The Just Shall Live By Faith!

Our Greatest Need!

2011-02-24T16:57:00.000+10:30

"If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior. " - D.A. Carson

Time Has Run Out!

2011-02-21T07:25:00.002+10:30

On Saturday night we were diverted for a fatal accident on the Strathalbyn/Wellington road... For one 42 year old Strathalbyn lady 'Time has run out!' Did she get the tract warning her? Did we knock on her door? That I may never know! Could we have done more to reach her and warn her? Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! Let us not be negligent in preaching the gospel to those among us who are still living in darkness!

Get Right With God!

2011-01-31T22:13:00.002+10:30

It's not a passing thought, a good suggestion or empty plea... it is the command of God!

God commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed - Jesus Christ (Acts 17:30b-31)

http://www.GetRightWithGod.net

Dead To The Law!

2011-01-24T19:55:00.002+10:30

"Ye were made dead to the law, through the body of Christ." "Having died to that wherein we were holden, so that we serve in newness of the spirit." Romans 7:4,6.

The believer is not only dead to sin, but dead to the law. This is a deeper truth, giving us deliverance from the thought of a life of effort and failure, and opening the way to the life in the power of the Holy Spirit. "Thou shalt" is done away with; the power of the Spirit takes its place. In the remainder of this chapter (7:7-24) we have a description of the Christian as he still tries to obey the law, but utterly fails. He experiences that "in him, that in his flesh, dwelleth no good thing." He finds that the law of sin, notwithstanding his utmost efforts, continually brings him into captivity, and compels the cry: "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" In the whole passage, it is everywhere "I," without any thought of the Spirit's help. It is only when he has given utterance to his cry of despair that he is brought to see that he is no longer under the law, but under the rule of the Holy Spirit (8:1,2). "There is therefore now no condemnation," such as he had experienced in his attempt to obey the law, "to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." As chapter 7 gives us the experience that leads to being a captive under the power of sin, chapter 8 reveals the experience of the life of a man in Christ Jesus, who has now been made free from the law of sin and death. In the former we have the life of the ordinary Christian doing his utmost to keep the commandments of the law, and to walk in His ways, but ever finding how much there is of failure and shortcoming. In the latter we have the man who knows that he is in Christ Jesus, dead to sin and alive to God, and by the Spirit has been made free and is kept free from the bondage of sin and of death.

Oh that men understood what the deep meaning is of Romans 7, where a man learns that in him, that is in his flesh, there is no good thing, and that there is no deliverance from this state but by yielding to the power of the Spirit making free from the power and bondage of the flesh, and so fulfilling the righteousness of the law in the power of the life of Christ!

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Nineteenth Day)

Dead With Christ!

2011-01-21T07:32:00.001+10:30

"If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." --Romans 6:8.

The reason that God's children live so little in the power of the resurrection life of Christ is because they have so little understanding of or faith in their death with Christ. How clearly this appears from what Paul says: "If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him"; it is the knowledge and experience that gives us the assurance of the power of His resurrection in us. "Christ died unto sin once; but the life that He liveth, He liveth unto God" (ver. 10). It is only because and as we know that we are dead with Him, that we can live with Him.

On the strength of this, Paul now appeals to his readers. "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (ver. 11). The words "even so reckon yourselves" are a call to an act of bold and confident faith. Reckon yourselves to be indeed dead unto sin, as much as Christ is, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The word gives us a divine assurance of what we actually are and have in Christ. And this not as a truth that our minds can master and appropriate, but a reality which the Holy Spirit will reveal within us. In His power we accept our death with Christ on the cross as the power of our daily life.

Then we are able to accept and obey the command: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead; for sin shall not have dominion over you" (vers. 12,13,14). "Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness; present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Being now made free from sin, ye have your fruit unto sanctification" (vers. 18,19,33).

The whole chapter is a wonderful revelation of the deep meaning of its opening words: "How shall we, WHO DIED TO SIN, live any more therein?" Everything depends upon our acceptance of the divine assurance: If we died with Christ, as He died, and now lives to God, we too have the assurance that in Him we have the power to live unto God.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Eighteenth Day)

The Righteousness Of God!

2011-01-20T18:25:00.001+10:30

"Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." "He believed God, who quickeneth the dead." --Romans 4:3,7.

Let us now, after listening to the words of our Lord Jesus about our fellowship with Him in the cross, turn to St. Paul, and see how through the Holy Spirit he gives the deeper insight into what our death in Christ means.

You know how the first section of Romans is devoted to the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. After speaking (1:18-32) of the awful sin of the heathen, and then (2:1-29) of the sin of the Jew, he points out how Jew and Gentile are "guilty before God," "All have sinned and come short." And then he sets forth that free grace which gave the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (3:21-31). In chapter 4 he points to Abraham as having, when he believed, understood that God justified him freely by His grace, and not for anything that he had done.

Abraham had not only believed this, but something more. "He believed in God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things that are not as though they were." The two expressions are most significant, as indicating the two essential needs there are in the redemption of man in Christ Jesus. There is the need of justification by faith, to restore man to the favor of God. But there is more needed. He must also be quickened to a new life. Just as justification is by faith alone, so is regeneration also. Christ died on account of our sins; He was raised again on account of our justification.

In the first section (down to chap. 5:11), Paul deals exclusively with the great thought of our justification. But in the second section (5:12 to 8:39) he expounds that wonderful union with Christ, through faith, by which we died with Him, by which we live in Him, and by which, through the Holy Spirit, we are made free, not only from the punishment, but also from the power of sin, and are enabled to live the life of righteousness, of obedience, and of sanctification.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Seventeenth Day)

Dead To Sin!

2010-07-22T09:13:00.000+09:30

"We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?" --Romans 6:2.

After having, in the first section of the Epistle to the Romans (1:16 to 5:11), expounded the great doctrine of justification by faith, Paul proceeds, in the second section (5:12 to 8:39), to unfold the related doctrine of the new life by faith in Christ. Taking Adam as a figure of Christ, he teaches that just as we all really and actually died in Adam, so that his death reigns in our nature, even so, in Christ, those who believe in Him actually and effectually died to sin, were set free from it, and became partakers of the new holy life of Christ.

He asks the question: "We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?" In these words we have the deep spiritual truth that our death to sin in Christ delivers us from its power, so that we no longer may or need to live in it. The secret of true and full holiness is by faith, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, to live in the consciousness: I am dead to sin.

In expounding this truth he reminds them that they were baptized INTO THE DEATH OF CHRIST. We were buried with Him through baptism into death. We became UNITED WITH HIM by the likeness of His death. Our "old man" was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away -- rendered void and powerless. Take time and quietly, asking for the teaching of the Holy Spirit, ponder these words until the truth masters you: I am indeed dead to sin in Christ Jesus. As we grow in the consciousness of our union with the crucified Christ, we shall experience that the power of His life in us has made us free from the power of sin.

Romans 6 is one of the most blessed portions of the New Testament of our Lord Jesus, teaching us that our "old man," the old nature that is in us, was actually crucified with Him, so that now we need no longer be in bondage to sin. But remember it is only as the Holy Spirit makes Christ's death a reality within us that we shall know, not by force of argument or conviction, but in the reality of the power of a divine life, that we are in very deed dead to sin. It only needs a continual living in Christ Jesus.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Sixteenth Day)

It Is Finished!

2010-07-20T09:05:00.001+09:30

"When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said: 'It is finished.'" -- John 19:30.

The seven words of our Lord on the cross reveal to us His mind and disposition. At the beginning of His ministry He said (John 4:34): "My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and TO FINISH HIS WORK." In all things, the small as well as the great, He should accomplish God's work. In the High Priestly Prayer at the end of the three years' ministry He could say (John 17:4): "I have glorified Thee on the earth, I HAVE FINISHED THE WORK which Thou gavest Me to do." He sacrificed all, and in dying on the cross could in truth say: "It is finished."

With that word to the Father He laid down His life. With that word He was strengthened, after the terrible agony on the cross, in the knowledge that all was now fulfilled. And with that word He uttered the truth of the gospel of our redemption, that all that was needed for man's salvation had been accomplished on the cross.

This disposition should characterize every follower of Christ. The mind that was in Him must be in us -- it must be our meat, the strength of our life, TO DO THE WILL OF GOD IN ALL THINGS, AND TO FINISH HIS WORK. There may be small things about which we are not conscientious, and so we bring harm to ourselves and to God's work. Or we draw back before some great thing which demands too much sacrifice. In every case we may find strength to perform our duty in Christ's word "It is finished." His finished work secured the victory over every foe. By faith we may appropriate that dying word of Christ on the cross, and find the power for daily living and dying in the fellowship of the crucified Christ.

Child of God, study the inexhaustible treasure contained in this word: "It is finished." Faith in what Christ accomplished on the cross will enable you to manifest in daily life the spirit of the cross.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Fifteenth Day)

The Death Of The Cross!

2010-07-14T13:44:00.002+09:30

"'Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.' And having said this, He gave up the ghost." --Luke 23:46.

Like David (Psalm 31:5), Christ had often committed His spirit into the hands of His Father for His daily life and need. But here is something new and very special. He gives up His spirit into the power of death, gives up all control over it, to sink down into the darkness and death of the grave, where He can neither think, nor pray, nor will. He surrenders Himself to the utmost into the Father's hands, trusting Him to care for Him in the dark, and in due time to raise Him up again.

If we have indeed died in Christ, and are now in faith every day to carry about with us the death of our Lord Jesus, this word is the very one that we need. Just think once again what Christ meant when He said that we must hate and lose our life.
We died in Adam; the life we receive from him is death; there is nothing good or heavenly in us by nature. It is to this inward evil nature, to all the life that we have from this world, that we must die. There cannot be any thought of any real holiness without totally dying to this self or "old man." Many deceive themselves because they seek to be alive in God before they are dead to their own nature -- a thing as impossible as it is for a grain of wheat to be alive before it dies. This total dying to self lies at the root of all true piety. The spiritual life must grow out of death.

And if we ask how we can do this, we find the answer in the mind in which Christ died. Like Him we cast ourselves upon God, without knowing how the new life is to be attained; but as we in fellowship with Jesus say, "Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit," and depend simply and absolutely upon God to raise us up into the new life, there will be fulfilled in us the wonderful promise of God's Word concerning the exceeding greatness of His power in us who believe, according to the mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.

This indeed is the true test of faith -- a faith that lives every day and every hour in absolute dependence upon the continual and immediate quickening of the divine life in us by God Himself through the Holy Spirit.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Fourteenth Day)

The Sacrifice Of The Cross!

2010-07-13T09:59:00.002+09:30

"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" -- "I thirst." -- "It is finished." --Matthew 27:46, John 19:28,30.

The first three words on the cross reveal love in its outflow to men. The next three reveal love in the tremendous sacrifice that it brought, necessary to deliver us from our sins and give the victory over every foe. They still reveal the very mind that was in Christ, and that is to be in us as the disposition of our whole life.

"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" How deep must have been the darkness that overshadowed Him, for not one ray of light could pierce, and He could not say "My Father"! It was this awful desertion breaking in upon that life of childlike fellowship with the Father, in which He had always walked, that caused Him the agony and the bloody sweat in Gethsemane. "O My Father, let this cup pass from Me" -- but it might not be, and He bowed His head in submission: "Thy will be done." It was His love to God and love to man -- this yielding Himself to the very uttermost. It is as we learn to believe and to worship that love that we too shall learn to say: "Abba, Father, Thy will be done."

"I thirst." The body now gives expression to the terrible experience of what it passed through when the fire of God's wrath against sin came upon Christ in the hour of His desertion. He had spoken of Dives crying "I am tormented in this flame." Christ utters His complaint of what He now suffered. Physicians tell us that in crucifixion the whole body is in agony with a terrible fever and pain. Our Lord endured it all and cried: "I thirst"; soul and body was the sacrifice He brought the Father.

And then comes the great word: "It is finished." All that there was to suffer and endure had been brought as a willing sacrifice; He had finished the work the Father gave Him to do. His love held nothing back. He gave Himself an offering and a sacrifice. Such was the mind of Christ, and such must be the disposition of everyone who owes himself and his life to that sacrifice. The mind that was in Christ must be in us, ready to say: "I am come to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." And every day that our confidence grows fuller in Christ's finished work must see our heart more entirely yielding itself like Him, a whole burnt offering in the service of God and His love.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Thirteenth Day)

The Love Of The Cross

2010-07-12T15:02:00.001+09:30

"Then said Jesus: 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.'" --Luke_23:34.

The seven words on the cross reveal what the mind of Christ is, and show the dispositions that become His disciples. Take the three first words, all the expression of His wonderful love.

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He prays for His enemies. In the hour of their triumph over Him, and of the shame and suffering which they delight in showering on Him, He pours out His love in prayer for them. It is the call to everyone who believes in a crucified Christ to go and do likewise, even as He has said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which persecute you." The law of the Master is the law for the disciple; the love of the crucified Jesus, the only rule for those who believe in Him.

"Woman, behold thy son!" "Behold thy mother!" The love that cared for His enemies cared too for His friends. Jesus felt what the anguish must be in the heart of His widowed mother, and commits her to the care of the beloved disciple. He knew that for John there could be no higher privilege, and no more blessed service, than that of taking His place in the care of Mary. Even so, we who are the disciples of Christ must not only pray for His enemies, but prove our love to Him and to all who belong to Him by seeing to it that every solitary one is comforted, and that every loving heart has some work to do in caring for those who belong to the blessed Master.

"Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." The penitent thief had appealed to Christ's mercy to remember him. With what readiness of joy and love Christ gives the immediate answer to his prayer! Whether it was the love that prays for His enemies, or the love that cares for His friends, or the love that rejoices over the penitent sinner who was being cast out by man -- in all Christ proves that the cross is a cross of love, that the Crucified One is the embodiment of a love that passes knowledge.

With every thought of what we owe to that love, with every act of faith in which we rejoice in its redemption, let us prove that the mind of the crucified Christ is our mind, and that His love is not only what we trust in for ourselves, but what guides us in our loving intercourse with the world around us.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Twelfth Day)

Please Pray With Us...

2010-07-09T18:36:00.001+09:30

On Saturday 17th July we are planning to begin an outreach in Strathalbyn, South Australia.

Over the second half of this year we are hoping to deliver gospel literature to around 2500 houses monthly as well going 1-2-1, door-2-door, witnessing to the risen Christ and distributing outreach bibles, DVD's or CD's with the gospel message...

Lord willing, we also hope to put together a 15-20 minute gospel presentation on DVD (recorded around the town and drawing on local landmarks and history) to reach those who'd rather watch something than read! It'll be short, sharp and to the point!

Finally, and once again Lord willing, we'd also like to hold a series of gospel meetings over the course of many nights, weeks or weekends... calling the residents of Strathalbyn to repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ!

Please join with us in prayer that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will be proclaimed boldly and clearly, and that there might be a turning of many hearts in this town to Christ... May the Lamb that was slain receive the full reward of His suffering!

Thy Will Be Done!

2010-07-08T19:11:00.002+09:30

"O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou will." --Matthew 26:39.

The death of Christ on the cross is the highest and the holiest that can be known of Him even in the glory of heaven. And the highest and the holiest that the Holy Spirit can work in us is to take us up and to keep us in the fellowship of the cross of Christ. We need to enter deeply into the truth that Christ the beloved Son of the Father could not return to the glory of heaven until He had first given Himself over unto death. As this great truth opens up to us it will help us to understand how in our life, and in our fellowship with Christ, it is impossible for us to share His life until we have first in very deed surrendered ourselves every day to die to sin and the world, and so to abide in the unbroken fellowship with our crucified Lord.

And it is from Christ alone that we can learn what it means to have fellowship with His sufferings, and to be made conformable unto His death. When in the agony of Gethsemane He looked forward to what a death on the cross would be, He got such a vision of what it meant to die the accursed death under the power of sin -- with God's countenance so turned from Him that not a single ray of its light could penetrate the darkness -- that He prayed the cup might pass from Him. But when no answer came, and He understood that the Father could not allow the cup to pass by, He yielded up His whole will and life in the word: "Thy will be done." O Christian, in this word of your Lord in His agony, you can enter into fellowship with Him, and in His strength your heart will be made strong to believe most confidently that God in His omnipotence will enable you in very deed with Christ to yield up everything, because you have in very deed been crucified with Him.

"Thy will be done" -- let this be the deepest and the highest word in your life. In the power of Christ with whom you have been crucified, and in the power of His Spirit, the definite daily surrender to the ever-blessed will of God will become the joy and the strength of your life.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Eleventh Day)

Time Is Running Out!

2010-07-05T21:50:00.005+09:30

According to the United Nations Population Institute, over 155,000 people die every day around the world! This means that by the time you finish reading this tract, over five hundred people will have ceased to exist! Gone! Finished! No More! What if you happen to be one of them?

For the next five minutes, I want you to imagine what it would be like if these were your last moments alive! It’s a shocking thought, but more than thirty people in South Australia will step out from time into eternity today... then what?

Well, when you die, someone will place a sheet or a blanket over your head. An ambulance may take you to the hospital for an autopsy. The undertaker will be called, and arrangements will be made to place you in a grave. People will come to the funeral and shed tears over your lifeless body. They will look at your cold, blank face and mourn, but you will be gone. They will slowly drive to a cemetery with their headlights on and your body in a casket. At the cemetery, they will carry your coffin to a hole in the ground and lower it down. People will cry. The men will cover you with dirt and set a tombstone in place. Your name, the date of your birth, and the date your heart stopped beating will be on the stone. The people will leave, recover from their grief, and perhaps someday, forget that your body is even there. Not a pleasant thought, but true nonetheless!

Question is – if your heart were to give way right now - would you be ready? When your time is up, do you know where you are going? We know where your body is going, but what about your eternal soul? Have you thought about that? Do you think you will go to heaven? More importantly, do you know that you will? Take a moment to think about it...

The bible is very clear about what awaits a man when he dies... the judgement of a just and holy God! "It is appointed unto to men once to die, and after this the judgement" It is on this day that the Lord will "execute judgement on all and convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness they have done, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him". He "will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purpose of the heart". What will God expose in your heart on that day?

If you are like the majority of people, who see "all their ways as pure in their own eyes" you will no doubt be thinking to yourself "I should be alright, I’m a pretty good person". But God doesn’t just settle for pretty good, he demands sinless perfection! Trouble is all you’ve ever done is sin! It’s like the bible says: "there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who seeks God, all have turned away; there is no one who does good, no not one!"

To prove the point, let’s examine ourselves against God’s perfect standard - the Ten Commandments - but before we do, please be honest with yourself and listen to you conscience! The 9th commandment says, "You shall not lie", yet how many countless lies have you told in your life? The 8th commandment says, "You shall not steal", yet if you think hard enough you’ll begin to remember the things you have stolen! The 7th commandment says, "You shall not commit adultery", Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, whoever looks at someone lustfully has committed adultery with them already in their heart". Have you ever looked at someone with that desire; someone in the street, a neighbour or co-worker, or an actor or actress steaming up the screen?

The verdict: like the rest of us, you are a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart in the eyes of God and deserving of hell!

Think about it: your soul, in hell, for eternity! Does that concern you? It should terrify you! But there is hope!

Even though God knows what you have done (and what you have become) he is not willing that you should perish - so he made a way by which you can be saved from his judgement!

Two thousand years ago, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to save us from our sins and the punishment we deserve! It was God’s plan that Christ would live a perfectly sinless life (something you and I have not done) and then lay down his life for those who would come to him to be saved. And that’s exactly what happened! Christ was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life before God and man and then was condemned to die by crucifixion on a cross. Three days later he arose from the dead, defeating death, showing that he has the power to give life to all who would come to him! But how does He save us? Well, you could say it like this… we broke God’s law and Jesus has paid our fine! He bore our sins in His body on that cross! He suffered and died in our place! God punished Him for our sins so that we could be pardoned. Make no mistake friends, God will punish every single sinner who has ever been, now is, or will yet be! He is a holy and righteous God and will see to it that Justice is done! But he is also loving and merciful! For those of us who repent (turn from our sin, our rebellion, our unbelief) and believe (call on, trust in) Christ to save them - Christ will be punished in their place as their substitute. For those who refuse to humble themselves and repent - there will be no substitute. They will be punished for their unbelief and rebellion! What will it be?

Look to him for salvation or die in your sins and spend eternity in hell. The choice is yours.

A Grain Of Wheat!

2010-07-04T20:45:00.003+09:30

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." --John 12:24-25.

All nature is a parable of how the losing of a life can be the way of securing a truer and higher life. Every grain of wheat, every seed throughout the world, teaches the lesson that through death lies the path to beautiful and fruitful life.

It was so with the Son of God. He had to pass through death in all its bitterness and suffering before He could rise to heaven and impart His life to His redeemed people. And here under the shadow of the approaching cross He calls His disciples: "If any man will serve Me, let him follow Me." He repeats the words: "He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."

One might have thought that Christ did not need to lose His holy life ere He could find it again. But so it was: God had laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, and He yielded to the inexorable law: Through death to life and to fruit.

How much more ought we, in the consciousness of that evil nature and that death which we inherited in Adam, be most grateful that there is a way open to us by which, in the fellowship of Christ and His cross, we can die to this accursed self! With what willingness and gratitude ought we to listen to the call to bear our cross, to yield our "old man" as crucified with Christ daily to that death which he deserves! Surely the thought that the power of the eternal Life is working in us, ought to make us willing and glad to die the death that brings us into the fellowship and the power of life in a risen Christ.

Alas, how little this is understood! Let us believe that what is impossible to man is possible to God. Let us believe that the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, the risen Lord, can in very deed make His death and His life the daily experience of our souls.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Tenth Day)

Follow Me!

2010-06-09T11:52:00.002+09:30

"Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said: 'One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.'" --Mark 10:21.

When Christ spoke these words to the young ruler, he went away grieved. Jesus said: "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" The disciples were astonished at His words. When Christ repeated once again what He had said, they were astonished out of measure, "Who then can be saved?" "Jesus looking upon them said, 'With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.'"

Christ had spoken about bearing the cross from the human side, as the one condition of discipleship. Here with the rich young ruler He reveals from the side of God what is needed to give men the will and the power thus to sacrifice all, if they are to enter the kingdom. He said to Peter, when he had confessed Him as Christ, the Son of God, that flesh and blood had not revealed it unto him, but His Father in heaven, to remind him and the other disciples that it was only by divine teaching that he could make the confession. So here with the ruler He unveils the great mystery that it is only by divine power that a man can take up his cross, can lose his life, can deny himself and hate the life to which he is by nature so attached.

What multitudes have sought to follow Christ and obey His injunction -- and have found that they have utterly failed! What multitudes have felt that Christ's claims were beyond their reach and have sought to be Christians without any attempt at the whole-hearted devotion and the entire self-denial which Christ asks for!

Let us in our study of what the fellowship of the cross means take today's lesson to heart and believe that it is only by putting our trust in the living God, and in the mighty power with which He is willing to work in the heart, that we can attempt to be disciples who forsake all and follow Christ in the fellowship of His cross.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Ninth Day)

Be Comforted: Christ Knows You Well!

2010-06-03T23:27:00.002+09:30

"Be comforted, all you who are tried and buffeted with difficulties in your way towards heaven, difficulties from without and difficulties from within, difficulties abroad and difficulties at home, grief for your own sins and grief for the sins of others: the Good Shepherd Jesus knows you well, though you may not think it. You never shed a secret tear over your own corruption, you never breathed a single prayer for forgiveness and helping grace, you never made a single struggle against wickedness, which He did not remark and note down in the book of His remembrance. You need not fear His not understanding your needs, you need not be afraid your prayers are too poor and unlearned to be attended to; He knows your particular necessities far better than you do yourselves, and your humble supplications are no sooner offered up than heard."

- J.C. Ryle

He Cannot Be My Disciple!

2010-06-03T14:14:00.001+09:30

"If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own life, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE. Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE. Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE." Luke 14:26-33.

For the third time Christ speaks about bearing the cross. He gives new meaning to it when He says that a man must hate his own life and renounce all that he has. Thrice over He solemnly repeats the words that without this a man cannot be His disciple.

"If a man hate not his own life." And why does Christ make such an exacting demand the condition of discipleship? Because the sinful nature we have inherited from Adam is indeed so vile and full of sin that, if our eyes were only opened to see it in its true nature, we would flee from it as loathsome and incurably evil. 'The flesh is enmity against God"; the soul that seeks to love God cannot but hate the "old man" which is corrupt through its whole being. Nothing less than this, the hating of our own life, will make us willing to bear the cross and carry within us the sentence of death on our evil nature. It is not till we hate this life with a deadly hatred that we will be ready to give up the old nature to die the death that is its due.

Christ has one word more: "He that renounceth not all that he hath," whether in property or character, "cannot be My disciple." Christ claims all. Christ undertakes to satisfy every need and to give a hundredfold more than we give up. It is when by faith we become conscious what it means to know Christ, and to love Him and to receive from Him what can in very deed enrich and satisfy our immortal spirits, that we shall count the surrender of what at first appeared so difficult, our highest privilege. As we learn what it means that Christ is our life, we shall count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. In the path of following Him, and ever learning to know and to love Him better, we shall willingly sacrifice all, self with its life, to make room for Him who is more than all.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Eighth Day)

I Will Never Tire Of The Gospel!

2010-06-02T22:06:00.001+09:30

I will never tire of hearing the gospel preached! I am a sinner who deserves the wrath of a Just and Holy God. If He were to send me to hell, I would deserve it - for I have broken His laws, ignored his commands, rebelled against his authority and sought to establish my own throne. For most of my life I have lived for self, done what I want, when I want, with little or no regard for God or his creatures (humanity). Such anarchy, such treason, such rebellion deserves to be punished! Yet, even though I was an enemy of God, living after the pleasures of this world - he did not crush me in His anger, or cut me off in His wrath. Instead he sent His Son Jesus Christ to suffer and die on the cross in my place - to take the punishment that I deserve. Though I broke His law, I found that Jesus was willing to pay my fine! I am humbled by such love and mercy! Make no mistake - God is a just God and will not let sin go unpunished! For those who refuse to repent, to turn and call upon the Lord for salvation - there will be no hope. For those who refuse to cry out for mercy and die in their sins - there will be great suffering in hell. There will be just punishment for sinners. But for those who repent, who turn and call upon the Lord for mercy, who trust in Him to save them - there will be joy unspeakable! They will be ransomed! Christ will surely save them! They will be pardoned, set free, forgiven - and will dwell with their God forever! Can a pardoned sinner ever tire of hearing such good news preached? I can’t!

