Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

May 31, 2019

5/31/2019

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (Rev. 7:17).

    What a beautiful picture of the heavenly Shepherd with His sheep is portrayed in our text! He is a shepherd-king, for He has a throne. He leads His own in green pastures by fountains of living waters, and God Himself shall wipe away their tears by showing them the great design behind the tangled web of life and how all things, even for them, have worked together for good (Rom. 8:28).

    The home eternal is for the redeemed, for it is the Lamb who leads them, "the Lamb for sinners slain." Because He is there, "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more" (Rev. 7:16). Because God is there, they shall sorrow no more, for "God is love" (1 John 4:16).

    Savonarola, in his Florentine dungeon the night before he was burned at the stake, was seen by the jailer to smile. "What is it?" the guard asked. Savonarola replied, "I hear the sound of falling chains, and their clang is like sweet music to my ears." He was looking forward to the resurrection land. As Jeremy Taylor puts it: "Days without nights, joys without sorrows, sanctity without sin, charity without stain, possession without fear, society without envying, communion of joys without lessening; and they shall dwell in a blessed country where an enemy never entered and from whence a friend never went away." That beautiful promise is for us, too.

                                O sweet and blessed country,
                                        The home of God's elect!
                                O sweet and blessed country,
                                        That eager hearts expect!
                                Jesus, in mercy brings us
                                        To that dear land of rest;
                                Who art, with God the Father,
                                        And Spirit, ever blest.
                                                                __Bernard of Cluny

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness" (Ps. 30:11).

May 30, 2019

5/30/2019

For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God (Rom. 14:11).

    The time will come when every voice in the universe, angelic and human, will acknowledge the righteousness and justice of God. Every knee, both of pride and of humility, will bow before Him. Here the apostle has just declared that "we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ" (Rom. 14:10); and to sustain this statement he quotes from Isaiah 45:23, "For it is written,...every tongue shall confess to God."

    Christ is the Son of God the Father, who "hath committed all judgment unto the Son" (John 5:22). Therefore, He is the absolute master of us all--to rule, to judge our works, words, and thoughts, and to dispose of our eternal destiny. We do not see all the ways of God now, but someday we shall. "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12).

    "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed sleepily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Eccl. 8:11). But the Lord's righteous sentence will someday be executed, and everyone will acknowledge that it is righteous.

    The time will come when the word will go forth: "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints....For all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest" (Rev. 15:3, 4). God's justice will be manifest to all. To some it will be a cry of despair like that of Judas, "I have betrayed the innocent blood" (Matt. 27:4); or like the demon who recognized the deity of our Savior and said, "I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God" (Mark 1:24). But to us may it be the cry of admiration and love: "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker" (Ps. 95:6).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments" (Ps. 119:7).

May 29, 2019

5/29/2019

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Rev. 3:20).

    If we hear His knock and open the door, He will come in and be our guest--that's the promise. We think of Holman Hunt's great painting in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The Savior stands before the door with a lantern in His hands while the shadows of night are pressing in. He knocks at the door, He listens, He waits; but there is no sign of movement from within. One critic called the artist's attention to the missing latch, and was told that it was on the inside of the door. The door represents a person's heart, which, when Christ knocks, must be opened by that person.

    A small boy, viewing this great picture, The Light of the World, asked his father, "Daddy, why don't they let Jesus in? The father answered, "I don’t know." A moment later the little fellow said, "I know why they don’t let Him in. They live in the basement and can't hear Him knock." Could that be the trouble with any of us? Do we live below the level of recognition in spiritual things? If, when we read this promise, we feel our need, let us throw wide the portals of the heart to Him. We do not have to urge Him to come in. He says, "I will come in to him." Shall we not let Him in just now?

                                Yes, I'll open this proud heart's door,
                                        Yes, I'll let Him in.
                                Gladly I'll welcome Him evermore;
                                        O, yes, I'll let Him in.
                                Blessed Savior, abide with me,
                                        Cares and trials will lighter be;
                                I am safe if I'm only with Thee,
                                        O, blessed Lord, come in!
                                                                __Horatio R. Palmer

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee" (Ps. 39:7).

May 28, 2019

5/28/2019

  And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends (Zech. 13:6).

