The Hole in our Holiness

SELF-KNOWLEDGE

                                          Searcher of Hearts,

                                             It is a good day to me when you give me 
                                                a glimpse of myself;
                                            Sin is my greatest evil,
                                               but you are my greatest good;
                                            I have cause to loathe myself,
                                               and not to seek self-honour,
                                               for no one desires to commend his own dunghill.
                                           My country, family, church
                                               fare worse because of my sins,
                                               for sinners bring judgment in thinking sins are small,
                                               or that God is not angry with them.

                                           Let me not take other good men as my example,
                                              and think I am good because I am like them,
                                           For all good men are not so good as you desire,
                                              are not always consistent,
                                              do not always follow holiness,
                                              do not feel eternal good in sore affliction.
                                          Show me how to know when a thing is evil
                                              which I think is right and good,
                                              how to know when what is lawful
                                              comes from an evil principle,
                                              such a desire for reputation or wealth by usury.
                                         Give me grace to recall my needs,
                                              my lack of knowing your will in Scripture,
                                              of wisdom to guide others,
                                              of daily repentance, want of which keeps you at bay,
                                              of the spirit of prayer, having words without love,
                                              or zeal for your glory, seeking my own ends,
                                              of joy in you and your will,
                                              of love to others.
                                           And let me not lay my pipe too short of the fountain,
                                              never touching the eternal spring,
                                              never drawing down water from above.

"The Valley of Vision"

A Testimony of Holiness

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Eph 1:4







I fast and pray.  What do I need?  What do I want?

Ans: A clear consciousness of God's approval.  This includes:

1. The knowledge of the forgiveness of all past sins, of commission and omission.  Through the blood of Jesus I have this full and free forgiveness.

2. It includes a heart purified from all sin, my will fully in harmony with God, and loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

3. It includes cheerful and prompt obedience to all the commandments of God, a hearty compliance with all the will of God concerning me.

Through the tender mercy of God, through the precious blood of Christ, I have the 2nd and 3rd.  I am this moment "by the grace of God" walking in the light as God is in the light, and "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth me from all sin."

God fills me now with the Holy Spirit.

Brother George E. Butler,
Dec. 31, 1890

In Memory of Richman Syabbamb

Radical Lives: Richman Syabbamba from Ryan Humm on Vimeo.

Zambian Wesleyan known in U.S. dies in tragic accident.

Coping with trouble...

If we know anything of growth in grace and desire to know more, let us not be surprised if we have to go through much trial and affliction in this world. I firmly believe it is the experience of nearly all the most eminent saints. Like their blessed Master, they have been men of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and perfected through sufferings (Isa. 53:3; Heb. 2:10). It is a striking saying of our Lord, "Every branch in Me that bears fruit [my Father] purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:2).   -J.C. Ryle

Coping with trouble:

1. Do I believe God will purposely use trouble to shape my life?

2. How has God used trouble to shape my life?

3. How do I respond to trouble?

4. How should I respond to trouble?

5. Is all my trouble the direct result of sin?

6. When was the last time I experienced troubled as the result of helping others?

7. Does every trouble in my life, pass through the hands of God?

8. How much of my trouble is the results of my own doing?

9. How long should my trouble last?

10. Is there anytime in my life when I don't deserve trouble?

He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.  Job 2:10

Smile-It's Monday

Adorable Baby Twins Dance to Daddy's Guitar from sharethemessage on GodTube.

Where there is a Will there is a Way

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Luke 10:2

In those days The Holiness Church had four or five tents in the field every year.  These tents were put in the hands of reliable persons to hold meetings during the summer wherever the call came, or the way opened.  It was the most successful way of reaching the people and winning souls.

The one in charge of the tent would get some workers to go along and live in small tents, doing their own cooking, and looking to the Lord for their support.  At times the faith of the workers was tried, but their faith was more precious than gold.  People would bring provisions without being asked.  No such victory could be had in any other way.

At the close of one such camp-meeting, at which some 75 to 100 were reclaimed, converted or sanctified, and some 50 were healed of most all manner of diseases, the anointed of the Lord broke camp and started out to pitch tabernacles and tents for four other camp-meetings and pushed the battle in churches and everywhere to press the battle for God and souls.

August, 1987   

 ("Truths of Interest - The Holiness Church," -1939)

Broken By The Spirit

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Heb 12:10-11

Better to be broken in pieces by the Spirit of God, than to be made whole by the flesh! What does the Lord say? “I kill.” But what next? “I make alive.” He never makes any alive but those He kills.