Self Denial!

2010-06-02T19:10:00.002+09:30

"Then said Jesus unto His disciples, 'If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'" --Matthew 16:24.

Christ had for the first time definitely announced that He would have to suffer much and be killed and be raised again. "Peter rebuked Him, saying, 'Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall never be unto Thee.'" Christ's answer was, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." The spirit of Peter, seeking to turn Him away from the cross and its suffering, was nothing but Satan tempting Him to turn aside from the path which God had appointed as our way of salvation.

Christ then adds the words of our text, in which He uses for the second time the words "take up the cross." But with that He uses a most significant expression revealing what is implied in the cross: "If any man come after Me, LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, and take up his cross." When Adam sinned, he fell out of the life of heaven and of God into the life of the world and of self. Self-pleasing, self-sufficiency, self-exaltation, become the law of his life. When Jesus Christ came to restore man to his original place, "being in the form of God, HE EMPTIED HIMSELF, taking the form of a servant, and HUMBLED HIMSELF even to the death of the cross." What He has done Himself He asks of all who desire to follow Him: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself."

Instead of denying himself, Peter denied his Lord: "I know not the man." When a man learns to obey Christ's commands, he says of HIMSELF: "I know not the man." The secret of true discipleship is to bear the cross, to acknowledge the death sentence that has been passed on self, and to deny any right that self has to rule over us.

Death to self is to be the Christian's watchword. The surrender to Christ is to be so entire, the surrender for Christ's sake to live for those around us so complete, that self is never allowed to come down from the cross to which it has been crucified, but is ever kept in the place of death.

Let us listen to the voice of Jesus: "Deny self"; and ask that by the grace of the Holy Spirit, as the disciples of a Christ who denied Himself for us, we may ever live as those in whom self has been crucified with Christ, and in whom the crucified Christ now lives as Lord and Master.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Seventh Day)

Bearing The Cross!

2010-05-28T07:49:00.001+09:30

"He that doth not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it." --Matthew 10:38-39.

We have had some of Paul's great words to the Galatians about the cross and our being crucified with Christ. Let us now turn to the Master Himself to hear what He has to teach us. We shall find that what Paul could teach openly and fully after the crucifixion, was given by the Master in words that could at first hardly be understood, and yet contained the seed of the full truth.

It was in the ordination charge, when Christ sent forth His disciples, that He first used the expression that the disciple must take up his cross and follow Him.

The only meaning the disciples could attach to these words was from what they had often seen, when an evil-doer who had been sentenced to death by the cross was led out bearing his cross to the place of execution. In bearing the cross, he acknowledged the sentence of death that was on him. And Christ would have His disciples understand that their nature was so evil and corrupt that it was only in losing their natural life that they could find the true life. Of Himself it was true that all His life He bore His cross -- the sentence of death that He knew to rest upon Himself on account of our sins. And so He would have each disciple bear his cross -- the sentence of death upon himself and his evil, carnal nature.

The disciples could not at once understand all this. But Christ gave them seed words, which would germinate in their hearts and later on begin to reveal their full meaning. The disciple was not only to carry the sentence of death in himself, but to learn that in following the Master to His cross he would find the power to lose his life and to receive instead of it the life that would come through the cross of Christ.

Christ asks of His disciples that they should forsake all and take up their cross, give up their whole will and life, and follow Him. The call comes to us too to give up the self life with its self-pleasing and self-exaltation, and bear the cross in fellowship with Him -- and so shall we be made partakers of His victory.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Sixth Day)

The Flesh Crucified!

2010-05-26T10:30:00.001+09:30

"They that are in Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof." --Galatians 5:24.

Of the flesh Paul teaches us (Romans 7:18), "In me, that is, IN MY FLESH, DWELLETH NO GOOD THING." And again (Romans 8:7), "The mind of the flesh is ENMITY AGAINST GOD; for it is not subject to the law of God, NEITHER INDEED CAN IT BE." When Adam lost the spirit of God, he became flesh. Flesh is the expression for the evil, corrupt nature that we inherit from Adam. Of this flesh it is written, "Our old man was crucified with Him" (Romans 6:6). And Paul puts it here even more strongly, "They that are in Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh."

When the disciples heard and obeyed the call of Jesus to follow Him, they honestly meant to do so, but as He later on taught them what that would imply, they were far from being ready to yield immediate obedience. And even so those who are Christ's and have accepted Him as the Crucified One little understand what that includes. By that act of surrender they actually have crucified the flesh and consented to regard it as an accursed thing, nailed to the cross of Christ.

Alas, how many there are who have never for a moment thought of such a thing! It may be that the preaching of Christ crucified has been defective. It may be that the truth of our being crucified with Christ has not been taught. They shrink back from the self-denial that it implies, and as a result, where the flesh is allowed in any measure to have its way, the Spirit of Christ cannot exert His power.

Paul taught the Galatians: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God." And only as the flesh is kept in the place of crucifixion can the Spirit guide us in living faith and fellowship with Christ Jesus.

Blessed Lord, how little I understood when I accepted Thee in faith that I crucified once for all the flesh with its passions and lusts! I beseech Thee humbly, teach me so to believe and so to live in Thee, the Crucified One, that with Paul I may ever glory in the cross on which the world and the flesh are crucified.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Fifth Day)

Crucified To The World!

2010-05-24T07:55:00.002+09:30

"Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world." --Galatians 6:14.

What Paul had written in Galatians 2 is here in the end of the epistle confirmed, and expressed still more strongly. He speaks of his only glory being that in Christ he has in very deed been crucified to the world and entirely delivered from its power. When he said "I have been crucified with Christ," it was not only an inner spiritual truth, but an actual, practical experience in relation to the world and its temptations. Christ had spoken about the world hating Him, and His having overcome the world. Paul knows that the world, which nailed Christ to the cross, had in that deed done the same to him. He boasts that he lives as one crucified to the world, and that now the world as an impotent enemy was crucified to him. It was this that made him glory in the cross of Christ. It had wrought out a complete deliverance from the world.

How very different the relation of Christians to the world in our day! They agree that they may not commit the sins that the world allows. But except for that they are good friends with the world, and have liberty to enjoy as much of it as they can, if they only keep from open sin. They do not know that the most dangerous source of sin is the love of the world with its lusts and pleasures.

O Christian, when the world crucified Christ, it crucified you with Him, When Christ overcame the world on the cross, He made you an overcomer too. He calls you now, at whatever cost of self-denial, to regard the world, in its hostility to God and His kingdom, as a crucified enemy over whom the cross can ever keep you conqueror.

What a different relationship to the pleasures and attractions of the world the Christian has who by the Holy Spirit has learned to say: "I have been crucified with Christ; the crucified Christ liveth in me!" Let us pray God fervently that the Holy Spirit, through whom Christ offered Himself on the cross, may reveal to us in power what it means to "glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world had been crucified unto me."

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Fourth Day)

Crucified With Christ

2010-05-20T22:39:00.002+09:30

"I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." -- Galatians 2:20.

The thought of fellowship with Christ in His bearing the cross has often led to the vain attempt in our own power to follow Him and bear His image. But this is impossible to man until he first learns to know something of what it means to say, "I have been crucified with Christ."

Let us try to understand this. When Adam died, all his descendants died with him and in him. In his sin in Paradise, and in the spiritual death into which he fell, I had a share: I died in him. And the power of that sin and death, in which all his descendants share, works in every child of Adam every day.

Christ came as the second Adam. In His death on the cross all who believe in Him had a share. Each one may say in truth, "I have been crucified with Christ." As the representative of His people, He took them up with Him on the cross, and me too. The life that He gives is the crucified life, in which He entered heaven and was exalted to the throne, standing as a Lamb as it had been slain. The power of His death and life work in me, and as I hold fast the truth that I have been crucified with Him, and that now I myself live no more but Christ liveth in me, I receive power to conquer sin; the life that I have received from Him is a life that has been crucified and made free from the power of sin.

We have here a deep and very precious truth. Most Christians have but little knowledge of it. That knowledge is not gained easily or speedily. It needs a great longing in very deed to be dead to all sin. It needs a strong faith, wrought by the Holy Spirit, that the union with Christ crucified -- the fellowship of His cross -- can day by day become our life. The life that He lives in heaven has its strength and its glory in the fact that it is a crucified life. And the life that He imparts to the believing disciple is even so a crucified life with its victory over sin and its power of access into God's presence.

It is in very deed true that I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me as a Crucified One. As faith realizes and holds fast the fact that the crucified Christ lives in me, life in the fellowship of the cross becomes a possibility and a blessed experience.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Third Day)

The Fellowship Of The Cross

2010-05-19T14:11:00.002+09:30

"Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus." --Philippians 2:5.

Paul here tells us what that mind was in Christ: He emptied Himself; He took the form of a servant; He humbled Himself, even to the death of the cross. It is this mind that was in Christ, the deep humility that gave up His life to the very death, that is to be the spirit that animates us. It is thus that we shall prove and enjoy the blessed fellowship of His cross.

Paul had said (ver.1): "If there is any comfort in Christ," -- the Comforter was come to reveal His real presence in them -- "if any fellowship of the Spirit," -- it was in this power of the Spirit that they were to breathe the Spirit of the crucified Christ and manifest His disposition in the fellowship of the cross in their lives.

As they strove to do this, they would feel the need of a deeper insight into their real oneness with Christ. They would learn to appreciate the truth that they had been crucified with Christ, that their "old man" had been crucified, and that they had died to sin in Christ's death and were living to God in His life. They would learn to know what it meant that the crucified Christ lived in them, and that they had crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. It was because the crucified Jesus lived in them that they could live crucified to the world.

And so they would gradually enter more deeply into the meaning and the power of their high calling to live as those who were dead to sin and the world and self. Each in his own measure would bear about in his life the marks of the cross, with its sentence of death on the flesh, with its hating of the self life and its entire denial of self, with its growing conformity to the crucified Redeemer in His deep humility and entire surrender of His will to the life of God.

It is no easy school and no hurried learning -- this school of the cross. But it will lead to a deeper apprehension and a higher appreciation of the redemption of the cross, through the personal experience of the fellowship of the cross.

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - Second Day)

The Chief Of Excuses

2010-05-19T13:28:00.003+09:30

Here's a conversation between the Chief of Excuses (CE) arguing with God about going on a missions trip...

CE: God what about my house, and paying my...
God: Well sell your house. Seek first My kingdom and righteousness and these things will be given to you as well.

CE: But God, what about my Job...
God: Well quite your job, I am your provider.

CE: But my children's education, they...
God: Well home school them.

CE: But how do I know you really want me to go...
God: It is already written, I said 'Go'

CE: But I’m not qualified, how can I...
God: Lean not on your own understanding, trust in me

CE: But God, it might cost me my...
God: Well make the payment!

(I read this on a mates blog and had to re-post it! He is due to arrive in Thailand in about 11 hours with his family to begin work with orphaned children. Please keep them in your prayers... you can follow their journey here: http://missionthailand.yolasite.com)

The Redemption Of The Cross

2010-05-18T07:32:00.002+09:30

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." --Galatians 3:13.

Scripture teaches us that there are two points of view from which we may regard Christ's death upon the cross. The one is the REDEMPTION OF THE CROSS: Christ dying for us as our complete deliverance from the curse of sin. The other, THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE CROSS: Christ taking us up to die with Him, and making us partakers of the fellowship of His death in our own experience.

In our text we have three great unsearchable thoughts. The law of God has pronounced a curse on all sin and on all that is sinful. Christ took our curse upon Him -- yea, became a curse -- and so destroyed its power, and in that cross we now have the everlasting redemption from sin and all its power. The cross reveals to us man's sin as under the curse, Christ becoming a curse and so overcoming it, and our full and everlasting deliverance from the curse.

In these thoughts the lost and most hopeless sinner finds a sure ground of confidence and of hope. God had indeed in Paradise pronounced a curse upon this earth and all that belongs to it. On Mount Ebal, in connection with giving the law, half of the people of Israel were twelve times over to pronounce a curse on all sin. And there was to be in their midst a continual reminder of it: "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Deuteronomy 21:23, 27:15-20). And yet who could ever have thought that the Son of God Himself would die upon the accursed tree, and become a curse for us? But such is in very deed the gospel of God's love, and the penitent sinner can now rejoice in the confident assurance that the curse is forever put away from all who believe in Christ Jesus.

The preaching of the redemption of the cross is the foundation and center of the salvation the gospel brings us. To those who believe its full truth it is a cause of unceasing thanksgiving. It gives us boldness to rejoice in God. There is nothing which will keep the heart more tender towards God, enabling us to live in His love and to make Him known to those who have never yet found Him. God be praised for the redemption of the cross!

(Andrew Murray - Secrets Of The Cross - First Day)

Have You Received Him?

2010-05-04T08:15:00.002+09:30

"Yet to all who received Him . . . He gave the right to become children of God" John 1:12

Some in their understanding, assent to the way of salvation--yet do not consent to it with their will. In judgment they are for Christ--but in affection they are for other things. There is only a part of their soul that is for Christ. Others would have the benefits that are from Christ--but have no love for the person of Christ.

Some would have Christ only as a Savior--but not as a Lord. They desire Him only as a Priest to offer a sacrifice for their sins--but not as a Prophet to instruct them, nor as a King to rule over them. So that it is but part of Christ, that they would receive.

