Springs Of Benignity

By Oswald Chambers


'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water.'
John 4:14

The picture Our Lord gives is not that of a channel but a fountain. "Be being filled," and the sweetness of vital relationship to Jesus will flow out of the saint as lavishly as it is imparted to him. If you find your life is not flowing out as it should, you are to blame; something has obstructed the flow. Keep right at the Source, and - you will be blessed personally? No, out of you will flow rivers of living water, irrepressible life.

We are to be centres through which Jesus can flow as rivers of living water in blessing to every one. Some of us are like the Dead Sea, always taking in but never giving out, because we are not rightly related to the Lord Jesus. As surely as we receive from Him, He will pour out through us, and in the measure He is not pouring out, there is a defect in our relationship to Him. Is there anything between you and Jesus Christ? Is there anything that hinders your belief in Him? If not, Jesus says, out of you will flow rivers of living water. It is not a blessing passed on, not an experience stated, but a river continually flowing. Keep at the Source, guard well your belief in Jesus Christ and your relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow for other lives, no dryness and no deadness.

Is it not too extravagant to say that out of an individual believer rivers are going to flow? "I do not see the rivers," you say. Never look at yourself from the standpoint of - Who am I? In the history of God's work you will nearly always find that it has started from the obscure, the unknown, the ignored, but the steadfastly true to Jesus Christ.

RELEVANCE OF THE CROSS

RELEVANCE OF THE CROSS


"For I am determined not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2

John Kennedy

THE Corinthian believers, in common with believers everywhere and in every age, had come to Christ out of a completely egocentric society. It is one thing to know that we are recipients of a new life; it is another to realise all the differences of action and attitude this new life requires. The Corinthians began to find that they had to adjust their lives to a completely new set of standards.

Man's natural life is centered in self. The new life we receive in Christ is centred in God. The gospel means a change from self-centred living to God-centred living. This change does not take place without a struggle. In fact the struggle will continue till every part of us has been brought into complete subjection to Him, and that will only be when we see Him face to face. As we remain open to the Spirit we constantly enter into a deeper realisation of how the Cross must deal with our self life.

The Corinthians, in the worldly society of their city, had lived a life of self-seeking. This was the standard on which they had been brought up. They knew no other. Their relationships, whether in society or in their homes, were used for self-gratification. Personal whims and fancies ruled their thinking, and any standard of conduct was allowable if these fancies were to be achieved.

In his letter to them, Paul shows that the very privileges God gives us can be misused to exalt self rather than Him, and this will be inevitable unless the life we receive in Christ is worked out in the spirit of the Cross. The Cross was the ultimate proof of our Lord's subjection to the will of the Father. To us the Cross means a readiness to use all that God gives for Him alone, not for ourselves. This was the basis of the struggle in which the Corinthians were engaged. Paul looks at different aspects of their life as a church, and shows the chaos that results when the principle of the Cross is disregarded.

The Corinthians had been privileged to sit under a most competent ministry. Paul, Apollos and Peter were all outstanding servants of God. They brought a message which could have contributed much to the church's unity and understanding of the Lord. The Corinthians, however, were interested mainly in the personal pleasure they received from their favourite minister. The result was that the ministry led to argument and dissension. Paul reminds them that the power of God is in the Cross. Only when we allow the ministry to lead us to Christ, with a concern greater for Him than for ourselves, will it bring light and life.

The section of this letter which deals with the gifts of the Spirit must be one of the most perused parts of the Bible. The two chapters 12 and 14 are, however, divided by the great passage on love in chapter 13. The supreme expression of God's love was the Cross. Without the Cross, the inspiration received from the use of spiritual gifts is merely transitory. The Cross introduces us to an understanding of the mind of God, an understanding which comes through the Word. Without this, no subjective spiritual experience can last.

1 Corinthians ends with a great defence of the resurrection. The resurrection was the outcome of the Cross. Had our Lord not died, He could not have risen again. Paul's concern is to show that apart from the Cross, our spiritual life is meaningless (15:17). There is no spiritual life without spiritual death.

One of the most insidious temptations we face is, as it was with the Corinthians, the temptation to remove the Cross from our faith. When the Cross is in fact removed, all becomes void of vitality. The most competent ministry of the Word becomes a dead letter. Christian fellowship is emptied of meaning. Relationships with the family or among the Lord's people are debased. Our witness to the world becomes irrelevant. Our Scriptural order and patterns become a sham. The whole subject of the gifts of the Spirit leads to confusion.

