Iron Saints

Psalm 105:18  Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:

Turn that about and render it in our language, and it reads thus, “Iron entered his soul.” 

Is there not a truth in this? 

That sorrow and privation, the yoke borne in the youth, the soul’s enforced restraint, are all conducive to an iron tenacity and strength of purpose, and endurance or fortitude, which are the indispensable foundation and framework of a noble character.

Do not flinch from suffering; bear it silently, patiently, resignedly; and be sure that it is God’s way of infusing iron into your spiritual life. 

The world wants iron dukes, iron battalions, iron sinews, and thews of steel. God wants iron saints; and since there is no way of imparting iron to the moral nature but by letting people suffer, He lets them suffer.

Are the best years of your life slipping away in enforced monotony? 

Are you beset by opposition, misunderstanding, and scorn, as the thick undergrowth besets the passage of the woodsman pioneer? 

Then take heart; the time is not wasted...

God is only putting you through the iron regimen. 

The iron crown of suffering precedes the golden crown of glory. 

And iron is entering into your soul to make it strong and brave. 

~F. B. Meyer

But you will not mind the roughness nor the steepness of the way, Nor the chill, unrested morning, nor the searness of the day...

And you will not take a turning to the left or the right, But go straight ahead, nor tremble at the coming of the night...

For the road leads home.

The Things Which Are Seen Are Temporary

2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

How strong is the snare of the things that are seen... 

And how necessary for God to keep us in the things that are unseen! 

If Peter is to walk on the water, he must walk...

If he is going to swim, he must swim...

But he cannot do both. 

If the bird is going to fly it must keep away from the fences and the trees, and trust to its buoyant wings.

But if it tries to Keep Within Easy Reach Of The Ground, it will make poor work of flying.

God had to bring Abraham to the End of his own strength, and to let him see that in his own body he could do nothing. 

He had to consider his own body as good as dead, and then take God for the whole work...

And when he Looked Away From Himself, and Trusted God Alone...

Then He became Fully Persuaded that what He had promised, He was Able Also To Perform.

This is what God is teaching us...

And He has to Keep Away Encouraging Results until we learn to Trust Without Them...

And then He loves to make His word Real in Fact as well as Faith.

Let us look only to Him To-day to do All things as He shall Choose and in the Way He shall Choose.

~A. B. Simpson

Faith Seeks The Glory That Comes From GOD!

Faith seeks the glory that comes from God, that only comes where God is All. 

As long as we Take Glory from one another...

 

As long as ever We Seek and Love and Jealously Guard the glory of this life...

 

The honor and reputation that comes from men...

 

We Do Not Seek, And Cannot Receive The Glory That Comes From God. 

 

Pride Renders Faith Impossible. 

 

Salvation comes through a cross and a crucified Christ. 

 

Salvation is the fellowship with the crucified Christ in the Spirit of His cross. 

 

Salvation is union with and delight in, salvation is participation in, the humility of Jesus. 

 

Is it a wonder that our faith is so feeble when Pride Still Reigns So Much..?

 

And we have scarce learnt even to Long or Pray for Humility as the Most Needful and Blessed part of salvation?

 

~Andrew Murray~

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~

It Is Radical, Revolutionary, Lasting!

                                                   
In the new birth, God exerts a quickening influence or power upon His own elect. 

Regeneration is very, very much more than simply shedding a few tears because of some temporary remorse over sin. 

It is far more than changing our course of life, the leaving off of bad habits and the substituting of good ones. 

It is something different from the mere cherishing and practicing of noble ideals. 

It goes infinitely deeper than coming forward to take some popular evangelist by the hand, signing a pledge-card, or "joining the church." 

The new birth is no mere turning over a new leaf, but is the inception and reception of a new life! 

It is no mere reformation, but a radical transformation. 

In short, the new birth is a miracle, the result of the supernatural operation of God.  

It is Radical, Revolutionary, Lasting!

