Peace Promises!

3. There is the peace from God which is full of expression of Grace from the Godhead.

“Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” Rom 1:7. See also 1 Cor 1:3, 2 Cor 1:2, Gal 1:3, Eph 1:2, Phil 1:2, Col 1:2, 1 Thes 1:1, 2 Thes 1:2, 1 Pet 1:2, 2 Pet 1:2.

When individuals instead of churches are addressed, the form of the invocation or salutation is generally changed. Peace in this connection includes all the blessings we need for time and eternity.

Grace is the unfailing fountain and peace from the Godhead, the everlasting stream – the outflowing of Grace in practical benefits for those who are at peace with God, and who have peace through believing.

Grace always precedes peace, and you can’t have peace without Grace.

Peace Promises!

4. There is “peace on Earth,” which will be fully realized when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, “the Prince of Peace.”

”On Earth peace,” Luke 2:14. “Neither shall they learn war anymore,” Isa 2:4, Psa 46:9.

What heartening promises these are in light of the current terror attack on our country.

And there are similar ones for a blood-soaked, war-weary world amid threats of a universal, devastating nuclear and chemical war. The carol of the angels seem to be a contradiction. And the contrast of “peace on Earth” this Christmas will be very evident.

With Satan as god of this world, what else can we expect but strife and bloodshed? As a “murderer from the beginning,” as the Lord Jesus Christ called him, he is the instigator of international and communal feuds resulting in war.

Two millenniums ago “the Prince of Peace” was crucified, and since then the world has been torn by a succession of wars. But world peace is coming, and it will be experienced when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to Earth as its rightful Lord and King. Which can’t happen for at least seven years. 2008??

The Apostle Paul Declares the Promise of Ultimate Peace in This World

“The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” Rom 16:20.

Six times over in the New Testament we have the designation, “The God of peace” and its connections form a profitable Bible study.

Peace is not only one of His attributes, but a part of His inherent nature. Phil 4:7, 9, Col 3:15, 2 Cor 13:11, Heb 13:20.

He is peace, and as such, will destroy anything antagonistic to His peaceful nature.

Is it not comforting to know that Satan, the origin of unrest and disorder, was dealt a death blow at Calvary and that before long he will be fully vanquished?

In this age of Grace, we need to heed the warning of the Lord Jesus Christ that the message He would have us to proclaim produces conflict rather than peace.

“Think Not That I Am to Send Peace on Earth,” Matthew 10:34

Universal peace on Earth will only come when the Lord Jesus Christ ushers in His kingdom of peace and when He reigns supremely as King of kings.

There are a few more “Peace Promises” found in the Word of God.

Promised and possessed peace can be fully enjoyed as we live in the will of God. ”The fruit of the Spirit is peace.” As He speaks peace to His saints, He warns them not to turn again to folly.

If we are His children, then loving His Word and having the mind stayed on Him, we can experience peace, a perfect peace, a peace passing all understanding, and misunderstanding as well.

Stayed upon the Lord,
Souls are fully blest.
Finding as He promised
Perfect peace and rest.

“The Meek Shall Delight Themselves in the Abundance of Peace,” Psalm 37:11

Have you read the story of the old woman whose life had been a constant struggle against poverty? And who had never seen the sea? On being taken to the seaside for the first time, she exclaimed, “Thank God there is something that there is enough of.”

God has supplied countless millions with His peace, and yet there is more to follow. How exhaustless is His provision.

The Benediction of Peace!

In Paul’s beautiful benediction, he dwells upon four different aspects of peace.

1. First of all, Christ is the Lord of peace. He is its Source and Substance.
   
2. He never delegates another to bring us His peace. He bestows it Himself.
   
3. His peace is an abiding presence. Circumstances never affect it, whether sunshine or shadow, we have peace always.
   
4. This Divine peace, the Lord Jesus Christ’s own peace, comes to us by all means.It is easy to be peaceful when all is well, but Paul implies that even adversities can contribute to our peace of mind. All roads can lead to this peace which by means of the Holy Spirit we can possess.

In Jesus Christ for peace I abide,
And while I keep close to His side,
There is nothing but peace can betide.

“Follow Peace With All Men,” Hebrews 12:14

There are peace Promises that bring us to the outward manifestation in our lives of the Divine and inner peace we possess to have as the Lord’s..

”Following peace with all men” is a reference to a hunter.

“Follow peace as a hound does the hare.” It is to be feared that we do not have the same enthusiasm for peace among ourselves as hounds have for hares.

There were times when Paul found “these fractious” souls who loved trouble rather than peace and so he wrote, “If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men,” Rom 12:18.

Our responsibility is to seek peace and pursue it, even as the hound pursues the hare. If those whom we seek to live in peace reject our overtures and retain their antagonistic attitude, we must yet retain a peaceful frame of mind, as well as a peaceful attitude.

For Christians who seek to win those who are not at peace with God, here are one or two verses which are essential to keep in mind, since they warn us of the error of our ways.

As a God of peace, He is consumed with a passion to make all men the recipients of His bounty. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He is all for peace and has peace for all – reconciliation.

There is abundant peace for those who are “afar off,” not only geographically, but spiritually. The least privileged and most sinful are called to appropriate God’s offered peace.

There is likewise peace for him “who that is near.” And who are so near as the redeemed of the Lord?

“There is No Peace, Saith the Lord, Unto the Wicked,” Isaiah 48:20-22

What a graphic picture the prophet gives of the turmoil and conflict raging within the breast of the godless.

”The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt,” Isa 57:20.

How fittingly this metaphor depicts the unsettled condition of the unbeliever. The craving for satisfaction which only the Lord Jesus Christ can give creates a ceaseless round of worldly pursuits and pleasures.

He seeks peace but it eludes him. Sometimes death is sought in order to end unsatisfied yearnings for peace. Suicide, however, only plunges the wicked into the fiercer restlessness of hell.

“Acquaint Thyself With Him and be at Peace,” Job 22:21

What a gracious Promise this is!

Because peace was secured at Calvary, all that one with a troubled conscience can do is to acquaint himself with Him who is the Prince of Peace.

