1.       God never gives guidance for two steps at a time! 2.       Mountains of difficulty are His stepping stones! 3.       It requires storms to produce the rooting! 4.       The finest of flowers bloom in the sandiest of deserts as well as in the hothouse! 5.       Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God! 6.       The Island of Buried Hopes!

7.    Keep me from turning back! 8.       God of the Impossible! 9.       The storm that shook thy nest taught thee to fly! 10.   The hour and the God! 11.   “At even my wife died: and I did in the morning……..” 12.   “Unto Myself I would bring thee….!”

(1) God never gives guidance for two steps at a time!

 

“I being in the way , the Lord led me”. (Genesis 24:27)

 

‘The way’ means God’s way, the pathway prepared for us; not any kind of way (Proverbs 14:12); not man’s way; but directed way of duty and command. In such a way the Lord will be sure to lead and guide us. The Lord answered the servant’s prayer exactly as he prayed, step by step.

 

“God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. I must take one step, and then I receive light for the next.”

 

As thou dost travel down the corridor of Time

Thou wilt find may doors of usefulness;

To gain some there are many weary steps to climb,

And then they will not yield! But onward press,

For there before thee, in the distance just beyond

Lies one which yet will open; enter there,

And thou shalt find all realized thy visions fair

Of fields more vast than thou hast yet conceived.

Press on, faint not; though briars strew thy way,

The greatest things are yet to be achieved;

And he who falters not will win the day.

No man can shut the door which God sets wide,

He bids thee enter there – thy works await inside.

-        Fairelie Thornton.

 

Keep to your post and watch His signals!

Implicitly rely on the methods of His guidance.

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(2) Mountains of difficulty are His stepping stones!

 

 

“I will make all my mountains a way.” (Isaiah 49:11)

 

Do not try to tunnel under them, nor to squeeze through them, nor to run away from them, but to claim them

 

Tighten your loins with the promises of God!

 

These mountains of difficulty are His stepping stones; walk on them with holy joy. Keep the strong staff of faith well in hand, and trust God in the dark.

 

We are safer with Him in the dark than without Him in the sunshine. At the end of the gloomy passage beams the heavenly light! When we reach heaven we may discover that the richest and most profitable experiences that we had in this world were those gained in the very roads from which we shrank back in dread.

 

It was because Job was on God’s main line that he found so many tunnels. The great thing to remember is that God’s darkness are not His goals. His tunnels must be traveled to get somewhere else. Therefore, be patient my soul! The darkness is not thy borne; the tunnel is not thy abiding home!

 

The traveler who would pass from the wintry slopes of Switzerland into the summer beauty of the plains of Italy, must be prepared to tunnel the Alps.

 

Often darkness fills the pathway of the pilgrim’s onward track,

And we shrink from going forward – trembling, feel like going back:

But the Lord who plans so wisely, leads us on both day and night,

Till at last, in silent wonder, we rejoice I Wisdom’s light.

 

Though the tunnel may be tedious through the narrow darkened way,

Yet it amply serves its purpose – soon it brings the light of day:

And the way so greatly dreaded, as we backward take a glance,

Shows the skill of careful planning: never the result of chance!

 

Is your present path a tunnel, does the darkness bring you fear?

To the upright, oh, remember, He doth cause a light to cheer

Press on bravely, resting calmly, though a way you dimly see,

Till, at length, so safely guided, you emerge triumphantly.

 

Trust the Engineer Eternal, surely all His works are right,

Though we cannot always trace them, faith will turn at last to sight:

Then no more the deepening shadows of the dark and dismal way,

There for ever in clear sunlight, we’ll enjoy “the perfect day.”

 

The tunnel is never on a sliding – it is planned to lead somewhere!

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(3) It requires storms to produce the rooting

 

“For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters.” (Jeremiah 17:8)

 

Trees that brave storms are not propagated in hot – houses!

