He giveth grace unto the humble. (James 4:6)

He giveth grace unto the humble. (James 4:6)

Humble hearts seek grace, and therefore they get it. Humble hearts yield to the sweet influences of grace, and so it is bestowed on them more and more largely. Humble hearts lie in the valleys where streams of grace are flowing, and hence they drink of them, Humble hearts are grateful for grace and give the Lord the glory of it, and hence it is consistent with His honor to give it to them.

Come, dear reader, take a lowly place. Be little in thine own esteem, that the Lord may make much of thee. Perhaps the sigh breaks out, "I fear I am not humble." It may be that this is the language of true humility. Some are proud of being humble, and this is one of the very worst sorts of pride. We are needy, helpless, undeserving, hell-deserving creatures, and if we are not humble we ought to be. Let us humble ourselves because of our sins against humility, and then the Lord will give us to taste of His favor. It is grace which makes us humble, and grace which finds in this humility an opportunity for pouring in more grace. Let us go down that we may rise. Let us be poor in spirit that God may make us rich. Let us be humble that we may not need to be humbled but may be exalted by the grace of God

Then shalt thou walk in thy way of safety, and thy foot shall not stumble. (Proverbs 3:23)

Then shalt thou walk in thy way of safety, and thy foot shall not stumble. (Proverbs 3:23)

That is to say, if we follow the ways of wisdom and holiness we shall be preserved in them. He who travels by daylight along the highway is under some protection. There is a way for every man, namely, his own proper calling in life, and if we devoutly walk therein in the fear of God He will preserve us from evil. We may not travel luxuriously, but we shall walk safely. We may not be able to run like young men, but we shall be able to walk like good men.

Our greatest danger lies in ourselves: our feeble foot is so sadly apt to stumble. Let us ask for more moral strength that our tendency to slip may be overcome. Some stumble because they do not see the stone in the way: divine grace enables us to perceive sin and so to avoid it. Let us plead this promise and trust in Him who upholds His chosen.

Alas! Our worst peril is our own carelessness, but against this the Lord Jesus has put us on our guard, saying, "Watch and pray."

Oh, for grace to walk this day without a single stumble! It is not enough that we do not actually fall; our cry should be that we may not make the smallest slip with out feet but may at the last adore Him "who is able to keep us from stumbling."

"the marriage of the Lamb" has been delayed because "His wife has [not] made herself ready"

If "the marriage of the Lamb" has been delayed because "His wife has [not] made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7), what can we do about it? If "the Lamb's wife" is the New Jerusalem, the Holy City in heaven [21:9, 10ff.], how can we make it "ready"? It's beyond us; forget it, go back to sleep.
When the angel told John, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife," he gave him a panoramic view of the city. It had "a great and high wall with twelve gates, ... twelve foundations, ... the city was pure gold, ... the twelve gates were twelve pearls, … the street of the city was pure gold" (21:9-21). Even for angel architects and heavenly construction workers, "making" such a "city" "ready" could be a big job. Paving Main Street with gold, for example, must take time. Is that what has delayed the coming of Christ? If so, go back to sleep.
The "city" is real, very real; and its material construction was probably completed long, long ago. But what is the real "city"? Why is it called the "NEW Jerusalem"? The "Jerusalem" that crucified Jesus was the old one. When He addressed the old "city," sobbing like His heart would break, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! ... Your house is left to you desolate" (Matt. 23:37, 38), was He speaking to the cobblestones in the pavement, the timber in the gates, or was He addressing the people, inhabitants of the city?
The inhabitants of the New Jerusalem are described in Revelation 14:1-5 as "the ones who follow [not rebel against] the Lamb wherever He goes. ... They are without fault before the throne of God." These same "ones" have "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (7:14). This is character-cleansing--accomplished by grace through the faith of Jesus.
When He died on His cross and cried out, "It is finished!" Satan was forever defeated, the great controversy won. But after 2000 years Jesus must also say that His seventh of the seven churches is "THE one" of all history that doesn't know it is "wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked" (3:17). Yes, she has something to do to "make herself ready for the marriage of the Lamb." We must wake up.

The prayer of the upright is his delight. (Proverbs 15:8)

The prayer of the upright is his delight. (Proverbs 15:8)

This is as good as a promise, for it declares a present fact, which will be the same throughout all ages. God takes great pleasure in the prayers of upright men; He even calls them His delight. Our first concern is to be upright. Neither bending this way nor that, continue upright; not crooked with policy, nor prostrate by yielding to evil, be you upright in strict integrity and straightforwardness. If we begin to shuffle and shift, we shall be left to shift for ourselves. If we try crooked ways, we shall find that we cannot pray, and if we pretend to do so, we shall find our prayers shut out of heaven.

Are we acting in a straight line and thus following out the Lord's revealed will? Then let us pray much and pray in faith. If our prayer is God's delight, let us not stint Him in that which gives Him pleasure. He does not consider the grammar of it, nor the metaphysics of it, nor the rhetoric of it; in all these men might despise it. He, as a Father, takes pleasure in the lispings of His own babes, the stammerings of His newborn sons and daughters. Should we not delight in prayer since the Lord delights in it? Let us make errands to the throne. The Lord finds us enough reasons for prayer, and we ought to thank Him that it is so.

