For Those Seeking The Truth & Dynamic Living

Christ is Victor

March/April 2005                                                                                       Volume 18, Number 2

“In the Beginning”

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” –Genesis 1:1

 

Is it God who is central in your life? If you look at Abraham’s life, we can see that seventy-five years were wasted and burned up, because at seventy-five only he came to know God. We bury ourselves in the grave, ever before others carry us to it. The angels and God weep over our wasted life.

God came into the life of Abraham at the age of seventy-five. And then he lived a hundred years more. They were years when he learnt faith and became the father of the faithful. They were precious years. He left a legacy of faith to Isaac and to all that would walk in the path of faith. Is God in your life? Some enter into fleshly love affairs in their youth and bury their talents thereby.

Have you put your family into the care of God in the beginning of this year? Madame Guyon’s thoughts thrilled the hearts of saints. Is there the treasure of heaven in your heart? Then all your thoughts are treasures.

Sarah was a good mother and a good wife to Abraham. She did not hinder but allowed the grace of God to work freely in Abraham. I wanted to compromise in certain things after marriage. But my wife helped me to maintain my spiritual life.

Solomon prayed for wisdom. Yet in his middle- age, he married heathen women and he built temples for idols. He had no proper wife to guide him nor a son or a prophet.

The angel of God appeared to Gideon and said, “God is with you.” God saw his sorrows, desires and longings. If you see sin and do not condemn it, that sin will come into you and your family too. Are you not storing up money to be given to your children? That money will choke your throat. The needs of the Gospel must be met first. Do you see those dire needs? Have you learnt to serve God? You become mighty by believing in the Lord Jesus with all your heart.

Material things do not satisfy. We claim equal share with other members in the family property. Are we alert to claim spiritual possessions? If we learn to wait on God, we will know how to conquer and how to progress. Otherwise you will be satisfied with no real achievement. If you wait on God, He will make you a great person. Jesus said that failure must be ruled out of my life. So that became a maxim with me.

God is with you. Why are you despairing? Wait on God and know God’s will. Wait on God and He will bring it to pass. We shall walk with God. We must rejoice with trembling. We must learn to follow, not just imitate Christ. The Word of God must go into us. Americans received the Word of God long ago. Christianity gave them character. They had the strength to fight slavery in times past. Did God ever tell you how to measure your life?

When I had the call of God to leave my work, my hometown, and my people, I obeyed. At that time there were no openings to preach the Gospel. But in God’s will when you begin to pray, God will bring people to you. It started with one man and God said, “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.” And God did so. Don’t stop praying. Don’t give up. Spiritual strength is His. Go and win the people around you. It is through the strength of the Lamb we conquer. What a wonderful person you will become when His Word abides in you!

Your personality is your thought-content. When your thoughts are full of God’s thoughts you are a rich person. “More to be desired are they than gold…sweeter than honey…by keeping of them is great reward.” These teachings are all on a higher plane. When can we ask according to His will? Only when we are filled with His thoughts. “When we preserve the word of God in the heart, the prayer that comes out of it will be in the will of God. Then we can pray with great confidence. Begin this year with God.  Let God be our Alpha and Omega.

 

- N. Daniel

“Keep on Knocking”

How often people become discourag­ed, and say they do not know whether or not God does answer prayer! In the parable of the importunate widow, Christ teaches us how we are not only to pray and seek, but also to find. If the unjust judge heard the petition of the poor woman who pushed her claims, how much more will our Heavenly Father hear our cry!

A good many years ago an Irishman in the State of New Jersey was condemned to be hung. Every possible influence was brought to bear upon the Governor to have the man reprieved; but he stood firm; and refused to alter the sentence. One morning the wife of the condemned man, with her ten children, went to see the Governor. When he came to his office, they all fell on their faces before him, and besought him to have mercy on the husband–the father. The Governor’s heart was moved; and he at once wrote out a reprieve. The importunity of the wife and children saved the life of the man, just as the woman in the parable, who pressing her claims, induced the unjust judge to grant her request. It was this that brought the answer to the prayer of blind Bartimeus. The people, and even the disciples, tried to hush him into silence; but he only cried out the louder, “Thou Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Prayer is hardly ever mentioned in the Bible alone; it is prayer and earnestness; prayer and watchfulness; prayer and thanksgiving. It is an instructive fact that throughout Scrip­ture prayer is always linked with something else. Bartimeus was in earnest, and the Lord heard his cry.

