“Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.” Exodus 34:23

     God knowing human psychology, gives His people instructions, so that gratitude may grow in them. Many of us suffer because of the lack of gratitude. The measure of your faith is the measure of your gratitude. God wants you to remember the day of your 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 Jerusalem and present themselves thrice a year. It was a long way, with no conveniences of travel. Yet they had to go. What do you think they would do on the way? They would think of what God had done to them as a nation and as individuals. But they missed the Messiah and what God had for them in Him. Their journeys kept the hope of His coming alive. Sometimes they came with their families and made offerings in the temple. God wanted their firstborn to be given to Him. All these had a purpose and those that neglected these things suffered.

     Even today God has these instructions for us.  We have a great responsibility in following 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 society 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 us more confidence in God.  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 different from others.  All your life, your one object should 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.  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 testimony.  This is the great privilege of being a Christian.  Oh, the years that are wasted!  Young 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

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 keep it warm.  Day after day you attend to its needs.  You know that it cannot take care of itself.

     You have been born into the kingdom of God.  You opened your heart to Jesus Christ and invited Him in.  You received Him as your Saviour, and now you are His.  And when He came He gave you eternal life.  You now have a life that you never had before. “I give unto them eternal life.”

     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. 

1.Food

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 and 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. 

2.Fellowship 

      A 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, needs 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. 

3.Exercise 

     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, 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 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 not 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.

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“All-Availing Blood of Jesus”

There is an apparently authentic story told of the great Queen Victoria, so long ruler of Britain’s vast empire. When she occupied her castle at Bal­moral, Scotland, she was in the habit of calling, in a friendly way, upon certain cottagers living in the neighborhood.

One aged Highland woman, who felt greatly honored by these visits and who knew the Lord, was anxious about the soul of the queen.

As the season came to a close one year, Her Majesty was making her last visit to the humble home of this dear child of God. After the good-byes were said, the old cottager timidly inquired, “May I ask Your Gra­cious Majesty a question?”

“Yes,” replied the queen, “as many as you like.”

“Will Your Majesty meet me in heaven?”

Instantly the royal visitor replied, “I will, through the all-availing blood of Jesus.”

That is the only safe ground for assurance. The blood shed on Calvary avails for all classes alike.

When Israel of old was about to leave Egypt, and the last awful plague was to fall on that land and its people, God Himself provided a way of escape for His own. They were to slay a lamb, sprinkle its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their houses, go inside, and shut the door.

When the destroying angel passed through that night, he would not be permitted to enter any blood-sprinkled door, for Jehovah had said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

Inside the house, some might have been trembling and some rejoicing, but all were safe. Their security depended, not on their frames of mind or feelings, but on the fact that the eye of God beheld the blood of the lamb and they were shel­tered behind it. As they recalled the word that He had given concerning it and truly believed it, they would have much assurance.

So it is today! We cannot see the blood shed so long ago for our redemption on Calvary, but there is a sense in which it is ever before the eye of God. The moment a repentant sinner puts his trust in Christ, he is viewed by God as sheltered behind the blood-sprinkled lintel.

“Eagle’s Wings”

     In Isaiah 40, we are told that by waiting on the Lord, we will mount 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.  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.

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