In the new birth:

God lays hold of one who is spiritually dead, and quickens him into newness of life!

God takes up one who was shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin, and conforms him to the image of His Son!

God seizes a drudge of the Devil, and makes him a member of His holy family!

God picks up a destitute beggar, and makes him joint-heir with Christ!

God comes to one who is full of enmity against Him, and gives him a new heart that is full of love for Him!

God stoops to one who by nature is a rebel, and works in him both to will and to do of His good pleasure!

By His irresistible power, God transforms... A sinner-into a saint;

An enemy-into His friend; A drudge of the Devil-into His beloved child!

~Arthur Pink

You Were Running Well - Who Hindered You From Obeying The Truth?

Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

Something had Broken In and Interrupted their running in the Spiritual race. 

This was Extremely serious and disturbed Paul to the depths of his being. 

It seems that in the case of the Galatians it was again the natural man, but this time in the realm of natural emotions. 

They seem to have been of that temperamental constitution which corresponds to Christ's words in the parable about seed falling into shallow soil. 

The seed was received quickly and earnestly, but did not go on to produce a harvest. 

There are some people who make an enthusiastic start in this way and make quite a stir about it, but then do not go steadily on. 

These Galatians were like that...

They made a tremendous response...

They loudly protested their devotion...

And then they were Very Quick to Drop Out Of The Race. 

Why? 

Because they lived on their emotions, on their feelings, and these were changeable. 

This may well be a matter of temperament, but in fact something of such a characteristic can be found in most of us. 

We respond to an appeal, come under the power of a great emotion, and then slack off. 

In the words of the Lord Jesus: "When tribulation or persecution ariseth... he is offended"

Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

Clearly, then, if you and I are going to persevere to the end we must have a Greater Power than that of our natural emotional life. 

The only hope is that it may be true of us, as of Paul: "The love of Christ constraineth".

2Co 5:14  For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

There is all the difference between the natural and the spiritual in this matter of the energy of love. 

So it is that the love of Christ should hold or grip us, conquering our natural emotions by the mighty power of the Spirit. 

Our feelings come and go. 

They may be strong at times but they can also grow very weak. 

If we do not know something of the Mighty Grip of Christ's love, we will never go right through to the end of this strenuous race. 

After all it is the love of Christ which makes for the fullness of Christ. 

If we finally come to that fullness it can only be by the constraint and holding power of His love. 

Ye were running well: who did hinder you?

The answer is, You ran in the strength of your own emotions...

You ran as your enthusiastic response to God's call because it affected your feelings for the time.

The letter to the Galatians is devoted to emphasizing the place of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer...

For He alone can supply the necessary energy of love for us to go on running well.

~T. Austin Sparks

Where There's A Will There's a Way

Luke 19:2  And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. 

Luke 19:3  And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. 

Luke 19:4  And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. 

Jesus was at the height of His popularity. 

Wherever He moved the narrow streets were crowded. 

It would have taken a Saul to have seen Him well...

There seemed no hope for a small man like Zacchaeus...

And had Zacchaeus had a small heart in his bosom, he would have gone home and said it was impossible. 

But Zacchaeus had had a great will to grow rich, and he had found there was a way to that...

And now he had a great will to see Jesus, and he was not the sort of person to be stopped. 

He quite forgot himself, says Matthew Henry. 

He climbed the sycamore like a schoolboy. 

Perhaps he had heard that except we become as children we cannot see the kingdom of heaven-or the King. 

At any rate he was earnestly bent on seeing Jesus, and as a result he saw Him and was seen. 

All of which has been written down to teach us that the whole-hearted search for God is always crowned. 

What texts lay stress on that? 

Mat 7:7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

Pro 8:17  I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

~George H. Morrison

The Principle Of Holding On Exemplified By Christ's Life

Luke 9:62  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Not only did our LORD Insist on this...

He Emphasized it in His life. 

For all His meekness, Nothing Could Divert Him from the Allotted Path of His vocation. 

