Milo

February 23rd

The determination to serve

The son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Matthew 20:28.

Paul’s idea of service is the same as our Lord’s: “I am among you as He that serveth”; “ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” We have the idea that a man called to the Ministry is called to be a different kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he is called to be the ‘door-mat’ of other men; their spiritual leader, but never their superior. “I know how to be abased,” says Paul. This is Paul’s idea of service—‘I will spend myself to the last ebb for you; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no difference. So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does.’ The mainspring of Paul’s service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men.
Paul’s realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. “I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person”—no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.

February 22nd

The discipline of spiritual tenacity

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10.

Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a disciple has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for—love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men—will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o’-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.
If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. “Because thou hast kept the word of My patience.”
Remain spiritually tenacious.

February 22

“If thou canst believe, all things are possible, to him that believeth.” (Mark 9:23.)

SELDOM have we heard a better definition of faith than was given once in one of our meetings, by a dear old colored woman, as she answered the question of a young man how to take the Lord for needed help.
In her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she said with great emphasis: “You’ve just got to believe that He’s done it and it’s done.” The great danger with most of us is that, after we ask Him to do it, we do not believe that it is done, but we keep on helping Him, and getting others to help Him; and waiting to see how He is going to do it.
Faith adds its “Amen” to God’s “Yea,” and then takes its hands off, and leaves God to finish His work. Its language is, “Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him; and he worketh.”—Days of Heaven upon Earth.

“I simply take Him at His word,
I praise Him that my prayer is heard,
And claim my answer from the Lord;
  I take, He undertakes.”

An active faith can give thanks for a promise, though it be not as yet performed; knowing that God’s bonds are as good as ready money.—Matthew Henry.

Passive faith accepts the word as true—
  But never moves.
Active faith begins the work to do,
  And thereby proves.

Passive faith says, “I believe it! every word of God is true.
Well I know He hath not spoken what He cannot, will not, do.
He hath bidden me, ‘Go forward!’ but a closed-up way I see,
When the waters are divided, soon in Canaan’s land I’ll be.
Lo! I hear His voice commanding, ‘Rise and walk: take up thy bed’;
And, ‘Stretch forth thy withered member!’ which for so long has been dead.
When I am a little stronger, then, I know I’ll surely stand:
When there comes a thrill of healing, I will use with ease my other hand.
Yes, I know that ‘God is able’ and full willing all to do:
I believe that every promise, sometime, will to me come true.”

Active faith says, “I believe it! and the promise now I take,
Knowing well, as I receive it, God, each promise, real will make.
So I step into the waters, finding there an open way;
Onward press, the land possessing; nothing can my progress stay.

Yea, I rise at His commanding, walk straightway, and joyfully:
This, my hand, so sadly shrivelled, as I reach, restored shall be.
What beyond His faithful promise, would I wish or do I need?
Looking not for ‘signs or wonders,’ I’ll no contradiction heed.
Well I know that ‘God is able,’ and full willing all to do:
I believe that every promise, at this moment can come true.”

Passive faith but praises in the light,
  When sun doth shine.
Active faith will praise in darkest night—
  Which faith is thine?

—Selected.

22 FEBRUARY

Hear as if your last opportunity

‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ John 3:16
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Luke 23:32–43

As I conceive that this discourse will afford a large scope for doctrine, for instruction in righteousness, I propose, if opportunity is afforded, to go through it all. To enlarge upon all that the verses before us contain in reference to these subjects will be a work of time. Perhaps many who are present at my entrance upon this passage may not live to see the close of it, even if I should be spared to complete it. May the Lord therefore enable me to speak and you to hear every discourse as if it were the last opportunity we should enjoy on this side of eternity. It may be summarized by four principal points:
(i) the nature and necessity of the new birth (from John 3:3–8).
(ii) concerning the certainty and evidence of divine truth and the insufficiency of man to receive the clearest and most necessary doctrines, unless he is taught from above (verses 9–13).
(iii) our Lord declares the great design of his coming into the world, to give life to those who were at the point of death (verses 14–17).
(iv) the happiness of those who should believe, and the aggravated condemnation of those who reject his gospel (verses 18–21).

FOR MEDITATION: I am willing to hope that you will be made a messenger of light and peace to his soul. The Lord’s hand is not shortened that he cannot save. He can do great things in a small time, as you know from your own experience. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, he can command light to shine out of darkness. If he speaks, it is done.… One glimpse of the worth of the soul, the evil of sin, and the importance of eternity, will effect that which hath been in vain attempted by repeated arguments.
John Newton to William Cowper, 22 February 1770

[re Cowper’s brother, John, converted on his deathbed a few days later]

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

21 FEBRUARY

He does not quench the smoking flax

‘Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?’ John 3:4
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 3:1–21

When we read our Lord’s discourse with Nicodemus, we may well say what some said who heard him speak themselves, Never man spake like this man [John 7:46]. Here we see a depth of doctrine explained and illustrated by the most familiar and condescending comparisons. We see something of that tenderness and freedom with which he received all that came unto him. He did not despise the day of small things; he did not quench the smoking flax, but cherished it into a flame. We see likewise the power and efficacy of his words, how they cause light to spring out of darkness, instruct the most ignorant and confirm the most fearful. Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, attained at length so much boldness in his cause, that when he hung upon the cross, wounded and dead, when his apostles had all forsaken him, he durst appear in the midst of his enemies as an open disciple and assist in taking down his body and preparing it for the funeral. Let this encourage those who are now seeking him in much darkness and many fears. His arm is not shortened, nor his ear heavy, nor his compassions abated to this hour.

FOR MEDITATION: The religion I then possessed my Lord, thou knowest, scarcely deserved the name. For I knew little of thee as a Saviour, and while I trusted thee in temporals, I was not aware of my greatest wants and dangers. In my spiritual concerns, I chiefly depended upon myself. I knew I had been very bad, I had a desire to be better, and thought I should in time make myself so. Surely if I had any light, it was but as the first and faintest streak of dawn. Yet if this glimmering had not been from thee, it could not have advanced. Thou who wilt not forsake the work of thine own hands, nor break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, wast pleased to pardon, accept and bring me forward. May the remembrance of thy patience and gentleness towards me, teach me forbearance and candour to others, in whom I observe the smallest indications of a desire to seek and serve thee!
Annotated Letters to a Wife, 21 February 1795

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