Your Crown Of Glory

When James and John came to Christ with their mother, asking Him to give them the best place in the kingdom, He did not refuse their request, but told them it would be given to them if they could do His work, drink His cup, and be baptized with His baptism.

Do we want the competition? The greatest things are always hedged about by the hardest things, and we, too, shall find mountains and forests and chariots of iron.

Hardship is the price of coronation. 

Triumphal arches are not woven out of rose blossoms and silken cords, but of hard blows and bloody scars.

The very hardships that you are enduring in your life today are given by the Master for the explicit purpose of enabling you to win your crown.

Do not wait for some ideal situation, some romantic difficulty, some far-away emergency; but rise to meet the actual conditions which the Providence of God has placed around you today.

Your crown of glory lies embedded in the very heart of these things-those hardships and trials that are pressing you this very hour, week and month of your life.

The hardest things are not those that the world knows of.

Down in your secret soul unseen and unknown by any but Jesus, there is a little trial that you would not dare to mention that is harder for you to bear than martyrdom.

There, beloved, lies your crown. God help you to overcome, and sometime wear it.

~Selected~

It matters not how the battle goes, The day how long: Faint not! Fight on!

When We See The Larger Life, We Become Blind To Little Grievances

Act 9:8  And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

Putting the matter in another light, suppose we think of the little frets of life, of the little pinpricks and unkindness which most people experience as they journey.

There are folk who brood upon such things as these, until they practically see nothing else. 

They tend and water all their little grievances till their blossoms would take prizes at a show. 

And what I have noticed of such folk is this, that when through the mercy of God their eyes are opened, of all these little pinpricks they see nothing Their eyes have been opened to what real suffering is.

They were only playing before at being miserable. Their eyes have been opened to that larger life which is always given us in Christ.

And the beautiful thing about that life is this, that worries which were overwhelming yesterday, somehow have vanished so that we cannot see them in the love commended on the cross.

Every rock and ridge is clear and glistening in the Highland burn when it is low.

But when the summer rain falls or the winter snow, then they become invisible.

And I have found it so in many a man's life when a new tide of being has possessed him; things that were sharp and hard and hurt him yesterday, somehow have become invisible today.

Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us--they felt the sting of it and thought that He was undutiful.

But when their eyes were opened they saw nothing; that ingratitude had vanished.

So when we see, many a thing vanishes; many a thing which hurt and fretted us, and met us everywhere, and barred the sunshine out, and silences all the music in the dwelling.

~George H. Morrison~

"For This Child I Prayed"

1Sa 1:27  For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him:

Devout souls delight to look upon those mercies which they have obtained in answer to supplication, for they can see God’s especial love in them.

When we can name our blessings Samuel, that is, “asked of God,” they will be as dear to us as her child was to Hannah. 

Peninnah had many children, but they came as common blessings unsought in prayer:

Hannah’s one heaven-given child was dearer far, because he was the fruit of earnest pleadings.

How sweet was that water to Samson which he found at “the well of him that prayed!”

Quassia cups turn all waters bitter, but the cup of prayer puts a sweetness into the draughts it brings.
 
Did we pray for the conversion of our children?

How doubly sweet, when they are saved, to see in them our own petitions fulfilled!

Better to rejoice over them as the fruit of our pleadings than as the fruit of our bodies.

Have we sought of the Lord some choice spiritual gift?

When it comes to us it will be wrapped up in the gold cloth of God’s faithfulness and truth, and so be doubly precious.

Have we petitioned for success in the Lord’s work? 

How joyful is the prosperity which comes flying upon the wings of prayer!

It is always best to get blessings into our house in the legitimate way, by the door of prayer;

Then they are blessings indeed, and not temptations.

Even when prayer speeds not, the blessings grow all the richer
for the delay;

The child Jesus was all the more lovely in the eyes of Mary when she found him after having sought him sorrowing.

That which we win by prayer we should dedicate
to God, as Hannah dedicated Samuel.

The gift came from heaven, let it go to heaven.

Prayer brought it, gratitude sang over it, let devotion consecrate it.

Here will be a special occasion for saying, “Of thine own have I given unto thee.”

Reader, is prayer your element or your weariness? Which?

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Forces At Work

The forces which are at work to bring a soul to ruin, to prevent a man or a woman reaching God’s appointed and desired haven, are far greater and more terrible and persistent than anything that has ever been encountered in the natural realm of storms.

Of course, you do not know that until you definitely set yourself in the direction of God’s will.

A great many people in this world seem to be getting along very well, with not very much trouble, and think that they are going (in that easygoing, carefree way) to get where God wants them to be.

That is an illusion.

Never yet has there been a definite and serious association with the will of God, the purpose of God, except there has been the rising of terrific conflict and tempest to make that realization impossible...

And I say when a man or a woman does seriously have an understanding with God that His will and purpose is to be realized in their life and that they are abandoned to Him for that, then such a life will know that it is not all plain sailing, easygoing. 

