For Nothing is Impossible With God

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Didier Kirady

Extended circles  -  23:04

For Nothing is Impossible With God

Luke 1:37 says, "For (because) nothing (no word) is (will be) impossible with God."

We know that God is love 
(1 John 4:8, 16) and we know that the Word was God 
(John 1:1) and that "He (Christ) was in the beginning with God." 
(John 1:2). "All things came into being through Him (Christ) (John 1:3a). "In Him (Christ) was life, and the life was the light of men 
(John 1:4). "And the Word (Christ) became flesh (yet without sin) and tabernacled among us and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and reality. How marvelous! God is love, but this love reaches us as grace, through the only begotten of the Father, who sent His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, hallelujah! This is why the apostle Paul ended his speaking with, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." Amen for the word of God! Paul knew that God who is love is enjoyed, experienced and expressed as grace to us, and as grace by, into, with and through your spirit. For no one can say that Jesus is Lord except that the Spirit of Christ, as grace, be in you, in your spirit. The God of love (the Father) was manifested to us in the Son, Christ, to be received, believed into and enjoyed by all, as the life giving Spirit, now dwelling within your spirit. "For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." (John 1:16). This is the Triune God reaching man. What love God has towards man! "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life." (John 3:16). John Gospel is profound, "In Him was life", its about the Son of God, Christ the Lord, who can phantom it, yet it can be enjoyed and experienced. This is truly marvelous, praise the Lord Jesus, amen.
In contrast Luke's Gospel is a record of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who as a Man, became sweet and pleasant towards all mankind. This Gospel is concerning the Savior's humanity, its purpose is to present the Savior as a genuine, normal, and perfect Man, revealing God among men in His saving grace to fallen mankind. It is the Gospel written to mankind in general, announcing the good news to all people, to all sinners, both Jews and Gentiles. The subject of the Gospel of Luke is marvelous, it is about the Man, Jesus, as Savior and His salvation, in His humanity, in the highest standard of morality, hallelujah. We can say that this sweet and pleasant person, Jesus, is the Man-Savior, the one who was a perfect Man and the Savior for mankind, the Man-Savior. According to the Gospel of Luke, our Savior lives, behaves, and works in the highest standard of morality. Moreover, His salvation is carried out in the highest standard of morality. We need to keep this word in mind, for He is asking of us to live the same as He did, not in ourselves, but by His Spirit dwelling within us, by His grace given to us. Praise the Lord!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit, amen.

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LIGHT IN DARKNESS

LIGHT IN DARKNESS
"What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in the light."-- Mat_10:27.

CHRIST IS often speaking, in the secret of the heart; in the darkness of the night, "when deep sleep falls upon men; there the Master tells us things in the darkness! To listen and obey will save us many a bitter hour.
We may question if it be His voice, but we are rarely wrong in detecting that Voice, when it reminds us of duties we have omitted, and calls on us to take up the cross which we have shunned.
There is music, tenderness, love-notes in these dark sayings, like those upon the harp, of which the Psalmist sings (Psa_49:4); the Voice that utters them is not harsh and strident, but tender and gentle. They are intended to teach us how to teach, to enable us to help others who could not understand these hidden things. We have to be taken into the dark, as sensitive paper, to receive impressions that will give pleasure and help to hundreds who could never pass through our experiences.

PRAYER
Lord, speak to me, that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone;
As Thou hast sought, so let me seek
Thy erring children lost and lone. AMEN.

Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit

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Gal 5:18  Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? 

Galatians 5:18
But if ye be led by the Spirit,.... That is, of God, who is the guide and leader of his people. It is a metaphor taken from the leading of persons that are blind; as such are before conversion, and whom the Spirit of God leads in ways they knew not, and in paths they had not known: or from the leading of children, and teaching them to go; so the Spirit leads regenerate persons, and teaches them to walk by faith in Christ. This act of leading supposes life in the persons led, for dead men cannot be led; the Spirit is first a Spirit of life from Christ before he is a leader; and also it supposes some strength, though a good deal of weakness; were there no spiritual strength derived from Christ, they could not be led; and if there was no weakness, there would be no need of leading; it is an instance of powerful and efficacious grace upon them, yet not contrary to their wills, though they are led, they are not forced; they go freely, being led, as there is good reason for it; for the Spirit of God always leads for their profit and advantage, and for the spiritual delight, pleasure, and comfort of their souls; he leads out of the ways of sin, and so of ruin and destruction, and from Mount Sinai, and all dependence on a legal and moral righteousness; he leads to Christ, to his person, for shelter, safety, and salvation, to his blood, for pardon and cleansing, to his righteousness, for justification, and to his fullness, for every supply of grace; he leads into the presence of God, and to his house and ordinances; he leads into the covenant of grace, to the blessings, promises, and Mediator of it; he leads into all truth as it is in Jesus, in the ways of faith and truth, and in the paths of righteousness and holiness, and always in a right way, though sometimes in a rough one, to the city of their habitation; he leads from one degree of grace to another, and at last to glory: all which he does gradually; he leads by little and little into a man's sinfulness, and to see his interest in Christ, and by degrees into the doctrines of the Gospel, and the everlasting love of the three Persons; and proportionally to the strength he gives, and as they are able to bear: now such persons as these have nothing to fear from the law of God: 

ye are not under the law; such are not only delivered from the law in fact, but in their own apprehensions; they have the comfortable knowledge and experience of it; the law is no terrifying law to them; it works no wrath in them; they are delivered from the spirit of bondage to fear, by the Spirit of God, by whom they are led; nor are they under it, nor do they need it as a pressing forcing law to duty; they delight in it, and cheerfully serve it, being constrained by love, and not awed by fear; nor are its accusations and charges regarded, or to be regarded, by such who are led by the Spirit to Christ, the end of the law for righteousness; and they are entirely freed from its curse and condemnation, though they are under it, and desire to be under it, as held forth by Christ the King of saints; and, under the Spirit's influence and guidance, yield a cheerful and evangelical obedience to it.

