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Friday 28 September 2012

I shall soon have the candles of the Lord shining about me


For thou wilt light my candle. (Psalm 18:28)

It may be that my soul sits in darkness; and if this be of a spiritual kind, no human power can bring me light. Blessed be God! He can enlighten my darkness and at once light my candle. Even though I may be surrounded by a "darkness which might be felt," yet He can break the gloom and immediately make it bright around me.

The mercy is that if He lights the candle none can blow it out, neither will it go out for lack of substance, nor burn out of itself through the lapse of hours. The lights which the Lord kindled in the beginning are shining still. The Lord's lamps may need trimming, but He does not put them out.

Let me, then, like the nightingale sing in the dark. Expectation shall furnish me with music, and hope shall pitch the tune. Soon I shall rejoice in a candle of God's lighting. I am dull and dreary just now. Perhaps it is the weather, or bodily weakness, or the surprise of a sudden trouble; but whatever has made the darkness, it is God alone who will bring the light. My eyes are unto Him alone. I shall soon have the candles of the Lord shining about me; and, further on in His own good time, I shall be where they need no candle, neither light of the sun. Hallelujah!

Thursday 27 September 2012

"OUR FATHER WHCH ART IN HEAVEN,"


Are we stretching the truth too far to say that God personally loves each of us individually even more than our earthly father has loved us when we were little? Your heart-answer "yes" or "no" will determine your happiness here and hereafter.
When we read the four Gospels we see that the great burden on Jesus' heart was to teach us that His Father in heaven is our Father, too. It's in Matthew alone no less than 41 times! And His interest in us is so complete that when He cares when even a little bird falls to the ground, Jesus adds, "You are worth much more than many sparrows!" (10:31, GNB).
In other words, your heavenly Father is intensely interested in your personal happiness, and His personal attention is as focused as if you were the only human walking the earth!
Satan tells you, "No, you're not even a digit in His computer! One dot in seven billion?" And right here rages a "great controversy" within your own heart: will you believe what Jesus says, or what the devil wants you to believe?
"But I'm not that important," you object. Now you can realize what Paul means when he says, "Fight the good fight of faith!" (1 Tim. 6:12). You don't really believe John 3:16 unless you believe the Father loves you personally so much that He gave His only Son for YOU as if there were not another lost soul. (He is different than we are--He is infinite.)
One of our problems is the emotional block that we have from our infancy; seldom (if ever!) is there a father who adequately interprets to his little child what that love of the heavenly Father is like.
Now it's our job to learn how to "believe" John 3:16: to bridge this gap through space by choosing to believe that the Father of our Lord Jesus is "OUR FATHER WHCH ART IN HEAVEN," intimately close and caring. Welcome to happiness eternal--a gift given by grace received through faith (Eph. 2:8, 9)!

Wednesday 26 September 2012

If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands


If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these thing. (Judges 13:23)

This is a sort of promise deduced by logic. It is an inference fairly drawn from ascertained facts. It was not likely that the Lord had revealed to Manoah and his wife that a son would be born to them and yet had it in His heart to destroy them. The wife reasoned well, and we shall do well if we follow her line of argument.

The Father has accepted the great sacrifice of Calvary and has declared Himself well pleased therewith; how can He now be pleased to kill us! Why a substitute if the sinner must still perish? The accepted sacrifice of Jesus puts an end to fear.

The Lord has shown us our election, our adoption, our union to Christ, our marriage to the Well-beloved: how can He now destroy us? The promises are loaded with blessings, which necessitate our being preserved unto eternal life. It is not possible for the Lord to cast us away and yet fulfill His covenant. The past assures us, and the future reassures us. We shall not die but live, for we have seen Jesus, and in Him we have seen the Father by the illumination of the Holy Ghost. Because of this life-giving sight we must live forever.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Young people can hardly imagine that they will ever get old, or that they will die


