Come and See

Nathanael said to Philip, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip answered, “Come and see.” JOHN 1:46

Nathanael’s question still lingers, even two thousand years later.… Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Come and see.

Come and see the changed lives:
the alcoholic now dry,
the embittered now joyful,
the shamed now forgiven …
marriages rebuilt, the orphans embraced,
the imprisoned inspired.…

Come and see the pierced hand of God touch the most common heart, wipe the tear from the wrinkled face, and forgive the ugliest sin.

Come and see. He avoids no seeker. He ignores no probe. He fears no search. Come and see.

A Gentle Thunder

WHEN HOPES DON’T HAPPEN

During danger he will keep me safe in his shelter. He will hide me in his Holy Tent. PSALM 27:5

What do we do with our disappointments? We could do what Miss Haversham did. Remember her in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations? Jilted by her fiancé just prior to the wedding, … she closed all the blinds in the house, stopped every clock, left the wedding cake on the table to gather cobwebs, and wore her wedding dress until it hung in yellow decay around her shrunken form. Her wounded heart consumed her life.

We can follow the same course.

Or we can follow the example of the apostle Paul. His goal was to be a missionary in Spain, … however, God sent him to prison. Sitting in a Roman jail, Paul could have made the same choice as Miss Haversham, but he didn’t. Instead he said, “As long as I’m here, I might as well write a few letters.” Hence your Bible has the Letters to Philemon, the Philippians, the Colossians, and the Ephesians.

from TRAVELING LIGHT

Moral or Sanctimonious

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Luke 6:41)

This rhetorical question by the Lord Jesus incisively points out a sin common among most Christians–the sin of sanctimoniousness, committed in the good name of morality. It is easy to criticize fellow Christians for their moral or ethical deficiencies while simultaneously justifying one’s self for the same or worse defects. “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things” (Romans 2:1).

True morality is generated internally from a heart of gratitude and love for the Lord and His Word, then manifested externally in a godly life of non-self-centered service. Sanctimoniousness is generated from a heart of pride and is manifested in a critical spirit. Morality judges one’s self; sanctimoniousness judges others.

This inconsistency afflicts all of us to some degree, so we need to be especially alert to its outcropping in our own lives. We must condemn sin, of course, but we must at least be as concerned to correct it in ourselves as we are in others. “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of
Christ” (Romans 14:10).

And if, indeed, we do see a mote–or even a beam–in a brother’s eye, one that really needs to be removed for the Lord’s sake and that of His testimony, the best procedure is not one of sanctimonious rebuke, but of gentle and empathetic edification. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). HMM

Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon

“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.” (Joshua 1:3.)

BESIDE the literal ground, unoccupied for Christ, there is the unclaimed, untrodden territory of Divine promises. What did God say to Joshua? “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you,” and then He draws the outlines of the Land of Promise—all theirs on one condition: that they shall march through the length and breadth of it, and measure it off with their own feet.

They never did that to more than one-third of the property, and consequently they never had more than one-third; they had just what they measured off, and no more. In 2 Peter, we read of the “land of promise” that is opened up to us, and it is God’s will that we should, as it were, measure off that territory by the feet of obedient faith and believing obedience, thus claiming and appropriating it for our own.

How many of us have ever taken possession of the promises of God in the name of Christ? Here is a magnificent territory for faith to lay hold on and march through the length and breadth of, and faith has never done it yet.

Let us enter into all our inheritance. Let us lift up our eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, and hear Him say, “All the land that thou seest will I give to thee.” —A. T. Pierson.

Wherever Judah should set his foot that should be his; wherever Benjamin should set his foot, that should be his. Each should get his inheritance by setting his foot upon it. Now, think you not, when either had set his foot upon a given territory, he did not instantly and instinctively feel, “This is mine”?