Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers

Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers

Do You Look Up to God?

“Be still and know that I am God”. - Psalm 46:10

The story is told of a British politician who took his 8-year-old daughter on a tour of London. They came to Westminster Abbey and the awesomeness of it struck the little girl. As she gazed at the towering columns and stirring beauty of the Gothic features, her father was intrigued at her concentration.

He looked down at her and asked, “Sweetheart, what are you thinking about?” The little girl replied, “Daddy, I was thinking how big you seem at home and how small you look in here.”

How easily we lose our sense of wonder before God. With age comes experience and wisdom, but if you’re not careful, it can also dull your sense of who God truly is. And when you can’t see God for who He is, your entire vision is skewed.

Remember God’s awesomeness each day – because it’s in that childlike sense of wonder and submission that God raises you up to the full strength of who He created you to be, and what He’s called you to do.

Prayer Challenge:

Ask God to restore your sense of wonder at His awesomeness. Pray that He’ll strengthen you as you stand in awe of His presence.

Questions for Thought:

What are some places or things that remind you of who God truly is and fill you with wonder?

How could a sense of God’s awesomeness strengthen you in your faith?

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Forgiving Ourselves

Psalm 103:10-14

Have you ever come to the Lord in repentance, confessing your wrongdoing, and yet still felt guilty? Sometimes the problem is that we can’t forgive ourselves. Therefore, we go into a self-punishing mode, repeatedly replaying the sin until we feel unworthy not only of pardon but also of blessings, answers to prayer, and the Father’s love. Eventually we build a prison of guilt because our offense seems unforgivable.

But what does such behavior tell us about our faith in God and our estimation of ourselves? According to the Bible, our Father freely bestows forgiveness on the basis of His Son’s payment of our sin debt—and has removed our transgression “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Is our refusal to forgive ourselves a way of saying we consider Christ’s sacrifice insufficient? In other words, is our standard of righteousness higher than the Lord’s?

Two men in Scripture teach us about the importance of accepting God’s full forgiveness. One is Peter, who denied knowing Christ, and the other is Paul, who persecuted Christians. The Bible gives no evidence that either one of them refused to forgive himself. Although their offenses were great and both men probably regretted their actions, they received God’s forgiveness and lived in the freedom of His grace.

To be free of an unforgiving spirit toward ourselves, we must realize it’s the result of self-focus. Instead of believing the truth of God’s forgiveness, we’ve been relying on our own feelings and making them superior to His Word. It’s time to humble ourselves and place trust in God—not in our feelings.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

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Optimum maximum!

(Thomas Brooks)

Christians serve a wonderful Master. 
They serve Him who is . . .
  all ear to hear them,
  all hand to uphold them,
  all power to protect them,
  all wisdom to direct them,
  all goodness to relieve them, 
  all mercy to pardon them. 

They serve that God who is optimum maximum--the best and greatest!

God has . . .
  all dignity,
  all glory,
  all riches,
  all treasure,
  all pleasure,
  all delight,
  all joy, and
  all beatitudes. 

God is . . .
  all goodness,
  all beauty,
  all power, 
  all wisdom, 
  all justice,
  all mercy, and
  all love itself! 

God is one infinite perfection in Himself!

"He has all--who has the Haver of all!" (Αugustine)

Gethsemane # 3

Gethsemane # 3

Someone may say, "How do I know how God feels about it?" How do I know whether he is really concerned over sinners? I know it. It would be a sin of presumption if I did not. If God cared as little for the souls of men as some of you care, not a soul ever would have been saved - it is not possible for the human mind to have a greater conception of God than is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. For a man to say he loves God and then turn his back on Jesus Christ is an insult to the Almighty. You will find in Him just what your heart has been looking for, and you'll find it nowhere else.

I can see Jesus in the Garden looking down on Jerusalem and saying, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stoned them which are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." It is a matter of history that from that day Jesus turned away from the Jews. He never appealed to them again, but turned to the Gentiles  - but God's got a plan for the Jews. So Jesus is God made manifest in the flesh.

Did you ever weep over the sins of the people? Did you ever weep over the evil of the multitudes? If you never did then there's something wrong with your religion. If God Almighty had no more concern about the salvation of Omaha than some of you, Omaha would have been in hell long ago. If God were no more anxious about Omaha than some of the preachers I could name, this city would have been damned long ago. I've been here long enough to see that.

