Post by benshelpmeet on Mar 28, 2009 12:01:10 GMT -5
I found this and thought it was a blessing and might encourage someone out there. ~ sister Darlene ~
Dead and Dark Seasons
by J. C. Philpot, from Gleanings of Grace
I came across the following excerpt this morning, which reflects my current state. There are many times when I feel dull and "unspiritual". It's hard to touch the Lord and there is a heavy sense of my own sins. I trust that the Lord won't leave me in this state, but it's a dark place to be. I'm sometimes tempted to think that I'm not even saved during these times of deadness, but my dear husband points out that, if I weren't saved, I wouldn't want to be reading God's Word or godly men like Bunyan, Pink, etc. Do the unsaved want to read Spurgeon? Are they drawn to the Puritans? Do they want to search the Scriptures for encouragement? Do the unsaved grieve over their shortfall? Do I desire to give up Christ for the world's glitter? Praise the Lord, NO!! No, with all my heart I desire HIM and want to be drawn right into His holy presence. So, the Lord HAS done a work in the heart of this most lowly worm! Praise God, it's all of HIM!
True, earnest repentance and keeping my eyes upon the Lord and His beauty will work to loosen these grave clothes! There is no strength or ability in myself to keep myself. He is my keeper. I wasn't planning this, but I think I will list some verses to show God's keeping power:
Jude 1:24 "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy..."
2Ti 1:12 "...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."
PSALM 121:
1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. [italics mine]
Dead and dark seasons by J. C. Philpot
"All Christians, even the most eminent servants of God, have their dead and dark seasons--when the life of God seems sunk to so low an ebb as to be hardly visible--so hidden is the stream by the mud-banks of their fallen nature.
By these very dark and dead seasons, the people of God are instructed. They see and feel what 'the flesh' really is--how alienated from the life of God; they learn in whom all their strength and sufficiency lie; they are taught that in them, that is, in their flesh, dwells no good thing; that no exertions of their own can maintain in strength and vigor the life of God; and that all they are, and have--all they believe, know, feel, and enjoy--with all their ability, usefulness, gifts, and grace--flow from the pure, sovereign grace--the rich, free, undeserved, yet unceasing goodness and mercy of God!
They learn in this hard school of painful experience, their emptiness and nothingness--and that without Christ they can do nothing. They thus become clothed with humility, that rare, yet lovely garb; cease from their own strength and wisdom; and learn experimentally that Christ is, and ever must be, all in all to them, and all in all in them."
Dead and Dark Seasons
by J. C. Philpot, from Gleanings of Grace
I came across the following excerpt this morning, which reflects my current state. There are many times when I feel dull and "unspiritual". It's hard to touch the Lord and there is a heavy sense of my own sins. I trust that the Lord won't leave me in this state, but it's a dark place to be. I'm sometimes tempted to think that I'm not even saved during these times of deadness, but my dear husband points out that, if I weren't saved, I wouldn't want to be reading God's Word or godly men like Bunyan, Pink, etc. Do the unsaved want to read Spurgeon? Are they drawn to the Puritans? Do they want to search the Scriptures for encouragement? Do the unsaved grieve over their shortfall? Do I desire to give up Christ for the world's glitter? Praise the Lord, NO!! No, with all my heart I desire HIM and want to be drawn right into His holy presence. So, the Lord HAS done a work in the heart of this most lowly worm! Praise God, it's all of HIM!
True, earnest repentance and keeping my eyes upon the Lord and His beauty will work to loosen these grave clothes! There is no strength or ability in myself to keep myself. He is my keeper. I wasn't planning this, but I think I will list some verses to show God's keeping power:
Jude 1:24 "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy..."
2Ti 1:12 "...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."
PSALM 121:
1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. [italics mine]
Dead and dark seasons by J. C. Philpot
"All Christians, even the most eminent servants of God, have their dead and dark seasons--when the life of God seems sunk to so low an ebb as to be hardly visible--so hidden is the stream by the mud-banks of their fallen nature.
By these very dark and dead seasons, the people of God are instructed. They see and feel what 'the flesh' really is--how alienated from the life of God; they learn in whom all their strength and sufficiency lie; they are taught that in them, that is, in their flesh, dwells no good thing; that no exertions of their own can maintain in strength and vigor the life of God; and that all they are, and have--all they believe, know, feel, and enjoy--with all their ability, usefulness, gifts, and grace--flow from the pure, sovereign grace--the rich, free, undeserved, yet unceasing goodness and mercy of God!
They learn in this hard school of painful experience, their emptiness and nothingness--and that without Christ they can do nothing. They thus become clothed with humility, that rare, yet lovely garb; cease from their own strength and wisdom; and learn experimentally that Christ is, and ever must be, all in all to them, and all in all in them."
