Things Concerning Himself
Gleanings
Ah! it is blessed to be at the feet of Jesus in our
sorrows, for there divine light shines upon them, and though we may suffer, and
even be oppressed with our trials, we shall not, while there, doubt His love.
Waiting before the Lord is the sure means of qualification for
obedience to His bidding.
The fear of God can lift the feeblest and
humblest above the fear of man.
Sympathy is the rarest of all
ministries, as it is also the sweetest; it makes no show in the world, but it
leaves its mark.
There is no pillow like love, and we have the Lord's
perfect love to rest upon.
Let me put you a simple question: How many
of you have said today in your hearts, "The Lord Jesus Christ may be here
before the day closes"?
The calm of a soul which reposes in the will
of God is unspeakable.
We are never to seek to vindicate ourselves
when it is a personal matter, but when the Lord's name is dishonoured for His
glory we may speak.
We cannot have power with men if we have not power
with God. The greatest mistake any of us can make is to seek to have power
before men without having been in the presence of God.
It is so
gracious of Him to give us any encouragement in our service, but I am convinced
that, in the issue, the fruit of our labours which we have not seen will be far
more abundant than that which we have been permitted to know of, and hence it
is that we have to scatter the seed in faith.
I am certain that we
must leave results until the judgment seat of Christ. In the meantime our one
desire must be to gain His approbation and be content with that. Nothing else
is worth seeking for.
I am coming to this conclusion, that the more
one ministers Christ Himself the more you can count upon divine assistance. To
exalt Christ is to be in communion with the mind of God. This will be our sole
employment in heaven. Unconscious testimony is always the more powerful. I
often think that at the judgment seat of Christ we shall find a word we have
spoken casually, a little sentence dropped, has been more used than all our
preaching and lectures.
The humblest believer walking in obedience to
the Lord and dependence upon Him is displaying the greatest spiritual power.
Power is displayed by the coming out of Christ in daily life.
To be
full of the Holy Ghost is the normal state of the believer, and if this is not
so with us we should humble ourselves before God.
To hold ourselves at
the Lord's disposal secures for us opened doors when He has work for us to do.
The qualification for service is a deeper acquaintance with the heart
of Christ.
The more you honour God by keeping man in the background,
the more blessing you will have in the work.
The Holy Spirit is always
ready to work when we exalt Christ, "He shall glorify me." What will become of
those cut flowers tomorrow? They will fade. So truth that is separated from
Christ will fade away.
The sign of a good state of soul is enjoyment of
the presence of Christ. The one object of the Christian life is to learn more
of Himself, and Satan cannot find entrance into a heart that is full of Christ.
The state of our souls may be discerned by the effect produced upon us
by the name of Jesus. Christ Himself is to be our great example of faith, of a
life of dependence upon God. If the holiest man that ever lived were to fill
our vision it would only hinder and not help us.
Whenever we speak to
one another of Christ He will always be one of the company. (See Mal 3:16). Do
our hearts long for His presence? Then let us speak together of Him more. We
feed on Christ by the appropriation of Him in every character that He is
presented to us.
The whole life of our blessed Lord as man is
compressed into the words, "He humbled himself." Christ is everything. He is
everything to the heart of God, and He desires to be everything to the hearts
of His people. That it may be so with you is the highest blessedness I can
desire for you.
There is never any difficulty about guidance when the
eye is on Christ, but if other considerations come in then you miss His
leadings. Christ in some aspect is united to the need of every soul.
The larger our thoughts of Christ the larger our communion with the heart of
God. The glory of. Christ is the one subject that fills the heart of God, and
filling His heart it should also fill ours.
A real revival in our
hearts is always the revival of the place of Christ in our hearts. It always
appeals to me that the last sight the disciples had of our blessed Lord was His
passing into heaven with His outstretched arms of blessing. That indeed is His
perpetual attitude towards us. No less striking is their response to what they
had seen. It was, in one word, perpetual worship. Ah, if we did but worship
more we should have far higher conceptions of who He is, and what He has done
for us.
