were completed but yesterday.   The kings of the earth shall bring their honor and glory into it.