I've previously blogged about a couple preachers who have had a huge impact on my life:  the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones and John Piper (for more info., please see the links at the end of this post). Because there is a lot of harmful teaching and preaching running rampant, we need to be on constant guard and to test all things. But let's remember, there is nothing new under the sun. The very same thing was happening in the days of the early Church – hence all the warnings in the New Testament for us to guard the Gospel and to be rightly rooted in doctrine, and so on. The devil is constantly prowling; he is seeking to steal, kill, and destroy, and one of his most insidious means of doing so is through deceitful preaching within the visible church. He doesn't come in with a pitchfork and horns, but he comes as an angel of light, taking the truth of God's Word and subtly twisting it, with the intent that we might not enter into and enjoy the life abundantly that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, came to give to His sheep. Remember: Satan is Christ's adversary and the adversary of all who are Christ's. The devil is a wily schemer, and he is a murderer and a liar and the father of lies. The apostle Paul warned us that fierce wolves would rise up within the church, and they would not spare the flock (see Acts 20:29-30). We must take heed to our souls, and we must remember if we are taking garbage in, garbage will inevitably come out! GIGO! Our eternal souls are at stake! Doctrine is not optional, or a throw-away, it is vital to our soul's well-being! We only have so many hours in a day, and we must be wise in what we read, watch, and listen to. We should be seeking to feed our souls with profitable preaching. Throughout the book of Jeremiah, there was a continued lamentation and rebuke that Israel had gone after that worthless things which did not profit (e.g. - Jer. 2:8, 7:8, 12:13, 14:14, 16:19, 23:32), and because of her turning away from the Word of the LORD, Israel ended up in exile for 70 years in Babylon.

Both Dr. Lloyd-Jones and Dr. Piper (as well as all the preachers and teachers I'm drawn to, and whom I recommend to others) preach a felt Christ. Dr. Lloyd-Jones' preaching was spoken of as "logic on fire." These men preach of an experiential/experimental religion (please see here for more on that). By experimental religion I mean religion of the sort where, as God's Holy Spirit sovereignly moves, the doctrines of the Bible are imparted in power to the soul, such as what happened to the disciples on the Emmaus road: "Did not our heart burn within us... ?" Or, consider David's description about the Word of God in this way: that it was sweeter than honey and the honeycomb! There are certain times, as God's sovereign Spirit blows, when religion becomes more than notion, as Joseph Hart penned:

These men also both preach from a Reformed perspective, i.e. - Calvinism, or the doctrines of grace, or TULIP (see here). In Calvinism there is a high view of God: the glory and majesty and holiness and sovereignty and beauty of God is emphasized, and along with it, the total depravity and inability of men. Consequently, the most excellent glory of God's love, mercy, and grace in providing salvation – from beginning to ending (foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified! ~ Romans 8:29-30) – to helpless, hopeless, dead, powerless, vile, and worthless sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ is most wonderfully displayed and highly exalted.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Calvinism, in  "A Defense of Calvinism," Charles Spurgeon wrote:

I've mentioned this to a couple of my friends here – @AmyDoo and @stephensmustang – that for quite a while now, I've been wanting to give you a list of some of the preachers to whom I've been listening (Ah! the iPod – it's a beautiful thing!) – and now, having set forth some of what I value in preaching, tonight I'd like to introduce you to the preaching of Kenneth Stewart, currently the pastor at Glasgow Reformed Presbyterian Church in Glasgow, Scotland.

The following is an excerpt from the latter part of Kenneth Stewart's sermon "Gains and Losses (2)" <http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=319121440382> on Philippians 3:7.

⁷ But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. ⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹ if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

God saved Saul of Tarsus, as he calls himself a chief of sinners. He did that just to show that can be yours too. Yours! That can be your experience. This man was what? Somewhere in his thirties perhaps... but his life was turned upside-down for God, and so can yours be.

Will you not start to live like that, friend? Will you not confess your brokenness and your sin and your hopelessness and helplessness, and come to Christ – that this new life may begin in yourself too. He finds a righteousness.