When at peace with God, then, as Job promises, “Good shall come unto thee.”

How can a person accept anything that is good if a blood-purchased peace is not accepted?

It is hope that you are acquainted with God, and have a mind as tranquil as the lake that the Lord Jesus Christ calmed when here on Earth.

My soul has found a resting place and I am now, through heavenly Grace, at peace with God, at peace with God.

Promises for Believing! Faith is Believing!

There is a saving faith. “For by Grace are ye saved through faith.”

There is a sanctifying faith. “The just shall live by faith.”

Faith and believe are more or less equivalent.

From the Gospel point of view, believing is receiving.

Faith is a Divine Product

“The fruit of the Spirit is...faith,” Gal 5:22.

Whether faith is the opening of a beggar’s hand to receive the gold of Heaven, or active faith in devotion, or the bridge across the chasm between the soul and God, it is ever the gift and fruit of God the Holy Spirit.

When the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Have faith in God,” Mark 11:22, literally, have the faith of God. That is the faith which God gives. Isa 28:16, 45:22, John 7:35, 37, 12:46, Acts 10:43, 1 Tim 4:10.

“There Are Diversities of Gifts...Faith by the Same Spirit,” 1 Corinthians 12:4, 9

“Saved through faith – it is the gift of God,” Eph 2:8.

We recognize the existence of a natural faith that we exercise apart from the Grace of God. When we deposit letters in the mailbox, we believe they will reach their destination. Boarding an airplane, we believe it will carry us to where we want to go.

Faith, however, to believe that we are lost and without Christ and that the Lord Jesus Christ alone by His finished work can save us, this is a gift imparted by God the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we hear it argued that it does not matter what a man believes as long as he believes in something. But what we believe shapes our character and determines destiny.

Faith is a transitive verb. All the merit is in the Object and the Object is in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour.

One ounce of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ secures eternity.

Tuesday, October 2, 2001

Our Belief Influences Our Behavior

“Whether ye be in faith,” 2 Corinthians 13:5

We must distinguish between faith as a principle in life and as a body of revealed Truth. When we speak of one “denying the faith,” we mean that he rejects the revealed Truth of God as found in the Bible. This is “the faith we are earnestly to contend for.”

To be “in faith” one must have faith born of God. The modernist attacking and rejecting the fundamental facts of the faith is not conspicuous for his personal faith and confidence in God. He is usually self-centered and self-satisfied.

”Without faith it is impossible to please Him.”

”The just shall live by faith.”

“God Hath Dealt to Every Man the Measure of Faith,” Romans 12:3

This faith is God’s gift. All believers have faith, otherwise they would not be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some exercise their faith more than others.

Four times over we have the Lord Jesus Christ rebuking His disciples for their little faith. ”Oh ye of little faith.”

The Lord Jesus Christ commended great faith. “According to your faith be it unto you,” Matt 9:29.

Such an expression suggests an expanding mercy. It implies the necessity of seeking an ever-enlarging measure of trust in the power of the Lord Whose faithfulness is great.

Promises of abundant blessings await those whose faith increases when tested. “The trial of your faith”... More precious.

“Strong in Faith Giving Glory to God,” Romans 4:20

Under hopeless circumstances we hopefully believe. “He staggered not.” Abraham believed that God could cause the impossible to happen.

Do we? We have to keep up our repeated acts of faith. If the devil puts up a stonewall in front of us, we are to believe right through it.

Here then is the secret of strong faith, acting faith, repeated acts of faith.

”As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord (by faith), so walk ye in Him, stablished in the faith,” Col 2:6-7. He who keeps his faith, he only can not be discrowned.

”Faith is the victory that overcometh the world.”

“The Trial of Your Faith Being Much More Precious Than of Gold That Perisheth,” 1 Peter 1:7

Such a trial is exemplified in the lives of Abraham, Joseph, the prophets, the apostle Paul, and the apostles. See Gen 22:1-2, Gen 40:14, 15, Psa 105:17, 19, 2 Cor 11:24-28, and Hebrews 11.

The Lord Jesus Christ sought to try the faith of the nobleman who was deeply concerned about his sick son. “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe,” John 4:48. But the nobleman’s faith in the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ to heal, even at a distance, won the day. When he returned home, he found that faith was translated into fact.

Note in the narrative.

1. Personal faith – John 4:50.
2. Progressive faith – John 4:51.
3. Prevailing faith – John 4:52-53.

Is your faith being sorely tried? Keep believing. God is near no matter how dark the night. Faith will triumph. Faith always triumphs.

Faith alone can interpret life and the heart
That aches and bleeds with stigma,
Of pain alone bears the likeness of Christ
Can comprehend its dark enigma.

“Faith is the Substance of Things Hoped For,” Hebrews 11:1

This is more than a definition of faith. It is a declaration of its action. Faith is certain that the ship is coming home to port, although it cannot be seen.

This remarkable eleventh chapter of Hebrews has been called “the Westminster Abbey of the Bible” because it contains the illustrious role of martyrs who were full of faith and faithful unto death.

Look at this aspect.

1. The path of faith – Heb 11:1-7.
2. The patience of faith – Heb 11:8-22.
3. The power of faith – Heb 11:23-40.
4. The pattern of faith – Heb 12:1-12.
   

“Faith is the Victory That Overcometh the World,” 1 John 5:4

Faith’s triumphant answers to every accusation, every doubt, and every fear

The troubled sinner aroused to see that his body is but food for the worms and his soul is fuel for the flames, has heard the Promises, the precious Word.

He is led by God the Holy Spirit to accept as true, and true for himself, the Promises of the Gospel and he knows by the testimony of his Saviour, Who cannot lie, that he has passed out of death into life.

His life for the present is hid with Christ in God, but he also knows that when Christ, Who is his life, shall appear, he too shall appear with Him in glory, exalted above the angels.

Therefore, amid the temptations of the world and the humiliating displays of the flesh and the wiles of the devil, he is ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of his hope that is in him by pointing upward and exclaiming, “He said it.” “He said it,” Gen 32:12. “Thou saidst it.”

