Spiritual Growth and Reward

"For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."  2 Peter 1:11

No struggle will be regarded as too severe, no self-denial will be regretted, no toilsome patient victory will be remembered as too trying, but these very things will constitute the exquisite joy and recompense of our eternal home-coming. "For so," he says, "an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." How it lights up this whole passage with a wondrous glory to remember that the Greek word used here to describe our entrance into the kingdom is the very same Greek word used with respect to the "adding " to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, godliness, and all the train of heavenly graces. It is not that an abundant entrance merely shall be ministered unto us, but the idea is that a whole chorus of heavenly voices and harmonies will sing us home, and that we shall enter like warriors returning in triumphal procession from a hard-won and glorious victory. It is not merely that a chorus will meet us, but it is the very same chair that we ourselves gathered around us in our earthly conflict. The graces, the virtues, the victories, the triumphs of patience and love that we won and perhaps had quite forgotten will all be waiting yonder like troops of angels, and all shall gather round us and fit into the chorus of joy that shall celebrate our home-coming.

Growth, Grace and Provisions part II

"According as His divine power hath given unto as all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to His glory and virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises." 2 Peter: 1-3

This is the conception of Christian life given in the first chapter of the gospel of John, in that wonderful little expression "grace for grace." That is to say, every grace that we need to exercise already exists in Christ, and may be transferred into our life from Him, as we "receive of His fullness, even grace for grace." On the mount, Moses was called to see and study a model of the Tabernacle. A few weeks later the same Tabernacle might be seen going up piecemeal in the valley below, and, when completed, was an exact replica of the shown to Moses in the mount; for God's explicit command was, "See that thou make all things according to the pattern which was shewed thee in the mount." Corresponding to this is the tabernacle which God is building in each of our lives. It is just as heavenly a structure as the other and far more important, and is meant to be, as it is, the dwelling-place of God. 

It, too, has its model in the mount, and we may see, by the eye of faith, the model of our life, the pattern, the plan of all the graces which we exemplify and the life which is to be built up, worked out, and established. All the materials for our spiritual building are there now, already provided, and the whole design fully wrought out in the purpose of God and the provisions of His grace. But we have to take these resources and materials moment by moment, step by step, and transfer them into our lives. We have not to make the graces ourselves, but take them, wear them, live them, and exhibit them. '' Of His fullness we receive grace for grace," His graces for our graces, His love for our love, His trust for our trust, His power for our strength.

From Strength to Strength part IV

"From Strength to Strength" Psalm 84:7

It is strength to ''withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand." It is strength to endure. Let us read attentively Col. 1:11. "Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy fullness." Here is one of the advanced stations of the pilgrim's progress ''from strength to strength."   We may well pause and ask if we have reached this place of strength. Is this then the goal of Pentecost? Is this the great objective point contemplated by the mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost? Is this the meaning of the power from on high?

"Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power!" One would surely look for a sublimer battlefield to follow such a splendid parade of the armies of God; however, we see an entirely different spectacle. A solitary soldier on an obscure and weary pathway, battling with a thousand petty hardships, difficulties and trials, or standing through all the day of battle without a single opportunity of advancing, and seemingly called to nothing else but to stand under the fire of the enemy and to ''endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." His whole business seems to be "patience and longsuffering;" the first, with reference to the trials; the second, the annoyances and injuries of men. These are the very things human strength cannot endure. Many a brave man can stand under a cannon's fire more calmly than he can endure the taunts of a fellow-creature. The highest victory of the Son of God was, that, "when He was reviled He reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not:"and the mightiest triumphs of the strength of God in us are realized when we can receive the hiding of our Father's face and even the weight of His mighty hand without a doubt or murmur, and accept the misconceptions,reproaches and wrongs of our fellow-men, not only with long-suffering, but with joyfulness; not only unruffled and un retaliating, but sweetly realizing and fully believing that they are to us the pledges of some richer blessing from our heavenly Father, and the guarantees of something so glorious that we cannot but thank God for giving us the opportunity of thus winning another blessing.

