Milo

7 AUGUST

Shielded from evil

‘After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.’ Genesis 15:1
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 91:1–16

Consider the believer’s safety from the evil that is in the world, whether affliction or opposition. He is shielded:
(i) by his providence. We are liable to many harms and dangers continually, by night and by day, abroad and at home, and have need of a defence from wicked men. We see too many who love to practise mischief, and they have a secret grudge at the Lord’s people. Why are they preserved? Because he is their shield and sets a hedge about them. It is true the Lord protects careless sinners likewise. It is because some of them, though not yet called, shall live to know his name. Others, though tares, grow among the wheat and are preserved for the wheat’s sake. The preservation of others is a judgement. They are suffered to go on to add sin unto sin. But the protection he affords his own people is of special grace and he enables them to see, own and rejoice in it as such.
(ii) by his Spirit. When he suffers affliction to touch them, he interposes his grace to take away the evil of it and to support them under it. The sting, the curse, is taken away and they are strengthened with strength in their souls, with patience, resignation and peace, so that often the heaviest blows are hardly felt.

FOR MEDITATION: Ask yourselves, my friends, what you think of this shield. You need one. And if not conscious of it now, you will be hereafter when death comes with his dart and the summons of judgement shall be sounding in your ears.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 29 [4/5], GENESIS 15:1

August 6th

The cross in prayer

At that day ye shall ask in My name. John 16:26.

We are too much given to thinking of the Cross as something we have to get through; we get through it only in order to get into it. The Cross stands for one thing only for us—a complete and entire and absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is nothing in which this identification is realized more than in prayer.
“Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” Then why ask? The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God. If we pray because we want answers, we will get huffed with God. The answers come every time, but not always in the way we expect, and our spiritual huff shows a refusal to identify ourselves with Our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove God answers prayer; we are here to be living monuments of God’s grace.
“I say not that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you.” Have you reached such an intimacy with God that the Lord Jesus Christ’s life of prayer is the only explanation of your life of prayer? Has Our Lord’s vicarious life become your vital life? “At that day” you will be so identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.
When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to fix the blame on someone else. That is always a snare of Satan. You will find there is a reason which is a deep instruction to you, not to anyone else.

August 6

“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out!”
(Song of Solomon 4:16.)

LOOK at the meaning of this prayer a moment. Its root is found in the fact that, as delicious odors may lie latent in a spice tree, so graces may lie unexercised undeveloped in a Christian’s heart. There is many a plant of profession; but from the ground there breathes forth no fragrance of holy affections or of godly deeds. The same winds blow on the thistle bush and on the spice tree, but it is only one of them which gives out rich odors.
Sometimes God sends severe blasts of trial upon His children to develop their graces. Just as torches burn most brightly when swung to and fro; just as the juniper plant smells sweetest when flung into the flames; so the richest qualities of a Christian often come out under the north wind of suffering and adversity. Bruised hearts often emit the fragrance that God loveth to smell.

“I had a tiny box, a precious box
Of human love—my spikenard of great price;
I kept it close within my heart of hearts,
And scarce would lift the lid lest it should waste
Its perfume on the air. One day a strange
Deep sorrow came with crushing weight, and fell
Upon my costly treasure, sweet and rare,
And broke the box to atoms. All my heart
Rose in dismay and sorrow at this waste,
But as I mourned, behold a miracle
Of grace Divine. My human love was changed
To Heaven’s own, and poured in healing streams
On other broken hearts, while soft and clear
A voice above me whispered, “Child of Mine,
With comfort wherewith thou art comforted,
From this time forth, go comfort others,
And thou shalt know blest fellowship with Me,
Whose broken heart of love hath healed the world.”

6 AUGUST

Jesus our shield

‘After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.’ Genesis 15:1
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Romans 5:1–11

The promise expresses the believer’s safety: the Lord is his shield (Psalm 18:2). Many images denote the safety and security of those who put their trust in him—none more comfortable or suitable than this of a shield:
(i) against the demands of the law and justice of God. Too many would shelter themselves with a refuge of lies—self-righteousness, false notions of God’s mercy—repentance, promises and purposes are all they have to trust to. But this is like trusting to a cobweb to shield us from a cannonball. Jesus is the only shield. He bore the wrath for his people and keeps it from them. Under his wing they are safe and the swift sword that justice draws, flaming and red, shall pass them by.
(ii) from Satan. This is the shield of faith. Faith itself is not properly our shield, but Christ is the shield which faith opposes to the enemy, and thus his fiery darts are quenched. As one said, ‘Trouble not me Satan, I am a weak and sinful woman, but go to Jesus—he shall answer you.’ So the Apostle (in Romans 8:34) looks round and challenges his enemies, Who shall condemn? Then he takes up his shield, It is Christ that died. With this shield in hand, we cannot be greatly hurt.

FOR MEDITATION:
Heavy charges Satan brings
To fill me with distress;
Let me hide beneath thy wings,
And plead thy righteousness:
Lord, to thee for help I call,
’Tis thy promise bids me come;
Tell him thou hast paid for all,
And that shall strike him dumb.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 29 [3/5], GENESIS 15:1

August 5th

The baffling call of God

And all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.… And they understood none of these things. Luke 18:31, 34.

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death; He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. Jesus Christ’s life was an absolute failure from every standpoint but God’s. But what seemed failure from man’s standpoint was a tremendous triumph from God’s, because God’s purpose is never man’s purpose.
There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purpose, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after. The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree of God. God is working out His purposes.
If we are in communion with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, we shall no longer try to find out what His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it gets simpler, because we are less inclined to say—‘Now why did God allow this and that?’ Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends.” A Christian is one who trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God.