But the righteousness isn't all he finds. He finds a life as well. He doesn't just get a ticket to heaven – he gets a new type of life to live. That's the point of justification after all. That's the point of being put legally right.... Once we're put legally right, everything else can be sorted out.

The whole purpose of our justification is that sanctification can begin. We start to know God. We just start – and we go on – to know Him better. After all, he says, first of all in verse 9, he wants to be found. This is a reference, I think, to the judgment seat. He wants to be found there, not having his own righteousness, no – which is from the law – but that which is from faith in Christ – the righteousness which is from God by faith.

"That I may know Him," he says. "I don't just want to be set free by Him, I want to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death."

What's he's saying there?

Well, Christ isn't just giving him an inheritance, He's giving him a new life.

What is eternal life? Well, Jesus answers that question in John 17, verse 5: It's to know God, to know the Father, to know the Son – through the Spirit. That is life. That's when life begins. They say life begins at 40, or whatever. It begins when you know God. When you call Him your father in heaven. When a relationship is struck between your Creator and you. That's when life starts. Anything else you live, friend, I don't care how racy it is, how adventurous it is, how exciting it is, it's not life!

Life begins when you know your Creator, and you enter into a relationship with Him. Anything less than that is not life at all.

That I may know Him. He says, "Yes, that's what I want. . .

What is it to mean to know? Well, to know is not just to know intellectually, but to know in the heart. He wants to know Christ as a person. He wants to know more and more of who Christ is and what He has done for him. A righteousness and a life.

And you'll notice that he describes that especially in verse 10 in these terms:  knowing Christ consists in knowing the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

That I may know Him. "Yes," he says, "that's what I want."  You know that's what I want too. I hope I want it enough. I hope I want it as passionately as Paul wanted it: to know Christ. Do you? Do you want to know Christ better, deeper? If you do, you'll want to know the power of His resurrection. What is that?

Well, simply the power He gives by virtue of His resurrection. It doesn't mean the power that actually raised Him from the dead, but the power He possesses as the resurrected Lord, a power that He sends into your life by the Holy Spirit. It doesn't feel like electricity. It doesn't crackle like that. It's not that kind of power. It's not that kind of dynamism. It's a spiritual power, it's a spiritual power that carries with it all things needful for life and godliness (Second Peter, chapter 1). That's what you want. In other words, you want what He gives you in terms of knowledge, understanding, judgment, peace, love, joy, discernment. You want that kind of spiritual power coursing through your spiritual veins. You want that. The power of His resurrection. It's a way of saying that God has so much to give. That Christ has so much to give you. He can give you so much of that love for others. So much of that compassion for a fallen world. So much desire to make a difference. He can give you so much love that you will overflow with that love, and so much joy and peace. You want it!

I want to know that Christ, and I want to know that resurrection power in me, filling me through His Holy Spirit . Yes, he says, that's what I want to know. I want to know that Christ, and I want to know Him with that fullness.

Some of you tonight want this, not because you've never had it, but because you've tasted some of it. And when you taste a bit of it, and you remember what the taste is like, you really want it. Sometimes in our foolishness, we do forget it. But just like life, you know, sometimes a smell takes you back. Sometimes just a word takes you back. Sometimes something is said and done, and you'll remember, "Yes, yes, that's what a Christ-centered life was like."

Where have you left that behind, friend?

Where? When? Why?

For what husks did you exchange it?

For what rubbish did you let it go?

What was it amongst the things that you cast away ages ago, what was it that you suddenly rediscovered and polished down and was so worth it?

Do you remember the day when every magazine was trash, every newspaper was a waste of time?

Is it not something of that you need back, and something of that I need back too?

Aw, it's all right to come out with the arguments that says these things are lawful. Ahhh... You can be killed off by lawful things. Your life can be destroyed by a multitude of lawful things.

Do you understand that? The cake remains the same size. There are 24 hours in day. You cram it up with as much lawful stuff as you like, and you've got nothing left for Christ. Not a thing. And your soul will be a damp squib, and you'll do next to nothing for the Lord. But what you could do – if you started to be a bit more severe on yourself like that.

