As it Was in the Beginning

As it Was in the Beginning

by T. Austin-Sparks

The Holy Spirit and God's Beginnings

"...After that he [Jesus] had given commandment through the Holy Ghost unto the apostles... ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost... ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you... it was needful that the scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spake before by the mouth of David..." (Acts 1:2,5,8,16).

In the first chapter of Acts, the Holy Spirit is mentioned four times. To get the right value of that, we must remember when it was that Luke wrote this book. He wrote it when the Apostle Paul was coming to the end of his life and was in prison in Rome. At that time Christianity was already beginning to change its character, for many things were creeping into it that did not really belong to it. There were changes both in doctrine and in practice. You see this clearly when you read Paul's letters to Timothy, written from the prison, for they were written to try to put things right again.

The Change in Christianity

It was, therefore, when Christianity was changing its character that Luke wrote this book called the 'Acts of the Apostles'. I do not know who gave it this name, but I am sure Luke did not. If he had given a title to this book, he might have called it 'the Acts of the Holy Ghost'. He - the Holy Spirit - is mentioned four times in the first chapter alone; and, if you look right through the book, you will see how very many references are made to Him. It is the book of the Holy Spirit, and Luke wrote it to point out that, at the very beginning of the Church's history, everything was of the Spirit. But when he wrote it, men were already beginning to bring in their own teachings and practices and were changing the original things which had been of the Spirit into the things of man. God wanted no change; He wanted all to be of His Spirit, both then and now.

In Europe and in the Western world Christianity has very much changed its character from what it was at the beginning. It has had a long tradition, and it has become all very mixed. There are all sorts of teachings, which are said to be Christian teachings, and there are a great many things which contradict one another and yet are called 'Christian'. One section of Christianity says this is what you should teach, and another contradicts it and says something quite different. One section says that this is how you should do things, and another says that that is quite wrong and there is another way. There are hundreds of different kinds of 'Christianity'. Do you think the Holy Spirit is like that? Do you think that He has many different minds about things? No, He has not even two minds about things, let alone a hundred different minds.

The important thing for us is to know what it was like at the beginning. So we are going to try to see something of what it was like then, for it is always necessary to have a proper foundation. If that is not laid, sooner or later the building will change its shape or collapse.

God's Beginnings and the Spirit

(a) In the Old Testament

At the beginning, then, everything was of the Holy Spirit. And, when you think about it, all God's beginnings have been of His Spirit. That is where you begin in the Bible. It says: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:1,2). Why did the Spirit brood? Because God was going to make a new beginning; He was going to bring a new world into existence, and the Holy Spirit was His instrument for doing this. That is the first beginning that we have in the Bible.

We move on a little way in the Word, and we find that God has decided to make another new beginning. We find a people in Egypt, whom God has decided to bring out, in order to form a people for Himself. How does He bring them out? You remember the pillar of cloud and fire - the one before to lead them out, and the other behind to protect their rear. That pillar is a type of the Holy Spirit. It is by Him that we are led out to become the Lord's people, and it is by Him that we are separated from the world. And then the same Holy Spirit, in the pillar, led them through the Red Sea. The Apostle Paul says: "Our fathers... were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor. 10:2). And then he says: "In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12:13). So we see that the Holy Spirit made this new nation, and in doing so was the Executive of another new beginning of God.

Then the day came when the Lord gave Moses the pattern of the Tabernacle, and Moses came down with it from the Mount; and we read that, in order to make everything for it, certain men were filled with the Holy Spirit. Bezalel and Oholiab were filled with the Spirit to make all manner of work. This Tabernacle was a fresh movement of God.

The building of the Temple was yet another new movement of God; and of David it was said at the time: "the pattern... that he had by the spirit" (1 Chron. 28:12). So here the Holy Spirit initiated things again. In the Old Testament God did everything by the Holy Spirit, although these new beginnings were only types and figures of what was yet to come.

