Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Torn? Then turn to Him & give thanks. It is only the 1st part of healing!

“Come on! Let us return to the Lord! He himself has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us! He has injured us, but He will bandage our wounds! — Hos. 6:1
 
by C.H. Spurgeon
 
It is the Lord’s way to tear before He heals. This is the honest love of His heart and the sure surgery of His hand. He also bruises before He binds up, or else it would be uncertain work. The law comes before the gospel, the sense of need before the supply of it. Is the reader now under the convincing, crushing hand of the Spirit? Has he received the spirit of bondage again to fear? This is a salutary preliminary to real gospel healing and binding up.

Do not despair, dear heart, but come to the Lord with all thy jagged wounds, black bruises, and running sores. He alone can heal, and He delights to do it. It is our Lord’s office to bind up the brokenhearted, and He is gloriously at home at it. Let us not linger but at once return unto the Lord from whom we have gone astray. Let us show Him our gaping wounds and beseech him to know His own work and complete it. Will a surgeon make an incision and then leave his patient to bleed to death? Will the Lord pull down our old house and then refuse to build us a better one? Dost Thou ever wantonly increase the misery of poor anxious souls? That be far from Thee, O Lord.

Selah.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The Morning Star promises us that Day is at hand!


And I will give him the Morning Star. — Revelation 2:28

by C.H. Spurgeon

Until the day break and the shadows flee away, what a blessing it is to see in Jesus "the Morning Star!" Once our newspapers reported the idle tale that the star of Bethlehem had again appeared. On inquiry we found that it was only "the morning star"; but no great mistake had been made after all.

It is best to see Jesus as the sun; but when we cannot do so, the next best thing is to see Him as that star which prophesies the day and shows that the eternal light is near at hand. If I am not today all that I hope to be, yet I see Jesus, and that assures me that I shall one day be like Him. A sight of Jesus by faith is the pledge of beholding Him in His glory and being transformed into His image. If I have not at this hour all the light and joy I could desire, yet I shall have it; for as surely as I see the morning star I shall see the day. The morning star is never far from the sun.

Come, my soul, has the LORD given thee the morning star? Dost thou hold fast that truth, grace, hope, and love which the LORD has given thee? Then in this thou hast the dawn of coming glory. He that makes thee overcome evil, and persevere in righteousness, has therein given thee the morning star.

Selah.

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Christian joy is not hilarity of emotion. It's abiding relation with Christ in God

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice! — Phil 4:4

by J.R. Miller

The Bible insists upon JOY as an element of Christian life. Christ spoke of his desire that the disciples should have his joy fulfilled in themselves. Paul exhorts Christians to rejoice always, and speaks of joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit.

Christian joy is not hilarity. One maybe sorrowful, and yet have the joy of the Lord in the heart. It is an inner joy–a fountain in the heart, supplied from heaven. Every Christian should have this joy. It belongs to the ideal of the complete Christian character. It is very evident, however, that there are many Christians who do not have it. Their spirits go up and down like the mercury in the thermometer, varying with the atmosphere. When things are pleasant–they have joy. When circumstances are hard or painful–they have no joy.

We ought to know how to get the joy of Christ. One secret is absolute devotion to the will of God. Another is serving others. Only as we learn to live the life of love, “Not to be ministered unto–but to minister” can we find true, deep joy. Every self-denial or sacrifice of love for another’s sake, adds to the Christian’s joy. We reach the ideal life–only as joy lives in our heart, and shines out in our life.

Selah.