Galatians 5:13-26

In the latter part of this chapter the apostle comes to exhort these Christians to serious practical godliness, as the best antidote against the snares of the false teachers. Two things especially he presses upon them: - 
I. That they should not strive with one another, but love one another. He tells them (Gal_5:13) that they had been called unto liberty, and he would have them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free; but yet he would have them be very careful that they did not use this liberty as an occasion to the flesh - that they did not thence take occasion to indulge themselves in any corrupt affections and practises, and particularly such as might create distance and disaffection, and be the ground of quarrels and contentions among them: but, on the contrary, he would have them by love to serve one another, to maintain that mutual love and affection which, notwithstanding any minor differences there might be among them, would dispose them to all those offices of respect and kindness to each other which the Christian religion obliged them to. 
Note,
1. The liberty we enjoy as Christians is not a licentious liberty: though Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet he has not freed us from the obligation of it; the gospel is a doctrine according to godliness (1Ti_6:3), and is so far from giving the least countenance to sin that it lays us under the strongest obligations to avoid and subdue it. 
2. Though we ought to stand fast in our Christian liberty, yet we should not insist upon it to the breach of Christian charity; we should not use it as an occasion of strife and contention with our fellow Christians, who may be differently minded from us, but should always maintain such a temper towards each other as may dispose us by love to serve one another. To this the apostle endeavours to persuade these Christians, and there are two considerations which he sets before them for this purpose: -
(1.) That all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, Gal_5:14. Love is the sum of the whole law; as love to God comprises the duties of the first table, so love to our neighbour those of the second. The apostle takes notice of the latter here, because he is speaking of their behaviour towards one another; and, when he makes use of this as an argument to persuade them to mutual love, he intimates both that this would be a good evidence of their sincerity in religion and also the most likely means of rooting out those dissensions and divisions that were among them. It will appear that we are the disciples of Christ indeed when we have love one to another (Joh_13:35); and, where this temper is kept up, if it do not wholly extinguish those unhappy discords that are among Christians, yet at least it will so far accommodate them that the fatal consequences of them will be prevented. 
(2.) The sad and dangerous tendency of a contrary behaviour (Gal_5:15): But, says he, if instead of serving one another in love, and therein fulfilling the law of God, you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. If, instead of acting like men and Christians, they would behave themselves more like brute beasts, in tearing and rending one another, they could expect nothing as the consequence of it, but that they would be consumed one of another; and therefore they had the greatest reason not to indulge themselves in such quarrels and animosities. Note, Mutual strife's among brethren, if persisted in, are likely to prove a common ruin; those that devour one another are in a fair way to be consumed one of another. Christian churches cannot be ruined but by their own hands; but if Christians, who should be helps to one another and a joy one to another, be as brute beasts, biting and devouring each other, what can be expected but that the God of love should deny his grace to them, and the Spirit of love should depart from them, and that the evil spirit, who seeks the destruction of them all, should prevail?
II. That they should all strive against sin; and happy would it be for the church if Christians would let all their quarrels be swallowed up of this, even a quarrel against sin-if, instead of biting and devouring one another on account of their different opinions, they would all set themselves against sin in themselves and the places where they live. This is what we are chiefly concerned to fight against, and that which above every thing else we should make it our business to oppose and suppress. To excite Christians hereunto, and to assist them herein, the apostle shows,
1. That there is in every one a struggle between the flesh and the spirit (Gal_5:17): The flesh (the corrupt and carnal part of us) lusts (strives and struggles with strength and vigour) against the spirit: it opposes all the motions of the Spirit, and resists every thing that is spiritual. On the other hand, the spirit (the renewed part of us) strives against the flesh, and opposes the will and desire of it: and hence it comes to pass that we cannot do the things that we would. As the principle of grace in us will not suffer us to do all the evil which our corrupt nature would prompt us to, so neither can we do all the good that we would, by reason of the oppositions we meet with from that corrupt and carnal principle. Even as in a natural man there is something of this struggle (the convictions of his conscience and the corruption of his own heart strive with one another; his convictions would suppress his corruptions, and his corruptions silence his convictions), so in a renewed man, where there is something of a good principle, there is a struggle between the old nature and the new nature, the remainders of sin and the beginnings of grace; and this Christians must expect will be their exercise as long as they continue in this world.
2. That it is our duty and interest in this struggle to side with the better part, to side with our convictions against our corruptions and with our graces against our lusts. This the apostle represents as our duty, and directs us to the most effectual means of success in it. If it should be asked, What course must we take that the better interest may get the better? he gives us this one general rule, which, if duly observed, would be the most sovereign remedy against the prevalence of corruption; and that is to walk in the Spirit (Gal_5:16): This I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. By the Spirit here may be meant either the Holy Spirit himself, who condescends to dwell in the hearts of those whom he has renewed and sanctified, to guide and assist them in the way of their duty, or that gracious principle which he implants in the souls of his people and which lusts against the flesh, as that corrupt principle which still remains in them does against it. Accordingly the duty here recommended to us is that we set ourselves to act under the guidance and influence of the blessed Spirit, and agreeably to the motions and tendency of the new nature in us; and, if this be our care in the ordinary course and ten our of our lives, we may depend upon it that, though we may not be freed from the stirrings and oppositions of our corrupt nature, we shall be kept from fulfilling it in the lusts thereof; so that though it remain in us, yet it shall not obtain a dominion over us. Note, The best antidote against the poison of sin is to walk in the Spirit, to be much in conversing with spiritual things, to mind the things of the soul, which is the spiritual part of man, more than those of the body, which is his carnal part, to commit ourselves to the guidance of the word, wherein the Holy Spirit makes known the will of God concerning us, and in the way of our duty to act in a dependence on his aids and influences. And, as this would be the best means of preserving them from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, so it would be a good evidence that they were Christians indeed; for, says the apostle (Gal_5:18), If you be led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. As if he had said, “You must expect a struggle between flesh and spirit as long as you are in the world, that the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh; but if, in the prevailing bent and ten our of your lives, you be led by the Spirit, - if you act under the guidance and government of the Holy Spirit and of that spiritual nature and disposition he has wrought in you, - if you make the word of God your rule and the grace of God your principle, - it will hence appear that you are not under the law, not under the condemning, though you are still under the commanding, power of it; for there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,” Rom_8:1-14.
