Happy July!  It is summer and busy travel season.  Take care as you travel!

JUNE 17.

“You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways.” Isaiah 64:5

Let us not fail to learn the secret of receiving much from Christ- even the free dispensing abroad of what we have already received. Be assured of this, that he will receive the most from God who does the most for God: “The diligent soul shall be made fat. He becomes poor that deals with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent makes rich. There is that scatters, and yet increases.” This is God’s law, and He will never repeal it; His promise, and He will ever and in all cases make it good. Go forth, believer in Christ, and let your beams of light irradiate, let your streams of grace be dispersed abroad; live for God, suffer for Christ, witness for the truth, and labor for man. Be such a depository of this living and life-giving treasure, that others, less favored than yourself, instructed, guided, and strengthened by your wisdom, experience, and grace, may proceed on their way, glorifying God for the grace given to you. Oh, to have the word of God dwelling in us so richly, and our hearts so intensely glowing with the love of Christ, as to be ever ready, to open our lips for God- a well always full and running over.

This, then, is the secret of augmenting our stores, even by scattering them- of replenishing our resources, even by exhausting them. Who, we repeat the question, has ever become impoverished by giving and laborings for God? Where lives the Christian steward whose fidelity to his Master’s interest has compromised the welfare of his own? Where is the Christian man who, with cheerful munificence, has consecrated his intellectual wealth or his temporal wealth to advance the truth and kingdom of Jesus, whom Christ has not reimbursed a thousand-fold? Where is the believer in Jesus who has endured reproach and suffering, patiently and silently, for conscience’ sake, for truth’s sake, for Christ’s sake, who has not infinitely gained in the rest which he has found in God? Where is the active Christian, who, zealously laboring to dispense abroad the life-giving waters, has not felt, in the solemn retirement and calm repose of his closet, when pouring out his sorrow into the bosom of his Savior, or in holding close and holy communion with his God, the springing up into his soul of a hidden well of peace, and joy, and love, which has more than restored the energies he has exhausted, and recompensed him for the sacrifice which he has made? God meets His people in all their works of faith and labors of love. They are never alone. He meets them in the path of duty and of trial- both in doing and in suffering His will. He meets them, when embarrassed; with counsel; He meets them, when assailed, with protection; He meets them, when exhausted, with strength; He meets them, when faint, with cordials. If we take up Christ’s cross upon our shoulder, Christ will take both us and our cross up in His arms. If we bow down our neck to His yoke, and bend low our back to His burden, we shall find our rest in both.

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Octavius Winslow

 A LOVING PURPOSE
“The Lord has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” Psalm 35:27

What is “prosperity?” Is it threads of life weaved into a bright outcome? a full cup? ample riches? worldly applause? an unbroken circle? No, these are often a snare; received without gratitude; dimming the soul to its nobler destinies. Often spiritually it rather means God taking us by the hand into the lowly Valleys of Humiliation; leading us as He did his servant Job of old; out of his sheep, oxen, camels, health, wealth, children; in order that we may be brought before Him in the dust, and say, “Blessed be His holy name!”

Yes! The very reverse of what is known in the world as Prosperity (generally) forms the background on which the Rainbow of Promise is seen. God smiles on us through these rainbows and teardrops of sorrows! He loves us too well. He has too great an interest in our spiritual welfare to permit us to live on in what is misnamed “Prosperity.” When He sees duties languidly performed, or coldly neglected; the heart deadened, and love to Himself congealed by the absorbing power of the present world, He puts a thorn in our nest to drive us to the wing, and prevent our being grovelers forever!

I may not be able now to understand the mystery of these dealings. I may be asking through the tears, “Why this unkind arrest on my earthly happiness? Why so premature a lopping of my boughs of promise? Such a speedy withering of my most cherished gourd?” The answer is plain. It is your soul’s prosperity He has in view. Believe it, your true Ebenezers will yet be raised close by your Zarephaths (the place of furnace).

His afflictions are no arbitrary appointments. There is righteous necessity in all He does. As He lays His chastening hand upon you, and leads you by ways you know not, and which you never would have chosen. He whispers the gentle accents in your ear, “Beloved I wish above all things that you would prosper, and be in health.”

Rest in the quiet consciousness that all is well. Murmur at nothing which brings you nearer His own loving Presence. Be thankful for your very cares, because you can confidently cast them all upon Him. He has your temporal and eternal “prosperity” too much at heart to appoint one superfluous pang, one needless stroke. Commit therefore, all that concerns you to His keeping, and leave it there.