Think, for instance, of that day when He was summoned to the bed of Jairus' daughter. 

In the crowded street a woman touched Him, and He instantly felt that "virtue had gone out of him." 

But the original is far more striking in the light it sheds upon the Lord...

He felt that the Power had gone out of Him. 

All of us are familiar with such seasons, when Power seems to be utterly exhausted. 

In such seasons we cannot face the music; the grasshopper becomes a Burden. 

And the Beautiful thing about our LORD is how, after such an experience as that...

He Held To It In Quiet Trust On GOD. 

He knew, in all its strength, the recurring temptation to give over. 

He had to Reinforce His Will Continually for the Great Triumph of Continuing. 

Through days of weakness...

Through seasons of exhaustion...

Through hours when His soul was sorrowful unto death...

He Held To The Task Given Him Of GOD. 

It is Very Easy to Hold On when we are Loved and Honored and Appreciated...

When our strength is equal to our problem...

When the birds are singing in the trees...

But to Hold To It when All the sky is Dark is the Finest Heroism in the world,...

And that was the Heroism of the LORD.  

~George Morrison 

All Things Are Possible To Him That Believeth!

The "all things" do not always come simply for the asking, for the reason that God is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith... 

And in our training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith,...

And often many stages are passed before we really realize what is the end of faith, namely, the victory of faith.

Real moral fiber is developed through discipline of faith. 

You have made your request of God, but the answer does not come. What are you to do?

Keep on believing God's Word; never be moved away from it by what you see or feel, and thus as you stand steady, enlarged power and experience is being developed. 

The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction as to God's Word and being unmoved from your position of faith make you stronger on every other line.

Often God delays purposely, and the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes.

In the lives of all the great Bible characters, God worked thus. 

Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not great in the beginning, but were made great through the discipline of their faith...

And only thus were they fitted for the positions to which God had called them.

For example, in the case of Joseph whom the Lord was training for the throne of Egypt, we read in the Psalms:

The word of the Lord tried him.

It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him...

But it was the word God had spoken into his heart in the early years concerning elevation and honor which were greater than his brethren were to receive...

It was this which was ever before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible of fulfillment...

Until he was there imprisoned, and all in innocence, while others who were perhaps justly incarcerated, were released, and he was left to languish alone.

These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth and development, that, "when his word came" (the word of release), found him fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a love and patience only surpassed by God Himself.

No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these. 

When God has spoken of His purpose to do, and yet the days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard...

But it is a discipline of faith that will bring us into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.

The Lesson Of Service

John 13:4  He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

John13:5  After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

Serving is not an easy lesson to learn. 

But it is a lesson we Must Learn, if ever we would Become Like our Master. 

Jesus did not come to Be Served, but to Serve. 

He Served to the Uttermost, just as He Loved to the Uttermost. 

Any Service that Needed To Be Done For Another, He did as Naturally and as Simply as He breathed! 

He Loved people, and was Interested in them and was Ready always to be Helpful to them. 

It Never Mattered what the service was - whether it was the Saving of a soul, the Curing of a grievous sickness, or the Giving of a cup of water. 

He did the Least service as Graciously and as Divinely as the greatest! 

The washing of feet was the lowliest service any man could do for another. 

It was the work of the lowliest slave. 

Yet Jesus Without Hesitation, did this service for His own disciples. 

Thus He Taught them that Nothing anyone may ever need to have done by another, is Unfit for the Holiest hands.  

We begin to be like Christ, only when we Begin To Love Others Enough To Serve Them, regardless of the lowliness of the particular service.

One day a stranger entered an artist's studio in Milan. 

The artist was busy within. 

He was working on a painting of the head of Christ and appeared to take no notice of the stranger. 

At last he broke the silence, looked at the man and asked: "Sir, does it look like Jesus, or not?"

There Is No Surer Test Of The Genuineness Of Christian Life, Than In This Matter Of Serving Others. 

