Friday, January 17, 2025

 

Heaven's New Song

Revelation 7  The New Song  
"And they sang a new song."—Rev. 5:9.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,12 saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
13                   Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?"14 I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15                   "Therefore they are before the throne of God,
                             and serve him day and night in his temple;
                             and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16                   They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
                             the sun shall not strike them,
                             nor any scorching heat.
17                   For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
                             and he will guide them to springs of living water,
              and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
 
Instead of waiting until you get sick and worn out before you speak the praise of Christ, while your heart is happiest, and your step is lightest, and your fortunes smile, and your pathway blossoms, and the overarching heavens drop upon you their benediction, speak the praises of Jesus.
The old Greek orators, when they saw their audiences inattentive and slumbering, had one word with which they would rouse them up to the greatest enthusiasm. In the midst of their orations, they would stop and cry out " Marathon !" and the people's enthusiasm would be unbounded. My hearers, though you may have been borne down with sin, and though trouble, and trials, and temptation may have come upon you, and you feel hardly like looking up, methinks there is one grand, royal, imperial word that ought to rouse your soul to infinite rejoicing, and that word is "Jesus!"
There was a song to-day that touched the life of the aged with holy fire, and kindled a glory on their vision that our younger eye-sight can not see. It was the song of salvation— Jesus, who fed them all their lives long;
Jesus, who wiped away their tears ; Jesus, who stood by them when all else failed; Jesus, in whose name their marriage was consecrated, and whose resurrection has poured light upon the graves of their departed. "Do you know me?" said the wife to her aged husband who! was dying, his mind already having gone out. He said "No." And the son said, "Father, do you know me?" He said "No." The daughter said, "Father, do you know me?" He said "No." The minister of the Gospel standing by, said, "Do you know Jesus?" "Oh yes," he said, " I know him, ' chief among ten thousand, | the one altogether lovely!' " Blessed the Bible in which spectacled old age reads the promise, "I will never leave you, never forsake you !" Blessed the staff on which the worn-out pilgrim totters on toward the welcome of his Redeemer ! Blessed the hymn-book in which the faltering tongue and the failing eyes find Jesus, the old man's song! When my mother had been put away for the resurrection, we, the children, came to the old homestead, and each one wanted to take away a memento of her who had loved us so long, and loved us so well. I think I took away the best of all the mementoes; it was the old-fashioned, round-glass spectacles, through which she used to read her Bible, and I put them on, but they were too old for me, and I could not see across the room. But through them I could see back to childhood, and forward to the hills of heaven, where the ankles that were stiff with age have become limber again, and the spirit, with restored eye-sight, stands in rapt exultation, crying, " This is heaven !"
What shall we preach? What shall we read? Let it be Jesus, every body says; let it be Jesus. We must have one more song to-night. What shall it be, children? Aged men and women, what shall it be?' Young men and maidens, what shall it be? If you dared to break the silence, there would come up thousands of quick and jubilant voices, crying out, "Let it be Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!"
We sing his birth—the barn that sheltered him, the mother that nursed him, the cattle that fed beside him, the angels that woke up the shepherds, shaking light over the midnight hills. We sing his ministry—the tears he wiped away from the eyes of the orphans; the lame men that forgot their crutches; the damsel who from the bier bounded out into the sunlight, her locks shaking down over the flushed cheek ; the hungry thousands who broke the bread as it blossomed into larger loaves—that miracle by which a boy with five loaves and two fishes became the supper for a whole array. We sing his sorrows—his stone-bruisecl feet, his aching heart, his mountain loneliness, his desert hunger, his storm-pelted body, the eternity of anguish that shot through his last moments, and the immeasurable ocean of torment that heaved up against his cross in one foaming, wrathful, omnipotent surge, the sun dashed out, and the dead, shroud wrapped, breaking open their sepulchres, and rushing out to see what was the matter. We sing his resurrection— the guard that could not keep him ; the sorrow of his disciples; the clouds piling up on either side in pillared splendors as he went through, treading the pathless air, higher and higher, until he came to the foot of the throne, and all heaven kept jubilee at the return of the
conqueror. Oh ! is there any song more appropriate for a Sabbath night than this song of Jesus? Let the passers- by in the street hear it, let the angels of God carry it amidst the thrones. Sound it out through the darkness
, Christ is the everlasting song. The very best singers sometimes get tired; the strongest throats sometimes get weary, and many who sang very sweetly do not sing now ; but I hope by the grace of God we will, after a while, go up and sing the praises of Christ where we will never be weary. You know there are some songs that are especially appropriate for the home circle. They stir the soul, they start the tears, they turn the heart in on itself, and keep sounding after the tune has stopped, like some cathedral-bell which, long after the tap of the brazen tongue has ceased, keeps throbbing on the air. Well, it will be a home song in heaven;
I wonder—Will you sing that song? Will I sing it? Not unless our sins are pardoned, and we learn now to sing the praise of Christ, will we ever sing it there. But oh, the grander scene when they shall come from the East, and from the West, and from the North, and from the South, "a great multitude that no man can number," into the temple of the skies, host beyond host, rank beyond rank, gallery above gallery, and Jesus shall stand before that great host to conduct the harmony, with his wounded hands and his wounded foot ! Like the voice of many waters, like the voice of mighty thunderings, they shall cry, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive blessings, and riches, and honor, and glory, and power, world without end. Amen and Amen !" Oh, if my ear shall hear no other sweet sounds, may I hear that! If I join no other glad assemblage, may I join that.
I was reading this afternoon of the battle of Agincourt, in which Henry V. figured ; and it is said after the battle was won, gloriously won, the king wanted to acknowledge the divine interposition, and he ordered the chaplain to read the Psalm of David; and when he came to the words, "Not unto us, Lord, but unto thy name be the praise," the king dismounted, and all the cavalry dismounted, and all the great host, officers and men, threw themselves on their faces. Oh, at the story of the Saviour's love and the Saviour's deliverance, shall we not prostrate ourselves before him to-night, hosts of earth and hosts of heaven, falling upon our faces, and crying, ". NOT unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory!'
 
