Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Friday, December 20, 2013

The First Love by Andrew Murray

“I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Rev. 2:4).

In Revelation 2:2-3, eight signs are mentioned showing the zeal and activity of the Church at Ephesus. But there was one bad sign, and the Lord said: “Except thou repent, I will come unto thee, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place.” And what was this sign? “Thou hast left thy first love.”

We find the same lack in the Church of the present day. There is zeal for the truth, there is continuous and persevering labor, but that which the Lord values most is wanting, the tender, fervent love to Himself.

This is a thought of great significance. A church or a community or a Christian may be an example in every good work, and yet the tender love to the Lord Jesus in the inner chamber is missing.

There is no personal daily fellowship with Christ, and all the manifold activities with which people satisfy themselves are as nought in the eyes of the Master Himself.

Dear brother and sister, this book speaks of the fellowship of love with Christ in the inner chamber. Everything depends on this. Christ came from heaven to love us with the love wherewith the Father loved Him. He suffered and died to win our hearts for this love. His love can be satisfied with nothing less than a deep, personal love on our part.

Christ considers this of the first importance. Let us do so too. Many ministers and missionaries and Christian workers confess with shame that in spite of all their zeal in the Lord’s work, their prayer life is defective because they have left their first love. I pray you, write this down on a piece of paper and remember it continually–The love of Jesus must be all–in the inner chamber, in all my work, in my daily life.

Lord Jesus, I pray that Thou wilt be my all, in the inner chamber, in all my work, in my daily life. Amen.

Jan. 11 devotional thought from the Andrew Murray's devotional, "God's Best Secrets".
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=51055&forum=45

Friday, December 13, 2013

THE MEANING OF TEMPTING GOD by David Wilkerson

The psalmist writes of Israel’s sin, “They tempted God in their heart” (Psalm 78:18). The Hebrew meaning of this phrase indicates that the Israelites were “tested beyond endurance.” This means they had no human means left to provide for themselves. When they came to this place, they believed God had abandoned them and was remaining silent and out of sight.

In short, this is what it means to tempt God. It happens when His chosen, blessed ones are placed in the fires of testing and their crisis keeps growing more intense until fear grips their hearts, and they cry out, “Lord, where are You? Where is my deliverance? Why aren’t You on the scene? Are You with me or not?"

It is impossible for an unsaved person to tempt the Lord since such a person does not acknowledge God in any area of his life. To him, everything that happens is either good luck or bad luck. Only those who are closest to the Lord can tempt Him, those who have seen His power, tasted His mercy and grace, and been called to walk by faith.

Even the righteous John the Baptist faced the kind of trial that can lead to tempting God. As he sat in prison, he must have wondered where God was in his situation. Word had come back to him of all the wonderful things Jesus was doing—healing people, performing miracles, drawing crowds who had once flocked to him. And now here he sat alone, awaiting execution.

John had known that he had to decrease so Christ could increase. But now the thought crossed his mind, “Decrease, yes, but death? Why do I have to die if Jesus is truly God? If He is performing all these wonders for others, why can’t He deliver me? Lord, this is all too much to endure.” (Remember, Christ had not yet removed the sting of death.)

The last words Jesus sent to John were incredibly significant: “Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me” (Matthew 11:6). Christ was telling this godly servant, “Don't be offended at me, John. You know I only do what I see and hear from the Father. He has a plan in all this, and He is worthy to be trusted. If He wanted Me to come and release you, you know I would be there in a moment. You can rest assured that whatever comes of this, it will be to His glory. And it will mean eternal glory for you!

“You are enduring your final test, John. Don’t let doubt rob you of your faith. Instead, rest in the Father’s love and faithfulness to you. You’re not being judged. On the contrary, you are greatly honored in His eyes. Just hold steady!”

I believe John did endure. When he was finally beheaded by Herod, he went home to glory full of faith and honor!


Saturday, November 9, 2013

HEARING GOD IN THE UNCLEAR TIMES

Like Jesus who came to do the will of His Father (Jn 6:38), a Christian who is whole-hearted will be most serious in life about accomplishing God’s will.  God’s primary will for us is clear – to become like Christ (Rom 8:29).  This means we strive to overcome sin because it grieves God, and we strive to put on the character of Christ – devotion to the Lord, love for others, humility, the fruits of the Spirit, etc.  We do this because this is what pleases God and that is our main goal in life because we love Him.

This is God’s primary will and it is clear.  But there are many other areas in life and decisions we have to make where God’s will for our lives may not be so clear.  We desire to make the right choice and we pray about these things and try as best as we can to follow the voice of the Holy Spirit – which many times can prove very difficult.  There are many really important situations in life where we run into this –things like deciding where to live, who to marry, which church family to commit to, which ministry to serve in, which career path to take, which job to take and even more so the many daily decisions we have to make such as how to deal with a particular situation, how to respond to people in difficult times, or what we should be doing with our free time.

Hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit has not been an easy thing for myself.  And looking back I’ve seen how what I think is the voice of the Holy Spirit many times may not be.  How can we walk with God when we’re not always sure what He’s saying to us?

