They Want To Keep Just As Near To Sodom As Possible!

Run for your lives! Do not stop anywhere in the plain. Do not look back! Escape to the mountain, or you will die!

Gen 19:17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

This is still the gospel message. We are in danger of God's judgment and must escape from it if we would live.

We must not stay anywhere in all the plain of sin-for there is no safe spot, no shelter anywhere, no place where the fires of judgment will not fall.

Some people would like to compromise; they are willing to flee from some sins but not from others. 

There are some professed Christians who like to stay on the borders of their old life. They are continually asking whether they can do this or that, go here or there and still be Christians.

They want to keep just as near to Sodom as possible so as not to be burnt up in Sodom's destruction! 

The answer to all such questions is, "Run for your lives! Do not stop anywhere in the plain. Do not look back! Escape to the mountain, or you will die!" Even the borders are unsafe!

The only safe place is the mountain, the mountain where Christ's Cross stands!

Lot's wife 'looked back'. There had been a specific command, Do not look back!

Why Lot's wife looked back is not explained. Was it curiosity to see the nature of the terrible destruction that she heard roaring behind her?

Or was it her dismay as she thought of her beautiful home, with all its wealth of furnishing and decoration, and all her jewels and garments and other possessions which were now being consumed in the great conflagration?

It would seem to be, that she was appalled at the thought of leaving and losing all her beloved possessions, and paused in her flight and looked back, with the hope that possibly she might yet run back and snatch some of the ornaments or gems...something, at least, from the awful destruction.

But Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt! 

Remember Lot's wife! Luke 17:32.

We should not miss the 'lesson' which our Lord Himself teaches us from the tragic fate of this woman: we cannot have both worlds!

Lot's wife could have escaped with her husband and her daughters but she could escape only by resolutely and determinedly leaving everything she had in Sodom.

Her love for her possessions, cost her her life!

Just so, there are thousands today, to whom God's message comes, "Run for your lives! Do not stop anywhere in the plain. Do not look back! Escape to the mountain, or you will die!

They somewhat desire to follow Christ but their love for the world is so intense that they cannot give it up-they cannot renounce it.

They must decide, however, which they will renounce Christ or the world.

They cannot keep both! 

In Lot's wife we have an example of one who was almost saved and yet lost! 

She was lost because she loved the world.

Remember Lot's wife!

~J. R. Miller~

Strengthened Inwardly By The Spirit

Eph 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

The strength of the Lord's people is none other than the strength of the Holy Spirit in the inward man.

Right at the very center of the being, deeper than thought or reason, deeper than emotion or feeling, deeper than all that which comprises the more outward man which, under given circumstances, may prove weak and incapable of standing up to the situation.

In the variations of our soul life, the changes of our moods, our ideas, our attitudes, our feelings, our minds; deeper down there is that strength which does not let us go.

That is the true nature of spirituality.

It is not the tremendously forceful conviction of our intellects or the mighty power of our wills. 

When these cannot stand up to conditions of intense spiritual antagonism, opposition or perplexity, there is that more inward thing, right in the inward man, which is of God – the Holy Spirit: “Strengthened with might by His Spirit into the inward man.”

Test that out and the result is that when the mind is bewildered by the perplexity of a situation, and the arguments are all in the direction that a mistake has been made, a wrong course has been taken, everything is false – when all the feelings are churned up, disturbed, anxious, fearful, or when there are no feelings at all, they are simply petrified by the position – when circumstances are all arguing in the opposite direction of that which we, in the purest moments of our fellowship with God determined upon.

The world around us – and very closely around us, even within the sphere of our own natural life, our own soul life – is an inexplicable mystery.

Then spirituality is proved by that inward strength which abides: that standing when you cannot go forward; that holding when you can do nothing; that remaining when all the forces are seeking to sweep you off your feet.

That represents a measure of spirituality. That is the true nature of the child of God.

The opposite is to be carried away by argument, reasoning, appearance, circumstance, and all such things.

That proves a lack of true spirituality.

In a sentence, true spirituality is not to live on the outside; it is to live with God right down deep in the inner part of your own being, where He, the Spirit, is.

