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 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~

Better Pleased If The LORD Did Not Inquire

Most Christians would be better pleased...if the Lord did not inquire into their personal affairs too closely. 

They want Him to save them...

Keep them happy...

And take them to Heaven at last...

But not to be too inquisitive about their desires or daily conduct.

But He has searched us and known us...

He knows our down sitting and our uprising and understands our thoughts afar off. 

There is no place to hide from those eyes that are as a flame of fire...

And there is no way to escape from the Judgment of those feet that are like fine brass. 

It is the part of wisdom to live with these things in mind!

~A. W. Tozer~

The Utilitarian Christ!

Our Lord forewarned us that false Christs would come.

Mostly we think of these as coming from the outside...but we should remember that they may also arise within the church itself.

We must be extremely careful that the Christ we profess to follow, is indeed the very Christ of Scripture. 

There is always danger that we may be following a Christ who is not the true Christ but one conjured up by our imagination and made in our own image.

I confess to a feeling of uneasiness about this when I observe the questionable things Christ is said to do for people these days.

He is often recommended as a wonderfully obliging, but not too discriminating, Big Brother who delights to help us to accomplish our ends...

And who further favors us by forbearing to ask any embarrassing questions about the moral and spiritual qualities of those ends.

Within the past few years, Christ has been popularized by some so-called evangelicals as one who, if a proper amount of prayer were made would help the pious prize fighter to knock another fighter unconscious in the ring.

Christ is also said to help the big league pitcher to get the proper hook on his curve.

In another instance He assists an athlete to win the high jump; and in another case, not only to come in first in a track meet  but to set a new record in the bargain.

He is said also to have helped a praying businessman to beat out a competitor in a deal. 

He is even thought to lend support to a praying movie actress while she plays a role so lewd as to bring the blood to the face of a professional prostitute!

Thus our Lord becomes the Christ of utility...a kind of Aladdin's lamp to do minor miracles in behalf of anyone who summons Him to do his bidding.

Apparently no one stops to consider that if Christ were to step into a prize ring and use His divine power to help one prize fighter to paralyze another...that He would be putting one fighter at a cruel disadvantage and violating every common instinct of fair play. 

If He were to aid one businessman to the detriment of another, He would be practicing favoritism and revealing a character wholly unlike the Bible picture of the real Christ. 

All this is too horrible to contemplate.

Theirs is a Christ of carnal convenience...not too far removed from the gods of paganism.

The whole purpose of God in redemption is to make us holy and to restore us to the image of Christ. 

To accomplish this, He disengages us from earthly ambitions and draws us away from the cheap and unworthy prizes that worldly men set their hearts upon.

A holy man would not dream of asking God to help him beat an opponent, or win over a competitor.

No man in whom the Spirit dwells, could bring himself to ask the Lord to help him knock another man unconscious, for filthy lucre or the plaudits of the vulgar spectators.

To teach that Christ will use His sacred power to further our worldly interests, is to wrong our Lord and injure our own souls.

We modern evangelicals need to learn the truths of the sovereignty of God and the lordship of Christ. 

Christ will not be manipulated by any of Adam's selfish brood!

We had better learn these things fast if this generation of young Christians is to be spared the supreme tragedy of following a Christ who is merely a Christ of convenience...and not the true Lord of glory after all!

~T. A. Sparks~

A Christian And His Money

The whole question of the believer and his money is so involved and so intimate that one hesitates to approach a consideration of it. 

Yet it is of such grave importance that one who desires to qualify as a good servant of Christ Dare Not Avoid It lest he be found wanting in the day of reckoning.
 
Someone should tackle the problem in the light of Scripture. 

God's people will have reason to thank the man who has the courage to deal with it.
 
Four considerations should govern our Christian giving...

They are: (1) That we give regularly; (2) that we give from a right motive; (3) that we give enough in proportion to what we possess, and (4) that we give to the right place or places.
 
First, we should see to it that we give of our substance to the Lord with regularity. 

It is so very easy to fall into the habit of forgetting to do this. 

We tell ourselves that we are not able to give at the moment, but that when we are better fixed financially we shall catch up on our giving.
 
Or we assure ourselves that while we do not give regularly we no doubt give far beyond our tenth, if the truth were known. 

These are sure ways to deceive ourselves. 

Spotty, unregular giving has a way of appearing far greater than it is. 

We would likely be quite shocked if we took the trouble to find out just how little we really give that way.
 
Then we must give from a right motive. 

Money paid to a church or missionary society may be for the giver money wasted unless he first makes sure that his heart is in his gift. 

Gifts that do not carry the heart with them may do the receiver some good, but it is certain that they will bring the giver no reward. "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor... and have not charity(love), it profiteth me nothing."
 
Then it is also important that we give enough in proportion to what we possess. 

The story of the widow and her two mites makes this very clear. 

The widow gave out of her "poverty," and though her gift was small it was in the sight of God a far greater treasure than all the huge sums donated by the rich "out of their abundance." 

This is a Solemn Warning and we shall do well to Heed It.
 
We humans judge "after the sight of our eyes" and so are prone to make a great deal over a large donation and pass over the small ones without comment.

By so doing we are letting ourselves in for a fearful shock in the day of Christ. 

The safest rule to appraise our giving and determine our expectations in the day of rewards is this...

Remember, my giving will be rewarded not by how much I gave but by how much I had left. 

Ministers are sometimes tempted to shy away from such doctrine as this lest they offend the important givers in their congregation. 

But it is better to Offend Men than to grieve the blessed Spirit of God which dwells in the church. 

No man ever yet killed a true church by withdrawing his gifts from it because of a personal offense.
 
The Church of the Firstborn is not dependent upon the patronage of men. 

No man has ever been able really to harm a church by boycotting it financially. 

The moment we admit that we fear the displeasure of the carnal givers in our congregations we admit also that our congregations are not of heaven but of the earth. 

A heavenly church will enjoy a heavenly and supernatural prosperity.
 
She cannot be starved out. 

The Lord Will Supply her needs.
 
That we place our gifts intelligently is also of vital importance if we would please our Heavenly Father and save those gifts from the fate of "wood, hay and stubble" at the coming of our Lord.

The matter of where to give is a large one, and one that we had all better settle while we can. 

Careless, unintelligent and prejudiced giving is wasting millions of consecrated dollars among evangelical Christians. 

Many believers toss their gifts around as if they did not expect to give an account of them to the Lord. 

They have not found the mind of the Lord on the question of their own giving, so they become the prey of anyone who happens along with an interesting story.

In this way innumerable religious rackets are enabled to flourish which should Never Receive One Cent from serious-minded and God-honoring people.
 
Now, we are quite aware that the reply to the above could be a polite request that we stay in our own back yard and let people put their own money where they please; after all it is theirs, and what they do with it is their own affair.

But it is not that simple.

If we must Give Account of every idle word, surely we must also Give Account of every idle dollar. 

Spotty, prayerless and whimsical giving will come under the just scrutiny of God in the day when He judges every work of men. 

We can do something about this whole thing now. 

Very soon it will be too late.

~A. W. Tozer~