I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13
- "Lord, is that the secret of my bareness?
- Is that why I so often have failed in the day of testing?
- Is that why temptation has so easily conquered me?
- Is that why I have become the victim of those things which I know do not belong to the new life in Christ?
- Is that why so often I have failed in bearing fruit unto Thy glory?
- Is it because I have raised a protest against the nails being driven into this flesh-life, this wretched ego, this cursed self?
- Have I said, "No, Lord, I do not give consent to that crucifixion"?
- And is this the result of all this-- just barrenness?"
The Lord make us willing for the nails to be driven in, "for only as we are willing to die, can we bear fruit, and live the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ." A Christian means C H R I ST and the remaining letters I A N 'I AM NOTHING. Only as this is really true do we discover what Paul calls the glory of the cross.
But do not let that mean to anyone, "I am nothing, so it is no use expecting me to conquer in the fight." That is self making weak excuses for Self. Take the words you know so well and count on their truth--I am nothing, but I am Christ's; therefore, "I can do all things [this thing that I feel impossible] through Christ which strengtheneth me." THOU GIVEST...THEY GATHER - Amy Carmichael
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For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad". 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Saved souls need not fear or be troubled by this precious verse. It will be no place of eternal judgment for sin to any who have expressed "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21) for Christ has forever borne and put away the sins of each believer. This 'judgment seat' will be a place to 'receive' God's perfect reward for anything done in the life of a redeemed child, that pleased and honoured Him.
In view of this, the following simple thoughts expressed by a dear believer now home with the Lord are well worth considering. You won't be asked what kind of car you drove, but you will be asked how many people who didn't have transportation you drove to their destination. You won't be asked the square footage of your house or the brand name of your furniture, but you will be asked how many people you welcomed into the hospitality and comfort of your home.
You won't be asked about the clothes you wore or how many outfits you had in your closet, but you will be asked how many destitute you helped clothe. You won't be asked what your highest salary was, but you will be asked if you compromised your Christian character or undermined others in order to obtain it.
You won't be asked what your job title was, but you will be asked if you performed your job to the best of your ability--if you did it "to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31), if you did it "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Colossians 3:17), and if you did "it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men" (Colossians 3:23). You won't be asked how many friends you had, but you will be asked how many people there were to whom you were a friend (Luke 11:5-8).
You won't be asked what kind of neighbourhood you lived in, but you will be asked how you treated your neighbours and what kind of testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ you gave to them.
Only one life, twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last.
T.C.S. - Doug Nicolet - October 2007
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Nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Daniel 3:27
When the three Hebrews came out of the fiery furnace, they had lost only the cords that bound them. When we come through God's testing properly, all we lose are the shackles that tied us up earlier--we have been set free!
And the smell of the smoke does not linger; there is no odour from the suffering. Instead, we have been purified and the perfume of a new holiness is soon detected.
There is no lamenting over our losses or boasting of our survival--only the sweetness of a chastened spirit, the glow of gold refined after dross has been removed. Have you emerged from the furnace with no scorch, no shackles, no smell of the smoke? ALL THE DAYS - VANCE HAVNER
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower. William Cowper 1779
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Nothing can touch the truth or weaken the force of this verse. It stands in all its blessed fullness, freeness, and preciousness before the eye of faith; its terms are clear and unmistakable. There is our warrant for coming together to pray for anything that may be laid on our hearts.
Do we mourn over the coldness, barrenness, and death around us? Are we discouraged by the little apparent fruit from the preaching of the gospel--the lack of power in the preaching itself, and the total absence of practical result?
Are our souls cast down by the barrenness, dullness, heaviness, and low tone of all our reunions, whether at the table of the Lord, before the mercy-seat, or around the fountain of Holy Scripture?
What are we to do? Fold our arms in cold indifference? Give up in despair? Or give vent to complaining, murmuring, fretfulness, or irritation? God forbid! What then? Come together "with one accord in one place"; get down on our faces before our God, and pour out our hearts as the heart of one man, pleading Matthew 18:19.
The simple fact is there is no excuse whatever--so long as Christ is at the right hand of God, so long as God the Holy Spirit is in our midst and in our hearts--so long as we have the Word of God in out hands--so long--as Matthew 18:19 shines before our eyes--there is, we repeat, no excuse for barrenness, deadness, coldness, and indifference--no excuse for heavy and unprofitable meetings--no excuse whatever for lack of freshness in our reunions or of fruitfulness in our service. Let us wait on God in holy concord, and the blessing is sure to come. C. H. Mackintosh
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Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord has afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger. Lamentations 1:12
This is what death meant to the Lord Jesus Christ: made a curse; visited with the wrath of God against sin; in darkness, forsaken, and alone, He died for us. As another has said, “Utterly solitary He died that none of us might have to face death alone.” Or as we often sing,
“Crowned with thorns upon the tree;
Silent in thine agony;
Dying crushed beneath the load,
Of the wrath and curse of God.”
