"Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed,
for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
~Joshua 1:9
Arise, my soul, arise; shake off your guilty fears;The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:Before the throne my surety stands,Before the throne my surety stands,My name is written on His hands.He ever lives above, for me to intercede;His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:His blood atoned for all our race,His blood atoned for all out race,And sprinkles now the throne of grace.Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:'Forgive him, O forgive!' they cry,'Forgive him, O forgive!' they cry,'Nor let that ransomed sinner die!'The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;His Spirits answers to the blood,His Spirits answers to the blood,And tells me I am born of God.My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:With confidence I now draw nigh,With confidence I now draw nigh,And 'Father, Abba Father!' cry.*Answers to quiz: A-2, B-3*
The rich young ruler had the master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple; He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself- a relationship with Himself in which there is no other relationship. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but with the unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us know the absolute "go" of abandonment to Jesus."Then Jesus beholding him loved him." The look of Jesus will mean a heart broken forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. He Jesus ever looked at you? The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes. Where you are 'soft' with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze."One thing thou lackest..." The only 'good thing' from Jesus Christ's point of view is union with Himself and nothing in between."Sell whatsoever thou hast..." I must reduce myself until I am a mere conscious man, I must fundamentally renounce possessions of all kinds, not to save my soul (only on thing saves a man- absolute reliance upon Jesus Christ), but in order to follow Jesus. "Come, and follow Me" and the road is the way He went.~Mark 10:21
Something I stole from Spurgeon that hit pretty hard when I read it the other day.
In this ever busy, up-n-at-'em, get-it-done life I rarely see people slow down- I've even heard people say they hate not having anything to do. I've been there. Feeling like my worth was in what I accomplished and not in who I was in Christ. I felt like if I slowed down I would become useless. Ha! What a lie.
So, if you have ever felt that way- even in the tiniest little inkling- you should read what Spurgeon wrote.
Even if you've never felt that way, you should still read it because it's Spurgeon :)
Ps 27:14 "Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage! Wait for the LORD!"
It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take.
Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the case before him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead his promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God. But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting is but an insult to the Lord.
Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, "Now, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for thee in the full conviction that thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower."
~Spurgeon