Blessed be the Holy Spirit when He kills me! When He drives the sword through the very heart of my own merits and my self-confidence, then He makes me alive. “I wound, and I heal.” He never heals those whom He has not wounded. Then blessed be the hand that wounds! Let it go on wounding! Let it cut and tear! Let it lay bare to me myself at my very worst, that I may be driven to self-despair and may fall back upon the free mercy of God—and receive it as a poor, guilty, lost, helpless, undone sinner!

May we, by His Grace, cast ourselves into the arms of Sovereign Grace, knowing that God must give all, and Christ must be all, and the Spirit must work all—and man must be as clay in the potter’s hands, that the Lord may do with him as seems to Him good. Rejoice, dear Brothers and Sisters, however low you are brought, for if the Spirit humbles you He means no evil, but He intends infinite good to your soul.

-Spurgeon

http://theoldguys.org

Are You Willing To Be Obedient

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor 12:9

Are you willing to be obedient to the command, “Cease to do evil, learn to do well”? “Oh,” saith one, “I am willing enough to be obedient, but where is the strength to come from?” Ah, my blessed Lord does not ask you to find the strength; for that you may look to him. If you are willing he will grant you the power; nay, in making you willing he has already begun the work. If this morning he has made you truly willing to give up sin, his blessed Spirit will never leave you till sin is overcome. Jesus is able to cleanse you from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of it. The point is this — has he made you willing to be made holy? Are you at this present moment willing to be washed and cleansed? Do not answer this question till you have looked at it and marked the self-denial it will cost you. After doing so I fear that honesty will compel some of you to say, “I am not prepared to undergo the change which is here proposed.” You know, my hearer, that sin in some attractive form is very sweet to you, and while it is so there can be no hope of pardon for you.

-Spurgeon

http://www.thedailyspurgeon.com

Choose Life

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt 25:32-34;41)

"What a vast difference is there between the death of a child of the devil and a child of God! The one leaves all his troubles and afflictions behind him, never to feel them more; the other, he leaves all his pleasures behind him, all the pleasure that ever he will enjoy while God endures. The one leaves all his temptations forever, but the other instead of that falls into the hands of the tempter, not to be tempted but to be tormented by him. The one is perfectly delivered from all remainders of corruption; the other, he carries all that vast load of sin, made up of original sin, natural corruption, and actual sins, into hell with him, and there the guilt of them breaks forth in the conscience and burns and scorches him as flames of hell within. The filthiness of sin will then appear and be laid open before the world to his eternal shame. Death to the true Christian is an entrance into eternal pleasures and unspeakable joys, but the death of a sinner is his entrance into never-ending miseries. This world is all the hell that ever a true Christian is to endure, and it is all the heaven that unbelievers shall ever enjoy.

'Tis a heaven in comparison of the misery of the one, and a hell in comparison of the happiness of the other. The sinner, when he dies, he leaves all his riches and possessions: there is no more money for him to have the pleasure of fingering; there is no more gay apparel for him to be arrayed in, nor proud palace to live in. But the Christian, when he dies, he obtains all his riches, even infinite spiritual, heavenly riches.

At death, the sinner leaves all his honor and enters into eternal disgrace; but the Christian is then invested with his. The one leaves all his friends forever more: when he sees them again at the resurrection, it will be either glorifying God in his justice in damning him, or else like furies ready to tear him. But the other, he goes to his best friends and will again meet his best earthly friends at the resurrection in glory, full of mutual joy and love. The death of a believer is in order to a more glorious resurrection, but the death of a sinner is but only a faint shadow and preludium of the eternal death the body is to die at the great day and forever more.

So great is the difference between the death of the one and the other, 'tis even as the difference between life and death, between death and a resurrection. Wherefore, now you have both before you—the glorious gainfulness of the death of a Christian, and the dreadfulness of the death of a sinner—or rather you have life and death set before you, to make your choice: therefore, choose life."

--Jonathan Edwards,

http://tollelege.wordpress.com

You Reap What You Sow

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:8-9

Let this also be written down on the tablet of your memory. No entrance into heaven, without the Spirit first entering your heart upon earth! No admission into glory in the next life without previous sanctification in this life! No Holy Spirit in you in this world—then no heaven in the world to come! You would not be fit for it! You would not be ready for it! You would not like it! You would not enjoy it! There is much use made in the present day of the word "holy." Our ears are wearied with "holy church," and "holy baptism," and "holy days," and "holy water," and" holy services," and "holy priests." But one thing is a thousand times more important—and that is, to be made a really holy person by the Spirit. We must be made partakers of the Divine nature, while we are alive. We must "sow to the Spirit," if we would ever reap life everlasting.

--J.C. Ryle

http://jcrylequotes.com