But both of these courses are equally dangerous; for, if we would be saved, we must cleave to Christ with all the faculties of the soul--with will, judgment, affection, etc. And so, again, we must cleave to the whole of Christ--Christ in His natures, person, offices, etc. If, therefore, you would rightly receive Christ, see that your whole soul receives a whole Christ.

(Thomas Sherman, "Aids to the Divine Life--A Series of Practical Christian Contemplations" 1680)

You Must Look To Christ Alone!

2010-05-01T17:25:00.002+09:30

Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation - Luke 2:28-30
Here we see a physical expression of a spiritual truth. As Simeon took up Christ in his arms and gazed upon him, so also must we lay hold of Christ and look to him and him alone for our salvation - as it were - through our eyes of faith.

I remember when I was desperately searching for the answer to the question echoed in Acts 16 by the Jailer at Philippi - What must I do to be saved?

Unlike Simeon, who set his eyes solely upon the Saviour, I thought surely there are a great many things I must do to present myself acceptable to the Lord. I tried to satisfy the laws requirements. I tried to increase in virtue and good character. I tried to present myself acceptable before a just and holy God. I tried, as Charles Finney says, “to build dams of sand across the current of my own corruption”. Just when I thought I’d stopped up one vile stream, the dam wall would burst and greater river of sin would spill forth. I would cry out to God for help - for help to overcome this one sin or another so that I might be saved. And there would be no answer. I was trying to save myself by keeping the righteous requirements of the law of God!

But the law of God can do only one thing. Kill a fallen man! Condemn him to die! And slowly but surely, like a man hanging on the cross with his life draining away, I found myself nailed to the rigid, inflexible law of God slowly dying to self - all hope and confidence in my flesh bleeding out and draining away.

I can’t tall you how many times I went to services where they would have an alter call, and go forward and say the “sinners prayer” as it is commonly called. Unlike Simeon who’s hope and confidence were in the Lord, I put my hope and confidence in going forward, in saying the sinners prayer, in the sincerity of how I prayed, in the plea bargains I would make with God, in the preacher preaching, in my many tears… I looked to so many things to save me - but no one ever told me to look to Christ! I never looked to Christ!

It is vitally important that this point is understood! You must look to Christ and Christ alone for salvation! He is the only one who can save you, and it is only through faith (a complete dependence upon, a complete trust) in Christ that you will be saved!

I So Needed To Read This!

2010-04-30T14:55:00.001+09:30

Today's email from Grace Gems could not have arrived at a more opportune time!

Poor in self--rich in Jesus!

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3

The Lord's people are all poor; they see and feel that sin has stripped them of every excellence; and has left them wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. They can do nothing of themselves, they can procure nothing for themselves; but free grace has made ample provision for them, and the Gospel informs them that Jesus has everything they need--and that all that He has, is for them!

When they look at, or into themselves--they are discouraged; but when they look to Jesus--they rejoice! He has riches of grace--and riches of glory; and He says, "Every one who asks--receives." He gives liberally, and upbraids not. Here then is the present blessedness of the Lord's poor: Jesus has all they need! And He is their Redeemer and Friend! Those who seek Him shall not lack any truly good thing.

Am I poor? If so, Jesus bids me come to Him--and buy gold, clothing, wine, and milk without price--all that is necessary to comfort and support in time, and render me happy throughout eternity! Poor in self--rich in Jesus! Poor at present--rich in eternity! "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven!"

"All things are yours!" 1 Corinthians 3:21

"And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus!" Philippians 4:19

(James Smith, "The Pastor's Morning Visit")

You Say You Want To Be Like Christ?

2010-03-11T13:46:00.002+10:30

The art of photography is now so advanced, that a whole page of a newspaper can be taken in miniature so small--as to be carried on a little button, and yet every letter and point be perfect.

Just so, the whole life of Christ is photographed in this one little phrase, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28

He did not come to be served--if this had been His aim, He would never have left heaven's glory, where He lacked nothing, where angels praised Him and ministered unto Him. He came to serve. He went about doing good. He altogether forgot Himself. He served all He met, who would receive His service. At last He gave His life in serving--He gave it to save others, to redeem lost souls.

You say that you want to be like Christ. You ask Him to print His own image on your heart. Here then, is the image: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

It is not a vague dream of human greatness which we are to think of, when we ask to be like our Master.

The old monks thought that they were becoming like Christ--when they went into the wilderness, away from men, to live in cold cells. But surely, such a dream of uselessness is not the thought which this picture suggests. "To serve--to give our life" that is the Christ-like thing! Instead of fleeing away from people--we are to live with others, to serve them, to live for them, to seek to bless them, to do them good, to give our lives for them--that is the meaning of the prayer for Christ-likeness.

(J. R. Miller, "Devotional Hours with the Bible" 1909)

Is This Not Enough?

2010-02-26T23:30:00.004+10:30

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." 1 John 4:9

Can anyone ever say to God - you didn't do enough to save me! You didn't do enough to turn my heart! What more could he have done for you? Is the atoning sacrifice of His beloved Son on account of your wickedness and rebellion not enough to move you? Is your heart so hard that His selfless, sacrificial love does not even melt it to its rotten core?

Are you one of the many who would say, "I'd know that He loves me if he gives me this such a thing or that - some earthly benefit or delight, or some easing of a great pain!"

What more do you need from God? Is what he did for you through the cross not enough? Does the washing away of your sins by the blood of His dear Son not cause you to cry out - "Lord, you have loved SO much!"

God has done all that need be done in order to demonstrate His great love for us! But if that is not enough for you then you are to be sorely pitied, for if the love of His dear Son cannot reach your heart - nothing will!

Two Young Street Preachers Murdered

2010-02-24T12:44:00.001+10:30

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
Revelation 6:9-11

The murder of two young street preachers in Florida by a teenager whom they shared the Gospel with is “alarming,” said a spokesperson for a religious freedom watchdog group.

Eighteen-year-old Jeriah Woody, whose street name is “Plug,” is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Woody allegedly shot and killed Tite Sufra, 24, and Stephen Ocean, 23, on Jan. 30 after they shared about Christ with him during the 15 minutes they talked.

Woody’s phone reportedly rang and he turned and walked away to take the call. But then he turned around again and started walking towards the street preachers. Sufra approached him and Woody allegedly shot him in the head. Ocean tried to run away, but police said Woody allegedly shot him in the back and then walked up to him and shot him again in the head at point-blank range.

The police account is based on the third street preacher that was with Sufra and Ocean when they talked to Woody. The unidentified third minister had escaped by running in the opposite direction.

Woody turned himself in on Feb. 3 and remains in jail without bond.

“We are concerned that the hate crimes against Christians could be increased in the United States,” said Jonathon Racho, regional manager for Africa and South Asia at International Christian Concern, to The Christian Post Monday. “This is very alarming.”

He added, “We hear this kind of thing happening in other countries like India, Nigeria, China, North Korea, where Christians are being killed, imprisoned and so forth. But for Christians to be killed for preaching the Gospel here in the United States, it is very, very alarming.”

Several Christian organizations have wondered out loud why there has been so little media coverage despite the incident occurring more than two weeks ago.

"If this had been two Muslims out sharing the Quran and talking to people about Mohammad and they were shot and killed, there would be marches, there would be protest, there would be 24-hour coverage,” said Todd Nettleton, a spokesperson for the Voice of the Martyrs, to Mission Network News. “As a Christian, that's a frustrating thing that the media doesn't seem to want to pay attention to incidents where Christians are targeted."

Police have not identified Woody’s motive for killing the street preachers.

(From http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100216/watchdog-murder-of-street-preachers-in-florida-is-alarming/)

The Death Of Evolution!

2010-02-11T00:12:00.006+10:30

You'd think that a process capable of evolving irreducibly complex biological functions without blueprints would have surely solved this little dilemma by now!

But after nearly four billion years of trying, evolution has still failed to come up with a workaround for death! Now that's a bit disappointing!

Mr & Mrs Evolutionist, you'd better hope that it finds a solution in the next 50 odd years or you're stuffed!

Evolution Is Pollution!

2010-02-08T15:26:00.001+10:30

http://www.evolutionispollution.com/

God Himself Directs His Word!

2010-02-04T13:30:00.002+10:30

"Do not be led away with the error of the wicked but "grow in the grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

Light is the chariot which carries the influence of the sun. So the knowledge of Christ brings with it influences of His grace into the heart. And how did Peter expect people to grow in the knowledge of Christ unless they read Scripture, the only book where it can be found? How wrong for teachers to want the people to learn this knowledge solely from their preaching, and not from the Bible! How can a congregation be sure they are hearing truth unless they have Scripture, the only touchstone to try the purity of the doctrine? God Himself directs His Word not to any one honored group-not to a select few-but to every man (Romans 1:7; 2 Corinthians 1:1). Why are laws made if they cannot be declared? And why was Scripture ever written if not to be read and known of all men? By the same authority with which the apostle wrote his epistles, he commanded them to be read in the church. Did ministers of the early church hide God's word from the people instead of encouraging them to hide it in their hearts?

It is true that some men wrest Scripture to their own destruction, just as occasionally somebody chokes on a piece of bread if he is not careful when he eats. But must everyone starve for fear of getting choked? Some hurt themselves with sharp weapons; must the whole army then be disarmed, and only a few officers be allowed to wear the sword? If this argument were enough to seal up the Bible, we must deny it to intellectuals as well as to common men; for it is a known fact that the grossest heresies have bred in the finest minds. Whenever proud men insist on being wiser than God, their foolish minds get darker and darker until they become so accustomed to the blackness that they can no longer see His sovereignty.

From The Christian In Complete Armour by William Gurnall First Published in 1665 Published by Moody Press Chicago, IL 1994

The Deceitfulness Of Sin!

2010-01-06T12:41:00.000+10:30

"Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin!" Hebrews 3:13

First sin startles him,
then it becomes pleasing,
then easy,
then delightful,
then frequent,
then habitual,
then confirmed!

Then the man is impenitent,
then obstinate,
then resolves never to repent,
and then he is damned!

"For the wages of sin is death!" Romans 6:23

- Jeremy Taylor

Why Did The Lord Put Us On This Earth, To Send Us To Hell?

2009-12-30T21:37:00.004+10:30

Darwin's Answer To Abiogenesis

2009-12-15T14:14:00.005+10:30

God did it!

Question now is... What does God require of thee oh man?

Are You Living For Rubbish?

2009-12-11T13:52:00.001+10:30

"Do not work for food that perishes--but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you!" John 6:27

We need to be continually reminded of the unsatisfying nature of the things of this world--and exhorted to seek eternal realities. We live in a material age, when the quest of people is for money, for power, for things of the earth.

John Bunyan gives a picture of 'a man with a muck-rake', working hard, scraping up the rubbish at his feet--and not seeing the crown which hung above his head. It is a picture of the great majority of the people in this world. They are wearing out their life in scraping up worldly rubbish--not thinking of the heavenly treasures, the divine and imperishable gifts, which they might have--with half the toil and care!

We ought not to spend our life in picking up rubbish which we cannot carry beyond the grave! If we are wise, we will seek rather to gather lasting treasures and riches, which we can take with us into eternity!

Whatever we build into our character, we shall possess forever!

Money which we spend in doing good in Christ's name--we lay up as safe and secure treasure in heaven.

All true service for Christ--stores up rewards for us in the future.

What we keep--we lose!

What we give in love--we keep forever!

(J.R. Miller)

Spurgeon On Self Righteousness #2

2009-12-10T07:32:00.000+10:30

If you think yourselves strong enough to procure heaven by your own efforts, you are ignorantly insulting the cross of Christ, for you seem to insinuate that your virtues can avail you without Jesus. If you really mean this, there is no more venom of rebellion against God in your self-righteousness than in the outward vice of those who make no pretence to godliness. For you to put your works in the place of Jesus is a blasphemy against the Saviour's blood and righteousness. Why needed Christ to die if men could save themselves? Why need he bleed upon the cross if your merits will suffice to gain you a place among the blessed? There is a fatal weakness in the claim of that man who thinks himself strong enough to force his own passage to the throne of God; that weakness lies in the pride which insults the Crucified, the disloyalty which prefers itself to the royal Saviour.

Spurgeon On Self Righteousness #1

2009-12-09T15:28:00.001+10:30

Sinner, if you grow no sweeter flowers than the dunghill of your own nature can nourish, you will die amid poisonous weeds. If you never drink of better water than the filthy well of your own heart will yield, you will perish of thirst, or of a deadly draught. Another, and a better helper than one born in your house, must come this way. Help must be laid upon one that is mighty, exalted of the Lord out of the people, and endowed with divine power and Godhead, for only such a Saviour, infinitely good and great, can save a soul so lost as yours.

Motivational Poster For Evolutionists

2009-11-27T14:50:00.003+10:30

A Question For The Evolutionist...

2009-11-22T20:20:00.014+10:30

Did this evolve, or is it evidence that there is a sand castle maker?

Did this evolve, or is it evidence that there is a bridge maker?

Did this evolve, or is it evidence that there is a robot maker?

Did we evolve, or are we evidence that there is a creator?

No Surer Test Of The Genuineness Of Christian Life!

