Heartiness V. Heartlessness Towards Others

By Oswald Chambers       'It is Christ ... who also maketh intercession for us.'       Romans 8:34,27       Do we need any more argument than this to become intercessors - that Christ "ever liveth to make intercession;" that the Holy Spirit "maketh intercession for the saints"? Are we living in such a vital relationship to our fellow men that we do the work of intercession as the Spirit-taught children of God? Begin with the circumstances we are in - our homes, our business, our country, the present crisis as it touches us and others - are these things crushing us? Are they badgering us out of the presence of God and leaving us no time for worship? Then let us call a halt, and get into such living relationship with God that our relationship to others may be maintained on the line of intercession whereby God works His marvels.       Beware of outstripping God by your very longing to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, consequently we get so burdened with persons and with difficulties that we do not worship God, we do not intercede. If once the burden and the pressure come upon us and we are not in the worshipping attitude, it will produce not only hardness toward God but despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people for whom we have no affinity, and unless we are worshipping God, the most natural thing to do is to treat them heartlessly, to give them a text like the jab of a spear, or leave them with a rapped-out counsel of God and go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to Our Lord.       Are we in the direct line of the intercession of our Lord and of the Holy Spirit?

"I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."--Isaiah 27:3

J. C. Philpot - Daily Portions       "I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."--Isaiah 27:3             The Lord Jesus Christ, who lives at God's right hand, has to send down supplies of his grace continually to keep your soul alive unto himself. Without this life being kept up and maintained by these continual supplies of his grace, you cannot pray, or read, or hear the word, or meditate with any feeling or profit. You cannot love the Lord and his blessed ways; you cannot submit to his righteous dealings; or hear the rod and him who appointed it.  You may approach his throne, but your heart is cold, clouded, and unfeeling; your spirit sinks under the weight and burden of the trials and difficulties that are spread in your path; nor are you able to do anything that satisfies yourself, or that you think can satisfy God. By these painful but profitable lessons, you are experimentally taught that you want the life of Christ as well as the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ as much as the crucifixion of Christ; Christ as an ever-living, ever-gracious, ever-glorious Mediator, to send down supplies of his love and power into your soul, as much as you needed him to die upon the cross for your redemption.

"My heart is fixed, O God" (Ps. lvii. 7).

  
Days of Heaven Upon Earth

      "My heart is fixed, O God" (Ps. lvii. 7).
     
      We do not always feel joyful, but we are always to count it joy. This word reckon is one of the keywords of Scripture. It is the same word used about our being dead.
     
      We are painfully conscious of something which would gladly return to life. But we are to treat ourselves as dead, and neither fear nor obey the old nature. So we are to reckon the thing that comes a blessing; we are determined to rejoice, to say, "My heart is fixed, Lord; I will sing and give praises." This rejoicing by faith will soon become a habit, and will ever bring speedily the spirit of gladness and the spontaneous overflow of praise.
     
      Then, although the fig tree may wither and no fruit appear in the vines, the labor of the olive fail, and the field yield no increase, the herd be cut off from the stall, and the cattle from the field, yet will we rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of our salvation.
     
      Though the everlasting mountains
          And the earth itself remove,
      Naught can change His loving kindness
          Or His everlasting love.

Everything that may abide the fire, ye shall make to go through the fire. Num 31:23

  
Our Daily Homily

      Everything that may abide the fire, ye shall make to go through the fire. Num 31:23
    
      The great aim of this enactment was to render these articles ceremonially clean. They had been in the use of the Midianites, and required cleansing, before they could be appropriated by Israel. But the cleansing processes were to be determined by their texture. Fire for what would stand fire; water for what could not stand fire.
    
      We must be thoroughly cleansed. - If a man will purge himself, he shall be a vessel unto honor, meet for the Master's use. Not clever- ness, but cleanliness, is the prime condition of service. Jesus will not put throne-water into impure and polluted receptacles. What fellow- ship hath Christ with Belial? We shall not be passed through fire, unless we can stand it. - Our faith is too precious to God to be exposed to risk. He will not let us be tempted beyond what we are able, lest we be dis- couraged, and make shipwreck. If, then, you are called at this time to pass through an unusually searching ordeal, be sure that your Heavenly Father knows that you can endure it. "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
     
      We must go through water, if not through fire. - The law provided also that "all that abidethnot the fire, ye shall make go through the water." The one is negative, the other positive; the first appertains to John the Baptist, the second to the Holy Spirit. The latter is the best; but be thankful, if you cannot endure it, that there is a discipline more tempered and gentle, which will yet render you meet for the handling of the Holy Saviour.

