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The Octavius Winslow Reading Group: Help Heavenward (Chapter 9)

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“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.”—Jeremiah. 3:22.

Few will read the pages of a work designed to proffer a helping hand to Zion’s travellers to whom that hand will be more needful and acceptable than the awakened, returning backslider. To such, languid and fainting, depressed and despairing, hesitating to return, doubting God’s welcome,—evidences lost, soul-beclouded, fears rising, hope vailed,—the strongest cordials of God’s most gracious, full, and free promises are needful to rouse, revive, and reassure the wanderer that the Lord invites, receives, and welcomes the returning backslider—the child retracing his way back to his forsaken Father.

God addresses them as backsliding CHILDREN. He can never forget His parental relation to them, though they may forget or abuse their filial relation to Him. Children though we are, adopted, sealed, and inalienably entitled to all the covenant blessings of adoption, we are yet backsliding children. The heart is ever swerving from God. The renewed soul possesses the principle of its own departure, contains the elements of its own declension, and but for the electing love, the restraining grace, the illimitable power of God, would destroy itself entirely and forever.

If ever there were a more encouraging chapter in all of christen dome and in all works ever penned by the hand of man, this chapter and this opening verse must be it. Who of us cannot immediately relate and benefit of its rich blessing and comfort? Who of us had not, even in the quiet of our very souls, slidden away from our true Love and sought solace in the futility of another’s earthly arms? Wretched men and women that we are! Though we be saved, redeemed, and regenerated, who of us does not need to hear this opening word to us? “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” He does not call us enemies or rebels here, He calls us children! Blessed thought!

He goes on. This excerpt is a little long, but it really needs to be read:

The language in which God addresses you is most reassuring. He calls you “children;” though a backslider, yet a child. Can the human parent ever forget, in the deepest provocation of his offspring, that still he is his child? God here meets His wanderer just where that wanderer stands most in need of a Divine assurance. What relation is it which spiritual backsliding the most contravenes, which sin the most obscures, and of which unbelief and Satan, presuming upon that backsliding, would suggest to the mind the strongest suspicion and doubt? We answer—the relation of Divine sonship. The backslider reasons thus—“Is my adoption real? Can I be a child of God, and prove so base, sin so deeply, and depart so far from my God? If a son, why am I so rebellious, disobedient, and unfaithful? Surely I cannot belong to the adoption of God, and grieve and wound the Spirit of adoption thus?” Now God meets the wanderer just at this critical juncture. He declares that though a backslider, yet he is still His child, and that no departure however distant, and that no sin however aggravated, has impaired the strength or lessened the tenderness, tarnished or shaded the lustre of that relation. If God, then, comes forth, and, despite our backsliding, recognizes our son-ship, and acknowledges us as His children, who shall dispute or contravene the fact? “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” Such, beloved, is the first consolation I suggest to your sad and depressed soul. Could it be surpassed by anything else I may offer? What! does God still call you His child? Does He not disown and disinherit you as a son of God and an heir of glory? Ah, no! He cannot forget that He has predestinated you to the adoption of children, that His Spirit has been sent into your heart, and that in happier days gone by you have often called Him “Abba, Father.” And although you have been rebellious, backsliding, and stiffnecked, yet, taking with you words and turning to the Lord your God, He meets you as once He met His repenting, mourning Ephraim— “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself . . . Is Ephraim my dear SON? is he a pleasant CHILD? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord,” (Jer. 31:18, 20.) Clear is it, then, that God’s children do backslide; that it is no strange thing that their love to Him should wax cold, their faith decline, their strength decay, their zeal slacken, their godly frames grow sleepy and inert, the spirit of prayer be restrained, the means of grace be neglected; and, as a consequence of all this inward declension, the world should have an ascendancy, Satan prevail, and the sin that does most easily beset them attain a momentary triumph. But still they are God’s children,—O wondrous grace! O changeless love!—and chastened, corrected, rebuked, and humbled, their heavenly Father will restore them to His pardoning love and gracious favour, and they shall again walk with Him filially, humbly, softly, as His dear children, “when He is pacified towards them for all that they have done.”

After reading that excerpt, stop a moment and let it fall on you. Mediate and taste all that is in it! If your heart is not firmly planted within the clouds after reading that you are not alive!

What an invitation! “RETURN!” It is GOD who speaks it—the God from whom we have revolted, departed, and gone so far astray. It is the word of our Father, against whom we have rebelled, so deeply, so grievously sinned. He trammels His invitation with no conditions. His simple word is—“Return unto me!”

The Lord Jesus is this open door. The blood of Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus, the intercession of Jesus, the grace of Jesus, the quenchless love of Jesus, the outstretched hand of Jesus, unite in guiding the trembling footstep of the returning soul back to its Father. The present efficacy and the continuous presentation of the Lord’s sacrifice in heaven, blended with His intercessory work, personally and constantly prosecuted before the throne, are a warrant that this door to God shall never be closed while there lives a penitent sinner to enter it.

Brood not over what is past, yield to no forebodings and fears as to what may be the future—grapple with the present. For it you have a door, which God Himself has opened and which neither man, nor Satan, nor sin, shall shut. You have a throne of grace now inviting your approach; and you have the blood of Jesus with which to enter, as new, as efficacious, as prevalent, and as free as when it streamed from His sacred body on the cross. Let there be no postponement, then, of your return to God.

As Winslow said, the door is wide open for the adopted sons and daughters of God and no one, NO ONE can or will ever shut it! Do not fret yourself believer that if you return He may be disgusted or displeased with you. He is now your Father and as such He cannot disown you. Though you have run from Him and have tasted of the worlds foolishness and fickle idols, He ever waits to embrace you once more. And as you return your gaze to Him from afar, He runs to you and welcomes you willingly and openly! He loves you believer! HE LOVES YOU!

Backsliding from the Lord involves wounds, bruises, dislocation. It wounds the conscience, it bruises the soul, it breaks the bones of our strength, and causeth us to travel in pain and halting many a weary step. Ah, there is nothing so wounding as departure from God! Nothing so bruising of the soul’s peace and joy and hope as sin! Who can heal, who can bind up, who can mollify, who can reset these broken bones so that they shall rejoice again, but our sin-pardoning God? We have no self-power in this great matter of restoration. All that we can do is to make burdens, forge chains, carve crosses, inflict wounds,—in a word, destroy our own selves.

God will forgive! Christ will bind up the broken heart! The Comforter will restore joy to the soul! There is still balm in Gilead, and a Physician there. The healing balsam still bleeds from the wounded, stricken Tree of Life. The gate of paradise is yet unclosed, its portal garlanded with a thousand exceeding great and precious promises, all inviting your entrance and insuring you a welcome to its sunny banks, its shaded bowers, its peaceful quiet streams.

What glad tidings these astounding words contain to repentant back-sliders! What a bow of promise and of hope do they paint upon the dark cloud of despair which enshrouds the soul! “He will turn again.” Though He has turned a thousand times before, yet, “He will turn AGAIN;” not “seven times” only, but “seventy times seven.”

When we do return to the Savior of our soul, we are promised and assured He will bind our wounds, heal our hurts, and pour salve on our conscience. I the embrace of a Father’s arms in humble repentance, all things are made anew and all becomes well again with our souls. He will not continue to chasten us upon our return, but He has promised to re assure us over and over and over again that we are His and we will always be the apple of His eye and the joy of His heart through His Son Jesus Christ. No matter how many times we have departed or how cold our hearts have grown, He will always be ours and we will always be His… thanks be to God!