"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." If you
meditate upon these words you will never reach their profound depths, nor shall
we even in eternity. For who shall tell what friendship with Christ involves?
No one can or ever will gauge the possible intimacy which it holds out to
us.
We should diligently cultivate the enjoyment of the love of Christ
that we may become moulded by it, so as to express it more in our very
demeanour, and be surrounded by the holy atmosphere which it creates.
Whatever makes Christ more precious to us is of God. Whatever comes between us
and Christ is of the devil.
"It is I; be not afraid." The realisation
of Christ's presence is the antidote to every possible fear, and the way to
comfort people is the ministry of Christ in the power of the Spirit, to so
present Him that they shall apprehend His presence. The nearer we are to God
the more we lose sight of ourselves and the better we are able to apprehend and
to communicate His mind.
I do not know a happier employment than to sit
down quietly before the Lord and let Him make impressions on your heart - to
let Him impress you with His own presence, and to produce whatever influences
He will upon you.
Are we satisfied with light instead of cultivating
love for Christ? The more light the better if affection goes with it, but if
light be held without the heart it will not benefit us. John 20 illustrates
this. John had more light about the resurrection than Mary, yet when he came to
the sepulchre and found it empty he went home. Mary had no light about the
resurrection, yet as she waited there, weeping. Jesus revealed Himself to
her.
It is to the heart and not to the head that Christ reveals
Himself, so the more heart you have the more you will get manifestations of
Him.
Consecration lies in Christ having full control over the bodies of
His people so that they may be organs for the expression of nothing but
Himself. "Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men." Being
redeemed we should disown and reject every authority that conflicts with that
of Christ.
"That in all things he might have the pre-eminence." Col
1:18. If I am not giving Christ the first place in my heart I am not in accord
with the mind of God. The most miserable man on the face of the earth is the
Christian who is trying to enjoy both worlds.
The Holy Spirit is our
only power for a holy walk. Of ourselves we cannot take a single step in this
path. The utmost human efforts, the most resolute determination, are of no
avail either to keep ourselves from evil or to follow after Christ.
If
you leave out the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus, you miss a power for
holiness that God has given to us. (See 1 John 3:3). What was the power that
made Levi leave all and follow Christ? Not the command; the power did not lie
in the word itself, but it was the presentation of Christ Himself to Levi. You
cannot get separation from the world apart from the presenting of the Person.
This is the reason of failure in separation - it must begin with the heart. If
you want to help souls you must present Christ to them. How should I separate a
quantity of steel filings from a heap of dust? By picking them out? No, I
should only defile my hand. By holding a powerful magnet to them, and all would
instantly be attracted and drawn out of the dust. It is Christ revealed to us
that detaches us from this world. There is many a Christian who has not reached
Christ, and there is the weakness. There is a larger blessing than forgiveness
-- that is, HIMSELF. Nothing will satisfy Christ but revealing His heart to
you, and you will never grow unless you are under the power of His love. If we
would wash another's feet aright, our motive, like that of Jesus, must spring
from love. (See John 13).
The measure of our love indicates the
measure of our usefulness. As the apostle teaches us--we may spend the whole of
our substance in philanthropic works, and yet without love it is of no
avail.
Love to Christ is the mainspring of holiness.
Worldliness of some shape or form finds an easy entrance amongst the children
of God. We have need, therefore, to be always on the watch, and to remember
that the love of the world absolutely excludes from the heart the love of the
Father.
"Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." He
would have us, in the intimacy of His love, to be without reserve before
Him--all told out, nothing kept back. Our danger never lies in telling Him too
much, but just in the opposite direction . . . He loves to hear the cry of His
children, for He well knows that it is the expression of their confidence in
Him.
"Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus
Christ." Fellowship with the Father is to be filled with His thoughts, His
desires, His objects and His affections. So also with fellowship with the Son .
