THE RED SKY WARNING

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

"(all which things are to perish with the using)" Colossians 2:22

INSPIRED PARENTHESES (26)
"(all which things are to perish with the using)"
Colossians 2:22

THIS is a contemptuous parenthesis. In a few words, the apostle sweeps away as temporary and virtually irrelevant a whole system of pious observances so precious to those who lack a vital enjoyment of close communion with Him whom Paul calls "The Head" (v.19).

IT is a notable fact that as soon as Christ ceases to be central and supreme to Christians, they begin to give exaggerated importance to outward observances. At times these are connected with special days -- mere shadows, Paul calls them (v.16-17). Not seldom they relate to food and drink, and sometimes they even focus down to the emblems used at the Lord's Table. One might think it unlikely or even impossible that Christians should quarrel about the two simple elements, bread and wine, but often they have done so, and sometimes they still do.

PAUL'S parenthetic reference to what happens to food and drink after they have been assimilated might seem coarse to us if it had not first been spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself. "Such things", He said, "after they have been eaten or drunken are expelled from the body as waste products" (Mark 7:19). This is what Paul meant by his parenthesis concerning things 'perishing with the using'. What folly to allow such 'rudiments of the world' to affect our spiritual life!

THIS does not mean that we can be careless about such matters when they cause others to stumble -- far from it. Paul himself wrote that he would gladly forego legitimate food if there were any danger of being a menace to another's faith. For my part, I feel certain that in a society like ours, where alcoholism is a major evil, the apostle would have been a total abstainer, as many of us are.

THE danger associated with such abstinences or observances is that some spiritual values should be attributed to them, as though something in addition to simple faith was needed to enjoy acceptance with God. This makes the Christian life consist of 'Jesus plus ...'. It does not! Christ, and Christ alone is the sole and sufficient basis of our acceptance with God. It is a common human failing to grasp at some rudiment or element, as the Colossians were inclined to do. We like to see and touch things, instead of having them solely by faith. The trouble about such actions is that they not only hinder the purity of personal faith, they also have a divisive effect on Christian fellowship.

PAUL closes this chapter with the positive affirmation that all such prohibitions or observances are, in themselves, quite powerless to deliver us from carnality. Only the cross of Christ can do that.

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Monday, May 18, 2015

God's Guidance and How to Get It

By Reuben Archer Torrey

"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye." Ps. 32:8.

"But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting; for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." Jas 1:5-8.

I. THE POSSIBILITY AND BLESSEDNESS OF BEING GUIDED BY GOD.

ONE of the greatest and most precious privileges of the believer is to have the guidance of God at every turn of life. One of the most important of all practical questions is how to get this guidance. There are many who say very positively that they are guided of God who are not so guided. The event proves that they are not so guided. Some months ago a young woman informed me that she was guided of God to leave for Africa at a certain date and that God had given her positive assurance that the money would be provided for her to leave at that date. I was not at all sure that she was guided as she said that she was, and the event proved she was not; for the money was not furnished for her to leave at that date. As we see so many people apparently absolutely sure that God is guiding them when in the event it becomes clear that He is not, does it not prove that the supposed guidance of God is a fancy and not a fact? It does not. The fact that some people are confident that they are guided when they are not is no more evidence that there is no such thing as guidance than the fact that some people are sure they are saved when they are not is an evidence that there is no such thing as salvation, or assurance of salvation. The fact that some people are misled in no way proves that all people are misled. There is such a thing as guidance, and there is a way to get guidance. There is a way to avoid the illusions regarding guidance into which many fall through ignorance of the Word of God.

II. HOW TO GET GUIDANCE.

We come now face to face with the question of how to get God's guidance. There are seven steps, clearly set forth in the Word of God, in the path that leads to God's guidance.

1. The first step toward obtaining God's guidance is that we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our own personal Saviour, and surrender to Him as our Lord and Master. This comes out very plainly in Jas. 1 : 5, If any of you lacketh wisdom, let Mm ask of God." It is clear that the promise is only made to believers. James does not say, "If any man lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, but, If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God. There is no promise in the Word of God that God will guide anyone but the believer in Jesus Christ. Indeed there is no promise in the Word of God that He will answer the prayers of unbelievers about anything. God's guidance is the privilege of the believer in Jesus Christ and of him alone. By believer I do not mean the one who merely has an orthodox faith about Jesus Christ, but the one who is a believer in the Bible sense, that is, the one who has that living faith in Jesus Christ that leads him to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour, and to surrender his life to His service and control. If then, we would have God's sure guidance, the first thing to make sure of is that we really are believers, that we really are children of God, that we really have accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and really have surrendered our lives to His Lordship.

