Pusing Blogger : October 2018

THERE ARE MORE ON OUR SIDE

2 Kings 6:17 (NKJV) And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.


Oh, if we could ever get our eyes open to the army that God has all around us!  It is an army of mighty angels.  It is an army of powerful beings that could take care of any situation that comes against us.


In Hebrews 1:14 it says this about angels: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”  Who are those who will inherit salvation?  That is us!  We are the ones that are born again, new creations in Christ, and God has sent His angels to help us in life.


As children, we used to call them our guardian angel, and we thought of them as little cotton puffs that floated around.  But now we see from the Word of God that these heavenly beings are mighty and powerful, and they are sent to help us and to protect us.  As we call on the Name of Jesus, our angels watch out for us.


Angels obey God and His Word, so as we read the Word, speak the Word, and do the Word, we will see angels assist us.  So look to God today, and remember that right now, right where you are, there is an angel that God has assigned to watch over you and help you in your life.  Like Elisha with his servant, remember that there are more with you than with them!


Confession: Today, I believe that there are angels helping and assisting me in my journey called life.  God, my Heavenly Father, has placed this mighty warrior to protect me from every demon that would try to come against me.  God is good!


Today’s Bible Reading


Lamentations 3


Hebrews 1


Psalms 102


Proverbs 26:21-22


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)




WE HAVE NOT BECAUSE WE ASK NOT

1 Chronicles 4:9-10 (NKJV) 9 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”  So God granted him what he requested.


I love this story about Jabez.  Here is a man whose mother gave him a bad name, but he would not accept it.  He did what we all need to do when life throws us a curve ball: he called on God. 


Each of us has stuff from our past, yet, even with all that stuff, we can let life make us bitter, or make us better.  It is really our call how we want to live.  Do we want to be blessed?  Then call on the Name of the Lord.  Do we want to stay in bitterness?  Then do not do anything.


The old saying is so true, “When life throws you a lemon, make lemonade.”  I can receive bad from the past and things that have happened to me, or I can say that I am a new creation in Christ, old things are passed away, behold all things have become new!


Our God is the God of second chances, and twenty-fifth chances.  His mercies are new each morning.  Do not let your past hold you down.  Lift yourself up and do as Jabez did.  Talk to your Heavenly Father and tell Him that you want a new start, and that, by the blood of Jesus, you believe that you have it now.  This is faith, and faith is what pleases God!


Confession: My God is the God of second chances.  Today, I believe that I have a new start.  I believe that the old things are truly passed away.  I confess today, that God has great things in store for my life!


Today’s Bible Reading


Lamentations 1 – 2


Philemon 1


Psalms 101


Proverbs 26:20


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)


Picture of Rest

 “My own peace I give to you” (John 14:27, Weymouth).


      Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off mountains.


      The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam; and at the fork of the branch, almost wet with the cataract’s spray, sat a robin on its nest.


      The first was only stagnation; the last was rest.


      Christ’s life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives that ever lived: tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time until the worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there.


      At any moment you might have gone to Him and found rest. And even when the human bloodhounds were dogging Him in the streets of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and offered them, as a last legacy, “My peace.”


      Rest is not a hallowed feeling that comes over us in church; it is the repose of a heart set deep in God. –Drummond


      My peace I give in times of deepest grief,
Imparting calm and trust and My relief.


      My peace I give when prayer seems lost, unheard;
Know that My promises are ever in My Word.


      My peace I give when thou art left alone–
The nightingale at night has sweetest tone.


      My peace I give in time of utter loss,
The way of glory leads right to the cross.


      My peace I give when enemies will blame,
Thy fellowship is sweet through cruel shame.


      My peace I give in agony and sweat,
For mine own brow with bloody drops was wet.


      My peace I give when nearest friend betrays
Peace that is merged in love, and for them prays.


      My peace I give when there’s but death for thee
The gateway is the cross to get to Me.
–L. S. P.




In The Heavenly Places

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6).


This is our rightful place, to be “seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” and to “sit still” there. But how few there are who make it their actual experience! How few, indeed think even that it is possible for them to “sit still” in these “heavenly places” in the everyday life of a world so full of turmoil as this.


We may believe perhaps that to pay a little visit to these heavenly places on Sundays, or now and then in times of spiritual exaltation, may be within the range of possibility; but to be actually “seated” there every day and all day long is altogether another matter; and yet it is very plain that it is for Sundays and week-days as well.


A quiet spirit is of inestimable value in carrying on outward activities; and nothing so hinders the working of the hidden spiritual forces, upon which, after all, our success in everything really depends, as a spirit of unrest and anxiety.


