Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

May 21, 2019

5/21/2019

  For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted (Luke 18:14).

    Neither God nor another person will seek to lift up people who life up themselves, but both God and others will unite to honor honest, modest worth. John Bunyan put it this way:

                                He that is down needs fear no fall;
                                        He that is low, no pride;
                                He that is humble ever shall
                                        Have God to be his guide.

    One of the last messages of G. Fred Bergen, director of the orphan homes founded by George Muller, was "Tell my younger brethren that they may be too big for God to use them, but they cannot be too small." If we exalt ourselves, it is almost certain that some other human being will humble us sooner or later; but if we humble ourselves, the Lord will surely exalt us in due time. God took Saul when he was little in his own eyes and exalted him to be king; but when he began to follow his own ideas instead of the commands of God, he lost his kingship.

    Sir Isaac Newton was one of this world's greatest thinkers, yet he was a very humble Christian man. He said, "I do not know how I appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself by now and then finding a smooth pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." The scripture "Before honour is humility" (Prov. 15:33) was fulfilled in his outstanding life.

    "A Christian is like the ripening corn," said Thomas Guthrie. "The riper he grows, the more lowly he bows his head." If we take care of our humility, God will take care of our exaltation.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great" (Ps. 18:35).

May 20, 2019

5/20/2019

  And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish (Deut. 8:19).

    Years ago a famous child specialist said, "When it comes to a serious illness, the child who has been taught to obey stands four times the chance of recovery that the spoiled and undisciplined child does." That child has been taught that one of the Ten Commandments is for children to obey their parents. Has it ever entered your mind that the question of obedience might mean the saving of your child's life?

    God chose Israel as His people. In Exodus 4:22 He says, "Israel is my son, even my firstborn." That nation's obedience to God was not only a matter of blessing, but a matter of life and death. Did this warning of God meet its fulfillment? The history of His chosen people proves that God spoke the truth. In spite of His blessings they did go after other gods (Deut. 31:18). God sent His holy prophets to warn them, "but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy" (2 Chron. 36:16). Then the king of Babylon came and carried them into captivity for 70 years. The Temple of God was thrown down, the city of Jerusalem burned. Under Ezra and Nehemiah many returned from captivity. The nation with its worship was reestablished, the Temple and city were rebuilt, and the nation never did fail into idolatry again.

    Five hundred years passed, and as a people they rejected the greatest prophet of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, the long-expected Messiah. He said unto them, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matt. 23:38). He foresaw and predicted the fall of the city and the dispersal of the nation. This all took place in the year A.D. 70.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem" (Ps. 51:18).

May 19, 2019

5/19/2019

Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh (James 5:8).

    Patience means the readiness to await God's time without doubting God's truth. God does things in His own way and in His own time. We are to "rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him" (Ps. 37:7), and not to fret ourselves because of the prosperity of the wicked and the apparent languishing of God's work in the world. We must remember that "those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth" (verse 9). Patience is really a form of faith. It says, "God is working; I will leave things in His hands." It is in our patience that we possess our souls (Luke 21:19).

    Bishop Wilberforce and Thomas Carlyle were once talking together about the deep things of life. Carlyle asked, "My lord, have you a creed?"

    "Yes," replied the bishop, "and the older I grow, the firmer that creed becomes under my feet. There is only one thing that staggers me."

    "What is that?"

    "The slow progress that that creed seems to make in the world."

    After a moment of silence, Carlyle made this wise remark: "Yes, but if you have a creed, you can afford to wait."

    The last appeal in the Song of Solomon (8:14) is "Make haste, my beloved." And the last prayer in the Bible is "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." And to this the Savior replies, "Surely I come quickly" (Rev. 22:20). Are we growing weary because we do not always see the harvest of our seed sowing? This glorious truth cries to us: "Be patient." Do temptations strike at us, pain and disappointment worry us? Our text preaches to us: "Stablish your hearts." The King is coming, and only those who have such a hope can afford to wait.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him" (Ps. 62:5).

May 18, 2019

5/18/2019

Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded (2 Chron. 15:7).

    If the service of God is worth anything, it is worth everything. We are to do it with determined diligence. In a time of great stress I received from my father an encouraging letter with this motto for my desk: " 'Know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord' " (1 Cor. 15:58). Indeed, earnest labor for God is not in vain; it "shall be rewarded."

