Saturday, March 21, 2009

An Ant at the Grainery Door

"Do not be afraid--for I Myself will help you--declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." Isaiah 41:14

This morning, let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us.

"I Myself will help you. It is but a small thing for Me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have done already. What! not help you? Why, I bought you with My blood. What! not help you? Why, I have died for you! And if I have done the greater, will I not do the lesser? Help you? Before the world began, I chose you. I laid aside My glory and became a man for you. I gave up My life for you! And if I did all this, I will surely help you now. If you had need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it to you. You require little, compared with what I am ready to give. It is much for you to need, but it is nothing for Me to bestow.


What! not help you? Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of your grainery, asking for help, it would not ruin you to give him a handful of your wheat! Just so, you are nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency!"

"I Myself will help you!" O my soul, is not this enough? Bring your empty pitcher here! Surely this well will fill it. Hasten! gather up your needs, and bring them here--your emptiness, your woes, your troubles. Behold, this river of God is full for your supply. What more can you desire? The Eternal God is your helper! ~C.H. Spurgeon

Friday, March 20, 2009

O Soul, Consider This Deeply!

The quote I have below is a foot note from The Pilgrim's Progress, written by John Bunyan:

"O soul, consider this deeply: it is the life of a Christian that carries more conviction and persuasion than his words. Though, like an angel, you talk of Christ, of the gospel, of the doctrines of grace, and of heaven; yet, if you indulge devilish tempers, and live under the power of any sinful s and passions, you will hereby harden others against the things of God and prevent their setting out in the ways of God. Study and pray to be a consistent walker in the ways of holiness; else, all is but windy profession and airy talk. O how much harm is done to Christ's cause by the unholy walk of many professors!"

Thank you, Mr. Spurgeon!

“The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them...providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church...the need is for Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that it sets men aflame.” ~C.H. Spurgeon

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Waiting Upon God

“There is a strange strength conceived in solitude. Crows go in flocks and wolves in packs, but the lion and the eagle are solitaires. Strength is not in bluster and noise… Strength is in quietness. The lake must be calm if the heavens are to be reflected on its surface. Our Lord loved the people, but how often we read of His going away from them for a brief season… The one thing needed above all other today is that we shall go apart with our Lord, and sit at His feet in the sacred privacy of His blessed presence. Oh, for the lost art of meditation! Oh, for the culture of the secret place! Oh, for the tonic of waiting upon God!”

~taken from “A Place of Quiet Rest”
by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Scriptural Knowledge That Does Not Lead to Prayer is Wrong

"The ultimate test of my understanding of the Scriptural teaching is the amount of time I spend in prayer. As theology is ultimately the knowledge of God, the more theology I know, the more it should drive me to seek to know God. Not to know about Him, but to know Him. ... I may talk learnedly about regeneration, but what is eternal life? It is that they might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom God has sent. If all my knowledge does not lead me to prayer there is something wrong somewhere. It is meant to do that. The value of the knowledge is that it gives me such an understanding of the value of prayer, that I devote time to prayer and delight in prayer. If it does not product these results in my life, there is something wrong and spurious about it, or else I am handling it in a wrong manner." ~Martyn Lloyd Jones

Five Lies Sinners Love

Man likes to live with five dominant lies which are very comfortable to the sinner.

First, life is random--no purpose and no creator, thus no accountability. No one made us, and that is why we are free in this random world to do what we want.

Second, truth is relative--no absolutes, no standards, so we are all free to possess our own truth and demand the freedom to live our lives according to our own truth, which is of our own invention.

Third, people are basically good--if they go bad, someone else is to blame; someone abused them and they now lack self-esteem. They have psychological problems based on environmental failures. But still people are basically good: "I'm a good person."

Fourth, everyone can change their own life--get control, take charge, envision your own destiny, become the person you want to be. You have the power to become whatever you want to be, you can be everything you want to be.


Fifth, the goal of life is self-satisfaction--the main thing is to be happy; as long as you’re happy, that’s what counts.

It's this blatant kind of brash self-delusion--life is random, truth is relative, people are basically good, everybody can change his own life if he chooses to, and the goal of life is self-satisfaction.

Truth and reality is opposite that.

Life is not random--God is sovereign, so nothing is random.

Truth is not relative--the Bible is absolute truth and all truth is absolutely absolute.

All people are not basically good--all people are basically and truly sinful.

No one can change their own life--only Christ can change a person's life.

The goal of life is not self-satisfaction--the goal of life is selfless submission to Jesus Christ.

John MacArthur

A Letter From A Father

My dear child,
You may well think it is natural for a parent to be concerned for a child at so great a distance away, so far out of view, and so far out of the reach of communication, where, if you should be stricken with any dangerous sickness that would result in death, you might probably be in your grave before we would hear of your danger. But yet, my greatest concern is not for your health or temporal welfare, but for the good of your soul.

Though you are at so great a distance from us, yet God is everywhere. You are much out of the reach of our care, but you are in His hands every moment! We have not the comfort of seeing you, but He sees you! His eye is always upon you. And if you may but live sensibly near to God, and have His gracious presence, it is no great matter if you are far distant from us. I had rather you should remain hundreds of miles distant from us and have God near to you than to have you always with us, and live at a distance from God.

And if the next news we would hear of you would be of your death, though that would be very sad; yet, if at the same time we had the best grounds to hope that you had died in the Lord, how much more comfortable would this be to us than if you died without the grace and favor of God!

It is comfortable to have the presence of earthly friends, especially in sickness, and on a death-bed; but the great thing is to have God as our friend, and to be united to Christ, who can never die and from whom our own death cannot separate us.

