At Ease in Zion

Amos 6:7. A picture is given in the following chapters of the luxury and self indulgence of the people . Stretched on couches inlaid with ivory , choosing the rarest dainties , accompanying their voices on the lute , ,and drinking wine from flowing bowls , they were indifferent to the wounds from which the national life- blood was pouring . "They were not agrieved for the affliction of Joseph "  The same behaviour is only too common amongst ourselves . Indeed , this temptation besets us all . If only we are well supplied with the comforts and luxuries of life , we are apt to become thoughtless of the miseries of poverty and misfortune . If our own heaven is secure , we are apt to enwrap ourselves with an atmosphere of satisfaction and composure , without taking sufficiently to heart the needs of the great world of sin and sorrow around .
   "The affliction of Joseph "reminds us of the scene at the pits mouth ; how Joseph's brethren sat down to eat bread , while their brother was in the pit without water , and then sold him to the travelling merchantmen , to rid their sight of him . But human nature is prone to act thus in every age .   Are we at ease in Zion ? Are we using for our own luxurious enjoyment  gifts which God entrusted to our care for the world ? Are we too indifferent for the fate of those who live in our homes , or pour in great streams of activity along our streets ?  Are we sleeping in the garden , whilst our Master sweats the bloody sweat ? We have but one life to spend ; let it be a life in earnest . Let us bethink ourselves of any whom we can help the afflicted,  the widow, the sick , the lonely ..... 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Muckle Kate Not a very ordinary name! But then, Muckle Kate, or Big Kate, or Kate-Mhor, or Kate of Lochcarron was not a very ordinary woman! The actual day of her salvation is difficult to trace to its sunrising, but being such a glorious day as it was, we simply wish to relate something of what shone forth in the redeemed life of that "ill-looking woman without any beauty in the sight of God or man." Muckle Kate was born and lived in Lochcarron in the county of Ross-shire. By the time she had lived her life to its eighty-fifth year she had well-earned the reputation of having committed every known sin against the Law of God with the exception murder. Speaking after the manner of men, if it took "Grace Abounding" to save a hardened sinner like John Bunyan, it was going to take "Grace Much More Abounding" to save Muckle Kate. However, Grace is Sovereign and cannot be thwarted when God sends it on the errand of salvation, and even the method used in bri
Read more
  Severance from Christ is death   to the Church. A Christless Church is a headless trunk. We may retain the doctrine and ethic of the New Testament, but, nevertheless, amputation of the Head means death. Even a partial severance of connection involves paraylsis - loss of spiritual power and loss of spiritual feeling. II.  INTERNALLY, THE CHURCH IS THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. It is filled with Christ. He is not only the Head above it; he is the life within it. He does not only teach, bless, command, and lead from without; he inspires his people and lives in his Church. Christ fills " all  in all;"  i.e.  the Spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth is in the whole universe, inspiring all creation and all providence with wisdom and goodness, purity and grace. The same Spirit is in the Church. As yet, unhappily, the Church is not filled with Christ. Though Christ is received into the heart of Christians, every door within is not yet flung open to the gracious Guest. But in the perfect
Read more

Church discipline

Once from the pulpit, at an ordination of elders, the late Rev. M. M'Cheyne made the following declaration. "When I first entered upon the work of the ministry among you, I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline. I thought that my great, and almost only, work was to pray and preach. I saw your souls to be so precious, and the time so short, that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labour in word and doctrine. When cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders, I regarded them with something like abhorrence. It was a duty I shrank from; and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you altogether. But it pleased God, who teaches His servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care; and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Chri
Read more