And it's not as though it's torture. That's no hair shirt. No! That's no hair shirt, and that's no whip, and that's no lash. Because you'll discover that to give yourself back to Christ will bring you the joy and the love and peace and the exhilaration  and the sense of accomplishing something for Himself. That' s life. That's life: that I may know Him, he says, and the power of His resurrection - pray for that power, and he says, the fellowship of HIs sufferings, I want that too.

Now, to be honest, I've wrestled with this expression quite often, "I want to know the fellowship of His sufferings." But after thinking about it, I still feel what I've essentially always felt about it. It's just means that there is a special fellowship with Christ, even in the midst of suffering. There's always fellowship with Christ, but in suffering for Him, He'll see to it that you'll get it too. In fact, He'll see that you'll don't just get it also, you'll get it especially in the midst of sufferings. Don't be afraid of them. Walk into them for Christ's sake, and you'll be lifted up in the midst of them.

From the Christians who suffered in the Roman catacombs, in the amphitheaters, right down to the Christians who have suffered in China recently, and elsewhere, across the Muslim world; right through the martyrs of the Reformation, and Scotland itself, you'll discover that if you suffer for Christ, He won't be far away from you. Paul says, "I want that," he says. "I don't choose suffering, I'm not gonna to walk into them," he says, "but I've discovered that in the midst of them, there's a sweetness in the presence of Christ."

. . .

Get Christ, friend. Get Christ for your soul, because nothing's to be compared with Him.

While most modern squibs used by professionals are insulated from moisture, older uninsulated squibs needed to be kept dry in order to ignite, thus a "damp squib" was literally one that failed to perform because it got wet. Often misheard as "damp squid", the phrase "damp squib" has since come into general use to mean anything that fails to meet expectations. The word "squib" has come to take on a similar meaning even when used alone, as a synonym for dud.

More about Kenneth Stewart:

More about Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

More about John Piper:

More about my credo for blogging and doctrine...

Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.

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Information about squib and damp squib found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squib_(explosive)  / CC BY-SA 3.0

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Steve Saint is the son of Nate Saint, one of five missionaries who were martyred in Ecuador in 1956. You may or may not have heard that Steve Saint was seriously injured in a test flight last week. I thought his testimony was a fitting follow-up to my Father's Day post, To take whatever thy Father's pleasure | "May adversities uninterrupted be my lot" ~ Edward Griffin...

Luke 9:51  And it came to pass, when the time was come that he [Jesus] should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem...

And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 58  And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 59  And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 60  Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. 61  And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. 62  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

My posts tagged "Don't waste your life" including ...

• Resurrection Day: Don't Waste Your Life (Lecrae) | Whose Life is it anyhow?
• every brand snatched is a brand dispatched ~ Reflections on 9/11, Redemption & God's Mission
• Is your ambition holy? / What are you living for? (Louis Paul Lehman) | The Christian's Aim
• Are you robbing God? Where is God telling you to "Rise and go!" for the joy of others?
• adopting God's purpose for the nations is for your joy & His glory
• the infinite significance of the eternal Kingdom
• our yearnings & desires & God's Mission (Isaiah 26:9)
• Don't Waste Your Singleness | Single one ... be single-eyed
• 200 years ago ... Adoniram & Ann Judson ~ Don't waste YOUR marriage
• Father's Day ~ William Carey & his son | duty, risk & the obedient Son
• Then Abigail made haste (complacency & devotion)
• The Dangerous Tendency of Delay (Andrew Fuller)
• "Call to Me and I will answer you" (thoughts on holy ambition)
• Thoughts on necessity (Richard Baxter, myself)
• Are You Working on the Wall? (redemption, spiritual gifts, the glory of God, joy & holy ambition)

Scripture quotations are taken from King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Plowing_-_Anton_Mauve_-_overall.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Public Domain

A few days ago (see here), I blogged on an excerpt from Andrew Fuller's sermon "The Instances, the Evil Nature, and the Dangerous Tendency of Delay, in the Concerns of Religion."  Fuller's Bible text was Haggai 1:2 (KJV) "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built."

