THE LORD MY HOPE

By Octavius Winslow, 1870

"The Lord is my portion, says my soul"

"The Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope."--1 Tim. 1:1

What a precious possession of the believing soul, springing from the Lord as his Portion, is hope. Rob the poor worldling of his--though it be but earth-bound, and fading as a midsummer's evening sun--and you have plunged him in the dark and deep abyss of despondency and despair. Manwithout hope is the most miserable being in the universe. But with the hope of the Christian glowing in his heart--a hope of which God is the Giver, Jesus the Foundation, the Spirit the Author, and heaven the goal--and there lives not among the happy, a happier being than he. Thus the believer is "saved by hope." Look, my soul, for a moment at this inestimable part of your portion, and learn more thoroughly in what it consists--what the sweet soothing it imparts, the holy obligations it imposes, and the splendid revelations it anticipates and unveils to faith's far-seeing eye. HOW does the believing soul arrive at the possession of Christ as its hope?

The first step is to relinquish every other. A hope of heaven built upon obedience to the law, upon our personal merits, upon anything of good that we fancy we are or can do, is a false hope; and, persisted in, will most assuredly make its deluded and unhappy possessor lamentably and eternally ashamed. Hope, too, springing from church privileges, religious ordinances, charitable gifts and pious duties, is equally fallacious and fatal.

But you, O believer, have not so learned Christ, if so be you have been taught by Him the truth as it is in Jesus. The Holy Spirit has written the sentence of death upon yourself, and upon all the dead works springing from self; and fleeing as from a plague-tainted garment out of your own righteousness, you have run into Christ, and enfolding yourself by faith in His righteousness, wrought by His obedience and dyed in His blood, you are justified and saved. Accepted in Him you are "beautiful as Tirzah, and all your garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made you glad." And now you have a "good hope through grace," and "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Then let us raise loud and high the thanksgiving anthem, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away."

Look well to it that the lamp of your Christian hope is constantly trimmed and brightly burning. Thegolden oil that feeds the lamp is drawn from Jesus Christ, and the hand that trims the flame isfaith. Despond not if at times the sun of your hope--to change the figure--is for a moment shaded, or is partially eclipsed. Built upon, and springing from Jesus Christ, it cannot entirely expire, since He Himself is our hope. Corruption within may strive to weaken it, adversity without may seem to shake it, temptations from concealed sources may fearfully assail it, nevertheless, your hope shall not perish from the Lord, but, built upon Christ, nourished by Christ, kept by Christ, and looking forward to being with and enjoying Christ forever, like a fine setting sun it shall grow larger and brighter as it descends, until dissolving into heaven's eternal effulgence it is lost in the full fruition of glory.

With such a hope as Christ, how strong and solemn the obligation to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present evil world. How humbly and submissively should we bow to all our Father's afflictive discipline, since He has given us His beloved Son to dwell in our hearts "the hope of glory." Thus "every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure." Cheer up, then, disconsolate one!

 http://www.gracegems.org/Winslows/daily_need_divinely_supplied.htm

Like sugar in our tea!

(James Smith, "Comfort for the Christian")

"Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things!" Matthew 6:32

God will display His wisdom--in promoting the eternal welfare of all His children. God's ways are not our ways. They are always profoundly wise; and His wisdom will in the end stand conspicuous and glorious in His paternal dealings with all of His children.

"For what son is not chastened by his father?" Hebrews 12:7
Beloved, if God is our Father--He will chastise us!
We need it!
We deserve it!
We shall have it!

But He will mix mercy with every affliction. Like sugar in our tea--it sometimes lies at the bottom, and needs stirring up!

But there is always mercy there! A cup of unmixed wrath was put into the hands of Jesus--that such a cup might never be put into our hands!

There is sweetness, in the bitterest cup which our Father gives us!

Let us therefore look for the sugar--as we sip the bitter potion!

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

http://www.gracegems.org/Grace_Gems.htm

The Need for the Anointing of the Spirit

Knowing God in Christ 

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 13 - The Need for the Anointing of the Spirit

We want to remind ourselves that, while the forty days were a parenthesis, they were only a parenthesis. We want rather to change the emphasis and say that, after all, they contained more in them than we have seen; yet they were only a parenthesis for everything was still objective. Whatever they entered into, or whatever happened to them, was still only by outward help. It says that He opened their understanding, or, opened their eyes. It was a fleeting thing, transcendent, something that happened to them for the moment, and it was by an outward act of His, by something done in that way.

 It was by His help and if it had all been left it would only have been another phase of history. If He had left it there at the end of the time it would have been just something, though very wonderful, that had happened; something that had taken place; something which had been a wonderful, amazing, mysterious part of their lives. They would have moved on from it, and it would have remained as a phase through which they had passed. There was the phase of the earthly walk, and then there was the phase of the resurrection. Both would have taken their place in history and become a memory, and that is all. It was not yet an inward part of their life and their being. Just as there was the prospective element about the three-and-a-half years of His movement and His teaching, and His work, so there was the prospective element in the forty days. Something else was required. It was all pointing to something else.

There are many prospective features about the forty days if you care to look at them again, which we have no time to do now; we will content ourselves with but one point which embraces everything else.

In John 20 we have these words: “Then he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” This was spoken on one of the occasions of His appearing to them. Now that was prospective. Not at that moment of His breathing did they receive the Holy Spirit, we know quite well, but it was a promise and a proviso. It was a designating of them as responsible to the Spirit when He should come. It was a securing unto them and of them unto the Holy Spirit. With Him, of course, the whole matter was timeless, and there is a sense in which there was no time in this, it was as good as done when He breathed on them, but actually and literally on the other hand, it was prospective, it was a looking forward; “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In that one inclusive prospective feature of the forty days you have gathered up the one great need which is essential to make all those values inward, abiding, permanent and living; turning history into experience. That is bound up with receiving the Holy Spirit.

We just want to look at that in its various parts. We have realised our need and confess it. We have expressed our longing and our desire that all that which has been presented to us should become a living reality in us. We declare that we believe it possible, because with Him all things are possible. Then how shall it be? How can it be? By what means can our desire be realised and His will fulfilled, and the impossible be made actual? “Receive ye the Holy Spirit” is the answer. It is all the Holy Spirit's work.

The forty days do not take the place of those great chapters in John 14 and 16. “I will not leave you as orphans...”; “I will send you the promise of the Father...”; “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth... He will take of Mine...”; “He will not speak of Himself...”. That was not fulfilled in the forty days. Something that looked very much like it, something that seemed very much in that realm (and it was) took place, but it was not the fulfilment. There was a real tasting of it, but it was not the abiding and established thing that the Lord had promised. The Holy Spirit must come to abide for the age, to Himself establish and make good all that the Lord had shown, had revealed, had set before. That is elementary, but I am quite sure that we are ready to admit that we need a new touch of the Spirit to bring us in a new way into this. That is what we need, what we must have, but, blessed be God, that is what He has provided, and what He intends.