(b) In the New Testament

Then we pass over into the New Testament, and here we leave types and come to realities, and the greatest reality of all is the Lord Jesus Himself. His very coming into the world was by the Holy Spirit. The angel said to Mary: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee..." (Luke 1:35). Jesus was born through the Holy Ghost. Then, 30 years after He had come into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit, He came to the river Jordan. Now He was going to take up the great work for which He had come and which He would accomplish during the next three-and-a-half years. It was there at Jordan, when He was baptized, that the Holy Spirit came upon Him. And in this book of Acts, from which we are reading, we have these words: "Jesus of Nazareth... God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (10:38). So the Lord Jesus not only was born of the Holy Spirit but did His work by the Spirit. Then He went to the Cross, and we are told that He "through the eternal Spirit offered himself... unto God" (Heb. 9:14). So it was also by the Spirit that Jesus gave Himself on the Cross. Lastly, we read in Romans 8:11 of "the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead", implying that it is by the Holy Spirit that resurrection takes place. That is the history of Jesus.

My needs — His resources!

My needs — His resources!

(Alexander Smellie, "The Secret Place" 1907)

"Acsah said: 'Let me have another gift. You have already given me land in the South — now please give me springs of water also!' So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs." Judges 1:15

"Also" — the word of Acsah, Caleb's daughter, is the commonest of words in the hungering and thirsting heart, and on the praying lips of the Christian.

God has done much for me. He has given me a south land, where the sun shines, where the fields are broad and rich, where grape-vines and olive trees and fig trees may flourish and yield their harvests.

But I am not yet at the end of my needs — or of His resources. He must give me also springs of water to quicken and revive everything. I have not attained. I am not fully satisfied. As liberal as He has been — He is not wearied in bestowing, nor is His treasury depleted!

Back and back to Him I shall come — with new entreaties and new desires.
Back and back to me He will return — with new endowments and new love.

"Also" — it is both my word and His!

Suppose that I am forgiven — I would have Him also add to His forgiveness, the peace and assurance which it should beget.

Suppose that I am justified in His sight by the infinite meritoriousness of my Lord Jesus Christ — I would also know now what it is to be sanctified and made holy by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Suppose that I am His redeemed and adopted child, dwelling in the home and atmosphere of His favor — I would also be His consecrated servant and commissioned ambassador, employed to advance His Kingdom.

Suppose that He has given me the south land of His mercifulness and grace — He must also give me the springs of water, that through the whole of the encircling year I may bear much fruit to His glory.

Lord, give me springs of water also!

Swallowed up in a worldly church!

Swallowed up in a worldly church!

(James Smith, "Man's Treatment of Gods People" 1859)

"If the world hates you—keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world—it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world—but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you!" John 15:18-19

Such is the testimony of the Lord Jesus.

Real Christians have never been favorites of the world—and while it continues what it is, they never can be.

Nor can the pure and simple gospel be pleasant to the world, because it lays the sinner in the dust, and exalts God as supreme and sovereign. Let us not be surprised then, if we hear worldlings speak against the gospel, and traduce the Lord's people; for what the Romans told Paul, is in a good measure true in the present day, "For concerning this 'sect', we are aware that it is spoken against everywhere!" Acts 28:22

This 'sect' originated with Jesus, the hated Nazarene, who came into the world for its good, and to save His people from their sins. He gathered around Him many—but they were principally the poor and unlearned. There was nothing in them, or about them, to recommend them to the proud and sensual world.
They were begotten of God, and made new creatures in Christ.
They embraced the truth that He taught.
They observed the precepts that He gave.
They copied the example that He set.

Their creed consisted pretty much in these facts:
that man is a lost sinner,
that salvation by works is impossible, and therefore it must be all of grace—or not at all;
that the Lord Jesus came into the world to take the sinner's place, fulfill the law in the sinner's stead, and die as the sinner's substitute.

By such hopes, they were animated,
by such rules, they walked, and at such objects, they aimed.

And yet, they were spoken against and despised, because they poured contempt on the luxuries, pride, and honors of this world. They were treated as the offscouring of all things, unfit for society, unfit to live.