"I saw One hanging on a tree,   In agony and blood,
Who fixed his languid eyes on me, As near his cross I stood.
' Oh, never till my latest breath  Will I forget that look
He seemed to charge me with his death, Though not a word he spoke.
And that is all for you ! Ob, can you not love him? Come around this laver, old and young. It is so burnished, you can see your sins; and so deep, you can wash them all away. Oh mourner, here bathe your bruised soul; and, sick one, here cool your hot temples in this laver. Peace! Do not- cry any more, dear soul! Pardon for all thy sins, comfort for all thy afflictions. The black cloud that hung thundering over Sinai has floated above Calvary, and burst into the shower of a Saviour's tears.
 
A picture of Waterloo a good while after the battle had passed, and the grass had grown all over the field. There was a dismounted cannon, and a lamb had come up from the pasture and lay sleeping in the mouth of that cannon. So the artist had represented it—a most suggestive thing. Then I thought how the war between God and the soul had ended ; and instead of the announcement, " The wages of sin is death," there came the words, " My peace I give unto thee ;" and amidst the batteries of the law that had once quaked with the fiery hail of death, I beheld the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
"I went to Jesus as I was,        Weary, and worn, and sad : •
I found in him a resting-place,     And he has made me glad."
"Jesus, lover of my soul,  Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the billows near me roll, While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, oh, my Saviour ! hide Till the storm of life is past,
Safe into the haven guide; Oh, receive my soul at last."
My friends, be quick. You have no time to waste. Be quick, the days of your life are going. Be quick, the hour of your death is coming. Be quick, the time of grace has almost closed with some of you ; perhaps it may be closed with some of you to-night. Be quick, lest some paralysis seize upon you, just carried out, or you have no more time only time to say as he did, putting his hand upon his heart, "Oh! oh!" and you be gone!
May God Almighty forbid that any of you, my brethren or sisters, act the part of Felix and Drusilla, and put away this great subject. If you are going to be saved ever, why not begin to-night? Throw down your sins and take the Lord's pardon. Christ has been tramping after you many a day.
An Indian and a white man became Christians. The Indian, almost as soon as he heard the Gospel, believed and was saved ; but the white man struggled on in darkness for a long while before he found light. After their peace in Christ, the white man said to the Indian, " Why was it that I was kept so long in the darkness, and you. immediately found peace ?" The Indian replied, "I will tell you. A prince comes along, and he offers you a coat. You look at your coat, and you say, ' My coat is good enough,' and you refuse his offer ; but the prince comes along and he offers me the coat, and I look at my old blanket and I throw that away, and take his offer. Yon, sir," continued the Indian, "are clinging to your own righteousness, you think you are good enough, and you keep your own righteousness ; but I have nothing, nothing, and so when Jesus offers me pardon and peace, I simply take it." My hearer, why not now throw away the worn-out blanket of your sin and take the robe of a Saviour's righteousness—a robe so white, so fair, so lustrous, that no launderer on earth can whiten it? Oh, Shepherd, bring home the lost sheep ! Oh, Father,  give a welcoming kiss to the prodigal ! Oh, friend of Lazarus, to-night break down the door of the sepulchre, and say to all these dead souls as by irresistible fiat, "LIVE!  LIVE!"
"Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the billows near me roll, While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, oh, my Saviour ! hide Till the storm of life is past,
Safe into the haven guide; Oh, receive my soul at last."
 
