These are days, no doubt, that demand our most earnest devotion to prayer. 'In everything by prayer' is God’s plan for us. Someone has said that prayer is 'the robing room of the soul'. Prayer sends the soul aloft and is the truest worship of the sanctified will. It is like a greenhouse for our spirit. Constant trips to the invisible world in prayer will speed us along and stabilize us in our walk of faith.
The Bible tells us that David’s kingdom grew stronger and stronger, while Saul’s kingdom grew weaker and weaker. Saul is a picture of the natural man who trusted in his own natural gifting. David inquired of the Lord constantly...and when God said to him, 'Seek my face', David’s heart said to the Lord, 'Thy fac e will I seek'. Perhaps the difference between David and Saul could be summed up in David’s own words recorded in 1 Chronicles13:3: 'And let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul'.
What an admission! No inquiry at the ark of God in the days of Saul, because he was not a man of prayer and did not seek the Lord as a way of life. We need to learn from this contrast, because we are like one of these men.
J. O. Fraser, missionary to China, once said, 'It is one of the most subtle wiles of the foe to get us occupied with superficial and surface concerns. The enemy is delighted to have us so occupied incessantly with secondary and trivial things, as long as he can keep us from attacking and resisting in the true spirit of the conflict. Weigh these words'.
May our Lord enable each of us to follow Him fully as the Spirit of God seeks to lead us into the=2 0the promised land of prayer. What riches await us! Yes Lord.
The trumpet is sounding in our land, and there is a call to God’s people. Let us heed His call and respond to Him with all our hearts, for it is a call to His church.
- Al Whittinghill
Monday, September 21, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Actual Words of an Atheist One Hundred Years Ago
If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences the eternal destiny of others, then religion would mean everything to me. I would cast away earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as folly, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I would labor in its cause alone. I would only take thought for tomorrow about eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequences would never stop my hand nor seal my lips. Earth and its joys and griefs would occupy no moments of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon eternity alone and on the immortal souls around me who are soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach in season and out of season, and my text would be, 'What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul'?
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Ambition Hinders Life and Ministry, Pt. 2
The whole history and character of Christ are in direct antagonism to ambition.
If Paul is to serve as an example for preachers, it is at the point of freedom from all forms of ambition that his example is the most emphatic. He puts the whole inventory of ecclesiastical and earthly goods in one catalog and renounces them all in this strong language: "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Phil. 3:7-8); and as though this were not enough, he takes us to the cross, where every earthly thing perished in pain, shame, and utter bankruptcy, and declares; "I am crucified with Christ."
Many things often are often allowed to come into our faith and our ministry to defame them, but nothing is more deadly to us than ambition. It has in its bad embrace the seeds of all evil. It has insincerity and hypocrisy. It is a tyrant. Of all the evils that grieve God's Spirit and quench his flame, ambition may be reckoned among the chief, if not the very chief. The fact that ecclesiastical pride, church sentiment, and church worldliness will allow ambition to be christened at church altars and have the stamp of innocence and of virtue, ought to be alarming.
Is the desire for ecclesiastical advancement ambition? If not, what is it? We may say it is a laudable ambition! Can a qualifying word change the evil nature of this dark and fallen angel? Does an angelic garb make Satan an angel? We may say we want a more honorable place to do more honorable and larger service for Christ. Is not this Satan clothing himself as an angel of good? The honor of a service done for God is in no way dependent on its honorable nature or largeness. The honor of service for God depends only on the spirit in which it is done, and that spirit is one in which self-pride and ambition are crucified. Self in us looks to the future to largeness and honor. Christ in us looks to the present to fidelity and zeal for the work at hand and has no eye for self and future.
Can the preacher preach without faith? If he preaches with ambition, he is preaching without faith, for in Christ's service faith and ambition cannot co-exist. Can the preacher preach without love? If he preaches with ambition, he is preaching without love, for ambition and love have neither union nor concord. Can a preacher preach without humility? If he preaches with ambition, he is preaching without humility, for ambition is the very essence of pride. Can a preacher preach without consecration? If he preaches with ambition he must, for ambition is a thing to be crucified and not consecrated. Ambition must be daily crucified because it never can be consecrated.
Ambition changes the whole nature of ministry and floods it with worldliness. Instead of the ministry being an institution where the highest Christian graces are to be produced and the loftiest virtues exhibited, ambition transforms it into a ministry where self is the mainspring and every grace is blighted.
With ambition, the church is no longer an institution to save men, where the preacher, like Christ, exhausts himself to secure this end; but it is changed into an institution to confer position on men, and all its holy places are then polluted by the grasping, selfish hand of ambition or they are trodden by its unhallowed feet.