If the Lord has graciously given you to experience His restoring mercy, forget not one great reason why you are restored—that you might hate and forsake the cause of your departure. If we have succumbed to temptation, it is not enough that we have broken from its snare; if we have fallen into sin, it is not enough that we have escaped from its power. God would have you learn thereby one of your holiest lessons—the deeper knowledge of that which tempted and overcame you, that you might go and sin no more. Restored yourself, seek the restoration of others.

Seek to bring souls to Jesus. Let this be an object of life. Be especially tender, gentle, and kind to Christians who have fallen into sin, and are thereby wounded, distressed, and despairing. Extend a helping hand to lead them back to Christ. Your deep abhorrence of the sin must not be allowed to lessen your compassion and sympathy for the sinning one.

Therein lies the importance of belonging to a local body of believers and realizing that these trials are not only sent for our own sanctification and growth, but to now go and help others who are struggling in their earthly war and need help heavenward. Ask yourself, during your times of brokenness and trial, wouldn’t you have wanted a kind word or an open ear to help you in your time of need? Such a blessing you can be to a fellow traveler on the King’s highway with you!

From here Winslow jumps off into a bit of exposition of Hebrews 6:4-6, of which, I think I will not touch on at this moment as I feel his treatment of this text is of such weight and has caused much damage to many a fragile soul that it really needs its own post here on the blog. So please look for that in days to come. I will leave you this week with his introduction to this brief exposition:

It is no uncommon thing for the Lord’s backsliding children to be sadly and sorely distressed and cast down by certain portions of God’s Word, containing delineations of character and denunciations of woe which they suppose applicable to themselves; and which, so applied, inconceivably aggravate their soul distress, their mental anguish, and incapacitate them from receiving the promises and accepting the comfort which God, in His Word, so profusely and so graciously extends to His children, returning from their backslidings, with weeping and mourning, confession and prayer. Among the declarations thus referred to, which are supposed to have, the most direct application, and to wear the most threatening aspect, are those, so frequently quoted and as frequently misinterpreted and misapplied, found in the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews from the 4th to the 6th verse:—“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

Next Week

Please read Chapter 10: The Swelling of the Jordan for March 28!

 

 

 

More Thoughts On The Winslow Book?

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I wanted to kindly as the readers of the blog for some more input regarding the proposed Winslow biography I am thinking of writing.

As I see it, there really isn’t enough information to fill a book. So what I was thinking of doing was to write a primer of sorts to help introduce people to not only Winslow, but his works as well.

There would of course be a biography along with a chapter or two worth of excerpts of any little jewels I can dig out of his mother’s accounts in Life In Jesus. But, to make it a true primer, I would fill the rest of the book with categorized chapters detailing with excerpts from his works to give a flavor of his writing and help expose folks to his mindset and motivations. Since his quotations are my expertise here on the blog, I thought it would be a natural fit for the book. Also, I could do some chapter recommendations (like I do here) along with some shortened hyperlinks that folks can key into their browser to read in full.

I would really like to hear from you guys to see what ideas, thoughts, or critiques you may have regarding this notion of a primer or wether or not another direction may be in order.

What say you?

The Octavius Winslow Reading Group: Help Heavenward (Chapter 8)

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It will be acknowledged by every spiritual and reflecting mind that the tendencies of the age are not the most favourable to the calm, solemn, holy duty of self-communion. We are fallen upon times of great religious, as well as worldly activity and excitement. So strong and rushing, indeed, is the tide, that there exists a fearful and fatal liability in those who profess to walk with God, as did Noah and Enoch, to neglect entirely one of the most essential and effectual helps heavenward—the due, faithful, and constant examination of the spiritual state and condition of their own hearts.

With everything but themselves the great mass of human beings by whom we are surrounded are in the closest communion.

It is of the utmost moment, then, that the saint of God should be kept in perpetual remembrance of this sacred duty of self-communion: its neglect entails immense spiritual deterioration and loss; its observance will, more than all other engagements—for it stimulates to activity all others—effectually advance the soul in its heavenward course.

Does this sound familiar of our day? It obviously was in Winslow’s time but perhaps we may be so bold as to say it is of epidemic levels in ours! So many things, even good and noble things, become our distraction day and evening. We can become so concumed with the most mundane of subjects without even knowing our attention has been drawn away. Perhaps in no other country than ours (USA) is this epidemic more prelevent due to the overwhelming amount of distractions available at our fingertips. Television, the internet, shopping, books, news, gadgets, and friends have so much influence and sway of out time that before we know it, our entire day is spent and that sinking feeling of its absence of the Lord’s presence presses in while we lie on our beds. Neglecting the scriptures, prayer, and self communion will lead to a slow, choaking death for the believer.

Now, from here begins to lay out his argument in bullet format, as he is so prone to do, to detail the manner in which we might combat this lack of self communion.

1) Know Your True Spiritual State Before God

In the first place, my beloved reader, commune with your own heart, to know its true spiritual state as before God.

The questions, then, which we must weigh are—Have I passed from death unto life? Has my heart been convinced of sin? Am I a subject of the new birth? and from a state of insensibility to objects, and feelings, and hopes that are spiritual, eternal, and divine, have I been quickened by the regenerating Spirit to walk with God, and before the world, in newness of life? These are personal and serious questions, which must not, which cannot, be evaded without imperilling all that is most dear and precious to your everlasting well-being.

First and foremost, let’s not forget the obvious! Let us not assume the obvious! We must search our souls to see if we do truly share in the gift of the regenerating action of the Holy Spirit and are now indeed truly new creatures in Christ. We must not search for shear perfection and complete and perfect sanctification, but we must look for the precious fruits that grow from the branches of trees planted by the Gardener of our souls. Do we now have new affections? Do we desire to be holy? Do we thirst after Christ and His word?

2) Know The Existence and Condition of the Love of God in Your Own Heart.

Commune with yourself to ascertain the existence and condition of the love of God in your heart.

What is the warmth and vigour and ardour of your affections? Do you so love God in Christ as, under its constraining influence, to do what He commands, to yield what He asks, to go where He bids, to hate what He hates, and to love what He loves; yea, to embrace Him with an affection simple, single, and supreme, oblivious, if need be, of every other claimant, and satisfied, if so He willed it, with Him alone? Oh, what is the state of your love to Jesus—frigid, selfish, inconstant; or, glowing, self-denying, fixed?

Your love to Christ will never increase by feeding upon itself. You must light your torch of affection at the altar of Calvary. You must go there, and learn and believe what the love of Jesus is to you: the vastness of that love,—the self-sacrifice of that love,—how that love of Christ laboured and wept, bled, suffered, and died for you.

Sit not down, then, in vain regrets that your love to God in Christ is so frigid, so fickle, so dubious; go and muse upon the reality, the greatness, the present intercession of the Saviour’s love to you, and if love can inspire love, then methinks that, while you muse, the fire will burn, and your soul shall be all in flame with love to God.

Winslow isn’t all sunshine and roses and at times he will back you into a corner, sit you down, and ask you some very hard, revealing, and even painful questions. During pilgrimage, our affections towards the Savior can grow cold and disconnected. We are a fickle and most pitiful lot indeed and we need constant reminding from the word and from the gospel to keep our souls aflame for our Jesus. We need to be honest with ourselves and face this problem face on. We will, this side of glory, have to struggle with this most embarrassing and even humiliating of subjects. But! Thanks be to God, His grace is ever extended toward us and the gospel is always open to welcome us back from our sheepish and wandering ways! “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it” is the heart cry of all of His children and we are not alone in this fight! If you find your affections cold, share it with a fellow believer. You will be surprised to find you are not unique!

3) Know Your Own Heart as to its Views and Feelings towards the Lord Jesus.

