Psalm 124

1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say;

2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:

5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

6 Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

The golden bait

(Thomas Watson, "The Godly Man's
Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil)

Gain is the golden bait, with which Satan fishes
for souls! This was the last temptation he used
with Christ: "All these things will I give you!" But
Christ saw the hook under the bait! Many who have
escaped gross sins, are still caught in a golden net! 

A godly man dare not travel for riches, along the
devil's highway. Those are sad gains, which make
a man lose heaven at last!

"What good will it be for a man if he gains the
 whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" Mat. 16:26

If you were to meet yourself on the street some morning

(J. R. Miller, "Looking One's Soul in the Face" 1912)

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way!" Psalm 139:23-24

It will be worth our while—to think seriously of the things in us—that only God can see. There are sins which are hidden from ourselves, of which our conscience is not aware—our unknown errors. The evil in us which lies too deep to be discovered. There is a SELF in us, which even we ourselves do not see! There are depths of our being—into which our own eyes cannot pierce. You may say that you know of no sins, errors, or faults in yourself, and you may be sincere; still this is not evidence that you are sinless.

Our conscience is not the final court. It is not enough to have the approval of our own heart. There are errors and evils in the holiest life on earth—which only God's eye can detect. We must ask God to search us, if we would be made clean.

We cannot see our own faults—even as our neighbors can see them. There is wisdom in the wish that we might see ourselves, as others see us—for it would free us from many a blunder and foolish notion.

We are prejudiced in our own favor. We are disposed to be charitable toward our own shortcomings. We make all sorts of allowancesfor our own faults. We are wonderfully patient with our own weaknesses. We are blind to our own blemishes. We look at our good qualities through magnifying glasses; and at our faults and errors with the lenses reversed—making them appear very small. We see only the best of ourselves.

If you were to meet yourself on the street some morning—that is, the person God sees you to be—you would probably not recognize yourself!

We remember the little story that the prophet Nathan told King David, about a rich man's injustice toward a poor man, and how David's anger flamed up. "This man must die!" cried the king. He did not recognize himself—in the man he so despised, until Nathan quietly said,"You are the man!" 

We are all too much like David.

If the true chronicle of your life were written in a book, in the form of a story, and you were to read the chapters over—you probably would not identify the story as your own!

We do not know our real self. We do not imagine there is so much about us that is morally ugly and foul, that is positively wicked. But God searches and knows the innermost and hidden things of our heart!

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way!"

The Hell Fire Club?

C.H. SPURGEON

Spurgeon "Means for Restoring the Banished" #950

Mr. Thorpe was a member of an 'infidel' club.
In those days infidelity was more blasphemous
than now. This infidel society took the name of
the "Hell Fire Club". Among their amusements
was that of holding imitations of religious
services, and exhibiting mimicries of popular
ministers.

Thorpe went to hear George Whitfield preach,
that he might caricature him before his profane
associates. He listened to Whitfield so carefully
that he caught his tones and his manner, and
somewhat of his doctrines.

When the "Hell Fire Club" met to see his caricature
of Whitfield, Thorpe opened the Bible that he might
take a text to preach from it after the manner of
Whitfield. His eye fell on the passage, "Except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish."  As he spoke
upon that text he was carried beyond himself, lost
all thought of mockery, spoke as one in earnest,
and was the means of his own conversion!

He was carried by the force of truth beyond his
own intention, like one who would play in a river,
and is swept away by its current.

Even the scoffer may be reached by the arrows of truth!
Scripture has often been the sole means in the hands
of its divine Author of converting the soul.

"For the Word of God is full of living power. It is
 sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into
 our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes
 us for what we really are."  Hebrews 4:12

(After his amazing conversion, Thorpe
became a noted preacher of the gospel.) 

A human religion?

(Horatius Bonar, "The Way Of Cain") "Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain . . ."         Jude 11 Cain is not an atheist, nor an altogether irreligious man. He acknowledges a God, and brings his fruits to the altar. But he brings no lamb, no blood, nothing that speaks of death. He comes with no confession, no cry for mercy. He has a religion, but it is self made; a human religion, something of his own; without Christ, or blood, or pardon. Rejection of God's religion, and of His Messiah; this is "the way of Cain." "Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain . . ."         Jude 11

This little inch of time

(James Meikle, "The Traveler" 1730-1799)

"Time is short." (1 Corinthians 7:29)

Time is precious--though misspent, though 
thought little of. Oh! what great things are 
to be done in this little inch of time!

