Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

February 6, 2019

2/8/2019

And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men (Mark 1:17).

    This is our Lord's call to His disciples. He calls all to work for Him. It is only by coming after Him that we can successfully work for others. All who try to do spiritual work without that first requisite and preparation will fail miserably and be miserable while failing. No drudgery is worse than doing God's work with humanity's tools. No life is more unsatisfying than the life that God desires to use in His service, but that we will not surrender to Him. No work is more discouraging than to fish all night and catch nothing. Well it is for us in such a case if, like weary Peter, we say to the Master, "We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net" (Luke 5:5).

    When we obey the word of Christ, and fish on the right side of the ship, we enclose "a great multitude of fishes." This is the reward of obedience. The Lord's methods bring the Lord's results. Oh, how we long to be successful fishers for Christ! But we are tempted to use methods that He would never use. We may splash the water and wear our lives out in labor but never take a fish. If perchance we catch a few small ones, they slip away into the sea again.

    We must follow after Jesus if we are to succeed. Sensationalism, entertainment, philosophy, etc.--in these things we are not coming after Jesus. Can we imagine the Lord Jesus gathering a crowd by these fleshly methods? We must keep to our fishing as our Master did. We must preach our Lord's doctrine, proclaim a full and free gospel, for this is the net in which souls are taken. We must preach with His boldness, gentleness, and love. We must work with the power of the Holy Spirit. We must come after Him--not run before Him, nor aside from Him--and then He will make us fishers of men.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart" (Ps. 10:17).

February 5, 2019

2/8/2019

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:14, 15).

    The one who will not forgive is unforgivable. Some people say, "God may forgive you, but I never will." That is understandable at times, and human--but it is wrong. We pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12). Do we mean it? It is as clear as the Word of the Lord can make it that our forgiveness of others is necessary if the heavenly Father is to forgive us. And surely we need His forgiving mercy every day.

    In one of the parables that Jesus told, the man who had been forgiven a great debt of 10,000 talents, which he had owed to his king, would not forgive someone else a debt of 100 pence, but "took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest" (Matt. 18:28). Because of his unforgiving spirit the king at once placed him back under the terrible unpayable debt of 10,000 talents. "His lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made" (verse 25). This is the law of the King: Forgive, and be forgiven; forgive others, and God forgives you.

    Our forgiveness of others must be real. Two farmers whose land joined had been at enmity for years. One was bitten by a rattlesnake and given up to die. He called for his neighbor, confessed that he was guilty of wrong in their years-long dispute, and asked him to forgive him. The neighbor very graciously forgave him. Then the dying man added, "But remember, if I get well, the old grudge still stands!"

    God reads the heart. If we forgive, He forgives; and how wonderful is His forgiveness!

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out me transgressions" (Ps. 51:1).

February 4, 2019

2/8/2019

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee (Ex. 20:12).

    The fifth commandment is "the first commandment with promise" (Eph. 6:2). It is the commandment with a promise of long life upon the earth. Do you love life? Then look well to this commandment, which is widely disobeyed today. Fathers and mothers are human, with faults, and failings; but every son and daughter--and that means all of us--should show gratitude for the care our parents have given us. That is just common gratitude, all too often uncommon.

    How much more than others should Christians honor their father and mother--those who gave them life and love in babyhood, who sacrificed for them in youth, and who now need their love and care. Let it never be said of us as Christians that we ignore this promise-illuminated word of the Ten Commandments.

    Think of the wonderful example of Jesus. He had no home, no money, but He had a friend; and from the cross itself He willed His widowed mother to John as a precious legacy. "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother....When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home" (John 19:25-27).

    Disobedience, which is dishonor to parents, is a mark of the last perilous age of the world (2 Tim. 3:1, 2). Let us bring the home circle closer together as earthly night closes down, and God will give light and love wherever children honor and love father and mother. Never forget or neglect them. Write the letter, say the loving word, bring the help needed--for time is short!

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies" (Ps. 119:22).

February 3, 2019

2/8/2019

  And he said, 'Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed (Gen. 32:28).

