Milo

29 MAY

Family prayers

‘And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.’ Genesis 12:7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Ruth 1:1–18

Abraham had a family and therefore he had an altar. He was not content to pray in his closet, but worshipped God with his household. I remember my fault today. I have spoken too seldom and too faintly upon this topic—it is a very important point. Let me entreat you, as many as fear the Lord, to see to it that you set up an altar in your houses. Your children, your servants, if you have any, are entrusted to you for this end. How is Abraham commended on this account! I know him, says the Lord, that he will command his children and his household after him [Genesis 18:19]. Family mercies require family acknowledgement. If you would have obedient children and faithful servants and peace, the peace of God in your dwellings, live not without family prayer. The flesh will plead excuses, the devil will help to furnish them, but it is your duty and will be your honour and your blessing, and the neglect of it will prove like a thorn in your foot to make your progress in other things slow and painful. If you think yourself unable to lead prayer in a family, make use of a good [published] form rather than omit. Beginnings are always difficult, but if you simply look up to the Lord, he will strengthen and guide you.

FOR MEDITATION: [Newton’s three-year-old nephew holidayed with him in Olney. His mother later wrote:]
Soon after he came home to us, he asked why we had not prayer as often as at his uncle’s, and expressing his liking their way best. I think this early impression upon his mind of a holy life was, with God’s blessing, owing to their good example and instructions.
Elizabeth Cunningham (Mary Newton’s sister)

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 24 [4/4], GENESIS 12:7

May 28th

Unquestioned revelation

And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. John 16:23.

When is “that day”? When the Ascended Lord makes you one with the Father. In that day you will be one with the Father as Jesus is, and “in that day,” Jesus says, “ye shall ask Me nothing.” Until the resurrection life of Jesus is manifested in you, you want to ask this and that; then after a while you find all questions gone, you do not seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the place of entire reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus which brings you into perfect contact with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why shouldn’t you?
There may be any number of things dark to your understanding, but they do not come in between your heart and God. “And in that day ye shall ask Me no question”—you do not need to, you are so certain that God will bring things out in accordance with His will. John 14:1 has become the real state of your heart, and there are no more questions to be asked. If anything is a mystery to you and it is coming in between you and God, never look for the explanation in your intellect, look for it in your disposition, it is that which is wrong. When once your disposition is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, the understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will get to the place where there is no distance between the Father and His child because the Lord has made you one, and “in that day ye shall ask Me no question.”

May 28

“I will not let thee go, except thou bless me … and he blessed him there.” (Gen. 32:26, 29.)

JACOB got the victory and the blessing not by wrestling, but by clinging. His limb was out of joint and he could struggle no longer, but he would not let go. Unable to wrestle, he wound his arms around the neck of his mysterious antagonist and hung all his helpless weight upon him, until at last he conquered.
We will not get victory in prayer until we too cease our struggling, giving up our own will and throw our arms about our Father’s neck in clinging faith.
What can puny human strength take by force out of the hand of Omnipotence? Can we wrest blessing by force from God? It is never the violence of wilfulness that prevails with God. It is the might of clinging faith, that gets the blessing and the victories. It is not when we press and urge our own will, but when humility and trust unite in saying, “Not my will, but Thine.” We are strong with God only in the degree that self is conquered and is dead. Not by wrestling, but by clinging can we get the blessing.—J. R. Miller.
An incident from the prayer life of Charles H. Usher (illustrating “soul-cling” as a hindrance to prevailing prayer): “My little boy was very ill. The doctors held out little hope of his recovery. I had used all the knowledge of prayer which I possessed on his behalf, but he got worse and worse. This went on for several weeks.
“One day I stood watching him as he lay in his cot, and I saw that he could not live long unless he had a turn for the better. I said to God, ‘O God, I have given much time in prayer for my boy and he gets no better; I must now leave him to Thee, and I will give myself to prayer for others. If it is Thy will to take him, I choose Thy will—I surrender him entirely to Thee.’
“I called in my dear wife, and told her what I had done. She shed some tears, but handed him over to God. Two days afterwards a man of God came to see us. He had been very interested in our boy Frank, and had been much in prayer for him.
“He said, ‘God has given me faith to believe that he will recover—have you faith?’
“I said, ‘I have surrendered him to God, but I will go again to God regarding him.’ I did; and in prayer I discovered that I had faith for his recovery. From that time he began to get better. It was the ‘soul-cling’ in my prayers which had hindered God answering; and if I had continued to cling and had been unwilling to surrender him, I doubt if my boy would be with me today.
“Child of God! If you want God to answer your prayers, you must be prepared to follow the footsteps of ‘our father Abraham,’ even to the Mount of Sacrifice.” (See Rom. 4:12)

28 MAY

An altar

‘And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.’ Genesis 12:7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 13:9–16

Abraham erected an altar. This shows:
(i) his faith—in the great sacrifice, the virtue of which was set forth by all the sacrifices before under the law.
(ii) his gratitude. When God had appeared to him and given him such promises, immediately he raises an altar. Who is there amongst you, upon whom the Lord has lately shone? Has he answered your prayers, prevented your fears, taken off your sackcloth and girded you with gladness? O say, the vows of God are upon me [Psalm 56:12]. O may your heart be as an altar upon which the sacrifice of praise is continually offered [Hebrews 13:15].
(iii) his profession. He was among a people that knew not God, but he was not so affected by the custom of the country as to be ashamed or afraid to have it publicly known that he worshipped the Lord. Everything that looks like ostentation should be avoided, but if the Lord has called us out of darkness into light, we should not be unwilling to be marked and known by our neighbours and friends as those who have given themselves to him.

FOR MEDITATION: The points of his public profession of religion from which I think he cannot warrantably recede, are such as these: he will say with Joshua, or his example and conduct will say it for him, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He will neither be afraid nor ashamed to have it publicly supposed or known that he worships God, in his closet, and (allowing for unavoidable interruptions) in his family; and that so far as his example, persuasion and authority can influence, he will endeavour that all who live under his roof shall be restrained from evil, and taught and encouraged to serve the Lord with him.
John Newton to William Wilberforce, 1 November 1787

[responding with advice on embarking on the abolition of the slave trade]

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 24 [3/4], GENESIS 12:7

May 27th

The life that lives

Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Luke 24:49.

The disciples had to tarry until the day of Pentecost not for their own preparation only; they had to wait until the Lord was glorified historically. As soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” The parenthesis in John 7:39 (“For the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”) does not apply to us; the Holy Ghost has been given, the Lord is glorified; the waiting depends not on God’s providence, but on our fitness.
The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Immediately Our Lord was glorified in Ascension, the Holy Spirit came into this world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revelation that He is here. The reception of the Holy Spirit is the maintained attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive quickening life from the ascended Lord.
It is not the baptism of the Holy Ghost which changes men, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into men’s lives by the Holy Ghost that changes them. We too often divorce what the New Testament never divorces. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ: it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Ghost does not make you think of Time or Eternity, it is one amazing glorious NOW. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee.” Begin to know Him now, and finish never.