Biblical Reasons for Going to War Against the Terrorists!

”And I looked and rose up”
”And said unto the nobles”
”And to the rulers”
”And to the rest of the people,”

1. “Be not afraid of them.”
   
2. “Remember the Lord”
   
3. “Which is great and terrible”
   
4. And fight for your brethren”
   
5. “And fight for your sons”
   
6. “And fight for your daughters”
   
7. “And fight for your wives”
   
8. “And fight for your homes.”

I am sure this is one of your memory verses, right?

A Biblical Promise for a Terrorist Attack!

“Thou shalt not be afraid
”For the terror by night
”Nor for the arrow that flieth by day
”Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness
”Nor for the destruction that wasted at noonday.”

That sounds like the recent terrorist attack!

”A thousand shall fall at thy side
”And ten thousand at thy right hand
”But it shall not come nigh thee.”

That is a Promise from the Lord!

Now that is another verse I know you have committed to memory?!

What Instructions Does the Lord Give the Believer When the Believer Finds Himself or Herself Under a Terrorist Attack?

“But if ye suffer for righteousness sake
”Happy are ye.”

”And be not afraid of their terror
”Neither be troubled.”

Well, what shall we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ do?

”But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
”And be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”

A time to tell others about the Blessed Hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is another verse I know that you know!

What if This is the “Terror of the Lord?”

“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord
”We persuade men,
”But are made manifest unto God,
”And I trust also are made manifest in your conscience.”

When the Lord sends terror, it is a warning of the discipline of a nation.

Then we must add members to the body of Christ by giving them the Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

The Doctrine of Prayer!

What a marvelous array of prayer promises the Bible spreads before us. No matter where we look, God is presented as the One who hears and answers prayer.

Without contact with Heaven, our spiritual life cannot be maintained. Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, the Christian’s native air!

The Bible is the believers’ prayer guide. It unfolds the nature and the necessity of prayer and it is eloquent with Promises as to its privilege and power.

The following study will give us prayer pointers, promises, precepts, provisions, poems, and paragraphs which will be found to be very helpful for those interested in the Doctrine of prayer.

“Prayer Pointers”

1. We should pray in His Name!
   “Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on Earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven.”
   ”For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them,” Matt 18:19-20.
   
2. We should pray in a forgiving spirit!
   “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive your trespasses,” Mark 11:25.
   
3. We should avoid vain repetition!
   ”But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking,” Matt 6:7.

More prayer pointers to come!

Prayer Pointers

1. We should pray with insistence.
   ”I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth,” Luke 11:8.
   
2. We should pray in sincerity.
   ”And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogue and in the corner of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward,” Matt 6:5.
   
3. We should pray in the Spirit.
   ”Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him,” John 4:22-23.
   
4. We should pray in Truth.
   ”God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth,” John 4:24.
   
5. We should pray with watchfulness.
   ”Watch ye therefore and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that come to pass and to stand before the Son of man,” Luke 21:36.

More to come…

Wednesday, October 3, 2001

Prayer Pointers!

Prayer Promises

The Bible is predominately a Book of prayer. It does not prove the reality of prayer. It takes it for granted that prayer does not need proof, but practice.

Bible believers had no doubt about God hearing and answering prayer. Here are a few Promises for us to appropriate:

And many, many more.

Prayer Precepts

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are encouraged to add to their list of prayer Promises the gems of their own search which, with eyes open, they will discover in the most unlikely places.

You must have some of your aspects as to what prayer is like to you.

There is a Place!

There is a place where you can touch the eyes
Of blinded men to instant, perfect sight.
There is a place where you can say, arise!
To dying captives, bound in chains of night.

There is a place where you can reach the store
Of hoarded gold and free it for the Lord.
There is place upon some distant shore
Where you can send a worker or the Word.

There is a place where Heaven’s resistless power
Responsive moves to thine insistent plea.
There is a place, a silent trusting hour
Where God Himself descends and fights for thee.

Where is that blessed place? Dost thou ask where?
Oh soul, it is the secret place of prayer.

“He That Cometh to God... A Rewarder of Them That Diligently Seek Him,” Hebrews 11:6

Here we have two general principles regarding prayer.

1. Our conception of God.
2. Our contact with God.

Contact depends upon conception. It is only as we know Him that we can trust Him.

Our conception is of a two-fold nature.

1. We must believe that He is, meaning that He is real.
2. And that also He is a Rewarder of those who accept His reality.

Is God real to you? Is yours the reward of seeking Him?

You speak to Him for He hears
And spirit with Spirit can meet.
Closer is He than breathing
And nearer than hands and feet.

“Lord, Teach Us to Pray,” Luke 11:1

While it is true that men, even godless men, cry out to God in the deep crisis of life, the fact still remains that prayer is not natural to the unregenerate man.

Once the Lord’s, he has to be instructed is such a holy art by the very One He desires to approach. All effective prayer depends upon relationship. It was as a disciple that one of them voice the request, “Teach us to pray.”

To address a man as father, implies the relationship of sonship.

Have you been born into the Divine family? If so, then yours is the privilege and joy of addressing God as your Father in Heaven.

Christianity is a relationship with God through the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

”We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,” Gal 3:26.

“Praying Always With All Prayer,” Ephesians 6:18

When your knees knock, kneel on them!

But why postpone prayer until an emergency arises? Prayer is not a mere fire escape from danger. Prayer is a our vital breath.

Paul urges us to pray always and the qualifying phrase is at the end of the verse, “in the Spirit,” the Spirit-filled life, Eph 5:18.

We are never in the spirit of prayer unless the Spirit is in our prayer. There is a vast difference in saying prayers and praying in the Holy Spirit.

”If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,” Psa 66:18.

The prayer I make will be sweet indeed,
If Thou the Spirit give by which I pray.
My unassisted heart is barren clay
That of its native self can nothing feed.

“We Know Not What We Should Pray For,” Romans 8:26

How helpless we are without the indwelling intercessor, God the Holy Spirit, our Instructor in prayer. At best we are only infants crying in the night, with no language but a cry.

