He Will Carry Us Home

Isa 46:4  And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

The year is very old, and here is a promise for our aged friends; yes, and for us all, as age creeps over us.

Let us live long enough, and we shall all have hoar hairs; therefore we may as well enjoy this promise by the foresight of faith.

When we grow old our God will still be the I AM, abiding evermore the same.

Hoar hairs tell of our decay, but He decayeth not.

When we cannot carry a burden and can hardly carry ourselves, the LORD will carry us. 

Even as in our young days He carried us like lambs in His bosom, so will He in our years of infirmity He made us, and He will care for us.

When we become a burden to our friends and a burden to ourselves, the LORD will not shake us off, but the rather He will take us up and carry and deliver us more fully than ever.

In many cases the LORD give His servants a long and calm evening.

They worked hard all day and wore themselves out in their Master's service, and so He said to them, Now rest in anticipation of that eternal Sabbath which I have prepared for you.

Let us not dread old age.

Let us grow old graciously since the LORD Himself is with us in fullness of grace.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Night Of Weeping~Selfishness

All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's.

This was Paul's complaint, not of the ungodly, but of the churches of Christ.

It was the selfishness he saw in the saints that gave occasion to these sorrowful words.
 
This selfishness is of various kinds, and shows itself in various ways.

It is selfishness in reference to the things of Christ; or in reference to the Church of Christ; or in reference to the work given us to do;

Or in reference to the sacrifices we are called upon to undergo, and the toils we are called upon to endure.

It would be easy to show how God's chastisements are pointed at all these forms of selfishness, aiming deadly blows at each one of them from the outermost to the innermost circle.

But this is too large a field. We shall merely take up the first, and even it we can only touch upon.

It is the most important of them all, and stands so connected with the rest that whatever uproots it destroys the other also.
 
Selfishness, in reference to the things of Christ, obviously springs from coldness towards Christ Himself.

A preference of self to Christ is its root and source.

Anything, therefore, that tends to obscure or keep out of view the person of Christ must lead to selfishness.

It may be the love of the world; it may be the love of the creature, it may be the love of man's applause.

These are the dark bodies that eclipse the glory of a living Savior and nourish self.

But these are not all. Satan has deeper devices still.

He brings in religion between us and the Savior!

Religious acts, ordinances, duties, are all turned by him into so many instruments for exalting self and lowering the Savior.

But even this is not all. He has a subtler device still for these last days.

He is trying to make the work of Christ a substitute for His person, to fix attention so much upon the one as to exclude the other.

The result of this is a thoroughly selfish and sectarian religion.

I know this is delicate ground, but the evil is an augmenting one and ought to be made known.
 
There are not a few who are so occupied with truth that they forget "the true one," so occupied with faith that they lose sight of its personal object...

So given to dwelling upon the work of Christ that they overlook His person.

They seem to regard the latter subject as a matter, if not beyond them, at least one about which it will be time enough to concern themselves when they see Him face to face.

What He is seems a question of small importance, provided they know that He has accomplished a work by which they may secure eternal life. 

We are forgiven, they say, "we have peace- all is well."

They take but little interest in the person of Him who has purchased these blessings.

The redemption is all, and the Redeemer is nothing, or, at least, very little!

The sufficiency of His work is all, the glory and excellence of His person, nothing!

What is this but selfishness?

We get all the benefit we can out of the work of Christ, and then leave Him alone!

And this selfishness introduces itself everywhere into the actions and thinking of this class. 

We can trace it in the mold of their doctrines.

Their views of the atonement are selfish, being framed not upon the principle of how God is to get His purpose fulfilled and His glory displayed, but simply of how a sinner is to be saved.

Their views of Jehovah's sovereignty and electing grace are selfish, being just so many devices for taking the sinner out of God's hands, and leaving him in his own control.

Their views of the Spirit's work are selfish, being just an attempt to make His aid appear less absolutely indispensable and man's own skill and strength of very considerable avail in the matter of salvation.

