pressing on

  • 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}}

  • The Dangerous Tendency of Delay (Andrew Fuller)

    Andrew Fuller passed into glory on this day in 1815. Fuller, a Calvinist pastor, was instrumental in correcting the errors of hypercalvinism (which had led to a squashing of the missionary enterprise). As a result, the modern missionary movement was unleashed in the late 18th century, beginning with William Carey. The following is an excerpt from Fuller's sermon, "The Instances, the Evil Nature, and the Dangerous Tendency of Delay, in the Concerns of Religion,"  given on April 27, 1791:

    "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." — Hag. i. 2. [KJV]......

    We see many things that should be done; but there are difficulties in the way, and we wait for the removal of these difficulties. We are very apt to indulge a kind of prudent caution, (as we call it,) which foresees and magnifies difficulties beyond what they really are. It is granted there may be such things in the way of an undertaking as may render it impracticable; and, in that case, it is our duty for the present to stand still; but it becomes us to beware lest we account that impracticable which only requires such a degree of exertion as we are not inclined to give it. Perhaps the work requires expense; and Covetousness says, Wait a little longer, till I have gained so and so in trade, till I have rendered my circumstances respectable, and settled my children comfortably in the world. But is not this like ceiling our own houses, while the house of God lies waste? Perhaps it requires concurrence; and we wait for every body to be of a mind, which is never to be expected. He who through a dread of opposition and reproach desists from known duty is in danger of being found among the "fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable."

    Had Luther and his contemporaries acted upon this principle, they had never gone about the glorious work of the Reformation. When he saw the abominations of popery, he might have said, These things ought not to be; but what can I do? If the chief priests and rulers in different nations would but unite, something might be effected; but what can I do, an individual, and a poor man? I may render myself an object of persecution, or, which is worse, of universal contempt; and what good end will be answered by it? Had Luther reasoned thus -- had he fancied that, because princes and prelates were not the first to engage in the good work, therefore the time was not come to build the house of the Lord -- the house of the Lord, for any thing he had done, might have lain waste to this day.

    Instead of waiting for the removal of difficulties, we ought, in many cases, to consider them as purposely laid in our way, in order to try the sincerity of our religion. He who had all power in heaven and earth could not only have sent forth his apostles into all the world, but have so ordered it that all the world should treat them with kindness, and aid them in their mission; but, instead of that, he told them to lay their accounts with persecution and the loss of all things. This was no doubt to try their sincerity; and the difficulties laid in our way are equally designed to try ours.

    * * *

    How has the Lord been calling you to build His house?

    What difficulties have been laid in your way?

    What excuses have you been giving to delay obeying the Lord's will for you?

    Have you been more consumed about the state of your own house than the Lord's house?

    Do you have any burden at all for the Lord's house to be rebuilt?

    Years ago we sat under a pastor who exhorted us with these words:

    "Delayed obedience is disobedience."


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

    May God give each of us grace to examine ourselves rightly. May we soberly consider our ways, and may we tremble as we consider that any sinful delay on our part not only robs God of glory but also robs Him of His pleasure...

    Haggai 1:1  In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2  “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” 3  Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4  “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5  Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 6  You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

    7  “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 8  Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.  9  You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10  Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11  And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

    Our Lord's commandments are not burdensome (I John 5:3). Our God is not a hard taskmaster, but for each and every commandment, our God has promised to richly and fully provide all we need to obey His commandments.

    Philippians 2:12  Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13  for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.


    I Thessalonians 5:23  Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

    HT: http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/fuller.a.sermon.delay.html for the text of Fuller's "Delay..."

    Related posts:

    Related resources:

    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.

    Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andrew_Fuller.jpg / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Public domain

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

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