Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 1 Samuel 4:3

  
Our Daily Homily

      Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 1 Samuel 4:3
     
      Israel had been defeated with great loss. Their only hope of being able to hold their own against the Philistines and the people of the land was in the protection and help vouchsafed to them by God. They knew this, and thought that they would be secured, if only the Ark of the covenant were on the field. They forgot that it was only the material symbol of a spiritual relationship; that it was useless unless that relationship was in living force; and that the bending forms of the cherubim, emblematic of the Divine protection, would not avail if their fellowship with the God of the cherubim had been ruptured by backsliding.
     
      There is a sense in which we are always sending for the Ark. The reliance on outward rites, such as Baptism and the Lord's Supper, on the part of those who are alienated from the life of God ; the maintenance of the forms of prayer and Scripture reading, which no longer express the passionate love of the soul; the habit of churchgoing, which so many practise, not because they love God, but because they think that it will in some way secure his alliance in life's battle all these are forms in which we still fetch the Ark of the covenant, whilst our hearts are wrong with the God of the covenant.
     
      It should never be forgotten that nothing can afford to us protection and succour but vital union with Christ. We must hide in his secret place if we would abide under his shadow. We must dwell in the most holy place if we would be shadowed by the wings of the Shekinah. There must be nothing between us and God, if we are to walk together, and enjoy fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

"That I may win Christ." Philippians 3:8

  
J. C. Philpot - Daily Portions

      "That I may win Christ." Philippians 3:8
     
      What is it to "win Christ?" It is to have him sweetly embraced in the arms of our faith. It is to feel him manifesting his heavenly glory in our souls. It is to have the application of his atoning blood, in all its purging efficacy, to our conscience. It is to feel our heart melted and swooning with the sweet ravishments of his dying love, shed abroad even to overpowering.
     
      This is winning Christ. Now, before we can thus win Christ, we must have a view of Christ, we must behold his glory, "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." We must see the matchless dignity of his glorious Person, the atoning efficacy of his propitiating blood, the length and breadth, the depth and height of his surpassing love. We must have our heart ready to burst with pantings, longings, and ardent desires that this blessed Immanuel would come down from the heaven of heavens in which he dwells beyond the vail, into our heart, and shed abroad his precious dying love there. 

Now, is not this your feeling, child of God? It has been mine over and over again. Is it not your feeling as you lie upon your bed, sometimes, with sweet and earnest pantings after the Lord of life and glory? As you walk by the way, as you are engaged in your daily business, as you are secretly musing and meditating, are there not often the goings forth of these longings and breathings into the very bosom of the Lord? 

But you cannot have this, unless you have seen him by the eye of an enlightened understanding, by the eye of faith, and had a taste of his beauty, a glimpse of his glory, and a discovery of his eternal preciousness. 

You must have had this gleaming upon your eyes, as the beams of light gleam through the windows. You must have had it dancing into your heart, as the rays of the sun dance upon the waves of the sea. 

You must have had a sweet incoming of the shinings of eternal light upon your soul, melting it, and breaking it down at his footstool, as the early dawn pierces through the clouds of night. 

When you have seen and felt this you break forth--'O that I might win Christ!' Like the ardent lover who longs to win his bride, you long to enjoy his love and presence shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost.

"Faith is the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. xi. 1).

  
Days of Heaven Upon Earth

      "Faith is the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. xi. 1).
    
      True faith drops its letter in the post-office box, and lets it go. Distrust holds on to a corner of it, and wonders that the answer never comes.
    
      I have some letters in my desk that have been written for weeks, but there was some slight uncertainty about the address or the contents, so they are yet unmailed. They have not done either me or anybody else any good yet. They will never accomplish anything until I let them go out of my hands and trust them to the postman and the mail.
    
      This is the case with true faith. It hands its case over to God, and then He works.
    
      That is a fine verse in the thirty-seventh Psalm: "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He worketh." But He never worketh until we commit.
    
      Faith is a receiving, or still better, a taking of God's proffered gifts. We may believe, and come, and commit, and rest, but we will not fully realize all our blessing until we begin to receive and come into the attitude of abiding and taking.

Looking at the world through the cross

(Octavius Winslow)

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14

Jesus could accomplish man's redemption in no other way than by crucifixion. He must die — and die the death of the cross. What light and glory beam around the cross!
Of what prodigies of grace is it the instrument,
of what glorious truths is it the symbol,
of what mighty, magic power is it the source!

Around it, gathers all the light of the Old Testament economy.
It explains every symbol,
it substantiates every shadow,
it solves every mystery,
it fulfills every type,
it confirms every prophecy 
 — of that dispensation which had eternally remained unmeaning and inexplicable — except for the death of the Son of God upon the cross!

Not the past only, but all future splendor gathers around the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It assures us of the ultimate reign of the Savior, and tells of the reward which shall spring from His sufferings! And while its one arm points to the divine counsels of eternity past — with the other it points to the future triumph and glory of Christ's kingdom in the eternity to come. Such is the lowly, yet sublime; the weak, yet mighty instrument — by which the sinner is saved, and God eternally glorified!

The cross of Christ is the grand consummation of all preceding dispensations of God to men.