3. The apostle specifies the works of the flesh, which must be watched against and mortified, and the fruits of the Spirit, which must be cherished and brought forth (Gal_5:19, etc.); and by specifying particulars he further illustrates what he is here upon. (1.) He begins with the works of the flesh, which, as they are many, so they are manifest. It is past dispute that the things he here speaks of are the works of the flesh, or the product of corrupt and depraved nature; most of them are condemned by the light of nature itself, and all of them by the light of scripture. The particulars he specifies are of various sorts; some are sins against the seventh commandment, such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, by which are meant not only the gross acts of these sins, but all such thoughts, and words, and actions, as have a tendency towards the great transgression. Some are sins against the first and second commandments, as idolatry and witchcraft. Others are sins against our neighbour, and contrary to the royal law of brotherly love, such as hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, which too often occasion sedition's, heresies, envying, and sometimes break out into murders, not only of the names and reputation, but even of the very lives, of our fellow-creatures. Others are sins against ourselves, such as drunkenness and revellings; and he concludes the catalogue with an et cetera, and gives fair warning to all to take care of them, as they hope to see the face of God with comfort. Of these and such like, says he, I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that those who do such things, how much soever they may flatter themselves with vain hopes, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. These are sins which will undoubtedly shut men out of heaven. The world of spirits can never be comfortable to those who plunge themselves in the filth of the flesh; nor will the righteous and holy God ever admit such into his favour and presence, unless they be first washed and sanctified, and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1Co_6:11. (2.) He specifies the fruits of the Spirit, or the renewed nature, which as Christians we are concerned to bring forth, Gal_5:22, Gal_5:23. And here we may observe that as sin is called the work of the flesh, because the flesh, or corrupt nature, is the principle that moves and excites men to it, so grace is said to be the fruit of the Spirit, because it wholly proceeds from the Spirit, as the fruit does from the root: and whereas before the apostle had chiefly specified those works of the flesh which were not only hurtful to men themselves but tended to make them so to one another, so here he chiefly takes notice of those fruits of the Spirit which had a tendency to make Christians agreeable one to another, as well as easy to themselves; and this was very suitable to the caution or exhortation he had before given (Gal_5:13), that they should not use their liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. He particularly recommends to us, love, to God especially, and to one another for his sake, - joy, by which may be understood cheerfulness in conversation with our friends, or rather a constant delight in God, - peace, with God and conscience, or a peacefulness of temper and behaviour towards others, - long-suffering, patience to defer anger, and a contentedness to bear injuries, - gentleness, such a sweetness of temper, and especially towards our inferiors, as disposes us to be affable and courteous, and easy to be entreated when any have wronged us, - goodness (kindness, beneficence), which shows itself in a readiness to do good to all as we have opportunity, - faith, fidelity, justice, and honesty, in what we profess and promise to others, - meekness, wherewith to govern our passions and resentments, so as not to be easily provoked, and, when we are so, to be soon pacified, - and temperance, in meat and drink, and other enjoyments of life, so as not to be excessive and immoderate in the use of them. Concerning these things, or those in whom these fruits of the Spirit are found, the apostle says, There is no law against them, to condemn and punish them. Yea, hence it appears that they are not under the law, but under grace; for these fruits of the Spirit, in whomsoever they are found, plainly show that such are led by the Spirit, and consequently that they are not under the law, as Gal_5:18. And as, by specifying these works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit, the apostle directs us both what we are to avoid and oppose and what we are to cherish and cultivate, so (Gal_5:24) he informs us that this is the sincere care and endeavour of all real Christians: And those that are Christ's, says he (those who are Christians indeed, not only in show and profession, but in sincerity and truth), have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. As in their baptism they were obliged hereunto (for, being baptised into Christ, they were baptised into his death, Rom_6:3), so they are now sincerely employing themselves herein, and, in conformity to their Lord and head, are endeavouring to die unto sin, as he had died for it. They have not yet obtained a complete victory over it; they have still flesh as well as Spirit in them, and that has its affections and lusts, which continue to give them no little disturbance, but as it does not now reign in their mortal bodies, so as that they obey it in the lusts thereof (Rom_6:12), so they are seeking the utter ruin and destruction of it, and to put it to the same shameful and ignominious, though lingering death, which our Lord Jesus underwent for our sake. Note, If we should approve ourselves to be Christ's, such as are united to him and interested in him, we must make it our constant care and business to crucify the flesh with its corrupt affections and lusts. Christ will never own those as his who yield themselves the servants of sin. But though the apostle here only mentions the crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts, as the care and character of real Christians, yet, no doubt, it is also implied that, on the other hand, we should show forth those fruits of the Spirit which he had just before been specifying; this is no less our duty than that, nor is it less necessary to evidence our sincerity in religion. It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. Our Christianity obliges us not only to die unto sin, but to live unto righteousness; not only to oppose the works of the flesh, but to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit too. If therefore we would make it appear that we do indeed belong to Christ, this must be our sincere care and endeavour as well as the other; and that it was the design of the apostle to represent both the one and the other of these as our duty, and as necessary to support our character as Christians, may be gathered from what follows (Gal_5:25), where he adds, If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit; that is, “If we profess to have received the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the spirit of our minds, and endued with a principle of spiritual life, let us make it appear by the proper fruits of the Spirit in our lives.” He had before told us that the Spirit of Christ is a privilege bestowed on all the children of God, Gal_4:6. “Now,” says he, “if we profess to be of this number, and as such to have obtained this privilege, let us show it by a temper and behaviour agreeable hereunto; let us evidence our good principles by good practises.” Our conversation will always be answerable to the principle which we are under the guidance and government of: as those that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, so those that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit, Rom_8:5. If therefore we would have it appear that we are Christ's, and that we are partakers of his Spirit, it must be by our walking not after the flesh, but after the spirit. We must set ourselves in good earnest both to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life.

