Fret Not Over Evil-Doers

Psalm 37:1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
 
Do not get into a perilous heat about things. If ever heat were justified, it was surely justified in the circumstances outlined in the Psalm.

Evil-doers were moving about clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day. 

Workers of iniquity were climbing into the supreme places of power, and were tyrannizing their less fortunate brethren.

Sinful men and women were stalking through the land in the pride of life and basking in the light and comfort of great prosperity, and good men were becoming heated and fretful.

Fret not thyself. Do not get unduly heated! Keep cool!

Even in a good cause, fretfulness is not a wise help-meet.

Fretting only heats the bearings; it does not generate the steam. It is no help to a train for the axles to get hot; their heat is only a hindrance.

When the axles get heated, it is because of unnecessary friction; dry surfaces are grinding together, which ought to be kept in smooth co-operation by a delicate cushion of oil.

And is it not a suggestive fact that this word "fret" is closely akin to the word "friction," and is an indication of absence of the anointing oil of the grace of God?

In fretfulness, a little bit of grit gets into the bearings-some slight disappointment, some ingratitude, some discourtesy-and the smooth working of the life is checked. 

Friction begets heat; and with the heat, most dangerous conditions are created.

Do not let thy bearings get hot. Let the oil of the Lord keep thee cool, lest by reason of an unholy heat thou be reckoned among the evil-doers.

~The Silver Lining~

Dear restless heart, be still; don't fret and worry so; God has a thousand ways His love and help to show; Just trust, and trust, and trust, until His will you know.

Dear restless heart, be still, for peace is God's own smile, His love can every wrong and sorrow reconcile; Just love, and love, and love, and calmly wait awhile.

Dear restless heart, be brave; don't moan and sorrow so, He hath a meaning kind in chilly winds that blow; Just hope, and hope, and hope, until you braver grow.

Dear restless heart, repose upon His breast this hour, His grace is strength and life, His love is bloom and flower; Just rest, and rest, and rest, within His tender power.

Dear restless heart, be still! Don't struggle to be free; God's life is in your life, from Him you may not flee: just pray, and pray, and pray, till you have faith to see.

~Edith Willis Linn~

One Of You Is A Devil!

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.

Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you... unless, of course, you fail the test?

2Co 13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Self-examination is a necessary but difficult work.

Self-examination is the setting up a court in conscience and keeping a register there, that by strict scrutiny a man may know how things stand between God and his own soul.

By a serious scrutiny of our hearts, we come to know to what prince we belong...whether to the Prince of Peace, or the prince of darkness.

Self-searching is a heart-anatomy.

As a surgeon, when he makes a dissection in the body, discovers the inward parts, the heart, liver, and arteries - just so, a Christian anatomizes himself.

Sentimentality and public opinion are false rules to go by.

We must judge the state of souls by the light of Scripture. 

Many have foolish, presumptuous hopes. They fancy their state to be good; and while they weigh themselves in the balance of presumption, they pass the test.

Many take their salvation on trust.

The foolish virgins thought they had oil in their lamps, the same as the wise.

How confident are some of salvation-yet never examine their title to Heaven.

Many rest in the good opinions of others. How vain is this!

Alas, one may be gold and pearl in the eye of others-yet God may judge him to be reprobate silver!

Others may think him a saint-and God may write him down in His black book!

Judas was looked upon by the rest of the Apostles as a true believer...yet he was a traitor!

John 6:70  Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?

Others can but see the outward behavior but they cannot tell what evil is in the heart.

Fair streams may run on the top of a river but vermin may lay at the bottom!

~Thomas Watson~                                                                               

The LORD Is Excusing Them

Luke 14:23  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
 
In the great parable in the fourteenth chapter of Luke, giving an account of the great supper an ancient lord prepared for his friends and neighbors, and to which, when they asked to be excused, he invited the halt and the lame from the city slums and the lepers from outside the gate, there is a significant picture and object lesson of the program of Christianity in this age.