    This is the story of redemption told in glory by the Lord Himself. To the questioner He explains how "he came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). Redemption necessitated wounds, suffering, death; and our Savior will carry the scars of those wounds throughout the ages. The pride of human beings does not like wounds. The apostle speaks of the "offence of the cross" in his day (Gal. 5:11), and it is still in the world. The proud unbelief that rejected the wounds of the cross in the apostle's day still rejects them in our day.

    One of the most precious art possessions in the world is a rude drawing--a graffito, it is called--found in the guard room of the Palatine, now in a museum in Rome. It is a picture of the reaction of sinful people in the first and second centuries to the wounds of the cross. This rude drawing made on the plaster of the wall represents an ass upon a cross. Underneath it the soldier who drew it has scribbled the name of his fellow soldier whose faith he mocks--"Alexamines," he say, "worship his God." This shows the scorn and contempt for the cross in those days. It reveals the enormous odds of hate and slander against which believers had to make their way.

    Jesus is not merely a great teacher among other great teachers in the world. He is the world's Redeemer. "We preach Christ crucified," declares the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 1:23). The Savior's wounds of old were received where He should have received kindness, acceptance, and love. Let us today see that He is not wounded again in the house of His friends--in our house.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified" (Ps. 40:16).

May 27, 2019

5/27/2019

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler of Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2).

    Jesus Christ was the only man whose biography was written before he was born, and this is a part of it. The very place of His birth was recorded 700 years before the angel announced to the shepherds on the starlit hills of Judea, "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). Bethlehem was the city of David, and on His human side Jesus was a descendant of David. He is called the Son of David (Matt. 1:1). And the promise was made that He should sit on "the throne of his father David" (Luke 1:32).

    But who is this Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem? He is not only a man of the house of David, but He is divine, because His "goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting," or, as the margin says, "the days of eternity." Here His preexistence is declared. That same theme is taken up by the apostle John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him" (John 1:1-3). This creating Word was Jesus Christ, for we read in verse 14: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." The "only begotten" is Jesus, for "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16). He had been going forth as Creator from the days of eternity. Now He had come forth as the Redeemer of the lost.

    Bethlehem--what a name it is!--"house of bread"; and He who came from this little town is the Bread of Life.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Make haste to help me. O Lord my salvation" (Ps. 38:22).
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May 26, 2019

5/26/2019

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7).

    The holy prophets of God brought His divine revelation to humanity. They set forth His message and foretold the future. God reveals Himself to people in various ways--through the Holy Scripture, through the great book of nature, through His providences, and through direct contact with the human spirit. And all His revelations are in harmony, for God Himself is their author. Whatever I necessary for God's people to know concerning their welfare will be revealed through His servants the prophets.

    The prophets of the Old Testament foretold the coming of Jesus Christ, the greatest prophet of all. They foretold events still in the future. Every year that goes by strengthens prophecy, and its events offer absolute proof of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. Jesus said, "I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe" (John 14:29).

    In the ancient torch races one runner passed the torch on to the next. So the flaming torch of prophecy, passed down from hand to hand across the centuries, when held aloft, changes the gloomy path of history to the lighted way.

    A traveler in a stagecoach once attempted to divert the company and display his hostility to the Scriptures by ridiculing them. "As to the prophecies," he said, "they were all written after the events took place." A minister, who had previously been silent, replied, "Sir, I must beg leave to mention one remarkable prophecy as an exception: 'Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers' [2 Peter 3:3]."

    The prophecies of the Bible are really promises, and "the Lord is not slack concerning his promise" (verse 9). Let us study and believe the prophecies, and we shall receive a great spiritual revival.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understand unto the simple" (Ps. 119:130).

May 25, 2019

5/25/2019

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be (Rev. 22:12).

    Christ's life here on earth assures us of His kinship with us on earth, and His ascension to heaven enables us to feel our kinship with Him in heaven. He is coming back to receive us unto Himself, that where He is, there we may be also (John 14:3).

    The eleventh verse of Revelation 22 marks the close of probation. Then the irrevocable decree goes forth. How long it will be before Christ comes, we are not told; but it is "quickly." He comes quickly, and He comes with rewards. In His coming every human being has an interest, for He will give to "every man according as his work shall be." What have we done with the precious gift of life? How have we used it? In that day the deeds of many professed Christians will speak louder than their words.