I don’t have all the answers for how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and I don’t want to try to list out methods in this article, but instead wanted to share one huge encouragement that God has shown me in these ‘unclear’ situations.  The encouragement is to remember that God is a loving Father, who is merciful and easy on me.  He’s more concerned about cleansing my inner character than by me discerning what the correct path is in a particular situation.  As I walk with Him to cleanse my heart, the external path will become clearer.

In the Old Testament, David was generally a good king who wanted to please God.  And he wanted to show his devotion by building a temple for God.  God soon spoke to David and said it was not His will for David to do that, but what was most encouraging to me about this is to read what God said about David after this:
2 Chronicles 6:8 But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart. 9 Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will be born to you, he shall build the house for My name.’

Even though God’s will was that David would not build the house, God was still pleased with David because he had it in his heart to do this act of love for the Lord.  How is it that David intended to do something which wasn’t God’s will, but God was still pleased with him?!  That seems contradictory, but it’s not.  It’s because David’s primary goal was not to please himself, but to please God.  And David was quick to follow God’s will once God made it clear to him.  He wanted to please God when he intended to build the temple, and he equally wanted to please God when God told him not to build it.

What a wonderful joy to see how God looks at us!  What a loving Father.  We make many mistakes in life.  We make many unwise decisions.  The main thing is to maintain a heart of devotion to the Lord so that even in our mistakes of mishearing God He can say “Nevertheless, you did well that you wanted to please me.”  I see it as a little boy who makes a mess of the garage trying to make his Dad a complicated birthday gift with scrap wood and a bunch of tools.  Even though he shouldn’t have made a mess and used his tools without asking, his Dad will still look at him with a loving smile because he knows that his intention was to show his love.  The boy still has perfect fellowship with his Dad and he can go clean up his mess with a happy heart.
One thing I’ve been guilty of in the past is ‘paralysis by analysis’.  Sometimes being afraid to make a decision because of the fear that it’s not God’s will and so I can tend to be stuck in a position where I don’t do anything.  This truth of God as a loving Father has helped me with that problem.  It reminds me of a certain quote that has helped me for years – “A ship which is heading in the wrong direction can be turned around quicker than one which is sitting stationary.”  This is the idea that we should pray and be patient, but we shouldn’t wait forever to take action because we are paralyzed with fear.  Move forward with the best understanding of God’s will that we have, with the peace of knowing that as long as we are fully submitted to Him with an intention to please Him, He can turn us around if we are at any point headed in the wrong direction.
So in all these unclear situations in our life, we can take heart in the fact that God is a loving Father.  Let’s focus most on cleansing our selfishness, our sinful motives and evil intentions of the heart, and putting on the character of Christ.  Once this is done then these other matters will fall into place as long as we have a humble heart which is willing to try to do as best as we can what we believe God is telling us to do, and to submit to God as His will becomes clearer to us.  For now, I may or may not be hearing clearly... only let me do my best to make sure I am trying to please God and not myself.


Copyright © New Covenant Christian Fellowship

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Show me Thy face

Show me Thy face–one transient gleam
Of loveliness divine,
And I shall never think or dream
Of other love than Thine;
All other light will darken quite,
All lower glories wane,
The beautiful of earth will scarce
Seem Beautiful again.

Show me Thy face-I shall forget
The weary days of yore;
The fretting thoughts of vain regret
Shall hurt my soul no more;
All doubts and fears for future years
In quite trust subside,
And naught but blest content and calm
Within my breast reside.

Show me Thy face–the heaviest cross
Will then seem light to bear;
There will be gain in every loss
And peace with every care.
With such light feet the years will fleet,
Life seem as brief as blest;
Till I have laid my burden down
And entered into rest.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Saturday, October 19, 2013

A Splendid Example of a Godly Man by Zac Poonen

It is interesting to see that when God decided to write Scripture, the very first book He wrote was about a godly man. That shows us what God is always looking for. He looked for a godly man in the time of Enoch, in the time of Noah and in the time of Job. God planned from the beginning to give us 66 books of Scripture. And in the very first of those books, He wrote about what was uppermost in His heart – a godly human being.

Now notice the first sentence in the first inspired book of Scripture: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1). Can you see the heart of God in the first sentence of Scripture? It was about one man - a man identified by his name – Job - and by the place he lived in– Uz (so that he is not confused with some other Job living somewhere else). And God gives His testimony of that man – not about his cleverness, or his wealth, or his reputation with other men, but only about his character. There we see what God truly values – uprightness, fear of God and turning away from all evil. 

God is not looking for people with Bible-knowledge. Job did not have any Bible- knowledge because there was no Bible then. He had no-one around him to encourage him to a godly life either. Even the preachers of his day only discouraged him by what they said. But in spite of all this, he lived an upright life.

The Lord told Satan what was outstanding about Job: “There is no-one like him on the earth - a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil” (1:8). The fear of God – or reverence for God - is something that is mentioned much in this first book of inspired Scripture. Here we see that God compared Job with other people on the earth. God does that today too.

It is not surprising that Satan made Job his target, for Satan hates upright people. He hated Job in those days - and he hates such people even today. That is why he does everything in his power to prevent us from being godly. Satan troubled Job through his wife and through carnal preachers. But none of this made any difference to Job’s devotion to his God. What a man Job was! What a challenge he is to us! We can be like him too.

