Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

March 11, 2019

3/11/2019

And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed (Deut. 31:8).

    While living on Ottawa, Canada, I heard Sir Ernest Shackelton report on his Antarctic explorations. He spoke of his consciousness of the presence of God while penetrating lands never visited before by a human being, and said: "Bending above the oars, struggling through the snow, battling across the ranges, always there was with us Another. He made the difference between triumph and disaster. He brought us through."

    Do you face some tremendous task? Is a great battle before you? This is your text. Buckle on the armor and attack. If God goes before us, it is safe for us to follow. Any path is possible if God goes before us. He is not only before us, but with us. "Above, beneath, around, within is the Omnipotent, Omnipresent One" (C. H. Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, Nov. 30).

    And being with us, He will not, He cannot, fail us; and He will never forsake us. The apostolic writer records the promise "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5).

    Our little son was walking with me one night along a dark path beneath the live oak trees. He was quiet and said nothing for a long time. Then, as the path grew darker, suddenly he clutched my hand and said, "Daddy, we are not afraid, are we?" You see, as long as I was not afraid, he was not afraid.

    The Lord goes before us; He is with us. He will not fail us; He will not forsake us. Therefore, "fear not, neither be dismayed."

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them" (Ps. 5:11).

March 10, 2019

3/11/2019

The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger (Job 17:9).

    Something strange had happened in the house. The little boy was washing his hands again. Mother had always had a struggle with him on the subject of clean hands, but for the past week it seemed that he had been washing them almost constantly. At last she asked, "Son, why are you washing your hands again?" The boy hung his head and said, "You know, Jonny Smith has been mean to me, and I want to be so strong that he can't touch me."

    "What do you mean, son?"

    "Well, Mother, you know the memory verse we had in Sabbath school says, 'He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.' "

    You may smile at this child's simplicity, but have you ever thought of the great promise in this text? God wants us to hold on our way, the way He has appointed for us. We are not to deviate from it, because it is the way of life. Sometimes this road to the city of God runs over bottomless bogs, and again over terrifying mountains. Obstructions have to be cleared away; sometimes the road itself must be repaired. But "he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." Hands are the symbol of the acts of life, the doings of the heart. What the heart it, the hands display in their deeds. Clean hands mean a clean heart. How may the heart be cleansed? Tennyson puts into the mouth of Sir Galahad these words: "My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure."

    How do we get this clean heart? It is God's gift. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you" (Eze. 36:25, 26).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Ps. 51:7).

March 9, 2019

3/11/2019

  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3).

    Two men were praying in God's temple. One said, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are." The other would not even look up toward heaven, but said, "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:11, 13). When Peter saw the divine power and purity of Jesus Christ, he fell at His feet exclaiming, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8).

    The Romans sometimes worshiped the god Janus Bifrons, who had two faces--one looking outward toward the enemy, the other backward toward home. How like the truly penitent heart! It not only repents for the sins of the past, but takes heed to the future. It is like a ship's lights--one at the bow, the other at the stern. It looks not only at the track that has been made but to the path ahead.

    "Whom Christ pardons, He first makes penitent, and it is the office of the Holy Spirit to convince of sin" (Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 7). Those who in the presence of Christ's purity feel that they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:17) are the ones who long for "the grace of God that bringeth salvation" (Titus 2:11).

    There is forgiveness for the truly penitent, for Christ is "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). God's promise is "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isa. 1:18). And again: "A new heart also will I give you" (Eze. 36:26). The truly penitent are blessed. They are the poor in spirit of whom Jesus says, "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Those who have a sense of their real poverty will be made rich. In this beatitude of the poor in spirit we may all share.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble" (Ps. 10:12).

March 8, 2019

3/11/2019

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord (Amos 8:11).

    Famine is a terrible thing. We read in the Bible of the famine in the land of Egypt and how God saved the people through Joseph, His servant. We read also of a famine in Samaria, where the people were reduced to the greatest extremities, eating the most disgusting things at high prices. We have heard of terrible famines in various parts of the world in which human beings even resorted to cannibalism. Hunger is one of the most beneficent, yet terrible, instincts, the very fire of life underlying all impulses to labor, and driving human beings to noble activities. Have you ever been really hungry or thirsty?