Of course a lot may depend upon what we mean by a touch of the Spirit. Some things that we mean, the Lord does not mean about that, and the way in which that should happen according to our minds is not the way in which it actually does happen. Let us be frank about these things, and not allow any traditional interpretations of the Holy Spirit's coming and working to lead us astray. There are those children of God who can fix more or less definitely the time when they consciously received the Holy Spirit, just as there are those who can fix the hour when they were born again. There are others who cannot fix that hour in either case, but who, nevertheless, are born again and have the Spirit. We want to be quite clear about this, because some people get into trouble if they have not had some burning experience going through their whole being in a certain moment when they receive what is called the baptism of the Spirit. The increase of the work of the Spirit in illumination, in quickening, has often come through suffering, a dark time, a deep time, a time of total eclipse, a time of great emptying, going again (as we say) into death, and coming back, not with some new burst of revelation, but with some fresh secrets. That is the Holy Spirit going on with His work, doing this very thing. You know when the Lord touches anew, and that is as real a work of the Holy Spirit as any great cataclysmic burst and demonstration and sensation. So do not tie this matter up to any given, specific method. Our Pentecost may be without a sensation, but be very real.

What we want to recognise is that it is the result, not the method, that matters. The question before us is not: Did we, in receiving the Holy Spirit, have certain particular and peculiar sensations and accompaniments in any realm? but: Have we the evidences of having received the Spirit? Do we know the Lord Jesus in this resurrection way, this living way? Do we know the opening of the eyes? Are the results of the Spirit’s activity known?

The Lord desires to make this good in the case of everyone, and perhaps He may do so in a different way with everyone. Please do not feel that you may have missed the reality because you have not gone by a certain prescribed course. It is always dangerous to confine the movements of God to one line.

We must seek to break this up a little, and work from its beginning. “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.” I can never read that without somehow my mind linking it with the beginning of the book of Genesis, “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”. I think it is quite a true and right link and association. In the first place in Genesis you have the old creation by the breath of God, and all that came in with that creation required that breath of God in man to make its values and its meaning of practical account. God may have a world, a universe, but for that universe to be turned to practical account He must have a living man. He brought in man, and breathed into him the breath of life in order that His already created world might be turned to practical account. By the breathing everything was given its real meaning and turned to value.

Pass that over to the new creation, and here is the Head of the new creation — or the Creator Himself — on the ground of new creation breathing, and, in effect, saying, "You, the church, are the new creation man, to occupy this new world which has come in with resurrection, with all its new values, all its new potentialities". This new world of the resurrection requires a new man to give it its practical meaning. So He must bring in the men, and He breathes on them, and the church is the one new man inbreathed.

If this is the new creation, its very name presupposes the end of an old. Of course, we always come up against that sooner or later, somehow or other. It is quite useless for us to contemplate the Holy Spirit on the positive side, with all the new values and meaning, until we have looked squarely in the face the end of the old creation. We have seen it in the case of these very men, and that they had with them for evermore this knowledge, which they could always declare as a positive thing in their history. There was a day when, in spite of all my good desires, intentions, professions, protestations, in spite of all that I knew about the Lord Jesus, in spite of all that I tried to do for Him, there was a day when I died, and all that died with me, as a hopeless, unprofitable thing; a day when I came to see that in men, even in a religious way, dwells no good thing.

Each one of us must be in the place where we can say, "I know, not as having been taught it, not as having read it, not as having come by it as a part of a system of teaching with which I have become associated, but I know, written deep down in my own heart, as a part of my own spiritual history, that nothing is possible apart from Christ risen". All is unprofitable. That is not all done at once. It is only done in parts, and there will always be more to be done in that way, but there is that which is sufficient to make us know in our hearts that that is true. We may yet have to discover through futile attempts, that that is more true than we had realised. We may yet have to discover how utterly unfruitful and unprofitable we are, more than we ever thought, because this flesh is a “die-hard”; it takes a long time to really give up the ghost. It clings to its own ability to do something, and to know something, but nevertheless, however long-drawn-out that may be, and it may be lifelong, there is that from which it begins, where it comes home to us in some way which is a foundational thing, that the old creation is, so far as we are concerned, ruled out as unprofitable to God, and lies under His ban as a worthless thing.

Have you got a cross in your history? Have you got a grave in your history? If you have not then you are dwelling in the shadows. You may get flashes and touches, but they will be fleeting, transient, coming and going. If you have a cross and a grave in your experience, in your history, the Holy Spirit has got what He requires, and it is blessedly possible for you to have the abiding of this risen life in which all these values are made good, and growingly good.

What is the new creation? With it there comes first of all a new consciousness. You are conscious that things are new, and things are different. It is a new consciousness as to the Lord. You are alive to that to which you were never alive before; in every realm things are the same, yet entirely different. Somehow or other you move in the same surroundings, and touch the same people, but there is something new. There is a new consciousness. Things have become different.

You know how true this is in conversion. When you are born again truly, you go back to your business and it is the same business, and you are with the same people, and the same old routine, but you are different, and you have got a different consciousness, and you have, therefore, a different consciousness about you. There is a new aliveness that comes in with the new creation to what was so dark and dead before. Take just the matter of the object of being alive. Before you did not know why you were alive, but now there comes a sense of a new purpose. You may not even yet know what it is, but you have a new sense that there is purpose in your being here in this world. We have often said one of the blessed marks of new birth is that there is a new consciousness of having been born for a purpose. What is it that makes the new convert want to do something in relation to Christ? It is the new consciousness of purpose. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

I believe that when the Holy Spirit really has His way He makes remarkable differences in this direction, that we see people differently. Before we saw them for what they are in the flesh, and found them exceedingly awkward and difficult and impossible. Somehow or other when the Holy Spirit really gets hold of us there is a new consciousness as to people, our relationships, and we see something that we never saw before in people. Things are very much more possible than they were. You and I need the Holy Spirit in this direction. Whether you are able, out of experience, to follow what we are saying, it makes no difference to the fact. If you have got an impossible person to work with, and the Lord has called you alongside of that impossible person, what you need is the Holy Spirit to enable you to have a consciousness and to see something more than just the natural condition, to lift above that level. The Holy Spirit does give this new consciousness.

