He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
— Mark 6:5–6
lso long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: . . . 8. Answers to prayer; miracles should not be uncommon. I am not a miracle preacher. I have been in churches where they announced miracle meetings. If you look in the Saturday newspaper you will see occasionally somebody who will hit town and announce, "Come out and see some miracles." That kind of performing I do not care for. You cannot get miracles as you would get a chemical reaction. You cannot get a miracle as you get a wonderful act on stage by a magician. God does not sell Himself into the hands of religious magicians. I do not believe in that kind of miracles. I believe in the kind of miracles that God gives to His people who live so close to Him that answers to prayer are common and these miracles are not uncommon.
John Wesley never lowered himself to preach miracles once in his life. But the miracles that followed John Wesley's ministry were unbelievable. On one instance he had to make an engagement, and his horse fell lame and could not travel. Wesley got down on his knees beside his horse and prayed for its healing. Then he got back up and rode, without the horse limping, to where he was going. He did not publicize the miracle and say, "We'll have a big tent here and advertize it." God just did those things for him. While C. H. Spurgeon did not preach healing, he had more people delivered in answer to his prayer than any doctor in London. Those are the kinds of miracles I am talking about.
thought
Is God amazed at our lack of faith? Is it lack of faith or is it a firm conviction that certain prayers will most certainly not be answered?
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for shutting the door by a lack of faith to miracles You would do in my life and in the lives of those for whom I pray. Help me to believingly declare on the practical level who You are!
All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad.
— Psalm 45:8
I also long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: . . . 7. A presence of Christ that is as the fragrance of myrrh and aloes. When you become accustomed to the smell of His garments you will be spoiled for anything less. If we never smell the myrrh and aloes out of the ivory palaces, we may go along a lifetime and not miss it. But one beautiful whiff of the fragrance of these garments and we will never be satisfied with anything less. When my wife and I were first married we attended a church of The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Akron, Ohio. There was something on that church, a sense of the fragrance of God.
The great Dr. Gerow preached there in those days. The church had some sweet Christian brethren, some wonderful men and women of God, and there was a fragrance on that place. I have never forgotten it. I was between 19 and 21 for the three years I spent in that church, and I do not remember getting help from others of my age. But how I remember getting help that is with me to this day from the older saints whose garments were fragrant with the myrrh, aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces!
thought
Do we spend enough time with Him so that we absorb the fragrance of His presence? Do people ever suspect that we have been with God? Is there about us an aroma of Him?
prayer
Thank You, Father, for those who have exuded the fragrance of Christ in my life. Often simple, humble people who lived Christ day by day.
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
— James 4:8
I also long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: . . . 6. A childlike candor. I love children because of their unbelievably beautiful candor. They look at you and say the most utterly simple things. If they were just a little older they would blush to the roots of their hair, but they are utterly and completely candid. I like to talk with them and have them come up and chat with me because they are bound to tell me things before they leave. If you do not want it told, do not tell the little ones because they just tell anything. They do not have anything to hide. I believe that with the limitations proper to our adult years we ought to be a place where spiritually we should be so candid there would be no duplicity, no dishonesty. A duplex is a house where there is more than one dwelling; there are two dwellings.
Duplicity is the same thing?it means two. Judas Iscariot, for instance, was duplicity incarnated. He was so slick that even the disciples did not know which one was the traitor. They said, "Lord, is it I?" And Jesus said, "There's the man. When he dips into the dish you'll know him." He had to tell them. This son of perdition had lived with Jesus and His 11 disciples for three years and had fooled them so completely that they did not know which one was the traitor when the showdown came. They had to have a little sign to indicate. That was the slickest piece of duplicity I know about. He was two-faced, and he could change faces with the occasion.
He was so slick in the change that nobody caught on. He showed one face to Jesus and His disciples and the other to the enemies of Jesus. Now that is duplicity. In Christian communion we ought to be a people without duplicity. Each one of us has only one face. I know that if you have more than one face to present to the public, something is desperately wrong. One of your faces is going to fall under an awful judgment of God. We must be without duplicity, dishonesty and hypocrisy. What is hypocrisy? Hypocrisy is an old Greek word used for an actor on stage, somebody who pretended to be what he or she was not. . . . A hypocrite is an actor, somebody who is playing a part.
thought
As believers it ought to be said of us, "What you see is what you get!" No duplicity; rather, naked honesty, even though at times painfully exposing.
prayer
Lord, You know that in certain situations with certain people I find it so easy to pretend. Help me to throw aside the masks. In Jesus' name.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
— Ephesians 4:2
I also long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: . . . 3. A feeling of humble reverence. I am disapointed that we come to church without a sense of God or a feeling of humble reverence. There are false religions, strange religious cults and Christian cults that think they have God in a box someplace, and when they approach that box they feel a sense of awe. Of course, you and I want to be saved from all paganism and false cultism. But we would also like to see a company of people who were so sure that God was with them, not in a box or in a biscuit, but in their midst. They would know that Jesus Christ was truly among them to a point that they would have a sense of humble reverence when they gathered together. 4. An air of joyous informality.