 
There must be an infinite and radical change in every man's heart, or he cannot come within ten thousand miles of heaven. There must be an earthquake in his soul. shaking down his sins, and there must be the trumpet-blast of Christ's resurrection bringing him up from the depths of sin and darkness into the glorious life of the Gospel. Do you know why more men do not come to Christ ? It is because men are not invited that they do not come. You get a general invitation from your friend : " Come round, some time to my house and dine with me." You do not go. But he says, " Come around to-day at four o'clock, and bring your family, and we'll dine together." And you say, "I don't know as I have any engagement : I will come." " I expect you at four o'clock." And you go. The world feels it is a general invitation to come around some time and sit at the great Gospel feast, and brother, come to Christ ; come now—come now ! "
How was it that so many thousands came to Jesus?  Because those men did nothing else but invite them to come.
They spent their lifetime uttering invitations, and they did not mince matters either ? Where did John Bunyan's pilgrim start from ? Did he start from some easy, quiet, cozy place ? No ; if you have read John Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress.~ you know where he started from, and that was the City of Destruction, where every sinner starts from. Do you know what Livingstone, the Scotch minister, was preaching about in Scotland when three hundred souls, under one sermon, came to Christ ? He was preaching about the human heart as unclean, and hard, and stony. Do you know what George Whitefield was preaching about in his first sermon, when fifteen souls saw the salvation of God? It was this : "Ye must be born again." Do you know what is the last subject he ever preached upon ? " Flee the wrath to come." Oh ! that the Lord God would come into our pulpits, and prayer-meetings, and Christian circles, and bring us from our fine rhetoric and profound metaphysics, and our elegant hair-splitting, to the old-fashioned well of Gospel Invitation.
 
CHRIST is everything in the great plan of Redemption-
We are slaves ; Christ gives deliverance to the captive.
We are thirsty ; Christ is the river of salvation to slake our thirst.
We are hungry ; Jesus says, " I am the bread of life."
We are condemned to die ; Christ says, " Save that man from going down to the pit ; I am the ransom."
We are tossed on a sea of troubles ; Jesus comes over it, saying, " It is I, be not afraid."
We are in darkness; Jesus says, "I am the bright and the morning-star."
We are sick ; Jesus is the balm of Gilead.
We are dead ; hear the shrouds rend and the grave hillocks heave as he cries, " I am the resurrection and the life ;
he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall live."
We want justification ; " Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
We want to exercise faith ; " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
I want to get from under condemnation ; " There is now, therefore, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." The cross—He carried it. The flames of hell—He suffered them. The shame—He endured it. The crown—He won it. Heights of heaven sing it, and worlds of light to worlds of light all round the heavens cry, " Glory, glory!"
"Christ is my Hope, my Strength and Guide; For me He bled, and groaned and died :
He is my Sun to give me light, He is my soul's supreme delight.
" Christ is the source of all my bliss,  My wisdom and my righteousness,
My Saviour, Brother, and my friend;  On Him alone I now depend."
 
How many thorns he hath plucked out of human agony ! Oh ! He knows too well what it is to carry a cross, not to help us carry ours. He knows too well what it is to climb the mountain, not to help us up the steep.
" Christ is my king to rule and bless       And all my trouble to redress ;
He's my salvation and my all,         Whate'er on earth shall me befall."
 
" I know that my Redeemer lives,      What comfort this sweet sentence gives !
He lives, He lives, who once was dead.     He lives, my ever-living Head !
" He lives to grant me daily breath.        He lives, and I shall conquer death.
He lives, my mansion to prepare,        He lives, to bring me safely there.
" He lives, all giory tc His name,          He lives, my Jesus still the same ',
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,   I know that my Redeemer lives ! "
 
 
 


 

The LA fire and God’s Grace To Us in St Marys.


We had better listen when God speaks in wave, or wind, or storm, or earthquake, or conflagration. God spoke to Job out of the hurricane. God's most vehement utterances are in flames of fire. The most tremendous lesson he ever gave to New York was in the conflagration of 1835 ; to Chicago, in the conflagration of 1871 ; to Boston, in the conflagration of 1872.
I remember receiving a phone call from a neighbour to the church I pastored in Newcastle.  "You have better come down.. your church is on fire!  What? Yes its burning.. "Can you call the firebrigade? I am on my way down."
All efforts at extinguishimg it seemed to for awhile to fail. The expensive organ, the billowing smoke, the flames shooting out of my office window, the fireman and the police stopping me from entering the burning building. "What are you going to do in there?"  "I don't know, stop it I guess!"
 Some saw in that nothing but unmitigated disaster, while others of us heard the voice of God as from heaven, sounding through the crackling thunder of that awful day. 
And the reminders this week of the power of fire in the disaster at Los Angeles.
First, it was sudden.
We all felt that whatever else might go down, that Tabernacle never could. We thought it fire-proof when on that day that building was in flames, there was on every face in the street amazement.
Sudden as sudden could be !
Spiritual fire broke out here last year.  Many were rising and asking for prayers, there was a look of amazement on the faces of the people, and some aged Christians wondered what it all meant. Suddenly. suddenly. So nearly always does the Spirit come. So He came when Jonathan Edwards preached in Northampton, and John Livingstone in Scotland, and William Tennant preached in Monmouth and Dr. Finlay preached in Baskinridge, and  Nettleton, and Daniel Baker, and Truman Osborne, and Mr. Earle, and Edward Payson preached everywhere. Almost always the blessing came suddenly. It has been especially so in our midst. In a night family altars have been reared in houses where before there was no prayer; infidels persuaded of the truth of Christianity in five minutes ; children going unsaved coming home Christians; men coming into these services to make merry with the anxiety of those who were seeking after God, themselves at the close rising for prayer; and many of the old passages of Scripture that seemed to lie dormant in the hearts of God's people have flashed up with unwonted and overwhelming power.
Whitefield was once preaching on Blackheath, and a man and his wife coming from market saw the crowd and went up to hear. Whitefield was saying something about what happened eighteen hundred years ago, and the man said to his wife, "Come, Mary, we will not stop any longer. He is talking about something that took place more than eighteen hundred years ago. What's that to us?" But they were fascinated. They could not get away. The truth of God came to their hearts.
When they were home, they took down the Bible and said, "Is it possible that these old truths have been here so long and we have not known it ?" Ah ! it was in the flash of God's Spirit on Blackheath that they were saved —the Spirit coming mightily, and suddenly, and overwhelmingly upon them. So it was that God's Spirit came to Andrew Fuller and Bishop Latimer— suddenly.
 
