Christ's Sword!

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Not peace, but a sword! 

Lord Jesus, this is a Hard saying! 

Teach me to Believe it, and to Submit to the ordeal-Sharp and Piercing and Painful though it may be.

Between me and my world, Christ's Sword may pierce with its remorseless edge. 

He Separates me From old sinful habits...

From old sinful employments...

From old sinful pleasures...

From old sinful friendships.

He Divides me from the society in which I was Accustomed to move. 

Your home is no longer there! He says. 

And I go out from the familiar surroundings, into an Untrodden region and realm.

Between me and my nearest and dearest, Christ's sword may pierce pitilessly. 

Perhaps the loved ones of my own house will have nothing to do with my Redeemer and Lord. 

Perhaps they see no beauty in Him, that they should desire Him. 

Then, in the deepest and noblest things, they and I will stand apart-a sundering tide rolling between us. 

And how immeasurably sad that will be!

Between me and myself, Christ's sword is sure to Pierce with a Blade that Does Not Spare! 

The I, The Self, which used to be so Vain, so Confident, so Proud-Must Be Slain Outright! 

Its days of Pride, Pleasure and Selfishness must end--until I can say...

It is No More I who live, but He-my Prophet, my Priest, my King-who lives in me!

What a change that is!

What a martyrdom!

It is painful, this stroke of Christ's sword. 

But the old confessor was right: "The nearer the sword-the nearer Heaven!"

If I am victim-I am victor too. 

Smitten down by Jesus-I am not destroyed, but Crowned!

~Alexander Smellie

What Is Satan's LIE In Connection With Life?

What is Satan's LIE in connection with life? 

 

He OFFERS False life, Another Kind of life that Looks Like the True one. 

 

Satan FALSIFIES true life, and, instead of being Spiritual life, it is just SOUL life. 

 

Do you know the difference between Spiritual life and Soul life?

 

Satan attacked the soul life of Adam. 

 

You know what the soul is, do you not? 

 

It is your Reason, your Emotions, your Will. 

 

Satan began by REASONING with Adam, and, oh, what a Dangerous thing it is to argue with Satan! 

 

NEVER Reason with the devil, or, in other words, Do Not Listen To His Arguments! 

 

There Is A Sting In His Tail! 

 

So Satan first came to man's Reason and started an argument: "Yea, Hath GOD Said?". 

 

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

 

Immediately a QUESTION about GOD was Lodged in the mind. 

 

There is a Terrible Destiny bound up with that Question!

 

Then Satan Appealed to Adam's FEELINGS, and, pointing to the Fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said: 'You see how Lovely and Full of juice that fruit is! 

 

How much it is to be Desired!' 

 

So Adam Looked at the fruit and said: 'How Lovely! 

 

I think I would like some of that.

 

His Emotions went out to it, and when Satan has got your Mind and your Emotions, it is not far to your WILL! 

 

The next thing was that Adam Took the fruit. 

 

He used his Will, and the Damage was done.

 

It is all symbolic, but, you see, it contains Eternal Principles. 

 

The whole kingdom and reign of Satan are built upon that basis. 

 

The Mind, the Heart and the Will of humanity are captured by the devil, but it is False life. 

 

What about all the Emotion in the world, even in Christianity? 

 

There is a Vast Difference between Spiritual, Eternal Life, and Soul life. 

 

There is such a thing as False life, and that thing is the Master-Stroke of Satan!

 

You will remember that there was a time in the history of Israel in the wilderness when certain sons of Aaron brought False fire and offered it upon GOD'S Altar. 

 

You Know What Happened! 

 

You know all about GOD'S Jealousy. 

 

There is a vast amount of False fire in this world today. 

 

It looks like True Life, True Fire, what is of GOD, But There Is A LIE In It...

 

And The Fruit Of That Tree Is Bitter Fruit In The end.

 

~T. Austin Sparks~

So Many Millions Of Nominal Christians!

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 

2Ti 3:5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Never have there been so many millions of nominal Christians as there are today.

And never has there been such a small percentage of Real believers. 

Never has Christendom been so crowded with those who have a Form Of Godliness, but who are strangers to its transforming power. 

We seriously doubt whether there has ever been a time in the history of this Christian era when there were such multitudes of Deceived souls within the churches...

Who truly believe that all is well with their souls, when in fact the wrath of God abides on them!

It is not that those empty professors who call themselves Christians are all conscious hypocrites, rather they are deceived souls...

And the tragic thing is that in most churches there is nothing in the preaching which is at all calculated to un-deceive them...

Instead, there is only that which bolsters them up in their delusion! 

There is a large class in Christendom today who are satisfied with a Bare Profession. 

They have heard some of the fundamentals of the Christian faith, and have given an intellectual assent thereto, and they mistake that for a saving knowledge of the Truth. 

Their Minds are Instructed-but their Hearts are Not Reached, Nor their Lives Transformed! 

They are Still Worldly in their affections and ways. 

There is No Real Subjection to God...

No Holiness of walk...

No Fruit to Christ's Glory.

Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

~Arthur Pink

The TESTING Of EVERYTHING!

Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 

EVERYTHING is going to be shaken in earth and in heaven, with a view to finding out just How Much There Is Of Christ Living In It. 

These Jewish believers were going to see the temple and the whole temple system wrecked..

And then they would Discover just how much they had got of Christ...

Or how much of their life was Bound Up with earthly things. 

They would see what was left when that was all gone. 

God is not only going to shake Judaism, but this heavenly thing. 

He will shake heaven and earth... 

And we shall find out by that shaking what we have left when the earthly system passes...

When even the representation of heavenly things in Christianity is Tested (for Christianity has developed a representation of heavenly things, just as Judaism has). 

Men have made an earthly representation of the New Testament revelation of the church, and ministry, and priesthood. 

It Is All Going To Be Tested. 

For many it is now in the Melting Pot. 

The issue is the Shaking of heaven and earth.

What have we got left? 

The issue is Christ.

Whether you like all that we have said, or agree with it or not, does not worry me...

But I am concerned that we have come to Christ...

To show that Christ in heaven is Our Life...

Christ in heaven is Our All...

And appointed to be so by God, and Nothing Here can take the place of Christ. 

God will bring everything to an End that takes the place of Christ. 

He has determined from eternity that in all things Christ should have the preeminence, and have the fullness...

And that Nothing shall glory before Him or take His Place. 

The Lord bring us into a Larger measure of Christ, and a Larger measure of Christ into us.

~T. Austin Sparks

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