Now see how Job reacted to all the trials. He heard that everything had been lost. One after the other, his servants came and told him that everything was gone. And Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground and worshipped God (1:20). That’s another thing we see on the very first page of inspired Scripture: A godly man is a worshipper. More than knowing the Bible and more than serving the Lord, a man of God is primarily a worshipper. You must be a worshipper when you have everything and you must be a worshipper when you have lost everything. Jesus said, “God is a Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth, and the Father seeks for such worshippers” (John 4: 23, 24). To worship God is to give Him everything.

Job said, “I came from my mother’s womb naked, and I shall return there naked. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Through all this Job did not sin, nor did he blame God” (1: 21, 22). Job was probably referring here to Mother Earth from which he came naked and to which he will return as dust, naked. He willingly accepted whatever the Lord permitted in his life.

When I think of Job’s dedication to the Lord, I am amazed. He did not have the example of Jesus and the apostles that we have. He had no examples whatsoever to follow. He did not have the power of the Holy Spirit that we have. He did not have the Bible that we have. He did not have the encouragement or support of fellow-believers or even of his own wife. Job only had God – and God was enough. If Job could come to such a glorious life, why can’t we?

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Jesus Valued Unbroken Fellowship with the Father in Heaven - Zac Poonen

At the age of 95, having walked with God for over 65 years, the apostle John decided to write a letter - inspired by the Holy Spirit. The theme of his letter was `fellowship' (1 Jn. 1:3). Having seen churches and leaders who had left their first love (Rev. 2:4) and who now had a name that they were alive (with all their varied Christian activities) but who were in fact dead in God's sight (Rev. 3:1), John certainly saw that the great need was to lead Christians into the joy of fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, inside the rent veil.

There may be joy found in several fields of activity. Some find it in sport, some in music, some in their profession, and some even in Christian work. But the purest joy in the universe is to be found only in fellowship with the Father (1 Jn. 1:4).

The psalmist says, "In Thy presence is fullness of joy" (Psa. 16:11). This was the "joy set before Him" that made Jesus willing to endure the cross daily (Heb. 12:2). The fellowship with the Father was Jesus' most prized possession. He did not value anything else in the universe in comparison with that. This fellowship was what Jesus knew would be broken on Calvary, when for three hours He would have to endure the agonies of an eternal hell for lost humanity (Matt. 27:45). Then the Father would have to forsake Him, and the fellowship that He enjoyed with the Father from all eternity would be broken for three hours. He dreaded that break of fellowship so greatly that He sweated great drops of blood in Gethsemane. The cup that He prayed to be removed from Him was just this: A break of fellowship with His Father.

If only we could see this and be gripped by it! How lightly we speak and sing about following Jesus! To follow Jesus means to value fellowship with the Father like He did. Sin would then become exceedingly sinful to us, for it breaks our fellowship with the Father. An unloving attitude towards another human being would not even be tolerated, for it would break our fellowship with the Father.

May the Lord give us revelation so that we see clearly that true Christianity is nothing less than a life of unbroken fellowship with a loving Father in heaven.

