Walking with Jesus! Part 2
Walking with Jesus! Part 2
Sin darkens the eye and hardens the heart.
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Realize more and more your glorious inheritance, and do not covet the poor trifles of time and sense.
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In Heaven I will see my own most precious Redeemer, enthroned in all His glory, His countenance radiant with ineffable love, and a welcome beaming from every feature. So shall I behold Him who loved me with an everlasting love and landed me at last in the kingdom of glory. The redeemed shall all be encircling the throne, and basking in the full sunshine of the Redeemer's countenance; while I shall lie prostrate at His feet in wondering joy and adoring love at the matchless grace that brought me there.
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When Christians meet together, they talk too much about religion, preachers, and sermons. I cannot but think, that if they communed less about religion, and more of Jesus, it would give a higher tone of spirituality to their conversation, and prove more refreshing to the soul. He would then oftener draw near, and make Himself one in their midst, and talk with them by the way.
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God be praised for His wondrous goodness to me, as poor and needy a sinner as ever lived; and yet I shall live forever, and rejoice in God my Savior through an endless eternity!
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"Lord, here is my heart, my poor heart. Take it just as it is, and make it all that You would have it to be; cast it into Your mold, and let it receive and reflect Your image, Son of God, inexpressibly precious Jesus, Savior of sinners, Redeemer of my never dying soul!"
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Jesus is the Fountain, yes, the Ocean, of living waters. We draw supplies from His infinite, inexhaustible fullness. "Lord, impart to me more of Yourself. Fill this heart with Your love, engrave Your image there, and let me not lose sight of You for one small moment."
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Jesus is all in all to me. I feel a blessed nearness to Him, to Heaven. My soul holds converse with Him, and sweet I find it to lie as a helpless infant at His feet; yes, passive in His loving hands, knowing no will but His.
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What a mercy, thus to unburden the whole heart; the tried and weary, the tempted and sorrowful heart; tried by sin, tried by Satan, tried by those you love! What a mercy to have a loving bosom to flee to, one truly loving heart to confide in, which responds to the faintest breathing of the Spirit! "Precious Jesus, how inexpressibly dear are You to me at this moment! Keep sensibly near to me. Lift up upon me Your heavenly countenance, for it is sweeter, dearer, better than life!"
Vast as eternity are His mercies, infinite His perfections, and wonderful all His ways. What will eternity disclose to my astonished sight, my eyes then unveiled to see what now I understand not!
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I shall soon exchange earth for Heaven, and finally close my eyes, when I shall re-open them in glory. Oh, to be there! Oh, to see Jesus face to face! To behold Him whom my soul loves, and be with Him forever! But a little while, and I am there!
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My sins, which are mountains high, are all pardoned, blotted out of the book of God's remembrance by the precious blood of His dear and well beloved Son. Praise God for His marvelous goodness to me a sinner!
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What a blessing it is to have such a Friend to go to as Jesus, with all our difficulties, small and great, transferring them to His hands who is infinite in wisdom and in power, and will do all things well. Is not this a mercy worth recording in letters of gold, to be written in the deep recesses of every believing heart?
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Without Jesus life would be an aching void, earth a wilderness of woe and sorrow! He can transform this wilderness into a little Heaven, making it radiant with His presence! What must Heaven itself be!
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No weeping in Heaven! Blessed be God for the hope He has given us beyond this scene of sin and sorrow. Let us arise, and travel on!
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I think, if I had ten thousand hearts, I would give them all to Jesus!
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I am increasingly persuaded that it is alone by constant communion with Jesus, that we can attain to any progression in the divine life.
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No happiness that all the glory of this world could produce is equal to that of a broken heart at the feet of Jesus. It is sweet to creep into the very bosom of Christ, while we feel how utterly worthless and unworthy, yet how welcome, we are.
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His will is best at all times. For the world, I would not be left to have my own way in any one thing.
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Prayer brings Heaven down into the soul, and lifts the soul towards Heaven.
