Maintain The Difference

Exo 8:23  And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.

Pharaoh has a people, and the LORD has a people.

These may dwell together and seem to fare alike...

But there is a division between them,...

And the LORD will make it apparent.

Not forever shall one event happen alike to all...

But there shall be great difference between the men of the world and the people of Jehovah's choice.

This may happen in the time of judgments, when the LORD becomes the sanctuary of His saints.

It is very conspicuous in the conversion of believers when their sin is put away, while unbelievers remain under condemnation.

From that moment they become a distinct race, come under a new discipline, and enjoy new blessings.

Their homes, henceforth, are free from the grievous swarms of evils which defile and torment the Egyptians.

They are kept from the pollution of lust, the bite of care, the corruption of falsehood, and the cruel torment of hatred, which devour many families.

Rest assured, tried believer, that though you have your troubles you are saved from swarms of worse ones, which infest the homes and hearts of the servants of the world's prince.

The LORD has put a division; see to it that you keep up the division in Spirit, aim, character, and company.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Because Of Us

                                                   
For the sake of His elect the LORD withholds many judgments and shortens others. 

In great tribulations the fire would devour all were it not that Out of regard to His elect the LORD damps the flame. 

Thus, while He saves His elect for the sake of Jesus, He also preserves the race for the sake of His chosen. 

What an honor is thus put upon saints! 

How diligently they ought to use their influence with their LORD!

He will hear their prayers for sinners and bless their efforts for their salvation.

He blesses believers that they may be a blessing to those who are in unbelief. 

Many a sinner lives because of the prayers of a mother, or wife, or daughter to whom the LORD has respect.

Have we used aright the singular power with which the LORD entrusts us? 

Do we pray for our country, for other lands, and for the age?

Do we, in times of war, famine, pestilence, stand out as intercessors, pleading that the days may be shortened? 

Do we lament before God the outbursts of infidelity, error, and licentiousness? 

Do we beseech our LORD Jesus to shorten the reign of sin by hastening His own glorious appearing? 

Let us get to our knees and never rest till Christ appeareth.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Impressions

Num 10:33  And they departed from the mount of the LORD three days' journey: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them.

God does give us impressions, but not that we should act on them as impressions.

If the impression be from God, He will Himself give sufficient evidence to establish it beyond the possibility of a doubt.

How beautiful is the story of Jeremiah, of the impression that came to him respecting the purchase of the field of Anathoth. 

But Jeremiah did not act upon this impression until after the following day, when his uncle's son came to him and brought him external evidence by making a proposal for the purchase. 

Then Jeremiah said: "I knew this was the word of the Lord."

He waited until God seconded the impression by a providence, and then he acted in full view of the open facts, which could bring conviction unto others as well as to himself. 

God wants us to act according to His mind. 

We are not to ignore the Shepherd's personal voice but, like Paul and his companions at Troas, we are to listen to all the voices that speak and "gather" from all the circumstances, as they did, the full mind of the Lord.

~Dr. Simpson~

Where God's finger points, there God's hand will make the way.

Do not say in thine heart what thou wilt or wilt not do, but wait upon God until He makes known His way.

So long as that way is hidden it is clear that there is no need of action...

And that He accounts Himself responsible for all the results of keeping thee where thou art.

~Selected~

For God through ways we have not known, Will lead His own.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Peacemaking Requires A Watchful And Charitable Silence

Rom 14:19  Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

One of the first things that makes for social peace is a watchful and a charitable silence.

No man or woman can ever be a peacemaker who has not learned to put a bridle on his lips.

Every student of Christ must have observed the tremendous emphasis He puts on words.
 
Of every idle word, He tells us, in the day of judgment we are to give account.

And if you want to understand aright the passion and the depth of that, you will remember the beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

Think of the infinite harm that can be wrought by a malicious or a thoughtless tongue;

Think of the countless hearts it lacerates; think of the happy friendships which it chills.

And sometimes there is not even malice in it- only the foolish desire to be speaking...

For evil is wrought by want of thought as well as want of heart.

There is no more difficult task in life than to repeat exactly what someone else has said.

Alter the playful tone, you alter everything.

Subtract the smile, and you subtract the spirit.

And yet how often do we all repeat things that are almost incapable of repetition and so give pain that never was intended.

You can say good-bye in such a tone that it will carry the breaking of a heart.