It was irresistible.
Notwithstanding all our boasted machinery and organization for putting out fires, the efforts that were made did not repulse the flames one single instant. Having begun, they kept on more and more triumphantly, clapping their hands over the destroyed building. There was a great sound of fire-trumpets and brave men walking on hot walls; but the flames were balked not an instant.
So it has been with the Holy Spirit moving through the hearts of this people. Why, there have been aged men who for forty or fifty years resisted the truth who have surrendered! There have been men here who have sworn that the religion of Jesus Christ should never come into their households; they and their children kneel now at the same altar. We have all felt it. Formalists trying to put out the spiritual fire have only had their trouble for their pains. It has gone on.
It is going on now, conquering pride, and worldliness, and sin ; and I pray it may keep on until it has swept everything before it, and there shall be in every household an altar, and in every heart a throne for the blessed Jesus.
Go on, great baptism of the Holy Ghost as with fire! In the days of revival in England, when John Wesley was preaching, everywhere scoffers would mimic his preaching, and one man thought it was very smart to gather an audience, and stand up with a Bible, and take John Wesley's favorite text, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish ;" and he preached—he, the scoffer—to an audience of scoffers, until the truth rebounded on his own heart and he cried for mercy, and the truth overwhelmed the hearts of his hearers, and they cried for mercy, and instead of being an audience of mockers it became an audience of seekers. Oh ! this is the power of God, this is the wisdom of God unto salvation. Both baptisms—the one of fire and the one of the Holy Ghost —irresistible.
 
It was consuming.
Did you ever see any more thorough work than was done by that fire? The strongest beams turned to ashes. The iron cracked, curled up, and was destroyed. The work of the flames consummate. So it has been with the Holy Ghost :it has been a consuming fire amidst the sins and the habits of those who despise God. How many have had their transgressions utterly consumed ! Some who were victims of bad habits have had their chains broken off. Down at the club-room and down at the saloon, they wonder why these people do not come any more.
So may it always be—the Spirit of God consuming the dissipations of men !
That Spirit has gone through the hearts and lives of many who sit before me, like fire through stubble. They have been swept by the purifying flames. Fire is consuming.
 
It was melting.
If you examined the bars and bolts, and plumbing work of the Tabernacle after it went down, you know it was a melting process. The things that seemed to have no relation to each other adjoined flowed together. So it has been with the Spirit of God, melting down all asperities and unbrotherliness. Heart has flowed out toward heart. It has been a melting process. If there is any thing that our city churches need, it is melting. There are a thousand icicles hanging to the eaves of our city churches where there are two icicles hanging to the eaves of the country churches. We are so afraid we will get acquainted with somebody that will not do us honor! The great want of the Church to-day is a thaw—a thaw. Oh, that the Lord God would rise up and melt down the freezing conventionalities of his Church !
I think the fire of God's Spirit working in our midst here have melted us we flow together in Christian sympathy, and harmony, and love, and that we can now join hands in one great family circle as a church, and sing as we never sang before:
"Before our Father's throne We pour our ardent prayers
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, Our comforts and our cares.
"The glorious hope revives Our courage by the way,
While each in expectation lives, And longs to see the day."
 
God evidently does not intend us for smooth work. He has rocked us in a very rough cradle. Ofttimes has this church been assaulted in various ways, and if there are any who expect to have a smooth time and an easy pathway, they had better wake up from the delusion and get out of this church. If God baptized us with fire, it is because he means to fit us for hot and tremendous work. If you are afraid of fatigue, and afraid of persecution, and afraid of opposition, you had better not train in this battalion, for I have no quiet encampment to offer you by still waters; but rather to tell you of a forced march, hard fighting, and a bayonet charge. I believe God means us to go forth and proclaim an earnest, uncompromising, out and out, straightforward, revolutionary,  old-fashioned Gospel, that believes in repentance and regeneration, in glory and in perdition.
We want that Spirit to come down in all our families with his arousing, melting, illuminating, saving presence; and I believe that then the influences which we have already had in the way of a blessing will be only as a spark compared with the great  conflagration of religious enthusiasm and zeal we shall feel here.
But, my friends, when is this work to begin ? If you, as a private Christian, and I, as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, have some work to do, when shall we begin it? Now, and here.
 