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Let us live more for eternity, and less for this poor dying world.
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For wise and gracious purposes, the Lord chastens those whom He loves. Let us lie passive in His hands, leaving ourselves to be dealt with according to His infinite wisdom and love. I know you have your cares; but if you would carry them simply to Christ, He would make the rough places plain and the crooked straight. In every difficulty go at once to Jesus, before you decide in your own mind, or listen to the dictates of your own heart. Jesus so loves you, that He would not lay the weight of a feather upon you more than is needful.
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Dear friend, let us live more decidedly for a glorious eternity. We are here but for a little while, and then pass away. A crown of glory awaits the poor sinner who clings to Jesus. I hope to meet you in that better world to which we are all so rapidly approaching.
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Pray, pray, pray without ceasing! God listens to your faintest breathing.
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So eternal and deep, so sovereign and boundless is the love of God, that angels cannot fathom it! He is nothing but sincere, constant, and unabating love, to the weakest, the most unworthy of all His little flock.
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Oh, the goodness of God, the wonders of His matchless love! Eternity will be only long enough to tell of it.
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My dear friend, have constant transactions with your precious Savior. A holy familiarity with Him will tend much to conform to His likeness. This simple living upon Christ has a most sanctifying, purifying tendency upon the whole inner man; and thus sin grows more hateful, and the world less attractive, and the pleasures of sense increasingly distasteful, and we are better fitted to sustain the trials of life.
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Oh, dear friend, let us often meditate on Heaven; it will assist us to bear more serenely the ills of life.
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Oh, the wondrous love of God in the gift of His beloved Son, to suffer, bleed, and die for such poor, wretched sinners!
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Oh, think of lost souls, of the eternal woe, where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched! Let us put far from us all the false charity that leaves sinners to stand upon the precipice of Hell, because we will not disturb their carnal security.
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Godly parents cannot convert their children; God alone can do this. But they can lead them to Jesus, and bring them up in the fear of the Lord. And when they have done this, they have done all they can do; for the Holy Spirit alone can change the heart. They must be born again. Christ has said it. The new birth is not a change of sentiment, nor an outward reformation of life; it is a new heart implanted by the Holy Spirit.
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How many are wasting their precious time on the things of this poor world they are so soon to leave, and are risking the never dying soul, yet hastening on to the judgment of God, unprepared for that great day for which all other days were made! Is not this madness?
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Bless God with me, that we are both so near our home, each day's travel bringing us nearer and nearer. Our eyes shall behold Him whom our souls love beyond all created good. What a prospect is before us! Forever with the Lord! Our journey is drawing to an end. Look forward, look upward. Jesus' eye is upon you; His heart is towards you. A few more severe trials, a few more staggering steps, and we are there!
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What a heart has Christ! Do you know what it is made of? It is an ocean of goodness. It is a sea, fathomless and shoreless, of matchless love; love to poor sinners, who but look to Him or sigh for Him. One loving look from Christ will dissolve your heart into love and sweet contrition.
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Oh, to have such a Friend as Jesus, who feels all our sorrows, carries all our burdens, and has promised to bring us safely through this trying world, and place us at last at His own right hand, where neither sickness nor sorrow shall ever come!
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"If you love Me, keep My commandments." Not one nor two only, but all. It is not given us to choose which we shall keep, and which we shall break.
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I am looking heavenward. There is my only, my best Friend, and there is my heart. Behold Him seated on His throne, and all the goodly company of the redeemed around Him. Oh, the blessedness of beholding all His unveiled beauties, and of basking in the sunshine of His countenance! Does not your heart burn within you when you think of these things, these glorious realities? Well, beloved, we shall all soon see Him eye to eye, face to face. There is much of Heaven to be enjoyed while here, a foretaste of what we shall realize through eternity.