"Do not be surprised, my brothers—if the world hates you!" 1 John 3:13

And yet, like Israel in Egypt, the more they were persecuted, the more they multiplied and grew; until at length they spread not only over the Roman empire—but nearly over the world. And, had they retained . . .
  the simplicity of their lives,
  the spirituality of their minds, and
  the correctness of their creed—
they would no doubt have encircled the globe!
But at length they were . . .
  courted by royalty,
  loaded with wealth,
  became intoxicated with worldly honors,
and then their glory departed!
They drank into the spirit of the world,
conformed to its maxims and customs,
sought its approbation and applause—and
so fell from their exalted station, and lost their real dignity. The 'sect' that had been spoken against everywhere, with the exception of a few—was swallowed up in a worldly church! 

There are still some, who, like the ancient sect of the Nazarenes, are spoken against everywhere. They will not swim with the stream. They will not compromise their Master's honor, or give up their Master's truth. According to the light they have—they walk; and they rejoice to exalt the Savior, humble the sinner, and proclaim salvation, all of grace. They rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer shame, for His dear name.

Reader! Do you belong to this sect? Is there anything in your religion that is distasteful to the world, anything that draws forth its opposition, or excites its contempt? The carnal mind is still enmity against God, and if we are godlike—that enmity will manifest itself against us!

If we copy Christ's example, as set before us in the gospel; if we testify against the world, that its works are evil, and call upon it to repent, as Christ did—we shall soon be hated by the world!

Two seeds?

Two seeds?


Spurgeon, "In the Garden with Him." #2106.

So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you
have done this, you will be punished...
And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed..." Genesis 3:14-15

There are two seeds in the world- the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent.

And if the seed of the serpent never hisses at you, you may be afraid that you do not  belong to the seed of the woman.
 God has put an enmity between the serpent and the woman; between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed.

And so it must be till the end  of time.
Take any opposition that you get from worldlings as a token for good, a sign that you are of a different race from those who despise you, a testimonial to your character from those whose homage to goodness embodies itself in persecution. That is the way in which they compliment us.

When she kisses you!

When she kisses you!

(Francis Quarles, 1592-1644)

Do you think, my soul, to be made happy by the smiles of the world--or unhappy by her frowns?

When she fawns upon you, she deludes you.

When she kisses you, she betrays you.

Like Jael, she brings the milk in a lordly dish, and bears a hammer in her deadly hand.

Trust not her flattery, O my soul--nor let her malice move you.

Her music is your enchantment, and her sweetness is your snare!

She is the highway to eternal death!

"Worldliness is the most thronged road to everlasting ruin!" J.A. James

"The spirit of the world is eating out the very heart and life of true godliness!" George Everard

"Refined worldliness is the present snare of the Church of God!" Horatius Bonar
"The world is a sea, where we are tossed upon the surging waves of sorrow, and often in danger of shipwreck! The world is a wilderness, full of fiery serpents!" Thomas Watson

Jesus Is Praying for You Today, That Your Faith Might Not Fail

Don Carson on the Ground of Our Assurance

Waiting God's Time

Waiting God's Time

By T. Austin-Sparks

      "When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son...."

      When the fullness of time came! It is not difficult for us to see in the case of Abraham how his faith was brought into relation to God's time. The time factor with Abraham was a very real one and was perhaps one of the keenest and most acute factors for his faith.

      Again and again we come upon a test of Abraham's faith along the line of the timing of God. Indeed, from one standpoint, we may summarize the whole of his life and say that it headed up at last to the triumph of faith upon that particular factor. 

In the full Divine sense he never received the promises in his lifetime. At the end of his life he was still looking for the fulfilment of the promise. If his faith had given way he would naturally have taken the attitude that, since the thing had not been fulfilled in so long a time and in his lifetime, it all represented perhaps a big mistake on his part, a false expectation, some mis-guidance, and so on. 

But right at the end, if the letter to the Hebrews is to be taken as revealing the actual position, he still believed. He believed, therefore, that God had His time for fulfilling His purpose... and that, although it might not come in his own lifetime, it nevertheless would come. But during his lifetime - within the compass of the whole range of Divine purpose - there were instances of testing on the time factor; and, having been tested on that factor, the promise was fulfilled.