 

The staunchest tree is not found in the shelter of the forest, but out in the open where the winds from every quarter beat upon it, and bend and twist it until it becomes a giant in stature.

 

It requires storms to produce the rooting.

 

Out on the meadow it stands to shelter the herds and flocks. The earth about the tree hardens. The rains do little good for the water runs off.

 

But the terrific storm strikes. It twists, turns, wrenches, and at times all but tears it out of its place. If the tree could speak it might bitterly complain. Should nature listen and cease the storm process?

 

The storm almost bends the tree double. It is wrath now. What can such seeming cruelty mean? Is that love? But wait!

 

About the tree the soil is all loosened. Great cracks are opened up away down in the ground. Deep wounds they might appear to be inexperienced. The rain now comes in with its gentle ministry. The WOUNDS fill up. The moisture reaches away down deep even to the utmost root. The sun again shines. New and vigorous life bursts forth. The roots go deeper and deeper. The branches shoot forth. Now and again one hears something snap and crack like a pistol: it is getting too big for its clothes! It is growing into a giant! It is rooting!

 

This is the tree from which the mechanic wants his tools made – the tree which the wagon – maker seeks.

 

When you see a spiritual giant, think of the road over which he has traveled – not the sunny lane where wildflowers ever bloom, but a steep, rocky, narrow pathway where the blasts of hell will almost blow you off your feet, where the sharp rocks cut the feet, where the projecting thorns scratch the brow, and the venomous serpents hiss on every side.

 

(4) The finest of flowers bloom in the sandiest of deserts as well as in the hothouse!

 

“That it may bring forth more fruit.” (John 15:2)

 

Two years ago I set out a rosebush in the corner of my garden. It was to bear yellow roses. And it was to bear them profusely. Yet, during these two years, it has not produced a blossom!

 

I asked the florist from whom I bought the bush why it was so barren of flowers. I had cultivated it carefully; had watered it often; had made the soil around it as rich as possible. And it had grown well.

 

“That’s just why,” said the florist. “That kind of rose needs the poorest soil in the garden. Sandy soil would be best, and never a bit of fertilizer. Take away the rich soil and put gravelly earth in its place. Cut the bush back severely. Then it will bloom.”

 

I did - and the bush blossomed forth in the most gorgeous yellow known in nature. Then I moralized: that yellow rose is just like many lives. Hardships develop beauty in the soul; they thrive on troubles; trials bring out all the best in them; ease and comfort and applause only leave them barren.- Pastor Joyce.

 

The baroque by tempest vainly tossed

May founder in the calm;

And he who braved the polar frost

Faint by the isles of balm.

-        Whittier.

 

(5) Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God!

 

 

“We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves.”                   (2 Corinthians 1:9)

 

These are weighty words for all Christ’s servants; but we must be His servants in reality, in order to enter into their deep significance. If we are content to live a life of indolence and ease, a life of self-seeking and self-pleasing, it is impossible for us to understand such words,, or indeed to enter into any of those intense exercises of soul through which Christ’s true-hearted servants and faithful witnesses, in all ages, have been called to pass.

 

We find, invariably, that all those who have been most used of God in public have gone through deep waters in secret. Paul could say to the Corinthians, “Death worketh in us; but life in you.” Death working in the in the poor earthern vessel; but streams of life, heavenly grace, and spiritual power flowing into those to whom he ministered.

 

How the professing church has departed from the divine reality of ministry! Where are the Pauls, the Gideons, and the Joshuas. Where are the deep heart-searchings and profound soul exercises which have characterized Christ’s  servants in other days? Flippant, worldly, shallow, empty, self-sufficient, and self-indulgent are we! Need we wonder at the small results?

 

How can we expect to see life working in others, when we know so little about death working in us? May the eternal Spirit stir us all up! May He work in us a more powerful sense of what it is to be true-hearted, single-eyed, devoted servants of the Lord Jesus Christ!

