A Soothing Seduction!

                                                                       
Let me show you what happens to every child of God who enters into a relationship with a bitter, unrighteous, rebellious person. 

There are awful consequences.

The fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat 2 Chronicles 17:10. 

Jehoshaphat’s kingdom, Judah, was blessed and prospered abundantly, and nobody dared come against them.

But after Jehoshaphat entered into a relationship with Ahab, Scripture says, "Ahab persuaded Jehoshaphat to go up with him to Ramoth-gilead. And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war" 2 Chronicles 18:2-3. 

Jehoshaphat willingly got sucked into a hopeless war, one that God had no part in.

The Hebrew word for persuaded in this passage means "a soothing seduction."Jehoshaphat allowed himself to be seduced into war by Ahab, answering, "I am as you are." 

In other words, I'm your friend, so I'm with you all the way. I won't let you down. You can count on me!

Is your close friend full of bitterness, hatred, anger and pursuing a war of some kind? 

Is he involved in a marriage war, a family war, a personal war? 

And are you like a Jehoshaphat to him, offering help and encouragement? 

If so, look out, because you are about to be seduced into it all.

That's right, very soon you will find yourself smack in the middle of your friend's mess and you will be asked to take a stand. 

If your friend is in a troubled marriage, for example, you are going to be forced to take a side. 

And you will end up sympathizing with him...all the way through his divorce!

Beware, Christian, because whenever you extend comfort or encouragement to someone who is in rebellion, you take sides against the Holy Spirit. 

And that makes you a partaker in that person's sin. 

Tragically, when Jehoshaphat joined Ahab's war, he only hastened his friend along the path of destruction!

~David Wilkerson~

Don't Rush!

Isa 50:10  Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. 

What shall the believer do in times of darkness-the darkness of perplexity and confusion, not of heart but of mind? 

Times of darkness come to the faithful and believing disciple who is walking obediently in the will of God; seasons when he does not know what to do, nor which way to turn. 

The sky is overcast with clouds. The clear light of Heaven does not shine upon his pathway. 

One feels as if he were groping his way in darkness.

Beloved, is this you? 

What shall the believer do in times of darkness? 

Listen! 

Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and rely upon his God."

The first thing to do is do nothing. This is hard for poor human nature to do.

In the West there is a saying that runs thus, "When you're rattled, don't rush"; in other words, "When you don't know what to do, don't do it."

When you run into a spiritual fog bank, don't tear ahead; slow down the machinery of your life. 

If necessary, anchor your bark or let it swing at its moorings. 

We are to simply trust God. While we trust, God can work. 

Worry prevents Him from doing anything for us. 

If our minds. are distracted and our hearts distressed; if the darkness that overshadows us strikes terror to us; if we run hither and yon in a vain effort to find some way of escape out of a dark place of trial, where Divine providence has put us, the Lord can do nothing for us.

The peace of God must quiet our minds and rest our hearts. 

We must put our hand in the hand of God like a little child, and let Him lead us out into the bright sunshine of His love.

He knows the way out of the woods. 

Let us climb up into His arms, and trust Him to take us out by the shortest and surest road.

~Dr. Pardington

Remember we are never without a pilot when we know not how to steer!

Hold on, my heart, in thy believing-The steadfast only wins the crown...

He who, when stormy winds are heaving, Parts with its anchor, shall go down...

But he who Jesus holds through all, Shall stand, though Heaven and earth should fall.

Hold out! There comes an end to sorrow; Hope from the dust shall conquering rise...

The storm foretells a summer's morrow; The Cross points on to Paradise...

The Father reigneth! cease all doubt...

Hold on, my heart, hold on, hold out.

Let Nothing Be Done Through Strife Or Vainglory!

What do we Expect when we go on with God, when we come right out for God?

What have we in view?

Well, the answer to that question will decide whether, in relation to God, we have Ambitions for Something on the earth.

Do you Get the point?

You see, it is so possible to swing over your natural ambitions to spiritual aims.

It is the same thing still at work, and the only difference is the direction or sphere.

You can be as Ambitious in the work of God as you can be in the world, and it is the Same Natural Ambition.

It is the Ambitiousness of Nature.

You desire – What do you desire?

To See something, to Have something, to Be in something?

Ambition for success; yes, once it was in the world – now the Same Ambition transferred to other things....

