Christ Is All
Posted by jerrywhite on Jun 28, 2010
“What a witness, then, the Eternal Spirit bears for Jesus! He assures the believer that all he can possibly want is treasured up in Christ, that he has no cross but Christ can bear it, no sorrow but Christ can alleviate it, no corruption but Christ can subdue it, no guilt but Christ can remove it, no sin but Christ can pardon it, no want but Christ can supply it. Lift up your heads, ye poor, ye needy, ye disconsolate! Lift up your heads and rejoice that Christ is all to you, all you need in this vale of tears, all you need in the deepest sorrow, all you need under the heaviest affliction, all you need in sickness, all you will need in the hour of death and in the day of judgment. Yea, Christ is in all, too. He is in all your salvation; He is in all your mercies; He is in all your trials; He is in all your consolations and in all your afflictions. What more can you want? What more do you desire? A Father who loves you as the apple of His eye; a full Savior to whom to go, moment by moment; a blessed indwelling, sanctifying, comforting Spirit, to reveal all to you, and to give you Himself, as the ‘earnest of your inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession’ (Eph. 1:14). ‘Happy is that people that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord’ (Psalm 144:15).”
Octavius Winslow
Morning Thoughts, 341-342
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Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 (ESV)
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“The man who has God as his treasure has all things in one, and he has it purely, legitimately, and forever.”
A. W. Tozer
The Pursuit of God, 20
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The Power of Stillness
Posted by jerrywhite on Jun 24, 2010
“It was a ‘still small voice’ or the ’sound of gentle stillness.’ Is there any note of music in all the chorus as mighty as the emphatic pause? Is there any word in all the Psalter more eloquent than the one word, Selah (Pause)? Is there anything more thrilling and awful than the hush that comes before the bursting of the tempest and the strange quiet that seems to fall upon all nature before some preternatural phenomenon or convulsion? Is there anything that can so touch our hearts as the power of stillness?
The sweetest blessing that Christ brings us is the Sabbath rest of soul, of which the Sabbath of creation was the type. There is, for the heart that will cease from itself, ‘the peace of God that passeth all understanding’; a quietness and confidence, which is the source of all strength; a sweet peace, ‘which nothing can offend.’ There is, in the deepest center of the believer’s soul a chamber of peace where God dwells, and where, if we will only enter in and hush every other sound, we can hear His ‘still voice’….
We cannot go through life strong and fresh on constant express trains, with ten minutes for lunch; but we must have quiet hours, secret places of the Most High, times of waiting upon the Lord, when we renew our strength, and learn to mount up on wings as eagles, and then come back to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint.
The best thing about this stillness is that it gives God a chance to work. ‘He that is entered into His rest hath ceased from his own works, even as God did from His.’ When we cease from our works, God works in us; when we cease from our thoughts, God’s thoughts come into us; when we get still from our restless activities, ‘God worketh in us both to will and to do his good pleasure,’ and we have but to work it out.
Beloved! Let us take His stillness; let us dwell in ‘the secret place of the Most High’; let us enter into God and His eternal rest; let us silence the other sounds, and then we can hear ‘the still, small voice.’”
Dr. A. B. Simpson (1844-1919)
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Saints through the ages learned the necessity, privilege, and blessing of time alone with the Lord Jesus to sit at His feet in silence like Mary (Luke 10:39). We do well to learn from them what the Lord Jesus said was the good portion—the one thing necessary.
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The Potter’s Hands
Posted by jerrywhite on Jun 21, 2010
So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
Jeremiah 18:3-4
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“The Potter has called us to know Him, not His purposes in us.
Trust Him without fear or reservation, my dear friend. The Potter’s hands will not stretch, pound, pull, scrape, or apply pressure in vain. Nor does He delight in seeing us spin needlessly around the wheel. Every turn of the wheel and every pressure of His hand are wisely applied to our lives in His loving re-creation of us. He is working us from the inside out to conform us into vessels of honor. Wise love is forming us.
Let us not fear the turnings, the pressure, or the silence. Where the pressure is greatest the vessels will no doubt be most unique and the Potter most glorified.
The simplicity of this is awesome! We must know Him, not His purposes, and we know Him through submission.
Clay was never in better hands than the hands that now are molding you. Rest!
Edward Miller
Letters to the Thirsty, 106
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“If we are to experience serenity in this turbulent world, we will need to take firmer grasp of God’s sovereignty and trust His love even when we cannot discern His purpose. We must remember that the hand molding the clay is nail-pierced, and that our God’s sovereignty will never clash with His paternity. ‘But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father, we are the clay, and Thou our potter’ (Isaiah 64:8). If we are to enjoy a deepening intimacy with God, we must react to His providential dealings in a spiritual way, even though they may be inscrutable. These dealings may take various forms, but all are planned in love, and with a view to cultivating a deeper intimacy with God.”
J. Oswald Sanders
Enjoying Intimacy With God, 95
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In Times Of Trouble
Posted by jerrywhite on Jun 16, 2010
God’s trusting child may say in times of trouble:
FIRST: He brought me here; it is by His will I am in this strait place: in that will I rest.
NEXT: He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child.
THEN: He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.
LAST: In His good time He can bring me out again—how and when He knows.
Say: I am here—
(1) By God’s appointment.
(2) In His keeping.
(3) Under His training.
(4) For His time.
Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
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And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you; and you shall glorify me.
Psalm 50:15 (ESV)
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“Little daily worries are heaven-sent messengers to help you on the way home. What would you think of a sailor complaining of the wind that bears him homeward? A day spent among these worries is a day in God’s school. One might say that the way to make the best of them is to make the least of them.”
Andrew Bonar (1810-1892)
Heavenly Springs, 38
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Longing For More
Posted by jerrywhite on Jun 14, 2010
“All through the ages the saints have literally sobbed about the sin resident in their hearts. ‘My heart is the very dunghill of the devil, and it is no easy work to wrestle with him on his own ground,’ said Jacob Behmen. ‘My heart is a cage of unclean beasts!’ cried a mediaeval saint. ‘I am made of sin,’ lamented Bishop Andrewes. It is not, however, the fact of indwelling sin that causes the saints distress so much as inability to deal with it.
In the first flush of the joy of his conversion the young Spurgeon was transported to the heavenly places and felt himself ‘an emancipated soul, an heir of heaven, forgiven, accepted in Christ, plucked from the miry clay, his feet set upon a rock, and his going established.’ But, even so, after a few weeks he records that ‘certain follies had begun to sprout again….My soul seems to long after the flesh pots of Egypt, and that, after having eaten of heavenly manna. Help and forgive me, our Saviour.’
Still more penetrating is the testimony of Oswald Chambers: ‘The sense of depravity and the bad-motiveness of my nature was terrific. I knew no one who had what I wanted. In fact, I did not know what I did want, but I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, then the thing was a mockery.’
G. H. Morling
The Quest for Serenity, 34-35
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Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7:24-25 (ESV)
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Dear longing child of God, saints through the ages have struggled with indwelling sin just as you do and pursued the truth in the Lord Jesus that would enable them to live a purer, holy life for the Lord Jesus. Did He not promise, “Seek and you will find” (Luke 11:9)?
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