The Blessing of Betrayal

Another timely encouragement from the pen of H. L. Roush; written almost half a century ago...

To all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ to sincerity, and who have been wounded in the house of your friends for His sake. May this message be used in the hands of the Holy Spirit to help transform your crown of betrayal into the blossom of blessing. May the loneliness of personal rejection fade into insignificance by the warmth of His fellowship. May the Bride of Christ be made to know the reality of her union with Jesus - H. L. Roush

"The snow fell silently like drifting feathers and soon covered the drab and soiled earth with white. It had been snowing all night and I looked from my study window with a warm quiet heart on the first snow of winter. It was the day after Thanksgiving and the snowfall gave me all the excuse I needed to slow down my busy schedule to take the needed time to enjoy the fellowship of my family. We had much to be thankful for that year, as always. The hand of the Lord had been so obviously upon our lives and ministry that we could only bow before Him with grateful hearts and in the quiet knowledge that He had been the doer of it all. The precious calm of that morning was soon shattered by the insistent ringing of the phone. It was the first link in a heavy chain that was soon to bind me in despair and sorrow; for the voice on the other end of the line informed me that great trouble had just entered my life."

Circumstances had been brought to pass that now endangered my whole ministry, as well as the potential ruin of my personal and family life, It is amazing how quickly the whole world seems to change when our circumstances change.

The Man God Uses

by H. L. Roush - From "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, March 1965

Once again, we have in the following, a timely reminder that those whom God chooses to serve Him will of necessity endure much in the preparation for such service. Please consider the following and allow the Holy Spirit to revitalise your spirit for the journey ahead.

"The Lord said to him, Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the descendants of Israel; for I will make clear to him how much he will be afflicted and must endure and suffer for My name's sake." (Acts 9:15-16).

There is no man on the face of the earth who lives such an unusual life as the man God would see fit to use for His glory and praise. If he is to be God's messenger, Christ's shepherd, the Spirit's vessel, then he of necessity must be an instrument prepared by the hand of God in any way needed to make it fit. The message he bears is a living message, for it is the life of Christ Himself. Since it is a living message he proclaims by the Spirit's power, then he, of necessity, must be made to "live" this message within the confines of his own experience. He may soar to the heights of Mt. Zion's glory today that he might proclaim that he has seen God's King on the holy hill of Zion, and tomorrow he might find himself sinking in the depths of despair that he might learn and reveal to others the sweetest LILY that ever graced the valley of defeat: JESUS! 

 He may meet with Jesus and Moses on the mount of transfiguration today and tomorrow be laid bleeding and dead in the streets of Jerusalem and made a gazing stock to a Christ-rejecting world, He may wax bold one moment among the philosophers of this world as he eloquently tells the riches of God's grace and in a moment's time be found in weakness and in fear and trembling, having contemptible speech and looked upon by others as a false apostle. All this... that God might mold in his soul an unshakable determination to preach Christ and Him crucified. 

The Cross is a Radical Thing - AW Tozer

A timeless reminder of the 'centrality of the cross' - from one of last centuries great advocates for Christ. A damning indictment on a Cross-less Christianity today ... God help us!

Excerpted from the above book - A. W. Tozer.

'The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men'.

The cross of the Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, but slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took him down six hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.

After Christ was risen from the dead the apostles went out to preach His message, and what they preached was the cross. And wherever they went into the wide world they carried the cross, and the same revolutionary power went with them.

The radical message of the cross transformed Saul of Tarsus and changed him from a persecutor of Christians to a tender believer and an apostle of the faith. Its power changed bad men into good ones. It shook off the long bondage of paganism and altered completely the whole moral and mental outlook of the Western world.

All this it did and continued to do as long as it was permitted to remain what it had been originally, a cross. Its power departed when it was changed from a thing of death to a thing of beauty.

The Saint Must Walk Alone

What follows is an excerpt from the book: 'The Dwelling Place of God' written by A.W. Tozer. It is a timely reminder, that those used most of God, are often the least understood, and invariably the most lonely of His followers.

MOST OF THE WORLD'S GREAT SOULS have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.

In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange darkness that came soon after the dawn of man's creation) that pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries.

Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvians, found grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.

Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and herdsmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man "whose soul was alike a star and dwelt apart"? As far as we know not one word did God ever speak to him in the company of men.

Face down he communed with his God, and the innate dignity of the man forbade that he assume this posture in the presence of others. How sweet and solemn was the scene that night of the sacrifice when he saw the lamps of fire moving between the pieces of offering. There alone with a horror of great darkness upon him he heard the voice of God and knew that he was a man marked for divine favour.