Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Forget And Forgive

Pro 20:22  Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee. 

Be not in haste. Let anger cool down. Say nothing and do nothing to avenge yourself. 

You will be sure to act unwisely if you take up the cudgels and fight your own battles; 

And, certainly, you will not show the spirit of the LORD Jesus;

It is nobler to forgive and let the offense pass. 

To let an injury rankle in your bosom and to meditate revenge is to keep old wounds open and to make new ones.

Better forget and forgive.

Peradventure, you say that you must do something or be a great loser;

Then do what this morning's promise advises: "Wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee." 

This advice will not cost you money but is worth far more, Be calm and quiet. 

Wait upon the LORD; tell Him your grievance; spread Rabshakeh's letter before the LORD, and this of itself will be an ease to your burdened mind. 

Besides, there is the promise "He shall save thee."

God will find a way of deliverance for you. 

How He will do it neither you nor I can guess, but do it He will;

If the LORD saves you, this will be a deal better than getting into petty quarrels and covering yourself with filth by wrestling with the unclean;

Be no more angry. Leave your suit with the Judge of all.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Monday, April 24, 2017

Christian Cripples


Act 3:6  Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

The members of the new heavenly Israel are people who have been delivered from self-interest into God's interest, who have been put on their spiritual feet by Jesus Christ and are walking in strength in the way of the Lord. 

Do you not think it is a very significant thing that the first miracle after the Day of Pentecost was the raising of an impotent man at the gate of the temple in Jerusalem? 

These are not just pretty stories put together to make an interesting book.

God knows what He is doing, and when He makes the first miracle of the Christian era the raising of an impotent cripple, He is saying that the people of this new Israel are people who have been delivered from this impotence and put on their feet spiritually.

There are a lot of Christian cripples about! 

They cannot get on their own feet, nor can other people put them there. 

You try to pick them up! They may take a step or two, and then down they go again. 

There are many like that, and you can spend your life trying to get them up on their feet. 

What is it that is eating the very life out of them?

What is it that is making them such helpless cripples that they cannot walk?

It is self-centeredness. 

Make no mistake about it, it is self in some form. 

It is self that wants to be taken notice of. 

It is self in the form of pride. 

This poor man was delivered because he knew his own helplessness and he believed what Jesus said. 

He believed on to Jesus Christ, which means that he believed out of himself.

Yes, that is the secret – that we shall turn from our miserable selves and cease to be occupied with them, saying once and for all: "I am done with you, wretched self."

I throw myself on to Jesus Christ.

I take the one great step of committal.

Jesus never lets such a person down.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Saturday, April 22, 2017

He Never Fails

Jos 1:5  There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

This word to Joshua is often quoted; it is the basis of that New Testament word "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

Beloved, a life of warfare is before us, but the LORD of Hosts is with us.

Are we called to lead a great but fickle people?

This promise guarantees us all the wisdom and prudence that we shall need.

Have we to contend with cunning and powerful enemies?

Here is strength and valor, prowess and victory.

Have we a vast heritage to win? By this sign we shall achieve our purpose; the LORD Himself is with us.

It would be woe to us indeed if Jehovah could fail us; but, as this can never be, the winds of disquietude are laid to sleep in the caverns of divine faithfulness.

On no one occasion will the LORD desert us.

Happen what may, He will be at our side.

Friends drop from us, their help is but an April shower; but God is faithful, Jesus is the same forever, and the Holy Spirit abideth in us.

Come, my heart, be calm and hopeful today.

Clouds may gather, but the LORD can blow them away.

Since God will not fail me, my faith shall not fail; and as He will not forsake me, neither will I forsake Him.

Oh, for a restful faith!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Desires Of The Righteous Granted

Pro 10:24  The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.

Because it is a righteous desire it is safe for God to grant it. 

It would be neither good for the man himself, nor for society at large, that such a promise should be made to the unrighteous.

Let us keep the LORD's commands, and He will rightfully have respect to our desires.

When righteous men are left to desire unrighteous desires, they will not be granted to them.


But then these are not their real desires; they are their wanderings or blunders, and it is well that they should be refused.

Their gracious desires shall come before the LORD, and He will not say them nay.

Does the LORD deny us our requests for a time? 


Let the promise for today encourage us to ask again.

Has He denied us altogether? 

We will thank Him still, for it always was our desire that He should deny us if He judged a denial to be best.

As to some things, we ask very boldly. Our chief desires are for holiness, usefulness, likeness to Christ, preparedness for heaven. 


These are the desires of grace rather than of nature -- the desires of the righteous man rather than of the mere man. 

God will not stint us in these things but will do for us exceeding abundantly. 

Delight thy self also in the LORD, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

This day, my soul, ask largely!  

~Charles Spurgeon~

Monday, April 10, 2017

The Cross Seeks To Remove Whatever Serves Satan

Why has the Holy Spirit come? Oh! Not that we might have blessings and what we call power and influence and opportunity and service.

No, He has come as Representative and Agent of the Christ, who has secured the rights of God in His own Person. 

To bring about the recognition and realization of the rights in this earth, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The second thing that comes out of this is that the Holy Spirit always demands the ground of the Cross for His activity, if the glory of God is in view.

But then, the Cross registers the removal of all that serves Satan. 

What was it that served Satan in Cain? Covetousness, personal ambition, jealousy, pride!

That worked itself out in the murder of Abel which was an expression of hatred for God. 

What was it that served Satan in Balaam? Greed, covetousness, world-gain. 

The Cross registers the removal by destruction of all that served Satan, and for us it is gathered up in one word: SELF.

