Milo

June 3

“Let us pass over unto the other side.” (Mark 4:35)

EVEN when we go forth at Christ’s command, we need not expect to escape storms; for these disciples were going forth at Christ’s command, yet they encountered the fiercest storm and were in great danger of being overwhelmed, so that they cried out in their distress for Christ’s assistance.
Though Christ may delay His coming in our time of distress, it is only that our faith may be tried and strengthened, and that our prayers may be more intense, and that our desires for deliverance may be increased, so that when the deliverance does come we will appreciate it more fully.
Christ gave them a gentle rebuke, saying, “Where is your faith?” Why did you not shout victory in the very face of the storm, and say to the raging winds and rolling waves, “You can do no harm, for Christ, the mighty Savior is on board”?
It is much easier to trust when the sun is shining than when the storm is raging.
We never know how much real faith we have until it is put to the test in some fierce storm; and that is the reason why the Savior is on board.
If you are ever to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might, your strength will be born in some storm.—Selected.

“With Christ in the vessel,
  I smile at the storm.”

Christ said, “Let us go to the other side”—not to the middle of the lake to be drowned.” Dan Crawford.

3 JUNE (PREACHED 2 JUNE 1771)

A lover of peace

‘And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.’ Genesis 13:8–9
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Ephesians 2:13–22

Abraham’s conduct:
(i) his desire: Let there be no strife. He was a blessed man, a lover of peace, and to the utmost of his power a peacemaker. Happy are they to whom the Lord gives such a spirit, for peace is that to the mind which health is to the body—there is nothing can be enjoyed without it.
(ii) his argument: twofold, taken from their relation, We are brethren, and their situation, the Canaanite were in the land [verse 7]. They knew that Lot and Abraham were the servants of God, and what would they think of their religion if they observed them living in strife? Besides, it might give their enemies encouragement to fall upon them.
(iii) his proposal: he showed himself a true lover of peace. Though he was probably the person aggrieved, he makes the first offers, and though he was the elder, and superior, he gives up his right of choice to Lot and is determined to be pleased if Lot can but please himself. Too often when people talk of peace and reconciliation they are too selfish to let anything be affected. If you allow everything they have said and done to be right, and give up everything they ask, they will try to be peaceable.
FOR MEDITATION: ‘I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour’ (1 Timothy 2:1–3, NIV).

‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men’ (Romans 12:18).

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 25 [2/4], GENESIS 13:12–13

June 2nd

What are you haunted by?

What man is he that feareth the Lord? Psalm 25:12.

What are you haunted by? You will say—‘By nothing,’ but we are all haunted by something, generally by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our experience. The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God. The abiding consciousness of the life is to be God, not thinking about Him. The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God. A child’s consciousness is so mother-haunted that although the child is not consciously thinking of its mother, yet when calamity arises, the relationship that abides is that of the mother. So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God, because the abiding consciousness of God pushes itself to the front all the time.
If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in, no cares, no tribulation, no anxieties. We see now why Our Lord so emphasized the sin of worry. How can we dare be so utterly unbelieving when God is round about us? To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy.
“His soul shall dwell at ease.” In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of the marvellous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. “God is our Refuge”—nothing can come through that shelter.

June 2

“For Abraham, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith. His faith never quailed.” (Rom. 4:18, 19)

WE shall never forget a remark that George Mueller once made to a gentleman who had asked him the best way to have strong faith.
“The only way,” replied the patriarch of faith, “to learn strong faith is to endure great trials. I have learned my faith by standing firm amid severe testings.” This is very true. The time to trust is when all else fails.
Dear one, you scarcely realize the value of your present opportunity; if you are passing through great afflictions you are in the very soul of the strongest faith, and if you will only let go, He will teach you in these hours the mightiest hold upon His throne which you can ever know.
“Be not afraid, only believe.” And if you are afraid, just look up and say, “What time I am afraid I will trust in thee,” and you will yet thank God for the school of sorrow which was to you the school of faith.—A. B. Simpson.
“Great faith must have great trials.”
“God’s greatest gifts come through travail. Whether we look into the spiritual or temporal sphere, can we discover anything, any great reform, any beneficent discovery, any soul-awakening revival, which did not come through the toils and tears, the vigils and blood-shedding of men and women whose sufferings were the pangs of its birth? If the temple of God is raised, David must bear sore afflictions; if the Gospel of the grace of God is to be disentangled from Jewish tradition, Paul’s life must be one long agony.”

“Take heart, O weary, burdened one, bowed down
  Beneath thy cross;
Remember that thy greatest gain may come
  Through greatest loss.
Thy life is nobler for a sacrifice,
  And more divine.
Acres of bloom are crushed to make a drop
  Of perfume fine.

“Because of storms that lash the ocean waves,
  The waters there
Keep purer than if the heavens o’erhead
  Were always fair.
The brightest banner of the skies floats not
  At noonday warm;
The rainbow traileth after thunder-clouds,
  And after storm.”