Think much on death--that you may not be 
too much charmed with the 'vanities of life'. 

Remember the deceitfulness and uncertainty 
of riches--so shall you neither be puffed up 
with their possession, nor pained at their loss. 

Think much on the unseen world, and let the 
certainty of that which is to come, dispel the 
'delusion of the present'--which so quickly 
passes away. 

Eye God's glory in everything, and prefer the 
approbation of God and your own conscience, 
to the applause of men. Better be the object of 
man's ridicule, than the subject of God's wrath. 

Beware that you live not for yourself, or the world. 
But live above the world, for eternity, and to God. 
"So, then, be careful how you live. Do not
 be unwise but wise, making the best use
 of time, because the days are evil."
    (Ephesians 5:15-16)

Running here and there like ants on an anthill

(J. C. Ryle)

Oh, that men and women would learn to live with the awareness that one day they are going to die! 

Truly, it is waste of time to set our hearts on a dying world and its short-lived comforts and pleasures; and for the sake of momentary pleasures — to lose a glorious eternity in Heaven! 

Here we are striving, laboring, exhausting ourselves about little things, and running here and there like ants on an anthill! And yet after a few years, we will all be gone — and another generation will take our place. Let us live for eternity! Let us seek His Kingdom and His Righteousness that can never be taken from us!

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things! When Christ, who is your life, appears — then you also will appear with Him in glory!" Colossians 3:1-4

Your refuge from the avenger of blood--Joshua 20:3

Morning and Evening

by Charles Spurgeon

"Your refuge from the avenger of blood." Joshua 20:3

It is said that in the land of Canaan, cities of refuge were so arranged, that any man might reach one of them, within half a day at the utmost. Just so, the Word of our salvation is near to us; Jesus is a present Savior—and the way to Him is short. It is but a simple renunciation of our own merit—and a laying hold of Jesus, to be our all in all.

With regard to the roads to the city of refuge, we are told that they were strictly maintained, every river was bridged, and every obstruction removed, so that the man who fled, might find an easy passage to the city. Once a year the elders went along the roads and saw to their upkeep, so that nothing might impede the flight of any one, and cause him, through delay, to be overtaken and slain. Just so, how graciously do the promises of the gospel remove stumbling blocks from the way!

Wherever there were by-roads and turnings, there were fixed up sign-posts, with the inscription upon them, "To the city of refuge!" This is a picture of the road to Christ Jesus. It is no roundaboutroad of the law; it is no obeying this, that, and the other commandment; it is a straight road: "Believe—and live!" It is a road so hard, that no self-righteous man can ever tread it—but so easy, that every sinner, who knows himself to be a sinner—may by it find his way to heaven.

No sooner did the man-slayer reach the outworks of the city—than he was safe! It was not necessary for him to pass far within the walls—but the suburbs themselves were sufficient protection. 

Learn hence, that if you do but touch the hem of Christ's garment, you shall be made whole; if you do but lay hold upon him with "faith as a grain of mustard seed," you are safe. "A little genuine grace—ensures the forgiveness of all our sins." Only waste no time—do not loiter along the way, for the avenger of blood is swift of foot—and it may be he is at your heels at this still hour of eventide!

God Knows

John Henry Newman

"Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not" (Matt. 21:28-30).

We are in the dark about ourselves. When we act, we are groping in the dark, and may meet with a fall any moment. Here and there, perhaps, we see a little; or, in our attempts to influence and move our minds, we are making experiments (as it were) with some delicate and dangerous instrument, which works we do not know how, and may produce unexpected and disastrous effects. The management of our hearts is quite above us. Under these circumstances it becomes our comfort to look up to God. "Thou, God, seest me!" 

Such was the consolation of the forlorn Hagar in the wilderness. He knoweth whereof we are made, and He alone can uphold us. He sees with most appalling distinctness all our sins, all the windings and recesses of evil within us; yet it is our only comfort to know this, and to trust Him for help against ourselves. 

To those who have a right notion of their weakness, the thought of their Almighty Sanctifier and Guide is continually present. They believe in the necessity of a spiritual influence to change and strengthen them, not as a mere abstract doctrine, but as a practical and most consolatory truth, daily to be fulfilled in their warfare with sin and Satan.

