prayers

  • Ascension Day: "He went up, scattering blessings; & he has done nothing but bless them ever since"

    Luke 24:51  And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51  And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 52  And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53  And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

    "April 1, 1816.

    "I am so worn down with constant cares and labors, that my affections seem to be all dried up, 'and I am withered like grass.' However, I hope you have received, ere this, a few lines, as a proof that I have not quite forgotten, or ceased to love my mother.

    "Our revival still lingers: it, however, increases slowly. I have conversed with about forty who entertain hopes, and with about sixty more who are inquiring. Twenty-three have joined the church since the year commenced. The work is evidently not over; but whether it will prove general, is still doubtful. There is quite a revival at Bath, below us. Nearly two hundred have been awakened. In Philadelphia, seventy one were added to a single church at one time, a few weeks since. In New York and Baltimore, also,  there are revivals. You have probably heard, that there have been revivals among the Hottentots. Two hundred were added to the church in one year, and ten Hottentot preachers ordained. There is much more good news of a similar nature. Surely we live in a good day, and I believe you will yet see good days in Rindge. Their liberality in raising father's salary, is a token for good; and I rejoice in it more for that reason than for any other. Those who are most willing to pay for the gospel, are most likely to have it blessed to them.

    "We go on very happily in every respect. I have been favored with a long calm, or rather sunshine. Every thing is easy; I am careful for nothing; Christ is so precious and so near; my cup runneth over. Every day I expect a storm, but it does not come. Doubtless I have many bitter, trying scenes to pass through yet; worse than any I have heretofore experienced. But I care not. He will carry me through. I wish to mention to you some passages, which have been peculiarly sweet of late. One is this: 'He caused them to be pitied of all them by whom they were carried away captive.' Scarcely any passage of Scripture seems to me so expressive of God's goodness to his people as this. After they had provoked him, till he banished them from the good land, still he pitied them, and made their enemies pity them. It sounds like David's language— 'Deal gently with the young man Absalom for my sake.'

    "Another is the account of our Saviour's ascension, in the last chapter of Luke: 'And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And while he blessed them,' &c. Observe 'while he blessed,' &c. The last thing he was ever seen to do on earth, was to bless his disciples. He went up, scattering blessings; and he has done nothing but bless them ever since."

    Psalm 68:7  O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: 8  The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 9  Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. 10  Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor...

    19  Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. 20  He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death. 21  But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.
        

    From Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Psalm 68:

    The glory of Zion's King is that he is a Saviour and benefactor to all his willing people and a consuming fire to all those that persist in rebellion against him, 19-21. We have here good and evil, life and death, the blessing and the curse, set before us, like that (Mark xvi. 16), He that believes shall be saved; he that believes not shall be damned.

          1. Those that take God for their God, and so give up themselves to him to be his people, shall be loaded with his benefits, and to them he will be a God of salvation. If in sincerity we avouch God to be our God, and seek to him as such, (1.) He will continually do us good and furnish us with occasion for praise. Having mentioned the gifts Christ received for us ( 18), fitly does he subjoin, in the next words, Blessed be the Lord; for it is owing to the mediation of Christ that we live, and live comfortably, and are daily loaded with benefits. So many, so weighty, are the gifts of God's bounty to us that he may be truly said to load us with them; he pours out blessings till there is no room to receive them, Mal. iii. 10. So constant are they, and so unwearied is he in doing us good, that he daily loads us with them, according as the necessity of every day requires. (2.) He will at length be unto us the God of salvation, of everlasting salvation, the salvation of God, which he will show to those that order their conversation aright (Ps. l. 23), the salvation of the soul. He that daily loads us with benefits will not put us off with present things for a portion, but will be the God of our salvation; and what he gives us now he gives as the God of salvation, pursuant to the great design of our salvation. He is our God, and therefore he will be the God of eternal salvation to us; for that only will answer the vast extent of his covenant-relation to us as our God. But has he power to complete this salvation? Yes, certainly; for unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. The keys of hell and death are put into the hand of the Lord Jesus, Rev. i. 18. He, having made an escape from death himself in his resurrection, has both authority and power to rescue those that are his from the dominion of death, by altering the property of it to them when they die and giving them a complete victory over it when they shall rise again; for the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And to those that shall thus for ever escape death, and shall find such an outlet from it as not to be hurt of the second death, to them surely deliverances from temporal death are mercies indeed and come from God as the God of their salvation. 2 Cor. i. 10.

