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~

Limitless Riches

Paul's God is Our God and Will supply All our need.

Paul felt Sure of this in reference to the Philippians, and we feel Sure of it as to ourselves. 

God will do it, for it is like Him...

He Loves us, He Delights to Bless us, and it will Glorify Him to do so. 

His Pity, His Power, His Love, His Faithfulness, all work together that We Be Not Famished. 

What a measure doth the LORD go by: "According to His Riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 

The Riches of His grace are Large, but what shall we say of the riches of His glory? 

His "Riches Of Glory By Christ Jesus"-who shall form an estimate of this?

According to this Immeasurable Measure Will God Fill Up the immense abyss Of Our Necessities. 

He makes the LORD Jesus the receptacle and the channel of His fullness, and then He imparts to us His wealth of love in its highest form. Hallelujah!

The writer knows what it is to be tried in the work of the LORD.

Fidelity has been recompensed with anger, and liberal givers have stopped their subscriptions...

But he whom they sought to oppress has not been one penny the ~ nay, rather He Has Been The Richer; for this promise has been true, "My God Shall Supply All Your Need." 

God's Supplies Are Surer Than Any Bank.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Bible Is No Lazy Man's Book!

Pro 2:4  If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

Pro 2:5  Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

The Bible is no lazy man's book!

Much of its treasure, like the valuable minerals stored in the bowels of the earth, only yield up themselves to the diligent seeker.

~Arthur Pink~

Do not be satisfied with a superficial survey of Scripture, as many Christians are.

These are not the days of contemplation as the old Puritan times were-We are too apt to be superficial...

But do remember that while there are nuggets of gold upon the very surface of Scripture, yet the most valuable mines of gold are far down!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Truth lies deep, and must be dug for.

~William Gurnall~

Strive to penetrate to the bottom of Divine truths, and never be content with a superficial knowledge.

~David Brainerd~

Dig for the truth like a man digging for Australian gold!

~J.C. Ryle~

Pro 4:7  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Immortal Till Work Done

                                                      
A fair assurance this! 

It was no doubt based upon a promise, inwardly whispered in the psalmist's heart, which he seized upon and enjoyed. 

Is my case like that of David? 

Am I depressed because the enemy affronts me?

Are there multitudes against me and few on my side?

Does unbelief bid me lie down and die in despair-a defeated, dishonored man?

Do my enemies begin to dig my grave?

What then?

Shall I yield to the whisper of fear, and give up the battle, and with it give up all hope?

Far from it. 

There is life in me yet: "I shall not die." 

Vigor will return and remove my weakness: "I shall live."

The LORD lives, and I shall live also. 

My mouth shall again be opened: "I shall declare the works of Jehovah." 

Yes, and I shall speak of the present trouble as another instance of the wonder-working faithfulness and love of the LORD my God. 

Those who would gladly measure me for my coffin had better wait a bit, for "the LORD hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death."

Glory be to His name forever! 

I am immortal till my work is done. 

Till the LORD wills it, no vault can close upon me. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Maintain The Difference

Exodus 8:23  And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.

Pharaoh has a people, and the LORD has a people. 

These may dwell together and seem to fare alike, but there is a division between them, and the LORD will make it apparent. 

Not forever shall one event happen alike to all, but there shall be great difference between the men of the world and the people of Jehovah's choice. 

This may happen in the time of judgments, when the LORD becomes the sanctuary of His saints. 

It is very conspicuous in the conversion of believers when their sin is put away, while unbelievers remain under condemnation. 

From that moment they become a distinct race, come under a new discipline, and enjoy new blessings. 

Their homes, henceforth, are free from the grievous swarms of evils which defile and torment the Egyptians. 

They are kept from the pollution of lust, the bite of care, the corruption of falsehood, and the cruel torment of hatred, which devour many families. 

Rest assured, tried believer, that though you have your troubles you are saved from swarms of worse ones, which infest the homes and hearts of the servants of the world's prince. 

The LORD has put a division; see to it that you keep up the division in Spirit, aim, character, and company.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Need Of Solitude With GOD

Mat 14:23  And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
 
Christ Jesus, in His humanity, felt the need of complete solitude...to be entirely by Himself, alone with Himself. 

Each of us knows how draining constant interchange with others can be and how it exhausts our energy. 

As part of humankind, Jesus knew this and felt the need to be by Himself in order to regain His strength. 

Solitude was also important to Him in order to fully realize His high calling, His human weakness, and His total dependence on His Father.
 