2. The second step toward obtaining God's guidance is that we clearly realize our own utter inability to decide for ourselves the way in which we should go. The promise, as we find it in the Word of God, makes this very plain. James says, "If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, etc." The promise is made to the one who lacks wisdom, not the one who has it. It is made to the one who realizes the limitations of his own wisdom and realizes his dependence upon God for His wisdom. It is at this point that many, very many, fail of guidance. They have such confidence in their own opinions, in their own judgment, in their own ability to decide the course that they should pursue, that though they may as a formality ask God for His guidance, they do not really have any deep sense of their need of His guidance, and they have such confidence in their own wisdom that they mistake their own judgment for the guidance of God. Having prayed for Wisdom, but still being confident in their own judgment, they become all the more sure that their opinion is right and they attribute their own opinion to God. If we are to have God's guidance we must be utterly emptied of all confidence in our own judgment; and, in a sense of our own inability to decide for ourselves, we should come to God, putting our own notions utterly aside, for Him to tell us what He would have us to do, and we should wait silently before Him to make known His will.

3. The third step toward obtaining Divine guidance is that we really desire to know God's will, and are thoroughly willing to do it whatever it may be. This also comes out in the promise. It reads, "If any of you lacketh wisdom let him ask of God." Of course, the asking must be genuine, and there is no genuine asking wisdom of God unless we are eagerly desirous of knowing God's will and heartily willing to do it when that will is made known. The genuine and absolute surrender of the will to God is the great secret of guidance. The promise, "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee, " as is evident from the context, is made to the one whose will is surrendered to God, for the next verse reads, "Be ye not as the horse, or as a mule, which have no understanding: whose trappings must be bit and bridle to hold them in, else they will not come unto thee." If we are mulish, that is if we are bent on doing our own will, then God must guide us with "bit and bridle," and oftentimes must break our jaw before we submit to Him. His instruction, teaching and guidance, His gentle guidance "with His eye upon us," is for the one whose will is entirely surrendered to Him. The surrender must be real surrender. There are many who think they wish to know and are willing to do God's will, and that it is God's will that they are waiting to know, but, what they are really seeking, is to get God to say yes to their own plans, and get God to endorse the plan they themselves have already subconsciously formed, and they are not waiting, as they suppose they are, until God tells them what His will really is, they are waiting until God tells them to do the thing that they want to do and, in their subconscious self, have made up their mind to do, so they think and think and think, and pray and pray and pray, until they think themselves into thinking that God tells them to do the thing that they themselves wished to do from the outset, and this thing that they wanted to do from the outset may not be God's plan at all. This is one of the most frequent causes of thinking we have the mind of God when we are only doing the thing that we want to do. Men and women who go to God for guidance in this way, i. e., without having absolutely put aside their own will and their own opinion, when they do think themselves into the place where they fancy that God has endorsed their plan, are the most positive in saying that "God tells me to do thus and so." So then, we must, if we would be guided of God, make absolutely sure that we have put away our own will entirely and are utterly willing to and desirous of doing God's will, whatever it may be.

We must be sure that we are silent before God and truly listening to His voice, and not still listening to this desire that we have in the depths of our heart that God shall tell us to do the thing that we want to do. When Mr. Moody invited me to take up the work in Chicago in 1889, I went to God to show me what might be His will. There was a great conflict in my heart. There were reasons why I wished to go to Chicago; there are reasons why I wished to stay in Minneapolis, or why I thought I must stay in Minneapolis. It took me three days to get absolutely silent before God, and to put away my own conflicting ideas on both sides. When I did come to the place where I had no will whatever in the matter, but simply wished to know what God's will was, whichever way it might be, when I became absolutely silent before God, God soon made the path in which He would have me go as plain as day.