You can say it in such a tone that it is a dismissal of contempt.

And yet how seldom do we think of tone, of voice, of eye, of smile, of personality when we pass on the word which we have heard.

There are times that call for all outspokenness.

No man ever denounced like Christ. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees." "Go, tell that fox."

All that I know, and yet the fact remains that as we move along life's common ways, one of the mightiest things that makes for social peace is a wise and charitable silence.

Not to believe everything we hear...

Not to repeat everything we hear...

Or else believing it to bury it unless we are called by conscience to proclaim it.

That is a thing that makes for social peace...
 
A thing within our power today...

And it may be along that silent road lies our "Blessed are the peacemakers."

~George H. Morrison~
                                        

A Drifting Ship Is A Danger To Other Shipping

Act 27:15  And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.

It is well to note, too, that a drifting ship is always a danger to the other shipping.

Every captain would corroborate that.

You can chart a quicksand or a reef, and having them on the chart you can avoid them...

But nobody can chart a drifting ship; it may be on you in a moment in the night.

It is well to remember that in that regard a drifting life is like a drifting vessel...

It is fraught with peril and disaster.

When a man drifts from his anchorage in Christ, he affects a hundred other lives.

No one can tell the hurt that he may bring when he drifts into indifference and worldliness...

Spoiling the fair name of Christ, damping the zeal of zealous, eager people...

Making it always easier to be skeptical and always harder to be true.
 
One of the signals of a drifting iceberg is a rapid lowering of the temperature.

Drifting lives are just like drifting icebergs: wherever they drift there is fall in temperature.
 
They chill the church.
 
They chill the congregation.

They chill the eager loyalties of youth...

Not because they are notoriously bad, but just because they are drifting.

~George H. Morrison~
     

Refusing To Compromise With The World

In the very first chapter of the book of Daniel, he and his brethren determined that they would not defile themselves with the king’s dainties, nor with the wine from the king’s table...

And that is how they spoke of it when they went to Arioch, the king’s representative, to plead their case. 

They asked...you would think hardly tactfully or diplomatically! – ‘that they might not defile themselves’. 

It is hardly complimentary, at any rate, to speak so of food from the king’s table. 

They pressed this matter of defilement. 

They had seen the principle that by this means they and their testimony would in some way be compromised.

It was a link with this world and with Satan’s kingdom as in this world...

And the effect of it would be – oh, how inclusive and comprehensive this is! – that they would be denying in their very persons the all sufficiency of the Lord. 

If they were to go the way of the world and look like the people of the world, where would be the testimony of the Lord?

If they did not go the way of the world and were to refuse to have any kind of compromise with the world, there would be great opportunity for the Lord to prove that He can go one better than the world, and is more than all the world put together. 

This is the challenge. 

On various grounds and by various arguments, young people especially are tempted to compromise on this point. 

They think they will gain influence with people of the world by coming down to their level and doing as they do, thus getting on an even footing with the world; 

But they do not recognize that such a course so often involves compromise.

More rarely still do they recognize that when God’s people are going to the world for their sustenance and nourishment and pleasure and gratification and so on, it results in a question being cast upon the ability of the Lord to prove how far greater He is than this world. 

The bad spiritual state of the people in Daniel’s day was wholly due to their being in bondage to the world.

Daniel and his brethren would have none of it. 

They stood apart in complete separation from the world, its standards, its ideas and all its resources, to give God the opportunity of proving that He is better than the world, and His servants, by His grace, better than the men of the world. 

That is the testimony, and until that is true, we have no authority, no ascendency, no real testimony.

Separation therefore, unpleasant and hard as the word may sound, is a very fundamental matter if we mean by it that we are separated unto the Lord, that He may show by means of us that this world is a poor thing compared with what we have in Him.

~T. Austin Sparks~

"Mind The Checks"

1Ki 19:12  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 

A woman who had made rapid progress in her understanding of the Lord was once asked the secret of her seemingly easy
growth. 

Her brief response was, “Mind the checks.”
 
The reason many of us do not know and understand God better
is that we do not heed His gentle “checks”...

His delicate restraints and constraints...

His voice is “a gentle whisper.” 

A whisper can hardly be heard...

So it must be felt as a faint and steady pressure upon the heart and mind...

Like the touch of a morning breeze calmly moving across the soul.