2009-11-04T23:34:00.000+10:30

"I am among you as one who serves." Luke 22:27

"He got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself. Next, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around Him." John 13:4-5

Serving is not an easy lesson to learn. But it is a lesson we must learn--if ever we would become like our Master. He did not come to be served--but to serve. He served to the uttermost, just as He loved to the uttermost. Anything that needed to be done for another, He did as naturally and as simply as He breathed. He loved people, and was interested in them, and was ready always to be helpful to them. It never mattered what the service was, whether it was the saving of a soul, the curing of a grievous sickness, or the giving of a cup of water--He did the least as graciously and as divinely, as the greatest.

The washing of feet was the lowliest service any man could do for another. It was the work of the lowliest slave. Yet Jesus without hesitation, did this service for His own disciples. Thus He taught them that nothing anyone may ever need to have done--is unfit for the whitest hands. We begin to be like Christ--only when we begin to love others enough to serve them.

There is no surer test of the genuineness of Christian life, than in this matter of serving others. When we see the Son of God washing His disciples' feet--no service is too menial for us to do. A king may do the lowliest kindness to the poorest peasant in his realm, and his honor will only be enhanced by it.

"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet--you also should wash one another's feet." John 13:14

J. R. Miller

Evolution Is Monkey Business!

2009-10-30T17:24:00.001+10:30

How long would it take a monkey to type the word evolution on a standard 104-key keyboard?

Well there is, on average, one chance in 1,423,311,812,421,484,544 attempts (an attempt being defined as a random keying of 9 characters), of typing the word evolution on a 104-key keyboard. This is based on the Multiplication Rule of probability.

Assuming the monkey could type 2 keystrokes/sec, 8 hrs/day, 5 days/week, 44 weeks/year (that's a 52 weeks year - 4 weeks annual leave - 2 weeks public holidays - 2 weeks sick leave) and he stumbled on the right key combination, by chance, in only half the attempts then it would only take him 505,437,433,388.31 years.

Unfortunately, he would have died after about 20!

Such are the overwhelming odds of randomly typing the nine character word coined to describe the very theory which says all things evolved from a primordial soup, it would take 25,271,871,669.42 monkeys working back to back to crack this problem!

God Is The God Of The Broken!

2009-10-30T15:49:00.000+10:30

"This man welcomes sinners--and eats with them!" Luke 15:2

"I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you!" Matthew 21:31

Christ is building His kingdom with earth's broken things.

Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken--in building their kingdoms. But God is the God of the broken, the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth's broken lives, and there is no 'bruised reed' which Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow--and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. He can lift earth's saddest failure--up to heaven's glory!

J. R. Miller

Why I Don't Believe In God!

2009-10-28T21:14:00.003+10:30

Mr & Mrs Atheist, I am curious as to your reason(s) for why you do not believe there is a God?

A Question For Mr Evolutionist!

2009-10-21T18:26:00.000+10:30

Mr Evolutionist, assuming that you propagate before you die, what great genetic improvement or evolutionary advancement will you bring to the human gene pool? Have you improved on the eyesight or hearing of your parents? Have you developed some new biological function that gives you a greater chance of survival? Have you moved your family tree one step closer to developing gills, or flying with the birds? How do you know that you haven’t actually made a regressive step back towards your primate ancestors? What a waste your life will be if you reach the end and find out that you have added no new &/or improved genetic information! You will be an evolutionary failure!

The Atheist Challenge!

2009-10-19T12:39:00.002+10:30

1. Put frog in blender
2. Blend frog
3. Put blender on kitchen table
4. Wait for frog to hop back out

Should be a no brainer for evolution - given that we know everything required to make a living frog is present.

My dear atheist friend, don't hold your breath!

Degrees Of Sin?

2009-10-08T09:32:00.003+10:30

The greek word for sin "ἁμαρτία" literally means to miss the mark. To miss the target. But the problem is we don't realise how far we miss it!

Imagine for a moment if our target were the sun! At an approximate distance of 149,598,000 km away, if we were off course by just 1 degree, we'd miss the mark by around 2,611,242 kilometres. That's a little over 65 round trips of the earth!

But we know that the target, the requirement for us to approach God in infinite holiness is infinite perfection! Perfect righteousness! Now if we were to miss that, even by one degree, we'd miss the mark by an infinite number of miles. In terms of being off course, that's seriously lost!

Let us then not trifle over the degrees of sin! "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." James 2:10

One degree of separation is still separation after all!

Since we cannot make it on our own, give up trying! Flee to the only one who can save you and throw yourself at his feet. Cast yourself upon his mercy, for he promised to save to the upmost all who come to him! He lived a sinless life! He satisfied all the requirements of the law! He hit the mark!

There was no cause for death found in him, yet he was crucified. Crucified in the place of all those who would put their trust in him! All those who would give up trying to hit the mark themselves! All those who would flee to him for salvation!

Repent! Turn from your striving, turn from your unbelief, turn from your sin – turn to the only one who can save you! Turn to Christ!

You will never make it otherwise! You cannot make it otherwise!

Don't Look To Yourself!

2009-10-07T16:23:00.001+10:30

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor--but the sick!" Matthew 9:12

From the garden of Gethsemane--where the bleeding pores of the Savior sweat pardons; from the cross of Calvary--where the bleeding hands of Jesus drop mercy--the cry comes, "Look unto Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth!" From Calvary's summit, where Jesus cries, "It is finished!" I hear a shout, "Look unto Me, and be saved!"

But there comes a vile cry from our soul, "No, look to yourself! Look to yourself!" Ah, look to yourself--and you will certainly be damned! As long as you look to yourself--there is no hope for you. It is not a consideration of what you are--but a consideration of what Christ is, that can save you. You must look away from yourself, and to Jesus!

Oh! there are many who quite misunderstand the gospel; they think that their good works qualify them to come to Christ; whereas SIN is the only qualification for man to come to Jesus!

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor--but the sick!" Matthew 9:12

- Charles Spurgeon

Sad, But Mostly True!

2009-10-02T11:43:00.001+09:30

"After more than twenty years of dealing with church members on a daily basis, I am of the following opinion. Of every one thousand members of a Protestant or Fundamental church, three hundred are Christian in word only and could not give a scriptural definition of salvation if their life depended on it (and it does). Three hundred others are trusting in water baptism. Another three hundred are counting on some sort of good works to get them to heaven. Fifty more are workers of iniquity seeking to ruin the church to which they belong or use it for social, political or business objectives. Forty know the way of salvation but have not yet received Christ Jesus as Saviour."

I don't know who wrote this, but I don't think he's far wrong!

Give The Man A Drink!

2009-09-30T17:29:00.002+09:30

What would you say of a man journeying through the desert with a full flask of water, if he has a travelling companion with no flask, and yet never offers him a drink? What then if he were to stand by and watch that man die of thirst? Would we not say he was of the cruelest stock - hard hearted and altogether unloving - a man deserving of great punishment? Suppose he appeases his conscience by reasoning the man with no flask could have asked for a sip?

Anyone capable of doing such a thing, we would say, is truly a wicked, wicked man!

Will not the same be said of those who carry within themselves a well of living water yet offer it not to their colleagues, friends, family, even strangers?

Is Your Faith In Rags?

2009-09-19T10:20:00.000+09:30

Franz Reichelt, "The Jumping Tailor", sadly put his faith in fabric and jumped to his death on February 4, 1912.

Reichelt designed an overcoat to fly or float its wearer gently to the ground like the modern parachute. To demonstrate his invention he made a jump of 60 meters from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower. The parachute failed and Reichelt fell to his death.

Though employing all his skill to create a bat wing style cape that would catch the air in its folds and deliver him safely to the ground, Franz did not stand a chance against the universal law of gravitation.

In the same way, many people today are hard at work sewing together complex overcoats of self righteous works in the vain hope it will carry them to safety when they jump from time into eternity. Instead of trusting in Jesus Christ, who has promised to save to the utmost all who come to him, they hope in themselves. Instead of putting on the rich garments of salvation, freely given by our God, they choose rather to wear robes made from filthy rags.

Their end will be the same, they do not stand a chance against the universal law of God’s justice!

The Gospel Is The Sacrificing Knife!

2009-09-12T23:32:00.001+09:30

"Only the Gospel can form a plaster to draw out the very core of contention from the heart. The apostle Paul testifies how he and his brothers were healed of malicious attitudes: "We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another" (Titus 3:3). And then Paul writes in some detail how that healing came: "But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:4-5). He was saying, "If this love of God to us in Christ had not appeared, if we had not been washed by His regenerating Spirit, we would still be paralyzed under the power of our lusts."

Mortification is a work of the Spirit. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). And the Gospel is the sacrificing knife in the hand of the Spirit, the "sword" God uses to kill sin in the hearts of His people (Ephesians 6:17).

Just as the Gospel lays the axe to strife and digs it up by its bitter roots, so it fills the hearts of men who embrace it with principles, leading to peace and unity. Some of these tenets are self-denial, long-suffering, and gentleness. Self-denial prefers that another be honored before himself. Long-suffering is that which makes one not easily provoked. And if gentleness is pushed by a wrong, it holds the door open for peace to come in again.

We can see a whole bundle of these sweet herbs growing in one bed: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23). Now this fruit does not crop up in just every hedge, but only from Gospel seed."

-From The Christian in Complete Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare Published by Moody Press Chicago 1994 First Published in 1655

The Sea Of Damnation!

2009-09-06T21:54:00.001+09:30

"Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed." Romans 2:4-5

Oh! who will pity you who would not pity yourselves--when you are damned--when you are howling and roaring in hell?

If the day of mercy leaves you graceless--the day of judgment will find you speechless!

There is no standing before Christ--but by standing in Christ.

Ungodly men fear no wrath--because they presently feel no wrath.

Because their sin is now unpunished--they think there is no punishment for their sins!

Because God continues to spare them--they go on to provoke Him!

Because He adds to their lives--they add to their lusts!

Because He is very merciful--they will be very sinful!

Because He is very good to them--they will be very bad to Him!

Because His justice now winks--men think He is blind!

Because He does not reprove them for their sins--therefore they think He approves them in their sins!

But JUSTICE will soon avenge the quarrel of abused mercy!

Oh! sinners, though the patience of God is lasting--it is not everlasting!

If by the warnings of God, you are not alarmed--you shall be consumed by His wrath!

The longer God is in raising His omnipotent arm--the heavier will be the blow when it comes!

The day that begins in mercy--may end in judgment!

God is silent for only so long; but know, that God has vials of wrath filled with indignation--for vessels of wrath fitted for destruction!

If God's mercy does not draw you to repentance--God's judgments will drive you to destruction!

The sea of damnation--shall not be sweetened with one drop of compassion!

"How will we escape--if we neglect such a great salvation!" Hebrews 2:3. If you neglect the great salvation--you cannot escape the great damnation!

Oh! sinners, think of this--before the bottomless pit has shut its mouth upon you!

(William Dyer, "Christ's Famous Titles")

Walking Along The Narrow Way!

2009-09-02T05:04:00.001+09:30

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction--and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life--and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

Walking along the Narrow Way, means for the heart and life to be constantly regulated by Christ's holy teaching. It denotes a steady perseverance in faith and obedience to the Lord Jesus; overcoming all opposition, rejecting every temptation to forsake the path of fidelity to Him. It is called the "Narrow Way" because all self-pleasing and self-seeking is shut out.

It is right here that the testing point is reached. Unto the natural man, it is much easier and far more pleasant--to indulge the flesh and follow our worldly propensities. The Broad Road, where the flesh is indulged--is easy, smooth, and attractive! But it ends in "destruction!" Though the "Narrow Way" leads to eternal life--but only FEW tread it.

Multitudes make a profession and claim to be saved--but their lives give no evidence that they are "strangers and pilgrims" here on earth, and that their "treasure" is in heaven. They are afraid of being thought narrow and strict. Satan has deceived them--they imagine that they can get to heaven by an easier route, than by . . .
denying self,
taking up their cross daily,
and following Christ!

There are multitudes of 'religionists' who are attempting to combine the two "ways," making the best of both worlds and serving two masters. They wish to gratify self in time--and enjoy the happiness of Heaven in eternity. Crowds of nominal Christians are deluding themselves into believing that they can do so--but they are terribly deceived!

The reason why so few will enter Eternal Life--is because the multitudes are not seeking it in the way of God's appointing! None seek it aright--but those who pass through the Narrow Gate--and who, despite many discouragements and falls, continue to press forward along the Narrow Way.

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction--and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life--and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

(Arthur Pink, "The Narrow Way")

Entering The Narrow Gate!

2009-09-01T16:39:00.001+09:30

"Make every effort to enter through the narrow gate, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Luke 13:24

Entering the Narrow Gate signifies the heart's acceptance of Christ's holy teaching. Ah, my friend, to really and actually enter this "Narrow Gate" is no easy matter! These words do not picture salvation as a thing of simple and easy attainment. That Jesus should utter such a statement, clearly implies that there are formidable difficulties and obstacles to be overcome, and that slothful nominal professors will surely not enter in.

Why is such striving necessary to "enter" the narrow gate?

First, because SATAN is striving to destroy your soul. "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour!" 1 Peter 5:8

Second, because natural appetites of the FLESH are striving to destroy you: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims--abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." 1 Peter 2:11

Third, because the whole WORLD is arrayed against you. It will seek to draw you by its alluring promises, its Delilah-like deceits, and fatal enticements. Unless you overcome the world, the world will overcome you to the eternal destruction of your soul.