Walking with God By J. C. Philpot

 J.C. Philpot : Walking with God


The prophet Amos, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and thus speaking for God, puts a very pointed and pregnant question, where he asks, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3.) 

The inquiry thus launched forth, and permanently embodied in the word of God, embraces a very wide scope, and is true naturally as well as spiritually. Take, for instance, two people in ordinary life—one quiet, reserved, studious, fond of retirement and solitude—the other noisy, boisterous, devoted to pleasure and gaiety, a sportsman and a gambler. 

Can these two men be bosom friends and intimate associates? As much as sheep can willingly lie down with dogs, or doves nestle with vultures. There must be a similarity of tastes, inclinations, tempers, and habits, before such a mutual pleasure can be taken in the society of each other, as shall result in any close or permanent intimacy.

Can God, then, walk with man, or man walk with God, except they be agreed? The thing is impossible, God and man continuing what and as they are. God is holy, man unholy. God is infinitely pure, man desperately wicked. God dwelling in the light which no one can approach unto, man sitting in the very darkness and shadow of death. 

Yet, according to the testimony of the sacred record, Enoch walked with, and pleased God; (Gen. 5:22, Heb. 11:5;) Abraham was the friend of God; (Isa. 41:8;) and Corinthian believers were the temple of God. (2 Cor. 6:16.) Thus it is plain from God's own unerring testimony that there is a way whereby God and man may become agreed, and as such walk together; for not only may man walk with God, but God can also walk with man, according to his own promise, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." They thus walk together—God walking in them, and they walking with God. 

Are they, then, agreed? They are, or how else could they walk together, if the inspired question of Amos is to stand firm and true?

There must be an agreement in love and hatred. What God hates we must learn to hate; what God loves we must be taught to love. Sin is the especial object of God's hate; and it must be the special object of ours. Christ is the especial object of God's love; and he must be the object of our heart's warmest, tenderest affection. Pride, hypocrisy, presumption, self-righteousness, the lusts of the flesh, covetousness, oppression, and persecution—in a word, everything worldly and wicked, earthly, sensual, and devilish, is and ever must be hateful and abominable in the eyes of infinite Purity and Holiness. 

If not made hateful to us, where is the agreement, where the walking with God? Humility, brokenness, godly fear, tenderness of conscience, spirituality of mind, singleness of eye to God's glory, separation from the world, faith, hope, love, submission, and resignation to the divine will, filial obedience, and heavenly fruitfulness in every good word and work—if these, and all other graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit, are pleasing and acceptable to God, must they not be also to us, if we are to walk with him in holy agreement?

THE LITTLE WHILE

THE WORDS OF JESUS

By John MacDuff, 1858

"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,"
— Acts 20:35

"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,"

"In a little while — you will see Me no more; and then after a little while — you will see Me!" — John 16:16

Long seem the moments when we are separated from the friend we love. An absent brother — how his return is looked and longed for! The "Elder Brother" — the "Living Kinsman" — sends a message to His waiting Church and people — a word of solace, telling that soon ("in a little while"), and He will be back again, never again to leave them!

There are indeed blessed moments of communion which the believer enjoys with His beloved Lordnow; but how fitful and transient! Today, life is a brief Emmaus Journey — the soul happy in the presence and love of an unseen Savior. Tomorrow, He is gone; and the bereft spirit is led to interrogate itself in plaintive sorrow, "Where is now your God?" Even when there is no such experience of darkness and depression, how much there is in the world around to fill the believer with sadness! His Lord rejected and disowned — His love spurned — His providences slighted — Hisname blasphemed — His creation groaning and travailing in pain — disunion, too, among His people — His loving heart wounded in the house of His friends!

But, in just a little while — all this mystery of iniquity will be finished! The absent Brother's footfall will soon be heard — no longer "as a wayfaring man who turns aside to tarry for a night," but to receive His people into the permanent "mansions" His love has been preparing, and from which they shall never leave! Oh, blessed day! when creation will put on her resurrection robes — when her Lord, so long dishonored, will be enthroned amid the Hosannas of a rejoicing universe — angels lauding Him — saints crowning Him; and sin, the dark plague-spot on His universe, extinguished forever — death swallowed up in eternal victory!

