God Routs Fear

Num 23:23  Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!

How this should cut up root and branch all silly, superstitious fears! 

Those whom God blessed, devils cannot curse.

Ungodly men, like Balaam, may cunningly plot the overthrow of the LORD's Israel...

But with all their secrecy and policy they are doomed to fail. 

Their powder is damp; the edge of their sword is blunted. 

They gather together; but as the LORD is not with them, they gather together in vain. 

We may sit still and let them weave their nets, for we shall not be taken in them. 

Though they call in the aid of Beelzebub and employ all his serpentine craft, it will avail them nothing...

The spells will not work, the divination will deceive them. 

What a blessing this is! 

How it quiets the heart! 

God's Jacobs wrestle with God, but none shall wrestle with them and prevail. 

God's Israels have to prevail against them. 

We need not fear the fiend himself...

Nor any of those secret enemies whose words are full of deceit...

And whose plans are deep and unfathomable. 

They cannot hurt those who trust in the living God. 

We defy the devil and all his legions.

~Charles Spurgeon~

God Is Looking

2Ch 16:9  For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.

God is looking for a man, or woman, whose heart will be always set on Him...

And who will trust Him for all He desires to do.

God is eager to work more mightily now than He ever has through any soul. 

The clock of the centuries points to the eleventh hour.

The world is waiting yet to see what God can do through a consecrated soul...

Not the world alone, but God Himself is waiting for one, who will be more fully devoted to Him than any who have ever lived...

Who will be willing to be nothing that Christ may be all...

Who will grasp God's own purposes...

And taking His humility and His faith, His love and His power, will, without hindering, continue to let God do exploits. 

~C. H. P.~

There is no limit to what God can do with a man, providing he will not touch the glory.

In an address given to ministers and workers after his ninetieth birthday, George Mueller spoke thus of himself: 

I was converted in November, 1825, but I only came into the full surrender of the heart four years later, in July, 1829. 

The love of money was gone...

The love of place was gone...

The love of position was gone...

The love of worldly pleasures and engagements was gone. 

God, God alone became my portion. 

I found my all in Him; I wanted nothing else. 

And by the grace of God this has remained...

And has made me a happy man, an exceedingly happy man...

And it led me to care only about the things of God. 

I ask affectionately, my beloved brethren, have you fully surrendered the heart to God?...

Or is there this thing or that thing with which you are taken up irrespective of God? 

I read a little of the Scriptures before, but preferred other books...

But since that time the revelation He has made of Himself has become unspeakably blessed to me...

And I can say from my heart, God is an infinitely lovely Being. 

Oh, be not satisfied until in your own inmost soul you can say, God is an infinitely lovely Being!' 

~Selected~

I pray to God this day to make me an extraordinary Christian.

~Whitefield~

Sincerity

Psa 51:6  Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

There is a remarkable foreshadowing of the insight of Christ Jesus in these words. 

They ring with that depth which is so clear a note of Jesus' moral teaching. 

We have been inclined to think of the Old Testament as dealing with the outward sphere of action...

We have been inclined to say that it was Jesus who first ran down the act into the heart. 

But we must not separate the Old and New by any hard and fast distinctions such as these. 

They intermingle, both in creed and character.

If Abraham saw Christ's day and was glad, David saw Christ's day and was sad. 

He recognized God's passionate insistence that a man should be thoroughly sincere.

It is worth noting, too, that when David recognized this, he had a broken heart.

David had sinned, and David was repentant...

And a repentant man sees deeply.

There are some hours in life when we are blind; hours when we see nothing and forget everything... 

And all our past, and all our honor and duty and God, and heaven and hell, fade and are blotted out. 

But when repentance comes, we see again. 

We see what we have done and what we are. 

We touch a sinfulness far deeper than our act.

And that was David's case. 

On ordinary days he might have been content with ordinary sacrifices...

But in an hour like this it was "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned," and "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts."

This, then, is God's insistence on sincerity, and it is always a hard thing to be sincere. 

Life is so full of little insincerity's that it is often the man who is seriously struggling to be true who feels most keenly how untrue he is. 

It is always a hard thing to be sincere.

But there are times when it is harder than at other times. 

And it is especially hard today.

~George H. Morrison~

As Many Heads As A Hydra, And As Many Lives As A cat!

Beware of SELF! This is the WORST enemy we have to deal with!
 
Self-will...
 
Self-wisdom...
 
Self-righteousness...
 
Self-seeking...
 
Self-dependence... 

And self-boasting.
 
It is a large family...and I cannot count up all the branches! 

They are all nearly related to Satan...

And they are all a sworn enemy to our peace.
 
If we lie low...then the Lord will raise us up.
 
But if we will be something...then His arm will surely pull us down.

That monster SELF has as many heads as a Hydra, and as many lives as a cat! 

It is more than twenty-five years since I hoped it was fast nailed to the Cross! 

But alas, it is alive...and still mixing with and spoiling everything I do!

N.B. The Hydra was a serpentine mythological water monster with many heads.
 
For every head chopped off...the Hydra would re-grow a couple of new heads.


~John Newton~

I Would Refer It Back To Him Again!

It was an excellent reply that a Christian mother once made to a friend-when her beloved and only child lay in a dangerous sickness at the point of death.

The friend asked the mother, What would you now ask of God, in reference to your child? 

Would you beg Him for your child's life?

The mother answered, "I refer that to the will of God."

But, said her friend, "if God would refer it to you-what would you choose then?"

Why truly, said she, if God would refer it to me-I would refer it back to Him again!

He is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him. 1 Samuel 3:18 

1Sa 3:18  And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good. 

Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides.

The house collapsed, and all your children are dead! 

Job 1:19  And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.  

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away-may the name of the LORD be praised.

Job 1:21  And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Nevertheless, I want Your will to be done, not Mine. 

Luke 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

May the Lord's will be done.

Act 21:14  And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

~John Flavel~

A Wonderful Guarantee

When called to serve or to suffer, we take stock of our strength...

And we find it to be less than we thought, and less than we need.

But let not our heart sink within us while we have such a word as this to fall back upon...

For it guarantees us all that we can possibly need.

God has strength omnipotent;
 

That strength He can communicate to us;

And His promise is that He will do so.

He will be the food of our souls, and the health of our
hearts;

And thus He will give us strength.

There is no telling how much power God can put into a man.

When divine strength comes, human weakness is no more a hindrance.

Do we not remember seasons of labor and trial in which we received such special strength that we wondered at ourselves?

In the midst of danger we were calm...

Under bereavement we were resigned...

In slander we were self contained...

And in sickness we were patient.

The fact is, that God gives unexpected strength when unusual trials come upon us.
 

We rise out of our feeble selves.

Cowards play the man...

Foolish ones have wisdom given them...

And the silent receive in the self-same hour what they shall speak.

My own weakness makes me shrink...

But God’s promise makes me brave.

Lord, strengthen me“according to thy word.”

~Charles Spurgeon~