And when it is heeded, it quietly grows clearer in the inner ear of the heart.
 
God’s voice is directed to the ear of love...

And true love is intent upon hearing even the faintest whisper. 

Yet there comes a time when His love ceases to speak, when we do not respond to or believe His message.

God is love, and if you want to know Him and His voice...

You must continually listen to His gentle touches.
 
So when you are about to say something in conversation with
others...

And you sense a gentle restraint from His quiet whisper...

Heed the restraint and refrain from speaking.

And when you are about to pursue some course of action that seems perfectly clear and right...

Yet you sense in your spirit another path being suggested with the force of quiet conviction, heed that conviction.
 
Follow the alternate course, even if the change of plans appears
to be absolute folly from the perspective of human wisdom.
 
Also learn to wait on God until He unfolds His will before
you. 

Allow Him to develop all the plans of your heart and mind,
and then let Him accomplish them. 

Do not possess any wisdom of your own...

For often His performance will appear to contradict the plan He gave you.

God will seem to work against Himself...

So simply listen...

Obey...

And trust Him...

Even when it appears to be the greatest absurdity to do so... 

Ultimately, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him”...

But many times, in the initial stages of the performance of His plans: In His own world He is content To play a losing game.

Therefore if you desire to know God’s voice, never consider
the final outcome or the possible results. 

Obey Him even when He asks you to move while you still see only darkness...

For He Himself will be a glorious light within you.

Then there will quickly spring up within your heart a knowledge of God and a fellowship with Him...

Which will be overpowering enough in themselves to hold you and Him together...

Even in the most severe tests and under the strongest pressures of life. 

~From Way of Faith~

Broken And Used By GOD

 

Psa 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 

Those people God uses most to bring glory to Himself are those who are completely broken...

For the sacrifice He accepts is a “broken and contrite heart.”

It was not until Jacob’s natural strength was broken, when “his hip was wrenched” (Gen.32:25) at Peniel, that he came to the point where God could clothe him with spiritual power.

And it was not until Moses struck the rock at Horeb, breaking its surface, that cool “water [came] out of it for the people to drink” (Ex. 17:6).

It was not until Gideon’s three hundred specially chosen soldier “broke the jars that were in their hands” (Judg.7:19),which symbolized brokenness in their lives, that the hidden light of the torches shone forth,bringing terror to their enemies.

It was once the poor widow broke the seal on her only remaining jar of oil and began to pour it that God miraculously multiplied it to pay her debts and thereby supplied her means of support.(See 2 Kings 4:1–7.)

It was not until Esther risked her life and broke through the strict laws of a heathen king’s court that she obtained favor to rescue her people from death. (See Est. 4:16.)

It was once Jesus took “the five loaves . . . and broke them” (Luke 9:16) that the bread was multiplied to feed the five thousand.

Through the very process of the loaves being broken, the miracle occurred.

It was when Mary broke her beautiful “alabaster jar of very expensive perfume” (Matt. 26:7), destroying its future usefulness and value, that the wonderful fragrance filled the house.

And it was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken by thorns, nails, and a spear that His inner life was poured out like an ocean of crystal-clear water, for thirsty sinners to drink and then live.

It is not until a beautiful kernel of corn is buried and broken in the earth by DEATH that its inner heart sprouts, producing hundreds of other seeds or kernels.

And so it has always been,down through the history of plants,people, and all of spiritual life...

God uses BROKEN THINGS.

Those who have been gripped by the power of the Holy Spirit and are used for God’s glory are those who have been broken...

Broken their finances...

Broken in their self-will...

Broken in their ambitions...

Broken in their lofty ideals...

Broken in their worldly reputation...

Broken in their desires...

And often broken in their health...

Yes, He uses those who are despised by the world and who seem totally hopeless and helpless, just as Isaiah said: “The lame will carry off plunder” (Isa. 33:23).

Oh, break my heart; but break it as a field Is plowed and broken for the seeds of corn;

Oh, break it as the buds, by green leaf sealed, Are, to unloose the golden blossom, torn;

Love would I offer unto Love’s great Master, Set free the fragrance, break the alabaster.

Oh, break my heart; break it, victorious God, That life’s eternal well may flow abroad;

Oh, let it break as when the captive trees, Breaking cold bonds, regain their liberties;

And as thought’s sacred grove to life is springing, Be joys, like birds, their hope,Your victory singing.