"The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet"

In the beginning, the Lord God made man and "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen. 2:7), but His work of creation was incomplete. "The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet" (vs. 18). So He made "a woman, and brought her unto the man" (vs. 22). Thus the basis of human happiness was formed--the family.
Even after sin entered, in God's character of divine love He "put enmity between [Satan] and the woman" into us fallen humans (3:15), so that unless we ourselves perversely "put asunder" our own marriage bond, our natural desire is to "cleave" to the one whom "the Lord God ... brought unto" us--our spouse. That natural "enmity" against the "serpent" was placed within us humans by the Holy Spirit. Thank God! It will preserve the family intact--unless we choose to worship "the serpent." God forbid that we should! God says He "hates divorce" (Mal. 2:16, NKJV). That's because he hates pain, bitterness, and alienation. He loves to see people happy.
In a modern hectic world of alluring temptations, is it possible that we supplement our personal communication with God (private prayer) with family prayer? Sorry, but some "Christian" families don't know what that is! There is a text in Jeremiah that recognizes the entity of "family prayer" (see 10:25). It's a negative thought because God regrets the absence of our family prayer; but the positive thought is there by implication--if He notices when we don't have "family prayer" together, He most surely notices when we do! And He grants sublime blessings to the "families" who kneel together in humble, honest, contrite, even tearful (sometimes) prayer before His throne. If you have neglected it, pray together a prayer of repentance; you'll get through.

God is to His people a place of refuge

Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. (Ezekiel 11:16)

Banished from the public means of grace, we are not removed from the grace of the means. The Lord who places His people where they feel as exiles will Himself be with them and be to them all that they could have had at home, in the place of their solemn assemblies. Take this to yourselves, O ye who are called to wander!

God is to His people a place of refuge. They find sanctuary with Him from every adversary, He is their place of worship, too. He is with them as with Jacob when he slept in the open field, and rising, said, "Surely God was in this place," To them also He will be a sanctuary of quite, like the Holy of Holies, which was the noiseless abode of the Eternal. They shall be quiet from fear of evil.

God Himself, in Christ Jesus, is the sanctuary of mercy. The Ark of the Covenant is the Lord Jesus, and Aaron's rod, the pot of manna, the tables of the law, all are in Christ our sanctuary. In God we find the shrine of holiness and of communion. What more do we need? O Lord, fulfill this promise and be ever to us as a little sanctuary!

We thank the Lord for preserving for us the Christian experience

We thank the Lord for preserving for us the Christian experience of David, the Psalmist. He is brutally honest with himself: he confesses that he is a sinner of sinners, that he deserves to have the Lord remove from him forever the blessing of the Holy Spirit (Psalm 51:11). This meant--his eternal salvation.
He makes no effort to hide the guilt of his double crime--his sin of adultery, his coveting of his neighbor's wife, plus the sin of adultery with her, plus the terrible sin of his murdering the lady's husband (we can't say one sin was worse than the other!). David is reduced to the lowest place and he doesn't try to hide it.
In Psalm 27 he teaches us in a simple way how to be happy in the Lord:
(1) He begins by recognizing the truth: The Lord [alone] is his light of life, and his salvation. A good confession of faith; let this be our confession, to begin with (vs. 1).
(2) He accepts the Lord's New Covenant promises and contradicts Satan's effort to make him afraid (vss. 2, 3).
(3) He states the truth in powerful terms: even if an enemy army comes against him, he chooses that his heart shall not be afraid (that's how to conquer fear: choose not to let your heart be troubled, says Jesus in John 14:1-3).
(4) David makes the choice: what he wants above all else in life is simply to "dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life" (vs. 4).
(5) And that's not to become wealthy: no, his prayer is to "behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (vs. 4). The infinite wealth of the Lord is for anyone to take, and it makes Him happy to see someone on earth who appreciates Him enough to desire Him more than what this earth can offer us.
(6) "The time of trouble" scares many serious-minded Christians; it doesn't hurt to think about it ahead of time, BUT think as David does--in absolute confidence that the Lord whom you worship "in His temple" will hide you "in the secret of His tabernacle" (vss. 5, 6).
(7) You are not to feel proud because of this holy preference the Lord has for you; it's simply His "family love" for you since you are a member of His family by adoption (see Eph. 1:3-6)!
(8) Your heart is moved to sing, because His love (agape) has redeemed you (vs. 6).
(9) But yes, there is something for you to do: when the Lord said to you, "Seek My face," you responded immediately, no dilly-dallying about it, "Your face, Lord, I WILL seek!" (vs. 8). Your heart was one with the heart of the Lord!
(10) You think of the loving care your earthly father and mother lavished on you, but good as they were, your parents could only go with you a certain distance: they had to leave you to go on alone with the Lord in ways they could not understand (vs. 10).
(11) David confesses that he would have "fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (vs. 13), that is, unless he had believed that he would see the answer to all his prayers while he was still living--before the Lord comes. Sobering thought!
(12) But what you can't see with your earthly eyes, see with eyes of faith. Psalm 27 is a treasure; adopt it as yours.