There is immense power in stillness. A great saint once said, “All things come to him who knows how to trust and be silent.” The words are pregnant with meaning. A knowledge of this fact would immensely change our ways of working. Instead of restless struggles, we would “sit down” inwardly before the Lord, and would let the Divine forces of His Spirit work out in silence the ends to which we aspire. You may not see or feel the operations of this silent force, but be assured it is always working mightily, and will work for you, if you only get your spirit still enough to be carried along by the currents of its power. –Hannah Whitall Smith


“There is a point of rest
At the great center of the cyclone’s force,
A silence at its secret source;
A little child might slumber undisturbed,
Without the ruffle of one fair curl,
In that strange, central calm, amid the mighty whirl.”


It is your business to learn to be peaceful and safe in God in every situation.



LOOK TO JESUS

Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV) Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.


There is a song we used to sing, and it went like this: “Look to Jesus and believe, look to Jesus and receive.”  That is the truth!  When we look to Jesus believing, He seems to get everything put together for us.  I want my life to be a reflection of Him.  The way that I see a reflection is by looking into a mirror.


This verse is saying to us to look to Jesus.  He is the One that began this work in us, and He is the One that will bring it to completion. The NASB says it like this, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.”  I like that!  What I have to do is fix my eyes on Him, and He will do the rest.  He started this work in my life many years ago.  For some of you, it could be many years, or just a few days, but it does not matter.  What matters is that He is going to do a perfect work within us.


I always say it like this: “It is all about Jesus!”  When I get me out of the way, and let Him be Lord and King of my life, everything just seems to work out.  When I try to make me king in my life, things just seem to go downhill.  You know, He made us, and He can sure finish this up in us.


So today, be encouraged.  He has got your life in the palm of His big hand, and He will not let you down.  He started it, and He will complete it.  That is great!


Confession:  Today I am encouraged, because I see that what God has started in my life, He will bring to completion.  This is not about me.  It is about Christ in me, and He cannot fail!


Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 51:54 – 52:34


Titus 3


Psalms 100


Proverbs 26:18-19


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)



Made Perfect Through Sufferings

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).


I kept for nearly a year the flask-shaped cocoon of an emperor moth. It is very peculiar in its construction. A narrow opening is left in the neck of the flask, through which the perfect insect forces its way, so that a forsaken cocoon is as entire as one still tenanted, no rupture of the interlacing fibers having taken place. The great disproportion between the means of egress and the size of the imprisoned insect makes one wonder how the exit is ever accomplished at all–and it never is without great labor and difficulty. It is supposed that the pressure to which the moth’s body is subjected in passing through such a narrow opening is a provision of nature for forcing the juices into the vessels of the wings, these being less developed at the period of emerging from the chrysalis than they are in other insects.


I happened to witness the first efforts of my prisoned moth to escape from its long confinement. During a whole forenoon, from time to time, I watched it patiently striving and struggling to get out. It never seemed able to get beyond a certain point, and at last my patience was exhausted. Very probably the confining fibers were drier and less elastic than if the cocoon had been left all winter on its native heather, as nature meant it to be. At all events I thought I was wiser and more compassionate than its Maker, and I resolved to give it a helping hand. With the point of my scissors I snipped the confining threads to make the exit just a very little easier, and lo! immediately, and with perfect case, out crawled my moth dragging a huge swollen body and little shrivelled wings. In vain I watched to see that marvelous process of expansion in which these silently and swiftly develop before one’s eyes; and as I traced the exquisite spots and markings of divers colors which were all there in miniature, I longed to see these assume their due proportions and the creature to appear in all its perfect beauty, as it is, in truth, one of the loveliest of its kind.


But I looked in vain. My false tenderness had proved its ruin. It never was anything but a stunted abortion, crawling painfully through that brief life which it should have spent flying through the air on rainbow wings. I have thought of it often, often, when watching with pitiful eyes those who were struggling with sorrow, suffering, and distress; and I would fain cut short the discipline and give deliverance. Short-sighted man! How know I that one of these pangs or groans could be spared? The far-sighted, perfect love that seeks the perfection of its object does not weakly shrink from present, transient suffering. Our Father’s love is too true to be weak. Because He loves His children, He chastises them that they may be partakers of His holiness. With this glorious end in view, He spares not for their crying. Made perfect through sufferings, as the Elder Brother was, the sons of God are trained up to obedience and brought to glory through much tribulation. –Tract.


 



OPEN DOORS, SHUT DOORS

Isaiah 22:22 (NKJV) The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open.


Our Lord Jesus is the One who can open doors for us and also close doors for us.  What a comfort to know this.  Many times I come to a place of prayer, and I do not know what to do, or what decision to make.  So I pray this prayer: “Heavenly Father, You said that You would open doors for me and also close doors for me.  I have this decision to make, and I am not sure what to do, but my trust is in You.  I believe that you will open this door if it is Your will, or shut this door if it is not Your will.  I thank you for this in Jesus’ Name!”


In a prayer like this, we put our complete trust in the will of God, which is always the best.  Now, in saying that, we have to accept what God knows is best for us, and that might not always be what we want.  We might want what we just prayed about, but God knows the future, and He only wants what He knows will be a blessing for you.  It is not always easy, that is for sure, but if we could see into the future and see what our loving Father sees, then we would want His will.