Not only do we have a new consciousness, but we have a new capacity. The Holy Spirit gives capacities that none of us have by nature. We may by nature be very limited in our capabilities. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit we may have capabilities that the best men and women of this world without the Holy Spirit have not got. A truly Spirit-indwelt child of God has capabilities and capacities that no one else has. This very breathing carries with it capacity. Until Adam was breathed into he had no capacities for all that he was intended to do; but when he became a living soul by the breath of God he had capacities for knowing, for doing, for understanding. The new creation is like that, with new capacities, capabilities for knowing, for understanding, for doing, that we never had before. No child of God ought ever to settle down and finally accept the position that they cannot in any particular. We should never say in any matter that is presented to us in the will of God, "I cannot". The presence of the Holy Spirit means capability and capacity for doing things which we could never do before. We ought to prove the Lord in that way.

This new creation, then, is the result of the Holy Spirit, it is by the Holy Spirit, but that means that all things have to be of Christ. In the new creation all things are of Christ. The Holy Spirit sees to it, and keeps us in accordance with that.

In the forty days the disciples were making wonderful discoveries about Christ, and the Holy Spirit comes to make known to us the meaning and values of Christ. That is the very nature of the new creation, that all things are of Christ and we are forbidden to have anything else. The Holy Spirit calls upon us to regard everything just in the light of Christ. How far is that Christ? How far does that accord with Christ?

Let us remember that we are thinking about the great values of Christ risen. We have said that these are our desires, our longings, our needs. We have reached out. Very well, the Holy Spirit can make it all good, but the Holy Spirit will require, in order that He may make it good, that we have all things according to Christ. If you and I are according to ourselves, according to one another, according to nature, according to the world, according to anything that is not Christ the Holy Spirit does not operate. He does not operate in the matter of life.

Take our judgements of one another. I do not know what your experience is, but I am quite sure that not a few know the Holy Spirit's checking up in the matter of talking about other children of God. You do not need to be told by anyone that it is wrong, and you have made a mistake when you have been criticising some children of God, when you have been speaking of their faults, and what they are, and really bringing out what is there of imperfections, making something of it, or doing them any kind of injury. You know quite well that you feel miserable afterwards, and you make up your mind that you are never going to do it again, but, of course, you will do it again. Then we try to cover up our tracks by perhaps finding a few good things about them, and mentioning those, but we know quite well something has happened, and we have a bad time. That is not according to Christ. 

We have all much to learn in this way. Everything of the new creation is of the risen life of the Lord, and it is necessary to have everything according to Christ. If you and I can frustrate the Holy Spirit’s activity in eye opening, illumination, revelation, life-giving, or in any other of the great values and benefits of Christ risen, we can frustrate His work by indulging in something that is not Christ. We have got to allow the Holy Spirit to be here, and to govern in our hearts; when He would say, not in words, but in the very feelings that He causes to come into us: Now that was not Christ, that is not Christ, therefore it must go, we have to adjust to Christ, and then the Holy Spirit will make good to us and in us these resurrection values.

It is so easy for us to get up and talk about receiving the Holy Spirit and everything will be right, all will be well if only you get the baptism, the filling, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and that what you need is the Holy Spirit. Everybody knows that. We have got the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, His person and His work, what He is for, and all that. We know that. We ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit, and cry for the Spirit, and we want to get more inward over this matter, and that is what we are trying to do. The Holy Spirit demands new creation conditions, and new creation conditions are that all things are of Christ. And if you and I in the simple things of everyday life, are not according to Christ, we frustrate the Holy Spirit, but in so far as we adjust the details of daily life to Christ in our talk, in our dress, and in every other way, then He is able to do His work. The Lord seeks to get rid of things that are not according to His mind, and if we do not follow the suggestion of the Lord, we can say goodbye to all our talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the mighty working of the Holy Spirit. The whole thing is held up by conformity to Christ or failure in conformity to Christ. If you want to know resurrection values, listen to the Spirit on details. Do not get great, vast, sweeping ideas, but listen to the Holy Spirit on details as He is trying to get conformity to Christ in our speech, in our dress, in some conduct of ours, to put us right in line with Christ, in Christ-likeness, humility, selflessness, and a thousand and one other things.

The Spirit speaks so quietly, but, oh, what is bound up with that quiet voice! Our very life, our very growing knowledge of the Lord is bound up with it.

So Pentecost (that is a great word, and how the very word carries people off their feet) may be a matter of your having your lips crucified, your desire to be taken notice of crucified. Pentecost may just be that for you or for me. The whole of Pentecost may hang upon that. The Holy Spirit is very careful, and very particular. He overlooks nothing.

Far be it from us to make the Christian life difficult. The Lord trains us steadily, and spreads His training over a long enough time for us to learn without getting into distress. Nevertheless, in the end the Lord Himself in us and our life and our knowledge of Him, and everything else meant for us, depends entirely upon how we respond to the Spirit’s requirement that things should be according to Christ. Do you believe that? You can get to your Pentecost that way. You can get to the knowledge of the Holy Spirit that way. You can get to this marvellous new consciousness and capacity and illumination and all else simply by recognising that everything now has to be of Christ, according to Christ. That is the first demand.

Then the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the new creation, being breathed, constitutes the Body. The Body is constituted by the Breath, just as in Ezekiel 37 the scattered bones by the breath of the Lord came together and became articulate, living bodies, so the Breath of the Spirit constitutes and forms the one Body. He is the Spirit of the one Body, and it is a violation of the Holy Spirit when there is anything about us which is other than according to the meaning of the one Body — schisms, divisions, personal separations on spiritual grounds, or as affecting our spiritual life because natural elements come in. That is a frustration of the Holy Spirit; that is a violation of the Holy Spirit.

We were speaking about the church, the House of God. Let us remember that it was for this that Christ died, and the church, His Body, is His Bride, and that is the issue of the Cross and the resurrection, the object of it all. Calvary in all its range had its supreme meaning in the church, His Body, His Bride. “The church of Christ which He purchased with his own blood”. Now if that was the supreme object of Calvary, if that is the issue of the resurrection, the Holy Spirit has that as the supreme thing, the one Body. If you and I are going to be Holy Spirit governed, it will work both ways. It will mean that we shall have growingly this Body consciousness, there will be the development of a fellowship-with-saints spirit in us. One of my problems (and I do not think that the existence of this contradicts what we have just been saying) is how people who profess to have received the fulness of the Spirit can criticise other people of God, and be governed by suspicion and prejudice. It seems to me to be a great contradiction. It shows that somehow the Holy Spirit is, after all, very definitely in subjection to something other, and that “something” is not in subjection to Him. The judgement is not in subjection. A full way for the Spirit must issue in fellowship, and if that fellowship is not spontaneous, is not with us, we may take it that the Holy Spirit is not being able to go on with His work for some reason or other.

