Bread for the Soul: April 2013

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

FAMILY CHARACTER AND FAMILY RELIGION.
FAMILY CHARACTER.
(Gen. 11: 28)
THERE was, as we know, a day of visitation of the house of Terah. The family of Shem had become very corrupt, and in the days of Terah, the sixth or seventh from Shem, they were serving false gods. But the power of the Spirit and the call of the God of glory visited the ear and the heart of Abram, the son of Terah, and separated him from that corruption.
We also know that a godly influence extended itself from this in the family. Terah the father, Sarah the wife, and Lot the nephew join Abram in this, and they all leave the land of Mesopotamia together.
Nahor, however, another of Terah's sons, did not come within this influence. He was comfortably settled at home with his wife, and at home they remained, when Terah, Abram, Sarah, and Lot took their departure from the land of their fathers. (Chap. 11)
This is to be much observed, for the like of it we may witness every day. One of the family becomes the first subject of divine power, and then family religion, or the knowledge of the Lord Jesus in the household. spreads itself, but some remain uninfluenced.
Of course we know that each quickened soul must be equally the object of the hidden effectual drawings and teachings of the Father. (See John 6: 44, 45.) But I speak of the history or manifested character of the scene. And, as we have seen in the history of this household, Nahor remains unmoved in this day of visitation. He and his wife continue in Mesopotamia, and they thrive there. Children are born to them; goods and property increase. They pursue an easy and respectable journey across the world; but they do not grow in the knowledge of God, and bear no testimony, or at least small and indistinct testimony to His name.
The character of Nahor's family was thus formed. They were not in gross darkness like the people of Canaan, descendants of Ham, among whom Abram had now gone to sojourn. They had a measure of light derived from their connection with Terah and Abram, and as descendants of Shem; but all that was sadly dimmed by the cherished principles, of the world from which they had refused to separate themselves. And a family character and standing were thus formed.
This is serious — and all the principle of this is of daily occurrence among us, and of constant application to our consciences.
We lose sight of this family for a time altogether, for of course they are not the direct object of the Spirit's notice, but being connected with Abram may naturally come within view; and accordingly, in process of time, tidings about them do reach Abram in the distant place of his pilgrimage. (Gen. 22)
Bethuel was the son of Nahor — one of his many sons rather, and the one most brought into view. He had flourished in the world, and though perhaps a man of little energy or character himself, had a son named Laban, who most evidently knew how to manage his affairs exceedingly well, and to advance himself and all who belonged to him very advantageously in life. He seems, as we say, to have known the value of Money; for the sight of gold could open his mouth with a very hearty and religious welcome even to a stranger. (Gen. 24) Here, however, we reach a period in the history of this family which is chiefly to be considered.
A fresh energy of the Spirit is about to visit it. As I have already observed, this family is not in the gross darkness of the Canaanites, nor in the simple idolatrous condition of Terah's house (see Joshua 24), we may assume, when the God of glory called Abram. They had been brought into a certain measure of light, and within a certain standing by profession as Abram's act and word seemed to allow. (Gen. 24: 4) But this being so, this being a professing household in some sense apart from the dark state of the men of the world, it becomes serious to notice the nature of that visitation which the Spirit makes to it, for it will be found to be a separating power or visitation. As the call of the God of glory had before disturbed the state of things in Terah's house, so now the mission of Eliezer disturbed the state of things in Bethuel's house: Abram had then been separated from home and kindred, and so is Rebecca now to be, all this leaving behind it this serious impression, that a respectable professing family may need to be visited by the very same energy of the Spirit as a more worldly or idolatrous family.
This is a serious thought. It is a disturbing or separating power of God which now comes into this family, and not simply a comforting or edifying power. This has meaning, I believe. The ministry of Eliezer, God's servant as well as Abram's, came to Bethuel's house to draw Rebecca out of it, and to lead on that very journey which, two generations before, the call of the God of glory had borne Abram. I do indeed judge that there is a lesson in this which is much to be pondered. A professing decent family have to be aroused, and a fresh act of separation produced in the midst of it.
But there is another lesson in the history still.
Rebecca, we know, comes forth at this call. But her character has been already formed, as it is with us all, more or less, before we are converted. The moment of quickening arrives. The separating call and power of the Lord is answered. But it finds us of a certain character, a certain shape and complexion of mind. It finds us, it may be Cretians (Titus 1), or brothers and sisters of Laban, or the like, and the "Cretians are always liars." Character and mind derived from nature, from education, or from family habits, we shall take with us, after we have been born of the Spirit, and carry it in us across the desert from Mesopotamia to the house of Abram.
This too is serious. It is serious, as I observed before, that a respectable professing family is visited by a separating, and not merely by an edifying, energy of the Spirit; and it is serious, as I now have been tracing that, with the quickening or converting power of the Spirit, nature, or the force of early habits and education, or of family character, will cling still. And these serious lessons the story of Rebecca reads to us.
For I need only briefly speak of what her way was in the further stages of it. It is a well-known story among us, and well known too as very sadly betraying what we may call the family character. Laban, her brother with whom she had grown up and who was evidently the active stirring one in his father's house, was a subtle, knowing, worldly man. And the only great action in which Rebecca was called to take part gives occasion to her exercising the same principles. In the procuring of. the blessing for her son Jacob we see this Laban — leaven working mightily. The family character sadly breaks out then. The readiness of nature to act and take its way shows itself very busily. A mind she had too little accustomed to repose in the sufficiency of God, and too much addicted to calculate and to lean its hopes on its own inventions.
What have we to do then but to watch against the peculiar tendency and habit of our own mind — to rebuke nature sharply, that we may be sound or morally healthful in the faith (Titus 1: 3); not to excuse it because it is nature, but rather the more to suspect it therefore, and to mortify it for His sake who has given us another nature.
These lessons we get from the story of this distinguished woman. Beyond this her way is not much tracked by the Spirit. Was it that He was grieved with her and leaves her unnoticed? At any rate she reaps nothing but disappointment from the seed she had sown. No good comes of her schemes and contrivances, but the reverse. She loses her favourite, Jacob, and never sees him after the long exile to which her own schemes and contrivances had ended in sending him.
But there is this further to tell: Jacob got his mind formed by the same earliest influence. He was all his days a slow-hearted, calculating man. His plan in getting the birthright first and then the blessing; his confidence in his own arrangements, rather than in the Lord's promise, when he met his brother Esau; and his lingering at Shechem, and settling there instead of pursuing a pilgrim's life through the land like his fathers: all this betrays nature and the working of the old family character.
What need have we to watch the early seed sown in the heart — yea, and to watch the early or late seed which we are helping to sow in others' hearts! For the fuller details of this history warn us of such things still.
The birth of Esau and Jacob is given us at the close of Genesis 25, and as they grow up to be boys, occasion arises to let us look in at the family scene; but it is, as we shall find, truly humbling.
This was one of the families of God then on the earth, nay, by far the most distinguished, where lay the hopes of all blessing to the whole earth, and where the Lord, eminently above all, had recorded His name.
But what do we see? Isaac the father had dropped into the stream of hu

