Gems to ponder =)
We know how every true child of God, who comes into this relationship with the Lord Jesus, immediately assumes a new sense of positiveness in life.
Before that, it is all so negative, is it not? Even the positives of this world - things in which the world glories or finds its pleasure - are all negative, and everybody knows they are. They must have, and have, and have, in order to try to overcome this negative element that is in everything.
In Christ that negative gives way to a positive. Most of us can testify that union with the Lord Jesus has given to life a positiveness and a purposefulness. That comes in at once. When anyone is saved, born again, you see them assuming a sense of purpose in life; a new meaning to things has been introduced. "Called according to His purpose" - a sense of mighty Divine purpose comes in with Christ, it is found in Him.
- T. Austin Sparks (1888- 1971)
I just found this quote above online. I was looking for information on who Watchman Nee is and found out that some writers that influenced him were R.Govett and T.Austin-Sparks. =) So I google-d for their quotes and found the above and the following ones below. Had a delightful time reading the insights of these men who were from the 19th Century. Such gems!!! Enjoy! =D
Love - not the presence of a lot of understanding and teaching and truth, and not the absence of all sorts of things - is the governing matter with the Lord. It is not that He Himself in His heart accepts the wrong things, but He sees through them, He sees differently from ourselves. There are two statements about David made in the Scriptures - made from two different standpoints. Speaking of David, the Lord said to Samuel, "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). That meant that the Lord's look upon David's heart was one which was favourable. But when David went to take bread to his brethren in the army his eldest brother looked at him and said, "Why art thou come down? ...I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart..." (1 Sam. 17:28). Here we have God's look and man's look. We have to be very careful concerning the standpoint from which we are looking upon people before we judge them by the outward signs.
- T. Austin-Sparks
Law cannot make a bad man good. His habitual flow of soul within goes on as before. Evil nature still keeps its evil desires; these break into acts; and these acts draw down the laws, curse and penalty of death. Man, under law, is only fruitful in acts of sin, which end in death, as the sentence of God’s displeasure: James 1:14-15
- R. Govett
What is Christianity? Not merely a splendid picture, painted by the hand of a master. Else it were sufficient homage that we gazed on, and admired it. Nor is it simply a glorious melody, composed by some high master of harmony. For then it were sufficient, that we listened to it with delight. Nor are we to look upon it purely as a set of opinions respecting the great truths of the unseen world, and the eternal state. For then it were enough, that we held those opinions in all their strictness and orthodoxy. Nor is it the partaking, or the having partaken of certain rites and ceremonies, administered after an approved form. For then, a Romish priest at the head of a troop of dragoons might baptize, and so convert a country (like Mahomet) by force of the sword, and send them to heaven even against their will.
- R. Govett
The means of advance, the grace that will carry you onward are always at hand. Why does not the ship sail? Tis not the fault of the breeze. That blows full astern, right onward into the desired haven! It must be that the anchor is not heaved up, or the mast is not lifted, or the sail is not set. It must be because the heart clings too fondly below, or faith's' eye has become misty and dim, or hope has fainted or love's watch-fire is sunk into the embers. Christian is it so with you? Arise! the chief captain calls! 'Up be doing. We may not "sleep as do others" but as children of the day, be pressing onwards to 'its eternal source!
- R. Govett
In the case of Elijah before us, there is one thing that we want to note, and the noting of which we feel will be a help to some. It is this: in the moment of his weakness Satan sowed a lie in Elijah's mind, and Elijah accepted it. Our Lord said of Satan that "he is a liar, and the father thereof" (John 8:44). In this case he begot the lie that Elijah was the only faithful prophet of God left in Israel. There was ground for that seed. The man was fighting a lonely battle; ploughing a lonely furrow; walking a lonely path. There is no doubt about that...
There are many other ways in which we may feel aloneness. It may be for geographical reasons; or it may be because of an inward experience through which we are passing; an experience or phase which cannot be shared by another, even the one closest to us. All these and other reasons may respectively become our "wilderness" in which Satan comes, and, while there is a basic occasion, his business is to push things into the extra realm of untruth and tell us that we ARE actually and utterly alone. It is not a rare thing for him to tell a child of God that God has left him or her.
Elijah verily believed that he was the only one left in faithfulness to God, and he repeated his plaint several times, "I only am left." He had lost sight of the possibility that the prophets reported by Obadiah to have been hidden might still be in that underground faithfulness, or some of them at least. But the Lord knew better and told him of seven thousand unsurrendering saints who would not capitulate to Jezebel or Baal. The fact is that what Elijah believed was positively not true. If we look at things horizontally we shall only see so far, but if we look from heaven we shall see much more.