And it is but "in a little while!" "Yet in a little while," we elsewhere read, "and He who shall come — will come, and will not tarry." "He will stay not a moment longer," says Goodwin, "than He has dispatched all our business in Heaven for us." With what joy will He send His mission-Angel with the announcement, "the little while is at an end!" and to issue the invitation to the great festival of glory, "Come! For all things are now ready!"

Child of sorrow! think often of this "little while." "The days of your mourning will soon be ended." There is a limit set to your suffering time, "After you have suffered for a while." Every wave is numbered, between you and the haven; and then when that haven is reached, oh, what an apocalypse of glory! The "little while" of time merged into the great and unending "while" of eternity! — to be forever with the Lord — the same unchanged and unchanging Savior!

"In a little while — and you shall see Me!" Would that the eye of faith might be kept more intently fixed on "that glorious appearing!" How the world, with its guilty fascinations, tries to dim and obscure this blessed hope! How the heart is prone to throw out its tendrils into the earth, and get them rooted in some perishable object! Reader! seek to dwell more habitually on this the grand consummation of all your dearest wishes! "Stand on the edge of your nest — pluming your wings for flight!"

True Poverty of Spirit

By A.W. Tozer

     
Within the human heart "things" have taken over. . . . There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets "things" with a deep and fierce passion. 

The pronouns "my" and "mine" look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us. . . God's gifts now take the place of God.

The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These are the "poor in spirit." They have reached an inward state paralleling the outward circumstances of the common beggar in the streets of Jerusalem. . . These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things. . . Though free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things. "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. 

Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Luke 16:1-13

16 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.

4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?

6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.

7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.

8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?

13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Personally Weak but Strong in Him

By A.W. Tozer

After the exchange of sin for righteousness is that of wrath for acceptance. Then comes the exchange of death for life.

Christ died for dead men that they might rise to be living men.

Paul's happy if somewhat involved testimony makes this clear: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Gal. 2:20) . 

This is mysterious but not incredible. It is one more example of how the ways of God and the ways of man diverge. Man is a born cobbler. When he wants a thing to be better he goes to work to improve it. He improves cattle by careful breeding; cars and planes by streamlining; health by diet, vitamins. and surgery; plants by grafting; people by education. 

But God will have none of this cobbling. He makes a man better by making him a new man. He imparts a higher order of life and sets to work to destroy the old. Then as suggested in the Isaiah text, the Christian exchanges weakness for strength. 

I suppose it is not improper to say that God makes His people strong, but we must understand this to mean that they become strong in exact proportion to their weakness, the weakness being their own and the strength God's. 

"When I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10), is the way Paul said it, and in so saying set a pattern for every Christian.

Silence

By Martin Hope Sutton


The late Martin Hope Sutton, of Reading, one of the founders of the great Seed Firm, and who showed his practical Christianity in many ways, sent, shortly before his death, in 1901, the following message to "Good Lines", the organ of the Commercial Travelers' Christian Association.

THIS is the only way to know God. 'Be still, and know that I am God.' 'God is in His Holy Temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.'

A score of years ago, a friend placed in my hand a little book which became one of the turning points of my life. It was called 'True Peace.' It was an old medieval message, and it had but one thought, and it was this-that God was waiting in the depths of my being to talk to me if I would only get still enough to hear His voice.

I thought this would be a very easy matter, and so I began to get still. But I had no sooner commenced than a perfect pandemonium of voices reached my ears, a thousand clamouring notes from without and within, until I could hear nothing but their noise and din. Some of them were my own voice, some of them were my own questions, some of them were my own cares, some of them were my very prayers. Others were the suggestions of the tempter and the voices of the world's turmoil. Never before did there seem so many things to be done, to be said, to be thought; and in every direction I was pushed and pulled, and greeted with noisy acclamations of unspeakable unrest. 

It seemed necessary for me to listen to some of them, and to answer some of them; but God said, 'Be still, and know that I am God.' Then came the conflict of thoughts for the morrow, and its duties and cares; but God said, 'Be still.' 

And as I listened and slowly learned to obey, and shut my ears to every sound,I found after awhile that when the other voices ceased, or I ceased to hear them, there was a still, small voice in the depths of my being that began to speak with an inexpressible tenderness, power, and comfort. 