Salvation all comes through Jesus. You've got to see Jesus in order to see God, and you've got to see God in order to enter Heaven. The hope of the world is in Jesus Christ. The hope of America is in Christ, not in free trade; it's not in the banking system, it's not in tariff reform, or conservation of natural resources or the ship problem of universities. We need a great tidal wave of religion.

Another lesson we find is that much concern moves the unsaved for God.

Much concern is aroused by prayer. Doctor Chapman told me that when he was a young minister and was pastor of a little Dutch Presbyterian church in New York state, he started what he called a Revival. He told me that he had often apologized to God since then for calling it that. He would preach, and then he would say, "If anyone would like to join the Church, let them step in and meet the session." If that isn't as cold-blooded a proposition as you can find, I'll give it up. Nobody stepped in to meet the session. They didn't believe in excitement in the church. No, sir. 

Doctor Chapman became concerned for one young man. He felt that he ought to speak for him, but he feared that he might show more zeal than knowledge. He felt the man might be offended if he went to him in that way. He had the wrong idea. If anyone is offended because you try to do right, let them go. If anyone is offended because you ask them to be a Christian, let them go to hell. You've done your duty. He thought it over and made up his mind to speak that very night. The young man did not come that night, so on the next day Doctor Chapman drove out to see him. He met the man and said, "I want you to be a Christian."

The man was angry. He said, "You blankety-blank little preacher, I don't want you to come to me about that." Doctor Chapman turned and left him and drove away. He caught a cold while driving out there and it stayed with him that winter, and soon after he left the place and took up Evangelistic work.

One night ten years after, he was holding a meeting at Saratoga, when he saw a man coming down the aisle.

"Don't you know me?" the man asked. Doctor Chapman didn't know him.

"Why," the man said, "I'm Benedict from Schuylerville. I'm the man who cursed you when you drove out to my home and asked me to be a Christian. I want to be a Christian now."

"What changed you?" Doctor Chapman asked.

"I'll tell you," said the man. "I never heard a sermon that touched me, nor a song. It was your tears, the tears that were in your eyes as I cursed you and you turned away. I've never been able to forget them. I've never had a day's peace since that moment."

Oh, if you knew the power of tears for the sinner. If you only felt enough concern to weep over those who are in danger of being lost. The sight of such tears would win many souls for Christ!

If Church people get right, the whole world would get right. The world is challenging the Church instead of the Church challenging the world. If it was as easy to get the Church on its knees as it is to get the unsaved world into the kingdom, we wouldn't have any more trouble about religion. And God can't save you unless you're willing. He won't coerce you to it!

I often think of what Bob Ingersoll might have been if he had only been turned into Christianity. What a power for God that man could have been! I often think of what a power Voltaire could have been for God - that brilliant man over whose writings many have stumbled to hell. Carey translated the Bible into twenty-four languages and dialects. Finney brought over 1,000,000 into the Kingdom of God. Moody brought hundreds of thousands to Christ. I have never seen a minister who preached doctrines and creeds and evolution and all such things who had any real concern for the souls of his people. Jesus Christ is in a hurry to save this world and there never was an age when people were so hungry for the truth as they are today.

If you want to make the bells of Heaven ring, get down on your knees. Tell a sinner about Jesus Christ if you want to hear the heavenly bells. Nothing will swing open the prison doors and bring men out of sin like prayer. I never see a man or a woman or boy or girl but I do not thing that God has a plan for them, and wonder what it is. He has a plan for each of us. He will use each of us to His glory if we will only let Him. We can defeat His plan if we want to.

Finally, we find that God honors this spirit in deep concern for the unsaved. This concern comes from a clear realization of man's relation. I never knew a higher critical preacher to save them from hell. Such preaching is not of God and He will not bless it. It is of the devil. If you haven't got in your heart an agonized concern for the unsaved go right down there in front and ask God to forgive you.

Nothing makes such joy in Heaven as the salvation of a soul. The angels don't care a rap about your wealth; they don't care about your social position, they don't care about your culture. It's the salvation of sinners the angels care about.