The great English preacher who was pastor for many years of Westminster Chapel in London, G. Campbell Morgan, left his church and went down to Wales where the Welsh revival was going on under Evan Roberts earlier in this century. He stayed there awhile and soaked up the glory of it. I read the sermon that he preached to his congregation afterward, and it was as near to scolding as that great preacher ever got. He said to them, "Your singing is joyless, your demeanor is joyless, and you do not have the lift or joy that I saw in Wales." He urged them that they might get into a place where that sense of joyous informality might be upon them. 5. A place where each esteems others better than himself or herself. As a result of that, everyone should be willing to serve, but nobody would be jockeying for position. Nothing is quite so bitterly humorous as ambition in the church of Christ. It would be as though a man who was on a lifeboat being saved from certain salty death in the ocean depths should become ambitious to become captain of the little boat on its way to save those on board. It is as though a man were to enter a disaster area where an earthquake had hit and people were dying and would fight for a high position there. The church of Christ is no place for the ambitious or the lazy. . . .
thought
Politeness is sometimes mistaken for reverence, irreverence for informality and "Uriah Heep-ness" for humility. The positive qualities bloom when there is a sense of God's presence.
prayer
Lord, show us Yourself to the degree we can bear it. Seeing You will grip us with Your holiness, strip us of cold formality and clothe us in humility.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . .
— 1 Corinthians 13:6–8a
I am afraid of a new wave of religion that has come. It started in the United States, and it is spreading. It is a sort of esoteric affair of the soul or the mind, and there are strange phenomena that attend it. I am afraid of anything that does not require purity of heart on the part of individuals and righteousness of conduct in life. I also long in the tender mercies of Christ that among us there may be the following: 1. A beautiful simplicity. I am wary of the artificialness and complexities of religion. I would like to see simplicity. Our Lord Jesus was one of the simplest men who ever lived. You could not involve Him in anything formal.
He said what He had to say as beautifully and as naturally as a bird sings on the bough in the morning. That is what I would like to see restored to the churches. The opposite of that is artificiality and complexity. 2. A radiant Christian love. I want to see a restoration of a radiant Christian love so it will be impossible to find anyone who will speak unkindly or uncharitably about another or to another. This is carefully thought out and carefully prayed through. The devil would have a spasm. He would be so chagrined that he would sulk in his self-made hell for years. There should be a group of Christians with radiant love in this last worn-out dying period of the Christian dispensation, a people so loving that you could not get them to speak unkindly and you could not get them to speak uncharitably.
thought
Beautiful simplicity and radiant love will mean the end of trying to be what one is not. We are what we are but we can choose to love with Christ's love and that buries unkindness.
prayer
Transparency and love. How I need them, Lord. Will You keep on changing me into the image of Christ?
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
— John 17:18–19
On our farm in Pennsylvania there were cherry trees which were attacked by little parasites of some sort. A parasite would get into a little branch, pierce the bark and exude a gum. Then the branch would get a knot on it and bend. All over the trees were those little bent places with gummy knots. After two or three years, those cherry trees would not bloom. If they did, the blooms usually dropped early and the cherries did not come to fruition. If the blooms did not drop early, the cherries would be flat and undeveloped or only red on one side. My father was not too interested in fruit. He was interested in cattle, horses and grain.
If my father had known how he could have protected those trees before they got into that wretched condition and properly sprayed or treated them, he could have gotten rid of the worms and bugs and saved the trees and fruit. I believe that a pastor who is content with a vineyard that is not at its best is not a good husbandman. It is my prayer that we may be a healthy and fruitful vineyard and that we may be an honor to the Well Beloved, Jesus Christ the Lord, that He might go before the Father and say, "These are mine for whom I pray, and they have heard the Word and have believed on Me." I pray that we might fit into the high priestly prayer of John 17, that we would be a church after Christ's own heart so that in us He might see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. In order for us to be a vine like that, there must be basic purity. Each one must have a great purity of heart. I believe that there are no emotional experiences that do not rest upon great purity of heart. No one can impress me or interest me in any kind of spiritual manipulation if his or her heart is not pure—even if it is raising the dead. Sound righteousness in conduct must be at the root of all valid spiritual experience.
thought
Marcus Rainsford noted that "the sanctification of the believer consists as much in teaching him himself, and that he is nothing, as in teaching him that Christ is all and in all" [Lectures on St. John XVII, 368]. Purity of heart is understanding who we are in ourselves and that Christ is all and in all.
prayer
O Christ, You sanctified Yourself that I may be truly sanctified. The parasites don't have to dominate. I can be pure in heart through You!
