◄ ►

The Cross and the Way of Life

The Son can do nothing by Himself. (John 5:19 NLT)

That is the principle of the Cross. He accepted that position of being able to do nothing out from Himself. It must all come out from God. There is no way through otherwise.... There was a revolution in my life thirty years ago when that principle of the Cross came flat up against ministry ministry that for years I had been producing against all my study, reading and late nights, to get up the stuff for ministry, till the whole thing became an intolerable burden in myself. Others perhaps thought it to be pretty good, but the crisis when listen to me, men and women who are in ministry, or contemplating it the whole turn came upon the recognition of this principle, this principle of the Cross when, with the door closed, I said to the Lord am finished in all ministry, I am never going to preach again unless You do something now. I have been doing it all these years; I have been producing this, now I am finished. You have got to do it.But I saw that principle, you see, as the principle of the Cross and I meant it.

Forgive me speaking of myself, but I must bring this home in some way. The next week would have seen my resignation in with my church officers, and I would have gone out from ministry if the Lord had not done it. But the Lord was true to His own principle. It was an utter end of anything that I could produce for ministry, and I meant it to be like that, because I recognized that God meant that. That was the principle of the Cross nothing out from ourselves. No fruit that labor and study of the mind and heart could produce has a way through in the work and service of God. God was true to His own principle He always is. From that day to this, there has been no trouble about ministry. It is easy to let ministry go, and much more easy than to accept it. This clamoring for ministry it is uncrucified flesh. Well, there has been an open heaven since then. Again I beg your forgiveness for making this personal reference, but this is a true thing. It is a principle which covers all the ground.

Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? § The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. § This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night. § My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.

Gen. 24:63;  Ps. 19:14;  Ps. 8:3,4;  Ps. 111:2;  Ps. 1:1,2;  Josh. 1:8;  Ps. 63:5,6

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. § But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.”

You will not be forgotten by Me! I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. § A woman . . . cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!” . . . But He answered her not a word.

The genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes.

Ps. 13:1;  James 1:17;  Isa. 49:14,15;   Isa. 44:21,22;  John 11:5,6;  Matt. 15:22,23; 1 Peter 1:7

Previously Prepared

Let the same disposition be in you which was in Christ Jesus." "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh is at rest from sin" (Phil. 2:5, Wey; 1 Pet. 4:1m).

Too late! Too late! If we seek to deal with sin by reckoning at the moment it becomes an issue. Our stand and attitude from the beginning of each day is to be a settled matter as we rest in our risen Lord Jesus: the death of the Cross separates me from the enslavement of sin and self, and I continually abide in my new life, Christ Jesus. My life is "hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).

"The reckoning believer is to meet every proposal of self-gratification armed with the mind to suffer in the flesh. Sin is the gratification of self, but he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from the domination of sin.'

"If you allow yourself to entertain a suggestion of self-gratification - if you consider it, and give it a place in your mind - you are defeated. You have laid aside your armor, and will fall an easy prey to the foe. But there will be no response to the suggestion or temptation if you stand armed with the mind to suffer in the flesh. That which is proposed to you is exactly opposite to what you are set for. It is suggested that you should be pleased and gratified in the very thing in which you are fully minded to suffer. You are now in conflict with sin - not going along with it; you suffer in the flesh, and have ceased from the practice of sin." -C.A.C.

"So that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by [his] human appetites and desires but [he lives] for what God wills" (1 Pet. 4:2, Amp.).

The Final Word - Grace Thru Faith- study [18]

Thy Kingdom Come