The fact that the thing that we are contemplating doing is a hard thing, that it requires great sacrifice, does not by any means make it sure that it is God's will and not ours. Our hearts naturally are deceitful above all things, and oftentimes wilful persons will set their heart on doing a very hard thing. They may set their heart upon doing it out of spiritual pride, or for many other reasons than because of surrender to the will of God. They want to do this hard thing, and they pray and pray and pray, and brood and brood and brood until they make themselves think that this hard thing is the will of God, when very likely the thing that God would have them do is some very humdrum, everyday sort of a thing. There is many a man and many a woman determined to be a foreign missionary, and a foreign missionary under the most difficult circumstances, whom God has called to a very quiet life at home, and while they are willing to endure the severest hardships in the foreign field, they are not willing to plod on quietly and unseen and unnoticed at home. But the best thing is God's will, whether that will be in a quiet humdrum life at home, or whether it be a notable life of courage and self-sacrifice in the foreign field; and, if we are to have God's guidance we must, as already said, become absolutely silent before God, and be willing and glad to serve Him in the most ordinary sort of life, a life that seems far beneath our talents and our training, if that be His will, just as ready to do that as to serve Him in a field that demands large abilities and great sacrifice. Satan cheats many of God's children out of accomplishing the things that God would have them do by making them restless in the homely paths that God opens up to them of doing things that they can do, and sets their heart upon doing things that they cannot do; and thus they leave the path of actual achievement to brood over things they would like to do, but which it is not God's will for them to do, and which they never will do. Oftentimes a whole life is spoiled in this way.

The Power of the Blood of Jesus

By Andrew Murray

› 1: What the Scriptures Teach About the Blood - "Not Without Blood"-Heb. ix. 7 and 18. GOD has spoken to us in the Scriptures in divers portions and in divers manners; but the VOICE is ever the s ...read

› 2: Redemption by Blood - "Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot"- ...read

› 3: Reconciliation Through the Blood - " Being justified freely by his grace through the REDEMPTION that is in Christ Jesus, whom God bath set forth as a PROPITIATION through faith in his b ...read

› 4: Cleansing Through the Blood - "If ye walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" ...read

› 5: Sanctification Through the Blood - "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with bis own blood, suffered without the gate"-Heb. xiii. 12. "Cleansing through the blood ...read

› 6: Cleansed by the Blood to Serve the Living God - " Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by THE BLOOD OF CHRIST "-Eph.ii. 13. "How much more shall THE BLOOD OF CHRIST . . ...read

› 7: Dwelling in "The Holiest" Through the Blood - "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which be bath consecrated for us throug ...read

› 8: Life in the Blood - "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, 1 say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink bis blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso e ...read

› 9: Victory Through the Blood - "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony ; and they loved not their Uves unto death "-Rev. xii. i i . FOR th ...read

› 10: Heavenly Joy Through the Blood - "After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number . . . which stood before the throne, and before the Lamb. . . and they crie ...read

"CALLED AND CHOSEN AND FAITHFUL"

"CALLED AND CHOSEN AND FAITHFUL"
Poul Madsen

WITH the years we advance in age, but the passage of time gives no automatic growth in the kingdom of God for with Him faithfulness is more important than age. Whether we can have more committed to us is dependent upon whether we have been faithful stewards with what we already have from God. Faithfulness is a rare quality. There are many well-meaning and enthusiastic Christians but there sometimes appears to be rather a scarcity of truly faithful men and women. It is worthwhile to consider some features of faithfulness.

1. Endurance of Love

Faithfulness has to do with endurance, and both spring from love, for it is love that never fails. If we are unfaithful it is because we do not really love the one concerned, for how can we give up when it is stated that love never does so.

Love which gives up exposes itself as being false. It has never been love for had it been it would never have failed. It must have been self-love in disguise, using the beautiful language but lacking the reality. Similarly, if faithfulness fails, it exposes itself; it has never been the real thing, for faithfulness which only lasts for a time, never was even faithfulness while it lasted, but disguised self-interest. You cannot love up to 90% and you cannot be 90% faithful. Enduring love and faithfulness are absolutes and know no limits. A man who leaves his wife after twenty years of marriage has not loved that wife for twenty years and then stopped loving her; he has never really loved her.

We know that in the case of the Lord we are told that this is His very nature: "He remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). The reason why He is faithful to us and never gives us up is not found in us, but exclusively in Him -- that is what He is like. We ought not to demand faithfulness in others as a condition for showing it ourselves, nor excuse ourselves if we find it lacking in others. It is easy to think, 'Well, if he is unfaithful to me, why should I be faithful to him?' but this is not a Christian attitude, since he may find the fount of faithfulness in our Lord Jesus Christ. When we look at Him, the inclination to give up disappears, and we are freshly inspired to endure.

2. Unsensational

But what does a Christian accomplish by his faithfulness? This is really beside the point, for the most important thing is not what we accomplish, but what we are. Many of the most faithful people do not seem to have much success to boast about. Those who aspire to be faithful must be prepared for a life hidden with Christ. For example, the faithful intercessors may find their work hidden from the public eye. But just wait until the Day of the Lord comes! It will be then, and perhaps not until then, that the Lord can give His verdict: "Well done, good and faithful servant". It could be that some who seemed most successful and received great publicity will hardly be noticed then.