- E. M. Bounds
If Paul is to serve as an example for preachers, it is at the point of freedom from all forms of ambition that his example is the most emphatic. He puts the whole inventory of ecclesiastical and earthly goods in one catalog and renounces them all in this strong language: "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Phil. 3:7-8); and as though this were not enough, he takes us to the cross, where every earthly thing perished in pain, shame, and utter bankruptcy, and declares; "I am crucified with Christ."
Many things often are often allowed to come into our faith and our ministry to defame them, but nothing is more deadly to us than ambition. It has in its bad embrace the seeds of all evil. It has insincerity and hypocrisy. It is a tyrant. Of all the evils that grieve God's Spirit and quench his flame, ambition may be reckoned among the chief, if not the very chief. The fact that ecclesiastical pride, church sentiment, and church worldliness will allow ambition to be christened at church altars and have the stamp of innocence and of virtue, ought to be alarming.
Is the desire for ecclesiastical advancement ambition? If not, what is it? We may say it is a laudable ambition! Can a qualifying word change the evil nature of this dark and fallen angel? Does an angelic garb make Satan an angel? We may say we want a more honorable place to do more honorable and larger service for Christ. Is not this Satan clothing himself as an angel of good? The honor of a service done for God is in no way dependent on its honorable nature or largeness. The honor of service for God depends only on the spirit in which it is done, and that spirit is one in which self-pride and ambition are crucified. Self in us looks to the future to largeness and honor. Christ in us looks to the present to fidelity and zeal for the work at hand and has no eye for self and future.
Can the preacher preach without faith? If he preaches with ambition, he is preaching without faith, for in Christ's service faith and ambition cannot co-exist. Can the preacher preach without love? If he preaches with ambition, he is preaching without love, for ambition and love have neither union nor concord. Can a preacher preach without humility? If he preaches with ambition, he is preaching without humility, for ambition is the very essence of pride. Can a preacher preach without consecration? If he preaches with ambition he must, for ambition is a thing to be crucified and not consecrated. Ambition must be daily crucified because it never can be consecrated.
Ambition changes the whole nature of ministry and floods it with worldliness. Instead of the ministry being an institution where the highest Christian graces are to be produced and the loftiest virtues exhibited, ambition transforms it into a ministry where self is the mainspring and every grace is blighted.
With ambition, the church is no longer an institution to save men, where the preacher, like Christ, exhausts himself to secure this end; but it is changed into an institution to confer position on men, and all its holy places are then polluted by the grasping, selfish hand of ambition or they are trodden by its unhallowed feet.
- E. M. Bounds
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Ambition Hinders Life and Ministry
Ambition is one of the greatest hindrances to the Christian life and especially to preaching because it is born of self and nurtured by pride. It manifests itself in various ways: the desire to be a great preacher, to have the first place, to be a leader, or to secure places of honor or profit veils itself under many disguises. It is christened with the surname "laudable", and comes into the church, then works its selfish, worldly schemes. A person may be a Christian by name and a church member, but if he is driven by ambition, he is an infidel at heart and worldly. The days of the prevalence of ambition in the church have been days of supreme church worldliness and extreme apostasy.
There is much in a name, and the true and wise Christian will not allow this corrupter of the faith to enter, though clothed in a garb of innocent names. Christian faith has kindled and consecrated the flame of holy zeal, stimulating and giving ardor to effort. True zeal is a heavenly fire, the purity of which disdains all earthly adulterations. Zeal crucifies self-- it fixes its eyes on both God and his glory. As Christ died for sin once, so the Christian by crucifixion dies to self and says, "Perish every fond ambition." In every moment of his life, in every vision of his eye, in every impulse of his heart, and in every effort of his hand, the Christian is to be true to the fact of this self-renouncing commitment.
Ambition is the one thing that affected the power, peace, and piety of the apostles of the Lord. We see its effects noted in their envies and strife. A few instances are recorded, but how much unrecorded jealousy and alienation was produced, we can only conjecture. We have the record of its existence and Christ's rebuke in the early part of their career and its violence breaks out under the shadow of the cross. The bitter thoughts of his death are mixed with the strife of his disciples for place and his solemn charge against the religious phase of worldly ambition. The washing of the disciples' feet was the last act of personal training that Christ used as the remedy for ambition in his disciples.
Ambition destroys the foundation of Christian character by making faith impossible. Faith roots itself in the soil where selfish and worldly growths have been destroyed. "How can ye believe," says Christ, "which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" (John 5:44). In this statement is shown the impossibility of blending faith with the desire to receive honor from men.