          2. Those that persist in their enmity to him will certainly be ruined (21): God shall wound the head of his enemies,--of Satan the old serpent (of whom it was by the first promise foretold that the seed of the woman should break his head, Gen. iii. 15), --of all the powers of the nations, whether Jews or Gentiles, that oppose him and his kingdom among men (Ps. cx. 6), He shall wound the heads over many countries),--of all those, whoever they are, that will not have him to reign over them, for those he accounts his enemies, and they shall be brought forth and slain before him, Luke xix. 27. He will wound the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses. Note, Those who go on still in their trespasses, and hate to be reformed, God looks upon as his enemies and will treat them accordingly. In calling the head the hairy scalp perhaps there is an allusion to Absalom, whose bushy hair was his halter. Or it denotes either the most fierce and barbarous of his enemies, who let their hair grow, to make themselves look the more frightful, or the most fine and delicate of his enemies, who are nice about their hair: neither the one nor the other can secure themselves from the fatal wounds which divine justice will give to the heads of those that go on in their sins.

    Lamentations 3:2  It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24  The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25  The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28  He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. 29  He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. 30  He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. 31  For the Lord will not cast off for ever: 32  But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33  For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. 34  To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 35  To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, 36  To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

    Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

    Psalm 73:1
    Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
    Deuteronomy 33:25b
    ... as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
    Psalm 31:19
    Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee;
    which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!


    O God of Bethel, by Whose Hand
    (Philip Doddridge, verses 1-4; unknown Scottish author, verse 5)

    O God of Bethel, by Whose hand
    Thy people STILL are fed,
    Who through this weary pilgrimage
    Hast all our fathers led.

    Our vows, our prayers, we now present
    Before Thy throne of grace;
    God of our fathers, be the God
    Of their succeeding race.

    Through each perplexing path of life
    Our wandering footsteps guide;
    Give us each day our daily bread,
    And raiment fit provide.

    O spread Thy covering wings around
    Till all our wanderings cease,
    And at our Father’s loved abode
    Our souls arrive in peace.

    Such blessings from Thy gracious hand
    Our humble prayers implore;
    And Thou shalt be our chosen God,
    And portion evermore.

    Proverbs 30:8b (ESV)
    ... feed me with the food that is needful for me.

    Luke 11:9  And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11  If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12  Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?


    Are     you importunately asking, seeking, and knocking,
    that God the Father might feed you,
    that He might supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus...
    or have your turned your back on God because your current circumstances are causing you to doubt the goodness of God?

    Of Christ's fullness, are you expecting to receive...
    from mercy to mercy (~ Lam. 3:22-23),
    from grace to grace (~ John 1:16),
    from glory to glory (~ II Cor. 3:12-18),
    from light to light (~ Prov. 4:18)?

    When was the last time you blessed God for His blessings to you, as David did?

    "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation."

    Related:

    My letters on assurance & fighting for joy including:

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

    Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Work found at http://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/detail.cfm?ID=10992 / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

  • "Your business is to trust, and go forward." (Edward Payson)

    After posting Andrew Fuller's words about The Dangerous Tendency of Delay in the concerns of religion last night, this morning the Holy Spirit brought these words of Edward Payson to my heart:

    Your business is to trust, and go forward.



    Through that loving Fatherly discipline, I was strongly encouraged to trust and to go forward. Job 5:17  Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18  For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.  Psalm 16:7  I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

    To explain... over the past several weeks, on many, many occasions, I've been tempted to distrust and to shrink back, rather than to trust and to go forward. I'd fallen headfirst into the deadly snare of fixing my eyes on the visible obstacles and impossible situations – instead of setting my affections on the invisible God Who can do the impossible.

