Milo

November 16

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb … and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Rev. 12:11.)

WHEN James and John came to Christ with their mother, asking Him to give them the best place in the kingdom, He did not refuse their request, but told them it would be given to them if they could do His work, drink His cup, and be baptized with His baptism.
Do we want the competition? The greatest things are always hedged about by the hardest things, and we, too, shall find mountains and forests and chariots of iron. Hardship is the price of coronation. Triumphal arches are not woven out of rose blossoms and silken cords, but of hard blows and bloody scars. The very hardships that you are enduring in your life today are given by the Master for the explicit purpose of enabling you to win your crown.
Do not wait for some ideal situation, some romantic difficulty, some far-away emergency; but rise to meet the actual conditions which the providence of God has placed around you today. Your crown of glory lies embedded in the very heart of these things—those hardships and trials that are pressing you this very hour, week and month of your life. The hardest things are not those that the world knows of. Down in your secret soul unseen and unknown by any but Jesus, there is a little trial that you would not dare to mention, that is harder for you to bear than martyrdom.
There, beloved, lies your crown. God help you to overcome, and sometime wear it.—Selected.

“It matters not how the battle goes,
  The day how long;
Faint not! Fight on!
  Tomorrow comes the song.”

16 NOVEMBER

Advice to those weak in the faith

‘Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.’ Malachi 3:16
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 1 Thessalonians 2:17–3:13

My chief business is at present with those who are awakened and seeking the Lord’s salvation. I would earnestly advise you to be after speaking one to another. I address myself to those who are weak in the faith. You have many complaints, fears and troubles, but is not their increase and continuance owing to your fault? If you were to mix freely with the Lord’s people you would find many helps which you now deprive yourselves of. You would find that the trials which you think peculiar to yourselves, are common to others. You would be helped by the advice and the prayers of those who know how to pity you. Many are kept by a false humility. They are deceived; there is much of self-will in it. Some are afraid of making a profession, but what a poor excuse is this—not intend, never, to make a profession! Surely you have not considered our Lord’s words in Luke 12:8 [Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God]. But perhaps you are afraid, lest after joining more publicly you should fall back and dishonour the gospel. I think a fear of bringing a reproach upon God’s ways is a good fear and a good sign—but if you are really afraid of falling back you ought rather to join with those who might be helpful to you. Do you expect to be stronger or more comfortable by yourselves?
FOR MEDITATION:
Often thy public means of grace,
But we from such assaults are freed,
Thy thirsty people’s watering place,
Can pray, and sing, and hear, and read,
The archers have beset;
And meet, and part, in peace:
Attacked them in thy house of prayer,
May we our privileges prize,
To prison dragged, or to the bar,
In their improvement make us wise,
When thus together met.
And bless us with increase.

SERMON: MALACHI 3:16–17 [4/5]

November 15th

What is that to thee?

Lord, what shall this man do?… What is that to thee? Follow thou Me. John 21:21, 22.

One of our severest lessons comes from the stubborn refusal to see that we must not interfere in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s order for others. You see a certain person suffering, and you say—‘He shall not suffer, and I will see that he does not.’ You put your hand straight in front of God’s permissive will to prevent it, and God says—“What is that to thee?” If there is stagnation spiritually, never allow it to go on, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. Possibly you will find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another; proposing things you had no right to propose; advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit; your part is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all the time for the blessing of another soul.
Most of us live on the borders of consciousness—consciously serving, consciously devoted to God. All this is immature, it is not the real life yet. The mature stage is the life of a child which is never conscious; we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness of being used never enters in. When we are consciously being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, there is another stage to be reached, where all consciousness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God.

November 15

“Pressed out of measure.” (2 Cor. 1:8.)
“That the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor. 12:9.)

GOD allowed the crisis to close around Jacob on the night when he bowed at Peniel in supplication, to bring him to the place where he could take hold of God as he never would have done; and from that narrow pass of peril, Jacob became enlarged in his faith and knowledge of God, and in the power of a new and victorious life.
God had to compel David, by a long and painful discipline of years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness of his God, and grow up into the established principles of faith and godliness, which were indispensable for his glorious career as the king of Israel.
Nothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed could ever have taught him, and taught the Church through him, the full meaning of the great promise he so learned to claim, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some of us to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have, and to draw from Him the measures of grace which our very extremities made indispensable.
Difficulties and obstacles are God’s challenges to faith. When hindrances confront us in the path of duty, we are to recognize them as vessels for faith to fill with the fullness and all-sufficiency of Jesus; and as we go forward, simply and fully trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to wait and let patience have her perfect work; but we shall surely find at last the stone rolled away, and the Lord waiting to render unto us double for our time of testing.—A. B. Simpson.

15 NOVEMBER

The Lord hears

‘Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.’ Malachi 3:16–17
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 65:17–25

Methinks the principal motive I can urge for speaking often to one another should be that in my text: the Lord’s gracious and condescending acceptance. He—he!—hearkened and heard. It is mentioned as giving him pleasure. Though encompassed with the songs of angels he does not disdain our poor remembrance of him. A book was written. This is spoken after the manner of men, who write what they would not have forgot. We forget what passes upon these occasions, but he will not. He acknowledges it as a mark of his children: they shall be mine, says the LORD. Surely if this will not stir us up, nothing will. The Lord hears our discourses and sees all intimacies. Let them trouble that spend their time in vain company and vain conversation. He has a book for you too, and it will be opened against you in the great day. Now you laugh and play, but then you shall mourn and weep. If you do not fear the Lord now, you will fear him then. Though you think not of his name at present, you will think of him when he calls you to give an account of every idle word.
FOR MEDITATION:
When sinners utter boasting words,
For they, by faith, a day descry,
And glory in their shame;
And joyfully expect,
The LORD, well-pleased, an ear affords
When he, descending from the sky,
To those who fear his name.
His jewels will collect.

They often meet to seek his face,
Assembled worlds will then discern
And what they do, or say,
The saints alone are blest;
Is noted in his book of grace
When wrath shall like an oven burn,
Against another day.
And vengeance strike the rest.

SERMON: MALACHI 3:16–17 [3/5]