Charles Spurgeon said...

My sweet Lord Jesus remembers well the garden of Gethsemane, and although he has left that garden, he now dwells in the garden of his church: there he unbosoms himself to those who keep his blessed company. That voice of love with which he speaks to his beloved is more musical than the harps of heaven. There is a depth of melodious love within it which leaves all human music far behind. Ten of thousands on earth, and millions above, are indulged with its harmonious accents. Some whom I well know, and whom I greatly envy, are at this moment hearkening to the beloved voice. O that I were a partaker of their joys! It is true some of these are poor, others bedridden, and some near the gates of death, but O my Lord, I would cheerfully starve with them, pine with them, or die with them, if I might but hear thy voice. Once I did hear it often, but I have grieved thy Spirit. Return unto me in compassion, and once again say unto me, I am thy salvation. No other voice can content me; I know thy voice, and cannot be deceived by another, let me hear it, I pray thee. I know not what thou wilt say, neither do I make any condition, O my Beloved, do but let me hear thee speak, and if it be a rebuke I will bless thee for it. Perhaps to cleanse my dull ear may need an operation very grievous to the flesh, but let it cost what it may I turn not from the one consuming desire, cause me to hear thy voice. Bore my ear afresh; pierce my ear with thy harshest notes, only do not permit me to continue deaf to thy calls. To-night, Lord, grant thine unworthy one his desire, for I am thine, and thou hast bought me with thy blood. Thou hast opened mine eye to see thee, and the sight has saved me. Lord, open thou mine ear. I have read thy heart, now let me hear thy lips.

Bible Contradictions?

Skeptics argue that these verses contradict Paul’s later statements that the Sabbath commandment was temporary and believers could decide for themselves regarding its observance (Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:14–16).

Scripture makes it clear that no one can be justified (made right with God) by keeping the Sabbath holy, or by keeping any other Commandment. All the Law does is bring the knowledge of sin to show us that we need a Savior. Jesus fulfilled the demands of the Law, which means we can be made right with God through faith in Him alone (see Eph. 2:8,9). Believers now serve in the spirit, not the letter of the law, and the principle behind the Sabbath is this: Just as God created for six days then rested on the seventh, man is to work for six days and rest on the seventh—to cease working. Those who trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross have ceased trying to be justified through their own efforts and instead find their rest in Him. (See Heb. 4:3,10.) That is why keeping the Sabbath is a non-issue for Christians when it co mes to eternal salvation. It is simply a matter of conscience. Christians have incredible liberty—no one can tell us what we must eat or drink, or what days we must observe.

“The spiritual rest which God especially intends in this commandment is that we not only cease from our labor and trade but much more—that we let God alone work in us, and that in all our powers we do noth- ing of our own.” Martin Luther

Not called to preach, witness, evangelize, or for missions

"'Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.” William Booth

If God does exist why doesn't He speak for Himself audibly

He did speak audibly to Israel when He gave them the Ten Commandments, and the Bible says that Israel was so fearful at what they saw and heard, they pleaded that He no longer speak to them (see Exod. 20:18,19; Heb. 12:19).

When He spoke on the Mount of Transfiguration, He terrified the disciples (see Matt. 17:5,6). When He once spoke audibly to Jesus, the people thought that they heard thunder (see John 12:28,29). So why didn’t God just whisper on these occasions? Perhaps He did.

However, God (in His infinite wisdom) has chosen what the Bible calls “the foolishness of the message preached” to bring the gospel to humanity (see 1 Cor. 1:21). He has condescended to use lowly man to deliver the message of everlasting life to dying humanity.

When it comes to God speaking to us, it is important to make sure that we don’t exaggerate our importance. We are but very tiny specks on a tiny speck of a planet, moving through the massive infinitude of space. If you want a special audience with the President, he likely will not come running to speak especially to you when, how, and where you want. Only a person with delusions of grandeur indeed would expect such treatment.

How much more so with the Creator of the universe? You are not going to get a special audience with God. So humble yourself, repent of your sins, and trust the Savior, then seek God through prayer and reading of His Word. Prayer is you speaking to God, and the Bible is God speaking to you. Make sure you listen carefully to what He says. Your eternity depends on it.

Cooling Their Flesh

 

There is an old story that tells about a pig. . . . The farmer brought the pig into the house. He gave him a bath, polished his hooves, put some Chanel No. 5 on him, put a ribbon around his neck, and put him in the living room. The pig looked fine. He made a nice and companionable pet for a few minutes. But as soon as the door was opened, the pig left the living room and jumped into the first mud ...puddle that he could find. Why? Because he was still a pig at heart. His nature had not been changed. He still desired the dirty mud to cool it's flesh. He had changed outwardly but not inwardly. . . .

You can take a man—dress him up, put him in the front row in church, place a Bible in his hand, and he almost looks like a saint. He may fool even his best friends for a while, but then put him in his office, or in the club on Saturday night, and you will see his true nature come out again. Why does he act that way? Because his nature has not been changed. He still desires the sinful nature of the world (mud) to satisfy his flesh. He has not been born again. There are true and false conversions. Jesus spoke of this several times. So how will you know those that are born again? The Bible makes this clear. You will know them by their fruits.