Monday, September 16, 2013

God Needs Men - Zac Poonen

God needs men today -
  • Men who will stand before His face and hear His voice daily,
  • Men who have no desire in their heart for anyone or anything other than God Himself,
  • Men who fear Him so greatly that they hate sin in every form and love righteousness and truth in all their ways,
  • Men who have overcome anger and sexually sinful thoughts, and who would rather die than sin even in thought or attitude,
  • Men whose daily lifestyle is one of taking up the cross and pressing on to perfection, and who are constantly working out their own salvation with fear and trembling,
  • Men, full of the Holy Spirit, who are so rooted and grounded in love that nothing can ever move them into an unloving attitude towards another human being, however great the provocation,
  • Men who are so rooted and grounded in humility that neither human praise nor spiritual growth, neither a divinely endorsed ministry nor anything else will be able to make them lose the awareness of their being less than the least of all the saints,
  • Men who have an understanding of God's nature and purpose through His word, and who tremble at that word so that they will not disobey even the smallest commandment or neglect to teach it to others,
  • Men who will proclaim the whole counsel of God and expose religious harlotry and unscriptural human traditions,
  • Men who have the revelation of the Holy Spirit on the secret of godliness, on Christ having come in the flesh and opened a new and living way through the flesh,
  • Men who are diligent and hard-working, but who also have a sense of humour, and know how to relax and play with children and enjoy God's good gifts in nature,
  • Men who are not ascetics, but who at the same time live a disciplined life and who are not afraid of hardships,
  • Men who have no interest in expensive clothing or sight seeing and who will not waste their time in unprofitable activities or their money in unnecessary purchases,
  • Men who have mastered their desire for fancy foods and who are not enslaved to music or sport or any other legitimate activity,
  • Men who have been disciplined successfully by God in the fires of affliction, abuse, tribulations, false accusation, physical sickness, financial hardships and opposition from relatives and religious leaders,
  • Men full of mercy, who can sympathise with the worst of sinners and the worst of believers, and have hope for them, because they consider themselves to be the foremost of all sinners,
  • Men who are so deeply rooted in the security of the love of their Heavenly Father that they are never anxious about anything, or afraid of Satan or evil men or difficult situations or anything,
  • Men who have entered into God's rest, believing in the sovereign working of God in all matters for their best and who therefore give thanks always for all men, for all things and in all circumstances,
  • Men who find their joy in God alone and who are therefore full of the joy of the Lord, having overcome all bad moods,
  • Men of living faith, who have no confidence in themselves or their natural abilities, but complete confidence in God as their unfailing Helper in all situations,
  • Men who live, not by the promptings of their own reason, but by the leading of the Holy Spirit,
  • Men who have been genuinely baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire by Christ Himself (and not just thrilled by some emotional counterfeit or convinced by some theological argument),
  • Men who live constantly under the anointing of the Spirit, endowed with the supernatural gifts that He has given them,
  • Men who have revelation of the church as the body of Christ (and not a congregation or a denomination), and who give all their energies, their material wealth and spiritual gifts to build that church,
  • Men who have learnt to bridle their tongues through the help of the Holy Spirit and whose tongues are now aflame with the divine Word,
  • Men who have forsaken all, who are not attracted any more to money or material things, and who desire no gifts from others,
  • Men who can trust God for all their earthly needs and who never hint about their material needs or boast about their labours, either in their conversation or through letters and reports,
  • Men who are not stubborn, but gentle, and open to criticism and eager for correction from older and wiser brothers,
  • Men who have no desire to dominate or advise others (although ready to give advice, when asked for), and who have no longing to be considered as 'elder' brothers, or leaders, but who only desire to be ordinary brothers and servants of all,
  • Men who are easy to get along with, and who are willing to be inconvenienced and taken advantage of by others,
  • Men who will make no distinction between the millionaire and the beggar, the white-skinned and the dark-skinned, the intellectual and the idiot, and the cultured and the barbarian, but who will treat them all alike,
  • Men who will never be influenced by their wife, children, relatives, friends or other believers to cool off even slightly in their devotion to Christ or their obedience to God's commandments,
  • Men who can never be bribed to compromise by any reward that Satan may offer (whether honour or money or whatever),
  • Men who are fearless witnesses for Christ, fearing neither religious heads nor secular heads,
  • Men who desire to please no human being on the face of the earth, and who are willing to offend all men, if necessary, in order to please God alone,
  • Men for whom God's glory, God's will and God's kingdom always take priority over mere human need and their own comfort,
  • Men who cannot be pressurised either by others or by their own reason into doing 'dead works' for God, but who are eager and content to do the revealed will of God for their lives alone,
  • Men who have the discernment of the Spirit to distinguish between the soulish and the spiritual in Christian work,
  • Men who look at things from a heavenly view point and not an earthly one,
  • Men who will refuse all earthly honours and titles offered them for their labours for God,
  • Men who know how to pray without ceasing, and also how to fast and pray when needed,
  • Men who have learned to give generously, cheerfully, secretly and with wisdom,
  • Men who are willing to be all things for all men, so that by all means they might save some,
  • Men who have a longing to see others not only saved but also made disciples of Christ, and brought to the knowledge of the truth and to obedience to all of God's commandments,
  • Men who have a longing to see a pure testimony established for God in every place,
  • Men who have a burning passion to see Christ glorified in the church,
  • Men who do not seek their own in any matter,
  • Men with spiritual authority and spiritual dignity,
  • Men who will stand alone for God in the world, if need be,
  • Men who are totally uncompromising, like the apostles and prophets of old.
  • God's work in the world suffers today, because such men are few in number. Determine with all your heart that you will be such a man for God, in the midst of a sinful and adulterous generation and a compromising Christendom. Since there is no partiality with God, it is possible for you too to be such a man, provided you yourself earnestly desire to be one. Since God demands commitment and obedience only in the conscious area of one's life, it is possible for you to be such a man, even though the conscious area of your life may be limited. (That area will keep increasing as you walk in the light and press on to perfection). There is no excuse then why you cannot be such a man. Since nothing good dwells in the flesh, we have to seek for grace from God to have the virtues listed above. Cry out to God daily then, that He will give you grace to be such a man in these, the closing days of the age.


Saturday, August 31, 2013

A New Song by the Overcomers - Zac Poonen

And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty four thousand who had been purchased from the earth (Revelation 14:2-3).

These are the overcomers and this is the bride of Christ. They belong to heaven even while they are living on earth. These overcomers sang a new song, before the throne, that no one could learn except those who had been purchased from the earth. Why is it that no one else could learn that song? Is it because the others were not musically-minded? No. This has nothing to do with being musically-minded. It has everything to do with being heavenly-minded!! There are lots of people in the devil’s camp who are musically-minded.

The music in heaven is full of praise, worship and joy - ecstatic joy in the presence of the Father. But these 144,000 who stand on Mount Zion learnt that song of praise even while they were on earth. Unlike other human beings, they had finished with all murmuring, grumbling, criticism, backbiting, judging others and slander. Instead, they learnt to give thanks in everything and for everyone, and to praise and worship God at all times.