But even where those selfish views of doctrine have not been adopted, there is a latent tendency toward selfishness among many, which can only be ascribed to their neglect of the person of Christ.
 
But what has chastisement to do with this?

Much every way. Chiefly in this that it throws us more entirely for consolation and strength upon the person of the Savior. 

Never do we feel more brought into contact with a living personal Savior than in our days of sorrow.

It is Jesus- Jesus alone- Jesus Himself- whom we feel to be absolutely necessary.

The truth is precious; His work is precious; but it is with Him that we have chiefly to do it is to Him that we pour out our sorrows.
 
Thus by creating a necessity for our leaning on the person of Jesus (blessed necessity!) affliction strikes at that which was the root of selfishness.

By bringing before us another and far more glorious self, it absorbs our own miserable self, until in the person of Jesus we lose sight of our own selves altogether. 

There is nothing that so makes us acquainted with Christ Himself as sorrow; and hence, there is nothing so efficacious in eradicating self.

It is God's cure for selfishness.

It is His way of making us seek, not our own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's.

It is His way of carrying us beyond truth even to "him that is true."

Truth is precious, but in itself it is cold. But the glory of the Gospel is this that it carries us up beyond truth to its living fountainhead.

No, it brings us into the very bosom of Him who came out of the Father's bosom and has now returned to it carrying with Him all those whom the Father has given Him, there, with Him to abide in happy fellowship, world without end.
 
~Horatius Bonar~

Travail Reveals “Heart” Or “Hollow”

The Lord allows travail indeed, He not only allows it, but appoints it in order to find out whether really there is a heart-relationship to His things.

A few months ago, I found a tree lying at the side of the road, not far from my house.

The day before, it had been upright and growing, and looking like all the other trees.

It had all the leaves of profession, all the proximity of association with other trees, and outwardly it could pass off as being the real thing.

But a storm came, and now it was lying there; and when I looked at it I found that it had no heart:

It was a completely hollow thing-there was only a framework.

That is a parable.

That is what is happening, and what is going to happen, and what God will cause to happen everywhere.

The travail will come...the suffering, persecution, trials, whatever it may be;

And, whatever may be its form, whether it be within or without, it is going to come in order to discover whether there is a heart there for God...

Or whether, after all, it is hollow, it is profession, it is simply association on the outside, and not real on the inside.

God must expose what is not real, and God must test everything to prove it.
 
But what had happened to the other trees... those that stood near the fallen one?

Well, they survived the storm, and they are still standing.

But is that all? Not a bit of it!

The next storm that comes will probably find that it has got a little harder work to do than last time to move these.

Those roots have felt the strain and they have reached down and taken a tighter hold.

They have got a grip on things; they have realized that storms are realities, and that it is a matter of life and death as to whether they stand.
 
It is so easy, is it not, when things get difficult, to walk out, give up?

How often we pray that the Lord will protect from difficulties and troubles!

But the Lord never answers prayers like that. 

These things come to us personally, and they come to us in our little companies...storms, shaking storms, things calculated to devastate and scatter, destroy and finish what is there and the Lord does not protect.

But what is He doing?

On the one side He is finding out whether there is a heart for Him, and whether there is reality in every member, or whether it is only outward show and hollow inside.

On the other hand, He is seeking to bring out the expression of preciousness: that this thing is too precious to let go easily;

It means far too much for us to abandon at the first onset of adversity and trial.

That is the meaning of it, and it explains very much, does it not?

~T. Austin Sparks~

Treasures In The Darkness

Isa 45:3  And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

A Call To Separation

                                                                                  
2Co 6:14  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

2Co 6:15  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.       

Lev 18:3  After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

Lev 18:4  Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God 

Lev 20:23  And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

Joh 10:3  To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Heb 13:13  Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. 

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 

In Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them

2Th 3:14  And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.

Corinthians 5:11, "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3)

1Jn 3:10  In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Pro 1:10  My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

Pro 1:11  If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Pro 1:12  Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

Pro 1:13  We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

Pro 1:14  Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
 
Pro 1:15  My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

Pro 1:16  For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. 

