Tried With Fire

I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 34:15) Under the divine shepherdry saints are fed to the full. Theirs is not a windy, unsatisfying mess of mere human "thought," but the Lord feeds them upon the solid, substantial truth of divine revelation. There is real nutriment for the soul in Scripture brought home to the heart by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself is the true life-sustaining Food of believers. Here our Great Shepherd promises that such sacred nourishment shall be given us by His own self. If, on the Lord's Day, our earthly shepherd is empty-handed, the Lord is not. When filled with holy truth the mind rests. Those whom Jehovah feeds are at peace. No dog shall worry them, no wolf shall devour them, no restless propensities shall disturb them. They shall lie down and digest the food which they have enjoyed. The doctrines of grace are not only sustaining but consoling: in them we have the means for building up a...

If thou seek him, he will be found of thee. (1 Chronicles 28:9) We need our God; He is to be had for the seeking, and He will not deny Himself to any one of us if we personally seek His face. It is not if thou deserve Him, or purchase His favor, but merely if thou "seek" Him. Those who already know the Lord must go on seeking His face by prayer, by diligent service, and by holy gratitude: to such He will not refuse His favor and fellowship. Those who, as yet, have not known Him to their souls' rest should at once commence seeking and never cease till they find Him as their Savior, their Friend, their Father, and their God. What strong assurance this promise gives to the seeker! "He that seeketh findeth." You, yes you, if you seek your God shall find Him. When you find Him you have found life, pardon, sanctification, preservation, and glory. Will you not seek, and seek on, since you shall not seek in vain' Dear friend, seek the Lord at once. Here is th...

Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. (Psalm 62:1) Blessed posture! Waiting truly and only upon the Lord. Be this our condition all this day and every day. Waiting His leisure, waiting in His service, waiting in joyful expectation, waiting in prayer, and content. When the very soul thus waits, it is in the best and truest condition of a creature before his Creator, a servant before his Master, a child before his Father. We allow no dictation to God, nor complaining of Him; we will permit no petulance and no distrust. At the same time, we practice no running before the cloud and no seeking to others for aid: neither of these would be waiting upon God. God, and God alone, is the expectation of our hearts. Blessed assurance! From Him salvation is coming; it is on the road. It will come from Him and from no one else. He shall have all the glory of it, for He alone can and will perform it. And He will perform it most surely in His own time and manner. He will save ...

A friend shared a link to this article - The Mistake I Made With My Grieving Friend by Celeste Headlee, which is an excerpt from her book We Need to Talk . The article struck a chord because I want to learn how to communicate better with people. (Especially with those I love since I have flubbed it badly in the past.) My public library had Headlee's book, so I checked it out. When it comes to listening and empathizing, it doesn't come naturally. According to Headlee's research, we are much more comfortable talking about ourselves. So when the topic of a conversation becomes awkward and we don't know how to respond, we default to what are comfortable with - ourselves. Don't believe this? Then just give it a try by noticing how many times you respond to someone with something about yourself. Headlee doesn't make this a hard and fast rule because there are times when sharing our own experiences can help. However, it's worth asking how much listening and ...

The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it. (Genesis 28:13) No promise is of private interpretation: it belongs not to one saint but to all believers. If, my brother, thou canst in faith lie down upon a promise and take thy rest thereon, it is thine. Where Jacob "lighted" and tarried and rested, there he took possession. Stretching his weary length upon the ground, with the stones of that place for his pillows, he little fancied that he was thus entering into ownership of the land; yet so it was. He saw in his dream that wondrous ladder which for all true believers unites earth and heaven, and surely where the foot of the ladder stood he must have a right to the soil, for otherwise he could not reach the divine stairway. All the promises of God are "Yea" and "Amen" in Christ Jesus, and as He is ours, every promise is ours if we will but lie down upon it in restful faith. Come, weary one, use thy Lord's words as thy pillows, Lie down in pea...

I was listening to a series of lectures recently -   Redefining Reality from the Great Courses Company. The overall subject is how science has influenced philosophy throughout history. It's been interesting, but this section jumped out of the speaker at me. This quote is taken from the course notes: "How do we determine what constitutes human success, and who makes that determination? It is, in the end, a political question, and political questions are sometimes resolved by rational means, but they are always a function of power . Natural selection develops in accordance with changing environmental stresses, while artificial selection such as animal husbandry, proceeds according to the whims of those in power. Eugenics (animal husbandry applied to people) will inevitably give those with power the ability to define what counts as human flourishing, and this will always resemble those who already have the power. " (italics mine) The powerful determining human worth...