The new song is “Thou art worthy to receive praise and honour, glory, dominion and power” (Rev.5:12). It is a song which does not have the smell of complaining and grumbling or murmuring in it. How many of us have learnt it? God gives all of us one lifetime on earth to learn that song of heaven, that song of praise and thanksgiving. How many are there who have learnt to be 100% free from grumbling and complaining?

Most believers complain when the food is not good, or when somebody promises to do something for them and does not do it, or when somebody takes away their rights, or when somebody does some evil to them or to their children or perhaps when somebody speaks evil about them or their family-members. What a lot of opportunity we have in all such circumstances to follow Jesus, to take up the cross and learn the new song! It is impossible to learn that song unless we are willing to take up the cross and die to our rights, honour and reputation.

These 144,000 were the only ones who obeyed the Word of God which says, “Do all things without grumbling or complaining;” (Phil. 2:14) and “In everything give thanks…” (1 Thess. 5:18).

The word ‘learn’ in Rev.14:3 indicates an education. We have to learn how to sing this new song. To begin with, none of us know it. Why is it that no-one else learnt that song except these 144,000? Because the others heard about taking up the cross but never actually took it up in the moments of temptation. What a sad thing it is when someone has been a believer for 20 years and still hasn’t got victory over murmuring, anger, grumbling, complaining, slander and backbiting! Most believers imagine that because they have accepted Christ everything is all right with them, and thus live in a world of delusion.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Trembling At God's Word - Zac Poonen

Real Faith by George Müller

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen ... Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."—Hebrews 11:1,3.
George Muller"First: What is faith? In the simplest manner in which I am able to express it, I answer: Faith is the assurance that the thing which God has said in His Word is true, and that God will act according to what He has said in His Word. This  assurance, this reliance on God's Word, this confidence is faith.
No impressions are to be taken in connection with faith. Impressions have neither one thing nor the other to do with faith. Faith has to do with the Word of God. It is not impressions, strong or weak, which will make any difference. We have to do with the written Word and not ourselves or our impressions.
Probabilities are not to be taken into account. Many people are willing to believe regarding those things that seem probable to them. Faith has nothing to do with probabilities. The province of faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail. A great many of God's children are cast down and lament their want of faith. They write to me and say that they have no impressions, no feeling, they see no probability that the thing they wish will come to pass. Appearances are not to be taken into account. The question is—whether God has spoken it in His Word.
And now, my beloved friends, you are in great need to ask yourselves whether you are in the habit of thus confiding, in your inmost soul, in what God has said, and whether you are in earnest in seeking to find whether the thing you want is in accordance with what He has said in His Word.
Secondly: How faith may be increased. God delights to increase the  faith  of His children. Our faith, which is feeble at first, is developed and strengthened more and more by use. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God's hand as a means. I say—and say it deliberately—trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith. I get letters from so many of God's dear children who say: "Dear Brother Muller: I'm writing this because I am so weak and feeble in faith." Just so surely as we ask to have our faith strengthened, we must feel a willingness to take from God's hand the means for strengthening it. We must allow Him to educate us through trials and bereavements and troubles. It is through trials that faith is exercised and developed more and more. God affectionately permits difficulties, that He may develop unceasingly that which He is willing to do for us, and to this end we should not shrink, but if He gives us sorrow and hindrances and losses and afflictions, we should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us.
The Church of God is not aroused to see God as the beautiful and lovable One He is, and hence the littleness of blessedness. Oh, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, seek to learn for yourselves, for I  cannot tell you the blessedness! In the darkest moments I am able to confide in Him, for I know what a beautiful and kind and lovable Being He is, and, if it be the will of God to put us in the furnace, let Him do it, that so we may acquaint ourselves with Him as He will reveal Himself, and that we may know Him better. We come then to the conclusion that God is a lovable Being, and we are satisfied with Him, and say: "It is my Father, let Him do as He pleases."
When I first began to allow God to deal with me, relying on Him, taking Him at His word, and set out fifty years ago simply relying on Him for myself, family, taxes, traveling expenses and every other need, I rested on the simple promises I found in the sixth chapter of Matthew. I believed the Word, I rested on it and practiced  it. I took God at His Word. A stranger, a foreigner in England, I knew seven languages and might have used them perhaps as a means of remunerative employment, but I had consecrated myself to labor for the Lord, I put my reliance in the God who has promised, and He has acted according to His Word. I've lacked nothing—nothing. I have had my trials and difficulties, and my purse empty, but my receipts have aggregated. I have received thousands and thousands of dollars, while the work has gone on these fifty-one years. Then, with regard to my pastoral work; for the past fifty-one years I have had great difficulties, great trials and perplexities. There will always be difficulties, always trials. But God has sustained me out of them, and the work has gone on.
Now, this is not, as some have said, because I am a man of great mental power, or endowed with energy and perseverance—these are  not the reasons. It is because I have confided in God; because I have sought God, and He has cared for the Institution, which, under His direction, has one hundred schools, with masters and mistresses, and other departments of which I have told you before.
I do not carry the burden. And now in my sixty-seventh year [another source states seventy-sixth year], I have physical strength and mental vigor for as much work as when I was a young man in the university studying and preparing Latin orations. I am just as vigorous as at that time. How comes this? Because in the last half-century of labor I've been able with the simplicity of a child, to rely upon God. I have had my trials, but I have laid hold upon God, and so it has come to pass that I have been sustained. It is not only permission, but positive command that He gives, to cast the burdens upon Him. Oh, let us do it! My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee" (Ps. 55:22). Day by day I do it. This morning sixty matters in connection with the church of which I am pastor, I brought before the Lord, and thus it is, day by day I do it, and year by year; ten years, thirty years, forty years.
Do not, however, expect to obtain full faith at once. All such things as jumping into full exercise of faith in such things I discountenance. I do not believe in it. I do not believe in it, I do not believe in it and I wish you plainly to understand I do not believe in it. All such things go on in a natural way. The little I did obtain I did not obtain all at once. All this I say particularly, because letters come to me full of questions from those who seek to have their faith strengthened. Begin over again, staying your soul in the Word of God, and you will have an increase of your faith as you exercise it.
One  thing  more. Some  say, "Oh, I  shall never have the gift of faith Mr.  Muller has got." This is a mistake—it is the greatest error—there is not a particle of truth in it. My faith is the same kind of faith that all God's children have had. It is the same kind that Simon Peter had, and all Christians may obtain the like faith. My faith is their faith, though there may be more of it because my faith has been a little more developed by exercise than theirs; but their faith is precisely the faith I exercise, only, with regard to degree, mine may be more strongly exercised.
Now, my beloved brothers and sisters, begin in a little way. At first, I was able to trust the Lord for ten dollars, then for a hundred dollars, then for a thousand dollars, and now, with  the  greatest ease, I could trust Him for a million dollars, if there was occasion. But first, I should quietly, carefully, deliberately examine and see whether what I was trusting for, was something in accordance with His promises in His written Word.