4. The apostle concludes this chapter with a caution against pride and envy, Gal_5:26. He had before been exhorting these Christians by love to serve one another (Gal_5:13), and had put them in mind of what would be the consequence if, instead of that, they did bite and devour one another, Gal_5:15. Now, as a means of engaging them to the one and preserving them from the other of these, he here cautions them against being desirous of vain-glory, or giving way to an undue affectation of the esteem and applause of men, because this, if it were indulged, would certainly lead them to provoke one another and to envy one another. As far as this temper prevails among Christians, they will be ready to slight and despise those whom they look upon as inferior to them, and to be put out of humour if they are denied that respect which they think is their due from them, and they will also be apt to envy those by whom their reputation is in any danger of being lessened: and thus a foundation is laid for those quarrels and contentions which, as they are inconsistent with that love which Christians ought to maintain towards each other, so they are greatly prejudicial to the Honor and interest of religion itself. This therefore the apostle would have us by all means to watch against. 
Note, 
(1.) The glory which comes from men is vain-glory, which, instead of being desirous of, we should be dead to. 
(2.) An undue regard to the approbation and applause of men is one great ground of the unhappy strife's and contentions that exist among Christians.

HOW DO WE GROW SPIRITUALLY?

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION FOR PRAYER

Published on 30 Dec 2013

A powerful Letter has been sent to Pastor Paul Begley of the attacks on Christians http://www.paulbegleyprophecy.com

A.W. Tozer - How to Cultivate the Holy Spirit's Companionship

If you have read or heard classic "deeper life" Christian authors and/or preachers, i.e. Watchman Nee, Andrew Murray, A.B. Simpson, Leonard Ravenhill, then you will quite likely find this sermon by A.W. Tozer very edifying. May you be blessed.

Hailing from a tiny farming community in western Pennsylvania, his conversion was as a teenager in Akron, Ohio. While on his way home from work at a tire company, he overheard a street preacher say: "If you don't know how to be saved... just call on God." Upon returning home, he climbed into the attic and heeded the preachers advice.

In 1919, five years after his conversion, and without formal theological training, Tozer accepted an offer to pastor his first church. This began 44 years of ministry, associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), a Protestant evangelical denomination; 33 of those years were served as a pastor in a number of churches. His first pastorate was in a small storefront church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia. Tozer also served as pastor for 30 years at Southside Alliance Church, in Chicago (1928 to 1959), and the final years of his life were spent as pastor of Avenue Road Church, in Toronto, Canada. In observing contemporary Christian living, he felt that the church was on a dangerous course toward compromising with "worldly" concerns.

In 1950, Tozer received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Wheaton College. It was May 1950, when Tozer was elected editor of the Alliance Weekly magazine, now called, Alliance Life, the official publication of the C&MA. From his first editorial, dated June 3, 1950, he wrote, "It will cost something to walk slow in the parade of the ages, while excited men of time rush about confusing motion with progress. But it will pay in the long run and the true Christian is not much interested in anything short of that." In 1952, he received an LL.D. degree from Houghton College.

Among the more than 40 books that he authored, at least two are regarded as Christian classics: The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. His books impress on the reader the possibility and necessity for a deeper relationship with God.

Living a simple and non-materialistic lifestyle, he and his wife, Ada Cecelia Pfautz, never owned a car, preferring bus and train travel. Even after becoming a well-known Christian author, Tozer signed away much of his royalties to those who were in need.

Tozer had seven children, six boys and one girl. He was buried in Ellet Cemetery, Akron, Ohio, with a simple epitaph marking his grave: "A. W. Tozer - A Man of God."

Prayer was of vital personal importance for Tozer. "His preaching as well as his writings were but extensions of his prayer life," comments his biographer, James L. Snyder, in the book, In Pursuit of God: The Life Of A.W. Tozer. "He had the ability to make his listeners face themselves in the light of what God was saying to them," writes Snyder.

A.W. Tozer - How to Cultivate the Holy Spirit's Companionship

A.W. Tozer Sermon - The Holy Spirit: Let Him come In

HOLINESS NOW AND HAPPINESS IN HEAVEN

"So often, spiritual disease can be traced back to an inadequate initiation into the Kingdom. A better birth means greater growth in a healthy Christian life. David Pawson discusses some crucial and controversial biblical texts, challenging many traditional interpretations. He questions the adequacy of the typical ''sinners prayer'' approach and gives practical tips on helping potential disciples to repent, believe, be baptised and receive the Holy Spirit."

Revival Read!

WHO IS YOUR KING?

Lisa Lim

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We change society one life at a time; firstly you must accept Him as King and then you go out and show people through your words and actions God’s Kingdom. When you live a life worthy of God’s name, you become an ambassador for Christ and His Kingdom, and when you do this -- the Fathers will – will be done on earth through you.
Who is your King?

Let us pray:
My Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
in my life, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give me today my daily bread.
And forgive me my debts,
as I also have forgiven my debtors.
And lead me not into temptation,
but deliver me from the evil one.

In the name of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, Amen.


REPENT OF YOUR SINS TOWARDS GOD

"So often, spiritual disease can be traced back to an inadequate initiation into the Kingdom. A better birth means greater growth in a healthy Christian life. David Pawson discusses some crucial and controversial biblical texts, challenging many traditional interpretations. He questions the adequacy of the typical ''sinners prayer'' approach and gives practical tips on helping potential disciples to repent, believe, be baptised and receive the Holy Spirit."

RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT

"So often, spiritual disease can be traced back to an inadequate initiation into the Kingdom. A better birth means greater growth in a healthy Christian life. David Pawson discusses some crucial and controversial biblical texts, challenging many traditional interpretations. He questions the adequacy of the typical ''sinners prayer'' approach and gives practical tips on helping potential disciples to repent, believe, be baptised and receive the Holy Spirit."

