Witness And Testimony - Blog

Don't Distrust God's Goodness

8/16/2019

Satan is ever seeking to inject that poison into our hearts to distrust God's goodness...

Especially in connection with his commandments.

That is what really lies behind all evil, lusting, and disobedience...

A discontent with our position and portion...

A craving from something which God has wisely held from us.

Reject any suggestion that God is unduly severe with you.

Resist with the utmost abhorrence, anything that causes you to doubt God's love and his loving-kindness toward you.

Allow nothing to make you question the Father's love for his child.

~Arthur Pink~

Trust And Rest

8/12/2019

Psa 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

The word trust is the heart word of faith.

It is the Old Testament word, the word given to the early and infant stage of faith.

The word faith expresses more the act of the will, the word belief the act of the mind or intellect, but trust is the language of the heart.

The other has reference more to a truth believed or a thing expected.

Trust implies more than this, it sees and feels, and leans upon a person, a great, true, living heart of love.

So let us "trust also in him," through all the delays, in spite of all the difficulties, in the face of all the denials, notwithstanding all the seemings, even when we cannot understand the way, and know not the issue; still "trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass."

The way will open, the right issue will come, the end will be peace, the cloud will be lifted, and the light of an eternal noonday shall shine at last.

Trust and rest when all around thee Puts thy faith to sorest test;

Let no fear or foe confound thee, Wait for God and trust and rest.

Trust and rest with heart abiding, Like a birdling in its nest,
Underneath His feathers hiding, Fold thy wings and trust and rest.

~Charles Spurgeon~

There Is A Division Between Light And Darkness

8/11/2019

Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Light might well be good for the very reason that it sprang from the goodness of God who said, “Let there be light.”

We who enjoy it should be more grateful for it than we are, and see more of God in it and by it.

Physical light is wonderful, but the light of the Gospel is infinitely more precious...

For it reveals eternal things and ministers to our immortal natures.

When the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual light and opens our eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,...

We begin to see sin in its true colors and ourselves in our true condition...

We see everything more from God’s perspective.

O Lord, thank You for the light You give...

And give us more of Yourself, the true light.

Now whenever there is something good in the world, a division becomes necessary.

Light and darkness have nothing in common...

God has divided them, so we should never confuse them.

Sons of light must not have fellowship with deeds, doctrines, or deceits of darkness.

The children of the day must be sober, honest, and bold in their Lord’s work, leaving the works of darkness to those who will live in it forever.

Our Churches should divide the light from the darkness through discipline...

And we should by our distinct separation from the world do the same.

In every area of life, we must discern between the precious and the vile,...

And maintain the great distinction that the Lord made upon the world’s first day.

O Lord Jesus, be our light today, for Your light is the light of men.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Yielding To God's Will

7/26/2019

Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

We must recognize the true character of our self-life and its real virulence and vileness.

We must consent to its destruction, and we must take it ourselves, as Abraham did Isaac, and lay it at the feet of God in willing sacrifice.

This is a hard work for the natural heart, but the moment the will is yielded and the choice is made, that death is past, the agony is over, and we are astonished to find that the death is accomplished.

Usually the crisis of life in such cases hangs upon a single point.

God does not need to strike us in a hundred places to inflict a death wound.

There is one point that touches the heart, and that is the point God usually strikes, the dearest thing in our life, the decisive thing in our plans, the citadel of the will, the center of the heart...

And when we yield there, there is little left to yield anywhere else...

And when we refuse to yield at this point, a spirit of evasion and compromise enters into all the rest of our life.

Lord, we take Thee to enable us to will Thy will to be done in all things in our life without and within.

~A. B. Simpson~

Valiant For Truth!

7/18/2019

Dan 11:32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

The LORD is a man of war, Jehovah is his name.

Those who enlist under His banner shall have a Commander who will train them for the conflict and give them both vigor and valor.

The times of which Daniel wrote were of the very worst kind...

And then it was promised that the people of God would come out in their best colors...

They would be strong and stout to confront the powerful adversary.

Oh, that we may know our God...

His power, His faithfulness, His immutable love...

And so may be ready to risk everything in His behalf.

He is One whose character excites our enthusiasm and makes us willing to live and to die for Him.

Oh, that we may know our God by familiar fellowship with Him...

For then we shall become like Him and shall be prepared to stand up for truth and righteousness.

He who comes forth fresh from beholding the face of God will never fear the face of man.

If we dwell with Him, we shall catch the heroic spirit...

And to us a world of enemies will be but as the drop of a bucket.

A countless array of men, or even of devils, will seem as little to us as the nations are to God...

And He counts them only as grasshoppers.

Oh, to be valiant for truth in this day of falsehood.

~Charles Spurgeon~

"Enclosed By His Everlasting Covenant"

7/6/2019

Song Of Solomon 7:10 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.

If you want power you must compress.

