Milo

June 27th

The overshadowing personal deliverance

I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 1:8.

God promised Jeremiah that He would deliver him personally—“Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey.” That is all God promises His children. Wherever God sends us, He will guard our lives. Our personal property and possessions are a matter of indifference, we have to sit loosely to all these things; if we do not, there will be panic and heartbreak and distress. That is the inwardness of the overshadowing of personal deliverance.
The Sermon on the Mount indicates that when we are on Jesus Christ’s errands, there is no time to stand up for ourselves. Jesus says, in effect, ‘Do not be bothered with whether you are being justly dealt with or not.’ To look for justice is a sign of deflection from devotion to Him. Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it. If we look for justice, we will begin to grouse and to indulge in the discontent of self-pity—‘Why should I be treated like this?’ If we are devoted to Jesus Christ we have nothing to do with what we meet, whether it is just or unjust. Jesus says—‘Go steadily on with what I have told you to do and I will guard your life. If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from My deliverance.’ The most devout among us become atheistic in this connection; we do not believe God, we enthrone common sense and tack the name of God on to it. We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts.

June 27

“The Lord hath sent strength for thee.” (Psa. 68:28, P.B.V.)

THE Lord imparts unto us that primary strength of character which makes everything in life work with intensity and decision. We are “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” And the strength is continuous; reserves of power come to us which we cannot exhaust.
“As thy days, so shall thy strength be”—strength of will, strength of affection, strength of judgment, strength of ideals and achievement.
“The Lord is my strength” to go on. He gives us power to tread the dead level, to walk the long lane that seems never to have a turning, to go through those long reaches of life which afford no pleasant surprise, and which depress the spirits in the sameness of a terrible drudgery.
“The Lord is my strength” to go up. He is to me the power by which I can climb the Hill Difficulty and not be afraid.
“The Lord is my strength” to go down. It is when we leave the bracing heights, where the wind and the sun have been about us, and when we begin to come down the hill into closer and more sultry spheres, that the heart is apt to grow faint.
I heard a man say the other day concerning his growing physical frailty, “It is the coming down that tires me!”
“The Lord is my strength” to sit still. And how difficult is the attainment! Do we not often say to one another, in seasons when we are compelled to be quiet, “If only I could do something!”
When the child is ill, and the mother stands by in comparative impotence, how severe is the test! But to do nothing, just to sit still and wait, requires tremendous strength. “The Lord is my strength!” “Our sufficiency is of God.”
—The Silver Lining.

27 JUNE (PREACHED 23 JUNE 1776)

Where is their zeal?

‘Brethren, pray for us.’ 1 Thessalonians 5:25
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Galatians 6:1–10

I feel for the declensions of many. I will lay no stress upon my own personal concern. It is trying to flesh and blood to see any who once professed a warm regard, look shy and cold, and when one loves and studies to show it, to be misapprehended and misrepresented. Blessed be the Lord, if I have something of this kind to complain of, the instances are not many. And were it not for the cause, the effect would sit light upon me. But how many do I know who have carried it unkindly to the Lord, if not to me. O where is their zeal, where is their first love, where is the value they once put upon ordinances, where is that gospel conversation they once aimed at? Once they loved to assemble with the Lord’s people, now they may be often seen with the drunkards. Brethren, pray for me. I fear lest the Lord should be displeased. Would it be believed if I should tell it in London, where I am going, that in such a place as they suppose Olney to be and where there are so many people and where the gospel has been so many years, it should sometimes be difficult to find one man present to set the psalm before sermon on a Thursday evening? I well remember when it was far otherwise.
FOR MEDITATION:
Thus saith the LORD to Ephesus,
‘Recall to mind the happy days
And thus he speaks to some of us;
When thou wast filled with joy and praise;
‘Amidst my churches, lo, I stand,
Repent, thy former works renew,
And hold the pastors in my hand.
Then I’ll restore thy comforts too.

‘Thy works, to me, are fully known,
‘Return at once, when I reprove,
Thy patience, and thy toil, I own;
Lest I thy candlestick remove;
Thy views of gospel truth are clear,
And thou, too late, thy loss lament;
Nor can’st thou other doctrine bear.
I warn before I strike, Repent.’

‘Yet I must blame while I approve,
Hearken to what the Spirit saith,
Where is thy first, thy fervent love?
To him that overcomes by faith;
Dost thou forget my love to thee,
‘The fruit of life’s unfading tree,
That thine is grown so faint to me?
In paradise his food shall be.’

SERMON: 1 THESSALONIANS 5:25 [5/6]

One got out for the 2nd time in a few months but thankfully his homing instinct has improved:)

June 26th

Always now

We … beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 2 Cor. 6:1.

The grace you had yesterday will not do for to-day. Grace is the overflowing favour of God; you can always reckon it is there to draw upon. “In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses”—that is where the test for patience comes. Are you failing the grace of God there? Are you saying—‘Oh, well, I won’t count this time?’ It is not a question of praying and asking God to help you; it is taking the grace of God now. We make prayer the preparation for work, it is never that in the Bible. Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. Don’t say—‘I will endure this until I can get away and pray.’ Pray now; draw on the grace of God in the moment of need. Prayer is the most practical thing, it is not the reflex action of devotion. Prayer is the last thing in which we learn to draw on God’s grace.
“In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours,”—in all these things manifest a drawing upon the grace of God that will make you a marvel to yourself and to others. Draw now, not presently: The one word in the spiritual vocabulary is Now. Let circumstances bring you where they will, keep drawing on the grace of God in every conceivable condition you may be in. One of the greatest proofs that you are drawing on the grace of God is that you can be humiliated without manifesting the slightest trace of anything but His grace.
“Having nothing …” Never reserve anything. Pour out the best you have, and always be poor. Never be diplomatic and careful about the treasure God gives. This is poverty triumphant.