Hungry Heart Daily Devotional Anthology -mjs

6-10. DIVINE LAYAWAY

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12).
In faith we apprehend the growth truths; in fact the Lord Jesus apprehends us for growth in those truths.

"I have been much struck by the thought of the hiddenness and slowness of God's workings. It must be a matter of distinct faith. If we do not understand this it will make us impatient. If we understand it will teach us to rest in God and to yield ourselves all the more joyfully to Him to work out His purpose. In all creation time is the great perfecter of growth. So with us, God will perfect that which concerns us."

"'Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness' (Romans 4:3), when his faith apprehended the promise of God; yet it was nearly 40 years after that this Scripture was fulfilled, when he offered his son. The faith had its apprehension and enjoyment for many a year before the work of faith.

"In proportion as the revelation is of God, in like measure must there be an answer to it sooner or later. Effect must follow cause. If the light has been received, the day will come that it must assert and obtain an expression of itself."

"Two glad services are ours,
Both the Master loves to bless.
First we serve with all our powers,
Then with all our helplessness."

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).
 
6-11. TREASURE TROVE

"But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9).

The Spirit's ministry is to make Christ all to each.

"We are the objects of the continual care and discipline of our heavenly Father. If we walk after the flesh, instead of after the Spirit, this may call for His loving rebuke and chastening (child training); but that in no way interferes with the precious truth of our continual acceptance and position in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, by whose one offering we have been perfected forever.

"Through grace, we are not in the flesh, but in Christ, yet the flesh is in us; but our part is to reckon it as having been, before God and to faith, judicially put to death in Christ crucified, thus setting us free to be so constantly occupied with the triumphant Son of God, as to find all our resources, all our strength, all our springs, in Him." -H.H.S.

"If we have the Lord Jesus, we have all--without Him, we have nothing. You can be happy without money, without liberty, without parents, and without friends, if He is yours. If you have not Christ, neither money, nor liberty, nor parents, nor friends can make you happy. Christ, with a chain, is liberty; liberty without Christ is a chain. Christ without anything is riches--all things, without Christ, is poverty indeed."

"If children, then heirs--heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ--if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:17).

WithChrist.org/MJS
 
6-13. THREE-FOLD CORD

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).

The Word of life, the Lord of life, and the exigencies of life all must combine to give us a ministry of life.

"There is no personal knowledge of God but as we count on Him, as we are practically conscious of depending on Him and of His caring for us. One without straits, and victories, really has no growing acquaintance with God; and where there is not this, however great the intelligence or sincerity, there is little or no savor."

"It is the trials and difficulties of the way that are the opportunities for our hearts to grow in acquaintance with Him; and it will be found, while there may be a great enjoyment in ministry, and in the unfolding of truth, that really there is not strength but in proportion as one has learned how God has been for and with one in the trials and sorrows of the way; and as one has known Him in them, so is one able to speak of Him."

"The one purpose which our Father has in view, in all His ways, is to conform us to the image of His Son. This may explain our perplexities as to the past; it will govern our behavior in the present; it is to be our guidance in the future. The chief concern of our Lord is not to instruct us about a multitude of details, not to explain to us the reason for the trials which we are called to pass through. He is working out everything to serve His supreme purpose in displaying the character of His Son in His redeemed ones."

"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 4:15).
WithChrist.org/MJS
 
It is sometimes the trials of seemingly empty-meaninglessness that can be the most surprising because there’s nothing to see, only feel. Unlike trials that involve visible elements whereby we can utilize our senses, trials involving invisible elements can be puzzling. This is when opportunity for faith can be most appropriated, because there’s less opportunity for your senses to be of use.

Therefore, the seemingly empty-meaninglessness trials can be the most fruit-bearing because faith is at its greatest substance (Heb 11:1) when visibility is at its least (Rom 8:24). Since only in this life faith will be used, we would do well to maximize the “trying of your faith” by exercising, as much as is within us, that which it produces first—patience (Jam 1:3; Rom 5:3). “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7); in eternity it will be inverted to walking by sight, not by faith.

Along with neighborly love, our patience is also the most usable gauge when evaluating the position of our conformity to Christ. As we know, Scripture has much to say concerning patience and it was the Lord Himself who said, “By your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19 NKJ). -NC

6-14. "THY WILL BE DONE"

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into various trials" (James 1:2).