As a child of God, how much more do we need times of complete solitude...

Times to deal with the spiritual realities of life and to be alone with God the Father. 

If there was ever anyone who could dispense with special times of solitude and fellowship, it was
our Lord. 

Yet even He could not maintain His full strength and power for His work and His fellowship with the Father without His quiet time. 

God desires that every servant of His would understand and perform this blessed practice...

That His church would know how to train its children to recognize this high and holy privilege...

And that every believer would realize the importance of making time for God alone.
 
Oh, the thought of having God all alone to myself and knowing that God has me all alone to Himself! 

~Andrew Murray~

Lamartine, the first of the French Romantic poets and a writer of the nineteenth century, in one of his books wrote of how his mother had a secluded spot in the garden where she spent the same hour of each day. 

He related that nobody ever dreamed of intruding upon her for even a moment of that hour.
 
It was the holy garden of the Lord to her.
 
Pity those people who have no such Beulah land! (See Isa. 62:4.) 

Jesus said,“Go into your room, close the door and pray” (Matt. 6:6), 

For it is in quiet solitude that we catch the deep and mysterious truths that flow from the soul of the things God allows to enter our lives.
 
A Meditation...

My soul, practice being alone with Christ! 

The Scripture says, “When he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything” (Mark 4:34).

Do not wonder about the truth of this verse, for it can be true of your life as well. 

If you desire to have understanding, then dismiss the crowd, just as Jesus did. (See Matt. 14:22.) 

Let them “go away one at a time until only Jesus [is] left” (John 8:9) with you. 

Have you ever pictured yourself s the last remaining person on earth, or the only person left in the entire universe?
 
If you were the only person remaining in the universe, your every thought would be,“God and I...! God and I...!”

And yet He is already as close to you as that. 

He is as near as if no heart but His and yours ever beat throughout the boundlessness of space.
 
O my soul, practice that solitude! 

Practice dismissing the crowd! 

Practice the stillness of your heart! 

Practice the majestic song “God and I! God and I!”

Let no one come between you and your wrestling angel! 

You will receive conviction yet pardon, when you meet Jesus alone! 

~George Matheson~

All Comes From The Hand Of Him Who Is Too Wise To Err And Too Loving To Be Unkind!

Faith endures as seeing Him who is invisible. 

Faith endures the disappointments, the hardships and the heartaches of life-by recognizing that all comes from the hand of Him who is too wise to err and too loving to be unkind.

So long as we are occupied with any other object than God Himself, there will be neither rest for the heart nor peace for the mind. 

But when we receive all that enters our lives as from His hand-then, no matter what may be our circumstances or surroundings; whether in a hovel, or prison-dungeon, or at a martyr's stake-we shall be enabled to say, "The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places" (Psalm 16:6). 

But that is the language of faith, not of sight nor of sense.

Faith may swim-where reason cannot wade! Thomas Watson

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 

~Arthur Pink~

A SATANIC MASTER-STROKE

 

Perhaps one of the most SIGNIFICANT things to any who are “not ignorant of his (Satan’s) devices” is that there never has been a specially spiritual movement of God in the earth, calculated to serve Him in a particularly useful way, but what Satan’s animosity thereto has been manifested along the line of division, schism, discord, separation, and a breaking down of fellowship. 

And how often has the real sting and stigma been modified by a feigning love unbroken and preserved, when the divided parties should have no association with each other in the things of God. 

Love, let us again say emphatically, is incumbent upon the Lord’s people toward “all men”, whether of the “household” or otherwise (Gal. 6:10), but fellowship is something more. 

It is the most spiritual things which suffer the greatest shocks in this matter, and again we say this carries its own Satanic significance.

The methods of the enemy are numberless, the “wiles” unfathomable by human wit.

A suggestion of suspicion, if it finds lodgment, is enough to completely paralyze the work of God and spiritual progress. 

Have a doubt and you are done. 

There never was a time when positive spiritual work was more jeopardized by suspicion than now.

It would seem that hell is largely employed in issuing forth smoke, clouds, vapours, mists of suspicion, question, reservation, in order to infect with uncertainty, mystification, prejudice, fear, discrediting, distrust, aloofness.

It is in the “heavenlies” that this is most registered; that is, the higher ranges of spiritual things.

It is an ATMOSPHERE, and it is everywhere. 

You sense it wherever you go.

In some places it is stifling - there is no clear breath of the Spirit, and a word of life is almost choked back.

