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For Those Seeking The Truth
& Dynamic Living Christ is Victor |
September/October 2007
Volume 20, Number 5
“God at Work”
We live in the times of streamlined management methods and well oiled organizational machinery. We like to think that we can improve vastly even upon God's wisdom. This is nothing but unpardonable conceit.
Businessmen that run their business superbly are voted into leadership and church boards, and they feel certain that the church will be run thereafter on a very fine financial basis. Businessmen may know how to run their business; but the Living God knows better how to run His church. In fact, it is a great misconception to think that we are running and managing the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, "And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily" (Acts 16:5). Let us notice the order. The people were first established in holy living. In the 15th chapter, the council of the church, decreed that they “abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.” Here was God's regimen to practice holy living. Communion with God would not be possible if these men would once again turn to idolatrous practices or fornication. When any church cleanses itself and begins to walk in obedience to God, there will be blessed increase. Then all focus of attention will be upon the ways and means to exalt the Living Savior. When your heart is full of the desire to glorify Jesus, then many distractions and frivolous and foolish vanities will be just kept far from you. Your spirit is in touch with God and your soul becomes sharp to seek the lost. Thus it automatically follows that sinners are continually transformed and churches too spring up in new and hard areas and soul winning activity extends even to remote and hitherto unreached places.
It is most unfortunate that most people imagine that it is money which does God's work. I must emphasize that this is not true. On the contrary, as money and an abundance of things come into one's possession, more and more, his spiritual life often takes a nosedive. Money can build buildings. Money can build costly monuments, and money can build impressive tombs. But money can never change the heart of one sinner. When people in the East see large numbers of men and women turning to Christ, or follow Christ, they immediately jump to the conclusion, that there must be a lot of money behind it all.
The Lord Jesus Christ did His work without even possessing on His person the money to payoff the taxman. He had to send Simon Peter to cast a hook in the sea and to collect the coin from the fish which he first caught. Peter and John went to pray in the temple with hardly a coin in their pockets which they could give to the lame man who lay at the gate of the temple. 5000 men got converted that day as a sequel to the miracle that took place in that lame man and the preaching of God's word which followed.
Yes, God gave
manna to His children daily according to their need. Today, we need
daily a fresh measure of faith, love and holiness and then we shall see daily
souls being added to the
- Joshua Daniel
“You know it is when a man is alone with his wife that he tells her the precious secrets of his soul. It is not when the family is around, or when there is company there. So, when we want to get the secrets of heaven, we Want to be alone with Jesus, and listen that He may come and whisper to our souls. The richest hours I have ever had with God have not been in great assemblies ... but sitting alone at the feet of Jesus.”
- D.L. Moody
“Bank Of
Conquerors”
"There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life" (Joshua 1:5).
This is a lofty promise. That means there is no man under the sun, that is able to stand against Joshua. No king, no prince, no philosopher can stand against him. What a great promise! The promises are God's check book. It is one thing to receive a promise and it is another thing to keep it. Once a woman found gold on the way. She did not know where to keep it in her ramshackle hut. She had no better place than that. In villages people keep their gold in pots. They keep it concealed in one of them. But thieves and brigands find them out. Do you know where to keep the promises of God? I feel Joshua should have swooned when he got such a great promise. This is very high. No man can stand before him- he is invincible by Divine aid. Napoleon cannot stand. Hitler cannot stand. No philosopher can withstand him. Joshua should have been very proud of that. When God's promises are given to you, you should ask, "Lord, how shall I keep them?"
For instance, the Rich Fool of the parable seemed to be rich and his land produced plenty and he said, “I will pull down my barns and build greater ones”. In a way he knew where to keep his goods. Do you know how to keep God's promises?
Ordinarily when we have excessive money we do not keep it with us. We deposit it in the bank. Which is the bank that can preserve all the promises? We should not lose the promises of God. Where are you going to keep all your wealth? Is there a bank? Now and then you can go to the bank and ask for your credit balance.
The whole heaven is with God's promises. When I read Joshua's promises, I shudder. You must tremble when you stand before God. Do you have God's promises? Have you got them? Are you valuing them? “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity (love), in spirit, in faith, in purity” (I Timothy 4:12). Note this carefully.
If you have God's promises, preserve them. Be careful in your word in your example, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith and purity. If you are careless concerning any of these, then God's promises are lost and forfeited. You have not preserved God's promises. Abraham was careless. God told him, “Be thou perfect. Otherwise My promises will not be fulfilled. I am an Almighty God. My strength is not limited to fulfil my promises. You think I am a mere man like you. Sometimes you hear your wife. Sometimes you do your own will. Finally you want My promises to be fulfilled. I am no man like you. I am a perfect God. There can be nothing capricious in Me. 1 cannot rest unless I fulfil my promises. If you value my promises and accommodate yourself to My words then the promises will be fulfilled. The whole family is going to be blessed through you. But Abraham, you are not progressing spiritually”.