Knowing the mind of Christ, God the Holy Spirit can enable us to present our petitions accurately. He it is who takes our sighs and our broken and imperfect utterances, and recasts them until they rise as sweet incense to God.

What we are prone to forget as we approach the Mercy Seat is that God answers prayer not according to our intelligence, but according to His own.

Often we ask, but we receive not because we ask amiss, James 4:3.

“God Forbid That I Should Sin Against the Lord in Ceasing to Pray for You,” 1 Samuel 12:23

We seldom catalog praylessness as a sin, grievous in God’s sight.

Samuel, however, knew that if he failed to pray for the idolatrous multitudes, he would be guilty of sinning against the Lord, and the people needing his prayers.

Praying for the lost is an arduous task.

Be not afraid to pray! To pray is right.
Pray if you can with hope, but ever pray.
Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay,
Pray in the darkness, if there be no light.

“Whatsoever Ye Ask in Prayer Believing,” Matthew 21:22

Here is the Lord Jesus Christ’s blank check for all who pray. ”Whatsoever” – surely this covers all our needs.

But how slow we are to take this check to the bank and cash it.

The Truth likewise emphasized by the Lord Jesus Christ is that prayer must be accompanied by faith, believing.

Have we faith to praise God for the assurance of granted requests, even though the answers have not reached us?

Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with Thee bring.
For His Grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.

The Bible offers abundant evidence that God not only hears, but also promises to answer those prayers offered in accordance with His sweet, beloved will.

”The Lord is nigh unto all them call upon Him in Truth,” Psa 145:18.

Prayer is an acknowledgement of God’s all sufficiency and our dependence upon Him for all things necessary for our life on Earth. It is likewise an evidence of our helplessness and insufficiency to help ourselves.

Man by man’s efforts can never solve man’s problems.

In this Psalm quoted here, David emphasizes two important factors in all true prayer.

1. First we have not to cry as if God was far away and deaf.
   The wondrous Promise is that He is nigh unto all who call. Whenever we need Him, He is at hand.
   
2. Secondly, is the aspect that He only responds to our approach if we call upon Him in Truth.
   Which means that our prayers must be in accordance with His revealed will, which is found in His Word. It is only then that He promises to hear and answer.
   1 John 5:14-15, “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.”
   

“He Shall Pray God and He Shall be Favorable Unto Him,” Job 33:26

If we draw nigh to God in all reverence, adoration, and faith, He then has delight in responding to our petitions. God never withholds anything good thing from those who seek Him, Psa 84:10-11.

There are times when granted prayers appear to be more unfavorable to our finite understanding. We pray to be kept in health, and sickness comes. We pray for relief from a burden, but it remains.

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Of course not, but because of His infinite wisdom, He knows what is best for His own.

Therefore, if He permits sickness, He knows that this is the most favorable experience for us. Often a bed of pain makes a far more powerful pulpit than a healthy body.

God gives the very best to those who leave the choice with Him.

“Lord, Thou Hast Heard the Desire of the Humble: Thou Wilt Prepare Their Heart, Thou Wilt Cause Thine Ear to Hear,” Proverbs 10:19

In this gracious Promise, three Divine actions are indicated.

1. God hears the desire of the humble, even before it is expressed. He hears before we call.
   
2. Then He prepares our hearts, not only to pray correctly, but to be in a fit condition to receive the answer.
   
3. Further, He inclines His ear to hear.

The necessary preparation of the heart, in order to approach to God in a way agreeable to Him, is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Too often we rush into God’s holy presence and hurriedly express ourselves, as if the Mercy Seat was a fast food drive-in.

Effective praying must have earnest preparation of mind and soul.

Thursday, October 4, 2001

“By a Riverside Where Prayer Was Wont to be Made,” Acts 16:13

Wherever we pray, God is present, omnipresent!

If the Spirit of prayer is sincere, the sphere makes little difference. Yet if at all possible, it is so helpful to have a sanctum, a trusting place, where God and the soul can meet.

Paul found a way to a sheltered spot by the riverside where a few devout souls were in the habit of meeting for prayer and worship.

The Lord Jesus Christ liked to pray on the mountainside, or in a garden. Many of the saints in all ages have found themselves so near to God in the cathedral of nature.

It would be interesting to learn where you pray best? In a closet?

“Evening and Morning and at Noon Will I Pray,” Psalm 55:17

Set times as well as set places contribute to the value of our prayer life. How often do you pray?

David opened the door into Heaven three times a day. As he commenced the day he cried for strength and guidance. At noon with both hands of the clock pointing upward the psalmist stretched out both hands for further help. As the evening shadows fell, he again sought God for forgiveness and cleansing.

Praise would be expressed for Divine Grace through the day, and rest sought for silent hours of the night.

The ideal attitude is to live in the spirit of prayer. Is it as natural for us and easy for us, to turn aside and talk to God, as it is to converse with a friend at our side?

Is prayer our native air?

“Make Thy Prayer... Pay Thy Vows,” Job 22:27

To pray then means to pay, but how slow we are to learn that He who prays, pays.

We get, but we do not give.

Our answered prayers do not lead us to fulfill our obligations, both Godward and manward. We keep the angels coming down from Heaven with required provision, but we send them back empty-handed. How the angels love to carry home to a prayer-answering God, praises, gratitude, and fuller obedience of those He has so richly blessed!

Have we forgotten the practical side of prayer? Then pay that thou owest!

Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

”If thou seest a brother in need and have this world’s goods and shut up your bowels toward him, how dwelleth the love of God in you?”

”Cast thy bread upon the waters.”

The Vital Connection Between Prayer and the Promises

The latter should always be the basis of our prayers. For the Promises as a whole are our warrant for asking and our security for receiving what we ask for.

Pray Promises!

We must guard ourselves from asking anything that lies beyond the all-embracing scope of God’s Promises, for we have no authority to do so. But we may confidently ask for whatever is included in these Promises, which God never fails to fulfill.

”Thou promisedst...and hast fulfilled…” “There hath not failed one Word of all His good Promises,” 1 Kings 8:24, 24, 56.