You can be sure that you are in the will of God when He keeps you dependent upon Himself, walking in the Holy Spirit, and abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Often all we think of is, having our need met; but how little a thing is that with God! It would cost Him nothing, we may say, to meet the need of a lifetime in a moment; and a lesser love than His would supply it at once, and get rid of the constant burden.

"But that is not His way. To supply the need is a small thing; but to supply it in such a way as to make us feel in each seasonable supply the Father's heart never withdrawn from us, the Father's heart ever employed about us--that is what He means. 'Give us our daily bread': is it not much more than to ask, 'Give us now, that we may not have to come again?'"

"The God-given experience of the Spirit's working many a time passes away, and leaves the soul apparently dull and dead. This is only until the double lesson has been fully learnt: (1) that a living faith can rejoice in the Living God, even when feeling and experience appear to contradict the promise (Romans 8:28, 29); and (2) that the divine life only predominates as the life of the flesh is held in the place of death, inoperative (Romans 6:11a). The life of the Lord Jesus is revealed as His death works in us (2 Corinthians 4:11, 12), and as in weakness and nothingness we look to him (2 Corinthians 3:18)." -A.M.

"Knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:3).
WithChrist.org/MJS
 
Philippians 4:8 encourages us to think on that which is true, honest, just, etc. and the more often the more encouraged we are. As we contemplate such, we are not to find our sufficiency in them but in who procured them.

Our helm is to be guided by “things above, not on things on the earth“ (Col 3:2) but our craft of life is settled in the work of Christ’s atonement. Though salvation and the blessings it brings are unsurpassed in joy, our contentment is not to be in this, but in what our Father settles His contentment in concerning us—His Son and what He has “finished”.

God “gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim 6:17) and even justification, righteousness, holiness, etc. are not to be considered our support, but effects of our Supporter. There is some time involved to learn to base our security and assurance on the work of Christ alone and this is what the Spirit will be teaching us in all things. -NC

6-15. "RAISON D'ETRE"

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace" (John 16:33).

Great will be the day when you come to realize that the sole reason for the existence of your Bible, your soul and your spirit is to glorify--and share--the Lord Jesus Christ.

"The moment we begin to rest our peace on anything in ourselves, we lose it. And this is why so many saints have not settled peace. Nothing can be lasting that is not built on God alone. How can you have settled peace? Only by having it in God's way. By not resting on anything, even the Spirit's work within, but on what the Lord Jesus has done entirely outside you. Then you will know peace--conscious unworthiness, but yet peace.

"In the Lord Jesus alone, God finds that in which He can rest concerning us, and so it is with His saints. The more you see the extent and nature of the evil that is within, as well as without, the more you will find that what the Lord Jesus is and did, is the only ground at all on which you can rest.

"Alas! the freedom which the Gospel brings may be used to take things easy, and, more or less, retain or gain in the world; but where this is the case, it is seldom a soul possesses any large measure of spiritual enjoyment, and it is never accompanied by solid peace. The soul becomes thus unsettled and uncertain. These oscillations may go on for a certain time, until God carries on the work more deeply in the heart."

"As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God" (1 Peter 2:16).
WhithChrist.org/MJS
 
6-16. UNDIVIDED ATTENTION

"Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy 8:11).

Our Father would be free to favor us with far more of His riches in Christ Jesus if we would keep more in mind that grace is unmerited favor--so that "He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy" (Romans 9:23).

"It seems so natural, when one is surrounded with blessings, and thus sensible of being an object of divine favor, that the eye is turned from God to oneself; for when God is before one, self gets no place, though there be the deepest awareness of His favor.

"Hence it is the saint who is the object of the greatest favor who needs to be on his guard, that he allow not his eye to rest on himself where the favors are sent, but on God from whom they come. If his eye turns to himself because of the favor, then the favor has been the means of turning his heart from God to a mere gift of His."

"If there be a growing up into the measure of the stature of Christ, there must be a conscious refusal of that which would tend to revive or invigorate the old nature. The saint is not only a new creature to grow into the likeness of the Lord Jesus, but he has to watch and beware lest the things he has to do with should in any way minister to another will in him, which would divert him from God to himself. Self is the circle and center of man's mind in his fallen state; but when Christ is formed in the soul, God is the center and source of everything." -J.B.S.

