Milo

July 8th

The will to loyalty

Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Joshua 24:15.

Will is the whole man active. I cannot give up my will, I must exercise it. I must will to obey, and I must will to receive God’s Spirit. When God gives a vision of truth it is never a question of what He will do, but of what we will do. The Lord has been putting before us all some big propositions, and the best thing to do is to remember what you did when you were touched by God before—the time when you were saved, or first saw Jesus, or realized some truth. It was easy then to yield allegiance to God; recall those moments now as the Spirit of God brings before you some new proposition.
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” It is a deliberate calculation, not something into which you drift easily; and everything else is in abeyance until you decide. The proposition is between you and God; do not confer with flesh and blood about it. With every new proposition other people get more and more ‘out of it,’ that is where the strain comes. God allows the opinion of His saints to matter to you, and yet you are brought more and more out of the certainty that others understand the step you are taking. You have no business to find out where God is leading, the only thing God will explain to you is Himself.
Profess to Him—‘I will be loyal.’ Immediately you choose to be loyal to Jesus Christ, you are a witness against yourself. Don’t consult other Christians, but profess before Him—‘I will serve Thee.’ Will to be loyal—and give other people credit for being loyal too.

July 8

“They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” (Isa. 40:31.)

THERE is a fable about the way the birds got their wings at the beginning. They were first made without wings. Then God made the wings and put them down before the wingless birds and said to them, “Come, take up these burdens and bear them.”
The birds had lovely plumage and sweet voices; they could sing, and their feathers gleamed in the sunshine, but they could not soar in the air. They hesitated at first when bidden to take up the burdens that lay at their feet, but soon they obeyed, and taking up the wings in their beaks, laid them on their shoulders to carry them.
For a little while the load seemed heavy and hard to bear, but presently, as they went on carrying the burdens, folding them over their hearts, the wings grew fast to their little bodies, and soon they discovered how to use them, and were lifted by them up into the air—the weights became wings.
It is a parable. We are the wingless birds, and our duties and tasks are the pinions God has made to lift us up and carry us heavenward. We look at our burdens and heavy loads, and shrink from them; but as we lift them and bind them about our hearts, they become wings, and on them we rise and soar toward God.
There is no burden which, if we lift it cheerfully and bear it with love in our hearts, will not become a blessing to us. God means our tasks to be our helpers; to refuse to bend our shoulders to receive a load, is to decline a new opportunity for growth.—J. R. Miller.

Blessed is any weight, however overwhelming, which God has been so good as to fasten with His own hand upon our shoulders.—F. W. Faber.

8 JULY

The blood of a martyr

‘And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.’ Genesis 4:8
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 23:27–39

Think it not strange that the Lord did not protect Abel. By death he entered into life and had the honour to be the first martyr of the truth. Thus God confirmed the belief of a future state, otherwise it would appear a dangerous thing to please God. But it was not overlooked—his blood cried for vengeance [verse 10]. What a dreadful account will the wicked world have to make for the blood of believers they have shed. Yea, all their sufferings and all their tears shall be had in remembrance. When he maketh inquisition he will not forget. The Lord’s people are now, to an eye of sense, left destitute and exposed, as if everyone was at liberty to use them ill with impunity, but a change will soon take place. But there is blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel [Hebrews 12:24]. Jesus was slain like Abel, but his blood calls for pardon and mercy upon the poor sinners who spilt it, and upon those who by their wicked deeds have crucified him afresh. Only believe and you shall be saved [Luke 8:12].
FOR MEDITATION:
By Cain’s own hand, good Abel died,
Like him the way of grace we slight,
Because the LORD approved his faith;
And in our own devices trust;
And, when his blood for vengeance cried,
Call evil good, and darkness light,
He vainly thought to hide his death.
And hate and persecute the just.

Such was the wicked murderer Cain,
The saints, in every age and place,
And such by nature still are we,
Have found this history fulfilled;
Until by grace we’re born again,
The numbers all our thoughts surpass
Malicious, blind and proud, as he.
Of Abels, whom the Cains have killed.

Thus JESUS fell—but oh! his blood
Far better things than Abel’s cries:
Obtains his murderers’ peace with GOD,
And gains them mansions in the skies.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 12 [3/4], GENESIS 4:8

July 7th

All noble things are difficult

Enter ye in at the strait gate … because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way … Matthew 7:13–14 .

If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvellous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?
God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practised. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practising or not. If we obey the Spirit of God and practise in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us.
Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is bringing many “sons unto glory,” and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. God’s grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milksops. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.

July 7

“He hath made me a polished shaft.” (Isa. 49:2.)

THERE is a very famous “Pebble Beach” at Pescadero, on the California coast. The long line of white surf comes up with its everlasting roar, and rattles and thunders among the stones on the shore. They are caught in the arms of the pitiless waves, and tossed and rolled, and rubbed together, and ground against the sharp-grained cliffs. Day and night forever the ceaseless attrition goes on—never any rest. And the result?
Tourists from all the world flock thither to gather the round and beautiful stones. They are laid up in cabinets; they ornament the parlor mantels. But go yonder, around the point of the cliff that breaks off the force of the sea; and up in that quiet cove, sheltered from the storms, and lying ever in the sun, you shall find abundance of pebbles that have never been chosen by the traveler.
Why are these left all the years through unsought? For the simple reason that they have escaped all the turmoil and attrition of the waves, and the quiet and peace have left them as they found them, rough and angular and devoid of beauty. Polish comes through trouble.
Since God knows what niche we are to fill, let us trust Him to shape us to it. Since He knows what work we are to do, let us trust Him to drill us to the proper preparation.

“O blows that smite! O hurts that pierce
  This shrinking heart of mine!
What are ye but the Master’s tools
  Forming a work Divine?”

“Nearly all God’s jewels are crystallized tears.”