You Can Help

2 Corinthians 8:14-15 At this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may becomea supply for your need, that there may be equality;  as it is written, “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack.” (NASB)

We are so blessed to have the resources we do in our nation. Most of our necessities would considered luxuries in other countries.

If you have an old pair of glasses (daily or reading), they may be useful for people in the Congo who do not otherwise have access to eyeglasses. The Paul Carson Partnership evaluates glasses to be taken to the Congo when medical teams go to the area. Wendy Scott (who attends First Evangelical Free Church of Maine) is the local contact person for the collection of these glasses. There will be a collection box in the lobby at our church for the next month. The lasses that you have worn can now be worn by a Congolese man or woman who will be able to better see the world around them.

If you don't wear glasses and would like to help, Everything's a Dollar near the Maine Mall usually has cute reading glasses, as does Marden's.

Profit and Loss

by C.H. Spurgeon

“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36

Spiritually man is a great trader—he is trading for his own welfare; he is trading for time and for eternity; he keeps two shops: one shop is kept by an apprentice of his, a rough unseemly hand, of clayey mould, called the body; the other business, which is an infinitely more vast concern, is kept by one that is called “the soul” a spiritual being, who does not traffic upon little things, but who deals with hell or heaven, and trades with the mighty realities of eternity. Now, a merchant would be very unwise who should pay all attention to some small off-hand shop of his, and take no account whatever of a large establishment. 

And he would, indeed, be negligent, who should very carefully jot down every trifle of the expenditure of his own household, but should never think of reckoning the expenses of some vast concern that may be hanging on his hands. But the most of men are just as foolish—they estimate the profits (as they conceive them to be) which are gained in that small corner shop called the body, but they too seldom reckon up the awful loss which is brought about by a negligence of the soul’s concerns in the great matters of eternity. 

Let me beseech you, my brethren, while you are not careless of the body, as, indeed, you ought not to be, seeing that it is, in the case of believers, the temple of the Holy Spirit, to take more especial care of your souls. Decorate the tenement, but do not suffer the inhabitant to die of starvation; do not paint the ship while you are letting the crew perish for want of stores on board. Look to your soul, as well as to your body; to the life, as well as to that by which you live.

For meditation: We can be so bodily minded that we are no heavenly use

(1 Timothy 4:8 gives the right balance).

Sermon no. 92
7 July (Preached 6 July 1856)

Double Resting Place

Remember the story in 2 Kings 4? A barren women went to Elijah who prophesied she would bear a son. She did, and some years later the son died working in the field and she went straight to the man of God. When anyone on the way asked her how she was, she replied, "It is well."

How could she say "It is well" when her only son was now dead? Because, she rested in God. She trusted in the Lord.

The town she lived in was named Shunem. The city's name, Shunem, means "Double Resting Place"

It is interesting how the Lord speaks about "doubles" in Scripture. Isaiah penned:  He blessed the righteous with double blessings: For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. -  Isaiah 61:7

In Christ, we have received more than double blessing, and He is our "Double Resting Place".
In times of joy and times of trouble, find your Shunem in the shadow of His wings.

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge...Psalm 51:1a

"Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust..."

C. H. Spurgeon

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"Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."—2 Peter 1:4.

ANISH for ever all thought of indulging the flesh if you would live in the power of your risen Lord. It were ill that a man who is alive in Christ should dwell in the corruption of sin. "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" said the angel to Magdalene. Should the living dwell in the sepulchre? Should divine life be immured in the charnel house of fleshly lust? How can we partake of the cup of the Lord and yet drink the cup of Belial? Surely, believer, from open lusts and sins you are delivered: have you also escaped from the more secret and delusive lime-twigs of the Satanic fowler? 

Have you come forth from the lust of pride? Have you escaped from slothfulness? Have you clean escaped from carnal security? Are you seeking day by day to live above worldliness, the pride of life, and the ensnaring vice of avarice? Remember, it is for this that you have been enriched with the treasures of God. If you be indeed the chosen of God, and beloved by Him, do not suffer all the lavish treasure of grace to be wasted upon you. Follow after holiness; it is the Christian's crown and glory. An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an abomination, hell's laughter, heaven's abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. O Christian, the vows of God are upon you. You are God's priest: act as such. 

You are God's king: reign over your lusts. You are God's chosen: do not associate with Belial. Heaven is your portion: live like a heavenly spirit, so shall you prove that you have true faith in Jesus, for there cannot be faith in the heart unless there be holiness in the life.