 

From prayer that asks that I may be

Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,

From fearing when I should aspire,

From faltering when I should climb higher,

From silken self, O Captain free

Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

 

From subtle love of softening things,

From easy choices, weakenings,

(Not thus are spirits fortified,

Not this way went the Crucified)

From all that dims Thy Calvary

O Lamb of God deliver me.

 

Give me the love that leads the way,

The faith that nothing can dismay,

The hope no disappointments tire,

The passion that will burn like fire;

Let me not sink to be a clod:

Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

(6) The Island of Buried Hopes!

 

 

“In the isle that is called Patmos, for the Word of God.” (Rev.1:9)

 

Can we not imagine how eagerly John would lay himself out for a life of incessant service for His divine Master and Lord?  No task would seem too great, no toil too arduous, if only His Lord might be glorified; and we can well imagine how all his plans, ambitions, desires would center round the extension of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Then, suddenly – Patmos!  What now became of all his hopes and longings, his plans and projects?  Surely he buried them all as he set foot on Patmos.  They died when he first heard his sentence; they were interred with no prospect of a resurrection.  Patmos was, for the beloved disciple

 

The Island of Buried Hopes!

 

But John soon discovered that Patmos had its compensations.  True, he could no longer entertain the hope of carrying out all his plans, yet he learned in Patmos that truer and noble service would yet be his than any he had ever contemplated.  To him came the assurance that not only has the Lord loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, but He hath set us apart as both kings and priests, and nothing can ever terminate that royal priesthood.  John had caught sight of a far greater honor and holier service awaiting him in the land that lies beyond.

 

It might have been thought that John in his dreary exile was terribly isolated.  Some one has said not isolated, but insulated, and there is a world of difference between the two.  True, the island was small and his confines narrow, but that was only the outer circumstances of his life, his daily environment.

 

Nothing to see!  Ah, but John found it not so!  The overwhelming glory of the sight of his risen Lord robbed him of his strength until he felt the gracious gentle pressure of the pierced Hand resting upon him. Again and again he tells us that he heard a Voice speaking to him.  Whilst these things were so he could never feel that there was nothing to see!  He could never feel alone!  And the Spirit so insulated John that God’s messages might pass through him to the entire world!

 

Most of us are well acquainted with this experience.  We may not have had to suffer at the hands of any earthly potentate, but there must be comparatively few who have not, at some time, had to bury their fondest hopes, their most eager desires.  Oh, weary troubled heart,  if God has led you to the island of Buried Hopes, it is that He may show you yet more wonderful things.  He has not failed you, nor forgotten you, but has led you into the darkened room because we, in His own time and way, He would reveal to you the unsuspected glory of His grace and power.

 

Is our life lonely?  Monotonous?  We need opened eyes.  Standing near us all the time is the same wonderful Lord Who stood by John in Patmos.  Oh, the joy, even of Patmos, when it is filled with the presence of Jesus!

 

Patmos has its compensations!

 

But if we would share in them, and Patmos is to be a blessing to us, we must fulfill certain conditions.  Here is the secret that transforms all disappointments, suffering, monotony, loneliness – love to Christ, that impels us to learn of Him day by day, to lean upon Him in constant communion, to look upon Him as the all.-sufficient Saviour.

 

To those who fulfill those conditions, there is no Patmos that is not irradiated by a glory that is not of earth.

 

Our Father makes no mistakes!

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(7) Keep me from turning back!

 

Deep indeed is the world’s debt to people who would not quit!

 

Suppose Columbus had not sailed!  Suppose Anne Sulivan, discouraged, had lost hope for Hellen Keller! Suppose Louis Pasteur, searching for a cure for rabies, had not said to his weary helpers: ‘Keep on! The important thing is not to leave the subject!”

 

Many a race is lost at the last lap!  Many a ship is washed on the reefs outside the final port!  Many a battle is lost on the last charge!

 

What hope have we of completing the course upon which we have embarked?  What hope?  Ah!  He is able to keep.  “He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.”