Many of us receive promises and begin to slumber. You must be alert. You are following a great God. He is no fickle-minded person. You are treating Him as you treat other men. His promises cannot be broken. But you are not valuing them. Be careful in your sleep. Be careful in your walking. Be careful in your talk. God's wealth is with you. You should be careful. Be careful about your dress. Be careful about your inner thoughts. Be careful about what you possess in abundance. Under affluent circumstances there is a tendency to deviate from the right track. "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6) Have you godliness with contentment? Are you satisfied? Do you feel that what you have will suffice for you? You feel, “I have God's promises. What I need He knows. My friend has a motor car. I don't even secretly desire it. If I am in need of one, God will give me”.
You can ask God, "Lord, are all my promises safe?" Some people lose their promises. What does God tell Joshua? "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success" (Joshua 1: 8). If you are not meditating you may lose that. Your bank will get badly depleted. Sometimes you may not have a credit balance and may even be running the risk of an over-draft. Your amount is inadequate for your needs. When the Word of God is not fulfilled in your life, then you are like that. Twenty years ago you might have got a promise. But now nothing is left for you. The devil has stolen everything. You are on the threshold of bankruptcy. You are facing defeat. Once Joshua went against Ai. There he faced reverses. Are your promises intact? Is your spiritual life sound?
Are you sure of your promises? The great thing about Joshua was that to the end of his life he preserved his promises. Did you open the most secret parts of your heart and find God's promises preserved there? How important it is!
But the devil
wants to add to these promises. The devil will himself promise many things. You
say with resignation, "If God does not give, I do not want. If I get a car
prematurely, I and my family members will be destroyed. Godliness with
contentment is great gain. “I have just one dress. That will serve my
purpose. I have a Bible and I am able to read it and that is enough for
me.” Thus you ruminate in your heart. You continue in the same strain:
“I have God's children with me. God has given me a godly wife. That is an
asset to me. God has given me some children to be the prop of my life. I
will nurture them for God's glory. I do not want anything more”. The king
of
But God gave Abraham a son whom heaven valued. God gave him promises which the world can never remove.
In the evening of Joshua's life, he gave a wonderful sermon. "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24: 15). He preserved those promises. He had not allowed them to be reduced or to be wasted before he handed them over to his children. "I have fought a good fight" (II Timothy 4:7). How many of us can say this?
Do you value God's promises? I remember the promises that God gave me. I was then doing my SSLC. Ezekiel 36:25-27 & Jeremiah 17:14- These two promises have been the prop of my life. God says, "I shall cover you in My hands because you have covered My promises in your heart."
Dear people, we belong to a great God. He is keen on fulfilling His promises and of proving Himself to you. Generations yet unborn will be blessed through you. You will build ruined places. Every ruined place that you touch will be resurrected. Every place that the sole of your foot treads will receive life. Your life will be full of heavenly music. The promises of God fructify in your life.
-Late Mr. N. Daniel
“Reality Check”
“Be still and know that I am God.” - Psalm 46:10
“Remember the Lord’s
Day”
In a beautiful Swiss valley lived a farmer who neither feared God nor regarded man and who wished in everything to have his own way.
One Sunday afternoon in harvest time he had a large quantity of cut grain in his field. Observing the clouds gathering round the tops of the mountains and the spring becoming full of water, he called his domestics, saying, "Let us go to the field, gather, and bind, for toward evening we shall have a storm." He was overheard by his grandmother, a good old lady of eighty years of age, who walked supported by two clutches. She approached her grandson with difficulty.
"John, John," she said, "dost thou consider? As far as I can remember, in my whole life I have never known a single ear of corn housed on the Lord's Day; and yet we have always been loaded with blessings. We have never wanted for anything. Thus far the year has been very dry, and if the grain gets a little wet, there is nothing in that very alarming. Besides, God who gives the grain, gives the rain also, and we must take things as He sends them. John, do not violate the rest of this holy day. I earnestly beseech thee!"
At these words of the grandmother, all the domestics came around her; the eldest understood the wisdom of her advice, but the young treated it with ridicule and said one to another, "Old customs are out-of-date in our day, prejudices are abolished; and the world now is altogether altered."
