Singing In Adversity

                                                                       

                                                                               

Life has its adversities. It must needs have them. 

Adversity, pain, sorrow, and disappointment are the lathe upon which God shapes us.

They are the grinding-wheel which grinds and smoothes us. 

They are the polishing-wheel which makes us shine.

If we can never be happy until we are so situated that nothing which exists may tend to render us unhappy then we shall have little happiness in life. 

Happiness does not come from a life of ease and indolence.

It is not the result of the absence of obstacles and difficulties. 

Happiness comes from triumphing over them. 

Therefore the song of true happiness often arises from the soul which undergoes many adversities. 

Paul understood what life must be.

He went through the cities of Asia after he had been stoned and left for dead...

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

He enumerated the things he suffered in his work for Christ. 

Doubtless you have read that list again and again. 

Notwithstanding all this, no one has more to say about rejoicing, being filled with joy, and singing the songs of victory than does this same sufferer of tribulations.

The Psalmist also knew about tribulations.

He said...

Psa 31:7  I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;

God did not leave him to himself in his tribulations.

Being conscious of this, he could rejoice.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows."

Did he say, "Mourn and weep because of this"?

Did he intimate that they should shrink from them?

Did he indicate there was something wrong in them which brought these tribulations?

Not so.

He had already told them that the world would hate them.

Now he showed them that as a result of that hatred of the world, and also as the result of natural conditions in life they would have tribulations.

Did he say to them, "This will take away much from your happiness; you will be sad and disconsolate much of the time; you will sorrow on account of these tribulations; it is too bad you are to have them"?

No he said nothing of this kind.

He told them plainly what was to come; then added, "But be of good cheer I have overcome the world."

Think of the boldness of Jesus in saying this.

Just before him lay Gethsemane.

Just beyond that, the trials before the high priest and Pilate, and Calvary awaited him. 

He knew this very well.

He knew he must pass through the bitterest of tribulations. 

Nevertheless he said, "Be of good cheer I have overcome the world."

What a wonderful example for us this is.

He has overcome the world not merely for himself but for us as well.

As the Psalmist pointed out, he knows our adversities.

He knows that lying ahead of us there are adversities and difficulties, perhaps dangers, sorrows, and many things to try the soul.

He also knows when we are in those things, when they are pressing hard upon us, when we are tempted to bow down our heads and give up.

He knows exactly how we feel, how things seem, how the future looks, how the present troubles us.

In spite of it all he is saying to us, "Be of good cheer I have overcome."

Dear soul, Jesus knows all about your troubles.

He knows every heartache, every difficulty, everything you must overcome, everything you must bear.

Trusting in his grace, relying upon his help you shall soon find your heart filling again with melody, for the clouds will pass away.

Paul asks, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"

Then he adds, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us!" (Romans 8:35, 37).

Speaking of our acceptance with God and our justification by faith through grace, Paul says we "rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2).

But are the good things of God all in which we can rejoice?

No, for he continues, "And not only so but we glory in tribulations also."

Paul could rejoice in the bad things, as well as in the good things. 

Why could he do this?

Was he a mere enthusiast?

Was he a man who shut his eyes to the facts?

No, he was sober-minded, consistent, and sane.

He looked behind the frowning face of circumstances.

He saw the results that follow tribulations.

He set them down for us that we might consider them and rejoice with him.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us! Romans 5:3-5.

That was the secret of Paul's rejoicing.

Again Paul tells his experience in 2 Corinthians 7:4, I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles, my joy knows no bounds.

2Co 7:4  Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

He tells why this is: "God, who comforts those who are cast down, comforts us" (verse 6).

2Co 7:6  Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

Who comforts us in all our tribulation (2 Corinthians 1:4).

2Co 1:4  Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

The comfort of God is wonderful.

The satisfying, soul-delighting blessedness of it, can be known only by those who have gone deeply into the waters of tribulation.