The Bible says in Psalm 37:23, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way.”  God has my back!  In fact, I want Him to have all of me.  So today, trust Him as the Lord and King of your life, and place yourself into His care and trust.  Then, watch your steps line up with His good will for your life.


Confession: I believe, today, that my steps are ordered by my Father, and that he will open the good doors for me and shut the bad ones.


Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 51:1-53


Titus 2


Psalms 99


Proverbs 26:17


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)



Christ’s Business is Supreme

“His disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray . . . and he said unto them, When ye pray, say. . . Thy kingdom come” (Luke 11:1, 2).


When they said, “Teach us to pray,” the Master lifted His eyes and swept the far horizon of God. He gathered up the ultimate dream of the Eternal, and, rounding the sum of everything God intends to do in the life of man, He packed it all into these three terse pregnant phrases and said, “When you pray, pray after this manner.”


What a contrast between this and much praying we have heard. When we follow the devices of our own hearts, how runs it? “O Lord bless me, then My family, My church, My city, My country,” and away on the far fringe as we close up, there is a prayer for the extension of His Kingdom throughout the wide parish of the world.


The Master begins where we leave off. The world first, my personal needs second, is the order of this prayer. Only after my prayer has crossed every continent and every far-flung island of the sea, after it has taken in the last man in the last backward race, after it has covered the entire wish and purpose, of God for the world, only then am I taught to ask for a piece of bread for myself.


When Jesus gave His all, Himself for us and to us in the holy extravagance of the Cross, is it too much if He asks us to do the same thing? No man or woman amounts to anything in the kingdom, no soul ever touches even the edge of the zone of power, until this lesson is learned that Christ’s business is the supreme concern of life and that all personal considerations, however dear or important, are tributary thereto. –Dr. Francis


When Robert Moffat, the veteran African missionary and explorer, was asked once to write in a young lady’s album, he penned these lines:


“My album is a savage breast,
Where tempests brood and shadows rest,
Without one ray of light;
To write the name of Jesus there,
And see that savage bow in prayer,
And point to worlds more bright and fair,
This is my soul’s delight.”


“And His Kingdom shall have no frontier” (Luke 1:33, the old Moravian version).


The missionary enterprise is not the Church’s afterthought; it is Christ’s forethought;
–Henry van Dyke



RECEIVE THE PROMISE

Hebrews 10:35-36 (NKJV) 35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.


Many times, we can feel like hanging it all up.  You know, when we say things like: “Is this really ever going to happen?  Will this healing ever manifest?  I have been praying for a mate for so long, and it just seems like I am getting older and older.”


In this verse, it says, “DO NOT GIVE UP!”  It is not always easy, but I will tell you, it is rewarding.  Remember that God is always doing a work in us and around us.  He is bringing situations together, and when it involves others, He has to get everything all lined up, and He is the only One Who knows how that all works.


God is developing us into the image of His dear Son, so when it takes a little longer then we would like it to, hold on!  Let God, your loving Father, take the reins of your life, and you will see how it will all work out for the best.


The journey may seem bumpy, or even scary, at times, but know that God made the train, and He sure knows how to drive it.  The last part of this verse states that we need endurance.   We know that, but we do not want to wait for it.  Yet, if we will hold on, and be patient, and do His will, it says that we will receive the promise.


So today, get your eyes on Him.  Make Him the most important person in your life, and at the right time, things will happen and you will say, “Man, I am glad I waited!”


Confession: Today, I choose to do it God’s way, and not my way.  I choose to wait on God, and I know that He has my best interest in mind.  He will make it all work for His good, and for mine. 


Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 49:23 – 50:46


Titus 1


Psalms 97 – 98


Proverbs 26:13-16


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)



Believing Prayer

“Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way” (John 4:50).


“When ye pray, believe” (Mark 11:24).


When there is a matter that requires definite prayer, pray till you believe God, until with unfeigned lips you can thank Him for the answer. If the answer still tarries outwardly, do not pray for it in such a way that it is evident that you are not definitely believing for it. Such a prayer in place of being a help will be a hindrance; and when you are finished praying, you will find that your faith has weakened or has entirely gone. The urgency that you felt to offer this kind of prayer is clearly from self and Satan. It may not be wrong to mention the matter in question to the Lord again, if He is keeping you waiting, but be sure you do so in such a way that it implies faith. Do not pray yourself out of faith. You may tell Him that you are waiting and that you are still believing Him and therefore praise Him for the answer.


There is nothing that so fully clinches faith as to be so sure of the answer that you can thank God for it. Prayers that pray us out of faith deny both God’s promise in His Word and also His whisper “Yes,” that He gave us in our hearts. Such prayers are but the expression of the unrest of one’s heart, and unrest implies unbelief in reference to the answer to prayer. “For we which have believed do enter into rest” (Heb. 4:3). This prayer that prays ourselves out of faith frequently arises from centering our thoughts on the difficulty rather than on God’s promise. Abraham “considered not his own body,” “he staggered not at the promise of God” (Rom. 4:19, 20). May we watch and pray that we enter not into temptation of praying ourselves out of faith. –C. H. P.