“Put Me in Remembrance: Let Us Plead Together,” Isaiah 43:26

When praying for deliverance from Esau, Jacob reminded God of His Promise at Bethel and in Padanaram. Gen 32:9-12.

Twice over, Moses pleaded God’s Promises in his intercession for his people. Exodus 32:13, Num 14:17, 19.

David spread the Promise before God and pleaded for its fulfillment. “Do as Thou hast said,” 2 Sam 7:28, 29, Psalm 119:49.

Solomon began his intercessory prayer by asking that the Promise made to David might be verified. 1 Kings 8:25, 26.

It is essential to remember that the Promises of God are given to stimulate our prayers, not to supercede them.

While everything good for us is promised in answer to believing prayer, nothing is promised apart from it.

Once we are persuaded of the Promises and embrace them by believing prayer, we claim their fulfillment. How our prayer life is enriched when we come before God with some gracious Word of His own in our souls, and on our lips.

Let us plead the Promises of God with greater fervor.

Friday, October 5, 2001

Promises for Christians Only!

The term “Christian,” which came into vogue with the establishment of Christianity in the world was originally coined as a nickname. The people of Antioch watching the Lord Jesus Christ’s followers and observing how like their Lord they were, called them “Christ-ians,” meaning followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Such an honored designation appears thrice in the New Testament in three different settings.

When the Lord Jesus Christ was on this Earth, those who received Him and His teachings became know as “disciples,” or “learners,” or “taught ones,” and as such formed His Church in representation.

Did not the Lord Jesus Christ have them in mind as part of the material of the Church He said He would build? Therefore, all Promises He gave His disciples, many of which were fulfilled on their behalf after His ascension, are for the disciples of any age to claim.

Promises for Saints!

The personal application of the Promises of God are written for all saints and they are likewise written for each of the saints.

Have we not personally proved what a pleasant and profitable exercise it is to take a specific Promise and plead it at the Mercy Seat?

Often our prayers are pointless because we do not follow the example of David, the royal Promise pleader, who delighted to direct his finger to some particular faithful Promise and say to God, “Remember Thy Word unto Thy servant, in which Thou hast caused me to hope,” Psa 119:49.

We must cultivate the art of singling out Promises suited to our present case, and pressing their heavenly ripeness into our cup. Praise the Most High who has given us such Divine joy from a single cluster of the vintage of His Word.

How Single Texts Shine Out Before the Soul in Its Hour of Darkness Like a Light to Each Belated Traveler

The lonely widow, the helpless sick, the pining exile, the friendless poor, the feeble old, the fainting and the dying lift up their eyes and forget their misery when they think about how their God has said, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; Thou art Mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee,” Isa 43:1, 2.

How blessed the saint who thus, in whatever state he may be, has a Divine secret that keeps him always full-souled, and fills him with a joy that is unspeakable and a hope full of glory.

Take the Promises, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and plead them as your title to the inheritance, and they will be owned. They are your charter and covenant from God Himself. If we would personally enjoy the Promises, we must see to it that they have a place in our souls.

We must take them as the sure Words of the One who cannot lie.

We must make His Words our living trust, and no less worthy of our reliance as if He had fulfilled them already.

The Worth of Any Promise You May Plead Gathers an Additional Glory as You Bear in Mind “That Heaven and Earth May Pass Away, But Not One Word of Your Heavenly Father Will Fail til All is Fulfilled”

Further, you must remember that any Promise, or all of them, are not lent to be recalled at any time, but they are given. They are not given of favor, nor of any merit, but are earnests of Grace, words of love, not reward for service.

”He hath given us exceeding great and precious Promises,” 2 Pet 1:4.

The milk and honey of all the Promises are for you and me, without money and without price.

Given equally, with royal fullness, to all believers, not to a happy selected few, the elder sons or favorites of God’s great family, but to all alike with an impartial hand, as they have shown themselves fitted to receive.

There is not a single Promise in the Bible that the poorest saint may not plead, if he or she only comes to the Lord.

The Promises of God are Exceeding Great and Precious in Their Boundless Diversity and Scope. Human Promises Can Meet Just a Few Needs.

Divine Promises cover all our needs, as their abundance clearly proves. Here are the classifications of some of the Promises:

1. There are Promises for the temporal realm covering all of our material requirements here below.
   
2. There are Promises for the physical realm covering associations with the human body.
   
3. There are Promises for the marital realm covering the different aspects of our home life.
   
4. There are Promises for the spiritual realm, covering the needs of the soul and of Christian experience.
   
5. There are Promises for the eternal realm, covering all the future inheritance of the Christian.

I have broken them down and put them into categories, if you are interested.

Saturday, October 6, 2001

There Are General Promises Which Blanket All That We May Require When it Comes to Temporal, Physical, and Spiritual Blessings

Daily the Lord loads us with His benefits. ”What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?” Psa 103:2, 116:10.
”Thou crownest the year with goodness,” Psa 65:8-13.

As long as we have empty vessels to produce, the Divine oil flows in to fill them, vessels of honour.

God never stops fulfilling His Promises as long as we keep pleading them by faith to cover our needs, 2 Kings 4:1-7.

Like the cruse of oil, unfailing in His Grace forevermore
And His love unchanging still,
And according to His Promise with the Holy Spirit and power
He will every vessel fill.

Centuries Have Passed Since God Gave Noah the Promise That:

“While the Earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease,” Gen 8:22.

He who created the universe guides and governs all things both according to His will and pleasure for the benefit of His creatures. Here is a proof of His faithfulness.

He remembers His Promise and gives us all things richly, richly to enjoy. The unfailing fulfillment of His Promise also offers us a proof of His infinite power.

Man may seek to alter many aspects of God’s creation, but with all His genius and science, he cannot clothe a field with golden corn.

Then the Promise to Noah is an evidence of His Grace and goodness. In spite of the accumulated sin of the human race, He continues to shower down His manifold blessings.

Giving man rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness, man requires sustenance, and in the successions of seasons human needs are met.

“The Lord is My Shepherd. I Shall Not Want,” Psalm 23:1

This shepherd Psalm as a whole reveals the Shepherd’s ability to care for us in every way.