So many in times of trouble, are prone to feel that God does not care for them or to feel that they have offended him.

Just when they need him most, and just when he would be most ready to help they cease to seek that help and feel they must meet their difficulties in their own strength without the help they so much crave.

Right here many are tempted to give up trying. 

They feel they are unable to overcome or to endure through to better days.

They feel that God has forsaken them in their hour of need. 

Their feelings and their attitude shut them off from that help which God would delight to give them. 

It is just here that we need to face things squarely.

We need to consider God as he is.

We need to take a right view of our relationship with him.

In the time of the child's need, a true and loving parent yearns with sympathy and with an earnest desire to help.

The heart of God is more tender than the heart of a mother.

His love is stronger than any human love.

In these times of tribulation and trouble, of sorrow or care, of anxiety or foreboding...we should remember that he is waiting to take us into his arms and to comfort us with that comfort which only he can give.

The clouds may seem to hide his face; he may seem far off but he is not far off.

The clouds may prevent us from seeing him but they do not prevent his seeing us. 

He does see us and he desires us to turn to him for that support in trouble which we need in order that the heavy load may be borne.

He desires that we confide in him, and that we pour out our soul's bitterness and longing to him.

He expects us to act as men and women who trust him.

He expects us to use what strength we have.

But beyond and above our strength, is his abundant strength and help ready to supply whatever deficiency there may be in us.

He always sees the way out of our difficulties.

He always knows just how much grace we must have.

He always measures out to us the needed supply we must have.

No one has ever lived, who has not had his times of discouragement, heaviness, sorrow, and disappointment.

Care and anxiety come to all. 

Unsaved people have to bear their own burdens, meet their own adversities, suffer their own sorrows without divine help.

They get through them in some way in their own strength, and we could do the same without divine help.

There would always be a way that we could get through somehow. 

But God knows a better way than we know, and he will help us into that better way.

He will give us the strength and fortitude necessary if we only trust and go forward courageously.

James tells us, "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds."

There is a way to do this.

That way is the way Paul took.

Paul looked behind the tribulations to the outcome.

James exhorts us to do likewise.

These tribulations all are fruitful. 

They are good for us.

If we bear them as we should then we shall look back upon them shortly and rejoice that God let them come.

Let us now look at Paul.

It was midnight.

He and Silas lay in a Philippian dungeon. Their feet were fast in the stocks.

Their clothes were torn, their backs were bleeding from the many stripes that had been laid upon them.

It seemed that death might be only a little ahead of them. 

Under these unfavorable circumstances they did not lament they prayed (Acts 16:25).

Act 16:25  And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

After they had prayed, they did something else; they sang praises to God. 

They did not do this for mere bravado.

They did not do it to keep the other prisoners awake.

They did it because of the joy that was welling up in their own hearts. 

They were suffering, so they could not sleep; so they spent the time in the very best possible manner. 

They spent not a moment in regretting what had happened. 

They did look for the needed help. Their faith reached out to God and help came.

Their souls were filled with joyful praises and they sang from full hearts.

There were reasons why they could do this.

First, they were innocent. They had a consciousness they had done nothing wrong.

They had been trying to do good. Now they were suffering for it.

There is "rest" comfort in being innocent under such circumstances, or in any circumstances.

A clear conscience inspires to song.

So if our conscience is clear, we can rise above our circumstances if we follow the course taken by Paul and Silas.

Second, they were hopeful Christians. 

They did not look on the dark side. 

They looked beyond the present suffering and the threatening circumstances.

They neither saw the dungeon nor the stocks nor the executioner's sword.

They neither felt their galled ankles nor their smarting backs. 

They looked to God. They saw his approving smile and they sang praises.

Third, they exercised definite faith.

They believed God knew all about their circumstances.

They believed they were in his care.

They believed nothing could come to them, without coming through his will.

So they rested in full assurance of faith in him and in their tribulations they sang joyfully.