It is a Mark of going on when we can Come To The Place where it is True before God that we have Let Go all the prosperity and success even of Christian work and Christian ministry as men would count it.

To be able to Let Go the great opportunities and the great advantages that may be had amongst Christian people, and the prizes that can be grasped, and to say, “It is all right, the Lord knows; it is for Him to give or withhold.

I am NOT going to make a line for those prizes.

I am NOT going to ALLOW those things to INFLUENCE my walk with God.

Ambition is NOT Going to DICTATE my course, This is a SURE Sign of Growth.

It may not seem here on earth to mean very big things; wide open doors and all that...

But somehow you may take it that there is Life there, Spiritual Influence there, Something that is Counting there.

In the end It Will Have Counted.

But this does sometimes first of all Necessitate that Conflict with Ambition where all those suggestions and influences have to be laid low...

And we come to the place where we see that the Way Of Life is to go on with God Though It Costs Us Everything.

The law of the Spirit of Life works in that way....

The way of Life demands that we shall get before the Lord again, and say, “Lord, though all my earthly prospects fade, though all my ambitions are disappointed, it is YOU I Want.

YOU Are My Ambition, My Goal.

If I have YOU, these other things will count for much less.

I believe that, As We Can Get There and not many of us have got a long way on that road ...

But As We Can Get There, We Find the Secret of Life, of Joy, of Release.

~T. Austin Sparks

Help From Unexpected Sources Ought To Dispel Despair

Luke 10:33  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
      
This fact of life on which I have been dwelling ought always to help to keep us from despairing.

How readily we say, when people disappoint us, "there is no eye to pity and no arm to save."

I think this wounded traveler said that when priest and Levite passed him by.

He despaired; there was no help for him; there was no eye to pity and no arm to save.

And just then the Samaritan appeared--the unlikeliest person in the world--and comfort was far nearer than he knew.

Do I speak to any whose hearts are very sore in the bitterness of disappointment?

To any who have hoped for help from certain people and, like this wounded traveler, never got it?

My dear reader, courage! 

The oil and wine are nearer than you think, for, and very probably, they are going to come to you from someone of whom you would never dream.

But GOD Meant It For Good!

Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

God's deeper meanings - We are apt to see a malicious meaning; are we equally apt to detect the Divine and benevolent one? 

Our enemies are many, and they hate us with perfect hatred; they are ever laying their plots, and working their unholy purposes. 

BUT there is a greater and wiser than they, who, through all these plottings, is prosecuting His Divine purpose. 

There is Another and Deeper meaning than appears to the short sight of sense.

Let us believe that there is a Divine and deeper meaning in the adversities of our lives.

Joseph might be forgiven for not doing so; but with his history and that of many others before us, we have no excuse for despair in the face of crushing sorrow. 

Whether it comes from man or devil, all creatures are under the Divine control, holding to our lips cups which the Father's hand has mixed. 

He has no complicity with their evil, but they unconsciously perform His will. 

Even if you cannot see the Divine meaning, Dare To Believe that it is there.

Await the disclosures of time.

Even here we sometimes reach an height from which we detect the meaning of the path by which we have been conducted. 

It may have been rough and winding, but there was reason in it all. 

Often God rewards patient trust by allowing us to see and know.

And for the full revelation of eternity.

One day God will call us to His side in the clear light of eternity...

And will explain His meanings in life's most sorrowful experiences...

And we shall learn that we suffered, not for ourselves only, but for others...

And, as part of His great remedial scheme, "to save much people alive."

~F. B. Meyer

Rejoicing In Darkness

                                                
Psa 66:6  He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.

It is a striking statement, "through the floods" (the place where we might have expected nothing but trembling and terror, anguish and dismay) "there," says the Psalmist, "did we rejoice in him!"

How many there are who can endorse this as their experience:

That "there," in their very seasons of distress and sadness, they have been enabled, as they never did before, to triumph and rejoice.

How near their God in covenant is brought!

How brightly shine His promises!

In the day of our prosperity we cannot see the brilliancy of these.

Like the sun at noon, hiding out the stars from sight, they are indiscernible;

But when night overtakes, the deep, dark night of sorrow, out come these clustering stars-blessed constellations of Bible hope and promise of consolation.

