Thou'lt Find Him, in the Evil Days
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…of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” Psalm 19:7 Verse Of The Month “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” I John 3:18 Vol. X February, 2019 No. 2 LEAVE GOD TO ORDER Leave God to order all thy ways, And hope in Him whate’er betide; Thou’lt find Him, in the evil days, Thine all-sufficient Strength and Guide. Who trusts in God’s unchanging love Builds on the Rock that naught can move! Only thy restless heart keep still, And wait in cheerful hope, content To take whate’er His gracious will, His all-discerning love hath sent, Nor doubt our inmost wants are known To Him who chose us for His own. He knows when joyful hours are best, He sends them as He sees it meet, When thou hast borne the fiery test, And now art freed from all deceit, He comes to thee all unaware, And makes thee own His loving care. Sing, pray and swerve not from His ways But do thine own part faithfully. Trust His rich promises of grace, So shall they be fulfilled in thee. God never yet forsook at need The soul that trusted Him indeed. George Neumark The Testimony ....................................... ................................. ............................ ................................. ............................. ............................................................ ............................. “Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” John 11:40 FROM DECAY TO DELIGHT 3 Editorial FROM DECAY TO tomb surrounded by a mourning DELIGHT and weeping family and friends, but he couldn’t hear them. Jesus “For as in Adam all die, even so in also came and Lazarus wasn’t Christ shall all be made alive.” even aware of HIM!! Lazarus was I Cor. 15:22 dead. He was lost and dead to the Genesis chapters 3, 4, and 5 sense of the presence of God. He give a very clear account of fallen was unable to respond; couldn’t humanity and the reality of the enjoy sweet fellowship! Just dead!! limited lifespan of mankind. De- Lazarus wasn’t only dead; he was composition of these bodies of ours decayed, very apparent by the pro- begins several minutes after death cess of decomposition and the with the end result likely being stink of his body. Dead is just “unto dust shalt thou return.” dead! Adam very likely didn’t under- There are three accounts of Je- stand when the Lord God said “for sus bringing the dead back to life. dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” since he had never One account is Jairus’ daughter experienced death in any form. who had just died. Another is the We fast forward now about widow’s son at Nain; probably 4,033 years to the home of Mary, dead for several hours since they Martha, and Lazarus, whom Jesus were evidently on the way to his loved. Mary and Martha sent word burial. Now Lazarus had been to Jesus “Lord, behold, he whom dead four days and “he stinketh.” thou lovest is sick.” It should be These three accounts have one noted and understood that this thing in common. They were all account was and is “for the glory of dead!! What an illustration of lost, God, that the Son of God might be dead sinners! Some don’t appear glorified thereby.” When Jesus lost or dead. They are good people; came to their home, Lazarus had good young men and women. been dead four days and Martha They have the look of life and said, “Lord, by this time he stink- goodness but haven’t confessed eth.” The cry of both of Lazarus’ Jesus as their Lord. Others have sister’s hearts was, “Lord, if Thou the signs (or fruit) in their life of hadst been here, my brother had being lost: their language, their not died.” Isn’t our heart cry the habits, and their immoral lifestyle. same for the decaying dead? Others have been dead and they Lazarus wasn’t sick any longer, “stink.” Their decay and rot is ap- he was dead! He was in a cave or parent. The common denominator 4 The Testimony February, 2019 is…they are dead. There aren’t Light was revealed when the nap- different degrees of dead—just kin was removed from his face. degrees of decay. “The wages of “The light of the glorious gospel of sin is death.” Also, Ephesians 2:1, Christ” is offered to “whosoever “…who were dead in trespasses will”! He will remove the dead and sins.” grave clothes and give us clear Lazarus was a lost cause, as sight and light for a sanctified the saying goes. He was shut in walk. “Death is swallowed up in the darkness of a tomb or cave. victory.” This victory is given to us People were mourning. He was by God through our Lord Jesus dead. Nothing could change that. Christ. What made the difference? Jesus From Decay to Delight…John was there! We would have left 12:1–2, “Then Jesus six days be- Lazarus in the grave, dead, but fore the passover came to Betha- Jesus didn’t. We could leave those ny, where Lazarus was which had that are dead in this, our day, in been dead, whom he raised from the grave of the lost (just a lost the dead. There they made him a cause?), but the message of the supper, and Martha served: but Scripture is “the gift of God is Lazarus was one of them that sat eternal life through Jesus Christ at the table with him.” He is alive our Lord.” and fellowshipping around the The call of Jesus to Lazarus supper table with Jesus. What a was a very personal call, difference Jesus made! This life is “Lazarus, come forth!” The call of decomposing and decaying. But Jesus is still just as personal as what a blessing as we confess our He speaks by His Spirit to our Lord (we who were dead in tres- hearts and lives. He cares! Jesus passes and sin). He washes us in was very precise and clear in di- His own Blood, saves us by His rection as He called, “Come forth!” grace, and will eternally fellow- Are we able to comprehend the ship with us, His Bride. power in the call to rise from the Psalm 37:4, “Delight thyself dead to life—not only life, but a also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” more abundant life? Would you again allow Jesus to When the call of the Lord draw you closer as you sup with came and was heard there was Him? Would you allow Him to life, new life! The decay and stink move you from the death bed and very apparently were not there darkness to the Master’s table to anymore. There was freedom and sup with Him? Would you? liberty as Jesus said, “Loose him and let him go.” The old grave Blessings, clothes or dead clothes are gone. Dean Kinsley PULLING DOWN THE EDIFICE 5 General PULLING DOWN “Alas for those who are rearing THE EDIFICE up on high, story above story, a towering monument, intending, “(For the weapons of our warfare are when it is done, to put the living not carnal, but mighty through God Stone somewhere at the top, and to the pulling down of strong holds;) so get the whole transported to Casting down…every high thing Heaven! No, it must all come that exalteth itself against the down, every sort of it; and it is to knowledge of God…” (II Cor 10:4–5) be feared that there will not be It is astonishing how the same time for you to get it down and a truth can become the property of new foundation laid before the Christians living over a century great earthquake flies rumbling apart. The very truth which Mad- through the earth, for the cement am Guyon, a French woman, that you are using hardens rapid- brought to our attention in the ly, and the stones cling together as previous reading (The Testimony, though they naturally belong to- January 2019, pp. 7–8), was re- gether; and you are bestowing so vealed to George Bowen, an Amer- much ornament and there are so ican, many years later. Surely the many admirers that you are every same Holy Spirit was their com- day more and more fascinated mon Teacher. We quote from with your own work. Day by day Bowen’s book, Love Revealed: you become more and more in- 6 The Testimony February, 2019 tensely your own ideal; and the done battle with the insolent voic- demolition of a structure so labori- es of a miscreant conscience, es- ously reared, so expensively, tablishing by successive victories seems to your conception like the the difficult fact that he is, take crash of an expiring world. him for all in all, one whom God “Then the schools of the world, must look down upon with benig- so far from fitting their pupils for nity, if not with admiration. the school of Christ, make it less “You come to him in the name of and less possible that those pupils Christ for the very purpose of de- should ever be brought to Christ. priving him of this idea of his own And here we discover a very im- goodness. Your aim is to do what portant cause of the misunder- that tormenting conscience of his, standing between the scholars of with all its advantages of time and Christ and other scholars.” place, failed to do.