Paul taught others to rejoice, and he set them an example.

If we face our adversities as he faced his we too may sing in adversity.

In adversity we sing a different song than we do when we are untroubled.

We must join courage to trust.

When we do this, we can sing songs of confidence born of our confidence in God's help.

We can sing songs of trust which allay our fears.

We can sing songs of anticipation as we look forward to the victories which lie before us, and at the crown at the end of the road.

We can sing in joyful remembrance of God's former mercies.

The song of adversity is more difficult to learn, than the song we sing when everything is going pleasantly and prosperously... 

But these songs are no less joyous in the depths of the heart when they spring from faith.

In fact they can often be more truly joyous than the songs of prosperity, because they go deeper into the depths of the heart and rise with fuller trust. 

But no matter how many tribulations we have, if we trust God, we may be "exceeding joyful" in all those tribulations.

~Charles Naylor, 1930~

Bitter Or Enlarged?

We can take one of two attitudes toward the ways of God with us;

We can get bitter, sour, hard;

Or we can have the enlargement by exercise, development by exercise, to develop capacity, to bring us into the large place that we may be intelligently His instrument for governing under His Headship in ages to come.

Things that enter into our history we cannot always fathom...

But the explanation which we can give is that, whatever there may be as second causes, the Lord is Sovereign...

And He thinks it worthwhile sometimes to allow what the world would call the most terrible thing to overtake for the time being...

And it would seem that His Name and interests suffer through that thing...

But through that thing He brings His people to a place of maturity and they get to know the Lord for themselves.

Through these terrible things we find the Lord produces something that is very much more worthy of Himself in the life of His children. 

That is His justification, His vindication; if He could do it in any other way He would.

In the long run He does get spiritual maturity among His people, where they know Him.

He would get us to a place where we know the Lord and we have our senses exercised to know. 

The Lord give us grace to accept all His dealings with us in the light of His great purpose.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Fear Only GOD

Because God will never leave nor forsake us, we may well be content with such things as we have. 

Since the LORD is ours, we cannot be left without a friend, a treasure, and a dwelling place.

This assurance may make us feel quite independent of men. 

Under such high patronage we do not feel tempted to cringe before our fellowmen and ask of them permission to call our lives our own; but what we say we boldly say and defy contradiction.

He who fears God has nothing else to fear. 

We should stand in such awe of the living LORD that all the threats that can be used by the proudest persecutor should have no more effect upon us than the whistling of the wind.

Man in these days cannot do so much against us as he could when the apostle wrote the verse at the head of this page. 

Racks and stakes are out of fashion. Giant Pope cannot burn the pilgrims now. 

If the followers of false teachers try cruel mockery and scorn, we do not wonder at it, for the men of this world cannot love the heavenly seed.

What then?

We must bear the world's scorn.

It breaks no bones. 

God helping us, let us be bold; and when the world rages, let it rage, but let us not fear it. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Not Knowing Where...

He went out, not knowing whither...

Those three words are a very apt description of the Christian life, in all its phases: its beginning, its progress and development, and in its consummation - not knowing whither.

We have, at the beginning of the Christian life, our own ideas as to what it is going to be, what it is going to mean; Perhaps some ideas as to the way that we are going to take, and where it will lead us.

We do not go on very far or very long before we begin to discover that we have been launched upon a mighty sea that we have never crossed before and for which there has not been put into our hands any answer to the questions: Whither? and What? and Why?

It is as though the Captain of a ship had just called to us and asked us if we are coming.

Will we come?

We answer, "Where are you going?"

He says, "That is my business, not yours."

What shall we meet on the way?

Nothing to tell you about that.

How long will it take?

Sorry, I can give you no information; you must put yourself confidently into my hands, and leave all those questions for me to answer and to be answered as we go along.

The Christian life is like that; it is like that at the beginning.

It has to be like that.