"Lord, I desire to live as one
Who bears a blood-bought name,
As one who fears but grieving Thee,
And knows no other shame."

"These have no root"

C. H. Spurgeon

"These have no root."—Luke 8:13.

Y soul, examine thyself this morning by the light of this text. Thou hast received the word with joy; thy feelings have been stirred and a lively impression has been made; but, remember, that to receive the word in the ear is one thing, and to receive Jesus into thy very soul is quite another; superficial feeling is often joined to inward hardness of heart, and a lively impression of the word is not always a lasting one.

In the parable, the seed in one case fell upon ground having a rocky bottom, covered over with a thin layer of earth; when the seed began to take root, its downward growth was hindered by the hard stone and therefore it spent its strength in pushing its green shoot aloft as high as it could, but having no inward moisture derived from root nourishment, it withered away. Is this my case? Have I been making a fair show in the flesh without having a corresponding inner life? Good growth takes place upwards and downwards at the same time. Am I rooted in sincere fidelity and love to Jesus?

 If my heart remains unsoftened and unfertilized by grace, the good seed may germinate for a season, but it must ultimately wither, for it cannot flourish on a rocky, unbroken, unsanctified heart. Let me dread a godliness as rapid in growth and as wanting in endurance as Jonah's gourd; let me count the cost of being a follower of Jesus, above all let me feel the energy of His Holy Spirit, and then I shall possess an abiding and enduring seed in my soul. If my mind remains as obdurate as it was by nature, the sun of trial will scorch, and my hard heart will help to cast the heat the more terribly upon the ill-covered seed, and my religion will soon die, and my despair will be terrible; therefore, O heavenly Sower, plough me first, and then cast the truth into me, and let me yield Thee a bounteous harvest.

Sifting

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Sifting: C. H. Spurgeon

"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth."—Amos 9:9.

VERY sifting comes by divine command and permission. Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger upon Job. Nay, more, in some sense our siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text says, "I will sift the house of Israel." Satan, like a drudge, may hold the sieve, hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the Master is accomplishing the purity of the grain by the very process which the enemy intended to be destructive. Precious, but much sifted corn of the Lord's floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth both flail and sieve to His own glory, and to thine eternal profit.

The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in His hand, and will divide the precious from the vile. All are not Israel that are of Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender, and hence the winnowing process must be performed. In the sieve true weight alone has power. Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before the wind, and only solid corn will remain.

Observe the complete safety of the Lord's wheat; even the least grain has a promise of preservation. God Himself sifts, and therefore it is stern and terrible work; He sifts them in all places, "among all nations"; He sifts them in the most effectual manner, "like as corn is sifted in a sieve"; and yet for all this, not the smallest, lightest, or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground. Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child, nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of His redeemed people. However little we may be, if we are the Lord's, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus.

Waiting on God

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14 NASB)

Waiting is hard. No doubt about it. We humans get fidgety if we have to wait to long. If the line we are in at the grocery store takes too long then we begin to look around for other lanes that might be faster. If we wait too long in a waiting room, we begin to look at our watches and check the door more frequently, waiting for our name to be called.

How much harder is waiting on the Lord! The matters we have entrusted to Jesus are of far more weight then a few minutes in a grocery store line or an hour in a waiting room. We are waiting on important matters of life, and often even matters dear to our heart - our very loves, our very dreams.

Just as important as not being slack on our obedience is not running ahead. When we run ahead of God's timing, we make a mess of things because He has not yet done the molding and shaping in our life to prepare us for His answer.

We must be prompt when He calls: Luke 12:36  And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 

But we must also wait on His timing. Lam 3:25-26  The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 

Abraham ran ahead of God didn't he? We see the lesson from his life. God told him that HE would provide  a promised son from whom all nations would be blessed. After many years of waiting, on Sarah's advice Abraham decided it would be a good idea to help God out with His plan, and begat Ishmael with Sarah's hand maiden. Ishmael begat of the flesh, fought against Isaac - the promised child whom God Himself brought forth. 

Abraham had to live with the fruit of his disobedience his whole life because he ran ahead of God. The wars we have in the Middle East? They are the descendants of Ishmael warring against the descendants of Isaac. We still live with the consequences of Abraham running ahead of God. And both ourselves and our families live the consequences when we run ahead of God.

Yes, wait on the Lord dear Christian. He is faithful to provide and His timing is always perfect.

Psalm 69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, at an acceptable time; O God, in the greatness of Your lovingkindness, Answer me with Your saving truth. (NASB)