From what has been before us, we may plainly discover why it is that the vast majority of our fellow-men, yes, and of professing Christians also, will fail to reach Heaven--it is because they prefer ...
sin, to holiness;
indulging the lusts of the flesh, to walking according to the Scriptures;
self, to Christ;
the world, to God.

Men refuse to ...
deny self,
abandon their idols, and
submit to Christ as Lord
--and without this, none can take the first step toward Heaven and enter through the narrow gate!

(Arthur Pink, "The Narrow Way")

He Will Do Right!

2009-08-30T21:56:00.003+09:30

Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18:25

When God saved Noah in the ark and destroyed the rest of the world’s inhabitants - He did right!

When God saved Lot and his daughters and destroyed Lot's wife and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah - He did right!

When God saved the first born of Israel during the Passover and destroyed the first born of all Egypt - He did right!

When God saved Peter who denied Christ and destroyed Judas who betrayed Christ - He did right!

When God redeemed one thief on the cross and destroyed the other - He did right!

When God judges everyone and convicts all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him - He will do right!

When God justifies the wicked that cast themselves upon Christ and destroys the wicked that reject Christ - He does right!

Whether God saves you or destroys you - He will do right!

There's Dust Enough!

2009-08-30T14:03:00.000+09:30

"There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write 'damnation' with your fingers." - Charles Spurgeon

Do You Wish To Be Made Clean?

2009-08-21T12:00:00.006+09:30

Jesus Christ did not come into the world to show sinners how to save themselves, he came to save sinners who could not help themselves.

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8

We so often want to rid ourselves of the leprosy of sin by the power of our own corrupt flesh, but in doing so we cut ourselves off from the only arm of Salvation - Jesus Christ. Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Can a dead man raise himself up, or a blind man restore his own sight? Neither can a sinful man purify himself! It is a physical impossibility!

Is the leprosy of sin still eating at the flesh of your soul? Do you wish to be made clean? Then see now leper in Mark 1:40 running to Jesus and join with him in his plea! Fall to your knees and beg Jesus saying, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."

Why will you not do that? Have you not seen what Jesus did for the leper? Have you not read that it was with compassion that Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man saying, "I am willing, be clean!" and immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Mark 1:41-42. Will he not also do that for you?

If you would but call on his name, if you would but run to him and cast yourself upon his mercy, you would see that he is a kind and compassionate saviour - both willing and able to make you clean!

How many lepers where there in Jesus day who would not come to Him out of pride?

These Are The Signs And Evidences!

2009-08-15T22:29:00.001+09:30

"Sense of sin and deep hatred of it, faith in Christ and love to Him, delight in holiness and longing after more of it, love for God’s people and distaste for the things of the world, – these are the signs and evidences which always accompany conversion." - J.C. Ryle

The Great Malady Of Sin!

2009-08-07T12:25:00.002+09:30

Sin is transgression of the law. In 1 John 3:4 we read "everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact sin is lawlessness". Now if that were a mere transgression of some abstract rule that God set forth for men to keep it would be bad enough, but we must rightly understand what the law is, more importantly who gives it, so that we may see the hideous nature of sin. The exceeding sinfulness of sin! Now the moral law of God, the commandments given to Israel on Sinai – the law which our consciences bear witness to - is not some arbitrary thing that God has created for us to live under – as if it were below him. Nor is it some higher overarching constraint above him which he himself must live up to. No, this law proceeds from the very being of God. It comes forth from the very character, the very nature of God. The law is what the law is because God is who God is. It is a tangible expression to us of his holy nature, his righteous character, his perfect will.

So when we say sin is transgression of the law we are saying that sin is disobedience to his perfect will, a disagreement with his divine character - a crime against God himself.

Sin is an affront to God. He distains it! It is a usurping of his will. It is a clench fisted, openly defiant rebellion against his rulership, his authority, his being. It is a joining with his enemies to tear him off the throne. It is evil intent and wicked practise.

Sin turned angels into devils, toppled our first parents in the garden of Eden and brought down a curse on all mankind. It brought down the great flood on Noah's generation, fire down on Sodom & Gomorrah, laid waste to a generation of Israelites in the wilderness, and will lay waste to us. As the scripture says, "the soul that sins shall die". Sin digs every grave!

Sin is the committal of the will to the principle and practise of pleasing self! I WILL DO WHAT I WANT TO DO! I will lie when I need to, steal what I want to, hate who I choose, lust for what I like, live how I please, get drunk when I want, sleep with whoever I will, spend what I get on my pleasures. It is the result of a heart that says "I will be the God of my own life. I will not bow down to you, Oh God, and I will certainly not do what you tell me to do!"

Sin has made its home in the heart of every man! We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are hell deserving sinners.

But Beware! God has promised that he will punish sin wherever it is found, and in whomever it is found. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" says the Lord.

The Heart Of The Gospel!

2009-07-29T16:53:00.000+09:30

"I have found, my brethren, by long experience that nothing touches the heart like the cross of Christ. When the heart is touched and wounded by the two-edged sword of the Law, nothing heals its wounds like the balm that flows from the pierced heart of Jesus." -The Heart of The Gospel, July 1886 by Charles. H. Spurgeon

Guilty Conscience? God Sees It!

2009-07-28T09:14:00.000+09:30

Their Condemnation Is Deserved!

2009-07-27T11:12:00.002+09:30

We have many men today who preach fact as though it were fiction, and fiction as though it were fact.

Sir, if you do not believe what you preach - get out of the pulpit! I don't care how popular you are! Popularity is not a benchmark of spirituality! Preach the truth or step down!

How many false prophets do we have who stand up and say "Thus saith the Lord" and then call bitter sweet and sweet bitter? Woe to them! They lead sheep astray and scatter the flock!

Their condemnation is deserved!

We Need A Revival In The Pulpit!

2009-07-25T11:05:00.001+09:30

Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen". I am convinced that this is the reason why the gospel is so little preached from many pulpits in this day and age! How can we preach about the One we have not believed in, or the One we have never met? Oh God, we need a revival amongst the people in this land, but more than that, we need a revival in the pulpit!

Am I A Soldier Of The Cross?

2009-07-21T05:26:00.001+09:30

Am I a soldier of the cross,
a follower of the Lamb,
and shall I fear to own his cause,
or blush to speak his name?

Must I be carried to the skies
on flowery beds of ease,
while others fought to win the prize,
and sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
to help me on to God?

Sure I must fight, if I would reign;
increase my courage, Lord.
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,
supported by thy word.

Thy saints in all this glorious war
shall conquer though they die;
they see the triumph from afar,
by faith they bring it nigh.

When that illustrious day shall rise,
and all thy armies shine
in robes of victory through the skies,
the glory shall be thine.

Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

Michael Jackson's REAL cause of death! [OFFICIAL]

2009-07-17T19:19:00.001+09:30

All You Could Do Was Look Up!

2009-07-08T12:00:00.003+09:30

Last night I took the kids down to feed some ducks by the river. While we were there a flock of a few hundred sulphur crested cockatoo's flew low overhead with a great chorus of screeching. It was breath taking! The sight was amazing and the sound deafening! All you could do was look up!

I couldn't help but think though of the Lord's return and the passage in Jude:

"See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts that they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him!"

Some will be filled with rapturous joy at the sight of their Lord and with the thought of dwelling with him for eternity, others will call to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

A Timely Warning For Hillsong!

2009-07-07T10:33:00.005+09:30

Concerning 'Handel's Messiah' John Newton wrote:

How shall we view the people of our times? I see the great mass of people involved in one common charge of high treason against the omnipotent God! They are already in a state of imprisonment, but have not yet been brought to their trial. The evidence against them is so plain, strong and pointed, that there is not the least doubt of their guilt being fully proved--and that nothing but a free pardon from God can preserve them from their deserved eternal punishment!

In this situation, it would seem in their best interest--to avail themselves of every expedient in their power for obtaining God's mercy. But they are entirely heedless of their imminent danger, and are wholly taken up with contriving methods of amusing themselves, that they may pass away the term of their imprisonment with as much cheerfulness as possible!

Among other resources, they call in the assistance of music--and they are particularly pleased with 'Handel's Messiah'. They choose to make:
the solemnities of their impending judgment,
the character of their Judge,
the methods of His procedure, and
the dreadful punishment to which they are exposed
--the themes of their musical entertainment!

And, as if they were quite unconcerned in the outcome--their attention is chiefly fixed upon the skill of the composer, in adapting the style of his music--to the very solemn subjects with which they are trifling!

The offended King, however, unasked by them, and out of His great mercy and compassion towards those who have no pity for themselves, sends them a gracious message. He assures them that He is unwilling that they should eternally perish; and that He requires, yes, He entreats them to submit to Him! He points out a way in which He offers them a free and a full pardon!

But, instead of taking a single step towards a compliance with His undeserved and gracious offer--they set His message to music! And this, together with a description of their present hopeless state, and of the fearful doom awaiting them if they continue obstinate, is sung for their entertainment, and accompanied with every kind of music!

Surely, if such a case as I have supposed, could be found in real life, though I might admire the musical taste of these people--I would certainly commiserate their stupidity and hardness of heart!

The Believer's Riches In Christ (From A-Z)

2009-07-02T15:31:00.001+09:30

I was greatly encouraged today by meditating on the following:

Accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6)
Born of God (I John 5:1)
Crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)
Delivered from the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13)
Enriched in everything in Him (I Corinthians 1:5)
Forgiven for Christ’s sake (Ephesians 4:32)
Grounded in love (Ephesians 3:17)
Hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)
Instructed in the way of the Lord (Acts 18:25)
Justified by His grace (Titus 3:7)
Kept by the power of God (I Peter 1:5)
Led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14)
Made nigh by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14)
Nourished in the words of faith (I Timothy 4:6)
Ordained to eternal life (Acts 13:48)
Perfected forever (Hebrews 10:14)
Quickened together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)
Redeemed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13)
Sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise (Ephesians 1:13)
Translated into the kingdom of His dear Son (Colossians 1:13)
Unreproveable in His sight (Colossians 1:22)
Victorious through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:57)
Washed from our sins in His own blood (Revelation 1:5)
X-alted in glory (Luke 18:14)
Yearned over by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26)
Zealous of good works (Titus 2:14)

From Higher Ground May 2008 Volume 3, Issue 2

My Question Is: Does Anybody Care?

2009-06-30T20:35:00.001+09:30

The Few from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

Vital Reality Or Virtual Reality?

2009-06-27T22:10:00.000+09:30

Do you have fellowship with God, or just fellowship with other people about God?

Trials Are Medicines!

2009-06-25T15:14:00.002+09:30

Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of various kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything!

- James 1:2-4

Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes, because we need them. He proportions the frequency and weight of them--to what our case requires. Let us trust in His skill--and thank Him for His prescription!

- John Newton

It's The Truth!

2009-06-07T15:24:00.000+09:30

Apart from Christ the only thing I can motivate a Just and Holy God to do is destroy me under the full force of His fierce wrath!

Why do you eat?

2009-06-03T20:16:00.001+09:30

Why do you eat? Because you are hungry!

Why are you hungry? Because you are dying!

The fact is, approximately 50,000 cells in your body will die and be replaced with new cells in the time it has taken you to read this sentence! The food we eat becomes the source of nutrients to continually build replacements for dying cells. It's hungry work!

What will happen if you do not eat? You will die!! It's not rocket science! Do I have to force you to eat? No, you do so because you know what will happen if you don't!

Likewise, if we take the time to walk people through the law of God so that they can see they are dying (the soul that sins shall die), then they will become hungry for the bread of life and appropriate it for themselves!

We will not have to encourage them to eat of it, bribe them, or force feed them! Nor will they not grow weary of the taste! They will freely take of it and eat with a grateful heart, thanking their Father in heaven for his loving kindness and mercy for providing such a rich and delightful fare!

Mr Cox's Museum

2009-05-28T09:34:00.003+09:30

In 1772 John Newton visited Mr Cox's Mechanical Museum - Here is his take on that!

Before you read his letter,
take a look at this short BBC piece on The Silver Swan.

The Silver Swan was used as a crowd puller in the Museum.

August, 1772
My dear Miss,
I received some instruction where I little expected it--at Mr. Cox's Museum. The efforts of his ingenuity amazed me--while at the same time I was struck with their insignificance. His fine things were curious beyond all I had any idea of; and yet what are they better than toys and amusements, suited to the taste of children! And notwithstanding the variety of their motions, they were all destitute of life.

There is unspeakably more wisdom and skill in the mechanism of a butterfly or a bee which flutters unnoticed in the fields--than in all his fancy apparatus put together! But the works of God are disregarded, while the feeble imitations of them which men can produce gain universal applause! If you and I could make self-moving lions and elephants, what would it profit us?

Blessed be God, that He has given us some glimpses of His wisdom and love--by which our hearts, more hard and lifeless by nature than the stones in the street--are constrained and enabled to move upwards, and to seek after Him. He has given us in His Word, a greater treasure than all that we ever beheld with our eyes, and a hope which shall flourish when the earth and all its works shall be burnt up! What will all the fine things of men's devising be worth on that day?

Red Hot, Unconventional, Unfettered Devotion!

2009-05-14T09:21:00.002+09:30

"Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture men from the devil's clutches and the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ."

