Communion With God by Charles H. Spurgeon

“All my fountains are in you,” said David. If you have all your fountains in God, your heart will be completely full. If you went to the foot of Calvary, there your heart will be bathed in love and gratitude. If you go often to your place of seclusion, and there talk with your God, it is there that your heart will be filled with calm determination. If you go out with the Master to the Mount of Olives, and looked down with Him on a wicked Jerusalem, and weep over it with Him, then your heart will be full of love for eternal souls. If you continually draw your stimulus, your life, your entire being from the Holy Spirit, without whom you can do nothing, and if you live in close communion with Christ, then there will be no fear of you having a cold heart.

“One who lives without prayer-one who lives with little prayer-one who seldom reads the Word-one who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high-will be the person whose heart will become cold and barren; but the person who calls in secret to their God-who spends much time in holy seclusion-who delights to meditate on the words of the Most High-whose soul is given up to Christ-who delights in his fullness, rejoices in his complete sufficiency, prays for his second coming, and delights in the thought of his glorious return-such a person, I say, must have an overflowing heart; and as their heart is, so will be their life. It will be a full life; it will be a life that will speak from the grave, and reverberate into the future. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life,” and plead with the Holy Spirit to keep it full; otherwise, the outcome of your life will be feeble, shallow, and superficial; and you might as well not have lived at all.”

God Knows Me by J.I. Packer

I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters.

This is a momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort–the sort of comfort that energizes. . . in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me. . . He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow-men do not see (and I am glad!), and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my Friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. . . not merely that we know God, but that He knows us (J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 37).

The Lord said to Moses, ” . . . you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name” (Exodus 33:17).

Who Is Polycarp?

Are You Unsettled By Doubts?

As a Christian, do you ever have doubts? I mean doubts about your faith in God or if there really is a God. Do you have doubts about the Bible being the actual Word of God written down for us? Perhaps you believe there must be a God, but you doubt that He personally cares anything about you. It is easy to doubt when you see evil men prosper and injustice done to good men. When the whole world seems to be running after their own lusts determined to fulfill their every sensuous desire – it becomes easy to doubt that the Christian way is the right way.

James spoke rightly when he said, “He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” (1:6) The unsettled soul has many doubts which result from a lack of communion with Christ. Do you doubt? Run toward Christ and with every step you will grow in confidence and defeat discouragement. Faith is strengthened by communion with Christ. Charles Spurgeon asks the question, “Where do you live? Many a believer lives in the ‘cottage of doubt,’ when he might live in the ‘mansion of faith.’”

Paul reminds Timothy, “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’. . . .” (1 Timothy 6:20) We must ever be on guard against the doubt which destroys faith. Jesus describes what happens to the good seeds of faith when not tended properly: “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22) These thorns of doubt are planted by Satan and grow quickly when the garden is not kept.

Therefore, guard your faith through regular communion with Christ. Pray and study that you would be full of the Scriptures. Then you will be able to fight the doubts of dark times through confidence in the Word God that He has shared with you in His light.

Is Real Contentment Possible?

Are you content with your life and circumstances? A great many people are not. Do you often say to yourself, “I would be happy and content if I could just. . . .”? We certainly live in a culture that promotes false happiness at the expense of true contentment. After all, the purpose of the commercials we are bombarded with every day is to make us discontent with what we have by promising happiness and contentment if you purchase a new ________ (you fill in the blank). This method of finding contentment is based on the false premise that contentment is achieved by the acquisition of material possessions. I think most of us have fallen prey to this philosophy at one time or another.

The Apostle Paul writes, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13) Paul’s attitude is that contentment cannot be entrusted to circumstances or things. The secret of his contentment was his trust in God. Paul believed that the providential care of God placed him where he needed to be and thus found contentment and rest.

Blaise Pascal once observed that, “All the misfortunes of men spring from their not knowing how to live quietly at home in their own rooms.” Pascal is not advocating we become house bound hermits. He is pointing out that our lack of contentment is based on the fact that we are dissatisfied with ourselves until we find our satisfaction in God. Christ must be our greatest treasure; our pearl of great price. Only He will satisfy the hearts of those who trust in Him.

Trust in God and you will enjoy the blessing of a contented mind. It is God’s gift to the Christian. “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5) How can we fail to find contentment in such a promise as this?

Words By George Washington For Memorial Day Meditations

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend on God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.”

“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.”

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”

“I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them.”

“I earnestly pray that the Omnipotent Being who has not deserted the cause of America in the hour of its extremest hazard, will never yield so fair a heritage of freedom a prey to ‘Anarchy’ or ‘Despotism’.”