"For we . . . worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).
WithChrist.org/MJS
 
6-17. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

"And you, that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight" (Colossians 1:21, 22).

In order for our Father to be satisfied with us, He placed us in His Son. In order for us to be satisfied with our Father, we"rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).

"On what ground is our faith tested? It is on the ground of our very relationship with God and God's attitude toward us. The concentration of the enemy is upon that point--to interfere with our link with God.

"What is our link with God? It is this--the Lord Jesus Christ, as the answer to God and to Satan for us. It will never be what we are in ourselves. If you are expecting a day to come when in virtue of what you are in yourself you can satisfy God, you are destined to an awful disillusionment. The day will never come when we can satisfy God in ourselves, not even more or less."

"How could there be any doubt about the believers perfect security if his position in the Lord Jesus were realized? It would be impossible. Can He change? Or will God say to Him, I cannot any longer accept You as standing for this people? Or, once again if standing for them, is He on probation? Is His work completely done, or still to do?" -F.W.G.

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:13).

WithChrist.org/MJS
 
The Christian life is that which is beyond human morality, which evaluates goodness by men “measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves”. For the believer, it is that “which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual”.

While we are aware that where “sin abounded”, we are also aware that ”grace abounded much more”. This means that as the Spirit continues to take us into a deeper realization of the degradation and decadency of our Adamic nature, we can know that grace provides for us “a good conscience toward God”.

“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God”. -NC

6-18. BELOVED OBJECT

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus".

The Holy Spirit creates within us a hatred for the old nature, and a hunger for the new nature. Without a rejection of the old, there cannot be a projection of the new.

"I want a testimony that delivers me from the things I am occupied about in myself when I am suffering from them. I get it from God's gift that is perfect. I am 'accepted in the Beloved'. You say, There is something about myself I cannot get over. Remember, the testimony of the Spirit in us is the contrary of the testimony of the Spirit to us. In me, He takes notice of every fault that is not righteousness; but the testimony to us is, 'Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more'."

"If we make morality our standard, we will be sure to fall below what we purpose. Whatever we put before us as our criterion, there will be always a falling short. If we have the Lord Jesus Christ risen and in heaven as our Object, we shall prove the power of His resurrection, not only in lifting us up when we are conscious of our exceeding short-comings, but in strengthening us to 'press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus'."

"The Word of God teaches me union, but the Person of Christ brings out all that I derive from union with Him. The Word is always my authority for my position, but acquaintance with the Person confirms and manifests my position."

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord".

WithChrist.org/MJS
 
With this message I leave on a ten-day vacation and will be doing my best to maintain the posts and replies. I thank the Lord for all in “the Household of God” and may His Spirit’s instructions continue with us!

Blessed Be God

6-19. PROPER PRESENTATION

"The things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2).

Truth based upon law will be presented legally--it will be legislated. Truth based upon grace will be shared graciously, in love. "Adorn the doctrine of God" by "speaking the truth in love" (Titus 2:10; Ephesians 4:15).

"There are two things that have to be taken into account in communicating truth. Not merely should there be certainty that it is the truth from God, but it must also be suited truth to those whom you address. They might need it all, but they may not be in condition to receive it; and the more precious the truth, the greater the injury, in a certain sense, if it is presented to those who are not in a state to profit by it."

"We are to serve under His direction, and according to His pleasure; not just because opportunity or need offers. We require His direction, and the knowledge of His pleasure, however favorable the opportunity or the occasion. We see a servant in Acts 8 taken away from an interesting field of service, to meet one man in the desert. "It is not a question of how we succeed; but have we the assurance that we are doing the Lord's pleasure? Happy is the servant who is so led by Him that he always presents the measure of truth suited to the state of souls, and refuses to supply the knowledge that puffeth up."

"Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13).

WithChrist.org/MJS
 
6-21. PERSONIFICATION

"God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction" ().

To share what we have may minister temporarily to the physical; but to minister to the spiritual in an eternal way we must share what we are, and that calls for growth in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"We can only comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God. Others can only really be helped by what has been the power of life in the would-be helper.

