Milo

May 14th

The habit of enjoying the disagreeable

That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 2 Cor. 4:10.

We have to form habits to express what God’s grace has done in us. It is not a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved in order to manifest the life of the Son of God in our mortal flesh, and it is the disagreeable things which make us exhibit whether or not we are manifesting His life. Do I manifest the essential sweetness of the Son of God, or the essential irritation of ‘myself’ apart from Him? The only thing that will enable me to enjoy the disagreeable is the keen enthusiasm of letting the life of the Son of God manifest itself in me. No matter how disagreeable a thing may be, say—“Lord, I am delighted to obey Thee in this matter,” and instantly the Son of God will press to the front, and there will be manifested in my human life that which glorifies Jesus.
There must be no debate. The moment you obey the light, the Son of God presses through you in that particular; but if you debate you grieve the Spirit of God. You must keep yourself fit to let the life of the Son of God be manifested, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to self-pity. Our circumstances are the means of manifesting how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. The thing that ought to make the heart beat is a new way of manifesting the Son of God. It is one thing to choose the disagreeable, and another thing to go into the disagreeable by God’s engineering. If God puts you there, He is amply sufficient.
Keep your soul fit to manifest the life of the Son of God. Never live on memories; let the word of God be always living and active in you.

May 14

“In the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.”
(Gen. 17:23)

INSTANT obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Every time God call us to any duty, He is offering to make a covenant with us; doing the duty is our part, and He will do His part in special blessing.
The only way we can obey is to obey “in the selfsame day,” as Abraham did. To be sure, we often postpone a duty and then later on do it as fully as we can. It is better to do this than not to do it at all. But it Is then, at the best, only a crippled, disfigured, half-way sort of duty-doing; and a postponed duty never can bring the full blessing that God intended, and that it would have brought if done at the earliest possible moment.
It is a pity to rob ourselves, along with robbing God and others, by procrastination. “In the selfsame day” is the Genesis way of saying, “Do it now.”—Messages for the Morning Watch.
Luther says that “a true believer will crucify the question, ‘Why?’ He will obey without questioning.” I will not be one of those who, except they see signs and wonders, will in no wise believe. I will obey without questioning.

  “Ours not to make reply,
     Ours not to reason why,
  Ours but to do and die.”

Obedience is the fruit of faith; patience, the bloom on the fruit.—Christina Rossetti.

14 MAY (PREACHED 1770)

Partakers of the resurrection

‘And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elijah: who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.’ Luke 9:30–31
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Deuteronomy 34:1–12; 2 Kings 2:1–12

In one thing Moses and Elijah differed: Elijah was translated without tasting death. The circumstances of Moses’ death were uncommon and honourable, yet he did die. Now he appeared in glory upon equal advantage with Elijah. I see no reason to suppose that he assumed a body upon this occasion, or the appearance of a body only. I rather think that he was partaker of the resurrection of Jesus, before the great day of the general resurrection, as it is certain several were soon afterwards (Matthew 27:53). Though they left this world in different ways, they now appeared in the same glory. Various are the dispensations through which the Lord’s people pass in the present life, and by which they pass out of it, but they shall all appear at last in the same glory. And thus their redemption draweth nigh. How the disciples knew Moses and Elijah, we are not told. Perhaps our Lord informed them, either when they appeared or after they departed. Or, for ought we know, an impression attended their appearance that satisfied the disciples who they were. It seems not at all improbable that when we mingle with the world of spirits, we shall know as we are known—without needing information. How sweet will the communion be which believers shall have with each other, not only with those whom they walked with here below, but with all who have died in the Lord. O to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in our Father’s kingdom. But these things, as yet, are hid. We cannot order our speech concerning them by reason of darkness.
FOR MEDITATION:
In vain my fancy strives to paint
Thus much (and this is all) we know,
The moment after death;
They are completely blest;
The glories that surround the saints,
Have done with sin, and care, and woe,
When yielding up their breath.
And with their Saviour rest.

