Don't Be Ensnared By The Flesh Or The Devil!

The world does not object to your being a Christian for a time...

If she can but tempt you to cease your pilgrimage...

And settle down to buy and sell with her in Vanity Fair. 

The flesh will seek to ensnare you, and to prevent your pressing on to glory...

It is weary work being a pilgrim; come, give it up. 

Am I always to be mortified? 

Am I never to be indulged? 

Give me at least a furlough from this constant warfare.

Satan will make many a fierce attack on your perseverance... 

It will be the mark for all his arrows.

He will strive to hinder you in service: 

He will insinuate that you are doing no good; and that you want rest. 

He will endeavor to make you weary of suffering, he will whisper, “Curse God, and die.”

Or he will attack your steadfastness: “What is the good of being so zealous?

Be quiet like the rest...

Sleep as do others, and let your lamp go out as the other virgins do.

Or he will assail your doctrinal sentiments: “Why do you hold to these denominational creeds? 

Sensible men are getting more liberal...

They are removing the old landmarks: 

Fall in with the times.

Wear your shield, Christian

Therefore, close upon your armor...

And cry mightily unto God, that by his Spirit you may endure to the end.

~Charles Spurgeon

Are You A Hypocrite?

Job 8:11  Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?

The rush is spongy and hollow, and even so is a hypocrite; there is no substance or stability in him.

It is shaken to and fro in every wind just as formalists yield to every influence...

For this reason the rush is not broken by the tempest, neither are hypocrites troubled with persecution.

I would not willingly be a deceiver or be deceived...

Perhaps the text for this day may help me to try myself whether I be a hypocrite or no. 

The rush by nature lives in water, and owes its very existence to the mire and moisture wherein it has taken root...

Let the mire become dry, and the rush withers very quickly. 

Its greenness is absolutely dependent upon circumstances...

A present abundance of water makes it flourish, and a drought destroys it at once. 

Is this my case? 

Do I only serve God when I am in good company, or when religion is profitable and respectable? 

Do I love the Lord only when temporal comforts are received from His hands?

If so I am a base hypocrite...

And like the withering rush, I shall perish when death deprives me of outward joys.

But can I honestly assert that when bodily comforts have been few...

And my surroundings have been rather adverse to grace than at all helpful to it...

I have still held fast my integrity?

Then have I hope that there is genuine vital godliness in me. 

The rush cannot grow without mire...

But plants of the Lord's right hand planting can and do flourish even in the year of drought. 

A godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay. 

He who follows Christ for his bag is a Judas...

They who follow for loaves and fishes are children of the devil...

But they who attend Him out of love to Himself are His own beloved ones. 

Lord, let me find my life in Thee, and not in the mire of this world's favor or gain.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Repentance Is...

Repentance is the hand releasing those filthy objects it had previously clung to so tenaciously.  
 
Faith is extending an empty hand to God to receive His gift of grace.   

Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin.  
 
Faith is receiving a sinner's Savior.   

Repentance is revulsion of the filth and pollution of sin.  
 
Faith is a seeking of cleansing therefrom.   

Repentance is the sinner covering his mouth and crying, "Unclean, unclean!"  
 
Faith is the leper coming to Christ and saying, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean."

~Arthur Pink~

I Am Not Alone For My Father Is With Me

John 16:32  Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

It is certainly unnecessary to say that turning conviction into action requires great sacrifice.

It may mean renouncing or separating ourselves from specific people or things, leaving us with a strange sense of deprivation and loneliness.

Therefore the person who will ultimately soar like an eagle to the heights of the cloudless day and live in the sunshine of God must be content to live a relatively lonely life.

There are no birds that live in as much solitude as eagles, for they never fly in flocks.

Rarely can even two eagles be seen together.
 
And a life that is dedicated to God knows divine fellowship, no matter how many human friendships have had to be forfeited along the way.

God seeks “eagle people,” for no one ever comes into the full realization of the best things of God in his spiritual life without learning to walk alone with Him.

We see Abraham alone “in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities...near Sodom” (Gen. 13:12).

Moses, although educated in all the wisdom of Egypt, had to spend forty years alone with God in the desert.
 