In the first place, it is obvious to every thoughtful mind that the Master is beginning to excuse the Gospel-hardened people of Christian countries.

It is getting constantly more difficult to interest the unsaved of our own land, especially those that have been accustomed to hear the Gospel and the things of Christ.

They have asked to be excused from the Gospel feast, and the Lord is excusing them.

At the same time, two remarkable movements indicated in the parable are becoming more and more manifest in our time.

One is the Gospel for the slums and the neglected classes at home; the other is the Gospel for the heathen or the neglected classes abroad.

~A. B. Simpson~

When God Says No

1Ki 8:56  Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.

Some day we shall understand that God has a reason in every NO which He speaks through the slow movement of life.

Somehow God makes up to us.

How often, when His people are worrying and perplexing themselves about their, prayers not being answered, is God answering them in a far richer way!

Glimpses of this we see occasionally, but the full revelation of it remains for the future.

If God says 'Yes' to our prayer, dear heart, And the sunlight is golden, the sky is blue, While the smooth road beckons to me and you, And the song-birds warble as on we go, Pausing to gather the buds at our feet, Stopping to drink of the streamlets we meet, Happy, more happy, our journey will grow, If God says 'Yes' to our prayer, dear heart.
     
If God says 'No' to our prayer, dear heart, And the clouds hang heavy and dull and gray; If the rough rocks hinder and block the way, While the sharp winds pierce us and sting with cold;

Ah, dear, there is home at the journey's end, And these are the trials the Father doth send To draw us as sheep to His Heavenly fold, If God says 'No' to our prayer, dear heart.
     
Oh for the faith that does not make haste, but waits patiently for the Lord, waits for the explanation that shall come in the end, at the revelation of Jesus Christ!

When did God take anything from a man, without giving him manifold more in return?

Suppose that the return had not been made immediately manifest, what then?

Is today the limit of God's working time?

Has He no provinces beyond this little world?

Does the door of the grave open upon nothing but infinite darkness and eternal silence?
     
Yet, even confining the judgment within the hour of this life, it is true that God never touches the heart with a trial without intending to bring upon it some grander gift, some tenderer benediction.

He has attained to an eminent degree of Christian grace who knows how to wait.

~Selected~
     
When the frosts are in the valley, And the mountain tops are grey, And the choicest buds are blighted, And the blossoms die away...

A loving Father whispers, "This cometh from my hand"; Blessed are ye if ye trust Where ye cannot understand.
     
If, after years of toiling, Your wealth should fly away And leave your hands all empty, And your locks are turning grey, Remember then your Father Owns all the sea and land;

Blessed are ye if ye trust Where ye cannot understand.

~Selected~

"Trouble" Inevitable With Spiritual Sight

When, therefore, there is the purest testimony,the fullest expression of what is of God, the heavenly over against the earthly, the spiritual over against the carnal or the natural, the enemy gives a turn to things, a twist to things, and lays the responsibility at the door of a spiritual and a heavenly ministry.

He says: 'You are the cause of all the trouble - you are the troubler!'

But no. The trouble lies deeper than that, and in another realm.

The truth is, there is something here that, in its very nature, MUST create trouble, MUST be a source of trouble, so long as God's known will, His revealed mind, is being violated; while the full expression of God's purpose is being withstood.

To bring in something that stands for that, there is going to be trouble.

It is a costly thing to have seen God's full purpose and thought concerning His people.

It is always a costly thing.

The Lord Jesus set a very vivid example and object lesson of this truth right in the foreground, in the incident of the man born blind (John 9).

There is no doubt that the Lord intended that man to represent Israel and Israel's condition at the time.

He gave that man sight - and what happened to the man?

They cast him out, that is all; they cast him out, they excommunicated him (v. 34).

That is an object lesson, an instance of this very thing.

If eyes have been opened; if, in any sense - not officially - you have become a 'seer' - one who sees: it is going to cost you a lot, it will involve you in a lot of trouble.

This matter of 'seeing' does that.

It was Elijah the SEER, over against the BLINDNESS of Israel.

