We may be in the world — and not be injured by it!

(James Smith, "The Pleading Savior" 1861)

"I do not pray that you should take them out of the world — but that you should keep them from the evil." John 17:15

We may be in the world — and not be injured by it! 

The world is the field — in which we are to labor for Christ. Here we are to . . .
  plough up the fallow ground,
  sow the good seed, and
  reclaim the waste places for Jesus.

The world is the battleground — on which we are to
  fight the good fight of faith,
  overcome Satan, and
  crucify the old man.

The world is the ocean — over which we are to sail to the port of glory; and it befits us to look well to . . .
  the vessel in which we sail,
  the captain who commands it,
  the pilot who steers it, and
  the compass by which it is steered
 — so that we may . . .
    avoid the rocks and quicksands,
    outlive the storms and tempests,
    and cast anchor within the veil!

The world is the school — in which we are to learn . . .
  the evil of sin,
  the power of corruption,
  the craft of Satan,
  the preciousness of Christ,
  the value of Heaven, and
  the importance and worth of God's promises.

The world is the hospital — in which we are under the Spirit's treatment, in order that we may be restored to health, and prepared to enjoy our Father's eternal house and home!

We should, therefore, rather pray to be kept from evil — than to be removed out of the world. We may be useful, very useful in it, and useful in a way in which we cannot be in Heaven. Here, we can . . .
  visit the sick for Jesus,
  clothe the naked for Jesus,
  feed the hungry for Jesus,
  relieve the widow and fatherless for Jesus,
  and teach the ignorant for Jesus — and thus feed, clothe, visit, relieve and teach Jesus Himself in doing so; for He has said, "Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of these My brethren — you did it unto Me!"

Let us not, therefore, be anxious . . .
  to leave the field of labor until our work is done;
  or to get out the battle until the victory is gained;
  or to leave school until our education is complete;
  or to be discharged from the hospital until we are perfectly cured!

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

God has not promised

(Annie J. Flint, 1919)

"Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward." Job 5:7

"Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure." Job 14:1-2

"Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows." John 16:33

God has not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God has not promised, sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

God has not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He has not told us, we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.

God has not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain, rocky and steep,
Never a river, turbid and deep.

But God has promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love!

"God will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever!" Revelation 21:4

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel! 1 Samuel 3:10

  
Our Daily Homily

      And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel! 1 Samuel 3:10
     
      See the urgency of God! Four times He came, and stood, and called. Mark how He stands at the door to knock. At first He was content to call the lad once by name; but after three unsuccessful attempts to attract him to Himself, He uttered the name twice, with strong urgency in the appeal, Samuel! Samuel! This has been called God's double knock. There are seven or eight of these double knocks in Scripture: Simon, Simon; Saul, Saul; Abraham, Abraham.
     
      How may we be sure of a Divine call?
     
      We may know God's call when it grows in intensity. If an impression comes into your soul, and you are not quite sure of its origin, pray over it; above all, act on it so far as possible, follow in the direction in which it leads and as you lift up your soul before God, it will wax or wane. If it wanes at all, abandon it. If it waxes follow it, though all hell attempt to stay you.
     
      We may test God's call by the assistance of godly friends. The aged Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child, and gave him good advice as to the manner in which he should respond to it. Our special gifts and the drift of our circumstances will also assuredly concur in one of God's calls.
     
      We may test God's call by its effect on us. Does it lead to self denial? Does it induce us to leave the comfortable bed and step into the cold? Does it drive us forth to minister to others? Does it make us more unseIfish, loving, tender, modest, humble! Whatever is to the humbling of our pride, and the glory of God, may be truly deemed God's call. Be quick to respond, and fearlessly deliver the message the Lord has given you.

"Get thee, behind me, Satan" (Matt. xvi. 23).

  
Days of Heaven Upon Earth

      "Get thee, behind me, Satan" (Matt. xvi. 23).
     
      When your old self comes back, if you listen to it, fear it, believe it, it will have the same influence upon you as if it were not dead; it will control you and destroy you.
     
