He Who Holds the Keys

"It is impossible to be submissive and religiously patient if ye stay your thoughts down among the confused rollings and wheels of second causes, as O the place! O the time! O if this had been, this had not followed!...Look up to the master motion and the first wheel."

- Samuel Rutherford

"We are always held in the love of God.  We are never wholly at the mercy of other people - they are only 'second causes," and no matter how many second or third or fiftieth causes seem to be in control of what happens to us, it is God who is in charge, He who holds the keys, He who casts the lot finally into the lap."

- Elisabeth Elliot

"'The eternal God is your dwelling place,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.’"
(Deuteronomy 33:27 ESV)

"The Proof of Love"

Testing Times - The Proof of Love

"Fear not: for God is come to prove you."—Exodus xx. 20.

..."Fear not,"—this was the tender message; and the reason for confidence was given,—"for God is come to prove you" The blessed fact of His presence changed the appearance of all the things that seemed against me. The trial was not taken away, but my eyes were opened to see that, if it came from the hand of my God, there must be a blessing in it. My soul pondered the sweet assurance, and found therein the calm of Heaven, after the storms and strifes of earth.

...If we can only get firmly fixed in our hearts the truth that the Lord's hand is in everything that happens to us, we have found a balm for-all our woes, a remedy for all our ills. When friends fail us and grow cold, when enemies triumph and wax confident, when the smooth pathway upon which we have been travelling suddenly becomes rough, stony, and steep,—we are too apt to look askance at the visible second causes, and to forget that our God has foreseen every trial, permitted every annoyance, and authorized   each item of discipline, with this set purpose: "The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut. xiii. 3). O heart of mine, what is thy response to this demand? Dost thou not love Him enough to endure any test to prove it?

I remember once reading words to this effect—that, the moment we come into any trial or difficulty, our first thought should be, not how soon can we escape from it, or how may we lessen the pain we shall suffer from it, but how can we best glorify God in it, and most quickly learn the lesson which He desires to teach us by it? ...The soul that has learned the blessed secret of seeing God's hand in all that concerns it, cannot be a prey to fear; it looks beyond all second causes,straight into the heart and will of God, and rests content, because He rules.

"God is come to prove you'' My soul, think how great must be His love to thee, that He should stoop to search for thy heart's obedience and devotion! Think of the Infinite God, thy Redeemer, longing, desiring, yearning to be assured of thy supreme affection! As He Himself puts it by His servant Moses, —

" Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee, ... to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no." 

What pains He has taken with thee! How tenderly He has borne with thee! Every trial has been a test, every pain has had a purpose. And can it be that thou art still keeping back from Him the full surrender of heart and life which His Divine love demands? Still lingering and wavering on the borderland of halfheartedness, instead of gladly leaving all to follow Him? Nay, Lord, it shall be so no longer! Help me to give Thee, at this moment, instantly and eagerly, the proof of my love which Thou dost seek, in the submission of my heart to all Thy will, and the entire consecration of body, soul, and spirit to Thy service! Then, every yoke will be made easy, and every burden will become light, for I shall carry them under the firm conviction that my gracious Lord has laid them on me, and is but testing the strength of the love and grace which He Himself has given.

~Susannah Spurgeon

That Thou May'st Find Thy All in Me

I asked the Lord that I might grow

In faith, and love, and every grace;

Might more of His salvation know,

And seek, more earnestly, His face.

’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,

And He, I trust, has answered prayer!

But it has been in such a way,

As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,

At once He’d answer my request;

And by His love’s constraining pow’r,

Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel

The hidden evils of my heart;

And let the angry pow’rs of hell

Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed

Intent to aggravate my woe;

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,

Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,

Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?

“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,

I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,

From self, and pride, to set thee free;

And break thy schemes of earthly joy,

That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

~ John Newton

"And death itself shall not dissolve."

I've been listening to an audio version of Foxe's Book of Martyrs recently and was particularly touched by this account. It is hard to judge whether the woman was right in her actions. Perhaps she was foolish, perhaps desperate, but her devotion as a wife - to cast her lot wholly with her husband in his faith and in the consequences of it - seems beautiful:

Pichel, a bigoted popish magistrate, apprehended twenty-four Protestants, among whom was his daughter's husband. As they all owned they were of the reformed religion, he indiscriminately condemned them to be drowned in the river Abbis. On the day appointed for the execution, a great concourse of people attended, among whom was Pichel's daughter. This worthy wife threw herself at her father's feet, bedewed them with tears, and in the most pathetic manner, implored him to commisserate her sorrow, and pardon her husband. The obdurate magistrate sternly replied, "Intercede not for him, child, he is a heretic, a vile heretic." To which she nobly answered, "Whatever his faults may be, or however his opinions may differ from yours, he is still my husband, a name which, at a time like this, should alone employ my whole consideration." Pichel flew into a violent passion and said, "You are mad! cannot you, after the death of this, have a much worthier husband?" "No, sir, (replied she) my affections are fixed upon this, and death itself shall not dissolve my marriage vow."Pichel, however, continued inflexible, and ordered the prisoners to be tied with their hands and feet behind them, and in that manner be thrown into the river. As soon as this was put into execution, the young lady watched her opportunity, leaped into the waves, and embracing the body of her husband, both sank together into one watery grave. An uncommon instance of conjugal love in a wife, and of an inviolable attachment to, and personal affection for, her husband.

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” (Ruth 1:16-17 ESV)

"And shall be theirs"

I cut this poem out of a church bulletin and have had it taped on my wall for years. The paper is now old and curling, but the words are now in my memory. After taking down at last the well-loved little paper from my wall, I think the poem deserves a fresh imprinting here.

"Wouldst thou have that good, that blessed mind,

That is so much to heavenly things inclin'd

That it aloft will soar, and always be

Contemplating on blest eternity?

That blessed mind that counts itself then free

When it can at the throne of Jesus be.

There to behold the mansions he prepares

For such as be with him and his co-heirs.

This mind is in the covenant of grace,

And shall be theirs that truly seek his face."

- John Bunyan

"Over all His works"

"Even the unclean beasts, which were least valuable and profitable, were preserved alive in the ark; for God's tender mercies are over all his works, and not over those only that are of most eminence and use."- Matthew Henry

Wikimedia Commons

Thoughts on a Humble Life

"Clothes came in with sin. We should have had no occasion for them, either for defence or decency, if sin had not made us naked, to our shame. Little reason therefore we have to be proud of our clothes." '

- Matthew Henry

" in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control..."

- 1 Timothy 2:9, ESV

"That calling or condition of life is best for us, and to be chosen by us, which is best for our souls, that which least exposes us to sin and gives us most opportunity of serving and enjoying God."

- Matthew Henry

"aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one."

- 1 Thessalonians 4:11, ESV