If we are His sheep and His private mark is upon us, then we know because of His kind, tender, liberal heart, all our fears of support are follies and forebodings are sinful, and our anxieties groundless.

For He is able to “supply all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

What want shall not our Lord supply
From His abundant stores?
What streams of Grace on high
An Arm almighty pours!

“They That Seek the Lord Shall Not Want Any Good Thing,” Psalm 34:10

This is another comfortable Promise to cheer our souls and to strengthen our assurance.

In us, “there dwells no good thing,” but how many good things God heaps upon us! We can rest assured that He will not withhold anything profitable from any of His children.

”The Father provides for those of His own household.”

”How much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” Matt 7:11, see 2 Cor 3:5.

“All Things Come of Thee,” 1 Chronicles 29:14

“Shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32

God is the Source of every good gift and every perfect gift. Temporal mercies and spiritual blessings are from Him.

All good things around us come from Heaven above. Every crumb is from Him.

”JEHOVAH JIREH, the Lord will provide,” Gen 22:14.

Under the titles of JEHOVAH we consider various aspects of God’s bountiful provision. Dealing with all our temporal necessities we can turn once more to our JEHOVAH JIREH and find in such a designation the guarantee of material supplies.

If I trust Him, I will get enough for comfort, if not enough for luxury, enough to rid me from unworthy solitude; if not enough to free me from wholesome dependence and continuous faith.

Every modest and present want He is surely to satisfy.

“The Lord Hath Blessed Me Hitherto,” Joshua 17:14

“Hitherto hath the Lord blessed us,” 1 Samuel 7:12

Each of us can raise one stone of Eben-ezer and be confident that all the Lord has been, and is, He will be.

Looking back over the past, we are reminded of all the wonderful things He has accomplished for us. How graciously He sustained us in times of need and changed our burdens into wings.

He promised to bless and we found Him faithful. Not one Promise of His failed and never will. 1 Cor 10:13.

Yea, all the Promises of God are in Him, yea and amen!

“God, Even Our God, Shall Bless Us,” Psalm 67:6

“My God shall supply all your need,” Philippians 4:19

Our wants should remind us of God’s Promises. And the promises should be used to quell our fears and comfort our souls.

We may not know the needs of the future, but He does. So let us banish all care and rest and rejoice in Him who also promised to be our Provider.

They who came to be supplied will find the Lord doth provide. Where the Lord guides, the Lord provides.

”Being in the way, the Lord lead me.”

“Consider How Great Things the Lord Hath Done for You,” 1 Samuel 12:24

Too often we dwell upon the miseries of the past and forget our mercies. But as He supplied us through all the yesterdays, and satisfied us with His Grace, He will not withhold any good thing from us in the days to come.

He gave us faith to trust Him, Promises to plead with Him, and proofs of His care and provision without number.

Should these not encourage us to face the days ahead with confidence?

“He Will Bless Them That Fear Him Both Small and Great,” Psalm 115:13

How full of cheer is this Promise for those of humble estate and whose fare is frugal. God cares for the small things in His creation, even the sparrows.

No one is too small for Him to bless. If poor, unknown, and unnoticed, you loom large in His eyes and have the Promise of His best. Even the base things of life!

“No Good Thing Will He Withhold From Them Who Walk Uprightly,” Psalm 84:11
“How Shall He Not With Him Also Freely Give Us All Things?” Romans 8:32

What royal Promises these are, if not in form, then in fact!

These two verses suggest a conglomerate of Promises. His love like a spring, rises of itself and overflows for the supply of all our needs, all of which are so freely bestowed.

Had there been any limit to His giving, He would have kept back His own Son, but He did not, but offered Him up for us all.

So then He can with Him freely give us all things.

Sunday, October 7, 2001

Passing from the general Promises of God’s providential provision, we now come to a few of the specific Promises related to material things. In order to live we must eat and drink. So we start with food.

Are we not guilty of receiving the gifts and blessings of nature in the spirit of vanity and self-pride, as by our own arm we have gotten this, that, and the other material benefit?

”What hast thou, that thou didst not receive,” 1 Cor 4:7.

”Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof. This is the gift of God,” Ecc 5:19.

With amazing regularity God showers His blessings upon the just and the unjust. These, however, become so commonplace and we seldom stop to think of, and to thank, the Giver of all.

Mercies which go everywhere we meet,
Whose very commonness should win more praise.
Do for that cause less wonder raise,
And those with slighter thankfulness we greet.

A brief glance at the following passages should be sufficient to remind us of our dependence upon the Lord for the temporal mercies of life, and should elicit our gratitude for them.

If you need more, there are more!

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread,” Matthew 6:11

What a small petition this is – bread sufficient for a day! Why did the Lord Jesus Christ not teach us to pray for bread enough to last a week? A month? A year?

By this request we are taught a two-fold lesson.

The grasses are clothed,
The ravens are fed,
From His store.
But you, who are loved
And guarded and led,
How much more
Will He clothe and feed you
And give you His care?
Then leave it with Him. He has everywhere ample store.

There Are Times When God Permits Famine as a Chastisement When He is Disobeyed or Forgotten

Is not famine mentioned as one His four sore judgments? Yet even in days when food is scarce, God is able to preserve His own.

God’s Ability to Care for His Own in Times of Straightened Circumstances is Emphasized Again and Again in the Bible

Elimelech should have remained in Bethlehem, meaning “the house of bread,” in spite of the famine. As a Jew, he should not have gone down to Moab for bread. Ruth 1:1-3.

Had not his covenant-keeping God promised to care for him? No matter what scarcity may prevail, God can provide for His own.

One of the secrets of life Isaiah suggested in his chapter on liberality in which he recommends that we, “Deal our bread to the hungry,” Isa 58:7. Also look at 2 Kings 4:1-7.

Is thy cruse of comfort failing?
Rise and share it with a friend.
And through all the years of famine,
It shall serve thee to the end.

Love Divine will fill thy storehouse
Or thy handful still renew.
Scanty fare for one will often
Make a royal feast for two.

