Let No Evil Remain

Deut. 13:17  And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; 

Israel must conquer idolatrous cities and destroy all the spoil, regarding all that had been polluted by idolatry as an accursed thing to be burned with fire.

Now, sin of all sorts must be treated by Christians in the same manner.

We must not allow a single evil habit to remain.

It is now war to the knife with sins of all sorts and sizes, whether of the body, the mind, or the spirit.

We do not look upon this giving up of evil as deserving mercy, but we regard it as a fruit of the grace of God, which we would on no account miss.

When God causes us to have no mercy on our sins, then He has great mercy on us.

When we are angry with evil, God is no more angry with us. 

When we multiply our efforts against iniquity, the LORD multiplies our blessings.

The way of peace, of growth, of safety, of joy in Christ Jesus will be found by following out these words: "There shall nought of the cursed thing cleave to thine hand."

LORD, purify me this day.

Compassion, prosperity, increase, and joy will surely be given to those who put away sin with solemn resolution. 

~Charles Spurgeon

Expectations Beyond Us

Act 12:5  Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

But prayer is the link that connects us with God. This is the bridge that spans every gulf and bears us over every abyss of danger or of need.

How significant the picture of the Apostolic Church: Peter in prison, the Jews triumphant, Herod supreme, the arena of martyrdom awaiting the dawning of the morning to drink up the apostle's blood, and everything else against it. 

But prayer was made unto God without ceasing.

And what was the sequel? The prison open, the apostle free, the Jews baffled, the wicked king eaten of worms, a spectacle of hidden retribution, and the Word of God rolling on in greater victory.

Do we know the power of our supernatural weapon? Do we dare to use it with the authority of a faith that commands as well as asks?

GOD baptize us with holy audacity and Divine confidence!

He is not wanting great men, but He is wanting men who will dare to prove the greatness of their GOD. 

But GOD! But prayer!

~A. B. Simpson~

Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting GOD, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. 

Expect unexpected things, above all that we ask or think. Each time you intercede, be quiet first and worship God in His glory. 

Think of what He can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of your place in Christ; and expect great things.

~Andrew Murray~

Our prayers are God's opportunities.

Are you in sorrow? Prayer can make your affliction sweet and strengthening. Are you in gladness? Prayer can add to your joy a celestial perfume. 

Are you in extreme danger from outward or inward enemies? Prayer can set at your right hand an angel whose touch could shatter a millstone into smaller dust than the flour it grinds, and whose glance could lay an army low. 

What will prayer do for you? I answer: All that God can do for you. "Ask what I shall give thee." 

~Farrar~

Wrestling prayer can wonders do, Bring relief in deepest straits; Prayer can force a passage through Iron bars and brazen gates.

The Overcomer's Reward

Rev 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. 

My heart, be thou stirred up to persevere in the Holy War, for the reward of Victory is great. 

Today we eat of heavenly food which falls about our camps; the food of the wilderness, the food which comes from heaven, the food which never fails the pilgrims to Canaan.

But there is reserved for us in Christ Jesus a still higher degree of spiritual life and a food for it which, as yet, is hidden from our experience.

In the golden pot which was laid up in the ark there was a portion of manna hidden away, which though kept for ages never grew stale.

No one ever saw it; it was hid with the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies.

Even so, the highest life of the believer is hid with Christ, in God.

We shall come to it soon, Being made victorious through the grace of our LORD Jesus, we shall eat of the King's meat and feed upon royal dainties.

We shall feed upon Jesus. He is our "hidden manna," as well as the manna of the wilderness.

He is all in all to us in our highest, as well as in our lowest, estate.

He helps us to fight, gives us the victory, and then is Himself our reward. LORD, help me to overcome. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Willed Blindness

In Paphos there lived a sorcerer named Elymas, who posed as a prophet. He belonged to the governor's retinue.

Seized with jealousy because the governor wanted to hear the word of the Lord from Paul and Barnabas, Elymas tried to turn him aside from faith.

Having seen the light, Elymas preferred darkness and preferred also that others remain in darkness if their turning to the light should turn them away from him. 

He thus willfully falsified the truth and was struck blind.

The result of deliberate deception is blindness. 

The man who, to preserve his own position, deceives himself or another, is a swindler (this is what Paul called Elymas), "rascal, son of the devil, enemy of all goodness" (Acts 13:10).

