M&E Tuesday

Tuesday Morning, October 16

"Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine."

John 21:12

In these words the believer is invited to a holy nearness to Jesus. "Come and dine," implies the same table, the same meat; aye, and sometimes it means to sit side by side, and lean our head upon the Saviour's bosom. It is being brought into the banqueting-house, where waves the banner of redeeming love. "Come and dine," gives us a vision of union with Jesus, because the only food that we can feast upon when we dine with Jesus is himself. Oh, what union is this! It is a depth which reason cannot fathom, that we thus feed upon Jesus. "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." It is also an invitation to enjoy fellowship with the saints. Christians may differ on a variety of points, but they have all one spiritual appetite; and if we cannot all feel alike, we can all feed alike on the bread of life sent down from heaven. At the table of fellowship with Jesus we are one bread and one cup. As the loving cup goes round we pledge one another heartily therein. Get nearer to Jesus, and you will find yourself linked more and more in spirit to all who are like yourself, supported by the same heavenly manna. If we were more near to Jesus we should be more near to one another. We likewise see in these words the source of strength for every Christian. To look at Christ is to live, but for strength to serve him you must "come and dine." We labour under much unnecessary weakness on account of neglecting this precept of the Master. We none of us need to put ourselves on low diet; on the contrary, we should fatten on the marrow and fatness of the gospel that we may accumulate strength therein, and urge every power to its full tension in the Master's service. Thus, then, if you would realize nearness to Jesus, union with Jesus, love to his people and strength from Jesus, "come and dine" with him by faith.

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Evening, October 16

"With thee is the fountain of life."

Psalm 36:9

There are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy, or religious ordinances, fail to comfort or help us. Why does our gracious God permit this? Perhaps it is because we have been living too much without him, and he therefore takes away everything upon which we have been in the habit of depending, that he may drive us to himself. It is a blessed thing to live at the fountain head. While our skin- bottles are full, we are content, like Hagar and Ishmael, to go into the wilderness; but when those are dry, nothing will serve us but "Thou God seest me." We are like the prodigal, we love the swine-troughs and forget our Father's house. Remember, we can make swine-troughs and husks even out of the forms of religion; they are blessed things, but we may put them in God's place, and then they are of no value. Anything becomes an idol when it keeps us away from God: even the brazen serpent is to be despised as "Nehushtan," if we worship it instead of God. The prodigal was never safer than when he was driven to his father's bosom, because he could find sustenance nowhere else. Our Lord favours us with a famine in the land that it may make us seek after himself the more. The best position for a Christian is living wholly and directly on God's grace—still abiding where he stood at first—"Having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Let us never for a moment think that our standing is in our sanctification, our mortification, our graces, or our feelings, but know that because Christ offered a full atonement, therefore we are saved; for we are complete in him. Having nothing of our own to trust to, but resting upon the merits of Jesus—his passion and holy life furnish us with the only sure ground of confidence. Beloved, when we are brought to a thirsting condition, we are sure to turn to the fountain of life with eagerness.

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http://www.heraldofhiscoming.com/Past%20Issues/2012/October/prayer_must_have_priority.htm

Prayer Must Have Priority
  By Armin Gesswein

    On the whole prayer is low again in the land. This is both in our personal lives as ministers and in the corporate prayer meetings of our churches. This is a strange wonder when we consider how late and how crucial is this hour, and when we consider how earnestly God calls us to prayer from almost every page of the Bible.

    We need a new power and authority to get our people to pray. We need a new prayer life ourselves. Ours must be the decision of Acts 6:4, "We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word." Revival will not have priority until prayer has priority.

    Today there is much activity without accomplishment. We suffer from the barrenness of busyness, the tyranny of things, and from what one could call the abomination of desolation!

    What is the result in our churches? A Laodicean Christianity: lethargy, laziness, lukewarmness, absenteeism. In evangelism there is a sense of frustration and weariness. There is a glacial leisureliness in an age of crisis! Christians act as if there were plenty of time, and as if the situation were not serious. We are in a sobering crisis, with no way out but Christ!

    The only answer for an apocalyptic age is a Christianity that is apostolic.

    If we are to have revival, everyone knows it must begin in our churches. Ichabod must go. And if it is to begin in our churches, we also know that it must begin in our prayer meetings. If it is to begin in our prayer meetings, it must begin with us ministers. Prayer must be number one again with us. It must have priority.

    We need a fresh and adequate revelation of prayer. Bible light must scatter certain shadowy views, and even delusions, about this. From the Bible I would like to present at least seven reasons why prayer is number one.

    (1) Prayer is number one with God Himself. Recently I was thinking, "Why pray? Why is a man a praying creature? Whence this prayer arrangement and method?" I had thought of it as starting in man because he is the creature and is in need. But now I see that it really has its origin in God. It is not only in the nature of man to pray, but in the very nature of God. The burden for prayer is not only in man but in God.

    This is a mystery but prayer is an expression of the very life of the triune God – Father, Son and Holy Ghost. What is more, to really understand prayer, and to learn to pray, we must get God's own view of prayer. We need an adequate Bible revelation of prayer.

    (2) Prayer was and is number one with Christ. When on earth, He did everything by prayer. It was His method, for as the Son He did nothing of Himself, but was constantly dependent on His Father.

    All His great steps, His mighty works, His majestic words, were in the nature of answered prayer. He began His Messianic ministry at the Jordan, praying; He finished His work on the Cross, praying. He died as He lived. His was a life of prayer.

    His number one ministry was prayer. He rose early to pray. He went to mountains and quiet resorts to pray. He practiced what He taught concerning prayer. It was as He was praying that one of His disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1).

    We have no portrait of Christ. We come nearest to a portrait when we picture Him in prayer. To picture Him at all is to picture Him praying. He prayed everything into being and then walked into it openly in His ministry.

    His major ministry was two-fold: that of Prophet and Priest. But the priestly was number one. Then as Prophet, He worked out what as Priest He prayed through. With Christ prayer was the great work. It was there that He was creative in the highest sense. Luke pictures Christ in prayer seven times, beyond the other scenes given also by the other Gospels. If these are studied, we see how every great step or new cycle in His ministry was the result of new intercession.

    We might expect a holy curtain of silence to be drawn over His wonderful prayer life. But on the contrary, every effort is made by the Gospel writers to open up its great scenes. The more high and holy they are, as in Gethsemane and in John 17, the more fully the scenes are given. The Gospel writers found here Christ's greatest secret, no doubt also learned it as their own, and then by inspiration passed it on for us so we, too, might have this secret in our ministry.

    Then when we turn to the Book of Acts, chapter one, we see Christ putting this number one emphasis into the disciples, even more than in the days of His flesh. Prayer increases now, both for Him and for them. It is to be stronger than ever, even for Him as the Risen One. We stand with wonder and worship as we see Him ascend to heaven. To do what? To live forever as Intercessor and Advocate.

    He seems to have shut them up in a new way to the closet of the Upper Room, and then Himself to have ascended at once so that He could forever closet Himself in the upper room of God's great universe to do this one supreme work. Yes, He is burdened now to spend all His time at this one thing: "He ever liveth to make intercession for [us]" (Heb. 7:25).

    As King, He is still Priest – more than ever before. He is now a "Priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec." (See Hebrews 7 and 8.) He runs the world by prayer. He reigns royally and forever in prayer. Oh, what a truth! Lord, teach us to pray! (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 20:6).

    Prayer is Christ's universal and eternal method. He makes it plain too, that prayer has its origin in God more than in man.

 

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