~T. Austin Sparks~ 

Evil Speaking Not To Be Listened To

Psa 15:1  LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

Psa 15:2  He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

Psa 15:3  He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
                                                 
Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. Then we are not only forbidden to speak evil, we are forbidden to listen to it.

We are not only forbidden to cast a slander, we are forbidden to take it up when another has hurled it. 

To repeat a thing is to incur guilt quite as much as if we originated it.

I think that one of the great needs of our day is the grace of sanctified hearing. How much the Master made of the responsibility of possessing ears!

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. "Take heed how ye hear."

There is a discriminating way of listening.

There is a listening which encourages the speaker of slander, and there is a closing of the ears which reduces the slanderer to silence.

There would be much less evil speaking if there was much less evil listening.

The evil speaker yearns for the reward of attention and applause. 

If these are withheld he will soon tire of his nefarious trade.

The companion of the Lord listens for commendations, eulogies, and repeats them to others.

He likes to hear a good thing of somebody, and he sings it again into the ears of somebody else. 

~J. H. Jowett~

---

An Anxious, Selfish Fool

Then Jesus told the story of the rich fool, and as He told it His mind went back to Nabal (1Sa 25:1-44).

For "Nabal" just means a foolish man, and as his name was, so was he.

Like Nabal, too, this churl was not a badman. He had not stolen the wealth that was to wreck him.

It was God's rain that had fallen on his seed. It was God's sunshine that had ripened his harvest. It was God's gentleness that made him great.

But for all that, his riches ruined him. He gave his heart to them: he gave his soul.

Then suddenly, when he was laying his plans, and dreaming his golden dreams about tomorrow, God whispered, "Senseless! 

This night they want thy soul!" Who the they is-or so it reads in the original-we cannot say.

They may be the angels of death; they may be robbers.

In any case they are God's instruments, and the rich man must say goodbye to everything.

O folly, never to think of that! He had thought of everything except his God. "And so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, if he is not rich towards God."

Now there are three things we must notice about this man; and the first is how very anxious he was.

When we are young we think that to be rich means to be free from anxiety altogether. 

We can understand a pauper being anxious, but not a man who has great heaps of gold.

But this rich man was just as full of cares as the beggar without a sixpence in the world.

He could not sleep for thinking of his crops.

That question of the harvest haunted him. It shut out God from him, and every thought of heaven, just as that family inheritance we spoke of silenced the music of Jesus for the questioner.

Who is the man who we sometimes call a fool?

It is the man with the bee in his bonnet, as we say. But better sometimes to have a bee in the bonnet than to have nothing but barns upon the brain.

The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.

See next how very selfish the man was. Do we hear one whisper of a harvest-thanksgiving? Is there any word of gratitude to God?

You would think the man had fashioned the corn himself, and burnished and filled the ears with his own hand, he is so fond of talking of my corn.

Do you remember what we learned in the Lord's Prayer. It is never my there, it is always our.

And the Lord's fool is at opposite poles from the Lord's Prayer, for he is always babbling about my.

And then were there no poor folk in his glen? Was there no Naomi in yon cottage in the town? Did not one single Ruth come out to glean when the tidings traveled of that amazing harvest?

If the bosoms of the poor had been his barns, he would have been welcomed at the Throne that night.

O selfish and ungrateful!-but halt, have I been selfish this last week? There are few follies in the world like the folly of the selfish man.

Then, lastly, think-and we have partly traveled on this ground already-think how very foolish the man was.

Had he said, "Body, take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry!" there might have been some shadow of reason in it.

But to think that a soul that hungers after God was ever to be satisfied with food-is there any folly that can equal that?

The world itself, says James Renwick, could not fill the heart, for the heart has three corners and the world is round!

Let us so live, then, that when our soul is summoned, we shall say, "Yea, Lord! It has long been wanting home."

And to this end let us seek first the kingdom. For where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.

~George Morrison~

What We See Depends On What We Are

And so passing into deeper regions we detect the truth the Master is proclaiming. He is proclaiming that what we spiritually see really depends on what we are.

As the lamp conditions the aspect of the room, so does the inward eye condition everything.

We see by life and character, by all that we have made ourselves, by every secret sin that we have cherished, by every battle we have fought and won.