    But the great coming famine is "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water." It is a spiritual famine, "a famine...of hearing the words of the Lord." Those who have a taste of the Word of God and have neglected it will suddenly desire it but will not be able to find it. Their souls will hunger for it as they have never hungered for anything else in their lives.

    "And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it" (Amos 8:12). Yes, cars will rush along the great highways. Airplanes will dart through the sky from one end of the earth to the other. "Where is that person of God who tried to teach me the truth? Where is Mother's open Bible? Where is that river of life that flows from the throne of God?" But they shall not find it.

    What does this promise bring us to? To just one word--now!

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Jesus said...,I am the bread of life." "Said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread" (John 6:35, 34).

March 7, 2019

3/11/2019

Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls (Jer. 6:16).

    Here the prophet is talking about spiritual things, because the rest found is soul rest.

    D. J. Evans tells of his experience in a deep coal mine where he once worked. All his companions had left him. Suddenly his lamp fell and went out. He was in utter darkness, and his only hope was in finding some sure guide to the shaft. As he groped in the dark his feet struck the rails on which the coal cars ran. Cautiously, but with many a stumble, he hobbled along, keeping one foot sliding on the rail. He could see nothing, but he could feel the rail. At long last he reached the foot of the shaft and sent up a signal for a cage. Soon he was lifted to the surface and walked out into the glorious sunlight, which showed him the road home. Trusting those tracks in the darkness, he found the lighted way at last.

    God has laid down spiritual, moral guides for us to follow, and these guides, like the rails in the mine, lead to the light. Even in the darkness they bring soul rest, for we know that we are on the right way. Our Savior said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). The Holy Scriptures reveal the Lord Jesus as the true, eternal way of righteousness. He was before all time, "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2). When we seek the old way, the original way, we seek the true way, the truth itself as it is in Jesus. The good way, the true way, the old way, may lead through darkness, but it always leads upward at last to the light. But seeing the good way, recognizing it, knowing it, even loving it, is not enough. We must "walk therein." Obedience is the response of faith.

MEDITATION PRAYER: "Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies" (Ps. 27:11).

March 6, 2019

3/11/2019

Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls (Jer. 6:16).

    Here the prophet is talking about spiritual things, because the rest found is soul rest.

    D. J. Evans tells of his experience in a deep coal mine where he once worked. All his companions had left him. Suddenly his lamp fell and went out. He was in utter darkness, and his only hope was in finding some sure guide to the shaft. As he groped in the dark his feet struck the rails on which the coal cars ran. Cautiously, but with many a stumble, he hobbled along, keeping one foot sliding on the rail. He could see nothing, but he could feel the rail. At long last he reached the foot of the shaft and sent up a signal for a cage. Soon he was lifted to the surface and walked out into the glorious sunlight, which showed him the road home. Trusting those tracks in the darkness, he found the lighted way at last.

    God has laid down spiritual, moral guides for us to follow, and these guides, like the rails in the mine, lead to the light. Even in the darkness they bring soul rest, for we know that we are on the right way. Our Savior said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). The Holy Scriptures reveal the Lord Jesus as the true, eternal way of righteousness. He was before all time, "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2). When we seek the old way, the original way, we seek the true way, the truth itself as it is in Jesus. The good way, the true way, the old way, may lead through darkness, but it always leads upward at last to the light. But seeing the good way, recognizing it, knowing it, even loving it, is not enough. We must "walk therein." Obedience is the response of faith.

MEDITATION PRAYER: "Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies" (Ps. 27:11).

March 5, 2019

3/11/2019

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart (Jer. 29:13).

    To know God, we must seek for Him. If we do seek, we shall find Him in His works, in His Word, and in our hearts. But it must be our vocation and not our avocation. We shall not find God by a glance here and there, by a careless flipping of pages, a thoughtless prayer now and then, a wandering mind. We must search as though our life depended on it, as indeed it does. We are to search with all our heart.

    God demands earnestness and sincerity. Even skeptics respect that. When David Hume, the agnostic, was criticized for listening to John Brown, a Scottish minister, he replied, "I don't believe all that he says, but he does, and once a week I like to hear a man who believes what he says."

    God says, "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you" (Jer. 29:12). When? When will He hearken? When will He listen? "When ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jesus said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24). We cannot hold on to God with one hand and the world with the other. If we try it, we will wind up by being wholehearted for the world and faintedhearted for God. The apostle said, "This one thing I do" (Phil. 3:13).