There is a lot of seemingly orthodox but crossless Christianity in the world today. May the Lord deliver us from it! [60/ibc]

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J.R. Miller - Spiritual Beauty

"(I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the word of the Lord; for ye were afraid because of the fire, and went not up into the mount)" Deuteronomy 5:5

OLD TESTAMENT PARENTHESES (5)

"(I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the word of the Lord; for ye were afraid because of the fire, and went not up into the mount)" Deuteronomy 5:5

THIS parenthesis by Moses reminded the Israelites of their need of a mediator when they entered into covenant relationship with the holy God. Sinai was an awe-inspiring experience, and the consuming fire of God's presence struck fear into their hearts. They could not bear to have a direct confrontation with the One whose voice spoke out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness (v.22).

IT was God Himself who commanded that the people should keep their distance and ordained that Moses should act as a mediator between Himself and them, but the people were equally positive in requesting that they might be spared a face-to-face meeting with God (Exodus 20:19). When they realised the awesome situation in which they were found, with thunderings and lightnings, the sound of God's trumpet and the smoking of the mountain to which He had descended, "they trembled, and stood afar off". They well knew that an encounter with the everlasting burnings of God's presence would overwhelm them, so they were only too thankful to have Moses to stand between their God and themselves.

WE, however, are encouraged to draw near to God. Not that we are any more fit to do so than they, but because God has mercifully provided us with the mediatorial work of His Son, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). Apart from Him, the only thing we would know about God would be that He is a consuming fire.

FAR from regretting the people's cry for a mediator, the Lord expressed His pleasure in the matter. "They have well spoken unto thee," He said to Moses. How right we are when we appreciate our need of Christ as our Mediator! How could we know God as our Father if it were not for the Lord Jesus? How could we benefit from the New Covenant if it were not sealed by His blood?

FOR Moses the task was so daunting that he confessed that in the presence of the holy God, "I exceedingly fear and quake" (Hebrews 12:21). After all, he himself was also a sinner! In the case of the Lord Jesus, however, there was no such fear. His hands were so clean and His heart so pure that He was quite at home with the everlasting burnings. But although He did not quake like Moses, His soul was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death" (Matthew 26:38). The task of mediation was only fulfilled by the shedding of His life's blood.

AND His work is a lasting one. Moses stated that he acted, "at that time". For us it is not just for one occasion but for all time. There is never a moment when we do not need Him to be our Mediator. It is our comfort to know that He constantly stands in the blinding light of glory on our behalf, ever living to fulfil this labour of love which makes it possible for us boldly to draw near instead of having to remain distant from God.

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Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour--Mat 27:45

  
George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons

      The Darkness at the Cross     
      Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour--Mat 27:45
     
      When Jesus Was Born there Was Light, When He Died There Was Darkness     
      It is notable that when our Lord was born there was a supernatural light across the sky. It was a fitting prelude to the life of Him who was sent to be the light of men. The shepherds, sitting by their flocks, were surprised by the shining of the heavens. The night became as day about them when the Holy Child was born. All which was God's prophetic symbol of the illumination of the heart of man through the unspeakable gift of the Lord Jesus. The strange thing is that when our Saviour died there was no illumination such as that. If the cradle was a scene of light, the cross was a spectacle of darkness. At the hour of noon, when in ordinary course the sun would have shone in oriental brilliancy, there stretched a veil of darkness on the land. What are the voices that reach us from that darkness? For the darknesses of heaven are always eloquent. Let us meditate on that.
     
      One thinks first how the darkness at the cross speaks to us of the sympathy of God. If someone whom we dearly loved were mangled in some crowded thoroughfare, the agony of it would be vastly deepened for us by the cruel feature of publicity. To have someone dear to us in torture in the center of a gaping crowd must be one of the most awful of experiences. Instinctively we draw a curtain around the sufferings of those we love. We cannot bear to think that loveless eyes should gaze upon their agonies and torments. That is why, when a dear one is in pain, we "steik the door," as Sir Walter Scott put it; that is why, in the ward of the infirmary, the curtain is hung around the bed. God's curtain was the darkness. He had such pity as a father hath. He could not bear that cruel mocking eyes should feast themselves on the tortures of His Son. And in His infinite Fatherly compassion, from the sixth hour to the ninth, He drew the veil around that dying bed.
     