What we have read about faith, and Abraham's faith in particular, is just like that.

Someone has spoken of Abraham's call and venture as being with 'sealed orders'.

We know what that means.

Either the Captain of a ship, or the leader of an expedition, is just handed an envelope;

He is told not to open this or read it for so long, or until he reaches such and such a point.

All he is told to do is to go, and to go in a certain direction.

He does not know what for, he does not know what the destination is;

He knows nothing but this, that he has to start out in a certain direction, under command, and leave the rest for the time being.

It is like that in the Christian life from the beginning.
 
All the way along, again and again, we are tempted to ask, if we do not actually ask, "Where is this leading? What is the meaning of this? Why this?"

And no answer comes back.

All we have is this: there has been born in us a sense of call, a sense of urge, a compelling, a sense of destiny.
 
Paul called it 'being apprehended', and that is a policeman's word; perhaps none of you know anything about that, but you may have seen it happen.

And you know that when that hand of the law comes upon a shoulder or an arm, there is nothing to do but to yield to that urge.

You are apprehended, and more than the power of a single human hand has got hold of you; all the authority and the power of the State is in that hand, and you have just got to yield; it is an apprehending.

Peter and John and the rest would have put it in another way, they would have said: "I heard the call, 'Come, follow!'

And the call carried with it something irresistible; "I just had to go."

However it is, whatever we may call it, it is like that: an inborn sense that we no longer have our lives in our own hands.

Someone has taken that prerogative out of our hands into His hands, but it is something inward.

It is like the migratory instinct in birds: it wakens and there is no rest, there is no staying, it is urging, forcing on.

And it is realized that to resist that urge is to frustrate destiny, and to curtail something that is more than human ambition, for this was not the way of our choice;

This was not the will, the way that we would have taken, indeed, we would have stayed.

Naturalists tell us of certain birds, at the migratory season, who go so far; they go down to Cornwall where they feel there is some kind of an answer to that inward craving for warmth, the warmer climate.

A fear has come into them of the long journey, crossing the sea, and all that is involved.

They think that they have found the answer nearer at hand and so they just go so far and settle down, and perish in the winter.

I think it is a parable. There is a lot in this letter to the Hebrews about that, is there not: its urge, "Let us go on..." let us go on; and the warning, "Accept nothing less than what the urge foreshadows". That was Abraham.

Abraham was mastered by this right through.

He did come into the land it was quite true, what the Bible calls Canaan, the Land of Promise; but you notice he was a very old man when Isaac was born, and a much older man when Isaac's son Jacob was born, but he had never ceased to live in a tent up to that time; and he died living in a tent.

He looked for a city...There were plenty of cities in Canaan, but it says, 'he looked for a city whose architect was God'; these were not God's cities.

The thing was still going on, this strange something that you and I ought to know something about, that we cannot ever force ourselves to settle short of that to which we have been called.

It is like that, but what a lot it involves.

What a lot it involved for Abraham - the letting go - which is the great problem and difficulty of our lives, is it not?

To let go.

To let go the temporal for the spiritual.

To let go the earthly for the heavenly.

To let go the immediate for the eternal - that is to enter another world from the one with which we are familiar.
 
That is to submit to new, unaccustomed principles of life, to obey new motives; it is another world.

Oh, the conflicts that rage around this migration, round this going "knowing not whither".

And the conflict begins and has its real basis in our own souls, what the New Testament calls, our 'flesh'.

Is it not true that this natural life (which means the soul, the flesh) craves for security?

And the suggestion of 'knowing not' just runs counter to all our instincts for security.

Look at Abraham. In Chaldea there were two thousand deities: that was his natural life, and every one of those deities was dedicated to the sentient life in some form.
 
It was the life that you could see, that you could handle, that you could have immediately for your gratification.

So many are the aspects of this natural life that it all is this: "No, do not ask us to venture into the unknown; we must have the known.

We must have what we can handle, what we can see, and what is here and now.