Of course, this is no new thing, although now so intensified.

The New Testament is full of it.

The Lord Jesus met it - not in spiritual people, only in religious people. 

John met it.

Paul met it in every direction.

It was made to circle round his person, his methods, his character, and his message.

Even some members of the mother assembly at Jerusalem showed suspicion and lack of cordiality toward him.

Paul’s setting aside of the Law, for instance, seemed to them to go beyond even the Lord Himself, who had not openly abrogated it.

Then Paul appealed to “visions and revelations” (2 Cor. 12:1), but they asserted that these were dubious, or at best they could only serve to ratify his own personal convictions. 

Again, both Paul and his opponents appealed to the Old Testament, but the letter of the Old Testament seemed undoubtedly to favor the literalists, and his ‘attempt to read new meanings’ into the old revelation seemed to them mere cleverness.

They looked on it as barefaced denial of the Divine Word.

To them it looked as though he did not believe the Bible.

They regarded his innovations as morally dangerous.

Of course, this in SUBSTANCE ought to have no parallel today, but it has in spirit. 

There is nothing added by revelation to the Scriptures since the New Testament was closed, but there is much to be RECOGNIZED in them by the enlightenment of the Spirit. 

There is no new meaning, but there is much new RECOGNITION of the meaning.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Deliverance From Dust And Chaff

                                                                                 
The sifting process is going on still. 

Wherever we go, we are still being winnowed and sifted. 

In all countries God's people are being tried "like as corn is sifted in a sieve." 

Sometimes the devil holds the sieve and tosses us up and down at a great rate, with the earnest desire to get rid of us forever.

Unbelief is not slow to agitate our heart and mind with its restless fears. 

The world lends a willing hand at the same process and shakes us to the right and to the left with great vigor. 

Worst of all, the church, so largely apostate as it is, comes in to give a more furious force to the sifting process. 

Well, well! Let it go on. 

Thus is the chaff severed from the wheat. 

Thus is the wheat delivered from dust and chaff.

And how great is the mercy which comes to us in the text, "Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth"! 

All shall be preserved that is good, true, gracious.

Not one of the least of believers lose anything worth calling a loss. 

We shall be so kept in the sifting that it shall be a real gain to us through Christ Jesus.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Pray Our Beloved To Print The Image Of His Bleeding Self Upon The Tablets Of Our Hearts!

Isa 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
 
Isa 53:4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
 
Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
 
Pilate delivered our Lord to the Roman lictors to be scourged. 

The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of torture. 

It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were intertwined among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down, these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration and tore off the flesh from the bone. 

The Savior was, no doubt, bound to the whipping post and thus beaten. 

He had been beaten before; but this flagellation of the Roman lictors was probably the most severe of His scourgings.

My soul, stand here and weep over His poor stricken body! 

Believer, can you gaze upon Him without tears as He stands before you, the mirror of agonizing love? 

He is at once as white as the lily for innocence, and as red as the rose with the crimson of His own blood.

As we feel the sure and blessed healing that His stripes have wrought in us-does not our heart melt at once with love and grief?

If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus, surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our bosoms.

We would be compelled to go to our chambers and weep, but our business calls us away. 

So we will first pray our Beloved to print the image of His bleeding self upon the tablets of our hearts all the day...

And at nightfall we will return to commune with Him and sorrow that our sin should have cost Him so dearly!

~Charles Spurgeon~

A Mark Which Is Always Set Upon Christ's Sheep, And Never Set Upon Any Others!

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

There are some graces which in their vigor are not absolutely essential to the bare existence of spiritual life, though they are very important for its healthy growth. 

But True Love for God must be in the heart-or else there is no grace there whatever. 

If a man does not love God, then he is not a renewed man. 

Love for God is a mark which is always set upon Christ's sheep, and never set upon any others.

I have no right, therefore, to believe that I am a regenerated person-unless my heart Truly and Sincerely Loves God. 

If I have been regenerated, I will not be perfect, but this one thing I can say: "Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You!"

When by believing we receive the privilege to become sons of God-we also receive the nature of sons, and with filial love we cry, "Abba, Father!"

There is no exception to this rule! 

If a man does not sincerely love God-then he is not born of God. 

As the sun must give forth its light-so must a soul that has been created anew by divine grace, display its nature by earnest affection toward God. 

You are not born again, unless you love God. 

Sincere love to God is indispensable!

1Co 16:22  If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. 

~Charles Spurgeon~