This was the heart-breaking anguish of His death. God left Him alone in the hour of His deepest suffering. Never in his day had David seen the righteous forsaken. The sorrowing One of Psalm 22 pleaded, “Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee and were delivered: they trusted in Thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men and despised of the people.” (Psalm 22:4-6).
The One who was the most faithful and the most beloved was the first to know the bitter sorrow of being left alone by God in the hour of His deep distress.
The Plant of Renown - Leonard Sheldrake
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It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for WELL DOING, than for evil doing. 1 Peter 3:17
So is the will of God, that with WELL DOING ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. 1 Peter 2:15
Let us not be weary in WELL DOING: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9
In Thy presence we are happy;
In Thy presence we’re secure;
In Thy presence all afflictions
We can easily endure;
In Thy presence we can conquer,
We can suffer, we can die;
Wandering from Thee we are feeble;
Let Thy love, Lord keep us nigh. W. Williams
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But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5,6
This brings us to the Cross, where the Lord endured vicariously the judgment that our sins deserved in order that through His stripes we might be healed. There on the tree He was the great sin offering and the peace offering, too— there He “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20).
Surely here is substitutionary atonement.
Sometimes people object to this on the ground that the word “substitution” is not found in the Bible, but when one is in the place of another, when one is taking what another deserves, that is substitution, and here we have the plain, definite statement, “He hath borne our griefs . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.”
The chastisement whereby our peace was made fell upon Him with the result: “with His stripes we are healed” Isaiah 53:4,5) H. A. Ironside - Isaiah -
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Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7:20
A striking example of good and bad fruit is seen in the following incident. An uncle and nephew were travelling with a large sum of money over a wild and very thinly populated prairie land of America.
Nightfall came on, and the travellers had to look for a shelter. They discovered a log cabin, and knocked at the door. An old man with long shaggy beard and unkept appearance answered their call.They asked for accommodation, which was willingly accorded. They were shown into a room where they could sleep on the floor.
It was arranged that the uncle should lie down to rest, and the nephew should sit up with loaded revolver to make sure that their treasure was safe. Presently the uncle saw the nephew preparing to sleep. He reminded him of the vigil he had promised to keep.
The nephew replied, “There is no need to sit up with loaded revolver. We are perfectly safe here. I looked through the key hole to see what the old man was doing. I saw him take a Bible down from the shelf, and read a chapter to his wife. I then heard him pray for the blessing of God to rest on the travellers under his roof.”
Why I Believe The Bible - A. J. Pollock
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FIRE!!! For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16,17)
If you have seen the recent images of the widespread forest fires raging largely uncontrolled in Northern Quebec and Ontario, your first reaction has probably been: I would not want to be anywhere near those fires!” And what about the poor people who actually live in the paths of those steadily advancing fires? They were being warned to leave their homes and their belongings in order to escape the fire and be evacuated to safer areas. They would have been very foolish to refuse that way of escape.
In the Bible, God speaks of a lake of fire burning with brimstone (Revelation 19:20), and describes it as everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).
Do not be deceived by the lies of Satan, the devil, as he tries to make you believe that: “There is no God”, or that “There is no such thing as Heaven or Hell”, or “There is no such thing as sin” and “The Bible is just a myth”. Satan knows that God will eventually have him thrown into that lake of fire to be tormented there forever! And Satan wants you to end up there with him.
That lake of fire is God’s punishment for sin. You and I, and Satan himself, deserve that punishment for all the sins we have committed. But God, in His great love and mercy toward you and me, has provided a way of escape from that punishment. Michael Payette - Vision 2020 Message
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He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)
Yes, Jesus, God’s own Son, who could not sin and never did, suffered all the punishment of God for sin, on Himself, in three hours on the cross. He died and shed His blood, then He was raised back to life, and went back to Heaven.
Jesus did all that so that you and I, by simply believing in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, could have our sins forgiven, and live forever with Jesus in Heaven.
Remember, God prepared that lake of fire for Satan, not for you. God does not want you to go there. He wants you to be saved from that punishment. But if you refuse God’s way of escape, that lake of fire will be where you end up.