      

It is the principle that we want to get hold of. We have it illustrated supremely, perhaps, in connection with the promise of Isaac. It seems that it was at least fifteen years before the promise was fulfilled. It was fourteen or fifteen years at least, but how much more we cannot say, as the Hebrew is very uncertain in this matter.

      

Now, taking every other circumstance into consideration... promise, age, and so on... you can see that this was a real matter of faith - this time factor. The time is getting on. We are getting farther and farther away from any possibility of fulfilment.

      

Moreover it was a deliberate and definite movement of God. Why did not the Lord, knowing what He would do, wait until He was about to do it and just come and say, "Abram, this shall be!" - and bring it about? But no! He came, announced it, and went away, and year after year passed by. Then He came again and ratified His promise... and upon that there was still more waiting.

     

 The Lord has strange ways. He deals with us like that. He must bring His instruments into oneness with Himself. 

There is a little phrase in the New Testament which runs like this: "When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." If that word means anything, it means that delay, in a case like that of Abram's, is not a pleasant thing for a man - not a thing that he would choose for himself.

 It would at least imply that if the Lord could have His way, He would perfect His purpose at once. Long-suffering, forbearance, patience, endurance - these things on God's part are not the things He would choose in carrying out His purposes, seeing all the suffering and the distress and the pain that there is. But He suffered... and suffered long, and His instruments must come into oneness with Him - oneness with His heart.

     

 The point is that it lifts this thing on to a certain level. It is not that the Lord is just dealing with you and with me like a schoolmaster, trying to get something in us. It may be the Lord wants moral qualities developed in us - patience, long-suffering, and so on; there is no doubt that is true, but it is not just that.

 The Lord is saying, "I am not going to do this until you show signs of certain qualities." The Lord is lifting us right up on to the same level as Himself, bringing us into actual oneness with Himself, so that we have the same feeling toward others and toward the situation - toward the need - that He has.

Come Out of Confinement

Come Out of Confinement

By Warren Wiersbe

      

Read Psalm 18:16-19

      For several years David had been forced to live in confined places while he fled from Saul. More than once he fled to a cave to save his life. Then God brought him out of the caves and out of confinement and into a large place. "He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me" (v. 19).

 David was a man after God's own heart, and God delighted in him, just as He delighted in our Lord Jesus. God said of Him, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17).

      We often talk about our delighting in the Lord. "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart" (Ps. 37:4). That's important to do. But what about God's delighting in us?

 As parents and grandparents, we enjoy delighting in our children and grandchildren. In a similar way God wants to delight in us.

      Because God delights in us, He delivers us. And He uses the difficult experiences of life to make us bigger. "He also brought me out into a broad place" (v. 19). Verse 36 of this chapter says, "You enlarged my path under me." 

When God puts us into a large place, He has to give us larger feet. But don't stop there. In Psalm 4:1 David said, "You have relieved me." God delivers us so that He can put us into a larger place, so that He can enable us to take giant steps of faith for His glory.

 David had gone through several years of confinement, difficulty, persecution and sorrow. But when it was over, he was a bigger man.

      Let the trials of life make you a giant, not a midget. Let God put you into a large place, where you can take giant steps of faith for His glory.

      Life's trials are not easy. But in God's will, each has a purpose. Often He uses them to enlarge you. Are you feeling confined? Be encouraged that God delights in delivering you from confinement. Difficult times build your faith, if you let Him use them for His glory.

Nursing a viper!

Nursing a viper!

(J. R. Miller, "Devotional Hours with the Bible" 1909)

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived." Colossians 3:5-7

A new life in Christ calls for the utter destruction of these evils. It is a shameful list which Paul names. It makes us ashamed to think that such qualities may belong to us—or may nest in our heart! Who would have thought that any these vile things could exist in anyone who wears the human form! Yet many of these ugly things are found in each of us! Our hearts are naturally cages of unclean birds!