All that means that the resurrection values of the Lord Jesus are for the Body in the intention of God, by the Holy Spirit, and that we can only have them altogether. We cannot have them as our own personal and private property. You cannot take these values and walk away with them, and have them just alone. You need the thing that the Lord has appointed for the enjoyment of resurrection Life. It requires the assembly for the fuller enlightenment. The individual does not get the same enlightenment as the assembly, and the larger enlightenment comes through the assembly, and so also the larger Life. If we want personal accession of Life we shall get it in fellowship. As scattered individuals our life is limited, and sometimes it is crushed down. If we come together as the Lord’s people, then there is an accession of Life, and we go away refreshed. The Holy Spirit requires the assembly, because that is His object. He is the Spirit of the one Body, and it is in true Spirit fellowship that the Lord’s people come into the values of Christ risen.

Just as Thomas will not get the benefits while he goes wandering about on his own, but he gets those benefits when he comes into fellowship with the others, so it is always the case. If you want to lose joy, and the life and values of Christ risen, just break away from the Lord’s people in spirit, and go and live on your own as spiritually detached. Spiritual detachment, for any reason at all, is the enemy's great chance for contradicting the testimony of the risen Lord, and doing great harm to the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit Who constitutes the one Body.

The Holy Spirit means, of course, a great deal more than we have said. All this applies to every part.

It is the Lord's desire, the Lord's will, that everyone of His own to the least, even to the youngest, should live in the values of the anointing Spirit. When there is a place where there are many gatherings, and there is a great volume of speech, there is a danger, especially to the younger people, of regarding that as their Life; and it is: "Does So-and-so say this or that? And if Mr. So-and-so says it, then it must be right; that we accept!" That is all very good, but the Lord wants you to have the anointing yourself, and there is a right sense (please do not take this wrongly) in which the anointing makes us independent, makes us an individually responsible being, one that has spiritual intelligence. It is a great thing when you find those who have their own personal knowledge of the Lord and the things of the Lord, which they have got from the Lord, and with the Lord in their own life with the Lord, and they are not going out to others and giving out what they have got from meetings or from their teachers, but are able to speak of their own walk with God, of their own knowledge of the Lord, and what the Lord has shown to them. The Lord would have it like that.

Do you believe that you personally can be taught of the Lord? You can be taught of the Lord now. You can be an intelligent one, with spiritual intelligence. You can know in your own heart the truth. The Lord would have it like that, and only if it is like that will there be a true growth. The other, after all, is a false truth, it is not real, and that falsehood will at some time be disclosed, discovered; we shall find that we have got a top-heavy structure, and it will come down. We have a building on the sand, and when the storm comes, down crashes our building of teaching and religious knowledge and spiritual instruction. The Lord would secure us against anything like that, by telling us that the Holy Spirit Himself would be our personal teacher, and we have to have dealings with the Lord over things. Believe it first of all. Do not rule yourself out of that realm, but believe that the Holy Spirit can give you new faculties, these spiritual faculties, these capacities. Believe that they may be developed by use until you know just as well as the one whom you now think knows the Lord better than anyone else.

Everyone should have the values of the anointing, and should have very definite dealing with the Lord about it. Be precise in the matter, and say, "Now, Lord, you have given the Holy Spirit, Who You said shall guide us into all truth, reveal Your things to us. As one who knows, who believes, who trusts You, one who is abandoned to You, one who accepts all the meaning of the Cross for the setting aside of nature, I definitely count on You in all faithfulness and truth to make this true in my case, that the anointing teaches me, and I am taught." The Lord will have His own ways of teaching. They will differ. He will use many means for teaching, but how He does it does not matter so much; the thing is that you and I come more and more to the place where we know, and say, “We speak that we do know, and testify that which we have seen, and (in a spiritual sense)our hands have handled...”.

The Lord make that good to us.

http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/003129.html

Phony Repentance

By Roger Ellsworth


One of the major problems of the church today is phony repentance. Multitudes have walked down the aisle, mouthed the right words, and joined the church, only to become what is delicately called 'inactive members.'

All kinds of explanations have been offered for this sad state of affairs. Some attribute the problem to ineptness in follow-up. They argue that these inactive members came to church really wanting to serve the Lord, but no one told them how to go about it, and so they became discouraged and dropped out.

Others say the problem is due to failing to teach new converts about a second level of Christian living. Often people are told to accept Jesus as Savior but never taught that they must also accept Him as Lord. Many, therefore, have settled down in something of a halfway house. They are not lost, but neither are they living for the Lord. They are, the argument goes, 'carnal Christians'--saved but living as unbelievers live.

The common assumption in both of these explanations is that those who have made a profession of faith are genuinely saved. However, very few seem willing to allow the possibility that many of our 'inactive members' may have never truly come to know God at all, that their repentance was superficial and incomplete, and that, therefore, they remain in their sins.

The reluctance to talk about phony conversions is surprising because Scripture has so much to say on the subject. There are, for instance, the teachings of Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, He explicitly warned about the danger of being deceived about our standing with God (Matt. 7:21-23). In His parable of the sower, He spoke about the 'stony ground' hearer who receives the word with joy but in whom the word does not take root (13:20-21). In addition, we have clear warnings from Paul (2 Cor. 13:5), Peter (2 Pet. 1:10-11), John (1 John 2:18-19; 5:13), and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (6:4-6; 10:26-39) on the danger of being deceived about being converted.

We also have several notable examples of spurious conversions. The names of Esau (Heb. 12:16-17), Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:16-20), Simon Magus (8:9-24), and Demas (2 Tim. 4:10) are all inextricably linked to phony repentance. In addition, the Old Testament records the case of Ahab, who, upon hearing Elijah's message of judgment, tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, fasted, and went about mourning (1 Kings 21:27). It also tells us that because of this self humiliation, God delayed sending the promised judgment (vs. 29).

Many would have no doubt that these verses tell us that Ahab, the archenemy of God and godliness, had a genuine conversion experience. Certainly, every child of God would like to see Ahab and Elijah strolling together on heaven's golden streets. Yet even though some of the greatest sinners in history have been plucked out of hell at the very last moment, the evidence is overwhelming that Ahab was not one of them.

Ahab's demonstration of repentance was striking and impressive, but consider for a moment what he did not do. First, he did nothing to repudiate Jezebel or to reduce her evil influence in the kingdom. Second, he took no action to restore Naboth's vineyard to his heirs or next of kin. Third, he did not break with his idols--when he and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, decided to go to war against the Syrians, Ahab consulted with four hundred false prophets (1 Kings 22:6). If Ahab had been truly converted, it is safe to say that he would have addressed each of these situations, but he did not.

We should also consider what Ahab said after the four hundred false prophets assured him of success in the battle against Syria but Jehoshaphat asked to hear from 'a prophet of the Lord' (vs.7, NIV). There was such a prophet, Ahab conceded, but he went on to say, 'I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad' (vs. 8). The fact that this prophet, Micaiah, had nothing good to say about Ahab indicates that the king of Israel had not truly repented of his sins, and Ahab's confession of his hatred for a servant of God ought to remove all question about his spiritual condition.