There was He, moving in their midst, shining in the splendor of good deeds.

He was set on a candlestick, visible, conspicuous, radiant in loveliness of life. 

Yet some said He was beside Himself, and some that He was a glutton and a wine-bibber, and others that He cast out devils by Beelzebub.

They saw by what they were.

Bound in their ancient prejudices, angry at being interfered with, eager to justify themselves, convicted of their sin, they described the Carpenter, but could not see the LORD.

If any of my readers are like that...if they see the Carpenter but cannot see the LORD...let me ask them, tenderly and quietly, What kind of life have you been living?

~George Morrision~

None To Help But GOD

2Ch 14:11  And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.

Remind GOD of His entire responsibility. "There is none beside thee to help." 

The odds against Asa were enormous. There was a million of men in arms against him, besides three hundred chariots. It seemed impossible to hold his own against that vast multitude.

There were no allies who would come to his help; his only hope, therefore, was in GOD.

It may be that your difficulties have been allowed to come to so alarming a pitch that you may be compelled to renounce all creature aid, to which in lesser trials you have had recourse, and cast yourself back on your Almighty Friend.

Put GOD between yourself and the foe.

To Asa's faith, Jehovah seemed to stand between the might of Zerah and himself, as one who had no strength. Nor was he mistaken.

We are told that the Ethiopians were destroyed before the LORD and before His host, as though celestial combatants flung themselves against the foe in Israel's behalf, and put the large host to rout, so that Israel had only to follow up and gather the spoil.

Our GOD is Jehovah of hosts, who can summon unexpected reinforcements at any moment to aid His people.

Believe that He is there between you and your difficulty, and what baffles you will flee before Him, as clouds before the gale.

~F. B. Meyer~

When nothing whereon to lean remains, When strongholds crumble to dust; When nothing is sure but that GOD still reigns, That is just the time to trust.

Tis better to walk by faith than sight, In this path of yours and mine; And the pitch-black night, when there's no outer light Is the time for faith to shine.

Abraham believed GOD, and said to sight, "Stand back!" and to the laws of nature, "Hold your peace!" and to a misgiving heart, "Silence, thou lying tempter!" He believed GOD.

~Joseph Parker~
     
     

The WILDERNESS Of The Turned-AWAY Face Of GOD

A wilderness is always a type of desolation and death through the curse.

The wilderness came when the Garden was lost. 

It was the very fruit of the curse.

In other words, it was THE outcome of GOD'S face being turned away, and from that time we find the wilderness again and again coming up in the picture of human life.

Israel in the wilderness spoke of the curse, desolation and death.

In that wilderness, if Heaven had not intervened, they certainly would have perished and they knew it, too.

There was nothing there to assure of life.

It was only because there was a Testimony in their midst that they could possibly live in the wilderness;

And when their hearts were rightly adjusted to that Testimony, they lived above the wilderness.

In the midst of death they were in life:

In the midst of desolation they were in plenty: 

In the midst of the curse they were in blessing. 

And that Testimony was the Testimony of Jesus.

When, later, they went into the far captivity and knew the desolation again for seventy years, and at last the seventy years' accomplishment came into view, the prophet cried with his gospel of hope..."Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your GOD.

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished. 

Isa 40:1  Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  

The issue of that is that "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose".

Isa 35:1  The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
 
Isa 35:6  Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
 
~T. Austin Sparks~

Trust In The LORD

Psalm 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

I once met a poor woman who earned a meager living through
hard domestic labor but was a joyful, triumphant Christian.
 
Another Christian lady, who was quite sullen, said to her one
day, “Nancy, I understand your happiness today, but I would
think your future prospects would sober you.

Suppose, for instance, you experience a time of illness and are unable to work.

Or suppose your present employers move away, and you cannot find work elsewhere.

Or suppose...”“Stop!” cried Nancy. “I never ‘suppose.’ ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want’ [Ps. 23:1].

And besides,” she added to her gloomy friend,“it’s all that ‘supposing’ that’s making you so miserable.

You’d better give that up and simply trust the LORD.”
 
