Moral Causes

EXCERPT

But this post is written to address the meaningless and often counter productive moral causes that many believers, either individually or en masse, take up and present themselves as advocates for such causes rather than believing followers of Jesus. This genre is actually a form of humanism and seeks to make man and society better by moral alignment. Fighting with the same carnal weapons that unbelievers use, they become embroiled in a war which is not Christ’s and cannot be won until He comes back to win it. Believers line up to object to strip clubs opening, and yet they have never prayed for, wept over, or gone into the highways to compel these girls to come to Jesus. That is not redemptive Christianity; that is moralism.

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Charles H. Spurgeon ~ Hope Even In Our Hopelessness

Placed For a Purpose

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

      "It was noised that he was in the house" (Mark 2:1).
      The polyps which construct the coral reefs, work away under water, never dreaming that they are building the foundation of a new island on which, by-and-by, plants and animals will live and children of God be born and fitted for eternal glory as joint-heirs of Christ.

      If your place in God's ranks is a hidden and secluded one, beloved, do not murmur, do not complain, do not seek to get out of God's will, if He has placed you there; for without the polyps, the coral reefs would never be built, and God needs some who are willing to be spiritual polyps., and work away out of sight of men, but sustained by the Holy Ghost and in full view of Heaven.

      The day will come when Jesus will give the rewards, and He makes no mistakes, although some people may wonder how you came to merit such a reward, as they had never heard of you before. --Selected

      Just where you stand in the conflict,
      There is your place.
      Just where you think you are useless,
      Hide not your face.
      God placed you there for a purpose,
      Whate'er it be;
      Think He has chosen you for it;
      Work loyally.
      Gird on your armor! Be faithful
      At toil or rest!
      Whate'er it be, never doubting
      God's way is best.
      Out in the fight or on picket,
      Stand firm and true;
      This is the work which your Master
      Gives you to do.
      --Selected

      Safely we may leave the crowded meeting, the inspiring mountain top, the helpful fellowship of "just men," and betake ourselves to our dim homely Emmaus, or to our dread public Colossae, or even to our far Macedonia in the mission field, quietly confident that just where He has placed us, in the usual round of life, He ordains that the borderland may be possessed, the victory won. --Northcote Deck

http://articles.ochristian.com/article9348.shtml

MAN HAS LOST GOD

By A.W. Tozer

      The average person in the world today, without faith and without God and without hope, is engaged in a desperate personal search and struggle throughout his lifetime. He does not really know what he is doing here. He does not know where he is going.

 The sad commentary is that everything he is doing is being done on borrowed time, borrowed money and borrowed strength-and he already knows that in the end he will surely die! It boils down to the bewildered confession of many humans that they have lost God somewhere along the way. Man, made more like God than any other creature, has become less like God than any other creature. 

Created to reflect the glory of God, he has retreated sullenly into his cave-reflecting only his own sinfulness. Certainly it is a tragedy above all tragedies in this world that love has gone from man's heart. 

Beyond that, light has gone from his mind. Having lost God, he blindly stumbled on through this dark world to find only a grave at the end!

http://articles.ochristian.com/article4746.shtml

The "god" of This Generation

By A.W. Pink

      The "god" of this twentieth century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the mid-day sun. The god who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in most of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible conferences is a figment of human imagination, an invention of over-emotional sentimentality.

      The heathen outside the pale of Christendom form gods out of wood and stone, while the millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a god out of their own carnal minds. In reality, they are but atheists; FOR THERE IS NO OTHER POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE BETWEEN AN ABSOLUTE SUPREME GOD AND NO GOD AT ALL! 

A "god" whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, and whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and SO FAR FROM BEING A FIT OBJECT OF WORSHIP, MERITS NOUGHT BUT CONTEMPT!

http://articles.ochristian.com/article722.shtml

Ask for the Ancient Paths

By Art Katz

Thus says the Lord: “Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”  But they said, “We will not walk in it.”  (Jeremiah 6:16).

The pleading, haunting cry of the prophet is timeless.  It is as valid now as then.  So long as the condition remains to which the God addresses His ancient people, so also the appeal and the lament.

Anyone whose heart aches for the Jew – and for the nation Israel – recognizes that, indeed, we are at a crossroad.  The text is in the plural “crossroads” and the sages rightly suggest that this means the intersection between good and evil.  If only we would stop; if only we would look; if only we would ask; if only we would walk in the good way.

I love the word ‘ancient.’  Somehow it suggests to me something older than rabbinic Judaism, the sages, cabbalism, and everything else that is derivative and not primary.  Can we not go back to the Ancient of Days Himself?  The ancient paths, I fear, are overgrown and concealed by weeds.  If we had found those paths, we would also have found rest for our souls.  Our present condition, wherever we are in the world with its ominous, fearful clouds overhead, indicates that we have not found that rest.

We continue to despise that Figure who dares to announce, “I am the way…Come unto Me you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  Did He not know Jeremiah’s cry?  Was He not also the Lord, the God of Jacob, who sent Him?  Dare He be its fulfillment?  How ancient is He who said “before Abraham was, I Am.” 

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.  When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.  Before the mountains were settled, before the hills were brought forth: While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.  When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the deep…when He appointed the foundation of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him…(Proverbs 8:22-30).