From to Strength to Strength part III

"From to Strength to Strength" Psalm 84:7

It is strength for a higher spiritual plane. "They shall mount up with wings as eagles." It is a strength which enables us to mount to a higher element of life and communion with God. It brings us into the divine life and raises us up to dwell in heavenly places with Christ. It resists and overcomes the natural direction of earth, to draw us downward, and, like the buoyant wing of the fowls of the firmament, it bears us and holds us on high, in a calm and heavenly atmosphere where the world lies beneath our feet, and we are lifted above the things which once encompassed and entangled us.

We are not now fighting the wild waves, but flying far above them in another element. The mightiest human strength cannot lift us up to this. Only the Holy Spirit can hold us supremely in this heavenly region. This is God's true deliverance from most of our troubles; not to change them, but to rise above them. Oh, how we need these seasons of spiritual elevation and heavenly inspiration to strengthen us for the practical sphere of common life, and enable us to "run and not be weary," and to "walk and not faint."

From Strength to Strength part II

"From Strength to Strength" Psalm 84:7

It is divine, not human strength, and it is strength which is wholly divine and in no sense or measure human. It is an exchange of strength in which we have surrendered all our power and received instead the divine power and enabling. This glorious exchange of strength is vividly set forth in Isaiah, chapter 40: "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their strength." That is to say, the strongest human strength, the manhood of young men, the vigor and vitality of youth, shall be wholly inadequate for the exigencies of Christian life and conflict, and it is not until these have failed that God has room to display the resources of His omnipotence. When we become "faint," then He giveth His power, and when we have "no might," then He "increaseth strength," that is, gives yet more because of our utter helplessness. Waiting on the Lord, we let our strength go and take His instead, and so renew or exchange our strength.

From Strength to Strength

"From strength to strength." Psalm 84:7

Man is naturally the weakest creature in the universe. He comes into life with the wail of a helpless infant, weaker than the tiger's cub or the birdling in its nest. But his physical frailty is but a figure of his spiritual helplessness. "When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly." But the grace of God in the conversion of the soul brings its first spiritual strength, enabling it to choose and trust the Lord, to turn from sin and walk in holy obedience. Then it sings the new song, '' O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and be not afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation."

Who is among you that feareth the LORD?

"Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God."—Isa. 50:10.

Our way is often dark in this dark world. Evil and sorrow surround us like so many thick clouds that shut out the light What, then, shall we do, when we are thus on the point of losing our way? Take hold of God's hand, as the little child does of its father's in the dark night, and keep close to His side.

This is God's cure for darkness— simple confidence in Himself. The want of this confidence puts us all wrong. The possession of it keeps us all right.

But am I warranted in trusting God at all times, whatever may be the evil that I feel to be in me? Of course you are, just as you are bound to obey the command which says, "Thou shalt love Him with all thy heart." You would not say, "I am so bad that I am not warranted in loving God." That would be adding sin to sin. So you ought never to say, "I am so bad that I am not entitled to trust God." God commands you to trust Him; and not to do so would just be adding sin to sin. Trust Him at all times, for He is worthy to be trusted. Stay upon Him, for His arm is strong enough to bear the whole weight. Do not hesitate or delay. Trust Him at once, and as you are. Trust Him now.

In the LORD have I righteousness and strength

"In the LORD have I righteousness and strength"—Isa. 45:24 

These are the two things we most needed—righteousness for our unrighteousness, and strength for our helplessness. "I am unrighteous," is our feeling every moment. To meet this, a divine righteousness is at hand. "I am without strength," is our feeling also. But it was because we were without strength that Christ died for us. And, besides, there is strength provided, divine strength; strength as free and perfect, and near as is the righteousness. This strength completely meets our complaint of inability. 

The truth is that we are far more helpless than we think ourselves. Yet that matters not. It is to them that have "no might" that He "increaseth strength." We ought, then, no more to be cast down by a sense of inability than by a sense of unworthiness. God has provided against both. There is enough of strength at our disposal not only to make our inability no real hindrance, but to make it the very thing which gives us hope, inasmuch as it draws out the strength which is in the Lord for us. It gives Him an opportunity for magnifying His strength in our weakness. Most gladly, then, let us "glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon us." (2 Cor. xii. 9.) It is thus that "out of weakness we are made strong."