A Devastating Question

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Has GOD said? is the most devastating question that has ever been put into language.
 
All the history of sin, of misery, and disruption, all the evil story of suspicion, disintegration, hatred, war and the rest came out of that question.

The whole situation in the creation which we so deeply deplore had its roots in that question.

Satan’s whole evil, sinister purpose was summed up in that apparently harmless form...“Has GOD said?”

A question aimed at the very integrity of GOD, at the very goodwill of GOD, aimed at the purpose of GOD for man...

Aimed at GOD as method with man by which that great purpose should be realized, the method of faith, of confidence, of obedience.

Yes, it was all in a very brief sentence in the form of a question Has God said?
 
And that question, without betraying the subtlety and guile behind it, being admitted by the one to whom it was offered, resulted in a question becoming a very constituent of human nature, a very part of man’s being.

Right at the center of every child of Adam there is a question; it is this question.

Life itself, human life, is a question, a big question, a question which, all through the ages, men have sought to answer, to solve, by countless means, in countless ways, to answer the question that lies there deep in the heart of man.

If you trace that question deeply enough, you will find that it is a question about GOD and GOD'S intention in creating man. 

Yes, it is in us; it is a part of us.
 
The question mark is a bent thing, it is a crooked thing and anything that is bent and crooked is the symbol of weakness.

It signifies that the thing is not to be relied upon, it
cannot be trusted.

It is weak, there is something uncertain about it, there is a doubt in it, and that doubt of the question mark has a long and terrible history.

From its simplest form of uncertainty it grows to definite doubt, and on to positive suspicion, then to disintegration and ultimately to death.

That is the history of a question.

A question is a very terrible thing, especially when it involves man’s relationship with GOD. “Has God said?”

You and I know quite well that we are all in some way or other, some degree or other, caught in the meshes of that original question, and it forms the battleground of life. 

But that, of course, is a very dark side.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Believe In Order To See

Psa 106:12  Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.

Psa 106:13  They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:

Psa 106:14  But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

Psa 106:15  And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

We read of Moses, that "he endured, as seeing him who is invisible."

Exactly the opposite was true of the children of Israel in this record.

They endured only when the circumstances were favorable; they were largely governed by the things that appealed to their senses, in place of resting in the invisible and eternal GOD.

In the present day there are those who live intermittent Christian lives because they have become occupied with the outward, and center in circumstances, in place of centering in GOD.

GOD wants us more and more to see Him in everything, and to call nothing small if it bears us His message.

Here we read of the children of Israel, "Then they believed his words."

They did not believe till after they saw--when they saw Him work, then they believed.

They really doubted GOD when they came to the Red Sea; but when GOD opened the way and led them across and they saw Pharaoh and his host drowned--"then they believed."

They led an up and down life because of this kind of faith; it was a faith that depended upon circumstances. 

This is not the kind of faith GOD wants us to have.

The world says "seeing is believing," but GOD wants us to believe in order to see.

The Psalmist said, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

Do you believe GOD only when the circumstances are favorable, or do you believe no matter what the circumstances may be?

~C. H. P.~

Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

~St. Augustine~

We Need Minor Keys Too

Eph 5:20  Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

No matter what the source of the evil, if you are in GOD and surrounded by Him as by an atmosphere, all evil has to pass through Him before it comes to you.

Therefore you can thank GOD for everything that comes, not for the sin of it, but for what GOD will bring out of it and through it.

May GOD make our lives thanksgiving and perpetual praise, then He will make everything a blessing.

We once saw a man draw some black dots. We looked and could make nothing of them but an irregular assemblage of black dots. 

Then he drew a few lines, put in a few rests, then a clef at the beginning, and we saw these black dots were musical notes.

On sounding them we were singing, "Praise GOD from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below."

There are many black dots and black spots in our lives, and we cannot understand why they are there or why GOD permitted them to come.

But if we let GOD come into our lives, and adjust the dots in the proper way, and draw the lines He wants, and separate this from that, and put in the rests at the proper places; out of the black dots and spots in our lives He will make a glorious harmony.

Let us not hinder Him in this glorious work!

~C. H. P~

Would we know that the major chords were sweet, If there were no minor key? Would the painter's work be fair to our eyes, Without shade on land or sea?

Would we know the meaning of happiness, Would we feel that the day was bright, If we'd never known what it was to grieve, Nor gazed on the dark of night?

Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.

~C. H. Spurgeon~

When the musician presses the black keys on the great organ, the music is as sweet as when he touches the white ones, but to get the capacity of the instrument he must touch them all.

~Selected~

Trust In His Promises

Rom 4:17  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

What does that mean? Why Abraham did this thing: he dared to believe GOD. It seemed an impossibility at his age that Abraham should become the father of a child; it looked incredible; and yet GOD called him a "father of many nations" before there was a sign of a child; and so Abraham called himself "father" because GOD called him so. 

That is faith; it is to believe and assert what GOD says. "Faith steps on seeming void, and finds the rock beneath."