Act 13:8  But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
 
Act 13:9  Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him,
 
Act 13:10  And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
 
Act 13:11  And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. 

God is light and in Him is not any darkness at all. 

If we guard some corner of darkness in ourselves, we will soon be drawing someone else into darkness, shutting them out from the light in the face of Jesus Christ.

"Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen" (Book of Common Prayer).

~Elisabeth Ellliot~

Follow The WORD Alone

What happens if "our" scenario of the second coming of Christ does not pan out in our lifetime? Will we lose faith?

Will we be discouraged? Forelorn?

You see, our plans and interpretations; The LORD does "NOT" follow! It is His WORD He goes by! Not "Our" interpretation of His WORD according to what we read in the newspaper, or see on the mainstream news, or the alternative news!

Lets walk completely in and by the Spirit of GOD, and Let Him show us! 

Our limited finite minds CANNOT discern the Many moves of The LORD!

Only the Mind Of Christ in the Holy Spirit can give us the Understanding we seek!

So Let us all "The Church" by Surrender receive more and more the Mind of Christ and follow HIM!

Mar 13:23-27  But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things. 

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 

And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. 

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
  
And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

~John~

A Call Of Warning

You have no power to say, "I'll hear the trumpet tomorrow." 

It may not blow tomorrow. 

You haven't got the control of the trumpet, God has. And God's Holy Spirit is the breath by which the trumpet sounds.

And you cannot order the Holy Spirit to speak to you another time. He says, "Today if you will hear, today... I guarantee nothing after today, I call today." "Today if you will hear His voice..." 

Yes it's love, it's mercy, but it is solemn warning.

There seems to be two tones mingling in this sound, it's a joyful sound, it's a joyful sound, how blessed, how pleasant is the Gospel sound, it's the Gospel sound and 'Gospel' means 'good news'.

It's good news sounding forth: God has, by His Son, His Son's death, His Son's bearing of our sin and our judgement, God has provided redemption. 

That's good news for you, dear friends, for you He's provided. That's the joyful sound.

The psalmist speaks of the joyful sound and they're blessed who hear the joyful sound.

And yet, and yet, mingled with the joyful sound there is a solemn sound. 

The Bible speaks of solemn festivities; solemn festivities, the mingling of joy and solemnity because of the tremendous issues that are involved.

And you would not have me do other than tell you that it is, it is a solemn and a very terrible thing to close your heart and your ears to God speaking.

There's a lot involved, a lot involved, oh, everything is involved! 

I remember so well some years, yes many years ago, I was visiting in the house of a friend and there came to that house that evening a man and we got talking after the evening meal.

And he said, "I, somehow or other, I felt I'd got to come over here tonight." He'd come right across from the other side of the village. 

"Somehow I felt I'd got to come over here tonight, I don't know why, I can't explain it at all, but there it is." So I said, "Oh well, probably as we talk on we will discover why."

And I began to talk to him. It wasn't very long before we discovered the why, God had some interest in that life for which I'd been brought there that night. And I said "What about it?" and he said, "Well, I must go away and think about it." 

"Well," I said, "Don't think too long, arrive at a conclusion as quick as you can."

He went away, we didn't hear anything of him for a little while. 

Strangely enough, I was in that same home some few weeks afterwards and the same man arrived at the same time! He looked a little sheepish when he found I was there again, and at any rate I was for business.

Before long I came down and said "Well, what about that matter?" it came out, "You said that you believe that God had brought you right across the city for that thing, that night. What about it?"

And he said, "Yes, I thought about it, and then I went to consult someone about it and asked them..." (a minister by the way, a minister whom he happened to know) "and he said 'Oh don't you worry about those things. Don't worry about those things, don't you become fanatical. It's alright, it's alright.'" 

Well, I said, "Oh, so it's this man or it's God! 

You said that you believed that God had brought you and spoken to you and raised an issue and then you allow man to contradict God and say 'it doesn't matter what God says.'" 

Well, we got down and again he came to it and he said, "I can't get away from it, I believe, I believe that's what God wants." 

He got right to the point again, but he wouldn't give in; he wouldn't have that transaction.

He went away again, and it was some months before I saw him and for the third time this thing happened, and still he didn't respond to God.

And then sometime afterward I happened to be right on the other side of the city and was walking along a certain road and I saw a man coming toward me on a cycle and he got within recognition distance of me and saw who it was and wheeled round on his cycle and went for dear life.

