Milo

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.

May 27

“Bring them hither to me.” (Matt. 14:18.)

ARE you encompassed with needs at this very moment, and almost overwhelmed with difficulties, trials, and emergencies? These are all divinely provided vessels for the Holy Spirit to fill, and if you but rightly understood their meaning, they would become opportunities for receiving new blessings and deliverances which you can get in no other way.
Bring these vessels to God. Hold them steadily before Him in faith and prayer. Keep still, and stop your own restless working until He begins to work. Do nothing that He does not Himself command you to do. Give Him a chance to work, and He will surely do so; and the very trials that threatened to overcome you with discouragement and disaster, will become God’s opportunity for the revelation of His grace and glory in your life, as you have never known Him before. “Bring them (all needs) to me.”—A. B. Simpson.
“My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19.)
What a source—“God!” What a supply—“His riches in glory!” What a channel—“Christ Jesus!” It is your sweet privilege to place all your need over against His riches, and lose sight of the former in the presence of the latter. His exhaustless treasury is thrown open to you, in all the love of His heart; go and draw upon it, in the artless simplicity of faith, and you will never have occasion to look to a creature-stream, or lean on a creature-prop.—C. H. M.

“MY CUP RUNNETH OVER”

There is always something over,
  When we trust our gracious Lord;
Every cup He fills o’erfloweth,
  His great rivers all are broad.
Nothing narrow, nothing stinted,
  Ever issues from His store;
To His own He gives full measure,
  Running over, evermore.

There is always something over,
  When we, from the Father’s hand,
Take our portion with thanksgiving,
  Praising for the path He planned.

Satisfaction, full and deepening,
  Fills the soul, and lights the eye,
When the heart has trusted Jesus
  All its need to satisfy.

There is always something over,
  When we tell of all His love;
Unplumbed depths still lie beneath us,
  Unscaled heights rise far above:
Human lips can never utter
  All His wondrous tenderness,
We can only praise and wonder,
  And His name forever bless.

—Margaret E. Barber.

“How can He but, in giving Him, lavish on us all things.”

27 MAY

Sunshine through the clouds

‘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: Revelation 21:22–22:6

Though the Lord was always with Abraham to protect and bless him, he manifested himself or appeared to him but now and then. Thus with respect to all necessary supplies of grace and strength, and a liberty to seek his direction and blessing, he is ever with his people—but there is a gracious presence, the light of his countenance, which they do not always enjoy. In this sense he visits them but does not abide, as the sun gives us every day for necessary uses, but does not always shine upon us. When it does, it casts an inimitable glory and gilds every object. Be thankful for the light and for eyes to behold it, but pray likewise for the breaking forth of the Sun of righteousness. If you have it, rejoice in it, yet expect a change. There are reasons both on the Lord’s part and on ours why he does not always shine. But in yonder happy world we shall have unclouded skies.
FOR MEDITATION:
As when the weary traveller gains
The thought of home his spirit cheers,
The height of some o’er-looking hill;
No more he grieves for troubles past;
His heart revives, if cross the plains
Nor any future trial fears,
He eyes his home, though distant still.
So he may safe arrive at last.

While he surveys the much-loved spot,
’Tis there, he says, I am to dwell
He slights the space that lies between;
With JESUS, in the realms of day;
His past fatigues are now forgot,
Then I shall bid my cares farewell,
Because his journey’s end is seen.
And he will wipe my tears away.

Thus, when the Christian pilgrim views
JESUS, on thee our hope depends,
By faith, his mansion in the skies;
To lead us on to thine abode;
The sight his fainting strength renews,
Assured our home will make amends
And wings his speed to reach the prize.
For all our toil while on the road.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 24 [2/4], GENESIS 12:7

May 26th

Think as Jesus taught

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thess. 5:17.

We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life. Beware of anything that stops ejaculatory prayer. “Pray without ceasing,” keep the childlike habit of ejaculatory prayer in your heart to God all the time.
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer; He had the boundless certainty that prayer is always answered. Have we by the Spirit the unspeakable certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when God does not seem to have answered prayer? “Every one that asketh receiveth.” We say—‘But …, but …’ God answers prayer in the best way, not sometimes, but every time, although the immediate manifestation of the answer in the domain in which we want it may not always follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?
The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with common sense; if it were only common sense, it was not worth while for him to say it. The things Jesus says about prayer are supernatural revelations.

May 26

“Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it.” (Num. 21:17.)

THIS was a strange song and a strange well. They had been traveling over the desert’s barren sands, no water was in sight and they were famishing with thirst. Then God spake to Moses and said:
“Gather the people together, and I will give them water,” and this is how it came.
They gathered in circles on the sands. They took their staves and dug deep down into the burning earth and as they dug, they sang,
“Spring up, O well, sing ye unto it,” and lo, there came a gurgling sound, a rush of water and a flowing stream which filled the well and ran along the ground.
When they dug this well in the desert, they touched the stream that was running beneath, and reached the flowing tides that had long been out of sight.
How beautiful the picture given, telling us of the river of blessing that flows all through our lives, and we have only to reach by faith and praise to find our wants supplied in the most barren desert.
How did they reach the waters of this well? It was by praise. They sang upon the sand their song of faith, while with their staff of promise they dug the well.
Our praise will still open fountains in the desert, when murmuring will only bring us judgment, and even prayer may fail to reach the fountains of blessing.
There is nothing that pleases the Lord so much as praise. There is no test of faith so true as the grace of thanksgiving. Are you praising God enough? Are you thanking Him for your actual blessings that are more than can be numbered, and are you daring to praise Him even for those trials which are but blessings in disguise? Have you learned to praise Him in advance for the things that have not yet come?—Selected.

“Thou waitest for deliverance!
  O soul, thou waitest long!
Believe that now deliverance
  Doth wait for thee in song!

“Sigh not until deliverance
  Thy fettered feet doth free:
With songs of glad deliverance
  God now doth compass thee.”