The cross of Christ is the meritorious procuring cause of all spiritual blessings to our fallen race. 

The cross of Christ is the scene of Christ's splendid victories over all His enemies and ours. 

The cross of Christ is the most powerful incentive to all evangelical holiness.

 

The cross of Christ is the instrument which is to subjugate the world to the supremacy of Jesus. 

The cross of Christ is the source of all true peace, joy, and hope. 

The cross of Christ is the tree beneath whose shadow, sin expires and grace lives!

The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! What a holy thrill these words produce in the heart of those who love the Savior! How significant their meaning — how precious their influence! Marvelous and irresistible, is the power of the cross!
The cross of Christ has subdued many a rebellious will.
The cross of Christ has broken many a marble heart.
The cross of Christ has laid low many a vaunting foe.
The cross of Christ has overcome and triumphed — when all other instruments have failed.

The cross of Christ has transformed the lion-like heart of man — into the lamb-like heart of Christ.
And when lifted up in its own naked simplicity and inimitable grandeur — the cross of Christ has won and attracted millions to its faith, admiration, and love!

What a marvelous power does this cross of Jesus possess! It changes the Christian's entire judgment of the world. Looking at theworld through the cross — his opinion is totally revolutionized. He sees it as it really is — a sinful, empty, vain thing! He learns its iniquity — in that it crucified the Lord of life and glory. His expectations from the world, his love to the world — are changed. He has found another object of love — the Savior whom the world cast out and slew! His love to the world is destroyed, by that power which alone could destroy it — the crucifying power of the cross!

It is the cross which eclipses, in the view of the true believer — the glory and attraction of every other object!

What is the weapon by which faith combats with, and overcomes the world? What but the cross of Jesus! Just as the natural eye, gazing for a while upon the sun, is blinded for the moment, by its overpowering effulgence to all other objects — so to the believer, concentrating his mind upon the glory of the crucified Savior, studying closely the wonders of grace and love and truthmeeting in the cross — the world with all its attraction fades into the full darkness of an eclipse! Christ and His cross are infinitely better, than the world and its vanities!

Unfathomable oceans of grace

(Robert Murray McCheyne)

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus!" Hebrews 12:2

For every look at self—take ten looks at Christ! 
Live near to Jesus—and all things will appear
little to you in comparison with eternal realities.

How many millions of dazzling pearls and gems are
at this moment hidden in the deep recesses of the
ocean caves. Likewise, unfathomable oceans of
grace are in Christ for you. Dive and dive again—
you will never come to the bottom of these depths!

When you gaze upon the sun—it makes everything
else dark; when you taste honey—it makes everything
else tasteless. Likewise, when your soul feeds on Jesus
—it takes away the sweetness of all earthly things;
praise, pleasure, fleshly lusts, all lose their sweetness.
Keep a continued gaze! Run, looking unto Jesus. So
will the world be crucified to you—and you unto the world!

True excellency!

(Jonathan Edwards)

Worldly men imagine that there is true excellency and true happiness in those things which they are pursuing. They think that if they could but obtain them, that they would be happy. But when they obtain them, and cannot find happiness, they look for happiness in something else, and are still upon the futile pursuit.

But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency that when they come to see it they look no further, but the mind rests there.

"Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16

   ~  ~  ~  ~ 

Names!

(William Dyer, "Christ's Famous Titles")

"I will write upon them the name of my God" Revelation 3:12

O there is a great difference between the names of the saints — and the names of the wicked! 

The saints are called . . .
  godly, from God;
  Christians, from Christ;
  spiritual, from the Spirit;
  heavenly, from Heaven, because their conversation is there, because their Head is there, and they are heirs of heaven.

But the wicked are called . . .
  devilish, from the devils;
  the cursed, from the curses;
  worldlings, from the world;
  and sinners, from sin.

The ungodly are called . . .
  dogs,
  vipers,
  swine,
  thorns,
  ravening wolves!

But the saints are called . . .
  jewels,
  treasures,
  kings,
  doves,
  lilies,
  heirs of the kingdom of glory!

And hence it is, that some godly men have thought it a greater honor to be a member of Christ — than to be a king upon a throne! Indeed, a holy heart is better than a great estate!

   ~  ~  ~  ~ 

The Call of the Fishermen

George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons





The Call of the Fishermen


Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught .... And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake--Luk 5:4-6

Christ Singles Out an Individual's Disappointment
It was not easy for Jesus Christ to be alone, men were so eager and so curious about Him. Not only did they crowd round Him in the villages, where at any moment there might be a work of healing, but they also watched Him as He stole away into retirement, among the hills, or by the seashore. Our lesson opens, then, with Jesus at the seaside, and there, as in Capernaum, there is a great crowd round Him, eager to listen to the Word of God. Then Jesus steps into one of the fishing boats and preaches there--note the many and strange pulpits in which Christ preached. And when the sermon was over, and Jesus was doubtless weary--what did He do? Did He ask for a drink of water? He immediately turned to Peter, in whose boat He was, and said to him, "Launch out into the deep." He had seen the disappointed look in Peter's face. He had detected that the night's fishing was a failure. All the excitement of the thronging crowd, and all the effort of telling them God's news, had not made Him careless of one man's disappointment. So may we learn to trust Christ's individual care, though we be only atoms in a countless multitude. Then follows the miracle, and the call to discipleship, and so this brief but exquisite lesson closes.

