Milo

October 15

“By reason of breakings they purify themselves.”
(Job 41:25.)

GOD uses most for His glory those people and things which are most perfectly broken. The sacrifices He accepts are broken and contrite hearts. It was the breaking down of Jacob’s natural strength at Peniel that got him where God could clothe him with spiritual power. It was breaking the surface of the rock at Horeb, by the stroke of Moses’ rod, that let out the cool waters to thirsty people.
It was when the 300 elect soldiers under Gideon broke their pitchers, a type of breaking themselves, that the hidden lights shone forth to the consternation of their adversaries. It was when the poor widow broke the seal of the little pot of oil, and poured it forth, that God multiplied it to pay her debts and supply means of support.
It was when Esther risked her life and broke through the rigid etiquette of a heathen court, that she obtained favor to rescue her people from death. It was when Jesus took the five loaves and broke them, that the bread was multiplied in the very act of breaking, sufficient to feed five thousand. It was when Mary broke her beautiful alabaster box, rendering it henceforth useless, that the pent-up perfume filled the house. It was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken to pieces by thorns and nails and spear, that His inner life was poured out, like a crystal ocean, for thirsty sinners to drink and live.
It is when a beautiful grain of corn is broken up in the earth by DEATH, that its inner heart sprouts forth and bears hundreds of other grains. And thus, on and on, through all history, and all biography, and all vegetation, and all spiritual life, God must have BROKEN THINGS.
Those who are broken in wealth, and broken in self-will, and broken in their ambitions, and broken in their beautiful ideals, and broken in worldly reputation, and broken in their affections, and broken ofttimes in health; those who are despised and seem utterly forlorn and helpless, the Holy Ghost is seizing upon, and using for God’s glory. “The lame take the prey,” Isaiah tells us.

O break my heart; but break it as a field
Is by the plough up-broken for the corn;
O break it as the buds, by green leaf sealed,
Are, to unloose the golden blossom, torn;
Love would I offer unto Love’s great Master,
Set free the odor, break the alabaster.

O break my heart; break it victorious God,
That life’s eternal well may flash abroad;
O let it break as when the captive trees,
Breaking cold bonds, regain their liberties;
And as thought’s sacred grove to life is springing,
Be joys, like birds, their hope, Thy victory singing.
—Thomas Toke Bunch.

15 OCTOBER

Don’t provoke your children

‘And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’ Ephesians 6:4
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Corinthians 1:23–3:6

Provoke them not to wrath, lest they be discouraged. God has given you a great power over them. I have said do not be remiss in using it, but you must likewise beware of the other extreme. Let your children be guards upon your own conduct. Avoid all passionate [volatile] behaviour and harsh language—all severity. And if correction is necessary, let it be accompanied with reasonings, persuasions and endeavour to show them that it is not to gratify your own passions, but from a regard to their welfare. Consider they are but children, therefore especially while they are unawakened, lay not too much upon them. Some good people have wearied their children by expecting conduct from them as if they were experienced Christians, and have thereby given them a disgust and distaste for religion, and made them look upon it as a burden. If you can keep them from sinful ways, and in attendance upon the means of grace, you have reason to be thankful. For the rest—a little advice now and then, always in a spirit of love and not too much at a time, is the best course. They must, they will, have something to engage their thoughts till the Lord shall be pleased to open the eyes of their minds. In a word, parents … I must say of your duty as of my own, Who is sufficient for these things? [2 Corinthians 2:16].

FOR MEDITATION: The other day I was at Deptford and saw a ship launched … my thoughts turned from the ship to my child. It seemed an emblem of your present state: you are now, as it were, in a safe harbour; but by and by you must launch out into the world, which may well be compared to a tempestuous sea. I could even now almost weep at the resemblance; but I take courage; my hopes are greater than my fears. I know there is an infallible Pilot, who has the winds and the waves at his command. Under his care I know you will be safe; he can guide you, unhurt, amidst the storms, and rocks, and dangers, by which you might otherwise suffer, and bring you, at last, to the haven of eternal rest. I hope you will seek him while you are young, and I am sure he will be the friend of them that seek him sincerely.
John Newton to his niece [adopted daughter], 15 October 1782

SERMON SERIES: RELATIVE DUTIES, NO. 4 [4/4], EPHESIANS 6:4

October 14th

The key to the missionary

All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. Matthew 28:18–20 .