The great question, which decides so much is, “What think you of Christ?” Is it with you a reality that Christ died for sinners? Do you fully credit the promise by which God has engaged to accept through His sacrifice and intercession all who believe in His name? Do you believe Him to be divine, accept His obedience as justifying, and His death as sacrificial? Has it pleased God to reveal His Son in you? Is He precious to your heart? And do you receive Him, trust in Him, follow Him, and hope to be with Him for ever, as all your salvation and all your desire?

Do I love Jesus? Is He the object of my supreme admiration and delight? Is He the chosen, the preferred, the supreme Being of my warmest affection? Is He precious to my soul? And am I trusting believingly, and exclusively, and without mental reservation, as a sinner utterly undone, self-abhorred, and self-condemned, to His atoning sacrifice?

You think of your sinfulness, your unworthiness, of the taint and flaw and unloveliness of all you are doing, of your faint love, of your weak faith, of your doubtful sincerity, and then you shrink from the thought of claiming an interest in Christ, and resign yourself to the conviction that your salvation is an utter impossibility—that you are not, and never will be, saved! But to take a closer view of the matter. Upon what ground do you base this hesitation and justify this self-exemption from the great salvation? It is not for your worth that you are saved, but for Christ’s worth. It is not on the ground of your personal merit that you are justified, but on the ground of Christ’s merit alone. It is not upon the plea of your fitness, your tears, your confessions, your prayers, your duties, that God forgives and accepts you, but simply and exclusively upon the one plea of the Saviour’s sacrifice.

The great work is all done—it is not to be done. It is complete, finished, accepted, sealed. And you, as a lost sinner, without holiness, without strength, without one plea that springs from what you are, have nothing to do. Believe, and you are saved. Believing is not doing, it is not meriting, it is TRUSTING—it is the simple exercise of a faith in Christ which God gives, and which the Holy Ghost produces in the heart; so that your salvation, from beginning to end, is entirely out of yourself, in another.

And still you ask, “What then must I DO to be saved?” Do! I answer—NOTHING! All is done, completely and for ever done! Blessed, O thrice blessed be God! Christ has done it all—paid it all—endured it all—suffered it all—finished it all—leaving you, O sin-burdened, anxious, trembling, hesitating soul, nothing to do, and only to believe. Will not this suffice? Will you demur a moment longer to commit yourself to Christ, to lay your soul on Jesus, to accept the salvation, the heaven, the crown, the eternal life He proffers you as the free bestowments of His grace? Your sins, countless as the stars, are no barrier to your salvation if you but believe in Jesus. Your transgressions, deep as scarlet and as crimson, shall not be of too deep a dye if you but plunge into the fountain of Christ’s blood. His delight, His glory is to receive sinners—to receive you. And the moment you cease to give over doing, and begin only to believe, from that moment your soul rests from its labour, you enter into peace, and are for ever saved!

Sorry for huge amount of quoted text, but there was just so much to cover in this one. Essentially, Winslow is saying this I think. This Christ you believe in, who is He to you and what is He capable of to you? Is He an all forgiving Christ who is capable of forgiving all of your sin? Is He a Christ who needs your 10% to fulfill His 90% of work accomplished on your behalf? Is He a Christ worthy of your time, mind, and resources? Is He a Christ worth your souls delight and love? Winslow will pepper you with questions like these and in this repetitive manner to penetrate any callousness that may have formed on your heart to drive his point as a hammer and nail into your soul. Are you beginning to see how he works in his writings? So what say you personally of this One called the Christ? More tough questions.

4) Know the Ruling Principles of Your Actions.

What is the ruling principle of your heart? Have you examined yourself to know? Beware of self-treachery, the most easy and the most fatal of all species of deception. There are many deceitful things in the world. The wind is deceitful, the ocean is deceitful, the creature is deceitful, but the human “heart is deceitful above all things,” and in nothing, probably, more so than in the principles and motives which govern and sway it.

But, retreating to my chamber, let me, in solitude, self-scrutiny, and prayer, commune with my own heart. Laying bare, as with the deepest incision of the knife, its spiritual anatomy before God.

Keeps getting tougher, doesn’t it? Here Winslow is asking us to search ourselves in the quiet of our closet that we may know the over ruling motivation that lies behind all things done by us for God. Many times, I fear, we set to do such and such a thing in the right spirit and for the glory of God, but it can soon become tainted by the desire to be seen of men and for our efforts to be applauded openly. As scripture says, the heart is a truly deceptive thing! Who can know it? God does!

5) Know the Heavenly Tendencies of Your Own Heart.

Commune with your own heart, and ascertain its heavenly tendencies,—whether the shadows of time or the realities of eternity have the ascendancy. Let no child of God deem such a scrutiny needless. The Word of God is replete with exhortations to the Church to set its affections on things above and not on the earth; to seek first the kingdom of God; to have its conversation in heaven. Encompassed as we are by earth, blinded by objects of sense, weighed down by human cares and anxieties, we need to be watchful against their secular influence upon our minds. It is good, therefore, to retire to our chamber and examine the spiritual barometer of the soul, to adjust the balance of the affections, and to see that divine and eternal realities are obtaining a growing ascendancy and pre-eminence.

This is one of my favorites. The heavenly tendencies of our souls! What a blessed gift it is to have our affections and minds re directed by teh Holy Spirit to dwell far far above our current stations that we may, in essence, be right there in the very presence of God! Of all of the gifts given to the children of light, this indeed is one of the richest and most fulfilling! Search your hearts to see if your mind is indeed frequently taken up into the heavenly places and dwells where no eye can see and no imagination can fathom.

6) Know Your Own Heart as to its Real and Habitual Fellowship with God.

Commune with your own heart as to its real and habitual fellowship with God. Do we pray? What is the character of our prayers? Do we pray in the Spirit? Is our prayer communion? Do we walk with God as a Father, and with Christ as our best Friend? And is the throne of grace the sweetest, holiest, dearest spot to us on earth? For the want of this honest communion with our heart, there is often an essential defect in our communion with the heart of Jesus. Our hearts grow so cold that we are insensible to the warmth of His. There is so little self-examination touching prayer, that our devotions glide into a cold, abstract formality, and petitions and supplications which should be as swift arrows shot from the bow of faith entering into the presence of God, congeal in icicles upon our lips.

We need to ask ourselves if we are truly praying with a broken and contrite heart or if we have slipped into a state of just going through the motions. Has our devotional time in the word grown cold for an extended period of time? Am I relying on my own efforts and strength to carry out this life that God has intended that we live in the strength of His Spirit? Again, all tough questions, but they are much needed questions if we are to live a fruitful Christian life and if we expect to finish well!

7) Know Your Progress in the Divine Life.

Commune with your own heart as to your progress in the divine life. It is impossible to know correctly the distance we are on our heavenward way, the stages we have travelled, the points we have reached, without self-communion. The mariner examines his ocean-chart, the traveller the milestones of the road, to mark the progress he has made homewards; how much more necessary this for the voyager to eternity, for the traveller to the heavenly Zion!

As he states beforehand, are we making progress in our spiritual pilgrimage? Are we currently moving forward or are we standing still? I think we will all agree that it takes little effort on our part to suddenly find ourselves in some bypath meadow that we had no idea we were even in! For example, we may be making sweet progress mining the depths of some particular doctrine such as the atonement or the holy Trinity and at some point, without us even being aware of it, we find our feet wandering down some path of error! Oh how we might then bewale ourselves for being so slothful to see how cumbersome we were in handling the word of God! We must constantly keep a watchful eye on our path to make sure it is leading towards our heavenly city.

8) Know the State of Your Heart Touching the Spirit of Thanksgiving and Praise.

Commune with your own heart to ascertain its state touching the existence and exercise of the spirit of thanksgiving and praise. There is scarcely any part of our religious experience that receives less attention and insight than this. And in consequence of its neglect, we lose much personal holiness, and God much glory.