~Billy Sunday~

(The End)

Gethsemane # 2

Gethsemane # 2

Yes, it was a bitter cup for Jesus. Oh, don't be careless professors of Christianity for another minute. Don't you start to make a cold, formal prayer when you come to address Almighty God! Don't you dare to regard this campaign in a critical and carping way. Oh, hell must be an awful place when Jesus was in such agony to think that men were going there. You're a big fool to go to hell, but it will be your own fault if you do. God doesn't want you to go there, but He can't stop you. He has sacrificed His Son to keep you out of hell, and what more could He do? I am doing all I can to keep you out of hell. I have stood here and preached to you and I've done all that I could, and if you won't be saved, all right - go to hell!

When Jesus was being led out to be sacrificed women followed Him and wept, and He turned to them and said: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." For He said, "For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Jesus meant that they shouldn't weep for Him, but for those who were about to crucify Him; He meant that there were more reasons to weep for them than to weep for Him.

So don't weep for others' troubles; weep for your own soul. Don't worry about my vocabulary, sister; get on your knees and pray for your salvation. Don't worry about my eccentricities; you'd better look after your own faults.

We learn still another lesson - the power of prayer.

Every man and every woman that God has used to halt this sin cursed world and set it going Godward has been a Christian of prayer. Martin Luther arose from his bed and prayed at night, and when the break of day came he called his wife and said to her, "It has come." History records that on that very day King Charles granted religious toleration, a thing for which Luther had prayed.

John Knox, whom his queen feared more than any other man, was in such agony of prayer that he ran out into the street and fell on his face and cried, "Oh, God, give me Scotland or I'll die." And God gave him Scotland, and not only that, He threw England in for good measure.

When Jonathan Edwards was about to preach his greatest sermon on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," he prayed for days - and when he stood before his congregation and preached it, men caught at the seat in their terror, and some fell to the floor; and the people cited out in their fear, "Mr. Edwards, tell us how we can be saved!"

I believe that if you pray as you ought to pray, you will have more people at the altar in the next week than you have had in all the weeks that are passed. You have never had the people of this community in such a frame of mind as they are in now, and you may never have things as they now are again. Now is the time to save souls. If you can't save them now, God pity you, for you never will.

An old infidel - a blacksmith - said that he could refute any argument that a Christian could make. There was an old deacon there - he was a Baptist, and he heard of it. He told his wife and they got down on their knees and prayed until three o'clock in the morning. That morning the old deacon hitched up and drove over to see the man. He went into the blacksmith shop and the infidel was standing there, and the deacon stood before him. He said, "My wife and I prayed for you until three o'clock this morning." Then his eyes filled with tears and he sobbed and turned away. He couldn't think of one of the arguments he had prepared. He drove back home, and when he got there he said to his wife, "I've made an old fool of myself. It was all for nothing. When I saw him I just told him that we had been praying for him, then I broke down and couldn't think of another thing, and came home."

In the meantime the infidel went into his own house and he said to his wife: "I heard a new argument this morning." She said, "What was that?" "Why," he said, "the old deacon drove in to see me this morning and told me that he and his wife had prayed for me until three o'clock in the morning. Then he sobbed and went away." And the infidel said, "I'd like to talk to him." They drove over and he told the deacon why he had come, and it was not long before the deacon had him on his knees and he was saved.

A mother had some daughters, and they were frivolous and coquettish girls. She couldn't get them to give up their pleasures and live for God. She prayed for them, and finally one day she said to them: "I'm ashamed of you. I'm almost sorry that I bore you and held you on my knees. You care more for others than you do for your God or your mother. Others ask you to go with them, and you go. I ask you go go with me, and you won't go. I'm going into my closet and I'm going to pray for you. I don't know that I shall ever come out alive."

She went in and prayed. The hours went by and still she prayed. Finally there was a knock at the door, and one of her daughters stood there. She was weeping, and she said, "Mother, I want to be saved. I've come to pray with you." So the two of them prayed and the hours went by, and presently another daughter came and joined them there; and before night came all those girls had found Jesus!

Then, we learn a lesson of the spirit of deep concern over souls.