"Information, by itself, however correct and orthodox, however strongly held in conviction and passed on in passion, will lack an essential and indispensable quality or value for spiritual constitution.

"Hence it has ever been God's way to raise up a vessel, personal or corporate, in which His message has been wrought by fiery ordeal. The messenger must not only have the message in him, but he must be in the message: not only in mind and feeling, but in experience and being." -T. A-S.


"We really can only come into the reality of things by being 'pressed out of measure' (). So the Lord has to take much time to make our spiritual history. When at length our eyes are open, we cry, 'O, why did I not see it before!' But everything else had to prove insufficient before we could really be shown, and that takes time."

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time".

WithChrist.org
 
6-22. TRUTH TRIUMPHANT!

"To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth My voice" (John 18:37).

Charismatic Arminianism's experience omits truth. Covenant Calvinism's legality chokes truth. Cross-centered Christianity's Christ-life is Truth!

"Greater zeal for the salvation of sinners, and the amelioration of the condition of mankind, never was more manifested than at present (1850). This is ground of rejoicing to all the friends of the Gospel. But there is one unhappy symptom of the present times, with respect to Christianity. Zeal for the purity of divine truth has not kept pace with zeal for the salvation of sinners." -A.C.

"The semblance of love which does not maintain the truth, but accommodates itself to that which is not the truth, is not love according to God. In the last days the test of truth is the maintenance of the truth.

"God would have us love one another; but the Holy Spirit, by whose power we receive the divine nature, and who pours the love of God into our hearts, is the Spirit of truth, and His office is to glorify Christ.

"Therefore it is impossible that a love which can put up with a doctrine that falsified Christ, or which is indifferent to anything that concerns His glory, can be of the Holy Spirit--still less so, if such indifference be set up as a proof of that love."

"In all things commending ourselves as the ministers of God. . . by the word of truth" (2 Corinthians 6:4,7).

WithChrist.org
 
As believers, we could not be in better hands. Regardless of what occurs or what our old minds may think up, our Father never turns us over to anything but His own training of love-chastening. Nothing ever negative comes from God’s care for us, even when there may be times when something may start as a negative, God works it out as a positive for our good and not a moment of time is wasted.

When we become too self-centered, any negativity from self can be enhanced, even beyond necessity and the carnal imagination can take flight, attempting to discourage but even this, along with whatever transpires is the believer’s life, will be used as an advantage.

For the “household of God”, all is blood-covered, so “casting all your care on Him” (1 Pet 5:7) is the instruction of the day and there is no greater exercise of faith than to realize He already knows everything we will think and do and yet, He wants us to understand and believe “He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). -NC


6-23. LOVE'S LEGACY

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).

Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

"In mechanics, wobbling is weakness. Power issues from God's restfulness. Are we resting in the Lord? Can we wait patiently for Him to act? Anxiety reduces spiritual energy. Lack of rest of heart is one of the most serious hindrances to Christians.

"Fret of soul when wronged, or fuss over financial or other concerns, is a depletion of power, a dissipation of energy. From the rock basis of rest in Him we can put forth the whole of our energies. Perfect peace is our promised portion."

"Martha gets instruction; we all get that, for our Lord neglects none of us; but she did not get His company; company is what gives rest to the heart."

"Nothing can separate the believer from the love of God, and under no circumstances whatever can he come under the infliction of wrath from God. He may have to correct His saints for their sins, and where there has been no failure He may chasten (child train) them for their profit, that they may become partakers of His holiness; but all this is in love, not in wrath. Every action of God toward His saints is in grace and blessing; it is ever the outcome of His love."

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

WithChrist.org/MJS
 
6-24. GRATUITOUS GRACE

"Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under grace" (Romans 6:14).

Grace forsaken is freedom forfeited.

"In considering the whole testimony of the Bible, it is almost as important for the believer who would do the will of God to recognize that which does not concern him as it is for him to recognize that which does concern him.

"It is obvious that, apart from the knowledge of dispensational truth, the believer will not be intelligently adjusted to the present purpose and will of God in the world. Such knowledge alone will save him from assuming the hopeless legality of the dispensation that is past or from undertaking the impossible world transforming program belonging to the dispensation which is to come." -W.S.C.

