Excuses

Psalms 25:3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.

Job 40:8 “Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?”

John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.

Luke 16:15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”

Romans 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

Ezekiel 13:14 I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord.

Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

All is Vanity

TreeNothing can satisfy the entire man but the Lord’s love and the Lord’s own self. Saints have tried to anchor in other roadsteads, but they have been driven out of such fatal refuges.

Solomon, the wisest of men, was permitted to make experiments for us all, and to do for us what we must not dare to do for ourselves. Here is his testimony in his own words: “So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. Then I looked on all the works my hands had wrought, and on my labor: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What! the whole of it vanity? O favored monarch, is there nothing in all your wealth? Nothing in Palmyra’s glorious palaces?

“Nothing,” he says, “but weariness of spirit.” This was his verdict when he had trodden the whole round of pleasure. To embrace our Lord Jesus, to dwell in his love, and be fully assured of union with him—this is all in all.

Dear listener, you need not try other forms of life in order to see whether they are better than the Christian’s: if you roam the world around, you will see no sights like a sight of the Savior’s face; if you could have all the comforts of life, if you lost your Savior, you would be wretched; but if you win Christ, then should you rot in a dungeon, you would find it a paradise; should you live in obscurity, or die with famine, you will yet be satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord.

—C.H. Spurgeon

Families told to Pay for Release

A group of house church leaders from two remote regions of China were arrested on July 26th when authorities raided a meeting in the city of Wuhai, Inner Mongolia.

The police detained 21 people from Wuhai and Shizuishan, Ningxia province, and confiscated Bibles and other items. The leaders were held on suspicion of “using a cult organisation to undermine national law enforcement”. Following physical examinations, six elderly members of the group who were found to be in poor health were released.

The rest of the group are being held while the authorities try to extort money from their families to secure their release. Families were told their loved ones would be set free if they paid 50,000 yuan (£4,800; US$7,800; €5,745), but when they delivered the money to the prosecutor’s office, they were told that more money was required, and that if it was not paid, the leaders would be sent to labour camps or face criminal prosecution. At the time of writing, it was not known whether the remaining 15 Christians had been released.

The Widow’s Jars

See the faithfulness of divine love. You observe that this woman had daily necessities. She had herself and her son to feed in a time of famine; and now, in addition, the prophet Elijah was to be fed too. But though the need was threefold, yet the supply of meal wasted not, for she had a constant supply. Each day she made calls upon the barrel, but yet each day it remained the same.

You, dear reader, have daily necessities, and because they come so frequently, you are apt to fear that the barrel of meal will one day be empty, and the cruse of oil will fail you. Rest assured that, according to the Word of God, this shall not be the case.

The sinner’s hope will perish, for he trusts his native strength; you shall see the proud Pharisee’s confidence totter, for he builds his hope upon the sand; you shall see even your own schemes blasted and withered, but you yourself shall find that your place of defense shall be the munition of rocks: “Your bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure.”

Better have God for your guardian, than the Bank of England for your possession. You might spend the wealth of the Indies, but the infinite riches of God you can never exhaust.

—C.H. Spurgeon

Comparison with Christ

At the end of the best day that we ever spent, when we are not aware of having consciously sinned in act, or speech, or thought, we shall still have need of the precious blood. We may know nothing against ourselves, yet we shall not be thereby justified; because He that judges us is our holy Lord, and the standard by which we are judged is his own perfect character. A piece of cambric looks extremely fine to the eye, but how coarse to the microscope! Sheep look white against the dark ground of the early spring; but how dark if there should be a fall of snow! Our characters seem stainless, only because we compare ourselves with ourselves, or with others.

But, when our eyes are opened to see God, to behold the whiteness of the great white throne, and we stand in the searching light of heaven, we are as those who have just emerged from a ditch. I heard the other day of a woman being proud of having lived without sin for ten years! So we deceive ourselves. No, at the best we are sinful men and women, needing constant cleansing; even though we may be kept from known sin by the grace of Christ. It was at an advanced period in the life of the great Apostle, and when he lived nearest God, that he realized himself to be the chief of sinners.

—F.B. Meyers

Christian Killed in Muslim Land Grab

Saqib Masih (22) was killed on the spot

A young Pakistani Christian man was shot dead in a violent Muslim takeover of land allocated to a Christian village by the government. Saqib Masih (22) was killed on the spot, and 37 people, including a one-year-old and seven other children, were seriously injured as a mob of around 60 Muslims descended on the village in Mian Channu, Punjab, on October 5th.

The wounded were taken to hospital; six of them were described as being in a critical condition. The Muslim aggressors came to the Christian village to claim a plot of land that had been allocated by the government to house a resident workman. It had been illegally sold to two Muslims by the worker who was being accommodated there; he then fled with the proceeds of US$1,500.

The “buyers” arrived along with around 60 armed accomplices and attacked the female members of one family. As other villagers rushed to their aid, the assailants opened fire on them. Source

Fruit of the Spirit

Proverbs 16:6 Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil.

James 1:2-3 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Psalm 122:6-7 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”

Romans 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Proverbs 25:28 Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.

Exodus 33:19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

Pastors accused of forced conversion

Four Pentecostal pastors in Madhya Pradesh were recently beaten and arrested on charges of forced conversion, spending a night in jail before making bail. It was the latest act of aggression by Hindu nationalists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh against Christian ministers.

After Pastors Ramesh, Balu and Ashok baptised 11 Hindus according to the Pentecostal rite, RSS activists armed with sticks along with local police broke-up a prayer meeting following the baptism. After arresting the pastors for forced conversion, the police interogated the newly baptised, attempting to coerce them into filing false charges against the pastors. However, the new Christians flatly refused, stating that they wanted to be baptised.

“Madhya Pradesh is a rogue state that does not guarantee any rights of the Constitution in this community. The anti-conversion law of 1968 serves as a pretext to intimidate Christians,” said Sajan K. George.

Praise

1 Chronicles 29:20 Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the LORD your God.” So they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the LORD and the king.

James 5:13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.

Romans 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

John 5:44 How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

Isaiah 48:9 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off.

Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Psalm 147:1 Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

Self and the Christian Life

VaseSelf is the power with which God has created and endowed every intelligent creature. Self is the very center of a created being. And why did God give the angels or man a self? The object of this self was that we might bring it as an empty vessel unto God; that He might put into it His life. God gave me the power of self-determination, that I might bring this self every day and say: “Oh, God, work in it; I offer it to thee.” God wanted a vessel into which He might pour out His divine fullness of beauty, wisdom and power; and so He created the world, the sun, and the moon, and the stars, the trees, and the flowers, and the grass, which all show forth the riches of His wisdom, and beauty, and goodness. But they do it without knowing what they do. Then God created the angels with a self and a will, to see whether they would come and voluntarily yield themselves to Him as vessels for Him to fill. But alas! they did not all do that. There was one at the head of a great company, and he began to look upon himself, and to think of the wonderful powers with which God had endowed him, and to delight in himself. He began to think: “Must such a being as I always remain dependent on God?” He exalted himself, pride asserted itself in separation from God, and that very moment he became, instead of an angel in Heaven, a devil in hell. Self turned to God is the glory of allowing the Creator to reveal Himself in us. Self turned away from God is the very darkness and fire of hell.
—Andrew Murray