Milo

February 24th

The delight of sacrifice

I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. 2 Cor. 12:15.

When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests in other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have no right in Christian work to be guided by our affinities; this is one of the biggest tests of our relationship to Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause. Paul spent himself for one purpose only—that he might win men to Jesus Christ. Paul attracted to Jesus all the time, never to himself. “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” When a man says he must develop a holy life alone with God, he is of no more use to his fellow men: he puts himself on a pedestal, away from the common run of men. Paul became a sacramental personality; wherever he went, Jesus Christ helped Himself to his life. Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve. Paul said he knew how to be a ‘door-mat’ without resenting it, because the mainspring of his life was devotion to Jesus. We are apt to be devoted not to Jesus Christ but to the things which emancipate us spiritually. That was not Paul’s motive: “I could wish myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren”—wild, extravagant—is it? When a man is in love it is not an exaggeration to talk in that way, and Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.

February 24

“John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true.” (John 10:41.)

YOU may be very discontented with yourself. You are no genius, have no brilliant gifts, and are inconspicuous for any special faculty. Mediocrity is the law of your existence. Your days are remarkable for nothing but sameness and insipidity. Yet you may live a great life.
John did no miracle, but Jesus said that among those born of women there had not appeared a greater than he.
John’s main business was to bear witness to the Light, and this may be yours and mine. John was content to be only a voice, if men would think of Christ.
Be willing to be only a voice, heard but not seen; a mirror whose surface is lost to view, because it reflects the dazzling glory of the sun; a breeze that springs up just before daylight, and says, “The dawn! the dawn!” and then dies away.
Do the commonest and smallest things as beneath His eye. If you must live with uncongenial people, set to their conquest by love. If you have made a great mistake in your life, do not let it becloud all of it; but, locking the secret in your breast, compel it to yield strength and sweetness.
We are doing more good than we know, sowing seeds, starting streamlets, giving men true thoughts of Christ, to which they will refer one day as the first things that started them thinking of Him; and, of my part, I shall be satisfied if no great mausoleum is raised over my grave, but that simple souls shall gather there when I am gone, and say,
“He was a good man; he wrought no miracles, but he spake words about Christ, which led me to know Him for myself.”
—George Matheson.

“THY HIDDEN ONES” (Psa. 83:3.)

“Thick green leaves from the soft brown earth,
Happy springtime hath called them, forth;
First faint promise of summer bloom
Breathes from the fragrant, sweet perfume,
  Under the leaves.

“Lift them! what marvelous beauty lies
Hidden beneath, from our thoughtless eyes!
Mayflowers, rosy or purest white,
Lift their cups to the sudden light,
  Under the leaves.

“Are there no lives whose holy deeds—
Seen by no eye save His who reads
Motive and action—in silence grow
Into rare beauty, and bud and blow
  Under the leaves?

“Fair white flowers of faith and trust,
Springing from spirits bruised and crushed;
Blossoms of love, rose-tinted and bright,
Touched and painted with Heaven’s own light
  Under the leaves.

“Full fresh clusters of duty borne,
Fairest of all in that shadow grown;
Wondrous the fragrance that sweet and rare
Comes from the flower-cups hidden there
  Under the leaves.

“Though unseen by our vision dim,
Bud and blossom are known to Him;
Wait we content for His heavenly ray—
Wait till our Master Himself one day
  Lifteth the leaves.”

“God calls many of His most valued workers from the unknown multitude.” (Luke 14:23.)

24 FEBRUARY

The Lord’s secret friends

‘And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.… And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night.… Then took they the body of Jesus … to bury.’ John 19:38–40
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 9:1–22

When Nicodemus came to Jesus he was not reproached with what he had been. Our Lord was of no party; even one that came from among his professed enemies, he received with freedom and kindness. He is the same still. No matter what you have been, whether Pharisee or publican, if you seek him you shall be welcome.
Observe that the truth has some secret friends amongst those who seem engaged for its overthrow. Jesus had a Nicodemus and a Joseph in the council of his enemies, who perhaps moderated and kept back their wicked designs till the appointed time, and then openly appeared in his behalf. The Lord has often preserved his church and professed people in this manner. And perhaps it is to answer the designs of his providence that some whose hearts are touched with this love, are kept for a season from that increase of light and knowledge which, if they could immediately obtain, would break them off from those connections where he has at present occasion for their service.