    A dying mother called her 13-year-old daughter, the eldest of seven children, to her and said: "Mary, you must be mother now to the children. Keep them together. Be patient with Father. He is kind to us when he doesn't drink." And then she was gone. Mary entered bravely upon her holy commission. Two years later a severe fever brought her low. To the deaconess who was ministering to her, she said: "I haven't gone to church because I have had to fit clothes, and I have been too tired at night to say my prayers properly. What can I say to Jesus when I see Him?" The wise deaconess took the small hands, hardened with toil for others, and said, "Don't say anything, Mary; just show Him your hands."

    What has our work been? Our work represents our life. What has our life been? How have we used it? Let us think of these things today, "for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ" (Rom. 14:10).

    MEDITATION PRAYER:  "The Lord shall judge the people: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity" (Ps. 7:8).

May 24, 2019

5/24/2019

For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry (Heb. 10:37).

    The world is filled with a vast impatience, which sometimes seems to seep into the hearts of God's children. There is an amusing story of a Chinese farmer who, to make his truck garden produce faster, pulled the plants up a little higher out of the ground each morning. That, he thought, would put him ahead of the other gardeners who just waited for their plants to grow. One day he discovered that every plant had died. "Extremely foolish," we say; yet no more so than our complaints because our prayers are not answered immediately.

    From the doubt manifested by Christian workers, it might seem as though the work of God would never be finished. It appears that "the times are out of joint," and some even go the extreme of believing that God has "forsaken the earth" (Eze. 8:12). But God is patient with us, and we must learn to be patient with life. It is not always for us "to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power" (Acts 1:7).

    Temptation to impatience will grow as we draw nearer to the fulfillment of the promise of our Lord's return, for is it not commanded us, "Be ye also patient;...for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" (James 5:8)? The verse preceding today's text is: "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."

    Obedience to the Word of God, then patience to make the promise sure in its fulfillment--that is what we need. To the patient heart the waiting is just a little while and then the Lord will come, and will not tarry. May it be said of all of us, "Here is the patience of the saints" (Rev. 14:12), and then all the "little while" will be bright.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee" (Ps. 25:21).

May 23, 2019

5/23/2019

And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book (Ex. 32:33).

    This promise is a warning. It is God's answer to Moses' prayer. The children of Israel had lapsed into idolatry and were worshipping the golden calf. Moses loved these people so much that he asked God, if He could not forgive them, to blot his name out of the book of life. Then came these words of warning promise, which show that some whose names are in the book of life will be blotted out of that book.

                                Is my name written there,
                                        On the page white and fair?
                                In the book of Thy kingdom,
                                        Is my name written there?
                                                                    __Mrs. M. A. Kidder

    May it not be well to pray these words once in a while? Sin against God must be very terrible if it causes our names to be blotted from His book. Sin is not only important; it is deadly. When H. M. Stanley was pressing his way through the forests in the heart of Africa, his most formidable foes, those who caused most loss of life to his caravan, were not the giant tribes, but the small Wambutti. Those little men had little bows and arrows that looked like children's playthings, but upon those tiny arrows was a small drop of poison that would kill an elephant or a human.

    Sin may seem little, but it is not unimportant. Unless forsaken, it will bring us to eternal loss.

    Jesus said to His disciples, "Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). How did they know they were there? Because they had forsaken their sins. The promise is: "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins" (Isa. 44:22). Let us confess and forsake every sin today.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin" (Ps. 38:18).

May 22, 2019

5/22/2019

  And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people (Lev. 26:12).

    We have the same promise in the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 6:16: "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Our text was a promise to Israel in the Promise Land, and it is a promise to God's children in every land, in every age, even today. God promises to be with us. He said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5).

    Where does God walk? Among His people, where else? Toyohiko Kagawa reminds us that God sits on the dust heap, among the prison convicts, with the juvenile delinquents. He stands at the door begging bread. He is among the sick. He stands in line with the unemployed. If we would meet God, we must visit the prison cells, the hospital wards. We must meet the beggar at the door, we must visit the young man or woman who needs help, if we would meet God. Not only is He the God of the universe, the God of Israel as a nation; but He is our God, and we are His people.

    "Lord," prayed Augustine, "Thou madest us for Thyself, and we can find no rest until we find rest in Thee."

    Remember this: God never forsakes anyone unless that person has first forsaken Him.

                                O God, our help in ages past,
                                        Our hope for years to come,
                                Our shelter from the stormy blast,
                                        And our eternal home!
                                                                    __Isaac Watts

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy" (Ps. 59:17).