Milo

November 1

“When the cloud tarried … then the children of Israel … journeyed not.” (Num. 9:19.)

THIS was the supreme test of obedience. It was comparatively easy to strike tents, when the fleecy folds of the cloud were slowly gathering from off the Tabernacle, and it floated majestically before the host. Change is always delightful; and there was excitement and interest in the route, the scenery, and the locality of the next halting-place. But, ah, the tarrying.
Then, however uninviting and sultry the location, however trying to flesh and blood, however irksome to the impatient disposition, however perilously exposed to danger—there was no option but to remain encamped.
The Psalmist says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” And what He did for the Old Testament saints He will do for believers throughout all ages.
Still God often keeps us waiting. Face to face with threatening foes, in the midst of alarms, encircled by perils, beneath the impending rock. May we not go? Is it not time to strike our tents? Have we not suffered to the point of utter collapse? May we not exchange the glare and heat for green pastures and still waters?”
There is no answer. The cloud tarries, and we must remain, though sure of manna, rock-water, shelter, and defense. God never keeps us at post without assuring us of His presence, and sending us daily supplies.
Wait, young man, do not be in a hurry to make a change! Minister, remain at your post! Until the cloud clearly moves, you must tarry. Wait, then, thy Lord’s good pleasure! He will be in plenty of time!—Daily Devotional Commentary.

  An hour of waiting!
Yet there seems such need
  To reach that spot sublime!
I long to reach them—but I long far more
  To trust HIS time!

  “Sit still, my daughter”—
Yet the heathen die,
  They perish while I stay!
I long to reach them—but I long far more
  To trust HIS way!

  ’Tis good to get,
’Tis good indeed, to give!
  Yet is it better still—
O’er breadth, thro’ length, down length, up height,
  To trust HIS will!

—F. M. N.

1 NOVEMBER

The reproach of the gospel

‘… Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.’ John 3:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 5:12–33

Our Lord foretold that his gospel, after his ascension, would meet with the same reception as his person, that those who preached in his name should do the same works which he did, or even greater, that they should be chiefly owned (as he was) by the poor and ignorant, and generally rejected by those who were in most esteem with the world for their seeming goodness, or their rank in life. We find his words fulfilled. As the scribes and the Pharisees, who professed great regard to the Scriptures, taught the people falsehood from truth, and opposed Christ, so in many countries called Christian there is a sort of doctrine generally taught which cannot be from God because it is attended with no mighty works, nor does it glorify Jesus, which is the great object of the Christian ministry. But here and there another sort of preaching prevails which tends to lay low the haughty looks of man, that the Lord alone may be exalted. It proclaims a feast of good things for the hungry, but sends those who are rich and wise in their own conceits empty away. But wherever this is heard the world is presently in an uproar. It is charged with licentiousness, folly and madness. The preachers and believers of it are loaded with reproach, and all who are disposed to hear it are either pitied as out of their wits, or opposed as if they had been guilty of some great crime. However there are such mighty effects attending it as lead some before they hear it to reason as Nicodemus—Surely it must be of God, or else how can these things be?

FOR MEDITATION: I conceive therefore, that an upright, conscientious man cannot, by the most circumspect and prudent behaviour, wholly avoid the censure and dislike of the world, so far as his religious principles are concerned, and he is determined to square his life according to the precepts and spirit of the gospel. He must expect to be misunderstood by some, and misinterpreted by others. For in a degree, and upon some occasions at least, all who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution.
John Newton to William Wilberforce, 1 November 1787

[in reply to advice sought as the MP set out to abolish the slave trade]

SERMON SERIES: JOHN 3:1–2, NO. 2 [2/6]

October 31st

Discernment of faith

Faith as a grain of mustard seed.… Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, it may be so in the initial stages; but we do not earn anything by faith. Faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God His opportunity. God has frequently to knock the bottom board out of your experience if you are a saint in order to get you into contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings. Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that had as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew His conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith. You are worth far more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony.
Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life. Much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith in the Bible is faith in God against every thing that contradicts Him—‘I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.’ “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”—this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible.

October 31

“Likewise also the Spirit helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what to pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26, 27.)

THIS is the deep mystery of prayer. This is the delicate divine mechanism which words cannot interpret, and which theology cannot explain, but which the humblest believer knows even when he does not understand.
Oh, the burdens that we love to bear and cannot understand! Oh, the inarticulate out-reachings of our hearts for things we cannot comprehend! And yet we know they are an echo from the throne and a whisper from the heart of God. It is often a groan rather than a song, a burden rather than a buoyant wing. But it is a blessed burden, and it is a groan whose undertone is praise and unutterable joy. It is “a groaning which cannot be uttered.” We could not ourselves express it always, and sometimes we do not understand any more than that God is praying in us, for something that needs His touch and that He understands.
And so we can just pour out the fullness of our heart, the burden of our spirit, the sorrow that crushes us, and know that He hears, He loves, He understands, He receives; and He separates from our prayer all that is imperfect, ignorant and wrong, and presents the rest, with the incense of the great High Priest, before the throne on high; and our prayer is heard, accepted and answered in His name.—A. B. Simpson.
It is not necessary to be always speaking to God or always hearing from God, to have communion with Him; there is an inarticulate fellowship more sweet than words. The little child can sit all day long beside its busy mother and, although few words are spoken on either side, and both are busy, the one at his absorbing play, the other at her engrossing work, yet both are in perfect fellowship. He knows that she is there, and she knows that he is all right. So the saint and the Saviour can go on for hours in the silent fellowship of love, and he be busy about the most common things, and yet conscious that every little thing he does is touched with the complexion of His presence, and the sense of His approval and blessing.
And then, when pressed with burdens and troubles too complicated to put into words and too mysterious to tell or understand, how sweet it is to fall back into His blessed arms, and just sob out the sorrow that we cannot speak!—Selected.

31 OCTOBER

Breaking through prejudices

‘The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.’ John 3:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Luke 11:14–28

Our Lord was indeed a teacher sent from God, and we who know his character are ready to wonder that he was not generally received. But his enemies who hated him had many plausible objections to discourage some from hearing and to divert others from attending to what he said. They rejected the supposed place of his birth, Nazareth, concerning which those who were not diligent to search out the truth might easily mistake, as his mother had lived there before he was born and returned while he was very young (John 7:52)—this stumbled Nathaniel for a season. They pretended that he broke the Sabbath. They urged the character and meanness of his followers, and so on. We may therefore wonder that Nicodemus could break through so many prejudices. We are here informed what prevailed on him—the works which Jesus did led him to think that, notwithstanding all his brethren could say, he must be an extraordinary person, for none could do such things except God was with him. He concluded that the works of Christ, such as to raise the dead, necessarily required a divine power. His enemies acknowledged them beyond the power of man, but would have thought he did them by the assistance of Satan. But this black, malicious charge was confuted by a single question. Is Satan divided against himself? How could the great enemy of mankind assist, if he had been able, in producing such wonderful acts of compassion and bounty? He concluded that as our Lord’s miracles were wrought in confirmation of his character and doctrine, God would not have owned him by his power unless his doctrine had been true, and he a teacher sent from him as he professed. We are to apply this reasoning to our known circumstances.
FOR MEDITATION:
Now my search is at an end,
JESUS, source of excellence!
Now my wishes rove no more!
All thy glorious love reveal!
Thus my moments I would spend,
Kingdoms shall not bribe me hence,
Love, and wonder, and adore:
While this happiness I feel.

SERMON: JOHN 3:1–2, NO. 2 [1/6]