Along with Zechariah, Haggai was one of God's prophets sent to rebuke God's people who'd returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon in 537 B.C. (Ezra 5:1ff). Though God's people continued to delay year after year in completing the building the temple of the Lord, God's house – they were able to find the time, energy and resources to build and furnish and decorate their own houses! Should not God's people be first and foremost concerned with God's house? Sadly, the house of the LORD remained in ruins and unbuilt for over twenty years; the temple building was finally completed in 516 B.C.

In contrast to that negative example of sluggish indifference about spiritual matters, we find the positive lively and engaged example of Abigail, a woman who made haste to obey the will of the LORD.

I Samuel 25:2 Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb.

4 When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. 6 And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: ‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! 7 Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

9 So when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited.

10 Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. 11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”

12 So David’s young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words. 13 Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.

14 Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he reviled them. 15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.”

18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her servants, “Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

20 So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.”

23 Now when Abigail saw David, she hastened to dismount from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground. 24 So she fell at his feet and said: “On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. 25 Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him! But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent. 26 Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal. 27 And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. For the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil is not found in you throughout your days. 29 Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God; and the lives of your enemies He shall sling out, as from the pocket of a sling. 30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, 31 that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”

32 Then David said to Abigail: “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hastened and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!” 35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person.”

There's so much to this account (and you can read the conclusion of the story for yourself in your own Bible), but my main emphasis here is our need to be making haste when it comes to matters pertaining to Christ and His Kingdom. May God give each of us grace to examine ourselves rightly through His Holy Spirit in conjunction with His Word (Heb. 4:11-13, II Cor. 13:5, Psalm 139:24-25).

Can we rightly claim we love Christ and His Kingdom, and can we honestly say Jesus Christ is our first Love, if we continue to delay and procrastinate and not make haste regarding spiritual matters?

Let's look back and remember how the Lord's prayer begins:

Christianity is first and foremost not about us but about our God and about His glory and His will being done and His name being exalted. And until we line up our own priorities in that manner like Abigail did, we will show ourselves fools like Nabal ("Nabal" means fool), and we will not be happy. So long as we keep hastening to hallow our own names and to insist upon doing our own will, we will show ourselves to be fools like Nabal, and we will not be happy. So long as we are not single-eyed and whole-hearted toward our God, we will not be happy. In contrast, our Lord spoke these words to us: Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

If we're not unreservedly giving all we are and all we have to Christ's service, then are we really Christ's? The Lord knows those who are His.

Can we say we are the Lord's if we are not walking in way of our Lord, if we are not seeking to be about our Father's business and delighting to do His will, and if we are not offering ourselves as living sacrifices to God and praying the way our Lord did at Gethsemane, "Not my will, but Yours, be done"?

In his sermon, "The Instances, the Evil Nature, and the Dangerous Tendency of Delay, in the Concerns of Religion,"  Andrew Fuller doesn't mince words, but gives us this strong exhortation:

In other words, if we do not love to be engaged in the work of God, if we do not make haste to do His will, how can we say we love the God who loved us and worked for us while we were powerless and helpless, the God who showed His love for us by sending His Son to die for us while we were yet sinners, the God who loved us first? Can we say our hearts are drawing close to God if we shrink back from doing the things that are near to His heart? How are we murdering precious time rather than redeeming precious time? Are we living like the strangers and pilgrims that we are in this world, or instead are we hastening to set our affections on the things of this temporal world, while having little affection and zeal for God Himself and devoting little to no attention to eternal matters?

Wise women make haste for the joy of others and for the blessing of God

In I Samuel 25, the Hebrew word used in verses 18, 23 and 34 (as well as 42) for made haste and hastened is mahar (pronounced maw-har'): a primitive root; properly, to be liquid or flow easily, i.e. (by implication); to hurry...make speed, speedily, straightway, suddenly, swift (from Strong's Concordance).

In contrast to Nabal who thought and acted like a fool, Abigail's showed herself wise, with her heart and mind being full of God's truth and God's wisdom, and that truth and wisdom bubbled up and swiftly overflowed! Her faith was a living faith, which produced good works, including good words to restore David's soul.