What does Paul tell us we should do with these unholy things? He says we are to put them to death. When we find any evil thing in ourselves, we must kill it, for it is not right for it to live. An uncompromising war should be waged against all evil. He who cherishes any impurity in himself—is nursing a viper which will sting him to death by and by!

Hitherto!

Hitherto!
(Charles Spurgeon)

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying: "Hitherto has the Lord helped us." 1 Samuel 7:12

The word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past.
Twenty years or seventy, and yet, "hitherto the Lord has helped us!"
  Through poverty and through wealth,
  through sickness and through health,
  at home and abroad,
  on the land and on the sea,
  in honor and in dishonor,
  in perplexity and in joy,
  in trial and in triumph,
  in prayer and in temptation,
"Hitherto has the Lord helped us!"

We delight to look down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves.

In the same way, look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of loving-kindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received "hitherto."

But the word hitherto also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark and writes "hitherto," he is not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traversed.
  More trials and more joys;
  more temptations and more triumphs;
  more prayers and more answers;
  more toils and more strength;
  more fights and more victories;
and then come sickness, old age, disease and death!

Is it over now?

No! there is more yet:
  awakening in Jesus' likeness,
  glorious thrones,
  heavenly harps and songs,
  white clothing,
  the face of Jesus,
  the society of saints,
  the glory of God,
  the fullness of eternity,
  the infinity of bliss!

O be of good courage, believer, and with grateful confidence raise your "Ebenezer," for He who has helped you hitherto—will help you all your journey through! When read in Heaven's light, how glorious and marvelous a prospect will your "hitherto" unfold to your grateful eye!

My Saviour First Of All (hymn) - Fanny J. Crosby

Wakeup! Wakeup! - Charles Spurgeon Sermon

The Holy Spirit and Prayer: The Prayer Life - Andrew Murray

Carter Conlon - Where Will You Spend Eternity? (Sermon Jam)

The Call of the Fishermen

George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons

      The Call of the Fishermen
    
      Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught .... And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake--Luk 5:4-6
    
      Christ Singles Out an Individual's Disappointment
    
      It was not easy for Jesus Christ to be alone, men were so eager and so curious about Him. Not only did they crowd round Him in the villages, where at any moment there might be a work of healing, but they also watched Him as He stole away into retirement, among the hills, or by the seashore. Our lesson opens, then, with Jesus at the seaside, and there, as in Capernaum, there is a great crowd round Him, eager to listen to the Word of God. Then Jesus steps into one of the fishing boats and preaches there--note the many and strange pulpits in which Christ preached. And when the sermon was over, and Jesus was doubtless weary--what did He do? Did He ask for a drink of water? He immediately turned to Peter, in whose boat He was, and said to him, "Launch out into the deep." He had seen the disappointed look in Peter's face. He had detected that the night's fishing was a failure. All the excitement of the thronging crowd, and all the effort of telling them God's news, had not made Him careless of one man's disappointment. So may we learn to trust Christ's individual care, though we be only atoms in a countless multitude. Then follows the miracle, and the call to discipleship, and so this brief but exquisite lesson closes.
    
      It Was in Deep Waters that the Draught Was Got
    
      Now, note that it was in deep waters that the draught was got. The first word of Jesus was, "Launch out into the deep." if the nets were to be filled with fish that morning, the first requirement was to leave the shallows. Now, every miracle is but an acted parable; there are meanings in it that all life may interpret, and to us today, no less than to Simon Peter, Jesus is saying, "Launch out into the deep." We must come right out for God if we are ever to enjoy Him. We must unfasten the cable that binds us to the shore. It is when we launch out into the deeps of trust, that we find how mysteriously the nets are filling. For the harvest of life's sea is joy and peace, and growing insight, and increasing love, and these are beyond the reach of every fisherman, save of him who dares to launch into the deep. Then, too, as experience increases, we learn the meaning of the expression "deep waters." We learn that sorrow and care, and suffering and loss are the deep waters of the human heart. And when we find what a harvest these may bring, and how men may be blessed and purified and made unworldly by them, we understand the need of the deep waters, if the nets are ever to be filled.
    