But if Ahab's repentance was not genuine, how are we to explain his tearing his clothes, putting on sackcloth, fasting, and mourning? The answer is that these actions were all induced by fear of judgment, not by true sorrow for sin. Ahab knew Elijah extremely well by this time. He knew that whatever Elijah said would most certainly come true, and he was distraught because God's judgment was hanging over him and he could not escape it.

What could possibly be wrong with Ahab's fearing judgment? The Bible says we must all eventually stand before God to give account of ourselves (Rom. 14:12; Heb. 9:27), and it even warns us to fear Him who has the power throw us into hell (Luke 12:5). So at first sight it seems somewhat unfair to criticize Ahab for being motivated by the fear of judgment.

Yet the point we must keep in mind is that the Bible tells us about judgment so we will hate our sin and turn from it. Sin is what leads to judgment. Ahab feared judgment, but he did not hate his sin. He believed the word of God but, as we have noted, would not and did not forsake the sin. He wanted to escape judgment while hanging on to his sin, and that cannot be done.

Because Ahab did not truly hate his sin, he resorted to mere outward rituals to stave off judgment while clinging to sin within his heart. The Lord says it is all right to fast, weep, and mourn as long as these things are done with the whole heart. But if the heart is not broken, there is absolutely no point in someone rending his garments (Joel 2:12-13). Ahab tore his garments, but his heart was the same as ever.

Many today are in exactly the same position. They believe the Word of God, but they will not do what it prescribes. They believe there is a God, and they believe they must someday stand before Him, but they try to prepare for that day by going through the external motions of religion without making a complete break with their sins. How many sit in church each Sunday with the hope that their religious observances will somehow appease God, and all the while they stubbornly refuse to turn from their sins?

But this leaves us with a tricky question. If Ahab's repentance was phony, why did God take note of it and decide to withhold His judgment for a time?

God was simply demonstrating again the greatness of His mercy. The prophet Isaiah tells us judgment is God's 'strange' or 'unusual' act (Isa. 28:21), which shows us that God receives no pleasure or delight from judgment. His judgment is always a last resort.

By delaying Ahab's judgment, God was also giving comfort to all those who read these pages. If God was good enough to spare for a while someone who had, at best, only partially repented, what will He do for the one who sincerely repents? Matthew Henry puts it like this: 'If a pretending partial penitent shall go to his house reprieved, doubtless a sincere penitent shall go to his house justified.' But as much as God delights in showing mercy, He will never compromise His Word in order to show mercy. The temporary reprieve given to Ahab did not change one iota.
God's promise to judge Ahab and his family. The judgment finally came just as God promised.

By Roger Ellsworth

Jesus' parable of the fig tree perfectly pictures the blend of God's mercy and judgment. In the parable, God is the owner of the fruitless fig tree. Because He is merciful, He agrees to give the fig tree another year to bear fruit, but at the end of that year of mercy the fig tree is to be cut down. The message is clear. God's mercy is great, but there is an end to it (Luke 13:6-9).

Ours is a time in which people seem to come lightly and easily to Christ. Deep knowledge of sin and sincere sorrow over it are increasingly rare. Churches and preachers are so anxious to gain a following that they willingly accept all professions of faith at face value. How we need to be reminded of Ahab and his phony repentance!

Ahab teaches us two serious and powerful lessons. First, it is possible to go a long way in religion and not be truly converted. Second, true repentance will always evidence itself in a change of attitude toward sin and in changed behavior. May God help each of us who has made a profession of faith to bring these lessons home to our hearts and to make sure that our profession is the genuine article.

http://articles.ochristian.com/article2591.shtml

The Ten Virgins

By J.C. Ryle

"Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. Those who were foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Behold! The bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!' Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'What if there isn't enough for us and you? You go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.' While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Most certainly I tell you, I don't know you.' Watch therefore, for you don't know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.' " (Matthew 25:1-13)

This is one of the most solemn parables that the Lord Jesus ever spoke: partly because of the time at which it was spoken; partly because of the matter which it contains.

As to the time, it was but a few days before our Lord's death. It was spoken within view of Gethsemane and Calvary, the cross and the grave.

As to the matter, it stands as a beacon to the Church in all ages. It is a witness against carelessness and slothfulness, against apathy and indifference, and a witness of no uncertain sound. It cries to sinners, "Awake," and it cries to saints "Watch."

Now, I must necessarily pass over many points that might be spoken of in handling this parable. I have no time to follow out many trains of thought which it opens up. I stand here not to make a book--but to preach a single sermon; and, this being the case, I shall keep to those points which it most concerns you and I to know.

The marriage customs of the country where the parable was spoken call for a word of explanation. Marriages generally took place there in the evening. The bridegroom and his friends came in procession to the bride's house after nightfall. The young women who were the bride's friends were assembled at the bride's house to wait for them. As soon as the lamps or torches of the bridegroom's party were seen in the distance, these young women lighted their lamps and went forth to meet him; then, having formed one united party, they all returned together to the bride's house. As soon as they entered it, the door was shut, and the marriage ceremony took place; and after that no one was admitted. All these were familiar things to those who heard the Lord Jesus, and it is right and proper that you should understand them.

The figures used in the parable also call for a word of explanation. I give you my own view of their meaning. I may be wrong--but you have a right to know what I think, and I will tell you shortly--but decidedly--I have no time to do more.

I believe the TIME spoken of in this parable means the time when Christ shall return in person to the world. The word "then" compared with the end of the twenty-fourth chapter appears to me to settle the question.

I believe the virgins carrying lamps represent professing Christians, the visible Church of Christ.

I believe the bridegroom represents the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

I take the wise virgins to be the true believers, the converted part of the visible Church.

I take the foolish virgins to be the mere nominal Christians--the unconverted.

Am I Convinced By Christ?

By Oswald Chambers

     
'Notwithstanding in this rejoice not ... , but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.'
Luke 10:19,20

Jesus Christ says, in effect, Don't rejoice in successful service, but rejoice because you are rightly related to Me. The snare in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service, to rejoice in the fact that God has used you. You never can measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your relationship right with Him, then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is of His mercy that He does not let you know it.

When once you are rightly related to God by salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by God; and by the reaction of your life on the circumstances around you, you will fulfil God's purpose, as long as you keep in the light as God is in the light.

The tendency to-day is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make usefulness their ground of appeal. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure that ever lived. The lodestar of the saint is God Him self, not estimated usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him.

All that Our Lord heeds in a man's life is the relationship of worth to His Father. Jesus is bringing many sons to glory.

http://articles.ochristian.com/article9989.shtml

Urgently Needed: Prophetic Leaders

By A.W. Tozer

      
There has probably never been another time in the history of the world when so many people knew so much about religious happenings as they do today. The newspapers are eager to print religious news; the secular news magazines devote several pages of each issue to the doings of the church and the synagogue; a number of press associations gather church news and make it available to the religious journals at a small cost. Even the hiring of professional publicity men to plug one or another preacher or religious movement is no longer uncommon; the mail is stuffed with circulars and 'releases,' while radio and television join to tell the listening public what religious people are doing throughout the world.

