Milo

October 5

“It came to pass … that the brook dried up.”
(1 Kings 17:7.)

THE education of our faith is incomplete if we have not learned that there is a providence of loss, a ministry of failing and of fading things, a gift of emptiness. The material insecurities of life make for its spiritual establishment. The dwindling stream by which Elijah sat and mused is a true picture of the life of each of us. “It came to pass … that the brook dried up”—that is the history of our yesterday, and a prophecy of our morrows.
In some way or other we will have to learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may be good for a while, but the Giver is the Eternal Love.
Cherith was a difficult problem to Elijah until he got to Zarephath, and then it was all as clear as daylight. God’s hard words are never His last words. The woe and the waste and the tears of life belong to the interlude and not to the finale.
Had Elijah been led straight to Zarephath he would have missed something that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man. He lived by faith at Cherith. And whensoever in your life and mine some spring of earthly and outward resource has dried up, it has been that we might learn that our hope and help are in God who made Heaven and earth.
—F. B. Meyer.

Perchance thou, too, hast camped by such sweet waters,
And quenched with joy thy weary, parched soul’s thirst;
To find, as time goes on, thy streamlet alters
From what it was at first.

Hearts that have cheered, or soothed, or blest, or strengthened;
Loves that have lavished so unstintedly;
Joys, treasured joys—have passed, as time hath lengthened,
Into obscurity.

If thus, ah soul, the brook thy heart hath cherished
Doth fail thee now—no more thy thirst assuage—
If its once glad refreshing streams have perished,
Let HIM thy heart engage.

He will not fail, nor mock, nor disappoint thee;
His consolations change not with the years;
With oil of joy He surely will anoint thee,
And wipe away thy tears.
—J. Danson Smith.

5 OCTOBER

Faithful in teaching others

‘For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgement; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.’ Genesis 18:19
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Deuteronomy 6:1–25

[One] reason the Lord assigns to why he would not hide this thing from Abraham is much to the honour of Abraham, and in this we are called upon to imitate him: I know him, that he will teach. May he give like grace to all who have families, to be wise and faithful in teaching, warning and ruling their children and servants. All who know and fear the Lord, whether parents or children, masters or servants, have a talent committed to you—some opportunities of speaking to those whom you love or who love you, or with whom you are acquainted or connected, concerning the things of God. Entreat the Lord to give you a concern for souls, for the honour of his name, and to teach you to speak in meekness a word in season [Isaiah 50:4]. To him that hath shall be given [Mark 4:25]; in attempting to water others you shall be watered also yourself. And if you have little opportunity in other ways, be careful of your conduct and example. By this, through the blessing, you may be greatly useful to win upon others; if you let your light shine before men, it shall be to the glory of God and to your own comfort.

FOR MEDITATION: When I am in the pulpit, perhaps I am about to preach my last sermon; and it is almost certain that there are those present who come to hear me for the last time. Some of these are probably ignorant of God and themselves, standing upon the brink of the pit, and regardless of their danger. If I miss this opportunity of warning and rousing them, I shall not have another. I would therefore bend my whole strength to this point, and not drop a word to draw the attention to anything else. I endeavour to do the same in the parlour. If what I say has no tendency to impress eternal concerns upon my friends and acquaintances, I had better hold my tongue. Why should I encumber myself and them with many things, when I profess to believe that one thing is needful? It will be a poor plea for me, to say at last, While thy servant was busy here and there, the man was gone.
John Newton to John Ryland, 15 March 1794

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 38 [4/4], GENESIS 18:17–19

Imagine living in a earth where human death and sickness no longer exist forever and every evil thought gone forever, surely that is a picture of paradise come to earth. This is the life God has promised for all who believe in him through Christ. This is our eternal hope after having to live through this life that is filled with sin and everything that entails, so I guess as we enter another year, if we remember that this present earth is not our eternal home but with Jesus in heaven and his new heaven and earth that is yet to be created, that were Jesus is we will be also wether travelling the heavens or residing upon the new earth, without the Lord nothing is possible and with the Lord all things good are possible. Here hoping and praying that all dwell in the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ who is with us through this life and the life that is be created.

Just as Christian came up to the Cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, fell from off his back, and began to tumble down the hill, and so it continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre. There it fell in, and I saw it no more!

John Bunyan

October 4th

The vision and the verity

Called to be saints. 1 Cor. 1:2.

Thank God for the sight of all you have never yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not there yet by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision “batter’d to shape and use” by God? The batterings always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends upon us, not upon God. If we prefer to loll on the mount and live in the memory of the vision, we will be of no use actually in the ordinary stuff of which human life is made up. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision, not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but to live in actualities in the light of the vision until we get to the veritable reality. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making known His demands.
The little ‘I am’ always sulks when God says do. Let the little ‘I am’ be shrivelled up in God’s indignation—“I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.” He must dominate. Is it not penetrating to realize that God knows where we live, and the kennels we crawl into! He will hunt us up like a lightning flash. No human being knows human beings as God does.

October 4

“So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.” (Job 42:12.)

THROUGH his griefs Job came to his heritage. He was tried that his godliness might be confirmed. Are not my troubles intended to deepen my character and to robe me in graces I had little of before? I come to my glory through eclipses, tears, death. My ripest fruit grows against the roughest wall. Job’s afflictions left him with higher conceptions of God and lowlier thoughts of himself. “Now,” he cried, “mine eye seeth thee.”
And if, through pain and loss, I feel God so near in His majesty that I bend low before Him and pray, “Thy will be done,” I gain very much. God gave Job glimpses of the future glory. In those wearisome days and nights, he penetrated within the veil, and could say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Surely the latter end of Job was more blessed than the beginning.—In the Hour of Silence.
“Trouble never comes to a man unless she brings a nugget of gold in her hand.”
Apparent adversity will finally turn out to be the advantage of the right if we are only willing to keep on working and to wait patiently. How steadfastly the great victor souls have kept at their work, dauntless and unafraid! There are blessings which we cannot obtain if we cannot accept and endure suffering. There are joys that can come to us only through sorrow. There are revealings of Divine truth which we can get only when earth’s lights have gone out. There are harvests which can grow only after the plowshare has done its work.—Selected.
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seamed with scars; martyrs have put on their coronation robes glittering with fire, and through their tears have the sorrowful first seen the gates of Heaven.
—Chapin.

I shall know by the gleam and glitter
Of the golden chain you wear,
By your heart’s calm strength in loving
Of the fire you have had to bear.
Beat on, true heart, forever;
Shine bright, strong golden chain;
And bless the cleansing fire
And the furnace of living pain!
—Adelaide Proctor.