By Octavius Winslow
"And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." -John 16:32
There is a sweetness in every cup, a light in every cloud, a presence in every solitude of the Christian's experience. It was so with Jesus, who will mold all His followers like unto Himself. We have just considered Him in loneliness--forsaken by man, deserted by God. But now comes the alleviation--the sweetening of the bitter, the gilding of the cloud, the soothing of the solitude. He was never less alone than at the moment that He mournfully said to His retiring disciples, "You shall leave me alone;" for, as if immediately recovering Himself from the painful sense of MAN'S DESERTION, He added, "And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." No; Jesus never was really alone. Shunning human society, and plunging into solitude the most profound, as He often did, His Father's presence was there to sweeten and soothe it, to replenish and strengthen Him for the work He had given Him to do, and to make those long midnight hours of holy watching and wrestling prayer, melodious with the music, and radiant with the sunshine of heaven. Oh yes, Jesus was not all alone!
Nor are you really alone, O child of God! Alone, indeed, you may be as to human companionship, affection, and, sympathy. Nor is this trial of your spirit to be lightly spoken of. God has, perhaps, given you by nature a confiding, warm, and clinging heart; a heart that yearns for companionship, that seeks a loving, sympathizing friend, to whose bosom you may confide the thoughts and emotions of your own--"another self, a kindred spirit, with whom you may lessen your cares by sympathy, and multiply your pleasures by participation." But the blessing is not permitted you; or, if once possessed and enjoyed, is possessed and enjoyed no longer--the coldness of death, the yet colder and more painful chill of 'alienated affection and changed friendship', has left your heart like a tree of autumn, stripped of its foliage, through whose leafless branches the wintry blast moans piteously.
But this discipline of the affections, though intensely painful to a heart gushing with sensibility like yours, may prove one of the costliest blessings to the soul. A heart that is satiated with the creature, has little or no place or yearning, for Christ. And when the Lord is resolved to be supreme, and finds a 'rival sovereign' enthroned, or a 'created idol' enshrined, He wisely and lovingly removes it, to make room for Himself. Oh, it is when the heart is withered like grass--when its chords are all broken, and its fibers are all torn, and silence, desolation, and solitude reign within--wounded by one, betrayed by another, forsaken by all--that Jesus approaches and occupies the vacant place, takes down the harp from the willow, repairs and retunes it, then breathing His own sweet Spirit upon its wires, wakes it, to the richest harmonies of praise, thanksgiving, and love. My Father, I cannot be alone, blessed with Your presence, solaced with Your love, cheered with Your fellowship, kept by Your power, and wisely, gently led through the solitude of the wilderness, home to be with Yourself forever! "You are near, O Lord!"
"You are near--yes, Lord, I feel it-
You are near wherever I rove;
And though sense would try conceal it,
Faith often whispers it to love.
"Am I fearful? You will take me
Underneath Your wings, my God!
Am I faithless? You will make me
Bow beneath Your chastening rod.
"Am I drooping? You are near me,
Near to bear me on my way;
Am I pleading? You will hear me-
Hear and answer when I pray.
"Then, O my soul, since God does love you,
Faint not, droop not, do not fear;
For, though His heaven is high above you,
He Himself is ever near."
THE FAITHFUL PROMISER
by John MacDuff, 1849
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises." 2 Peter 1:4
"He who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23
"Remember your promise to me, for it is my only hope." Psalm 119:49
It has often been felt a delightful exercise by the child of God, to take, night by night, an individual promise and plead it at the mercy-seat. Often are our prayers pointless, from not following, in this respect, the example of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the Royal Promise-pleader, who delighted to direct his finger to some particular “word” of the Faithful Promiser, saying, "Remember Your word unto Your servant, on which you have caused me to hope!"
The following are a few gleanings from the Promise Treasury—a few "crumbs from the Master's Table," which may serve to help the thoughts in the hour of closet meditation, or the season of sorrow.
"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." —Isaiah 1:18
My soul! your God summons you to His audience chamber! Infinite purity seeks to reason with infinite vileness! Deity stoops to speak to dust! Dread not the meeting. It is the most gracious, as well as most wondrous of all conferences. Jehovah himself breaks silence! He utters the best tidings a lost soul or a lost world can hear—"God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." What! Scarlet sins, and crimson sins! and these all to be forgiven and forgotten! The just God "justifying" the unjust!—the mightiest of all beings, the kindest of all!
Oh! what is there in you to merit such love as this? You might have known your God only as the "consuming fire," and had nothing before you except "a fearful looking for of vengeance!" This gracious conference bids you dispel your fears! It tells you it is no longer a "fearful," but a blessed thing to fall into His hands! Have you closed with these His overtures? Until you are at peace with Him, happiness must be a stranger to your bosom. Though you have all else beside, bereft of God you must be "bereft indeed." Lord! I come! As your pardoning grace is freely tendered, so shall I freely accept it. May it be mine, even now, to listen to the gladdening accents, "Son! Daughter! be of good cheer! your sins, which are many are all forgiven you."