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Christian Calendar

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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

...humbleth himself...

"For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."(Luke 14:11)

The only thing which can enable me thus to go on is to have Christ the object before me, and just in proportion as it is so can I be happy.
There may be a thousand and one things to vex me if self is of importance; they will not vex me at all if self is not there to be vexed.The passions of the flesh will not harass us if we are walking with God.
What trials we get when not walking with God and thinking only of self!!
There is no such deliverance as that of having no importance in one's own eyes.
Then one may be happy indeed before God.
..............(J.N. Darby)...............

Sound doctrine...need an outline..

"Things which become sound doctrine"

Monday, April 15, 2013

...melody to Thee...

"O Lord, we know it matters not

How sweet the song may be;

No heart but of the Spirit taught

Makes melody to Thee.

O largely give, 'tis all Thine own

The Spirit's goodly fruit:

Praise, issuing forth in life, alone

Our living Lord can suit."

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Faith must press on alone...

"And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him today? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well." 2 Kings 4:22,23
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Her husband represents formal religion, forms without faith or feeling. The mother was not dismayed by the indifference of her husband, for faith must press on alone, turning neither to the right hand, nor to the left.

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."Phil. 3:13,14
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She left formal religion behind, pressed on to the mark for the inheritance, and ran to the man of God, for there only rested her hope, all in a person. If the prophet could lay the power of nature aside and give her a son contrary to nature, he could also give her a son back in resurrection. She had not asked for the son; it was his own choice.

"Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee." 2 Kings 4:24
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The discomforts of the way are not noticed when the heart is set on the proper object, for it is "but a little way to come to Ephrath [fruitfulness]." Gen. 35:16
. How we should covet the spirit of this mother, this great woman, the spirit of normal Christianity.

Baptism, not a command, but a priviledge...JND

The first thing I must do is to set the principle of baptism on its right grounds. It is not obedience: obedience to an ordinance is unchristian ground altogether. Baptists have gone so far as to allege the Lord's words, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." It is inconceivable that Christians should speak so—fulfilling righteousness by ordinances! It is Galatian doctrine—a denial of the first principles of truth for a sinner. Further, if John's baptism had been submitted to, it is nothing as regards christian baptism. The twelve at Ephesus (Acts 19) were baptized as Christians after that. But more particularly, a command there was to baptize, not to be baptized; but this was not even to baptize believers, but to disciple the nations, baptizing them—a commission which supposes Jerusalem and the Jews received—a commission which St. Paul declares was not given to him, who was appointed minister of the church. Not only so, but when we read how it was administered, we find the directest evidence that it was not a matter of obedience but of according a privilege—entrance into the professed external assembly of God on the earth. "What does hinder me to be baptized?" says the officer of Candace, a question which precludes the thought of obedience, and speaks of an admission which he counted a privilege: so with Cornelius—"Can any forbid water that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? " Hence, the first Christians gathered by the Lord during His life on earth (the disciples) who were baptized with the Holy Ghost, were never baptized: they were sent to baptize, and did. Paul was baptized, because he was received like any other. Thus the testimony is complete from holy scripture as to its character.

Next comes the question, Into what were they received? Not into the unity of the body, for then the twelve would not have been in it, nor is there ever a hint in scripture of baptism being into the unity of the body. It is a symbol of death and resurrection (for which reason John Baptist’s baptism was nothing for Christianity as such), the admission into the assembly gathered on the earth to the name of Christ; people were baptized to (never into) something—as to Moses (not into Moses)—it is the same word: so to Christ (not into Christ), and to His death (not into, here, either); and thus were individuals held figuratively to be on the professed ground of resurrection; but this was not the unity of the body; that was a real and essential thing, and came by another kind of baptism. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body," not by water. The ordinance that symbolizes this is the Lord's supper, not baptism: for we are all one body, inasmuch as "we are all partakers of that one loaf." The baptism of the Spirit, not baptism by water, is that by which we are baptized into the unity of the body.