    I love the Bible, and God has provided many, many encouragements to me through His Word. However, once again, I must take the opportunity to commend to you the reading of well-chosen Christian biography. Though the words are not infallible and inspired as the Scripture is, the Holy Spirit can take the stories and the words of the saints and use them to strengthen and refresh our weak and thirsty souls, for these men and women are part of that great cloud of witnesses which surrounds us.*

    Here's the full context of Payson's words (from "Memoir, Select Thoughts and Sermons of the Late Rev. Edward Payson, Volume 1" by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings, 329-330, emphasis mine). Please note:  though Payson's words were written to a man who is called to the ministry of Gospel preaching, they are helpful and applicable to any believer who is struggling to press on in obedience to the will of God in the face of great temptations and difficulties. If you're not struggling today, soon enough you will be. Though Satan is a defeated foe, he still prowls and seeks to work us woe!

    To a brother, who shrunk from his duty, through depression of mind, and an erroneous opinion of his own qualifications for the ministry.  Lest any should use the authority of Dr. Payson's name to urge men to assume the sacred office without the requisite qualifications, it ought to be stated, that the person addressed in the following letter, besides possessing decided piety, had passed through a regular course of preparatory studies at a theological seminary:

    "My dear brother:  Your letter found me more than ordinarily hurried; but I feel it to be so important that you should be licensed this fall, that I must snatch a moment to answer it.  Your feelings, as you describe them, are just like mine, only less aggravated by long continuance.  I mention this that you may pay more regard to my advice.  I am as certain that it is best for you to take license immediately, as I can be of any thing.   Rely upon it, that, if you delay, your difficulties will increase, and you will feel more and more as if it as impossible to preach.  Your only safety lies in placing yourself in circumstances which will make exertion necessary, and which will secure divine assistance.  Never mind your infirmities.  You have nothing to do with them.  Your business is to trust, and go forward.  If you wait till the sea becomes land, you will never walk on it.  You must leave the ship, and, like Peter, set your feet upon the waves, and you will find them marble.  Christ is a good Master.  He won't suffer you to sink; and you will, at length, glory in your infirmities.  I would not give up the precious proofs which I have received, in consequence of my weakness, of his power, faithfulness, and love, for all the comforts of good health.  But be assured, that, if you remain as you are, Satan will weave a net round you, which you will never break.  Every mental and religious effort will become more difficult and painful; your mind will be like the body of a rickety child; you will live a burden to yourself and friend, and die without the consolation of having been made useful.  This would infallibly have been my fate, had I not been thrust into the ministry before I well knew what I was about.  Yet you see I have, somehow or other, been carried along, and so will you be.  Do not then, my dear, dear brother, stand hesitating.  A feeble, nervous man must not deliberate, but act; for his deliberation will not be worth a straw, but his activity may be, and probably will be, useful both to himself and others.

    "When Christ told his disciples to feed the multitude with five loaves, they did not hesitate, and say, Lord, let us first see the bread multiplied; if we begin and have not enough, we shall be put to shame; but they distributed what they had, and it increased with the distribution. So you will find it.  You just, therefore, go forward.  There is no reason why you should not.  If you delay, indolence will steal upon you, and bind you in chains, which you will never break.

    "I charge you, then, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to be up and doing. There are fifty places in this State [Maine], where the most unconnected things, which your lips could utter, would do good, and be well received.  You have no conception by what apparently feeble means God often works wonders.  Let the next tidings I hear from you be, that you have crossed the Rubicon; or, rather, let me see you here forthwith, in the character of a preacher."

    Matthew 16:9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

    The God Who calls us to walk on the water, will sustain us to walk on the water,
    no matter how high the waves, no matter how deep, how broad, how cold, or how turbulent the water may be!

    Can the height or depth or breadth or chill or turbulence of any water separate us from
    the height and depth and breadth and warmth and steadfastness of Christ's love for His elect?!

    Our time of insufficiency is a God-ordained opportunity for us to come to know Christ Himself as our sufficiency!

    II Corinthians 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God

    O, for a Faith That Will Not Shrink
    (Words: William H. Bath­urst, Psalms and Hymns, 1831)

    O, for a faith that will not shrink,
    Though pressed by every foe,
    That will not tremble on the brink
    Of any earthly woe!

    That will not murmur nor complain
    Beneath the chastening rod,
    But, in the hour of grief or pain,
    Will lean upon its God.

    A faith that shines more bright and clear
    When tempests rage without;
    That when in danger knows no fear,
    In darkness feels no doubt.

    That bears, unmoved, the world’s dread frown
    Nor heeds its scornful smile;
    That seas of trouble cannot drown,
    Nor Satan’s arts beguile.