Remember , a fire..It will be when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with flaming fire, to take vengeance upon those who know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!
From that conflagration LA shall recover; but the soul that goes down into that final conflagration shall never recuperate. That fire last week continued only three or four hours, and on the following day even the smoke ceased to curl up in the frosty air but that soul that rejects Christ shall go into a fire that shall never be quenched, " and the smoke of its torment ascends up forever and forever." May God Almighty through Jesus Christ keep us out of that ! Whatever misfortune and disaster may come upon us in this world, let it come ; but God forbid that any of us should lose heaven ! We can not afford to lose our soul. Save that, we have saved every thing. Lose that, we have lost every thing. Instead of the baptism that consumes, oh that we might this morning, penitently, believingly, prayerfully, joyfully receive the Saviour I suppose that some of you know there were persons who stood in the presence of that burning church who for the first time sought after God. They said then to themselves ; indeed they arose in the prayermeetings afterward, and said it: "When I stood in the presence of that building, I was reminded as never before that there was nothing fire-proof, that there was nothing on earth certain, and there and then, in the presence of that devastation and ruin, I resolved that I would be the Lord's, and I have kept my promise. I have given my heart to Jesus."
I rehearse the scene, shall it not be, under God's Spirit, the means of bringing some of you to Christ? You have tried this world. You have been drinking out of the fountains of its pleasure. You have tried in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September,
October, November, December and now, and tell me frankly, oh man of the world! is there any thing this side Christ and heaven that can give solace, and peace, and contentment to your immortal nature? No; you know there is nothing. You have tried the world, and it has failed you. It is a cheating world. It is a lying world. It is a dying world. Oh, seek after God to-day, and be at peace with him!
" When we cannot see our way,
We should trust and still obey ;
He who bids us forward go,
Will instruct the way to know."


Wednesday, January 15, 2025

 

Dennison Forum Suffering

An elderly seminary professor once advised me, "Be kind to everyone, because everyone's having a hard time." The pastor and theologian Joseph Parker agreed: "Preach to the suffering and you will never lack a congregation. There is a broken heart in every pew."


One way God redeems all he allows is by using our pain to draw us closer to the Great Physician. You don't usually go to your doctor when you're well, but when you're sick. John Piper explained, "This is God's universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less satisfaction in the world."


Why should we believe that our Lord can help us as no one else can?


God understands our suffering because he has experienced it with us. I know this is a commonplace observation for Christians, but no other religion in human history has made such a claim. The Greeks would never have suggested that Zeus feels our pain. Muslims view Allah as distant and impervious to our fallenness. Buddhists and Hindus view ultimate reality as impersonal and cannot imagine this Reality being born in a cave, laid in a feed trough, and dying on a cross.


As Os Guinness noted, "No other god has wounds."


But the One we worship today knows our pain because he has experienced it personally and still does so today. Jesus was "in every respect . . . tempted as we are" (Hebrews 4:15) and is interceding for us this very moment (Romans 8:34). In addition, the Holy Spirit lives in us (1 Corinthians 3:16) and thus experiences all that we experience. And our Father is holding us in his hand (John 10:29), so nothing can come to us without first passing through him.


No doctor can pretend to possess our Lord's omniscience, omnipotence, or omnipresence. Nor can any earthly physician truly feel what we feel and suffer as we suffer. But our Great Physician can and does.


"Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance"


However, as with any doctor, this one can treat only the patients who will come to him for help. But it's not enough to consult him: we must also obey him.


If your doctor tells you that you need to lose weight, exercise more, change your diet, or otherwise modify your life, you can always ignore her advice. So it is with your Lord. Even though he is the King of the universe, he honors the free will he has given you (cf. Revelation 3:20). He can give only what you will receive and lead only where you will follow.


So allow me to ask: What is your next step into obedience with your Lord? If it were easy, you would already have taken it. Such obedience requires us to believe that our Physician knows and wants only what is best for us (1 John 4:8) and that his will always and ultimately results in our good (Romans 8:28).


Blaise Pascal observed:


Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.


"To multiplied trials he multiplies peace"


The Lord called David "a man after my heart" (Acts 13:22), but even he had to walk through "the valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm 23:4a). However, in the hardest places of life, he could pray with triumphant confidence, "I will fear no evil, for you are with me" (v. 4b).


So can we.


Through a life filled with physical suffering, Annie Johnson Flint could testify personally:


He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,

He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;

To added afflictions he addeth his mercy,

To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.


When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,

Our Father's full giving is only begun.


His love has no limits, his grace has no measure,

His power no boundary known unto men;

For out of his infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.


For what "burdens" do you need such measureless grace today?