The entrance of this alluring element of human honor draws the heart from the honor that comes from God and sweeps away the foundations of faith. When the eye seeks things other than God, when the heart desires things other than God--this is ambition. No man can serve these two masters; no man can combine the ends of self and of God. He may think he can; he may seem to do so; but no one can perform this spiritual impossibility.
Ambition enthrones pride, and that is the throne on which Satan sits. Humility is destroyed by ambition. The history of the church attests to the fact that humility has no place in the church or the man that is ambitious. Humility is not a virtue of those who have sought to be put in the calendar of earthly saints. No ambition is so proud as a religious ambition, and none less scrupulous. No church can be more thoroughly apostate than the church whose leaders have come into their places though the way of ambition. No ambition is so destructive as that which comes in under the guise of religion. Ambition is worldly, though it may be disguised under the name of Christianity. It easily deludes its possessor under the plea of a wider field of influence and usefulness; but the presence of ambition, like the soil of Sardinia, spoils even the honey.
If ambition can be religious and can preach, then it must do so without love, for love and ambition can no more unite than can light and darkness; they are as essentially at war as Christ and Belial. "Love seeketh not her own," while ambition is ever seeking its own, and not infrequently it seeks with all its heart that which is another's. Love in honor prefers one another, but ambition never does.
If Jesus Christ is to be our model preacher, if our attachment to him rises to anything above an impure sentiment, then the mind that was in him must be in us. He was without taint of ambition. We have this attitude of Christ to ambition set before us:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. - Philippians 2:5-8
to be continued
- E. M. Bounds
There is much in a name, and the true and wise Christian will not allow this corrupter of the faith to enter, though clothed in a garb of innocent names. Christian faith has kindled and consecrated the flame of holy zeal, stimulating and giving ardor to effort. True zeal is a heavenly fire, the purity of which disdains all earthly adulterations. Zeal crucifies self-- it fixes its eyes on both God and his glory. As Christ died for sin once, so the Christian by crucifixion dies to self and says, "Perish every fond ambition." In every moment of his life, in every vision of his eye, in every impulse of his heart, and in every effort of his hand, the Christian is to be true to the fact of this self-renouncing commitment.
Ambition is the one thing that affected the power, peace, and piety of the apostles of the Lord. We see its effects noted in their envies and strife. A few instances are recorded, but how much unrecorded jealousy and alienation was produced, we can only conjecture. We have the record of its existence and Christ's rebuke in the early part of their career and its violence breaks out under the shadow of the cross. The bitter thoughts of his death are mixed with the strife of his disciples for place and his solemn charge against the religious phase of worldly ambition. The washing of the disciples' feet was the last act of personal training that Christ used as the remedy for ambition in his disciples.
Ambition destroys the foundation of Christian character by making faith impossible. Faith roots itself in the soil where selfish and worldly growths have been destroyed. "How can ye believe," says Christ, "which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" (John 5:44). In this statement is shown the impossibility of blending faith with the desire to receive honor from men.
The entrance of this alluring element of human honor draws the heart from the honor that comes from God and sweeps away the foundations of faith. When the eye seeks things other than God, when the heart desires things other than God--this is ambition. No man can serve these two masters; no man can combine the ends of self and of God. He may think he can; he may seem to do so; but no one can perform this spiritual impossibility.
Ambition enthrones pride, and that is the throne on which Satan sits. Humility is destroyed by ambition. The history of the church attests to the fact that humility has no place in the church or the man that is ambitious. Humility is not a virtue of those who have sought to be put in the calendar of earthly saints. No ambition is so proud as a religious ambition, and none less scrupulous. No church can be more thoroughly apostate than the church whose leaders have come into their places though the way of ambition. No ambition is so destructive as that which comes in under the guise of religion. Ambition is worldly, though it may be disguised under the name of Christianity. It easily deludes its possessor under the plea of a wider field of influence and usefulness; but the presence of ambition, like the soil of Sardinia, spoils even the honey.
If ambition can be religious and can preach, then it must do so without love, for love and ambition can no more unite than can light and darkness; they are as essentially at war as Christ and Belial. "Love seeketh not her own," while ambition is ever seeking its own, and not infrequently it seeks with all its heart that which is another's. Love in honor prefers one another, but ambition never does.