We are so absorbed by the trials and discouragements of the Christian pilgrimage as to overlook its blessings and its helps.

I have exhorted you, beloved reader, to cultivate self-communion as to the matter of prayer; with equal point and earnestness do I exhort you to this holy duty as to the matter of praise. There exists a serious defect in the Christianity, a sad lack in the religious experience of many of the Lord’s people touching this holy exercise.

I am always to be in a thankful, praiseful spirit for all the dispensations of His providence and grace. What a holy state will my soul then be in! What happiness will it ensure to my heart, and what a revenue of glory will accrue to God! How will it lighten my burdens, soothe my cares, heal the chaffings of sorrow, and shed gleams of sunshine upon many a lonely, dreary stage of my journey. I am too little praiseful. I am looking only to the crossing of my will, to the disappointment of my hopes, to the foil of my plans, to what my Father sees fit to restrain and withhold, and not to the mercies and blessings, bright as the stars which glow and chime above me, and numerous as the sands of the ocean upon which in pensive sadness I tread; therefore it is that while those stars chant His praise, and those sands speak His goodness and power, I alone am silent!

Thanksgiving and praise can be tough to give in seasons of a particular trial or affliction, but we must understand that it is our heavenly Father working behind the scenes to use this time to mature and consecrate us all the more in our heavenly walk. Search yourself to see if you murmur more that you give thanks to a God who has given His that you might truly live and be made right with Him. Check your attitude frequently throughout the day to see if you are in a place where your heart wants to say “it’s not fair” or “why me” and quiet your soul enough to understand that this trial does not come to you by accident and that it sent to you directly from the hand of your Father to mold you more and more, from faith to faith, into the image and likeness of His one and only Son who gave Himself for you! When viewed in that light, your murmuring will be turned into praise!

9) Know with Certainty your Possession of Heart Religion.

If, my beloved reader, there is one caution which I would urge with deeper emphasis of meaning and solemnity of spirit than another, it is this—be not satisfied without the clearest evidence of the personal possession of HEART-RELIGION. In nothing does there exist a greater tendency, a more easy road to fatal self-destruction than in this. The substitutes for heart-religion are so many and subtle, that without the closest scrutiny and the most rigid analysis of religious feeling and action, we may be betrayed, unsuspectingly to ourselves, into the gravest error.

Examine yourself by these tests: Do I know that my sins are pardoned through Christ? Have I peace with God in Jesus? Am I living in the enjoyment of the Spirit of adoption? Have I in my soul the happiness, the joy, the consolation, the hope which heart-religion imparts? Or—solemn thought!—am I endeavouring to quiet my conscience, to stifle self-reflection, to divert my thoughts from my unsatisfactory, unhappy condition and state of mind by the religious substitutes and subterfuges with which the present age so profusely abounds, and which, with those who are ensnared by them, pass for real spiritual life? Oh, commune faithfully with your own heart touching this matter!

Not much to say here because he mostly touched on this way back in number one. But perhaps it needs to be stated again. Do you posses that true heart religion or is your religion all external and flash? Hard questions again, but they need to be asked!

10) Directions as to the Manner in which Self Communion is to be Engaged.

A. Seek earnestly the aid of the Holy Spirit

He alone can enable us to unlock the wards, to unravel the mystery, and to penetrate into the vailed depths of our own heart. We need the knowledge, the grace, the love of the Spirit in a task so purely spiritual as this. Let us, then, betake ourselves to the Holy Ghost, invoke His power, supplicate His grace, and seek His renewed anointing.

B. Blend communion with Christ with self-communion

Let converse with your own heart be in unison with converse with the heart of God. Endeavour to realize that in this sacred engagement God is with you, His thoughts towards you thoughts of peace, and the feelings of His heart the warm pulsations of His love. Associate all views of yourself with this view of God: that whatever discoveries you arrive at of waywardness and folly, idolatry and sin,—however dark and humiliating the inward picture,—not a frown of displeasure shall glance from His eye, nor a word of reproach breathe from His lips. Oh, do you think that He will join in your self-accusation? that because you loathe, and abhor, and condemn yourself, He will likewise loathe, abhor, and condemn you? Never.

C. Commune with your own heart, looking fully to the cross of Christ

Without this, self-examination may induce the spirit of bondage. It should never be entered upon but upon the principles, and in the spirit of the gospel. It is only as we deal closely with the Atonement, we can deal closely with sin. It is only as we deal faithfully with the blood, that we can deal faithfully with our own hearts. Overwhelming were the revelations of a rigid self-scrutiny but for the hold faith maintains of the sacrifice of Christ—the close, realizing apprehension it has of the cross of Jesus. You must commune with Christ’s heart and your own heart at the same moment! Looking at Jesus in the face, you will be enabled to look your sins in the face; and as your love to Him deepens, so will deepen your sin and self-abhorrence. As has been beautifully remarked, “for one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ;” no dark discovery will then sink you to despair.

11) Blessings that result from this habit of self-communion.

A. It will help to keep you acquainted with the true state of your soul.

B. It will keep you whole nights upon your watch-tower, and the foe shall not surprise you

C. It will increasingly deepen the conviction of your individuality

D. You will have less time and still less inclination to examine and judge your fellows

E. It will greatly conduce to growth in personal holiness

F. It will also promote true humility

G. It will lead to self-acquaintance

H. How precious will Jesus grow with growing self-communion

To conclude, we will end with a bit of prose:

“And what am I? My soul awake,
And an impartial survey take;
Does no dark sign, no ground of fear,
In practice or in heart appear?

“What image does my spirit bear?
Is Jesus form’d and living there?
Say, do His lineaments divine
In thought, in word, and action shine?

“Searcher of hearts! oh, search me still;
The secrets of my soul reveal;
My fears remove, let me appear
To God and my own conscience clear!

“Scatter the clouds which o’er my head
Thick glooms of dubious terrors spread;
Lead me into celestial day,
And to myself myself display.

“May I at that blest world arrive
Where Christ through all my soul shall live,
And give full proof that He is there,
Without one gloomy doubt or fear!”

Next Week

Please read Chapter 9: Backsliders Returning to be due on March 21!



 

“Help Heavenward” Chapter 8: Self Communion

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Help Heavenward

Chapter 8: Self Communion

“…Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still”—Psalm 4:4

It will be acknowledged by every spiritual and reflecting mind that the tendencies of the age are not the most favourable to the calm, solemn, holy duty of self-communion. We are fallen upon times of great religious, as well as worldly activity and excitement. So strong and rushing, indeed, is the tide, that there exists a fearful and fatal liability in those who profess to walk with God, as did Noah and Enoch, to neglect entirely one of the most essential and effectual helps heavenward—the due, faithful, and constant examination of the spiritual state and condition of their own hearts. To the consideration of this vitally-important subject—a subject so intimately entwined with our progress in the divine life—let us now address ourselves. The Divine precept is emphatic—“Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still;” or, as it is rendered in another and a beautiful version of the Psalms, “Commune with your own heart in your chamber, and be still?”—The Book of Common Prayer. Both renderings are good, but perhaps the latter conveys more distinctly and impressively the idea of retirement for self-communion. “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,” is the invitation of God to His Church. Like to this is the Saviour’s exhortation—“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.”
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The Octavius Winslow Reading Group: Help Heavenward (Chapter 7)

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This glorious little chapter opens before us with the call from Winslow to search our hearts to see how we so often can be consumed with our cares and woes that we more times than not forget to look unto Jesus for our sweet relief.

But do you not, beloved reader, need to be put in constant remembrance of this divine secret of rest amidst toil, of repose amidst disquietude, of soothing amidst corroding cares, and of confidence and hope in the midst of change and depression? Bewildered and oppressed by the multitude of anxious thoughts within you, is there not a danger of being so absorbed by the care as to overlook the Caretaker? to forget the heart’s ease in the overwhelming of the heart’s anxiety? Verily we think so.