It Was in Deep Waters that the Draught Was Got
Now, note that it was in deep waters that the draught was got. The first word of Jesus was, "Launch out into the deep." if the nets were to be filled with fish that morning, the first requirement was to leave the shallows. Now, every miracle is but an acted parable; there are meanings in it that all life may interpret, and to us today, no less than to Simon Peter, Jesus is saying, "Launch out into the deep." We must come right out for God if we are ever to enjoy Him. We must unfasten the cable that binds us to the shore. It is when we launch out into the deeps of trust, that we find how mysteriously the nets are filling. For the harvest of life's sea is joy and peace, and growing insight, and increasing love, and these are beyond the reach of every fisherman, save of him who dares to launch into the deep. Then, too, as experience increases, we learn the meaning of the expression "deep waters." We learn that sorrow and care, and suffering and loss are the deep waters of the human heart. And when we find what a harvest these may bring, and how men may be blessed and purified and made unworldly by them, we understand the need of the deep waters, if the nets are ever to be filled.

God's Gifts May Cause Some Disorder at the First

Note again that God's gifts may cause some disorder at the first. When Peter at Christ's command let down the net, it enclosed a great multitude of fishes. We may be sure that the net was a good one if it was Peter's making, yet for all its goodness it began to break. Now nets are very precious to a fisherman; the loss of them is sometimes irreparable. So in a moment we see Peter and Andrew beckoning to their neighbor's boat, and like the man of Macedonia, crying, "Come over and help us." They came at once, and both of the boats were filled, and filled so full that they began to sink. And the point I wish you to note is that the first results of the kindness of the Savior were--breaking nets and sinking ships! You see, then, that when Jesus enters a life as He entered Andrew's and Simon's boat that morning, it is always possible that at the first there may be some distress and confusion and disorder. We find abundant records of it in the early Church, and every minister has seen it in his converts. Let no one be distressed, then, if when Christ steps on board it is not all joy and singing from the start. All that will come, in the good time of God, for the promise is there shall be no more sea. Meantime, just because Christ is good, and charges the empty night into such morning fulness, the nets (that are so precious to us) may seem on the point of breaking, and the waves come lapping to the gunwale of the ship.

The Nearness of Jesus Shows Us Our Unworthiness
Once more, it is the nearness of Jesus that shows us our unworthiness. One day, when Jesus was across the lake in Gadar, the Gadarenes came to Him with a strange petition: they came and begged Him to depart out of their coasts. Jesus had cured the Gadarene demoniac; He had interfered with the local trade of swine keeping; and so incensed were the people at this interference, and so dead were they to the glory of their Visitor, that they begged Him to depart, and He departed. 
How different is the cry of Peter here, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man." It was not because he was dead in trespasses and sins, it was because he was wakened to his own unworthiness, that Peter was overpowered by the Lord's presence. And so, while Jesus departed from the Gadarenes, the next word that He spoke to Peter was "Fear not" (Luk 5:10). 
Sometimes, when we gather a bunch of flowers, they seem to us very sweet and beautiful; and so they may be, for they are God's creatures, and He has made everything beautiful in its time. But if we take a pure white rose and set it in the midst of them, it is strange how garish and coarse some of the others appear. They are God's creatures, but they seem less worthy now, in the near presence of that pure and perfect whiteness. Just so when Jesus Christ is far away, we may be very well contented with ourselves. But when He enters our boat, and shows us His love and power, like Peter we too would say--"I am a sinful man."

They Followed Christ When Things Were Brightest with Them
Then, lastly, these men followed Christ when things were brightest with them. They had never had such a fishing in their lives. It was not in the weary morning after a useless night that they forsook all and followed Jesus. It was when they were the envy of the neighborhood for the huge haul of fishes they had got. Will the children act as Simon and Andrew acted? Will they follow Jesus when life is at its brightest? It is better to come late than not at all. It is better to come in old age than to die Christless. But it is best to come when all the nets are full, when life is golden, and the heart is young; best, and not only best, but surest, for "they that seek Me early, shall find Me."

Ice Fishing at Panguitch Lake

Rick Warren Warns Church Planters on Following Trends, Focusing on Growth Over Quality

  EXCERPT

This may be a shock coming from me but purpose is not enough."   

READ HERE

Isaiah 11:1-4

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

2 And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:

4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

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WHY ARE WE WHERE WE ARE?

[Harry Foster]
Vol. 13, No. 4, July - Aug. 1984

IT sometimes happens that our feet are led into strange paths, so much so that we tend to question the Lord's wisdom in His government of our lives or what He permits to happen to us. It is then that we need to remember His prayerful words about us: "As thou didst send me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world" (John 17:18).

Many years ago, when I was visiting a city on the Amazon, I went to see a Brazilian Christian who was in deep trial. The man belonged to an up-country village to which the gospel had been taken, with the happy result that he and his family had received the Good News and turned to Christ. For a time he gave a faithful testimony, and then a great calamity fell on him. He [79/80] contracted leprosy. At that time there was no cure, so this meant that he had to become an outcast. He left his happy home and was exiled to the leper colony, which was just a group of sufferers, collected in rough shacks on an island in the river.