If Jesus Christ is to be our model preacher, if our attachment to him rises to anything above an impure sentiment, then the mind that was in him must be in us. He was without taint of ambition. We have this attitude of Christ to ambition set before us:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. - Philippians 2:5-8
to be continued
- E. M. Bounds
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Let's Be Clear in our Understanding about the Holy Spirit
I become weary of seeing the wrong teaching that is out there among professing evangelicals regarding the Holy Spirit. It's from one extreme to the other. This Daily Thoughts is not about trying to straighten it all out. I only want to address one particular thing.
The other day while I was driving I heard a popular and very well-known radio preacher who, I believe, is a good and sincere man who tries to preach the Bible. As he was speaking about the Holy Spirit's working on David's life, he made the statement: 'But that was before Pentecost and before the Holy Spirit was really given." I immediately thought, "O boy, here we go", because I knew where he was going before he went there. I knew what he was going to say before he began to say it.
His view was that which most professing evangelicals in the 20th and 21st centuries have held, especially since the rise of dispensational teaching at the beginning of the 20th century. Here's the basic summary teaching:
1. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament period was only occasionally sent upon prophets and priests for temporary work; He never indwelt any believers in that time, but only came and went as God sovereignly purposed. No believers had the Holy Spirit until the Day of Pentecost.
2. With the coming of Pentecost, believers were for the first time indwelt by the Spirit and all believers were possessed by Him.
This view, simply put, is wrong. And I am amazed at how many true Christians still believe it. They are confused still about how people in the Old Testament were saved and knew God or if they were even truly saved at all; they are confused about what the Holy Spirit did, if anything, in the Old Testament believers.
Let me give a summary statement on this; I would encourage anyone who will be helped by this to pursue further understanding on such an important subject.
Summary
1. Both Old Testament and New Testament believers were all justified by faith alone, apart from works; the Old Testament people of Israel always had a remnant among them that truly knew the Lord and were true believers; true believers under the O T were saved by grace through faith, just like N. T. believers and had a new heart within them; this is the reason why they loved the Lord from the heart, sought the Lord, trusted and obeyed the Lord. All those in the Old Covenant who did not do these things did not know the Lord. The fact is, a majority of those in the Old Covenant were not true believers and thus they acted as they did. Only a minority remnant were true believers who did know and love the Lord. It was those alone who were justified.
2. Both believers in both the O. T. and N. T., to be justified, were all regenerated and were indwelt by the Spirit. The reason this is absolutely true is because true justification presumes and presupposes a new heart, which only comes by regeneration. If you deny that regeneration was true under the Old Covenant, then you must deny that justification was as well. But that is impossible, as we already know from the New Testament that they were justified by faith. You cannot be a believer, either in the Old or New Testament periods, without being both regenerated and justified. This is seen in a number of O. T. passages as well as N. T. passages.
This obviously does not answer every question about this great subject and will provoke a number of questions. But it amazes me at times to see how many true believers are still carrying weak and wrong teaching with them from their past on this issue and are not clear on even the basic truths. May the Lord continue to guide us into all truth.
- Mack Tomlinson
The other day while I was driving I heard a popular and very well-known radio preacher who, I believe, is a good and sincere man who tries to preach the Bible. As he was speaking about the Holy Spirit's working on David's life, he made the statement: 'But that was before Pentecost and before the Holy Spirit was really given." I immediately thought, "O boy, here we go", because I knew where he was going before he went there. I knew what he was going to say before he began to say it.
His view was that which most professing evangelicals in the 20th and 21st centuries have held, especially since the rise of dispensational teaching at the beginning of the 20th century. Here's the basic summary teaching:
1. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament period was only occasionally sent upon prophets and priests for temporary work; He never indwelt any believers in that time, but only came and went as God sovereignly purposed. No believers had the Holy Spirit until the Day of Pentecost.
2. With the coming of Pentecost, believers were for the first time indwelt by the Spirit and all believers were possessed by Him.
This view, simply put, is wrong. And I am amazed at how many true Christians still believe it. They are confused still about how people in the Old Testament were saved and knew God or if they were even truly saved at all; they are confused about what the Holy Spirit did, if anything, in the Old Testament believers.
Let me give a summary statement on this; I would encourage anyone who will be helped by this to pursue further understanding on such an important subject.
Summary
1. Both Old Testament and New Testament believers were all justified by faith alone, apart from works; the Old Testament people of Israel always had a remnant among them that truly knew the Lord and were true believers; true believers under the O T were saved by grace through faith, just like N. T. believers and had a new heart within them; this is the reason why they loved the Lord from the heart, sought the Lord, trusted and obeyed the Lord. All those in the Old Covenant who did not do these things did not know the Lord. The fact is, a majority of those in the Old Covenant were not true believers and thus they acted as they did. Only a minority remnant were true believers who did know and love the Lord. It was those alone who were justified.