Although it may be easily stated that this inward looking to self may be contributed to our self-reliance, pride, and our own ability to cope with the issues that so easily press in around us, I think it may be more properly stated that it is in these moments that we just simply forget who we are in Christ and that in our feeble state we need constant reminding to lift up our heads to the Author and Perfector of our faith… no matter how weak that faith may presently be.

The cares of this life enter deeply into the carefulness of which the Lord seeks to lighten us. In proportion to the spiritual tone of the mind, and the closeness of the heart’s converse with God and heavenly realities, will be the tenderness of the believer to the chafing and pressure of temporal cares. The more heavenly we grow, the more acutely sensitive do we become to the encroachment and influence of earth and earthly things.

Such a blessed mark of God’s children, yet such a troublesome mark at the same time. When the regenerated soul and mind grows all the more acutely sensitive to the heavenly call with which it has been set to does the world and its troubles begin to bombard the believers mind as cannon fire to a ships hull. So earnestly do we now yearn and strive for heavenly thought and likeness, yet the sharp contrast of the world’s fallen state seems to becloud our souls to make us feel the remaining chains this worlds still holds us by. It becomes all too easy to sit and stew in our woe and discomfort and ultimately to forget that we are to still keep looking ahead of our current positions unto Jesus and where He now waits for us.

Then, there often presses upon the heart the anxiety to know the path of duty in which we should walk. This is no small care to the child of God. We are often brought to a stand-still, and are, as it were, at our wits’ end. Two paths, intersecting each other, diverging to the right and to the left, confront us, and we are perplexed to know which one we should take.

I think that this particular care can become overwhelmingly burdensome especially to babes in Christ who have not yet blossomed into the flowering maturity of being able to rest in the assurance that God is always working all things for our good and that He is worthy to be trusted in making our paths straight and sure. We live in a world and in a time where we want instant answers and resolutions to all of our problems and questions. To be able to wait on the Lord is indeed a grace much needed in our day!

But there are greater cares than these—the spiritual cares of the soul—which often press heavily upon the heart. You are anxious to know that you have an interest in Christ’s redeeming love,—that your name is written among the living in Jerusalem,—that your sins are pardoned,—that your person is adopted, accepted, saved,—and that after death you will reign with Jesus for ever. You are anxious, too, that your Christian walk should be obedient, perceptive, believing; that you should be more heavenly-minded, growing in knowledge, and grace, and divine conformity to the will of God and the image of Jesus. Ah! these are cares before which all others vanish into insignificance!

He who travailed in sorrow for your salvation is personally, tenderly cognizant of the anxious, the profoundly anxious, desire of your soul that there may not rest the shadow of a shade of doubt and uncertainty upon the fact of its everlasting safety. You are not alone in this soul-exercise. Jesus is with you. The travel of your heart after him, the panting of your spirit for His salvation, the longing of your soul for an assured interest in His love,—your tears, your sighs, your desires, your prayers, your watchings,—awaken in the heart of your Saviour the deepest, tenderest response.

I think we tend to view Jesus at many times like He is sort of just “out there” and that He would not be able to understand the soul sufferings we often go through. We could not be more wrong about that! We have a High Priest who is able to understand our weakness and concerns as He himself once walked in these paths at one time. He does indeed know the frailty of our faith at times and waits at all times for us to turn from our anxious ways and turn to Him for security and comfort in times of trouble.

But you will ask, How is this transfer of care to be made? In the directions which we suggest we would give prominence to the exercise of unquestioning faith. Here there must be a taking God at His word.

Will you, then, wound Him with your doubts, dishonour Him by your unbelief, and force from under you, buffeting, as you are, amidst the waves, this divine, sustaining plank—faith in the word and promise of the only true and living God?

The life blood which we believers now live upon is our faith. It is the muscle which is able to move mountains! And like any muscle, it must be exercised (tried) to become stronger. The word of God is the weight bench in which that muscle may now be built up and strengthened. To read the promises in the holy scriptures is one thing, but it is quite another to grab hold of them and to “lift them” again and again to strengthen our faith and thus increase our confidence and trust in Christ all the more. Doubts and anxiety begin to become more and more faint the more we exercise our faith in the gymnasium of the word of the Lord!

Not less potent is prayer as a mean of transferring care to God. God often sends the care to rouse us to call upon Him. We want an errand, and He sends a trial; we want an impulse, and He sends a sorrow; we want earnestness and importunity, and He sends the heavy and the continuous stroke—all His waves breaking over us. Prayer is the safety valve of the soul. The heart would break, the spirit would sink, despair would fold its dark shroud around us, but for the privilege of access to God through Christ.

The most obvious means of care transfer is that of prayer, yet, it is so often overlooked. While the trusting of a promise in the believers bosom is a much more secretive and discrete function, prayer requires the laying aside of all earthly duty and business and focusing our hearts care solely with our God. It is indeed true that we may send silent prayers to the Lord all throughout our day when the need arises, but nothing can replace prayer done in that special secret place in which the believers soul may become unhitched from this wilderness trial and may be brought into full communicative communion with our Lord who cares for us completely. Oh precious hour of prayer!

Winslow then concludes this chapter with a few observations of caution to his readers.

Do not anticipate care. By anticipating care, and thus antedating your future, you grieve the Spirit of God, wound your own peace, and unfit yourself for present duty and trial.

Sit not brooding over your state, deploring its existence, and lamenting your want of more faith, and grace, and love. Arise, responsive to the precept, and cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain both you and it. This inordinate absorption within yourself will bring to you no relief, no heart’s ease, and no nourishment to faith. One uplifted glance—one sight of Jesus—one believing touch of the promise of God, will bring more repose to your anxious spirit, more succor to your burdened mind, than a lifetime of self-absorption.

I love practical advice. And this is for sure good counsel from an experienced believer. To fret and worry for tomorrows provision is not only disobedience to a direct command of the Lord, but it only fuels the fire of anxiety within and fosters unbelief in the soul. You are so much important to Him than sparrows or blades of grass. You are bought with his Sons precious blood and He will not forsake the one whom He has applied the sacred blood upon! Trust Him for today. Trust Him for tomorrow. Trust Him for all!

Lastly, keep yourself from morbid naval gazing. This is an area in which I personally struggle mightily and have at times almost become paralyzed by my failures, shortcomings, and recurring sins. It is indeed healthy to examine oneself to test our spiritual condition and progress, but it must be tempered with a constant looking to the alien righteousness that is not of ourselves that is ultimately the substance which God now looks upon for our justification before Him!

Next Week

Please read Chapter 8: Self Communion which will be due on March 14!

 

 

A New Octavius Winslow Biography? Maybe.

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I wanted to kindly ask the readers of the blog to please consider praying for a project that I am considering.

When I first established this site and drew up my “mission statement”, one of the goals was to write as detailed of a biography as possible on Octavius. Back then, I knew absolutely nothing on the man and there was just as much on the internet available. With a lot of hard work and many invested hours and headaches, the site has blossomed considerably and the online presence of Winslow has increased drastically. Of which I am so thankful to God for!

With so many new believers becoming turned onto his works, I am at a point now where I think it may, it may, just be possible to write that biography.

Realistically speaking, it would be no substantial book. A rough calculation shows it might at most be a 100 page book…if that. But with the timing of the new found public interest, my contact with a direct descendant of Octavius who has done tremendous work in searching out her family history, the encouragement of my ever supportive wife Rhoda, and the encouragement of the paper written by Tanner Turely entitled “THE EXPERIMENTAL HOMILETIC OF OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: APPLYING DOCTRINE TO LIFE” has found me in a place where I now see that if this biography is ever going to happen, it would probably be now and with me writing it.