"Grandmother," said the farmer, "it is quite indifferent to our God whether we spend the day in labor or in sleep, and He will be altogether as much pleased to see the grain in the corn loft as to see it exposed to the rain. That which we get under shelter will nourish us, and nobody can tell what sort of weather it will be tomorrow."
"John, John, within doors and out of doors all things are at the Lord's disposal, and thou dost not know what may happen this evening. I entreat thee for the love of God not to work today. I would much rather eat no bread for a whole year."
"Grandmother, doing a thing for one time is not a habit. Besides, it is not a wickedness to try to preserve one's harvest and to better one's circumstances. "
"But, John," replied the good old lady. "God's commandments are always the same, and what will it profit thee to have thy grain in the barn. if thou lose thy soul?"
"Oh, don't be uneasy about that," exclaimed John. "And now, boys, let us go to work; time and weather wait for no man." "John, John," for the last time cried the lady; but alas, it was in vain, and while she was weeping and praying, John was housing his corn.
It might be said that all flew, both men and beasts, so great was the dispatch. A thousand sheaves were in the barn when the first drops of rain fell. John entered his house, followed by his people, and exclaimed with an air of triumph, "Now, Grandmother, all is secure; let the tempests roar; let the elements rage; it little concerns me. My harvest is under my roof."
"Yes, John," said the grandmother, solemnly, "but above thy roof spreads the Lord's roof."
While she was speaking, the room was suddenly illuminated, and fear was painted on every countenance. A tremendous clap of thunder made the house tremble on its foundation. "See!" exclaimed the first who could speak, "the lightning has struck the barn!" All hurried out-of-doors. The building was in flames, and they saw through the roof the sheaves burning, which had only just been housed.
The greatest consternation reigned among the men who but a moment before were so pleased. Everyone was dejected and incapable of acting. The aged grandmother alone preserved all her presence of mind. She prayed and incessantly repeated, “ ‘What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ Oh, Heavenly Father, let Thy will and not ours, be done,” The barn with all its contents was entirely consumed.
The farmer had said, "I have put my harvest under my roof," but he forgot what his grandmother said, "Above thy roof is the Lord's roof."
-Selected
“Falsehood Awfully Realized”
J- W- was a
laborer employed on the Liverpool and
Becoming acquainted with a young woman, he succeeded in seducing her from the paths of virtue; and soon after, he removed to a new lodging, with a view to avoid the consequences of his conduct. The Almighty, in mercy to the sinner, sent affliction by illness to overtake him, and thus gave him time for repentance, and an opportunity to seek the love and favor of the Lord. But he refused the mercy and hardened his heart.
In the course of
the last week before he resumed his work, he called upon the person with
whom he had formerly lodged, and among other things, asked whether old George
(the young woman's father) ever came there to inquire after him. She replied
that he did, and mentioned the time of his last inquiry. "Oh," said
W-, "when he comes again, tell him that I was killed on the railway; and
that I was buried in Childwall churchyard." Childwall is a village about a mile from part of the
railway, and about four miles from
Within a day or two, old George called, and the above iniquitous and awful assertion was made. Deceived by the falsehood, the poor old man went away mourning over the disgrace of his daughter, and the supposed sad end of her base seducer.
But the delusion was soon to be dissipated; the lie told, with a view to evade the consequences of previous guilt, was awfully, singularly, literally realized; and the wretched man, who had so impiously trifled with death, was hurried, in a moment, before the bar of his Maker.
On the following Monday morning, May 17, 1830, the laborer returned to work, and on the same day entered upon his everlasting state. Being on the road at the time when an engine, to which several wagons employed to convey rubbish were attached, was passing he was entangled with the apparatus, felled to the earth, and his body so dreadfully mangled. as to occasion instantaneous death.
Thus the most affecting, and, to him, important part of his wicked fabrication was made, by the mysterious providence of God, a solemn reality; and that, of which he had no idea when he uttered the language above related, turned out, within a few days, to be a fact, namely. "That he was killed on the railway!"
But there was to be a further literal accomplishment of his words. which, although to him a matter of no consequence after the spirit had quitted the body, should not be passed over unobserved, as it tends to show, in a still more striking manner, that the Supreme Arbiter of life and death does indeed sometimes take men at their word, and fulfill their imprecations, their thoughtless wishes, or their blasphemous expressions, even to the very letter.
J- W- had no
immediate relations in the neighborhood in which he so unexpectedly expired.
But, since his removal to Edge Hill, he had lodged with a family who
possessed a burial place in Childwall
churchyard. Some of his fellow workmen proposed his interment at Walton, a
village three miles north of
This
newsletter is produced six times per year by the Laymen’s Evangelical
Fellowship International. It is printed and distributed in the
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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