    A faith that keeps the narrow way
    Till life’s last hour is fled,
    And with a pure and heavenly ray
    Lights up a dying bed.

    Lord, give me such a faith as this,
    And then, whate’er may come,
    I’ll taste, e’en here, the hallowed bliss
    Of an eternal home.

    O, for a faith that will not shrink!

    Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

    Mark 10:27 And Jesus looking upon them saith,
    With men it is impossible, but not with God:
    for with God all things are possible.

    May the Holy Spirit impart to us understanding
    and bring to our remembrance the five loaves of the five thousand,
    and how many baskets were taken up,
    so we might trust in God and go forward in faith
    and expect to receive divine assistance as we go.

    John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
    he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
    whatsoever I have said unto you.

    Isaiah 54:4a Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded;
    for thou shalt not be put to shame...

    On what water is Jesus bidding you to walk?
    Will you ask Him to strengthen your faith to trust Him more, so you might go forward?

    Please note: Today's post is an edited/adapted version of a post I originally published here on October 2, 2011.

    * Please check out John Piper's biographical messages. God used these to whet my appetite for reading Christian biography, and I pray God might use them similarly in your life if you've not yet come to appreciate the treasure of Christian biography.

    Related posts...

    on Christian biography...

    on God's sufficiency...

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

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Po_vodam.jpg | {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

  • my desire: "fearless and uncompromising" like Duncan Campbell, Moses, and Paul

    From Andrew A. Woolsey's "Channel of Revival: A Biography of Duncan Campbell," (The Faith Mission: Edinburgh, 1974, reprinted 1982), 127-129 (boldface mine):

        There was nothing complicated about Duncan's preaching. It was fearless and uncompromising. He exposed sin in its ugliness and dwelt at length on the consequences of living and dying without Christ. With a penetrating gaze on the congregation, and perspiration streaming down his face, he set before men and women the way of life and the way of death. It was a solemn thought to him that the eternity of his hearers might turn upon his faithfulness. He was standing before his fellowmen in Christ's stead and could be neither perfunctory nor formal. His words were not just a repetition of accumulated ideas, but the expression of his whole being; he gave the impression of preaching with his entire personality, not merely with his voice.

        It was prophetic preaching, not diplomatic, and the hearers were called to make a clear choice, for there was middle path. During the revival the wrath of God was emphasized and the coming judgment. God has given him this emphasis. Once he tried to be more pleasing in the presentation of truth but without effect and in spite of constant criticism continued to press the flaming sword into the very heart of the foe, resisting every effort to make him retreat. Leaving a service one night after listening to a famous preacher who was noted for his 'positive gospel', he found himself beside another minister who had often censured his ministry. The sermon they had listened to was on Paul's word to the Philippian jailor: 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'

        'What did you think of that?' his critic asked. 'Not telling him to flee from the wrath to come!'

        'Maybe not,' replied Duncan slowly 'but you must remember that the dear many was already in full flight.'

        While he thundered the judgments of God unsparingly on those who continued in sin, there was a beautiful tenderness when he addressed those seeking Christ in true repentance. The jewel of grace shone more brightly against the backcloth of law and judgment. Indeed, those who listened sometimes saw his countenance glow with light as he dwelt on the love of Christ and God's welcome to returning sinners.

        Undoubtedly the insistence on a true knowledge of sin and genuine repentance was one of the reasons for the deep conviction of sin which characterised the movement. At times the preacher's voice was drowned with the sound of men and women weeping uncontrollably; on occasions he found it necessary to stop preaching because of the distress manifested by those whose consciences had been awakened. Men, broken in spirit, wept openly over their sin. Here is one working at peats on the moor and suddenly bursts into a flood of tears. 'Why am I crying?' he asks 'I didn't used to be so soft.' He remembers the two ships that had gone down under him at Dunkirk and he had shown no fear; now he trembles. Hastening home he goes to the barn and yields with the prayer: 'Oh God if it's my surrender You want, You've got it now.'

        Another, who had been given up by the ministers as totally indifferent, is cycling along the road with the Word of God pounding in his brain causing him to dismount; it seems that hell has opened up, spitting out balls of fire on the road before him.