In this case, the words of one woman's mouth, the mouth of Abigail, were deep waters! The name Abigail means father (i.e. source) of joy. Can't we see how Abigail was a God-ordained wellspring of joy to David, a flowing brook which graciously streamed down to David through Abigail from the Father of lights in order to keep David from sin?

That picture of the wellspring brings to mind Jesus' words in John 7:

Also, these words from James 5:

Abigail's zeal to make haste to obey the Lord kept David from sinning and suffering the ill consequences of a hasty, foolish reaction.

What if Abigail had delayed? What if she hadn't hastened to obey the will of the LORD for her? What if she'd shrunk back from speaking these words of wisdom which David was so needing to hear? What if she'd not resolved to speak all the words of life God had given her? What if she bowed to her husband, instead of bowing to the will of the Lord? In that regard, let's remember that Jesus said He did not come to bring peace on earth but a sword (Matthew 10:34-39). Jesus Himself had a taste of such conflict within His only earthly family, for even own His brothers did not believe in Him for a time (see John 7:5).

(Now, don't get me wrong, and don't misunderstand me here –– as Christian wives, we are called to submit to our husbands, and all of us are submit to the authorities God has sovereignly ordained over us. However, at the end of the day, Jesus Christ is Lord of lords, and we must obey God rather than men. Each one of us must prayerfully seek God's leading and wisdom in her own particular family or work or government situation, and trust that God's commandments to us are not burdensome, and our God will never give us more than we can bear and He will supply our every need through the riches of Christ Jesus.)

Ah! David certainly loved the fruit of life that flowed from Abigail's tongue, did he not? Reread verses 32-35 and see how David himself overflowed with blessing for God, blessing for Abigail's advice, and blessing for Abigail herself!

Just as Abigail was sent by God to restore David and to bear fruit in his life, we as Christians are sent on a mission. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you... God's commandment to Adam and Eve was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Similarly, God's intent is for each of us as believers to bear fruit, fruit that will last and fruit to God's glory by the power of His Holy Spirit who works in us (John 15, Galatians 5). The Church is designed to be a fruitful vine, a fruitful field (e.g. - Isaiah 5, 27, & 32). The great commission has been given to the Church so the Gospel might be preached to the ends of the earth, so disciples might be made of all nations who will bow to and sing praise, honor, glory to the Lamb who was slain to the glory of God the Father. In II Corinthians 5, Paul reminds us that all Christians are God's ambassadors sent to all the nations with the message of reconciliation: that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, the one Mediator between God and men, God, the Lamb of God who has come to redeem and rescue lost sinners and bring them back to God. God's intent is that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is to fill the earth as the waters cover the seas (Hab. 2:14). How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are God's means for His Word to run very swiftly to the end of the earth.

The Hebrew word for "very swiftly" is mherah, derived from the word maher, whose root is mahar, the same word meaning made haste and hastened in the account of Abigail! Just as Abigail made haste, we must be praying and doing all we can to see that God's Word would run swiftly and be glorified throughout the earth...

The means of God's Word running swiftly is by God's people offering themselves and their praises and prayers and their substance be focused on given to Him to be used used as He wills.

Abigail is numbered along with Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna (Luke 8:1-3) among the countless other women throughout the ages who have been faithful to make sacrificial provision for the Lord's work out of their own substance. It is God's desire that His Word to run swiftly and to spread and to be glorified throughout all the earth –– and though we know God's people and God's Word will meet with opposition (He told us that in the world, we shall have tribulation – just as our Lord Himself faced tribulation), but in the end God's sovereign plan will not be thwarted for He works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Rise up ... you complacent daughters (and sons)!

There are too many women (as well as men) who are not making haste when it comes to seeking, savoring, and serving Christ and being about His business. How quickly we are seduced into preoccupation with self and with worldly matters rather than with God and with His eternal purposes!