. . It is our privilege to be taken out of ourselves altogether, to be lost in
the affections and aims of the Father and the Son! . . . Self disappears before
such a blessed possibility. Shall I cling to my own thoughts and purposes when
I may be occupied with those of the Father and the Son? Shall I have my own
affections when I may be possessed with those that fill the heart of the Father
and His Son Jesus Christ? Far be the thought! Rather let me be lost in this
illimitable sea of bliss opened out before me in the marvellous grace of God.
If the cross be applied to ourselves, and then to the world, you have
two crucified things, and consequently there could not be the least attraction
between the two. That, therefore, is the true way of overcoming the attractions
of the world. (Galatians 6:14).
Whether for walk, conflict, testimony
or worship, our only and all-sufficient power is in the Holy Ghost.
It
must not be forgotten that power does not act independently of our spiritual
condition. The Holy Spirit dwells within, so that our bodies are His temples.
If we are careless, unwatchful, if we seek our pleasure in the world, rather
than in Christ, let us not for one moment suppose that He will condescend to
use us as vessels of His power . . . But, on the other hand, if the eye be
single, and a single eye sees nothing but Christ, if He is the object of our
lives, the Holy Spirit then ungrieved will sustain us in every position in
which we are placed, and bring us victoriously out of the very conflict through
which we may pass.
Let us not rest until we know practically something
of being channels for the manifestation of divine power even in this world.
When knowledge enters the head it exalts me. When knowledge enters the
heart it humbles me.
Nothing so injures the soul as controversy.
There are only two channels of testimony, the lip and the life, and
the lip should be, but the expression of what has been first produced in the
life. What we should all desire is intense reality, to be possessed and
controlled by the truth we profess to hold, and thus to shun the use of phrases
and sentences which we have never eaten, digested and found true in our souls.
Of necessity those who are closest to Christ will be themselves drawn
closer together.
"The multitude of them that believed were of one
heart and soul." The root of all discords in the church of God is the lack of
the Spirit's power; where He works unhinderedly in any company of saints,
because ungrieved, there must be unity. The lack of enjoyed unity in any
company is due to the absence of the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is
well for us all when we are grounded upon what has been termed the impregnable
rock of scripture. Resting on this foundation opinions may come and opinions
may go, but they will be never able to disturb the divine certainty of the soul
that is able to say, "Thus it is written."
The Spirit brought home to
me the other morning an old scripture with great power. It was this: "Now Jesus
loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." John 11. In this very chapter
Martha does nothing save to blunder, and exhibit her blindness to the glory of
the Person of her Lord, and yet the chapter is prefaced by the statement that
Jesus loved her. It touched me deeply as I saw a little of the significance of
the statement, and it taught me that the Lord's love to us rises above all our
failures, and that, therefore, we may count upon it and rest in it at all
times.
His way is ever perfect, and it only needs that, with the
knowledge of His love, we should repose in Him with unshaken confidence in all
circumstances.
It is ever a fatal mistake when we measure the
difficulties of service by what we are. The question is what God is; and the
difficulties that appear as mountains, looming through the mists of our
unbelief, are nothing to Him but the occasion for the display of His omnipotent
power.
An unsatisfied heart is a source of danger, and a divided heart
is the continual cause of inconsistency of walk. On the other hand, when Christ
possesses and engrosses the affections we are superior to every temptation of
the enemy.
We never enter upon any service rightly unless we expect to
encounter the opposition of Satan.
It is easier to keep the enemy out
than it is to expel him after, he has effected an entrance.
"Pray for
them which despitefully use you." Luke 6:28. If a brother treats you coldly, if
a sister speaks against you, do you make it your habit to pray for them? Oh,
how different we would be, if we thus bear one another up before the Lord.
Resting on the word . . . we are on a sure rock, against which all the
waves of error dash themselves only to be scattered as mist and foam.