2. Both believers in both the O. T. and N. T., to be justified, were all regenerated and were indwelt by the Spirit. The reason this is absolutely true is because true justification presumes and presupposes a new heart, which only comes by regeneration. If you deny that regeneration was true under the Old Covenant, then you must deny that justification was as well. But that is impossible, as we already know from the New Testament that they were justified by faith. You cannot be a believer, either in the Old or New Testament periods, without being both regenerated and justified. This is seen in a number of O. T. passages as well as N. T. passages.
This obviously does not answer every question about this great subject and will provoke a number of questions. But it amazes me at times to see how many true believers are still carrying weak and wrong teaching with them from their past on this issue and are not clear on even the basic truths. May the Lord continue to guide us into all truth.
- Mack Tomlinson
Catholic View of Who is Man's Mediator
In response to the biblical view of Christ being the one and only Redeemer and heavenly Mediator, a Catholic gave the following response:
"One could perhaps get around concern about elevating Mary to the same redemptive level as her Son by conceiving the titles Redeemer and co-redeemer along the lines of the titles "pilot and co-pilot." A co-pilot is not the pilot, but assists him/her [...] in the job of guiding the plane and its occupants to their destination. So Christ is the unique Redeemer/pilot leading us to our final destination with the special assistance of his Mother, his subordinate co-pilot."
Quite a twisting of words--shows us how words can make heresy sound plausible and not so bad to undiscerning souls. But error is still error, regardless of how you dress it up. Such a view is nothing but blasphemy and anti-Christ. Smooth words do not change the reality of such dangerous and damning teaching.
- Mack Tomlinson
"One could perhaps get around concern about elevating Mary to the same redemptive level as her Son by conceiving the titles Redeemer and co-redeemer along the lines of the titles "pilot and co-pilot." A co-pilot is not the pilot, but assists him/her [...] in the job of guiding the plane and its occupants to their destination. So Christ is the unique Redeemer/pilot leading us to our final destination with the special assistance of his Mother, his subordinate co-pilot."
Quite a twisting of words--shows us how words can make heresy sound plausible and not so bad to undiscerning souls. But error is still error, regardless of how you dress it up. Such a view is nothing but blasphemy and anti-Christ. Smooth words do not change the reality of such dangerous and damning teaching.
- Mack Tomlinson
Monday, September 14, 2009
Happy in the Lord
"I see more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord."
Do you know who said this? It was not Joel Osteen in his best-seller, Your Best Life Now, or some other popular TV preacher. It was George Muller. I do agree with Muller's statement that only by being truly happy and joyful in the Lord will we glorify Him consistently. It is Him that we must seek, not only to know and glorify Him, but also because He is the only one who can do for us what Muller is recommending here.
Why is Muller right? Because when we are happy in Him, others will see the evidence of the reality of God on our lives. If am contented, peaceful, joyful, satisfied, daily walking in fullness and freshness of life, truly happy in the Lord Jesus--then will people take notice of the greatest reality--a person that is actually like God in some real measure. It is then that they cannot deny or argue with true Christianity. After all, which kind of person reflects the Lord Jesus Christ?--
1. a depressed, gloomy, sad, somber and discontented person who is always under the weight of difficulty
2. one who evidences inner reality and joyful satisfaction regardless of difficulties
If I were an unbeliever, I would be only attracted to the second kind of person and I would only be open to the faith they profess.
"Happy in the Lord."--has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
- Mack Tomlinson
Do you know who said this? It was not Joel Osteen in his best-seller, Your Best Life Now, or some other popular TV preacher. It was George Muller. I do agree with Muller's statement that only by being truly happy and joyful in the Lord will we glorify Him consistently. It is Him that we must seek, not only to know and glorify Him, but also because He is the only one who can do for us what Muller is recommending here.
Why is Muller right? Because when we are happy in Him, others will see the evidence of the reality of God on our lives. If am contented, peaceful, joyful, satisfied, daily walking in fullness and freshness of life, truly happy in the Lord Jesus--then will people take notice of the greatest reality--a person that is actually like God in some real measure. It is then that they cannot deny or argue with true Christianity. After all, which kind of person reflects the Lord Jesus Christ?--
1. a depressed, gloomy, sad, somber and discontented person who is always under the weight of difficulty
2. one who evidences inner reality and joyful satisfaction regardless of difficulties
If I were an unbeliever, I would be only attracted to the second kind of person and I would only be open to the faith they profess.
"Happy in the Lord."--has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
- Mack Tomlinson
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