By William M. Clow
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it"
(Matt. 16:25).
On the face of it nothing can be more contradictory than to say that to save one's life is to lose it, and to lose one's life is to find it. Sometimes this paradox is explained by declaring that Jesus had two different kinds of life in view. We are told that Jesus meant us to sacrifice a lower life for a higher, an earthly and a temporal life for a spiritual and an eternal, the life of the body for the life of the soul. We are taken, for the noblest instance and proof of this interpretation, to the Roman amphitheatre. We are shown the martyrs awaiting the onrush of the lions. As they are set upon by the hungry and merciless beasts, and as the mangled remains of their bodies are carried away we are told to see in their tragic loss their splendid gain. They have lost their lives for Christ's sake, but they have found the life eternal. But the martyrs' loss and gain touches the fringe, but only the fringe, of Christ's truth.
Jesus has enshrined a deeper meaning in His paradox. He is stating a law of universal life. He does not mean two different kinds of life, a lower and a higher, set in contrast. He is thinking of the same life in each case. He is stating the still unaccepted and, for many men, incredible truth, that to be eager to save life is the way to lose it, and that the way to find it is to be willing to lose it, and, if need be, to pour it out in a splendid waste.
By Gene Edwards
Most of us have a very poor opinion of ourselves. It is a Christian disease. And you would think God had an even worse opinion of us. He doesn't. Why does He have such a high opinion of us? Everything negative ended on the Cross. It was done, finished. He emerges from the smoke and fire a passionate Lord. He does not care what you were. He is not interested in the old creation. Or its fall. Or what used to be here. Is God enamored, then, with what He did for you? I am utterly amazed at the way He forgot it all! He does not care about what He did on the cross. It is over. It is done. It is finished. He got what He wanted. You are part of His bride; you are perfect, pure. You are holy. You are a virgin. He is only wanting one thing. He wants you to start loving Him. Now! Hang the future. Forget the past. There is only one thing left and it is right now.
"Lord Jesus, You said I was beautiful. I'm not going to argue the point. I am beautiful. You Lord, cannot see that I am a fallen being. You are no longer capable of that. I see I am. I feel I am. I know I am. But Lord, You do not know these things. I am just going to stop being bothered by it all. I know about my terrible state. I am going to take Your view. I am not here to be a forgiven sinner. I am not here to know that I have been made perfect. I have been made perfect. Today, I sin, but for Your sake, I must not let that get me down. In some amazing, incredible way, these things do not even bother You. You see me on a different plane, in a different dimension, in another creation. Lord, You want just one thing out of me. You want me to stand here and let You love me. You want me more than anything in the universe. As of right now, You've got me. You have forgotten everything, I forget everything. Do what you wish, love me."
What we are dealing with are things we just do not want to believe. You are almost repelled by such an idea. And yet, you want to believe it. If you ever do start believing it, there will be no event that ever happens to you but what you will sit down in front of it and rest.
I heard someone pray, "Lord, we are not worthy of this love." That has got to go. I heard someone else, "Teach me to love You and receive Your love." That has got to go. There is no more future. There no more, "Lord, teach me. . ." There is no more, Lord, my sinfulness." "Now" is a big word in God's universe. Get to the now. Love your Lord. Now. With all your heart. Now. The Lord Jesus Christ is looking for someone who will turn around and say, "Lord, I am blind to what I know about myself and to what is a space-time reality. I am open to all that You DO NOT know, or things You think are true which I believe cannot be true. I forget that You made a great mistake in educating me. I believe what You believe. . . about me. I believe You love me. I open my being to You. I embrace You. I yield utterly; You are free to love me. Let love begin." It is like He is waiting for someone in the universe to be so daring as to dare to believe the absurd; to believe the ridiculous; to dare to believe what He sees. In that moment He gets His bride. Either God is God or He is not. Either He loves you or He does not. Either He died for you and it is finished or it is not. Either you are a holy, precious, beautiful, flawless, blameless, perfect, glorious virgin or you are not. Either He wishes to pour out His love on you right now or He does not. It is so easy to find out what is real. How? Yield! No. Crumble.
By J.B. Stoney
SERVING the Lord in order to be happier in Him tends to legality. The work done is the source of the happiness and not Christ Himself. In John 14.; I learn what Christ is to me, and there is no service enjoined beyond obedience, which is the proof of love. If I love, I obey. Mary Magdalene is an example to me of one whose heart was so true to Christ that apostles or angels could not divert her from Him; but as soon as she has seen Him, her heart is satisfied. His calling her by name is everything, a personal, individual link. What can surpass it? She is so controlled by Him of whom her heart is full, that she obeys Him even at the loss of His bodily presence, because a truly loving one could do nothing less. I believe that deep, personal joy in Christ is a very quiet, unexpressed thing. Where there is great fervour in expression there is not likely to be so much depth, though there may be real conviction.