In serving others, we should inquire, "Are we like Jesus, or not?" 

We are too careful of our dignity. 

When we see the Son of God washing His disciples feet, we should be Ashamed Ever To Ask Whether Anything another may need to have done, is Too Menial for us to do. 

A king may do the lowliest kindness to the poorest peasant in his realm, and his Honor will only be Enhanced by it.

O blessed Jesus, when I see You bending, Girt as a servant, at Your servants' feet...

Love, lowliness, might - in zeal all blending, To wash their feet, and make them meet To share Your feast - I know not to adore...

Whether Your Humbleness, or Glory more!

~J. R. Miller

I Trust In Thy Word!

Psalm 119:42  So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word.

Just in proportion in which we believe that God will do just what He has said, is our faith strong or weak.

Faith has nothing to do with feelings, or with impressions, with improbabilities, or with outward appearances.

If we desire to couple them with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God because faith needs nothing of the kind. 

Faith rests on the naked Word of God. 

When we take Him at His Word, the heart is at peace.

God delights to exercise faith, first for blessing in our own souls, then for blessing in the Church at large, and also for those without. 

But this exercise we shrink from instead of welcoming. 

When trials come, we should say: "My Heavenly Father puts this cup of trial into my hands, that I may have something sweet afterwards."

Trials are the food of faith. 

Oh, let us leave ourselves in the hands of our Heavenly Father! 

It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children.

But trials and difficulties are not the only means by which faith is exercised and thereby increased. 

There is the reading of the Scriptures, that we may by them acquaint ourselves with God as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Are you able to say, from the acquaintance you have made with God, that He is a lovely Being? 

If not, let me affectionately entreat you to ask God to bring you to this, that you may admire His gentleness and kindness, that you may be able to say how good He is, and what a delight it is to the heart of God to do good to His children.

Now the nearer we come to this in our inmost souls, the more ready we are to leave ourselves in His hands, satisfied with all His dealings with us. 

And when trial comes, we shall say: "I will wait and see what good God will do to me by it, assured He will do it." 

Thus we shall bear an honorable testimony before the world, and thus we shall strengthen the hands of others.

~George Mueller

LORD Open Our Eyes That We May See!

2Ki 6:17  And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, “Lord, open our eyes that we may see”...

For the world all around us, as well as around the prophet, is full of God’s horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. 

And when our eyes are thus opened, we shall see in all events of life, whether great or small, whether joyful or sad, a “chariot” for our souls.

Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such...

And, on the other hand, even the smallest trial may be a powerful car to crush us into misery or despair if we consider it.

It lies with each of us to choose which they shall be. 

It all depends, not upon what these events are, but upon how we take them. 

If we lie down under them, and let them roll over us and crush us, they become powerful cars...

But if we climb up into them, as into a car of victory, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward, they become the chariots of God. 

~Hannah Whitall Smith

The Lord cannot do much with a crushed soul, hence the adversary’s attempt to push the Lord’s people into despair and hopelessness over the condition of themselves, or of the church. 

It has often been said that a dispirited army goes forth to battle with the certainty of being beaten. 

We heard a missionary say recently that she had been invalided home purely because her spirit had fainted, with the consequence that her body sunk also. 

We need to understand more of these attacks of the enemy upon our spirits and how to resist them. 

If the enemy can dislodge us from our position, then he seeks to “wear us out” by a prolonged siege, so that at last we, out of sheer weakness, let go the cry of victory.

Dan 7:25  And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

GOD Raises Up Vessels In Relation To HIS Full Purpose

                                                                                   
Another thing is this: do, dear friends, adjust your minds to this fact, that God raises up instruments and vessels in relation to His FULL purpose. 

And those instruments and vessels are not something in themselves, and their ministry is not just bound up with them. 

Ezekiel's vocation, God's choice of him, God's raising of him up, God's using of him, and his committal to the Spirit was related to a people. 

Related to a people; it was not his private ministry, his private anointing. 