    God had done great things for King Asa and for Judah, but they needed encouragement. They were hesitating and feeble and had to be warned and instructed that the Lord would be with them while they were with Him. And so the sequel proved. Great blessing came upon the king and upon the whole nation, and there was a wonderful spiritual revival. So it will be with us; we shall find our best reward in the Lord's cause when we throw our whole soul into it. Then will come prosperity to the work of God and in our own experience.

                                O for that flame of living fire
                                        Which shone so bright in saints of old;
                                Which bade their souls to heaven aspire,
                                        Calm in distress, in danger bold!
                                                                            __William H. Bathurst

    Let us remember the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:13: "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." And again, his exhortation in Ephesians 6:10: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." That is always our privilege, and may it be our experience.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation" (Ps. 40:10).

May 17, 2019

5/17/2019

  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4).

    I'm tired," said the little girl to her father, who was swimming in the ocean with her and her little brother. And then the little brother announced, "I'm awfully tired too."

    "All right," the father said, "Sister, you are the older and stronger. You can float while I carry little brother to shore. Then I'll come back for you." When the father returned, his little daughter was nowhere in sight. Very much alarmed, he hastened back to shore for help. Then, in a small boat, the men searched up and down the coast until at last they saw the child floating, obviously unafraid. When someone asked her how she managed to stay afloat so long and keep up her courage, she replied, "My father told me that I could, and I believed him."

    We must never lose faith in what our Father tells us we can do. In Christ, He has really said to us, "I believe in you." "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).

    "A simple childlike faith in a Divine Friend solves all the problems that come to us by land or sea," said Helen Keller. But our victory is by faith, and even that faith is not of ourselves; "it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). And this faith of ours may be strengthened, it may grow, and will grow if we feed upon the Word of God, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Our victory comes through--

                                A faith that shines more bright and clear
                                        When tempests rage without;
                                That when in danger knows no fear,
                                        In darkness feels no doubt.
                                                                    __William H. Bathurst

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed" (Ps. 25:2).

May 16, 2019

5/16/2019

  Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee (Job 22:21).

    Unless acquainted with God, the human heart is never at peace with itself or with others. An English psychiatrist has written: "With peace in his soul, a man can face the most terrifying experiences. But without peace in his soul, he cannot manage even as simple a task as writing a letter."

    How shall we know God and be at peace with Him? Here is our answer: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God" (Rom. 5:1). When we come to Him in faith as our Father in heaven, He will be no stranger to us, and we shall find that peace, "sweet peace, the gift of God's love." If we were really acquainted with God, if we knew His love, His mercy, His kindness, His power, His watchfulness over us, we would have peace.

    Standing on top of the Cheviot Hills, with his little son's hand clasped in his own, a father taught his child a lesson of the measureless love of God. Pointing north over Scotland, south over England, east over the North Sea, west over the hills toward the Atlantic, he said, "Johnny, my boy, God's love is as big as all that."

    "Why, Father," the boy cheerily replied with sparkling eyes, "then we must be right in the middle of it."

    Yes, right in the middle of God's love today and forever, we shall be at peace. "Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means" (2 Thess. 3:16).

                                When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
                                        When sorrows like sea billows roll;
                                Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
                                        "It is well, it is well with my soul."
                                                                                __Horatio G. Spafford

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble" (Ps. 59:16).

May 15, 2019

5/15/2019

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forgot God (Ps. 9:17).

    This life is not the end, though many people wish it were. According to Holy Scripture, there is heaven to win and hell to shun.

    One day an elector of Cologne, who was also archbishop, used profane words in the presence of a farmer, who could not conceal his astonishment. "Why do you look so surprised?" he was asked. "Because an archbishop can be so profane." Quickly the answer came, "I do not swear as an archbishop, but as a prince." "But, Your Highness," asked the farmer, "when the prince goes to hell, what will become of the archbishop?" The reply was not recorded.