Jas 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

2 Corinthians 7:1,Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

1Jn 1:5  This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 

Eph 5:8  For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;











 






 








 

 

                                            

The Secret Of True Obedience

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
 
Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

The secret of true obedience...let me say at once what I believe it to be is the clear and close personal relationship to God. 

All our attempts after full obedience will be failures until we get access to His abiding fellowship.

It is God’s holy presence, consciously abiding with us, that keeps us from disobeying Him.
 
Defective obedience is always the result of a defective life.

To rouse and spur on that defective life by arguments and motives has its use, but their chief blessing must be that they make us feel the need of a different life, a life so entirely under the power of God that obedience will be its natural outcome.

The defective life, the life of broken and irregular fellowship with God, must be healed, and make way for a full and healthy life; then full obedience will become possible.

The secret of a true obedience is the return to close and continual fellowship with God.

He learned obedience. And why was this needful? And what is the blessing He brings us?

Listen, ‘He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him.’
 
Suffering is unnatural to us, and therefore calls for the surrender of our will.
 
Christ needed suffering that in it He might learn to obey and give up His will to the Father at any cost.

He needed to learn obedience that as our great High Priest He might be made perfect.
 
He learned obedience, He became obedient unto death, that He might become the author of our
salvation.

He became the author of salvation through obedience, that He might save those ‘who obey Him.’
 
As obedience was with Him absolutely necessary to procure, it is with us absolutely necessary to inherit, salvation. 

The very essence of salvation is obedience to God. Christ as the obedient One saves us as His obedient ones. 

Whether in His suffering on earth, or in His glory in heaven, whether in Himself or in us, obedience is what the heart of Christ is set upon.
 
On earth Christ was a learner in the school of obedience; in heaven He teaches it to His disciples here on earth.

In a world where disobedience reigns unto death, the restoration of obedience is in Christ’s hands.

As in His own life, so in us, He has undertaken to maintain it. He teaches and works it in us.
 
Let us try and think what and how He teaches: it may be we shall see how little we have given ourselves to be pupils in this school, where alone obedience is to be learnt. 

~Andrew Murray~

Launch Out Into The Deep

One of the special marks of the Holy Ghost in the Apostolic Church was the spirit Of boldness.

One of the most essential qualities of the faith that is to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God, is holy audacity.

Where we are dealing with a supernatural Being, and taking from Him things that are humanly impossible, it is easier to take much than little...

It is easier to stand in a place of audacious trust than in a place of cautious, timid clinging to the shore.

Like wise seamen in the life of faith, let us launch out into the deep, and find that all things are possible with God, and all things are possible unto him that believeth.

Let us to-day attempt great things for God, take His faith and believe for them and His strength to accomplish them.

The mercy of God is an ocean divine, A boundless and fathomless flood;
      
Launch out in the deep, cut away the shore-line, And be lost in the fullness of God.

Oh, let us launch out in this ocean so broad, Where the floods of salvation o'erflow,
      
Oh, let us be lost in the mercy of God, Till the depth of His fulness we know.

~A. B. Simpson~

The Antichrist In Us

The hallmark of the natural man is self sufficiency.

He always finds the springs of his resources in himself.

We see that in Adam.

At the beginning up to a certain point his resources were in God.

He drew his instruction and wisdom from God.
Everything was from God.

By the way of obedience to God he was in fellowship with Him.

But then came the moment when he began to act out from himself.

By a subtle insinuation of the devil he began to reason out things for himself, until he became deceived by his own will, and mistrust against God crept into his mind.

He took things out of God’s hands into his own hands.

He ceased to draw his resources from God and thought he could have them in himself.

That is the attitude of the natural man in Adam up to this day.

The natural man acts according to his own natural wisdom.

He seeks to reason out a situation, weighing up things for and against it, and proceeding according to what he thinks to be common sense.

But notice, as the natural man develops in history, the end of this dispensation will produce a natural man (humanity in its fallen state) developed to the utmost.