"The Law of Moses is interrelated and wholly dependent on the sacrifices and ritual provided for Israel in the land. The laws of the kingdom (Sermon on the Mount) are only related to the future kingdom conditions which shall be in the earth under the power and presence of the King when Satan is bound, creation delivered, and all shall know the Lord from the least unto the greatest.

"All harmony of truth is shattered when there is the slightest commingling of the principles of law and grace. Grace alone now reigns through Christ to the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

"By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

WithChrist.org/MJS
 
6-25. PLUS, OR MINUS?

"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6).

Grace + Law = Death. Grace - Law = Life!

"Covenant theology, which has molded the major theological conceptions for many generations, recognizes no distinctions as to ages, therefore can allow for no distinctions between law and grace. This dominating attitude of Covenantism must account for the utter neglect of life truth (growth) in all their works of theology.

"No more representative theological dictum from the Covenant viewpoint has been formed than the Westminster Confession of Faith, which valuable and important document recognizes life truth only to the point of imposing the Ten Commandments on Christians as their sole obligation, and in spite of the teachings of the New Testament which asserts that the Law was never given to Gentile or Christian."-L.S.C.

"While freeing believers from the bondage of Rome, the Protestant Reformation brought them back, in large measure, under the bondage of Sinai. The Reformation took away one set of bindings, but bound the believers with another--and this has atrophied the spiritual life of multitudes." -D.G.B.

"Not a single cluster of living fruit ever was, or ever will be, culled from the tree of legality. Law can only produce 'dead works,' from which we need to have conscience purged just as much as from 'wicked works.'" -C.H.M.

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1 ).

WithChrist.org
 
6-26. EDIFYING EQUILIBRIUM

"That ye may be blameless and harmless, children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15).

There should be neither undergrowth, nor overgrowth, but balanced growth. Spiritual equilibrium alone will bring forth much fruit both in us and in others.

"A popular notion that the first obligation of the Church is to spread the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is false. The first obligation is to be spiritually worthy to spread it. . . to spread an effete (worn out) and degenerate brand of Christianity to pagan lands is not to fulfill the Great Commission."

"We were created for more than our own spiritual development; reproduction, not mere development, is the goal to mature being--reproduction in other lives. There is a tendency in some characters, running parallel to the high cultivation that spends its whole energy on the production of bloom at the expense of seed.

"The flowers that are bent on perfecting themselves, by becoming double, end in barrenness, and a like barrenness comes to the soul whose interests are all concentrated upon its own spiritual well-being, heedless of the needs around. The true, ideal flower, is the one that uses its gifts as means to an end; the brightness and sweetness are not for its own glory; they are but to attract the bees and butterflies that will fertilize and make it fruitful." -L.T.

"Holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain" (Philippians 2:16).

WithChrist.org
 

6-27. TRUTH, OR CONSEQUENCES

"I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you" (1 John 2:14).

Experience may ratify, or it may repudiate, truth. The Word alone, to faith, is truth unalterable.

"If I allow the thought that what I am toward God will in some way or other affect what God is toward me, I shall be filled with the spectre of bondage. But when I see that what God is toward me is altogether the outcome of what He is, and that He is this though knowing perfectly what I am, it puts my heart in the right direction for liberty." -C.A.C.

"God speaks to us according to His estimate of our standing, our position: it may not be our heart's experience. There is a distinctness between the operation of the Spirit of God in bringing me unto the Lord Jesus, bearing witness to me of God's love, and of the efficacy of what Christ has done--and His operation in my soul to produce the image of His Son.

"That which is the subject of experience is what is produced in my soul, whereas that which gives me peace is His testimony to the work and life of Christ. A Christian who doubts the Father's love to him, and who looks for peace to that which passes in his own heart, is doubting God's truth. The Word is the revelation God has given of Himself; it displays the love of God toward us, and what is in His heart. I can trust the declaration of what is in God's heart, and not what I think of myself." -J.N.D.

"If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:6).


WithChrist.org
 
6-28. THE TREE OF LIFE

"Not I, but Christ" (Galatians 2:20).

It is not a matter of what fruit, but of which tree!

