..March/April 2001 ..............................................................................................................Volume 14, Number 2

"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name" (Hebrews 13: 15)

"Sacrifice of praise?" I get very deeply hurt and even angry when people take the mercies of God for granted. Many of us do take the blessings of health for granted. We feel somehow our breakfast will be set on the table. I see even in America, people picking food out of garbage heaps. Of course, it is a common sight all over the world. But such a thing in civilized America is a very sad thing. Do we offer the sacrifice of praise? Is that the fruit of our lips? When I pray with my mother, I hear her praising God: a very positive attitude. I must confess, I don't have such an attitude.

"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise" (Jeremiah 17: 14). We may praise God for various answers to prayer or help given. But do we praise God for Himself? "You are my praise! The blood which You shed for me is my praise! The Lamb upon the throne is my praise." When you praise the Lamb on the throne, you cannot have negative thoughts. You cannot be telling something evil about your brother. Everything unclean and dark is blotted out and wiped away. "The Lamb upon the throne" is so exclusive and stands alone.

So, how beautiful our minds will become! If the Lamb upon the throne is your praise, it will be heaven around you. So the devil does not want that.

"For I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth" (Zephaniah 3:20). How amazing! How can we be less than that? A praise unto God! Let Him be our praise. Then we will be praise to God on this earth. But if you are only thinking of yourself, your job, your money and your happiness then you will die. But when you think of the Lamb, the glory of Jesus, then you will multiply.

There should not be a "bottle-neck" in the kingdom of God. You cannot dam a mighty river easily. You cannot make a mighty river flow into the mouth of a little bottle. You are designed as a river and you cannot be put through a bottle neck. Very often our hearts and thoughts are bottle necks. Self is a bottle neck and so the river cannot flow.

"For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding" (Psalm 47:7). I don't think we will have a proper view of politics and world trends, unless we have a proper vision of the throne of the Lamb. Sometimes I hate to read newspapers because they report terrible happenings. We must look at the "King of kings". The Lord is the King of the whole earth. Then we can sing with understanding. When the work was started we were a motley crowd. Some fellows could not hold a tune. But how beautiful our singing used to sound! People used to sing from their hearts. Sing with the understanding that our Lord is the King. Then you will sing above your circumstances. That is why I do not like people saying lightly, "Praise the Lord". People who have quarrelled with their wives and those who hold hurt feelings within, just say, "Praise the Lord". Where is understanding there? There is no praise to God in that situation.

Friends, we need to be very humble. We have been lifted from our sinful condition. Some of us were drawn from other religions and walks of life, some from uncleanness. "He lifts the beggar from the dunghill and He sets him amongst princes", says Hannah. (I Samuel 2:8). How amazing! And He makes them inherit the throne of glory - the throne of Jesus. Do we think of the throne? Christ lifts you. He puts you on the throne of His glory. Do you want to sit on the dunghill? Do you want to make your family, your home, a dunghill?

A praising heart lifts you to the throne of His glory. That is our flight route. Let us learn to praise. We are lifted through the "Lamb on the throne". We are not worthy. But that uplift comes from the Lamb.

-Joshua Daniel

The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will be in the last place the remainder of the day.

Behind this early rising and early praying is the ardent desire which presses us into this pursuit after God. Morning listlessness is the index to a listless heart. The heart which is behindhand in seeking God in the morning has lost its relish for God. David's heart was ardent after God. He hungered and thirsted after God, and so he sought God early, before daylight. The bed and sleep could not chain his soul in its eagerness after God. Christ longed for communion with God; and so, rising a great while before day, he would go out into the mountain to pray. The disciples, when fully awake and ashamed of their indulgence, would know where to find him. We might go through the list of men who have mightily impressed the world for God, and we would find them early after God.

A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully. The desire for God that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at the beginning of the day will never catch up.

It is not simply the getting up that puts men to the front and makes them captain generals in God's hosts, but it is the ardent desire which stirs and breaks all self-indulgent chains. But the getting up gives vent, increase, and strength to the desire. If they had lain in bed and indulged themselves, the desire would have been quenched. The desire aroused them and put them on the stretch for God, and this heeding and acting on the call gave their faith its grasp on God and gave to their hearts the sweetest and fullest revelation of God, and this strength of faith and fullness of revelation made them saints by eminence, and the halo of their sainthood has come down to us, and we have entered on the enjoyment of their conquests. But we take our fill in enjoyment, and not in productions. We build their tombs and write their epitaphs, but are careful not to follow their examples.

We need a generation of preachers who seek God and seek him early, who give the freshness and dew of effort to God, and secure in return the freshness and fullness of his power that he may be as the dew to them, full of gladness and strength, through all the heat and labor of the day. Our laziness after God is our crying sin. The children of this world are far wiser than we. They are at it early and late. We do not seek God with ardor and diligence. No man gets God who does not follow hard after him, and no soul follows hard after God who is not after him in early morn.