So….what am I getting at?

I would covet your prayers at this time from you that the Lord would drive it home for me to set out on this project. That it would both become crystal clear to me that this project is indeed for me to set out on and that He would give me the grace, knowledge, and strength to write it.

Truthfully speaking, I am scared to death and am ill equipped to write it. I am not a writer (I’m a dog groomer) and have absolutely no idea whatsoever how to even begin contemplating how to start a biography! But, with that being said, I know God likes to use weak vessels to do great and impossible things with.

Much appreciated!

Soli Deo Gloria

“Help Heavenward” Chapter 7: Human Care Transfered to God

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Help Heavenward

Chapter 7: Human Care Transfered to God

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you— 1 Peter 5:7

Were we to take the world’s estimate of the real value and happiness of a life of faith in God as the true one, how gloomy, joyless, and forlorn a life would it appear! The world imagines that there is nothing substantial, bright, or social in the religion of Christ—no reality, sunshine, or companionship! But how mistaken! We cite, as disproving this view, the precept we propose in this chapter to illustrate and enforce, which enjoins the transfer of human care to God. Where, in the world’s wilderness, grows the flower of heart’s ease as it blooms and blossoms here? “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” How full of soothing and repose are these words! What cares have they lightened,—what anxieties have they removed,—what burdens have they unclasped,—and what springs of joy and comfort and hope have they unsealed in many a sad and oppressed heart! But do you not, beloved reader, need to be put in constant remembrance of this divine secret of rest amidst toil, of repose amidst disquietude, of soothing amidst corroding cares, and of confidence and hope in the midst of change and depression? Bewildered and oppressed by the multitude of anxious thoughts within you, is there not a danger of being so absorbed by the care as to overlook the Caretaker? to forget the heart’s ease in the overwhelming of the heart’s anxiety? Verily we think so. Hagar, pining with thirst, and blinded by grief, saw not the well of water flowing at her side. The disciples in the storm, filled with alarm, and absorbed by fear, recognized not the Lord Jesus walking to them upon the waves which threatened the foundering of their vessel. Thus often is it with us—thus may it be now with you. We look at the want, and not at Him who supplies it; at the storm, and not at Him who controls it; at the care, and not at Him who assumes it. Is not the voice of the Lord mightier than the voice of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea? Is not the Caretaker greater than the care itself? Yet how we limit the Holy One, and magnify and multiply our cares, anxieties, and sorrows! But for the immutability of our redeeming God, whose unseen hand guides, and whose power, almost insensible to ourselves, sustains us, our care would consume us. How often we are upheld, we scarcely know by whom; kept in peace, we scarcely know how; preserved in safety, we scarcely know why. But “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him;” and, sooner or later, we learn that Jesus has done it all, and has done it for His own glory. Fain would I, beloved reader, proffer you a little help heavenward by inciting you to this transfer of anxious thought and chafing care to God. Lightened a little of your burden, with a more trustful heart and gladsome spirit you will speed your way homeward to that heaven of perfect repose, upon whose threshold you will leave the last anxious thought, and lay down the last earthly care, your weary, panting soul pillowed in eternal repose.

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The Octavius Winslow Reading Group: Help Heavenward (Chapter 6)

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Note: For some more insight regarding the subject of trial and affliction, please see the recent series entitled “The Preciousness of Trial” from the book The Precious Things of God. There are lots of great insights to be had in this series!

There are few things in the spiritual history of the child of God more really helpful heavenward than sanctified trial.

Affliction is to the believer what the wing is to the lark, and what the eye is to the eagle,—the means by which the soul mounts in praise heavenward, gazing closely and steadily upon the glorious Sun of righteousness.

In the case of the unregenerate, all afflictions are a part and parcel of the curse, and work naturally against their good; but in the case of the regenerate, they are, in virtue of the covenant of grace, transformed into blessings, and work spiritually for their good. Just as the mountain stream, coursing its way, meets some sanative mineral by which it becomes endowed with a healing property, so afflictions, passing through the covenant, change their character, derive a sanctifying property, and thus become a healing medicine to the soul.

Pick up any book of Winslow’s and I can guarantee you that you will run into the subject of sanctifying affliction at some point. This is a subject he knew all too well I am afraid. He pastored a small church in the rough Bowery section of New York City during the beginning of the 19th century, lost his father at a young age, and would later lose 3 children within a year of one another…two of which were baby girls. Winslow’s spiritual vision was well acclimated to the dark valleys of this life and he was able to see the sanctifying graces contained within them. For the unregenerate, these afflictions are simply byproducts of the curse we all share in common with Adam. For the believer in the Lord Jesus, however, these blows were meant to bind up the soul to God and bring it into submission to a Father’s love that would have that soul to be set apart wholly unto Christ.

Thus we find tribulation the ancient and beaten path of the Church of God. “A great cloud of witnesses” all testify to sorrow as the ordained path to heaven.

Who would not sail to glory in the same vessel with Jesus and His disciples, tossed though that vessel be amidst the surging waves of life’s troubled ocean? All shall arrive in heaven as last, “some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship, but all safe to land.”

It is not a matter if we will suffer, but when and for how long Winlsow seems to state here. Suffering is the blessed way of the cross and all who desire to walk her paths must indeed bear her stripes. Though it is true Jesus has taken our punishment and wrath in our place and brought us nigh to God, our sufferings and trials are meant to serve us a good and wholesome purpose… to draw us heavenward and to detach us from the things of this world.

Our first remark, then, with regard to trial is, that it is a time of spiritual instruction, and so a help heavenward.

Now, the school of trial is the school of spiritual knowledge. We grow in knowledge of ourselves, learning more of our superficial attainments, shallow experience, and limited grace. We learn, too, more of our weakness, emptiness, and vileness, the plough-share of trial penetrating deep into the heart and throwing up its veiled iniquity. And oh, how does this deeper self-knowledge lay us low, humble and abase us; and when our self-sufficiency and our self-seeking and our self-glorying is thus mowed down, then the showers of the Saviour’s grace descend “as rain upon the mown grass,” and so we advance in knowledge and holiness heavenward. Trial, too, increases our acquaintance with Christ. We know more of the Lord Jesus through one sanctified affliction than by all the treatises the human pen ever wrote.

Oh yes, times of trial are times of growth in experimental knowledge. We see God and Jesus and truth from new standpoints, and in a different light, and we thank the Lord for the storm which dispelled the mist that hid all this glory, unveiling so lovely a landscape and so serene a sky to our view.

To know ones self, that is, to see ourselves as God sees us apart from Christ is a double-edged sword indeed. It is a deeply humiliating and soul wrenching work of the highest order. To see the absolute vileness and depravity that lies within our very beings would drive us mad were it not for the restraining and comforting grace of our Lord. But it is this sight and this vision that will, by grace,  most assuredly make us flee to the Savior hanging upon the tree and trust in His atoning sacrifice to wash us from all of our impurity. Blessed day when we first learned of our wretched condition and sped to the Saviors feet in utter self-abasement and weakness! This, readers, is a taste of the experimental knowledge Winslow so often writes of. To experience this inner soul blackness and to be able to feel it breathing within ourselves and to know that there is One who has washed us in His blood and made us white as snow. This is the blessed man.

Trial quickens us in prayer, and so effectually helps us heavenward.

But precious and costly as is this privilege of prayer, we need rousing to its observance. Trial is eminently instrumental of this. God often sends affliction for the accomplishment of this one end—that we might be stirred up to take hold of Him.