It is a costly thing to be a spiritual man or a spiritual woman in this universe.

It is a costly thing, yes, very costly, to hold to a heavenly and spiritual position.

It is a costly thing to hold for Christ's full place; it involves you in trouble. It is a costly thing to have light - if it is true light, God-given light.

It is a costly thing to have life.

But remember, it is here, in this, that the power is resident. It is with this that God is found ultimately to be committed.

You know the story again. God will have no compromise with the thing that lies behind. 'Take the prophets of Baal!' They were all slain.

There is NO compromise with that spiritual thing.

But God is shown as to where He stands, to what He is committed, and where the power is.

For I suppose that, if Elijah represents one thing more than another, he does represent spiritual power.

When we think of spiritual power we always refer to Elijah - 'in the power of Elijah'. It is proverbial.

Why? Not because of anything that he was in himself; no, not because of the man.

He was a man in touch with the Throne; he was a man who had seen; a man who was committed, of whom it was true that he was "very jealous for the Lord".

God was with Elijah.

John came 'in the power of Elijah' (Luke 1:17); he was the Elijah of his time. The Lord Jesus said of him: "If ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah" (Matt. 11:14), though John himself denied this (John 1:21).

Elijah is a sort of phantom in a certain realm. Poor Herod was scared of his life - he began to see things, to get strange ideas - when he heard about Jesus: some suggested to him that this was Elijah returned to life, but he thought it was John the Baptist risen from the dead (Matt. 14:2; Mark 6:14-16).

The fellow just lost his mental grasp of things. This Elijah man counts for something.

Power is with him; the verdict is with him.

And - let there be no mistake about it - in the end it will be found that God IS committed to that which is utterly committed to Him for His full purposes.

It is costly; it causes much trouble; BUT - the issue is with Him, and He will look after His own interests.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Spider Or Bee?

A godly man strives to be an instrument for making others godly. He is not content to go to heaven alone, but wants to take others there.

Spiders work only for themselves but bees work for others.

A godly man is both a diamond and a magnet-a diamond for the sparkling luster of grace; and a magnet for his attractiveness. He is always drawing others to embrace piety.

Living things have a propagating virtue. Where piety lives in the heart, there will be an endeavor to propagate the life of grace in those we converse with.

My son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds Philemon 10. Though God is the fountain of grace-yet the saints are the pipes which transmit the living streams to others!

Grace is like fire which assimilates and turns everything into its own nature.

Where there is the fire of grace in the heart-it will endeavor to inflame others.

Grace is a holy leaven, which will be seasoning and leavening others with divine principles.

Grace makes the heart tender.

A godly man pities those who are in the gall of bitterness. He sees what a deadly cup is brewing for the wicked!

They must, without repentance, be bound over to God's wrath!

The fire which rained on Sodom was but a painted fire in comparison with hell fire!

This is a fire with a vengeance: "Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" Jude 7.

Now when a godly man sees Satan's captives ready to be damned he strives to convert them from the error of their way: Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men! 2 Cor. 5:11.

A godly man will be careful that his children should know God. He would be very sad if any of his children should burn in hell.

~Thomas Watson~

The Omnipresence Of GOD

Psa 139:7  Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
 

The omnipresence of God! How baffling to any finite comprehension!

To think that above us, and around us, and within us there is Deity-the invisible footprints of an Omniscient, Omnipresent One!

His Eyes are in every place; on rolling planets and tiny atoms; on the bright seraph and the lowly worm; roaming in searching scrutiny through the tracks of immensity and reading the dark and hidden page of my heart!

All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do!

O God! shall this Your Omnipresence appall me? No!

In my seasons of sadness and sorrow and loneliness - when other comforts and comforters have failed...

When, it may be, in the darkness and silence of some midnight hour, in vain I have sought repose - how sweet to think, "My God is here!

I am not alone. The Omniscient One, to whom the darkness and the light are both alike is hovering over my sleepless pillow!

He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps!

O my Unsetting Sun, it cannot be darkness or loneliness or sadness where You are.