The following Scripture is one that will remove all the supposing from a believer’s life if received and acted on in childlike faith: 

Be content with what you have, because GOD has said,‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence,‘The LORD is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’

~Hannah Whitall Smith~

Heb 13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
 
Heb 13:6  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

There’s a stream of trouble across my path; It is dark and deep and wide.
 
Bitter the hour the future hath When I cross its swelling tide.
 
But I smile and sing and say: “I will hope and trust alway; I’ll bear the sorrow that comes tomorrow, But I’ll borrow none today.”
 
Tomorrow’s bridge is a dangerous thing; I dare not cross it now.
 
I can see its timbers sway and swing, And its arches reel and bow.
 
O heart, you must hope alway; You must sing and trust and say: “I’ll bear the sorrow that comes tomorrow, But I’ll borrow none today.”
 
The eagle that soars at great altitudes does not worry about
how it will cross a river.

~Selected~

Steady In Our Walk

In taking Christ in any new relationship, we must first have sufficient intellectual light to satisfy our mind that we are entitled to stand in this relationship.

The shadow of a question here will wreck our confidence.

Then, having seen this, we must make the venture, the committal, the choice, and take the place just as definitely as the tree is planted in the soil, or the bride gives herself away at the marriage altar.

It must be once for all, without reserve, without recall. 

Then there is a season of establishing, settling and testing, during which we must "stay put" until the new relationship gets so fixed as to become a permanent habit.

It is just the same as when the surgeon sets the broken arm. He puts it in splints to keep it from vibration.

So GOD has His spiritual splints that He wants to put upon His children and keep them quiet and unmoved until they pass the first stage of faith.

It is not always easy work for us, "but the GOD of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered awhile, stablish, strengthen, settle you." 

~A. B. Simpson~

There is a natural law in sin and sickness; and if we just let ourselves go and sink into the trend of circumstances, we shall go down and sink under the power of the tempter.

But there is another law of spiritual life and of physical life in Christ Jesus to which we can rise, and through which we can counterpoise and overcome the other law that bears us down.

But to do this requires real spiritual energy and fixed purpose and a settled posture and habit of faith.

It is just the same as when we use the power in our factory. We must turn on the belt and keep it on.

The power is there, but we must keep the connection; and while we do so, the higher power will work and all the machinery will be in operation.

There is a spiritual law of choosing, believing, abiding, and holding steady in our walk with God, which is essential to the working of the Holy Ghost either in our sanctification or healing.

~Days of Heaven Upon Earth~

Thy Rod And Thy Staff

At my father's house in the country there is a little closet in the chimney corner where are kept the canes and walking-sticks of several generations of our family.

In my visits to the old house, when my father and I are going out for a walk, we often go to the cane closet, and pick out our sticks to suit the fancy of the occasion.

In this I have frequently been reminded that the, Word of God is a staff.

During the war, when the season of discouragement and impending danger was upon us, the verse, He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord, was a staff to walk with many dark days.

When death took away our child and left us almost heartbroken, I found another staff in the promise that "weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning."

When in impaired health, I was exiled for a year, not knowing whether I should be permitted to return to my home and work again, I took with me this staff which never failed, "He knoweth the thoughts that he thinketh toward me, thoughts of peace and not of evil."

In times of special danger or doubt, when human judgment has seemed to be set at naught, I have found it easy to go forward with this staff, "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength."

And in emergencies, when there has seemed to be no adequate time for deliberation or for action, I have never found that this staff has failed me, "He that believeth shall not make haste."

~Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, in The Outlook~

I had never known, said Martin Luther's wife, "what such and such things meant, in such and such psalms, such complaints and workings of spirit; I had never understood the practice of Christian duties, had not God brought me under some affliction."

It is very true that God's rod is as the schoolmaster's pointer to the child, pointing out the letter, that he may the better take notice of it; thus He pointeth out to us many good lessons which we should never otherwise have learned.

~Selected~

God always sends His staff with His rod.

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be (Deut.33:25).

Each of us may be sure that if God sends us on stony paths He will provide us with strong shoes, and He will not send us out on any journey for which He does not equip us well.

~Maclaren~

The Importance And Value Of Seeing And Accepting Things Into GOD'S Light.

This applied both to Paul and to those who were brought into touch with him.