      God's Gifts May Cause Some Disorder at the First
    
      Note again that God's gifts may cause some disorder at the first. When Peter at Christ's command let down the net, it enclosed a great multitude of fishes. We may be sure that the net was a good one if it was Peter's making, yet for all its goodness it began to break. Now nets are very precious to a fisherman; the loss of them is sometimes irreparable. So in a moment we see Peter and Andrew beckoning to their neighbor's boat, and like the man of Macedonia, crying, "Come over and help us." They came at once, and both of the boats were filled, and filled so full that they began to sink. And the point I wish you to note is that the first results of the kindness of the Savior were--breaking nets and sinking ships! You see, then, that when Jesus enters a life as He entered Andrew's and Simon's boat that morning, it is always possible that at the first there may be some distress and confusion and disorder. We find abundant records of it in the early Church, and every minister has seen it in his converts. Let no one be distressed, then, if when Christ steps on board it is not all joy and singing from the start. All that will come, in the good time of God, for the promise is there shall be no more sea. Meantime, just because Christ is good, and charges the empty night into such morning fulness, the nets (that are so precious to us) may seem on the point of breaking, and the waves come lapping to the gunwale of the ship.
    
      The Nearness of Jesus Shows Us Our Unworthiness
    
      Once more, it is the nearness of Jesus that shows us our unworthiness. One day, when Jesus was across the lake in Gadar, the Gadarenes came to Him with a strange petition: they came and begged Him to depart out of their coasts. Jesus had cured the Gadarene demoniac; He had interfered with the local trade of swine keeping; and so incensed were the people at this interference, and so dead were they to the glory of their Visitor, that they begged Him to depart, and He departed. How different is the cry of Peter here, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man." It was not because he was dead in trespasses and sins, it was because he was wakened to his own unworthiness, that Peter was overpowered by the Lord's presence. And so, while Jesus departed from the Gadarenes, the next word that He spoke to Peter was "Fear not" (Luk 5:10). Sometimes, when we gather a bunch of flowers, they seem to us very sweet and beautiful; and so they may be, for they are God's creatures, and He has made everything beautiful in its time. But if we take a pure white rose and set it in the midst of them, it is strange how garish and coarse some of the others appear. They are God's creatures, but they seem less worthy now, in the near presence of that pure and perfect whiteness. Just so when Jesus Christ is far away, we may be very well contented with ourselves. But when He enters our boat, and shows us His love and power, like Peter we too would say--"I am a sinful man."
    
      They Followed Christ When Things Were Brightest with Them
    
      Then, lastly, these men followed Christ when things were brightest with them. They had never had such a fishing in their lives. It was not in the weary morning after a useless night that they forsook all and followed Jesus. It was when they were the envy of the neighborhood for the huge haul of fishes they had got. Will the children act as Simon and Andrew acted? Will they follow Jesus when life is at its brightest? It is better to come late than not at all. It is better to come in old age than to die Christless. But it is best to come when all the nets are full, when life is golden, and the heart is young; best, and not only best, but surest, for "they that seek Me early, shall find Me."

Radical by David Platt

Eric Ludy - Men of Steel

Field Under Heavenly Cultivation - Corrie Ten Boom

He will sustain you!

He will sustain you!

(J.R. Miller)

"Cast your burden upon the Lord — and He will sustain you." Psalm 55:22

The promise is not that the Lord will remove the load we cast upon Him, nor that He will carry it for us — but that He will sustain us so that we may carry it.

He does not free us from the duty — but He strengthens us for it.

He does not deliver us from the conflict — but He enables us to overcome.

He does not withhold or withdraw the trial from us — but He helps us in trial to be submissive and victorious, and makes it a blessing to us.


He does not mitigate the hardness or severity of our circumstances, taking away the difficult elements, removing the thorns, making life easy for us — but He puts Divine grace into our hearts, so that we can live sweetly in all the hard, adverse circumstances.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" Philippians 4:13

God's Perfect Logistics - Corrie Ten Boom

Christ is the only refuge!