    In Bible times names were often indicative of character. So it was with Jacob, the supplanter. Jacob was his name, and Jacob he was. But now the greatest experience of his life had just taken place--the dark night of wrestling by the ford Jabbok. He was on his way back from the far country to the Promised Land. He was coming back to God's land, and this night he came back to God. He ceased his own striving, attempting everything in his own human wisdom and strength, and clung to God.

    Jacob was fearful. His company had gone on over the brook. Esau, his brother, no doubt filled with the old anger and revenge, was coming to meet him with 400 armed men. His only defense was in the Lord as darkness came down upon the earth and upon his soul. He was alone in prayer when suddenly an unseen stranger grappled with him. All night the terrible contest continued. At daybreak his strong antagonist touched his thigh, and instantly it was out of joint. Then he must have recognized that he was wrestling with a divine being, who said, "Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he [Jacob] said I will not let thee go, except thou bless me" (Gen. 32:26). Then he received his new name, Israel, "a prince of God," "an overcomer."

    At his last public service the aged John Wesley gave out his brother's hymn "Wrestling Jacob," and realizing how he himself was left alone--his brother and most of his friends having preceded him in death--he broke down and wept.

    Like Jacob, we may have a new experience and the new name, Israel.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "For thou hast maintained my right and my cause" (Ps. 9:4).

February 2, 2019

2/8/2019

The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide (Ps. 37:31).

    This promise is a double-exposure picture of the true follower of God. This person walks rightly (the exterior life) because the law of God is in the heart (the interior life). When the law of God is in the heart, the whole life is right. That is where God intends His law to be, for there it lies, like the tables of stone in the golden ark, in the place intended for it (Deut. 10:2). As Spurgeon said of the law of God: "In the head it puzzles, on the back it burdens, in the heart it upholds."

    Notice the choice of words in our text--"the law of his God." When we know the Lord as our God, His law becomes liberty to us. "I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts" (Ps. 119:45). In James 1:25 God's law is called "the perfect law of liberty." Believers are the children of God; therefore the will and word and law of their Father are their delight.

    Then, because "the law of God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide." This is a guarantee that the obedient-hearted believer will be sustained in every step he or she takes, doing what is right, and therefore what is wise. Righteous action is always the most prudent and safe, though it may not seem so at the time. When we keep to the path of God's law, we are walking on the royal highway of God's providence and grace. The law of God, written by the Holy Spirit in the believer's heart, is the new-covenant road map to heaven. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant....I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts" (Heb. 8:8-10).

    He who walks righteously walks safely.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip" (Ps. 18:36).

February 1, 2019

2/8/2019

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city (Rev. 22:14).

    Revelation 22:14 is the last blessing in the Bible, and it is our first promise for this month. What a wonderful experience it will be actually to enter the New Jerusalem through one of those gates of pearl and then to walk with the redeemed multitude to the river of life, reach our hands up among the leaves of the tree of life, pluck its fruit, and know that we have a right to it! Yes, the wonder of it has held us in meditation many a day in the past and will do so many a time in the days to come if the Lord tarries.

    But what about those first words? What gives us the right to the tree of life and to the Holy City itself? What brings these blessings? Let us read again: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right..."

                                They with joy may enter the city,
                                        Free from sin, from sorrow and strife,
                                Sanctified, glorified, now and forever,
                                        They may have right to the tree of life.
                                                                                    __P. P. Bliss

    Some prefer the translation "Blessed are those who wash their robes" (RSV). Those who wash their robes from the stain of sin do keep God's commandments, and all that they do is really done by the Lord Himself, as we read in Philippians 2:12, 13: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." So you see, God both wills it and does it. Our obedience is His obedience, and it is ours by "faith which worketh by love" (Gal. 5:6). So the final blessing of the redeemed in glory is through the grace of God.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight" (Ps. 119:35).

January 31, 2019

2/8/2019

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (Gal. 6:8).

