Milo

September 5th

The missionary watching

Watch with Me. Matthew 26:40.

“Watch with Me”—with no private point of view of your own at all, but watch entirely with Me. In the early stages we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revelation of the Bible; in the circumstances of our lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself in a particular Gethsemane, and we will not go; we say—‘No, Lord, I cannot see the meaning of this, it is bitter.’ How can we possibly watch with Someone Who is inscrutable? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we do not know even what His suffering is for? We do not know how to watch with Him; we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.
The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not understand what He was after. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept for their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest intimacy they “all forsook Him and fled.”
“They were all filled with the Holy Ghost”—the same “they,” but something wonderful has happened in between, viz., Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection and Ascension, and the disciples have been invaded by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord had said—“Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,” and this meant that they learned to watch with Him all the rest of their lives.

September 5

“Blessed are all they that wait for him.” (Isa. 30:18.)

WE hear a great deal about waiting on God. There is, however, another side. When we wait on God, He is waiting till we are ready; when we wait for God, we are waiting till He is ready.
There are some people who say, and many more who believe, that as soon as we meet all the conditions, God will answer our prayers. They say that God lives in an eternal now; with Him there is no past nor future; and that if we could fulfill all that He requires in the way of obedience to His will, immediately our needs would be supplied, our desires fulfilled, our prayers answered.
There is much truth in this belief, and yet it expresses only one side of the truth. While God lives in an eternal now, yet He works out His purposes in time. A petition presented before God is like a seed dropped in the ground. Forces above and beyond our control must work upon it, till the true fruition of the answer is given.—The Still Small Voice.

I longed to walk along an easy road,
And leave behind the dull routine of home,
Thinking in other fields to serve my God;
But Jesus said, “My time has not yet come.”

I longed to sow the seed in other soil,
To be unfettered in the work, and free,
To join with other laborers in their toil;
But Jesus said, “’Tis not My choice for thee.”

I longed to leave the desert, and be led
To work where souls were sunk in sin and shame,
That I might win them; but the Master said,
“I have not called thee, publish here My name.”

I longed to fight the battles of my King,
Lift high His standards in the thickest strife;
But my great Captain bade me wait and sing
Songs of His conquests in my quiet life.

I longed to leave the uncongenial sphere,
Where all alone I seemed to stand and wait,
To feel I had some human helper near,
But Jesus bade me guard one lonely gate.

I longed to leave the round of daily toil,
Where no one seemed to understand or care;
But Jesus said, “I choose for thee this soil,
That thou might’st raise for Me some blossoms rare.”

And now I have no longing but to do
At home, or else afar, His blessed will,
To work amid the many or the few;
Thus, “choosing not to choose,” my heart is still.
—Selected.
“And Patience was willing to wait.”—Pilgrim’s Progress.

5 SEPTEMBER

Peace with God and conscience

‘Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’ Hebrews 13:20–21
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Philippians 4:4–9

He bestows peace: I create the fruit of the lips; peace to him that is afar off [Isaiah 57:19]; and only he can do it. He gives peace by faith: Romans 5:1 [Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ]. Let us consider the branches:
(i) peace with God. By nature we are at war, he with us and we with him. All the evils and miseries we feel and fear are tokens of his displeasure, and our spirits and conduct show our enmity, especially when he touches us closely either by his Word or providence. Now this war ceases when we believe. He is at peace with us: no more condemnation, though perhaps the comfort of it is not yet known. He then supports and teaches, and blesses the soul with spiritual blessings. The enmity on the sinner’s part is ended and he is made willing to serve and love the Lord.
(ii) peace of conscience. Many are in a safe state before they know it assuredly in themselves—but in due time he will show it them. From hence flows:
(a) a peaceful frame of mind. Where sin is pardoned, all is well. Not that there will be no exercises and distresses, but there is a ground of peace in the heart, and in proportion as faith and grace grow, it has power to rule in the heart, as is expressed [in] Colossians 3:15 [And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful].
(b) a disposition of peace towards others. The Lord’s peace sweetens the spirit and subdues selfishness. By nature we are hateful and hating one another.

FOR MEDITATION: Try yourselves by these things. Sinners, can you be content to remain at war with the God of peace?

SERMON SERIES: HEBREWS 13:20–21, NO. 1 [3/3]

September 4th

His!

Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me. John 17:6.

The missionary is one in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought this realization—“Ye are not your own.” To say ‘I am not my own,’ is to have reached a great point in spiritual nobility. The true nature of the life in the actual whirl is the deliberate giving up of myself to another in sovereign preference, and that other is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit expounds the nature of Jesus to me in order to make me one with my Lord, not that I might go off as a showroom exhibit. Our Lord never sent any of the disciples out on the ground of what He had done for them. It was not until after the Resurrection, when the disciples had perceived by the power of the Holy Spirit Whom He was, that Jesus said ‘Go.’
“If any man come to Me and hate not …, he cannot be My disciple,” not—he cannot be good and upright, but—he cannot be one over whom Jesus writes the word ‘Mine.’ Any one of the relationships Our Lord mentions may be a competitive relationship. I may prefer to belong to my mother, or to my wife, or to myself; then says Jesus, you cannot be My disciple. This does not mean I will not be saved, but it does mean that I cannot be ‘His.’
Our Lord makes a disciple His own possession, He becomes responsible for him. “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” The spirit that comes in is not that of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The secret of the missionary is—I am His, and He is carrying out His enterprises through me.
Be entirely His.