How many more years will I live? By John MacDuff

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

God Doesn't Need Help By Theodore Epp

By Theodore Epp

      

11 Samuel 1:1-16

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who's Ruling the World? By Warren Wiersbe

By Warren Wiersbe

      
Read Psalm 9:17-2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By A.B. Simpson

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

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

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

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

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

GOD'S CLOSING CALL By John MacDuff

By John MacDuff

      THE NIGHT WATCHES.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Necessity to Cover By Elisabeth Elliot

By Elisabeth Elliot

      

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Oswald Chambers

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

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

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

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

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

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

A SACRED GIFT OF SEEING By A.W. Tozer

By A.W. Tozer

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

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

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

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