Faith is not a sense, nor sight, nor reason, but taking God at His Word. –Evans


The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. –George Mueller


You will never learn faith in comfortable surroundings. God gives us the promises in a quiet hour; God seals our covenants with great and gracious words, then He steps back and waits to see how much we believe; then He lets the tempter come, and the test seems to contradict all that He has spoken. It is then that faith wins its crown. That is the time to look up through the storm, and among the trembling, frightened seamen cry, “I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me.”


“Believe and trust; through stars and suns, Through life and death, through soul and sense, His wise, paternal purpose runs; The darkness of His Providence Is starlit with Divine intents.”




DON’T GIVE UP

Galatians 6:9 (NKJV) And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.


It is so easy to get weary and lose heart.  We gave it our best, but it was not good enough.  We went out of our way to help, and no one even noticed.  Life brings many times where we can get discouraged and ask, “Why?”  Yet, one thing that we have to always remember is that God knows, God sees, and God rewards.  He sees you in the prayer closet making intercession for someone else.  He sees you when you give your last dollar to help someone else.  God knows, and God sees.


This Scripture tells us to not get weary, because at the right time the answer will come.  God has a book in which He records all the good that you have done.  The reference to it is found in Malachi 3:16, “Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.”


When we read the Bible, we see that Moses got discouraged.  So did Elijah and many others.  So if you are having a blue day and you feel like, “When is it going to be my turn?  When is this prayer that I have been praying for so long going to get answered?” I want to encourage you not to get weary.  Hold on, be strong, and you will see the answer to your prayer at the right time.  Remember, God knows, and God sees, and He is FAITHFUL!


Confession:  Today, I remind myself that God knows, and God sees.   God answers prayer.  I will not get weary in doing good, and I will not get discouraged.  God is faithful!


Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 48 – 49:1-22


2 Timothy 4


Psalms 95 – 96


Proverbs 26:9-12


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)

Above the Clouds

“Men see not the bright light which is in the clouds” (Job 37:21).


      The world owes much of its beauty to cloudland. The unchanging blue of the Italian sky hardly compensates for the changefulness and glory of the clouds. Earth would become a wilderness apart from their ministry. There are clouds in human life, shadowing, refreshing, and sometimes draping it in blackness of night; but there is never a cloud without its bright light. “I do set my bow in the cloud!”


      If we could see the clouds from the other side where they lie in billowy glory, bathed in the light they intercept, like heaped ranges of Alps, we should be amazed at their splendid magnificence.


      We look at their under side; but who shall describe the bright light that bathes their summits and searches their valleys and is reflected from every pinnacle of their expanse? Is not every drop drinking in health-giving qualities, which it will carry to the earth?


      O child of God! If you could see your sorrows and troubles from the other side; if instead of looking up at them from earth, you would look down on them from the heavenly places where you sit with Christ; if you knew how they are reflecting in prismatic beauty before the gaze of Heaven, the bright light of Christ’s face, you would be content that they should cast their deep shadows over the mountain slopes of existence. Only remember that clouds are always moving and passing before God’s cleansing wind. –Selected


      “I cannot know why suddenly the storm
Should rage so fiercely round me in its wrath;
But this I know–God watches all my path,
And I can trust.


      “I may not draw aside the mystic veil
That hides the unknown future from my sight,
Nor know if for me waits the dark or light;
But I can trust.


      “I have no power to look across the tide,
To see while here the land beyond the river;
But this I , know–I shall be Gods forever;
So I can trust.”




GUARD YOUR HEART

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.


The last part of these verses that I would like to look at is verse 23: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”  The word “keep” means to watch, and to guard.  God told Adam to keep the garden, and God is telling us to keep, guard, and watch our hearts.


Our heart is where all life is, and God knows that if we do not watch what gets into our hearts, we can let the enemy control us.  Our heart is not the pump in our physical body, but the spirit man within us.  That is the real us, the one that is born-again when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. 


Peter said in, 1 Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”  When we are born again, our spirit is new and alive unto God, and now needs to be filled with His Word and protected from the junk in this world.  That is why it is so important that we are careful about what we watch, and what we listen to, because our heart can be hurt by the junk in this world.  Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:2, “…having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.”


We do not want that to happen.  We want to stay soft and pliable before God.  So today, watch what gets into your heart, and let the good things of God fill you.


Confession: I am careful about what gets into my heart.  I make a decision not to watch or listen to things that would sear my conscience.  I make a decision to grow into the person God wants me to be.


 Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 44:24 – 47:7


2 Timothy 2:22 – 3:17


Psalms 94


Proverbs 26:6-8


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)







A Very Present Help

“Why standest thou afar off, O Lord?” (Psalm 10:1.)