Like Jacob at Jabbok, it is when our earthly sun goes down that the Divine Angel comes forth, and we wrestle with Him and prevail.

It was at night, "in the evening," Aaron lit the sanctuary lamps.

It is in the night of trouble the brightest lamps of the believer are often kindled.

It was in his loneliness and exile John had the glorious vision of his Redeemer.

There is many a Patmos still in the world, whose brightest remembrances are those of God's presence and upholding grace and love in solitude and sadness.

How many pilgrims, still passing through these Red Seas and Jordans of earthly affliction, will be enabled in the retrospect of eternity to say with full memories of God's great goodness...

We went through the flood on foot, there-there, in these dark experiences, with the surging waves on every side, deep calling to deep...

Jordan, as when Israel crossed it, in 'the time of the overflowing' (flood), yet, 'there did we rejoice in Him!

~Dr. Macduff

Hos 2:15  And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

Forewarned, Forearmed~Satan Shams Defeat

                                               
To sham defeat is a well-known trick in warfare. 

Nothing will sooner disorganize a regiment than to see the enemy routed on the field. 

While the fight rages, a man is nerved and strung for he is carrying his life in his hand and knows it. 

But with the victory there comes reaction, and men grow careless;...

And there are battles where the enemy has shammed defeat just to inspire that careless spirit. 

O sirs, we are not ignorant of his devices!

This old device of sham defeat- have you not seen it?

You fought like a man with your besetting sin and mastered it. 

God keep you watchful.

God keep you on your guard. 

One careless hour and the routed sin is at the gates again, and the whole battle has to be fought anew. 

We thought the sin was dead, and it was only sleeping. 

We thought that we had slain that habit, and it is stealing over us again. 

We thought we had defeated Satan, and Satan only shammed defeat. 

Keep the loins girded and the lamps burning and the hand upon the sword until the end. 

Our unseen foe is a consummate strategist. 

Many a soul has been lost because it won -won in the first encounter, then said all's well and laid its arms aside...

Till the old sin crept up again and sprang and the last state was worse than the first.

~George H. Morrison

Forewarned, Forearmed~Satan Labels Evil Things With Pleasant Names!

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Satan Labels Evil Things With Pleasant Names!

There is a tendency in all language to do that...

Whether it springs from a very natural desire to hide the uglier sides of human life or whether it is the survival of some old pagan feeling that tried to propitiate the gods of nature by fair words, we cannot tell. 

But every language has been rich in what grammarians call euphemisms-those nice and delicate words that cover some offensive truth. 

When Prince George of Greece went over to Crete to become governor, there had been fierce rioting and bloodshed between the Muslims and Christians. 

And when he arrived and was received with great enthusiasm, the correspondent of the Times gave a very curious description of the scene.

The long rows of ruined houses, beneath which in some cases, the fire is still smoldering, he wrote, are almost concealed by festoons and banners.

It was an attempt to decorate and hide the tragedies. 

And language is always doing that. 

No man has ever loved to call the seamier side of things by its right name or to look the darker facts of life straight in the face. 

And from the first, language has been busy in fashioning its own festoons and banners to hide these ugly things. 

It is this tendency of human speech that is caught up and wrested by the devil into an engine and instrument of ill. If, in the natural shuddering at death, I shrink from saying, "My mother is dead," and say instead, "She is gone," there is no harm in that. 

But if by any trick of speech I veil the filthiness of sin, or if I cannot see how odious evil is because I have dubbed it with some pleasant name, I have been ignorant of his devices.

Who called the world of self and pleasure the happy world? 

Who named the business man whose transactions border on the shady the smart man? 

Who said that the adulterer who is breaking his wife's heart had his little weakness? 

Who smiled and said the reckless was only fast?

Or called the sowing of a harvest of misery for children's children the sowing of wild oats?

Cease that speech! 

Call vile things by their vile names, and be not ignorant of his devices.

~George H. Morrison

Forewarned, Forearmed-Satan Lays The Emphasis Upon Tomorrow

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 

We are Always Prone to put the accent there. 

It is very hard to grasp the True splendor of the present.

Today seems insignificant; tomorrow shall be the real day for us....

God Never speaks that way.

God's Bible Never speaks that way.

It tells us that the Present is divine, and lays the whole emphasis upon today: "NOW is the Accepted Time."

And the Holy Ghost is saying, Today.