Young people can hardly imagine that they will ever get old, or that they will die. They feel immortal. And they are by nature sinners like everybody else, and feel like their life belongs to them. So they are naturally selfish, like all of us are. But they may be deliriously happy in their selfishness as long as things go their way. Thoughts of self-sacrifice, of giving their lives in God's service, are unwelcome.
But there must come a time when that delirious exuberance is spent, and then the misery of feeble old age takes over. And if you haven't learned in your youth how to surrender your own will to God in the same way that Jesus surrendered His own will to His Father, then you find it a very difficult lesson to learn, and you are bitterly unhappy. Solomon says quite wisely, "Remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, 'I don't enjoy life.' That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you. ... Then your arms ... will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. ... Your eyes too dim to see clearly. ... You will barely be able to hear ... music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep. ... You will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone" (Eccl. 12:1-4, GNB).
If you are young, "rejoice ... in thy youth, ... but know that ... God will bring thee into judgment" (Eccl. 11:9, KJV). Be sober; learn the lesson of the cross; make a conscious choice to let self be crucified with Jesus and pray His prayer, "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39).
And if you are old and you realize you have never truly prayed that prayer, thank God for every moment of consciousness yet granted to you and plead with Him earnestly to teach you that lesson of the cross.

Young people can hardly imagine that they will ever get old, or that they will die


Young people can hardly imagine that they will ever get old, or that they will die. They feel immortal. And they are by nature sinners like everybody else, and feel like their life belongs to them. So they are naturally selfish, like all of us are. But they may be deliriously happy in their selfishness as long as things go their way. Thoughts of self-sacrifice, of giving their lives in God's service, are unwelcome.
But there must come a time when that delirious exuberance is spent, and then the misery of feeble old age takes over. And if you haven't learned in your youth how to surrender your own will to God in the same way that Jesus surrendered His own will to His Father, then you find it a very difficult lesson to learn, and you are bitterly unhappy. Solomon says quite wisely, "Remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, 'I don't enjoy life.' That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you. ... Then your arms ... will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. ... Your eyes too dim to see clearly. ... You will barely be able to hear ... music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep. ... You will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone" (Eccl. 12:1-4, GNB).
If you are young, "rejoice ... in thy youth, ... but know that ... God will bring thee into judgment" (Eccl. 11:9, KJV). Be sober; learn the lesson of the cross; make a conscious choice to let self be crucified with Jesus and pray His prayer, "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39).
And if you are old and you realize you have never truly prayed that prayer, thank God for every moment of consciousness yet granted to you and plead with Him earnestly to teach you that lesson of the cross.

Young people can hardly imagine that they will ever get old, or that they will die


Young people can hardly imagine that they will ever get old, or that they will die. They feel immortal. And they are by nature sinners like everybody else, and feel like their life belongs to them. So they are naturally selfish, like all of us are. But they may be deliriously happy in their selfishness as long as things go their way. Thoughts of self-sacrifice, of giving their lives in God's service, are unwelcome.
But there must come a time when that delirious exuberance is spent, and then the misery of feeble old age takes over. And if you haven't learned in your youth how to surrender your own will to God in the same way that Jesus surrendered His own will to His Father, then you find it a very difficult lesson to learn, and you are bitterly unhappy. Solomon says quite wisely, "Remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, 'I don't enjoy life.' That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you. ... Then your arms ... will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. ... Your eyes too dim to see clearly. ... You will barely be able to hear ... music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep. ... You will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone" (Eccl. 12:1-4, GNB).
If you are young, "rejoice ... in thy youth, ... but know that ... God will bring thee into judgment" (Eccl. 11:9, KJV). Be sober; learn the lesson of the cross; make a conscious choice to let self be crucified with Jesus and pray His prayer, "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39).
And if you are old and you realize you have never truly prayed that prayer, thank God for every moment of consciousness yet granted to you and plead with Him earnestly to teach you that lesson of the cross.

Monday 24 September 2012

Lord, give me that blessing which maketh rich and neither addeth sorrow nor aideth si


But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. (Isaiah 33:21)

The Lord will be to us the greatest good without any of the drawbacks which seem necessarily to attend the best earthly things. If a city is favored with broad rivers, it is liable to be attacked by galleys with oars and other ships of war. But when the Lord represents the abundance of His bounty under this figure, He takes care expressly to shut out the fear which the metaphor might suggest. Blessed be His perfect love!