God is “a very present help in trouble.” But He permits trouble to pursue us, as though He were indifferent to its overwhelming pressure, that we may be brought to the end of ourselves, and led to discover the treasure of darkness, the unmeasurable gains of tribulation. We may be sure that He who permits the suffering is with us in it. It may be that we shall see Him only when the trial is passing; but we must dare to believe that He never leaves the crucible. Our eyes are holden; and we cannot behold Him whom our soul loveth. It is dark–the bandages blind us so that we cannot see the form of our High Priest; but He is there, deeply touched. Let us not rely on feeling, but on faith in His unswerving fidelity; and though we see Him not, let us talk to Him. Directly we begin to speak to Jesus, as being literally present, though His presence is veiled, there comes an answering voice which shows that He is in the shadow, keeping watch upon His own. Your Father is as near when you journey through the dark tunnel as when under the open heaven!
–Daily Devotional Commentary


“What though the path be all unknown?
What though the way be drear?
Its shades I traverse not alone
When steps of Thine are near.”



AND HEALTH TO ALL THEIR FLESH

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.


They are health to all our flesh.  I will take that, how about you?  As we put into practice all the parts that we have been talking about these last few days, God’s Word becomes, as one person said, “Medicine to all our flesh.”


I do not know about you, but when I am hurting, I want some good medicine so that the pain will go away.   Here, it says that God’s Word is our medicine.  As I read it, and attend to it, and incline my ear to it, and keep it before my eyes, and let it have first place in my heart, it produces medicine to me and my flesh.  It brings heath to my body!


So many people spend so much time trying to get healing by so many ways, and God is a good God and has made many ways to be healed.  Thank God for doctors and medicine, but we can also take His Word, God’s Medicine, everyday to receive healing.  I know that when I take a pill, I thank Him that He gave the doctors wisdom to help heal me. I put my faith in God in all things, because all wisdom comes from Him.


So go ahead and take a big dose of the Word of God, and watch what it does to your life and health.  You can never have enough.  His Word is so good!


Confession: I partake of the Word of God, and it brings health to me and to all my being.  His Word is medicine to all of my flesh.


 Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 42 – 44:23


2 Timothy 2:1-21


Psalms 92 – 93


Proverbs 26:3-5


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)




After The Frost

“Why go I mourning?” (Psalm 42:9).


Canst thou answer this, believer? Canst thou find any reason why thou art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told thee that the night would never end in day? Who told thee that the winter of thy discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Knowest thou not that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Hope thou then! Hope thou ever! for God fails thee not. –C. H. Spurgeon


“He was better to me than all my hopes;
He was better than all my fears;
He made a bridge of my broken works,
And a rainbow of my tears.


“The billows that guarded my sea-girt path,
But carried my Lord on their crest;
When I dwell on the days of my wilderness march
I can lean on His love for the rest.


“He emptied my hands of my treasured store,
And His covenant love revealed,
There was not a wound in my aching heart,
But the balm of His breath hath healed.


Oh, tender and true was the chastening sore,
In wisdom, that taught and tried,
Till the soul that He sought was trusting in Him,
And nothing on earth beside.


“He guided by paths that I could not see,
By ways that I have not known;
The crooked was straight, and the rough was plain
As I followed the Lord alone.


I praise Him still for the pleasant palms,
And the water-springs by the way,
For the glowing pillar of flame by night,
And the sheltering cloud by day.


“Never a watch on the dreariest halt,
But some promise of love endears;
I read from the past, that my future shall be
Far better than all my fears.


Like the golden pot, of the wilderness bread,
Laid up with the blossoming rod,
All safe in the ark, with the law of the Lord,
Is the, covenant care of my God.”




 

FOR THEY ARE LIFE TO THOSE WHO FIND THEM

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.


Life is what we want!  Jesus said in the second part of John 10:10 ”…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  God wants us to have a good, full life; a life filled with Himself; a life of victory and success.


So how do we have this?  This verse says that we get life when we find the Word.  His Word is like a treasure.  You can get good things from it by reading it, but the true wealth of His Word comes as we dig into it.


Look at Psalm 19:10: “More to be desired are they then gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”  His Word must become more valuable to us than the riches of this world, and when we put His Word in that high of a place in our lives, God, our dear Father, takes care of all the needs that we have.


His Word is life to us, so let us start digging into it and see what treasures we might find today.  You might ask, “What does that mean, to dig into the Word?”  Well, it means to not just read it, but to let it change us.  We are not blessed because we hear the Word; we are blessed when we do it.  So when you find a verse that you know needs to come alive within you, hang out there for a while.  Read it, ponder it, and then do it, and it will become life to you!


Confession:  God’s Word is life to me, because I have found it.  I am a doer of the Word, and not a hearer only.  I put His Word in my heart, and it is life to me and to all my being.


Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 39 – 41


2 Timothy 1


Psalms 90 – 91


Proverbs 26:1-2


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)


Only Through Death

“Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains a single grain, but if it dies away in the ground, the grain is freed to spring up in a plant bearing many grains” (John 12:24).