I really can’t put it much better than these two excerpts. When a seaman is in stormy seas and the waves break over his head and crash onto the main decks, what will he naturally do? He will lay hold to that which is closest to him and that which is unmovable so that he may not be washed overboard. When trials come to us and it seems as though the breakers of God’s discipline burst upon our heads, we are brought to our knees to lay hold of He who is unshakable!

Trials are necessary to wean us from the world. Perhaps nothing possesses so detaching, divorcing an effect in the experience of the Christian as affliction. The world is a great snare to the child of God. Its rank is a snare, its possessions are a snare, its honours are a snare, its enterprises are a snare, the very duties and engagements of daily life are a snare, to a soul whose citizenship is in heaven, and whose heart would fain be more frequently and exclusively where Jesus, its treasure, is.

But God in wisdom and mercy sends us trial to detach us from earth, to lessen our worldly-mindedness, more deeply to convince us how empty and insufficient is all created good when His chastening is upon us, to intensify our affection for spiritual things, and to bring our souls nearer to Himself.

The world, the flesh, and the devil are our sworn enemies here on earth. To help speed us heavenward, God chooses to send afflictions to break the earthly bonds and throw down idols we have erected in our hearts. John Calvin once stated that “our hearts are continuous idol factories”. Do you agree? I know I do! So often do I find myself so easily inserting some worldly idol onto the “heart throne” within and before I know it, I find myself in some strange bypath meadow and that I have no idea how I got into it! Graces seem to have grown cold and the Lord seems to be light years away! After tasting from the broken cisterns of the world and have smarted from its hollow love, I flee again to Jesus and as always, He is only but one glance away.

The moral purity of heart (personal holiness) which chastened trial produces must have a distinct and prominent place in this enumeration of helps heavenward. Holiness, as it is an essential element of heaven, becomes an essential element in our spiritual meetness for its enjoyment.

To this end let us welcome God’s purifying agent—sanctified trial. When He causes us to walk in the midst of trouble, let us be submissive, humble, obedient. Resignation to the Divine will secures the end God intends to accomplish—our personal and deeper holiness. So long as we cherish an unsubmissive, rebellious spirit, the medicine will not cure, the, lesson will not instruct, the agent will not work its mission; in a word, our purity of heart will not be promoted. In the words of Rutherford, “When God strikes, let us beware of striking back again; for God will always have the last blow.”

There may be real holiness in the midst of innate unholiness; purity encircled by indwelling impurity; an intense thirst, an ardent prayerfulness for sanctification, and some measure of its attainment, in a soul far, very far, from having arrived at a state of perfect and entire sinlessness. Does not the earnest desire, for holiness, and the constant struggle for sanctification, prove the existence and indwelling power of evil in the saints of God? Most assuredly. And the Lord the Spirit discovers to us more and more of the inbeing and evil of sin, unvails to us more vividly the chambers of abomination, that we may be the more intently set upon the great work of sanctification, that we may deal more closely with the blood, and be more earnest and importunate in our cry, “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Finally, Winslow touches on the personal holiness which derives from much personal afflictions. How so? By resigning our own will to His. Confusion and anxiety can easily take root in the hearts and minds of Zion’s mourners during trial, but the trial is sent that the believer may resign his ways to a loving and all-knowing Father who knows what is best for the believer’s growth and maturity. Thus, the desirable fruits of humility, meekness, submissiveness, and obedience begin to blossom upon the branches of the afflicted soul. Dare we ask if our Father does not know what is best for us?

Conclusion

If this be the path to glory, this the evidence of adoption, this the example my Saviour has left me, and this the help heavenward which sanctified trial brings—the steps by which I climb, the wings with which I mounts the door through which I enter as a sinner pardoned through the blood and justified by the righteousness of Christ—then, oh then, my Father, THY WILL, NOT MINE, BE DONE!

No cross, no crown.

If we want and expect to see the sunny shores of our long awaited heavenly Zion, we must walk in the same steps of not only countless scores of past saints who have gone ahead of us, but the way of our Master as well. Take heart believer! Take courage afflicted mourner! You are well on your way and the trials and afflictions you currently bear shall be for you the bitter waters you must now drink to later taste of the sweet fruits of your King’s far off lands.

Next Week

Please read Chapter 7 Human Care Transfered to God for February 28!

 

 

“Help Heavenward” Chapter 6: Trial, A Help Heavenward

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Help Heavenward

Chapter 6: Trial, A Help Heavenward

“That we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” -Acts 14:22

There are few things in the spiritual history of the child of God more really helpful heavenward than sanctified trial. He treads no path in which he finds aids more favorable to advancement in the divine life, circumstances which more contribute to the development and completeness of Christian character,—the teaching, the quickening, the purifying,—than the path of hallowed sorrow—sorrow which a covenant God has sent, which grace sanctifies, and which knits the heart to Christ. The atmosphere is not more purified by the electric storm, nor the earth more fructified by the descending rain, than is the regenerate soul advanced in its highest interests by the afflictive dealings in God’s government of His saints. “Sweet are the uses of adversity” to an heir of heaven. Its form may appear “ugly and venomous”—for “no chastening for the present seemeth joyous but grievous;” but nevertheless it “bears a precious jewel in its head”—for “afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Affliction is to the believer what the wing is to the lark, and what the eye is to the eagle,—the means by which the soul mounts in praise heavenward, gazing closely and steadily upon the glorious Sun of righteousness. Chastening seals our sonship, sorrow disciplines the heart, affliction propels the soul onward. We should have a more vivid conception of the power of affliction as an ingredient of holiness if we kept more constantly in remembrance the fact that all the afflictive, trying dispensations of the believer are covenant dispensations—that they are not of the same character nor do they produce the same results as in the ungodly. They are among the “sure mercies of David.” In the case of the unregenerate, all afflictions are a part and parcel of the curse, and work naturally against their good; but in the case of the regenerate, they are, in virtue of the covenant of grace, transformed into blessings, and work spiritually for their good. Just as the mountain stream, coursing its way, meets some sanative mineral by which it becomes endowed with a healing property, so afflictions, passing through the covenant, change their character, derive a sanctifying property, and thus become a healing medicine to the soul.

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The Octavius Winlsow Reading Group: Help Heavenward (Chapter 5)

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Brief Note: I apologize for not getting this posted on Monday. I had some doctors appointments to attend to along with a school party for our youngest daughter and by the time I settled in last night I was just too tired to complete this post. So here she is!

The believer is composed of two natures essentially different, incessantly antagonistic, and eternally irreconcilable. Nothing can be more diametrically opposed in their character and actings than the divine and the human, the renewed and the unrenewed nature that is in the believer. A partaker of the new and divine nature through grace, and thus a child of God and an heir of heaven, he still is imprisoned and fettered by the old and fallen nature from which there is no release until the Master comes and calls for him. Now these two and opposite natures must be in perpetual hostility the one to the other.

Winslow begins the chapter by plainly laying out the well trodden paradox of countless saints before us that has led so many to the deeps of many a gloomy abyss in their earthly pilgrimage. That is to say, the burdensome war within the regenerated soul that is between the new and unrenewed nature. We cry and pant for holiness and conformity to our Lord, yet we find in ourselves the troublesome sins that so often entangle and ensnare us and rob us of our joy. How we wish just to be done with them that we might run harder and faster after Christ!

Reader! thou art spiritually a slave or a freeman—which? A slave to an unregenerate nature, a slave of the world, a slave of Satan, a slave of self, a servant of sin,—or, one whose fetters Christ has wrenched, whose soul Christ has set free.

But the child of God, a freeman though he is, a partaker of the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free, may have but a contracted and imperfect view of this liberty, may still walk in much bondage of spirit, reforge for himself fetters which Christ had broken, and return to those beggarly elements from which Christ had set him free.