~Thomas Toke Bunch~

Among The Redeemed

                                                    

Num 23:9  For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

Who would wish to dwell among the nations and to be numbered with them? 

Why, even the professing church is such that to follow the LORD fully within its bounds is very difficult. 

There is such a mingling and mixing that one often sighs for "a lodge in some vast wilderness."

Certain it is that the LORD would have His people follow a separated path as to the world and come out decidedly and distinctly from it.

We are set apart by the divine decree, purchase, and calling, and our inward experience has made us greatly to differ from men of the world...

And therefore our place is not in their Vanity Fair, nor in their City of Destruction, but in the narrow way where all true pilgrims must follow their LORD. 

This may not only reconcile us to the world's cold shoulder and sneers but even cause us to accept them with pleasure as being a part of our covenant portion. 

Our names are not in the same book...

We are not of the same seed...

We are not bound for the same place...

Neither are we trusting to the same guide...

Therefore it is well that we are not of their number.

Only let us be found in the number of the redeemed...

And we are content to be off and solitary to the end of the chapter.

~Charles Spurgeon~

"If You Will Believe"

John 11:40  Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

Mary and Martha could not understand what their Lord was
doing.

Each of them had said to Him, “Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.”

And behind their words we seem to read their true thoughts:“Lord, we do not understand why you waited so long to come or how you could allow the man you love so much to die.

We do not understand how you could allow such sorrow and suffering to devastate our lives, when your presence might have stopped it all.

Why didn’t you come?

Now it’s too late, because Lazarus has been dead four days!

But Jesus simply had one great truth in answer to all of this.

He said, in essence, “You may not understand, but I am telling you that if you believe, you will see.”

Abraham could not understand why God would ask him to
sacrifice his son, but he trusted Him.

Then he saw the Lord’s glory when the son he loved was restored to him.

Moses could not understand why God would require him to stay forty years in the wilderness, but he also trusted Him.

Then he saw when God called him to lead Israel from Egyptian bondage.

Joseph could not understand his brothers’ cruelty toward
him, the false testimony of a treacherous woman, or the long years of unjust imprisonment...

But he trusted God and finally he saw His glory in it all.

And Joseph’s father, Jacob, could not understand how God’s strange providence could allow Joseph to be taken from him.

Yet later he saw the Lord’s glory when he looked into the face of his son, who had become the governor for a great king and the person used to preserve his own life and the lives of an entire nation.

Perhaps there is also something in your life causing you to question God.

Do you find yourself saying, “I do not understand why God allowed my loved one to be taken...

I do not understand why affliction has been permitted to strike me...

I do not understand why the Lord has led me down these twisting paths...

I do not understand why my own plans, which seemed so good, have been so disappointing...

I do not understand why the blessings I so desperately need are so long in coming...

Dear friend, you do not have to understand all God’s ways
of dealing with you.

He does not expect you to understand them.

You do not expect your children to understand everything
you do - you simply want them to trust you.

And someday you too will see the glory of God in the things you do not understand.

~J. H. M.~

If we could push ajar the gates of life, And stand within, and all God’s working see...

We might interpret all this doubt and strife, And for each mystery could find a key...

But not today.

Then be content, dear heart;

God’s plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold.

We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart...

Time will someday reveal the blooms of gold.

And if, through patient toil, we reach the land Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest...

When we shall clearly know and understand, I think that we will say,“God knew best.”

If Chastisement Were Not Necessary

Afflictions are always painful and days of affliction are often gloomy. 

But as we are training for eternity, as we are maturing for Heaven, and as afflictions are necessary discipline...we must be afflicted. 

If chastisement were not necessary then our loving Father would never use the rod. 

But as every one of us needs correction...He chastens every son whom He receives.

God's chastisements are intended for our instruction   they are designed to teach us...the evil of sin, our need of grace, the holiness of God, the preciousness of Jesus, the emptiness of the world, and the blessedness of Heaven.
 
These are lessons of the deepest importance to us...lessons that we are slow to learn; and therefore we must have line upon line, and stroke upon stroke.

Heavenly Father, help us to bow to Your sovereign will, to bear with patience every stroke of Your rod, and to learn the holy and important lessons which You intend to teach us.

May we not only submit to Your discipline but, seeing the love which ordains it, and the need there is for it - even acquiesce in it. 

