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#Post#: 850--------------------------------------------------
" Nuggets "
By: Helen Date: March 26, 2015, 10:39 pm
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Taken from 'The London Christian'
Seemings and feelings are often substituted for faith.
Pleasurable emotions and deep satisfying experiences are part of
the Christian life, but they are not all of it. Trials,
conflicts, battles and testings lie along the way, and are not
to be counted as misfortunes, but rather as part of our
necessary discipline.
In all these varying experiences we are to reckon on Christ as
dwelling in the heart, regardless of our feelings if we are
walking obediently before Him. Here is where many get into
trouble; they try to walk by feeling rather than faith.
One of the saints tells us that it seemed as though God had
withdrawn Himself from her. His mercy seemed clean gone. For six
weeks her desolation lasted, and then the Heavenly Lover seemed
to say:
“Catherine, thou hast looked for Me without in the world
of sense, but all the while I have been within waiting for thee;
meet Me in the inner chamber of thy spirit, for I am
there.”
*Distinguish between the fact of God’s presence, and the
emotion of the fact.
It is a happy thing when the soul seems desolate and deserted,
if our faith can say, “I see Thee not. I feel Thee not,
but Thou art certainly and graciously here, where I am as I
am.” Say it again and again: “Thou art here: though
the bush does not seem to burn with fire, it does burn. I will
take the shoes from off my feet, for the place on which I stand
is holy ground.”
~ The London
Christian~
#Post#: 855--------------------------------------------------
Re: " Nuggets "
By: Helen Date: March 27, 2015, 9:55 am
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By Anna Shipton
1 Peter 4:12-13 " Beloved, think it not strange concerning the
fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing
happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of
Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye
may be glad also with exceeding joy."
Many a waiting hour was needful to enrich the harp of David, and
many a waiting hour in the wilderness will gather for us a psalm
of "thanksgiving, and the voice of melody," to cheer the hearts
of fainting ones here below, and to make glad our Father's house
on high.
What was the preparation of the son of Jesse for the songs like
unto which none other have ever sounded on this earth? The
outrage of the wicked, which brought forth cries for God's help.
Then the faint hope in God's goodness blossomed into a song of
rejoicing for His mighty deliverances and manifold mercies.
Every sorrow was another string to his harp; every deliverance
another theme for praise.
One thrill of anguish spared, one blessing unmarked or unprized,
one difficulty or danger evaded, how great would have been our
loss in that thrilling Psalmody in which God's people today find
the expression of their grief or praise!
To wait for God, and to suffer His will, is to know Him in the
fellowship of His sufferings, and to be conformed to the
likeness of His Son. So now, if the vessel is to be enlarged
for spiritual understanding, be not affrighted at the wider
sphere of suffering that awaits you. The Divine capacity of
sympathy will have a more extended sphere, for the breathing of
the Holy Ghost in the new creation never made a stoic, but left
the heart's affection tender and true.
Anna
Shipton
#Post#: 890--------------------------------------------------
Re: " Nuggets "
By: Helen Date: March 28, 2015, 9:52 pm
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God is never in a hurry but spends years with those He expects
to greatly use.
He never thinks the days of preparation too long or too dull.
The hardest ingredient in suffering is often time. A short,
sharp pang is easily borne, but when a sorrow drags its weary
way through long, monotonous years, and day after day returns
with the same dull routine of hopeless agony, the heart loses
its strength, and without the grace of God, is sure to sink into
the very sullenness of despair.
Joseph's was a long trial, and God often has to burn His lessons
into the depths of our being by the fires of protracted pain.
"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver," but He knows
how long, and like a true goldsmith He stops the fires the
moment He sees His image in the glowing metal.
We may not see now the outcome of the beautiful plan which God
is hiding in the shadow of His hand; it yet may be long
concealed; but faith may be sure that He is sitting on the
throne, calmly waiting the hour when, with adoring rapture, we
shall say, "All things have worked together for good."
Like Joseph, let us be more careful to learn all the lessons in
the school of sorrow than we are anxious for the hour of
deliverance. There is a "need-be" for every lesson, and when we
are ready, our deliverance will surely come, and we shall find
that we could not have stood in our place of higher service
without the very things that were taught us in the ordeal. God
is educating us for the future, for higher service and nobler
blessings; and if we have the qualities that fit us for a
throne, nothing can keep us from it when God's time has come.
Don't steal tomorrow out of God's hands. Give God time to speak
to you and reveal His will.
He is never too late; learn to wait.
~Selected~
#Post#: 899--------------------------------------------------
Re: " Nuggets "
By: Dave Date: March 29, 2015, 7:07 pm
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Reminded me of Martha and Mary; the lessons they needed to
learn; four days late but right on time.
#Post#: 1490--------------------------------------------------
Re: " Nuggets "
By: Helen Date: April 25, 2015, 8:40 pm
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~ By Bill Britton ~
Reach for the Stars
There have always been men who walked in a realm beyond the
limitations of their time and generation. While most men feel
that they have to settle for the status quo, and seem satisfied
with whatever is made available to their generation, there are
some who are spiritual pioneers, who "reach for the stars".
Enoch was such a man as was Noah, Elisha who asked for a double
portion, of David and others...
The Bible says: "Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God
took him." (Genesis 5:24)
Now this may not seem like such a great thing to some of , but
be reminded ... Enoch did not live in a day when men were
walking with God. It had been almost a thousand years since Adam
had walked with God in the garden. After the fall, men had only
the promise of death. The earth was filled with violence, and
the ungodliness of men was a stench that reached to heaven.
There were no churches in every village and hamlet. There was no
saviour yet who had died for the sins of men. Saints of God were
almost unheard of.
Yet in the midst of this, Enoch believed that he could reach
beyond the limitations of his generation, and walk with God.
Hebrews 11:5 says that Enoch pleased God. It also says that he
was a man of faith, and by faith he was translated that he
should not see death. This was something unheard of. Adam had
been dead for more than fifty years. Tho men lived many years,
yet no one had hope of escaping death. But by faith Enoch
believed that he could. And he did.
Enoch was the first one we read of who had a "thus saith the
Lord". We read in Jude 14 that "Enoch prophesied, saying Behold,
the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute
judgment upon all". Now Enoch was only the seventh from Adam,
and he lived in a day when we can hardly find a half dozen
saints, let alone ten thousand. Yet he looked far beyond his own
day, and saw into the great Day of the Lord when the saints of
God would execute a great victory over evil in the earth.
I realize that today we are living in a time of evil, a time of
death. War, famine, and pestilence will take the lives of
millions. The outlook is very dark. But don't hold me down to
this death realm, for like Enoch, I believe there is a greater
place in God than men are seeing in this generation.
Like Enoch I am laying hold of the Life of God, and "reaching
for the stars". Glory to God!
Bill
Britton
#Post#: 1497--------------------------------------------------
Re: " Nuggets "
By: bradley Date: April 25, 2015, 10:39 pm
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Yes, Enoch had great faith, and only he and Elijah were
translated prior to death (that we know of).
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