Here was he then, facing a lingering death in loneliness and poverty. How strange are God's ways! This brother had truly consecrated his life to Christ and yet now he found himself among a group of human derelicts. As a young missionary, preparing to go into the jungle. I was greatly moved by his story and decided to pay him a visit. My purpose was to take him some material and spiritual comfort, though I confess that I wondered what might have happened to his sorely-tried faith.

I need not have wondered. Imagine my surprise and joy when I arrived there and found him the central figure among a little band of Christian lepers, everyone of them led to Christ by his radiant testimony. He told me that at first he had entered on his life on that island with a heavy heart, but soon he had come to realise that he was in that dreary place by the will of God. As Christ had been sent into the world, so he had been sent to his needy fellow lepers, to carry God's message of hope to them. If his newly converted friends had known the Scripture, they might have exclaimed, "How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things" (Romans 10:15). Even a leper's feet can be beautiful!

For me it was a humbling and an inspiring experience to hear this dear man's prayer as he poured out his heart in praise to God for the privilege of serving Him in that place.

Not so many years afterwards he went to be with Christ. No doubt his life's work was done and it was fitting that he should go from that squalid island to the Father's Home. The same Lord Jesus who had stated in His prayer that He was sending His disciples into the world had also requested that they might eventually go to that Home, to be with Him in the glory.

He left His disciples in the world, and He has left us there. He sent them into the world, and He has sent us. No need, then, for unbelief to question why we are where we are, but rather for faith to rejoice in the privilege of being in the place of His sending, and of staying here so long as the Father has a purpose for postponing the call for us to "come up higher". Editor [80/ibc]

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And when they had found him--Mar 1:37

George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons





Where They Found Him

And when they had found him--Mar 1:37


Lost and Found--Sinner and Savior!

Meditating on the Gospel story, one of the most enriching of all studies, one notes the great variety of places in which men and women found the Savior. There are people of whom we say admiringly, that you always know where you will find them. At any hour of any given day, you know where they are to be met with. But I venture to say, with the most perfect reverence, no one ever could say that of Christ--that was one of the wonders of His life. Appointments may be precious, but what a charm there is in unexpected meetings, when suddenly in the crowd we see a face, and then the sun shines out even in December. People were always finding Christ like that, suddenly, in very diverse places, and it is of one or two of these I wish to write.

In the Special or Striking Place

First, let us take the wise men from the East. They found Him in a manger. It was the unlikeliest place in all the world for One who had been heralded by stars. I remember, many years ago, going down a coal mine with a friend. We stumbled along a mile of tunnel, and there came on a man working in a hollow. And my guide, who was the local minister, pointing to the stooping figure, said, "That is the brightest Christian in my parish." Then I thought of the wise men from the East finding Christ in that unlikely manger. I thought of the rowers upon the Lake of Galilee finding Him upon the stormy sea. 
I thought of the penitent thief upon the cross, finding the desire of all the nations amid the shames and agonies of Calvary. That is one of the wonders of the Lord. He is found in the unlikeliest places, in lives where one would never think to light on Him, and in the most unpromising of circumstances. He is found in India and in Manchuria, and among the hills and glens in Livingstonia, and in the savage islands of the Pacific Ocean. How often, studying the Old Testament, is the Lord found in the unlikeliest places--not in the royal splendors of Isaiah, but in seemingly desolate and barren tracts. So the magi, dreaming of kingly furnishings, and of cradles wrought with curious art, found Him a little babe among the beasts.

In the Sacred Place

Then, passing on a little, one remembers how His parents found Him in the Temple. It is a story familiar to us all. The wisest sages of the land were there, but Mary and Joseph never heeded them. The courts were echoing with music, but I question if Mary ever heard it. Like a morning of sunshine after a night of weeping was the sight of Jesus to His mother's eyes, and she and Joseph found Him in the church. Not in the streets where rolled the tide of traffic; not amid the chaffering of bazaars; but in the beautiful place where God was worshipped, with its altar and its mercy seat. And to this hour, wherever folk are gathered to worship God in singleness of heart, the Lord still reveals Himself as present. Through song and prayer, or when the word is preached, or in mystical ways the mind can never fathom, how many become conscious of that presence which makes all the difference in the world? What new meaning does it give to churchgoing if we practice it in quiet assurance that we shall meet the chiefest among ten thousand there?

In the Solitary Place
Then, again, one recalls how His disciples found Him in the solitary place. To me that is of infinite suggestiveness. All the evening before He had been busy, healing sicknesses and working miracles. Virtue had been passing out of Him, for when He gave a cure He gave Himself. Then in the morning, long before the sunrise, He had risen and stolen quietly away--and they found Him in the solitary place. All alone, nobody beside Him, round Him the infinite solitude of nature--and to me there is a parable in that. To many a young man there comes the day when his spirit is thrilled by Emerson or Shakespeare. But Shakespeare and Emerson do not stand alone; there are other essayists and other poets. You find them moving in a glorious company, and you look at them, and call them men of genius; but you find Christ in the solitary place. Genius is a thing of less or more. It has its chosen child in every century. Genius may be an all-subduing flame, or it may only be a tiny spark. But the one thing you can never do with Christ is to regard Him as belonging to a class; you find Him in the solitary place. In the unconditional obedience He calls for, in His unparalleled and stupendous claims, in His immediate knowledge of the Father, in His total sinlessness, Christ stands alone, confronting every one of us. We find Him in the solitary place.

