He shall choose our inheritance for us

"He shall choose our inheritance for us."  Psalm 47:4

Believer, if your inheritance be a lowly one you should be satisfied with your earthly portion; for you may rest assured that it is the fittest for you. Unerring wisdom ordained your lot, and selected for you the safest and best condition. A ship of large tonnage is to be brought up the river; now, in one part of the stream there is a sandbank; should some one ask, "Why does the captain steer through the deep part of the channel and deviate so much from a straight line?" His answer would be, "Because I should not get my vessel into harbour at all if I did not keep to the deep channel." So, it may be, you would run aground and suffer shipwreck, if your divine Captain did not steer you into the depths of affliction where waves of trouble follow each other in quick succession. Some plants die if they have too much sunshine. It may be that you are planted where you get but little, you are put there by the loving Husbandman, because only in that situation will you bring forth fruit unto perfection. Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there. You are placed by God in the most suitable circumstances, and if you had the choosing of your lot, you would soon cry, "Lord, choose my inheritance for me, for by my self-will I am pierced through with many sorrows." Be content with such things as you have, since the Lord has ordered all things for your good. Take up your own daily cross; it is the burden best suited for your shoulder, and will prove most effective to make you perfect in every good word and work to the glory of God. Down busy self, and proud impatience, it is not for you to choose, but for the Lord of Love!

"Trials must and will befall-- 

But with humble faith to see 

Love inscribed upon them all; 

This is happiness to me." 

"As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord." Colossians 2:6

"As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord."
Colossians 2:6

The life of faith is represented as receiving-- an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the grace of God. The saints are not, by nature, wells, or streams, they are but cisterns into which the living water flows; they are empty vessels into which God pours His salvation. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality. One cannot very well receive a shadow; we receive that which is substantial: so is it in the life of faith, Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us--a person who lived a long while ago, so long ago that His life is only a history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart. But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, He becomes my Saviour, so mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of Him. All this is to receive Christ--to take Him as God's free gift; to realize Him in my heart, and to appropriate Him as mine.

Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received CHRIST JESUS Himself. It is true that He gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; He gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ Himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received Him, and appropriated Him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain Him! 

BACKSLIDING FROM BACKSLIDING!

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"It is not My heavenly Father's will that anyone should perish" (Mt 18:14)
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Backsliding has become too common in the Church. Backsliding is never sudden; it is always in stages. There are two types of backsliding—one from which recovery is possible and the other for which under normal circumstances there is no remedy.

The first type can be explained by three conditions. First of all, there may be the loss of first love for God (Rev 2:4,5), and fervour in spiritual matters. Another condition is the loss of personal holiness and loss of victory over sin. Recovery from these two conditions is possible. James 5:19,20, "If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins." Yet another state of backsliding is loss of sound faith and being led into strange doctrines. Apostle Paul calls this a spiritual "cancer" (2 Tim 2:17). By the mercy of God, this is also curable through the diligent ministry of a Bible teacher. When he would teach patiently, "God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will" (2 Tim 2:24-26).

There is another type of backsliding which is generally irreversible. It is the open denial and rejection of the Person of Christ. The seriousness of this type of backsliding is given in Hebrews 6:4-6. "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame." The author of Hebrews quotes Esau as an example. "Esau sold his birthright for one morsel of food. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears" (Heb 12:16,17). Selling the birthright, in the sight of God, is nothing but rejecting the Messiah. This is the "sin leading to death" (1 Jn 5:16,17). Unless the person who backslid repents, there is no remedy. The fellow-believers should meet with such candidates and talk to them and remove the blocks lovingly and bring them back to the love of Christ.

"Lord, Thou hast here Thine ninetynine, Are they not enough for Thee?"
But the Shepherd made answer: "I go to the desert to find My sheep!"
                                                 (Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1830-1869)

TREE & WOOD

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"If they do these things in the green tree,
what will be done in the dry wood?" (Lk 23:31)
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"Jesus suffered for us so we need not suffer!" This is one of the most popular sayings shouted from modern pulpits. The Biblical illiterates from pews respond to this with shouts of "Hallelujah!" How much Satan has deceived us! How far he has taken us from divine predictions and revelations! Televangelism literally thrives on this stuff. By the time the listeners and viewers realize the fallacy of this teaching and that they are disillusioned, it's already too late. God, have mercy on us, this generation, as we try to find alternate routes for the way of the Cross!

All Christians are called to suffer with and for Christ (2 Tim 2:11,12; Phil 1:29). Suffering is in the eternal plan of God. In history Christ died 2000 years ago. But according to God's calendar, Christ was slain even before the creation of the world. This event of eternity past will be the song of eternity future (Rev 13:8). According to Jesus, Christian life will be one of suffering from commencement to consummation. That's why He spoke about "daily cross" with reference to discipleship (Lk 9:23).

The "green tree vs. dry wood" analogy refers to the ill-treatment we will receive from men. The Jews once said to Jesus, "You have a demon!" (Jn 8:52a). What did they mean when they told Him, "We were not born out of wedlock"? (v41). Were they indirectly hitting at how He was conceived before His mother got married? His own brothers and sisters once commented, "He is out of His mind" (Mk 3:21). If folks could say such things about the Son of God who committed no sin in thought, word or deed, why are we upset at the mildest verbal abuse? Most of Christ's sayings were misunderstood, though He was wisdom personified and He spoke not a single word more or less than what was necessary. Can we then escape the cross of misunderstanding?

Nothing is more hurting than when a man's own family folks become his foes. But sometimes we cannot escape this also (Mt 10:36). "Wounds from friends" are another tragedy (Zech 13:6). How would you feel if someone like Judas whom you trusted with money betrayed you for money? How would you feel if someone like Peter whom you promoted to cabinet rank denied and cursed you? How would you feel when someone like John whom you loved most deserted you when you needed him most?