    It is plain from Scripture that the wicked are not in hell now, for we read in 2 Peter 2:9: "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." The hell, or "lake of fire," which is the "perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7), is illustrated by the fire that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, turning them into ashes, "making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6). For they suffered "the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 7). This is everlasting punishment "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). The wicked shall "go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (verse 46). What is this everlasting punishment? It is this: "Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thess. 1:9). "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), and this will be the final reward of the wicked--destruction in hell, the lake of fire. It is for us to see that we are not among the wicked, that we do not forget God. "For God so loved the world, that...whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is" (Ps. 39:4).

May 14, 2019

5/14/2019

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me (Ps. 66:18).

    This is a sort of negative promise, but we know that the opposite of it is true: If we do not regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will hear us. This text does not refer primarily to some sin that has surprised a person, into which they have fallen by unexpected temptation, but to sin that is regarded, loved, cherished in the heart. This sort of sin blocks the prayer line to heaven.

    In Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" we have a picture of how sin hinders prayer. Unrepentant, but in distress, the ancient mariner tried to pray, but could not.

                                "I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
                                        But or ever a prayer had gusht,
                                A wicked whisper came, and made
                                        My heart as dry as dust."

    It was only after he repented that he found himself able to pray.

    The prophet Isaiah records the warning of God, "When ye spread forth your hands. I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood" (Isa. 1:15).

    The prayers of those who plan to go on sinning will not be heard, because they "ask amiss" (James 4:3). "We know that God heareth not sinners" were the words of the healed blind man (John 9:31). An unconfessed sin is like a bullet in the body. There can be no help until it is removed. Humans call sin an accident; God calls it an abomination. Sin is a disconnection in the telephone line to glory; it is static in the radio of prayer. Repentance, and repentance alone, will restore communication when the sinner prays the publican's prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin" (Ps. 51:2).

May 13, 2019

5/13/2019

  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea (Ps. 46:1, 2).

    This is the song of God's people in every time of trouble.

    With the key of science human beings have unlocked a few of the secrets of the universe, and as a result terrible fear is now gripping the world--fear of the universe itself, fear of a nuclear cloud. But God is our refuge; therefore we will not fear.

    A minister attended a lecture on astronomy, the wonders of God's great creation. He heard of a universe a million light-years away, a universe so vast that our minds sink in contemplation of it. At the close of the lecture a friend said to him, "I feel pretty small tonight."

    The minister replied, "I don't. I feel larger than ever." Then he explained that, great as is the universe, God is greater.

    Dwight L. Moody's favorite text was Isaiah 12:2: "I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength." He used to say that you can travel first class or second class to heaven. Second class is "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee" (Ps. 56:3). First class is "I will trust, and not be afraid," and that's the better way.

    Let us learn to sing this song of trust, for truly "the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27).

                                Other refuge have I none,
                                        Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
                                Leave, O leave me not alone!
                                        Still support and comfort me.
                                                                            __Charles Wesley

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings" (Ps. 36:7).

May 12, 2019

5/12/2019

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (Prov. 16:18).

    Pride is a sort of atheism. It puts the glory of the creature above the Creator. Of Lucifer we are told that his "heart was lifted up" because of his beauty (Eze. 28:17), and the testimony of Jesus is "I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18).

    Of the mighty empire of Egypt, God said, "The pride of her power shall come down" (Eze. 30:6). That's the direction of pride and haughtiness--downward, always downward. The mighty power of the Philistines was cut off because of pride (Zech. 9:6), and the pride of Assyria was brought low (Zech. 10:11). In the fullness of his pride Nebuchadnezzar viewed the mighty city of Babylon and said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for...the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. 4:30). The words were no more than out of his mouth when his reason was taken from him and he was reduced to the mentality of a beast, and he fed on grass until he learned "that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men" (verse 17). Of mighty Babylon itself God said, "I am against thee, O thou most proud ["pride," margin]" (Jer. 50:31).

    Why should we have false pride? We have nothing that was not given to us. "If you want to realize your own importance," said Robert Burdette, "put your finger into a bowl of water, then take it out and look at the hole."

    When Albert Schweitzer--doctor, philosopher, musician, and missionary--was building his hospital in French Equatorial Africa, a local man was asked to help. He refused, saying that he was an intellectual. "I once thought I was an intellectual," Schweitzer said as he returned to his work. The greater the man, the greater his true humility. "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity" (Ps. 39:5).