As I listened, it became to me the voice of prayer, and the voice of wisdom, and the voice of duty, and I did not need to think so hard, or pray so hard, or trust so hard, but that 'still, small voice' of the Holy Spirit in my heart was God's prayer in my secret soul, was God' s answer to all my questions, was God's life and strength for soul and body, and became the substance of all knowledge, and all prayer, and all blessing; for it was the living God Himself as my life and my all.

This is our spirit's deepest need. It is thus that we learn to know God; it is thus that we receive spiritual refreshment and nutriment; it is thus that our heart is nourished and fed; it is thus that we receive the Living Bread; it is thus that our very bodies are healed, and our spirit drinks in the life of our risen Lord, and we go forth to life's conflicts and duties like the flower that has drunk in, through the shades of night, the cool and crystal drops of dew. But, as the dew never falls on a stormy night, so the dews of His grace never come to the restless soul.

We cannot go through life strong and fresh on constant express trains; but we must have quiet hours, secret places of the Most High, times of waiting upon the Lord, when we renew our strength, and learn to mount up on wings as eagles, and then come back to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint.

Fear God and Fear Nothing Else

By Elisabeth Elliot

      
The world is shaking with fear. "What will become of us? Where will it all end? What if Russia...? What if cancer...? What if expression...?" 

The love of God has wrapped us round from before the foundations of the world. If we fear Him--that is, if we are brought to our knees before Him, reverence and worship Him in absolute assurance of his sovereignty, we cannot possibly be afraid of anything else. To love God is to destroy all other fear. To love the world is to be afraid of everything--what it may think of me, what it may do to me, what may happen today or tomorrow for which I am not prepared.

"The Lord is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?" (Ps 27:1 RSV).

And yet, Lord, the truth is that I am often afraid. I confess it. All the weight of your promises seems sometimes to be only a feather, and the weight of my fears is lead. Reverse that, Lord, I pray. Give me the healthy fear that will make light of all the others--"The fear of the Lord is life; he who is full of it will rest untouched by evil" (Prv 19:23 NEB).

Not the Way it Should Have Been

Marcus Dods

"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not"

(John 1:10).

When our Lord came to earth the heathen world was mainly represented by the Roman Empire, and one of the earliest events of His life on earth was His enrolment as a subject of that empire. 

If we had been invited before His coming to imagine what would be the result upon this empire of His appearance, we should probably have expected something very different from that which actually happened. The real Sovereign is to appear; the Being who made all that is is to come and visit His possessions. 

Will not a thrill of glad expectancy run through the world? 

Will not men eagerly cover up whatever may offend Him, and eagerly attempt, with such scant materials as existed, to make preparations for His worthy reception? 

The one Being who can make no mistakes, and who can rectify the mistakes of a worn-out, entangled world, is to come for the express purpose of delivering it from all ill: will not men gladly yield the reins to Him, gladly second Him in all His enterprise? 

Will it not be a time of universal concord and brotherhood, all men joining to pay homage to their common God? "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him"--that is the true, bare, unvarnished statement of the fact. 

There He was, the Creator Himself, that mysterious Being who had hitherto kept Himself so hidden and remote while yet so influential and supreme; the wonderful and unsearchable Source and Fountain out of which had proceeded all that men saw, themselves included,--there at last He was "in the world" Himself had made, apparent to the eyes of men, and intelligible to their understandings; a real person whom they could know as an individual, whom they could love, who could receive and return their expressions of affection and trust. 

He was in the world, and the world knew Him not.

Even More on David and the Lord's Lovingkindness

By Bob Hoekstra

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house. (Psalm 36:7-8a)

We have been meditating from Old Testament passages upon God's lovingkindness (a term very much like the word grace in the New Testament). 

We have been considering verses from David's life and testimony. David treasured the lovingkindness of the Lord. 

"How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!" 

An understanding of the far-reaching implications of the Lord's lovingkindness gave him this perspective. David learned that the Lord's lovingkindness (His zealous, steadfast love for His people) drew hearts to seek God for His gracious protection. 

"Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings." 

David also knew that God's lovingkindness fully satisfies hungry hearts that seek the Lord's fullness. "They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house."

Man is so needy, and God has so much to give. The needs of man could hardly be overstated. The resources of God could only be understated. Words like emptiness and deficiency describe humanity. Words like fullness and abundance describe our God.

Man begins his human existence in spiritual bankruptcy (born in sin and ready to pursue ungodliness). 

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me . . . The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies" (Psalm 51:5 and 58:3). 

