Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

April 20, 2019

4/22/2019

And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all then which are sanctified (Acts 20:32).

    What a commendation is this, commended to God! When asked which was his favorite language, Emperor Charles IV said that in the daily affairs of the home he spoke German; in business, English; in diplomacy, French; but when he prayed, he used Spanish. In that beautiful language the word of farewell is adios ("unto God").

    So the apostle commends his friends not only to God but to the word of God's grace, which is able to build them up; and it is able to build us up too.

    Over the fireplace of a clubhouse belonging to a group of Alcoholics Anonymous is a plaque bearing this inscription: "But for the grace of God." We may have no other support on earth, but if God's grace is ours we shall have an inheritance, and the right kind of inheritance too--"among all them which are sanctified." "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8).

    The word of God's grace is our teacher, "for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:11, 12).

    In the days of Moses God proclaimed His name, and in truly Christian lives toady we are to proclaim the name of the Lord--"the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Ex. 34:6).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!" (Ps. 31:19).

April 19, 2019

4/22/2019

The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them (Ps. 34:7).

    During pioneer days in the Midwest many scattered settlements suffered from Indian raids. One stormy night a war party crossed the Wabash River into Indiana. The chief quietly opened the door of a cabin and saw a family upon their knees, the open Bible before them. The enemy closed the door as silently as he had opened it and told his warriors not to molest those people, for, he said, "They are talking to the Great Spirit, who would be angry." In the morning the family saw the houses of the neighbors in ashes and could not understand why they had been spared.

    We do not know the dangers surrounding us, but we do know that "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about" us to deliver is. Notice, the angels do not come and go; they encamp about God's children. It is a permanent protection.

    There is more written about angels in the Bible than there is about baptism, more about angels than about heaven, more about angels that about the Sabbath and many other important subjects in the Bible; yet how few sermons we hear on this most interesting and important subject. The angels excel in strength and keep the commandments of God (Ps. 103:20). They are ministering spirits to those who shall be the heirs of salvation (Heb. 1:14). They appear and disappear at will. They are the sentinel guards of those who fear God. They ae sent for our deliverance.

    Do we fear God? If so, we have the fellowship and protection of these "ministers of his, that do his pleasure" (Ps. 103:21). This promised angel guardianship reveals the importance of all Christ's disciples, even "these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father" (Matt. 18:10).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy" (Ps. 61:3).

April 18, 2019

4/22/2019

  I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance (Luke 15:7).

    Nothing is more lost than a sheep. Traveling over the high desert, one may come upon a lost sheep. It bleats piteously and is afraid of every sound. It rushes here and there calling companions, trying to recover a trace of the path. Unless someone finds it in time, it will perish in the solitude. The shepherd, having missed his sheep, goes in search of it. He sees it from a distance, hastens toward it, raises it on his shoulders, and bears it home rejoicing.

    This is a true picture of the lost sinner. In the verses preceding our text Jesus has just told about the 99 sheep safe in the fold, the one lost on the desert mountain, the shepherd's search for it, his success in finding it, and his jubilant return.

    My friend, the Good Shepherd is seeking you, but He cannot save you unless you repent. When you repent, you become one of His sheep, and He will seek you until He finds you. Then there will be joy here and hereafter. You may have wandered a long way into the dark mountains of sin, but if you repent, the Good Shepherd will find you and bring you home. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19).

                                But all through the mountains, thunder-riven,
                                        And up from the rocky steep,
                                There rose a cry to the gate of heaven,
                                        "Rejoice, I have found My sheep!"
                                And the angels sang around the throne,
                                        "Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!"
                                                                                    __Elizabeth C. Clephane

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever" (Ps. 79:13).

April 17, 2019

4/22/2019

Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say (Ex. 4:12).

    Moses had to distrust his own ability before he could be God's messenger. He had to bow at the burning bush before he could speak burning words. It is sometimes good for witnesses to be "slow to speech," for then their words have more weight.

    When we obey, when we "go for God," He will teach us what and when to speak. "Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth," said the prophet Jeremiah. "And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth" (Jer. 1:9). And Jesus promised His disciples that when they would be called to testify before their persecutors He would give them "a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist" (Luke 21:15). If our speaking were by God's teaching, there would be less evil and more peace in the world. When we go for God we can speak for God.