      The Ministry of the Shadow     
      One thinks again how the darkness at the cross reveals to us the ministry of shadow. Did you ever notice what the darkness did for the men and women who were gathered there? Before that noonday how fearful was the scene! There was malignant and insulting mockery. The passersby reviled the Crucified; likewise the priests and scribes and elders mocked Him. We see a rabble, merciless and cruel, stirred to the point of frenzy by their leaders--and then at the sixth hour came the darkness. Men tell us that in the sun's eclipse there falls a great silence on the world. Hushed is the song of birds, hushed, too, the howling of the beasts. And one has only to read the story of the cross to see how, when the darkness fell, there died away that howling of the beasts. Reviling ceased; mockery was silenced; there was not another syllable of railing. One gathers that the attitude of insolence was changed into an attitude of awe. That mysterious overshadowing gloom chilled the blasphemy of ribald lips and struck a terror into every heart. Uproar became quietness. Insolence passed into an awful wonder. A strange and searching sense of mystery fell on the most frenzied spirit there. And who can doubt that God, who loves the world, and willeth not that any man should perish, was moving in that ministry of gloom? There are things we learn in darkness that we never learn when the sun is in the sky. Sometimes men only see their cruelty, when the other is in the valley of the shadow. It is not when the heaven is radiant that men detect how evil they have been. It is often when the darkness deepens. The darkness at Calvary was gracious. It was the goodness of God leading to repentance. It awed men. It woke their conscience. It led them swiftly to revalue Jesus. I believe that many who on a later day believed in Jesus and rejoiced in Him would date the beginning of their gracious change from the awful darkness at the cross.
     
      The Darkness Speaks of the Mystery of Atonement     
      Lastly, the darkness at the cross speaks to us of the mystery of atonement. Here is something no human eye can penetrate. So long as the sun was shining every movement of the Lord was visible. Did He lift up His eyes to heaven? They observed it. Did He look round on the crowd? They marked that also. And then the darkness fell, and He was hidden from them, and now let them strain their eyes, however eagerly, they knew not what was transacting in the shadow. They could not follow nor fathom what was forward. There was something they were powerless to penetrate. No husband could go home that Friday evening and say to his wife, "Wife, I saw it all. "And the strange thing is that to this hour no saint or scholar, brooding on the atonement, would ever dare to say "I see it all." No theory exhausts the cross. No intellect fathoms the atonement. No human thought can grasp the height and depth of the greatest of all mysteries. And that shrouding from our finite mind of the infinite meanings of atonement is one of the suggestions of the darkness.

THE WONDER OF REDEMPTION

By A.W. Tozer


My brethren in the Christian faith, stand with me in defense of this basic doctrine: The living God did not degrade Himself in the Incarnation. When the Word was made flesh, there was no compromise on God's part! It is plain in the ancient Athanasian Creed that the early church fathers were cautious at this point of doctrine. They would not allow us to believe that God, in the Incarnation, became flesh by a coming down of the Deity into flesh, but rather by the taking of mankind into God. That is the wonder of redemption! 

In the past, the mythical gods of the nations were not strangers to compromise. But the holy God who is God, our heavenly Father, could never compromise Himself! He remained ever God and everything else remained not God. That gulf still existed even after Jesus Christ had become man and dwelt among us. This much, then, we can know about the acts of God-He will never back out of His bargain. This amazing union of man with God is effected unto perpetuity!

The Rest And The Courage Of Faith

By T. Austin-Sparks

      "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb 4:9).

      "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:19).

      "Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart.

      Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the Land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.

      And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, l am this day fourscore and five years old.

      As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said."

      And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of lsrael" (Joshua 14:6-14).

      I am sure it will sound to many of you like going a long way back and going out into a very broad realm when I say that we Christians are being constantly confronted with and challenged by our Christianity. Many of us have not really entered into Christianity yet. What do I mean? Well, for one thing, the very door into true Christianity is the door of rest, the rest of faith. The very simple way in which the Lord put it in His appeal was - "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). That was to a multitude, and those words are usually employed in Gospel messages to the unsaved. The meaning of the Lord in using those words is given to us here in the letter to the Hebrews, a very much deeper and fuller meaning than is generally recognized in the usage of the simple invitation "Come unto Me... and I will give you rest". There is something that we have to hear, to detect, in the statement - "There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God" (Heb. 4:9; A.S.V.).

      

A Present Entering Into Rest

      If you look at the context, the meaning is something into which the people of God had not entered. "They were not able to enter in because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:19; A.S.V.). They could not enter in. Who were they? - the people of God. It is still the people of God for whom the rest remaineth. Do not let us put that into the future, that is not the meaning at all; that afterward, when we get Home to glory, then we will arrive at the Sabbath day rest, we will enter into rest. It is not something for the tombstone -he or she entered into rest. It is something which remains now as a present thing for the people of God, not in death, but in life. The rest remaineth.

      You will not think me too elementary, for you know in your heart, as well as I do in mine, that this matter of heart rest, the rest of faith, is a live question continually, it is coming up all the time. One of the things which is lacking in so many of us is this rest, or, to put it the other way, the things which characterize us so much are fret, anxiety, uncertainty, and all those things which are just the opposite of calm assurance, quiet confidence, the spirit and attitude and atmosphere which says all the time, Don't worry, don't fret, it is all right. One thing our great enemy is always trying to do is to disturb that, destroy that, rob us of that, churn us up, fret us, drive us, harass us, anything to rob us of our rest or to prevent us from entering into rest.