Friday, August 9, 2013

The Saint Must Walk Alone - A.W. Tozer

The Saint Must Walk Alone
Most of the world’s great souls have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.
In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange darkness that came soon after the dawn of man’s creation), that pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries.
Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvians, found grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.
Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and herdsmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man “whose soul was alike a star and dwelt apart”? As far as we know not one word did God ever speak to him in the company of men. Face down he communed with his God, and the innate dignity of the man forbade that he assume this posture in the presence of others. How sweet and solemn was the scene that night of the sacrifice when he saw the lamps of fire moving between the pieces of offering. There, alone with a horror of great darkness upon him, he heard the voice of God and knew that he was a man marked for divine favor.
Moses also was a man apart. While yet attached to the court of Pharaoh he took long walks alone, and during one of these walks while far removed from the crowds he saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting and came to the rescue of his countryman. After the resultant break with Egypt he dwelt in almost complete seclusion in the desert. There, while he watched his sheep alone, the wonder of the burning bush appeared to him, and later on the peak of Sinai he crouched alone to gaze in fascinated awe at the Presence, partly hidden, partly disclosed, within the cloud and fire.
The prophets of pre-Christian times differed widely from each other, but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness. They loved their people and gloried in the religion of the fathers, but their loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their zeal for the welfare of the nation of Israel drove them away from the crowd and into long periods of heaviness. “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children,” cried one and unwittingly spoke for all the rest.
Most revealing of all is the sight of that One of whom Moses and all the prophets did write, treading His lonely way to the cross. His deep loneliness was unrelieved by the presence of the multitudes.
‘Tis midnight, and on Olive’s brow
The star is dimmed that lately shone;
‘Tis midnight; in the garden now,
The suffering Savior prays alone.

‘Tis midnight, and from all removed
The Savior wrestles lone with fears;
E’en the disciple whom He loved
Heeds not his Master’s grief and tears.
- William B. Tappan

He died alone in the darkness hidden from the sight of mortal man and no one saw Him when He arose triumphant and walked out of the tomb, though many saw Him afterward and bore witness to what they saw. There are some things too sacred for any eye but God’s to look upon. The curiosity, the clamor, the well-meant but blundering effort to help can only hinder the waiting soul and make unlikely if not impossible the communication of the secret message of God to the worshiping heart.
Sometimes we react by a kind of religious reflex and repeat dutifully the proper words and phrases even though they fail to express our real feelings and lack the authenticity of personal experience. Right now is such a time. A certain conventional loyalty may lead some who hear this unfamiliar truth expressed for the first time to say brightly, “Oh, I am never lonely. Christ said, `I will never leave you nor forsake you,’ and `Lo, I am with you alway.’ How can I be lonely when Jesus is with me?”
Now I do not want to reflect on the sincerity of any Christian soul, but this stock testimony is too neat to be real. It is obviously what the speaker thinks should be true rather than what he has proved to be true by the test of experience. This cheerful denial of loneliness proves only that the speaker has never walked with God without the support and encouragement afforded him by society. The sense of companionship which he mistakenly attributes to the presence of Christ may and probably does arise from the presence of friendly people. Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart. Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross. No one is a friend to the man with a cross. “They all forsook Him, and fled.”
The pain of loneliness arises from the constitution of our nature. God made us for each other. The desire for human companionship is completely natural and right. The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share inner experiences, he is forced to walk alone. The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way.
The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not expect things to be otherwise. After all he is a stranger and a pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart. He walks with God in the garden of his own soul – and who but God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord’s house. He has seen that of which they have only heard, and he walks among them somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when the people whispered, “He has seen a vision.”
The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and overserious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none, he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.
It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude what he could not have learned in the crowd – that Christ is All in All, that He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that in Him we have and possess life’s summum bonum.
Two things remain to be said. One, that the lonely man of whom we speak is not a haughty man, nor is he the holier-than-thou, austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature. He is likely to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself for his very loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his griefs to God alone.
The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. Just the opposite is true. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is detached from the world, he is all the more able to help it. Meister Eckhart taught his followers that if they should find themselves in prayer and happen to remember that a poor widow needed food, they should break off the prayer instantly and go care for the widow. “God will not suffer you to lose anything by it,” he told them. “You can take up again in prayer where you left off and the Lord will make it up to you.” This is typical of the great mystics and masters of the interior life from Paul to the present day.
The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful “adjustment” to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Count your blessings - John­son Oat­man, Jr. (1897)