A Military Sermon

If you will be soldiers, resolve to conquer or die. It is not so much skill or strength that conquers, as boldness. It is fear that loses the day, and fearlessness that wins it. The army which stands to it gets the victory, who they fight never so weakly, for if you will not run, the enemy will. And if the lives of a few be lost by courage, it usually saves the lives of many. If the cause be not worth your lives, you should not meddle with it. If it is, you should choose rather to sacrifice the, than your country.” The man of good courage, is prepared to bear up against all the hardships of the warmest service with an unbroken erect mind, when the cause of GOD and his people, shall press him into their service. The intrepid spirit, rested on the brave Nehemiah, when he exclaimed-Should such a man as I, flee? This spirit inspired that brave commander, who, when deserted by his army in the heat of battle, cried out to them saying: “Go tell the living that I die fighting, while I go and tell the dead, that you live flying.” Are the preceding observations just? We hence learn that courage is necessary in men of military character. No wonder then, that Israel’s brave commander, thus said to his army. “Be of good courage.” And no wonder that he further said, let us play the men. Q.D. Let us do that on this great, trying occasion, which MEN, reasonable creatures ought to do. In these words, there is an implication, that he himself was resolved to do that, which he called them to do-either enter into battle, or so post himself, as to direct and guide them to victory. We have no reason to suspect, but that he would readily have done the former, if the case had required it. Every good general chooses rather to sacrifice his life in battle, than his country and honor. When existing circumstances, call to a most dangerous post, he readily exposes his own person. And so will all other good military characters in places below him, when called to dangerous posts.

In these words, let us play the men, we discern civility and decency. Though the army were under this general’s absolute command, yet he addressed them not as a pack of slaves and poltroons, nor in profane language, as too many have, to the shame of humanity; but as men, his fellow creatures, whom he respected, and who had a right to civil, human treatment. Such treatment conciliates esteem, and leads to obedience from a principle of love, which is a nobler incentive to action, than fear. Playing the men, imports doing bravely and valiantly. The sacred historian, in another place narrating this speech, thus varies the phraseology, let us behave ourselves valiantly. Playing the men, and behaving valiantly, are nearly, or quite synonymous terms. To play the men in battle, none can, unless they behave valiantly.

(From A Sermon – Addressed to the 13th Regiment of Infantry in the Army of the United States of America on the Lord’s-day, August 25, 1799 – by Josiah Whitney, Pastor of the First Church of Brooklyn.)

FDR’s D-Day Prayer

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard, for the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest – until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violence of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home – fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them – help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too – strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment – let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace – a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Bible-Reading by J. C. Ryle

“Next to praying there is nothing so important in practical religion as Bible-reading. God has mercifully given us a book which is “able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). By reading that book we may learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do; how to live with comfort, and how to die in peace. Happy is that man who possesses a Bible! Happier still is he who reads it! Happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it, and makes it the rule of his faith and practice!

“Nevertheless it is a sorrowful fact that man has a sad ability to abuse God’s gifts. His privileges, and power, and abilities, are all ingeniously perverted to other ends than those for which they were bestowed. His speech, his imagination, his intellect, his strength, his time, his influence, his money-instead of being used as instruments for glorifying his Maker-are generally wasted, or employed for his own selfish ends. And just as man naturally makes a bad use of his other mercies from God, so he does of the written Word. One sweeping charge may be brought against the whole of Christendom, and that charge is neglect and abuse of the Bible.

“To prove this charge we have no need to look elsewhere: the proof lies at our own doors. I have no doubt that there are more Bibles in our country at this moment than there ever were since the world began. There is more Bible buying-and Bible selling-more Bible printing and Bible distributing-than ever was since we were a nation. We see Bibles in every bookstore, Bibles of every size, price, and style-large Bibles, and small Bibles-Bibles for the rich, and Bibles for the poor. There are Bibles in almost every house in the land. But all this time I fear we are in danger of forgetting, that to “have” the Bible is one thing and to “read” it quite another.”

How Do You Handle Criticism?

One thing I have learned in life is that it is much easier to criticize the way other people handle their own personal problems than it is to fix your own. As a person who’s profession included evaluating the performance of others, I have also discovered that there is no such thing as “constructive criticism” when you are on the receiving end of the conversation. The tongue may be a soft blunt instrument, but it is deadly.

James, the brother of Jesus, said: “And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” (3:6) James also writes, “With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” (3:9-10)

A good rule to keep in mind when it comes to criticism is that you should not criticize another unless you have the heart to help. This is best accomplished when you have a close friendship with the person you are offering criticism to. This should always be done with the self-awareness that a perfect Judge judges you with grace and mercy. Criticism without grace and mercy is un-Christian. The faults you overlook in yourself should also be the faults you overlook in others.