There will be dictators, supermen, acting from themselves.

They will be a law to themselves, without consulting others.

What they feel, desire and reason out must be done.

That state of things will lead up to Antichrist.

He will be a self-contained man and represent the sum total of all that is natural...reason, desire, will.

He will not hold God in reverence, but will be bigger than God.

In him the human race will be represented in its fully developed fallen nature, turning that whole race against God.

What is true of Antichrist is true, in part, of every member of the human race.

The natural man moves out from himself, but the result is always death.

If we project our own will, our own desires, our own reason into things, however alive they may appear, the result will be death.

Only that which comes out from God is Life.

In connection with this the meaning of the word of the Lord Jesus is of primary importance: “The Son can do nothing of Himself.”

If others believe they can, the Son cannot.

Here is the tremendous difference between the Lord Jesus and ourselves.

He can only move as from the Father.

He can only go if the Father leads Him.

~T. Austin Sparks~                                                   

Getting Your Eye Where God’s Eye Is

It is a wonderful thing to recognize that the Lord's glory became imparted to Moses by reason of that which became the common object of their eyes.

What the Lord was looking at, Moses was looking at, and as they both looked at it together they shared the same glory. 

When does the Lord’s own face light up with glory? 

When is the Father’s face full of glory?

When He looks upon the Lord Jesus.

The tabernacle was only the Lord Jesus in a representation, and it was the Lord Jesus in all His Mediatorial, Priestly Person and work gathered up in a great system...

But it was the person of the Lord Jesus as relating to man’s fellowship with God...

The place, the sphere where God and man come into oneness, where God can, without sacrificing His holiness, have fellowship with man...

And where man can, without being consumed by the very holiness of God, have fellowship with God.

From Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, with a central-most reality of the mercy seat, He will speak with you face to face.
 
God has set forth Christ as a propitiation.

God sees beyond the pattern to the reality, His Son, and it was Christ Who was in the eye of the Father in all His wonderful, mediatorial work to bring men nigh to God and God nigh to man.

When that is in the eye of God, His face is full of glory, and when we get what is in His eye, we partake of the glory of the shining face of God.

Simply, it just means that when we are occupied with the Lord Jesus in all that He is from the Father to us and to the Father for us, when we are occupied with Him, then we know the shining face.

Be occupied with anything else and you lose the shining face.

Be occupied with yourself and your own spiritual life and condition, so that you are always self-analyzing, and it will not be long before you have lost the shining face.

Keep your eye upon Jesus and you will know the secret of the shining face.

Look around on things as they are in the world and you will lose it.

The secret of the shining face is to get God’s thought about the Lord Jesus, to get your eye where God’s eye is.

That is tremendously important.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Me Last!

Among the truly popular girls I have known, one stands out preeminently. I never knew one person who did not find her just lovable.

Once during her Sophomore year in high school, a group of her chums were discussing mottoes and naming their favorites. "Hitch your wagon to a star!" and "To the stars through difficulties!" were favored.

Turning to Jessie, someone said, "Haven't you a motto?"

Yes, she said; it is this: "Me last!"

What do you mean by that? the others asked.

That's my motto, and I think it is a good one.

But what does it mean?

Then Jessie explained: "It means just what it says--'me last.'

That is, I am to think of myself last.

I am to put everyone else ahead of me, and then can look after myself when everybody else is taken care of.

The girls saw, and they knew that right there lay the secret of her popularity.

Mark 9:35  And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.

John 13:4  He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

John 13:5  After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

John 13:14  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
 
John 13:15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.   

~J. C. Pittman~

"He Worketh"

                                                                                                        

The translation that we find in Young of "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass," reads: "Roll upon Jehovah thy way; trust upon him: and he worketh."

It calls our attention to the immediate action of God when we truly commit, or roll out of our hands into His, the burden of whatever kind it may be; a way of sorrow, of difficulty, of physical need, or of anxiety for the conversion of some dear one.

He worketh. When? Now. 