Lord, if Thou send me wealth like broad rivers, do not let the galley with oars come up in the shape of worldliness or pride. If Thou grant me abundant health and happy spirits, do not let "the gallant ship" of carnal ease come sailing up the flowing flood. If I have success in holy service, broad as the German Rhine, yet let me never find the galley of self-conceit and self-confidence floating on the waves of my usefulness. Should I be so supremely happy as to enjoy the light of Thy countenance year after year, yet let me never despise Thy feeble saints, nor allow the vain notion of my own perfection to sail up the broad rivers of my full assurance. Lord, give me that blessing which maketh rich and neither addeth sorrow nor aideth sin.

Friday 21 September 2012

A "sickle" is used in both harvests, one by Jesus coming in glory, the other by some other "angel"


In Bible imagery, rain is usually a blessing. There is "the latter rain" which comes at just the right time to ripen a thirsty crop for harvest. But think of a farmer worried about his crop in Israel long ago. Early rain was a blessing that made the seed sprout. The barley matured to a certain place in plant growth that seemed to promise a rich harvest this year; but now the growth is stunted. Drought came at just the wrong time. An enormous crop that never matures for harvest is an agricultural disaster. The farmer doesn't have modern irrigation; he is dependent on rain from heaven.
You can imagine the distress in the family, the earnest prayers going up day by day for the Lord to send the long-awaited "latter rain." It must come from Him!
In the Bible, this describes the condition of the Lord's church in the last days. The enormity in the size of acreage that the farmer has planted in barley is not good news unless the crop gets that most precious latter rain at the right time. Diligent labor is effort wasted if it doesn't result in a harvest of mature grain ripe for the sickle.
Jesus teaches that "the harvest is the end of the world" (Matt. 13:39). But there are two harvests--character develops in two kinds of people: those ready to meet the Lord at His return; and those whose rebellion against Him has also matured (Rev. 14:16-20). A "sickle" is used in both harvests, one by Jesus coming in glory, the other by some other "angel" whose "sharp sickle" reaps a harvest cast into the "great winepress of the wrath of God." There must be two kinds of "latter rain." Time to be alert! No time to sleep!

Thursday 20 September 2012

It matters not how much we may have sinned, we may ask and expect pardon.


The liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free."-Galatians 5:1
 
This "liberty" makes us free to heaven's charter-the Bible. Here is a choice passage, believer, "When thou passest through the rivers, I will be with thee." You are free to that. Here is another: "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee"; you are free to that. You are a welcome guest at the table of the promises. Scripture is a never-failing treasury filled with boundless stores of grace. It is the bank of heaven; you may draw from it as much as you please, without let or hindrance. Come in faith and you are welcome to all covenant blessings. There is not a promise in the Word which shall be withheld. In the depths of tribulations let this freedom comfort you; amidst waves of distress let it cheer you; when sorrows surround thee let it be thy solace. This is thy Father's love-token; thou art free to it at all times. Thou art also free to the throne of grace. It is the believer's privilege to have access at all times to  His heavenly Father. Whatever our desires, our difficulties, our wants, we are at liberty to spread all before Him. It matters not how much we may have sinned, we may ask and expect pardon. It signifies nothing how poor we are, we may plead His promise that He will provide all things needful. We have permission to approach His throne at all times-in midnight's darkest hour, or in noontide's most burning heat. Exercise thy right, O believer, and live up to thy privilege. Thou art free to all that is treasured up in Christ-wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It matters not what thy need is, for there is fulness of supply in Christ, and it is there for thee. O what a "freedom" is thine! freedom from condemnation, freedom to the promises, freedom to the throne of grace, and at last freedom to enter heaven!

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Does God have problems He has to solve? Are any of them difficult for Him, as problems are for us?