There will be forces which were not imagined arising to hinder that, to make that impossible. 

~T. Austin Sparks~

THE LORD FAITHFUL, AND HIS WORD TRUE TO THE LAST

Jos 23:14  And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.

There is no testimony to the faithfulness of God in His Word so convincing and touching as that of the dying believer.

If ever a man is sincere, it is then.

If ever the veil is laid aside and the soul appears real and undisguised, be it a saint or a sinner, it is at that solemn moment.

No motive now exists for the false, and no cloud can conceal the true;

The coin that has passed current with many for genuine is now found to be counterfeit...

And that which many regarded as counterfeit-even the possessor himself...proves to be genuine!

Nature now appears to be but nature; and grace, vindicating its true character, proves itself grace.

The specious hope dies, and the true hope gathers life; the false faith sinks, and the real rises;

And the timid believer, who went doubting and trembling all the way to Jordan's brink, plunges boldly into the river, and passes over to the other side, with the paean of triumph breathing sweetly from his lips, "O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?"

Such is the picture which the position of Joshua now presents to our view.

He is standing upon the sunny slope, and before the soles of his feet smite the cold waters, he casts a back glance upon all the way the Lord his God had brought him;

And in words the most emphatic and impressive, testifies to the divine faithfulness and unchanging love of his covenant God in making good all His great and precious promises He had so graciously given...

Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord, your God, spoke unto you; all are come to pass.

Such is the divine assurance with which we conclude our daily thoughts.

What more precious truth, blended with sweeter melody, could linger upon the ear as we close the volume than this...God's faithfulness in the fulfillment of His Word?
 
Let us look at this truth as confirmed by the experience, first, of the living, and then of the dying believer, for both are God's witnesses.

What is the life of the child of God but a continuous experience of the truth of His Word, and the veracity of His promises?

You have, perhaps, been placed in trying circumstances; resources have lessened and demands have increased; your faith has been sharply tried; your spirits depressed; the sky has lowered and the waters have risen; but lo!

The Spirit, the Comforter, has guided you to some precious promise which has just met your case.

It has touched your heart, moistened your eye, uplifted the pressure, and your whole soul has been, as it were, absorbed in God.

And now the harp that hung sad and mute upon the willow is taken down, and thrills with a new song of praise and thanksgiving to the faithfulness of God in the fulfillment of His Word.

Yes, my soul, you can testify to the truth that every sweet invitation and precious promise and loving word of Jesus, upon which He causes your soul to rest in its grief and desolation, has come to pass...not one word has failed.

This is a clear proof of God's veracity in the making good His every word of promise.

Has He not promised to provide for you? then trust Him.
Has He not pledged Himself to guide you? then commit your way to Him.

Has He not undertaken to save you? then believe His Word and pray..."Say unto my soul, I am your salvation."

Soon the living witness to the faithfulness of the Lord in His Word will become the dying one.

When heart and flesh are failing-when the solemn curtain of eternity is rising-when the eye is darkening, and the pulse is sinking, and earth is receding, and eternity is nearing, and, heaven is opening...

Oh, then, like Joshua, you shall testify to the unchanging love and faithful word and precious comforts and secure supports of your covenant God and redeeming Savior...

As He gently leads you down the valley, radiant with His presence, resounding with your song-up the delectable mountains, home to your Father's House-"Forever with the Lord!"

~Octavius Winslow~

The Right Light Is Needed

We use lights to make manifest.

A Christian man should so shine in his life, that a person
could not live with him a week without knowing the gospel.

His conversation should be such that all who are about him should clearly perceive whose he is, and whom he serves; and should see the image of Jesus reflected in his daily actions.

Lights are intended for guidance.

We are to help those around us who are in the dark. We are to hold forth to them the Word of life.

We are to point sinners to the Saviour, and the weary to a divine restingplace.

Men sometimes read their Bibles, and fail to understand them; we should be ready, like Philip, to instruct the inquirer in the meaning of God’s Word, the way of salvation, and the life of godliness.

Lights are also used for warning. 

On our rocks and shoals a light-house is sure to be erected.

Christian men should know that there are many false lights shown everywhere in the world, and therefore the right light is needed.

The wreckers of Satan are always abroad, tempting the ungodly to sin under the name of pleasure; they hoist the wrong light...

Be it ours to put up the true light upon every dangerous rock, to point out every sin, and tell what it leads to, that so we may be clear of the blood of all men, shining as lights in the world.

Lights also have a very cheering influence, and so have Christians.

A Christian ought to be a comforter, with kind words on his lips, and sympathy in his heart; he should carry sunshine wherever he goes, and diffuse happiness around him.
 
Gracious Spirit dwell with me; I myself would gracious be, And with words that help and heal Would thy life in mine reveal, And with actions bold and meek Would for Christ my Saviour speak.

~Charles Spurgeon~