    Yes, the harvest is coming. We shall all reap, but what--corruption or life everlasting? Sowing looks like a losing business, for we put seed into the ground and never see it again. Sowing "to the Spirit" seems like such a strange, intangible thing. We deny ourselves, and it may appear that we get nothing for it. Yet if we sow to the Spirit by living for God, studying to obey His commandments, and seeking to promote His honor in the world, we shall not sow in vain. The harvest will come at last, and it will be life--yes, everlasting life!

    One Saturday night an old Scottish minister who had once been a missionary to India was feeling very low because he had seen little success in his work. Just then a messenger brought the monthly parcel of magazines from Edinburgh, and the first thing he read was an account of a revival in a certain district in India, produced by a tract. The writer of the article said that no one knew by whom the tract had been translated into the dialect of that district, but the old minister knew--and his heart rejoiced.

    We must not stop sowing because the harvest seems delayed or because others deride us or hinder us. The very next verse after our text for today brings a very important if. "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.."

    And what is the full harvest? Corruption, if we sow to the flesh--incompleteness, frustration, dissatisfaction, a sorrow unto death. But if we sow to the spirit, we have life, the knowledge of God, communion with God, the enjoyment of God. And life will flow on like a widening, deepening river until at last it flows into the infinite ocean of eternity, where the life of God is our "life everlasting" forever.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Ps. 16:11).

January 30, 2019

2/8/2019

For the Lord will not cast off for ever: but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies (Lam. 3:31, 32).

    Kagawa of Japan, once threatened with blindness, lay for months in the dark with scorching pain in his eyes. He wrote: "Health is gone. Sight is gone. But as I lie broken in this dark room, God still gives light. At the center of things there is a heart."

    Do you think the Lord has cast you off, that He has actually forgotten you? If so, read this promise again: "The Lord will not cast off for ever." He may cast away for a time, when He sees reason for it, but not forever. When it seems that your prayers are not answered, do not despair or cease to pray or to have faith in God. Job went through such an experience. His battle with Satan was more desperate than most of us ever wage, yet he was in God's keeping all the time. In his darkest hour of loss and grief he said of God, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15).

    In the Scripture God is sometimes said to cause what He permits. "Though he cause grief," we read, "yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies." Sometimes God causes griefbecause He has compassion. Some lessons can be learned only in the school of tears. Then we turn to God in earnest. His Word becomes real to us, and its promises most precious. Then we see God's sunshine through the rain. Even of Christ in His humanity it is written, "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8).

    Do you think you are cut off? No, never! "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew" (Rom. 11:2). He loves you. Of Jesus and his disciples it is written, "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). He still loves you, so be of good cheer!

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings" (Ps. 17:8).

January 28, 2019

2/8/2019

Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord (Jer. 1:8).

    The visitor to Westminster Abbey sees many memorials to greet people, but there is no nobler tribute than that inscribed on the monument to Lord Lawrence--simply his name, the date of his death, and these words: "He feared man so little because he feared God so much."

    Be afraid to be afraid! Conceit and pride are to be dreaded, but so is cowardice. Severe punishment is given to soldiers guilty of "cowardice in the face of the enemy." Fear is one of Satan's chief weapons, and when it enters the heart, we are in danger of falling into sin. The apostle Peter was overcome with fear and denied that he had ever known his Lord (Matt. 26:69-75).

    Do they threaten you? Then it is time for boldness. "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word" (Acts 4:29).

    Should we ever "be afraid of a man that shall die" (Isa. 51:12)? Are you afraid of losing your position? God will never suffer His servants to "want any good thing" (Ps. 34:10).

    Do they ridicule you? Scorn and ridicule never killed God's servants of old (Job 16:20). Remember, Daniel stood alone in the lion's den when it would have been easier to go along with the crowd. The three young men on the plain of Dura stood for a conviction when it meant discord with the public orchestra.

    So let us fear to fear. God said to Jeremiah, "Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them" (Jer. 1:17).

    And what reason we have for bravery! "I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." So let us fall on our knees and cry for help. Then, armed with this promise, we can rise up saying, "I will fear no evil: for thou art with me" (Ps. 23:4).

    MEDITATION PRAYER:  "O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me" (Ps. 7:1).