Does God have problems He has to solve? Are any of them difficult for Him, as problems are for us? He has one huge one--the rebellion of sin in His universe. You may say, "He is infinite, omnipotent; He can just zap His enemies and His problems are solved!"
But wait a moment: He can't do that unless He rules as a divine Autocrat, and in the process becomes "Satan" redivivus. For example, His people Israel were being cruelly enslaved in Egypt. How can He deliver them? Zap the Egyptians? No; He must go through a long, wearying process of sending ten plagues on Pharaoh; He must carry world opinion with Him. Most of all, God must make it clear to His own people Israel that He alone is their Savior, their Deliverer, or their hearts can never be truly reconciled to Him.
If they retain any sense of self-salvation, sin will still rule in their hearts. Even 1 percent of salvation by their own works will nullify the power of His Gospel as surely as 1 percent of arsenic mixed into a good dinner will spoil it.
But that lethal "1 percent" (or more!) got mixed in at Mount Sinai when the people themselves wanted to invent the Old Covenant: "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Ex. 19:8). We helped You deliver us from Egyptian slavery! Even if we didn't, we WILL do our part in this "bargain," this "deal," this transaction of Your Covenant. We'll sign on the dotted line! You can count on us, Lord!
All through Israel's long history this Old Covenant mentality predominated. After each revival and reformation it finally drove them to reject and crucify their Savior.
Now, does God have a problem with His church? The prophecies of Daniel, of Revelation, of Jesus in Matthew 24, of Paul in Acts 20 and 2 Thessalonians 2, all tell us "Yes!" The great Enemy who misled ancient Israel is still active. "Take heed that no man deceive you," says Jesus (Matt. 24:4). "After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock"; "There [shall] come a falling away, ... and that man of sin be revealed, ... who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God," says Paul (Acts 20:29; 2 Thess. 2:3, 4).
And again, the issue is self-righteousness. Theologians feel they must worm in that principle of salvation by works, in some way. They just can't have a Savior doing ALL the saving! Can you?

Tuesday 18 September 2012

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree


The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. (Psalm 92:12)

These trees are not trained and pruned by man: palms and cedars are "trees of the Lord," and it is by His care that they flourish. Even so it is with the saints of the Lord: they are His own care. These trees are evergreen and are beautiful objects at all seasons of the year. Believers are not sometimes holy and sometimes ungodly: they stand in the beauty of the Lord under all weathers. Everywhere these trees are noteworthy: no one can gaze upon a landscape in which there are either palms or cedars without his attention being fixed upon these royal growths. The followers of Jesus are the observed of all observers: like a city set on a hill, they cannot be hid.

The child of God flourishes like a palm tree, which pushes all its strength upward in one erect column without a single branch. It is a pillar with a glorious capital. It has no growth to the right or to the left but sends all its force heavenward and bears its fruit as near the sky as possible. Lord, fulfill this type in me.

The cedar braves all storms and grows near the eternal snows, the Lord Himself filling it with a sap which keeps its heart warm and its bough strong. Lord, so let it be with me, I pray Thee. Amen.

Monday 17 September 2012

Often the common wind of trouble rises in its force and becomes a tempest, sweeping everything before it.


And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest. (Isaiah 32:2)

Who this Man is we all know. Who could He be but the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, the man of sorrows, the Son of Man? What a hiding place He has been to His people! He bears the full force of the wind Himself, and so He shelters those who hide themselves in Him. We have thus escaped the wrath of God, and we shall thus escape the anger of men, the cares of this life, and the dread of death. Why do we stand in the wind when we may so readily and so surely get out of it by hiding behind our Lord? Let us this day run to Him and be at peace.

Often the common wind of trouble rises in its force and becomes a tempest, sweeping everything before it. Things which looked firm and stable rock in the blast, and many and great are the falls among our carnal confidences. Our Lord Jesus, the glorious man, is a covert which is never blown down. In Him we mark the tempest sweeping by, but we ourselves rest in delightful serenity.

This day let us just stow ourselves away in our hiding place and sit and sing under the protection of our Covert. Blessed Jesus! Blessed Jesus! How we love Thee! Well we may, for Thou art to us a shelter in the time of storm.

