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For Those Seeking The Truth
& Dynamic Living Christ is Victor |
January/February 2007
Volume 20, Number 1
“The Measure of Faith”
"Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the
Lord God, the God of
Exodus 34:23
God knowing human psychology, gives His people instructions, so that gratitude may grow in them. Many of us suffer because of lack of gratitude. The measure of your faith is the measure of your gratitude. God wants you to remember the day of our salvation, the manner in which that blessing came upon you, the way He delivered you from sin and the world's companionship and to know that which He gives you now is the highest. You miss something if you don't recognize and thank God for it. Some saints woke up in the night and thanked God. You must take some time to thank God.
The Jews were asked to
go to
Even today God has these instructions for us. We have a great responsibility in being the children of God. I always ask God whether I am fit. How often we can indulge in thoughts and aspirations which are just against Him! The process of Christian growth is your thoughts reaching the level of God's thoughts. Gradually your thoughts leave you and God's thoughts become more established in you. The responsibility of being a Christian in this heathen land is great. We must realize our unfitness and ask God to make us worthy. In college did you show that you were a Christian? When your thoughts are subordinated to Christ, then it is a great triumph. The soul begins to trust in God with naked faith. For some time man trusts in God through voices, visions and miracles, but one must reach the level to trust in God with naked faith. Madam Guyon says visions are gifts of the soul of a lower value, and one who depends on them ultimately doesn't become perfect. The Word of God must work in us and bring out of us such faith that clings to Him. As you begin to value God's Word and obey it, the devil will begin to tremble. The powers of darkness will fear and be on their guard. You march on and on until you find your life full of success. Not ten but a thousand are won for Christ.
God asks the Israelites to come three times a year. It would be expensive, it would take time. God said, 'The firstborn is mine.' All this gives more confidence in God. But giving material things is not a big matter. Your spiritual faculties can be developed greatly. Your thoughts can become prophetic, your words can be prophetic. The people who contact you must feel you are a live wire. The prophets were like that. Why do we gather on Saturdays for prayer? That our faith may grow. In course of time you will certainly be to glorify Christ and bring souls to Him. You will reach a height of faith from which you will not fall.
Our faith will run through correct channels and flow deeper and wider until it inundates society. In John Wesley’s group they prayed, watched and obeyed. When they went from place to place, they spiritually inundated each place. One day, God will use us like that. To keep the house of God worthy of His name is not easy. This belongs to the Saviour. 'No one will desire the land.' (Verse 24) It is a great promise. The sooner you get into God's will and your will is destroyed, you will see the fullness of the blessing. God and you will rejoice. Your joy of salvation will be full. You will swim in the current of heaven. It is not the paddle that will take you forward, but the very current will carry you. When you see the rudder you will see you are marching into greater success and victory. Today we have a profit-motivated religion. So the heathen don’t have respect for our religion. The Lord is with you. God says, I have given you my commandment. Don’t allow your children to make a covenant with the heathen. Don’t make promises to others unless it is permitted by God. If you have promised, break it and confess it to God. Not I, but Christ shall have the right of way with me.
Moses went into God’s presence, and came back with a face shining. He was a human being like you, but how different! Who gave him this honour? God! Our very walk, look and manner of life should be a teaching. This is the great privilege of being a Christian. Oh, the years that are wasted! You man, this opportunity is given to you now. Grow in grace. Rejoice in the Lord. God says, “You are my people and I have revealed heaven’s truths, eternal truths, to you. Remember when you read the Bible, you get eternal truths. The moment you get into that current of truth nobody can shake you. God will take you to depths of love and grace which the world has not yet seen.
- N. Daniel
“Necessities of New Life”
A little baby has been born. A new life has come. You care for it. You wash it and dress it. You feed it and warm it. Day after day you attend to its needs. You know it cannot take care of itself.
You have been born
into the
Well now, how are you going to take care of that new life? You are a babe in Christ. What then are the needs of the new life? The needs of the new life are as same as the needs of a baby.