      But if you will ignore it and say: "You are not I, but Satan trying to make me believe that the old self is not dead; I refuse you, I treat you as a demon power outside of me, I detach myself from you"; if you treat it as a wife would her divorced husband, saying: "You are nothing to me, you have no power over me, I have renounced you, in the name of Jesus I bid you hence,"--lo! the evil thing will disappear, the shadow will vanish, the wand of faith will lay the troubled spirit, and send it back to the abyss, and you will find that Christ is there instead, with His risen life, to back up your confidence and seal your victory.
     
      Satan can stand anything better than neglect. If you ignore him he gets disgusted and disappears. Jesus used to turn His back upon him and say, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." So let us refuse him, and we shall find that he will be compelled to act according to our faith.

Maintaining the Glow

George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons       Maintaining the Glow             Maintaining the spiritual glow--Rom 12:11 (Moffatt)             All of us have hours in the interior life when we are conscious of the glowing spirit. Our hearts burn within us as we journey. Sometimes these hours reach us unexpectedly; sometimes after periods of prayer. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and so is every one born of the Spirit. But when such hours come, the inward life grows radiant, and in the light of heaven we see light. In such hours we learn a great deal more than we ever gained from unillumined study. In such hours heaven is very near. In such hours, as by unseen fingers, the veil is taken from the face of Scripture, and the Word, that was marred more than any man, now shines on us as altogether lovely. We have caught the spiritual glow. We are in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. There steals on our ear the distant triumph song. We behold Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Such glowing hours of spiritual warmth and radiance come with greater or with lesser frequency to everybody who is stepping heavenward.             Maintaining the Spiritual Glow             But the great difficulty in the interior life is to maintain that spiritual glow. The problem is not to catch it, but to keep it. Seasons come when we are overwrought and when the keepers of the house do tremble. We may have overdriven "our brother the ass," as St. Francis used to call his body. Or it may be, in the providence of God, that for long days we have to take our journey through a dry land where no water is. It is easy to lose the glow in such experiences. It fades into the light of common day. The Bible loses its fragrance and dew. Heaven recedes; we miss the golden ladder. And yet the divine command is laid on us, poor unstable mortals though we be, that our duty is to maintain the spiritual glow. It can be ours in spite of feeble health. It can be ours whatever be our temperament. It is not given for rare or precious moments. It is meant for every mile of the long journey. And just there the difficulty lies, of maintaining, through dark and dreary days, the radiance and the warmth of hours of insight. He who does that is victor. Having done all, he stands. He "makes a sunshine in a shady place." In weakness he is strong. And we may be certain that when God commands a thing, He never mocks us with impossibilities. When He commands, He gives the power to do.             The Spiritual Glow Is Not a Luxury but a Necessity             For what we must always bear in mind is this, that the spiritual glow is not a luxury. If it were that and nothing else than that, it would never reach us as a divine command. There are tasks that no man will accomplish unless he be gifted with a glowing spirit. There are victories that call for radiance. They never can be accomplished in cold blood. To come victorious out of this present life, unembittered by its tears and tragedies, is beyond the compass of the stoic heart. "No virtue is pure that is not passionate." The song of the Lord must sound above the sacrifice. For the campaign of life we need the song just as surely as we need the sword. Those who have conquered and are robed in white do not flash the glittering sword in heaven. They sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. That is why the inspired volume bids us to maintain the spiritual glow. It is not that we may be happy all the time. It is that we may be triumphant all the time. There are valleys we shall never cross unscathed, and there are temptations we shall never master without a certain glow within the soul.             To Love the Lord Gives the Glow             Now it is just there that we thank God afresh for the unspeakable gift of the Lord Jesus. To love Him gives the glow. Nobody ever has a glowing heart because he is ordered to do certain things. Paul never found that his big heart was glowing when he struggled to obey the ten commandments. But when the ten commandments are incarnate in a living Lord whom we can love, then obedience is set to music. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is law translated into melody. Love laughs at difficulties, just as it is said to laugh at locksmiths. And when, right at the center of our being, there is real love for Him who died for us, cold and heavy obedience is gone--it is replaced by the spiritual glow. Thus to continue glowing is to continue in the love of Christ. It is to live in the experience of His great love for us and in continual response to that experience. The one way to maintain the spiritual glow is to maintain fellowship with Christ, and that is possible for everybody. Every day we may open our hearts anew to receive anew the Holy Spirit. We may begin each day, however dark and dreary, by saying, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." So maintaining, through heavenly supply, our loving personal fellowship with Him, we maintain (and yet not we) the glowing heart.

