March Outside to Inside

Then the Pharisees and Scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?" He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'  "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do." Mark 7:5-8

I was speaking with someone the other day who used to take part in Bible studies. Although she did not tell me exactly why she is not presently involved in a Bible study, she did share with me an observation that I knew was at the root of her issue.  She commented that people act a certain way in church but a different way outside of it. Obviously, she was bothered by the Christian’s hypocritical behavior. Many of us look really good on the outside but are falling apart on the inside. In other words, we put on a good show. The problem is when we try to put on an act before the Lord. We honor Him with our lips but our hearts are far from Him. Jesus wants the truth of what is in our hearts, not how we portray ourselves on the outside. Clearly He sees the thoughts and intents of our hearts.

The Pharisees kept the law and man's traditions to the strictest of standards. Their hands were ceremonially cleansed before they touched any bread to eat. Even their utensils were cleansed with the same ceremony. The outside looked spotless to the point that they believed themselves to be more spiritual and pure than those who did not perform these rituals. The same is true for people in the church today. Many Christians work hard at being righteous and look the part to those around them, but God knows what is in their hearts. If our activities are whitewashed by man's traditions, then the fruit of that will be seen in our behaviors. There will be a lack of sincerity and realness with people. Not only does the Lord see through it, but so do others.

Where is your heart today? Are you worshiping with your lips or with sincerity in your heart? Do not just keep going through the motions, whether in your ministry services, church activities or daily checklist of religious do's and don'ts. Get real with the Lord today. Be careful in following the traditions of man to the extent that the Lord is far from your heart. Pray that your outside will match your inside and ask the Lord to remove your fears about how real that might look. If we all would commit to this process, we might just see a lot more people in Bible studies and church.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

True Bethanies # 9

The Power of His Resurrection (continued)

Now, I know, when things like that are said, so often there is that vacant feeling that remains: "Yes, we know it ought to be so, just as we ought to be crucified with Christ: we know we ought to be risen with Christ, and it is quite true that we ought to know the power of His resurrection, and His resurrection life". That is said again and again, but we leave it there. The point is how is it to be?

Now, we have to recognize that the Lord has brought His Church into being for the specific purpose of displaying the power of His resurrection, and we should dedicate ourselves unto the Lord for that very end. That is the way: in recognizing that the object, the very object of our being in that Church, of that Body, is that He might display in us His resurrection power and life. We, recognizing that, have a definite understanding with the Lord that we are consecrated to Him; now our responsibility ends there, if it is from our hearts, and the Lord will begin His work.

We shall not be able to raise ourselves any more than we can crucify ourselves, but we must recognize that the Lord's dealings with us are with that in view. In order to display the power of His resurrection, He will very often have to take the attitude toward us of letting things get well beyond all human power to remedy or save, of allowing things to go so far that there is no other power in all the universe that can do anything whatever to save the situation. He will allow death, disintegration, to work, so that nothing, nothing in the universe is of any avail, except the power of His resurrection.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 10)

Knowing God Loves You

The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. - Zephaniah 3:17

I remember a day a few years ago when I was talking with someone who kept quoting Zephaniah 3:17. He was deeply impacted by the words in this verse to the point that he could not withhold his emotions. What was interesting about this conversation was that this man had spent his life in the ministry, serving in various capacities from missionary to seminary professor. He knew the Lord, walked with Him, talked with Him and loved Him with all of his heart, but did he really understand how much God loved Him?

The same is true for many of us today. We proclaim our love for the Lord. We pray to know Him more. We deeply desire a life that is fruitful and pleasing to Him. And for the most part, I believe that we spend more time thinking and praying about how to please God and how to live our lives in accordance with His will, than we spend thinking about how much He loves us. How often do you personally stop and think, “God loves me…He is rejoicing over me right now”? We tend to think that God is disappointed or upset with us instead of thinking about how much He loves and adores us. Why? Because so much of our thought processes are shaped by the world, not by the love of God. And we have an enemy who feeds right into those negative thoughts and will do anything he can to keep us from experiencing that peace and joy that comes from Jesus.