Bible Truths Illustrated

J.C. Pittman, 1917

Christ is the only refuge!

If you were very sick, and there was only one medicine that would cure you, how anxious you would be to get that medicine.

If you were in a storm at sea, and you found that the ship could not weather it, and there was only one harbor, how anxious you would be to get into that harbor.

O, sin-sick soul, Christ is the only medicine!

O, storm-tossed soul, Christ is the only harbor!

How To Find Your Place

"Ferocious Humility" - Matt Chandler [Sermon Jam]

On Becoming More Lovable

On Becoming More Lovable

By A.W. Tozer

      

God desires that all men should become Christlike, for in so doing they present larger and more perfect objects for the reception of His outpoured love. 

Conformity to the nature of Christ on the part of a redeemed man restores the image of God in the soul and thus makes it possible for God to lavish on the soul without restraint all the boundless love of which He is the original fountain.

 It is hard for a sinful man to believe that God loves Him. His own accusing conscience tells him it could not be so. He knows that he is an enemy of God and alienated in his mind through wicked works, and he sees in himself a thousand moral discrepancies that unfit him for the just enjoyment of so pure a love.

 Yet the whole Bible proclaims the love of God for sinful men. We must believe in His love because He declares it and avail ourselves of the sanctifying grace of Christ in order to receive and enjoy that love to the full.

"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Galatians 5:17

C.H. Spurgeon 

June 2 — Morning

"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Galatians 5:17

In every believer's heart there is a constant struggle between the old nature and the new. The old nature is very active, and loses no opportunity of plying all the weapons of its deadly armory against newborn grace; while on the other hand, the new nature is ever on the watch to resist and destroy its enemy. 

Grace within us will employ prayer, and faith, and hope, and love—to cast out the evil; it takes unto it the "whole armor of God," and wrestles earnestly.

These two opposing natures will never cease to struggle so long as we are in this world. The battle of "Christian" with "Apollyon" lasted three hours—but Christian's battle with himself lasted all the way from the Wicket Gate in the river Jordan. The enemy is so securely entrenched within us that he can never be driven out while we are in this body—but although we are often in sore conflict, we have an Almighty helper, even Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, who is ever with us, and who assures us that we shall eventually come off more than conquerors through Him. 

With such assistance, the new-born nature is more than a match for its foes.

Are you fighting with the adversary today? Are Satan, the world, and the flesh, all against you? Do not be discouraged nor dismayed. Fight on! For God Himself is with you; Jehovah Nissi is your banner, and Jehovah Rophi is the healer of your wounds.

 Fear not, you shall overcome, for who can defeat Omnipotence? Fight on, "looking unto Jesus"; and though long and stern is the conflict, sweet will be the victory, and glorious the promised reward.

"From strength to strength go on;
Wrestle, and fight, and pray,
Tread all the powers of darkness down,
And win the well-fought day."

"He gives us more grace!" James 4:6

Every Day!
Author unknown, 1872

"He gives us more grace!" James 4:6

Come, then, my soul, to Him—as an empty vessel to be filled. A supply is waiting for you in Christ Jesus. "It has pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." He is the never-failing Fountain of blessing! Out of His fullness, you may receive grace upon grace. Whatever you need—come to God in Christ for it.

Is your faith weak? He can strengthen it.

Is your hope dull? He can enliven it.

Is your love cold? He can warm it.

Is your patience failing? He can sustain it.

Is your zeal languishing? He can invigorate it.

And observe, the Lord gives not only a new supply of grace, but He also gives it in a larger measure: "He gives more grace!" He came not only that we might have life—but that we might have it "more abundantly."

Come, then, to Him with enlarged desires.
He can fill you with joy and peace in believing.
He can enable you to bear much fruit to the glory of the Father.
He can bless you, and make you a blessing to many.

O Lord, enlarge my desires, raise my expectations, and help me to receive, not only constant supplies of grace—but increased supplies out of Your fullness! For You give "more grace!"


"Open your mouth wide—and He will fill it!" Psalm 81:10