Greater publicity for religion may be well and I have no fault to find with it. Surely religion should be the most newsworthy thing on earth, and there may be some small encouragement in the thought that vast numbers of persons want to read about it. What disturbs me is that, amidst all the religious hubbub, hardly a voice is raised to tell us what God thinks about the whole thing.

Where is the man who can see through the ticker tape and confetti to discover which way the parade is headed, why it started in the first place and, particularly, who is riding up front in the seat of honor?

Not the fact that the churches are unusually active these days, not what religious people are doing, should engage our attention, but why these things are so. . . .

http://articles.ochristian.com/article5624.shtml

The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom

By A.W. Pink

     
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 1:7). Happy the soul that has been awed by a view of God's majesty, that has had a vision of God's awful greatness, His ineffable holiness, His perfect righteousness, His irresistible power, His sovereign grace. Does someone say, "But it is only the unsaved, those outside of Christ, who need to fear God"?

Then the sufficient answer is that the saved, those who are in Christ, are admonished to work out their own salvation with "fear and trembling." Time was when it was the general custom to speak of a believer as a "God-fearing man." That such an appellation has become nearly extinct only serves to show whither we have drifted. Nevertheless, it still stands written, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him" (Psalm 103:13).

When we speak of godly fear, of course we do not mean a servile fear, such as prevails among the heathen in connection with their gods. No, we mean that spirit which Jehovah is pledged to bless, that spirit to which the prophet referred when he said, "To this man will I (the Lord) look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word" (Isa. 66:2).

It was this the apostle had in view when he wrote, "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king" (I Pet: 2:17). And nothing will foster this godly fear like a recognition of the Sovereign Majesty of God.

http://articles.ochristian.com/article720.shtml

The Intrusion of Natural Life in the Service of God

by T. Austin-Sparks

We have been at pains to show that Christianity has become very largely another Judaism, an outward system and a historic tradition. But it has become more than this. In its principles, methods, and means, it has largely become conformed to this world or age. Were we wanting to deal with the negative or defective aspect of things, it would not be difficult to write whole chapters on the weaknesses of present-time organized Christianity; but we would rather use our time and space on the positive line.

Let us, however, appeal to our brethren in responsibility to think again and seriously before the Lord as to the true nature and origin of much that goes to make up the means of propaganda and publicity of work for God. Let us take account of such things as the prominence given to human honors, glories, titles, reputations, distinctions. That men have gained these or been given them in various spheres of life - politics, philanthropy, industry, adventure, war, sport, entertainment, science, art, or education - may be quite all right in itself, but that those things should be so largely used as the ground of appeal may just imply that Christ is not sufficient as standing on His own merits, but must be surrounded by these natural embellishments. Must Christ be recommended or His servants accepted because of some human association of the word ''great'' in some earthly connection?

Again, let us be very careful, for the same purpose, of the encroachment of the entertainment feature of sacred service. ''Lovers of pleasure'' is an endtime characteristic, and the age is running headlong thither. Is it necessary to go with the age in order to attract? Is the gospel dependent upon this ''make up'' for its effectiveness and appeal?

Once more: let us watch that we are not carried away by the illusion of bigness. Many a once powerful instrument of God, personal or collective, has lost its spiritual value and impact when it has become big or popular. There is a Satanic snare in bigness, and we may by this illusion lose our very faculty for seeing just where God is doing His deepest work, and how. Often God' s truest work is hidden. It is becoming difficult, if not impossible, for many servants of God to believe or understand that anything of real account can be done unless it is well known and in the public eye.

When David put the Ark upon a new cart and things went just so far and then came to an ignominious and tragic impasse, it was not due to a lack of sincerity, devotion, zeal, energy, or wholeheartedness, but because he had all unwittingly drawn up from his subconsciousness an idea and method which had originated with the Philistine diviners. Those diviners had once put the Ark upon a new cart to send it back into Israel. David had fled in an hour of weakness to dwell in the land of the Philistines and had been infected with the methods and means of that world. When God made the breach upon Uzzah that he dies before the Lord, it would have been too hard and severe, in the light of the zeal for the Lord, if there had not been some extra factor. That factor was the hand of another spiritual system back of ''this present evil world'' of which the diviners were the representatives and servants and whom God had already plagued and cursed. There was no reason why Uzzah should be spared and the Philistines destroyed if the same factor obtained in both cases.

No amount of zeal can save us in the end if the principles are false. But note how subtle it all was. There was not the remotest idea that things were basically wrong. The idea of bringing up the Ark (the Testimony) to its right and full place was right and according to God's mind. The earnestness and utterness left nothing to be desired. The motive and its passion were wholly commendable. But somewhere, somehow, Antichrist (in principle) was hidden in the constitution of things, the energy of the flesh, the soul-life actuated or taken charge of by that which was not the Spirit of God.

If the soul, which is the natural side of man's being, is predominant on any or all of its sides, intellectual, emotional, or volitional, then the door is wide open to deception; and deception, being what it is, does not mean that there is no zeal for God, but rather that it is zeal but not according to knowledge. It is only as the child of God lives in and is governed by the Holy Spirit through his renewed spirit, not firstly his soul, that he will be made aware of ''the things that differ", even in his service for God.

David was eventually shown what the Holy Spirit had indicated in the Scriptures as to God's principles of service, and he found by tragic experience that spiritual principles are more important than zeal and energy, although these latter were no less when the true basis was established. Satan is very subtle and will espouse our zeal for God if by so doing he can eventually bring shame and dishonor into God's testimony.

God sees through it and would warn us of it. The trouble so largely is that, as in David's case, the drive and abandon associated with a great idea for God just ride rough-shod over quiet waiting upon God and inquiry of Him as to His mind concerning the means and methods to be employed. The point at which disaster will befall very much that is engaged in for God in all sincerity is that which leaves no time for quiet detachment, for unhurried waiting upon God. There may be prayer, but it is prayer with a drive of work behind it, instead of the other way round. The question is, Did you get that method, that means, that program in the secret place with God, direct from Him? Have you put everything back until all heat and hurry have been subjected to the judgment of the Holy Spirit? Or are you just getting on with it because it is for the Lord?

Why must judgment begin at the house of God? It cannot be because of a greater or lesser degree of Christian goodness or zeal. There must be something more in it than that!

http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/000462.html

THIS TIME I WILL TEACH THEM

"This time I will teach them--this time I will teach them my power and might.  Then they will know that My Name is the Lord."  Jer. 16:21

          There are times we learn things ABOUT the Lord.  Most of us, if we've been in church many years, will have learned many things about the Lord.  We have the knowledge in our brains, this head knowledge of Christ, and His Word.  We can tell people many things ABOUT the Lord.