Go to the old burying ground of Northampton, Mass., and look upon the early grave of David Brainerd, beside that of the fair Jerusha Edwards, whom he loved but did not live to wed.


What hopes, what expectations for Christ’s cause went down to the grave with the wasted form of that young missionary of whose work nothing now remained but the dear memory, and a few score of swarthy Indian converts! But that majestic old Puritan saint, Jonathan Edwards, who had hoped to call him his son, gathered up the memorials of his life in a little book, and the little book took wings and flew beyond the sea, and alighted on the table of a Cambridge student, Henry Martyn.


Poor Martyn! Why should he throw himself away, with all his scholarship, his genius, his opportunities! What had he accomplished when he turned homeward from “India’s coral strand,” broken in health, and dragged himself northward as far as that dreary khan at Tocat by the Black Sea, where he crouched under the piled-up saddles, to cool his burning fever against the earth, and there died alone?


To what purpose was this waste? Out of that early grave of Brainerd, and the lonely grave of Martyn far away by the splashing of the Euxine Sea, has sprung the noble army of modern missionaries. –Leonard Woolsey Bacon


“Is there some desert, or some boundless sea,
Where Thou, great God of angels, wilt send me?
Some oak for me to rend, Some sod for me to break,
Some handful of Thy corn to take
And scatter far afield,
Till it in turn shall yield
Its hundredfold
Of grains of gold
To feed the happy children of my God?


“Show me the desert, Father, or the sea; Is it Thine enterprise? Great God, send me! And though this body lies where ocean rolls, Father, count me among all faithful souls.”




 

KEEP THEM IN THE MIDST OF YOUR HEART

Proverbs 4:20-23 (NKJV) 20 My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.


What is in your heart today?  You will know right away by what you are thinking about all day long.  Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, ”…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”  So, is your mind filled with worry, and bitterness, or is it filled with the peace of God and His joy?  What comes out of your mouth?  This shows us what we have put in our heart.  This is not to put us down, but for us to make a decision of change; a decision for growth.


Here it says to put God’s Word in the midst of our heart.  Get God’s Word in you.  You might ask, “How?”  Well, here is how I do it.  Instead of listening to the news, I listen to teachings, or the Bible on CD.  I download different podcasts of good Bible teachers, and I listen to “Good News,” instead of all the bad news of the day.


Little decisions can change your life for the good.  I heard one person say it like this: “If you like where you are with your life today, then do not do anything different.  But if you are not satisfied and you want your life to change, then start with some changes today so that your tomorrows can be different.


So I encourage you to get God’s Word in your heart, and let it push all the worries and fears out.  That is truly “Good Medicine!”


Confession:  I keep God’s Word in my heart by thinking about it during the course of the day.  I also am making a decision to listen to good stuff and not all the junk that is out there.


Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 37 – 38


1 Timothy 6


Psalms 89:38-52


Proverbs 25:28


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)








Abundantly Able

“And being absolutely certain that whatever promise He is bound by, He is able to make good” (Rom. 4:20).


We are told that Abraham could look at his own body and consider it as good as dead without being discouraged, because he was not looking at himself but at the Almighty One.


He did not stagger at the promise, but stood straight up unbending beneath his mighty load of blessing; and instead of growing weak he waxed strong in the faith, grew more robust, the more difficulties became apparent, glorifying God through His very sufficiency and being “fully persuaded” (as the Greek expresses it) “that he who had promised was,” not merely able, but as it literally means “abundantly able,” munificently able, able with an infinite surplus of resources, infinitely able “to perform.”


He is the God of boundless resources. The only limit is in us. Our asking, our thinking, our praying are too small; our expectations are too limited. He is trying to lift us up to a higher conception, and lure us on to a mightier expectation and appropriation. Oh, shall we put Him in derision? There is no limit to what we may ask and expect of our glorious El-Shaddai; and there is but one measure here given for His blessing, and that is “according to the power that worketh in us.” –A. B. Simpson


“Climb to the treasure house of blessing on the ladder made of divine promises. By a promise as by a key open the door to the riches of God’s grace and favor.”




 

Seek Communion



“They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine” (Hosea 14:7).


The day closed with heavy showers. The plants in my garden were beaten down before the pelting storm, and I saw one flower that I had admired for its beauty and loved for its fragrance exposed to the pitiless storm. The flower fell, shut up its petals, dropped its head; and I saw that all its glory was gone. “I must wait till next year,” I said, “before I see that beautiful thing again.”


That night passed, and morning came; the sun shone again, and the morning brought strength to the flower. The light looked at it, and the flower looked at the light. There was contact and communion, and power passed into the flower. It held up its head, opened its petals, regained its glory, and seemed fairer than before. I wonder how it took place–this feeble thing coming into contact with the strong thing, and gaining strength!


I cannot tell how it is that I should be able to receive into my being a power to do and to bear by communion with God, but I know It is a fact.