The spirit of concern that we find in the Bible puts to shame many who are in Omaha. Some of you have been coming to this tabernacle ever since the meetings were begun, but you have simply sat here. You haven't put forth a hand to bring anyone to Christ. If you are one of these, you are absolutely worthless so far as God is concerned. You are of no use to Him and He looks on you as an unprofitable servant. How can you sit by while souls ae going to hell? What are you going to say to God about it after a while? Go and see an unsaved person die, and read the obituary not once, but twice, and realize that he died unsaved, and then see what you think of it!

~Billy Sunday~

(continued with # 3)

Gethsemane # 1

Gethsemane # 1

"And being more in agony, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:24).

Infidels have seized upon certain verses of Scripture and have given as reasons for their unbelief that the statement therein contained did not agree with their opinion. One of these verses is Luke 22:24 "and being in great agony, He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were drops of blood falling down to the ground."

For, says the infidel, it is a physical impossibility for men to sweat blood. This is a lot of nonsense. Because you have two good eyes, and have always known good sight, should you say there are no blind? They have never heard of such a thing happening, they say. All right; but because you say that man has never sweat blood, don't say that God didn't!

When I was a boy I used to hear men say that the Bible couldn't be true, for it was absolutely impossible for a man to fast for forty days and live. They thought that settled it. Then along came Doctor Tanner, and he fasted for forty days. That was the first time. He fasted again for forty-six days, and he fasted a third time for sixty-two days, and after that we didn't hear any more about a fast of forty days being impossible. The infidels quit quoting Tom Paine's "Age of Reason" on that point.

When a man gets chesty and puts his old theories up against God, then God always brings a man forward to show that he is an old marplot and an old liar.

Doctor Witheroy, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Chicago - he went there from Boston - says he knew of a man who had a wayward son. He hadn't heard from that boy for nine years. Then, one day, they sent him word that his son was in prison. He had committed a murder, and he had been tried and convicted and was about to be executed. He had refused to tell anything about his family until he was face to face with death; then he told them and they wrote to the father to ask him what should be done with the body.

Doctor Witheroy said that in his agony that father sweat drops of blood. If an earthly father sweat drops of blood for one son who has just gone wrong, is it strange that Jesus should sweat drops of blood for all men when they were in danger of hell?

When Jesus sweat drops of blood there in the garden, it was a new sight for the angels. They had seen their brother angels rebel against God, and they had seen the conflict which followed and they had seen these rebel angels hurled over the battlements of Heaven. They had seen Sennacherib come up with his men, and they had seen 180,000 Assyrians laid low by the sword when the angel of God smote them in the night. They had seen Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego cast into a firey furnace for refusing to bow themselves down to idols, and had seen them come out from it unharmed. They had seen the brave Daniel hurled into the lion's den for refusing to bow the knee to anyone save Jahovah, and they had seen him come out from the den of wild beasts alive. But never before had the angels beheld such a sight as when they looked down upon the garden of Gethsemane and saw the Son of God kneeling there, sweating drops of blood as He agonized over man.

In this text there are many lessons valuable to us, and especially valuable just at this stage of the campaign.

The first lesson is that the Divine cup is bitter. It is bitter to fallen angels and fallen man, and it was bitter to the fallen Christ. Think of the sight. Think of Jesus,staining His garments with the bloody sweat, not because of any sin or fault of His own, for He was without sin, but because of His anguish over man.

God hates sin and so do I, so will every man on this earth who lays any claim to decency. If you don't hate sin you will if you ever change your ways and try to be decent.

He didn't sweat those drops of blood because of any physical suffering. It wasn't because of any fear of death, for if Jesus had been afraid to die He would have been a coward, and He wasn't a coward, although He was willing to die if God said to. I don't want to die. I want to stay here as long as I can. And so did Jesus, but He wasn't afraid to die. No, it was because of His grief for man.

A great martyr said as he stood in the midst of the flames that were devouring him: "Though you see the flesh fall from my bones I absolutely feel no pain."

If you ever had any doubt about a literal hell, a fiery hell, where the wicked must remain forever, it would all vanish as I see Jesus Christ in Gethsemane, agonizing because men would not accept Him and were going to hell.

Hell must be an awful place. The fact that God went to the trouble He did to send Jesus Christ to this earth and to work out His great plan of redemption proves that it must be an awful place. I think this should give us a new vision.