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Christ has been with you in all your late deep trial, and He is with you now. See what a Friend you have by your side; to talk to in your solitude; to tell Him all you feel and fear, all you wish and need! Oh, what a Friend is Jesus! He is better than ten thousand husbands or children. What a Friend has He been to worthless me! I could not live without Him here, nor in Heaven either. He is the chief of all my joys, and my comfort by day and by night.
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This life is a dark passage to a world of light and glory above.
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Beloved fellow traveler in the kingdom of God, it is through much tribulation we are to enter into His kingdom of glory above. I have heard of the severe trial your Father has sent in much love. When we arrive at home, and trace our steps through this wilderness, we shall see that every trial, cross, and disappointment was needful, and that the work would not have been complete without all, even the least. Our loving God and Father takes no pleasure in afflicting us; but it is by these things we are brought to be better acquainted with ourselves and with Him. He does it all. Can anything happen to us but what God does in love to our souls? Are we not in His heart, and can anything happen to us but what He designs? Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you. He is better able to bear the burden than you are. Lie contented in His loving hands, and let Him take His own way with you.
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Yes, beloved, even your present trial shall be to the praise of His dear and holy name. Be of good cheer! God has commissioned it as a messenger of love, nothing but love; eternal, never ending love! Only trust Him for all consequences. He is doing all things well. Leave yourself in His blessed hands, and seek more for cheerful submission than for the removal of the trial. Be earnest for submission, and He will give it, and resignation will follow, and then what a calm! Be quiet in His hands, and feel that His will must be best, because He is God, and knows the end from the beginning, while we know nothing! I would not now have been without my trial for a thousand worlds. Oh, the goodness of God! His name is love, and wondrous is He in all His dealings with us; and He is dealing with us every moment of our brief existence. May the Lord comfort and guide you in every step you take, and enable you to repose passive in His dear hands, is the prayer of your affectionate sister in a precious Jesus.
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The rod, our all wise Father will not withhold. And what a mercy it is to be able to bear the rod, and to see the cause! But how often do we close our ears, and go on in our crooked way until He speaks by some louder and yet heavier blow! And then it is our mercy to run at once into the tender, loving bosom of God, confess our sin, and beg for renewed grace, to enable us to forsake it.
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Fallen human nature sometimes puts on a show of religion, and will go a great way while the heart is not changed, and the fear of God and the love of the Spirit is not there, and is not known. Thousands, I fear, deceive themselves with this resemblance of true religion.
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Oh to have the heart right with God! It is so awfully deceitful, and we are so continually more or less deceived by it, that we imagine all is right, when, in fact, all may be wrong.
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The oftener the gold is put into the furnace, the more the dross is consumed, and the brighter it shines. In our trials, we cling closer to Jesus; we see more of his loving heart, and imbibe more of His holy image.
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The way the Lord is teaching you is the right way. To be well acquainted with our own hearts is to bring us nearer to Jesus, and to make us more firmly cling to the cross. Your poor heart is the same as it was years ago, but there was no light to show its evil. But as you grow in grace you will see more and more the goodness of God in the gift of His dear Son, to make an all sufficient atonement for sinners so vile and utterly helpless as we are. It is a great mercy that, while the Holy Spirit opens up the deep fountain of iniquity within our hearts to our view, He also, at the same time, shows us the Fountain open, always open, in which we may wash and be clean. This makes Jesus so precious to the deeply taught Christian.
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Oh, God is such an ocean of love to me! The more His wondrous love is manifested, the more I hate and abhor myself!
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Oh, how strange that God should listen, and so listen, as if he said, "Yes, yes!" to every request I make! He overcomes me with His love. He breaks my heart, then heals it again. It is His love that does it. He gives godly sorrow; puts forth His hand and draws me near to Himself, and then says, What is your petition, and what is your request? Then I hasten to tell Him all, all, as if I feared He would withdraw before I could do so. But He lingers and listens, and then sends me away rejoicing that I have such a Friend in Heaven, and longing to drop this body of sin and death, that I might be with Him.