We are so in danger of postponing our expectation of His acceptance of the trust, and His undertaking to accomplish what we ask Him to do, instead of saying as we commit, "He worketh." "He worketh" even now; and praise Him that it is so.

The very expectancy enables the Holy Spirit to do the very thing we have rolled upon Him.

It is out of our reach. We are not trying to do it any more. "He worketh!"

Let us take the comfort out of it and not put our hands on it again.

Oh, what a relief it brings!

He is really working on the difficulty.

But someone may say, "I see no results." Never mind. "He worketh," if you have rolled it over and are looking to Jesus to do it.

Faith may be tested, but "He worketh"; the Word is sure!

~V. H. F.~

Psalm 57:2  I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.

The beautiful old translation says, "He shall perform the cause which I have in hand." Does not that make it very real to us today?

Just the very thing that "I have in hand"-my own particular bit of work today, this cause that I cannot manage, this thing that I undertook in miscalculation of my own powers-this is what I may ask Him to do "for me," and rest assured that He will perform it. 

The wise and their works are in the hands of God.

~Havergal~

The Lord will go through with His covenant engagements.

Whatever He takes in hand He will accomplish; hence past mercies are guarantees for the future and admirable reasons for continuing to cry unto Him.

~C. H. Spurgeon~

We Would See Jesus

John 12:21  The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.

When any great blessing is awaiting us, the devil is sure to try and make it so disagreeable to us that we shall miss it.

It is a good thing to know him as a liar, and remember, when he is trying to prejudice us strongly against any cause, that very likely the greatest blessing of our life lies there.

Spurgeon once said that the best evidence that God was on our side is the devil's growl, and we are generally pretty safe in following a thing according to Satan's dislike for it.

Beloved, take care, lest in the very line where your prejudices are setting you off from God's people and God's truth, you are missing the treasures of your life.

Take the treasures of heaven no matter how they come to you, even if it be as earthly treasures generally are, like the kernel inside the rough shell, or the gem in the bosom of the hard rock.

I have seen Jesus and my heart is dead to all beside, I have seen Jesus, and my wants are all, in Him, supplied.

I have seen Jesus, and my heart, at last, is satisfied, Since I've seen Jesus.

~A. B. Simpson~

"A Solitary Way"

They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; a way not tracked; a path in which each has to walk alone; a road where no company cheers him, and without landmarks to direct his course.

This is a mark peculiar to the child of God...that the path by which he travels is, in his own feelings, a solitary way.

This much increases his exercises, that they appear peculiar to himself.

His perplexities are such as he cannot believe any living soul is exercised with; the fiery darts which are cast into his mind by the wicked one are such as he thinks no child of God has ever experienced; 

The darkness of his soul, the unbelief and infidelity of his heart, and the workings of his powerful corruptions, are such as he supposes none ever knew but himself. 

To be without any comfort except what God gives, without any guidance but what the Lord affords, without any support but what springs from the everlasting arms laid underneath...

In a word, to be in that state where the Lord alone must appear, and where he alone can deliver, is very painful.

But it is the very painful nature of the path that makes it so profitable.

We need to be cut off from resting upon an arm of flesh; to be completely divorced from all props to support our souls, except that Almighty prop which cannot fail.

And the Lord will take care that his people shall deal only with himself; that they shall have no real comfort but that which springs from his presence, and no solid testimonies but those which are breathed into their conscience from his own lips.

His object is to draw us away from the creature; to take us off from leaning on human pity and compassion...

And to bring us to trust implicitly on himself, "whose compassions fail not,"

To lean wholly and solely upon him, who is "very pitiful, and of tender mercy."

~J. C. Philpot~

Lie Still And Trust

Psalm 27:13  I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

FAINT NOT!

How great is the temptation at this point!

How the soul sinks, the heart grows sick, and the faith staggers under the keen trials and testings which come into our lives in times of special bereavement and suffering.

I cannot bear up any longer, I am fainting under this providence. 

What shall I do? 