It is the rest of faith, not just the rest of passivity, indifference, carelessness. There is all the difference between carelessness and carefreeness. There remaineth, there is still to be had, there still obtains, there still exists, there is still preserved a rest for the people of God - for the people of God. We have no right to go to the unsaved and bid them come to Christ and find rest until and unless we ourselves know that rest. Our testimony and our ministry is jeopardized; weakened, limited and discredited if we are not ourselves in rest; and this is the object of the enemy's activity in this matter - to discredit us by taking from us that very birthright of our union with Him Who is never perturbed, never anxious, never in doubt as to the issue, the One Who reigns. You see, rest is the practical outworking of our belief that He is Lord, and the very Lordship of Christ is struck at by the unrest of the people of God.

      

The rest of faith must be our position; not only in the great matter of justification, though if it is not settled here, it will not be settled anywhere. Oh, the enemy is striking at that, even with the people of God; he is ever seeking to undercut that; in some way to raise again the question of justification, of being just with God in our standing, in our acceptance - not yet fully and finally in our state, only in Christ; that is, not as finally perfect in ourselves, but in that union on the ground of what He is. The enemy never ceases to try to undercut that, and his methods are countless and very persistent and very forceful. The rest of faith in that, but also in a hundred and one other ways in the practical things of everyday life; things which are not in our power to arrange, secure, settle and bring to pass. Every day brings hundreds of ways in which there is the opportunity to stand into the rest of faith, into that faith in the Lord which brings rest. 

So subtle are the ways of the enemy that he will even tell us that that is too small a thing with which to trouble the Lord; that is a mere incident, why take that to the Lord? He has bigger and more important things than that on hand! Why try to make the Lord your errand-boy (I say that reverently) just to do all the little things you want done? If in this the testimony is preserved in rest, then it is a big thing to the Lord, not a little thing. If in this matter the Lord's glory stands to suffer, then it is a very big thing. It may be an incident in daily life, yes, in many, many ways every day, you and I can so lose our poise and our rest and our quiet confidence as to lose out spiritually, and the Lord lose much, so that it is proved that somewhere faith has been lacking, and with it the rest has gone. That is one side. It is a challenge to us, a real challenge.

The Eternal Crush Of Things

By Oswald Chambers


'I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.'
1 Corinthians 9:22

A Christian worker has to learn how to be God's noble man or woman amid a crowd of ignoble things. Never make this plea - If only I were somewhere else! All God's men are ordinary men made extraordinary by the matter He has given them. Unless we have the right matter in our minds intellectually and in our hearts affectionately, we will be hustled out of usefulness to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no matter in them of God's almighty grace, no matter of His mighty word. Paul's whole heart and mind and soul were taken up with the great matter of what Jesus Christ came to do, he never lost sight of that one thing. We have to face ourselves with the one central fact - Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

"I have chosen you." Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God but that He has got you. Here, in this College, God is at work, bending, breaking, moulding, doing just as He chooses. Why He is doing it, we do not know; He is doing it for one purpose only - that He may be able to say, This is My man, My woman. We have to be in God's hand so that He can plant men on the Rock as He has planted us.

Never choose to be a worker, but when God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. He will do with you what He never did with you before the call came He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.

Our Hands Kept for Jesus

Kept for the Master's Use: 3: Our Hands Kept for Jesus
By Frances Ridley Havergal


'Keep my hands, that they may move
At the impulse of Thy love.'

When the Lord has said to us, 'Is thine heart right, as My heart is with thy heart?' the next word seems to be, 'If it be, give Me thine hand.'

What a call to confidence, and love, and free, loyal, happy service is this! and how different will the result of its acceptance be from the old lamentation: 'We labour and have no rest; we have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians.' In the service of these 'other lords,' under whatever shape they have presented themselves, we shall have known something of the meaning of having 'both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.' How many a thing have we 'taken in hand,' as we say, which we expected to find an agreeable task, an interest in life, a something towards filling up that unconfessed 'aching void' which is often most real when least acknowledged; and after a while we have found it change under our hands into irksome travail, involving perpetual vexation of spirit! The thing may have been of the earth and for the world, and then no wonder it failed to satisfy even the instinct of work, which comes natural to many of us. Or it may have been right enough in itself, something for the good of others so far as we understood their good, and unselfish in all but unravelled motive, and yet we found it full of tangled vexations, because the hands that held it were not simply consecrated to God. Well, if so, let us bring these soiled and tangle-making hands to the Lord, 'Let us lift up our heart with our hands' to Him, asking Him to clear and cleanse them.