OX WEDS DONKEY!!! (Marrying an Unbeliever)

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"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor 6:14)
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Many a young Christian has ruined his life because of unholy alliance in marriage. Marriage is a yoke. The Bible forbids unequal yoke (2 Cor 6:14). "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together" (Dt 22:10).

Both the Old and the New Testaments strongly condemn intermarriage with unbelievers. Intermingling the "holy seed" with the unconverted is called as "trespass, transgression, iniquity and guilt" (Ezra 9:1-6). Even a widow who is a believer is not permitted to marry an unbeliever. "She is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord" (1 Cor 7:39).

Even if your parents press you to marry an unbeliever, for whatever reason, you can firmly refuse. Obedience to parents also must be "in the Lord" (Eph 6:1). If you have fallen in love with an unbeliever, break the affair unless your fiance or fiancee gets genuinely converted. Beware of baptisms just for the sake of marriage!

True in some cases the unbelieving spouse gets converted after marriage. But no truth can be established from this. The Bible challenges, "How do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?" (1 Cor 7:16). Marriage is too serious a matter to take risk. If you have already made the mistake of marrying an unbeliever, you can now do nothing but pray and believe God for his or her salvation.

When young people from non-Christian background embrace the Gospel, they find it extremely difficult to find suitable believing partners. Casteism is prevalent even among Christians in India. Christian leaders and pastors must voluntarily take sincere efforts to settle marriages for the non-Christian converts. Believing young people from Christian families should come forward to marry non-Christian converts. Why not? Sometimes the families of these converts may throw them out of their community. The Church should support such with all sensitivity.

Thy way, not mine, O Lord, however dark it be;
Lead me by Thine own hand, choose Thou the path for me.
I dare not choose my lot; I would not if might;
Choose Thou for me, my God, so shall I walk aright!

VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL

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"Love your neighbour as yourself" (Mt 22:39)
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A son was dragging his father to an old age home. When they reached a bridge the father started crying uncontrollably. When the son asked why, the father answered, "Several years back I dragged my father exactly like this over this bridge!" Ours is an inconsiderate society.

Arguments and fights have become the birthright of Christians. We are not concerned about the health of our brothers and sisters, the problems of our colleagues, the financial needs of God's servants and the needy. We justify ourselves saying, "I am alright with God."

When the self-righteous lawyer asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…soul…mind." As far as the questioner was concerned the answer was complete. Not so with Jesus. He went on to say, "And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Mt 22:35-39). The religious Pharisees of that day forgot their duty to man in their zeal to fulfil their duty to God. Walking in love with one another is the other side of offering sacrifices to God (Eph 4:3-12).

Vertical relationship with God is not acceptable if the horizontal relationship with people is not alright. It is contradictory for a worshipping tongue to go wrecking someone with malicious words (Js 3:9). "He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" John restates the answer Jesus gave the lawyer, "He who loves God must love his brother also" (1 Jn 4:20,21).

Here lies the reason why Jesus insisted on "first" reconciling with an offended brother before offering gifts to God (Mt 5:23,24). Reconciliation involves humility and self-denial. It is difficult. America's great revivalist Charles Finney (1792-1875) always emphasized reconciliation with man.

Only a very few of his converts went astray. One more hour of praise can become an easy substitute for going the second mile. But such worship is void of fragrance. God loathes it. Respect for man is the other side of fear of God (Lk 18:2,4). Think of a coin without imprint on any one side!

The Gospel is the Message of the Cross. The vertical staff of the Cross speaks of man's relationship with God, and the horizontal that with fellowmen. Have we experienced the full blessing of the Cross?

SALT OF THE EARTH

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"Your Kingdom come,
for Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever" (Mt 6:10,13)
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God is not interested to pour out His Spirit on His people just to excite them or make them feel good. No! He is interested in the "world!" He sent His Son to die for the world. He sent His Spirit to convict the world of sin and woo sinners to the Saviour. He anointed the 120 disciples on the Day of Pentecost that they might be His witnesses throughout the whole world.

Evan Roberts (1878-1951) of Welsh Revival prayed, "Lord, bend the Church and bless the world!" Most of the revivals of the past have given birth to great missionary and evangelistic movements. But there are also stories of revivals which died out too soon, one of the main causes being the failure of the leaders to channelise the revival blessings into aggressive evangelism and soulwinning.

The theme of the discourses of the risen Christ with His disciples before Pentecost was the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). When the disciples mistook the mind of Jesus and asked Him, "Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom of Israel?" (v 6), He explained to them that He was talking about the spiritual Kingdom that would be established in the hearts of men and women through the preaching of the Gospel all over the world beginning with Jerusalem (vv 7,8). The Great Commission, as it is called, was given just before Ascension. He commanded them to GO! To all the nations! Throughout the whole World! To preach the Gospel! To reach every creature! To teach all the Truths! In His authority! As His witnesses! In the power of the Holy Spirit! With His presence with them always! (Mt 28:18-20; Mk 16:15-18; Lk 24:47-49; Acts 1:8). Revival is not an end in itself. It's a means to an end, the end being evangelism.

David prayed, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with Your enthusiastic Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners shall be converted to You" (Psa 51:12,13). It is necessary that we understand why we pray for revival. Revival is not evangelism, but revival begets evangelism.

We are living in a time in Church history when revival is not a luxury but a necessity. Revival delays because prayer decays. Let's repair the broken altar of our prayer life so that the fire of God may again fall on us. Then every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Christ is Lord! (1 Ki 18:38,39).