        In the fields, or at the weaving looms, men were overcome and prostrated on the ground before God. One said; 'The grass beneath my feet and the rocks around me seem to cry: "Flee to Christ for refuge!"'

        The agony of conviction was terrible to behold, but Duncan rejoiced knowing that out of the deep travail would be born a rich, virile Christian experience, unlike the cheap, easy-going 'believism' that produces no radical moral change. An old man underlined this in his prayer when he said bluntly: 'Lord, now that You have us in the big pot, boil us as well!'

    * * *

    It's far too easy for any of us to fear and to compromise. It's far too easy for ME to fear men rather than God. It's far too easy for ME to compromise! It's far too easy for ME to seek to please men rather than pleasing God! This is a temptation I constantly face, but I know that along with the apostle Paul, I CANNOT rightly claim to be a servant of Christ so long as I am seeking to please men...

    Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

    And I also know what our Lord had to say about those who feared men rather than God:

    Matthew 10:26  “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27  What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30  But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31  Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32  So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33  but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

    34  “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36  And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 37  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38  And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

    This morning, I was rereading the accounts of Moses' repeated visits to Pharaoh.

    During that time, there were four opportunities when Pharaoh dangled before Moses' ears four different compromises (Exodus 8:25; 8:28; 10:8-11; 10:24):

    Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.

    So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away...

     So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?” Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.” But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go!

    Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the LORD; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.”

    Yes, these were certainly options, but not one of them was in line with God's uncompromising will for His people!

    We learn a great deal from Moses' response to Pharaoh in Exodus 8:27:

    "We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as he tells us."

    "AS HE [the LORD our God] TELLS US." In other words, we can't serve the LORD in any way other than the way HE TELLS US. No matter the circumstances, no matter our feelings, no matter what anyone else is telling us – our obedience to the living God must be based on what the LORD our God has told us in His Holy Word. We see the disastrous results for King Saul when he did not serve the LORD as the LORD had told him (see I Samuel 13 & 15). We make a fatal error whenever we begin to rely on ourselves, i.e. - when we begin to consider and think through a situation using our own human wisdom and try to solve a problem using our own fleshly resources, when we toss aside the Word of God and no longer bow down to God's sovereign authority. We can't ever fight the battles of God using Saul's fleshly armor! Unless we seek the will of God through prayer and the Word of God, unless we ask for the Holy Spirit of God to lead us into all truth and to pour out upon us what He alone can supply, we'll be led astray onto the broad path of expediency and common sense. We have to remember that God's thoughts and God's ways are higher than ours. God's thoughts and God's ways often don't make sense to us. His wisdom is inscrutable. We are not His counselor! The LORD is GOD, after all, is He not? The way of the Spirit of God is always the way of life; while the way of flesh of man is always the way of death:

    There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
    (Proverbs 14:12)

    When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, let's never forget how our Lord Himself did battle: He used the Word of God! May we each take heed that we might not fall! May I take heed that I might not fall!

    Notice Moses emphatic, uncompromising, and unwavering tone: "We must." And as Moses answers Pharaoh's proposals, we find him using the same words in Exodus 10:9 and 10:25-26:

    Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”

    But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we arrive there.”


    "WE MUST." Moses was concerned about the people of God worshiping the LORD in the exact way GOD Himself had prescribed. Aren't we constantly tempted to remake God into our own image and worship Him in the way that seems right to us? Aren't we flooded with temptations to make that smallest little compromise? Don't we find a million and one reasons rising up to rationalize our disobedience to God's Word?

    Know this: apart from the persevering grace of God at work in us and apart from the love of God constraining us, each one of us would very quickly end up running after the imagination of our own evil hearts (~ Jer. 16:12, KJV), doing what's right in our own eyes (Judges 21:25), turning our backs on the LORD our God (II Chron. 29:6), and saying to the one true God: "We are lords; we will come no more unto thee" (Jer. 2:31, KJV). How pathetic that we would even consider forsaking the fountain of living water to hew broken cisterns! (Jer. 2:13) How loathsome that we might forsake the cold flowing waters for strange waters! (Jer. 18:14)

    Jude 1:24  Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25  To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (adapted)

    I've found myself between a rock and a hard place on many occasions, and particularly quite often as of late... God forbid that I succumb to fear and compromise!