What should you do when others criticize you? Harry A. Ironside answered that question with this advice: “If what they are saying about you is true, mend your ways. If it isn’t true, forget it, and go on and serve the Lord.”

Some people develop the habit of criticism as a means of trying to make themselves look better than others. Something is seriously wrong with a person who consistently does this. A Christian should always remember that his own faults cannot be hid from the supreme Judge of the universe. There will come a day when all we think we have hidden away will become known before all.

Always Complaining?

Are there specific people that you associate with the word “complaining?” Complaining does seem, at times, to be an integral part of some people’s personalities. As a public school principal, every staff I was a part of had its complainers. Whenever you saw one of these persons coming to your office, you knew they had a complaint about something. What stands out to me about this experience is that about 9 out of 10 complaints always came from the same people. To make it even more frustrating, probably 8 out of 10 complaints were about something that we had no power to change. There were also a small number of complaints that were useful and we did have the ability make some changes. The majority of useful complaints were, from my perspective, about evenly divided between habitual complainers and staff members who usually never complained.

What do we make of this? The majority of complaints were a waste of time because we did not have the power to remedy the complaint. Most of the time, the people who complained knew before hand there was nothing that could be done to “fix” the perceived problem. Yet, they still wanted to “vent” about it.

I will be the first to admit that sometimes I am so bothered by something that is beyond my control that I too will complain uselessly about it. This is not my habit all the time, but sometimes I have let my emotions get ahead of my brain. Have you ever experienced this?

God, generally, does not seem to be favorably disposed toward complaining. According to Paul we are to “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God. . . .” (Philippians 2:14-15) Complaining, we are told in the Bible, even arouses God’s anger and wrath. (Numbers 11) Someone once wrote that “Whines are the products of sour grapes.” I have also heard that there are two classes of complainers: those who think they have not received what they deserve and those who do receive what they deserve.

I believe that Spurgeon spoke truthfully when he wrote, “Ten minutes’ praying is better than a year’s murmuring.” Perhaps it is true that complaining lips expose an ungrateful heart. This is why it is so important for a Christian to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. When we complain, we are ultimately complaining against God’s providential care.

A good rule to remember is that if you have a complaint about something or someone and you have the ability and power to make things right, go to the source and resolve the problem. On the other hand, if you are complaining uselessly about something you have no control over or the power to fix, then you need to guard your tongue lest the Lord may take offence.

Who Do You Trust?

Trust may be defined as a “firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.” Do you easily put your trust in other people? Are you trustworthy?

It has always been important to me to try to be a trustworthy person who keeps his word to others. There have been times in my life when this has not happened. I don’t know about you, but it really bothers me each time I’m reminded that I am not infallible. I cannot control all the circumstances or the actions of other people. My promises can be thwarted by nature, by other human beings, and my own weaknesses – even when those promises are made with the best of intentions. I may have ability and character, and do my best to live a life of integrity – but promises should be made sparingly and vows to God even more infrequently.

On the other hand, you can be certain that God will keep His promises. The psalmist declares, “In God I have put my trust: I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (56:11) “Trust in Him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us.” (62:8) You may have known people who put little trust in God, but how many people do you know who trust Him too much? D. L. Moody wrote, “Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment; trust in your friends and they will die and leave you; trust in money and you may have it taken from you; trust in reputation and some slanderous tongue may blast it; but trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity.”

If you are going to trust in God, you must be able to answer one question correctly. “As a Christian, do I believe that God is absolutely in control of the universe down to the smallest detail?” If you do not believe this, you will never trust Him. If your answer is yes, then you can rest in the knowledge that you are in His providential care. “In God I have put my trust: I will not be afraid.” (Psalm 56:11) “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.” (Psalm 52:8) “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2) No matter the circumstances or purposes of man, we can confidently place our trust in God.

Courage, brother! Do not stumble,

Though thy path be dark as night;

There’s a star to guide the humble;

Trust in God and do the Right.

(by Norman Macleod)

John Quincy Adams On Creation

It is so obvious to every reasonable being, that he did not make himself; and the world which he inhabits could as little make itself that the moment we begin to exercise the power of reflection, it seems impossible to escape the conviction that there is a Creator. It is equally evident that the Creator must be a spiritual and not a material being; there is also a consciousness that the thinking part of our nature is not material but spiritual – that it is not subject to the laws of matter nor perishable with it. Hence arises the belief, that we have an immortal soul; and pursuing the train of thought which the visible creation and observation upon ourselves suggest, we must soon discover that the Creator must also he the Governor of the universe – that His wisdom and His goodness must be without bounds – that He is a righteous God and loves righteousness – that mankind are bound by the laws of righteousness and are accountable to Him for their obedience to them in this life, according to their good or evil deeds.