"What salvation has done is not merely forgiving me my sins; forgiveness, cleansing, justifying, applies to my responsibility and guilty condition in the first Adam; but salvation applies to my standing in the Last Adam. It is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

"What would you do if you wanted to make something of a crab tree? Not nurture, and prune, and dig about it. That God has done with His fig tree (Israel). If you know anything about it, you will cut it down and graft it. Until you find out that the old man is utterly bad, and that there is no mending it, you will not give it up. If you cultivate the old crab tree you will have fair blossoms but only bigger and more sour crab apples." -J.N.D.

"Before we were saved, worldly objects and affairs usurped the place of Christ; but after being saved, spiritual objects and affairs now tend to occupy His place. Earlier God took from us the things of this world; presently He is taking away our spiritual thing or things. He removes our personal patience, love, power, gentleness, humility.

"Indeed, He removes all, that we may not live by these good things but live by a Person instead. We are patient not because we have received a power to be so, but because we have got a patient Person. So it is with humility and the rest: not a power but a Person." The fruit of the Spirit is the life of Christ.

"For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:27).

WithChrist.org
 
6-29. APPLICABLE APPLICATION

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3).

We have all cringed at the sad spectacle of the "nouveau riche." And yet many of us as believers present the same failure--flaunting and mishandling our spiritual riches in Christ Jesus.

"The Lord deals with us in order that we might be able to minister in an apt way. His stewards are to be men of understanding, who can touch the various needs, who can reach the heart, so that the Lord's children are saying: That just fits me! That touches my case! That person must know! That one must have been through it! Yes, the Lord knows, and He would take you and me through experiences such as will make us sharers in a living way--and that is what He is doing." -T. A-S.

"It is a new day to your soul when you realize that Christ is the Source of everything, and that it is from Himself you must draw, and not from ministry about Him. Many can explain Scripture and even apply it, who are not under the effect of it themselves. They have not come from Him, and are not themselves imbued with that which they are trying to convey.

"There is much wise counsel and good teaching which is not applicable to the moment and to the need. It does not effect what is the Lord's desire as the end of the ministry, which is to lead the soul to Himself, because it is not spoken in communion with Himself. You must first get to where He is, and then you are brought into harmony with the scene where He is."

"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:4).

WithChrist.org
 
6-30. NO CROSS, NO CHRIST!

"Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).

One hears much today about "body life," with its emphasis upon New Testament gathering, rather than Christ-centered growth. The Body is meant to manifest the Head, and that necessitates spiritual members.

"Where there is no Cross there is no life, and no ministry of life. The object of suffering is that there may be a full and abundant ministry. . . . We are not to invite trouble, nor by austerity to ill-treat our bodies. The Holy Spirit Himself takes responsibility for our experience, leading us in paths where we encounter, in body, heart, or spirit, that measure of 'the dying of Jesus' that will mean enrichment of our ministry."

"There are many today who seem to think that it is all or largely a matter of the order, technique, and form, and if we are to return to the 'New Testament' form or order of churches all would be well. The fact is that, while certain things characterize the N.T. churches, the Word does not give us a complete pattern according to which churches are to be formed!

"There is no blueprint for churches in the N.T., and to try to form such churches is only to create another system which may be as legal, sectarian and dead as others. Churches, like the Church, are organisms which spring out of life, which life itself springs out of the Cross of Christ wrought into the very being of believers. Unless believers are crucified people, there can be no true expression of the Church." -T. A-S.

"God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross" (Galatians 6:14).

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6-31. MANUALLY CONTROLLED

"Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them" (Colossians 2:15).

"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:15-17). Amen!

"The sovereignty of God is what alone gives rest to the Christian heart in view of a world full of evil, which is gone astray from Him. To know that after all, in spite of the rebellion of the creature, things are as absolutely in His hand as ever they were--this brings, and alone brings, full relief. Still He rules over all, and where evil cannot be turned to good, limits and forbids it: He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath (what would go beyond this) He restrains (Psalm 76:10)." -F.W.G.

"People may quarrel with the sovereignty of God, but I love it, because I know enough about my natural bent and will to be sure that if left to myself I should have gone straight to perdition. Some believers talk about man's free will when they are on their feet, but all are firm believers in God's sovereignty when they get on their knees." -C.A.C.

"Human history is not in the grip of fate, but in the hands of Him Who was pierced for us on Calvary." -W.G.S.

"Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:14).


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