And I heard later that that man had gone headlong into sin and lost all hope, down deep into a lost condition. 

Don't run that risk. 

When God speaks, when God brings you where the trumpet is sounding it's a very, very big thing that is at stake: whether you respond or whether you say, "Well, I'll think about it" or "I must ask So-and-so about it and see what they say."

Or any other kind of prevarication. No, no, the Lord says "Today, if you will hear His voice..." While it is today... everything may hang upon that.

I'm not trying to be emotional, I'm not trying to be sensational, but I am saying that the trumpet sounds, the trumpet sounds, you've heard it, the Spirit of God speaking to you and telling you tonight what God wants where you are concerned.

He wants you to Himself as one of His redeemed ones in the enjoyment of that redemption.

It is for you to say, "Yes I hear and I respond, I come, I answer the call." May God so influence you that you will do that.

~T. Austin Sparks~

What Is The Daily Cross?

What is our daily cross? It is that one or more things which are unavoidable in our lives, and which produce suffering of body or mind or heart.

It is that thing which in our poor judgment seems to hinder the easy flow of our religious life.

Sometimes our cross may be composed of a combination of things, but as a general rule, it is some one instrument or cause of suffering to the soul.

Were there no suffering of some kind involved, then there could be no cross at all, for the only thing in a cross is its pain.

The outward form of the daily cross may change with years, or the same cross may continue till death; but in some form it abides.

It is as impossible for the true saint not to have some cross as it is to walk in the sunshine without having shadow.

The Holy Ghost gives us to understand plainly that the multitudes of jolly, ease-loving, and easy-going religionists, who bear no daily suffering with Jesus, are only sectarian-born religious bastards, and not really kingdom-born souls (Heb 12:8).

It is your daily cross that makes you weep more than any other thing; that sends you to frequent prayer; that leads you to ransack the promises; that makes you cry out, like Jesus, "Father, why is this?" that causes you to reach out to the everlasting arms which sustain you (Deu 33:27); that makes you sick of the world and selfishness; that gives you longings for heaven.

Oh, precious old homely, daily cross, what deep and far- reaching effects thou hast wrought through all these prayer-paved years!

~G. D. Watson~

All Untruth Is Satanic

Satan is described as the liar and the father of lies.   

For that reason all untruth is an abomination to God. 

God has consigned all liars to the lake of fire; He has excluded from the New Jerusalem everything that maketh a lie.

God hates everything that is not true, and true right through and through like Himself. 

He must have truth in the inward parts. 

The interference of Satan with God's creation - man - resulted in man becoming something false where God is concerned: he is a misrepresentation of God's mind; and he is a deceived creature.

"The god of this age", says Paul, "hath blinded the mind of the unbelieving". 

Man is a deceived, blinded creature; but God desires "truth in the inward parts".

Now, you see how large a matter this is, and one is hard-pressed to know what to say, and what not to say about it.

But let us dwell for a moment upon this clause "the inward parts" - the inward parts.

You will detect in this Psalm that that is running right through. Here it is: "create in me a clean heart"; "renew a right spirit within me"; "a broken spirit and a contrite heart Thou wilt not despise".  

You see, it is all this innermost realm of things that has now arisen as the real need. 

No more deception, no more falsehood, no more mockery, no more make-believe, no more going on as though it is all right when it is not all right; no more using external means to cover over inward unreality; no more going to meetings, and saying prayers, and joining in the whole system, when the inward parts are not right before God.

Seeing then that we are what we are by nature now, this represents a re-constituting of us.

Anything that does not minister to that is false in itself.

Any system of religion that just puts on from the outside, and covers over the inner life by mere rite and ritual is false, it is not true. 

The work of God is to reconstitute human nature. And that, of course, involves two things.

On the one side, it involves a breaking down. And if you know anything about God's dealings with lives who come into His hands, there is undoubtedly a large place for that - a progressive breaking down; a getting to the root of things, and undeceiving us.

If we have any illusions about ourselves, they will all be gone when God has done with us.

If we are governed by any kind of falsehood about ourselves, and our position, and our work, when God has done with us, that will all be gone.

He is going to break us down until we see ourselves stark, as an unclean thing, with all our righteousnesses as filthy rags.

So He will break us down, and He does.
 