The people were going to be held responsible for that ministry. 

That ministry, if it was going to be justified and vindicated, would be found in a people.

You must not say, "Oh, that's So-and-so's ministry," or "That is the ministry that they give at such and such a place, that is a line of teaching, or that is his particular emphasis." 

Beware, beware. 

They could have said that of Ezekiel, "Well, that's Ezekiel's ministry."

He's quite at liberty to fulfill it and carry it out, let him do it, and when he's done it, well, room will be made for someone else; for others, and that's that! and write it off. 

Anything that God has given of light or ministry that has been under the Holy Spirit is not for a time, it's for eternity. 

It is not private, it is for the people of God, and the people of God who come to the knowledge of it are going to be held responsible for it. 

Just dare not pass it off like that and say, "Well, that's just their emphasis, their line of teaching." 

Rather say, Is that of God? 

Has God given that? 

Are they any marks or evidences of the anointing in that? 

Is the Lord with that?

If so, for all time and eternity, you're responsible. 

It's in a people that it's to be found. 

They may refuse. 

They may forbear and it may not be found to work out. 

All right, then what happened in the case of Ezekiel will be repeated. 

For in one of his visions of God, he saw the glory being lifted away from Jerusalem and departing far away. 

And that's a terrible thing for the glory to depart - the glory to depart.

Well, that's the general situation. 

I said this afternoon I have a burden, and I must get my burden off. 

Forgive me if I seem to be too emphatic, but it's very necessary, dear friends, for us to seriously face this thing. 

God help us if we are not in line with and in sympathy with the Holy Spirit, there's no help for us and no hope for us. 

The great need of our time is for the people of God to be caught up again in a mighty energetic movement of the Spirit of God. 

But the Spirit has His ways and He has His grounds.

Well now, I have stated that in this inclusive way, that here we are confronted with this: on the one side, the Spirit is the spirit of a purpose. 

A purpose! On the other side the Spirit must have a committed vessel or committed vessels. 

And I might add to that that it is not always - not always - individual. 

God has many times raised up a little company of people in which He has deposited His treasure and made it the example for others. 

So I say that because some of you might say, "Well, we're not all Ezekiels. We can't all be Ezekiels." 

And I repeat: this is a relative or a related matter; this is not a personal thing at all.

So we come face to face with the major factor and distinctive feature of the purpose of God:

~T. Austin Sparks

It Is More Blessed To Give Than To Receive!

Act 20:35  I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

How shall we know the Difference between earthly and heavenly love? 

The one Centers on ourselves and is partly our ego seeking its Own gratification. 

The other Reaches Out to God and to people and Finds Its Joy in Glorifying Him and Blessing them. 

Love is Unselfishness, and the love that is not unselfish is not divine. 

How much do we give to others, and how much do we take for ourselves?

What is the center of our being?...Ourselves, or our Lord and His people and work?

May the Lord help us to know more fully the meaning of that great truth, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Mark 8:35  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

Have you found some precious treasure?

Pass it on.

Have you found some holy pleasure?

Pass it on.

Giving out is twice possessing,

Love will double every blessing,

On to higher service pressing,

Pass it on

~A. B. Simpson

Friendship Trust

John 14:1  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

It should be pointed out that no revealed truth becomes automatically effective. 

The effect any truth has upon us depends upon our attitude toward it. 

First it must be accepted in active faith and received into our minds as completely trustworthy and beyond dispute. 

It must become a kind of dye to give color to all of our thinking and praying. 

The more perfect our friendship with God becomes the simpler will our lives be. 

Those formalities that are so necessary to keep a casual friendship alive may be dispensed with when true friends sit in each other’s presence. 

True friends trust each other.

True friendship is based on mutual trust. 

If we can trust Christ for salvation, why can't we trust God in all areas of life? 

There is no alternative.

~A. W. Tozer

Lord, how often my heart is troubled because I don't trust You. I am letting go and trustfully sinking into Your arms.