I encourage you today to write down this verse, meditate on it, and memorize it. Keep repeating it over in your heart and mind and let the Lord Himself speak these words into the depths of your soul. The Lord God is with you and will save you. He rejoices over you, quiets you with His love and sings to you. Can you believe it? Yes! God’s Word is truth and you can trust that these words are spoken just for you. The man who spent his life in ministry was on the brink of retirement before he finally realized the truth of these words. Jesus wants you to know this truth today. Experience His love, peace and joy right now.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

True Bethanies # 8

Precious Ointment Poured Forth (continued)

And, beloved, it is just like that in our experience. The Church, the true Church, has been allowed to be shattered, and shattered again, and the members individually are so often allowed to be broken and broken again; but has it not proved through history that, for the Church and for the individual, the breaking, the shattering, the smashing, has brought about an expression of the glories of Christ in a wonderful way? It is just like that. We go through a new experience of being broken - we put it in other ways sometimes and say we are being brought more deeply into the death of Christ, coming into a fresh experience of the Cross: however we may put it, it means breaking, it means the breaking of the cruse - but, believe me, beloved, it means a fuller expression and knowledge of the glory of Christ, and it will bring us to a new appreciation of Him. We shall discover Him in the time of our brokenness. And in the same way the Church passes through the way of the Cross, but comes by the breaking to the worth of the Lord Jesus.

The Power of His Resurrection

We pass to John and the well-known chapter 11. Here is Bethany again in view, and this time it is the raising of Lazarus which comes before us. We will not go through the whole story and take its details, but simply come swiftly to its one conclusion at the end. Bethany, in this instance, becomes the scene, the sphere, of the manifestation of resurrection power, resurrection life. There are many other things here. There is a wonderful expression of love; there is a wonderful expression of fellowship here in this chapter. Far away from Bethany the Lord said to His disciples: "Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep." "Our friend"; not "My friend," but "our friend." You see, it is fellowship. "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." It is love. All these are features of Bethany; but the outstanding feature here is the manifestation of His resurrection, the power of His resurrection, resurrection life.

And here again Bethany is an illustration of the Church that He is building. We know this from Ephesians, the "Church Epistle," as we call it. We very soon come to our being "quickened ... together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:5). The Church is the vessel in which the power of His resurrection is displayed; and here again we not only testify to the fact, to the doctrine, but we have to apply the test, that the assembly according to the mind of the Lord is that in which His resurrection power and life are displayed.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 9)

We Do Best When All Is Against Us

The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied - Exodus 1:12

It was a very unequal struggle on which Pharaoh had entered; for he opposed not the Hebrews, but Jehovah. It is thus that the great ones of this world have ever spoken and acted. "Let us build a tower;" "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." "Against Thy holy child Jesus, both Herod and Pontius Pilate were gathered together.'' In every case, He that sits in the heavens has laughed at the boast of human pride. His cause and His people's are one. Yet times of affliction have always been on times of multiplication.

In the history of the Church. - When has she made her greatest number of adherents? When her pulpits have been filled with eloquent preachers, and her aisles crowded with fashion and wealth? No; but when she has been driven to the dens and caves of the earth, and her sons have been proscribed outcasts. The real triumphs of the early Church were in the first centuries of opprobrium and persecution; her decline began when Constantine made Christianity the religion of the State.

 

In the history of each earnest soul. - It is rarely the case that we make much spiritual headway when winds and currents favor us. We do best when all is against us. We grow quickest in the dark. In times of persecution we realize the security, and comfort, and joy, which are in Christ Jesus our Lord; and as God goes the round of the world, it is in chambers of pain, sickness, and bereavement, that He beholds the multiplication of the choice graces of holy character and temper. The affliction, which is for the moment, is working out an exceeding weight of glory.