Tuesday, January 14, 2025

 

LIFE’S GREATEST QUESTION What is to be the focus of my life?

LIFE'S GREATEST QUESTION      What is to be the focus of my life?
Materialism Seems More Real Than Faith
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Will Having MORE THINGS make me MORE HAPPY ? "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. . . As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?" Ecc. 5:10,11
Will Having MORE THINGS make me MORE SECURE ?
"The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall." Prov. 18:11
"Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint." Prov. 23:4  Job 31:24,28
1.  The Crises Are Revealing
A. We Worry about Finances
B. We Worry about Food
C. We Worry about Fashion
D. We Worry about Fitness
E. We Worry about the Future
2. The Causes of Worry   1.  Sinful
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
31  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
 Cause 2     Stupid
Worry Is Irrational  "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
Cause 3.   Worry Is Ineffective
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Cause 4.    Worry Is Faithless 
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Cause 5.   Worry Is Inconsistent  
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
Crises Are Revealing          fame , fortune, power and pleasure are not sufficient centres for our lives to fulfill our lives.  We have a God shaped hole in our hearts that only God Himself can fill.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Do You Focus On The Father?
Said the robin to the sparrow,  "I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings  Rush about and worry so."
Said the sparrow to the robin,  "Friend I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father,  Such as cares for you and me."
God is still in control. 
God is not worried.
God can handle my burdens. 
God loves me so much His Son died for me
God is still conforming me to the image of His Son
God sees the bigger picture
It's God's Story not mine.
Seeking First the Kingdom of God Means To Seek God's Glory
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, And to enjoy him forever.
WHY AM I ALIVE?   TO SEEK GOD'S GLORY
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."  (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Do You Focus On The Father?
Do You Focus On The Son?
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
WHY AM I ALIVE?   TO SHARE GOD'S GRACE 1Cor 10:32 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit,  but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Jn 17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
Jn 20:21b "…As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you."
Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.
1 Cor. 9:22  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
John 4:35 "...open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest
Matthew 9:37-38 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Do You Have Faith In The Father?
Do You Focus On The Son?
Do You Focus On The Spirit?
Seeking First the Kingdom of God Means TO SHOW GOD'S GOODNESS
Matthew 5:14-16  "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Eleisha's Bike Riding experience at EHBC carpark. Focus  Where you look is where you go


 

The hurt of betrayal

12 Steps to Consider when You Face the Pain of Betrayal

By Chuck Lawless on Jan 13, 2025 01:00 am

It happens, even among brothers and sisters in Christ. It happened to Jesus, and it happens to us. Friends sometimes turn on us, and the knife of betrayal slices us deeply. And, the longer the friendship has been in place, the more the pain hurts. Consider these steps when betrayal hits home for you: 

  1. Grieve the reality of sin in general. No matter what betrayals we face, sin always plays a role. When you weep over the grief that sin generally brings, it's easier to forgive someone who hurts you.
  2. Remember who the real enemy is: Satan and his forces. We human beings are responsible for our actions, but our struggle is not ultimately against flesh and blood (Eph 6:12). 
  3. As needed, invite a pastor or friend into the conversation.Sometimes we just need another set of eyes to see, ears to listen, and knees to pray.
  4. Don't make assumptions about causes—have a face-to-face conversation with your perceived betrayer. Sadly, the cause is at times only a misunderstanding completely distorted and then detonated. If the talk must include confrontation, do confront—but in a God-honoring way.
  5. Give yourself permission to grieve the loss of a friend. Betrayal hurts. Don't whitewash that pain, as if Christians who trust God should never feel that way. Cry out to God. Weep. It's all okay.
  6. Pray for the other person. It's hard to know why people do some of the things they do. Regardless of their motives, though, something just happens within us when we genuinely pray for those who betray us. Sometimes God melts our heart before he melts the heart of our betrayer.
  7. Don't betray in turn. It's easy to do, actually. We foolishly convince ourselves that we'll prove our "rightness" by making sure others know how terrible our betrayer is. Don't let the devil drag you into that trap.
  8. Consider all the other brothers and sisters in Christ who've not betrayed you. It's my experience that faithful friends outnumber the unfaithful ones – usually by large numbers. Don't let pain from one former friend cause you to miss the blessings of others around you. 
  9. Choose not to let bitterness consume you. Bitterness is like hot embers on the floor – the potential for a conflagration is always there if those embers are fanned. In the power of God, douse the embers before they cause long-term damage in your own heart.
  10. Be open to reconciliation. Forgiving a betrayer and then renewing a relationship don't mean that everything must return to the way it was. Trust takes time, and sometimes we never fully get back there. We can, though, still offer God's love even to our perceived enemies.
  11. Be a good friend to others. Model what Christian friends should be even if others don't always do the same.
  12. Trust God. He's bigger than any pain you're facing. And, He can mold your own heart for His glory and your good even through the anguish of betrayal.

What steps have helped you deal with this pain


Monday, January 13, 2025

 

Grief by my uncle Ken Churchward

Opening and closing the door on grief

A little girl always asked her mother to leave the hall light on and bedroom door open when she was put to bed at night. Her mother asked her one evening, "Is it to let the light in?"