                                I spoke a word, and no one heard;
                                I wrote a word, and no one cared,
                                Or seemed to heed; but after half a score of years
                                It blossomed in a fragrant deed.

                                Preachers and teachers all are we__
                                Sowers of seed unconsciously.
                                Our hearers are beyond our ken,
                                Yet all we give may come again
                                With usury of joy or pain. We never know
                                To what a little word may grow.
                                See to it then that all your seeds
                                Be such as brings forth noble deeds.
                                                                            __John Oxenham

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer" (Ps. 19:14).

April 16, 2019

4/22/2019

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Matt. 6:6).

    The traffic light on the corner had just turned red. A father was watching the minute hand of the great clock on the First National Bank. "Three minutes to three!" he muttered. "By the time I have parked the car the bank will be closed."

    Then from the back seat a voice spoke up: "Daddy, why don't banks stay open as long as the stores and shops? They seem to work only a little time, about five hours a day."

    "Well, son," the father explained, "most of the employees at the bank do a great deal of their work after the doors are closed, sometimes way into the night. Much of their work must be done without interruption, behind closed doors."

    And so it is with the Christian's prayer life. A great deal of it must be done behind closed doors. Surely we are to pray in public, in church, in the family circle, with our friends; but our own spiritual communion with God is to be done alone. "It is only at the altar of God that we can kindle our tapers with divine fire" (Gospel Workers, p. 255).

    Secret prayer is the secret of spiritual life. "God's messengers must tarry long with Him, if they would have success in their work. The story is told of an old Lancashire woman who was listening to the reasons that her neighbors gave for their minister's success. They spoke of his gifts, of his style of address, of his manners. 'Nay,' said the old woman, 'I will tell you what it is. Your man is very thick with the Almighty' " (ibid).  You see, his public power came from personal communion with God.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up" (Ps. 5:2, 3).

April 15, 2019

4/15/2019

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst (John 6:35).

    Bread has been called the staff of life. It represents or symbolizes all food necessary for human existence. It is said that the primitive Greeks subsisted upon acorns, but after they learned the art of wheat culture and bread making they discarded their former food and considered it fit only for swine.

    Those who have once tasted the true Bread of Life will have no more desire for the fleshpots of Egypt, but will always pray, "Lord, evermore give us this bread" (John 6:34). It's a sad day when Christians who have eaten the Bread of Life lose their hunger for it. Christ is the Bread of Life and the Water of Life, our spiritual food and drink.

    Jesus was born at Bethlehem, which means "house of bread." He is called not only the Bread of Life, but the Bread of God, the True Bread, the Bread from heaven (John 6:32-33).

    Like the good corn bruised and broken, and fine flour baked, He gave His flesh for the life of the world. As one old writer well says of our need of Him, "Without bread, there is no feast; with bread, there need be no famine."

    The Lord's Supper--the feast of commemoration, communion, and love--represents all this (1 Cor. 10:16, 17). Believers eat and drink of Christ's bounty (Isa. 55:1, 2). They taste of the lord's goodness (Ps. 34:8). They feed as His sheep in green pastures (Ps. 23:2). They sit down as His guests at the banqueting house (s. of Sol. 2:4). They are "abundantly satisfied" with the good things of the Lord's house while they "drink of the river of...[His] pleasures" (Ps. 36:8).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Thou preparest a table a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over" (Ps. 23:5).

April 14, 2019

4/14/2019

For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth (1 Kings 17:14).

    Mother, I think God always hears when we scrape the bottom of the barrel," said a little boy to his mother one day. They were very poor and often found themselves in real need. Many times they used the last stick of wood and the last bit of bread before they knew where the next supply was coming from. But they had often been provided for unexpectedly and in providential ways just when they were most in need.

    The little boy seemed to think that when his mother scrapped the bottom of the barrel, God always heard and knew then that they were in special need. That was his way of saying what Abraham had said so beautifully thousands of years before, when he called a place where God had delivered him Jehovah-jireh, "the Lord will provide."

    Our heavenly Father knows what we need before we ask Him (Matt. 6:8), and He has promised that in the days of famine we shall be satisfied (Ps. 37:19).