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The Rainbow in the Clouds by John MacDuff

Josh Groban

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers,
for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” 
James 3:1

Think Before You Teach

In our Joypals group, we have been studying Carol Ruvolo’s “James on Works” which I would highly recommend for women’s Bible-Book studies.  I always enjoy Carol’s studies because she “digs deep” and is on target, bold and straightforward on the subject matter at hand.  I like that in a teacher because I believe it is the only true and faithful way to teach without compromising the very doctrine we support.  As women, we like to “go on bunny trails” or ”take the heat off” of something that is convicting and/or “righting” our wrong doctrine or application.  Therefore, we  are called to be “sound” teachers and not novices of God’s Word and doctrine so that we can be strong and courageous in our teaching and be ready and able to bring forth truth with our minds and mouths.  As a women’s Bible-Book teacher for many years, I can attest to the trials of teaching and the often-times persecution that comes with being faithful in being strong in Reformed doctrine and “speaking the truth” in love.  It is an awesome and fearful thing to teach and one must weigh all of the responsibilities of teaching before one embarks on the task. Thus, Carol’s good admonition to “think before you teach” is an important one.  Listen to what she says:

“Whenever I am privileged to teach and train teachers, I always begin with James 3:1: “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.”  I do that to see if I can scare anyone off–because if I can, chances are good God hasn’t called them to teach.  And if He hasn’t called them, they shouldn’t be teaching.

Even though all Christians should be willing and able “to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15), not all Christians should be willing (nor are they able) to accept teaching positions in the church*. . . Since teachers mold the thoughts and shape the behavior of saints who will in turn, influence others, the “ministry of communication” has a ripple effect that intensifies every teacher’s accountability before God . . Those have genuninely experienced and acknowledged God’s call to teach will be sobered — if not terrified — by the magnitude of the task, but rarely will they be dissuaded from pursuing it.”

Thus again, the Scripture admonition:  “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”  James 3:1
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*In this narrative Carol is speaking to audience of women in their role of women teaching women in the corporate church although the rules would apply to all who teach.

In reading BB Warfield’s Works, we are sometimes astounded by the error of our day in so many places when compared to the biblical theology of folks like Calvin, Warfield, and other solid biblical Reformers. The folly is exhibited in many pulpits today and the true message is either eliminated or watered down with rhetoric, jokes, story telling and the fatal error of lying signs and wonders. The gospel preached and taught in true biblical exposition is the only help for man’s sinful condition and for the believer’s day-to-day sustenance. Man’s “eyes are never full” as the Bible teaches and thus the desire by men and women to “see” rather than believe and walk by faith. It is the love of the flesh rather than the love of God. May it be the “eyes” and “ears” of God’s children are opened by the true, biblical and prophetic teaching of His Word and not the whims, caprice and error of man-centered preaching and teaching to entertain and draw men unto themselves rather than the Sovereign, Omnipotent God who alone is to be heard.

“As Abraham Kuyper figuratively expresses it, it has not been God’s way to communicate to each and every man a separate store of divine knowledge of his own, to meet his separate needs; but He rather has spread a common board for all, and invites all to come and partake of the richness of the great feast. He has given to the world one organically complete revelation, adapted to all, sufficient for all, provided for all, and from this one completed revelation He requires each to draw his whole spiritual sustenance. Therefore it is that the miraculous working which is but the sign of God’s revealing power, cannot be expected to continue, and in point of fact does not continue, after the revelation of which it is the accompaniment has been completed. It is reasonable to ask miracles, says John Calvin–or to end them–where there is no new gospel. By as much as the one gospel suffices for all lands and all peoples and all times, by so much does the miraculous attestation of that one single gospel suffice for all lands and all times, and no further miracles are to be expected in connection with it. “According to the Scriptures,” Herman Bavinck explains, “special revelation has been delivered in the form of a historical process, which reaches its endpoint in the person and work of Christ. When Christ had appeared and returned again to heaven, special revelation did not, indeed, come at once to an end. There was yet to follow the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and the extraordinary working of the powers and gifts through and under the guidance of the Apostolate. The Scriptures undoubtedly reckon all this to the sphere of special revelation, and the continuance of this revelation was necessary to give abiding existence in the world to the special revelation which reached its climax in Christ–abiding existence both in the word of Scripture and in the life of the church. Truth and life, prophecy and miracle, word and deed, inspiration and regeneration go hand in hand in the completion of special revelation. But when the revelation of God in Christ had taken place, and had become in Scripture and church a constituent part of the cosmos, then another era began. As before everything was a preparation for Christ, so afterward everything is to be a consequence of Christ. Then Christ was being framed into the Head of His people, now His people are being framed into the Body of Christ. Then the Scriptures were being produced, now they are being applied. New constituent elements of special revelation can no longer be added; for Christ has come, His work has been done, and His word is complete.” Had any miracles perchance occurred beyond the Apostolic age they would be without significance; mere occurrences with no universal meaning. What is important is that ” the Holy Scriptures teach clearly that the complete revelation of God is given in Christ, and that the Holy Spirit who is poured out on the people of God has come solely in order to glorify Christ and to take of the things of Christ.” Because Christ is all in all, and all revelation and redemption alike are summed up in Him, it would be inconceivable that either revelation or its accompanying signs should continue after the completion of that great revelation with its accrediting works, by which Christ has been established in His rightful place as the culmination and climax and all-inclusive summary of the saving revelation of God, the sole and sufficient redeemer of His people.”  Benjamin B. Warfield, “The Cessation of the Charismata”

