Accepted In The Savior
Posted by jerrywhite on Mar 15, 2010
“I will confess to you that over and over I am personally driven to do what I trust you may be led to do today. I look back on my life, and while I have much to thank God for, much in which to see His Spirit’s hand, yet when I feel my responsibilities and my shortcomings, my heart sinks within me. When I think of my transgressions, better known to myself than to anyone else, and remember, too, that they are not known even to me as they are to God, I feel all hope swept away and my soul left in utter despair, until I come anew to the cross and think of who it was who died there and why He died and what designs of infinite mercy are answered by His death.
It is so sweet to look up to the Crucified One again and say, ‘I have nothing but You, my Lord, no confidence but You. If you are not accepted as my substitute, I must perish; if God’s appointed Savior is not enough I have no other. But I know You are the Father’s well-beloved, and I am accepted in You. You are all I want and all I have.”
Charles Spurgeon
~~~
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
Psalm 130:3-4 (ESV)
~~~
“While I confess my guilt, help me to feel it deeply, with self-abhorrence and self-despair, yet to remember there is hope in thee, and to see the Lamb that takes away sin.”
The Valley of Vision, 263
Edited by Arthur Bennett
Email This Post
Sorrow And Faith
Posted by jerrywhite on Feb 22, 2010
“Sorrow is a refiner’s crucible. It may be caused by the neglect or cruelty of another, by circumstances over which the sufferer has no control, or as the direct result of some dark hour in the long past. But inasmuch as God has permitted it to happen, it must be accepted as His appointment and considered to be the furnace by which He is searching, testing, probing, and purifying the soul. Suffering searches us as fire does metals. We think we are fully for God until we are exposed to the cleansing fire of pain. Then we discover, as Job did, how much dross there is in us and how little real patience, resignation, and faith.
During sorrow the Comforter is near, ‘a stronghold in the day of trouble’ (Nahum 1:7). He sits by the crucible, as a refiner of silver, regulating the heat, noting every change, waiting patiently for the scum to float away, and His own face to be mirrored in clear, translucent metal. No earthly friend may tread the winepress with you, but the Savior is there. His garments stained with the blood of the grapes of your sorrow. Dare to repeat it often, though you do not feel it, and though Satan insists otherwise, ‘Jesus, you are with me.’ Say this again and again, and you will become conscious that He is indeed with you.”
F. B. Meyer
The Best of F. B. Meyer, 60
~~~
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23 (ESV)
~~~
The Lord Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU” (Hebrews 13:5, NASB). Faith is strengthened when the objective, fully reliable Word of God is claimed, believed, and confessed with thanksgiving. “No distrust made him [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:20-21, ESV). Confess what God says until it becomes real in your heart by the Holy Spirit. This glorifies God.
Email This Post
Unbelief Hinders Fullness
Posted by jerrywhite on Feb 8, 2010
“Everything needed for continual growth, for perpetual freshness, and for abundant fruitfulness are found in Him [Lord Jesus]. All power, all grace, all purity, and all fullness, absolutely everything to make all grace abound towards us, in us, and through us, are stored up in Him who verily dwells with us.
Since this is so, what then is needed? Shall we try to help Christ to live in us? shall we try to make Christ more living? shall we help Him to put forth His own power in us? shall we try, in other words, to grow—to produce fruit? Surely not. And yet is not this the grand mistake multitudes are making? Something however has to be done. Something is needed to deepen our spiritual life. All Christians have Christ, and possess therefore all the resources of spiritual power and abundant fruitfulness; and yet all Christians are not abounding in fruit unto God. What is the reason of this?
It is here: though we cannot make Christ more living, though we cannot add to His infinite fullness of life and purity and power, we may be hindering the manifestation of that life.
One of the most serious hindrances is unbelief. This lies at the root of every other hindrance.”
Evan H. Hopkins
The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 77
~~~
Your body is literally the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Dwelling in your body as a Christian is not only your unique personality but also the Spirit of Jesus Christ who is a living Person. What God wants you to be only the Lord Jesus in you can be. He merely asks for you to be wholly available to Him with complete submission and to trust Him without any doubting. This way He can shine through you! Trust Him!
~~~
Without faith it is impossible to please him.
Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)
Email This Post
When Darkness Comes
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 29, 2009
“God’s people have no assurance that the dark experiences of life will be held at bay, much less that God will provide some sort of running commentary on the meaning of each day’s allotment of confusion, boredom, pain, or achievement. It is no great matter where we are, provided we see that the Lord has placed us there, and that He is with us.”
John Newton
~~~
“We are moved by the act of God. Omniscience holds no conference. Infinite authority leaves no room for compromise. Eternal love offers no explanations. The Lord expects to be trusted. He disturbs us at will. Human arrangements are disregarded, family ties ignored, business claims put aside. We are never asked if it is convenient.”
Samuel Chadwick, quoted by J. Oswald Sanders
Enjoying Intimacy With God, 97
~~~
In your darkest night the Lord of love has not forgotten you. The hand that guides you is nail scared because He loves you. Your Father who directs your steps sacrificed His all for you in His Son. When you have unanswered questions and heaven seems silent you can know your Shepherd is tending you. Jesus said to a father in a dark time of receiving word of his daughter’s death, “Do not fear, only believe” (Luke 8:50, ESV).
Email This Post
Faith Is Trust
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 23, 2009
Faith is trust in a person. This means being fully persuaded about a person’s honorable character and therefore being able to depend on them with utmost confidence. They can be fully trusted to keep their word, and to doubt their word would be to doubt their character, which would be a grievous offense against them.
Christians live by faith in Jesus Christ. They are justified by faith in Christ, and they walk by faith in Christ. From beginning to end the Christian life is one of simply trusting Christ. The only other option is to doubt His character and to trust in self. This is not a good option!
To trust the Lord Jesus is an inward, deliberate, and conscious choice to rely upon Him to do exactly what He promises. It is steadfast confidence with inner resolve to hold Him reverently to His Word, even when there is no feeling, experience, or evidence indicating that it is real. Faith pleases Him because it honors Him by demonstrating confidence in His invisible Personhood and His trustworthy character (Hebrews 11:6). He cannot lie!
How does this work our practically? In daily living we are confronted by circumstances and relationships, trials and tribulations, disappointments and blessings, heartache and sorrow, needs and challenges. Each comes with God’s fingerprints on it because of His determined purpose to further conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus. This is a lifetime process. One who trusts the Lord Jesus accepts whatever comes with confidence in His sovereign ordering of life and makes a deliberate choice to trust the Spirit of Christ within to express His beautiful character through them in the present situation. This is not always easy, and sometimes we forget to trust Him. When this happens our old ugly self shows up and we feel we have failed terribly. However, a compelling love for the Lord Jesus, coupled with a driving desire for Him to be seen through our weak humanity all the time, keeps us pressing on in faith (complete trust) so that His will is done by us through His Spirit for His glory. Nothing else really matters, does it? The Lord Jesus seen through you, though unconscious to you, is the Father’s will for you.
~~~
And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
Email This Post