If He says, 'What is that in thine hand?' let us examine honestly whether it is something which He can use for His glory or not. If not, do not let us hesitate an instant about dropping it. It may be something we do not like to part with; but the Lord is able to give thee much more than this, and the first glimpse of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord will enable us to count those things loss which were gain to us.

But if it is something which He can use, He will make us do ever so much more with it than before. Moses little thought what the Lord was going to make him do with that 'rod in his hand'! The first thing he had to do with it was to 'cast it on the ground,' and see it pass through a startling change. After this he was commanded to take it up again, hard and terrifying as it was to do so. But when it became again a rod in his hand, it was no longer what it was before, the simple rod of a wandering desert shepherd. Henceforth it was 'the rod of God in his hand' (Ex. iv. 20), wherewith he should do signs, and by which God Himself would do 'marvellous things' (Ps. lxxviii. 12).

If we look at any Old Testament text about consecration, we shall see that the marginal reading of the word is, 'fill the hand' (e. g. Ex. xxviii. 41; 1 Chron. xxix. 5). Now, if our hands are full of 'other things,' they cannot be filled with 'the things that are Jesus Christ's'; there must be emptying before there can be any true filling. So if we are sorrowfully seeing that our hands have not been kept for Jesus, let us humbly begin at the beginning, and ask Him to empty them thoroughly, that He may fill them completely.

For they must be emptied. Either we come to our Lord willingly about it, letting Him unclasp their hold, and gladly dropping the glittering weights they have been carrying, or, in very love, He will have to force them open, and wrench from the reluctant grasp the 'earthly things' which are so occupying them that He cannot have His rightful use of them. There is only one other alternative, a terrible one,--to be let alone till the day comes when not a gentle Master, but the relentless king of terrors shall empty the trembling hands as our feet follow him out of the busy world into the dark valley, for 'it is certain we can carry nothing out.'







Yet the emptying and the filling are not all that has to be considered. Before the hands of the priests could be filled with the emblems of consecration, they had to be laid upon the emblem of atonement (Lev. viii. 14, etc.). That came first. 'Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin-offering.' So the transference of guilt to our Substitute, typified by that act, must precede the dedication of ourselves to God.

'My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.'

The blood of that Holy Substitute was shed 'to make reconciliation upon the altar.' Without that reconciliation we cannot offer and present ourselves to God; but this being made, Christ Himself presents us. And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight.

Then Moses 'brought the ram for the burnt-offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram, and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar; it was a burnt-offering for a sweet savour, and an offering made by fire unto the Lord.' Thus Christ's offering was indeed a whole one, body, soul, and spirit, each and all suffering even unto death. These atoning sufferings, accepted by God for us, are, by our own free act, accepted by us as the ground of our acceptance.

Then, reconciled and accepted, we are ready for consecration; for then 'he brought the other ram; the ram of consecration; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.' Here we see Christ, 'who is consecrated for evermore.' We enter by faith into union with Him who said, 'For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.'

After all this, their hands were filled with 'consecrations for a sweet savour,' so, after laying the hand of our faith upon Christ, suffering and dying for us, we are to lay that very same hand of faith, and in the very same way, upon Him as consecrated for us, to be the source and life and power of our consecration. And then our hands shall be filled with 'consecrations,' filled with Christ, and filled with all that is a sweet savour to God in Him.

'And who then is willing to fill his hand this day unto the Lord?' Do you want an added motive? Listen again: 'Fill your hands to-day to the Lord, that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.' Not a long time hence, not even to-morrow, but 'this day.' Do you not want a blessing? Is not your answer to your Father's 'What wilt thou?' the same as Achsah's, 'Give me a blessing!' Here is His promise of just what you so want; will you not gladly fulfil His condition? A blessing shall immediately follow. He does not specify what it shall be; He waits to reveal it. You will find it such a blessing as you had not supposed could be for you--a blessing that shall verily make you rich, with no sorrow added--a blessing this day.

All that has been said about consecration applies to our literal members. Stay a minute, and look at your hand, the hand that holds this little book as you read it. See how wonderfully it is made; how perfectly fitted for what it has to do; how ingeniously connected with the brain, so as to yield that instantaneous and instinctive obedience without which its beautiful mechanism would be very little good to us! Your hand, do you say? Whether it is soft and fair with an easy life, or rough and strong with a working one, or white and weak with illness, it is the Lord Jesus Christ's. It is not your own at all; it belongs to Him. He made it, for without Him was not anything made that was made, not even your hand. And He has the added right of purchase--He has bought it that it might be one of His own instruments. We know this very well, but have we realized it? Have we really let Him have the use of these hands of ours? and have we ever simply and sincerely asked Him to keep them for His own use?