The little girl thought about it for a moment and then replied, "No, Mummy. I think it is to let the darkness out."

Grief is a bundle of quite complex negative emotions. It is a bit like darkness inside. It needs to be let out—it needs to be expressed in whatever way is appropriate to our own personality and temperament when the time comes. When grief comes upon us, as surely it will (and probably it will come a number of times) in the course of our lifetime, we need to open the door, and keep the door open for long enough for the grief (the darkness) to get out. Sometimes we may need someone to open the door for us and to hold it open. For various reasons, it is sometimes difficult to open the door, and sometimes the door keeps trying to close itself.

There are a number of things we can do for ourselves to help us through our times of grief in a healthy, constructive and godly way. And there are a number of ways others can help us in our times of grief. We may well need their help. Of course, the converse of that is true: there are a number of things that we can actually do, if we are aware, to help other people with their grieving. Surely that is a good and godly thing to do. We should try to learn how to do it.

In this brief article, I explore the nature of grief, how grief heals and what can hinder that healing, and ways of ministering to others who are grieving.

What grief is

What is grief? Grief is the single word we use to cover a whole cluster of emotions we experience when we lose someone or something that has an important place in the emotional fabric of our lives. Grief is made up of a number of components such as sorrow, loneliness, fear, despair, anger, confusion and guilt. These components rise and fall from time to time in the experience of grief. Sometimes one particular emotion is much more prominent than the others: the emotions rise and fall and the shape of grief constantly changes. The experience of grief is obviously felt more strongly the more our lives are involved with that someone or something and the closer our attachment.

Sometimes the very foundations of our lives are shaken, and we experience a deep and profound sorrow—an overwhelming sorrow and a confusion almost bordering on despair and hopelessness. That probably would be a good description of my grief experience back in July 1991. After a two-year struggle, my wife Betty died of cancer, and this grieving experience was further complicated by the fact that two of my daughters (Jenny, 25 and Narelle, 32) were killed in a head-on car accident eight days before Betty died. I had pastored and taught courses in pastoral care before 1991, but this massive grieving experience has certainly shaped my own reflection on the topic.

Grief is not limited to traumatic events like those I experienced, or even necessarily to the death of some person we love. We experience grief in childhood: the loss of a child-time pet is often a grief experience in a child. We experience grief as adults when we move house or job, and leave behind familiar people and places. We even experience grief when we lose some object that has emotional or sentimental value. We experience grief with lost expectations—for example, being made redundant, failing an exam, missing out on a promotion, not achieving a cherished goal, retiring and leaving behind the familiar workplace and friends. People also experience grief with their advancing years and the loss of faculties. It should be clear that we meet grieving people quite often—not just when a death occurs. We may grieve a death, but we also grieve an illness, an absence, a change, a significant loss of any kind. We need to be aware of that and seek to recognize the needs of people who are suffering grief. "No man is an island", wrote John Donne, the 17th-century English poet and preacher. We really can't live a full life without some network of human relationships. This very network of human relationships inevitably involves the experience of grief. Indeed, to avoid grief we would have to live in total isolation from relationships with other people, cut off like islands: "a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries", as Simon and Garfunkel sang. But most of us don't want to live that sort of life, and so we are inevitably exposed to the possibility of grief. Our most significant grief experiences revolve around people.

There are at least three components to grief. There is an emotional component—intense feelings of sadness, loss, loneliness and despair—which will vary in intensity and impact from person to person. There is a psychological component, where the grief affects our mental processes: it may be difficult to make decisions; a person may 'break down', as we say. And there is a practical component: we lose people and things that have structured our lives, and we have to learn new ways of living.

Christians and grieving

Christians grieve too. It is important to remember that although, as Christians, Christ is at the centre of our lives as Saviour and Lord, that doesn't negate the importance of other things and other people in our lives. In fact, our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ should make us more sensitive people all round—more human and not less. I emphasize this because of triumphalist Christianity that says that if we are genuine Christians, our lives will be above being affected by changing circumstances, and that trials and troubles, sorrows and losses will be water off a duck's back. I think that is directly contrary to the teaching and certainly the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our example in all things. He was literally one of us and, in fact, far more human than we are. Our humanness is marred and diminished by sin; we are broken people, and we live as part of a broken world.

If the Lord Jesus Christ is our model—if he is the kind of humanity that he is moving us back towards being as he recreates by the presence of his Spirit within—then we should expect to find ourselves becoming people who are more affected by life's events, not less.