Are you in peril through some crushing, heavy trial? Seek this communion with Christ, and you will receive strength and be able to conquer. “I will strengthen thee.”


YESTERDAY’S GRIEF


The rain that fell a-yesterday is ruby on the roses,
Silver on the poplar leaf, and gold on willow stem;
The grief that chanced a-yesterday is silence that incloses
Holy loves when time and change shall never trouble them.


The rain that fell a-yesterday makes all the hillsides glisten,
Coral on the laurel and beryl on the grass;
The grief that chanced a-yesterday has taught the soul to listen
For whispers of eternity in all the winds that pass.


O faint-of-heart, storm-beaten, this rain will gleam tomorrow,
Flame within the columbine and jewels on the thorn,
Heaven in the forget-me-not; though sorrow now be sorrow,
Yet sorrow shall be, beauty in the magic of the morn.
–Katherine Lee Bates




 

Cushion of the Sea



“And the peace of God, which transcends all our powers of thought, will be a garrison to guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7) (Weymouth).


There is what is called the “cushion of the sea.” Down beneath the surface that is agitated by storms, and driven about with winds, there is a part of the sea that is never stirred. When we dredge the bottom and bring up the remains of animal and vegetable life we find that they give evidence of not having been disturbed in the least, for hundreds and thousands of years. The peace of God is that eternal calm which, like the cushion of the sea, lies far too deep down to be reached by any external trouble and disturbance; and he who enters into the presence of God, becomes partaker of that undisturbed and undisturbable calm.–Dr. A. T. Pierson


First-fruits of the Resurrection


By Andrew Bonar

‘The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose.’ Matt. 27: 50-53

This is a passage about which very little has been written. Commentators seem to pass it by as something very mysterious. But if the Holy Spirit be with us we will find that there is a lesson for us in this part of the Word. ‘The rocks rent.’ Wherever we read of this taking place we know it is the presence of the Lord. This explains Jonathan’s wonderful victory — ‘there was trembling . . . and the earth quaked’ (1 Sam. 14: 15). At Philippi the earth shook (Acts 16: 26) –the Lord was present. ‘The saints which slept arose.’ When death is spoken of as sleep, it is generally in reference to God’s people. Daniel speaks of those that ‘sleep in the dust’ (12:2). Then we have it in John 11:11; I Cor.15: 6,51; Acts 7:60. It is as if the Lord did not wish us to think of death as anything sad or disagreeable. He wants us to think of it as a sleep or rest,–a blessed sleep without even dreams. Let us learn from this the connection between the graves opening and the Veil rending.

The Veil separated between the Holy and Most Holy Places. It was a doorway or gateway representing Christ. ‘I am the Door.’ And when the Lord put down His hand and rent it from top to bottom, He opened the way for us to go in. He can come out, and we can go in. In this connection we shall see some special meaning in the graves opening. It was the death of Christ that opened them. Your body is redeemed by Christ’s death as well as your soul, and it must come out of the grave.

‘After His resurrection.’ The graves were opened at His death, but the saints did not come out of their graves till Christ’s resurrection. It is like when Christ breathed on the disciples and said, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ but they did not actually receive the Spirit until Pentecost. ‘Many bodies,’ –not merely one or two. I think it means a great company. What is the meaning of this? The graves stood open till the third day, and passers-by would be amazed to see the stones rolled away. You begin to see now this was a testimony to Christ in more ways than one. These are all saints, and they are coming out of their graves to honour the Holy One. Perhaps the reason Christ did this was to show a sample of His power. These saints were the first-fruits of the resurrection, and when He went up they would be His body-guard, nearer Him than the angels.

If you ask, why does only Matthew mention this? The answer is, the Holy Ghost gave one part to one and another to another. To Luke He gave the part of the record that showed He was the Saviour of the Gentiles; to Mark, that which showed by little things that He was the Messiah; to John, that which showed His divinity. Matthew shows prophecy fulfilled in Christ. Dan. 12:2 says, ‘many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.’ Matthew says, ‘many of the saints which slept arose.’ Christ did what Daniel says will be done for all the saints. He took some of them and raised them up. In effect He was saying, ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life.’

These saints were likely those who had lately died, for they ‘went into the holy city and appeared to many.’ If they had been saints of an older time they would not have been known. Perhaps old Simeon was one of them, and Anna and Zacharias. When Christ appeared after His resurrection He conversed as well as appeared. These saints appeared and conversed with many. At first they would cause alarm, but that would soon be dissipated. It is not likely they spoke of the other world. Very likely they appeared as witnesses for Christ.

From all this let us learn the connection between Christ’s resurrection and ours. Christ’s love to His own is so great that He will not lose even the dust of His people. He will fashion it all into beauty and comeliness. Where there was weakness He will put power, and where there was corruption He will put incorruption.

Transcribed from Reminiscences of Andrew A.Bonar D.D.

The Biblical Definition of “Gospel”


By Gilbert Beebe

Like so many Bible terms, the word GOSPEL has been given various definitions contrary to its original and proper meaning.