          Here God is saying something different.  His people are going into exile soon.  They will see their homes, cities, farms, and crops destroyed.  They will experience pain and hardship like they've never known in their lifetimes.  God is looking at them and He sees a people caught up completely in themselves, fascinated by their own culture, in love with their own ideas, intent upon their religious duties, and with a great knowledge ABOUT Him, but little knowledge OF Him.  These, His beloved, are immature, bound up in sin, trapped in the world, and about to enter a period of suffering they won't be able to escape.

          So the Father pronounces, through Jeremiah, a new thing.  A declaration of His intent.  God says, this time, they will learn OF Me.  My people are too precious to me to be allowed to go on like this any longer.  I will save them, even if it is painful for them.  When they come back to me after this exile, they will be humbled, they will know Me, they will know My power and My might.  They will come back a different people, changed into My people.  This time I will teach them that I am all.  I will teach them it is only by My power and My might that they can live.  They will know MY NAME IS THE LORD.  And they will come back to rebuild My temple, and to love me alone.

          Today, do you only know ABOUT the Lord?  Do you really live in your own power and the strength of your own hand?  Does God seem as a loving, but distant Father, whom you know a little, but serve faithfully?  Do your religious activities bring you solace?  Do you want more?

          Pray that God would deliver you from the trap of surface knowledge of Christ, and bring you, no matter what it takes, into the Christ-life.  Pray that, even if it means sorrow and suffering, God would wean you away from the baby food of modern Christian worship and teaching, and bring you into the FULL KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST that He wants you to have.  Pray that He will keep you from deception, and bring you, with others who seek Him, back to the "full message of this new life" which was promised us.

          Those of us who are learning the true power and might of God through Christ will pray for you.
          We know what it's like to be trapped in surface knowledge, and to be caught in the world, by sin made slaves.  If you pray, God will provide a way of escape.


narrowgate

The Inner Man

Secret of Spiritual Power: 20: The Inner Man

By G.D. Watson

      Throughout the Word of God there are frequent allusions to the five senses of the soul. It no more attempts to prove the existence of these senses than to prove the senses of the body, but they are assumed as a matter of fact, and the Holy Spirit speaks of the existence of an "inner man" as being just as much a matter of reality as the outward physical man. It would fill a little volume to collect all the Scriptures in which the senses of the soul are mentioned. Perhaps none of them would be any stronger than the fourteenth verse of the fifth chapter of Hebrews:" But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." 


The marginal reading and correct rendering is, Strong meat belongeth to them that are perfect, to those who by the habitual use of their senses (spiritual) can discern both good and evil. The idea of full age, or old age, is not in the text at all, and was put in by the translators because of the old notion that nobody could be a perfect Christian except by long growth and old age, whereas the reference is to a being having all its senses clear, strong, complete, without any reference to whether he be old or young. A young believer, as well as an old one, may be so alive to God, and have all his spiritual senses so cleansed and filled with the Spirit, as to be able to discern spiritual things, and by the exercise of the sanctified soul senses, detect readily and intuitively, the facts in the moral and spiritual realm, whether they be good or evil. The soul of the sinner has all the senses, but they are locked in the dark sleep of sin, and he can no more see or hear or feel the things of God and the heavenly world, than an unborn man can perceive the sights and sounds and magnitudes of the material world.


      In order for the soul to have the use of its spiritual senses, it must be born into a spiritual world, its whole being and faculties regenerated by the Holy Ghost. In this age of loose theology and the paring down of the supernatural in religion, the great miracle of the new faith needs to be emphasized with the infinite "must" which Jesus attached to it. When the soul is first converted it is, in reality, a spiritual infant, introduced into a spiritual world, and under the dominion of laws, loves, longings, kinships and apprehensions, that are spiritual. And although it has all the senses and the graces belonging to the spiritual kingdom numerically, yet they are weak, limited, and often rendered dull and inoperative by remaining carnality. 


This is what the apostle declares concerning the Hebrew converts, when he says that they were "dull of hearing and could not take strong meat, and were inexperienced in the word of righteousness, when at the time they ought to have been teachers." He affirms the same concerning the converted Corinthians.


      The vigor and perfection of the bodily senses (unless wounded by an outward force) depend on the purity and vigor of the blood; so the power ,rod acuteness of the spiritual senses depend on the purity of the heart and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. A little infant can see, but he cannot discern shades of color, or distance; he can hear, but he cannot locate sounds; while the senses of touch, taste and smell are feeble. 


These facts are true of the spiritual babe; he cannot detect the shades of moral quality, he cannot measure accurately moral distances, he is slow to detect evil that hides itself behind apparent good; he does not readily discriminate the agency of Satan, nor has he an acute ear for the voice of God. The infancy of a Christian does not depend upon years, for there arc thousands of sad cases where old Christians blunder along with exceedingly dull apprehension of spiritual things. 


The inner spiritual man is in a kingdom governed by the Holy Ghost, and not the slow laws of materialism. There are analogies between the different kingdoms, but it is absurd to make these comparisons go on all fours. A man under the reign of animal life will reach his maturity one hundred times quicker than the big trees of California reach theirs, and why should not the inner spiritual man, under the direct agency of the Holy Ghost, reach his moral maturity a hundred times quicker than the outward physical man?



There are three great facts to spiritual life. First, divine life imparted to the soul. Secondly, the life purified from all internal hindrances. Third, the life elaborated and utilized in actual service.

      First, the corn must be planted. Second, it must be purified from weeds and grass, and thirdly, utilized into flour and food. We have gold first in the quartz, then purified and turned into bullion, then minted into coin for service. In regeneration the gold of Christian life is imparted. In sanctification the flinty quartz of original depravity is removed, then under the fullness and guidance of the Spirit the faculties and powers become currency in the kingdom of God to do service for him. 


It is amazing to what an extent the spiritual senses may be carried in their refinement and vigor of apprehension.


http://articles.ochristian.com/article14326.shtml

The Never-Failing God

By Oswald Chambers

      

'For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'
Hebrews 8:5

What line does my thought take? Does it turn to what God says or to what I fear? Am I learning to say not what God says, but to say something after I have heard what He says? "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."

"I will in no wise fail thee" - not for all my sin and selfishness and stubbornness and waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never fail me? If I have listened to this say-so of God's, then let me listen again.

"Neither will I in any wise forsake thee." Sometimes it is not difficulty that makes me think God will forsake me, but drudgery. There is no Hill Difficulty to climb, no vision given, nothing wonderful or beautiful, just the commonplace day in and day out - can I hear God's say-so in these things?