Bin Laden Quotes Scripture

“All Americans are sinners.” Yes! “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I didn’t think he knew that passage. Is that in the Koran?

Monday, October 8, 2001

We worship the Son of God. Worthy is the Lamb to be worshipped.

And they worship Allah...the sun-god.

“Give Me This Water That I Thirst Not,” John 4:14, 15

“My soul thirsteth for God, the living God,” Psa 42:2.

Did not our Lord remind us that while food is so necessary for our mortal life, we “cannot live by bread alone,” Matt 4:4. If God so willed it, we could live without bread, even as Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ did for 40 days. But we could not live without Him, the Bread of life.

Bread is a second cause. The Lord Himself is the first Source of our sustenance. We can work without the second cause as well as with it, and we must not tie Him down to one mode of operation.

Let us not be too eager after the visible, but let us look to the invisible God.

The Bible Word For “Appetite” Covers Desire and Lust, Good or Bad

God is referred to as “filling the appetite of the young lions,” Job 38:39.

Overeating is condemned by Solomon, who certainly knew what he wrote about. “Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be given to appetite,” Prov 23:2. Now there is a unique diet!

A normal appetite supposes life and is regulated by nature. A carnal appetite is satisfied with carnal things.

In the spiritual realm a Christian can only be satisfied with spiritual things. His appetite is fixed on his object and it is only as he feeds upon the Lord that he enjoys satisfaction. Psa 107:9.

Daniel and His Friends Knew How to Curb Their Appetites!

They did not live to eat, but ate to live. “Let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink,: Dan 1:12.

They proved to those around them in the court that plain living was the ladder up which they mounted to high thinking. Likewise was John the Baptist.

These young men set themselves against undue indulgence of the body in eating and drinking, and so must we if we would be spared from indulgences unfitting the soul for the lofty and sublime delight of fellowship with Heaven.

How Great is the Grace of Him Who Supplies Us Not Only With Our Necessary Food, But Also Our Equally Necessary Raiment More Necessary in Some Climates Than in Others

Good clothes are expensive these days and those saints who are materially poor may have a little anxiety as to where new clothes are to come from.

Well, there is this Promise that as God clothes the field with grass, He will surely care for the bodily covering of His children.

He who made man so that when He sinned He needed garments, also in mercy supplied him with them. If He clothed Adam and Eve, He will clothe you.

Some one came to the door and said, “What do you do with your old clothes?” I said, “I am wearing them.”

Tuesday, October 9, 2001

“The Body is More Than Raiment,” Matthew 6:25

The health and holiness of the body are of greater importance than its habiliments.

As a child of God, your body has become a temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy of Holies, which means that you have to be more anxious over your body functioning as a medium of blessing than as a mere model displaying the latest creations.

To spend more money on clothes than we do for nutritious food whereby the body can be kept healthy and thereby able to render the utmost service for the Lord, is surely unworthy of one redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Promise is that if God is able to feed the birds, and our bodies, He also has the power to provide the raiment the body needs, if He clothes the birds with such lovely plumage.

He will not be indifferent regarding what His children should wear. He knows what things we have need of.

He gives a coat of feathers,
It is very plain, I know,
With never a speck of crimson
For it was not made for show.

“God Clothed Them,” Genesis 3:21

God, then, was man’s first Tailor. Adam and Eve, conscious of their nakedness, sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons, or loin coverings.

But such aprons afforded no efficient and permanent covering. Therefore God made them – coats of skin, longer than aprons and more durable than leaves.

Man’s first bodily covering was made of skins and skins imply the death of animals. God condemned the leaves Adam provided by his own effort. Our self-righteousness is as filthy rags in God’s sight, Isa 64:6. Apart from the sacrificial covering of Divine righteousness, we are naked before God.

Naked – come to Thee for dress.

“They Have No Covering in the Cold,” Job 24:7

“For God maketh my heart soft,” Job 23:16. This is why the hearlessness of those he condemns weighed upon Job’s soul.

”They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold,” Job 24:7.

When old man winter comes around, are our souls pained as we think of the very many who lack sufficient clothing to keep them warm?

How grateful we should be if we have sufficient clothing to keep out the cold. Are there those living near you whose raiment is scanty, who are poor and unable to provide what they sorely need as the cold, wintry days approach?

As you count your blessings, are you also sharing them with others?

“I Was Naked and Ye Clothed Me. When Saw We Thee Naked? Inasmuch as Ye Did it Unto the Least of These, Ye Did it Unto Me,” Matthew 24:35-40

“Buy of Me white raiment that thou mayest be clothed,” Rev 3:18.

A study of raiment verses in the Bible reveals that God is in the clothing business in a large way. He Himself is described as being clothed with light, with honor, with majesty, with garments of vengeance, in vesture dipped in blood, in a cloak of zeal.

As for ourselves, we are to be clad in garments of salvation, humility, and righteousness, fine linen, clean and white – all promised and provided by God, which should be our daily garb. 1 Pet 3:3-4.

It is true that clothes make the man. We have the right kind of clothes to make us the Christ-man. “Clothed in righteousness.”

Solomon’s Advice

“Let your garments be always white.”

White frequently denotes victory and the favor of God. If, however, we magnify ourselves against the Lord, He will clothe us with shame and dishonor.

We are urged to “buy of Christ” the spiritual raiment we need. And such a purchase is not made with silver, but surrender.

Abandonment to His claims is the only currency He will receive for the performance of any of His Promises.

Behold the lilies as they grow
They neither toil nor spin.
Yet humans never wore robes so fine
As God hath clothed them in.

Could He who clothes the fragile flower
Forget to clothe His own?
In faith lay hold upon His power
To Him thy cares make known.

Does It Surprise You to Learn That God’s Consideration for His Own Includes the Shoes They Wear as Well as Their Clothes?

There is that old spiritual song about all God’s children having shoes. Many of His children have shoes the soles of which are thin, and who wonder where their next pair will come from.

God promised and provided shoes for His pilgrim people. They are very needful for traveling along rough ways and for trampling upon deadly foes. We shall not go barefoot. This would be unsuitable for princes of royal blood.