    When Matthew, sitting at the receipt of customs, was called by Jesus, he got up and left all the money on the table and followed Him. At the Lake of Galilee the disciples had just made the most successful haul of fish in all their experience, but when they got to shore, they forsook all and followed Jesus. They were in dead earnest, and that is why they will life forever. They found God in Christ because they were wholehearted.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips" (Ps. 17:1).

March 4, 2019

3/11/2019

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am (Isa. 58:9).

    For the basis of this wonderful promise, read the four preceding verses. In brief: "Make your life a blessing, do good to others, and I will do good to you." Multitudes can testify that they have called upon the Lord in their distress, and He has answered.

    Sometimes the Lord answers in most unexpected ways. A Christian woman's husband died, leaving her little with which to provide for her and her little daughter's needs. Her only possession of value was her husband's carpentry tools. Shortly after the funeral she was presented with a bill for labor, which a neighbor said was due him. Not only was the bill beyond the widow's means to pay, but she was certain that it had already been paid, although she had no receipt. The man offered to settle for the carpentry tools. In great distress she went to her room to pray for guidance. Soon her little girl, who had been playing in the garage, came in with a stack of papers. They were receipted bills, and the very top one was the answer to her problem. She could say with one of old, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears" (Ps. 34:4).

    God hears prayer, and He answers. "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come" (Ps. 65:2). Many of us are so busy talking to God that, as Savonarola said, we have no time to listen to what He has to say to us. "Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation," wrote Frank Laubach, "and for me the most important part is listening--to God's replies."

    On the boisterous sea the disciples cried out when they saw what they thought was an apparition, and a voice, tender, loving, reassuring, came, "It is I: be not afraid" (Matt. 14:27). The greatest answer to our prayers is the presence of God.

    MEDITATION PRAYER:  "I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God" (Ps. 17:6).

March 2, 2019

3/11/2019

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time (1 Peter 5:6).

    Pride is the chief doctrine of the devil; humility, the mark of the saint. When a man boasted in the presence of Joseph Parker, the preacher, that he was a self-made man, Parker commented, "Well, sir, that relives the Lord of a great responsibility."

    In serving God we stoop to conquer; we bow down in order to be lifted up, for submission is the way to exaltation. It is in the plan of God to put down the proud sooner or later. "The Lord will destroy the house of the proud" (Prov. 15:25). The apostle Peter says, "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).

    True humility comes from a true knowledge of ourselves and of God. As Phillips Brooks put it: "The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is." And that is true. We do not know our littleness until we begin to realize God's greatness. As the old adage puts it: "a mountain shames a molehill until they are both humbled by the stars." It is under the mighty hand of God that we are to humble ourselves. When the Lord smites us, it is our duty and privilege to accept it with profound submission and thankfulness. It is a hard school, but it teaches precious lessons.

    Notice that the Lord's exaltation of us is "in due time," and God is the only judge of the day and hour for that exaltation. We have not reached true humility until we can say, "Not only have Thine own way, Lord, but have Thine own time, Lord. Thy will be done!"

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

March 1, 2019

3/11/2019

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day (Prov. 4:18).

    The path of the just may be rough, steep, and hard to follow, but there is light there, and the light keeps growing. Notice, it is the path of the just. The righteous do not stand still; they do not wait for something to happen; they do not stay in the same position. They keep moving onward, ever onward. There is progress in the spiritual life, and that progress is always toward more light, more truth, more spiritual satisfaction.

    It is the path of obedience--yes, of willing obedience. Jesus said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:17). When we desire, when we will in our inmost hearts, to do the will of God as it is revealed to us, then whatever truth we need will be ours. We shall know. That is why the path of the just gets brighter all the time. The obedient child of God is moving toward the light, and the light grows. "I do not know how the loving Father will bring out light at last," affirmed David Livingstone, "but He knows, and He will do it."

    God's children are light bearers. Wherever they go, the light shines forth. Under the picture of Peter Milne in the little church that he founded on the island of Nguna, in the New Hebrides, are these words: "When he came there was no light; when he died there was no darkness."

    How about the path we are traveling? Is it like "the dawning light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (ARV)? Is our path of life like that? It may be, and it will be if on us "the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings ["beams," margin, ARV]" (Mal. 4:2).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Ps. 119:105).