~Billy Sunday~

(continued with # 2)

The Hope of the Church # 5

The Hope of the Church # 5

People ask me sometimes, "Do you think we shall know our loved ones in that day when we are caught up together? Where would be the object of our being caught up together if we did not? Here on earth we have been heirs together of the grace and love of Christ. We have had fellowship together. We have been laborers together. There should be no question about heavenly recognition. Why, there is recognition even on the part of lost souls. Jesus told of the rich man in hell who looked across the great gulf and saw Lazarus who had begged at his gate on earth, and he recognized him. And he saw Abraham, tool; and though he had never seen him before, yet he recognized Abraham, and called him by name. And you remember on the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples saw that with the Saviour there were two others, and they recognized them. Nobody had said beforehand to Peter and the others, "Let me present to you our old friends, Moses and Elijah." No, the moment they looked at Moses and Elijah they recognized them. And Peter was so thrilled that he wanted to build three churches right away - a St. Moses Church and a St. Elijah Church, and the Holy Saviour Church. "Let us build three tabernacles," said Peter, but he did not know what he was talking about. But there was recognition of the two who were with Christ on the Mount. You know the Scripture says, "Then we shall know even as we ourselves have been known." Yes, we are to be caught up together, and "so shall we ever be with the Lord." We shall be like the Lord; we shall have glorified bodies just as He has. And so the dead raised, and the living changed, will be caught up together. That is how the Word is going to be fulfilled. Notice it says that we are going to be "caught up to meet the Lord in the air." This word "meet" implies going out to meet one in order to return with him. When I was in Aberdeen recently I sent a telegram to a cousin of mine telling him that we would arrive at such and such a time, and he promised that he would meet us. And there he was with a car waiting for us. He came to meet us in order to take us back to the house with him. We are going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and then we are coming back with Him when He comes to reign in glory for a thousand wonderful years. The same word is used in the last chapter of the Acts where Paul and his company landed in Italy, and, says Paul, "when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us" and "so we came to Rome." We are going to meet the Saviour, and we are coming back with Him. You say, "Do you mean that we are going to live on earth in houses just as we do now?" No, our real home will be in the heavenly Jerusalem, and our relationship to this earth will be very much like that of the angels in the past dispensation, when angels appeared as God's messengers to His servants. "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak." We shall be His representatives, and He shall rule the world through His saints in that day, and will appear visibly before the eyes of all people. And the Apostle concludes with this word "And so shall we ever be with the Lord." No matter what comes afterwards, we shall be with Him. And that is the great thing. We are to be with the Lord wherever He goes, and whatever He does we are going to be associated with Him; we are going to serve Him, and we are to have a part in His everlasting Kingdom. Some people have an idea that Heaven is a place of absolute do-nothingness. When Hawthorne was over here from America he was very much interested in some of your old churchyards. And one day he unearthed this epitaph:

"Here is a poor woman who always was tired,
Who lived in a house where help was not hired.
Her last words on earth were, "Dear friends, I am going
Where washing ain't done, nor sweeping nor sewing.
But everything there is exact to my wishes,
For where they don't eat there'll be no washing dishes.
I'll be where loud anthems forever are ringing,
But having no voice I'll get clear of the singing.
Don't weep for me now, don't weep for me ever,
I'm going to do nothing forever and ever."

Poor thing. How tired she was! You know, dear friends, that is not the Biblical conception of the ages to come. It is not that we are to do nothing for ever and ever, but "His servants shall serve Him, and His name shall be on their foreheads." We shall reign with Him. We shall bear rule with Him over a redeemed universe. What a delight it will be to run His errands!

When I am caught up to meet the Lord in the air, I will look about for you, and if your faith has been, not in the Church, not in its sacraments, not in your good works, but in the precious atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I shall see you there, and we will have a good time together for all eternity. We shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And at the end of a thousand years, John says, "I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the Book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." I will be there. I shall not be in front of the throne for judgment, for my judgment was dealt with when those two arms were out-stretched on Calvary's Cross, and when the weight of my sins fell upon Jesus, my Substitute, and by trusting in Him I have been saved from judgment. And wherever He is His saints are going to be with Him. 

