Christianity

Fresh as the Sunrise

October 24, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning; for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble” (Psalm 59:16).
“Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You” (Psalm 143:8).

The poet J. E. Raneim wrote:

Are you weary, are you heavy hearted?
Are you grieving over joys departed?
Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden?
Have you sins that to men’s eyes are hidden?
Do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow?
Are you anxious what shall be tomorrow?
Are you troubled at the thought of dying?
For Christ’s coming Kingdom are you sighing?
Tell it to Jesus,
Tell it to Jesus,
He is a friend that’s well known.
You’ve no other such a friend or brother,
Tell it to Jesus alone.

We would do well, when we rise in the morning and look into the mirror, to ask ourselves, “In whom is my trust this morning?”

If we look within, we’ll be distressed. If we look back, we’ll be defeated. If we look around, we’ll be distracted. We would do well to have a higher view of life. To be dismayed, we should look before. To be delivered, we should look to Christ. To be delighted, we should look up… up to the Face of our Lord Jesus Christ for:

Salvation from our sins: “Look unto Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God and there is none else (Isaiah 45:22).
Forgiveness for our many offenses: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).
Knowledge of God’s working in us: “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Assurance of God’s presence with us: “For He Himself said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
The supply of everything we need: “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
Protection until Christ returns: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thessalonians 5:23).
Receiving us to Himself and our home in Heaven: “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

Let each of us, every morning, say with our whole heart;

When the sun rises over the hills, I will look to You (Matthew 28:20).
When my spirit seems void Your presence, I will speak to You (John 16:24).
When my prayers seem unheard, I will know You are listening (Jeremiah 33:3).
When temptations try to lure me, I will seek Your aid to resist (James 4:7-8).
When bad memories persist, I will know You can cleanse my memory (Heb. 9:14).
When my faith seems weaker, I will ask You for stronger faith (Luke 17:5).
When my weakness plagues my efforts, I will ask for Your grace (2 Cor. 12:9).
When I feel alone, I will know You are with me (John 14:18).
When I seem defeated, You will give me victory (Philippians 4:13).

The old German hymn, if we let it, will cause us to praise like this:

When morning guilds the skies, my heart awaking cries,
May Jesus Christ be praised.
Alike at work and prayer… to Jesus I repair …
May Jesus Christ be praised.
When sleep her balm denies, my silent spirit sighs,
May Jesus Christ be praised.
When evil thoughts molest…with this I shield my breast,
May Jesus Christ be praised.
Does sadness fill my mind, a solace here I find,
May Jesus Christ be praised.
Or fades my earthly bliss, my comfort still is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised.
In heaven’s eternal bliss, the loveliest strain is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised.
The powers of darkness fear, when this sweet chant they hear,
May Jesus Christ be praised.
Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine,
May Jesus Christ be praised.
Be this the eternal song, through all the ages on,
May Jesus Christ be praised.

Will we ever learn to rise in the morning and look beyond our mirror to see the living Christ of the Universe waiting for us to come to Him in prayer? Will we lift our spirits to the presence of the Father where Christ is waiting as our intercessor—our attorney—to plead our cause and give to us the mercy and grace to bountifully supply for us our deepest needs?

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews. 4:15-16).

To Ponder:

Are you struggling to find God’s help with trials that seem to surround you?
Do you lack the spiritual strength to rise above and beyond your trials?
Are you searching in God’s Word to gain the strength you need from Him?
Are you memorizing and trusting His promises to you?
Will you commit to being totally yielded to His will for every hour of your life?

To Pray:

Father in Heaven, every morning please convict me, give me the grace to repent and turn from my many weaknesses and sins; please cleanse me, fill me, and by Your Spirit’s grace and power use me today to reach others with Your wonderful Gospel of salvation. I ask this for Your glory in Jesus’ Name.

To Remember:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, for Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:35-37).

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…]

A Frightening Prospect

June 2, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“For whosoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
(Mark 8:38 ASV)

John MacArthur begins each of the broadcasts we see on the NRB network with this statement:

“What in the world makes us so embarrassed about the Gospel?”

There are some good answers to this question. It would do us well to look at them briefly.

Statistics tell us that less than six percent of professing evangelicals honor God by tithing. Some have convinced themselves that the first ten percent of their income is theirs – not God’s. It’s no wonder many evangelicals meet in warehouses or other rented buildings. Our churches are filled with tithe thieves. But that isn’t the statistic that really disturbs me.

Less than five percent of professing evangelicals have ever witnessed to another individual who needs Jesus Christ as savior. For various reasons they have totally missed the New Testament teaching on evangelism. Many professing Christians would say, “Witnessing must be someone else’s responsibility…not mine.” [Read more…]

Yes There is Hope

May 28, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33)

In a chapter in the recently published book, Why Suffering, co-author Vince Vitale talks about how:
“We try to convince ourselves with hopeful phrases:

The world is your oyster.
The sky is the limit.
The only thing to fear is fear itself.
You can to anything if you just put your mind to it.
Things can only get better.
Such nice phrases. But here’s the thing: They’re all lies. Everyone of them. They are simply false.”[1]

Jesus was right! Our lives are filled with tribulation. Hymn writer Isaac Watts asked the questions, “Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace, to help me on to God?”[2] The Apostle John gave us the answer,

“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
(I John 2:16-17)