 

God cannot help us until we stop running away.  We must be willing to stand somewhere and trust Him.  He has reinforcements to send, but there must be somebody there to meet them when they come, and fear takes flight as well as fright.  “Fear not” is the first step.

 

Keep me from turning back

My hand is on the plough, my faltering hand:

But all in front of me is untilled land,

The wilderness and solitary place,

The loving desert with its interspace.

What harvest have I but this paltry grain,

These dwindling husks, a handful of dry corn,

These poor lean stalks?  My courage is outworn.

Keep me from turning back.

The handles of my plough with tears are wet,

The shares with rust are spoiled, and yet, and yet,

My God! My God! Keep me from turning back.

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(8) O God of the Impossible!

 

“Under utterly hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed.”

(Rom.4:18)

 

When God is going to do something wonderful, He begins with a difficulty.  If it is going to be something very wonderful, He begins with an impossibility.

 

O God of the impossible!

Since all thins are to Thee

But soil in which Omnipotence

Can work almightily,

 

Each trial may to us become

The means that will display

How over what seems impossible

Our God hath perfect sway!

 

The very storms that beat upon

Our little baroque so frail,

But manifest thy power to quell

All forces that assail.

 

The things that are to us too hard,

The foes that are too strong,

And just the very ones that may

Awake a triumph song.

 

O God of the impossible,

When we no hope can see,

Grant us the faith that still believes

All possible to Thee!

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(9) The storm that shook thy nest taught thee to fly!

 

“As an eagle stirreth up her nest.” (Deut.32:a11)

 

God, like the eagle, stirs our nest.  Yesterday it was the place for us; today there is a new plan.  He wrecks the nest, although He knows it is dear to us; perhaps, because it is dear to us.  He loves us too well not to spoil our meager contentment.  Let not our minds, therefore, dwell on second causes.  It is His doing!  Do not let us blame the thorn that pierces us.

 

Though the destruction of the nest may seem wanton, and almost certainly come at an hour when I do not expect it; though the things happen that I least anticipate – let me guard my heart and be not forgetful of God’s care, lest I miss the meaning of the wreckage of my hopes.  He has something better for me.

 

God will not spoil our nest, and leave us without a nest, if a nest is best for us.  His seeming cruelty is love; therefore, let us always sit light with the things of time.

 

The eaglet says, “Teach me to fly!”  The saints often sit idly wishing that they were like to their Lord.  Neither is likely to recognize that the prayer is heard when the nest is toppled over!

 

The breaking up of a nest an act of God’s benevolence?  What a startling  thought!

 

Yet, here is an old writer who makes it a subject of praise; blesses God for it; declares it to bt the first step of my education!  I can understand praising Him for His gifts to body and soul; but I lose my breath in surprise when I am asked to make the first stanza of my hymn the adoration of his mercy in loosening the ties of Home!

 

Nay, my soul, it is to strengthen these ties that my Father breaks up the nest; not to get rid of home, but to teach thee to fly!  Travel with thy Teacher and thou shalt learn that

 

The Home is wider than any nest!

 

He would have thee learn of the many mansions of which they nest is only one.  He would tell thee of a brotherhood in Christ, which includes, yet transcends, thy household fires.  He would tell thee of the family altar, which makes thee brother to the outcast, sister to the friendless – in kinship to all.

 

They Father hath given thee wings in the breaking of thy ties!

 

The storm that shook thy nest taught thee to fly!

 

“God spreads broad wings;

And by His lifting, holy grace,

We find a wider, fairer place,

The freedom of untrammeled space;

Where clearer vision shows us things

The nest-view never brings.”

 

The wing-life is characterized by comprehensiveness.  High soaring gives wide seeing!  - Dr.Jowett.

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(10) The hour and the God!