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 5 [2/3], LUKE 9:30–31

May 13th

The habit of a good conscience

A conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. Acts 24:16.

God’s commands are given to the life of His Son in us, consequently to the human nature in which His Son has been formed, His commands are difficult, but immediately we obey they become divinely easy.
Conscience is that faculty in me which attaches itself to the highest that I know, and tells me what the highest I know demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which looks out either towards God or towards what it regards as the highest, and therefore conscience records differently in different people. If I am in the habit of steadily facing myself with God, my conscience will always introduce God’s perfect law and indicate what I should do. The point is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I walk without offence. I should be living in such perfect sympathy with God’s Son, that in every circumstance the spirit of my mind is renewed, and I ‘make out’ at once “what is that good, and acceptable and perfect, will of God.”
God always educates us down to the scruple. Is my ear so keen to hear the tiniest whisper of the Spirit that I know what I should do? “Grieve not the Holy Spirit.” He does not come with a voice like thunder; His voice is so gentle that it is easy to ignore it. The one thing that keeps the conscience sensitive to Him is the continual habit of being open to God on the inside. When there is any debate, quit. ‘Why shouldn’t I do this?’ You are on the wrong track. There is no debate possible when conscience speaks. At your peril, you allow one thing to obscure your inner communion with God. Drop it, whatever it is, and see that you keep your inner vision clear.

May 13

“We know not what we should pray for as we ought.”
(Rom. 8:26)

MUCH that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the answer to our prayers. We pray for patience, and our Father sends those who tax us to the utmost; for “tribulation worketh patience.”
We pray for submission, and God sends sufferings; for “we learn obedience by the things we suffer.”
We pray for unselfishness, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking on the things of others, and by laying down our lives for the brethren.
We pray for strength and humility, and some messenger of Satan torments us until we lie in the dust crying for its removal.
We pray, “Lord, increase our faith,” and money takes wings; or the children are alarmingly ill; or a servant comes who is careless, extravagant, untidy or slow, or some hitherto unknown trial calls for an increase of faith along a line where we have not needed to exercise much faith before.
We pray for the Lamb-life, and are given a portion of lowly service, or we are injured and must seek no redress; for “he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and … opened not his mouth.”

We pray for gentleness, and there comes a perfect storm of temptation to harshness and irritability. We pray for quietness, and every nerve is strung to the utmost tension, so that looking to Him we may learn that when He giveth quietness, no one can make trouble.
We pray for love, and God sends peculiar suffering and puts us with apparently unlovely people, and lets them say things which rasp the nerves and lacerate the heart; for love suffereth long and is kind, love is not impolite, love is not provoked. LOVE BEARETH ALL THINGS, believeth, hopeth and endureth, love never faileth. We pray for likeness to Jesus, and the answer is, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?” “Are ye able?”
The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving Father; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the Throne, and to look down from the Glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed.—Selected.

I prayed for strength, and then I lost awhile
  All sense of nearness, human and divine;
The love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart,
  The hands I clung to loosed themselves from mine;
But while I swayed, weak, trembling, and alone,
The everlasting arms upheld my own.

I prayed for light; the sun went down in clouds,
  The moon was darkened by a misty doubt,
The stars of heaven were dimmed by earthly fears,
  And all my little candle flames burned out;
But while I sat in shadow, wrapped in night,
The face of Christ made all the darkness bright.

I prayed for peace, and dreamed of restful ease,
  A slumber drugged from pain, a hushed repose;
Above my head the skies were black with storm,
  And fiercer grew the onslaught of my foes;
But while the battle raged, and wild winds blew,
I heard His voice and perfect peace I knew.

I thank Thee, Lord, Thou wert too wise to heed.
  My feeble prayers, and answer as I sought,
Since these rich gifts Thy bounty has bestowed
  Have brought me more than all I asked or thought;
Giver of good, so answer each request
With Thine own giving, better than my best.

—Annie Johnson Flint.