For these desperate needs, the Lord has forgiveness and salvation.

 "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered . . . The LORD is . . . my salvation" (Psalm 32:1 and 18:2). 

Yet, once redeemed, man still must not look to himself, nor to the world from which he came.

"My soul thirsts for You . . . in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1). 

The Lord must be the new supply for the new man. Like David, we must find what we need from "the fullness of [God's] house." 

When we look to God's fullness to replace our inadequacy, we will find today the same spiritual satisfaction that David testified about long ago. 

"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips" (Psalm 63:5). We also will rejoice, because we will be "abundantly satisfied."

Dear God of spiritual abundance, I am so blessed to be in Your family. Please remind me often that the world and the flesh are spiritually bankrupt. Teach me to draw upon the fullness of Your house through humble dependence upon You. Every time I have ever done that, my heart has been fully satisfied!

Refreshing Dew

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman


"I will be as the dew unto Israel" (Hosea 14:5).

The dew is a source of freshness. It is nature's provision for renewing the face of the earth. It falls at night, and without it the vegetation would die. It is this great value of the dew which is so often recognized in the Scriptures. It is used as the symbol of spiritual refreshing. Just as nature is bathed in dew, so the Lord renews His people. In Titus 3:5 the same thought of spiritual refreshing is connected with the ministry of the Holy Ghost--"renewing of the Holy Ghost."

Many Christian workers do not recognize the importance of the heavenly dew in their lives, and as a result they lack freshness and vigor. Their spirits are drooping for lack of dew.

Beloved fellow-worker, you recognize the folly of a laboring man attempting to do his day's work without eating. Do you recognize the folly of a servant of God attempting to minister without eating of the heavenly manna? Nor will it suffice to have spiritual nourishment occasionally. Every day you must receive the renewing of the Holy Ghost. You know when your whole being is pulsating with the vigor and freshness of Divine life and when you feel jaded and worn. Quietness and absorption bring the dew. At night when the leaf and blade are still, the vegetable pores are open to receive the refreshing and invigorating bath; so spiritual dew comes from quiet lingering in the Master's presence. Get still before Him. Haste will prevent your receiving the dew. Wait before God until you feel saturated with His presence; then go forth to your next duty with the conscious freshness and vigor of Christ. --Dr. Pardington

Dew will never gather while there is either heat or wind. The temperature must fall, and the wind cease, and the air come to a point of coolness and rest--absolute rest, so to speak--before it can yield up its invisible particles of moisture to bedew either herb or flower. So the grace of God does not come forth to rest the soul of man until the still point is fairly and fully reached.

"Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease:
Take from our souls the strain and stress;
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

"Breathe through the pulses of desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, its beats expire:
Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,
O still small voice of calm!"

Herod and John

By J.G. Bellet

How significant of the heart of man it was when Herod, hearing of the works of Christ, said, "It is John, whom I beheaded." A bad conscience is a very lively principle. It acts at once. It takes alarm at the shaking of a leaf. It makes cowards of us all. So was it with king Herod. His conscience kept the image of the murdered man before him, and the thought that John was risen was something of hell itself to him.

The resurrection of a murdered man is terrible to the murderer, for it tells him that the God in whose hands are the issues of life and death has put Himself on the side of his victim.

And thus, beloved, will it be, as between the Lord Jesus in the day of His manifestation and the world. As Herod beheaded John, so has this world cast out the Son of God. And as Herod was all dismay and terror, when he thought that John might be risen from the dead, so will the kings of the earth, the mighty men and the princes, the bondmen and the free men, call on the rocks and the hills to cover them from the face of the Lord in the day of the revelation of His power. (Rev. 6: 16.)

This experience of Herod has therefore a voice in it for the world that persists in turning its back upon Jesus. The fact of His resurrection is hid from men; they go on as if there was no such thing. They eat and drink and rise up to play; but the crucified Jesus is risen. The Man whom men despise is glorified, and the day when this is manifested will be as terrible and insufferable to the world as the fear that the Baptist was risen was intolerable to the conscience of Herod.

I feel we may use this fact, recorded in Mark 6: 14-16, when speaking to men who go on with the course and spirit of the world as though Jesus had never been here rejected and crucified by man, and raised and exalted by God. 

God and the world are at issue about Jesus. He whom the world murdered, God has glorified. The judgment of the world must follow; and therefore the apostle testifies, "He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." J. G. B.


