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For Those Seeking The Truth
& Dynamic Living Christ is Victor |
September/October 2009
Volume 22, Number 5
"Hope In The Midst Of
Despair"
We
are passing through days of much gloom and darkness. The newspapers are full of
dark tidings, which move us to pain and sorrow. The recent weather related
calamities, which carried away thousands to their deaths, have left the
survivors with scarcely a wish to live. Loved ones were destroyed before their
eyes.
Yes,
indeed in many countries days of awful gloom are upon people. Yet, in the midst
of it all, when you know Jesus as your Saviour, Lord
and friend, an unbounded hope characterises your
thoughts and actions.
Thus
we come across a strange and startling phrase in scripture. "Ye
prisoners of hope." Zech. 9:12. A prison cell inspires little hope.
But this is a different sort of confinement. Here you are shut in with hope.
You are surrounded by the promises of God.
There
must be a time of discipline and even chastening in every person’s life
but all the time it must be remembered that it is only a season of preparation
for great things. You are held in check for a season, to inherit great
blessings.
Great
hopes and plans for God’s work does not just
fall upon us. Personal ambitions of a selfish nature and longings for fame and
money evolve out of our natural mind. So many men spend the greater part of
their lives chasing shadows. At last they turn sour and get peevish or
disgruntled. By then life and youth would be gone and the disabilities of old
age limit their usefulness greatly.
But
true repentance for sin and genuine turning to the Saviour,
opens new horizons, such as one can hardly imagine.
John
Bunyan who has found an enduring niche in English literature as the author of
"Pilgrim’s Progress", was once profoundly shocked, when one of
the vilest characters in
Yes,
John Bunyan was very poor, scarcely making a miserable living from his trade as
a tinker, patching pots and pans. But when he got converted, although he was an
uneducated man, his life was projected into a great usefulness.
His
twelve years in Bedford prison, for having preached at unauthorised
meetings, or ‘conventicles’ as the
British Govt. of that day called them, were turned to good account. The book he
wrote in prison has found its place in history as the book which has sold more
copies than all books, save the Bible. His lucid and expressive language of
small native English words is looked upon as a work of art.
Then
also his prison warders gave him freedom to go in and out as he pleased so the
prison was hardly a prison to him.
His
life was so transformed after his conversion that his fame spread to many
places.
God
says, "Ye prisoners of hope, I will give you double of what you had
before." A sick mind, which is preoccupied with material things, is a such mind. You can simply grow sick by brooding over your
bankbook. But God helps us to pile up riches which last for into many
generations. The riches of faith and inexhaustible riches of
love.
Now,
God blesses our labours and the produce of our
fields, when we trust Him and obey Him. It is simply tragic that thousands of
farmers have lost their harvest and their seed grain. Oh that they would turn
to the Saviour who can make them possess double and
give them the glorious hope of sure admittance to heaven by cleansing through
His blood. "My hope is in thee" cries the psalmist. Now we must take
stocks of our prospects and our position before God. What are our hopes and
expectations? There are several who are so beaten up that hopes and
expectations have left them. They have fears and worries only. Continual fears
of failure, loss and death dog them.
When
our hope is in the Living God, then there is quite a possibility that faith
increases in our hearts, our hope will grow as big as our knowledge of God. It
is quite staggering to think that our hope can grow as wide and vast as our
great God. A positive frame of mind then begins to dominate us. New hopes surge
in our souls, such as we never had before. The longing to be a part in some
concrete way in bringing millions of souls to Jesus grips us.
We
look too much on the situation and not on God, who can upturn tables in the
twinkling of an eye and change completely circumstances that offer no hope. The
assessment of the political commentator and the journalist weigh much more with
men than the word of God. The word of God makes us to hope. The journalist
paints, a stark and striking picture. "There is little hope," he
says, "Take it easy for our worst fears will be upon us shortly."
What bleak predictions proceed from the press? But the man
who makes Jesus his Lord, can cry from the depths of the darkest valley,
"Thou art my hope O lord, Thou art my trust from my youth."Ps.71:5
Christ
gives us hope even in death. A converted man can tell his children even as the
cold hand of death is enfeebling his voice, "Children be
sure to turn to Jesus, from your sins and meet me in heaven." Thus even in
death the hope of a converted man soars.
I
went out to pray one evening on a hill, which overlooked a large residential
suburb of a communist city in
The
Bible speaks of Abraham as "One who against hope,
believed in hope". Yes, what a victory he saw when he trusted in God.
What
are our hopes for this New Year? "More holiness give
me, more strength to overcome, more patience in suffering, more sorrow for sin,
more faith in my Saviour, more sense of His care,
more joy in His service, more purpose in prayer." Is this our hope? I
shall be like Jesus. "More and more like Jesus till I see Him face to
face." Then great things can be expected.
Let
none of my readers say, "No, it is impossible, I
cannot be lifted from my gloom and my resentment. No, I am a prisoner to my
passion and pride, to my unbridled tongue and hasty temper." The Lord
Jesus died to release you and make you a prisoner of hope, an inheritor of a
twofold blessing.