Then the highest type of Christian is the one who has got clear beyond asking and seeking, and keeps knock­ing till the answer comes. If we knock, God has promised to open the door and grant our request. It may be years before the answer comes; He may keep us knocking; but He has promised that the answer will come.

I will tell you what I think it means to knock. A number of years ago, when we were having meetings in a certain city, it came to a point where there seemed to be very little power. We called together all the mothers, and asked them to meet and pray for their children. About fifteen hundred mothers came together, and poured out their hearts to God in prayer. One mother said: “I wish you would pray for my two boys. They have gone off on a drunken spree; and it seems as if my heart would break.” She was a widowed mother. A few mothers gather­ed together and said: “Let us have a prayer-meeting for these boys.” They cried to God for these two wandering boys; and now see how God answered their prayer.

That day these two brothers had planned to meet at the corner of the street where our meetings were being held. They were going to spend the night in debauchery and sin. About seven o’clock the first one came to the appointed place; he saw the people going into the meeting. As it was a stormy night, he thought he would go in for a little while. The Word of God reached him, and he went into the inquiry room, where he gave his heart to the Saviour.

The other brother waited at the corner until the meeting broke up, expecting him to come; he did not know that he had been in the meeting. There was a young men’s meeting in the church nearby, and this brother thought he would like to see what was going on; so he followed the crowd into the meeting. He also was impressed with what he heard, and was the first one to go into the inquiry-room, where he found peace. While this was happen­ing, the first one had gone home to cheer his mother’s heart with the good news. He found her on her knees. She had been knocking at the mercy-seat. While she was doing so, her boy came in and told her that her prayers had been answered; his soul was saved. It was not long before the other brother came in and told his story – how he, too, had been blessed.

On the following Monday night, the first to get up at the young converts’ meeting was one of these brothers, who told the story of their conversion. No sooner had he taken his seat, than the other jumped up and said: “All that my brother has told you is true, for I am his brother. The Lord has indeed met us and blessed us.”

I heard of a wife in England who had an unconverted husband. She resolved that she would pray every day for twelve months for his conver­sion. Every day at twelve o’clock she went to her room alone and cried to God. Her husband would not allow her to speak to him on the subject; but she could speak to God on his behalf.

It may be that you have a friend who does not wish to be spoken with about his salvation; you can do as this woman did—go and pray to God about it. The twelve months passed away, and there was no sign of his yielding. She resolved to pray for six months longer; so every day she went alone and prayed for the conversion of her husband. The six months passed, and still there was no sign, no answer.

The question arose in her mind, could she give him up? “No,” she said, “I will pray for him as long as God gives me breath.” That very day, when he came home to dinner, instead of going into the dining-room he went upstairs. She waited, and waited, and waited; but he did not come down to dinner.

Finally she went to his room, and found him on his knees crying to God to have mercy upon him. God convict­ed him of sin; he not only became a Christian, but the Word of God had free course, and was glorified in him. God used him mightily. That was God answering the prayers of this Christian wife; she knocked, and knocked till the answer came.

 

-D.L.Moody

 

Reality Check!

 

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  -Proverbs 3:5, 6

“Michael Faraday”

All the biographers of Michael Faraday agree that he was the most transparently honest soul that the realm of science has ever known. He moved for fifty years amidst the speculations of science, whilst, in his soul, the cer­tainties that cannot be shaken were singing their death­less song . . . In life, as in death, he rested his soul upon certainties. And if you ask what the certainties were, his biographers will tell you they were three: First, he trusted implicitly in his Father’s love. Secondly, he trusted implicitly in the redeeming work of his Saviour. Thirdly, he trusted implicitly in the written Word. In him the simplicities were always stronger than the sub­limities; the child outlived the sage. As he lay dying, they tried to interview the professor, but it was the little child in him that answered. “What are your speculations?” they inquired.

     “Speculations? I have none! I am resting on certainties. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” And, reveling like a little child in those cloudless simplicities, his great soul passed away. . . Happy the heads that, in the soul’s last straits, find themselves pillowed serenely there!

 

- F.W. Boreham

“Overcoming- With God’s Help”

“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.” (1 Samuel 30:6)

A very distressing situation indeed had arisen.  David could not live safely in Israel, as king Saul hunted him up and down the land with unrelenting bitterness.  Hence, David had sought refuge in the land of the Philistines and Achish their king had given him the city of Ziklag to abide in.

     Soon after David and his men had settled with their wives in Ziklag, the Amalekites invaded Ziklag and carried away captive all the wives and children of David and his men.  Then when David returned to Ziklag he found that the city had been burnt and all that belonged to his men were carried away captive.