God tells me not to faint.

But what can one do when he is fainting?

What do you do when you are about to faint physically?

You cannot do anything.

You cease from your own doings. 
                                                  
In your faintness, you fall upon the shoulder of some strong loved one.

You lean hard. You rest. You lie still and trust.

It is so when we are tempted to faint under affliction.

God's message to us is not, "Be strong and of good courage," for He knows our strength and courage have fled away.

But it is that sweet word, "Be still, and know that I am God."

Hudson Taylor was so feeble in the closing months of his life that he wrote a dear friend: "I am so weak I cannot write; I cannot read my Bible; I cannot even pray. I can only lie still in God's arms like a little child, and trust."

This wondrous man of God with all his spiritual power came to a place of physical suffering and weakness where he could only lie still and trust.

And that is all God asks of you, His dear child, when you grow faint in the fierce fires of affliction.

Do not try to be strong. Just be still and know that He is God, and will sustain you, and bring you through.

God keeps His choicest cordials for our deepest faintings.

Stay firm and let thine heart take courage

Stay firm, He has not failed thee In all the past, And will He go and leave thee To sink at last?
 
Nay, He said He will hide thee Beneath His wing; And sweetly there in safety Thou mayest sing.

~Selected~

Walk Without Stumbling

If the LORD will not suffer it, neither men nor devils can do it.

How greatly would they rejoice if they could give us a disgraceful fall, drive us from our position, and bury us out of memory!

They could do this to their heart's content were it not for One hindrance, and only one: the LORD will not suffer it; and if He does not suffer it, we shall not suffer it.

The way of life is like traveling among the Alps. Along the mountain path one is constantly exposed to the slipping of the foot.

Where the way is High the head is apt to swim, and then the feet soon slide; there are spots which are smooth as glass and others that are rough with loose stones, and in either of these a fall is hard to avoid.

He who throughout life is enabled to keep himself upright and to walk without stumbling has the best of reasons for gratitude.

What with pitfalls and snares, weak knees, weary feet, and subtle enemies, no child of God would stand fast for an hour were it not for the faithful love which will not suffer his foot to be moved.

 Amidst a thousand snares I stand Upheld and guarded by thy hand; That hand unseen shall hold me still, And lead me to thy holy hill.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Avoid The Least Contagion Of Evil

Rev 2:10  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

In the Christian life, nothing is more essential than faithfulness.

It is that which stands foremost and distinguishes the true Christian from the false.

Without it, all other apparent signs of grace are but a sham and a pretense. 

Faithfulness is that which Christ mainly respects.

You must be true to Christ, and let nothing tempt you to seek other reward at the expense of losing His approval and His smile.

Often place yourself in His presence, and ask Him if what you do is pleasing in His sight.

Carefully must you watch against the very least thing that will cast a slur on the name of Him whom you love, or the Gospel which you profess.

Avoid the least contagion of evil...the very touch of anything that defiles. 

Turn away from all doubtful paths.

Let there be genuine, straightforward honesty and truth in all business transactions.

Suffer all loss, even unto death, rather than the loss of a good conscience.

By no means attempt to serve two masters, for nothing more surely will destroy all your peace and lead to final ruin.

To be faithful to Christ, it is also needful to use diligently for Him the talents committed to you.

Whatever you have is but trust-money, for which the Lord will require an account.

Our gold and the silver, the years of our life, the influence we possess with others, our temporal comforts, our natural gifts, our spiritual advantages - all these are to be laid out at interest in the Lord's service.

You must be faithful also in carrying the cross, and in meeting reproach for Christ's sake, as you try to follow the Savior.

But the cross will last but a little while and then the gain will be eternal.

Faithful unto death!

Only so long will trial and temptation assail us.

A few more days and years perhaps we may have still to battle on.

A few more days of sorrow, mingled as He will have it, with seasons of quietness and joy - and our warfare will be accomplished and the victory won.

~George Everard-1874~

The Only Way To Obtain Relief Under The Manifold Cares That Often Encompass Our Path!