"The government shall be upon His shoulder" (Isa. ix. 6).

  
Days of Heaven Upon Earth

      "The government shall be upon His shoulder" (Isa. ix. 6).
     
      You cannot make the heart restful by stopping its beating. Belladonna will do that, but that is not rest. Let the breath of life come--God's life and strength--and there will be sweet rest.
     
      Home ties and family affection will not bring it. Deliverance from trouble will not bring it. Many a tried heart has said: "If this great trouble was only gone, I should have rest." But as soon as one goes another comes.
     
      The poor, wounded deer on the mountain side, thinks if he could only bathe in the old mountain stream he would have rest. But the arrow is in its flesh and there is no rest for it till the wound is healed.
     
      It is as sore in the mountain lake as on the plain. We shall never have God's rest and peace in the heart till we have given everything up to Christ--even our work--and believe He has taken it all, and we have only to keep still and trust. It is necessary to walk in holy obedience and let Him have the government on His shoulder. Paul said this: "This one thing I do." There is one narrow path for us all--Christ's will and work for us.

The Beatific Vision

  
George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons

      The Beatific Vision     
      And they shall see his face--Rev 22:4
     
      It should be noted that this beatitude of glory immediately follows on another. It immediately follows on the promise that His servants shall serve Him. We might draw the two into a unity by the suggestion that the glorified continually serve, and serving, continually see. There is a deep sense in which we see through serving. Service is one of heaven's eye-salves. A mother sees more in her child than anybody else does, in the loving patient service of her motherhood. It is when a man serves nature with an entire devotion, such as the naturalist or geologist or astronomer, that he begins to see in her things more wonderful than men had dreamed. The best way to see Christ here is to serve Him. If any man will do, then shall he know. To take one's cross up and to help is the open secret of fellowship with Jesus. And the apostle hints that in the life of glory our service, which shall be perfected at last, is going to issue in unclouded vision. The glorified shall serve and they shall see. They shall see just because they serve. Their vision shall be purified because in heaven their service shall be perfect. Is it not often the frailty of our bodies or the presence of other motives in our service that dims for us here the vision of the Lord?
     
      Where Service and Seeing Shall Be One     
      Or, again, if we find in seeing all that is implied in contemplation, is it not a beautiful thought that in the life of heaven service and seeing shall be one? Amid the shadows of this lower world, activity stands apart from contemplation. The world is like that blessed home in Bethany where were active Martha and contemplative Mary. It is hard, in multifarious duties, to keep that child-like purity of heart without which no man shall see God. There are those who have so many meetings that they almost forget to meet with Him. How few, immersed in an untiring labor, keep the secret of an unruffled calm. And then John tells us that in the brighter world His servants shall serve Him, and yet in the very thickest of the service they shall see His face. Action will not be divorced from contemplation. The one will never make the other harder. Toiling Martha will never be grudging Mary, whose eyes are homes of silent prayer. The glorified, in utter self-abandonment, will give themselves to the services of God, yet never for one instant will they lose the beatific vision of His face.
     
      Perfect Satisfaction in Heaven     
      And another implication is that in heaven there is perfect satisfaction. What a thrilling satisfaction to the heart just to see the face of somebody we love! We cherish their photograph when they are absent, and in quiet moments we gaze upon the photograph. They write us letters, and how we long for them. At other times they communicate by phone. But when the door opens and we see the loved one's face, what an exquisite and thrilling satisfaction--and so, says Scripture, shall it be in heaven. Here we have His photograph. Here we have His love-letters. Here, often, do we catch His messages in the silence and secrecy of conscience. But there we shall see Him as He is, face to face, without a cloud between, and we shall be satisfied when we awake.

A LIGHT TO LIGHTEN THE GENTILES

By Bible Names of God


Luke 2:32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

The world has been a dark world ever since Adam and Eve listened to the temptation of Satan. There was no hope until God Said: "The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head" --- a promise of coming victory for a lost race. He Who is the light of the Gentiles is the light of the world (Mt 4:16). The light shone for Israel first, but Israel rejected it's blessed beams. But again the light shall shine for the people now wandering over the earth in darkness. What is the duty of believers? Is it not to lift the light high so that the world of sinners in darkness may come into fellowship WITH Him?

Lord of Light, help us to shine as lights in a dark world, this day. Amen.