How grief heals

How do we deal with grief in a healthy, constructive and godly way? In a book called Beyond Grief, the author John Holm says that grief is the illness that heals itself. I'm not sure that I like the word 'illness'; I prefer to use the word 'hurt'. Grief is the hurt that heals itself. In another book, Good Grief, Granger Westburg describes ten stages through which a person might move towards the feeling of their grief. This book is well worth reading. The ten stages are:

  1. Shock
  2. Painful emotions
  3. Depression and loneliness
  4. Physical symptoms
  5. Anxiety or panic
  6. Sense of guilt
  7. Hostility and resentment
  8. Inability to return to usual activities
  9. Hope
  10. Adjusting to new realities

It is important to remember that not everybody experiences all of these stages, nor are they necessarily experienced in this order. The fact is that there is no standard experience of grief. There are a number of common factors. There are relatively common stages that grieving people move through. The process is usually slow, but in the end, a balanced, meaningful and happy life should emerge out of the ashes of grief. Life can be good again. I am so grateful to someone who kept telling me that.

After I was through the initial stages of grief, from six weeks onward for the next six months, this person constantly told me that life can be good again. When the appropriate time comes, we need to keep feeding people hope. Hope needs to grow again. Life on the other side of grief will never be the same again, but like a plant that has been pruned, it will grow to a new shape and flower again.

Grief usually 'heals itself', but there are two dangers. The first is that we suppress our grief rather than living through it. This very often leads to illness—physical, psychological, emotional or mental illness. In the midst of grief, when those deep feelings of sorrow and hurt rise up inside, it is easy to rationalize a need to do this or that. It is easy to suddenly push them away by this process of rationalizing the need to do other things. When my mother died in 1977, I was on the faculty of the Bible College of Victoria. I immediately threw myself back into college life. I became aggressive, and my arthritis flared up. I asked myself the question, "What am I doing wrong?" I had a look at my notes on grief. Believe it or not, I was actually tutoring the stuff at the Bible college. It is surprising how theoretical we can become at times! I decided that what had happened was that I had suppressed my grief. So a year later, I had to go back to Woronora Cemetery and visit my mother's grave, and begin to do the grieving that I should have done a year before.

The second danger concerning grief is that we surrender to it. Surrendering to grief is the opposite of suppressing our grief. This happens when we indulge in self-pity and deliberately withdraw from life because of our pain. We might withdraw from people and different activities and responsibilities, and close the door on life.

The comfort of God

Grief works its way to the surface over a long period of time. I still sometimes have experiences of grief. When I see a red Toyota Corolla driving down the road, I remember that that was the car that Jenny, Todd and Narelle were in when the fatal accident occurred, and I find myself catching my breath and feeling the grief again. Passing North Shore Hospital in Sydney brings the same sort of feeling, for it was there that Betty went through most of her cancer treatment, and near here is where she died.

In our experience of grief, I believe there is a process that God wants us to go through. Our loss leads to grief, which leads to crying out to God, which leads to receiving help, which leads to growth, which leads to ministry. I think that this is a pattern by which God deals with us as we make our way through life:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted from God (2 Cor 1:3-4).

What can we do to open the door for those who have experienced loss? What can we do to help the grieving?

  • Practical support at the initial shock stage. Just be there and give practical help in the background. When my two girls died and Betty was in and out of hospital for eight days, people came and answered the door and phone, took messages, cooked meals and brought food to share with visitors. Practical help at this stage is of immense value.
  • Expressing sympathy. Initially this can be done by a word at the door, a phone call or a sympathy card. But I would encourage you to do more than that. A week after a person has suffered loss, write them a letter. Think about what you write carefully; say all the things that you can't say when you are face-to-face with the person, stuck for words and don't know what to say. Tell them how much the person who has died meant to you and how you feel for them in their sorrow. One of the most precious things about the time I spent at Shoalhaven Heads was reading the letters. The cards were valuable, but it was the letters that really ministered to me.
  • Encourage expressions of loss. Don't chatter, don't attempt to distract, just be there. Encourage and accept genuine expressions of sorrow; don't be embarrassed by tears. Talk about the person who has died. Hold the door open.
  • Encourage the person to take time to grieve and not to rush back into the busy schedule of life too soon. Often people expect to be back at work or into their ordinary routine after only a few days after their loss.
  • Encourage persistence in Bible reading, prayer and church. My wife, Margaret, found it very hard to go back to church after the loss of her first husband; meeting with close friends almost inevitably involved an outburst of tears, which she found embarrassing. Margaret had two very good friends who called her constantly, encouraged her to attend church and Bible study, and keep up her Bible reading and prayer. People experiencing grief need to be encouraged to keep at the basics of the Christian life, trusting that God will see them through.
  • Help preserve good memories. Keep in contact with the person on a regular basis and, each time you see them, try to say something about the person who has died. Keep those good memories alive. Sometimes we hesitate to talk about the person who has died because we are afraid we might upset them. However, the reverse is almost always true: often the person experiencing the loss is delighted that someone remembers their loved one, because no-one talks about them any more.
  • Be a practical, ongoing helper.People do need practical help in their ongoing experience of grief. Cooking meals, doing the ironing, mowing lawns and other ways of helping out practically mean a great deal to the grieving person.
  • Recall James's words about the importance of caring for the grieving: "religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" (Jas 1:27). Responding to grief really is at the core of living for Jesus in this broken world.

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