Casting the whole of your care all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all on Him...

For He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.
 

The remembrance of this word of Peter may help you to bring God into everything.

He can manage and undertake for you far better than you can for yourself. 

There is no load of anxiety for yourself or others, no strait in which you can be placed, no perplexities that can harass and bewilder you-but the Lord bids you to cast it upon Him and leave it trustfully in His hands.

The only way to obtain relief under the manifold cares that often encompass our path, is to cast them all on God.

We must bring them to our Father and leave them with Him! 

We must tell them out in the ear of our great High Priest and have confidence enough in Him to know that He will not neglect that which we commit to Him.

Casting all your cares upon Him, for HE CARES FOR YOU. Yes, this is our consolation.

Christ is the Friend who cares for us, thinks upon us, hears every sigh and groan, marks every tear, and knows every sorrow that weighs upon the mind.

Ah, it is a thought to cheer a believer at all times - what a Friend have I in Christ!

He is the Friend always near. Though banished far from home and kindred, Christ is always by my side.

I cannot see Him, but I know that He is here. 

He has promised me, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," and He will be as good as His Word.

Then I may add another thought: Christ is kinder than the kindest.

Could I gather together all the rays of kindness, pity, tender love, that have ever glowed in the heart of a mother toward her child, of a bridegroom toward the bride, of a brother to brother, of a friend to friend...

All combined would be but as one tiny sunbeam, compared to that wondrous love which is in the heart of Christ for His redeemed people!

Nor is it less comforting for me, to remember that He who cares for me is changeless in His faithfulness and love.

Oh, the marvelous sympathy, gentleness, loving-kindness which Christ daily shows me, and which I know will never cease!

Hence it is a most reasonable thing for me to cast all my cares on Him.

His presence, His kindness, His effectual power, His unswerving faithfulness  warrant me in leaving all in His hand. 

Oh, that I may ever have grace to flee to this refuge and hiding-place!

Oh, that every burden, every fear, every foreboding, every jot and tittle of my daily anxieties, may all be entrusted to His loving hand!

~George Everard-1882~

 

The Shield Of Faith~The Power That Protects Us

Ephesians 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 

The armor of the ancients was of two different kinds, and both kinds were absolutely necessary.

It was partly armor for attack and partly armor for protection. 

Now very generally, in the New Testament, faith is one of the weapons of attack .

1John 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

We see that magnificently illustrated in the pageant of the eleventh of Hebrews.

But here, and it may be only here, Paul looks on faith in quite another light, for he sets it among the armor of protection. 

Faith is not here the power that leads to victory; it is the power that protects us in the battle.

It keeps us unembittered and serene amid the mysteries and buffetings of life.

To believe that love is on the throne and that through everything there runs a loving purpose, is in the deepest of all senses to be shielded.

How effectual that shielding is, is shown by the apostle's choice of words.

There are two words in the Greek tongue for shield; the one is common and the other rare.

The one connotes a little shield or target; the other a frame that covered the whole man.

Faith is not a partial protection; it casts its defense over the whole of life.

It is a means of safety for the intellect, as surely as for the passions of the heart.

It guards the feet when they are prone to wander, and the hands when they are growing weary, and the eyes when they are drawn to what is wrong.

The shield of faith is an all-embracing shelter.

Faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ is nothing less than a universal safeguard.

All was choicely shown to the Ephesians by the word which the apostle used when he bade them take up the shield of faith.

~George H. Morrison~

Thorough Cleansing

Eze 36:25  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

What an exceeding joy is this! He who has purified us with the blood of Jesus will also cleanse us by the water of the Holy Spirit.

God hath said it, and so it must be, "Ye shall be clean."

LORD, we feel and mourn our uncleanness, and it is cheering to be assured by Thine own mouth that we shall be clean.

Oh, that Thou wouldst make a speedy work of it!

He will deliver us from our worst sins.