A baby must be fed, and fed daily. So must you. That new life that God has given you requires food. The food for a baby is milk. The food of a spiritual babe is the milk of the Word. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.”
I was converted in 1906. From that day to this I have read God’s Word every day of my life, three hundred sixty-five days of the year. I cannot remember a single day when I have neglected the Book of books. The Bible has been my meat and my drink all down the years, and the more I study it the more precious it becomes. There is no book like it. When Satan’s attacks have been unusually severe, God’s Word has been my comfort and my stay. Time after time it has been in very deed His Word to me. Trials that might have terminated my ministry have been frustrated by the promises of God’s Word. When sorrow has overwhelmed my soul and tragedy engulfed me, God has spoken to me from the Scriptures. In the midst of my bitterest disappointment, I have heard His voice: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” And when my heart was filled with fear, I heard Him say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him.” And I found Him true.
The baby needs fellowship. It must be able to express itself and make known its needs. When it is hungry or in pain, it cries. And the mother immediately answers. You, too, need fellowship. And if you are rightly born there will be a cry in your heart. We call that cry prayer. And I would urge you to get alone with God every day of your life and pray. Tell Him all. Hide nothing. Talk to Him as you would talk to a friend. When you read the Bible God talks to you. When you pray you talk to Him, and thus you have fellowship. You become acquainted with God exactly as you become acquainted with a friend. You speak and He speaks. And as you talk you get to know each other. Oh then, talk much to God. Pray.
That little baby needs exercise. It shoves out its little legs and arms in order to exercise them.
You, too, need exercise if you are to grow strong. And so you must bear witness to Christ, for that is the way you exercise. Tell others. Do personal work. Confess Christ publicly. Witness. If you don’t, you will backslide. If you do, you will become strong. Get busy and do something for Christ. You will if you appreciate what He has done for you, and you will not hesitate to say so.
You should at least be as proud of your Lord and Saviour as you are of your king and country. You would not be ashamed to show your colours on the battlefield. As a matter of fact, you would be eager to unfurl your country’s flag and and march under it. Then why should you hesitate to lift up the banner of King Jesus? For thus you can let the world know which side you are on. Do you want Him to be ashamed of you in that Great Day, ashamed before His Father and the angels? Then you must not be ashamed of Him now. God says, “With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Nothing can strengthen the believer like open confession. If you want to grow spiritually confess Christ publicly. Satan doesn’t mind silent Christians, but he objects most strenuously to those who openly declare their allegiance to Christ. Yet the very act of confession renders powerless his attacks.
You can talk about the one you love. At least, most people can. And if you really and truly love the Lord Jesus Christ you will want to talk about Him.
And testimony, my friend, is the best antidote there is to worldly companionship. You will never have to give them up, those worldly friends of yours, never. Just tell them about Jesus. Ask them to kneel down while you pray with them. Hand them a gospel tract, and invite them to an evangelistic service. Try it. Do you know what will happen? They will drop you like a hot coal. You will no longer be wanted. And then you will find new friends and associates, Christians, who will love what you love, and want what you want. And their friendship will be yours through all Eternity. Even death cannot sever such a relationship.
Oh, then, let us be true to God. Let us testify of Christ. Let us confess Him publicly before men, and the joy and approbation of the Lord will be our reward.
- Selected
“Eagle’s Wings”
In Isaiah 40, we are told that by waiting on the Lord, we will amount on wings like eagles. Eagles are majestic birds with remarkable vision. Scientists believe their vision may be eight times sharper than that of humans. They have powerful feet with talons that can grip like a vise. Their beaks are butcher-like, designed to cut and crush and tear their food.
But most of all, eagles are built for flying. They have incredible speed, able to fly at sixty and eighty and one hundred miles an hour. They can do rolls and loops like an airplane doing tricks. Their wingspan extends to nearly eight feet.