Unlocking the Bible - David Pawson

In Unlocking the Bible, Pawson presents a book by book study of the whole Bible. The book is based on Pawson's belief that the Bible should be studied, as it was written, "a book at a time" (certainly not a verse, or even a chapter at a time); and that each book is best understood by discovering why and for whom it was written. It is based on an arranged series of talks in which he set out the background, purpose, meaning and relevance of each book of the Bible, and was transcribed into written form by Andy Peck. The groundwork for this study was laid in the 1960s and '70s, when Pawson took his congregation through nearly half of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament line by line.

WHO NEEDS THE BETHLEHEM KING?

OnePlace

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Listen to Truth Encounter with Dave Wyrtzen on Oneplace.

Who Needs The Bethlehem King? | Truth Encounter with Dave Wyrtzen

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/truth-

men more humble, meek, and quiet; and such are highly esteemed of God

Ecclesiastes 7:8
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof,.... If the thing is good, other ways the end of it is worse; as the end of wickedness and wicked men, whose beginning is sweet, but the end bitter; yea, are the ways of death, Pro_5:4; and so the end of carnal professors and apostates, who begin in the Spirit, and end in the flesh, Gal_3:3; but the end of good things, and of good men, is better than the beginning; as the end of Job was, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual, Job_8:7; see Psa_37:37;

and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit; patience is a fruit of the Spirit of God; and is of great use in the Christian's life, and especially in bearing afflictions, and tends to make men more humble, meek, and quiet; and such are highly esteemed of God; on them he looks, with them he dwells, and to them he gives more grace; when such who are proud, and elated with themselves, their riches or righteousness, are abominable to him; see Luk_16:15.

An Earthen Vessel with a Heavenly Destiny

Kendall Turner originally shared:

 

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Psalm 84:10
2 Corinthians 4:7-18                         
2Co 4:7  If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us.
2Co 4:8  As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do,
2Co 4:9  but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken.
2Co 4:10  What they did to Jesus, they do to us--trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us--he lives!
2Co 4:11  Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us.
2Co 4:12  While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!
2Co 4:13  We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe.
2Co 4:14  And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive.
2Co 4:15  Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!
2Co 4:16  So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.
2Co 4:17  These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.
2Co 4:18  There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.