- CT Studd

Lord, how little of that life I truly know - red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion! Please forgive me for being so lukewarm, for playing it safe, for all the times when cold, damp indifference creeps into my heart, for shutting up when I should speak up, for staying when I should go, for the time I have spent chasing after the wind and for all the work I attempt in the power of the flesh – which is really no power at all! Lord, if you are willing you can make me clean! Clean the marketplace of this world out of my heart! Oh that zeal for your house would consume me! This is my hearts desire - red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Life Is A Vapor! Live Like It!

2009-05-13T19:43:00.001+09:30

Why Don't People Come To Christ?

2009-05-11T20:56:00.001+09:30

Thought For The Day!

2009-05-10T01:26:00.001+09:30

God is slow to anger and abounding in much love. Man is slower to repent and abounding in much foolishness!

Saved From Free Fall!

2009-05-05T15:19:00.003+09:30

If breaking God's law is like jumping out of a plane, then attempting to save oneself through keeping it is like trying to climb back in. Impossible! The law of gravity will not allow it!

As gravity will see to it that a man is hurtled to earth, so God's eternal Justice will see to it that an unrepentant sinner is thrown in hell. It does not matter how hard a man strives, he cannot soar to the heights of the righteous requirements of the law - it can not be done! Though he may try to fly with the birds, he is not much more than a madman running around the park, flailing his arms and squawking like a bird.

Man has as much hope of saving himself as does a spider’s web of stopping a falling rock!

But what is impossible with man is possible with God!

When a man, fast free falling into the pit of hell, comes to the end of himself and stops trying to flap his arms, but rather, cries out for mercy to the only one who can save him - then, and only then, will he look up and see the parachute of our Lord Jesus Christ unfold above him.

Behold the sight!

And how do you describe the feeling of relief that you feel when you see his blood spread out like a canopy above you, arresting your descent into destruction and carrying you, by the harness of His grace, safely to His side?

Joy? Relief? Gratitude? Yes, all of these and much more!

And what is your response? Do you want to cut the cords of grace and dive headlong again into the free fall of sin? By no means! To suggest such is sheer stupidity! No man in his right mind, having passed from death to life, would willingly cut himself free and fall to his destruction! No, a man saved from sure death, will, from joy over, sing praises to his Saviour and resolutely determine to serve and worship Him all the days of his life!

The Firstborn Donkey: Free From Universal Law?

2009-05-04T09:06:00.001+09:30

"You must redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb. But if you do not redeem it--you must kill the donkey by breaking its neck!" Exodus 34:20

Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's--but since the donkey was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice to Him. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means! God admits of no exceptions. The donkey is His due--but He will not accept it; He will not abate the claim--but yet He cannot be pleased with the unclean victim. No way of escape remained, but redemption--the donkey must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die!

My soul, here is a lesson for you! That unclean donkey is yourself! You are justly the property of the Lord who made you and preserves you--but you are so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept you! It has come to this--the Lamb of God must stand in your stead--or you must die eternally! Let all the world know of your gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has died for you, and so redeemed you from the fatal curse of the law!

Must it not sometimes have been a question with the Israelite, as to which should die--the donkey or the lamb? Would not the man pause to estimate and compare the values of these animals? Assuredly there was no comparison between the value of a sinful man--and the spotless Lord Jesus! Yet the Lamb dies--and man the donkey is spared! My soul, admire the boundless love of God to you! Vile worms are bought--with the blood of the holy Lamb of God! Dust and ashes are redeemed--with a price far above silver and gold! What a doom would have been mine--had not plenteous redemption been found!

The breaking of the neck of the donkey was but a momentary penalty. But who shall measure the eternal wrath to come--to which no limit can be imagined! Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb--who has redeemed me from such a doom!

- Charles Spurgeon

God Sends Rain On The Unjust!

2009-04-26T05:29:00.002+09:30

As I sit here downloading some sermons by AW Tozer, replying to comments over on Fish With Trish and listening to the melodious sound of the rain falling outside, I thank God that He sends His rain on both the just and the unjust! If He only sent rain for the just, we'd all have died of thirst long ago!

More than that, I thank God that He did not send His One and Only Son for the just but the unjust! For apart from Him we would all perish! He is the living water for a soul lost in the desert of his own iniquity! A safe harbour for helpless vessels in the stormy sea of transgression!

Lest We Forget

2009-04-25T08:04:00.003+09:30

I received this SMS from a brother who has served in the Australian Defence Force.

Think of all the Aussie soldiers stories of how courageous, bold, sacrifical, willing to fight to death, such intimate close unity with each other, take orders without analysing their commander, but just listening properly and doing what they said no matter what the cost. Well how much "MORE" so can we be for God in courage, boldness, unity, sacrificial, obedient, all through what He did on the cross, and He has given us His Spirit to live in us forever to help us in everyway, all for Gods glory, to bring glory to the mighty name of Jesus!

Was thinking what Jesus would do on a day like today. He'd prob say something like- "soldiers on earth deserve honor for fighting for their country, but how much more so for the soldier's of Christ who follows Him through all trials and temptations- honor that will last for eternity, because they are in Christ, covered with the blood of Jesus".

"Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer." 2 Timothy 2:3-4

A Product Of The Modern Gospel!

2009-04-21T22:32:00.003+09:30

Everything Revolves Around What He Did!

2009-04-17T20:01:00.000+09:30

In September 2006, Petty Officer Michael Monsoor, 25, of Garden Grove California, fell on a grenade that landed on a rooftop in Ramadi, where he and two other Navy SEALs were stationed as part of a sniper team. Monsoor saved the lives of the other two.

When interviewed, a 29-year-old Navy SEAL lieutenant who declined to be identified, replied, "You think about him every day. And everything pretty much revolves around what he did!"

Isn't it amazing - a man can jump on a grenade to save his mates and his sacrifice turns their lives upside down, yet there are many who claim an interest in Christ's sacrifice but have no regard for Him, think little of Him and have no desire to pour out their lives for Him. My friends, this should not be! When someone dies for you it changes everything! Your whole world is tipped on its head! Not only are you eternally grateful, you owe your very life to Him!

Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation, the perfect sinless Son of God who took all our sin upon Himself and was crushed under the wrath of a Just & Holy God, who saves all those who believe on Him from being destroyed... if he did that for you, and you know it, you will not remain cold and indifferent!

The Law Is A Defibrillator!

2009-04-17T06:53:00.000+09:30

The law is a defibrillator for shocking dead people into a state of consciousness in order to give them the life saving gospel. We are to be the paramedics that never give up. Defibrillating someone until they "come to" (a place of the consciousness of sin, repentance and faith) or God calls the time and they pass from here into eternity.

A mate of mine is an Ambo and a while ago he told me about an incident in which he tried to resuscitate an elderly lady. Covered in sweat, aching back and arms they worked on her until the doctor called her dead.

On reflection, we should be like that. Labouring until sweat forms on our brow, until our joints ache doing all we can to awaken the conscience, and bring a pulse of concern to the flat lined, unregenerate, God hating heart.

Rowan & Aaron

2009-04-16T15:36:00.002+09:30

This is a shout out to two blokes I had the pleasure of witnessing to today - Aaron & Rowan. Guys, if you happen to drop by the blog - thank you for taking the time to talk with me about the things of eternity!

Rowan, if you get some time, please have a read of this: The Execution

Aaron, you mentioned that you have heard it all before but it just doesn't make sense, the penny never dropped. Please have a read of these two poems: Tis Good News and When The Penny Drops

Guys I pray that God will open your eyes to the truth - you cannot save yourself! No amount of trying will make you good in his eyes! But God has made a way of salvation for you!! If you would but repent (turn from your unbelief, your life of living to please self) and put your trust in Jesus Christ - He can save you! But if you keep on going the way you are headed, there is a day of reckoning coming. A day where you will have to stand before a just and Holy God to give an account of your life!

Please take some time to check these things out! I don't want you guys to blow it!

Half A Gospel Is No Gospel At All!

2009-04-14T11:39:00.000+09:30

Jesus Died!

2009-04-10T14:13:00.001+09:30

Jesus Died! - Paul Washer from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

That Which Is Most Needed!

2009-04-06T21:36:00.000+09:30

That which is most needed by all of us in order to a better understanding of Divine things is not a brilliant intellect, but a truly humble heart and a teachable spirit, and for that we would daily and fervently pray, for we possess it not by nature. - AW Pink

Few Love The Cross Of Jesus!

2009-04-06T09:10:00.000+09:30

JESUS has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus -- love that is flee from all self-interest and self-love!

Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands.

If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: "When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: 'we are unprofitable servants.'"

Then he will be truly poor and stripped in spirit, and with the prophet may say: "I am alone and poor." No one, however, is more wealthy than such a man; no one is more powerful, no one freer than he who knows how to leave all things and think of himself as the least of all.

(THE INTERIOR LIFE - Thomas Ë Kempis)

Street Evangelism

2009-04-05T13:23:00.005+09:30

I just received this email from a brother here in Adelaide! As you read this email I pray that you will be strengthened, encouraged, rebuked, challenged... God knows where you are at!

Hi all,

I thought I would pass on this update from the evangelism happening here in Adelaide, for much needed prayer, and to keep you all posted on the battle; this is taken from www.myspace.com/unprofitableservants

Tonight was one spiritual battle to say the least!

"Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth have set themselves, the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." - Psalm 2:1-4

This Psalm has summed up my views perfectly regarding evangelism in Adelaide. We don't live in a religiously 'free' country. Your rights are raped right before your eyes and you don't even see it. The strong language is warranted by the strong opposition of the prince of the power of the air to our Gospel mission!

I felt quite unwilling to go into evangelize tonight. People often think I must be some fire-brand who never hides away into fear - this is far from true. I was quite cowardly, not wanting to go in and reach the lost, until my wife rebuked me and told me I was a debtor to all men. Realizing my obligation I decided to go, but still didn't feel that I could. We arrived and started handing out tracts while some of the guys played some Paul Washer gospel messages. They walked away when we had word police were on the way, at this time, Celeste and I begun talking to a guy in his forties who was clearly stoned or drugged. He was very arrogant, and wouldn't suffer us to say one thing to him, he began to speak so loud that it was almost loud enough to preach and everyone around was watching him as he ridiculed us and mocked God.

I asked him, "Are you going to let us speak at all or are you going to keep on blabbering like a crazy man?" He swore his head off, got real angry and ripped the tract we gave him, so we walked away. This was quite frightening really, because the guy was almost inhuman the way he wouldn't let us say one word - which led me to believe the devil was involved somehow (without being super-spiritual - we are in a spiritual battle).

We then saw about 60 or more people from the Potters House group march down the mall shouting 'crucify him!' as a man was dressed as Jesus carrying a cross with fake blood all over him. It was beautiful to see such a strong and bold declaration of the CROSS in Rundle Mall. I could tell hell was raging in anger as Christ was exalted. Shortly following this, we caught up with the guys playing Paul Washer sermon jams and then the cops caught them. The police officer refused to give a receipt for the amplifier he was using (which is illegal - if police confiscate an item, they must provide a receipt - otherwise it is STEALING - by law). The officer would not yield a receipt, so Caleb refused to leave without one, and so they arrested him. Pulling some police trick on him, they pretended to make it look like he was 'resisting arrest' and so they pummelled him into the ground face first and was wrestling with him on the ground. The officer had grazes all down his arm afterward.

Josh held his hands out and asked the police to arrest him too, and so they did. Caleb and Josh were singing hymns in the patrol wagon as it drove down Rundle Mall, and all the passerbyers heard the hymns. I went to the end of the mall to preach beside Pulteney St, when the Potters House were there boldly proclaiming the Gospel. We went outside the Myer Centre to preach and Daniel kicked it off. After about half an hour, I hopped up and two ladies were watching me with sly smiles on their faces. One of them looked like a lesbian so I begun to preach from 1 Corinthians 6:9,10. They approached me and asked if I was condemning them. I took them to John 3:18 which says they are 'condemned already' - all I can do is show them they are. I then bluntly asked if they were lesbians to which one of them responded quite shocked, "We're sisters excuse me!" I felt quite stupid for a moment, but in actual fact, sisters or not - they were lesbians, as we found out later. Their conviction of sin led them to cover it up.

It was quite a sad conversation, the lady grabbed my hand looked into my eyes from her eyes that were so cold and full of darkness and emptiness and asked me if God loved me anymore than he loved her lesbian friend. I asked her, "Which God?" She said "You're God". I said, "Who is my God?" She said "God", to which I replied, "No, the God of the Bible". I said this because she didn't want me to share scripture, she wanted my opinion from the heart. I told her my opinion from the heart was wedded to the Word of God and that if she is asking me questions about God, she is asking about the God of the Bible, hence, I must turn to Scripture. I begun sharing with her the Gospel, and named many sins I felt she was living in. It was quite sad, because when I shared with her how God crucified, slaughtered his only Son for her sin she proudly struts in, tears welled up in her eyes - but her love for sin captivated her more than love for God.

She then started telling us that she used to go to a Pentecostal church (in England). She told us she was angry that they always wanted money, wanted bank account numbers, wanted 10% of her income. I told her flat out that's not in the Bible. She told me the Old Testament does mention 10%, to which I replied, "Yes, the OLD covenant, we are in the NEW". I was so angry at prosperity pimping churches at this point, places like Hillsong and Paradise and Edge Church. This is the damage they do - but it got worse. She then told me that when she was 7 years on (for about 5 years in duration) she was raped continually by an older man. She told us she prayed every night for deliverance and it didn't come. "Where was God!?" she said. I told her He was there, and that her issue was not one of God's answer, but the timing of the answer. God obviously delivered her, as she is no longer being raped, and yet the answer did not come as quickly as she hoped.