But eagles do not fly like sparrows or robins. Most birds fly through the air by flapping their wings, but eagles cannot flap very long. They’re built for soaring, and thus they can go much further on little energy.
God created our planet with invisible columns of hot air called thermals rising up here and there from the surface of the earth. Eagles find these thermals, fly into the invisible currents, stretch out their wings, and are lifted higher and higher into the sky as though ascending on an elevator.
They may rise as high as fourteen thousand feet, so high in the heavens they cannot be seen with the naked eye from earth.
When they reach those heights, they emerge from the updraft, wings still spread, and they soar this way and that way, downwards and sidewards, traveling for miles with very little exertion of strength.
Isaiah seems to be telling us that God is invisible, but like the invisible uplifting thermal currents of this planet, he is present for his people. When we search him out, claim his promises and trust in him, spreading out the wings of faith, we are caught up to a higher plane. We mount up with wings like eagles. We can run and not grow weary. We can walk and not faint.
The strength we need for holy, effective, victorious living comes not from frantically flapping our wings like sparrows in distress, but from trusting in God and resting in Jesus Christ.
-Selected
Reality Check
“O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is
good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” -Psalm 107:1
“In The Beginning God…”
Now
the Bible begins with these words. Yes, that is God’s place and no other
place can be assigned to him either by human vanity or arrogance. As we all
well know, we hate to give Him that First place. We feel that by giving God that
Prime and Foremost place, we are somehow losing out. I know even those who have
preached on the scripture, “Seek ye first the
Now there is no situation where the second place belongs to God. Most people, notwithstanding their better knowledge, follow a daily routine, and adopt a life-style where God is shunted to a back seat. When it comes to choices, purchases or choosing measures of security or self-preservation, men’s thoughts, society’s ways or one’s own predilections, gain total ascendancy. In other words God simply has not the first place, nor is His word their ‘Road Map’. Now such people flounder, slide and slump while years roll on and life itself leaves them behind. On the contrary how wonderful it is, to be ‘fools for Christ’s sake’ and simply win, for there can be no other end-result when the Saviour is given His rightful place.
Today, in our midst, when we ought to be producing thousands of soul-winners, and men and women of great faith and dedication, we are just not producing the men of such depth and faith as George Muller, or who practice simple obedience to God’s word as Hudson Taylor, or men who walk with God like Sundar Singh. We have been given so much light and our retreats and conferences are rich with the preaching of the word of God. Where have we been slipping? In obedience, humility and thankfulness.
The devil should be continually on the run as we PRAISE, PRAISE, and PRAISE. Every wall should fall as God walks before us. Christ our Saviour is the BEGINNING, the first-born of all things. He walks before us. A New Year must not suffer from the sameness of past failing or pride. Let us ask God for new vision, faith and sacrifice. However small the responsibility entrusted to us, let us pray that we will be found faithful.
- Joshua Daniel
“Another Year is Dawning”
Hymnist Frances Ridley Havergal took New Year’s Day very seriously, always using it as a time of reflection and often composing a poem to send to friends expressing her feelings about the new day and year. The one she wrote in 1874 has become immortal. She was thirty-six at the time, and she dashed off this poem and had it printed on a specially designed greeting card to be sent to friends. The card was captioned: “A Happy New Year! Ever such may it be!” The inside said:
Another Year is dawning:
Dear Father, let it be,
In working or in waiting,
Another Year with Thee;
Another Year of progress,
Another Year of praise,
Another Year of proving
Thy presence all the days.
“Royal Water”
A chemistry class once learned how acids act on different substances. In the course of an experiment, the professor gave the class a bit of gold and told them to dissolve it. They left it all night in the strongest acid they had. It failed to dissolve. Then they tried various combinations of acids, but in vain.
Finally, they told the professor they thought gold could not be dissolved. He smiled. “I knew you could not dissolve gold,” he said. “None of the acids you have there will attack it, but try this,” and he handed them a special bottle of acid. They poured some of its contents into the tube that held the piece of gold, and the gold that had resisted all the other acids quickly disappeared in the royal water. The gold at last had found its master.