-E.M. Bounds

Deuteronomy 30:19,20

God says, "I am placing before you life and death." When I was a boy they sold a pain-killer. God has prepared for us a pain-killer in the Word of God. When God called Abraham, He gave him the truth. God said, "Abraham is my confidant." He believed God’s Word to that degree that God was sure he would teach God’s Word to his children. God could not hide anything from Abraham. For an Almighty God who reigns in heaven and on earth, to say that He could not hide anything from a human being, is an extra-ordinary thing. And God meant it. Abraham believed God. And God could trust and count on Abraham. It is a great thing! Many of us think of belief in different terms.

Everyone who goes to church believes that he believes in God. He tells lies all through the week. When you believe in God, you imbibe His nature. Abraham was imbibing the nature of God. When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, we see God’s nature in him. God was happy that there was at least one man to offer his son out of trust in God. God thought it was a great success in the training he gave to Abraham. Faith began with Abraham. He gave it to his children.

God gave the law so that the faith in Abraham may be imparted to His children. There is a mystic power in the Word of God so that every nation that accepted the Bible and obeyed it, prospered. It prospered in proportion to its obedience. To a certain extent England followed the Word and prospered. Righteousness exalteth a nation. (Prov. 14:34) England was lifted above the nations. It is a creative Word. Those who receive the Word into their hearts by obedience, receive of that creative power. It eliminates sin.

The life-giving power is departing from our mission circles. Those parents who counsel their children to believe and obey God’s word are true parents. When I was born again my father said, "It is enough. My son is converted. God will take care of him." Then I did not understand the import of his words. I understand how God took care of me. Every parent must hand over his children into God’s protection by inculcating the fear of God into them. I had some students in my school. They used to look at God for their needs. If children look to God and not to parents for everything, it is a great gain. When a servant looks to God and not to his master it is a great blessing. It is a blessing not to live entirely to please the master, but rather to please God.

When you believe the Word of God, it will have a peculiar effect on your personality. It produces certain emotions that strengthen your nerves and keep them in a sound condition. Your blood is also purified. Your mind is kept clear and sound so that it rejects negative thoughts and overcomes the negative emotions of the body. Negative emotions are dispelled and positive emotions are built up which will build your body. This leads to long life.

A certain man who suffered from headache, asthma and T.B. testified at Nuzvidu. He came to a sanatorium from where he came to our meetings and heard the Word of God. "You doubted the authority of the Word of God, you rejected the Bible, you have driven your life into sickness. When calamity comes upon you, you just weep and weep." These words brought him understanding. He understood why this situation arose. He turned to God who healed him. If there is anything wrong in my family, I blame myself. I search my heart. If my children are not right with God, I search my heart. God shows me my faults. He once said, "You are not right in your words." As a guide and leader, I ought to be very careful with my words.

Deut. 32:46,47. On account of this Word that will be in you, you will prosper. It will control you.

Daniel, by his character, was able to control the king. When he was delivered from the lion's den people knew that he was a man of God. People who will not read the decalogue, will read it in you. When you walk in the streets, people will see it in you.

Esther was a clean, godly girl. She consecrated her life and body for God. If anyone truly believes his body belongs to God, God will come and dwell in him. God will use him one day. Esther lived according to the Word of God. If anyone lives that way, God will surely come into that life and use it. We seek for importance, degrees and big jobs. I have seen important officials die miserable deaths.

Mordecai said, "For this cause, you have been brought to this status." When some people see good and secure positions they want it for themselves. They think no more of others. Some are ashamed and afraid to fight for Christian standards in Parliament.

One single woman, Esther, took the responsibility for a whole people. That meant faith and advancement in faith. She was willing to face death or life. She stood before the king for God's people. I do not know what step was demanded of her. Are you preparing yourself for such crises? The salvation of ten thousands of souls will depend on your faith. Esther lived in 476 B.C. Yet she was Christlike. Does God acclaim physical beauty? No. It was her inner beauty he commended. A woman's beauty is her inner beauty. It comes through the study and meditation of the Word of God. Prov. 31:30 "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that fearth the Lord, she shall be praised." Esther stands dignified in her example of teaching the whole world about inner beauty. Womanhood is raised to its highest level by her character.

Haman wanted to destroy God's people. But God's hand came upon him heavily. He was hung on the gallows he himself had built. Honour and glory come from God. Those who trust in God's Word will rule this world. Saints will rule this world. Will you be one of them? Then there must be no place for sin in you. Romans 12: 1-2.

-Late Mr. N. Daniel

"And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance." (Genesis 45:7)

Joseph was in God's will all his life. He rejoiced in his sufferings. "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need" (Philippians 4:12). It is a great thing to be satisfied in the state you are now in. "But godliness with contentment is great gain" (I Timothy 6:6). If your heart is satisfied in joy and in suffering, in want and in plenty - that is true Christian life. Joseph was always with God - even when cast in the pit, as a slave in Potiphar's house, as one condemned in the prison and also when he was on the throne of Egypt. God was with Joseph and Joseph was with God. You can be with God only in His will. You will not bring storms on yourself and others. You will bring down the abundance of God's blessing. It is a difficult life to be in God's will. "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand" (Isaiah 53:10). Those that are in God's will take other people's sin upon themselves like Jesus did. They rejoice to suffer with others. Those that walk on this royal highway will have the protection of the angels and archangels. Heaven will be with them.