Go Home to Your Friends

“Go home to your friends and tell them the great things the Lord has done.” (Mar_5:19).

“Hallelujah! Jesus reigns!!” As the good news of the Great King’s triumph over the powers of darkness began to spread, delusional collaborators with the evil empire sought to intercept the heavenly couriers and prevent the message of Grace from reaching the ears of captives held throughout their conquered kingdom.

For many years now this phase of the conflict has been contested, and the tide is turning day by day. Yet, there are scores still in darkness who have not heard the liberating truth of God’s Grace. Will you tell them?

It is a question only you can answer.

You now are knighted by Grace with the mandate of God’s mercy, love, forgiveness and goodness. “It’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord. “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly, because the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with you. Amen.” (Rom_16:20)

My role as Tour Guide for this trip is finished; but yours has just begun. What the Lord has done for us, we now must do for others. Go home to your friends and tell them the great things the Lord has done.

And right here I must confess to you that, while I have been to this place called Grace many times, this was my first time ever serving as a tour guide bringing others to it! Oh, yes, I have spoken about Grace on many occasions and told others of the wonders of this place, but this was my first time actually bringing people along with me on the journey.

And if I can do it, so can you. I’m passing the baton into your hands!

First, you must become filled with the wonder of this place. You have got to see it, and believe it for yourself. You must let this revelation of Grace renew your mind, so that your witness of it to others will carry conviction that does not waver in the face of long-standing traditions.

Second, you must remember that the contemporary thinking about Grace has long been unchallenged, and it will not easily yield ground to traveling pilgrims – no matter how passionate we may be.

Third, you must be patient. Some will see it for themselves; others will not. This is a matter for the Lord of Grace to resolve; not you. As for you, “walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Col_4:5-6).
is a practical plan that just might work.

If you will tell two friends, and take them through the process just like I did for you; and they tell two friends, and take them through the process just like you did for them; and then they tell two friends…and so on, and so on, and do on – well, it’s only a matter of time before a Grace Awakening occurs, and a Grace Revolution transforms the contemporary Church into a spiritual dynamo that shakes our world with real power and truth.

No more hype and bravado; no more banging of cymbals and prancing of ponies; no more pontificating and chest-beating – just GRACE: the empowering presence of God enabling us to be who He created us to be, and to do what He has called us to do – right where we are. For the light that shines the farthest, shines brightest at home!

Do this and watch what happens! Print out these posts and host a group of your friends once a week at your home. Become their tour guide and take them on this journey, just as I have done for you. Read the posts and engage in a hearty discussion together.

Imagine.

If enough of us do this, then its only a matter of time until we will experience a Grace Awakening across the nation…and dare I be so bold as to believe…around the World!

Tell them to come with you on a journey to a place called grace. Tell them not to pack a lot of bags. Tell them about the Tavern, where they can visit with the Apostle Paul; and the Ancient Library, where they can see the gold beneath the surface of the water, illumined by the Holy Ghost.

Tell them about Peter walking with us on the road. Show them your Tour Guide and tell them how they can get their own copy – and take their own journey. Tell them about the Conference on Grace in Great Hall of Truth, and the amazing sights and sounds of Monumental Park. And, yes, tell them about the Stones of the dark corner of the Disgraced.

Tell them about this place where you experience a power because you meet a Person. Tell them about a place called Grace. And then take them to it.

“Go home to your friends and tell them the great things the Lord has done.” (Mar_5:19).

And as you cross the finish line of your service to the Lord, you can say with Paul, “I am what I am by the grace of God. And His grace given unto me was not in vain, for I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet, it was not I; but was the grace of God in me.”

The Faithful God (Part 1)
“They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” (Joshua 5:12)
We have each traveled a long and laborious pathway during these past few years as the World and the Church have both undergone unprecedented challenge and change. It seems that everything that can be shaken is being shaken, and ultimately only those things that are unshakable will remain. O to us may grace be given to stand in the unshakable Kingdom.
Sadly, some have not made the journey. Having been turned aside by the lure of lesser things, or backed down by the threat of difficult things, or held captive by the hollow hope of nostalgic things — not all who started out on this trek have made it this far. We look around and they are gone. “Demas hath forsaken me,” wrote the apostle Paul, “having loved this present world” (2 Tim.4:10).
But not all who are gone from us have fallen. There are those happy souls who have finished their race with joy and been transported to the City, whose builder and maker is God; and we rejoice with them as we hope for heaven ourselves. And our hope is not in vain, nor will our longings be left unrewarded. For we are neither lethargic nor nostalgic; we are full of life and filled with dreams.
Today belongs to those who live by a faith that sees beyond the limitations of human reason and effort; a faith that trusts in the unfailing love of the Faithful God who alone has brought us safe thus far; and who alone will carry us all the way to our Hope of Glory.
Joshua serves as a splendid example of those who survive and prevail by placing their faith in the Faithful God. We’ll look at him in detail tomorrow.

