God Finishes His Work

                                                    
Psa 138:8  The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands. 

He who has begun will carry on the work which is being wrought within my soul.

The LORD is concerned about everything that concerns me.

All that is now good, but not perfect, the LORD will watch over, preserve, and carry out to completion.

This is a great comfort.

I could not perfect the work of grace myself. Of that I am quite sure, for I fail every day and have only held on so long as I have because the LORD has helped me.

If the LORD were to leave me, all my past experience would go for nothing, and I should perish from the way.

But the LORD will continue to bless me. He will perfect my faith, my love, my character, my lifework. He will do this because He has begun a work in me.

He gave me the concern I feel, and, in a measure, He has fulfilled my gracious aspirations, He never leaves a work unfinished; this would not be for His glory, nor would it be like Him.

He knows how to accomplish His gracious design, and though my own evil nature and the world and the devil all conspire to hinder Him, I do not doubt His promise.

He will perfect that which concerneth me, and I will praise Him forever. LORD, let Thy gracious work make some advance this day!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Seekest Thou Great Things For Thyself?

Jer 45:5  And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. 

Whatever schemes and projects the LORD'S people may devise that they may prosper and get on in the world, he rarely suffers their plans to thrive.

He knows well to what consequences it would lead; that this ivy creeping round the stem would, as it were, suffocate and strangle the tree.

The more that worldly goods increase, the more the heart is fixed upon them; and the more the affections are set upon idols, the more is the heart drawn away from the LORD.

He will not suffer his people to have their portion here below. 

He, therefore, says to them in his providence, as well as in his word, "Seek them not."

But you will perhaps say, "What are we then to seek?" I will tell you in one word, - Realities.

What are these great things that you are seeking after? say in religion.

Could you see them in their right light, you would see that they are but shadows.

You feel, for instance, your deficiency in gift in public when you are called upon to pray, or in private when you converse with those who possess readier speech,

And you want what are commonly called gifts, such as a greater fluency of utterance, more ability to quote Scripture, and a more abundant variety of expressions, so as to make a deeper impression on the hearers...

The real want being that you might stand higher in their estimation.

But what would these gifts, if you had them to the fullest extent, so that men might almost worship you for them, do for you when you shall be called upon to lie upon a death-bed--when eternity is in view, and your soul has to deal with GOD only? 

You will want no gifts then. Grace will be the only thing which can do you any good.

~J. C. Philpot~

He Refines Them

                                                         
They were living to themselves; self with its hopes, and promises and dreams, still had hold of them; but the LORD began to fulfill their prayers.

They had asked for contrition, and had surrendered for it to be given them at any cost, and He sent them sorrow;

They had asked for purity, and He sent them thrilling anguish; they had asked to be meek, and He had broken their hearts; 

They had asked to be dead to the world, and He slew all their living hopes;

They had asked to be made like unto Him, and He placed them in the furnace, sitting by "as a refiner and purifier of silver," until they should reflect His image;

They had asked to lay hold of His cross, and when He had reached it to them it lacerated their hands.

They had asked they knew not what, nor how, but He had taken them at their word, and granted them all their petitions.

They were hardly willing to follow Him so far, or to draw so nigh to Him.

They had upon them an awe and fear, as Jacob at Bethel, or Eliphaz in the night visions, or as the apostles when they thought that they had seen a spirit, and knew not that it was Jesus.

They could almost pray Him to depart from them, or to hide His awfulness.

They found it easier to obey than to suffer, to do than to give up, to bear the cross than to hang upon it.

But they cannot go back, for they have come too near the unseen cross, and its virtues have pierced too deeply within them.

He is fulfilling to them His promise, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32).

But now at last their turn has come. Before, they had only heard of the mystery, but now they feel it. 

He has fastened on them His look of love, as He did on Mary and Peter, and they can but choose to follow.

Little by little, from time to time, by flitting gleams, the mystery of His cross shines out upon them.

They behold Him lifted up, they gaze on the glory which rays from the wounds of His holy passion; and as they gaze they advance, and are changed into His likeness, and His name shines out through them, for He dwells in them. 

They live alone with Him above, in unspeakable fellowship; willing to lack what others own (and what they might have had), and to be unlike all, so that they are only like Him.

Such, are they in all ages, "who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth."

Had they chosen for themselves, or their friends chosen for them, they would have chosen otherwise. 

They would have been brighter here, but less glorious in His Kingdom. They would have had Lot's portion, not Abraham's.

If they had halted anywhere-if God had taken off His hand and let them stray back-what would they not have lost?

What forfeits in the resurrection?

But He stayed them up, even against themselves. Many a time their foot had well nigh slipped; but He in mercy held them up.

Now, even in this life, they know that all He did was done well.

It was good to suffer here, that they might reign hereafter; to bear the cross below, for they shall wear the crown above; and that not their will but His was done on them and in them.

~Anonymous~

Broken Things

                                                      
Job 41:25  When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves. 

God uses most for His glory those people and things which are most perfectly broken. The sacrifices He accepts are broken and contrite hearts.

It was the breaking down of Jacob's natural strength at Peniel that got him where God could clothe him with spiritual power.

It was breaking the surface of the rock at Horeb, by the stroke of Moses' rod that let out the cool waters to thirsty people.

It was when the 300 elect soldiers under Gideon broke their pitchers, a type of breaking themselves, that the hidden lights shone forth to the consternation of their adversaries.

It was when the poor widow broke the seal of the little pot of oil, and poured it forth, that God multiplied it to pay her debts and supply means of support.

It was when Esther risked her life and broke through the rigid etiquette of a heathen court, that she obtained favor to rescue her people from death.

It was when Jesus took the five loaves and broke them, that the bread was multiplied in the very act of breaking, sufficient to feed five thousand.

It was when Mary broke her beautiful alabaster box, rendering it henceforth useless, that the pent-up perfume filled the house.

It was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken to pieces by thorns and nails and spear, that His inner life was poured out, like a crystal ocean, for thirsty sinners to drink and live.

It is when a beautiful grain of corn is broken up in the earth by DEATH, that its inner heart sprouts forth and bears hundreds of other grains.

And thus, on and on, through all history, and all biography, and all vegetation, and all spiritual life, God must have BROKEN THINGS.

Those who are broken in wealth, and broken in self-will, and broken in their ambitions, and broken in their beautiful ideals, and broken in worldly reputation, and broken in their affections, and broken ofttimes in health; those who are despised and seem utterly forlorn and helpless, the Holy Ghost is seizing upon, and using for God's glory. "The lame take the prey," Isaiah tells us.

O break my heart; but break it as a field Is by the plow up-broken for the corn; O break it as the buds, by green leaf seated, Are, to unloose the golden blossom, torn; Love would I offer unto Love's great Master, Set free the odor, break the alabaster.

O break my heart; break it victorious God, That life's eternal well may flash abroad; O let it break as when the captive trees, Breaking cold bonds, regain their liberties; And as thought's sacred grove to life is springing. Be joys, like birds, their hope, Thy victory singing.

~Thomas Toke Bunch~

Sources Of Endurance: Vision

Lastly, there is vision. Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible (Heb 11:27).

Heb 11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

To see the invisible, when skies are dark, is always to have power to win through.

What inspired Robert the Bruce to endure? It was his vision of a liberated Scotland. What inspired Columbus to endure? It was his vision of a continent ahead.

Every inventor, every explorer, every artist wrestling with his dreams, endures as seeing the invisible. 

Never was there endurance like the Master's. It was radiant with peace and joy. It did not falter even in Gethsemane.

It was equal to the agony of Calvary. And at the back of it, from first to last, inspiring, animating, and sustaining it, was the unclouded vision of His Father's face.

We too can practice that same presence. We can do it when life is very difficult. We can do it when the way is dark.

We can do it when we cannot understand.

And, doing it, we come to be so sure that underneath are the everlasting arms, that endurance passes into joy.

~George Morrison~

The Cross Seeks To Remove Whatever Serves Satan

Why has the Holy Spirit come? Oh! Not that we might have blessings and what we call power and influence and opportunity and service.

No, He has come as Representative and Agent of the Christ, who has secured the rights of God in His own Person.

To bring about the recognition and realization of the rights in this earth, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
 
The second thing that comes out of this is that the Holy Spirit always demands the ground of the Cross for His activity, if the glory of God is in view.

But then, the Cross registers the removal of all that serves Satan.

What was it that served Satan in Cain? Covetousness, personal ambition, jealousy, pride!

That worked itself out in the murder of Abel which was an expression of hatred for God.

What was it that served Satan in Balaam? Greed, covetousness, world-gain.

The Cross registers the removal by destruction of all that served Satan, and for us it is gathered up in one word: SELF.
 
What a wide word that is - what a comprehensive word! The stronger term is “the flesh”.

Some people do not know what you mean when you talk about the “flesh”.

They begin to think of positive vices and iniquities of deep dye. But the “flesh” is only another term for “self”.

Self is a very subtle thing, a many-sided thing.

It includes self-interest, self-glory, self-preservation, self-realization, self-advancement - all those considerations of influence and good-standing and prestige and following, and being understood and spoken well of.

The phases of “self” are legion, and they, every one of them, serve Satan.
 
Moreover, they serve him in this other sense, that they divide the rights of God and usurp the place of God: and therefore, wherever there is the slightest suggestion or insinuation of self, the Glory of God is obscured and the Cross has got to be applied there.

The Cross is not applied in the work of God just because God wants us out of it for the sake of having us out of it, to humble, to crush, to break us; no, it has this great end in view - HIS GLORY.

The Cross, dear friend, means utter devotion to God’s glory.

~T. Austin Sparks~

When The Simplicity Of Faith Is Gone

Once more, when the child-spirit dies, then the simplicity of faith is gone.

There is an exquisite purity about the faith of children; sometimes they make us blush...they trust us so.

Intensely eager, inquisitively curious; why? why? from sunrise, to sunset-but all the time how they are trusting us!

Ah, if we had only trusted God like that!

It is something to be trusted, if only by a helpless babe, and even God is happier when we trust Him.

But better than to be trusted, is to trust; to walk by faith and not by sight; and when the spirit of the child dies out, it is not possible to walk that way again.

For when we cease to be childlike we grow worldly, and to be worldly is always to be faithless;

And one great danger of this commercial city is to develop faithless, worldly men.

I have no doubt you call me an idle dreamer because I plead for the child-spirit in the city.

But it is better to be a dreamer than a coward, and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.

Of such is the kingdom of heaven-minister!

Of such is the kingdom of heaven-merchant !

Of such is the kingdom of heaven-schoolmaster, doctor, workman, servant!

Are you of such?

It is not my question. I only pass it on from Jesus Christ!

~George Morrison~