The word has its origin “in Christ before the foundation of the world.” This was contained in the “promise” God made before the foundation of the world. (Tit. 1:2) The “gospel,” the “good news” or “good tidings” is the declared fulfilment of that promise.

In Isaiah 61:1-3 is found the outstanding proclamation made by the Sum and Substance of the good tidings, — Jesus Christ Himself: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek, He has sent Me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” The Redeemer repeated this same proclamation of Himself in the synagogue.

While this prophetical statement is often quoted, its full significance is rarely understood. In this one sweeping declaration, there is encouched – not the beginning of the gospel, not a part of its fulfilment, – the grand total of what the Son of Man declared on the cross: “IT IS FINISHED”!

The Greek word “evanggelion” is translated “gospel” in the King James Version. This word, together with its rendering of “good tidings,” glad tidings” and “preach the gospel” occurs some one hundred and eight times in the New Testament, none of which intimate anything less than “finished redemption” in Christ.

In no instance does the word convey any thought of a mere “free-offer of grace.”

When Jesus stood and cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,” He no more invited the thirsty, than He invited the light when He said, Let there be light. In the first place there is not a soul on the earth that does or can thirst for the living waters which flow from Him, until He quickens it, and makes it thirst, and when made to feel its thirst, and even when the tongue faileth for thirst , it can no more approach the living fountain than it can make a world, until Jesus applies, not the invitation, but the word, “Come unto Me.” His words are spirit and they are life; and His sheep hear them, and they know His voice, and they follow Him; because they have no power or even disposition to resist their Shepherd’s voice. The calling of the saints is nowhere in the scriptures denominated an invitation. He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. If he only invited them they would have to get out themselves, or stay behind. But when he calls, the dead hear His voice, (not His invitation,) and they that hear shall live. How would it suit the condition of a poor, lost, helpless soul, one that feels his poverty, inability and impotence, to read the word thus: The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall be invited to live, and they who accept the invitation shall live. And when He inviteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them, provided they accept the invitation. It is perfectly in keeping with every feature of Arminianism for workmongers to talk of invitation of the gospel, because the very term implies the willing and the doing power to be in the creature. But it is neither in harmony with the doctrine of experience of the saints of God to so speak of His communications to them as to imply that He has yielded up the government to them; that He has hinged the effect and result of His communications on their will instead of His own will. It is derogatory to His character, it reflects on His wisdom, power, and grace.

Gilbert Beebe, July 15, 1846

IN A GREAT HOUSE

2 Timothy 2:19-21 (NKJV) 19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.


Today, I would like to look at verses 20 and 21.  God is looking for a people that want to move from the ordinary to the extraordinary; from the life of wood and clay to a life of gold and silver.  Many people believe that what God wants you to be, you will be, but that is not what this verse is saying.  In verse 21, it states that we make the decision of what we will be.


You might be asking, “What do you mean?”  Well here it says, “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.”  We need to clean up our act.  We need to put ourselves in position to be used by Him. 


I decide what type of life I will live.  Will I let sin rule me, or do I let His grace control my life?  Do I take time to read and study His Word, or do I just sit by the TV and let the hours roll away?  You see, it is up to me what I will do with myself.  Today, make a decision to be a vessel of honor to Him, and let Him be able to use you each and every day.


Confession: Today, I make a decision to be a vessel of honor for the Master’s use.  I put my life in His hands, but I also choose the things of the Kingdom instead of the things of this world that are passing away.


Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 12 – 14:10


1 Thessalonians 1 – 2:8


Psalms 79:1-13


Proverbs 24:30-34


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)


GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US

Isaiah 41:10 (NKJV) Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.


What comfort to know that God, our Heavenly Father, tells us not to fear or to be dismayed.  Why is that?  Because He is with us, and He will strengthen us.  No matter what life may throw at us, and it does throw a lot at times, He has promised us that He will hold us with His right hand.


Our Father looks for one thing from us, and that is trust.  He wants us to trust that He will do what He has promised us in His Word.  The Bible is a book filled with promises from our God, and as we find them and put them deep within our heart, God promises us that He will do His part.


So we see so much in this one verse.  He tells us to fear not and not to be shocked or baffled.  Why?  Because He is our God!  He will strengthen us, He will help us, and He will hold us up with His righteous right hand.


I figure that if God is going to take care of the situation, then what I need to do is trust Him and rest.  I know that sometimes it is so hard to just rest in Him, but it is what He tells us to do!  So today, whatever you are going through, put your trust in God, and let Him take care of that problem for you.


Confession:  Today, I make a decision to trust my Heavenly Father and believe that He is at work for me, in my life.  I put my faith in His promise, and I have confidence that it will all work out. 


Today’s Bible Reading


Jeremiah 14:11 – 16:15


1 Thessalonians 2:9 – 3:13


Psalms 80


Proverbs 25:1-5


Bible in a Year: 365-Day Reading Plan : English | King James Version (KJV)