And this is the Arch-Device of the Arch-Tempter...

In every life, for every start and every noble deed, God says, Today.

In every life for every start and every noble deed, the devil says, Tomorrow.

Is it conversion? Today, says God: Tomorrow, whispers Satan.  

Is it the breaking with that sin? Tomorrow.

Is it the starting on a higher level? Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, always tomorrow!

Till by tomorrow's road we are at Never-and the chance is gone, and the dream has vanished, and the hope is dead.

O friends, young men and women, be not ignorant of that device.

It will never be easier to come to Christ than now.

It will never be easier to make the start than now.

God says, Today, Tonight!

And God who says it is here to give the power that can save Now, and can cleanse Now, and can send you home Now with old things passed away and all things New in Jesus Christ.

~George H. Morrison

Forewarned, Forearmed-Satan Uses Tools!

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

It is one mark of practical genius to choose the right instruments to do its work.

A born administrator is a man who not only works hard himself, but has the skill of choosing the right men to be his assistants.

That is always a mark of practical capacity. 

And a true general shows his genius to command by the way in which he uses each branch of the service-cavalry, artillery, and infantry- for its proper work.

Every administrator must make use of agents; and he displays the greatest genius for administration who picks his agents with the greatest skill.

What a magnificent administrative genius that power must be that plots our ruin if we judge it by a test like that.

Could you conceive a finer choice of instruments than Satan makes when he is seeking to overthrow a human soul?

Out of a hundred gates into your hearts and mine, he passes by those that are barred and chooses one that will open at a touch.

His is the plan and his the whole device...

But he gets other hands and other hearts to do the work...

And the whole history of the tempted world, and the whole story of your tempted heart, tells the skillful genius of the choice.

Think of our Lord's experience...

First, in the wilderness Satan tempted Him. 

He came himself that time: he sent no messenger and used no agent.

It was a personal conflict between the Prince of Darkness and the Prince of Life.

But the next time the baffled tempter fell back upon this old device.

Next time he does not come in person: he comes in Simon Peter.

What, was it not a master-stroke of genius to reach at the heart of Jesus through the loyal heart of that disciple?

And when Jesus turns and detects Satan's voice in Peter's tongue and cries, "Get thee behind me, Satan, thou savoriest not the things of God," He was Not ignorant of his devices.

And do you think that device is disused today?

Has Satan's brain grown blunted in these latter times?

It is not the men who hate us and it is not the men and women we strongly dislike who tempt us most.

It is those we trust and those who love us best who often prove hell's aptest messengers.

If we but hated those who tempt us, life would become a very easy thing.

It is because we love and respect them so that for a thousand men and women life is hard.

Come, tempter, in thine own cursed shape, and any coward shall beat thee off.

But come through the loving heart of Simon Peter, and look through the loving eyes of Simon Peter, and speak through the loving lips of Simon Peter-and only Christ can make us strong to say, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

~George H. Morrison

When The Spirit Shuts A Door

                                                                                  
Act 16:7  After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.

What a strange prohibition! These men were going into Bithynia just to do Christ's work, and the door is shut against them by Christ's own Spirit.

I, too, have experienced this in certain moments. 

I have sometimes found myself interrupted in what seemed to me a career of usefulness. 

Opposition came and forced me to go back, or sickness came and compelled me to retire into a desert apart.

It was hard at such times to leave my work undone when I believed that work to be the service of the Spirit. 

But I came to remember that the Spirit has not only a service of work, but a service of waiting. 

I came to see that in the Kingdom of Christ there are not only times for action, but times in which to forbear acting. 

I came to learn that the desert place apart is often the most useful spot in the varied life of man-more rich in harvest than the seasons in which the corn and wine abounded. 

I have been taught to thank the blessed Spirit that many a darling Bithynia had to be left unvisited by me.

And so, Thou Divine Spirit, would I still be led by Thee. 

Still there come to me disappointed prospects of usefulness. 

Today the door seems to open into life and work for Thee; tomorrow it closes before me just as I am about to enter. 

Teach me to see another door in the very inaction of the hour. 

Help me to find in the very prohibition thus to serve Thee, a new opening into Thy service. 

Inspire me with the knowledge that a man may at times be called to do his duty by doing nothing...

To work by keeping still... 

To serve by waiting. 

