Overheard in a Coffee Shop

Yesterday I overheard the following exchange in a local coffee shop. It reminded me so much of my "discussions" with the Father.

An elderly man said, "Father why am I going through this terrible circumstance at this point in my life...after all these years. Please help me deal with it."

The Father answered, "My child, my grace is sufficient for you!"

The man responded, "But that's not enough!"

God lovingly and patiently replied (with his voice raised somewhat from his initial response), "My son, what part of SUFFICIENT don't you understand?"

His redeemed child had no answer but turned away, weeping...knowing that what the Father had spoken was true and trustworthy.

I've been in that man's shoes! So have you! We all have!

His grace WILL carry us through the trial, the tribulation, the turmoil, the terrible storm.

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 (ESV)

HE GIVETH MORE GRACE

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added affliction He addeth His mercy;
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limit; His grace has no measure.
His pow'r has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!

- Annie Johnson Flint

Hudson Taylor...the Exchanged Life

As many of my readers know, J. Hudson Taylor, the missionary who opened up inland China to the gospel, is one of my heroes. Last week while in England, Roger Steer who authored excellent biographies on both George Muller and Hudson Taylor, gave me a copy of his book on Taylor. What a treasure!

The following excerpt concerning Taylor's struggle to find a fruitful life was taken from an In Touch web site.

http://www.intouch.org/myintouch/mighty/portraits/hudson_taylor_213660.html

The author of this brief article relates the following incident:

After Taylor's return to China in 1865, he feverishly worked and preached, attempting to meet the many needs of the spiritually and physically impoverished residents. However, his struggles were also spiritual. Taylor desperately desired to grow in holiness. But he also knew the frustration of aborted attempts of living the abundant life. He prayed. He fasted often. By the summer of 1869, his spiritual condition had reached the critical state.

"Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all would be well, but I could not. I began the day with prayer, determined not to take my mind off of Him for a moment; but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, often caused me to forget Him . . . Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. To will was indeed present with me, but how to perform I found not." But as Taylor sought the Lord, an answer came in the form of a letter from a friend, John McCarthy.

McCarthy wrote: "I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a sea which is boundless; to have sipped only but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy . . . "How then to have our faith increased? . . . Not a striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for eternity."

As Taylor laid McCarthy's letter down, his spiritual eyes were opened and his heart was warmed by the reality of his oneness and identity with Christ. In a letter to his sister some days later, Taylor jubilantly declared his discovery of the "exchanged life."

"As I read [McCarthy's letter] I saw it all! 'If we believe not, he abideth faithful.' I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) that He had said, 'I will never leave you.' 'Ah, there is rest!' I thought. 'I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me—never to leave me, never to fail me? And, dearie, He never will! . . . .

"The sweetest part . . . is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this: for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient . . .

"So, if God places me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? No fear that His resources will be unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me. All this springs from the believer's oneness with Christ."

Dear friends, be encouraged! As we make this journey together may we each discover what it really means to abide in Christ.

Quoting Newton

In the next few days, Lord willing, I'll be visiting Olney, England where the former slave trader and composer of the beloved hymn Amazing Grace, John Newton, pastored. His good friend William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper") also lived in Olney. Between them they wrote many wonderful hymns including Cowper's "There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood". I'll write more after visiting the Cowper/Newton Museum.

William Carey, the Father of Modern Day World Missions also pastored in Olney before sailing for India to open up that dark land to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here's a quote from John Newton that encouraged me. I pray that it will do the same for you, dear friends:

"If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer—His grace sufficient, His promises unchangeable."
—Attributed to John Newton (1725-1807)

A Matter of Perspective

"A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure." - 2 Corinthians 12:7

Recommended Reading 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Dr. J. Oswald Sanders says that Paul first viewed his "thorn" as a limiting handicap; but later, seeing it in true perspective, he regarded it as a heavenly advantage. Our pains and problems are tools reminding us to appropriate God’s all-sufficient grace.

What about that nagging irritation that you are dealing with today? Look at it through God's eyes and see the opportunity for spiritual growth and advancement in your "thorn".

Have a wonderful, Christ-honoring week, dear friends!

Powerful Words

Dear friends it's been too long since I posted here on the Barnabas Blog. I've been away on a class trip with our son Matthew. No internet access there.

Be encouraged today as you revel in God's bountiful grace!

Powerful words from the past:

"Our Lord Jesus is ever giving and does not for a solitary moment withdraw His hand as long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim....He is a sun ever shining; He is manna always falling...a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from His smitten side; the rain of His mercy is always dropping; and the well-spring of His love is constantly overflowing....Who has ever risen from His table unsatisfied, or from His presence unfulfilled?...Every grain of sand which drops from the glass of time is but the tardy follower of a myriad of mercies.....

How shall my soul extol Him who daily crowns me with lovingkindness? O that my praise could be as ceaseless as His bounty! Miserable tongue, how can you be silent? "Bless the Lord, O my soul!"

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

ALL Means ALL

Amy Carmichael in her excellent devotional book Edges of His Ways writes today about a sermon she heard the beloved Andrew Bonar (pictured) preach. Bonar was on in years and his voice was weak. He was challening his audience from Paul's 2nd letter to the Corinthian church. Carmichael was seated near the back of the auditorium in Scotland and couldn't make out most of what Bonar was saying. He put every bit of strength he could muster into the 8th verse of 2 Corinthians chapter 9. The words "all" and "always" rang out loud and clear.

"God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." - 2 Corinthians 9:8 (KJV)

Amy Carmichael goes on to say that this message helped her time and time again over the years she spent in India. She says she has forgotten thousands of great sermons but not that one.

She closes her devotional thought for today by writing, "All means all, not some, always means always, not sometimes. Lord, today, help us to live upon this 'all'."

And...I close this post by adding a hearty AMEN to what Amy has written. Two people who I'm anxious to meet in heaven are Amy Carmichael and Andrew Bonar.

WHAT A DAY THAT WILL BE!

HIMSELF

Greetings, dear friends! First of all, thank you so much for your many encouraging comments which are so uplifting. Your kind thoughts are such an encouragement to this fellow pilgrim! What a blessing!

Perhaps I've not articulated this fact in simple words so let me do it here and now:

My posts on "the Barnabas Blog" are birthed in my own life experience. I pray that you can sense that. Usually I seek to encourage others out of my own hurts, my disappointments, my frustrations. My prayer is that "the Barnabas Blog" will NOT be a symposium of pat answers, pet peeves, "pit" experiences, pot shots and put downs but a true source of encouragement, born out in everyday living and grounded in the eternally relevant and wonderfully inerrant word of God.

Which reminds me of a scripture passage that comes back to me time and time again. Many years ago I was ministering to a ballplayer from a visiting team in Montreal and the Lord directed me to this powerful verse. The apostle Peter penned these glorious words, "And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power for ever and ever, AMEN." - 1 Peter 5:10,11 (NIV)

Who restores and make us strong? God HIMSELF. Yes, He can and does use His people to come alongside suffering saints but He HIMSELF is the One who does the inner work of restoration and healing.

Rejoice in this truth today! If you are battling through a difficult circumstance, allow the God of all grace to extend that grace to you today in all its fullness. Know someone who is struggling? You can be an agent of reconciliation today. You can be God's hand extended to a hurting fellow pilgrim. God HIMSELF invites you to participate but He will effect the change. Hallelujah!