Christian Friend vol. 18, 1891, p. 154.

Persistent Prayer

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

      

"Men ought always to pray and not to faint" (Luke18:1).

"Go to the ant." Tammerlane used to relate to his friends an anecdote of his early life. "I once he said, "was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building, where I sat alone many hours. Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall. I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. The grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the insect persevered, and the seventieth time it reached the top. This sight gave me courage at the moment, and I never forgot the lesson. --The King's Business

Prayer which takes the fact that past prayers have not been answered as a reason for languor, has already ceased to be the prayer of faith. To the prayer of faith the fact that prayers remain unanswered is only evidence that the moment of the answer is so much nearer. From first to last, the lessons and examples of our Lord all tell us that prayer which cannot persevere and urge its plea importunately, and renew, and renew itself again, and gather strength from every past petition, is not the prayer that will prevail. --William Arthur

Rubenstein, the great musician, once said, "If I omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends notice it; if three days, the public notice it." It is the old doctrine, "Practice makes perfect." We must continue believing, continue praying, continue doing His will. Suppose along any line of art, one should cease practicing, we know what the result would be. If we would only use the same quality of common sense in our religion that we use in our everyday life, we should go on to perfection.

The motto of David Livingstone was in these words, "I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose." By unfaltering persistence and faith in God he conquered.

Faith Despite Feeling or Sight

By A.W. Tozer

A fanatic is somebody seeking desirable ends but ignoring constituted means. 

Seeking to get out of the religious rut is a desirable end. It is right and it is in the will of God. But trying to do it in a manner that is not according to God"s constituted means is all wrong and gets us nowhere. 

When they want to get blessed, some people try getting worked up psychologically. There are some who, while they have not studied psychology, are master psychologists. 

They know how to manipulate audiences, knowing when to lower their voices and when to raise them, when to make them sound very sad and all the rest. They know how to get people all worked up. . . . Some people try group dynamics. We all sit around together and practice togetherness, and by practicing togetherness we finally work up some spirituality. 

What is needed is some old-fashioned, salty horse sense. I am sure there are 189 mules in the state of Missouri that have more sense than a lot or preachers who are trying to teach people how to get the blessing of God in some way other than by the constituted means. 

When you get people all broken up, dabbing at their eyes and shaking, what is the result? 

It does not bring them any closer to God. It does not make them love God any better, in accordance with the first commandment. 

Nor does it give any greater love for neighbors, which is the second commandment. 

It does not prepare them to live fruitfully on earth. 

It does not prepare them to die victoriously, and it does not guarantee that they will be with the Lord at last.

Keep Your Hands Off

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman


"Neither know we what to do; but our eyes are, upon thee" (2 Chron. 20:12).

A life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden upon the ark of God. They were placed upon it with the best intent, to steady it when trembling and shaking as the oxen drew it along the rough way; but they touched God's work presumptuously, and they fell paralyzed and lifeless. Much of the life of faith consists in letting things alone.

If we wholly trust an interest to God, we must keep our hands off it; and He will guard it for us better than we can help Him. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass."

Things may seem to be going all wrong, but He knows as well as we; and He will arise in the right moment if we are really trusting Him so fully as to let Him work in His own way and time. There is nothing so masterly as inactivity in some things, and there is nothing so hurtful as restless working, for God has undertaken to work His sovereign will. --A. B. Simpson

"Being perplexed, I say,
'Lord, make it right!
Night is as day to Thee,
Darkness as light.
I am afraid to touch
Things that involve so much;
My trembling hand may shake,
My skilless hand may break;
Thine can make no mistake.'

"Being in doubt I say,
'Lord, make it plain;
Which is the true, safe way?
Which would be gain?
I am not wise to know,
Nor sure of foot to go;
What is so clear to Thee,
Lord, make it clear to me!'"

It is such a comfort to drop the tangles of life into God's hands and leave them there.

DELIVERANCE FROM DUST AND CHAFF- C.H. SPURGEON

DELIVERANCE FROM DUST AND CHAFF-
C.H. SPURGEON

"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all sections, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth" (Amos 9:9).


The sifting process is going on still. Wherever we go, we are still being winnowed and sifted. In all countries God's people are being tried "like as corn is sifted in a sieve." Sometimes the devil holds the sieve and tosses us up and down at a great rate, with the earnest desire to get rid of us forever. 