 

“Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Hab.2:3)

 

Some things have their cycle in an hour and some in a century; but His plans shall complete their cycle whether long or short.  The tender annual which blossoms for a season and dies, ands the Columbian aloe which develops in a century, each is true to its normal principle.  Many of us desire to pluck our fruit in June rather than wait until October, and so, of course, it is sour and immature; but God’s purposes ripen slowly and fully, and faith waits while He tarries, knowing He will surely come and will not tarry too long.

 

It is perfect rest to fully learn and wholly trust this glorious promise.  We may know without a question that His purposes shall be accomplished when we have fully committed our ways to Him, and are waling in watchful obedience to His every prompting. This faith will give a calm and tranquil poise to the spirit and save us from the restless fret of trying to do too much ourselves.

 

Wait, and every wrong will righten;

 Wait, and every cloud will brighten,

If you will only wait.  – Dr.A.B.Simpson.

 

How much depends upon knowing when the time is exactly ripe!  Not to interfere before the crisis arrives; not to let the opportunity pass when the crisis has arrived.  This power of discernment, of patience, of promptitude, is a gift of superlative value.

 

Who knows the psychological moment like the Keeper of Israel?  He does not interfere too soon; He allows the enemy rope enough to hang himself; He waits until his people know their weakness and peril, and are shut up to Him.  He does not interpose too late; at the critical juncture he smites the pride of His people.

 

We see in nature how precisely God works by the clock; certainly He is not less exact in the times and seasons of human life.  We often speak of “the hour and the man”; let us remember “the hour and the God.”

 

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(11) “At even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded” (Eze.24:18)

 

At even my wife died.”  The light of the home went out.  Darkness brooded over the face of every familiar thing. The trusted companion who had shared all the changes of the ever-changing way was taken from my side.  The light of our fellowship was suddenly extinguished as by some mysterious hand stretched forth from the unseen.  I lost “the desire of mine yes.”  I was alone.  “At even my wife died and….in the morning…” Aye, what about the next morning, when the light broke almost obtrusively upon a world which had changed into a cemetery containing only one grace.  “In the morning I did as I was commanded.”

 

The command had been laid upon him in the days before his bereavement.  Life in his home had been a source of inspiring fellowship.  In the evening-time, after the discharge of the burdensome tasks of the day, he had turned to his home as weary dust-choked pilgrims turn to a bath; and immersed in the sweet sanctities of wedded life he had found such restoration of soul as fitted him for the renewed about of the morrow.  But “at even my wife died.”  The home was no longer a refreshing bath, but part of the dusty road; no longer an oasis, but a repetition of the wilderness.

 

How now shall it be concerning the prophet’s command?  “At even my wife died, and in the morning: the commandment?  How does the old duty appear in the gloom of the prophet’s bereavement?  Duty still, clamant and clamorous now in the shadows as it was loud and importunate in the light.  What shall the prophet do?  Take up the old burden, and faithfully trudge the old road.  Go out in his loneliness, and go on with the old tasks.  But why?  You will find the secret of it all in the last clause of the chapter:” Thou shalt be a sing unto them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

 

A broken-hearted prophet patiently and persistently pursuing an old duty, and by his manner of doing it compelling people to believe in the Lord!  That is the secret motive of the heavy disciple.

 

The great God wants our conspicuous crises to be occasions of conspicuous testimony; our seasons of darkness to be opportunities for the unveiling of the Divine.  He wants duty to shine more resplendently because of the environing shadows.  He wants tribulation only to furbish and burnish our signs.  He wants us to manifest the sweet grace of continuance amid all the sudden and saddening upheavals of our intensely varied life.  This was the prophet’s triumph.  He made his calamity a witness to the eternal.  He made his very loneliness minister to his God.  He made his very bereavement intensify his calling.  He took up the old task, land in taking it up he glorified it. “At even my wife died; and in the morning I did as I was commanded.”

 

The evening sorrow will come to all of us: what shall we be found doing in the morning?  We shall have to dig graves; have burials: how shall it be with us when the funeral is over?  -       Dr.Jowett.

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(12) “Unto Myself I would bring thee!”