Does this mean that we are always to be doing some definitely 'religious' work, as it is called? No, but that all that we do is to be always definitely done for Him. There is a great difference. If the hands are indeed moving 'at the impulse of His love,' the simplest little duties and acts are transfigured into holy service to the Lord.

'A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
Makes that and the action fine.'

George Herbert.

The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. (Daniel 11:32 ESV)

OPEN WINDOWS

T. AUSTIN SPARKS

The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. (Daniel 11:32 ESV)

How much do you depend upon conferences and teachers to keep you going? Must you attend meetings just because you feel that the last lot you got has been used up and you must get a fresh supply? Or have you been emancipated from all human props and put into a place of glorious independence, because you KNOW YOUR GOD? 

It doesn't matter if you are plunged into the middle of the Sahara, you know your God and can stand independently of all natural helps – this thing has become YOU! That is the kind of knowledge that means power. That is the kind of experience which overcomes the world. That is the kind of thing that makes all the other systems go down, and you rise triumphantly above them. 

That was the secret of the apostolic church. Let kings do what they like, let the people rage – it goes on, and it is the Roman Empire that goes to pieces before this thing, and not this thing that goes down before the Roman Empire. It is an independent personal knowledge of God, resultant from an inward birth, that lives. Not only an objective truth, but a subjective power, and it is a great day when the slightest fragment of known truth becomes a vital personal experience in its working ability. That is what we want. First-hand knowledge, not second-hand truth.

May God work this into our very beings until it becomes us. Take it in fragments if you like, and ask the Lord to work it out in you and make it live in you.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The People That Do Exploits 

Charles Spurgeon Sermon - Remember, God's Arrows never miss the Mark

LOVE OF HOSPITALITY

OUR DAILY WALK F.B. MEYER

LOVE OF HOSPITALITY

"Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Heb 13:1-2.

OUR TEXT refers to that memorable scene when Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent, probably inclined to slumber in the heat of noon. Suddenly he saw three men apparently waiting for alms and help. Plenty of travellers had come to his door before, seeking help and hospitality which he had given freely. But though the heat was great, though he may have been disappointed again and again in the recipients of his bounty, he felt it better to be disappointed a hundred times than to miss the chance of showing hospitality and welcome. Therefore he sprang to his feet, called to Sarah for help, and the two of them quickly ministered to the three unknown men. How thankful he must have been that he had not refused to entertain them, for two of them were angels, and the third was the Son of God!

In our crowded lives, where room is scarce, it is less easy for us to care for the people who may be cast as strangers amongst us, but there is a hospitality of the mind that we can all exercise, when we open our hearts to some story of sorrow. None of us are quite aware, except we have suffered in that way, how much it helps some people to be able to pour out their burdens and sorrows. It is much to have a hospitable mind, to have a sympathetic ear, and to make room in our heart for the story of human pain, sorrow, and loneliness, which some, who are comparative strangers, may want to confide in us. We may rebuke ourselves that our hearts do not more nearly represent the hostel or inn into which sad or weary souls may creep for shelter. Although you cannot say much, there may always be the open door of your heart where the lonely and desolate may enter and find in you a fire of sympathy, kindness, and good-will.

Anxiety

Anxietyby Arthur W. Pink

"Be anxious for nothing" (Phil. 4:6). Worring is as definitely forbidden as theft. This needs to be carefully pondered and definitely realized by us, so that we do not excuse it as an innocent "infirmity." The more we are convicted of the sinfulness of anxiety, the sooner are we likely to perceive that it is most dishonoring to God, and "strive against" it (Heb. 12:4). But how are we to "strive against" it? First, by begging the Holy Spirit to grant us a deeper conviction of its enormity. Second, by making it a subject of special and earnest prayer, that we may be delivered from this evil. Third, by watching its beginning, and as soon as we are conscious of harassment of mind, as soon as we detect the unbelieving thought, lift up our heart to God and ask Him for deliverance from it.

The best antidote for anxiety is frequent meditation upon God's goodness, power and sufficiency. When the saint can confidently realize "The Lord is My Shepherd," he must draw the conclusion, "I shall not want!" Immediately following our exhortation is, "but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God." Nothing is too big and nothing is too little to spread before and cast upon the Lord. The "with thanksgiving" is most important, yet it is the point at which we most fail. It means that before we receive God's answer, we thank Him for the same: it is the confidence of the child expecting his Father to be gracious.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought (anxious concern) for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. 6:25,33)

Psalm 144

144 Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:

2 My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.

3 Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!

4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

5 Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

6 Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.

7 Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;

8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

9 I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.

10 It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.

11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:

12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:

13 That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:

14 That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.

15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.