But the first words of the Bible are, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The blessed and sublime idea of God as the creator of the universe – the Source of all human happiness for which all the sages and philosophers of Greece and Rome groped in darkness and never found – is recalled in the first verse of the book of Genesis. I call it the source of all human virtue and happiness because when we have attained the conception of a Being Who by the mere act of His will created the world, it would follow as an irresistible consequence (even if we were not told that the same Being must also be the governor of his own creation) that man, with all other things, was also created by Him, and must hold his felicity and virtue on the condition of obedience to His will.

(From John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and Its Teachings, Letter II, pp. 23-28.)

Advanced Thinkers by C. H. Spurgeon

Some animals make up for their natural weakness by their activity and audacity; they are typical of a certain order of men. Assumption goes a long way with many, and, when pretensions are vociferously made and incessantly intruded, they always secure a measure of belief. Men who affect to be of dignified rank, and superior family, and who, therefore, hold their heads high above the canaille, manage to secure a measure of homage from those who cannot see beneath the surface. There has by degrees risen up in this country a coterie, more than ordinarily pretentious, whose favorite cant is made up of such terms as these: “liberal views,” “men of high culture,” “persons of enlarged minds and cultivated intellects,” “bonds of dogmatism and the slavery of creeds,” “modern thought,” and so on. That these gentlemen are not so thoroughly educated as they fancy themselves to be, is clear from their incessant boasts of their culture; that they are not free, is shrewdly guessed from their loud brags of liberty; and that they are not liberal, but intolerant to the last degree, is evident, from their superciliousness towards those poor simpletons who abide by the old faith. Jews in old times called Gentiles dogs, and Mahometans cursed unbelievers roundly; but we question whether any men, in any age, have manifested such contempt of others as is constantly evidenced towards the orthodox by the modern school of “cultured intellects.” Let half a word of protest be uttered by a man who believes firmly in something, and holds by a defined doctrine, and the thunders of liberality bellow forth against the bigot. Steeped up to their very throats in that bigotry for liberality, which, of all others, is the most ferocious form of intolerance, they sneer with the contempt of affected learning at the idiots who contend for “a narrow Puritanism,” and express a patronizing hope that the benighted adherents of “a half-enlightened creed” may learn more of “that charity which thinketh no evil.” To contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints is to them an offense against the enlightenment of the nineteenth century; but, to vamp old, worn-out heresies, and pass them off for deep thinking, is to secure a high position among minds “emancipated from the fetters of traditional beliefs.”

Whatever Happened To Christian America?

I believe that America has become a poor example of a Christian society – if not, altogether, a post-Christian society. I sometimes feel that church-goers want to appear Christian without making a knowledgeable commitment to what Christianity actually means. This cultural Christianity is merely an empty shell and church attendance a non-obligatory social atavism. Have we become pagans wearing religious masks whose meaning we no longer remember?

Even our government, which served as the model Christian republic to the nations, has fallen under the spell of the disciples of secular progressive socialism. Politicians and judges have ignored the Constitution, reinterpreted and twisted our laws, and passed legislation that renders the government openly anti-Christian. Yes, I know it is our own fault. We have voted political panderers into public office because they promised us a “free lunch” and “nanny-care.” Thus, we have sold our birthright for a mess of foul tasting stew. Our freedoms have eroded along with our commitment to Christianity.

A deliberate Christian moral consensus built America. Our Constitution was not written for a people who reject and openly oppose the Judeo-Christian tradition. With the waning influence of Biblical authority upon our society, secular progressives have welcomed the absence of absolute moral values. They use their political offices to appeal to immoral voters by promising to protect their loathsome passions through legislation.

Cultural Christianity is a dead Christianity. For the enticement of immoral pleasures and unrighteous materialism, we have abandoned God and enabled tyranny. The social consequences have been catastrophic: increased crime, drug addiction, abortions, divorce, sexual perversions, lack of respect for the rights of others, and the suppression of the knowledge of God. Parents fail to discipline their children and children refuse to honor their parents or respect authority.

We must repent of our sins and return to the God of the Bible. No election or candidate will slow our nation’s fall. A shallow Christianity and a watered-down faith will not do. We must, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. . . .” (Matthew 6:33, ESV) “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20, ESV)

Our arrogance has convinced us that The Great Commission of Christ applies only to sending missionaries to foreign lands and thus we have neglected our own neighborhoods. We have forgotten the great things the Lord has done among us. Our government officials have become American Pharaohs who no longer remember Joseph. We need a Christian revival in our land. Our Constitution does not work in a pagan society.

The citizens of the United States are in desperate need of Jesus Christ. False teaching is everywhere. Pray that God will raise up men who will take us to the fountain of living Gospel waters. Only God’s Truth will change men’s hearts. Only men with changed hearts can end the moral decline of our country.