How few look fully into God’s face as their Father? How few pray in the spirit of adoption? How few rejoice in the sense of pardoned sin, and possess the peace which flows from the justified state procured by the blood and righteousness of our Emmanuel?

How often do we “reforge” the shackles of self-righteousness that we may earn God’s acceptance and love! So fickle we are that we would so easily turn a blind eye to the sheer perfection of Calvary’s cross to look upon the broken cisterns of our own encampment that we might be set aright before our God!

What a loosening of our bonds is real conversion!

When the Spirit’s seal of adoption is impressed upon the heart, there is a loosening of the bonds of legality in which so many of God’s children are held.

Why have you not joy and peace and hope in believing? Simply because, unsuspected by yourself, you are putting your own work in the place of Christ’s work. Oh that you may be led to cast yourself more entirely upon the atoning sacrifice of Jesus!—to believe that God looks not at a single work you do as justifying you in His sight, but that He looks only to the divine, sacrificial, flawless, perfect work of His beloved Son! Oh, come and rest where God rests, in the Crucified One!

It can be said and is indeed true that when a soul flees to Christ and takes hold of the fountain of life that pours forth from the blood of the Lamb that the bonds of sin are loosed and the sinner is now justified in the eyes of God, but as I mentioned prior, we are a pitiful and fickle flock. We so easily wander from the streams of living water to gaze at our own righteousness in the pools of our own stagnant pride. We say, “Yes, God has saved me, but…”. We so often want to take away the garment He has provided to put in its place the weakness of the fig leaf of our own choosing for covering. God have mercy on us for such an insidious and manic notion that we should for one moment consider Calvary’s sacrifice is not sufficient to cleanse us from all unrighteousness! May the gospel be burned into our hearts and minds! As Winslow states, “Let your life be a daily exercise of faith in the atoning, sin-pardoning blood of Jesus touching the guilt and power of sin, and with David, you shall gratefully exclaim, “Thou hast loosed my bonds.”

The Lord also looses the bonds of those of His people who are “bound in fetters and are holden in cords of affliction.”

When we take a legal, and not a gospel view of affliction,—view it as the punishment of the slave, and not as the chastening of the child,—as judicial and not parental, we are brought into bondage. Oh, is it not enough that we are bound in fetters and are holden in cords of affliction, that we should add to these bonds those of unfilial submission, secret rebellion, restiveness, and repining? Oh, how we lose the soothing and the comfort, the succour and the liberty in deep and sore trial, by not tracing it all up to a Father’s hand, a Saviour’s love, the arrangement and provision of the covenant of grace.

To view our burdens and trials as that of a Fatherly disgust or frowning is absolutely wrong says Winslow. In Jesus, we stand in Him complete and in complete favor and love. The Father no longer punishes us or has ill feelings toward us as we once did apart from the Savior’s blood, but He now brings these trials that we may grow in maturity and faith to become strong believers who stand on a firm and sure foundation. We are now freed from the fetters of this former bondage and ought now to look upon our sufferings as “loosened bonds” to draw us closer to our Savior. This is indeed mature Christian behavior!

The Lord loosens our bonds when we walk in evangelical obedience. Nothing contributes more to the enlargement of the soul in the ways of the Lord than a profound and practical reverence for the authority and teaching of Christ.

Many are wearily dragging along their pilgrimage the bonds of doubt and fear, simply because of willful disobedience to the Divine precepts and positive commands of their Lord and Master. They walk not in the liberty of the child, because they walk not in the precept of the disciple.

To be the Lord’s servant, is to be the Lord’s freeman; for Christ’s service is perfect freedom. It is a service growing out of freedom, and it is a freedom found in service. O Lord, I am Thy servant! Thou hast freed me from the bonds of sin and Satan, and now my highest honour, and my dearest delight, and my most perfect freedom is, in serving Thee!

Yet again Winslow writes with such refreshing clarity and focus to make often confusing items so plain and lovely! Obedience to Christ ought not be that of a burdensome drudgery or of a slavish, melancholic nature. We have been freed by the Lord of Glory and are now at peace with His wrath in Jesus! We do not have to serve this Lord because He is a mean or unjust tyrant. He is a good, merciful, kind, and long-suffering Father who has given us all things! Ought we now serve Him with a joyful heart and a thankful tongue? Yes! Of course we should! We are loosed from the bonds of our former sin filled selves to serve this King whom we now adore and worship with glad tidings and a praise filled heart. He ought to be no burden to us now. If He is, then you must revisit the gospel once again and stare long and hard at the Lamb on the tree who died in your stead! God forgive us for thinking of you as a burdensome task master!

Are you, beloved, all your lifetime in bondage through the fear of death? Alas! how this impedes your happy, joyful progress heavenward! But Jesus can loosen, and virtually has loosened, these bonds. He reminds you that you are to contemplate not death, but His personal and glorious COMING; but that if your thoughts will wander from this bright and blessed hope to the more gloomy and repulsive object of your departure to Him, you are to remember that He has vanquished death, and has passed through the grave as your Substitute, your Surety, your Head; that He has extracted the venom of the one, and has irradiated the gloom of the other; and that you have no sting to apprehend, and no shadows to dread, because He has passed that way before you. Moreover, He has pledged His most loving and most faithful word that when you tread the valley, solitary and alone as you must be, you shall fear no evil, for that He, your risen, living Lord and Saviour, will be with you. Lo! I am with you always!

Oh blessed thought of not only the oldest of saints but the youngest as well! He has burst the bonds of death over you believer! When you close your eyes and breathe your last breath, death shall have no power over you, for you belong to the One who has power over death and who has passed it’s dark gates before you to now await you by the Father’s side. Let us meditate richly and robustly on this though all our days! Death has no power over our souls for we lay securely in the hands of He who rose again!

You complain of bondage in prayer. Never, perhaps, are you so sensible of the chafing of the fetters as when you retire from the presence of man into the solemn presence of God. Oh, could you but then be free! Could you but pour out an unfettered heart, moved, prompted, and enlarged by God’s free Spirit, how happy would you be! But no. You cannot pray. You have no wants, no desires, no emotions: thoughts seem stifled in their birth, words freeze upon your lips, and you rise from your knees as one whose devotions have been but as the chattering of the swallow. But why are you thus fettered? Are not these bonds your own creating? Are you not endeavouring to excite and rouse your own feelings, rather than seeking the influence of the Holy Spirit? Are you not relying upon your own intellectual efforts, instead of seeking to offer to God the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit? Are you not bending your eye within and upon yourself, rather than looking from off and out of self, simply and only to Jesus? Do you not come with the self-sufficient spirit of the Pharisee, rather than in the self-condemning spirit of the publican!

Who of you does not reside in the chains of this bondage may I ask? I know for sure I do! I am so thankful Winslow touched on this area because it is an area of such weakness and frailty in my own pilgrimage, as I am most certain it is in yours. How often we lay shackles on ourselves of self righteous prayer! We pray to be heard of ourselves so often! We rise after prayer with such a proud heart saying how well we prayed or are impressed with how long we prayed. How foolish and fickle we are indeed! We lay in bondage and know it not. May we be released this instant from such feeble notions and set free into the heavens to soar with the Holy Spirit in prayer before the throne of our Master.

Conclusion:

I think Winslow would have us to see in this beautiful chapter that we often place ourselves into bondage when Jesus would have us to be free. I would even argue that the above mentioned areas of bondage that we so often find ourselves slipping into are the exact areas we ought to focus our attention on to receive the most joy and fulfillment in our Christian walk. When we take the attention and gaze off of us and place it on Him, our bondage breaker, we will truly be free indeed!

Next Week:

Please read Chapter 6: Trial, A Help Heavenward that will be due on Monday the 21!