My desire and daily prayer is that you may meet with God where you are, and have much of His divine influences on your heart, wherever you may be; and that, in God's due time, you may be returned to us again, in prosperous circumstances in your soul.

I hope that you will maintain a strict and constant watch over yourself, against all temptations, that you do not forsake or forget God; and particularly, that you do not grow slack in secret piety. Retire often from this vain world, from all its bubbles and empty shadows, and vain amusements; and converse with God alone. Seek for that Divine grace and comfort, the least drop of which is worth more than all the riches, gaiety, pleasures, and entertainments of the whole world!

May you be sensible of your dependence on the care and kindness of God and of the vanity of all human helps. May you seek His face, to trust in Him, and walk closely with Him. Commending you to the care and special favor of our heavenly Father.

Your very affectionate father,

Jonathan Edwards
July 26, 1749

The God to Whom I Belong and Whom I Serve

"For this very night an angel of
the God to whom I belong and whom I serve
stood before me..." ~Acts 27:23

Paul knew He belonged to God and He knew he served God.

*Read about Paul's experiences: 2 Cor. 11

a title of honor:
"a servant"
"your bond-servant": Simeon (Luke 2:29)
"My servant"
"bondservants of Jesus Christ"

Romans 1:1
Joshua 1:2
Job 1
Isaiah 41:8,9
Isaiah 53:11
Titus 1:1
Philippians 1:1
James 1:1
2 Peter 1:1
Jude 1:1

You Belong to Christ: I Cor. 3:23, John 17:6

We belong to the Son. We are His possession.

John 12:26
John 18
Acts 4:29
Romans 14:4
Colossians 1:7

What It Means to Belong to God:

1. Ownership: "you were bought"
I Cor. 6:29,20
Numbers 8:14-18
It is good to be owned by the Lord.

2. Acceptance
Romans 9:25,26 "My people"

3. Preciousness
Malachi 3:17
John 17

4. Mutual Commitment
Isaiah 44:1-5
"belonging to the Lord": a delight in that!

5. Deep intimate mutual love
Song of Solomon
John 2

6. Jealous care & protection
Deut. 32:9, 10

7. Security
John 10: 27-29
"My sheep"

The knowledge that he belonged to God and served God gave Paul confidence, authority, and boldness.


What It Means to Be A Servant of God:

1. Dignity (Moses)
Acts 16:17 "servants of the Most High God"
John 12:25
Mark 13:34

2. A Task to Accomplish: A Job to Do
It matters!

3. Authority
Mark 13
putting His slaves in charge

None of the tasks Christ gives out are worthless.

4. Protection from Evil
"No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their vindication is from Me, " declares the Lord.
~Isaiah 54:17


"Lord, what do you want your servant to do?"

HE HAS TAKEN YOU AS HIS OWN

(sermon by Charles Leiter, preached 1/18/09)

Losing Our Expectancy

Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today. We come to our services and they are orderly, they are nice ‒ we come, we go ‒ and sometimes they are timed almost to the minute, and there it is. But that is not Christianity, my friend. Where is the Lord of glory? Where is the one sitting by the well? Are we expecting him? Do we anticipate this? Are we open to it? Are we aware that we are ever facing this glorious possibility of having the greatest surprise of our life?

Or let me put it like this. You may feel and say ‒ as many do ‒ ‘I was converted and became a Christian. I’ve grown ‒ yes, I’ve grown in knowledge, I’ve been reading books, I’ve been listening to sermons, but I’ve arrived now at a sort of peak and all I do is maintain that. For the rest of my life I will just go on like this.’

Now, my friend, you must get rid of that attitude; you must get rid of it once and for ever. That is ‘religion’, it is not Christianity. This is Christianity: the Lord appears! Suddenly, in the midst of the drudgery and the routine and the sameness and the dullness and the drabness, unexpectedly, surprisingly, he meets with you and he says something to you that changes the whole of your life and your outlook and lifts you to a level that you had never conceived could be possible for you. Oh, if we get nothing else from this story, I hope we will get this. Do not let the devil persuade you that you have got all you are going to get, still less that you received all you were ever going to receive when you were converted. That has been a popular teaching, even among evangelicals. You get everything at your conversion, it is said, including baptism with the Spirit, and nothing further, ever. Oh, do not believe it; it is not true. It is not true to the teaching of the Scriptures, it is not true in the experience of the saints running down the centuries. There is always this glorious possibility of meeting with him in a new and a dynamic way.

D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Living Water: Studies in John 4

Fishers of Men

"The purpose of evangelism is not ultimately the happiness of men but for men to give God the obedience, glory, and adoration He deserves for who He is and what He has done for us through Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary... Our greatest desire is to preach the Gospel to every creature so the God's Name might be glorified among the nations and that His Word might be obeyed by those being saved by His grace." -Alfonzo Nunez, HeartCry missionary

"If you are eager for real joy, I am persuaded that no joy of growing wealthy, no joy of increasing knowledge, no joy of influence over your fellow creatures, no joy of any other sort, can ever compare with the rapture of saving a soul from death." -C.H.Spurgeon

"Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.' As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.' Immediately they left their nets and followed Him." -Mark 1:14-18

"Glory, glory, hear the everlasting throng,
Shout, "Hosanna!" while we boldly march along;
Faithful soldiers here below,
Only Jesus will we know;
Shouting, "Free Salvation!" over the world we go."
-Fanny Crosby
"Look up today, O parched plant,
and open your leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering."
C.H. Spurgeon