Only say you have what GOD says you have, and He will make good to you all you believe. Only it must be real faith, all there is in you must go over in that act of faith to GOD.

~Crumbs~

Be willing to live by believing and neither think nor desire to live in any other way.

Be willing to see every outward light extinguished, to see the eclipse of every star in the blue heavens, leaving nothing but darkness and perils around, if GOD will only leave in thy soul the inner radiance, the pure bright lamp which faith has kindled.

~Thomas C. Upham~

The moment has come when you must get off the perch of distrust, out of the nest of seeming safety, and onto the wings of faith; just such a time as comes to the bird when it must begin to try the air. 

It may seem as though you must drop to the earth; so it may seem to the fledgling. It, too, may feel very like falling; but it does not fall--it's pinions give it support, or, if they fail, the parent birds sweeps under and bears it upon its wings.

Even so will GOD bear you. Only trust Him; "thou shalt be holden up." "Well, but," you say, "am I to cast myself upon nothing?" That is what the bird seems to have to do; but we know the air is there, and the air is not so unsubstantial as it seems. 

And you know the promises of GOD are there, and they are not unsubstantial at all. "But it seems an unlikely thing to come about that my poor weak soul should be girded with such strength."

Has GOD said it shall? "That my tempted, yielding nature shall be victor in the strife."

Has GOD said it shall? "That my timorous, trembling heart shall find peace?"

Has GOD said it shall? for, if He has, you surely do not mean to give Him the lie! Hath he spoken, and shall He not do it?

If you have gotten a word..."a sure word" of promise...take it implicitly, trust it absolutely. And this sure word you have; nay, you have more-you have Him who speaks the word confidently. "Yea, I say unto you," trust Him.

~J. B. Figgis, M. A.~

Separate And Obedient

Gen 13:14  And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:  

Abram's life was one of an ever-perfecting separation. But out of these experiences sprang his rarest joys.

The separate and obedient soul may reckon on:

1. Fresh Revelation. - Whenever Abram dared to step out in obedience, the LORD spake freshly to him.

But in Egypt we find no trace of the Divine voice. If GOD spake there, it would be in warning and rebuke.

Has the voice of GOD long been silent to thee - no fresh command, no deeper insight into truth?

See to it that thou art not in Egypt.

Separate thyself, not only from Haran, but from Lot; not only from what is clearly wrong, but from all that is questionable; and the LORD will speak to thee things it is not possible for men to utter.

2. Further Vision. - Lot lifted up his eyes to espy what would make for his advantage and well-being, and beheld only the plain of Sodom, which indeed was well-watered, but the seat of exceeding sin.

But when Abram lifted up his eyes, not to search out ought for himself, but to see what GOD had prepared, he looked northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward-words which remind us of the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of the love of Christ.

The single eye is full of light; the far climber gets the widest horizon; if thou wilt do His will, thou shalt know.

3. Hundredfold old Compensation.-Whatever Abram renounced, when he left his home, or gave Lot the right to choose, he received back in the usual measure of GOD, with an overflowing overpass.

GOD gave him the entire land, including Lot's portion. We can never give up for GOD, without receiving in this life more than we gave.

~F. B. Meyer~

Believe The Truth Not Lies

Is it not true that our LORD is suffering shame, reproach, and rejection now because of an immense amount of falsehood and misrepresentation in Christianity itself?

If Christianity, rather than being a mere 'religion', were really a life - that is, Christ as an indwelling reality checking us up on our behaviour, conduct, manners, speech, appearance, influence, courtesies or discourtesies - would He not be saved from the hands of many who want a case against Him and find it too easily in those who bear His name?

This kind of life is not to be purchased in religious stores. It is not procured cheaply and from others. 

It is not something 'put on'. It is wrought in the very souls of those concerned, so that others are able to say - 'Something has been done in that one'; and to this we have to give ourselves. 

There is infinite value in a firsthand knowledge of the LORD.

We venture to press our point into another realm, and here it is a venture indeed. But its importance calls for boldness.

Is it not true that a very great amount of the weakness, shame, dishonor, and even disgrace, characterizing Christianity, is due to the ease with which Christians can take up and retail rumours, reports, insinuations, suspicions, and the like? 

'Information' is passed on, and, without investigation, substantiation, or verification, it is accepted as true and repeated.

Is it not true that the ever increasing number of divisions and alienations among Christians can be laid to the account of this failure to verify at first hand the criticisms and judgments that are current?

Surely we are being forced to realize that this whole world - secular and otherwise - is wrapped around with a growingly dense blanket of suspicions, misrepresentations, distortions, insinuations, and lies!

Confidence is well-nigh obliterated. Loyalty and mutual trust have almost entirely disappeared.

The last precious thing in fellowship is assailed.

Unless we constantly draw our breath from Heaven, this evil atmosphere gets into our own spiritual lungs, and we too breathe it out.

Scepticism, mistrust, suspicion, from which very little indeed escapes, is the evil ether of this world.