FOR MEDITATION: If my testimony should not be necessary or serviceable, yet, perhaps, I am bound in conscience to take shame to myself by a public confession, which, however sincere, comes too late to prevent or repair the misery and mischief to which I have formerly been accessory. I hope it will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders. I have … written … simply from … a conviction that the share I have formerly had in the trade, binds me in conscience to throw what light I am able upon the subject, now it is likely to become a point of parliamentary investigation. I ought not to be afraid of offending many, by declaring the truth.… [against] a commerce so iniquitous, so cruel, so oppressive, so destructive, as the African Slave Trade!
Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, 1788 (copies given to every MP)

SERMON SERIES: JOHN 3:1–2, NO. 1 [4/7]

23 FEBRUARY

The most unlikely persons

‘There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.’ John 3:1–2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Joshua 2:1–24

Who Nicodemus was: by profession a Pharisee, in rank a ruler, and, it was probable from John 7:50, a member of their chief council—that council which afterwards condemned him to death. The Pharisees were our Lord’s professed and implacable enemies upon all occasions, and the rulers and rich men, if they did not directly join with them in seeking his destruction (which many did), yet in general thought him beneath their notice. The publicans and sinners, the poor and the miserable, flocked about him, but as to the rest, they were either so careless or so obstinate, that his enemies could boldly say, Have any of the Pharisees and rulers believed on him? [John 7:48]. This was therefore a singular case. We may observe from it that the grace of God can, and often does, triumph over the greatest difficulties and show itself sovereign in calling the most unlikely persons. Who would have thought of an Obadiah in the court of the wicked? A Rahab? Or an enquirer after Jesus among the Pharisees and rulers? The Lord draws some in every situation and character of life. He can break through the greatest prejudices and the strongest temptations, can soften the heart of a proud Pharisee, and make a rich man poor in spirit. It is true not many of these are called, but some there are, and we know not who will be the next. It should therefore give us encouragement and teach us patience concerning those who as yet sit in darkness. We are apt to condemn by the lump, and give up whole bodies of men as desperate, but those we have little hopes of may ere long outstrip us in the Christian profession.

FOR MEDITATION: Though he does not see things clearly I have reason to hope the Lord has begun a good work in his heart [9 May 1776]. O my Lord, I thank thee for thy goodness to him; I think he goes forward into the light of thy truth [2 September 1777]. I think I can see he has got before me already. Lord, if I have been useful to him, do thou, I beseech thee, make him now useful to me [11 December 1778].
Diary, Newton’s prayers for the Rev. Thomas Scott

SERMON SERIES: JOHN 3:1–2, NO. 1 [3/7]

February 23

“And there came a lion.” (1 Sam. 17:34.)

IT is a source of inspiration and strength to come in touch with the youthful David, trusting God. Through faith in God he conquered a lion and a bear, and afterwards overthrew the mighty Goliath. When that lion came to despoil that flock, it came as a wondrous opportunity to David. If he had failed or faltered he would have missed God’s opportunity for him and probably would never have come to be God’s chosen king of Israel. “And there came a lion.”
One would not think that a lion was a special blessing from God; one would think that only an occasion of alarm. The lion was God’s opportunity in disguise. Every difficulty that presents itself to us, if we receive it in the right way, is God’s opportunity. Every temptation that comes is God’s opportunity.
When the “lion” comes, recognize it as God’s opportunity no matter how rough the exterior. The very tabernacle of God was covered with badgers’ skins and goats’ hair; one would not think there would be any glory there. The Shekinah of God was manifest under that kind of covering. May God open our eyes to see Him, whether in temptations, trials, dangers, or misfortunes.—C. H. P.