Friday 14 September 2012

Without the Spirit of God I am a dry and withered thing.


What the dew in the East is to the world of nature, that is the influence of the Spirit in the realm of grace. How greatly do I need it! Without the Spirit of God I am a dry and withered thing. I droop, I fade, I die. How sweetly does this dew refresh me! When once favored with it I feel happy, lively, vigorous, elevated. I want nothing more. The Holy Spirit brings me life and all that life requires. All else without the dew of the Spirit is less than nothing to me: I hear, I read, I pray, I sing, I go to the table of Communion, and I find no blessing there until the Holy Ghost visits me. But when He bedews me, every means of grace is sweet and profitable.
 
What a promise is this for me! "His heavens shall drop down dew." I shall be visited with grace. I shall not be left to my natural drought, or to the world's burning heat, or to the sirocco of satanic temptation. Oh, that l may at this very hour feel the gentle, silent, saturating dew of the Lord! Why should I not! He who has made me to live as the grass lives in the meadow will treat me as He treats the grass; He will refresh me from above. Grass cannot call for dew as I do. Surely, the Lord who visits the unpraying plant will answer to His pleading child.
 

Thursday 13 September 2012

Is it possible that a healthy proclamation of "Christian faith" that is thoroughly Bible-based can be labeled as "hate literature"?


Since the terrible 9/11 when terrorists destroyed the Trade Towers, it is generally understood that long-held Constitutional liberties are steadily being curtailed. Thoughtful people who reverence the truths of Revelation 13 increasingly warn us that the time of trouble looms just before us. In the war on terrorism can be heard the roar of a lamb-like, peace-loving "beast" that has been cruelly attacked and is finally aroused to roar "as a dragon."
Is it possible that due to all-too-common human error some of this rage against terrorists can be directed against peaceful people whose religious beliefs are popularly judged as "extremist"?
Is it possible that a healthy proclamation of "Christian faith" that is thoroughly Bible-based can be labeled as "hate literature"?
Is it possible that religious prejudices that ran riot in the 1260 years of the Dark Ages can be revived?
Yes, what Jesus said in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 is clear: loyalty to Him will be termed disloyalty to earthly governments. There is a cosmic Enemy at work in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan" who wants to bring about the silencing of God's last Good News message to the world.
Yes, the ominous prophecies of Revelation 13 will be fulfilled.
But wait a moment: something else will be fulfilled. Don't let yourself forget that Revelation 14 follows Revelation 13. A message is to sound clearly and powerfully all over the world, a message of "everlasting Good News" such as the world has never heard proclaimed in clarity and power. The earth is to be "lightened" with the glory of the message in its end-time realities. The powerful truths of justification by faith will come to the fore and take center stage in contrast to the helpless vanities proclaimed by "Babylon."
Revelation 14 is now in process of fulfillment, but Revelation 18 is still "in a great degree" future, rendered so by the unbelief of God's people in the past. Jesus says emphatically, "Let not your heart be troubled" (John 14:1-3).
Welcome every opportunity to spread abroad a most precious message that must yet lighten the earth with glory. Don't let fear engulf your thinking. Let Jesus draw you closer to Himself. He is not afraid!

Wednesday 12 September 2012

The Christian, while in the world, is not to be of the world. He should be distinguished from it


The Christian, while in the world, is not to be of the world. He should be distinguished from it in the great object of his life. To him, "to live," should be "Christ." Whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, he should do all to God's glory. You may lay up treasure; but lay it up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves break not through nor steal. You may strive to be rich; but be it your ambition to be "rich in faith," and good works. You may have pleasure; but when you are merry, sing psalms and make melody in your hearts to the Lord. In your spirit, as well as in your aim, you should differ from the world. Waiting humbly before God, always conscious of His presence, delighting in communion with Him, and seeking to know His will, you will prove that you are of heavenly race. And you should be separate from the world in your actions. If a thing be right, though you lose by it, it must be done; if it be wrong, though you would gain by it, !
you must scorn the sin for your Master's sake. You must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Walk worthy of your high calling and dignity. Remember, O Christian, that thou art a son of the King of kings. Therefore, keep thyself unspotted from the world. Soil not the fingers which are soon to sweep celestial strings; let not these eyes become the windows of lust which are soon to see the King in His beauty-let not those feet be defiled in miry places, which are soon to walk the golden streets-let not those hearts be filled with pride and bitterness which are ere long to be filled with heaven, and to overflow with ecstatic joy.