Keep us from fretting at pain, repining at losses, or giving way to too much grief at bereavements-knowing that all these things come from You, and that You design them for our good. 

Help us to understand that every trial and every trouble is a blessing and will end in eternal glory. Sweet thought!

O for grace to yield ourselves to You-and to sweetly acquiesce in all Your paternal dealings!

Job 5:17  Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

~James Smith~

The Snare Of Worldliness

It is interesting to notice the particular way in which the Apostle speaks of the world in Gal 6:14. 

Gal 6:14  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

The world is crucified to him. 

That term is a very comprehensive term and includes a very great deal. 

What does the Apostle mean?

He sets over against this his own clear spiritual position.

Do I seek glory of men?

Do I seek to be well pleasing to men?

No!

The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

All that sort of thing does not weigh with me.

What weighs with me is not whether my movement is successful...

Whether I am getting a lot of followers...

Whether there are all the manifestations outwardly of success...

What weighs with me is the measure of Christ in those with whom I have to do. 

You see how the world can creep in...

And how worldly we can become almost imperceptibly by taking account of things outwardly...

Of how men will think and talk...

What they will say,,,

The attitude they will take of the measure of our popularity...

The talk of our success...

That is all the world, says the Apostle, the spirit of the world; that is how the world talks.

Those are the values in the eyes of the world, but not in the eyes of the risen Christ.

In the new creation, on the resurrection side of the Cross, one thing alone determines value...and that is the measure of Christ in everything.

Nothing else is of value at all...

However big the thing may be...

However popular it may be...

However men talk favorably of it...

On the resurrection side that does not count a little bit.

What counts is how much of Christ there is. 

You and I in the Cross of the Lord Jesus must come to the place where we are crucified to all those other elements.

Ah, you may be unpopular, and the work be very small...

There may be no applause...

And the world may despise...

But in it all there may be something which is of Christ, and that is the thing upon which our hearts must be set.

The Lord gives us grace for that crucifixion.

There are few things more difficult to bear than being despised...

But He was despised and rejected of men.

What a thing is in God’s sight must be our standard.

That is a resurrection standard.

Now that is the victory of the Cross: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world”.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Coming In; Going Out

Deu 28:6  Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

The blessings of the law are not canceled. 

Jesus confirmed the promise when He bore the penalty. 

If I keep the commands of my LORD, I may appropriate this promise without question. 

This day I will come in to my house without fear of evil tidings...

And I will come in to my closet expecting to hear good news from my LORD.

I will not be afraid to come in unto myself by self-examination, nor to come in to my affairs by a diligent inspection of my business.

I have a good deal of work to do indoors, within my own soul; 

Oh, for a blessing upon it all, the blessing of the LORD Jesus, who has promised to abide with me.

I must also go out. 

Timidity makes me wish that I could stay within doors and never go into the sinful world again. 

But I must go out in my calling, and I must go out that I may be helpful to my brethren and useful to the ungodly. 

I must be a defender of the faith and an assailant of evil.

Oh, for a blessing upon my going out this day!

LORD, let me go where Thou leadest, on Thy errands, under Thy command, and in the power of Thy Spirit. 

LORD Jesus, turn in with me and be my guest; 

And then walk out with me and cause my heart to burn while You speak with me by the way.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Victory Without Battle

Hos 1:7  But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
 
Precious Word. Jehovah Himself will deliver His people in the greatness of His mercy, but He will not do it by the ordinary means...

Men are slow to render to God the glory due unto His name.

If they go to battle with sword and bow and win the victory, they ought to praise their God; yet they do not, but begin to magnify their own right arm and glory in their horses and horsemen. 

For this reason our Jehovah often determines to save His people without second means, that all the honor may be to Himself alone.

Look, then, my heart, to the LORD alone and not to man. 

Expect to see God all the more clearly when there is no one else to look to. 

If I have no friend, no adviser, no one at my back, let me be none the less confident if I can feel that the LORD Himself is on my side...

Yea, let me be glad if He gives victory without battle, as the text seems to imply...

Why do I ask for horses and horsemen if Jehovah Himself has mercy upon me and lifts up His arm for my defense! 

Why need I bow or sword if God will save?

Let me trust and not be afraid from this day forth and for evermore. Amen.

~Charles Spurgeon~