The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen. We are apt to look upon Our Lord as One Who assists us in our enterprises for God. Our Lord puts himself as the absolute sovereign supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go; He simply says—“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” Go on the revelation of My sovereignty; teach and preach out of a living experience of Me.
“Then the eleven disciples went … into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them” (v. 16). If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him for myself, and how to get alone with Him; I must take time to worship the Being Whose Name I bear. “Come unto Me”—that is the place to meet Jesus. Are you weary and heavy laden? How many missionaries are! We banish those marvellous words of the universal Sovereign of the world to the threshold of an after-meeting; they are the words of Jesus to His disciples.
“Go ye therefore.…” “Go” simply means live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say—Go into Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but, “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me” in all these places. He undertakes to establish the goings.
“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you.…”—that is the way to keep going in our personal lives. Where we are placed is a matter of indifference; God engineers the goings. “None of these things move me …” That is how to keep going till you’re gone!

October 14

“The angel of the Lord came upon him (Peter) and a light shined in the prison; and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off.” (Acts 12:7.)
“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God.… And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one’s bands were loosed.” (Acts 16:25, 26.)

THIS is God’s way. In the darkest hours of the night, His tread draws near across the billows. As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter’s cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the favored race.
Ah, soul, it may have to come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou wilt be delivered! God may keep thee waiting, but he will ever be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfill His inviolable Word.
—F. B. Meyer.
There’s a simplicity about God in working out His plans, yet a resourcefulness equal to any difficulty, and an unswerving faithfulness to His trusting child, and an unforgetting steadiness in holding to His purpose. Through a fellow-prisoner, then a dream, He lifts Joseph from a prison to a premiership. And the length of stay in the prison prevents dizziness in the premier. It’s safe to trust God’s methods and to go by His clock.
—S. D. Gordon.
Providence hath a thousand keys to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a desperate case. Let us be faithful; and care for our own part which is to suffer for Him, and lay Christ’s part on Himself, and leave it there.—George MacDonald.
Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle—it is miracle in its first stage. If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty but impossibility.
The clinging hand of His child makes a desperate situation a delight to Him.

14 OCTOBER

Instruction begins at home

‘And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’ Ephesians 6:4
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Timothy 3:1–4:5

Maintain your authority over your children and endeavour to restrain the workings of those irregular passions and desires which begin early to show themselves. A false tenderness in indulging their humours, is often called spoiling them, and the expression is significant. Many are so entirely spoilt that they are good for nothing afterwards. No care can change the heart, but the Lord works by means—and these evils may be restrained. If you suffer them to be self-willed when they are three or four years of age, they will ordinarily be much more so when they are fourteen or fifteen. Many good people are grieved and bowed down with the perverseness of their children’s carriage as they grow up, but may not conscience say, Hast thou not procured this unto thyself? [Jeremiah 2:17] Be resolute in repressing them for, and restraining them from, things that are plainly sinful—the use of ill words, lying, pilfering, contempt of the Sabbath. Accustom them to a constant attendance upon the worship of God, and to a decent behaviour while they are there. It is a shame to think how many children are playing in the streets, or perhaps robbing orchards [or supermarkets?] instead of being in the house of God. And many come here who can hardly be kept from play in the church; it is a sign how little they are instructed at home.

Diary, 10 July 1777:
Met the children … perhaps I never speak more to the purpose than when the bulk of my auditory is under ten, and many of them under six years of age.… the power is thine also, therefore I may hope.

FOR MEDITATION: My mother was a pious, experienced Christian. I have some faint remembrance of her care and instructions. She stored my memory, which was then very retentive, with many valuable pieces, chapters, and portions of Scripture, catechisms, hymns and poems. Further, my dear mother often commended me with many prayers and tears to God; and I doubt not but I reap the fruits of these prayers to this hour.
Narrative, 1764, Letter 2 [Newton’s mother died when he was six]

SERMON SERIES: RELATIVE DUTIES, NO. 4 [3/4], EPHESIANS 6:4