That is the natural soul, is it not? We are like that.

And when we are called out into a life and a realm knowing not whither, the battle rises in our very being between heaven and earth, eternity and time, the temporal and the spiritual.

It was a marvellous thing that this urge was such in Abraham that his two thousand deities lost all their power, although they offered him immediate, earthly, temporal gratification.

He obeyed...and went, not knowing...what a tremendous thing for a man in such a setting and such an upbringing.
 
No wonder his father Terah could not go through with it!
 
There is that of Adam in every one of us that cannot go through with it, unless we know in our hearts this tremendous something that we cannot describe or define, but it is there.

When the day of the great ordeal and trial comes, and everything seems to be testing, as it did Abraham, and apparently contradicting the call...

And everything seems to cry that a mistake had been made, that it was all an illusion...

And we allow these thoughts, ideas and suggestions to influence us, then we begin to decline, and we find ourselves in a cul-de-sac, in a back-water, off the main road.

Then something touches us again of the old call.

We touch something in the Word of God which was our very life before and that thing in us revives again, and comes up, and says, "We must go on!

It is no use, we must get out of this and go on!

Do you know that? It is there.

And it is not an 'it'; it is the Spirit of God, striving, urging like that!

I was saying that the conflict is in our very constitution: we crave security, we crave sight, we crave solidity, we crave the present;

And all this says, "No, no, you are launched out" and still it is not knowing whither, in a very real sense.

Not only do we find the conflict in our own make-up, especially if we are of the more practical turn.

The world also helps us a lot; the world will help us to stay with it.

If we will go its way, it will befriend us;

If we can be found to have in us any hankering for this world in position, in prosperity, in the satisfying of an ambition, in security, the world will help us, it will prosper us.

We will get on if we go that way - the world will minister to us.

Doors will be open: facilities will be granted; we shall be thought to be getting on, but, stay!

Take a cross-section of life, and ask, over a given period...

How much really of the Lord, and for the Lord, has filled that period and how much of this life, and how much of this world and its affairs?

How much?

What is the percentage of my spending and being spent for that which will not appear again in glory?

And what is the proportion of that which answers to my essential call?

I know this may raise practical problems and questions.
 
But fundamentally there is this: this world is no friend whatever to those going out not knowing whither; it will be very friendly to us if we will take its way, but it will keep us back.

Our sense of destiny, not only in life but in vocation, should be more powerful than any other motive and interest.

So much so that all that this world can offer of its pretended securities is as nothing - "that I may know Him... that I may press on toward the mark, to the on-high calling of God".

There are other things to come in the way.

There are, as we have said, those seeming contradictions that are so testing.

He came into the land, whither the urge had led him.

When he was there, what did he find?

Not what he naturally would have expected; indeed it was not long before he found a famine.

A contradiction in circumstances, apparently.

Or, a Terah - the cautious element in life.

I imagine that Terah was always cautioning his son: "Don't be an extremist! Don't be unusual, don't be different from the majority. Don't go too far! Be careful!"

Do you know, while there is wisdom and discretion in the spiritual life, this way with the Lord is a tremendously bold venture that throws quite a lot of caution to the winds, which is justified.

Think of all those servants of God who have launched out on this sea, not knowing whither, that have put home, wife, family, and worldly prospects on one side and simply the urge of destiny on the other, and have chosen this, and gone.

And God has vindicated, taken responsibility there.

It has been like that with very, very many.

There is a kind of caution that can rob us of our eternal calling.

Terah may impede our progress by that, and cause us to stay in Haran, until that is finally out of the way, and we can go on.

Or, it might be that feature represented by Lot, ever accompanying us.

As John Bunyan would put it, that 'divided heart'.

Yes, he will have the good, but not the other; he will have the advantages of this way, but not the disadvantages; he has got his eye upon how this will serve him.