No wonder she is a lesbian now, she must think men are carnivorous evil-doing machines, (which they are by the way, without Christ). I pleaded with her to get right with God, but she left hand in hand with her partner. It was very sad, we prayed for them. This is the deal with street evangelism: you don't know who might be the next rapist in your city. The next murderer. The next hoon to kill himself on a stobie pole. You don't know. They MAY just be in the mall that night. Street evangelism is so much broader and deeper than invitational evangelism. You can invite friends and lost associates to church or youth group, but that is so limited. You are limited to one time a week (Sunday), you are limited to only a few people to get along - really, it's not profitable. It's not wrong - but it's not profitable. On the streets, you can share the Gospel with hurting people like this woman was, you can meet them face to face, eye to eye with what they need to hear, and only fools mock at the lack of results. Who are we to say there is none? God giveth the increase. Wesley testified that God most often hides from our eyes that part we play in the conversion of others - lest we boast in it. He concludes that if we are groaning in prayer for a soul, and that soul comes to Christ, then our prayer no-doubt had to do with it.

Street evangelism is real evangelism. I remember witnessing to a girl aged 15, not really a good friend, but someone I knew and had spent time with; Carly Ryan. I remember one night being on my knees before God in my room on Folland Ave, Northgate (where I used to live). I felt God burden me with calling up all the unsaved people I was spending time with, and witnessing to them. I remember I called up about 10 people that night, one of them was Carly. She was at a sleepover, and I tried to share the Gospel with her, but it didn't last long until she started saying '666' and 'hail satan'. They hung up after 14 minutes. I got on my knees and prayed fervently for them after the call, because my God is stronger than them. Shortly after, I bumped into Carly in the mall, she had a new boyfriend. I told her to watch out for guys wanting to use her body for their own satisfaction, and said sex is for marriage. She blushed and didn't really know what to say, and retreated into her friends. When I was leaving she ran up to me and gave me a hug, then I told her that I didn't want to seem weird or a fanatic, but that I told her those things because I cared for her, she smiled and sighed and said, 'ok'. That was last I saw of her. Three months later I was sitting in a coffee shop by myself off Pirie St reading the newspaper reporting of a girl, aged 15, with red in her hair, found washed up on the beach at Horseshoe bay, Victor Harbor. I thought nothing of it, until the next night at youth group I get a phone call telling me that Carly Ryan was raped and drowned when spending time with two men, one a teenager, the other quite older. Her face was on the front page of the newspapers for almost a week, and the story continued for weeks. God cared enough about Carly Ryan, loved her enough, to give her warnings. You know, Celeste and I have talked about this many times, and we truly believe, if God's sovereign hand was pleased to do it, that in those moments during her rape, in those moments when these guys were beating her up, in those moments when she was under the water, life flashing before her eyes, hands around her neck, drowning her - if she had remembered our words? If she had cried out for Christ to save her? God is sovereign. I trust it may be true. God really challenged me to ask myself if I had been fervent enough in witnessing? If I had been real enough, challenging enough, if I really plead enough with her to come to Christ? Or, even worse, what if I neglected to share with her? What if she had died and I had failed to give her evangelistic witness under the banner of 'relational evangelism' and spent time to build a friendship? It doesn't work. We must share the Gospel. I remember preaching about this at college and telling people now is the time to go all out with evangelism. After my sermon, the worship leader gets up and strumming a nice emotional tune says, 'Yes, Forbes was challenging this morning, we need to evangelize - but I really challenge you, DON'T SAY ANYTHING to your neighbours and friends, just be an EXAMPLE." Talk about a mouthpiece for satan if I ever heard one. Almost like my sermon went in one ear and out the other. The church is full of rebels like this, who indifferently snub away the Gospel's call to others, while they sleep at night, people in their community are on their way to hell. Carly Ryan to me, was an example of how we can't stop evangelizing. Who am I to sit at home because I don't feel like going out - when there are girls like her out there, next on someones' list. Will we stay home because we are tired? Because it is winter and cold? Because the police are onto us? Because the council wants to get rid of us? Because it may mean spending a few hours to the weekend in the city watchouse? To be honest, I for one, as long as the Lord wills, am not going cease to preach and teach Jesus in the mall for this reason secondly, firstly is for God's glory.

Who are the Carly Ryan's in your life? People you bump into every now and again. People who sit in the pew next to you on Sunday but have never truly been saved? People at your local high school? Working in the shops you shop at week in and week out? What are you afraid of? In the words of Leonard Ravenhill;

"Why are our feet so leaden in moving to the rescue of these who move relentlessly by the edge of eternity, and whose one step into it will seal their doom? Why is there at present amongst us this criminal indifference to the lostness of men? And criminal it is! Have we nothing to communicate? Is our living so inconsistent with our telling?Are we pitiably unsure of the truth of the Bible concerning the lost? Are we so stony-hearted that neither God's promises nor God's threats disturb us? What octopus has us in its grip? Where will our spiritual polio, our slovenly attention to divine truth land us - and others?
Ask yourselves these soul-searching questions:
Why don't we attack?
Why do we fear?
Why do we hesitate?
What chills our urgency?
Have we nothing to communicate?
Are we unsure of our own Biblical knowledge?
Do we lack personal assurance of salvation?
Are we unconvinced that the sinners stand in jeopardy of an eternal hell?
Witnessing is not optional, but obligatory. We Christians are debtors."
- L. Ravenhill, 'Why this suffocating indifference' and 'We need a baptism of Holy Anger' chapters from 'Sodom had no Bible' (1979 Bethany House publishers).

Following this conversation with the ladies, a young black African man came up, he seemed to enjoy my preaching, 'very biblical' he said. He proceed to ask me questions about the Bible, and he knew a lot of verses off by heart and their references. For a moment I was impressed; until I realized he was trying to get me to talk theology with him over whether to worship on the Sabbath day or not. He wouldn't' let me get a word in - so I thought I'd ask him a question to examine where his heart was; and proceed to ask if he would rather debate theology with me and in doing so stop me from preaching the Gospel of salvation, or if he would like to witness to people who might die tonight? He ignored the question and proceeded with his spiel and so I passed him over to Sam to deal with while I kept preaching the Gospel to the people who were still hanging around.

The devil loves to use any form of distraction he can. He is a master of deceit. We must not be ignorant of his devices. We must not deceive ourselves into thinking he is not out to get us. If the power of the Holy Ghost is upon to witness (Acts 1:8), then he will be onto us. He roams like a lion, seeking to devour. When he finds someone sold out to the Gospel, sold out to the evangelization of our nation, sold out to sacrifice, like Paul was, the demons will testify, 'Jesus and I know, and Paul I know...' - do the demons say of you, 'Jesus and I know and (your name here) I know???' or do they say to you, like they said to the seven sons of Sceva, 'Jesus I know and Paul I know but WHO ARE YE?' - Acts 19:15.

When the Christians came out of the upper room - all hell knew they'd arrived. The devil lost 3000 of his captives that day. Only a short time following, another 2000 captives of satan were brought from darkness to light. This sheds some light on whether or not satan has a cause to fear in this day - but I'll tell you this, he has learned from history. John Wesley has scarred him, Whitefield has thrashed him, Luther scourged him - all because God possessed the men! God shook nations through the men! And the pages of history cannot be erased. The devil knows what the firstfruits of an awakening look like - more than we, or even Jonathan Edwards knows. Hence, he will be as committed to pulling us down as we are committed to going out - but only as LONG as we put up a fight. The apostles of Acts chapter 4 and 5 put a fight. Their faithfulness led angels to lead them out of prison, even Paul and Silas blasted the prison walls with the dynamite of prayer. The prisons would never forget those men. The Philippian jailor had no choice but to cry out for salvation. The Gospel is needed in the jails as much as in the streets - so blessed be God wherever we land. "Who will go for us?"

"I feel a love constraining me,
To go and seek the lost,
I yield, My Lord, my all to Thee,
To save at any cost." Selah

Preach With Your Sword!

2009-03-30T00:25:00.001+10:30

It is the job of all God's men to take the sharp two edged sword of the word of truth and plunge it deep into the heart of man. If man is to die to self before he can be born again, then let us with steady hand, aim straight and with all our loving might, sink in the blade up to the hilt!

The Atheist!

2009-03-29T22:07:00.000+10:30

God has made it clear in his word that an atheist but a man who will neither glorify Him, nor give thanks to Him! His thinking has become futile and his foolish heart is darkened! He claims to be wise, but he has become a fool! He spends his days gathering in his tattered bag a few worthless trinkets from this fallen age, and while doing so overlooks the pearl of great price! He has most willingly allowed himself to be blinded by the false eternal! Deceived into living for a few pleasures in this fallen, evil age, he trades his birthright for a bowl of soup! He blindly sends his eternal, immortal soul to hell while he spends his days chasing after the wind! He does not see that his life is a mist, a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. There is no fear of God before his eyes, though it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God has given him a conscience, yet he sears it as with a hot iron in his continued rebellion. He is an enemy of God through his unbelief, suppressing the truth through his wicked works – and although he knows God’s righteous decree that all who do such things deserve eternal punishment, he not only continues to do these very things, but also approves of those who practice them. Yet God is patient with him, not wishing that any should perish, but that all would repent and cry out to Him for salvation. The very fact that these many years he has kept him from peril, granting him each new day an opportunity to repent, is a testament to His great mercy and loving kindness! The grace of God that has been extended to us has been extended to him also! But this will not always be the case. One day the hand outstretched to draw him in will be retracted, and the upheld hand that holds back the penalty of the law will lowered, and the atheist will be swept away under the wrath of God by his own iniquity and sins. Dear atheist, if God did not want to save you he would not have sent you a Saviour to be slaughtered on the cross for your sins. If God did not want to save you He would have brought justice down on you the minute you first broke His law. If God did not want to save you He would not be leading you to blogs like this, bringing you into the hearing of the gospel. Dear Atheist, I am no better! I do not deserve the grace that has been given me, yet He has saved me and He can save you too! Seek Him now while He may be found, because when you breathe your last breath and step out from time into eternity you will find yourself standing before a just and Holy God who will give you what your sins deserve! There will be no excuse, you have heard the gospel, you have heard of His Son - Jesus Christ - sent as an atoning sacrifice to save you, but if you reject that mercy - how do you expect to escape? How shall you escape if you neglect so great a Salvation?

Others May, You Cannot!

2009-03-29T08:31:00.000+10:30

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
(Matthew 16:24-25)

If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.

God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.

So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.

God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.

By G.D. Watson

We Must Hang On His Word!

2009-03-28T10:41:00.000+10:30

Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.
Luke 19:47-48

A few thoughts:

1. Jesus was always about his Father's business, it wasn't a Sunday morning and Wednesday night deal! And it wasn't just something he did either, it was who he was! He poured out his life in service for the Father - ought not we do the same? Ought not we pour out our lives in the service of the One who loved us to death, even death on a cross? Can we say as Him, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."

2. His words broke the proud of heart, and bound the broken hearted. Brought sinners to repentance and condemned the self righteous! His words were full of authority, truth and life. Wisdom poured forth in his speech. The people hung on his every word - ought not we do the same? One greater than Solomon has come, who's words are full of grace and truth, yet do we hear him? Do we heed him? Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says... Listen to what He says so that it would never be said about you - "Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?"

3. The truth will anger the proud hearted, self righteous individual. Anyone who thinks he is something, when he is nothing, will hate those who point that out to him! They hate the truth because it contradicts what they do, say and think, and like an axe to the root it cuts them down. The Pharisees prided themselves in their ability to see, but Christ showed them they were blind. They prided themselves in their keeping of the law, but Christ showed them that not only did they break the law, but they neglected the weightier matters - love, justice, mercy. They hated Christ because He was full of truth and life, and they were hypocrites, full of darkness and death! Ought not we speak the truth as Christ? Yes! God has commanded us to speak the truth! Whatever light you have received from Him, whatever revelation of the truth, let it shine from a stand so that those around may see His goodness, and turn and seek His face!

4. While we are hanging onto the Words of Christ the enemy has a difficult time finding a way to shipwreck our faith. His goal is to destroy Christ (if that were possible!) and cause as many as could be deceived into crucifying for themselves the Son of God! He will do all he can to tempt them away from the Word - and those he cannot draw away from it's hearing, he will blind them to its understanding!

We must lash ourselves to the Word of God! Meditate on it day and night! Get it deep down into our hearts, think much upon it and never let it depart from our lips!

The man who spends his time in the water of God's Word will be like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and who's leaf does not wither. When the hot noon day sun of tribulation beats down upon his back he will not wither and fall, on the contrary, he will experience great growth and bring forth much fruit to the Father's glory!

5. In order for the deceiver, the antichrist, to appear and deceive many, the many must lose sight of the true Christ! There are many in this day and age who are not hanging on the Words of Christ! They know not his voice, they know not the Truth! No one who knows the genuine article will trade it for a cheap imitation! No one who knows the true Shepherd will follow the voice of a stranger - his speech will sound strange and foreign to them. His philosophies vain and shallow! He will be as one from the world and speak to them from the viewpoint of the world and the world will listen to him, but it will strike a discord with the living Word that lives inside every true believer. His words are Truth and they are life! We must hang onto the Words of Christ like a man in a swollen river hangs onto the rope of his rescuers!