For the Apostle the settling in to the sovereign ordering of GOD in his imprisonment issued in increasing illumination leading to spiritual emancipation.

No one can fail to recognize the tremendous enrichment of ministry as contained in what are called "the Prison Epistles".  

If he had been restive, piqued, rebellious, or bitter, there would have been no open heaven, and a spirit of controversy with the LORD would have closed and bolted the door to the fuller Divine unveilings and clarifyings.

When all was accepted according to the mind of the LORD, then "the heavenly places" became the eternal expanses of his walking about, and earthly bondage gave place to heavenly freedom.

So it must be with every instrument set apart in relation to the higher interests of the LORD'S testimony.

Then the reading of certain passages in his letters and the record of his imprisonment shows how this applied to others. 

Take the following: 2Ti 1:8  Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Act 28:30  And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,

Act 28:31  Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. 

2Ti 1:16  The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: 

2Ti 1:17  But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.
 
2Ti 1:18  The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

Clearly the effect of these passages is that there had to be a Divine apprehension and not merely a human appraisal of Paul's position.

Human levels of mentality would have produced an atmosphere of doubt, suspicion, question, and would have let in elements of false imputation.

Regarded on merely natural lines, association with the prisoner would have involved such associates in the suspicion and prejudice.

Doubt of the LORD'S servant was very widespread, and even many of the LORD'S people were not sure of him.

But the LORD was shutting up a very vital revelation to this channel, and for such as were really in spiritual need, and such as were to stand in a living relation to fullness of testimony from identification with Christ in death and resurrection, on to throne-union with Him, power over "Principalities, Powers" etc., and on to the ministry "in the ages to come",

There had to be a putting aside of all human, personal, and diplomatic considerations and a standing right in there with the instrument where GOD put it in honorable imprisonment.

For possession of which is to come through the vessel, there has to be a coming where the vessel is, without consideration for reputation, influence, or popularity.

In this way the Lord sifts His people and finds out who really is wholly for Himself and His testimony, and who is actuated in any measure by other considerations and interests.

The instrument in this position of popular rejection is thus the LORD'S means of searching.

~T. Austin Sparks~

He Has Overcome The World

Act 20:24  But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
We read in the book of Samuel that the moment that David was crowned at Hebron, "All the Philistines came up to seek David." 

And the moment we get anything from the Lord worth contending for, then the devil comes to seek us.
     
When the enemy meets us at the threshold of any great work for God, let us accept it as "a token of salvation," and claim double blessing, victory, and power.

Power is developed by resistance.

The cannon carries twice as far because the exploding power has to find its way through resistance. 

The way electricity is produced in the powerhouse yonder is by the sharp friction of the revolving wheels.

And so we shall find some day that even Satan has been one of God's agencies of blessing.

~Days of Heaven upon Earth~
     
Tribulation is the way to triumph.

The valley-way opens into the highway. Tribulation's imprint is on all great things. Crowns are cast in crucibles.

Chains of character that wind about the feet of God are forged in earthly flames. No man is greatest victor till he has trodden the winepress of woe.

With seams of anguish deep in His brow, the "Man of Sorrows" said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation"- but after this sob comes the psalm of promise, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." 

The footprints are traceable everywhere. Bloodmarks stain the steps that lead to thrones. 

Grief has always been the lot of greatness. 

The mark of rank in nature. Is capacity for pain; And the anguish of the singer Makes the sweetest of the strain."
     
Tribulation has always marked the trail of the true reformer. It is the story of Paul, Luther, Savonarola, Knox, Wesley, and all the rest of the mighty army.

They came through great tribulation to their place of power.
     
Every great book has been written with the author's blood. "These are they that have come out of great tribulation."

Who was the peerless poet of the Greeks? Homer. But that illustrious singer was blind.

Who wrote the fadeless dream of "Pilgrim's Progress"? A prince in royal purple upon a couch of ease? Nay! The trailing splendor of that vision gilded the dingy walls of old Bedford jail while John Bunyan, a princely prisoner, a glorious genius, made a faithful transcript of the scene.

Great is the facile conqueror; Yet haply, he, who, wounded sore, Breathless, all covered o'er with blood and sweat, Sinks fainting, but fighting evermore Is greater yet.

~Selected~