If you read the verses above in bold type, you will notice that one is not condemned for being a sinner but for not having believed on the name of the Son of God! Today, right now, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and Thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31) Vision 2020 in 2023
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But joy cometh in the morning. Psalm 30:5
Do you want comfort? Nothing can give it so much as the thought of Christ’s coming. There may be sorrow in the night, but joy enough—fulness of joy—in that morning when we shall see Him as He is: fulness of joy in being like Him and with Him for evermore.
It is very blessed to see the different thoughts the mind of Christ has, in different epistles, in connection with His coming.
First, in (Ephesians, 5:27) He presents to Himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, as the bride.
Second, in (Philippians 3:21), poor things groaning in vile bodies—He will work in them, and change the body of humiliation into a glorious body.
Third, in (Colossians 3:3), life hid in Him, to be manifested with Him in glory. In a little while, He who is your life shall come forth, and you with Him.
Fourth, in (1 John 3)., the relationship, formed by Christ, of sons to the Father, and He will treat them as sons, they shall behold Him and be like Him, He will show Himself to them as He is. Gleanings From The Teaching of G. V. Wigram.
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And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And He touched his ear, and healed him. (Luke 22:50,51).
Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound Him. (John 18:12)
THE LAST THING THE LORD JESUS DID BEFORE HIS HANDS WERE BOUND WAS TO HEAL.
Have you ever asked yourself, if I knew this was the last thing I should do, what would I do? I have never found the answer to that question.
There are so very, very many things that we would want to do for those whom we love, that I do not think we are likely to be able to find the chief one of all these. So the best thing is just to go on simply, doing each thing as it comes as well as we can.
Our Lord Jesus spent much time in healing sick people, and in the natural course of events it happened that the last thing He did with His kind hands was to heal a bad cut.
(I wonder how they could have the heart to bind His hands after that.) In this, as in everything, He left us an example that we should follow His steps . (1 Peter 2:21)
Do the things that this next minute, this next hour, brings you, faithfully and lovingly and patiently; and then the last thing you do, before power to do is taken from you (if that should be), will be only the continuation of all that went before.
Edges of His Ways - Amy Carmichael
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The Patience of God
And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. (2 Peter 3:15)
When you are stuck in traffic, it does no good to blow your horn. It’s a test of patience. Same in Emergency when it’s overloaded. Not helpful to rant loudly about the failing system; instead exhibit patience. As the saying goes, What can’t be cured, must be endured.
True Patience - “The Lord is not slack concerning His promises as some men count slackness, but is long suffering (patient), not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).
How long has God been showing His patience? It’s been more than 2,000 years since the gospel of the Grace of God was first proclaimed; and now the message has been spread throughout the world.
What is God Waiting For? - He has clearly stated in His Book, the Bible, that there will be an end to this preaching, marking the end of His patience. Matthew 24:44: “Therefore, be also ready, for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man comes.” So, why has God’s patience been extended for so long? Perhaps, He’s waiting for one more soul to repent of their sins and believe on His Son, Jesus Christ, for permanent salvation. Could it be that God is waiting for you?
Come to Jesus - Agree with God that you are a hopeless, helpless sinner. Others cannot help you and on your own, you can do nothing to gain favour with God, except cry to the Lord Jesus for rescue. He will surely hear a sincere and desperate call to lift your soul out of that “dead end” situation.
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)”
Lorne Perry for Vision 2020 in 2023
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Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. (Romans 12:19)
There are seasons when to be still demands immeasurably higher strength than to act. Composure is often the highest result of power. To the vilest and most deadly charges Jesus responded with deep, unbroken silence, such as excited the wonder of the judge and the spectators.
To the grossest insults, the most violent ill-treatment and mockery that might well bring indignation into the feeblest heart, He responded with voiceless complacent calmness. Those who are unjustly accused, and causelessly ill-treated know what tremendous strength is necessary to keep silence to God.
"Men may misjudge thy aim, Think they have cause to blame,
Say, thou art wrong; Keep on thy quiet way,
Christ is the Judge, not they, Fear not be strong.”
Paul said, "None of these things move me." (Acts 20:24)
He did not say, none of these things hurt me. It is one thing to be hurt, and quite another to be moved. Paul had a very tender heart. We do not read of any apostle who cried as Paul did. It takes a strong man to cry. Jesus wept, and He was the manliest Man that ever lived. So it does not say, none of these things hurt me.
But the apostle had determined not to move from what he believed was right. He did not count as we are apt to count; he did not care for ease; he did not care for this mortal life. He cared for only one thing, and that was to be loyal to Christ, to have His smile. To Paul, his work was wages, his smile was Heaven. Margaret Bottome
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