"I want you always to believe that God is faithful. However dark and mysterious any of his dispensations may appear, still confide in him. He can make you happy when every thing else is taken from you."

"David had purposed to build God a house, and, in requital, God promises to build him a house, 11. Whatever we do for God, or sincerely design to do though Providence prevents our doing it, we shall in no wise lose our reward."

Sharing some of my journey from last month . . .

Yesterday afternoon I felt a great confusion and consternation and darkness. I have continued to feel the door not opening, even closing, regarding my hope of a study at our church, and this has been a terrible strain to me... Of course, to my flesh, not pressing on to pursue such a thing makes no sense, and it grated on me, but I knew I had to submit to the will of the Lord in it. To trust HE would make me happy - even if this thing might be taken away from me. I knew for me to press on in the flesh would have been no different than Abram and Sarai making their plans with Hagar! My desire to have a group of women gathered is a good one. My desire to study the Bible and pray with them and speak of the Lord's work is a good one ~ Malachi 3:16ff. All that said, if it is not God's time for that, then it is NOT a good thing.  It greatly distressed me and I felt under a cloud, as it were. But one thing I kept holding onto was that God is not the author of confusion, but a God of peace and I knew His ways were perfect and just, but I didn't FEEL that.

I read some more of Payson last night and was once again reminded (not that I should have needed to be reminded, since I do know better, but I DID need to be reminded! - the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!) that GOD's ways are perfect, and that there would be NONE of that perfect peace and NO Sabbath rest - unless I was willing to be all He had for me, that all including my being nothing at all, if that were His will for me.

Edward Payson wrote this about six weeks before his passing:

Of course, I have known this, and once more I was cut to the heart. I had been wondering and been impatient at His leading. And yet, I had no absolutely NO reason to be act that way for I have seen time and again that God's ways are always best and I have NO cause whatsoever to distrust His love for even a moment.

Anyhow, this morning, I awakened with the chorus to "Trust and Obey" in my mind.

O, I have to tell you that it was KILLING me to put aside my desire for such a group and such a study, but I knew I had to. Though it makes no sense to ME, all I can say in response to the question: "Why do that?" I can only say this:  "I don't know why. But this I know: the Lord has need of me to do so... Only trust Him... Only trust HIM..."

And then immediately the word came to me, a word that had eluded me, but it came swiftly, without my trying to think of a Scriptural example, but the recollection of Acts 16: it SEEMED GOOD to the disciples to go into Asia, BUT they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them.

Well, I can tell you that right then and there I KNEW I had no choice. It grieved me, but I knew what I had to do. I got my folder with all my papers and notes for the study, and I pulled out some papers that were not just for that study that had gotten mingled in with them, and then I placed the entire folder in the back of the closet. I had no other choice. I laid Isaac on the altar.

Then I pulled out a hymnal and turned to "Trust and Obey" and found this in verse 3:

And then I reread that portion of Acts 16.

I wrote this is my journal:

And then this from Payson:

I wrote: "HE supplies ALL my wants. HE IS MY SUPPLY."

And then I went back and found these words of Payson and was wholly melted down at it, well, at God's never failing goodnesses to me in spite of myself!

"He has done NOTHING but heap favors."

And that became my song! ... Well, HE became my song!

O to be nothing, nothing but He wants of me... that is the greatest enjoyment. Why do I fight Him at every turn? To be happy in Jesus is to trust and obey. To trust and obey is to be happy in Jesus. The confusion and clouds are gone. HE HAS DONE NOTHING BUT HEAP FAVORS. How foolish and brutish and vile we are to ever, ever doubt Him, even for a moment!

And then, this from Payson from several years prior (emphasis, mine):

EVERY burden, sorrow, toil, grief, loss, frown, cross - in and through them ALL, He KEEPS scattering blessings to us! How can He refrain from doing so? We are HIS! He is for us!

Can ANYTHING separate us from God's love for us in Jesus Christ? Can burden or sorrow or toil? Can grief or loss? Can frown or cross? No! Certainly not. HE KEEPS SCATTERING BLESSINGS TO US! HE DOES NOTHING BUT HEAP FAVORS!

"God can sweeten the bitterest cup."

I began reflecting on this blessing of Jesus, and can we not possibly consider that at least a part of that blessing was the Levitical blessing from Numbers 6, but now imparted to the children of Israel (we are all Israel through Abraham's seed!) by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself - the God-man, the all-superior great high priest appointed by His Father, the only begotten Son of God, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, the priest who ever lives to make intercession, whose priesthood is unchangeable, our Advocate and Mediator!

But yet, we also have such a High Priest who has come to dwell in our hearts by faith so we might know the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God!

And all the while, in even the hardest and hardest and most blustery and rainy providence, even when all is dark, even when He hides His face, HE DOES NOTHING BUT HEAP FAVORS ON THE ELECT!

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable Gift!

I walked in darkness, but I have seen a great light. I dwelt in the shadow of death, and upon me a light has shined!

For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light I have seen light.

His mercies are new every morning! Great is His faithfulness! He is faithful when we are not!

Hallelujah! What a Savior! What a Friend for sinners! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with us to the end!

I'm a child of the King! I'm a child of the King! With Jesus, my Savior, I'm a child of the King!

Oswald Chambers wrote:

As God closed this door, yet another seems to be opened, one which had already been opened, but only due to my stubbornness and blinding pride, I was unable and unwilling to see... I would appreciate your prayers, that I would be made willing clay in our Father's hands (Isaiah 64:8) and He would make me willing in the day of His power (Psalm 110:3).

Throughout the year ahead and all the days of our lives, may our God give us souls as weaned children, the grace to be trusting, obedient and happy wherever HE places us, to truly know Him and enjoy Him and the favors He continues to heap upon us! We can trust that God always leads us in triumph in Christ WHEREVER He places us! His thoughts and His ways are always higher, always sweeter, always lovelier, always happier, and always fuller than ours! Ephesians 3:20-21.

~ your sister Karen

"if I would but cease struggling ... I might be happy" (Edward Payson)
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest (Hebrews 3:7-4:13) ~ Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion
Lent II.-God's calling: "As my Father hath sent Me, so send I you." | Oswald Chambers

All the references from Payson are from the Memoir, Select Thoughts and Sermons of the Late Rev. Edward Payson by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings with the page numbers in parentheses.

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Champaigne_shepherd.jpg | {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

In a similar vein to my last post, through all hazards and difficulties ... Forward! Be Our Watchword, I'm bringing further encouragements for us to persevere by faith and trust in the power of God to empower and sustain us in the work He has for us, no matter our circumstances.

I'm starting off here with an excerpt from the "Memoir, Select Thoughts and Sermons of the Late Rev. Edward Payson, Volume 1" by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings, 329-330 (emphasis mine). Though Payson's words are written to a man called to the ministry of Gospel preaching, they are applicable to any believer who is struggling with pressing on in obedience to the will of God in the face of great temptations and difficulties.

To a brother, who shrunk from his duty, through depression of mind, and an erroneous opinion of his own qualifications for the ministry.  Lest any should use the authority of Dr. Payson's name to urge men to assume the sacred office without the requisite qualifications, it ought to be stated, that the person addressed in the following letter, besides possessing decided piety, had passed through a regular course of preparatory studies at a theological seminary:

"My dear brother:  Your letter found me more than ordinarily hurried; but I feel it to be so important that you should be licensed this fall, that I must snatch a moment to answer it.  Your feelings, as you describe them, are just like mine, only less aggravated by long continuance.  I mention this that you may pay more regard to my advice.  I am as certain that it is best for you to take license immediately, as I can be of any thing.   Rely upon it, that, if you delay, your difficulties will increase, and you will feel more and more as if it as impossible to preach.  Your only safety lies in placing yourself in circumstances which will make exertion necessary, and which will secure divine assistance.  Never mind your infirmities.  You have nothing to do with them.  Your business is to trust, and go forward.  If you wait till the sea becomes land, you will never walk on it.  You must leave the ship, and, like Peter, set your feet upon the waves, and you will find them marble.  Christ is a good Master.  He won't suffer you to sink; and you will, at length, glory in your infirmities.  I would not give up the precious proofs which I have received, in consequence of my weakness, of his power, faithfulness, and love, for all the comforts of good health.  But be assured, that, if you remain as you are, Satan will weave a net round you, which you will never break.  Every mental and religious effort will become more difficult and painful; your mind will be like the body of a rickety child; you will live a burden to yourself and friend, and die without the consolation of having been made useful.  This would infallibly have been my fate, had I not been thrust into the ministry before I well knew what I was about.  Yet you see I have, somehow or other, been carried along, and so will you be.  Do not then, my dear, dear brother, stand hesitating.  A feeble, nervous man must not deliberate, but act; for his deliberation will not be worth a straw, but his activity may be, and probably will be, useful both to himself and others.

"When Christ told his disciples to feed the multitude with five loaves, they did not hesitate, and say, Lord, let us first see the bread multiplied; if we begin and have not enough, we shall be put to shame; but they distributed what they had, and it increased with the distribution. So you will find it.  You just, therefore, go forward.  There is no reason why you should not.  If you delay, indolence will steal upon you, and bind you in chains, which you will never break.

"I charge you, then, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to be up and doing. There are fifty places in this State [Maine], where the most unconnected things, which your lips could utter, would do good, and be well received.  You have no conception by what apparently feeble means God often works wonders.  Let the next tidings I hear from you be, that you have crossed the Rubicon; or, rather, let me see you here forthwith, in the character of a preacher."

    
From Richard Baxter's "The Reformed Pastor":

The great advantage of ministers having a sincere heart, is this, that the glory of God and the salvation of souls are their very end; and where that end is truly intended, no labor or suffering will stop them, or turn them back; for a man must have his end, whatever it cost him. Whatever he forgets, he will still retain this lesson: One thing is needful; seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Hence he says, ‘Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.’ This is it that will most effectually make easy all our labors, and make light all our burdens, and make tolerable all our sufferings, and cause us to venture on any hazards, if we may only win souls to Christ. That which I once made the motto of my colors in another warfare, I desire may be still before my eyes in this; which yet, according to my intentions, is not altogether another. On one side ‘He that saveth his life shall lose it." – on the other, ‘Ruin not the cause for the sake of keeping one’s life.’ He who knoweth that he serveth a God that will never suffer any man to be a loser by him, need not fear what hazards he runs in his cause: and he who knows that he seeks a prize, which, if obtained, will infinitely overbalance his cost, may boldly engage his whole estate on it, and sell all to purchase so rich a pearl.

From Andrew Fuller's sermon, "The Instances, the Evil Nature, and the Dangerous Tendency of Delay, in the Concerns of Religion," preached at Clipstone, England, April 27, 1791. Fuller's Scripture text was Haggai 1:2 "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built."

We see many things that should be done; but there are difficulties in the way, and we wait for the removal of these difficulties. We are very apt to indulge a kind of prudent caution, (as we call it,) which foresees and magnifies difficulties beyond what they really are. It is granted there may be such things in the way of an undertaking as may render it impracticable; and, in that case, it is our duty for the present to stand still; but it becomes us to beware lest we account that impracticable which only requires such a degree of exertion as we are not inclined to give it. Perhaps the work requires expense; and Covetousness says, Wait a little longer, till I have gained so and so in trade, till I have rendered my circumstances respectable, and settled my children comfortably in the world. But is not this like ceiling our own houses, while the house of God lies waste? Perhaps it requires concurrence; and we wait for every body to be of a mind, which is never to be expected. He who through a dread of opposition and reproach desists from known duty is in danger of being found among the "fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable."

Had Luther and his contemporaries acted upon this principle, they had never gone about the glorious work of the Reformation. When he saw the abominations of popery, he might have said, These things ought not to be; but what can I do? If the chief priests and rulers in different nations would but unite, something might be effected; but what can I do, an individual, and a poor man? I may render myself an object of persecution, or, which is worse, of universal contempt; and what good end will be answered by it? Had Luther reasoned thus -- had he fancied that, because princes and prelates were not the first to engage in the good work, therefore the time was not come to build the house of the Lord -- the house of the Lord, for any thing he had done, might have lain waste to this day.

Instead of waiting for the removal of difficulties, we ought, in many cases, to consider them as purposely laid in our way, in order to try the sincerity of our religion. He who had all power in heaven and earth could not only have sent forth his apostles into all the world, but have so ordered it that all the world should treat them with kindness, and aid them in their mission; but, instead of that, he told them to lay their accounts with persecution and the loss of all things. This was no doubt to try their sincerity; and the difficulties laid in our way are equally designed to try ours.

Let it be considered whether it is not owing to this principle that so few and so feeble efforts have been made for the propagation of the gospel in the world. When the Lord Jesus commissioned his apostles, he commanded them to go and teach "all nations," to preach the gospel to "every creature;" and that notwithstanding the difficulties and oppositions that would he in the way. The apostles executed their commission with assiduity and fidelity; but, since their days, we seem to sit down half contented that the greater part of the world should still remain in ignorance and idolatry. Some noble efforts have indeed been made; but they are small in number, when compared with the magnitude of the object. And why is it so? Are the souls of men of less value than heretofore? No. Is Christianity less true or less important than in former ages? This will not be pretended. Are there no opportunities for societies, or individuals, in Christian nations, to convey the gospel to the heathens? This cannot be pleaded so long as opportunities are found to trade with them, yea, and (what is a disgrace to the name of Christians) to buy them, and sell them, and treat them with worse than savage barbarity! We have opportunities in abundance: the improvement of navigation, and the maritime and commercial turn of this country, furnish us with these; and it deserves to be considered whether this is not a circumstance that renders it a duty peculiarly binding on us.

From Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Exodus 14...

They thought they must have been directed either to the right hand or to the left. "No," says God, "speak to them to go forward, directly to the sea-side;" as if there had lain a fleet of transport-ships ready for them to embark in. Note, When we are in the way of our duty, though we met with difficulties, we must go forward, and not stand in mute astonishment; we must mind present work and then leave the even to God, use means and trust him with the issue.

Hans Jordaens (III) - Le passage de la Mer Rouge (Crossing of the Red Sea)

Forward! Be Our Watchword
(Henry Alford, 1871)

Forward! be our watchword, steps and voices joined;
Seek the things before us, not a look behind;
Burns the fiery pillar at our army’s head;
Who shall dream of shrinking, by our Captain led?
Forward through the desert, through the toil and fight;
Jordan flows before us; Zion beams with light.

Forward! When in childhood buds the infant mind;
All through youth and manhood not a thought behind;
Speed through realms of nature, climb the steps of grace;
Faint not, till in glory, gleams our Father’s face.
Forward, all the lifetime, climb from height to height,
Till the head be hoary, till the eve be light.

Forward! flock of Jesus, salt of all the earth,
Till each yearning purpose spring to glorious birth:
Sick, they ask for healing; blind, they grope for day;
Pour upon the nations wisdom’s loving ray.
Forward, out of error, leave behind the night;
Forward through the darkness, forward into light!

Glories upon glories hath our God prepared,
By the souls that love Him one day to be shared;
Eye hath not beheld them, ear hath never heard;
Nor of these hath uttered thought or speech a word;
Forward, marching eastward, where the heaven is bright,
Till the veil be lifted, till our faith be sight.

Far o’er yon horizon rise the city towers
Where our God abideth; that fair home is ours:
Flash the streets with jasper, shine the gates with gold;
Flows the gladdening river shedding joys untold.
Thither, onward, thither, in the Spirit’s might;
Pilgrims to your country, forward into light!

Into God’s high temple, onward as we press,
Beauty spreads around us, born of holiness;
Arch, and vault, and carving, lights of varied tone,
Softened words and holy, prayer and praise alone.
Every thought upraising to our city bright,
Where the tribes assemble round the throne of light.

Naught that city needeth of these aisles of stone;
Where the Godhead dwelleth, temple there is none;
All the saints that ever in these courts have stood,
Are but babes, and feeding on the children’s food.
On through sign and token, stars amidst the night,
Forward through the darkness, forward into light.

To th’eternal Father loudest anthems raise;
To the Son and Spirit echo songs of praise;
To the Lord of glory, blessed Three in One,
Be by men and angels endless honor done.
Weak are earthly praises, dull the songs of night:
Forward into triumph, forward into light!

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion.

(Psalm 84:5-7)

Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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