The Never-Failing God

By Oswald Chambers

      'For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'
      Hebrews 8:5

      What line does my thought take? Does it turn to what God says or to what I fear? Am I learning to say not what God says, but to say something after I have heard what He says? "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."

      "I will in no wise fail thee" - not for all my sin and selfishness and stubbornness and waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never fail me? If I have listened to this say-so of God's, then let me listen again.

      "Neither will I in any wise forsake thee." Sometimes it is not difficulty that makes me think God will forsake me, but drudgery. There is no Hill Difficulty to climb, no vision given, nothing wonderful or beautiful, just the commonplace day in and day out - can I hear God's say-so in these things?

      We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing, that He is preparing and fitting us for some extraordinary thing by and bye, but as we go on in grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, in the present minute. If we have God's say-so behind us, the most amazing strength comes, and we learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways.

Safest Protection in the World

By Warren Wiersbe

Read Psalm 9:7-12 

This passage teaches a great truth: The safest and strongest protection we have is the name of the Lord. "And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You" (v. 10). 

As I read those words, I'm reminded that God forsook His Son for us. Jesus said from the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). Has it ever occurred to you that the only person God ever really forsook was His own Son? "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). Because He did this, we can be sure He will never forsake us for the sake of His Son. The Father loves His Son and says to Him, "You have died for these people. I will never forsake them." God's promise to us is "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb. 13:5). "Lo, I am with you always" was our Lord's last statement in the Gospel of Matthew (28:20).

The safest place in all the world is in the will of God, and the safest protection in all the world is the name of God. When you know His name, you know His nature. His names and titles reveal His nature. They tell us who He is and what He can do. For example, He is Jehovah, the God who makes covenants. He is the Lord, the sovereign king. He is Jesus, the Savior. Each name He bears is a blessing He bestows on us.

Are you getting to know God? "And those who know Your name (who know God's nature) will put their trust in You" (v. 10). The better you know God, the more you will trust Him. The more you trust Him, the better you will get to know Him--an exciting and enriching experience.

One of the great experiences of the Christian life is the personal relationship we enjoy with our God. To trust God is to seek Him (Isa. 55:6). Today, seek Him with a desire to know Him better.

Desperate Situations

  
Streams in the Desert

      

Desperate Situations
     
      "The angel of the Lord came upon him (Peter) and a light shined in the prison; and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off" (Acts 12:7).
     
      "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. . . . And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one's bands were loosed" (Acts 16:25, 26).
     
      This is God's way. In the darkest hours of the night, His tread draws near across the billows. As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter's cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the favored race.
     
      Ah, soul, it may have to come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou wilt be delivered! God may keep thee waiting, but he will ever be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfill His inviolable Word. --F. B. Meyer
     
      There's a simplicity about God in working out His plans, yet a resourcefulness equal to any difficulty, and an unswerving faithfulness to His trusting child, and an unforgetting steadiness in holding to His purpose. Through a fellow-prisoner, then a dream, He lifts Joseph from a prison to a premiership. And the length of stay in the prison prevents dizziness in the premier. It's safe to trust God's methods and to go by His clock. --S. D. Gordon
     
      Providence hath a thousand keys to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a desperate case. Let us be faithful; and care for our own part which is to suffer for Him, and lay Christ's part on Himself, and leave it there.--George MacDonald
     
      Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle--it is miracle in its first stage. If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty but impossibility.
     
      The clinging hand of His child makes a desperate situation a delight to Him.