Our shoes shall not be at all the common sort, for they shall have soles of durable metal, which will not wear out even though the journey be long and difficult.

We shall have protection proportionate to the necessities of the road and the battle. Wherefore let us march boldly on, fearing no harm even though we tread on serpents, or set our foot upon the dragon himself.

Among Our Material Requirements, Money Occupies a Most Prominent Place, and Some of the Divine Promises Are Specifically Related to What May Become “Filthy Lucre,” 1 Peter 5:2

Plantus, the Latin philosopher, is credited with having said, “By Heaven, money is a beautiful gift.” But it is a beautiful gift only when it is received as a trust from Heaven and used in ways pleasing to Him to whom the silver and the gold belong.

This world with all its mines of wealth
Is Thine, O Lord, alone.
We thank Thee for Thy riches here
For they are not our own.

The problem most people have with money is that they don’t consider it as a trust from the Lord.

“I Have Made Gold My Hope,” Job 31:24

The patriarch confessed that gold, and not God, had been his confidence. His hope had been in his gift and not in his Giver, like Solomon.

If it had been true that money talks, then with a loud commanding voice it demands worship. And gold-greedy souls bow in allegiance in that which makes them as hard as the metal they worship. You become what you worship.

Worshipping the “golden calf,” they too perish in the wilderness. The Laodiceans are described as being “rich and increased with goods,” but the Lord saw them as “poor and miserable” and urged them to turn from gold to Grace.

The richest man is the poorest, if his soul is destitute of Him whose price is above rubies. Heaven’s millionaires are those who revel in the riches of His Grace.

“I Will Make a Man More Precious Than Fine Gold,” Isaiah 13:12

Because gold is the most valuable of all the metals, it is used to typify God’s Word, tried saints, sound doctrine, and the New Jerusalem.

In the Promise before us, Isaiah reminds us that a man is worth more than money. But wherein is a man more precious than gold, even than a “golden wedge of Ophir.”

1. Well, man has life. Gold is inanimate.
   
2. Man has personality, talents, feelings, whereas gold is merely metal and destitute of all the glorious powers of man.
   
3. Man is eternal, but gold is only temporary.
   
4. Man is indestructible. The body may perish, but he, himself, can never be destroyed, his soul. But gold can easily be reduced to nothingness.
   
5. Man has been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Gold can never experience His love and Grace.
   
6. When a new war breaks loose, human life is of little value.
   
7. Yet the Word of the prophets stands that a man is more precious than gold if he is a man in the Lord Jesus Christ.
   

“Wherefore do ye Spend Money for That Which is Not Bread?” Isaiah 55:1-2

What the prophet is here condemning is the expenditure of money on useless things. As a nation we spend more money on cosmetics than Christian missions. More on crime than on education.

A good many Church-going people spend more on amusements and sports and personal pleasure and non-essentials than they do for the furtherance of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Money prayerfully and wisely spent produces bread upon which God, ourselves, and others can feed.

”Bread” represents that which is sustaining and satisfying and is therefore a fitting type of the good our gold can accomplish when it is used as a trust from the Lord.

Isaiah likewise has a paradox about buying without money. Faith and obedience form Heaven’s purchase price for all its spiritual commodities.

Wednesday, October 10, 2001

“Ye Shall be Redeemed Without Money,” Isaiah 52:3

There are some valuable possessions money can’t buy. Money may “speak,” but it can’t save. (Money speaks – It says goodbye.)

Gold can purchase a great deal, but when it comes to the redemption of the soul which is more precious, all the money in the world would not be sufficient for such a transaction.

”Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious love of the Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Pet 1:18-19.

Whether rich or poor, God’s priceless salvation is offered to all as a gift.

“The Rich Shall Not Give More and the Poor Shall Not Give Less,” Exodus 30:15

As my Kinsman-Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ paid the atonement money, paid it in the currency of Heaven – His true body and reasonable soul.

We do not have to bring to the temple even half a shekel in our hands. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the whole shekel.

While it is true that money cannot buy us back from sin’s bondage, once we become the Lord’s, our substance must be dedicated to Him. Although saved from sin and hell without money and without price, we can serve our Saviour with our money.

The Scripture says we dare not offer Him that which costs us nothing.

“He That Loveth Silver Shall Not be Satisfied,” Ecclesiastes 5:10

It would seem that the more the natural man has, the more he wants. Thus, the love of money and not the money itself, becomes the root of evil.

It is always dissatisfying to love money for money’s sake. Whether we have much or little, may the Grace of satisfaction be ours.

An ever-deepening love for the Lord Jesus Christ will deal more effectively with any love in our souls for the passing possessions of this world. 2 Tim 4:8-10.

“The Prophets...Divine For Money,” Micah 3:11

Paul speaks of those coveting money. “Err from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

There are times when the lure of money ruins the influence of God’s servants. Micah asks, “Can the Lord work among us, if we judge for reward, and teach for hire, and preach for money?”

Those who are called to minister the Word of God are under the solemn obligation of ministering to all without undue concern of the cash value of opportunities, knowing since “the laborer is worthy of his hire,” the Lord will provide all necessary remuneration.

Have we not the Promise that our every need will be supplied?

There are those who have said, “as I face an audience I find myself weighing it and saying to myself, I wonder what I can get out of this crowd?”

It should be the sincere desire of a prophet or pastor to give and not to get, all he can, and rest in the assurance that God is ever a good Paymaster.

“Does Not Your Lord Pay Tribute?” Matthew 17:24

In these days of heavy taxation when various taxes claim a large part of our income, it is somewhat consoling to learn that the Lord Himself willingly paid His annual tribute.

He met every required demand. Rather than evade the tax collector, He performed a miracle to provide sufficient tribute money for Himself and Peter. The apostle found the silver piece in the fish’s mouth.

Have you ever prayed that the Lord would perform another miracle when it came time for you to pay your taxes? April 15?

Money is found in other ways to meet Church obligations. Schemes, many of which are unworthy of our high and holy calling, are undertaken to raise money. A strong Church under the influence of Grace giving, not gimmick giving, does not have any financi