"(But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the Lord cast out before the Children of Israel)" 1 Kings 21:25-26

OLD TESTAMENT PARENTHESES (15)
"(But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to
do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel
his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following
idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the Lord
cast out before the Children of Israel)" 1 Kings 21:25-26

THE contents of this parenthesis do not surprise us, for we are already aware of what a wicked king Ahab was. What does surprise us greatly, however, and what must have surprised Elijah very much, is what immediately follows, for we are told of God's obvious satisfaction in finding that even such a man would humble himself in repentance. "Have you seen it?" He asked Elijah, as if meaning, 'Can you believe it?'

WE are not told whether Elijah was pleased or offended. Nor are we able to determine whether Ahab's was really the godly sorrow which works repentance unto salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). We are only informed that God regarded Ahab's humbling as genuine and gave him immediate reprieve. If we pursue our enquiry we may retain strong reservations about his subsequent behaviour and we find that God's arrow pierced his disguise and his armour, leaving him to bleed to death in a day of defeat on the battlefield.

THE historian was inspired to emphasise his self-humbling as he records that the king "fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly". Then, as if that were not enough, he added this confidential exchange between the Lord and Elijah in which it is emphasised that Ahab had truly humbled himself before God. So it seems that this parenthesis draws particular attention to Ahab's heinous wickedness only to give added weight to God's words of kindness when He drew the attention of His beloved servant to the marvel of even an impossible case like that being prostrated in contrition. If Elijah was not overwhelmed, I confess that I am.

ALL Scripture has a meaning. Does this parenthesis suggest, then, that the man in question was the chief of sinners? We remember that in the New Testament there was another man who admitted this charge but was able to rejoice that even so, through grace, he had obtained mercy (1 Timothy 1:15). If Ahab's experience does nothing else, it should encourage us to go on praying that even those who seem most hardened may yet humble themselves before the Lord and find mercy.

TO me an equally surprising case is that of King Manasseh, the evil king of Judah who is said to have slain Isaiah and who "filled Jerusalem with innocent blood" (2 Kings 21:16). Throughout most of his long reign this king seems to have given himself over to every kind of evil and refused to listen to the Lord. Yet we are told that "when he was in distress, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And he prayed unto him; and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication ..." (2 Chronicles 33:12-13). His crimes reached almost to heaven, but the amazing grace of God reached even higher.

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Psalm 129 PLOUGHING UP

psalm 129




ON THE WAY UP (10)
Psalm 129    PLOUGHING UP

NOT every one loves Zion. There are those who hate her, and this song focuses its attention on them.

IT is expressed in terms of prayer that these enemies of God's people may be frustrated in every way. True, they will never suffer from a plough because they will be like rootless grass on the housetops, and as such will never come to any sort of harvest joys.

THIS is not the kind of prayer that we would care to pray, but it clearly depicts the inevitable destiny of those who oppose God's will. They are described as ploughers, but they will never be mowers or reapers, in spite of their persistent activities. Twice over the psalmist uses the phrase "Many a time" and he indicates that they begin in our time of youth and then go right on in unrelenting persecution.

POOR things! Can there be anything more futile than to go on ploughing and never reap any sort of harvest except shame and contempt? Yet that is what will happen in their case if the psalmist's prayer is answered. His prayer is a kind of prophecy -- they will finish unpraised and unblest. How pitiful are their efforts!

BUT there is another side to this picture, implied if not actually stated. The ploughmen who are making such deep furrows on the backs of God's pilgrims are the instruments in His hands to prepare for a rich harvest of blessing in the lives of their afflicted victims.

ALL through the year Israel can say that in spite of the long and bitter furrows of affliction, they have never been overcome. Indeed it is because of the painful ploughing that they have the happy prospect of an abundant harvest of righteousness.

THEY will be given the pleasure which comes to the mower who fills his hands with the gathered blessings and the reaper who joyfully binds the sheaves of fulfilment to his bosom. Those who pass by will bless them, and will give God blessing for them. In His sovereignty, the full harvest will have been made possible by the frequent and prolonged enmity of the ploughers.

SO this psalm, which began by promising to be a complaining dirge of descents and depression, turns out to have a worthy place among the Songs of Ascent. It reminds us that the more Satan afflicts God's people, the more fruitful they become. This was the case in Egypt under Pharaoh (Exodus 1:12); it is sung about in the days of the kingdom in our psalm; it is recorded in the experience of the early church (Acts 12:24); and it is as true as ever today.

Patience, my suffering brothers and sisters! We are on our way up! Let us join in the song of victory. The ploughing may be painful now, but however long and deep the furrows on our backs, we can lift our heads in praising triumph. They will not prevail against us. The ploughmen may be operating "many a time", but God's grace is such that this will only increase the joys and fruitfulness of the harvest that is to be. In that day all who pass by will observe the manifest blessing of God. They will bless us in the name of the Lord.