    The words of our promise text today were spoken by the prophet Elijah to the widow of Zarephath, and these words were fulfilled. The widow, her son, and the prophet were fed from the unfailing meal barrel and oil cruse for a year, in spite of the famine all around them. God does not promise needless luxuries, but He does say that our bread and our water shall be sure (Isa. 33:16).

    Without God's blessing we could not earn our daily bread. We could not live at all; our hearts would not beat. We need to remember that it is He who, in the last analysis, "giveth food to all flesh" (Ps. 136:25). Let our prayer ascend to Him, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Bless the Lord, O my soul...; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's" (Ps. 103:2-5).

April 13, 2019

4/13/2019

Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies (Ps. 41:1, 2).

    It is incredible," said Lucian, the pagan jeerer and skeptic, "to see the ardor with which those Christians help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first Legislator has put into their heads that they are all brothers, and Julian the Apostate said, 'These Galileans nourish not only their own poor but ours as well.' "

    The poor are really Christ's representatives, and it is a Christian's duty to help those in need. Jesus said, "The poor always ye have with you" (John 12:8). We cannot put our offering into the actual hands of Jesus, for He is in heaven, but we can help the needy here on earth. We can do more by care than by cash, and more still by both. Those who help others will themselves be helped. The Lord will deliver them in time of trouble; He will preserve those who are liberal--keep them alive, bless them upon the earth, and they will not be delivered to the will of their enemies. "The liberal soul shall be made fat," reads the Scripture (Prov. 11:25). We might add, "The body too, if it needs it."

    "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again" (Luke 6:38). However generous we may be, we shall have a time of trouble. But if we consider the poor, we may put in a special claim for God's deliverance. Many people will help only themselves, but the Lord will help those who help others.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?" (Ps. 35:10).

April 12, 2019

4/12/2019

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).

    When Albert Einstein died, one wrote of him in a great magazine: "His only instruments were a pencil and a scratch pad on which he would jot down rows of mathematical symbols. Out of these obscure symbols came the most explosive ideas of the century." Do you fully understand his famous equation E=mc2? Neither do I. But the bomb exploded just the same. He died before his unified-field theory was proved, but we remember he said, "I cannot believe that God plays dice with the cosmos."

    In the third chapter of Second Peter we find an inspired picture of heavens exploding, and elements melting with fervent heat (verse 12). Then comes our promise: "Nevertheless"--that is, in spite of all this, in spite of a universe dissolved not only into atoms but into neutrons, deutrons, positrons, mesons, et cetera, ad infinitum--"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." God's promise is stronger than the crash of electrons, and God will guide the redeemed to their appointed places in the new earth, surrounded by its new heaven.

    And the new heavens and new earth will endure forever. That is the definite plan of God. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord" (Isa. 66:22, 23).

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures" (Ps. 36:8).

April 11, 2019

4/11/2019

Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner (Prov. 11:31).

    On some docks in great seaport cities you may see a sign reading "Stowaways prosecuted on the other side." Two months' imprisonment is the usual penalty. A stowaway is one who sneaks aboard ship and hides to steal a passage.

    Is it not true that those who leave our mortal shores unrepentant will indeed be prosecuted on the other side? Our promise text refers not only to the wicked but also to the righteous. "The righteous shall not be recompensed in the earth," but certainly not in the earth as it is now. God does send many blessings to His people here. Of those who serve Him fully, Jesus said: "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life" (Mark 10:29, 30).

    But notice, the full reward is in the world to come, the new earth, redeemed after our Lord's second coming and the judgment of the great white throne. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth," our Lord declared in His sermon on the mount (Matt. 5:5). Right here on this earth, where the Son of God was crucified when He came to seek and to save that which was lost, the righteous whom He died to redeem will receive their eternal reward. For God created the earth "not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited" (Isa. 45:18).

    As the righteous are to be rewarded here, so also are the wicked. Here where they have sinned, they will meet their final reward. They will rise in the second resurrection, be judged guilty, and receive their punishment when fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them (Rev. 20:9). This will be the end of sin and sinners.

MEDITATION PRAYER:  "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether" (Ps. 19:9).