The Standard Places - Along the "Highway of Life"

Lastly, one recalls that there were those who found Him on the common highway. Who does not know the matchless story of the two who found Him on the Emmaus road. There rolled the wagon. There the chariot dashed. There marched the legions of the empire. There was the merchant travelling on business; there the prodigal returning home. It was the common highway, free to everybody, open to the beggar and to the emperor, and there the two disciples found the Lord. Sometimes that common road is very dusty. The heart faints and the feet grow weary on it. We wonder if we shall have strength to travel it, till in the hour of evening we win home. But what a difference it makes, what a blessed and amazing difference, when like the two going to Emmaus, we find Him on the common road! He makes so much of our worrying ridiculous. We forget it all in company with Him. He is so radiant, so full of loving hopefulness, so absolutely sure of God. In that companionship life blossoms. We have courage for the darkest mile. We recapture, even when the shadows fall, the burning of the heart.

Is it not in the least likely

Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest

For Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. 1 Kings 2:28.

Joab stood the big test, he remained absolutely loyal and true to David and did not turn after the fascinating and ambitious Absalom, but yet towards the end of his life he turned after the craven Adonijah. 

Always remain alert to the fact that where one man has gone back is exactly where any one may go back (see 1 Cor. 10:13). You have gone through the big crisis, now be alert over the least things; take into calculation the ‘retired sphere of the leasts.’

We are apt to say—‘It is not in the least likely that having been through the supreme crisis, I shall turn now to the things of the world.’ Do not forecast where the temptation will come; it is the least likely thing that is the peril. 

In the aftermath of a great spiritual transaction the ‘retired sphere of the leasts’ begins to tell; it is not dominant, but remember it is there, and if you are not warned, it will trip you up. You have remained true to God under great and intense trials, now beware of the undercurrent. Do not be morbidly introspective, looking forward with dread, but keep alert; keep your memory bright before God. Unguarded strength is double weakness, because that is where the ‘retired sphere of the leasts’ saps. The Bible characters fell on their strong points, never on their weak ones.

“Kept by the power of God”—that is the only safety.


link

Hymns that Changed the World

For over several hundred years ago, these treasured hymns have touched the lives of millions, for they are the most compelling music the world has ever known.

These beloved songs were a product of a special union between the Spirit of God and the human heart.... 1. Amazing Grace (was written by John Newton 25 years after he abandoned his life as an African slave trader.)
 2. It is Well with My Soul (poured from the broken heart of Horatio Spafford after his four daughters were killed in a tragic shipwreck)
 3. What a Friend We have in Jesus (penned by Joseph Scriven after his fiancee drowned the day before their wedding)
 4. Silent Night and 5. How Great Thou Art (both songs evolved from poems written by an Austrian parish priest and a Swedish pastor in praise and thanksgiving to their Creator)

The chariots of God

The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life 19 - The chariots of God.

By Hannah Whitall Smith


It has been well said that "earthly cares are a heavenly discipline." However, they are even something better than discipline they are God's chariots, sent to take the soul to its high places of triumph.

They do not look like chariots. Instead, they look like enemies, sufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments, unkindnesses. They look like misery and wretchedness waiting to roll over us and crush us into the earth. But if could we see them as they really are, we would recognize them as chariots of triumph in which we may ride to those heights of victory for which our souls have been longing and praying. The difficulty is the visible thing. The chariot of God is the invisible. The King of Syria came up against Elisha with horses and chariots that could be seen by every eye, but God had chariots that could be seen by none except the eye of faith. The servant of the Prophet could only see the outward and visible. In 2 Kings 6:15 he cried, "Alas, my Master! how shall we do?'' But Elisha sat calmly within his house without fear, because his eyes were opened to see the invisible. All he asked for his servant was, "Lord, I pray Thee open his eyes that he may see" (2Kings6:17).

This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, "Lord, open our eyes that we may see." The world all around us, as well as around the Prophet, is full of God's horses and chariots waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. And when our eyes are opened, we will see in all the events of life, whether great or small, whether joyful or sad, a "chariot" for our souls.

God's Chariots

Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such. And on the other hand, even the smallest trials may crush us into misery or despair if we let them. It is up to us to choose which it will be. It does not matter what these events are, but how we take them. We can either lie down under them and let them roll over us and crush us, or we can view them as chariots of God and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward.

Whenever we climb into God's chariots the same thing happens to us spiritually that happened to Elijah. We will have a translation, not into the heaven above us as Elijah did, but into the heaven within us. This, after all, is almost a grander translation than his. We will be carried away from the low, earthly, grovelling plane of life, where everything hurts and everything is unhappy, up into the "heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 1:3). There we can ride in triumph over all below.

