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Vance Havner“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.” |
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
God uses broken things By Vance Havner
Who can come out of the battle alive? By J. C. Philpot
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(J. C. Philpot, "The Word of God's Grace" 1846)
"Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Ps. 119:117
We know little of ourselves, and less
of one another. We do not know . . .
our own needs,
what is for our good,
what snares to avoid,
what dangers to shun.
Our path is . . .
bestrewed with difficulties,
beset with temptations,
surrounded with foes,
encompassed with perils.
At every step there is a snare!
At every turn an enemy lurks!
Pride digs the pit,
carelessness blindfolds the eyes,
carnality drugs and intoxicates the senses,
the lust of the flesh seduces,
the love of the world allures,
unbelief paralyzes the fighting hand and the praying knee,
sin entangles the feet,
guilt defiles the conscience,
and Satan accuses the soul.
Under these circumstances, who can come out of
the battle alive? Only he who is kept by the mighty
power of God. "Hold me up, and I shall be safe!"
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The refuge by Newman Hall
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| photo (by Newman Hall) "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:2 The desert is dreary. The way is long. Heavily burdened, a weary traveler slowly drags onward his wounded feet. Faint by reason of the fiery blaze which smites him from the unclouded sky and the scorching sand, he eagerly looks around for shelter. He pants for even the muddiest pool where he may quench his raging thirst. In such "a weary land," how welcome "the shadow of a great rock," and the clear, cool fountain gushing up within its rugged clefts! But where can such a refuge be found for the soul; weary with wandering, crushed by care, groaning under guilt? Where can . . . its burden be taken off, its sorrows soothed, its mighty thirst assuaged? "And a Man will be as a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land." Isaiah 32:2 |
Popular virtues? By Thomas Reade
(Thomas Reade, "Christian Meditations")
Contradictory as it may seem, many virtues
approved by men, may be exhibited by those
who are lost.
Generosity,
sympathy for the afflicted,
elegance of manners,
patriotic displays of courage,
and such like popular virtues, may form
a wreath around the brow, or emblazon
the tomb, of the unbeliever.
But, what is highly esteemed among men
is abomination in the sight of God!
The trumpet of fame has sounded the praises of
many, even to the ends of the earth, who, at the
last trumpet, shall hear these words sounded out
before an assembled world: "Depart from Me, you
cursed ones, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels!"
How empty is the breath of human praise!
Grace Gems
God's Messengers By Elisabeth Elliot
How can this person who so annoys or offends me be God's messenger? Is God so unkind as to send that sort across my path? Insofar as his treatment of me requires more kindness than I can find in my own heart, demands love of a quality I do not possess, asks of me patience which only the Spirit of God can produce in me, he is God's messenger. God sends him in order that he may send me running to God for help.
The Psalms are full of cries to God about enemies--but it was the enemies that drove the psalmist (for example, in Psalm 64) to cry. If he had had no enemies, he would have had no need of a Protector. God will go to any lengths to bring us to Himself.
"Think of him who submitted to such opposition from sinners: that will help you not to lose heart and grow faint....You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood....The Lord disciplines those whom he loves" (Heb 12:3,4,6 NEB).
Is Your Imagination Of God Starved? By Oswald Chambers
'Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.'
Isaiah 40:26
The people of God in Isaiah's day had starved their imagination by looking on the face of idols, and Isaiah made them look up at the heavens, that is, he made them begin to use their imagination aright. Nature to a saint is sacramental.
If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in Nature. In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign of the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realize it.
The test of spiritual concentration is bringing the imagination into captivity. Is your imagination looking on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Your work? Your conception of what a worker should be? Your experience of salvation and sanctification? Then your imagination of God is starved, and when you are up against difficulties you have no power, you can only endure in darkness. If your imagination is starved, do not look back to your own experience; it is God Whom you need. Go right out of yourself, away from the face of your idols, away from everything that has been starving your imagination. Rouse yourself, take the gibe that Isaiah gave the people, and deliberately turn your imagination to God.
One of the reasons of stultification in prayer is that there is no imagination, no power of putting ourselves deliberately before God. We have to learn how to be broken bread and poured out wine on the line of intercession more than on the line of personal contact. Imagination is the power God gives a saint to posit himself out of himself into relationships he never was in.
Dealing With Disagreements By Theodore Epp
By Theodore Epp
Romans 12:14-21
It is not our business to repay people for what they do to us. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, even as it is indicated in Deuteronomy 32:35.
Since vengeance belongs to the Lord, we would be presuming to take the Father's business out of His hands if we tried to repay evil with evil. He takes into full account every injustice done to us, and He Himself will settle the account.
We are to keep on loving with the love with which God has loved us. That love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).
When we are misunderstood by others, we need to draw on the Word of the Lord for strength and encouragement.
A passage that Mrs. Epp and I have both found extremely helpful over the years is Psalm 37:5,6: "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday."
From this passage we see that our responsibility is to commit the whole situation to the Lord. If we have been falsely accused, we can count on the fact that God will eventually bring the true situation to light.
I have applied these verses to my life many times, and I know from personal experience that they work. God said it; that's why it works.
Love and forgiveness returned for the evil done to us will often bring a person to his knees and will "destroy" him as an enemy, but it will not destroy his character.
"For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord" (Heb. 10:30).
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