"We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."-Acts 14:22

"We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."-Acts 14:22

God's people have their trials. It was never designed by God, when He chose His people, that they should be an untried people. They were chosen in the furnace of affliction; they were never chosen to worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised them; but when their Lord drew up the charter of privileges, He included chastisements amongst the things to which they should inevitably be heirs. Trials are a part of our lot; they were predestinated for us in Christ's last legacy. So surely as the stars are fashioned by his hands, and their orbits fixed by Him, so surely are our trials allotted to us: He has ordained their season and their place, their intensity and the effect they shall have upon us. Good men must never expect to escape troubles; if they do, they will be disappointed, for none of their predecessors have been without them. Mark the patience of Job; remember Abraham, for he had his trials, and by his faith under them, he became the "Father of the faithful." Note well the biographies of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and you shall discover none of those whom God made vessels of mercy, who were not made to pass through the fire of affliction. It is ordained of old that the cross of trouble should be engraved on every vessel of mercy, as the royal mark whereby the King's vessels of honour are distinguished. But although tribulation is thus the path of God's children, they have the comfort of knowing that their Master has traversed it before them; they have His presence and sympathy to cheer them, His grace to support them, and His example to teach them how to endure; and when they reach "the kingdom," it will more than make amends for the "much tribulation" through which they passed to enter it.

How do you think Jesus regards you as an individual?

How do you think Jesus regards you as an individual? Of course, you believe that He "loves" you for you have read John 3:16 and you believe it. But how does He love you? Do you feel that maybe He loves you like you love your faithful dog--or is His love different? Does He respect you? Does He honor you? Does He actually value your opinion? Does He like to hear what you say? In other words, is He interested in your prayers aside from being merely the Source for your requests--your spiritual "Santa Claus"?
He says something very thought-provoking in Revelation 3:21: "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." You can't imagine that the Father treats His Son as anything less than in full confidence, can you? And you can't imagine that Jesus would invite you merely to "sit" on His throne by His side as only an observer who cannot participate, can you? Just to have your picture taken There for the fun of it? No, of course it's more than that! Jesus is totally sincere; it must mean that when He invites you "to sit with [Him] on His throne," He must honestly share with you executive authority; He must respect you as a friend who has His full confidence. Otherwise, why would He say that?
In fact, if we turn to John 15:15 we find He told "us" through His disciples that He "no longer" calls us "servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." And Ephesians 1 tells us over and over that the Father has "adopted" us as His children "in Christ." Adopted kids have full rights as children in the know! That's what you are.
Hold your head up high! Unworthy as you feel yourself to be, you are "somebody" in Christ!

the standard of perfection required in the judgment should fill every believer

The doctrine of perfection of character being the prerequisite

for passing the judgment, is one which some find

discouraging. They respond with the feeling that they have no

hope of ever seeing heaven if this is the case. But this problem

fades when it is realized that perfection of character is not so

much God's requirement for us as His offer to us. He is the

One who, through the ministry of His Son, will take us and

make us perfect in every respect.

"God has made provision that we may become like unto

Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a

perverse will and thus frustrate His grace." The Mount of

Blessing, 76.

Therefore, the standard of perfection required in the judgment

should fill every believer with inspired enthusiasm as he

sees what great things the Lord will do for him. Far from being

a message of despair, it is, though solemn, one of hope and

joy.

"With lovingkindness have I drawn thee."-Jeremiah 31:3

"With lovingkindness have I drawn thee."-Jeremiah 31:3

The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is effected by lovingkindness. The prodigal set out to his father's house from a sense of need; but his father saw him a great way off, and ran to meet him; so that the last steps he took towards his father's house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still musical in his ears.

"Law and terrors do but harden

All the while they work alone;

But a sense of blood-bought pardon

Will dissolve a heart of stone."

The Master came one night to the door, and knocked with the iron hand of the law; the door shook and trembled upon its hinges; but the man piled every piece of furniture which he could find against the door, for he said, "I will not admit the man." The Master turned away, but by-and-bye He came back, and with His own soft hand, using most that part where the nail had penetrated, He knocked again-oh, so softly and tenderly. This time the door did not shake, but, strange to say, it opened, and there upon his knees the once unwilling host was found rejoicing to receive his guest. "Come in, come in; thou hast so knocked that my bowels are moved for thee. I could not think of thy pierced hand leaving its blood-mark on my door, and of thy going away houseless, 'Thy head filled with dew, and thy locks with the drops of the night.' I yield, I yield, Thy love has won my heart." So in every case: lovingkindness wins the day. What Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with His pierced hand. Such is the doctrine of effectual calling. Do I understand it experimentally? Can I say, "He drew me, and I followed on, glad to confess the voice divine?" If so, may He continue to draw me, till at last I shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.