Milo

July 28th

After obedience—what?

And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side.… Mark 6:45–52 .

We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.
What is my dream of God’s purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process—that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.
God’s training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.
God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present; but if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.

July 28

“The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and storm.”
(Nahum 1:3.)

IRECOLLECT, when a lad, and while attending a classical institute in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant, sitting on an elevation of that mountain, and watching a storm as it came up the valley. The heavens were filled with blackness, and the earth was shaken by the voice of thunder. It seemed as though that fair landscape was utterly changed, and its beauty gone never to return.
But the storm swept on, and passed out of the valley; and if I had sat in the same place on the following day, and said, “Where is that terrible storm, with all its terrible blackness?” the grass would have said, “Part of it is in me,” and the daisy would have said, “Part of it is in me,” and the fruits and flowers and everything that grows out of the ground would have said, “Part of the storm is incandescent in me.”
Have you asked to be made like your Lord? Have you longed for the fruit of the Spirit, and have you prayed for sweetness and gentleness and love? Then fear not the stormy tempest that is at this moment sweeping through your life. A blessing is in the storm, and there will be the rich fruitage in the “afterward.”—Henry Ward Beecher.

The flowers live by the tears that fall
  From the sad face of the skies;
And life would have no joys at all,
  Were there no watery eyes.
Love thou thy sorrow: grief shall bring
  Its own excuse in after years;
The rainbow!—see how fair a thing
  God hath built up from tears.

—Henry S. Sutton.

28 JULY

Sought out and not forsaken

‘And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.’ Isaiah 62:12
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 62:1–12

Sought out—a city not forsaken. These are names of the church of God applicable to each of his people. They speak comfort to believers, and display the glory of their Redeemer. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He begins to make known his purposes in their favour, and he also will make an end. The first of these names excludes all boasting, the other forbids fear. The Lord’s people are possessed of great privileges: they are near to him and he is all that to them which he was to Israel in the wilderness, but in a higher sense—their guide, their guard and their glory. If you enquire how they attained to this, the answer is grace, free grace; their name is sought out—not that they loved him but that he loved them, and it pleased the Lord notwithstanding all hindrances, to make them his people.
Consider them in another view, as beset with snares and enemies, as exposed to the rage of the powers of darkness, as weak and helpless in themselves, and, what is worse, too frequently unfaithful, backsliding and provoking the Lord on whom they depend. It seems natural to ask by whom shall these rise? How shall they stand? Will they not at last be a prey to the teeth of their enemies? No, he that sought them out will keep them—this is their name: not forsaken. They are liable to many changes but they are safe, for they have an unchangeable Saviour, who fainteth not nor is weary.

FOR MEDITATION: Surely mercy and goodness have followed me all my days. He has been my guard and my guide; he found me in a waste howling wilderness, in the most helpless state of sin and misery—but in consequence of his everlasting purpose and love, he was pleased to deliver me from ruin, to call me by his grace, to give me a name and place amongst his children, and amongst his ministers. O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be!192
John Newton to John Thornton, 4 August 1770

SERMON: ISAIAH 62:12 [1/3]

July 27th

The way to know

If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine … John 7:17.

The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience. If things are dark to me, then I may be sure there is something I will not do. Intellectual darkness comes through ignorance; spiritual darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey.
No man ever receives a word from God without instantly being put to the test over it. We disobey and then wonder why we don’t go on spiritually. ‘If when you come to the altar,’ said Jesus, ‘there you remember your brother hath ought against you … don’t say another word to Me, but first go and put that thing right.’ The teaching of Jesus hits us where we live. We cannot stand as humbugs before Him for one second. He educates us down to the scruple. The Spirit of God unearths the spirit of self-vindication; He makes us sensitive to things we never thought of before.
When Jesus brings a thing home by His word, don’t shirk it. If you do, you will become a religious humbug. Watch the things you shrug your shoulders over, and you will know why you do not go on spiritually. First go— at the risk of being thought fanatical you must obey what God tells you.

July 27

“Prove me now.” (Mal. 3:10.)

WHAT is God saying here but this: “My child, I still have windows in Heaven. They are yet in service. The bolts slide as easily as of old. The hinges have not grown rusty. I would rather fling them open, and pour forth, than keep them shut, and hold back. I opened them for Moses, and the sea parted. I opened them for Joshua, and Jordan rolled back. I opened them for Gideon, and hosts fled. I will open them for you—if you will only let Me. On this side of the windows, Heaven is the same rich storehouse as of old. The fountains and streams still overflow. The treasure rooms are still bursting with gifts. The lack is not on MY side. It is on yours. I am waiting. Prove Me now. Fulfill the conditions, on your part. Bring in the tithes. Give Me a chance.—Selected.
I can never forget my mother’s very brief paraphrase of Malachi 3:10. The verse begins, “Bring ye the whole tithe in,” and it ends up with “I will pour” the blessing out till you’ll be embarrassed for space. Her paraphrase was this: Give all He asks; take all He promises.”—S. D. Gordon.
The ability of God is beyond our prayers, beyond our largest prayers! I have been thinking of some of the petitions that have entered into my supplication innumerable times. What have I asked for? I have asked for a cupful, and the ocean remains! I have asked for a sunbeam, and the sun abides! My best asking falls immeasurably short of my Father’s giving: it is beyond that we can ask.—J. H. Jowett.

“All the rivers of Thy grace I claim,
Over every promise write my name.” (Eph. 1:8–19.)