~F. B. Meyer~

True Bethanies # 7

Precious Ointment Poured Forth

Now we turn for the fourth thing to Matthew 26:6-13. It is the same village, and now the woman with her "alabaster cruse of exceeding precious ointment". The incident speaks to us in the first instance of the recognition of the worth of the Lord Jesus. All who looked on, as good as said: "He is not worth it"; that is what it amounted to. "He is not worth it." Of course they would not have put it like that. She recognized His worth - that He was worth the "exceeding preciousness." It was the exceeding preciousness of Christ that was in view here, as something recognized. That, I think, is the main feature. It is a feature of Bethany, it is a feature of the upper room, it is a feature of "My church," it is a feature of the Lord's assembly, it is a feature of the people who are after His own heart: the recognition of His exceeding preciousness, His exceeding worth; that there is nothing too costly to lay at His feet. "Unto you therefore which believe He is precious (is the preciousness)" (1 Peter 2:7).

Now, that is very simple, and yet again it is a thing that draws forth the deep appreciation of the Lord Jesus. It is again a thing which gives feature to a very much beloved village. In other words it is a thing which makes His assembly of great value to Him, that there His worth is recognized, and He is appreciated and appraised at His true value. That must mark the house of the Lord. It is a feature that must be developed more and more. It is a thing to which we must attend, that we have a ready and an ever-growing recognition of the preciousness and worth of the Lord Jesus. Oh, how different this is from the merely formal church system! We can hardly say that the outstanding feature of that is a true heart-appreciation of the worth and of the value of the Lord Jesus. Where that appreciation is, you have the assembly; where it is not, whatever else you may have of ornate and elaborate presentation, you have not got the assembly, it is not the place of his delight.

I think I seem something else here. The brokenness of the cruse brings out into expression the preciousness of the ointment. It is the "vessel of fragile clay" which, being broken, makes possible the manifestation and expression of the glories of Christ. While that cruse is whole, strong, and sound in itself, something which you would look at and take account of in itself; something that would cause you to say: "That is a beautiful vase, that is a wonderful piece of alabaster"; - you are not getting at the secret. We may take account of men, as splendid intellects, splendid men, wonderful preachers and so on - be occupied with the vase, the cruse - and the other be sealed, be hidden; but when the cruse is broken, shattered, then you get at the tabernacle secret of the glory of Christ.

You see it in Paul. I suppose Saul of Tarsus was a wonderful bit of alabaster intellectually, morally, religiously. He tells us that he was; he tells us all that he was, all that he gloried in and that men looked at and no doubt praised; but he was smashed, and it is no longer Saul, and it is no longer Paul, but it is the beauty and glory of Christ. The fragrance of Christ comes out when the cruse is broken.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 8)

Alone with God

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day (Gen. 32:24).

Left alone! What different sensations those words conjure up to each of us. To some they spell loneliness and desolation, to others rest and quiet. To be left alone without God, would be too awful for words, but to be left alone with Him is a foretaste of Heaven! If His followers spent more time alone with Him, we should have spiritual giants again.

The Master set us an example. Note how often He went to be alone with God; and He had a mighty purpose behind the command, "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray."

The greatest miracles of Elijah and Elisha took place when they were alone with God. It was alone with God that Jacob became a prince; and just there that we, too, may become princes--"men (aye, and women too!) wondered at" (Zech. 3:8). Joshua was alone when the Lord came to him. (Josh. 1:1) Gideon and Jephthah were by themselves when commissioned to save Israel. (Judges 6:11 and 11:29) Moses was by himself at the wilderness bush. (Exodus 3:1-5) Cornelius was praying by himself when the angel came to him. (Acts 10:2) No one was with Peter on the house top, when he was instructed to go to the Gentiles. (Acts 10:9) John the Baptist was alone in the wilderness (Luke 1:90), and John the Beloved alone in Patmos, when nearest God. (Rev. 1:9)

Covet to get alone with God. If we neglect it, we not only rob ourselves, but others too, of blessing, since when we are blessed we are able to pass on blessing to others. It may mean less outside work; it must mean more depth and power, and the consequence, too, will be "they saw no man save Jesus only."

To be alone with God in prayer cannot be over-emphasized.

If chosen men had never been alone,
In deepest silence open-doored to God,
No greatness ever had been dreamed or done.

~L. B. Cowman~