These "heavenly places" are interior, not exterior. The road that leads to them is interior also. But the chariot that carries the soul over this road is generally some outward loss or trial or disappointment, something that is not joyous, but grievous. However, afterwards it "yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" (Hebrews 12:11).

Our "chariot" often looks very unlovely. It may be a nasty relative or friend. It may be the result of human malice or cruelty or neglect. But every chariot sent by God is paved with love, since God is love. And God's love is the sweetest, softest, tenderest thing that was ever found by any soul anywhere.

The Bible tells us that when God went forth for the salvation of His people He "didst ride upon (His) horses and chariots of salvation" (Habakkuk 3:8) and it is the same now. Everything becomes a "chariot of salvation" when God rides upon it. He "maketh the clouds His chariot" (Psalm 104:3), we are told, and rides "on the wings of the wind" (Psalm 18:10). Therefore, the clouds and storms that darken our skies and seem to shut out the shining of the sun of righteousness are really only God's chariots which we may "ride prosperously" (Psalm 4 5 :4) over all the darkness . Have you made the clouds in your life your chariots? Are you "riding prosperously" with God on top of them all?

I knew a lady who had a housekeeper who worked slowly. She was an excellent girl in every other respect, and very valuable in the household. However, her slowness was a constant source of irritation to her employer who was naturally quick and who always became irritated at slowness. This lady would lose her temper with the girl twenty times a day, and twenty times a day would repent of her anger and be determined to conquer it, but in vain. Her life was made miserable by the conflict. One day it occurred to her that she had been praying a long while for patience, and that perhaps this slow housekeeper was the very chariot the Lord had sent to carry her soul over into patience. She immediately accepted it as such, and from that time used the slowness of her housekeeper as a chariot for her soul. The result was a victory of patience that no one was ever able to disturb.

THE CAUSE AND CURE OF DISUNITY

Vol. 3, No. 2, Mar. - Apr. 1974 Brychan Davies THE unity of God's people is a fundamental doctrine of the faith. It is the rock upon which the Church is built. Yet Christians who are truly born of the Spirit will shun one another's company or refuse to sit together at the Lord's Table because they cannot agree over a certain point of doctrine. They deprive themselves of the richest and sweetest of God's blessings because they have never really grasped the fundamental truth that all born again believers are in Christ and are grounded upon the foundation laid of God. What is the foundation of true unity? It is not found in any creed or statement of faith, it is not found in any man-made systems; for the real question is not 'What' but 'Who' is the foundation, and the answer is that "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). In Christ irreconcilable extremes meet and are reconciled. In Him the great doctrines of God's [23/24] sovereignty and man's responsibility which appear to us throughout the Scripture as parallel lines, find their meeting place and are one. As finite beings we can only see and stand at one extreme at a given time, and all is well if today we stand at one extreme and tomorrow we stand at the other. The danger lies in entrenching ourselves at one extreme and refusing even to acknowledge the other. Both extremes are in the Word of God, and that is why no creed, no set of doctrines, no, not even the Bible itself as we understand it, can be the foundation of the true unity of God's people. There is but one foundation, laid of God, which is Jesus Christ, through whom all God's eternal purposes will be fulfilled. We who are members of the Church, who have been redeemed by Christ's precious blood and baptized by one Spirit into one body; have we ever realised the power of true unity? Sadly we must answer, No! The Church which is to be to the praise of the glory of God's grace is under reproach because she has never worked out fully in practice the unity which is hers in Christ. There is power in unity. Satan, the arch-enemy, knows this, and seeks to exploit every situation for his own ends. The story of the tower of Babel illustrates this. The people of the fallen creation sought to build a city and tower to reach unto heaven. The Lord took notice of it and said: "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do: and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do" (Genesis 11:6). These were the people of the fallen creation under the curse of sin. The Lord saw that they were one people, united in word and purpose, and that this meant that there was almost limitless power in their hands. As long as they remained united in this way they would work out their own plans and follow their own devices successfully. God knew this, so with one stroke He removed that danger. He confounded their language; they could no longer communicate with one another; so their power was destroyed. But God is not the God of confusion, so He would not have caused it at Babel had it not been absolutely necessary. The foundation of their unity had been laid by the god of this world. It was a false foundation from which the devil would have tried to fulfil his proud ambition to be "like the most High". God destroyed this false unity at Babel that He might provide full and true unity at Calvary. BY the cross we are born again of the Spirit and by Him baptized into one body. No longer are we individual, self-contained, self-centred units; we are members together of the body of Christ. What we need urgently to realise is that the unity of the whole body of Christ is of far greater importance to the Head than the seeming temporary good of the one member. We need to pray and seek for unity and oneness between the members of Christ with far greater intensity than for our own personal blessing. The Church of Jesus Christ has been troubled and distressed by divisions, splits and schisms down through the centuries. It matters not what period of Church History we study, one fact stands out starkly, the disunity of God's people. From the early days of the Church, recorded for us in the book of the Acts, until the present day, there is ample evidence of this terrible, disastrous and evil plague eating into the body of Christ here on earth. Deep distress has been caused, not only to the children of God themselves but to our God and heavenly Father. How His heart must ache at times when He sees His children, whom He has loved with an everlasting love and redeemed at infinite cost, flying at one anothers' throats. How distressing it must be to the heavenly Bridegroom to see His bride wounded and suffering because of internal strife! She who has been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, who should be marching forward "as an army, terrible, with banners" is so often weak and defeated, become easy prey for the enemy, owing to internal conflict.