Then rise my soul! and soar away,
Above the thoughtless crowd;
Above the pleasures of the gay,
And splendours of the proud;
Up where eternal beauties bloom,
And pleasures all divine;
Where wealth, that never can consume,
And endless glories shine.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Sinful human beings learn to believe, to "overcome … even as [He] also overcame"


Since that September 11 of 2001 there has been a search for relief from fear--the kind Jesus says will grip humanity when "men's hearts [are] failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth" (Luke 21:26). The bottom-line root of all fear, even beneath the conscious surface, is that of being "forsaken" of God, of being lost, of "hell" itself, what the Bible calls the ultimate "curse of the law" (Gal. 3:13).
It's our universal problem. But, as the Son of God, Christ has endured and conquered that same fear, delivering us from it, "being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." (There is a quote from Deuteronomy 21:23, where Moses said that anyone who ends up on a tree is "accursed of God.") Jesus was utterly sinless, but He "was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21).
His sufferings on the cross were not merely physical pain. In total reality (no mind-numbing anesthetic) the Son of God, divine yet human, felt the ultimate horror: "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" That's why Peter said He went to hell to save us (Acts 2:31). No greater pain of soul was possible. He suffered 100 percent "the wages of sin, [which] is death," the real kind (Rom. 6:23). Faith is a heart-identity with Him ("I am crucified with Christ," Gal. 2:20); we become corporately one with Him by faith. His concerns become ours; His experience becomes ours by oneness of heart with Him. Thus we "receive the reconciliation" (Rom. 5:11).
That strange "honeymoon" of Luke 12:36, 37 perplexes us, but we read further: "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7). Sinful human beings learn to believe, to "overcome … even as [He] also overcame" (Rev. 3:21). They identify with Him as a bride identifies with her bridegroom, become "one" with Him in heart. "Love [agape] casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18). So, in all the Bad News of September 11 we found an avenue to Good News.

Monday 10 September 2012

"Conventional wisdom" says that if you follow Christ, your path is difficult; and if you follow the world, your path is easy."


"Conventional wisdom" says that if you follow Christ, your path is difficult; and if you follow the world, your path is easy. But the Lord Jesus Himself says, "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Matt. 11:30). And for those who think they have a hard time in trying to follow Jesus or had to suffer opposition and persecution, He adds, "I will put upon you none other burden" (Rev. 2:24). He doesn't want us to suffer torture!
Granted, He doesn't force anyone to "take up [a] cross and follow [Him]" (cf. Luke 9:23), but He invites us to choose to follow Him into eternal life in the kingdom of God. He knows that we have inherited from Adam a sinful nature and how sin is contagious and habit forming; He knows that when His Father says that He "so loved the world that He gave" Him to be our Savior that we have an inward battle in learning to "believe in Him" (John 3:16). Unbelief (or dis-belief) is natural for us; we were born that way. We can learn to believe.
The distraught father of the possessed boy in Mark 9 gives us a lesson. When Jesus told him frankly, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes," he broke down in tears and said, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief" (vss. 23, 24). Steeped in your natural unbelief, you can choose to believe. Then you will learn.
A new birth is needed every step of our way, but the Good News is that He loves us so much that He actually makes the path to eternal ruin a "hard" one. This again is contrary to "conventional wisdom" that says it's easy to just slide down hill into hell. An example of truth is what the Lord Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus as he was indulging his natural hatred of righteousness in persecuting the church. In love for his soul, the Lord confronted him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads" (Acts 26:14). It was a miserable life Saul was leading!
The Old Testament also teaches that God loves us so much that He has put obstacles in the downward path to ruin: "Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns" (Hosea 2:6), "He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass" (Job 19:8), "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps" (Prov. 16:9), "He has blocked my way with hewn stone" (Lam. 3:9).
None of these Good News texts says that the Lord forces anyone to be saved against his will; but taken together they assure us that He continually tries His best to direct us into the path of life. Let's believe Him!

