Persecution is coming—that seems certain; what is not
certain is whether we are ready for it.
Not everyone can or should preach, but we can all
shine our light before men (see Matt. 5: 16).
Anyone can read a newspaper. Only the Christian sees
God’s hand behind the reports.
The Christian is an upside–down tree: fruits on
earth, roots in heaven.
Men worry about the future; God also requires the
past.
Unbelief sees obstacles. Faith removes them (see
Matt. 17: 20).
We must look
up to heaven for
guidance and encouragement; we need to look
down from heaven, as
it were, in order to get a proper perspective on our situation here.
We must look
up to heaven for
guidance and encouragement; we need to look
down from heaven, as
it were, in order to get a proper perspective on our situation here.
Get into the Scriptures and the Scriptures will get
into you.
102
True Christianity is living down here in relation to
the Man up there.
Worldly religion embraces everything and condemns
nothing—except wholeheartedness for Christ.
The Bible is either absolute or obsolete.
At “the time of the end … knowledge shall be
increased” (Dan. 12: 4), but “the god of this world has blinded the
thoughts of the unbelieving” (2 Cor. 4: 4).
We have a natural tendency to be obsessed with gift.
It takes something unnatural to be obsessed with Christ.
The fashions of Christendom change as often as those
in the world. The Bible is unchanging.
The Christian ought to have but one ambition: to be
more like Christ every day.
When there is something in the Bible that worldly
Christians don’t like they call it legalism.
103
If your pathway is smooth it is also likely to be slippery.
Atheism is a religion. It has a god (Darwin), it has a belief
system (evolution) through which everything must be interpreted,
and it has evangelists (Dawkins etc.) to proclaim its message.
The world has many problems, but men will not go to the Man with
the answers.
Being “[the] most miserable of all men” (1 Cor. 15: 19) is playing
Christianity in this world, without hope in the next; Being
“sober in all things” (2 Tim. 4: 5) is taking account of things
here as God sees them, while having real hope in another world.
Levitical service is the portion of every Christian: all ought to
be occupied with carrying what is of Christ through this world.
You may be able to train a pastor to be a better pastor, but you
cannot train to
be a pastor.
Appeal to the head and you may win the argument. Appeal to the
heart and head, and you may win a soul.
Follow the Bible and you may be seen as out of date—but it ought
never to mean that you are out of touch.
104
First confess your sins to God; second, confess your Saviour to
men.
The Devil is a master-copier – and we are often the unwitting dupes
of his imitations.
If my Lord has prepared me a place there (see John
14: 2, 3), how can I ever think of seeking a place here?
Christ in all the Scriptures (see Luke 24: 27), but not
Christianity in all the Scriptures!
Paul’s Christianity involved overabounding in
joy under affliction (see 2 Cor. 7: 4). In all honesty,
what do we know of this?
How lightly we think of error is but another way of saying how
lightly we value truth.
Boasting of the past is evidence of weakness in the present.
The saints may fail in zeal and earnestness, the Enemy will not.
105
In the garden, the Devil implied that God was holding something
back from man (see Gen. 3: 5). Romans 8: 32 is the divine answer
to this lie: “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him
grant us all things?”
You are a reflection of the company you keep. If you are not much
like Christ then you have not been much in His company.
It’s a poor thing not to be evangelical—and it is a poor thing to
be only evangelical.
We must have right relations with the Lord before we can have right
relations with one another.
“God is light” (1 John 1: 5)—and so we are to “walk as children of
light” (Eph. 5: 8). “God is love” (1 John 4: 16)—and so we are
to “walk in love” (Eph. 5: 2).
Money is a universal provider for everything but happiness, and a
universal passport to everywhere but heaven.
He took my place so that I might have a place with Him.
Every Christian is in full–time service: “Whatsoever ye do, labour at it
heartily, as [doing it] to the Lord, and not to men” (Col. 3:
23).
106
Ezekiel in Chebar, Daniel in Babylon, Paul at Lystra, and John in
Patmos—how near these men were to God, despite the times of
persecution and scattering in which they lived!
The
shipwreck in Acts 27
had
its roots in not listening to Paul (see vs 11, 21)—and yet how
often we hear it said “That’s only Paul”?!
‘Easy come and easy go’ reception makes the Assembly a hotel and
not the house of God.
That
history
repeats itself is no less true
in ecclesiastical circles than it is in the world.
Looking for the
Lord’s coming is as much a question of the heart as it is of the
head.
Anyone can read
a sermon; only those who have been with God can deliver a
message from heaven.
Read the Scriptures,
not as a duty, but because you cannot do without them.
A shallow ministry will never produce persons able to swim in deep
water or rough seas.
107
We help
other souls just so far as we put them in contact with Christ.
There
is no such thing as enjoying the heavenly portion of the Church
without conflict with the Enemy.
Some
things can be measured; God’s grace is beyond measure.
Ignorance
can be addressed and opposition can be dealt with, but
indifference to the truth is the most difficult of all
situations to meet.
We need
to live in hope—not as if there were any question about it, but to
live out now the bright prospect we have before us.
Jonathan strengthened David’s hand in God (see 1 Sam.
23: 16). Whatever else may be said of him, that was an admirable
service, and one, sadly, we see little of.
If we
are drifting, we are in danger of shipwreck for there is no
intelligent guidance of the vessel.
The
more I feed the more I want—such is the effect of reading God’s
Word.