"For we are his workmanship."--Ephesians 2:10

J. C. Philpot - Daily Portions





"For we are his workmanship."--Ephesians 2:10


Consider what is here declared of those who are saved by grace through faith--that they are God's "workmanship"--the fruit and product of his creative hand. All, then, that we are and all that we have that is spiritual, and as such acceptable to God, we owe to the special operation of his power. There is not a thought of our heart, word of our lips, or work of our hands, which is truly holy and heavenly, simple and sincere, glorifying to God or profitable to man, of which he is not by his Spirit and grace the divine and immediate Author. How beautifully is this expressed by the Church of old, and what an echo do her accents find in every gracious heart: "But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand" (Isa. 64:8). 
How suitable, how expressive is the figure of the clay and the potter. Look at the moist clay under the potter's hand. How soft, how tender, how passive is the clay; how strong, how skilful are the hands which mould it into shape. As the wheel revolves, how every motion of the potter's fingers shapes the yielding clay, and with what exquisite skill does every gentle pressure, every imperceptible movement impress upon it the exact form which it was in his mind to make it assume. How sovereign was the hand which first took the clay, and as divine sovereignty first took it, so divine sovereignty shapes it when taken into form.

Readiness

APRIL 18TH, 2005

Readiness

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers.

God called unto him . . . and he said, Here am I. – Exodus 3:4

When God speaks, many of us are like men in a fog, we give no answer. Moses’ reply revealed that he was somewhere. Readiness means a right relationship to God and a knowledge of where we are at present. We are so busy telling God where we would like to go. The man or woman who is ready for God and His work is the one who carries off the prize when the summons comes. We wait with the idea of some great opportunity, something sensational, and when it comes we are quick to cry-“Here am I." Whenever Jesus Christ is in the ascendant, we are there; but we are not ready for an obscure duty.

Readiness for God means that we are ready to do the tiniest little thing or the great big thing, it makes no difference. We have no choice in what we want to do; whatever God’s programme may be we are there, ready. When any duty presents itself we hear God’s voice as Our Lord heard His Father’s voice, and we are ready for it with all the alertness of our love for Him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us as His Father did with Him. He can put us where He likes, in pleasant duties or in mean duties, because the union is that of the Father and Himself. “That they may be one, even as We are one."

Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A ready person never needs to get ready. Think of the time we waste trying to get ready when God has called! The burning bush is a symbol of everything that surrounds the ready soul, it is ablaze with the presence of God.

THE MISSING KEY

Vol. 2, No. 6, Nov. - Dec. 1973


FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

Harry Foster


WE often grumble about our weather here in England, but if we had a little experience of a very humid climate with the thermometer up to 95°, we might be more grateful to be cooler. At least that is what I have found in recent journeys. Imagine travelling in a car under such a fiery sun! To open the windows would be like opening an oven door to let in blasts of witheringly hot air. Happily people do not have to suffer in this way, for there are cars fitted with air-conditioning apparatus so that, provided all the windows are kept shut, the inside of the car remains cool and fresh.

In Los Angeles our Chinese friends were going to take us to an important conference about two hours' drive away from the city and, to provide for our comfort, they had been able to borrow such an air-conditioned car. So there we were, with our bags all packed, ready to be driven off to the conference, when the Chinese lady who was to drive the borrowed car, drove up to the house to collect us.

But she had bad news. There was enough petrol -- or 'gas' as they call it there -- to drive a short distance, but not enough to get us to the conference camp. The owner of the car had left the ignition key, but had forgotten to leave another very important key, the one needed to open the lock of the petrol-tank cap. We were quite ready to fill up the tank with enough 'gas' for the journey, but there was no way of getting it into the tank. The engine was in good condition; there was no difficulty about the flow of petrol from the tank to the engine; but the trouble was that the entrance to this tank was closed and locked. Fearing that people might steal her petrol, the owner of the car had had a lock fitted to the cap. This did not matter, provided the driver had the key of this lock, but the kind friend who had lent the car did not think to hand over this key, and so we were left stranded.

Various suggestions were made, but as they were in Chinese I could not understand them. When, however, the driver went off alone in the car, it was explained to me that she had gone to the locksmith to ask him to force the lock. This seemed a good idea, so we went back into the house with our luggage, fully expecting that after a short delay we should be able to set out on our journey.

However another disappointment awaited us for, when the lady driver returned, she had to report that the locksmith had refused to do what she asked. This was not because the task was difficult, but due to the fact that she was not herself the owner of the car. She explained that it had been lent to her by a friend, but the man rightly said that it would be illegal for him to break open the lock without the owner's permission.

So we were back in our old predicament. Here was a car which could be started, which could go part of the way, but which could not complete the journey. One friend suggested that we should set out in faith, but the others rejected the suggestion, since it is never any use starting a thing unless one has the resources to finish it.