     So severe was the effect of the desolation wrought by the Amalekites upon David’s men that some even spoke of stoning him.  It was indeed a d ark hour.  How demoralized men became when their homes were invaded and their children taken captive.  On every hand David was attacked, and even his trusted men seemed to turn against him, David went to God.  At such an hour when most people panic and seek refuge in self-pity, David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

     A religion, which does not support a man in the hour of trial and the time of testing, is no religion at all.  It is just a fad or family tradition; it is a superstition or a sentimental concession to the belief of one’s ancestors.  But to sum it up in a word, such religion is worthless.  But such is not the religion of the one who seeks the Saviour for the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation of his soul.

     By saying that ‘David encouraged himself in the Lord his God,’ is not meant that he sat down in noble resignation and allowed the events to run their course.  When one knows the living God, there is enough grace and strength with God to help a man to recover all his loss.

     Faith is nothing but a God-directed action.  Faith is never static.  No doubt, the first step in faith is learning to be still, so that God can speak to you.  Very few people learn this stillness.  When your own thoughts and your own plans and the voices of those around you are set aside, then God begins to reveal His will to you.  “Be still, and know that I am God:  I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)

    Next, David sought God’s will.  “And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop?  Shall I overtake them?  And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.” (1 Samuel 30:8)

     And David obeyed and pursed the Amalelites.  God gave him complete victory.  He was able to recover all that the Amalekites had carried away.  When we are led of God’s Spirit, there is total recovery for us in every situation.  We should not faint at the odds that seem to be arrayed against us; we should encourage ourselves in the living God who is our Lord and Saviour.

     More than ever, after the attack on the twin towers of the WTC, New York, we are surrounded today by gloomy statistics, distressing forecasts, war clouds and news of all sorts.  While companies collapse and fortunes tumble, the lines of the jobless grow longer.  In many small homes the pinch is felt and unhappy parents have to painfully witness the sad sight of their children going hungry.  The knowledgeable cry, “No one knows where we are drifting.”  Surely, this is an hour of great darkness.  Yet, to those who know the Lord Jesus, the darkest hour can be turned into the brightest hour, by faith and prayer that prevails.  The Lord is able to lift us out of any seemingly impossible situation.  Hence whatever happens around us, we dare not allow the gloom and fear of the mass media to enter into us!

     A brother whose house was burgled told me the following: “I wondered what the Lord had to teach me though the loss of so many articles which were in constant use in my house.”  This brother always tithed his money and this loss seemed strange and inexplicable.  The police called on him one day and said, “Sir, the thief has been caught and all the things you lost have been recovered.  It is very uncommon for us to recover all the stolen things.  But in your case everything has been recovered.”

     While a Christian knows how to share his goods with others and his money, I don’t believe that he should have grievous losses without cause.  We must ask ourselves, “What is the Lord teaching me through these experiences?”  When we have learnt our lesson, the Lord will grant us to see a complete recovery.  “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:3)

     When we obey God and walk humbly before Him, there is a great blessing upon all the work of our hands.  Now this blessing is for the spread of His Gospel.  We should not deal with these extra blessings as though they are just meant for ourselves.  They are meant for the spread of the Gospel.

     When John Wesley went to Newcastle, he was so shocked at what he saw, he wrote thus; “So much drunkenness, cursing, and swearing even from the mouths of little children.  I never remember to have seen and heard before, in so small a compass of time.”  John Wesley’s conclusion at this shocking sight was, “Surely, this place is ripe for Him, ‘Who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’. “ So he preached there. People first came to gaze at him and then a great revival broke out!

     God is granting us to see scenes of revival at several of our meetings.  This is the hour for revival.  This is the hour for fearless onslaught upon the devil’s domain.  A Christian can never be a lazy fatalist.  A revival is the church remembering, the church repenting, the church repeating.  Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works. (Revelation 2:5)  Let us encourage ourselves in the Lord our God and advance fearlessly.

 

- Joshua Daniel

This newsletter is produced six times per year by the Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship International. It is printed and distributed in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, Canada, and Australia and is supported by unsolicited sacrificial gifts of young people. For a free subscription or for other enquiries, please contact any of the addresses below.

This Fellowship is an inter-denominational missionary and prayer group working for revival in churches and amongst students in several countries. We invite every layperson to become God’s ally in changing his or her corner of the world. We train people in evangelistic work and to be self-supporting missionaries.

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