An Earthen Vessel with a Heavenly Destiny 2 Cor(4:7-18)
4:7   Having spoken of the obligation to make the message plain, the Apostle Paul now thinks of the human instrument to which the wonderful gospel treasure had been committed. The treasure is the glorious message of the gospel. The earthen vessel, on the other hand, is the frail human body. The contrast between the two is tremendous. The gospel is like a precious diamond that scintillates brilliantly every way in which it is turned. To think that such a precious diamond has been entrusted to such a frail, fragile earthenware vessel!
Earthen vessels, marred, unsightly,
Bearing Wealth no thought can know;
Heavenly Treasure, gleaming brightly—
Christ revealed in saints below!
Vessels, broken, frail, yet bearing
Through the hungry ages on,
Riches given with hand unsparing,
God's great Gift, His precious Son!
O to be but emptier, lowlier,
Mean, unnoticed and unknown,
And to God a vessel holier,
Filled with Christ, and Christ alone!
Naught of earth to cloud the Glory!
Naught of self the light to dim!
Telling forth Christ's wondrous story,
Broken, empty—filled with Him!
—Tr. Frances Bevan
Why has God ordained that this treasure should be in earthen vessels? The answer is so that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. God does not want men to be occupied with the human instrument, but rather with His own power and greatness. And so He deliberately commits the gospel message to weak, often un-comely human beings. All the praise and glory must go to the Creator and not the creature.
It is a secret joy to find
The task assigned beyond our powers;
For thus, if ought of good be wrought,
Clearly the praise is His, not ours.
—Houghton
Jowett says:
There is something wrong when the vessel robs the treasure of its glory, when the casket attracts more attention than the jewel which it bears. There is a very perverse emphasis when the picture takes second place to the frame, and when the ware which is used at the feast becomes a substitute for the meal. There is something deadly in Christian service when “the excellency of the power” is of us and not of God. Such excellency is of a very fleeting kind, and it will speedily wither as the green herb and pass into oblivion.
As Paul penned verse 7, it is almost certain he was thinking of an incident in Judges 7. There it is recorded that Gideon equipped his army with trumpets, empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. At the appointed signal, his men were to blow their trumpets and break the pitchers. When the pitchers were broken, the lamps shone out in brilliance. This terrified the enemy. They thought there was a vast host after them, instead of just three hundred men. The lesson is that, just as in Gideon's case the light only shone forth when the pitchers were broken, so it is in connection with the gospel. Only when human instruments are broken and yielded to the Lord can the gospel shine forth through us in all its magnificence.
4:8   The apostle now goes on to explain that because the treasure has been committed to earthen vessels, there is seeming defeat on the one hand, yet perpetual victory on the other. There is weakness to all outward appearance, but in reality incomparable strength. When he says, We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, he means that he is constantly pressed by adversaries and difficulties, yet not completely hindered from uttering the message freely.
Perplexed, but not in despair. From the human standpoint, Paul often did not know there could possibly be a solution to his difficulties, and yet the Lord never allowed him to reach the place of despair. He was never brought into a narrow place from which there was no escape.
4:9   Persecuted, but not forsaken. At times, he could feel the hot breath of the enemy on the back of his neck, yet the Lord never abandoned him to his foes. Struck down, but not destroyed means that Paul was many times seriously “wounded in action,” yet the Lord raised him up again to go with the glorious news of the gospel.
The New Bible Commentary paraphrases verses 8 and 9: “Hemmed in, but not hamstrung; not knowing what to do, but never bereft of all hope; hunted by men, but never abandoned by God; often felled, but never finished.”
We may wonder why the Lord allowed His servant to go through such testings and trials. We would think that he could have served the Lord more efficiently if He had allowed his pathway to be free from troubles. But this Scripture teaches the very opposite. God, in His marvellous wisdom, sees fit to allow His servants to be touched by sickness, sorrow, affliction, persecution, difficulties, and distresses. All are designed to break the earthen pitchers so that the light of the gospel might shine out more clearly.
4:10   The life of the servant of God is one of constant dying. Just as the Lord Jesus Himself, in His lifetime, was constantly exposed to violence and persecution, so those who follow in His steps will meet the same treatment. But it does not mean defeat. This is the way of victory. Blessing comes to others as we thus die daily.
It is only in this way that the life of Jesus can be apparent in our bodies. The life of Jesus does not here mean primarily His life as a Man on earth, but His present life as the exalted Son of God in heaven. How can the world see the life of Christ when He is not personally or physically present in the world today? The answer is that as we Christians suffer in the service of the Lord, His life is manifested in our body.
4:11   This thought of life from death is continued in verse 11. It is one of the deepest principles of our existence. The meat we eat and by which we live comes through the death of animals. It is so in the spiritual realm. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” The more the church is persecuted and afflicted and hunted and pursued, the more Christianity spreads.
And yet it is difficult for us to accept this truth. When violence comes to a servant of the Lord, we normally think of it as a tragedy. Actually, this is God's normal way of dealing. It is not the exception. Constant exposure to death for Jesus' sake is the divine manner in which the life of Jesus is manifested in our mortal bodies.
4:12   Here the apostle sums up all that he has said by reminding the Corinthians that it was through his constant suffering that life came to them. In order for Paul ever to go to Corinth with the gospel, he had to suffer untold hardships. But it was worth it all, because they had trusted in the Lord Jesus and now had eternal life. Paul's physical suffering and loss meant spiritual gain to others. Robertson says, “His dying was working out for the good of those who were benefited by his ministry.”
Oftentimes we have the tendency to cry out to the Lord in sickness, asking Him to deliver us from it, so that we might serve Him better. Perhaps we should sometimes thank God for such afflictions in our lives, and glory in our infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon us.
4:13   The apostle has been speaking of the constant frailty and weakness of the human vessel to which the gospel is entrusted. What then is his attitude toward all this? Is he defeated and discouraged and dismayed? The answer is no. Faith enables him to go on preaching the gospel, because he knows that beyond the sufferings of this life lie unspeakable glories.
In Psa_116:10 the psalmist says, “I believed and therefore I spoke.” He trusted in the Lord, and therefore what he said was the result of that deep-seated faith. Paul is here saying that the same is true in his case. He had the same spirit of faith which the Psalmist had when he uttered those words. Paul says, “We also believe and therefore speak.”
The afflictions and persecutions of Paul's life did not seal his lips. Wherever there is true faith, there must be the expression of it. It cannot be silent.
If on Jesus Christ you trust,
Speak for Him you surely must;
Though it humble to the dust,
If you love Him, say so.
If on Jesus you believe
And the Savior you receive
Lest you should the Spirit grieve,
Don't delay, but say so.
4:14   If it seems strange to us that Paul was not shaken by the constant danger of death, we find the answer in verse 14. This is the secret of his fearlessness in uttering the Christian message. He knew that this life was not all. He knew that for the believer there was the certainty of resurrection. The same God who raised up the Lord Jesus would also raise up the Apostle Paul with Jesus and would present him with the Corinthians.
4:15   With the certain and sure hope of resurrection before him, the apostle was willing to undergo terrible hardships. He knew that all such sufferings had a twofold result. They abounded in blessing for the Corinthians, and thus caused thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. These two motives actuated Paul in all he said and did. He was concerned with the glory of God and the blessing of his fellow men.
Paul realised that the more he suffered, the more the grace of God was made available to others. The more people who were saved, the more thanksgiving ascended to God. And the more thanksgiving ascended to God, the more God was glorified.
The Living Bible seems to capture the spirit of the verse in this paraphrase:
These sufferings of ours are for your benefit. And the more of you who are won to Christ, the more there are to thank him for his great kindness, and the more the Lord is glorified.
4:16   Paul had been explaining his willingness to undergo all kinds of suffering and danger because he had before him the certain hope of resurrection. Therefore he did not lose heart. Although on the one hand, the process of physical decay was going on constantly, yet on the other hand there was a spiritual renewal which enabled him to go on in spite of every adverse circumstance.
The fact that the outward man is perishing needs little explanation or comment. It is all too evident in our bodies! But Paul is here rejoicing in the fact that God sends daily supplies of power for Christian service. Thus it is true, as Michelangelo said, “The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows.”
Ironside comments:
We are told that our material bodies are completely changed every seven years. . . Yet we have a consciousness of being the same persons. Our personality is unchanged from year to year, and so with regard to the greater change as yet to come. The same life is in the butterfly that was in the grub.
4:17   After reading the terrible afflictions which the Apostle Paul endured, it may seem hard for us to understand how he could speak of them as light affliction. In one sense, they were not at all light. They were bitter and cruel.
But the explanation lies in the comparison which Paul makes. The afflictions viewed by themselves might be ever so heavy, but when compared with the eternal weight of glory that lies ahead, then they are light. Also the light affliction is but for a moment, whereas the glory is eternal. The lessons we learn through afflictions in this world will yield richest fruit for us in the world to come.
Moorehead observes: “A little joy enters into us while we are in the world; we shall enter into joy when there. A few drops here; a whole ocean there.”
There is a pyramid in this verse which, as F. E. Marsh has pointed out, does not tire the weary climber but brings unspeakable rest and comfort to his soul.
Glory
Weight of glory
Eternal weight of glory
Exceeding and eternal weight of glory
More exceeding and eternal weight of glory
Far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory
4:18   In this verse look does not merely describe human vision; rather it conveys the idea of regarding a thing as important. As far as the things which are seen are concerned, they are not the goal of ones existence. Here they refer primarily to the hardships, trials, and sufferings which Paul endured. These were incidental to his ministry; the great object of his ministry was what is not seen. This might include the glory of Christ, the blessing of ones fellow men, and the reward that awaits the faithful servant of Christ at the Judgement Seat.
Jowett comments:
To be able to see the first is sight; to be able to see the second is insight. The first mode of vision is natural, the second mode is spiritual. The primary organ in the first discernment is intellect; the primary organ in the second discernment is faith. ... All through the Scriptures this contrast between sight and insight is being continually presented to us, and everywhere we are taught to measure the meagerness and stinginess of the one, and set it over the fullness and expansiveness of the other.

