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"If you abide in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free...So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed!" (John 8:31-32,36)

A Thorn, You Say?

September 20, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me – to keep me from exalting myself.” (2 Corinthians 12:7)

Why do we always wonder about someone else’s thorn? Theologians and Bible expositors have done that for years. What was Paul’s “thorn”? Was it his eyesight? Was it a mother-in-law? Was it some awful weakness he had in that fleshly part of his old nature? Those aren’t the questions we should be asking. The problem is not with Paul’s thorn; I think we need to be thinking about our own thorns.

What is a thorn, anyway? The Greek word for “thorn” is SKOLOPS (σκολοψ). It can mean anything pointed and is used as a metaphor for a thorn or a plague. And that tells our story. What is our thorn? Could it be a physical weakness, an ailment, a physical handicap, or could it be a weakness in our very nature – something like the “sin which so easily entangles us” that we find in Hebrews 12:1? You know, that sin of omission or commission that seems to war against us in our climb up that steep hill on our pilgrim journey to the Celestial City? Is it that sin we are exhorted to despise, lay aside and from which we should run? It unmercifully plagues us! Could it actually be our ill temper, our cursing, or some baser lust of our old, fleshly nature?

One thing is sure about Paul’s thorn: God allowed Satan to use it to attack Paul. The word “buffet” comes from KOLAPHIDZO (κολαφιζω). It can mean to beat with a fist (Jesus beating in Matt. 16:67), to treat roughly (Paul, in I Cor. 4:11), or to punish or treat harshly in general (I Peter 2:20). Those aren’t very comforting prospects, are they? But God in His providence allows it for good reasons.

In Paul’s case it was to keep him from getting the “big head” for learning some very special, heavenly, godly truths. The truths were great; but the beating he was getting from Satan to entice him to think of himself as a fantastically smart guy was something from which he wanted to be delivered. He supplicated the Lord three times for relief; but God gave him His remedy. It was the remedy that sustained Paul all the way the headman’s axe in Rome, under the sentence of that evil emperor Nero, in 67 A.D. God answered him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). [Read more…]

Christian Witness, Courage, Devotion, Discipline, Faith, Grace, Holy Spirit, Life Struggles, Mercy, Pain, Sin, Spirit, Spiritual Growth, Trials, Vocation Tagged: faith, forgiveness, mercy, prayer, Spirit, spiritual growth, suffering, trials, vocation

The Morning Hour

February 25, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

I sometimes wonder why we insist on rising in the morning, getting dressed and hurrying into the day, quite often without much thought of God. It’s a habit of our flesh to be undisciplined and slothful in truly important spiritual duties and opportunities. The Tempter likes that; the Spirit grieves about it.
John Bunyan, that amazing preacher of righteousness, was quite convicting when he wrote,

“He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day!”

I’m not sure he wrote that during a pastor’s busy day or whether in Bedford Jail, where he was incarcerated for preaching the Gospel; but it really makes serious, convicting sense to anyone wondering whether prayer is a valid way of communicating with God. And I love the words of the poet Ralph Spaulding Cushman who said,

“I met God in the morning when the day was at its best,
And His presence came like sunrise, like a glory in my breast.
All day long the Presence lingered, all day long He stayed with me,
And we sailed in perfect calmness o’er a very troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered, other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them brought to me a peace and rest.
Then I thought of other mornings, with a keen remorse of mind,
When I too had loosed the moorings, with the Presence left behind,
So I think I’ve found the secret, learned from many a troubled way,
You must seek Him in the morning if you want Him through the day!”

In my latter years my sleep habits find me in my recliner in the early morning, with a cup of decaf, reading and praying as I thumb though my prayer journal, looking into the pictures of so many friends and loved ones. What a deep spiritual joy it is to spend morning hours with my Savior, who intercedes for me at God’s Throne; and also to know the Holy Spirit is aiding my spirit in praise and requests to our Father in Heaven.

Yes, one secret to a truly joy-filled day, no matter what circumstances arise, is to:

“Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone;
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.”

Oh, to take that time, to be that individual!