It is especially important that we should be faithful in small things -- 'faithful in that which is least'. It is a joy to think of the modest Christians who do not advertise themselves or their works -- do not even publish a magazine, as I do -- but who are simply faithful, enduring, loving and self-forgetful, who can always be counted on. These are the pillars of the Church; the vessels unto honour in God's House.

There is something unsensational in faithfulness: it does not arrest attention. But God notices it. We have no means of knowing whether He takes much notice of sensational events. Faithfulness continues to burn steadily rather than flaring up at intervals and then dying down. There can be a lot of difference between just beginning something and then turning to something else, and carrying a matter right on to its completion. Of Moses it is said that he was faithful in all God's house as a servant and of Christ that He was faithful as a Son over His house. It appears that nothing greater can be said of any person than that he or she was faithful to the end.

3. Personal

Faithfulness is a personal quality; we cannot give it to others or receive it from them. It does not attach much value to crowds but focuses on the individual. So does God. In the crowd, personal values can easily disappear, as in mass Christianity or mass movements, but on the great Day, when we will appear before the [61/62]judgment seat of Christ, we will do so one by one, with each giving an account of himself.

The Two Natures: 1: The Names and Characteristics of the Old Nature

By E.W. Bullinger

1.) The Flesh; as we have it in John 3:6. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." It comes by birth as generated by a fallen begetter. Concerning this Flesh, we are told: it "cannot please God." (Rom. 8:8); it "profiteth nothing :" (John 6:63); there is in it "no good thing:" (Rom. 7:18).

Now this is vital and fundamental truth. The question is: Do we believe it? Do we believe God or Man? If we believe God, we shall see that the great bulk of what goes by the name of "public worship" is vanity. True worship must be wholly that of the spirit, or the new nature. We must be able to say with Mary: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."

It is only as saved ones that we can truly worship. If the flesh of itself "profiteth nothing", then it is clear that we cannot worship God with any of the senses (which all pertain to the flesh). We cannot worship with our eyes by gazing at a sacrament. We cannot worship with our noses by the smelling of incense. We cannot worship with our ears by listening to music; no, nor can we worship with our throats by singing. All that comes from the flesh "profiteth nothing". God has "no respect to it", and it is labour in vain. Protestant Christians will agree with us in what we say about gazing on sacraments, or the smelling of incense; but what about the other senses of the flesh? What about the ears and the throats? The churches all seem to be "music mad"; and, what with choirs "1,000 strong", and "string bands", "solos", and "choruses", and "anthems", and the new "Gospel of Song", we have come upon a time when the "flesh" seems to hold universal sway in what still retains the name of worship.

But alas for it all! it "profiteth nothing". This flood is advancing side by side with another, of which the cry is "Be filled with the Spirit." But the "Word of truth" is wrongly divided. For a full stop is put after the word Spirit: and thus it is not noticed that, if we are filled by the Spirit, it will be seen in the effect: viz., "Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts (not in your throats merely: and this, not to any audience or congregation, but) to the Lord." It is not an "ear for music" that is wanted, but a heart for music. From this title of the old nature we learn that "the flesh profiteth nothing". This solemn truth is fundamental to Christianity': while the opposite is fundamental to religion. Religion has to do with the flesh: Christianity has to do with Christ and the new nature (which is pneuma-Christou or Christ-spirit). But we shall have more to say on this later. This old nature is further called

2.) "The Natural Man." And we are told that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he get to know them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor.2:14).

In the structure of this portion of 1 Corinthians, verse 14 stands in correspondence with verse 8; which tells us that "none of the princes of this world knew the wisdom of God", i.e., the great Secret--the Mystery--for it was "hidden" in God (Eph. 3:9), and no eye had ever seen it, or ear heard it. And even when now it is "revealed" (1 Cor. 2:10), the natural man cannot get to know it, because it is only discerned by the spirit, or the new nature within us, created and enlightened by the Holy Ghost. This is conclusive as to the character, power, inclination and condition of "the natural man"; which means man by nature, as he is born into the world. Then further, he is called

3.) "The Old Man." And what about him? He, we are told "is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" (Eph. 4:22). The old man is full of desires or lusts. These lusts are deceitful and deceiving. They are in all things contrary to God, contrary to His Spirit, and His Word; and to the new nature, the spirit, when it is once implanted within us. In this connection, it is called