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
— 2 Corinthians 12:9
I am cheered to know so many of you are with me on this. We are going to go to the New Testament and be Bible Christians. We are going to sell out to God and not the devil. We are going to pray more, read our Bible more and attend prayer meeting more. We are going to give more and break bad habits by the power of God. We are going to become Christians after God's heart. We are going to be protesters in an hour when the smooth, sickly, slippery, rotten, backslidden, degenerate, apostate Christianity is accepted.
We are going to stand for God, to act like simple Protestant Christians, to act like our Presbyterian Scottish forebears, to act like our English Methodist forebears, to act like the dear old Baptist who broke the ice in the creek and baptized people in the freezing water. They had a saying in those days, "Nobody ever caught a cold getting baptized in the ice." God Almighty saw to it that nobody ever died of pneumonia. Those Protestant forebears made these two nations, the United States and Canada. They made this continent. Are we going to be descendants of which they should be ashamed? Or are we going to say, "Lead on, we are following. You followed Jesus Christ, and we are following you." John Thomas was a dear old Welsh preacher I used to hear. While he preached he would raise his hands and say, "You supply the grit and God will supply the grace." He was right. You've got the grit; God has the grace.
thought
Through the centuries God's people have experienced His grace. He doesn't give it to us in large cartons to be stored somewhere until we think we need it. He gives grace day by day, moment by moment, just enough as we in our weakness look to Him.
prayer
Lord, I feel so inferior to those giants of faith who have gone on before. But You remind me that out of their weakness they, too, trusted You step by step.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
— Hebrews 12:1
Read history and see how the covenanters stood and died rather than give up to the enemy. Are we satisfied to be degenerate sons of great fathers? Consider A. B. Simpson who walked the shores of the Atlantic Ocean with cardboard in the soles of his shoes because he did not have money to buy new ones. He prayed and groaned in spirit and cried to God for people of all nations who had not heard the gospel. He prayed, "Oh God, I believe Jesus Christ thy Son is the same yesterday, today and forever." We are his descendants, but we ought to spend a day in sackcloth and ashes. At 36, Simpson was a Presbyterian preacher so sick that he said, "I feel I could fall into the grave when I have a funeral." He could not preach for months at a time because of his sickness. He went to a little camp meeting in the woods and heard a quartet sing, "No man can work like Jesus/ No man can work like Him." Simpson went off among the pine trees with that ringing in his heart:
"Nobody can work like Jesus; nothing is too hard for Jesus. No man can work like Him." The learned, stiff-necked Presbyterian threw himself down upon the pine needles and said, "If Jesus Christ is what they said He was in the song, heal me." The Lord healed him, and he lived to be 76 years old. Simpson founded a society that is now one of the largest evangelical denominations in the world, the Christian and Missionary Alliance. We are his descendants and we sing his songs. But are we going to allow ourselves to listen to that which will modify our faith, practices and beliefs, water down our gospel and dilute the power of the Holy Spirit? I, for one, am not!
thought
How much we owe to those who have gone on before, who make up that great cloud of witnesses. And we may experience God for ourselves in personal encounter.
prayer
I cannot rest on the incredible experience of others, Lord. I must experience You for myself through Christ.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.
— Hebrews 11:1-2
Our church is going to go the way of the gospel. We are not radicals nor fools. We do not fast 40 days. We dress like other people, drive vehicles and have modern homes. We are human and like to laugh. But we believe that God Almighty has not changed and that Jesus Christ is the same. He is victorious, and we do not have to apologize for Him. We do not have to modify, adjust, edit or amend. He stands as the glorious Lord, and nobody needs to apologize for Him. ... I say now, shall we believe the ringing words, "I the LORD do not change" (Malachi 3:6)? I believe them. Shall we believe that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)? I do.
We must believe the words that say, "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7b). "He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death" (2:11b). "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne" (3:21a). We are not going to be sheep running over the precipice because other dumb sheep are running over it. We see the precipice?we know it is there. We are listening to the voice of the shepherd, not the voice of terrified sheep. The terrified, intimidated sheep are going everywhere. I stand solidly and protest this. I believe we need a reformation back to the belief that God knew what He was talking about in the first place. We need to get back to the belief that Jesus Christ did not miss anything but foresaw it all, back to the belief that the apostles spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. We must return to the belief that our fathers who gave us the great creeds were not fools but wise saints who knew what they were talking about. We must get back to the belief that Protestants are to protest, dissenters are to dissent and nonconformists must refuse to conform.
thought
It was Frederick W. Faber who wrote: "Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death." Of course, not all of our fathers were holy or faithful but it is our steadfast faith that places us in the train of those who, through the centuri
prayer
Father, I choose the "faith" way and trust in You and Your Word no matter how contrary the winds blow.