Through Isaiah, God issued this stern warning and rebuke to the women in Isaiah's day who had been complacent for far too long about spiritual matters:

Of course, such warnings weren't only given to the women, but also to the men:

It's easy for us to look at others and to point fingers, but we each need to look at ourselves and how we spend our time, our resources, and our energy on any given day – or, as we look back over the past year, we need to ask ourselves: How much of all of that time have I been focused on Jesus Christ and the cause of Christ in the world? Have I been wasting my life, or have I been redeeming the time? I may worship God with my lips on Sunday morning, but where is my heart? My checkbook? My facebook? Has Christ been my best thought by day and by night? Does He fill my vision? How much time do I spend looking in the mirror? In contrast, how much time do I spend gazing upon Jesus Christ? Am I more concerned with external beauty than internal beauty? How much effort am I making to grow in grace so I might become more and more conformed into the image of Christ? Do I pant and long after the living God, or do I see any time spent with God in His Word and in prayer as only an obligatory chore? Do I ever become lost in wonder, love, and praise? Does my worship of God conclude after leaving church on Sunday morning, or does it extend throughout the entire week? Am I keeping my lamp burning? Am I seeking to purify myself as God is pure? Am I longing to be holy as he is holy? Am I delighting in His will for me? Like Abigail, am I making haste to obey in all God commands me, or am I picking and choosing and only doing what is comfortable and convenient for me?

If you have seen yourself as guilty of sinful complacency, will you confess and repent and ask for God's Spirit to strengthen you to answer Jesus' challenge to you, so you might you rise up and out of your complacency. Or, do you wish to continue to remain mired in your complacency and bring reproach to the name of Christ and continue to waste your life (and Christ's life which dwells in you).

Who will be valiant for truth? (Jeremiah 9:3)

It baffles me how out of all of David's 600 men, not one of them came to David with the advice he needed. Now it's true we don't know the hearts of these men, but we do know they had committed themselves to David at the risk of incurring King Saul's wrath. However, we do know this:  Abigail was not complacent, and she did make haste. What a wonderful privilege God gave her: to make haste to serve God's anointed king, David, the man after God's own heart!

It grieves me that multitudes of MEN in the Church are sitting back today and are settled in their complacency. I say that I am particularly grieved over the men for this reason:  in God's divine design, our Good Shepherd has entrusted the care, guarding, and feeding of His blood-bought flock to men (not women). And now we have witnessed generation after generation after generation of men who have not been valiant for the truth and men who have not spoken up when they saw false teachers and error beginning to slip in and infiltrate and grow like a cancer within the dear flock of God –– and today we are reaping what we have sown: denomination after denomination are falling one after the other dominoes! Denominations which were at one time sound have now tumbled headlong into blatant apostasy! The words of Jeremiah 6:15 and 8:12 are being played out in front of our eyes: They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush. Their lampstands are now being taken away! Sin is not only justified and excused away, but sin is now being glorified. Sexual promiscuity and perversions are now protected and boasted in. The authority of God's Word has been undermined, and everyone does what is right in his own eyes. Jesus Christ has been lowered to the status of just a good teacher rather than the only begotten Son of God and the propitiation God set forth for the salvation of sinners. Penal substitution is considered cosmic child abuse. The doctrine of hell has been discarded for deadly universalism. The sovereign right of God to be gracious and merciful to whom He wills is considered heretical teaching. The doctrines of the new birth and regeneration have been usurped and exchanged for so-called "decisional regeneration." What is counted as fellowship is all but starved of true spiritual conversation about the Bread of Life. We are in an age where we are rivaling the strange fire of Nadab and Abihu (Numbers 26) and the corrupt priesthood of Eli's sons (I Sam. 2).

In the Old Testament, God showed His merciful kindness to Judah, the Southern Kingdom, as He gave Judah a clear warning as she was able to watch Assyria carry away her sister Israel, the Northern Kingdom, into captivity due to their sinful idolatry. But tragically, in spite of that warning, Judah became even more corrupt than Israel (see Ezekiel 23). We find ourselves in a eerily similar situation today. Many of us who are in evangelical churches have witnessed the slide in other denominations, and we may have turned a blind eye for we have tended to think we are safe and such things wouldn't ever happen to us. And so we stand with our heads in the sand, and we sit smugly in our pews week after week. May God open our eyes to the dangers that are lurking. The devil will continue to prowl under Christ returns again and all things are put under His feet once and for all. We must make haste and not be foolish and complacent. We must be ever-diligent and on guard. We must keep watch and test all things. Sin lies at our door, and its desire is for us! Before we know it Ichabod may well be written over the doors of our own congregations and our own denominations!