Let
the light that streams from the Cross, flood you and banish your gloom. There
is no hope like the hope that fills the heart of a repenting sinner, when he
looks at the Saviour’s bleeding side and
outstretched arms. Come now, dear reader and let your darkness be turned into
light, your heaviness into singing.
Jesus
has brought us hope, which only increases as the days go by.
"My
hope is built on nothing less."
-- Joshua Daniel
"Forgiveness, The Ultimate Healing Medication"
Imagine
this scene from a recent courtroom trial in
Several
years later, Van der Broek
and his cohorts had return to take away her husband as well. For many months
she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then, almost two years after her
husband’s disappearance, Van der Broek came back to fetch the woman herself. How vividly she
remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her
husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood.
The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured gasoline over his
body and set him aflame were, "Father, forgive them."
And
now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions offered by
Mr. Van der Broek. A member
of
"I
want three things," begins the old woman calmly, but confidently. "I
want first to be taken to the place where my husband’s body was burned so
that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial."
She
pauses, then continues. "My husband and son were
my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van der
Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come
twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out on
him whatever love I still have remaining within me."
"And,
finally," she says, "I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer
him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish
of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead
me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. Van der
Broek in my arms, embrace him and let him know that
he is truly forgiven."
As
the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr. Van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he
has just heard, faints. And as he does, those in the courtroom, friends,
family, neighbours-- all
victims of decades of oppression and injustice-- begin to sing, softly, but
assuredly, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like
me.
-- Selected
Reality Check
“He
layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a
buckler to them that walk uprightly.”
Proverbs
2: 7
"I Have Set the Lord Always Before Me"
Psalm 16
This
is a wonderful Psalm that brings out the deepest feelings of a child of God.
Eighth verse, "I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my
right hand, I shall not be moved." I felt God at my right hand during my
college days. This was true even later on, all through my life by His grace.
"Always before you" – while in the midst of friends, while in
the midst of enemies, while in your games, at meal times and while asleep.
"My reins (inward parts) instruct me in the night watches." When you
keep God’s word in your heart, it instructs you in your sleep. The heart
holds the reins of he body. What your heart values and
preserves, will determine your character. What you preserve in your heart as
the most precious ambition will direct your actions. God spoke to Abraham in
the night time and showed him the stars. God wants to instruct us in the night
seasons—deepening your desire for Him. You must meditate on the word of
God. When the thoughts of God and the Word of God dominate your subconscious
and envelope your whole being with the desire for Him, which He puts there,
your life will be a success. Youth is the time when the lusts of the flesh try
to pull down your spirit’s desire. It is a time of a real fight. If God
is your portion you will conquer. Your inheritance is God. Your inheritance is
divine nature. The nature of the One who died on the cross is the nature that
will conquer the world. Those who possess that nature will dominate the world.
A man full of God’s thought and nature can never be shaken. They may be
put in prison, burnt or killed, but they cannot be shaken. God is their
portion. Fifth verse, "The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of
my cup: thou maintainest my lot." David says
that he drinks in God and His nature. God is your inheritance and he preserves
your inheritance. David rises to great heights in these deep thoughts. Sixth
verse, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a
goodly heritage." The portion of the land which God had measured for Him
was in the best place.
You
will have victory in every place that you tread. God gave me such victories in
my youth. I could present Him as the supreme One in every college I went to.
Young people were attracted to Him. You must conquer like that. Young people,
you will never be moved. You will not be defeated. Your faith will be honoured. Be pure and holy in the sight of God. Zechariah
12:8 & 9, "In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of
Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and
the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. And
it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations
that come against
--Late Mr. N. Daniel
"Heaven – Place of
God’s Presence"
Once
I heard of a little sick child, whose mother was seriously ill; and so, in
order that she might have quiet, and that the sick child might be no trouble to
her, the little one was taken away to a friend’s house, and placed in
care of a kind lady for a time. The mother grew worse, and at length died. The
father said, "We’ll not trouble the child about it; she is too young
to remember her mother; just let her remain where she is until the funeral is
over.
This
was done, and in a few days the little girl was brought to the house. No
mention was made of her mother or of what had occurred; but no sooner was she taken
to the house than she ran first into one room, then into another room, into the
parlor, the dining room, and all over the house, and the way into a little room
where her mother used to go to pray alone.
"Where
is mother?" she cried. "I want mother!" And when they were
compelled to tell her what had happened, she cried out, "Take me away,
take me away; I don’t want to be here without mother."
It
was the mother who made it home to her. And so it is in Heaven. It is not so
much the white robes, the golden crown, or the harps of gold, but it is the
society we shall meet there. Who, then, are there? What company shall we have
when we get there? Jesus is there, the Holy Father is there, the Holy Spirit is
there—our Father, our elder Brother, our
Comforter.
--D.L.Moody
“Let
not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the
table of thine heart: So shalt
thou find favour and good understanding in the sight
of God and man. 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. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It
shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour
the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits
of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled
with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”
Proverbs
3: 5-10
“It is the duty of the
nation as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of
God. And to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and
proved by all history, that those nations only are blest whose God is the
Lord.”
-Abraham
Lincoln
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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