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings. Wealth can never buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be disheartened, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Having A Real Hunger for the Holy Spirit Baptism

 It was asked of one brother that travels amongst the house Churches in the Chinese Church and speaks with the underground leaders, “How do the Chinese choose the leaders?” The answer was simple; the brother responded: “Whoever is the hungriest after God, they are the leaders.” Such a need is present in our time for more leaders who are hungry for the Lord and baptized in His Holy Spirit. There is a vast difference between one that seeks the Baptism of the Spirit simply for power and one that seeks to know the Lord intimately and desires to be His vessel, fully surrendered.

One seeks God for what he can get, the other seeks Him for what he can give. There is a crying need to see believers seeking God for God Himself and nothing else.

Jesus Christ spoke of these whom God the Father seeks who will worship Him in Spirit and truth. One who worships God only out of obligation and reward is not a true worshipper. God is making a separation in the end times of those who are serving Him for their own selfish desires from those that have the true bridal love for Jesus Christ. This Bride will be endued with power from on high having her vessels full of oil when the Bridegroom comes.

One of the greatest reasons that God hesitates to pour out His Spirit on His Church is that we will not cherish the blessing. When someone has gone without food for many days a simple piece of bread is enjoyed immensely and cherished. In the same way God requires us to have a hunger for the things of God, and to pray and wait on Him. Such waiting and hungering after God produces in us a respect and value for the gift He is giving.

from: http://gospelfellowships.net/principles-book/

Unselfish Love is a Fruit of the Holy Spirit Baptism

The Holy Spirit is given by the grace of God, it is not earned by righteous deeds. Yet, God does require an obedient heart which desires God’s will and not its own. Some are just looking to get the power of the Spirit for their own purposes, their own kingdoms, their own ministries.

So may we be renewed in our hunger and desire to wait before the Lord for this precious infilling of the Spirit of Christ. The true Baptism of the Spirit is given through personal abiding relationship with God. It is not something apart from this. We need to be like a child before a Father and have that simple dependence and faith. God is always more willing to bless us than we can imagine. The qualifying evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a life of unselfish love and exaltation of the person of Jesus Christ.

“Many millions of Christians around the world, after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, have experienced a new dimension of power, particularly when witnessing to the unsaved. They found that their words were more convicting, and that they sometimes quoted Scriptures they didn’t realize they knew. Some found themselves called and specifically gifted for a certain ministry, such as evangelism. Others discovered that God used them as He willed in various supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Their experience is thoroughly Biblical. Those who oppose their experience have no Biblical basis for their opposition. They are, in fact, fighting against God.”