The uprisings of unbelief and the deceitful lusts which war against the soul, the vile thoughts of pride, and the suggestions of Satan to blaspheme the sacred name-all these shall be so purged away as never to return.

He will also cleanse us from all our idols, whether of gold or of clay: our impure loves and our excessive love of that which in itself is pure. 

That which we have idolized shall either be broken from us or we shall be broken off from it.

It is God who speaks of what He Himself will do.

Therefore is this word established and sure, and we may boldly look for that which it guarantees to us.

Cleansing is a covenant blessing, and the covenant is ordered in all things and sure.

~Charles Spurgeon~

How Do I Mortify The Flesh?

The flesh is a bosom traitor; it is like the Trojan horse within the walls, which does all the mischief.

The flesh is a sly enemy - it kills by embracing.

The embraces of the flesh are like the ivy embracing the oak; which sucks out the strength of it for its own leaves and berries. 

So the flesh by its soft embraces, sucks out of the heart all good.

The pampering of the flesh, is the quenching of God's Spirit.
 
The flesh chokes and stifles holy motions - the flesh sides with
Satan.

There is a party (the flesh) within us, which will not pray, which will not believe.

The flesh inclines us more to believe a temptation than a promise.

The flesh is so near to us, its counsels are more attractive. 

There is no chain of adamant which binds so tightly as the chain of lust.

In the best of saints, sin can fasten its roots in them, and spring out sometimes with inordinate desires.

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

How Do I Mortify The Flesh?

1. Withdraw the fuel that may make lust burn. Avoid all temptations.

Take heed of that which nourishes sin.
 
Those who pray that they may not be led into temptation must not lead themselves into temptation.

2. Fight against fleshly lusts with spiritual weapons...faith and prayer.

The best way to combat with sin is upon our knees.

Beg strength from Christ. Samson's strength lay in his hair; our strength lies in our head - Christ.

This is a mystery to the major part of the world who gratify the flesh rather than mortify it.

~Thomas Watson 1669~

Living By Your Reason, Emotions, Or Your Will Makes You Ready Prey For Deception

Children of God who lean to the soul on any or all of its sides-reason (intellect), emotion (feelings) or will (volition) will be a ready prey for deception.

First of all, such people are already a contradiction of their essential nature as now - by new birth - spiritual.

It becomes clear at the outset that they are locked up and a law unto themselves.

Their way is the way, and they see no other.

As to further light, they are largely unteachable; as to further experience, they are content; as to another course, they cannot conceive of it.

Christians who live in their own mind will often be found occupied with a question.

They cannot live without a question or a problem.

If one is shattered, they will soon have another.

Thus they go ever round in a circle, and come back to their starting point, making no real spiritual progress.

Like a horse in the ring, they are whipped and driven, and there is no expanse of life or vision.

Or they lash others with their ideas and seek to subject other minds to their own.

It may eventuate in some very weird, unsound and untrue conclusions.

At length somewhere in this occult position-for it is nothing less-a deception will be found, and Satan's hand will be seen.

The same thing is true with regard to Christians living on the emotional side of the soul.

This side demands experiences, evidences, manifestations.

Indeed the whole realm of sense-life governs here.

If we intensify and project our emotional side sufficiently, we can have any experience that is possible.

The whole body and mind can be involved. Vocal cords or solar plexus may be affected. There may be facial distortions, rigidity, 'second sight', visions, extra capabilities, prodigious strength, mirth, ecstasy, etc.

All these, from simple beginnings, may come through the psychical or soul-life as extended and strained along the line of intense desire.

If this is true in these two directions, how true it is on the side of the will.

A forceful, dominating, assertive soul, not under the government of the Holy Spirit, is a terrible menace to the interests of God.

Decisions will be made, courses adopted, objectives secured, positions occupied, in the name of devotion to God, which will be Towers of Babel, Pyramids of Egypt, Ishmaels of Abram (not Abraham).

There will be a good deal of remorse bound up with these achievements eventually, and a wish that they had never been.

The result will be something false, and many may be involved in the tragedy.

~T. Austin Sparks~