But there is the other side, of course, all the time, for God is not only, and always negative; there is the constructing, bringing up to the place where anything that is false, anything that is not absolutely transparent and true, straight, clear, is hateful to us. 

More and more our inner man revolts against our own falsehood.

Any exaggeration comes back on us at once with conviction of wrong; any false statement hits us hard, and we know that we have not spoken the truth.

It is a tremendous thing to get into the hands of the Holy Spirit, until, like God, the one thing that we hate is anything that is false.

"I hate", said David, "every false way". We must come there. But we must be lovers of the truth.  

And this is going to pursue us everywhere; it will pursue us into our own life within ourselves, that we are not deceiving ourselves at all.

Before God we know exactly what God thinks about us, and we know where we stand in the light.

~T. Austin Sparks~

An Expert Searcher

Eze 34:11  For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 

This He does at the first when His elect are like wandering sheep that know not the Shepherd or the fold.

How wonderfully doth the LORD find out His chosen! Jesus is great as a seeking Shepherd as well as a saving Shepherd. 

Though many of those His Father gave Him have gone as near to hell-gate as they well can, yet the LORD by searching and seeking discovers them and draws nigh to them in grace. 

He has sought out us: let us have good hope for those who are laid upon our hearts in prayer, for He will find them out alsoThe LORD repeats this process when any of His flock stray from the pastures of truth and holiness.

They may fall into gross error, sad sin, and grievous hardness; but yet the LORD, who has become a surety for them to His Father, will not suffer one of them to go so far as to perish.

He will by providence and grace pursue them into foreign lands, into abodes of poverty, into dens of obscurity, into depths of despair; He will not lose one of all that the Father has given Him.

It is a point of honor with Jesus to seek and to save all the flock, without a single exception.

What a promise to plead, if at this hour I am compelled to cry, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep!"

~Charles Spurgeon~ 

These Poor swine!

Mar 5:2  And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
 
Mar 5:3  Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
 
Mar 5:4  Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
 
Mar 5:5  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

In this demoniac, we have a sample of the work of Satan — when he gets full control in a man.

He destroys every beautiful thing in the life, and leaves only ruin! 

No chains could bind this demoniac.

When sin is on the throne, all other influences and constraints become like spiders' threads in comparison!

No chain is strong enough to bind the man who has yielded himself to the sway of the Evil One!

The love of a godly mother is a strong bond but many a child tears off this holy chain and rushes into wayward and evil paths! 

Home ties are strong but these too are broken asunder, by the victim of Satan's ungodly rule.

We see that the demoniac cut and gashed himself with stones. This illustrates what in many ways, Satan's captives do.

They may not literally go about cutting their flesh with knives or bruising their bodies with stones; but they do gash and bruise their souls!

Sin always wounds the life and one of its fearful consequences is the self-destruction it works.

Every sin one commits leaves an ugly scar!

We grieve God by our wrongdoing, and we harm others when we sin against them; but we always injure ourselves by every evil word we speak, by every wrong act we commit, even by the evil thoughts we think in our hearts.

The self-hurt of sin is one of its saddest consequences! 

Demons find their pleasure in working mischief, and in ruining lives.  

Godly men count that day lost in which they have done no act of kindness to another.

Demons count the day lost in which they have stained no pure soul or led no one into sin!

We ought to tear off Satan's mask and show him as he is!

Evil comes to us pretending to be a friend.

It holds flowers in its hands and whispers entrancing words, promising rich rewards: "Only do this and it will bring you pleasure, honor, wealth and joy!"

That is the way sin talks. But this is all false. 

Sin is never a friend to man. It never does good to anyone but always harm. 

However plausibly Satan may present his temptations under the guise of pleasure — his secret aim is to destroy the soul he tempts.

Nothing gives the Evil One so much pleasure as to see a fair and beautiful life stained and debauched!

It is most comforting to us, to find that Christ is able to dislodge even the most obdurate and persistent demon!

No one could bind this demoniac, nor resist his superhuman strength. 

But at His word the foul spirit was compelled to leave the man he had possessed for so long.

No human hand can break the chains of sinful habits. No mere resolution can free one from Satan's bondage.

Only Christ can set the devil's captives free!  

Those who have long been trying in vain to reform, to break away from evil practices...see in Christ, the Friend who alone can deliver them and save them. 