The next day the professor asked the class, “Do you know why that acid is called ‘royal water’?”
“Yes,” they replied, “it is because it is the master of gold, a substance which can resist almost anything that can be poured on it.”
Then he said, “Fellows, I should take time to tell you that there is another substance just as impervious as gold. It cannot be touched or changed though a hundred attempts are made upon it. That substance is the sinful heart. Trial, affliction, riches, honor, imprisonment, or punishment will not soften or master it. Education and culture will not dissolve or purify it. There is but one element that has power over the sin of the human heart—the blood of Christ, the Savior of the soul.”
- Selected
“Bevington and the Squirrels”
I was holding another
meeting in
I preached three nights when I was notified that I could not preach any more in the schoolhouse. Knowing well that God had told me to come again, I went to the woods and into another hollow log. I lay there five days, and then came a puzzling circumstance. I began to get hungry, which usually means that the fast is called off; but I knew that I did not have the victory I was praying for. So I decided to remain in there until I heard from Heaven or died in the log. My hunger was increasing and I was feeling weak, both of which were usually good evidences that the fast was called off, or that I was through. I mention this to show the danger of getting the ruts, as God works entirely apart from ruts.
The log was somewhat small, so that I was slightly cramped and occasionally stretched out as best as I could by extending my arms out in front of me. While I had been telling the Lord that I was hungry and also that I was not satisfied thus far on the second twenty-four hour watch after I began getting hungry, as I stretched out my arm, my hand struck something unusually there. I found more like it and gathering them up, I concluded that they were acorns and was impressed to eat them. Well, I never was fond of acorns; but, oh, they tasted so good! But I said, “How could acorns get in here?” as they seemed fresh. How long had they been in there and how did it come that I had not felt them before as I had been extending my hand out that far for some time? These questions came up and had to be met some way.
Well, I ate the six acorns and felt refreshed. This was at 6:00 pm. I lay there all night and the next morning in stretching I found six more acorns. I felt all around but found only six. Now, I found six fresh acorns in that hollow log three times a day for four days, until I had prayed the matter through making in all ten days that I was in that log.
Well, it became quite a curiosity to me to know how these six acorns got in there. So on the last day I crawled out of the log, left my shoes at the entrance as a pretence that I was in there, and went some distance to a hollow tree and there concealed myself. At 11:45 am there came six large gray squirrels. Each one jumped up on that log and dropped his acorn down a knot hole.
I said, “Wonderful, wonderful; My God, here Thou hast been feeding me through these six squirrels.” I just wept for joy to think that He was so mindful of my needs as to have these dumb animals obey Him. I said, “Elijah isn’t the only one who was fed by animals.”
I crawled back in, oh, so humble, I have often wished that I could live feeling as humble as I have felt at times like this!
Later someone found out by some means that I had been in that log and claimed that the squirrels fed me; and on my way to my lodging apartments he overtook me and said, “Mr. Bevington, I understand that you have been up on the hill in a hollow log and that you claim the squirrels fed you acorns there… Do you know that you are a thief?”
“No, sir. I don’t know that.”
“Well, sir, you are a thief and I can prove it to you. Those squirrels were putting up their winter food and you ate it all up!”
Well, I tell you that staggered me. I said, “Could it be possible?”
The next day, for a better understanding of it, I went up there at 4:00 pm and crawled into that log and could not find an acorn! I kept that for three days, but no acorn. So that settled the question and left it clear that God had made caterers out of the squirrels for this special occasion. I felt like just lying low at Jesus’ Feet, and giving Him a chance, believing that He would work all these things out as He knows best.
- Selected experience of Bevington
The nicest
things we can do for our Heavenly Father is to be kind to
one of his children
This
newsletter is produced six times per year by the Laymen’s Evangelical
Fellowship International. It is printed and distributed in the
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