In what do you trust for salvation? With tear-filled eyes, "Christ. He is the Rock. I dare not trust in anyone but Him." If that confession comes from your heart, then I shall see you in the air when Jesus comes.

Are you trusting the Lord Jesus? Are you ready to meet Him when He comes? If you have never availed yourself of what He did the first time when He was here you will never be ready to meet Him when He comes the second time. He died to put away sin, and if you trust Him tonight you will be saved for eternity, and ready to meet Him when He returns.

~Harry A. Ironside~

(The End)

Classic Quotes From Classic Ministers

Classic Quotes From Classic Ministers

Learning from Failure 

Luke 22:31-34

The disciple Peter was a man of great faith and bold action. But as readers of the New Testament know, his brash style sometimes led him to make humiliating mistakes. More than once, this disciple had to wear the label of "miserable failure" rather than that of "obedient servant."

We can all relate when it comes to falling short of expectations. Obedience to God is a learning process, and failure is a part of our development as humble servants. When we yield to temptation or rebel against God's authority, we realize that sin has few rewards, and even those are fleeting.

Failure is an excellent learning tool, as Peter could certainly attest. Through trial and error, he discovered that humility is required of believers (John 13:5-14); that God's ways are higher than the world's ways (Mark 8:33); and that one should never take his eyes off Jesus (Matt. 14:30). He took each of those lessons to heart and thereby grew stronger in his faith. Isn't that Romans 8:28 in action? God caused Peter's failures to be put to good use as training material because the disciple was eager to mature and serve.

God doesn't reward rebellion or wrongdoing. However, by His grace, He blesses those who choose repentance and embrace chastisement as a tool for growth.

We would probably all prefer to grow in our faith without ever making a mistake before God's eyes, but we cannot deny that missteps are instructive. Failure teaches believers that it is much wiser and more profitable to be obedient to the Lord. That's a lesson we all should take to heart.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

_____________________________

Living in Resurrection Power

By Paul Blackham

Jesus Christ took on our messed-up human life, which belongs to this old dying age, and crucified it. He condemned our old corrupt life to death on the cross and then brought back from the dead a new kind of life that delights the Living God. The Apostle Paul had to re-value his life after he met the risen Lord. Everything that had seemed to be valuable turned out to be worthless, and the very things he had hated and attacked turned out to be worth more than the world. This careful revaluation of our lives is at the heart of living in the power of the resurrection of Jesus. If our old life is put to death, then nothing of this old life has eternal value. To be friends with this world is to be an enemy of God (James 4:4). The power of the resurrection lifts us from death to life, but this is precisely what causes us to be hated by the world. Yet, in being hated by the world, in treating as dung all that the flesh values, we are in deep fellowship with Jesus. If we want to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection, then we must first meet Him at the cross. The power of His resurrection came only after Jesus had experienced the suffering, rejection and death of the cross. That is the path that He walked, and we find ourselves close to Him when we walk that same path: from the cross to the empty tomb; from repentance and rejection to resurrection. _____________________ Today's Reading: 2 Samuel 12; Luke 16 Today's Thoughts: Faithful with Little, Given Much "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?” Luke 16:10-12 There is an ice cream man who has come to sell ice cream in my neighborhood for at least 8 years. His van is beat up with bald tires, poor paint, bumps and bruises on the exterior, well-worn and torn up seats inside, and a very loud stereo blasting the ice cream theme song. The music sings to “Do your ears hang low? Do they travel to and fro? Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow?” The song plays over and over, very loudly. And I can hear that song from blocks away. The ice cream man can barely speak English but has a great countenance and has smiled for 8 years, with the facial wrinkles to prove it. My heart has broken for this man. I have told my children to go and buy ice cream to support him. It seems like a hard job for not too much in return, but his attitude is so good and he is so faithful to do his job well. Well, the other evening I went for a walk. I heard that familiar sound down the block. As I was walking by, to my surprise, the ice cream man got a brand new truck! It was the same man, same products, same advertisements on the side and the same song but a new truck. I was so happy for him. God spoke to my heart while walking past the truck and explained something to me. When we receive the Holy Spirit in power, God uses the same person with the same personality and same body to be empowered in a whole new way. This man was faithful with little, so he has been given much (Luke 16:10). We too will receive more and more opportunities to be used by God in the power of the Holy Spirit if we are faithful with the smaller tasks He has given us. By being faithful in the little tasks, He can trust us with bigger ones. The choices we make in every day living matter to God. Are we smiling? Are we content? Are we faithful? Same person, same product, same advertisements but with a new power and passion that comes from a faithful heart. God is so good. But how we choose to live the every day job is up to us.