from: http://gospelfellowships.net/principles-book/

DON'T LOSE YOUR FIRST LOVE - BY BOBBY MCDONALD

In Revelation 2:1-7, Jesus has a word for the church of Ephesus.  This was a church that had the privilege (a few decades earlier) of having the apostle Paul stay with them for 3 years (Acts 20:31).  Now, several years later, Jesus commends them because they persevered through some very hard times (Rev 2:3), and were strict on evil men/false teachers and they preserved good doctrine (v 2, 6).  Yet, all of this was useless because they had forgotten the greatest commandment – to love God with all their heart (Matt 22:37).
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love (Rev 2:4).
Despite all the good teaching, the history of fellowship with godly apostles, and the difficult trials that they successfully endured; they still lost their longing for God.  This tells me how seriously I must aim to maintain my devotion to the Lord.
Recently I had a point where I felt myself growing cold toward my First Love. When I realized this, this verse came to mind (Rev 2:4), but I forgot what Jesus had said to the Ephesian church after verse 4.  I knew that Jesus did give them some direction on exactly what to do.  Since I couldn't remember what it was, I turned to Revelation 2 and read the solution that Jesus gave in the next verse:
Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent. (Rev 2:5)
This verse tells me that if I lose my first love, I need to remember where I’ve fallen from, and do the things I used to do – back during times when I’ve truly longed for Him more than I currently do.  I picture it as a married couple who remember back to the early days when they would desire to spend all their time together, hold hands as they walked down the street, and talk to each other about anything and everything.   Similarly, I can remember many of the times I had with God in the early days - how eager I was to get away from the ‘rat race’, and just spend time with Him.  I realized that these were the "deeds" that Jesus was referring to - the effortless passion and choices to be in fellowship with Him that I had in the early days.
I never want to lose that hunger for God.  So I must take Jesus’ advice and repent and remember where I’ve fallen from.  I need to “do the deeds I did at first,” coming back to the basics – being a child who is needy for his Father and longing to be with Him.  Every believer should be like a child in this way, but over time we must learn to do it with consistency.  Children often have a wonderful eagerness, but a terrible inconsistency because they are immature.  Maturity is marked by consistency.  My desire is to always maintain the eagerness of a little child who is attached to his Father and always wants to be around Him, but also to have the consistency of a mature adult.
Another thing that I realized is that distraction plays a huge part in keeping my love for the Lord stoked.  The moment I start to become too interested in something else, it distracts me from what’s really important.  If the devil can’t make us fall into situations that are sinful, he’ll prod at us with worldly activities and cares which are lawful, but not profitable - to the point that we are overindulging and totally distracted from the things of God.
These are the thorns that Jesus talked about that choke the word (Matt 13:22).  And these surprisingly are not always just obvious things like worshiping sports or becoming obsessed with work or some hobby (though these can be thorns as well for some people).  In my experience they can even be seemingly profitable things like becoming so caught up with studying certain things in the Bible - like the end times, apologetics, politics, or prying into certain other mysteries that God chose not to reveal to us (Deut 29:29).  I remember hearing about groups of people who would have debates on such pointless issues like how many angels could fit on the head of a pin!  Maybe it seems like godly debate because ‘angels’ are in the bible and we can feel godly talking about them, but the devil knows the answer to this question much better than us, and it did NOTHING to preserve his love and loyalty to God!
We also can be people who can have “Christian” distractions, who are caught up with serving in some areas (music, ministry, etc).  These are wonderful things, but they can make us lose our first love if they are not put in second place where they should be.  The story of Martha and Mary clearly teaches this to us (Lk 10:38-42).  Any distraction that draws us away from simple longing for God should be cut back, or taken out altogether until we can be disciplined enough to be rooted and grounded in God’s love most of all.
I also wanted to make it clear that we do not measure our love for God primarily by our emotional feelings for Him.  Sometimes we may experience feelings of euphoria for our Lord, where we are determined by the grace of God to give up everything for Him.  Other times we may weep bitterly in prayer or during a song.  It’s true that we may have emotional extremes when seeking God, but we all know from experience that it’s only a matter of time before these emotions calm down.  It’s not that emotional feelings for the Lord are bad… it’s just that they are unreliable.  If I choose only to follow God when I’m on an emotional high, I will have a very pitiful Christian experience.  It will be similar to the Israelites in the wilderness who wanted to follow God at certain times, and then at other times they desired to go back to Egypt and back into slavery!  So our emotions should not define our love for God, but the bible does tell us what real love for God is:
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.  (1 John 5:3)
What does keeping God’s commandments have to do with loving God?  For many years this was confusing to me because I noticed that I could often obey God without even thinking about Him.  I realized that it’s possible to obey God’s commands simply because I know it’s the right thing to do.  So how can we tie in our obedience of God's commands with our love for Him?
Recently God has given me some light on this, and it has changed my view of sin and obedience.  He has allowed my heart to see more clearly that even though Christ paid for every one of my sins on the cross, sin still grieves Him and causes Him pain whenever I commit it.  Every sin that is committed (breaking God’s commands) is so evil to God that it deeply hurts Him and grieves Him (Ephesians 4:30).  Jesus suffered the wrath of God on the cross, so that He could forever take on the punishment that I deserve.  But God still deeply grieves even today every single time I sin.  Sin was not free 2000 years ago, and sin is not free now!  It hurt Jesus when He was on the cross, and it still hurts God today every time we sin.
I can know my love for God is pure when I don’t want to grieve Him.  Thus, my love for God is defined by me having a hatred of sin, which is a desire to not grieve God even one bit.  Real love is choosing rather to suffer ourselves, than to let the Object of our affection suffer instead (our Lord).  This is exactly what Jesus said His love was like: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
  • I'd rather take the pain that comes with denying my self-will and not getting my way, than to grieve God.
  • I’d rather hold my tongue and let my ego be killed, than to lash out in anger and gain some satisfaction in my flesh, but cause God to grieve at the same time.
  • I’d rather do work which I’m not required to do and be a servant cleaning up someone else’s mess, rather than rebel against my co-workers and have an “it’s not my job” attitude.  A little bit of extra work may make me tired, but I should prefer that to disappointing my Father in Heaven.
God suffered and gave up what was most valuable to Him for me.  And I want to give up something of value to Him.  From God's Word, I see that what is of real value to God is to choose to suffer in the flesh myself (by not getting my way) so that God can be glorified.
So as individuals and as a church, let us have the same attitude as David who had the right heart when he said, “I won’t give to God that which costs me nothing.” (2 Sam 24:24).