- T. Austin-Sparks
Before that, it is all so negative, is it not? Even the positives of this world - things in which the world glories or finds its pleasure - are all negative, and everybody knows they are. They must have, and have, and have, in order to try to overcome this negative element that is in everything.
In Christ that negative gives way to a positive. Most of us can testify that union with the Lord Jesus has given to life a positiveness and a purposefulness. That comes in at once. When anyone is saved, born again, you see them assuming a sense of purpose in life; a new meaning to things has been introduced. "Called according to His purpose" - a sense of mighty Divine purpose comes in with Christ, it is found in Him.
- T. Austin Sparks (1888- 1971)
I just found this quote above online. I was looking for information on who Watchman Nee is and found out that some writers that influenced him were R.Govett and T.Austin-Sparks. =) So I google-d for their quotes and found the above and the following ones below. Had a delightful time reading the insights of these men who were from the 19th Century. Such gems!!! Enjoy! =D
Love - not the presence of a lot of understanding and teaching and truth, and not the absence of all sorts of things - is the governing matter with the Lord. It is not that He Himself in His heart accepts the wrong things, but He sees through them, He sees differently from ourselves. There are two statements about David made in the Scriptures - made from two different standpoints. Speaking of David, the Lord said to Samuel, "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). That meant that the Lord's look upon David's heart was one which was favourable. But when David went to take bread to his brethren in the army his eldest brother looked at him and said, "Why art thou come down? ...I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart..." (1 Sam. 17:28). Here we have God's look and man's look. We have to be very careful concerning the standpoint from which we are looking upon people before we judge them by the outward signs.
- T. Austin-Sparks
Law cannot make a bad man good. His habitual flow of soul within goes on as before. Evil nature still keeps its evil desires; these break into acts; and these acts draw down the laws, curse and penalty of death. Man, under law, is only fruitful in acts of sin, which end in death, as the sentence of God’s displeasure: James 1:14-15
- R. Govett
What is Christianity? Not merely a splendid picture, painted by the hand of a master. Else it were sufficient homage that we gazed on, and admired it. Nor is it simply a glorious melody, composed by some high master of harmony. For then it were sufficient, that we listened to it with delight. Nor are we to look upon it purely as a set of opinions respecting the great truths of the unseen world, and the eternal state. For then it were enough, that we held those opinions in all their strictness and orthodoxy. Nor is it the partaking, or the having partaken of certain rites and ceremonies, administered after an approved form. For then, a Romish priest at the head of a troop of dragoons might baptize, and so convert a country (like Mahomet) by force of the sword, and send them to heaven even against their will.
- R. Govett
The means of advance, the grace that will carry you onward are always at hand. Why does not the ship sail? Tis not the fault of the breeze. That blows full astern, right onward into the desired haven! It must be that the anchor is not heaved up, or the mast is not lifted, or the sail is not set. It must be because the heart clings too fondly below, or faith's' eye has become misty and dim, or hope has fainted or love's watch-fire is sunk into the embers. Christian is it so with you? Arise! the chief captain calls! 'Up be doing. We may not "sleep as do others" but as children of the day, be pressing onwards to 'its eternal source!
- R. Govett
In the case of Elijah before us, there is one thing that we want to note, and the noting of which we feel will be a help to some. It is this: in the moment of his weakness Satan sowed a lie in Elijah's mind, and Elijah accepted it. Our Lord said of Satan that "he is a liar, and the father thereof" (John 8:44). In this case he begot the lie that Elijah was the only faithful prophet of God left in Israel. There was ground for that seed. The man was fighting a lonely battle; ploughing a lonely furrow; walking a lonely path. There is no doubt about that...
There are many other ways in which we may feel aloneness. It may be for geographical reasons; or it may be because of an inward experience through which we are passing; an experience or phase which cannot be shared by another, even the one closest to us. All these and other reasons may respectively become our "wilderness" in which Satan comes, and, while there is a basic occasion, his business is to push things into the extra realm of untruth and tell us that we ARE actually and utterly alone. It is not a rare thing for him to tell a child of God that God has left him or her.
Elijah verily believed that he was the only one left in faithfulness to God, and he repeated his plaint several times, "I only am left." He had lost sight of the possibility that the prophets reported by Obadiah to have been hidden might still be in that underground faithfulness, or some of them at least. But the Lord knew better and told him of seven thousand unsurrendering saints who would not capitulate to Jezebel or Baal. The fact is that what Elijah believed was positively not true. If we look at things horizontally we shall only see so far, but if we look from heaven we shall see much more.
- T. Austin-Sparks
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete