Daily Inspirational

[Brother Love]

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED




"And you, that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight" (Colossians 1:21,22).



In order for our Father to be satisfied with us, He placed us in His Son. In order for us to be satisfied with our Father, we "rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).

"On what ground is our faith tested?  It is on the ground of our very relationship with God and God's attitude toward us.  The concen-tration of the enemy is upon that point---to interfere with out link with God.

"What is our link with God?  It is this---the Lord Jesus Christ, as the answer to God and to Satan for us.  It will never be what we are in ourselves.  If you are expecting a day to come when in virtue of what you are in your-self you can satisfy God, you are destined to an awful disillusionment.  The day will never come when we can satisfy God in ourselves, not even more or less."

"How could there be any doubt about the believer's perfect security if his position in the Lord Jesus were realized?  It would be impossible. Can He change?  Or will God say to Him, I cannot any longer accept You as
standing for this people?  Or, once again if standing for them, is He on probation?  Is His work completely done, or still to do?"---F.W.G.

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:13).

MILES J. STANFORD
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[Brother Love]

THY WILL BE DONE




"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into various trials" (James 1:2).



You can be sure that you are in the will of God when He keeps you dependent upon Himself, walking in the Holy Spirit, and  abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Often all we think of is, having our need  met; but how little a thing is that with God!   It would cost Him nothing, we may say, to meet the need of a lifetime in a moment; and a lesser love than His would supply it at once, and get rid of the constant burden.

"But that is not His way.  To supply the need is a small thing; but to supply it in such a way as to make us feel in each seasonable supply the Father's heart never withdrawn from us, the Father's heart ever employed about us---that is what He means.  'Give us our daily bread': is it not much more than to ask, 'Give us now, that we may not have to come again?'


"The God given experience of the Spirit's working many a time passes away, and leaves the soul apparently dull and dead.  This is only until the double lesson has been full learned:  (1) that a living faith can rejoice in the Living God, even when feeling and ex-perience appear to contradict the promise (Romans 8:28, 29); and (2)  that the divine life
only predominates as the life of the flesh is held in the place of death, inoperative (Romans 6:11a).  The life of the Lord Jesus is revealed as His death works in us (2 Cor.   4:11, 12), and as in weakness and nothing-ness we look to Him (2 Corinthians 3:18)."---A.M.

"Knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:3).

MILES J. STANFORD
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[Brother Love]

VICTORIOUS VINEDRESSER





"No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteous-ness unto them who are exercised by it" (Hebrews 12:11).

Vision:  The Word gives us the true picture of growth.
Verification:  The Spirit gives us a taste thereof.
Vindication:  The Lord Jesus, later, gives us maturity.

"A great mystery surrounds the spiritual growth of the hungry-hearted believer.  The Spirit gives a foretaste of a deeper life before the believer is led into the fullness of it.  Many believers mistake their foretaste for the fullness, not realizing that the Lord is just beginning to lead them in."

"The forwardness of nature is the failure of our youth---our spiritual youth, as well as our natural youth; eagerness to run in God's  path, but not apprehending what the path is, or what it requires to walk in it.  On the other hand, when the cost is counted, and our weakness known, the energy begotten of self-confidence being gone, we need a stimulat-ing call on God's part, to get out of the per-sistent occupation with our weakness now, as with our strength before."---F.W.G.

"Suffering is not meant by God to be loss and deprivation.  Satan says that it is.  God means suffering to result in increased spir-itual capacity, which is the basis of added responsibility, trust, and fruitful sharing.   The branch of the vine may bleed from the drastic pruning and feel stripped of much glory; but more and better fruit is the vine- dresser's vindication."

"As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49).

MILES J. STANFORD


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[Brother Love]

RAISON D'ETRE




"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace" (John 16:33).







Great will be the day when you come to re-alize that the sole reason for the existence of your Bible, your soul and your spirit is to
glorify---and share---the Lord Jesus Christ.

"The moment we begin to rest our peace on anything in ourselves, we lose it.  And this is why so many saints have not settled peace.  Nothing can be lasting that is not built on God alone.   How can  you  have  settled
peace?  Only by having it in God's way.  By not resting on anything, even the Spirit's work within, but on what the Lord Jesus has done entirely outside you.   Then you will know peace---conscious unworthiness, but yet peace.

"In the Lord Jesus alone, God finds that in which He can rest concerning us, and so it is with His saints.  The more you see the extent and nature of the evil that is within, as well  as without, the more you will find that what the Lord Jesus is and did, is the only ground at all on which you can rest.

"Alas!  the freedom which the Gospel brings may be used to take things east, and, more or less retain or gain in the world; but where this is the case, it is seldom a soul possesses any large measure of spiritual enjoyment, and it is never accompanied by solid peace.  The soul becomes thus unsettled and uncertain.  The oscillations may go on for a certain
time, until God carries on the work more deeply in the heart."

"As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants  of God" (1 Peter 2:16).

MILES J. STANFORD
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[Brother Love]

TREASURE TROVE




"But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9).







The Spirit's ministry is to make Christ all to each.

"We are the objects of the continual care and discipline of our heavenly Father.  If we walk after the flesh, instead of after the Spirit, this may call for His loving rebuke and chastening (child training); but that in no way interferes with the precious truth of our continual acceptance and position in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, by whose one offering we have been perfected forever.

"Through grace, we are not in the flesh, but in Christ, yet the flesh is in us; but our part is to reckon it as having been, before God and to faith, judicially put to death in Christ crucified, thus setting us free to be so con-stantly occupied with the triumphant Son of God, as to find all our resources, all our strength, all our springs, in Him."---H.H.S.

"If we have the Lord Jesus, we have all---without Him, we have nothing. You can be happy without money, without liberty, with-out parents, and without friends, if HE is yours.  If you have not Christ, neither money, nor liberty, nor parents, nor friends can make you happy.  Christ, with a chain, is liberty; liberty without Christ is a chain.  Christ without anything is riches---all things, with-out Christ is poverty indeed."

"If children, then heirs---heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ---if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together' (Romans 8:17).

MILES J. STANFORD
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[Brother Love]

DIVINE LAYAWAY



"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12).



In faith we apprehend the growth truths; in fact the Lord Jesus apprehends us for growth in those truths.

"I have been much struck by the thought of the hiddenness and slowness of God's workings.  It must be a matter of distinct faith.  If we do not understand this it will make us impatient.  If we understand it will
teach us to rest in God and to yield ourselves all the more joyfully to Him to work out His purpose.  In all creation time is the great perfecter of growth.  So with us, God will perfect that which concerns us."

" 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness' (Romans 4:3) when his faith apprehended the promise of God; yet it was nearly 40 years after that this Scripture was fulfilled, when he offered his son.  The faith had it apprehension and enjoyment for many a year before the work of faith.

"In proportion as the revelation is of God, in like measure must there be an answer to it sooner or later.  Effect must follow cause.  If the light has been received, the day will come that it must assert and obtain an expression of itself."

    "Two glad services are ours, Both the  Master loves to bless.
      First we serve with all our powers, Then with all our helplessness."

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).

MILES J. STANFORD

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[Brother Love]

THE WORD'S WORD



"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19).







The written Word is meant to reveal the Living Word, not to hide Him. Many know prophecy better than the Prophet.  Our Father gave us His written Word that we might know His Son, not only as Saviour but as our very Life.  "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17).

"The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of the believer's life.  That is, it underlies our very relationship with God; it underlies all our growth in grace; it underlies every fragment of our service. There is noth-ing which comes within the compass of the life of the Christian which does not depend upon the knowledge of the Lord Jesus."
---T.A-S.

"Heart acquaintance with Christ is the secret of spiritual growth.  One may know all the truths of the Bible, and yet be practically ignorant of the person of the Lord Jesus.  It is possible to go back into the world with acquaintance with the scriptures, but it is virtually impossible to return thither with the scriptural acquaintance of Christ in the heart."

"The believer should have but one object; knowing Christ has laid hold of him for glory, his heart is running after Him.  He is to have no other OBJECT, though he may have many things to do.  The Lord Jesus is 'in all' be- lievers as the power of life, and He is 'all' as the object of that life.  He is 'all and in all' (Colossians 3:11).  And, 'all to Him I owe'."

"Having an high priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:21, 22).

MILES J. STANFORD
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[Brother Love]

GRATUITOUS GRACE



"Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under grace" (Romans 6:14)



.



Grace forsaken is freedom forfeited.

"In considering the whole testimony of the Bible, it is almost as important for the believer who would do the will of God to recognize that which does not concern him as it is for him to recognize that which does concern him.

"It is obvious that, apart from the knowledge of dispensational truth, the believer will not be intelligently adjusted to the present purpose and will of God in the world.  Such knowledge alone will save him from assum- ing the hopeless legality of the dispensation that is past or from undertaking the  impossible world transforming program belonging to the dispensation which is to come."---W.S.C.

"The Law of Moses is interrelated and wholly dependent on the sacrifices and ritual provided for Israel in the land.  The laws of the kingdom (Sermon on the Mount) are only related to the future kingdom conditions which shall be in the earth under the power and presence of the King when Satan is bound, creation deliver-ed, and all shall know the Lord from the least unto the greatest."

"All harmony of truth is shattered when there is the slightest comin-gling of the principles of law and grace.  Grace alone now reigns through Christ to the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

"By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abun-dantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

MILES J. STANFORD
=================================
Daily Inspirational

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[Brother Love]

LOVE'S LEGACY









"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).



Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

"In mechanics, wobbling is weakness. Power issues from God's restfulness.  Are we rest-ing in the Lord?  Can we wait patiently for Him to act?  Anxiety  reduces  spiritual energy.  Lack of rest of heart is one of the most serious hindrances to Christians.

"Fret of soul when wronged, or fuss over financial or other concerns, is a depletion of power, a dissipation of  energy.  From  the rock basis of rest in Him we can put forth the whole of our energies.  Perfect peace is our promised portion."  

"Martha gets instruction; we all get that, for our Lord neglects none of us; but she did not get His company; company is what gives rest to the heart."

"Nothing  can separate the  believer from the love of God, and under no circumstances whatever can he come under the infliction of wrath from God.  He may have to correct His saints for their sins, and where  there  has  been  no failure He may chasten (child train) them for their profit, that they may become partakers of His holiness; but all this is in love, not in wrath.  Every  action  of  God toward His saints is in grace and blessing; it is ever the outcome of His love."

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep  your  hearts  and  minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil.4:7).

MILES J. STANFORD
=================================
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[Brother Love]

PROFFERED PROVISION




"We have known and believed the love that God hath to us" (1 John 4:16).







The Spirit convicts us of sins that we may be convinced of God's cleansing.  We do not deserve to be forgiven, but the Lord Jesus deserves to be trusted.

"We find the greatest difficulty often in bring-ing our sorrow to God. How can I do so, some may be saying, as my sorrow is the fruit of my sin? How can I take it to God?  If it was suffering for righteousness' sake, then I would, but I am suffering for my sin; and can I, in the integrity of my heart towards God, take my sorrows to Him, knowing I deserve them."

"Yes:  the Lord Jesus has been to God about them.  This, then, is the ground on which I can go.  There has been perfect atonement for all my sins;  Christ has been judged for them.  Will God judge us both?  No; I go to Him on the ground of atonement, and God can justly meet me in all my sorrow, because Christ's work has been so perfectly done." ---J.N.D.

"The guilt which the throne detects, the altar removes.  If in the light of the throne one object is seen, namely, ruined, guilty, undone self; then, in the light of the altar, one object is seen, namely, a full, precious, all-sufficient Christ.  The remedy reaches to the full extent of the ruin, and the same light that reveals the one reveals the other likewise.  This gives settled repose to the conscience.  God Him-self has provided a remedy for all ruin which the light of His throne has revealed."

"If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

MILES J. STANFORD

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[Brother Love]

The power of God has set us free in Christ








PLUS, OR MINUS?




"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6).


Grace PLUS Law = Death        Grace MINUS Law= Life!

"Covenant theology, which has molded the major theological conceptions for many generations, recognizes no distinction as to ages, therefore can allow for no distinctions between law and grace.  This dominating attitude of Covenantism must account for the utter neglect of life truth (growth) in all their works of theology.

"No more representative theological dictum from the Covenant viewpoint has been formed than the Westminster Confession of Faith, which valuable and important docu-ment recognizes life truth only to the point of imposing  the  Ten  Commandments  on Christians as their sole obligation, and in spite of the teachings of the New Testament which asserts that the Law was never given to Gentile or Christian."---L.S.C.

"While freeing believers from the bondage of Rome, the Protestant Reformation brought them back, in large measure, under the bond-age of Sinai.  The Reformation took away one set of bindings, but bound the believers with another---and this has atrophied the spiritual life of multitudes."---D.G.B.

"Not a single cluster of living fruit ever was, or ever will be, culled from the tree of legal-ity.  Law can only produce 'dead works,' from which  we need to have conscience purged just as much as from 'wicked works.'"--C.H.M.

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1).

MILES J. STANFORD
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[Brother Love]

PROPER PRESENTATION




"The things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, that same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2).



Truth based upon law will be presented le-
gally---it will be legislated. Truth based upon grace will be  shared  graciously,  in  love.  "Adorn the doctrine of God" by "speaking the truth in love" (Titus 2:10; Ephesians 4:15).

"There are two things that have to taken into account in communicating truth.  Not merely should there be certainty that it is the truth from God, but it must also be suited truth to those whom you address.  They might need
it  all, but  they may  not be  in condition to receive it; and the more precious the truth, the greater the injury, in a certain sense, if     it is presented to those who are not in a state to profit by it."

"We are to serve under His direction, and according to His pleasure; not just because opportunity or need offers.  We require His direction, and the knowledge of His pleasure, however favorable the opportunity  or  the
occasion.  We see a servant in Acts 8 taken away from an interesting field of service, to meet one man in the desert.  "It is not a question of how we succeed; but have we  the assurance that we are doing the Lord's
pleasure?  Happy is the servant who is so  led by Him that he  always  presents  the measure of truth suited to the state of souls, and refuses to supply the knowledge that puffeth up."

"Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13).

MILES J. STANFORD

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[Brother Love]

TRUTH TRIUMPHANT!



"To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth My voice" (John 18:37).







Arminianism's experience omits truth.  Cove-nant Calvinism's legality chokes truth.  Cross-centered Christianity's Christ-life is Truth!!

"Greater zeal for the salvation of sinners, and the amelioration of the condition of mankind, never was more manifested than at present (1850). This is ground of rejoicing to all the friends of the Gospel.  But there is one un-happy symptom of the present times, with respect to  Christianity.  Zeal for the PURITY of divine truth has not kept pace with zeal for the salvation of sinners."---A.C.

"The semblance of love which does not maintain the truth, but accommodates itself to that which is not the truth, is not love according to God.  In the last days the test of truth is the maintenance of the truth.

"God would have us love one another; but the Holy Spirit, by whose power we receive the divine nature, and who pours the love of God into our hearts, is the Spirit of TRUTH, and His office is to glorify Christ.

"Therefore it is impossible that a love which can put up with a doctrine that falsified Christ, or which is indifferent to anything that concerns His glory, can be of the Holy Spirit---still less so, if such indifference be set up as a proof of that love."

"In all things commending ourselves as the ministers of God. . . by the Word of Truth" (2 Corinthians 6:4, 7).

MILES J. STANFORD
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[Brother Love]

MANUALLY CONTROLLED




"Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them" (Colossians 2:15).







"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanks-giving of many redound to the glory of God.  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:15-17).   AMEN!

"The sovereignty of God is what alone gives rest to the Christian heart in view of a world full of evil, which is gone astray from Him.  To know that after all, in spite of the rebellion of the creature, things are as absolutely in His hand as ever they were--this brings, and alone brings, full relief.  Still He rules over all, and where evil cannot be turned to good, limits and forbids it; He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him,  and  the  remainder of wrath  (what would go beyond  this) He re-strains (Psalms 76:10)."---F.W.G.

"People may quarrel with the sovereignty of God, but I love it, because I know enough about my natural bent and will to be sure that if left to myself I should have gone straight to perdition.  Some believers talk about man's free will when they are on their feet, but all are firm believers in God's sovereignty when they get on their knees."---C.A.C.

"Human history is not in the grip of fate, but in the hands of Him Who was pierced for us on Calvary."---W.G.S.

"Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14).

MILES J. STANFORD
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TRUTH, OR CONSEQUENCES




"I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you" (1 John 2:14).


Experience may ratify, or it may repudiate, truth.  The Word alone, to faith, is truth unalterable.

"If I allow the thought that what I am toward God will in some way or other affect what God is toward me, I shall be filled with the specter of Bondage.  But when I see that what God is toward me is altogether the
outcome of what He is, and that He is this though knowing perfectly what I am, it puts my heart in the right direction for LIBERTY."---C.A.C.



No, No No Bondage, please.


"God speaks to us according to His estimate of our standing, our position; it may not be our heart's experience.  There is a distinct-ness between the operation of the Spirit of God in bringing me unto the LordJesus, bearing witness to me of God's love, and of the efficacy of what  Christ has done---and His operation in my soul to produce the image of His Son.



I have that Liberty , feels so good


"That which is the subject of experience is what is produced in my soul, whereas that which gives me peace is His testimony to the work and life of Christ.  A Christian who doubts the Father's love to him, and who
looks for peace to that which passes in his own heart, is doubting God's truth.  The Word is the revelation God has given of Himself; it displays the love of God toward us, and what is in His heart.  I can trust the
declaration of what is in God's heart, and not what I think of myself."---J.N.D.

"If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:6).

MILES J. STANFORD
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