Tomorrow I have lunch with two friends. One is a Vietnam Veteran, a U.S. Marine and Roman Catholic; the other is a professed atheist and nihilist. I’ve been witnessing to them for almost five years. How I need prayer for these two!

Try it! I urge you to remember that our ability to live for God outside the prayer closet will be determined by our discipline to live with the Triune God in those secret times, hopefully in the morning before the sun rises to heat our day with busyness.

A closing thought from Leonard Ravenhill: “No man is greater than his prayer life; The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying!”

And from Samuel Chadwick, “Prayer is the acid test of devotion.”

Belief, Christian Vocation, Discipline, Holy Spirit, Prayer, Spiritual Growth Tagged: belief, Holy Spirit, prayer

Unspeakable Joy

October 12, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“You too now have sorrow; but I will see you again; and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you. And in that day you will ask Me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. Until now, you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”
(John 15:22-24)

It had been a three-year struggle following the Master. In these hours before His arrest, trial, betrayal, and crucifixion, Jesus endeavors to encourage His disciples. They were alone with Him now. It would not be long before He would be taken from them. I wonder if they understood His encouraging words. I wonder if we understand them now.

There are three things that sort of leap out to me, as I read these words. They are stark realities about which we should be enlightened and encouraged.

The reality of sorrow: Whether personally or in relation to those around us, we find ourselves perpetually in a struggle with “the world, the flesh, and the devil.” We see loved ones struggling with health issues, financial setbacks, family dysfunction, and work-related challenges. We ask ourselves, “Will life ever be free from trials and troubles?” Somehow we know the answer is NO. After all, didn’t Jesus say, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Like it or not, from waking in the morning to dropping off to sleep at night, we live in a world of personal, filial, and whole-world experiences that sometimes overwhelm us with sorrow. Christ’s disciples would soon experience this, when they observed their Master hanging on a gibbet on Golgotha. [Read more…]

Belief, Courage, Devotion, Discipline, Faith, Grace, Holy Spirit, Life Struggles, Mercy, Prayer, Suffering, Trials Tagged: belief, faith, Holy Spirit, joy, mercy, prayer, spirit courage, suffering, trials

Really Getting to the Truth

June 16, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
(John 8:32)

All truth is God’s truth. There is truth that is natural and truth that is supernatural. Natural truth may be discovered and known by most observant individuals. Supernatural or divine truth can only be discovered from God, the author and originator of all truth, by means of supernatural revelation.

In school I learned that 2 plus 2 equals 4. That’s natural truth, verifiable by mathematical law. If I throw an apple up into the air and it comes straight down to land on my head, I have discovered a natural truth of physics – gravity. We are told that gravity is “approximated by Newton’s law of universal gravitation, which postulates that the gravitational force of two bodies of mass is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them” (Wikipedia). So much for scientific truth. I accept it, I believe it and I experience it in everyday life. [Read more…]

Christian Witness, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Truth Tagged: Holy Spirit, regeneration, Spiritual Truth

Give Thanks for These

June 8, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yes, I have a godly heritage.” (Psalm 16:6)

We are so remiss to give thanks for the blessing of Providence. We read in the Scriptures of the saints of old – Abraham, Joseph and others – how God in His mercy saved, protected, and preserved them. Yet in our temporal freedom and abundance, we fail to show gratitude to the Father of mercies. We are an ungrateful lot! And what are those mercies we so easily neglect to consider?

Statisticians tell us that only five percent of people on this earth live under true democracy. Ninety-five percent live under military, political, or religious dictatorships. Look at the list of almost 195 nations and see the poverty, physical danger, diseases, and terror that holds these people in a dungeon of hopelessness. [Read more…]

Christian Vocation, Evangelical Church, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Truth, Theology Tagged: Christianity, Divine Providence, doctrine, Evangelical Church, mission, Postmodern Christianity, revival

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Beryl Smith

AvatarBeryl has a great love for studying the Bible and Christian theology. Beryl is a 12th generation descendant of Ralph Blaisdell, an English Puritan who came to America from Bristol, England in August, 1635 on the sailing ship “The Angel Gabriel.”
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