When The Bird Of Thought Was Let Go!

Anyone who wishes to check on his true spiritual condition may do so, by noting what his voluntary thoughts have been over the last hours or days.
 
What has he thought about, when free to think of whatever he pleased?
 
Toward what has his inner heart turned, when it was free to turn wherever it desired?

When the bird of thought was let go, did it fly out like the raven to settle upon floating carcasses-or did it like the dove circle and return again to the ark of God?

Such a test is easy to run, and if we are honest with ourselves-we can discover not only what we are, but what we are going to become. 

We will soon be the sum of our voluntary thoughts!

~A. W. Tozer~

His Service, Face, Name

Rev 22:4  And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.                                                      

Three choice blessings will be ours in the gloryland. "His servants shall serve him." 

No other lords shall oppress us, no other service shall distress us. 

We shall serve Jesus always, perfectly, without weariness, and without error. 

This is heaven to a saint: in all things to serve the LORD Christ and to be owned by Him as His servant is our soul's high ambition for eternity.

And they shall see his face....

This makes the service delightful: indeed, it is the present reward of service. 

We shall know our LORD, for we shall see Him as He is. 

To see the face of Jesus is the utmost favor that the most faithful servant of the LORD can ask. 

What more could Moses ask than-"Let me see thy face?" 

And his name shall be in their foreheads.

They gaze upon their LORD till His name is photographed upon their brows. 

They are acknowledged by Him, and they acknowledge Him. 

The secret mark of inward grace develops into the public sign-manual of confessed relationship.
 
O LORD, give us these three things in their beginnings here that we may possess them in their fullness in Thine own abode of bliss!

~Charles Spurgeon~

God First, Then Extras

                                                      
Mat 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 

See how the Bible opens: "In the beginning God." 

Let your life open in the same way. 

Seek with your whole soul, first and foremost, the kingdom of God, as the place of your citizenship, and His righteousness as the character of your life. 

As for the rest, it will come from the LORD Himself without your being anxious concerning it. 

All that is needful for this life and godliness "shall be added unto you."

What a promise this is!

Food, raiment, home, and so forth, God undertakes to add to you while you seek Him.

You mind His business, and He will mind yours.

If you want paper and string, you get them given in when you buy more important goods...

And just so all that we need of earthly things we shall have thrown in with the kingdom. 

He who is an heir of salvation shall not die of starvation...

And he who clothes his soul with the righteousness of God cannot be left of the LORD with a naked body. 

Away with carping care. 

Set all your mind upon seeking the LORD. 

Covetousness is poverty, and anxiety is misery:

Trust in God is an estate, and likeness of God is a heavenly inheritance. 

LORD, I seek Thee; be found of me.

~Charles Spurgeon~

God's Multiplication Table

Works for the LORD often begin on a small scale, and they are none the worse for this. 

Feebleness educates faith, brings God near, and wins glory for His name. 

Prize promises of increase! 

Mustard seed is the smallest among seeds, and yet it becomes a treelike plant, with branches which lodge the birds of heaven.

We may begin with one, and that "a little one," and yet it will "become a thousand." 

The LORD is great at the multiplication table. 

How often did He say to His lone servant, "I will multiply thee!" 

Trust in the LORD, ye ones and twos; for He will be in the midst of you if you are gathered in His name. 

A small one. What can be more despicable in the eyes of those who count heads and weigh forces! 

Yet this is the nucleus of a great nation. 

Only one star shines out at first in the evening, but soon the sky is crowded with countless lights. 

Nor need we think the prospect of increase to be remote, for the promise is, "I Jehovah will hasten it in his time."

There will be no premature haste, like that which we see at excited meetings; it will be all in due time, but yet there will be no delay. 

When the LORD hastens, His speed is glorious.

~Charles Spurgeon~

A Warning Against Hardness Of Heart

                                      
Heb 3:13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

The children of Israel in their coming out of Egypt, and in their forty years sojourn in the wilderness, represented the visible Church of the living God; not the secret and elect body of the redeemed, but the professing company of the outward Church.

They were very prone to the great sin of unbelief.

They believed in God after a fashion while they saw his wonders, but the moment they were brought into straits or difficulties, they at once began to doubt the power or Jehovah, and to cast off all reverence for his authority. 

Hence they fell into another sin which at last fastened on them so as to become a part of their nature...

They became stiff-necked, obstinate, rebellious, perverse, and hard of heart.

They would not learn, although their lesson-book had miracles for its pictures. 

Their hearts became so hard that although they saw all the great things which God did for them, they despised the pleasant land...

And were ready at times for the sake of the flesh-pots of Egypt, to wear again the yoke of Pharaoh, and to die the inglorious death of slaves. 

Such, also, are the great sins of the Christian Church...

Unbelief the root, and obstinacy the fruit. 

Brethren and sisters, if we know our own hearts, we must confess that unbelief is a sin which does very easily beset us, and that our obstinacy may well provoke the Lord to anger.

We rejoice in God while the rocks run with rivers, and while the daily manna drops about our tents...

But when the fiery serpent bites us...

Or the wells are bitter...

Or our comforts are in any way interfered with...

We begin to distrust and to suspect the faithfulness of God...

And, as the result of this, there is an obstinacy about us which often inclines us to stand out against the plain precepts of God...

Because, forsooth, in the judgment of our unbelief, obedience might lead us into trouble, and disobedience might make our path smooth. 

Oh that it were not, too sadly true that God's people are liable to be overtaken by the worst of sins! 

Egypt itself did not produce worse sins than those which provoked the Lord to anger in the camp of Israel...

And to this day the Church has some in it who defile her with all the sins of the world.

I do not mean to insinuate that the Church of God is not infinitely to be preferred to the world in character; God forbid that I should slander the fair bride of Christ, she is as much superior to the world as the curtains of Solomon excel the smoke blacked tents of Kedar;

But who dares deny that there are specimens to be found of the worst of sins occurring among true believers...

Just as in the most carefully tended garden there will spring up here and there some of the most noxious weeds...

Not that the weeds are permitted to smother the whole garden and kill the flowers, but that their coming there while men sleep, is an indication of what the soil is, and a plain manifestation that although the garden is very different from the piece of waste ground on the other side of the wall, yet it differs not in nature, but owes all its superiority to the culture of the husbandman...

Even as the saints owe all their excellence above the very chief of sinners, to the guardian care and omnipotent grace of the great lover of souls.

It seems, dear friends, that it is really necessary to warn God's people, although they have received the new nature, and are partakers of the adoption, against being hardened in heart through the deceitfulness of sin, and that there is a machinery provided by which the saints may be preserved from this great evil. 

Exhort one another daily, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

~T. Austin Sparks~