Friday 7 September 2012

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)


Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)

Wait! Wait! Let your waiting be on the Lord! He is worth waiting for. He never disappoints the waiting soul.

While waiting keep up your spirits. Expect a great deliverance, and be ready to praise God for it.

The promise which should cheer you is in the middle of the verse--"He shall strengthen thine heart." This goes at once to the place where you need help. If the heart be sound, all the rest of the system will work well. The heart wants calming and cheering, and both of these will come if it be strengthened. A forceful heart rests and rejoices and throbs force into the whole man.

No one else can get at that secret urn of life, the heart, so as to pour strength into it. He alone who made it can make it strong. God is full of strength, and, therefore, He can impart it to those who need it. Oh, be brave; for the Lord will impart His strength to you, and you shall be calm in tempest and glad in sorrow.

He who penned these lines can write as David did--"Wait, I say, on the Lord." I do, indeed, say it. I know by long and deep experience that it is good for me to wait upon the Lord.

Thursday 6 September 2012

Could the Lord send us a message designed to prepare us for the coming of Christ and we treat it as the Jews treated John the Baptist?


When the Lord "sent Elijah" to the "scribes and Pharisees," they "knew him not." John the Baptist's message was "Elijah"! (Matt. 17:10-13). Could the dear Lord in His great mercy send "Elijah" to us and we "know him not"? Could the Lord send us a message designed to prepare us for the coming of Christ and we treat it as the Jews treated John the Baptist? God has promised to "send" him (Mal. 4:5, 6); could anything be more important than learning what that "message" is and how "we" have treated it? Maybe we need to repent!
When "Elijah" comes, will he overthrow Baal worship as he did long ago? Ancient Baal worship was the worship of self disguised as the worship of God. The 450 "prophets of Baal" made Elijah sick at heart. What is "Baal worship" today? As of old:
It is professing to serve the Lord when in fact your agenda is to promote self. A pastor glorifies himself, attracts the people to himself, turns their attention to himself, panders the worldly-minded people in the church, climbs the ladder of his career. He professes to worship Christ but in fact he is serving self. Is he not a "prophet of Baal"? His career is to build for himself a comfortable living; unconsciously he directs the youth to any or all careers except to prepare a people to stand in the day of God. He is not preparing a people to be translated as Elijah was, to "follow the Lamb [the crucified Christ] wherever He goes." Instead, he is preparing a people to accept the "mark of the beast" when it comes.
When "Elijah" is "sent" by the Lord, he will not be easy on modern Baal worship. But his will not be a ministry of denunciation; he will build up, not tear down. The "word" will do the job. Proclaiming Christ and Him crucified will melt hardened, worldly hearts, and Baal worship will be renounced. "When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride."

Wednesday 5 September 2012

"What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"


This young man came running up to Jesus almost out of breath: "What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" A wonderful new-convert-to-be! Jesus caught his word "do," and proceeded to give him a thoroughly legalist answer: "Keep the commandments," and He cited the Ten. On the surface, His answer thrills legalists today.
The young man was fishing for more: he told Jesus he had done everything specified since he was a child. "What do I still lack?" What he meant was, he wanted to achieve perfection--the goal of every legalist.
Then Jesus zeroes in on the real thing: "If you want to be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor." Don't think He wanted to discourage the youth: "you will have treasure in heaven." That should satisfy any acquisitive nature cultivated "from ... youth." But Jesus couldn't do any "evangelism" without telling about the cross: "And come, follow Me" (Matt. 19:16-22). The youth could have had first chance at becoming an Apostle Paul!
But the poor fellow had a terrific problem. It was worse than leprosy or being blind. He was rich, "he had great possessions." So he walked away. Jesus later conceded to the disciples: "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!" Then He repeated it with a slight difference--"who trust in riches … !" (Mark 10:23-25). He appears to contradict what He said in Matthew 11 about His yoke being "easy" and His burden "light" (28-30; again legalists may be delighted for they don't like that "easy" or "light" idea).
If you are rich (and everybody who gets this message is, in some way), you can solve your problem by confessing that you don't deserve a whit of the "wealth" you possess: what is your right is that second death that Jesus died in your place, and for you.