We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing, that He is preparing and fitting us for some extraordinary thing by and bye, but as we go on in grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, in the present minute. If we have God's say-so behind us, the most amazing strength comes, and we learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways.

http://articles.ochristian.com/article9901.shtml

Tiger & Monkey Fight (Funny)

This is a great nature video that shows what happens when two younger tigers wander into the domain of a monkey. Now it may seem that one small monkey wouldn’t stand a chance against two tigers, but that’s not the case here. This monkey is quick, intelligent, agile, and can launch attacks from the air. It’s actually the tigers that don’t stand a chance. This monkey vs. tigers video is quite entertaining. At least the monkey is entertained…

Self-Flatterers

Solitude Sweetened

by James Meikle, 1730-1799

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good." (Psalm 14:1)

The ungodly flatter themselves with false hopes—that all shall be well with them, "until their iniquity be found to be hateful" by the tremendous omniscient Judge in the decisive day.

The most heinous people flatter themselves, that they are not in so bad a state, and that they will safely arrive in heaven. True, salvation is offered to the chief of sinners. But then they must be saved from sin—but cannot be saved in sin; which is the error here. Some conceive such a notion of mercy as would destroy the other attributes; as if God should trample on his holiness, truth, and justice—to exalt his mercy in saving a sinner, or in pardoning sin without any atonement. But this is repugnant to what he himself has declared.

Others flatter themselves, that as God is just and merciful, he could never make so many rational creatures to be damned. Yet they refuse the one true and living way, which God has pointed out—by which they must be saved.

Others would gladly believe that God will never condemn them for committing some sins, which, say they, are implanted in their nature; and thus (O horrid blasphemy!) they make the Author of their being the author of sin! But God planted man at first wholly good, though he is now turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine.

Others, again there are, that through a pious education, common convictions, knowledge of the truth, and such like, are convinced that their present course of life is sinful and dangerous—but flatter themselves that all shall yet be well; for, when they are aged, and have wearied themselves out with sinning—they intend to amend their lives, repent and turn to God; and in this they promise themselves success, since God never refuses the penitent. Thus they set themselves above God, making themselves Lords of their own time, and promising themselves years to come; although they cannot boast of tomorrow. 

They also make themselves proprietors of divine grace, in thinking they can repent at any time of their own appointment. But such fair promises to their own conscience, who dare delay to an uncertain futurity so momentous a matter, which claims to be chief in our concern, and to be done with all diligence—are the worst performed promises in the world. Moreover, mournful experience tells us, that those who reserve their youthful sins to be repented of in old age, often, alas! too often—live on as they began, and die as they have lived.

Again, there are some that conclude theirs a unhappy situation, because they are honest and upright in their dealings with others. They do no man an injury, they speak evil of no man; but are friendly-hearted and frank-handed to all. But they know nothing of living a life of faith on the Son of God.

Again, there are others, who because they have given up the grosser follies, extravagances, and excesses—which were the game and the grave of their youth—and live a sober regular life—conclude themselves to be converts, and to bid fair for heaven—though they never felt one pang of the new birth, or knew what it was to be born again.

Lastly, to name no more, there are some who account themselves saints indeed and would not question their state for anything, because they have been sober all their life long, have hated the grosser acts of wickedness, commend religion, and religious people, and have a form of godliness; but they have never seen the necessity of being divorced from the law, and denied to their best actions, as well as their worst deeds with respect to salvation. And, however fair their character may be, they know nothing of union to, and communion with, the Son of God. 

Therefore they are dead while they live, dead before God; though alive in their own opinion, and in the opinion of the world. Now, how fatal such self-flattery is, is evident; yet how full is the Christian world of such fatal delusion! May their eyes be opened to see their danger—and their hearts persuaded to embrace the Savior!

http://www.gracegems.org/Meikle/solitude_sweetened88.htm

The spiritual miser

Solitude Sweetened

by James Meikle, 1730-1799

Who is more an object of ridicule than the rich miser—who goes supperless to bed, because he will not give one farthing out of his immense sums to purchase food; being afraid to live on what he is never able to spend, and anxious to heap up what he can never enjoy. Shall I, then, act the miser in spiritual things? Shall I be afraid to live on the all-sufficient fullness of my Lord, lest his stores decay? Shall I spare to drink of his overflowing ocean, lest it grow dry before my face? Heaven no less loves a liberal receiver, than a liberal giver. Is it decorous to hunger at the table of the king; or to say to the enriching hand—Stop, you cannot spare so much? The miser's wretched penny-pinching may, after his death, advantage his heirs, and, in the meantime, accumulate his own riches; but the case is not so with me. My living for the present poorly and sparingly on the promises, will never advantage my after-state, nor leave any greater plenty for other saints; neither will it make the celestial treasures any fuller, that I fetch not daily from them. Though Daniel looked healthier than those that fed on the polluted bread of the king of Babylon, yet my soul will look but thin and lean, unless it feeds and feasts on the daily allowance of the King of glory, whose table is covered with an infinite plenty. All the angels and all the saints may banquet continually without lessening the divine store, which, as to the display and manifestation, increases, as in the days of his flesh, among the numerous eaters, and grows among the happy guests. Why then pine at such a table, starve in the midst of so much plenty, and convert divine liberality into the penny-pinching of unbelief? Shall I confine that bounty that is rather perplexed where to pour its plenitude, (because few will accept of Christ and his fullness,)—than at a loss for a super-abundancy to bestow? Henceforth let my soul by faith live at large on the promises, and live spiritually grand at the expenses of the King, who will not grudge it. Let me put on the royal apparel of the Son of God, the vesture of imputed righteousness; and, as a sign that this is the embroidered garment of my inner man, keep clean hands, and an holy walk. Why should I creep and grovel in the by-ways of darkness, and foot-paths of despondency—when I may ride in the chariot of the covenant, which Solomon has built for the daughters of Jerusalem, and paved its interior with love? Why should I walk by foot through fear and faithlessness—when my seat is empty there, and no one else can sit in my place? Then, to the honor of him to whom I belong, I will appear like one of the royal family of heaven. I will rejoice in him always, and again I will rejoice. I will feast my soul with his divine dainties—and suck the honey of the promises! I will satiate myself with his goodness, and drink at his river which gladdens the city of God. I will not dwell in the shadow of sorrow—but come out and walk in the light of his countenance, in the brightness of his glory. I will importune his sin-subduing grace, and plead for strength to fight the battles of the Lord, that in his name I may conquer all my foes. I will expatiate on the opulence of my treasure, the extent of my inheritance, and the excellences of my Beloved; and live to the glory of him who gives me all things richly to enjoy—according to the magnificence of an heir of God—according to the grandeur of a joint heir with Christ!  http://www.gracegems.org/Meikle/solitude_sweetened75.htm