He has a sense of right and righteousness, but you know, it is possible, if the word about Lot means anything, to have a very intense sense of righteousness, and to be in the wrong place.

Vexed with the wicked...- his righteous soul vexed with the wickedness. Yes, every day.

This was because he was out of the place of the will of God.

He ought never to have been there.

We can be very righteous, and not be where the Lord would have us, in the way.

A divided heart is always very near at hand and can be accompanying a fellow of the way!

Well, so it was with Abraham, but he went on.

He encountered many other difficulties: the deadness of his own body; the deadness of Sarah's womb - that is made much of in the letter to the Romans.

There were great difficulties to the realization of the purpose and the reaching of the end.

And every one of them, you notice, was in this realm of the senses!

You see, I can't because of...and then this and that and that...it just cannot be.

If you argue humanly, it never can be.

You and I will never start on this road, we will never take the new step and stages of committal in this way, and we will never reach the end if we argue like that about human possibilities.

We have started on a humanly impossible road!

The sooner we settle that the better.

Well, you see, these things beset the beginning of the Christian life.

Be made aware at once that it is like this, it is a committal in utter faith to One who calls you.

And that committal includes and involves the confidence that He who has called you will do it and can do it.

The same arises along the way in the different stages of the Christian life.

We come right up against a new crisis, a new demand, something that we have never met before, and all these things arise; it is a battle.

Not knowing whither is still the law and it is going to be; it is answering the Divine urge within.

And when we come to the end it will be like that: Not knowing whither.

John says, 'We know not what we shall be'; "We know not what we shall be, except that when He is manifested we shall be like Him, and see Him as He is".

And this holds good of our vocation, our calling.

We have more than once met with men of years; men whose life has been well-nigh spent and they said to me: "I once felt that I ought to take the way you have taken; that I ought to give my life to the service of God, but I weighed up the whole thing, as to what it involved, and I said, 'No'.

Today, my life has missed the way!

I am a disappointed man.

Oh, here is a warning: did you ever have that sense of call and destiny, that you knew came from God?

It was not what you desired, it was not in line with some ambition of yours, but you knew the Lord called you.

Are you following it through?

Where are you today?

The Lord may be speaking a real word of recall, of warning.

We are going to find this true in our vocation.

It is quite impossible to man; we don't know what it means, and where it is leading, and what is going to be the outcome of it all; but we do know one thing: that there is that in us which is still not dead, it is still alive - it is our original sense of vocation.

Listen to it, and respond.

And yet, having said all that under those three words, not knowing whither... - don't we know?

Oh yes, we do.

On the way, all that I have said may be true, and we may be in that quandary many times, not knowing, and having to move in sheer faith - not in something unreal, but because of that which has happened to us and in us, and is still there.

That may all be true, and yet, what is the end?

Stephen said about Abraham, "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham...".

That could be paraphrased: 'The God out of glory and unto glory appeared unto Abraham' - the God who is in the beginning, with all His movements, the God of glory, and has at the end glory as His object.

Glory compasses the beginning and the end: the God of Glory.

Does that sound remote or abstract?

Well, listen again to words with which you are so familiar.

Perhaps they have lost their charm.

It is clearly stated that we were ordained to be unto the glory of His grace, and unto the praise of His glory; that is the end.

The glory of His grace - that, then, comes right into this present mysterious experience that we cannot explain, and we know not why, whither, or what.

Grace - the glory of His grace! The praise of His glory!

What is your greatest fear?

I tell you what it ought to be. 

It ought to be that in the end you should have come short of the glory of God, that glory bound up with your calling, that you should finish up having missed the way, having chosen some alternative.

The Lord help us.

Forgive this if it sounds too serious and too solemn a word, but I cannot help it.

I just have to say what the Lord tells me to say.

And we all need, do we not, from time to time, to be made to listen to the fundamental call: "Come, follow!"

~T. Austin Sparks~ 

Fate, Accident, Chance Or SOVEREIGNTY?