Thank GOD--He's so good. His love never quits!

Psa 118:1  Thank GOD because he's good, because his love never quits. 
Psa 118:2  Tell the world, Israel, "His love never quits." 
Psa 118:3  And you, clan of Aaron, tell the world, "His love never quits." 
Psa 118:4  And you who fear GOD, join in, "His love never quits." 
Psa 118:5  Pushed to the wall, I called to GOD; from the wide open spaces, he answered. 
Psa 118:6  GOD's now at my side and I'm not afraid; who would dare lay a hand on me? 
Psa 118:7  GOD's my strong champion; I flick off my enemies like flies. 
Psa 118:8  Far better to take refuge in GOD than trust in people; 
Psa 118:9  Far better to take refuge in GOD than trust in celebrities. 
Psa 118:10  Hemmed in by barbarians, in GOD's name I rubbed their faces in the dirt; 
Psa 118:11  Hemmed in and with no way out, in GOD's name I rubbed their faces in the dirt; 
Psa 118:12  Like swarming bees, like wild prairie fire, they hemmed me in; in GOD's name I rubbed their faces in the dirt. 
Psa 118:13  I was right on the cliff-edge, ready to fall, when GOD grabbed and held me. 
Psa 118:14  GOD's my strength, he's also my song, and now he's my salvation. 
Psa 118:15  Hear the shouts, hear the triumph songs in the camp of the saved? "The hand of GOD has turned the tide! 
Psa 118:16  The hand of GOD is raised in victory! The hand of GOD has turned the tide!" 
Psa 118:17  I didn't die. I lived! And now I'm telling the world what GOD did. 
Psa 118:18  GOD tested me, he pushed me hard, but he didn't hand me over to Death. 
Psa 118:19  Swing wide the city gates--the righteous gates! I'll walk right through and thankGOD! 
Psa 118:20  This Temple Gate belongs to GOD, so the victors can enter and praise. 
Psa 118:21  Thank you for responding to me; you've truly become my salvation! 
Psa 118:22  The stone the masons discarded as flawed is now the capstone! 
Psa 118:23  This is GOD's work. We rub our eyes--we can hardly believe it! 
Psa 118:24  This is the very day GOD acted-- let's celebrate and be festive! 
Psa 118:25  Salvation now, GOD. Salvation now! Oh yes, GOD--a free and full life! 
Psa 118:26  Blessed are you who enter in GOD's name-- from GOD's house we bless you! 
Psa 118:27  GOD is God, he has bathed us in light. Festoon the shrine with garlands, hang colored banners above the altar! 
Psa 118:28  You're my God, and I thank you. O my God, I lift high your praise. 
Psa 118:29  Thank GOD--he's so good. His love never quits! 

And they shall reign for ever and ever — Rev_22:5

The Reign of the Saints
And they shall reign for ever and ever — Rev_22:5

I venture to say that with this expression there creeps in a touch of unreality. It is difficult to associate thrones with the immortal life of our beloved dead. We can readily picture them as serving, for they loved to serve when they were here. Nor, remembering how they searched for it, is it hard to believe that they see His face. But to conceive of them as reigning and having crowns and sitting upon thrones introduces a note of unreality. For many of them that would not be heaven. It would be the last thing they would desire. For they were modest folk, given to self-effacement, haunting the shadowy avenues of life. And if individuality persists, they will carry over into another world those lowly graces that made us love them here. We can always think of an Augustine as reigning. But the saints we knew and loved were seldom Augustine's. They were gentle souls, shrinking from publicity, perfectly happy in the lowest place. It is hard to see how natures such as that could ever be quite at home in heaven, if in heaven their calling were to reign. But the Scripture cannot be broken. It is revelation, not conjecture. If there is anything in it that offends the heart, we may be certain the error lies with us. So I believe that the difficulty here and the jarring note that grates upon the sensitive lie in our wrong ideas of reigning.

That there is something wrong in these popular ideas is demonstrated by one forgotten fact. It is that the saints do not begin to reign when they pass into the other world. If kingship were confined to heaven, the nature of it would lie beyond our understanding. It would be one of those things that eye had never seen, which God hath prepared for them who love Him. But kingship is not confined to heaven, according to the concept of the Scriptures. It is a present possession of the saints. We do not read that Christ will make us kings. We read that He hath made us kings (Rev_1:5). Loosed from our sins in His own blood, we begin to reign in the moment of redemption. And the reign in glory, which troubles meek souls, is not something different from that, but that enlarged and expanded to its fullness. This harmonises with the general mind of Scripture in the glimpses it affords of immortality. It pictures it as a completion rather than as a contradiction. It takes such human things as love and service and tells us that in the land beyond the river such beautiful graces are going to be perfected. In what sense, then, do the saints reign here? How is the humblest child of God a king? There is no throne here, nor any visible crown, nor any of the insignia of regality. If we can grasp the kingship of believers amid all the infirmities of time, we have the key to understand the mystery of their reign forever and forever.