Whoever the mysterious figure is described here, he concludes with a charge that we ought not to ignore:

Now therefore, O sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways.  Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.  Blessed is the man who listens to me…for he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord.  But he who sins against me injures himself; all those who hate me love death.  (Proverbs 8:32-36).

http://artkatzministries.org/ask-for-the-ancient-paths/

Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow

Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10

Hungrybear9562 | January 08, 2010

It was rainbowing for at least an hour on January 8th 2010. It was incredible. The camera could not capture the vivid intensity and brightness.

Rejoicing in the Lord

By A.W. Pink

From Studies in the Scriptures Publication: February, 1939


"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice" (Phil. 4:4).

How many there are today who make an entirely wrong use of this Divine exhortation. Let any servant of God faithfully trace out the inward experiences of a Christian, let him describe the painful discoveries of "the plague of his own heart" (1 Kings 8:38), and his daily conflict with his corruptions and the corresponding effect this produces in the dampening of his spirits. Let him point out how well-suited to his case is the humiliating lament of Romans 7:24, and the light-hearted and empty-headed religionists of the day will promptly (we do not say "quote," but) hurl at his head these words-"rejoice in the Lord always." Those who thus misuse our text suppose that its happy strains condemn all gloominess in a Christian, and that it goes to show that one who is groaning is living far below his privileges.

There is a large percentage of people in Christendom today who imagine the interests of Christ and His Cause on earth require that the somber side of things should be steadily kept out of sight-that only the joyousness of Christianity should be exhibited. They think that it is the pressing duty of saints to attract the unregenerate and not repel them by their heaviness. But that is a most mischievous misconception, a serious error, for it would be but a one-sided and therefore a false representation of vital godliness. It is an essential part of piety to make conscience of sin and to grieve over it. Christ never rebuked the penitent but declared, "Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh; Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep" (Luke 6:21, 25). Surely we are not to hide that aspect of piety which God specially delights in: "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word" (Isa. 66:2).

It is true that those of a naturally bright temperament and happy disposition may find it easy to present an attractive face to the world, but will it be to themselves or to Christ that they will draw the ungodly? Let that question be seriously pondered by those who insist that a smiling countenance is highly desirable. "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice." What does the repetition of this exhortation argue? Does it denote that the Christian is always happy? No indeed; the very reverse. Is it not because the saint is so often cast down, because he finds so much both in himself and what is going on around to sadden him, that he is directed to look above to and rejoice in the Lord?

Study carefully the picture of the "Blessed" man which Christ has drawn for us in Matthew 5:1-11, and it will be seen that each feature in that portrait depicts the Christian as sorrowful so long as he is upon earth. Is he "poor in spirit"? then assuredly will he feel pain from a pressing sense of want. Does he "mourn"? then it would be downright hypocrisy to pretend he is joyful. Is he "meek"? but such a spiritual grace is only evidenced by his submitting to the test of grievous afflictions. Does he "hunger and thirst after righteousness"? then he can be no stranger to an experience of feeling weak and unworthy. "Merciful": such a disposition cannot remain unmoved amid abounding misery in the world. "Pure in heart" necessarily entails grief over impurity. "Peacemakers" cannot but be saddened as they behold millions of their fellows striving against their Maker.

On the other hand, there are not a few among the Lord's people whose tendency is to go to an opposite extreme, being afraid to rejoice in the Lord lest they be guilty of presumption. They who are most painfully conscious of the sea of iniquity surging within, feel it would be hypocrisy to joy in God and sing His praises. But let it be carefully borne in mind that the same human instrument who cried, "O wretched man that I am," penned this very exhortation. However low the true believer may sink in his feelings, however cold and barren his heart, there is still abundant cause for him to heed this injunction. He is not bidden to rejoice in his own experiences or attainments, but "in the Lord." It is a call to the exercise of faith, of hope, of love.

Though poor in this world's goods, though grieving the loss of loved ones, though suffering pain of body, though harassed by sin and Satan, though hated and persecuted by worldlings, whatever be the case and lot of the Christian, it is both his privilege and duty to rejoice in the Lord. He has given us abundant cause so to do: His favour, love, faithfulness, longsuffering, granting us access to the Throne of Grace, the privilege of communion with Himself (in our sorrows and trials!), the promise of an eternity of bliss in His presence-all call for gladness and praise. This exhortation to rejoice in the Lord does not mean we are bidden to cast all sorrow out of our hearts, nor are we acting contrary to its terms when we grieve over sin. Godly sorrow and holy joy are coinciding and not conflicting emotions: there is no enjoying the sweetness of the Lamb apart from the "bitter herbs" (Exo. 12:8).

To rejoice in the Lord is an act of faith, and therefore it lies not within the power of the creature to put it forth whenever he is so inclined. Do not despair, then, fellow-saint, because you are not able to reach this sphere of joy as and when you please. We are entirely dependent upon the Holy Spirit, here as everywhere-none but He can draw us to Christ and enable us to rejoice in Him. Very far are we from being competent to master ourselves and overcome all the oppositions of sin. We are not the lords of our joy. We can no more make ourselves rejoice in God than we can make ourselves well when suffering from a dangerous and painful disease. Like all other exhortations, this one must be turned into earnest prayer for Divine enablement. Finally, note the very next words are, "Let your moderation (not hilarity) be known unto all men"!

http://articles.ochristian.com/article1127.shtml