Well, in the end a solution was found to our problem, the cap was opened and the tank filled with the petrol which would enable us to finish our journey. We were late; but we got there in the end. I will not stop to tell you just how it was done, because the real purpose of this story is to remind you that the Christian journey can only be satisfactorily completed by those who keep open the intake of divine power. However well you may start and run at first, you will never reach your spiritual destination if something is locking up the channel of inflow of the Holy Spirit. You must have the key to that intake, and you must use it. The locksmith could [119/120] have broken open our cap but he would not. The Lord could easily force His own power into your life, but He will never do that. So if you have mislaid the key, find it again and use it to open up your being to the free flow of the eternal life of the Lord Jesus. The key is called 'Faith', and the Bible tells us that God will always respond to it. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him" (Hebrews 11:6).

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Glory at the End

By T. Austin-Sparks

      Reading: Haggai 2:1-9; Ephesians 3:20,21; Revelation 21:10-11.

      "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former." "Unto him be the glory in the church... for ever and ever." "The holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God."

      It is something of which we should remind ourselves continually, that the end is going to be in glory, with glory - the end will be glory. Sometimes our answer to an interrogation might very well be that of the people in the time of Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai: The present glory is nothing! but "the latter glory... shall be greater than the former". The end will be with glory. We must tell ourselves that, when things look anything but glorious, when the glory seems to be entirely hidden, when there seems to be no glory at all in our experience and we are passing through a deep and terrible time of trial and affliction, this is not the end; it just cannot be the end. Though we think the end has come, it cannot be identified as the end, because the Word of God says that the end is glory. This is not glory; therefore it cannot be the end and we have not arrived at the end yet. We are not going down in shame, in dishonour, in reproach, in despair. We are going up in glory, for the end is glory.

      The Glory of Grace

      What is this glory? Well, quite clearly, according to these passages which we have read, and others, it is the glory of grace. "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former", and in that very connection the prophet says: "He shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of Grace, grace unto it" (Zechariah 4:7). The words from the letter to the Ephesians - "unto him be the glory in the church" - are set in a whole encompassment of grace. The incomparable words concerning grace are found in that letter: "That we should be... to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (1:6); "According to the riches of his grace" (1:7); "(By grace have ye been saved) ... that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace" (2:5,7); "Unto me", says the Writer, "was this grace given, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (3:8). The last words concerning grace are in connection with the glory. So it is quite obviously the glory of grace. The Lord, in order to get the glory, will see that everything is kept on a basis of grace, that is, that everything that is not grace will be smitten hip and thigh by Him. In the end there will be no other element whatever in the situation. We shall just have to say it is His grace - the glory of His grace.

      The Battleground of Grace

      The enemy is always trying to get us off the ground of grace. If he cannot do so by accusation, he will do so by false grace, which is presumption. In this way he makes grace a way of living as you like. It does not matter what you do, how you behave, grace will cover anything. "Once in grace, always in grace", so do not be troubled with responsibility. So grace is subverted. In many ways grace is a battleground, not a playground.

      Grace a Power in the Life

      The only answer to these things is this: That while grace is that favour of God which asks for no merit, no earning, and is freely bestowed on us, as Paul says, in the Beloved, grace is also a power in the life. It is a vital force to make us live according to the good pleasure of God, the grace of God not only manifested in our acceptance, but in our lives, the acceptance begetting a response to the pleasure of God. Grace is a character, a nature, as well as a standing; grace unto glory, His glory, primarily the glory of what grace has done in our acceptance, in our standing, in our position, but also what grace has done in conforming us to the image of His Son, what grace is doing in us. It is a working thing. The glory of His grace at the end will be the manifestation of what grace has done.

The Glory of His Sovereign Wisdom and Power

      It will be the glory of His sovereign wisdom and power. You go back to these books of Ezra and Nehemiah and you find a people very much in need of the grace of God by reason of their own helplessness, the remnant being stripped and shorn of everything, unable to provide anything at all, so that it must all be of the Lord. And then you see the enemies, all the enemies. No sooner does God's purpose come into view, and a people in it, than, as from nowhere, enemies spring up. You have never heard their names until now, you never knew anything about them and you did not know of their existence until now. How these people were beset on every hand by opposing forces who would make the work to cease by every means! You know the many forms of opposition in the book of Nehemiah - the enemy comes in from the deepest subterfuge to the most open and violent persecution. But there is a wonderful revelation of the sovereign wisdom and power of God; wisdom in outwitting the cunning of men and devils; wisdom in finding ways for the accomplishment of the purpose which men could never find; yes, and wisdom in turning the very work of their enemies to be complementary, spiritually complementary. Sovereign wisdom and sovereign power - and the house filled with glory at the end. The glory is the glory of that wisdom and power of God. "Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think", which goes beyond our ability to imagine how it can be done, or that it can be done at all, "according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be the glory in the church". The story of the people of God is just that story of the power and wisdom of God, finding ways where there are no ways, finding means where there are no means, outwitting all the cunning of the enemy and turning the enemy's very work to advantage.... "I would have you know... that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel" (Philippians 1:12). The wisdom of God, the power of God, the glory of that is manifested in the end.