It wrapped itself around Jesus when He was here, so that He could only live and do anything at all by constantly resorting to the pure atmosphere of Heaven.

The same spirit of prejudice and discrediting dogged the steps of Paul wherever he went.

Attach a question-mark to anything, and the object is at once suspect.

The most poignant and tragic aspect of this sinister campaign of the evil powers is the facility with which Christians sponsor it.

That destructive and blighting 'But' is the common pitfall. 'Yes, there is a lot of good in it (or him); but - you know...' 

That 'But' does not rest upon the solid ground of investigated and verified proof, but upon mere hearsay, or, at best, the prejudiced judgment of someone who has some private interest to protect.

We are zealous for the inspiration of the Scriptures, but we are not allowed to be selective in this.

Not only are the glorious Scriptures of our salvation and the grace of God inspired, but equally such other Scriptures as: "Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that slandereth not with his tongue... nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour" (Psalm 15:1,3). Or: "Prove all things" (1 Thess. 5:21).

Satan's workshop is kept busy night and day making what Paul calls "evil report" (2 Cor. 6:8), and his business is thriving.

The LORD save us all from being accessories to that prosperity.

Here is a realm where we should not be cheated with the cheap words of this nefarious business, but, in the matter of being sure and 'knowing the truth' . 

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Heart The Seeing Organ

The eye is the seeing organ, and eye and body here must not be interpreted physically.
                                    
The LORD is not talking about the literal, physical eye, and the literal, physical body.

He is speaking in symbols, as always in the Gospels.

The eye and body here are symbolical.

If you follow through the rest of the New Testament, you know that the heart is the spiritual eye of man, and the body is his personal presence in any location.

If it is the heart that is the seeing organ, then it is an affection.

The heart is the seat of affection, of love.

Love then becomes the great seeing organ, the thing which is the lamp of a man's presence, that makes him luminous in this world.

Love - not teaching, not what he has, but what he is: the embodiment of Divine love.

Now we are caught. All of us are brought right to the last issue by that. For is not love essentially singleness? 

True love is single, has one object, one interest, one motive.

A lot of other things have got to be done, but they are done in order to get them out of the way in order that the object of love might be the occupation.
 
Love is singleness. Love is utterly selfless.

Oh, GOD have mercy upon us that our love is so often not that kind of love.

We think it is love, but there is a good deal of selfishness about what we call love, drawing to ourselves, making even the object of love, our professed love, serve our ends.

That is the tragedy of the world today.  

It is called love, but what is it? Serving the selfish ends of man.

But true love "seeks not its own" (1 Cor. 13:5) says the apostle, but is utterly selfless, and when it is like that, we are luminous.

Men can see by our presence, they can see GOD, see Christ, see a lot, perhaps all that they need to see, by our being here or there.

We are luminaries - not by a teaching, not by what we have, but we are that.

That is singleness of eye, that is purity of heart, and again I say at the end, that is the only ground on which the LORD is free to commit Himself to us.

If we turn the light of the LORD'S glory upon every situation, every matter, and we do not say, "This is quite permissible and harmless" for that is negative.

We are positive; we say, "Is this to the glory of GOD?"

That is the positive side, that is the single eye. 

The LORD grant it to us!

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Answer Is GOD

Rom 3:3  For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
   
I think that I can trace every scrap of sorrow in my life to simple unbelief.

How could I be anything but quite happy if I believed always that all the past is forgiven, and all the present furnished with power, and all the future bright with hope because of the same abiding facts which do not change with my mood...

The abiding facts do not stumble because I totter and stagger at the promise through unbelief, but stand firm and clear with their peaks of pearl cleaving the air of Eternity, and the bases of their hills rooted unfathomably in the Rock of GOD. 

Mont Blanc does not become a phantom or a mist because a climber grows dizzy on its side.

~James Smetham~
     
Is it any wonder that, when we stagger at any promise of GOD through unbelief, we do not receive it?

Not that faith merits an answer, or in any way earns it, or works it out...

But GOD has made believing a condition of receiving, and the Giver has a sovereign right to choose His own terms of gift. 

~Rev. Samuel Hart~

Unbelief says, "How can such and such things be?" It is full of "hows"; but faith has one great answer to the ten thousand "hows," and that answer is - GOD! 

~C. H. M.~
     
No praying man or woman accomplishes so much with so little expenditure of time as when he or she is praying.
     
If there should arise, it has been said...and the words are surely true to the thought of our LORD Jesus Christ in all His teaching on prayer-if there should arise ONE UTTERLY BELIEVING MAN, the history of the world might be changed.
     
Will YOU not be that one in the providence and guidance of GOD our Father?

~A. E. McAdam~
     
Prayer without faith degenerates into objectless routine, or soulless hypocrisy.

Prayer with faith brings Omnipotence to back our petitions. 

When the true prayer is breathed, earth and heaven, the past and the future, say Amen. And Christ prayed such prayers.

~P. C. M.~
     
Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of GOD.