[Basilea Schlink, In Whom The Father Delights]
26 May 2024
Taste the Fruit of Suffering
[Basilea Schlink, In Whom The Father Delights]
11 March 2024
Grieving the Holy Spirit
I found that there were at least two ways we can grieve the Holy Spirit. One is by not being, in our inner life, good company for Him ... and the second is by neglect. The relation is like a friendship, in that it must be cultivated, exercised, and enjoyed, if it is to last and grow.
[John Sherrill]
04 March 2024
Christ's fullness in you
03 March 2024
Forgiveness of sins
Most Christians understand that God forgives their sins at the point of salvation, but they fail to understand the ongoing nature of forgiveness. God has not only forgiven our past sins, but he has forgiven our future sins as well. Some people push back hard on this point, but in doing so, they reveal the works-based nature connected to their view of salvation. Yes, I am called to repent of my sins. However, this is more about keeping my relationship with God fresh and pure than transactionally receiving the forgiveness of sin necessary for salvation. It’s an acknowledgment before God that I am both saint and sinner. When we fail to understand the ongoing nature of God’s forgiveness rightly, we cannot enter into the other promises of God. Likewise, we’ll never be able to forgive ourselves or those who have sinned against us.
[Mark Renfoe]
29 February 2024
Christ should be everything
[Alexander Moody Stuart]
28 February 2024
It is doubtful
20 February 2024
When God brings the blank space
There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait.
[Oswald Chambers]
23 November 2023
He put Himself in the bow
The god of love had shot all his arrows, but could never pierce his heart, till at length He put Himself into the bow.
[Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man]
01 November 2023
To testify His affection
When all His other gifts could not prevail, He at last made a gift of Himself, to testify His affection and engage theirs.
[Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man]
28 October 2023
God Wanted a Broken Vessel
“David was caught in a very uncomfortable position; however, he seemed to grasp a deep understanding of the unfolding drama in which he had been caught. He seemed to understand something that few of even the wisest men of his day understood. Something that in our day, when men are wiser still, even fewer understand.
And what was that?
God did not have - but wanted very much to have - men and women who would live in pain.
God wanted a broken vessel.”
27 October 2023
God Has a University
“God has a university. It’s a small school. Few enroll; even fewer graduate. Very, very few indeed. God has this school because he does not have broken men and women. Instead, he has several other types of people. He has people who claim to have God’s authority ... and don’t—people who claim to be broken . ... and aren’t. And people who do have God’s authority, but who are mad and unbroken. And he has, regretfully, a great mixture of everything in between.”
[Gene Edwards, A Tale of three Kings: A Study in Brokenness]
26 October 2023
Pursuading the Soul that Repentance is Easy
Satan's Device: persuading the soul that repentance is easy and that therefore the soul need not scruple about sinning. For remedies, consider that ... Satan now suggests that repentance is easy, but shortly he will drive his dupes to despair by presenting it as the hardest work in the world.
21 October 2023
The Root of the Righteous
20 October 2023
Healing Grace
19 October 2023
Pray as you can, not as you can't
18 October 2023
You Were Never Meant To Hold All Things Together
You were never meant to hold all things together.
You were never meant to depend on your plans, your health, your freedom, your future, your finances.
You were always meant to hold on to those things loosely, and cling tightly to the One who holds it all together. Jesus holds all things together (Col 1:17).
Maybe all the things that are falling apart right now can be a reminder of what we actually have the ability to hold and what we do not.
Maybe through this we can learn to place our trust in something far greater than ourselves and the things we so often depend on.
Maybe through current heartache, disappointment, and fear, we can find that we don't need to hold things together. He can.
And maybe, just maybe, through all this, we might find just how held we are.
[Torchbearers International]
13 October 2023
Tasting the Fruit of Suffering
If we humble ourselves beneath the hand of God, we shall emerge from every chastening richly blessed and soon taste the fruit of suffering.
He allows suffering to enter our lives, so that we might reap great joy, fruit, and glory now and for all eternity - a blessed "afterwards".
God will be honored and His name as Father will be glorified when we consider how He has chastened us and think of the fruit, joy, and blessing His chastenings have brought us.
[Basilea Schlink, In Whom The Father Delights]
31 January 2018
Near to his heart to be beloved
Adam lost a rib, and without any diminution to his strength or comeliness (for, doubtless, the flesh was closed without a scar); but in lieu thereof he had a help meet for him, which abundantly made up his loss: what God takes away from his people he will, one way or other, restore with advantage.