Every day of our lives we are confronted by the world, our own flesh, and Satan – the arch-enemy of our souls. We may be getting older, but not necessarily wiser. We may be eating healthier, but our bodies are still in the process of dying. We may have made some preparations for the future, but only God knows the future. And that’s where our hope resides – in the very words of Jesus. “In Me you may have peace…I have overcome the world.” Hope for tomorrow resides in our relationship with the Living Christ. Paul told us the answer to our physical, emotional, spiritual dilemma:

“Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.”
(Ephesians 3:20-21)

Last week I lost a dear friend of over thirty years. He was ten years younger than me. As I stood by his bed in the hospital, I hoped he could hear me speak to him. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the fact that we must be asking, thinking, and realizing that the Holy Spirit of God has invaded our human spirit to produce the life of Christ in wisdom, power and grace – divine sufficiency – to enable us to be overcomers in this world where we have been placed to represent the God of Heaven. As the Father sent the son, so the Son has sent us to a lost and dying world.

Yes, there is hope! Grasp it. Rejoice in it. Revel in God’s call to you in Christ!

[1] Zacharias & Vitale, Why Suffering? (New York: Faith Words, 2014), p.165

[2] From “Am I A Soldier Of The Cross.”

Suggested Reading

December 3, 2014 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

To my Friends Across The Country:

I have wanted to write you about a series of books that I would like to recommend to you.

David F. Wells (PhD. University of Manchester, Distinguished Senior Research Professor @ Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) received a Pew grant, “Exploring the nature of Christian faith in the contemporary modernized world.” From his study he has produced a series of very good, relevant, Christ-honoring books that I feel every spiritually minded Christian should read.

Here are the titles of books written by David Wells that I hope will peak your attention:

No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (1993)
God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (1994)
Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision (1998)
Above All Earthly Powers: Christ in a Postmodern World (2004)
The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World (2008)
God in the Whirlwind: How the Holy-love of God Reorients Our World (2014)

I have been deeply moved and blessed by David Wells’ ministry. He has appeared on the White Horse Inn and his books are sound, relevant, and filled with Biblical Truth.

From his latest book I quote from his concern regarding worship in many, if not most of the evangelical churches in America:

“If we look at the way in which many evangelical churches have actually been worshiping since the 1970s, it is rather different from what I have been describing. It has become far more culturally defined than Biblically. It has often catered to generational niches. It has been about marketing a ‘product’ in a way that attracts new customers. The new customers, though, tend to belong to one of the generational tribes. Christian faith is pitched to them often without doctrinal truth. Pastors who have been in this business have mistakenly thought that doctrinal truth is ‘off-putting’ to believers and unbelievers alike. And the outreach that has been done often has far more in common with the entertainment world than with the truths at the core of Christian faith. Too often it has been about the worshipers, and giving them a pleasant experience as they express themselves, rather than about the God whom they have come to worship.

…Now, along the edges of the evangelical world, this disposition is producing a lot of bleeding. It has propelled an exodus out of evangelical churches. Some have moved out into Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglo-Catholicism, and Catholicism. Others have simply moved home. Born-againers, in significant numbers, are dropping out of church. This is not true everywhere, or of everyone, or of every church. But many who were once part of the born-again world are now turning away from evangelical churches. In one study done in 2013, it was found that in the recent past, 70 percent of the young people who had been raised in evangelical youth groups had dropped out of church attendance once they became independent adults. Why?”

(God in the Whirlwind: How the Holy-love of God Reorients our World; pp. 198-199)

Now, having been a believing Christian for over three-quarters of a century and a minister of the Gospel for over a half-century, this is what I have observed:

In the evangelical churches in America in the 1920s to the 1930s, liberalism and higher criticism invaded the major evangelical denominations, churches, colleges, and seminaries. The cancer of European liberalism, skepticism, and unbelief became embedded in evangelical circles. Out of this came those often condemned as “fundamentalists.” They started new denominations, colleges, seminaries and churches. They were called “fundamentalists” because they held to the major biblical truths of the Protestant Church. I am a fundamentalist! No apologies. No hedging my theological beliefs in the faith of our Protestant for-bearers. One of my ancestors, Ralph Blaisdell, was a Puritan who left England in 1635, to be a “planter” in the New World. He left the skeptical liberalism of the Church of England so he could worship God according to the dictates of his Puritan heart.

Since the 1970s, a profound change has taken place in the evangelical world. To put it simply, the “emergent movement” has done to the professing evangelical church in America what liberalism did to the church in the 1920s and 1930s. Today the church has forsaken sound theology, and expositional preaching, and has turned its emphasis into what Christian Smith in his book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual lives of American Teenagers called “moralistic, therapeutic, deism.” Today the church has forsaken any claim to be “fundamental” and is producing “another gospel” that offends no one, leaves theology in the back room, welcomes all into the “gathering,” and lets them leave with a gospel not demanding repentance of sin and absolute trust in the Christ of the Cross and the Empty Tomb.

The invisible Church of Jesus Christ in America is in desperate need of a spiritual revival in the hearts of her leaders. The nation crumbles in moral and spiritual darkness while the Church stumbles in dim light.

I urge you to pray for a genuine Holy Spirit rejuvenation in Christ’s body. We “come out from among them and be separate” (II Corinthians 6:17-18) or we perish with a nation that has turned itself from the God of the Bible to the god of secular humanism.