What a sad world this would be were it governed by fate! 

Were its blended lights and shadows, its joys and sorrows  the result of capricious accident or blind and wayward chance! 

How blessed to think that each separate occurrence which befalls me is the fulfillment of God's own immutable purpose!

Is it the material world?

It is He who "forms the light and creates darkness;"  who appoints the sun and moon for their seasons;

Who gives to the sea its decree; who watches the sparrow in its fall; who tends the lily in the field; and who paints the tiniest flower that blossoms in the meadow.

Is it the moral world?

All events are predetermined and prearranged by Him!

I make peace and create evil!

Both prosperity and adversity are His appointment.

The Lord who of old prepared Jonah's shade-plant, also prepared the worm! 

He gives and He takes away.  

He molds every tear! 

He "puts them into His bottle."

He knows them all, counts them all, treasures them all.

Not one of them falls unbidden - unnoted.

The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

Over every occurrence in nature and in providence, He writes, "I the Lord do all these things!"

True, His thoughts are often mysterious, and His ways are past finding out. 

We are led at times, amid the bewildering mazes of His providential dealings, to exclaim, "O Lord, how great are Your works, and Your thoughts are very deep!"

Be it ours to defer our verdict - until their full development.
 
We cannot envision the thoughts and intents of the architect or engineer in the first clearing of the ground for the foundation of some gigantic structure.

The uninitiated eye can discover nothing but piles of unshapely rubbish - a chaos of confusion.

But gradually, as week by week passes we see his thoughts molding themselves into visible and substantial shapes of order and beauty. 

And when the edifice at last stands before us complete, we discern that all which was mystery and confusion at first was a necessary part and portion of the undertaking. 

So is it, at present, regarding the mysterious dealings of God. 

Often, in vain, do we try to comprehend the purposes of the Almighty Architect, amid the dust and debris of the earthly foundations. 

Let us wait patiently, until we gaze on the finished structure of eternity.

Oh, blessed assurance - that the loom of our life is in the hands of the Great Designer - that it is He who is interweaving the threads of our existence: the light and the dark, the acknowledged good and the apparent evil. 

The chain of what is erroneously called "destiny," is in His keeping.

He knows its every connecting link -  He has forged each one on His own anvil!

Man's purposes have failed, and are ever liable to fail - his brightest anticipations may be thwarted; his best-laid schemes may be frustrated.

Life is often a retrospect of crushed hopes - the bright rainbow-hues of morning, passing in its afternoon into damp mist and drizzling rain. 

Many are the thoughts in a man's heart, (knowing no fulfillment nor fruition) "but the counsel of the Lord that shall stand." 

"From eternity to eternity I am God." 

"No one can oppose what I do."

"No one can reverse My actions"

Rev 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

~John Macduff~

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~

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~

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~

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~

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~

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.

~C.H. Spurgeon~

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~

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.

Facts Vs. Feelings

2Co 5:7  (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
     
By faith, not appearance; God never wants us to look at our feelings. 

Self may want us to; and Satan may want us to.

But God wants us to face facts, not feelings; the facts of Christ and of His finished and perfect work for us.

When we face these precious facts, and believe them because God says they are facts, God will take care of our feelings.
     
God never gives feeling to enable us to trust Him; 

God never gives feeling to encourage us to trust Him; 

God never gives feeling to show that we have already and utterly trusted Him.
     
God gives feeling only when He sees that we trust Him apart from all feeling, resting on His own Word, and on His own faithfulness to His promise.
     
Never until then can the feeling (which is from God) possibly come;

And God will give the feeling in such a measure and at such a time as His love sees best for the individual case.
     
We must choose between facing toward our feelings and facing toward God's facts. 

Our feelings may be as uncertain as the sea or the shifting sands.

God's facts are as certain as the Rock of Ages, even Christ Himself, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

When darkness veils His lovely face  I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.