In a day when churches and its pastors/teachers are using the pulpit for anything and everything but the true gospel message of salvation, it is high time for us to revisit what we believe and sharpen our swords/minds for spiritual readiness in battle.  I am reading through BB Warfield’s Works, which are, mildly put, “incredible” and was reminded of this article “Christianity and our Times” devotional I had linked from time past at the old SwordandShield site and thought it a good one to share.  Here are a few excerpts to whet your appetite.

“When we are asked why it is that there are so many persons who are indifferent to the claims of the Church, no doubt the safest answer to give is that it is for reasons best known to themselves. It seems, however, only a voluntary humility to profess to be ignorant of the fundamental basis of this indifference; an indifference, let it be well borne in mind, which is in no sense “modern,” but has characterized ever greater numbers as we go back in the history of the Church to the very beginning. It lies in a weak sense of sin and the natural unconcern of men who do not feel themselves sinners with respect to salvation from sin. For Christianity addresses itself only to sinners. Its Founder himself declared that he did not come to call the righteous but sinners; and its chief expounder declared with energetic emphasis that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. When Sir Oliver Lodge announces, in words the truth of which is sufficiently avouched by the chorus of approval with which they have been greeted by those presumedly spoken of, that “as a matter of fact the higher man of today is not worrying about his sins at all, still less about their punishment,” he has uncovered the whole explanation of the current indifference to Christianity. He might have extended his remark, indeed, to cover the lower as well as the higher man, of other days as well as this: there have always been men in sufficient abundance, both higher and lower, who have not bothered themselves about their sins. The open secret of the indifference of men of all classes in all ages to Christianity, so far as that indifference has existed, lies in the indifference of men to sin, and their consequent indifference to salvation from sin. Christianity makes no appeal to men who do not feel the burden of sin.”

“By “the fundamental theology of the Church” is meant especially the Church’s confession of that series of the redemptive acts of God, by which he has supernaturally intervened in human history for the salvation of sinful man, as interpreted and given their full caning in the revelation which he has made to his people in time past at sundry times and in divers manners through his servants the prophets, and in these last times in his Son speaking through the apostles whom he appointed as his representatives in founding his Church. This is not a mass of cunningly devised fables, but the substance of saving truth. And no message can be effective for the salvation of a lost world which does not stand for and teach in the face of all hesitation and unbelief, denial and opposition, those things which constitute the sum-total of this saving truth, as it has been set down for us in Holy Scripture. The message of Christianity concerns, not “the values of human life,” but the grace of the saving God in Christ Jesus. And in proportion as the grace of the saving God in Christ Jesus is obscured or passes into the background, in that proportion does Christianity slip from our grasp. Christianity is summed up in the phrase: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world with himself.” Where this great confession is contradicted or neglected, there is no Christianity.” –full article–

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Christianity & Our Times by Benjamin B. Warfield

Title: “Thou Art A Fountain of Gardens…”

Author:  Matthew Henry

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“Thou art a fountain of gardens, A well of living waters, And flowing streams from Lebanon.  Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, And eat his precious fruits. ” Son 4:15-16

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One of my favorite books of God’s Word is the Song of Solomon…a beautiful book full of choice morsels for us to mediate upon and praise God for the promises it offers in Christ. We are here at last at March and I am looking forward to God’s creation springing forth from the earth in my garden and was reminded of the garden of God and us His caretakers tilling until He comes again. Be blessed this month to read the Song of Solomon in it entirety and mediate on the riches of His abundant gifts to you.__RW

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These seem to be the words of the spouse, the church, in answer to the commendations which Christ, the Bridegroom, had given of her as a pleasant fruitful garden. Is she a garden?

I. She owns her dependence upon Christ himself to make this garden fruitful. To him she has an eye (Son_4:15) as the fountain of gardens, not only the founder of them, by whom they are planted and to whom they owe their being, but the fountain of them, by which they are watered and to which they own their continuance and well-being, and without whose constant supplies they would soon become like the dry and barren wilderness. To him she gives all the glory of her fruitfulness, as being nothing without him: O fountain of gardens! fountain of all good, of all grace, do not thou fail me. Does a believer say to the church, All my springs are in thee, in thee, O Zion? (Psa_87:7), the church transmits the praise to Christ, and says to him, All my springs are in thee; thou art the well of living waters (Jer_2:13), out of which flow the streams of Lebanon, the river Jordan, which had its rise at the foot of Mount Lebanon, and the waters of the sanctuary, which issued out from under the threshold of the house, Eze_47:1. Those that are gardens to Christ must acknowledge him a fountain to them, from whose fulness they receive and to whom it is owing that their souls are as a watered garden, Jer_31:12. The city of God on earth is made glad with the river that flows from this fountain (Psa_46:4), and the new Jerusalem has its pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, Rev_22:1.