Demonstration expresses first discovery rather than a home sense of personal enjoyment. How much demonstration and rapture do we exhibit to our most beloved friends when we are at home with one another? When we meet them after an absence, there may be rapture, but this is an evidence that there has been absence. Alas ! we are often absent from our Lord; and the renewed sense of His presence may doubtless produce rapture in its contrast with what has gone before; but it is the lower thing, and the restful enjoyment of His personal nearness is the greater thing. Let us therefore not make everything of rapture, but rise from it to the deeper occupation of abiding communion with Him. It is from this communion that the service ought to flow; for communion with any one is in fact a common mind with such a one; and if I have it with God, I know my Master's mind. It is not the hardest working servant who is the most confidential in the household, and it is the confidential servant who is the highest. I am willing to keep the door, if no other work be allotted to me; but I should like so to keep it that my Master should trust me with His mind.
The saint is never to think himself proof against the evil in the world. No doubt by faith he is kept from the evil; but then he must not shut his eyes to the special form it takes in his day, if he would be free from it. The reverse is the fact. Any evil working in the world finds its way into the hearts of saints in a refined, specious way. Now sensationalism is one of the means by which Satan is blinding the minds of the people of the world in this day. Be it the novel, the concert, or the stage, a sort of mental intoxication is sought and produced. And may not this in a specious form enter into spiritual things? Was there none of it in the revival meetings? Is there not a leaven of it now? And should not souls see that their rapture and delight is not that in which the flesh takes part, but on the contrary, that which ignores the existence of the flesh, because they are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit?
By Bob Hoekstra
Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble. (Proverbs 3:34)
The scriptures emphasize the Lord's commitment to pour out grace upon those who walk in humility, while opposing the path of those who walk in pride. "But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble' . . . Be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble' . . . Though the LORD is on high, Yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; and Psalm 138:6). In our present verse we have another pointed example. "Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble."
It is an absolute certainty that the Lord will scorn the scornful. "Surely He scorns the scornful." The scornful person shows arrogant disregard for the Lord and His righteous ways. He is a mocker of godliness and a boaster in wickedness. The Lord will assuredly scorn such people. He will treat them with a holy disdain. He will reject their path with holy contempt.
For so many of us who have a heart for the Lord, walking scornfully before the Lord is not a likely threat. However, somewhat related attitudes may become a part of our walk (even inadvertently). Pride and haughtiness are two of the most common, and most deadly. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). These companion evils could both be summarized as self-exaltation. Such an approach to life always results in devastating downfalls. These attitudes and their consequences are most fully illustrated by the history of the devil himself. Before he became the ultimate rebel against God, he was a magnificent, privileged angelic being. "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God . . . You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you." (Ezekiel 28:14-15). This iniquity that developed was self-exaltation. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! . . . For you have said in your heart: . . . I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:12-14). This haughty exalting of self brought a disastrous fall, which will end up forever in hell itself.
May we daily chose to walk with God's humble saints, refusing to join the ranks of the proud, with their self-advancing schemes. "Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud" (Proverbs 16:19).
Lord God Most High, I repent of the times that I have exalted myself in word or deed or attitude. I renounce the prideful path of self-advancing humanity. I want to identify with Your humble saints, looking to You to shape and use our lives through Your abounding grace, Amen.
By Warren Wiersbe
Read Psalm 2:1-12
Are you surprised that God laughs? "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision" (v. 4). God has a sense of humor, but His laughter is the kind that is born of judgment. It's the laughter of derision, the laughter of irony. What is God laughing at? He's laughing at puny little kings and rulers who have united to shake their fists at His throne and tell Him they don't want Him to rule over them (vv. 2,3). God laughs at them because He knows man cannot survive without submitting to His authority. Man is made in the image of God, and if he fights against Him, he fights against himself. Man, in his rebellion, tries to make God in his own image. He thinks God can be treated with disdain and disobedience. And God laughs.
We can laugh when we read the headlines or watch TV reports. We see a world in turmoil, a world united against God, but we laugh because He is still on the throne. "Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion" (v. 6). Jesus Christ is God's King, and He is on the throne. Therefore, we can look at the nations as they are in turmoil, as they unite against God, and we can smile--in fact, we can laugh. They are fighting a losing battle. Jesus Christ is on the throne of the universe, and we who are Christians are seated with Him on that throne.
As believers, we are to be witnesses for Christ. Reaching a world that rebels against God's authority can be difficult. Be encouraged, for your efforts will not be wasted. God is in control and one day will bring all governments and earthly powers into submission. Pray that He will use your life to reach others and glorify Himself.