Our Reign Will Not Be in the Earthly Sense
And it is just here that a word of Christ's casts a flash of light upon our difficulty. "The kings of the Gentiles," He says, "exercise lordship, but it shall not be so with you." Are not all our common thoughts of kingship taken from the royalty of such monarchs? Does not their state and the insignia of it fill our minds when we meditate on reigning? And Jesus tells us that this whole concept, gathered from the facts of earthly lordship, is alien now and alien forever from the lordship and dominion of His own. He that would be greatest must be least. The monarch is the servant. Kingship is not irresponsible authority: it is love that gives itself in glad abandonment. It is love that goes to the uttermost in service just as He went to the uttermost in service and so reigns forever from the cross. It is thus a Christian mother reigns amid the restless rebellions of her children. It is thus that many a lowly toiler reigns over the hearts and lives of everyone around him. It is thus the Salvation Army lassie queens it over the rough and reckless slum though she carry no sceptre in her hand and her only crown be the familiar bonnet. The kingship of believers here has nothing whatever to do with pagan lordship. At the command of the Lord Jesus we must banish such concepts from our mind. The only kingship of the saints on earth is that of the glad abandonment of love in an unceasing and undefeated service.

Now it seems to me that all our trouble vanishes when we carry that thought into the other world. If this be reigning, then in the life of heaven our dear ones will be perfectly at home. We would not have them other than we knew them when they were with us here amid the shadows. The thought of heaven would be too dearly purchased if it robbed us of their lowly, quiet gentleness. But if the sway they won over our hearts on earth, perfected, be their eternal reigning, then they can still reign and be the same. Reigning will not alter them. It will not render them unrecognisable. It will not touch that lowly loving service which made them so inexpressibly dear. It will only expand it into fullest kingliness, setting a crown of gold upon its head. They shall reign forever and forever.

CHRIST AS KING

                                                             
JESUS AS KING

"Pilate therefore said to Him, Are You a King, then? Jesus answered, You say that I am a King."-- Joh_18:37.

OUR LORD'S Royalty is suggested by the opening paragraphs of St. Matthew's Gospel, which emphasises His descent from David; the wise men asked for Him who is born King of the Jews, and Herod feared His rivalry. All through the Gospel narrative, stress is constantly laid on the fact that He was King of the Jews and King of Israel, and it ends with the regal claim that all power and authority in heaven and earth had been entrusted to Him.
Jesus never abated His claim to Kingship, but always made it clear that His ideal was very different from that which was current among the Jews. His conception of Royalty was borrowed from Psa_72:4, where the King is said to judge the poor of the people, and save the children of the needy. It was the collision between His idea of Kingship and that of the Pharisees, which brought Him to the Cross.

For us the lesson is clear. We must begin with the recognition of the royal claims of Christ to our homage and obedience. He only becomes Savior, in the fullest meaning of the word, when He has been enthroned as King in our hearts. With invariable precision He is described, first as Prince, then as Savior, and that order cannot be altered without injury to our soul-life (mind,willpower and emotions) (Act_5:31; Rom_10:9; Heb_7:2). 

 The whole content of the New Testament is altered when we view the Royalty of Christ as the Chief Cornerstone, not only of that structure, but of the edifice of character.
Let us not be afraid of  Christ as King.  He is meek and lowly, and full of understanding and fully aware of the problems of our life. He shared our life, and was so poor that He had to trust in the kind offices of a friend to supply His physical needs, and in the palm branches of the peasant crowd for His palfrey and the carpeting of His Royal Procession; but as we watch it pass, the lowly triumph swells in proportions until it represents the whole race of mankind; and the generations that preceded His advent, and those that follow, sweep down the Ages of human history, proclaiming and acclaiming Christ as King. (Rev_15:3-4, R.V).

PRAYER
O God, may our hearts indite good matter, that our mouth may speak of our King. Whilst we adore Him as Wonderful may He become to us the Prince of Peace. Enable us to put the government of our lives upon His shoulder, and of His government and of our peace let there be no end. Deliver us from the evil one; for yours is the kingdom and  the power and the glory for ever and ever AMEN.

HAVE YOU THE LIFE OF CHRIST WITHIN?

“The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.”


- Gal_2:20
When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, he first of all said, “Live”; and this he did first, because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual matters, and until it be bestowed we are incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom. Now the life which grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Faith is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its first fruit. It is the neck which joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious Head.

“Oh Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,
Is not this office thine? and thy fit name,
In the economy of gospel types,
And symbols apposite-the Church’s neck;
Identifying her in will and work
With him ascended?”

Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp. She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to repose her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so delighted with this heavenly grace, that he never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of his eternal arms. Here, then, is established a living, sensible, and delightful union which casts forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency, and joy, whereof both the bride and bridegroom love to drink. When the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as flowing through the veins of each. Then is the heart as near heaven as it can be on earth, and is prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship.

He who has the friendship of the world is an enemy to God;

“I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword.”

- Mat_10:34
The Christian will be sure to make enemies. It will be one of his objects to make none; but if to do the right, and to believe the true, should cause him to lose every earthly friend, he will count it but a small loss, since his great Friend in heaven will be yet more friendly, and reveal himself to him more graciously than ever. O you who have taken up His cross, know you not what your Master said? “I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” Christ is the great Peacemaker; but before peace, he brings war. Where the light comes, the darkness must retire. Where truth is, the lie must flee; or, if it abides, there must be a stern conflict, for the truth cannot and will not lower its standard, and the lie must be trodden under foot.

If you follow Christ, you shall have all the dogs of the world yelping at your heels. If you would live so as to stand the test of the last tribunal, depend upon it the world will not speak well of you. He who has the friendship of the world is an enemy to God; but if you are true and faithful to the Most High, men will resent your unflinching fidelity, since it is a testimony against their iniquities. Fearless of all consequences, you must do the right. You will need the courage of a lion unhesitatingly to pursue a course which shall turn your best friend into your fiercest foe; but for the love of Jesus you must thus be courageous. For the truth’s sake to hazard reputation and affection, is such a deed that to do it constantly you will need a degree of moral principle which only the Spirit of God can work in you; yet turn not your back like a coward, but play the man. Follow right manfully in your Master’s steps, for he has traversed this rough way before you. Better a brief warfare and eternal rest, than false peace and everlasting torment.