Moonlight

I moved outdoors from the bustle of a noisy restaurant to take a call on my cell phone. As I was about to return, I passed a gospel tract to a woman who sat alone at a table. She looked at the tract, then to my surprise jumped up and kissed me on the cheek. I was delighted--not with the kiss, but with the woman's reaction to the tract.
A few weeks earlier I'd received a different response. Kirk and I were standing in a hotel elevator in Florida when a gentleman (to whom I had given a gospel tract) cussed at me, chewed me out, and spat what was left in little pieces onto the ground. We were waiting to go up, but he sure put me down. I was devastated. I felt humiliated. I also felt as though I never wanted to give out another tract. Ever!
Rejection is a powerful blow to human pride. It cuts deep, like a burning arrow in the heart. It makes the most courageous of us want to withdraw in defeat. It is when that sharp arrow pierces the flesh that we need to think of the sinful woman of whom the Bible speaks in Luke 7:36-50.
She came into the house of a Pharisee, stood behind Jesus and began to wash His feet with her tears. Perhaps she quietly approached the Master as He lay at a table in typical Middle-Eastern fashion--on His side with His feet behind Him. As she listened to His gracious words, tears of contrition began to fall in great droplets onto His feet. We are told that (for some reason) the Pharisee didn't follow the custom of the day and wash the feet of the Savior as He entered His home. It is therefore likely that her tears mingled with (and darkened) the dust from the street that was on His feet. Perhaps it was then that she dropped to her knees and with tears in her eyes began to dry His feet with her hair. A woman's hair is her glory, but she so humbled herself that she forgot her natural vanity, and dried His dusty and wet feet with the locks of her hair.
Those who have heard His gracious words and have seen their own sinful condition, fall at the feet of Jesus and wash them in tears of contrition. They can be clothed with humility because they have been stripped of their pride and of this life's vanities. It is there that they understand that all that really matters is the approval of God. It is there that His will becomes their will…they too will want to have beautiful feet, shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace.
Then, when the world casts stones of rejection, we will look to the heavens and see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. When they nail our hands and feet to a cross of restraint, we still seek only the approval of God. When they offer the vinegar of bitter scorn so that fear causes our tongue to cleave to our jaws, we will still speak, because we seek only the smile of God.
The next time you gaze at moonlight, realize that it is actually the result of an explosion of a star so big that this earth fits into its volume a million times. The explosion sent light 93 million miles in a straight line traveling at 186,000 miles per second and hit dirt on the face of the moon. The light then reflected towards this earth and traveled another 250,000 miles at the same speed, so that you could have soft light in the darkness of the night.
We are surrounded by many such miracles, but we don't give them a second thought. If we did, we would begin to comprehend that God is the Maker of this incredible creation we so take for granted. It is when we see the unspeakable greatness of His power, that we will see how important it is to seek His approval rather than that of lowly dust that he shaped into man by His miracle-working hand.
The moonlight will also remind us of the fact that even though we are called "children of light," we don't have our own light. We merely reflect the Light that is unapproachable. One day it will reveal itself in flaming fire. The pain of our rejection by this world fades, compared to the unspeakable terror of the world's rejection by God.
The first time Jesus preached in his home town His hearers were so wrath-filled, they tried to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff (see Luke 4:29). But He didn't end His ministry simply because He was despised and rejected by men. Instead, He "committed Himself to Him that judges righteously." He looked to the smile of a holy God, rather than the frown of a sinful world.
So the next time you let your little light shine by preaching the gospel, or giving out a tract and a bucking bronco throws you for a loop, chews you up and spits you onto the soil, remember the moonlight. Remember how it just reflects the brilliance of the sun. Then get up and find another horse, and get back into the saddle…while there is still time. -Ray Comfort

Has God forsaken me?

Trials are not necessarily a sign that God has forsaken you. The Christian life is filled with lion’s dens and Red Seas. Trust God to shut the mouths of lions and open Red Seas. However, even if He doesn’t see fit to do the things for which you are hoping, joyfully trust Him anyway, because whatever you are going through will be worked out for your good (see Rom. 8:28). Follow the example of Shadrach and his friends, who would not bow to an idol. They told the king, “If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (Dan. 3:17,18, emphasis added).

Rebellion

 

Many people still cling to the notion that man is naturally good. We did not get this from the Greeks. Aristotle said, "There is no good in mankind." We did not get it from Judaism. Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

We did not get it from Christian teachings. The Apostle Paul said, "All have sinned, and come short ...of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We got this illusion, I believe, from the philosophers and psychologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who taught the false doctrine that man is a helpless victim of his environment.

The Bible says that man is not naturally good. All human experience confirms it. Man is rebellious by nature. This first rebellion in history happened in the Garden of Eden, where the environment was perfect and there was no heredity on which to blame it!

Promises?

 

God never promised to remove temptation from us, for even Christ was subject to it. The Bible says that “He was tested in all things, like as we, yet without sin.” There is no good reason why you should seek to escape, for such times of testing have beneficial effects. There is a sense of achievement and assurance that results from victory over temptation that cannot come to us otherwise.

Tempta...tion shows what people really are. It does not make us Christian or un-Christian. It does make the Christian stronger and causes him to discover resources of power. You can benefit from what might be tragedy, if you will only discover that in just such a time of temptation, Christ can become more real to you than ever, and His salvation will become more meaningful.

CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST