Beloved (Octavius Winslow)

Jude 1:24

“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

Beloved, soon, O how soon! all that now 
loads the heart with care, and wrings it with sorrow; 
all that dims the eye with tears, and renders the 
day anxious and the night sleepless, will be as 
though it had never been! 

Emerging from.... 
the entanglement, 
the dreariness, 
the solitude, 
the loneliness, and 
the temptations of the wilderness, 
you shall enter upon your everlasting rest, 
your unfading inheritance, where there is.... 
no sorrow, 
no declension, 
no sin, 
no sunset, 
no twilight, 
no evening shadows, 
no midnight darkness, 
but all is one perfect, cloudless, eternal day, for 
JESUS is the joy, the light, and the glory thereof! 

"And now, all glory to God, who is able to keep 
you from stumbling, and who will bring you into 
His glorious presence innocent of sin and with 
great joy! All glory to Him, who alone is God our 
Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, glory, 
majesty, power, and authority belong to Him, in 
the beginning, now, and forevermore! Amen." 
Jude 1:24-25 

Octavius Winslow, "The Lord, the Keeper of His People"

http://www.gracegems.org/

The Loneliness of the Christian (A.W. Tozer)

The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone. The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way.

The man [or woman] who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.

It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else.

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." -Revelation 12:11

The Saint Must Walk Alone 

Most of the worlds GREAT SOULS have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.

Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Moses all walked a path quite apart from their contemporaries even though many people surrounded them.

The prophets of pre-Christian times differed widely from each other, but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness.

Jesus died alone in the darkness hidden from the sight of mortal man and no one saw Him when He arose triumphant and walked out of the tomb, even though many saw Him afterward and bore witness to what they saw.

The cheerful denial of loneliness proves only that the speaker has never walked with God without the support and encouragement afforded him by society. The sense of companionship that mistakenly attributes to the presence of Christ may and probably does arise from the presence of friendly people. Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a vast crowd surrounds a man, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart. Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross. No one is a friend to the man with a cross. “They all forsook Him and fled.”

The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, and his absorption in his love for Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone.

The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with religious persons in regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find.

The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Saviour glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see Jesus promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.

It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude what he could not have learned in the crowd-that Christ is All in All.

Two things remain to be said about the man that is in this state of loneliness. First, he is not a haughty man, he is not holier-than-thou, and he is not an austere saint. He is likely to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself for his loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his grief to God alone.

The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. The opposite is true. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is detached from the world he is all the more able to help it.

The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful “adjustment” to an unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them (modern Christians) and accepts them for what they are. This is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.

The Genuine Christian is a Lonely Soul

The Christian, the genuine Christian, realizes that he is indeed a lonely soul in the middle of a world which affords him no fellowship. I contend that if the Christian breaks down on occasion and lets himself go in tears, he ought not to feel that he is weak. It is a normal loneliness in the midst of a world that has disowned him. He has to be a lonely man!

Those to whom Peter wrote were strangers in many ways and first of all because they were Jews. They were Jews scattered among the Romans and they never could accept and bow to the Roman ways. They learned the Greek tongue in the world of their day, but they never could learn the Roman ways. They were Jews, a people apart, even as they are today.
Besides that, they had become Christian believers so they were no longer merely Jews. Their sense of alienation from the world around them had increased and doubled. They were not only Jews—unlike the Gentiles around them—but they were Christians, unlike the Jews as well as unlike the Gentiles!

This is the reason that it is easily possible for a Christian believer to be the loneliest person in the world under a set of certain circumstances. This sense of not belonging is a part of our Christian heritage. That sense of belonging in another world and not belonging to this one steals into the Christian bosom and marks him off as being different from the people around him. Many of our hymns have been born out of that very loneliness, that sense of another and higher citizenship!

Citizenship is in heaven

That is exactly the thing that keeps a Christian separated—knowing that his citizenship is not on earth at all but in heaven above, and that he looks for the Savior to come. Who is there that can look more earnestly for the coming of the Lord Jesus than the one who feels that he is a lonely person in the middle of a lonely world?
Peter loved the Lord Jesus Christ and his letters to suffering believers clearly reveal that great and sweeping changes had come into his life. He had become stable, he had become solid, he had become the steady and dependable servant of Christ. Now he was able to see that suffering for Christ is one of the privileges of Christian life and he prepared his brothers and sisters for the future with his counsel: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering’85. but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ” (1 Peter 4:12–13).

Fellow believers, it is the same kind of world in which we live in this 20th century. We do well to let the Apostle Peter speak to us!
No matter who you are, no matter what your education, you can read Peter’s First Epistle and understand it reasonably well and you can say to yourself, “The Holy Spirit is saying this to me!”
There isn’t anything dated in the Book of God. When I go to my Bible, I find dates but no dating. I mean that I find the sense and the feeling that everything here belongs to me. There is nothing here that is obviously for another age, another time, another people.

Many other volumes and many other books of history contain the passionate outpourings of the minds of men on local situations but we soon find ourselves bored with them. Unless we are actually doing research we do not care that much about something dated, something belonging only to another age.
But when the Holy Spirit wrote the epistles, through Peter and Paul and the rest, He wrote them and addressed them to certain people and then made them so universally applicable that every Christian who reads them today in any part of the world, in any language or dialect, forgets that they were written to someone else and says, ”This was addressed to me. The Holy Spirit had me in mind. This is not antiquated and dated. This is the living Truth for me—now! It is just as though God had just heard of my trouble and is speaking to me to help me and encourage me in the time of my distress!”

Brethren, this is why the Bible stays young always. This is why the Word of the Lord God is as fresh as every new sunrise, as sweet and graciously fresh as the dew on the grass the morning after the clear night—because it is God’s Word to man!
This is the wonder of divine inspiration and the wonder of the Book of God!

The Refiner's Fire 
Ten thousand enemies cannot stop a Christian, cannot even slow him down, if he meets them in a attitude of complete trust in God. They will become to him like the atmosphere that resists the airplane, but which because the plane's designer knew how to take advantage of that resistance, actually lifts the plane aloft and holds it there for a journey of 2,000 miles. What would have been an enemy to the plane becomes a helpful servant to aid it on its way. 

The main thing is this: we should never blame anyone or anything for our defeats. No matter how evil their intentions may be, they are altogether unable to harm us until we begin to blame them and use them as excuses for our own unbelief. Then they become potent to do us injury; nevertheless, we are to blame and not they. 

If this should seem like a bit of theorizing, remember that always the greatest Christians have come out of hard times and tough situations. Tribulations actually worked for their spiritual perfection in that they taught them to trust not in themselves but in the Lord who raised the dead. They learned that the enemy could not block their progress unless they surrendered to the urgings of the flesh and began to complain. And slowly, they learned to stop complaining and start praising. It is that simple--and it works!

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Blessed are the Beloved! (Timothy Shay Arthur, 1856)

Yes, it is a bitter world — and how few there are who love us! Sometimes we meet one whom we feel 'twere bliss to live for — to die for! a look from whose eye is joy; a tender word from whose lips is Heaven; and yet a careless word, an idle jest uttered in a merry mood, a little mistake — has power to part us!

How few there are who love us! So few that we cannot spare one from out the number! It is said that "blessings brighten as they take their flight;" and so with friendships, so with loves — we prize them most as they leave us.

When such a treasure, which has almost become a part of our being, goes from us, how sad! It is like the losing of a queen's crown diamonds; like missing the rarest jewels from a necklace; like the shattering of an exquisite vase, which can never be replaced.

There can be no greater grief, than to be shut out from the shelter of a beloved one's heart; a Hagar thrust out into the wilderness; an outcast sent forth to wander in the wide, wide outer world! And then, when the bitter words have been spoken; when affection has been turned to coolness; when we sit down alone, enwrapped in the mantle of pride and scorn, with the dead ashes lying scattered upon the desolate hearthstones of our hearts — oh! it is like dying!

Oh! you who love and are beloved, clasp close your treasures! Allow nothing, envy, malice, the whispers of slanderers, the voice of Fame, the love of gold, or anything else, to part you! Life is, by far, too short to waste in bickerings; the world is cold enough, without our adding to its desolation. Love is too precious, to be lost lightly! Rather bear and forbear; forgive and forget; cast from you the evil, and only gather up the good — than lose one jot of affection!

"It is better to have loved and lost,
 Than never to have loved at all!"

There must come partings for all! The grave must lie between! Some day, the earth will fall heavily upon the coffin wherein you have buried your heart; the sods will press down the dear head which has lain upon your bosom; the daisy and violet will bloom above the lips which have so often met your own, and then could you bear to think that you had wronged your trust, slighted their love and cast it from your heart — or that pride, or the love of gold, or fame, had parted you?

Ah, no, no! It were far better then to be able to say, "I loved him always!" "I never gave him a harsh word!" — than to bind the mocking wreath of Fame around an aching brow, or clasp dazzling jewels over a desolated heart.

Yes, Love is "the only treasure!" Neither power, Fame, gold, gems, nor the applause of a world can satisfy the heart. They may indeed charm and cheat for a season — but at last, like the apples of Sodom, they turn to ashes in our grasp.

There is no truer earthly bliss, than the priceless blessing of Love. Happy they who win it! Thrice blessed are the beloved!

http://www.gracegems.org/

Restored, Quickened, Revived

Wandering away from the Good Shepherd in order to taste the "thrill" of a worldly companionship will never leave the sheep in a peaceful place. Instead, it will only betray the poor sheep and leave it with a broken heart. For in the wilderness, wolves and vipers abound. It will never be wise to drift from the comfort of the Shepherd's bosom in order to make close friends with the fraudsters. Wolves will always be wolves no matter how one tries to dress them to look like sheep. They are the deceivers of this world. 

The Good Shepherd is always the best home to run to, especially in time of  weakness. In Him alone there is life, peace, joy, solace, security, and true friendship. The Good Shepherd is the epitome of abiding love and faithfulness.

Psalms 23:3

“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”

In several ways does the shepherd restore his sheep. 
If one wanders away, he goes out after it, and seeks
it until he finds it, restoring it to the shelter of the 
fold. If one faints and grows sick by the way, in the 
hard journey or the burning heat — the shepherd does 
not leave it to die, but takes it up in his arms, and 
carries it home, restoring it to the fold. If a sheep is 
hurt, torn by a wild beast or injured by accident — the 
shepherd tends its wounds until they are healed.

All this suggests how our Good Shepherd restores our 
souls. Sometimes we wander away. It is very easy to 
drift off from Christ. The drifting is often unconscious
 — we do not realize that we are losing our first love — 
and little by little, we are far off from Christ. Perhaps 
it is a cherished sin which eats out our heart-life. Or
perhaps it is a worldly companionship which draws us 
away, loosening the bonds which bound us to Christ. 
Sometimes it is an absorbing business which leaves 
no room for God. Or it may be the cares of this world 
which choke the Word and quench the Spirit. We often 
need to have our soul restored, quickened, revived — or 
we would never get safely home, through this evil world.

Then, when sorrow has left the heart broken, it is 
only the Good Shepherd who can restore it. He is 
a most skillful physician. We may put all sorrow's
wounds into His hand. He is most gentle, and His 
hand is infinitely skillful. He is a wonderful comforter. 
No human hand can heal a heart that is bruised — but 
the hand of Jesus has infinite delicacy and skill.

J.R. Miller, By The Still Waters 

Psalms 147:3

“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” 

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Freedom

The best kind of freedom is freedom from the deceitfulness of sin, of the heart, of the world, of false love from false friends. For while being engulfed in such, one has to be a fool. And a fool is a blind that walks in the dark and loves walking in darkness. 

Let the wicked laugh. Let them shout for the victory of their treacherous acts. Let them think they have won but they have won the approval of their original father's, the prince and father of lies.

Let me mourn. Let me mourn while I am set free. Let me mourn for the wickedness of their heart. Yet let me celebrate for my own victory, because now I can see, a fool no longer, and blind no more.

But let me be humble, let me forget, and forgive. For then, freedom shall be complete.

“Therefore while the wicked continue laughing — I will continue to mourn. Through the Valley of Bochim (weeping) — I shall pass to the Heavenly Zion. But the paths of carnal mirth— will bring me into a Hell of weeping; for he who swims in sin — shall sink in sorrow! His laughter shall be turned into heaviness; but my tears shall be wiped away! I will therefore ever weep — that I may not weep forever!” Thomas Sherman, Divine Breathings 

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4