In this (as in many other things) Adam was a figure of him that was to come; for out of the side of Christ, the second Adam, his spouse the church was formed, when he slept the sleep, the deep sleep, of death upon the cross, in order to which his side was opened, and there came out blood and water, blood to purchase his church and water to purify it to himself.
[Matthew Henry Commentary on Genesis]
19 January 2018
Christ - The Lover of Our Souls
“The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ and savoring the felt comforts of a Savior's presence. When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls will go in silent search of other lovers.”
[Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God. Reprinted in The Banner of Truth issue 323-324 August 1990]
17 January 2018
Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure
Every fresh revelation calls for a new dedication
[Smith Wigglesworth]
31 March 2014
Others May, You CANNOT
Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.
Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make YOUR REWARD TEN TIMES GREATER when JESUS COMES.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave, He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.
Settle it forever, then that you are to DEAL DIRECTLY WITH the HOLY SPIRIT, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this PECULIAR, PERSONAL, PRIVATE, JEALOUS GUARDIANSHIP and MANAGEMENT OF the HOLY SPIRIT OVER YOUR LIFE, then you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.
-G.D.Watson (1845-1924).
SOURCE: Faith, Prayer, & Tract League,
Tract #76; Grand Rapids, MI 49504.
27 January 2014
The Heaven of Heaven
“They shall see His face.” It is the chief blessing of Heaven, the cream of Heaven, the Heaven of Heaven, that the saints shall there see Jesus! There will be other things to see. Who dares despise those foundations of chrysolite, and chrysoprasus, and jacinth? Who shall speak lightly of streets of glassy gold, and gates of pearl? We would not forget that we shall see angels, and seraphim, and cherubim; nor would we fail to remember that we shall see Apostles, martyrs, and confessors together with those whom we have walked with, and communed with in our Lord while here below. We shall assuredly behold those of our departed kindred who sleep in Jesus, dear to us here, and dear to us still—“not lost, but gone before.” But still, for all this, the main thought which we now have of Heaven, and certainly the main fullness of it when we shall be there, is just this—we shall see Jesus!
C. H. SPURGEON
AUGUST 9, 1868
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON
14 April 2012
Two Things Needed
David Wilkerson, The New Covenant Unveiled, page 21
15 September 2011
I Will Veil Myself In You
I don`t know who this is for but Lord, I`m going to speak
to those who have backslidden
To those, Oh Lord, who have been growing cold & indifferent
to the call of God & the things of Christ.
Oh God, come & speak.
God says, `The word that I`ve sent to you,
I didn`t send it out to be void.
But the word that I have given to you
is going to accomplish the very thing I said it would.`
Lord, I flee to You to hide me (Psalm 143:9).
Folks, the original in that says,
`I will veil myself in You.`
Now you think about it.
You see, our faith now cannot be based on emotion.
Our faith cannot be based on just the testimonies
of others who have been delivered.
They can`t be cliches.
They can`t be just a shout.
We have to have a foundation
for the faith that we`re going to need.
And this has to be laying hold of
God`s own claims of who He is.
This whole things starts out right here.
Oh, hear my prayer, Lord.
Hear my supplication.
In Your faithfulness, answer me
And in Your righteousness.
And here`s a challenge.
God, here`s the basis upon which I come to You.
Not what I`ve heard in the past about people,
but here`s what You told me You are.
You said that You are faithful.
That You are just.
That You are holy.
You cannot lie.
You can`t be God if You aren`t faithful.
You said You are long-suffering.
You said You`re the God of peace.
You said You`re the God of my strength
Now I`m coming to You.
I`m going to lift my hands to You.
I`m going to believe what You said about Yourself.
And I am coming on the merits of nothing I have done,
no righteousness of my own, but on the promise of God.
What You told me.
Remember the word unto Your servant
which You have caused me to hope in.
This is my comfort in affliction.
For You have now quickedned me.
How was he quickened
Lord, God, I have lifted my hands to You.
I have trusted You.
I have claimed Your promises.
You are who You said You are.
From now on, I`m going to veil myself in You.
I`m going to cut myself off from all confidence in the flesh,
or in people, or in anyone else.
I`m going to throw myself at Your mercy.
Your grace! Your power! Your glory!
And I`m veiling myself in Christ.
[David Wilkerson]
Transcribed from audio at the Times Square Church Memorial Service - May 14, 2011