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THE SECRET OF DANIEL'S STRENGTH

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THE SECRET OF DANIEL'S STRENGTH
Harry Foster

Chapter V. THE LIVING GOD

"He is the living God, and steadfast for ever"
Daniel 6:26

THERE is no doubt that Daniel was a key man for God throughout the years of Israel's captivity in Babylon. God's intentions in this matter are indicated by the simple statement at the very beginning that "Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus" (1:21). [97/98] He lived on beyond that, but the point is that he lived to see the day of the return of the captives. He probably played a key role as adviser to Cyrus in this matter, for God put him up to the top and kept him there. But not all the time. This chapter opens with the startling implication that after Nebuchadnezzar's demise, Daniel entirely disappeared from public life. All the honours given to him in his promotion by Nebuchadnezzar seem to have lost their value; he was so completely forgotten that it took a divine miracle to bring him back on the scene. This chapter will explain how it all happened. That it only happened on the final night of the Chaldean empire is but one more example of the recurring truth that while God is never late, He has a way of leaving things to the very last minute. He runs it very fine.

A Dying Empire

The scene set before us in the Babylonian banquet hall is so bizarre that if any Jews were present they might well have wondered if the Lord was still alive. There was no sign of His reaction to arrant blasphemy. Where now was the King of Heaven? Where was any evidence that God is the Most High? Nebuchadnezzar's dissolute son (or grandson) was mocking Him in ways which his great ancestor would never have countenanced. It is true that Nebuchadnezzar carried away the holy vessels from the temple in Jerusalem, but he seems always to have treated them with respect. After he had learned the lesson of the burning fiery furnace, he uttered bloodthirsty threats against anyone who dared to be irreverent towards the true God.

But times had changed. Nebuchadnezzar was no more. His son, Nabonidus, was at that very time being defeated in the field by the Medo-Persian armies, and Belshazzar, the regent (either a son or a younger brother), was indulging in this gigantic drinking party while the empire disintegrated. So great was the Babylonans' sense of security within their massive city, that they contemptuously ignored the seemingly ineffective besieging troops of the Medes who in fact had been steadily working while they seemed inactive, and had now completed the field works which opened the undefended city to them. On the eve of the empire's overthrow Belshazzar, descendant of the mighty conquering Nebuchadnezzar, was indulging with his officers in drunken revelry. Times had changed in Babylon.

Times had changed for Daniel, too. He who had risen to such eminence under Nebuchadnezzar, was so effectively removed from office that Belshazzar behaved as though he had never heard of him. It was only when the old queen-mother came on the scene that Daniel's name and ability were disclosed. Obviously he had been removed from all prominence and authority in this crumbling empire. Unbelief might well have wondered if God were asleep or dead.

But no, God was alive all right. Our title for this chapter is "The Living God" (6:26). The phrase was coined by Darius the Mede, Belshazzar's successor, but it is the perfect description of the One who is not only very much alive Himself, but able to bring back life into dead situations. He alone could rescue Daniel from obscurity and put him back again into the governorship from which he had been eliminated. Whenever we think of God's exercise of life, we should bear in mind that it invariably carries with it the idea of resurrection from the dead. There is no other life available to Christians than resurrection life. The fact that He is the Living God means that His methods in all His working -- and most notably in His Son -- are based on resurrection. Daniel needed such a God; for practical purposes he had been reduced to social and political death, with no position, no power, no public reputation; he was in the depths.

His experience had some parallel with that of Nebuchadnezzar as described in chapter 4, though in Daniel's case there was not the slightest suggestion of any fault on his part. Both men were in a hopeless position, humanly speaking. Nebuchadnezzar was brought down to zero by the heavy hand of God upon him. Daniel came down to zero by divine permission, though probably he was the victim of men's envy. After seven years of suffering, Nebuchadnezzar was fully restored. After an unknown period of eclipse, Daniel was also fully restored. But the eclipse had been so total that Belshazzar only met him for the first time on this occasion (v.13), and his return to power can only be likened to a resurrection.

The title, Living God, means just this, that He has power to give life by raising from the dead. This chapter proves the point and justifies itself in forming part of the whole book by its implication of the miracle which happened to Daniel. We may be carried away by the wonder [98/99] of "the writing on the wall", but God would not use His Word just to interest us with that story of Belshazzar's shock and doom. His interests are positive and purposeful. What He needed to do was to safeguard those precious holy vessels of the temple and, even more, to restore Daniel to his place of authority until His people returned to the land. This chapter discloses how He did all this.

The Writing on the Wall