What a wide word that is - what a comprehensive word!

The stronger term is “the flesh”.

Some people do not know what you mean when you talk about the “flesh”. 

They begin to think of positive vices and iniquities of deep dye. 

But the “flesh” is only another term for “self”. 

Self is a very subtle thing, a many-sided thing.

It includes self-interest, self-glory, self-preservation, self-realization, self-advancement...

All those considerations of influence and good-standing and prestige and following, and being understood and spoken well of. 

The phases of “self” are legion, and they, every one of them, serve Satan.

Moreover, they serve him in this other sense, that they divide the rights of God and usurp the place of God:

And therefore, wherever there is the slightest suggestion or insinuation of self, the Glory of God is obscured and the Cross has got to be applied there.

The Cross is not applied in the work of God just because God wants us out of it for the sake of having us out of it, to humble, to crush, to break us; no, it has this great end in view – HIS GLORY. 

The Cross, dear friend, means utter devotion to God’s glory.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Friday, April 7, 2017

Without Fear Of Man

Then we can have no reason to be afraid of them.

This would show a mean spirit and be a token of unbelief rather than of faith.

God can make us so like Himself that men shall be forced to see that we rightly bear His name and truly belong to the holy Jehovah. 

Oh, that we may obtain this grace which the LORD waits to bestow!

Be assured that ungodly men have a fear of true saints.

They hate them, but they also fear them. 

Haman trembled because of Mordecai, even when he sought the good man's destruction.

In fact, their hate often arises out of a dread which they are too proud to confess. 

Let us pursue the path of truth and uprightness without the slightest tremor. 

Fear is not for us but for those who do ill and fight against the LORD of hosts. 

If indeed the name of the eternal God is named upon us, we are secure; for, as of old, a Roman had but to say Romanus sum, I am a Roman, and he could claim the protection of all the legions of the vast empire; 

So every one who is a man of God has omnipotence as his guardian, and God will sooner empty heaven of angels than leave a saint without defense.

Be braver than lions for the right, for God is with you.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Sensitive To Warning

Many despise warning and perish.

Happy is he who trembles at the Word of God. 

Josiah did so, and he was spared the sight of the evil which the LORD determined to send upon Judah because of her great sins.

Have you this tenderness?

Do you practice this self-humiliation?

Then you also shall be spared in the evil day.

God sets a mark upon the men that sigh and cry because of the sin of the times. 

The destroying angel is commanded to keep his sword in its sheath till the elect of God are sheltered: 

These are best known by their godly fear and their trembling at the Word of the LORD.

Are the times threatening? 

Does infidelity advance with great strides, and do you dread national chastisement upon this polluted nation?

Well you may. 

Yet rest in this promise: "Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace: and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which l will bring upon this place." 

Better still, the LORD Himself may come, and then the days of our mourning shall be ended. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Do Not Yield To Discouragement

Exo 16:10  And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

You should get into the habit of looking for the silver lining of storm clouds. 


And once you have found it, continue to focus on it rather than the dark gray of the center.

Do not yield to discouragement no matter how severely stressed or surrounded by problems you may be. 

A discouraged soul is in a helpless state, being neither able to “stand against the devil’s schemes” (Eph. 6:11) himself nor able to prevail in prayer for others.

Flee every symptom of the deadly foe of discouragement as you would run from a snake.

Never be slow to turn your back on it, unless you desire to eat the dust of bitter defeat.
 

Search for specific promises of God,saying aloud of each one, “This promise is mine.”

Then if you still experience feelings of doubt and discouragement, pour your heart out to God, asking Him to rebuke the Adversary who is so mercilessly harassing you.
 

The very instant you wholeheartedly turn away from every symptom of discouragement and lack of trust, the blessed Holy Spirit will reawaken your faith and breathe God’s divine strength into your soul.

Initially you may be unaware that this is happening, but as you determine to uncompromisingly shun every attack of even the tendency toward doubt and depression, you will quickly see the powers of darkness being turned back.
 

Oh, if only our eyes could see the mighty armies of strength and power that are always behind our turning away from the hosts of darkness toward God, there would be no attention given to the efforts of our cunning Foe to distress, depress, or discourage us!

All the miraculous attributes of the Godhead are marshaled on the side of even the weakest believer who, in the name of Christ and in simple, childlike trust, yields himself to God and turns to Him for help and guidance. 

~Selected~
 

One day in autumn, while on the open prairie, I saw an eagle mortally wounded by a rifle shot.

With his eyes still gleaming like small circles of light, he slowly turned his head, giving one last searching and longing look toward the sky.

He had often swept those starry spaces with his wonderful wings.

The beautiful sky was the home of his heart. It was the eagle’s domain.
 

It was there he had displayed his splendid strength a thousand times.

In those lofty heights, he had played with the lightning and raced the wind.

And now, far below his home, the eagle lay dying. 

He faced death because - just once he forgot and flew too low.
 

My soul is that eagle. 

This is not its home.

It must never lose its skyward look.

I must keep faith, I must keep hope, I must keep courage, I must keep Christ. 

It would be better to crawl immediately from the battlefield than to not be brave.

There is no time for my soul to retreat.

Keep your skyward look,my soul; keep your skyward look!
 

Keep looking up - The waves that roar around your feet, Jehovah-Jireh will defeat When looking up.

Keep looking up Though darkness seems to wrap your soul;
 

The Light of Light will fill your soul When looking up.
 

Keep looking up When worn, distracted with the fight;
 

Your Captain gives you conquering might When you look up.