II. She implores the influences of the blessed Spirit to make this garden fragrant (Son_4:16): Awake, O north wind! and come, thou south. This is a prayer, 1. For the church in general, that there may be a plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon it, in order to its flourishing estate. Ministers’ gifts are the spices; when the Spirit is poured out these flow forth, and then the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, Isa_32:15. This prayer was answered in the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of pentecost (Act_2:1), ushered in by a mighty wind; then the apostles, who were bound up before, flowed forth, and were a sweet savour to God, 2Co_2:15. 2. For particular believers. Note, (1.) Sanctified souls are as gardens, gardens of the Lord, enclosed for him. (2.) Graces in the soul are as spices in these gardens, that in them which is valuable and useful. (3.) It is very desirable that the spices of grace should flow forth both in pious and devout affections and in holy gracious actions, that with them we may honour God, adorn our profession, and do that which will be grateful to good men. (4.) The blessed Spirit, in his operations upon the soul, is as the north and the south wind, which blows where it listeth, and from several points, Joh_3:8. There is the north wind of convictions, and the south wind of comforts; but all, like the wind, brought out of God’s treasuries and fulfilling his word. (5.) The flowing forth of the spices of grace depends upon the gales of the Spirit; he stirs up good affections, and works in us both to will and to do that which is good; it is he that makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us. (6.) We ought therefore to wait upon the Spirit of grace for his quickening influences, to pray for them, and to lay our souls under them. God has promised to give us his Spirit, but he will for this be enquired of.

III. She invites Christ to the best entertainment the garden affords: “Let my beloved then come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits; let him have the honour of all the products of the garden (it is fit he should), and let me have the comfort of his acceptance of them, for that is the best account they can be made to turn to.” Observe, 1. She calls it his garden; for those that are espoused to Christ call nothing their own, but what they have devoted to him and desire to be used for him. When the spices flow forth then it is fit to be called his garden, and not till then. The fruits of the garden are his pleasant fruits, for he planted them, watered them, and gave the increase. What can we pretend to merit at Christ’s hands when we can invite him to nothing but what is his own already? 2. She begs he would visit it, and accept of what it produced. The believer can take little pleasure in his garden, unless Christ, the beloved of his soul, come to him, nor have any joy of the fruits of it, unless they redound some way or other to the glory of Christ, and he will think all he has well bestowed upon him.

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JoyPals.com-”Heavenly Notes” March

Sissel’s beautiful performance of “Ready To Go Home”

Ready To Go Home
(Andrew Gold / Graham Gouldman)

On the streets below these walls
Where I used to walk
Now I can barely crawl
All this darkness rising tall
Lord, shine a light for me
I’m waiting to be called
I’m ready to go home
I’m ready to receive forgiveness for my sins
I’m ready to begin
Take this river to the sea
Where the delta flows
The tide is washing over me
Take this soul to heaven’s door
Show me where tomorrow lies
I’m waiting to be born
I’m ready to lay down
I’m ready now to sleep
A promise I must keep
I’m ready to go home
So tired, I lay down with these memories
I breath shallow deep inside of me

The Divine promises make known the good pleasure of God’s will to His people, to bestow upon them the riches of His grace. They are the outward testimonies of His heart, who from all eternity loves them and fore-appointed all things for them and concerning them. In the person and work of His Son, God has made an all-sufficient provision for their complete salvation, both for time and for eternity. To the intent that they might have a true, clear and spiritual knowledge of the same, it has pleased the Lord to set it before them in the exceeding great and precious promises which are scattered up and down in the Scriptures as so many stars in the glorious firmament of grace; by which they may be assured of the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning them, and take sanctuary in Him accordingly, and through this medium have real communion with Him in His grace and mercy at all times, no matter what their case or circumstances may be.

The Divine promises are so many declarations to bestow some good or remove some ill. As such they are a most blessed making known and manifesting of God’s love to His people. There are three steps in connection with God’s love: first, His inward purpose to exercise it; the last, the real execution of that purpose; but in between there is the gracious making known of that purpose to the beneficiaries not only show His love fully to them in due time, but in the interim He will have us informed of His benevolent designs, that we may sweetly rest in His love, and stretch ourselves comfortably upon His sure promises. There we are able to say, “How precious also are your thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them” (Ps. 139:17). …more…

Profiting from the Word
A.W. Pink