The Hope of the Church # 4

The Hope of the Church # 4

I gather from this passage that Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, and for ever," and that when He returns He will be the same wonderful Saviour that He was when He was here on earth. And I shall look into His eyes, and they will be human eyes. I shall listen to the words that fall from His lips, and they will be human lips. I shall pour the story of my love and adoration into His ears, and they will be human ears. I shall feel the touch of His hands upon me, and they will be human hands. For the Man, Christ Jesus, abides for evermore. The Russelites and the Ruthfordites can have a dead, ghostly kind of a Christ if they like, but as for me:

"I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
As redeemed by His side I shall stand.
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
By the print of the nails in His hands."

Yes, He will be the same Jesus. Why, the last word that ever  came ringing down from Heaven before the volume of inspiration was closed, was this, "Surely, I come quickly." And the apostle John, speaking for the whole church, responded, "Even so come, Lord Jesus." This is our hope - the personal return of our Blessed, adorable Saviour.

"The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout." Now, mark you, it does not say that His feet are going to touch the Mount of Olives on that occasion. That will be; but this is something a little different. Follow it carefully. We gather from this passage, and from 1 Corinthians 15 that the Lord is going to descend from Heaven, and He is coming down into the region of the atmosphere of this earth, and He will come with an awakening shout, and the voice of the archangel will be heard, and the trump of God will sound, "and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Literally it may be rendered "the dead in Christ will stand up first." The word that is used throughout the New Testament for resurrection is that of standing up. I think it is something like this. Here is a company of soldiers in the battlefield. They have been fighting hard, and they have thrown themselves down on the ground and they are asleep. Suddenly the trumpet sounds, and they spring to their feet and then perhaps another trumpet sounds, and away they march. And so when the Lord descends from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, in an instant the dead in Christ stand up; no longer are they sleeping in the dust. You say that is an impossibility. With God nothing is impossible. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we need not be afraid to believe the rest of it. He was the first-fruits of them that slept. He came forth from the tomb, and the dead shall come forth from the tomb in their glorious resurrected bodies.

The Lord Jesus will descend from Heaven, and the dead will be raised, and the living changed at the last trump. There are many very earnest and sincere Christians who tell us that this last trump is the seventh trump of the Book of Revelation, and that the Church will be on the earth all through the blowing of the trumpets of the Tribulation, and at the sounding of the last trumpet the Church will be raised. But may I say as one who can claim to have some knowledge of the teaching of this Book, for I give the first place in my thinking, that the Book of the Revelation was not written when this Epistle was written, and, therefore, the apostle Paul cannot be referring to the seventh trump of the Book of Revelation. That book was not written until about forty years afterwards. And, further, he refers here not to the trump of an angel, but to the trump of God. The trumpets of the angels in the Revelation give us the various stages of the Tribulation, period, and they finally come to the culmination which ushers in the Kingdom. What we, as the people of God, are waiting for is the shout from Heaven, and the voice of the archangel, and the sounding of the trump of God which will close up this present dispensation. Therefore, it is called the last trump.

What is to take place? The dead in Christ will stand up at His Coming, clothed with their resurrection bodies, and prepared to meet the King. "Then we which are alive and remain shall he caught up together, with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." There will be a generation of believers living on the earth when our Lord returns. You and I may be in that generation. Those who know their Bibles best are more concerned about the signs of the times than those who do not and we believe that the hour when this passage is to be fulfilled must be drawing very near. And we may be those of whom the apostle speaks "which are alive and remain" and who will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air." How wonderful is the thought! Oh, the separations that death has made; the way in which it has broken families, as well as individual hearts. But when Jesus comes the dead in Christ will all be raised, and the living in Christ will be changed, and we will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.

~Harry A. Ironside~

(continued with # 5)