Unbelief is not slow to agitate our heart and mind with its restless fears. The world lends a willing hand at the same process and shakes us to the right and to the left with great vigor. Worst of all, the church, so largely apostate as it is, comes in to give a more furious force to the sifting process. 

Well, well! Let it go on. Thus is the chaff severed from the wheat. Thus is the wheat delivered from dust and chaff. And how great is the mercy which comes to us in the text, "Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth"! All shall be preserved that is good, true, gracious. Not one of the least of believers lose anything worth calling a loss. 

We shall be so kept in the sifting that it shall be a real gain to us through Christ Jesus.

(From Faith's Checkbook for September 23rd).

What a family has He to bear with

(Letters of John Newton)

"The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion!" Numbers 14:18  

What a family has He to bear with! 

Those whom he has graciously saved, have secret idols in their hearts! 

His friends hold a secret correspondence with His enemies! 

His children repine against Him, and quarrel one with another! 

His servants (ministers) serve themselves!

"But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness!" Psalm 86:1

When you see a dog following two men

(John MacDuff)

"You cannot serve both God — and mammon." Matthew 6:24

Of the enemies of the cross of Christ, the apostle declares that they "mind earthly things." They are only concerned about increasing their stores, and thus be able to say with the rich man of whom the Savior speaks, that they have much goods laid up for many years; on the strength of which they intend to take their ease, and eat, drink, and be merry. All their thoughts are of the earth, earthy. The things of time and sense — they regard as first and last, middle and end.
 

It is impossible for the mind to be governed at the same time by two opposite principles. The love of the world — and the love of God — are diametrically opposed to each other. "If any man loves the world — the love of the Father is not in him." "Don't you know that the friendship of the world — is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world — is the enemy of God." "You cannot serve both God — and mammon."

To borrow a quaint illustration from one of our old writers, "When you see a dog following two men — so long as they walk together, you do not know to which of them the dog belongs. But let them come to a parting road and there separate from each other — then it will soon be seen who is the owner, for the dog will follow his master wherever he goes."

Just so, an individual may pursue the world, and retain a Christian profession at the same time — and it is often difficult to ascertain whether God or the world possesses his affections. But by and bye he comes to a parting road, when God calls him one way, and the world another way — and then he will show to whom he really belongs. If God is his master — then he will follow and obey God. But if the world is his master — then he will follow after it!

O my soul, how are you affected by the respective claims of the things of time — and those of eternity? After a few more rising and setting suns, it will be a matter of total indifference to you — whether you have been rich or poor, successful in your business or unsuccessful. But it will be of unspeakable consequence — whether you have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before you in the gospel.
 

Listen, then, to the words of the Lord Jesus, "Do not labor for food that spoils — but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also!"
 

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A lamp for my feet

(J.R. Miller)

"Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path." Psalm 119:105

God's Word is represented as a lamp for the feet.

It is a "lamp" — not a blazing sun, nor even a lighthouse — but a plain, common lamp or lantern which one can carry about in the hand.

It is a lamp "for the feet," not throwing its beams afar, not illumining a hemisphere — but shining only on the one little bit of road on which the pilgrim's feet are walking.

The law of divine guidance is, "Step by step". One who carries a lantern on a country-road at night, sees only one step before him. If he takes that step, he carries his lantern forward, and thus makes another step plain. At length he reaches his destination in safety, without once stepping into darkness. The whole way has been made light for him, though only a single step of it at a time. This illustrates the usual method of God's guidance.

If this is the way God guides, it ought never to be hard for us to find our duty. It never lies far away, inaccessible to us — but is always near. It never lies out of our sight, in the darkness, for God never puts our duty where we cannot see it. The thing that we think may be our duty — but which is still lying in obscurity and uncertainty, is not our duty yet, whatever it may be a little farther on. The duty for the very moment is always clear — and that is as far as we need concern ourselves; for when we do the little that is clear, we will carry the light on, and it will shine on the next moment's step.

Jesus said, "He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness." Prompt, unquestioning, undoubting following of Christ — takes all the perplexity out of Christian life and gives unbroken peace. There never is a moment without its duty; and if we are living near to Christ and following Him closely, we shall never be left in ignorance of what He wants us to do.

Our daily prayer should be, "Direct my footsteps according to Your Word; let no sin rule over me." Psalm 119:133

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