Today's Scripture Audio Devotional:
Psalm 22 Play Audio! Download MP3
Pure Scripture, read in a meditative way--with
beautiful background music. Perfect for devotions!~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Their photograph flatters them!
(J. R. Miller, "What God Thinks of Us" 1909)
One of the most important questions we can ask ourselves, is what God thinks of us.One has pointed out that in every man, there are four different men:
the man whom the neighbors see,
the man whom one's family sees,
the man whom the person himself sees,
and the man whom God sees.
The community knows us only in a general way, superficially. What people think of us, we sometimes call 'reputation'--what we are reputed to be. It is a composite made up of all that people know about us, gathered from our conduct, our acts, our dispositions, our words, the impressions of ourselves we give to others.
The knowledge the community has of a man, is only superficial. It is evident that the world's opinion about people is not infallible, is not complete, is not final.A person may be better than his reputation; his external manner may do him injustice. Some men, by reason of their shyness, their awkwardness, or some limitation in power of expression, fail to appear at their true value. The world knows only a man's outward life, and there may be good things in him which it does not know.
Then some people, on the other hand, are worse than their reputation. Their photograph flatters them! What they pretend to be--exceeds the reality. They practice tricks which give a glamour to their lives, so that they pass in public for more than they are. They wear veils, which hide defects and faults in them, and thus they seem better than they are.
Hence we cannot accept the judgment of the community, regarding anyone--as absolutely true, fair, and final.
But there is another man in us--the man GOD sees. And this is most important of all. We do not even know all the secret things of our own hearts. There is an Eye that sees deeper than ours! It is pleasant to have people commend us, when we have tried to do our duty. It gives us great joy to have the approval of our own hearts. But if we do not have the commendation of the Master, human praise and self-approval amount to nothing! "What does God think of me?" is always the final question.
Men are cruel. They judge often harshly. They know only part of the truth concerning us. They are not patient with our infirmities. But we are safe in the hands of God. He knows the worst in us--but He also knows the best. We may trust our lives, therefore, to God's judgment, even if they are full of defects and flaws. He knows all, and will bring to light all the hidden things.
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We have posted J. R. Miller's insightful article, "What God Thinks of Us"
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Their photograph flatters them!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Look at the King in His beauty!
Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:
Psalm 1 Play Audio! Download MP3
Pure Scripture, read in a meditative way--with
beautiful background music. Perfect for devotions!~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Look at the King in His beauty!
(David Harsha, "Wanderings of a Pilgrim")
"Your eyes will see the King in His beauty and view a land that stretches afar." Isaiah 33:17
Contemplate your blessed Redeemer, seated on His great white throne, encircled with heavenly glory!
Look at the King in His beauty!
It is the sight of a glorified Savior--that will make the heaven of the believer.
Endeavor now, by the eye of faith, to behold the Lord Jesus in all His matchless beauty and excellence.
Contemplate . . .
His glorious character;
His infinite mercy;
His unparalleled condescension,
and His boundless love!There is enough in Jesus to employ the soul in rapturous meditation through a vast eternity!
His excellence, His goodness, and His love--can never be fathomed!
O keep your eye fixed on this adorable Savior, while you sojourn in this valley of tears; and in a little while you shall see Him as He is; face to face, and ascribe to Him unceasing praise!
"In a loud voice they sang: Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" Revelation 5:12
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Look up!
Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:
"That one majestic, inconceivable, and
expressive word!" by J. A. James~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Look up!
(J. R. Miller, "Unto the Hills!" A Meditation on Psalm 121)
"I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1-2
It is good always to look up. Thousands of people dwarf their lives, and hinder the possibilities of growth in their souls--by looking downward. They keep their eyes ever entangled in mere earthly sights, and miss the glories of the hills that pierce the clouds, and of the heavens that bend over them!
A story is told of a boy who one day found a gold coin on the street. Ever after this--he kept his eyes on the ground as he walked, watching for coins. During a long lifetime, he found a good number of coins--but meanwhile he never saw the flowers and the trees which grew in such wondrous beauty everywhere; he never saw the hills, the mountains, the sweet valleys, the picturesque landscapes; he never saw the blue sky. To him, this lovely world meant only a dusty road, dreary and unbeautiful, merely a place in which to look for coins.
This really is the story of the life of most people. They never lift their eyes off the earth! They live only to gather money, to add field to field, to scheme for power or to find pleasure. Or, if their quest is a little higher, it is still only for earthly things. They never lift up their eyes to God! There is no blue sky in their picture. They cherish no heavenly visions. They are without God in the world.
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Colossians 3:1-2~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We have added several more choice J. R. Miller articles:
Learning Our Lessons (Outstanding!)
A grey head, and a carnal worldly heart
Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:
"The sure conclusion of a godless life!"
by Henry Law~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A grey head, and a carnal worldly heart
(James Meikle, "The Traveler" Dec. 26, 1761)
Hitherto I have looked upon myself as young, and coming to the prime of my life. But henceforth I shall consider myself as in my declining years. I am certain how long I have lived in the world--but quite uncertain how soon I must leave the world. And therefore I should be preparing for my final departure, and daily be ripening for the regions of bliss!
A young man, and a holy life; one in his prime, and all his graces flourishing--is lovely to behold.
But a grey head, and a carnal worldly heart, is a wounding sight! Henceforth, be gone bewitching vanities, and all the enchantments of the world! The last years of my life are not to be trifled away with you!
Death attends me!
The grave awaits me!
Eternity is at hand!"It is appointed unto men once to die--but after this the judgment!" Hebrews 9:27
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Love
Monday, January 11, 2010
The 'picture' of the ideal Christian life!
Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:
"The best way to be holy"
by Thomas Brooks
Play Audio! Download MP3~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The 'picture' of the ideal Christian life!
(J. R. Miller, "A Word About TEMPER" 1888)
Most of us are bad-tempered in various degrees. The dictionary has been well-near exhausted of adjectives, in giving the different shades of bad-temper: aggressive, angry, bickering, bitter, capricious, choleric, contentious, crotchety, despotic, domineering, easily offended, gloomy, grumpy, hasty, huffy, irritable, morose, obstinate, reproachful, peevish, sulky, surly, vindictive--these are some of the qualifying words!
We do not like to believe that the case is quite so serious--that many of us are unamiable in some offensive degree. It is easier to confess our neighbor's faults and infirmities, than our own! So, therefore, quietly taking refuge for ourselves among the few good-tempered people--we are willing to admit that a great many of the people we know, have at times rather ungentle tempers. They are easily provoked; they fly into a passion on very slight occasion; they are haughty, domineering, peevish, fretful or vindictive!
What is even worse, most of them appear to make no effort to grow out of their infirmities of disposition! The sour fruit does not come to mellow ripeness in the passing years; the roughness is not polished off the diamond to reveal its lustrous hidden beauty. The same petulance, pride, vanity, selfishness and other disagreeable qualities are found in the life, year after year!
Where there is a struggle to overcome one's faults and grow out of them, and where the progress toward better and more beautiful spiritual character is perceptible, though ever so slow--we should have sympathy. But where one appears unconscious of one's blemishes, and manifests no desire to conquer one's faults--there is little ground for encouragement!
Man-like it is--to fall into sin.
Fiend-like it is--to dwell therein.
Saint-like it is--for sin to grieve.
God-like it is--for sin to leave.
Bad temper is such a disfigurement of character, and, besides, works such harm to one's self and to one's neighbors, that no one should spare any pains or cost to have it cured!
The ideal Christian life--is one of unbroken kindliness. It is dominated by love--the love whose portrait is drawn for us in the immortal thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." That is the 'picture' of the ideal Christian life!
We have but to turn to the gospel pages--to find the story of a life in which all this was realized. Jesus never lost his temper. He lived among people who tried Him at every point--some by their dullness, others by their bitter enmity and persecution--but He never failed in sweetness of disposition, in patience, in self-denying love. Like the flowers which give out their perfume only when crushed; like the odoriferous wood which bathes the axe which hews it with fragrance; the life of Christ yielded only the tenderer, sweeter love--to the rough impact of men's harshness and wrong. That is the pattern, on which we should strive to fashion our life and our character! Every outbreak of violent temper, every shade of ugliness in disposition--mars the radiant loveliness of the 'picture' we are seeking to have fashioned in our souls!
Bad-tempered people are continually hurting others, ofttimes their best and truest friends.
Some people are sulky--and one person's sulkiness casts a chilling shadow over a whole household!
Others are so sensitive, ever watching for slights and offended by the merest trifles--that even their nearest friends have no freedom of fellowship with them!
Others are despotic, and will brook no kindly suggestion, nor listen to any expression of opinion!
Others are so quarrelsome that even the meekest and gentlest person cannot live peaceably with them!
It would be easy to extend this portrayal of the evils of bad temper--but it will be more profitable to inquire HOW a bad-tempered person may become good-tempered. There is no doubt that this happy change is possible in any case. There is no temper so obdurately bad--that it cannot be trained into sweetness. The grace of God can take the most unlovely life--and transform it into the image of Christ.
(You might want to read the remainder of this most insightful and helpful article.)~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We have published several more choice J. R. Miller articles:
Grace Gems (choice ELECTRONIC books, sermons & quotes)
Grace Audio Treasures (choice AUDIO sermons)
Sovereign Grace Treasures (choice PRINTED books)
Sunday, January 10, 2010
He who holds the pruning-knife!
Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:
"Surely something must be amiss with
the scales!" by Charles Spurgeon
Play Audio! Download MP3~ ~ ~ ~ ~
He who holds the pruning-knife!
(J. R. Miller, "Looking at the Right Side" 1888)
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. . . . He prunes every branch that produces fruit--so that it will produce more fruit." John 15:1-2
Our Father is the gardener; we are branches under His care. He watches over our lives. The painful afflictions which cut into our very souls, the taking from us of objects that are dear to us, as when the gardener with his sharp knife removes luxuriant branches from the vine--are our Father's prunings! No hand but His--ever holds the knife! We are sure, then, that there is never any careless cutting, any unwise or mistaken pruning, any needless removing of rich branches or growths.
We really need to go no farther than this. A strong, abiding confidence that all the trials, sorrows and losses of our lives--are parts of our Father's prunings--ought to silence every question, quiet every fear and give peace and restful assurance to our hearts, in all their pain. We cannot know the reason for the painful strokes--but we know that He who holds the pruning-knife is our Father! That is all we need to know.
The other thought in the Lord's parable, is scarcely less full of comfort to a Christian. Jesus says, that it is the fruitful branches which the Father prunes: "He prunes every branch that produces fruit--so that it will produce more fruit."
Afflictions are not, then, a mark of God's anger or disapproval; rather, they are a mark of His favor. The branches into which He cuts, from which he trims away the luxuriant growths--are fruit-bearing already. He does not prune the fruitless branches--He cuts them off altogether as useless, as mere cumberers, absorbing life and yielding nothing of blessing or good.
Some Christians have the impression that their many troubles indicate that God does not love them--that they cannot be true Christians, or they would not be so chastened. This teaching of Christ shows how mistaken they are. The much chastening shows that the Father is pruning His fruitful branch--to make it more fruitful! All whom the Father loves--He chastens!
It is the fruitless branch that is never pruned; the fruitful branch is pruned, and pruned--not by one without skill, not by an enemy--but by the wise Father! Thus we see how we may rejoice--even in our trials and afflictions!
One who was altogether ignorant of the art and purpose of pruning, who should see a man with a sharp knife cutting off branch after branch of a luxuriant vine, would at first suppose that the pruner was ruining the vine. So at the time it seems--but by and by, it appears that the prunings have made the vine more fruitful. In the season of vintage, the grapes are more luscious, with a richer flavor in them--because of the cutting away of the superfluous branches.
In like manner, if an angel who had never witnessed anything of human suffering, and who knew nothing of its object, were to see the Father causing pain and affliction to His children, it would seem to him that these experiences could be only destructive of happiness and blessing; but if the angel were to follow those chastened lives on to the end, he would see untold blessing coming out of the chastenings! The Father was but pruning the branches--that they might bear more and better fruit!
We should never lose sight of the divine purpose in all trials--to make our lives more fruitful.
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We have published several more gems by J. R. Miller:Weekday Religion (superb 200 page book)
Life as a Ladder (challenging and insightful)
The Cost of Being a Blessing (must reading)
Looking at the Right Side (very helpful)
The Sweet Fragrance of Prayer (insightful)
Grace Gems (choice ELECTRONIC books, sermons & quotes)
Grace Audio Treasures (choice AUDIO sermons)
Sovereign Grace Treasures (choice PRINTED books)