There can be no night to the soul which has been cheered with Your glorious radiance!

Surely, I am with you always! How precious, blessed Jesus, is this Your legacy of parting love!

Present with each of Your people until the end of time - ever present, omnipresent.

The true "Pillar of cloud" by day and "Pillar of fire" by night, preceding and encamping by us in every step of our wilderness journey.

My soul! think of Him, at this moment, in the mysteriousness of His Godhead nature-and yet, with all the exquisitely tender sympathies of a glorified Humanity-as present with every member of the family that He has redeemed with His blood!

Yes, and as much present with every individual soul, as if He had none other to care for-but as if that one engrossed all His affection and love!

The Great Builder surveying every stone and pillar of His spiritual temple;

The Great Shepherd with His eye on every sheep of His fold;

The Great High Priest marking every tear-drop; noting every sorrow; listening to every prayer; knowing the peculiarities of every case; no number perplexing Him no variety bewildering Him; able to attend to all, and satisfy all, and answer all...

Myriads drawing hourly from His Treasury and yet no diminution of that Treasury ever emptying, and yet ever filling, and always full!

Jesus! Your perpetual and all-pervading presence turns darkness into day!

I am not left un-befriended to weather the storms of life.

Your hand is from hour to hour piloting my frail vessel.

The omnipresence of God-gracious antidote to every earthly sorrow! 

I have set the Lord always before me! Even now, as night is drawing its curtains around me, be this my closing prayer, 'Blessed Savior! abide with me, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent!'

Psa 4:8  I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

~John Macduff~

The Searching, Burning, Purifying Fires Of Christ's Furnace!

Mal 3:3  And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Zec 13:9  And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

O my soul, what deep need is there for this refining and purifying of your Lord . 

What inward corruption, what carnality, what worldliness, what self-seeking, what creature idolatry, what God dishonoring unbelief!
 

All these imperatively demand the searching, burning, purifying fires of Christ's furnace!

My soul...your Refiner and Purifier is Jesus!

It is a consolatory thought that our refining is in the hands of Jesus-in the hands that were pierced for us on the cross!

Jesus shapes all your trials!

Jesus sends all your afflictions!

Jesus mixes all your sorrows!

Jesus shapes and balances all the clouds of your pilgrimage!

Jesus prepares and heats the furnace that refines you as silver and purifies you as gold!

Then, O my soul, tremble not at the knife that wounds you, at the flame that scorches you, at the cloud that shades you, at the billows that surge above you.
 

Jesus is in it all...and you are as safe as though you had reached the blissful climate-where the vine needs no pruning, and where the ore needs no purifying, where the sky is never darkened, and upon whose golden sands where no storms of adversity ever blow, or waves of sorrow ever break.

Mark the Refiner's position. "He will SIT as a refiner and purifier of silver."

It would be fatal to his purpose, if the human refiner were to leave his post while the liquid mass was seething in the cauldron.

But there he patiently sits, watching and tempering the flame, and removing the refuse and the dross as it floats upon the surface of the molten ore.

Just so, Christ sits as a Refiner and with an eye that never slumbers, and with a patience that never wearies, and with a love that never chills, and with a faithfulness that never falters, He watches and controls the process that purifies our hearts, burnishes our graces, sanctifies our nature, and impresses more vividly His own image of loveliness upon our soul.

If He places you in the fire, He will bring you through the fire, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

But sweet and soothing is the truth that the believer is not alone in the fire!

The Refiner is with us, as with the three Hebrew children passing through the king's burning furnace.

The Lord will have us be polished stones.

As some believers are more rusty and some more alloyed than others...they need a rougher file, and a hotter furnace!

This may account for the great severity of trial through which some of the Lord's precious jewels are called to pass. Not less dear to His heart, are they for this refining.

Look up, my soul, to your Refiner!

The knife is in a Father's hand!

The flame is under a Savior's control!

Be still, be humble, be submissive. 

Mic 6:9  The LORD'S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

Psa 39:9  I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

~Octavius Winslow~