It is the shutting in of the steam that moves the engine.

The amount of powder on a flat surface that sends a ball to its destination when shut up in a gun only makes a flash.

If you want to carry the electric current you must be insulated.

Stand a man on a glass platform and turn a battery on him and he will be filled with electricity.

Let him step off the glass, and the moment he touches earth he loses power.

We must be enclosed by His everlasting Covenant.

That holds us and keeps us from falling.

He will be a wall of fire round about us.

He comes Himself and envelops us round about with the old Shekinah glory, and will be the glory in the midst.

He wants us enclosed by a distinct act of consecration dedicated wholly to Him.

Are you enclosed by His fences, His commandments, His promises, His covenant?

Is your heart really and only for the Lord?

If not, come to Him now and let Him separate you from all the things that take your life...

And let Him separate you unto Himself, the Life Giver.

~A. B. Simpson~

He Is Touched By Our Infirmities

6/26/2019

Mat 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

He is able to be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities."

The word "touched" expresses a great deal.

It means that our troubles are His troubles...

And that in all our afflictions He is afflicted.

It is not a sympathy of sentiment, but a sympathy of suffering.

There is much help in this for the tired heart.

It is the foundation of His Priesthood...

And God meant that it should be to us a source of unceasing consolation.

Let us realize, more fully, our oneness with our Great High Priest, and cast all our burdens on His great heart of love.

If we know what it is to ache in every nerve with the responsive pain of our suffering child, we can form some idea of how our sorrows touch His heart, and thrill His exalted frame.

As the mother feels her babe's pain...

As the heart of friendship echoes every cry from another's woe...

So in heaven, our exalted Savior, even amid the raptures of that happy world, is suffering in His Spirit and even in His flesh with all His children here.

Seeing then we have such a great high Priest, let us come boldly to the throne of grace...

And let us come to our great High Priest..

~A. B. Simpson~

Gentle Leading

6/16/2019

Gen 33:14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.

What a beautiful picture of Jacob's thoughtfulness for the cattle and the children!

He would not allow them to be overdriven even for one day.

He would not lead on according to what a strong man like Esau could do and expected them to do, but only according to what they were able to endure.

He knew exactly how far they could go in a day; and he made that his only consideration in arranging the marches.

He had gone the same wilderness journey years before, and knew all about its roughness and heat and length, by personal experience.

And so he said, "I will lead on softly."

Jos 3:4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.

We have not passed this way heretofore, but the Lord Jesus has.

It is all untrodden and unknown ground to us, but He knows it all by personal experience.

The steep bits that take away our breath...

The stony bits that make our feet ache so...

The hot shadeless stretches that make us feel so exhausted...

The rushing rivers that we have to pass through,,,

Jesus has gone through it all before us. "He was wearied in his journey."

Not some, but all the many waters went over Him, and yet did not quench His love.

He was made a perfect Leader by the things which He suffered.

He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust..

Think of that when you are tempted to question the gentleness of His leading.

He is remembering all the time; and not one step will He make you take beyond what your foot is able to endure.

Never mind if you think you will not be able to make the step that seems to come next...

Either He will so strengthen you that you shall be able, or He will call a sudden halt, and you shall not have to take that step at all.

-~Frances Ridley Havergal~

In "pastures green"?...

Not always; sometimes He Who knowest best, in kindness leadeth me In weary ways, where heavy shadows be.

So, whether on the hill-tops high and fair I dwell, or in the sunless valleys, where The shadows lie, what matter?

He is there.

~Barry~

"I Am The LORD I Do Not Change"

6/7/2019

Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Herein is solid comfort.

Human nature cannot be relied upon...but God can!

However unstable I may be...

However fickle my friends may prove...

God never changes.

If He varied as we do...

if He willed one thing today and another tomorrow...

if He were controlled by impulse...then who could confide in Him?

But He is ever the same.

His purpose is fixed...

His will is stable...

His word is sure.

Here then is a rock on which we may fix our feet, while the mighty torrent sweeps away everything around us.

~Arthur Pink~

There Are Seasons

5/27/2019

There are seasons in the lives of all when it is not easy...

Not even for Christians, to believe that God is faithful.

Our faith is sorely tried...

Our eyes dimmed with tears...

And we can no longer trace the outworking of His love.

Our ears are distracted with the noises of the world...

Harassed by the atheistic whisperings of Satan...

And we can no longer hear the sweet accents of His still small voice.

Cherished plans have been thwarted...

Friends on whom we have relied have failed us...

A professed brother or sister in Christ has betrayed us...

We are staggered.

We sought to be faithful to God...

And now a dark cloud hides Him from us.

We find it difficult, yes, impossible, for carnal reason to harmonize His frowning providence with His gracious promises.

Ah, faltering soul, seek grace to heed Isaiah 50:10...

Isa 50:10 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.

~Arthur Pink~