No demon-power can resist His command. Only Christ can free the poor slaves of Satan, and save them from his terrible sway!
 
Mark 5:13  And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. 

In the swine, under demoniac possession, rushing down the steep cliff and perishing in the lake - we have another illustration of the end of all Satan's ruinous work.

It is with men as it was here with the swine. 

It never yet has been known that Satan impelled anyone upward to a better life or to anything noble and lofty; he always drives down sin's steep ways into choking floods.

God's ways leads upward - it is always uphill to Christ and to heaven. 

But the devil always drives downward. These poor swine, demon-possessed, rushed down the steep bank, into the lake and perished. 

Just so do human souls, demon-possessed, rush down sin's precipitous course and perish!

It would be well to keep this dreadful picture in our mind when we are tempted in any way by the devil; for if we follow him - this is the way it will surely end with us! 

~J. R. Miller~

My Choice Is HIS Choice

Psa 47:4  He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. 

Our enemies would allot us a very dreary portion, but we are not left in their hands.

The LORD will cause us to stand in our lot, and our place is appointed by His infinite wisdom.

A wiser mind than our own arranges our destiny, The ordaining of all things is with God, and we are glad to have it so; we choose that God should choose for us.

If we might have our own way we would wish to let all things go in God's way.

Being conscious of our own folly, we would not desire to rule our own destinies.

We feel safer and more at ease when the LORD steers our vessel than we could possibly be if we could direct it according to our own judgment.

Joyfully we leave the painful present and the unknown future with our Father, our Savior, our Comforter.

O my soul, this day lay down thy wishes at Jesus' feet!

If thou hast of late been somewhat wayward and willful, eager to be and to do after thine own mind, now dismiss thy foolish self, and place the reins in the LORD's hands.

Say, "He shall choose." If others dispute the sovereignty of the LORD and glory in the free will of man, do thou answer them, "He shall choose for me."

It is my freest choice to let Him choose. As a free agent, I elect that He should have absolute sway.

~Charles Spurgeon~


                                                                             
                                                                                 

To Grow Bitter Is to Be Beaten

He who is able to endure has learned one secret of the overcoming life. 

To endure is to bear patiently whatever the revolving years may bring us.

It is to accept quietly and cheerfully the intractable elements of life.

It is to pass through difficult or tragic hours free from any embittering of spirit, for to grow bitter is always to be beaten. 

We say "what can't be cured must be endured"; but that is scarcely the endurance of the Scriptures.

Such endurance is a joyless thing. It is forced submission to necessity.

The endurance of which the Bible speaks is of a happier character than that; it is a glad and even grateful acquiescence. 

Paul and Silas, in the prison at Philippi, did not accept things in a joyless way.

They were happy; there was a lilt within their hearts; they sang so loudly that the prisoners heard them.

And that is the endurance of the Scripture the bearing of things in a happy kind of fashion; an acceptance with the note of triumph in it.

Of that gracious and beautiful endurance the New Testament indicates three sources.

~George H. Morrison~

The Summer Will Come

Isa 30:18  And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

Where showers fall most, there the grass is greenest. I suppose the fogs and mists of Ireland make it "the Emerald Isle"; and whenever you find great fogs of trouble, and mists of sorrow, you always find emerald green hearts; full of the beautiful verdure of the comfort and love of God.

O Christian, do not thou be saying, "Where are the swallows gone? They are gone; they are dead."

They are not dead; they have skimmed the purple sea, and gone to a far-off land; but they will be back again by and by.

Child of God, say not the flowers are dead; say not the winter has killed them, and they are gone.

Ah, no! though winter hath coated them with the ermine of its snow; they will put up their heads again, and will be alive very soon.

Say not, child of God, that the sun is quenched, because the cloud hath hidden it. Ah, no; he is behind there, brewing summer for thee; for when he cometh out again, he will have made the clouds fit to drop in April showers, all of them mothers of the sweet May flowers.

And oh! above all, when thy God hides His face, say not that He hath forgotten thee.

He is but tarrying a little while to make thee love Him better; and when He cometh, thou shalt have joy in the Lord, and shalt rejoice with joy unspeakable.

Waiting exercises our grace; waiting tries our faith; therefore, wait on in hope; for though the promise tarry, it can never come too late.

~C. H. Spurgeon~
     

Without Fear Of Man

Deut. 28:10  And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.

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.

~Charles Spurgeon~