    ~ Lord God, multiply Your grace toward me, so I might be strengthened to offer myself to You as a living sacrifice. Work in me to will and to do of Your good pleasure, that I might not shrink back, but be fearless and uncompromising – no matter the cost. ~

    Like the apostle Paul, I long to finish my course and the ministry I received to testify to the gospel of the grace of God fearlessly and without compromise:

    Acts 20:18 “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19  serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20  how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21  testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22  And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23  except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24  But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25  And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26  Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, 27  for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28  Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29  I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30  and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31  Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears..."

    Impossible with me, but possible WITH GOD, as Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:

    10  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

    In much of the western world today, the church is so very far from the bright and shining torch we're intended to be (Isaiah 62). We are in a state of great ruination, much as we read of in Psalm 74. We are a reproach and disgrace to the name of our holy God. We're looking very much like the temple and the city of Jerusalem after the exile (e.g. - see the books of Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah). We must consider our ways! The gold has grown dim (Lam. 4:1), and it grows dimmer day by day, as you hear of the erosion of denomination after denomination, as we you find further slippages of doctrinal truth. My friends, the lampstands have been removed from congregations and denominations that were once known for their orthodoxy, and they are being removed as you read these words. We are now reaping what what has been sown over the course of many, many years as fleshly, man-centered, expedient, and people-pleasing decisions have made by a whole host of people throughout the course of many, many years – people who chose not to be fearless and uncompromising. Instead of being valiant for the truth, they chose to shrink back in fear and to make little compromises here and there. I don't want to be counted among those people! O! for the grace of God to abound so I might be fearless and uncompromising all the days of my life, like Duncan Campbell, Moses, and Paul!

    So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
    (James 4:17)

    "Peace if possible, truth at all costs."
    (Martin Luther)

     And Elijah came near to all the people and said,
    “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?
    If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

    And the people did not answer him a word.
    (I Kings 18:21)

    For more about Duncan Campbell, please read my last post, God's greatest gift to any generation, and this Brief Biography of Duncan Campbell.

    Why I blog and the only kind of recommendation I should seek
    dedication 2010 (reflections on God's Word & God's grace) ~ no sugar coating...
    the minister's examination: "Who is my master?"
    Make war (Herod, blogging, appetites, the glory of God & the Word of God)
    learning to run without fear
    I can't keep walking on eggshells here (more on Revelife, Calvinism, the Body of Christ and self)
    I don't want to walk anyone into Hell
    Postcards from God in England: the frisking at Heathrow
    many will come and deceive - will you do whatever it takes?
    my flesh lusts against the Spirit the Spirit lusts against my flesh
    the world says . . . You say . . . I say (a prayer of dedication)
    Kingdom-Obsessed People don't seek "great things" for themselves
    If I look (looking at him, loved him - Mark 10:17-22) ~ ministry's sorrow
    the world says . . . You say . . . I say (a prayer of dedication)
    Reformation Rebels: Are you willing to be a rebel for the sake of the Church?
    even among the voices (Bible reading: Nehemiah 6:1-14)

    What is a nominal Christian?
    With the New Year come new resolutions, but have you become entirely new? (Lloyd-Jones)
    the Holy Spirit and Life
    why we need a new heart (Bible reading - Matthew 5)
    Barabbas we save, Jesus Christ we slay (the mockery of profession ~ decisional regeneration)
    Have you believed with your heart ... all your heart? (The Ethiopian Eunuch - Acts 8:37)
    Are you kissing the Son? (Psalm 2)
    Charo Washer's Testimony: "you either do pass these tests of 1 John, or you don't"
    What is Biblical mourning? (Ash Wednesday)
    Biblical mourning, assurance and false guilt

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

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

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tissot_Moses_Speaks_to_Pharaoh.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0 / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

naphtali_deer

About me...

Christian hedonist in training. Pressing on to know more and more of the joy of the LORD. Pleading with God to rend the heavens and revive and refresh my own soul, as well as His Church, to His praise, honor and glory.

Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures. ~ Alan Redpath

My other websites

tent of meeting: Prayer for reformation & revival

(See also Zechariah821. Zechariah821 is a mirror site of tent of meeting, found on WordPress)

deerlifetrumpet: Encouragement for those seeking reformation & revival in the Church

RSS feed

RSS feed