And Paul, who was filled with all the knowledge of the Greeks and who sat “at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3 KJV),was required, after meeting Jesus, to go “immediately into Arabia” (Gal. 1:17) to learn of the desert life with God.

May we allow God to isolate us, but I do not mean the isolation of a monastery.

It is in the experience of isolation that the Lord develops an independence of life and of faith so that the soul no longer depends on the continual help, prayers, faith,and care of others.

The assistance and inspiration from others are necessary, and they have a place in a Christian’s development, but at times they can actually become a hindrance to a person’s faith and welfare.

God knows how to change our circumstances in order to isolate us.

And once we yield to Him and He takes us through an experience of isolation, we are no longer dependent upon those around us, although we still love them as much as before.

Then we realize that He has done a new work within us and that the wings of our soul have learned to soar in loftier air.

We must dare to be alone, in the way that Jacob had to be alone for the Angel of God to whisper in his ear,“Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel” (Gen. 32:28)...

In the way that Daniel had to be left alone to see heavenly visions...

And in the way that John had to be banished to the Isle of Patmos to receive and record “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him” (Rev. 1:1).

He has “trodden the winepress alone” (Isa. 63:3) for us.

Therefore, are we prepared for a time of “glorious isolation” rather than to fail Him?

God Is Our Ally

The LORD Christ in the midst of His people is to be acknowledged and obeyed. 

He is the vice-regent of God and speaks in the Father's name, and it is ours implicitly and immediately to do as He commands. 

We shall lose the promise if we disregard the precept. 

To full obedience how large the blessing! 

The LORD enters into a league with His people, offensive and defensive. 

He will bless those who bless us and curse those who curse us. 

God will go heart and soul with His people and enter in deepest sympathy into their position. 

What a protection this affords us! 

We need not concern ourselves about our adversaries when we are assured that they have become the adversaries of God. 

If Jehovah has taken up our quarrel, we may leave the foemen in His hands. 

So far as our own interest is concerned we have no enemies; but for the cause of truth and righteousness we take up arms and go forth to conflict. 

In this sacred war we are allied with the eternal God, and if we carefully obey the law of our LORD Jesus, He is engaged to put forth all His power on our behalf. 

Wherefore we fear no man. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Anchor Of Calvary

There was an evil hour once when I released the anchor of my faith...

I cut the cable of my belief; I no longer moored myself tight to the coasts of the Revelation of God...

I allowed my vessel to drift with the wind...

I said to reason, "You be my captain;"...

I said to my own brain, "You be my rudder;" and I started on my mad voyage. 

Thank God, it is all over now; but I will tell you its brief history.

It was one hurried sailing over the tempestuous ocean of free thought. 

I went on, and as I went, the skies began to darken; but to make up for that deficiency, the waters were brilliant with the glitter of brilliancy. 

I saw sparks flying upward that pleased me, and I thought, "If this is free thought, it is a good thing." 

My thoughts seemed like gems, and I scattered stars with both my hands...

But before long, instead of these flashes of glory, I saw grim fiends, fierce and horrible, come up from the waters...

And as I rushed on, they gnashed their teeth, and grinned at me...

They seized the bow of my ship and dragged me on, while I, in part, was impressed at the swiftness of my motion, but yet shuddered at the terrific rate with which I passed the old landmarks of my faith. 

As I hurried forward with a dreadful speed, I began to doubt my very existence...

I doubted if there were a world, I doubted if there were such a thing, as myself. 

I went to the very verge of the dreamy realms of unbelief...

I went to the very bottom of the sea of Unbelief. 

I doubted everything. 

But here the devil foiled himself...for the very extravagance of the doubt, proved its absurdity.

Just when I saw the bottom of that sea, there came a voice which said, "And can this doubt be true?" 

At this very thought I awoke. 

I started from that death-dream, which, God knows, might have damned my Soul, and ruined my body, if I had not awoke. 

When I arose, faith took the helm; from that moment I no longer doubted. 

Faith steered me back; faith cried, "Away, away!"

I cast my anchor on Calvary;  I lifted my eye to God; and here I am, "alive, and out of hell."

~Charles Spurgeon~