Tuesday 4 September 2012

God’s Character: The Best News in the Universe


“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” 2Cor.
3:18.
By dwelling upon the love of God and His Son, by contemplating the perfection
of the divine character and claiming the righteousness of Christ as ours by faith,
we are transformed into the same image!
It is through the last generation of true believers that God will fully reflect His
character to the world. How important, then, for us, in these last days of earth’s
history to correctly understand and fully experience the love and character of
God.
God’s end-time people must receive the “Latter Rain” of the Holy Spirit in order
to finish God’s work in the earth. This “Latter Rain” includes both an
intellectual and an experiential knowledge of God’s character – His perfect love,
wisdom and righteousness as revealed through Jesus Christ.
We have come to the time when every belief, irrespective of how popular or how
long-standing it may be, must be thoroughly tested by the word of God by
allowing scripture to interpret itself. In these last days Bible truth is exposing
religious error.
In this book, the traditional view of a God who destroys His enemies by violent,
cruel, coercive measures is scrutinized and subjected to careful scriptural
analysis. The reader is invited to examine all the evidences honestly, objectively
and carefully and see where the weight of evidence leads.
We must know the truth about this matter because our character transformation
can rise no higher than our conception of God’s character. If we have a faulty
picture of the divine character our own characters will in turn be faulty.
Bible prophecy predicts an unprecedented revelation of the true knowledge of
God’s character in the end-time. Here are a few examples.
“Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth
is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as
the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Hosea 6:3.
“For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14.
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross
darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee. And the
gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising.” Isaiah 60:1-3.
The reader is invited to look to Christ, to behold the attractive loveliness of
His character, and by beholding, become changed into His likeness. The
mist that intervenes between Christ and the soul will be rolled back as you
look by faith past the hellish shadow of Satanic tradition and see God’s
glorious character revealed in the righteousness of Christ.
Satan’s constant work is to hide Jesus from our sight, to darken His light by
tradition and misinterpretation; but when we get a glimpse of His glory, we
will be attracted to Him. Sin hides the beautiful character of Christ from our
view. Prejudice, popular religious tradition, false views of our Heavenly
Father, self-righteousness and passion blind our eyes so that we do not
discern the Saviour. Oh, if we would draw near to God by faith, He would
reveal to us His glory, which is His character. And by knowing Him aright
we would love, admire, adore and willingly obey Him because of His great
love for us, manifested in the gift of His Son.
Indeed to know God aright is to love.

By Dr. Elliot Douglin

Monday 3 September 2012

Our duty is to keep to our main topic and follow on to know, not this peculiar doctrine nor that, but Jehovah Himself.


Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. (Hosea 6:3)

Not all at once, but by degrees shall we attain to holy knowledge, and our business is to persevere and learn by little and little. We need not despair, though our progress may be slow, for we shall yet know. The Lord, who has become our Teacher, will not give us up, however slow of understanding we may be; for it is not for His honor that any degree of human folly should baffle His skill. The Lord delights to make the simple wise.

Our duty is to keep to our main topic and follow on to know, not this peculiar doctrine nor that, but Jehovah Himself. To know Father, Son, and Spirit, the Triune God, this is life eternal. Let us keep to this, for in this way we shall gain complete instruction. By following on to know the Lord, we learn healing after being torn, binding up after smiting, and life after death. Experience has its perfect work when the heart follows the trackway of the almighty Lord.

My soul, keep thou close to Jesus, follow on to know God in Jesus, and so shalt thou come to the knowledge of Christ, which is the most excellent of all the sciences. The Holy Ghost will lead thee into all truth. Is not this His gracious office? Rely upon Him to fulfill it.