Milo

August 4

“And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.” (John 11:41.)

THIS is a very strange and unusual order. Lazarus is still in the grave, and the thanksgiving precedes the miracle of resurrection. I thought that the thanksgiving would have risen when the great deed had been wrought, and Lazarus was restored to life again. But Jesus gives thanks for what He is about to receive. The gratitude breaks forth before the bounty has arrived, in the assurance that it is certainly on the way. The song of victory is sung before the battle has been fought. It is the sower who is singing the song of the harvest home. It is thanksgiving before the miracle!
Who thinks of announcing a victory-psalm when the crusaders are just starting out for the field? Where can we hear the grateful song for the answer which has not yet been received? And after all, there is nothing strange or forced, or unreasonable in the Master’s order. Praise is really the most vital preparatory ministry to the working of the miracles. Miracles are wrought by spiritual power. Spiritual power is always proportioned to our faith.—Dr. Jowett.

PRAISE CHANGES THINGS
Nothing so pleases God in connection with our prayer as our praise, and nothing so blesses the man who prays as the praise which he offers. I got a great blessing once in China in this connection. I had received bad and sad news from home, and deep shadows had covered my soul. I prayed, but the darkness did not vanish. I summoned myself to endure, but the darkness only deepened. Just then I went to an inland station and saw on the wall of the mission home these words: “Try Thanksgiving.” I did, and in a moment every shadow was gone, not to return. Yes, the Psalmist was right, “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.”—Rev. Henry W. Frost.

4 AUGUST

More to come

‘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 18:1–19

When we meet with the words After these things it leads our thoughts backwards:
(i) after the general call and promise (chapter 12). After Abraham had made many a journey, reared many an altar, the Lord manifests himself further and confirms his faith with brighter tokens of his favour. The believer’s progress is from strength to strength. Be thankful for what you have received but count not that you have attained—there is still more behind. The tendency of grace is to mount higher and higher and it is the Lord’s purpose to answer the hungerings and thirstings which he has put in the soul.
(ii) after the victory he had lately obtained. No doubt this success was pleasing to Abraham, but it was not the great thing. Believers are thankful for the mercies of the present life, but these are not their treasure and their joy. A gracious visit from the Lord, an application of the promises, is more to them than the joy of harvest or of them that divide the spoil.
Thanks to thy name for meaner things.
But these are not my God.
As if the Lord had said, ‘Temporal blessings are but the tokens and earnests of my favour. You have more than this to rejoice. I myself am your shield and reward.’

FOR MEDITATION: ‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God’ (Hebrews 11:10).
‘One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:13–14, NIV).

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

August 3rd

The big compelling of God

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Luke 18:31.

Jerusalem stands in the life of Our Lord as the place where He reached the climax of His Father’s will. “I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me.” That was the one dominating interest all through Our Lord’s life, and the things He met with on the way, joy or sorrow, success or failure, never deterred Him from His purpose. “He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”
The great thing to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfil God’s purpose, not our own. Naturally, our ambitions are our own; in the Christian life we have no aim of our own. There is so much said to-day about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament it is the aspect of God’s compelling that is brought out. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” We are not taken up into conscious agreement with God’s purpose, we are taken up into God’s purpose without any consciousness at all. We have no conception of what God is aiming at, and as we go on it gets more and more vague. God’s aim looks like missing the mark because we are too short-sighted to see what He is aiming at. At the beginning of the Christian life we have our own ideas as to what God’s purpose is—‘I am meant to go here or there’; ‘God has called me to do this special work’; and we go and do the thing, and still the big compelling of God remains. The work we do is of no account, it is so much scaffolding compared with the big coming of God. “He took unto Him the twelve,” He takes us all the time. There is more than we have got at as yet.

August 3

“Quit you like men, be strong.” (1 Cor. 16:13.)

DO not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle.
—Phillips Brooks.
We must remember that it is not in any easy or self-indulgent life that Christ will lead us to greatness. The easy life leads not upward, but downward. Heaven always is above us, and we must ever be looking up toward it. There are some people who always avoid things that are costly, that require self-denial, or self-restraint and sacrifice, but toil and hardship show us the only way to nobleness. Greatness comes not by having a mossy path made for you through the meadow, but by being sent to hew out a roadway by your own hands. Are you going to reach the mountain splendors?
—Selected.
Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
Shun not the struggle; face it.
’Tis God’s gift.

  Be strong!

Say not the days are evil—Who’s to blame?
And fold the hands and acquiesce—O shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely,
In God’s name.

  Be strong!

It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long,
Faint not, fight on!
Tomorrow comes the song.
—Maltbie D. Babcock.

3 AUGUST (VERSE 18 PREACHED 1 FEBRUARY 1767)

Jesus our Great High Priest

‘And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him tithes of all.’ Genesis 14:18–20
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 6:13–20

Observe:
(i) Melchizedek came forth to meet Abraham. Believers, like Abraham, are called to a warfare. Jesus their King and High Priest teaches them to fight and conquer and often comes forth to meet them, as Melchizedek.
(ii) he brought bread and wine. Thus the Lord refreshes, strengthens his warriors—he comes forth in the ordinances.
(iii) he blessed him in the name of God. Jesus had obtained the blessing and he blesses all his people; yea, and they shall be blessed.
(iv) Abraham gave him tithes of all—as an acknowledgement to the Lord by his priest. And thus believers render to God their services and sacrifices of praise, by Jesus Christ.
Happy are the subjects of this King, the people who have such a great High Priest—no enemy shall hurt them, no weapon formed against them prosper, no charge to their prejudice be received. But what must become of those who reject his mediation and will not have him reign over them?
FOR MEDITATION:
But JESUS invitations sends,
Weak in myself for help I cried,
Treating with rebels as his friends;
LORD, I am pressed on every side;
And holds the promise forth in view,
The cause is thine, they fight with me,
To all who for his mercy sue.
But every blow is aimed at thee.

Too long his goodness I disdained,
With speed to my relief he came,
Yet went at last and peace obtained;
And put my enemies to shame;
But soon the noise of war I heard,
Thus saved by grace I live to sing,
And former friends in arms appeared.
The love and triumphs of my King.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 28 [3/3], GENESIS 14:18–19