When I remember the Power of the "still small voice," I shall not murmur that sometimes the Spirit suffers me not to go. 

~George Matheson

When I cannot understand my Father's leading, And it seems to be but hard and cruel fate...

I Still hear that gentle whisper ever pleading, God is working, God is faithful, ONLY WAIT.

"Submit" Yourselves Unto GOD!

Submit Yourselves Unto GOD...

You Must Do It whether you are willing to do so or not. 

Who Can Stand Out Against The Almighty? 

For puny man to Oppose the LORD is for the chaff to set itself in battle array with the wind...

Or for the tow to make war with the flame. 

As well might man attempt to turn back the tide of ocean...

Or check the march of the hosts of heaven as dream of overcoming the Omnipotent. 

The Eternal God is irresistible...

And ANY rebellion against his government must soon end in total defeat. 

By the mouth of his servant Isaiah the LORD challenges His enemies, saying, "Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle?"

I would Go Through Them, I would Burn Them Together.

GOD Will Be Sure To Overthrow His Adversaries...

He may in his Infinite Patience permit the rebel to continue for a while in his revolt...

But as surely as the Lord liveth He Will Compel Every Knee To Bow Before Him...

And Every tongue to Confess that He Is The LIVING GOD. 

Submit Yourselves Unto GOD.  

Who would do otherwise, since not to submit is Injurious now, and will be Fatal in the end? 

If we Oppose the Most High, our Opposition must lead on to Defeat and Destruction...

For the adversaries of the LORD shall be as the fat of rams, into smoke shall they Consume Away. 

For the man who Strives with his Maker there remains a Fearful Looking For Of Judgment...

And the Dread Reward of Everlasting Punishment. 

Who will be so Foolhardy as to Provoke such a Result?

~Charles Spurgeon~

There Is No Darker Sin Than Ingratitude!

Luke 17:17  And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

Only one leper returned to give God thanks...

Nine continued on their way unmindful, ungrateful.  

And why was that? 

Perhaps they knew the danger of committing themselves to Jesus...

Knew that He was narrowly watched and suspected...

Knew that even to receive a cure from Him was in itself an offence to many. 

My Lord, I seek grace not to be so cowardly! 

Perhaps they were afraid that now the Master would have a claim upon them and would begin to press that claim. 

He who had given them their health, might demand their loyalty; and they were not ready to yield it. 

My Lord, that I would be more consecrated than they!

Perhaps they were seized with the wish to mix with the world...

To go back to its affairs...

To play their part in its business.

They were impatient of delays which detained them from the promotion of their own interests. 

My Lord, I would learn to hate such selfishness!

Perhaps they thought that they had only got what was their due. 

They thought that the loathsome disease was an injustice and a grievance, and health was their right--and they need not be profoundly grateful. 

Ah my Lord, teach me to watch against this self-conceit and pride! 

Perhaps they told themselves that their Benefactor was no longer necessary to them. 

The pressure of urgent need was past, and its disappearance makes a vast difference. 

My lord, let me never forget Your untold benefits! 

There is no darker sin than ingratitude! 

I entreat You Lord Jesus, to save me from it!

~Alexander Smellie

Has The Warring Spirit Gone Out From "The Church"?

The Warring spirit has gone out from so much of "The Church". 

That is a Clever Strategy of the devil! 

Lose the spirit of Spiritual Battle and you will Stop Short of Finishing The Work.

The next thing that caused these people to settle down too soon was the spirit of the world Getting In amongst them. 

What is the spirit of the world? 

It is the spirit of: Have a good time! 

Let us have a good time! 

Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die! 

And these people of Israel looked at the world around them and, if I understand it rightly, they said...

These people do not have all the hard time that we do.

Our life is a life of Continual Battle. 

They do not know so much about that, but they believe in having a good time.

I think that is how it was at this particular time.

Of course, up to this time Israel had given the people round about a bad time! 

But Israel had Lost The Fighting Spirit now, and the world was having a good time because the Church was No Longer fighting it. 

Instead of fighting the world they Made Friends With The World. 

They Made The World Their Friends, And So They Did Not Finish The Work. 

Compromise is a Dangerous thing to the ..inheritance! 

Trying to be on Good Terms with the world and having an Easy Time will result in our Losing a large part of the inheritance.

~T. Austin Sparks~