My friends, should we not be alarmed about these things and make haste? Where are the pastors and elders who are sounding the alarm and weeping between the porch and altar? Should it not grieve our hearts that many are now calling good evil, and evil good, putting darkness for light, and light for darkness, and putting bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20)? Should our eyes not be a fountain of waters (like Jeremiah)? Has not God has charged His shepherds to contend for the faith, guard the Gospel, and feed the flock of God with the truth of God? One day these men will stand before the Chief Shepherd to give an account.

And women, know this: you too will be held to account. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ! As women, we are not called to be pastors and elders, but there are opportunities given to us to speak truth, and we must not shrink back. Along with men, we must be studying to show ourselves approved. Do not turn your brains off and make the fatal mistake of thinking studying theology is only for men. Psalm 111:2 The works of the Lord are great, Studied by all who have pleasure in them. Press on to know the Lord. How can you love our God well if you do not make every effort to know Him well? We are to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength AND all our mind!

We are all commanded to speak the truth in love to one another; that's part of our calling within the Body of Christ. You may also have your own children and/or be entrusted with the care of other children, or you may be discipling those who are younger in the faith than you. Each lamb is precious to Christ and needs to be fed with the pure milk of God's Word.

You never know when God might put you into an Abigail situation. No, you won't be speaking to David, the anointed king of Israel, but you may be called upon to speak truth to a God-appointed pastor or leader of God's flock, and as you do so, you will be serving Christ, THE King of Israel! All the while, we must make haste to make every effort to equip ourselves and then to make haste to go when and where God calls, and to make haste speak what God commands. Consider how Abigail herself made haste, how she went boldly and quickly and without hesitation to speak with David because she feared, revered, and loved God and His servant David, the beloved of God (the name David means "beloved"), and she had a holy ambition to see David's kingdom prosper for she knew that would be for his joy as well as for her joy. Can we say we have such fear, reverence and love for THE Beloved of God, the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have a holy ambition to see God's Christ and His Kingdom prosper and thrive and expand throughout the world for Christ's joy, for the joy of His elect, and for your joy?

"Of what great consequence will my services be?"

As we look at accounts such as Abigail's and other Biblical figures and then turn and look at ourselves in comparison, we're often tempted to ask the question, "Of what great consequence will my services be?"

Andrew Fuller addressed and answered that question in his Circular Letter from 1785, "Causes of Declension in Religion, and Means of Revival":

In addition to those Fuller cited, we could mention many, many others. Let's not forget Namaan's wife's servant girl or Queen Esther or Deborah. We never know when the scepter might be extended our way and what surprising good work God may have ordained to accomplish through us.

Leviticus 26:8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.

I Samuel 14:6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.”

We are the aroma of life leading to life to those who are being saved, and the aroma of death leading to death to those who are perishing (II Cor. 2). We're not ever guaranteed success (as we might be tempted to define it), and we may never come to see any great visible results of our labor, but God has promised us our labor in the Lord is not in vain (I Cor. 15:58), and, as we sow in tears today, the day will come that we will carry home sheaves with rejoicing (Psalm 126)! God has promised His Word will not return void, but will accomplish the purpose He has intended and it will prosper in the thing for which He sent it (Isaiah 55:11).

Though we will not receive the world's commendation (and we should not seek it!), and though we may not get to enjoy the fruit of our labor in our lifetimes, we can be sure as we make haste to obey the Lord's will and to serve Him and His interests, Jesus Himself will say of us:

... for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

Like the sinful woman (in Luke 7:36-50), as our eyes are opened to the exceeding sinfulness of our sin in contrast to God's holiness, we are profoundly humbled as we see our unworthiness, and we begin to grasp the greatness of God's love for us and exult in and magnify the unmerited, unconditional, and undeserved love, mercy, and grace of God poured out for us on Calvary! And that's when our religion begins to transform from cold, heartless Pharisaical service to the realm of fiery, fervent, extravagant, and selfless devotion to Christ which was exhibited by the sinful woman and Abigail. O! the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God for us in Christ Jesus! What wondrous love is this! And it is then that we begin to enter that point the apostle Paul wrote of in II Corinthians 5 – the love of Christ constrains us! Though we will have lapses, the love of God has truly captured and captivated our hearts, and Christ has become that love divine, all loves excelling! We become like the Shulamite woman who cries out for her Beloved, "I am sick of love!" We press on to know Him for we have now been given a glimpse of His all-surpassing worth! And we cry out with the Psalmists ~ O! Who is a God like unto Thee! To be near to You is for my good! Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere! We truly begin to know Jesus Christ as our all-satisfying portion and our great reward!

Luke 7:47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

because the king's business required haste...

The book of Hebrews was written to encourage the Jewish believers who were on the verge of becoming sluggish:

In Revelation 2 and 3, our Lord stands in the midst of seven New Testament churches and gives them His assessment. In Revelation 3, we read these words which Jesus spoke to the churches at Sardis and Laodicea:

If we are not making haste regarding the things of God, are we really alive to God and to the things of God? If we are not making haste like Abigail, are we in fact lukewarm, and in real danger of having the Lord Jesus Christ vomit us out of His mouth? May God protect us against such deadness and lukewarmness, and by the grace of God at work in us, may we walk in the way of Abigail, and may this be our testimony:

¹ HT: I was first made aware of that connection between II Thes. 3:1 & Psalm 147:15 in listening to Michael Haykin's message Expecting the Spirit. Afterwards, I found the same linkage in other Bible resources, e.g. - see http://bible.cc/2_thessalonians/3-1.htm.

Related:

The Dangerous Tendency of Delay (Andrew Fuller)
postcards from England: "The Burden for Revival" (ML-J)
Resurrection Day: Don't Waste Your Life (Lecrae) | Whose Life is it anyhow?
Reformation Rebels: Are you willing to be a rebel for the sake of the Church?
every brand snatched is a brand dispatched ~ Reflections on 9/11, Redemption & God's Mission
Is your ambition holy? / What are you living for? (Louis Paul Lehman) | The Christian's Aim
Are you robbing God? Where is God telling you to "Rise and go!" for the joy of others?
adopting God's purpose for the nations is for your joy & His glory
the infinite significance of the eternal Kingdom
Lent V. - You follow me! (Are we steadfastly setting our faces to His will?)
Lenten Reflections: "Is it not written...?" Mark 11:15 | the Biblical means of revival
Bible Reading-Mark 4: (6) Kingdom-Obsessed People persevere in scattering seed
They went everywhere gossiping the word; shouldn't we also? (Acts 8:4)
Advent #4 WHY HAS JESUS COME? "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword"

My Mother's day posts
Romans 12:1-2 ~ Ann Hasseltine Judson: a willing sacrifice – Are you?
Thank you, Noël Piper (Thank you, pastor's wives)
Bible Reading: I Corinthians 15 & 16: Would we stand firm for 38 years?
What Is ... Making a Difference? Bible Reading: 2 Kings-Two Daughters of Eve Make a Difference
Father's Day ~ William Carey & his son | duty, risk & the obedient Son
my desire: "fearless and uncompromising" like Duncan Campbell, Moses, and Paul
God uses men with "no outstanding abilities"
by the grace of God you can be the greatest you that ever lived

Her Eyes Were Still Restrained ~ "When it looks like he is buried for good..."
As the Visible Disappoints

Beauty
Outcast vine, faithless bride ~ What beauty? What did you see?
Get gnawing, put your nose down in the Book to feed the white-hot flame of God's gift
"Garbage In" (Are you truly His disciple?)
Linger, linger, linger – so you might know God's love

Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Please note: the current version online at Biblegateway.com differs from my version. If you notice on the website in the text for the I Samuel 25 passage, the words for haste in verses 18, 23, and 34 (also 42) are all different. As I cited above, it is the same Hebrew word in every instance as well, so the repeated words serve to emphasize more fully Abigail's hastening.

Image credits (All CC BY-SA 3.0 / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}):