“They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” (Joshua 5:12)
We have each traveled a long and laborious pathway during these past few years as the World and the Church have both undergone unprecedented challenge and change. It seems that everything that can be shaken is being shaken, and ultimately only those things that are unshakable will remain. O to us may grace be given to stand in the unshakable Kingdom.
Sadly, some have not made the journey. Having been turned aside by the lure of lesser things, or backed down by the threat of difficult things, or held captive by the hollow hope of nostalgic things — not all who started out on this trek have made it this far. We look around and they are gone. “Demas hath forsaken me,” wrote the apostle Paul, “having loved this present world” (2 Tim.4:10).
But not all who are gone from us have fallen. There are those happy souls who have finished their race with joy and been transported to the City, whose builder and maker is God; and we rejoice with them as we hope for heaven ourselves. And our hope is not in vain, nor will our longings be left unrewarded. For we are neither lethargic nor nostalgic; we are full of life and filled with dreams.
Today belongs to those who live by a faith that sees beyond the limitations of human reason and effort; a faith that trusts in the unfailing love of the Faithful God who alone has brought us safe thus far; and who alone will carry us all the way to our Hope of Glory.
Joshua serves as a splendid example of those who survive and prevail by placing their faith in the Faithful God. We’ll look at him in detail tomorrow.

“I will never leave thee.”
- Heb_13:5
No promise is of private interpretation. Whatever God has said to any one saint, he has said to all. When he opens a well for one, it is that all may drink. When he openeth a granary- door to give out food, there may be some one starving man who is the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints may come and feed too. Whether he gave the word to Abraham or to Moses, matters not, O believer; he has given it to thee as one of the covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for thee, nor a wide mercy too extensive for thee. Lift up now thine eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, for all this is thine. Climb to Pisgah’s top, and view the utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine own. There is not a brook of living water of which thou mayst not drink. If the land floweth with milk and honey, eat the honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to believe, for he hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”In this promise, God gives to his people everything. “I will never leave thee.” Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is he mighty? He will show himself strong on the behalf of them that trust him. Is he love? Then with lovingkindness will he have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text-”I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

Evening
“Take up the cross, and follow me.”
- Mar_10:21
You have not the making of your own cross, although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making; neither are you permitted to choose your own cross, although self-will would fain be lord and master; but your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are cheerfully to accept it; you are to take up the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand cavilling at it. This night Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to his easy yoke. Do not kick at it in petulance, or trample on it in vain-glory, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like a true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; he leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if he carried a cross, what nobler burden would you desire? The Via Crucis is the way of safety; fear not to tread its thorny paths.
Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers, or lined with velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders; but it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colours, it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble. The Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to the divine will ere you fall asleep this night, that waking with to-morrow’s sun, you may go forth to the day’s cross with the holy and submissive spirit which becomes a follower of the Crucified.

THE CRY OF THE OPPRESSED
“O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me.”– Isa_38:14.

THIS PRAYER is so indefinite that it will suit any emergency, and yet brimful of faith that God will undertake all responsibility. Are you oppressed with the sense of failure, with temptation, with the consciousness of sin? Or oppressed with poverty, or debt, or the fear of unemployment, or with inability to find work? Or cast down with bitter persecution within or without your home? Or sorely beset and hindered by ill-health, the hopelessness of recovery? All these eases of oppression are included in this petition, and may be handed over to your faithful Creator, with the certainty that He is as willing as He is able to undertake for you. He is never weary of hearing your cry; the Everlasting Arms are never tired; and our God neither slumbers nor sleeps.
What may we expect from a prayer so simple, yet so comprehensive? We shall know God. “What shall I say, He hath both spoken unto me, and Himself hath done it” (Isa_38:15). Hezekiah had been a religious man, had maintained the Temple Services, had enjoyed the close friendship of Isaiah, yet it was in none of these things that he had met God face to face. But when he turned his face to the wall, and poured out his soul-anguish, He touched God, knew Him after a fresh fashion, heard Him speak, saw Him work. Only through sickness, loneliness, and the pressure of overwhelming sorrow, do some men rightly learn to live, and discover that unseen and most real world, where the life of the spirit unfolds to God as a flower in spring.
At the pit we learn God’s Love (Isa_38:17). How can we measure God’s love? They say that a man’s fist is the measure of his heart. Come and stand beneath the stars! There is God’s hand! Now judge His heart! It is illimitable! By that love He has put our sins behind His back into the ocean depths! With that love He has drawn us out of the pit of our sins! By that love He bears with our cold response and languid petitions! Through that love He will bring us to glory! His is a love that will never let us go!
Take the hand of Jesus to steady you; look down into the hole of the pit from which you have been redeemed, and then look up to the Throne of God to which He passed at His Ascension, and recall His own words: “where I am, there shall ye be also.” Trust Him to undertake for your little life!

PRAYER
I pray Thee, O my Father, to shut me up to a simpler and more confiding faith. May I trust more than I know, and believe more than I see; and when my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. AMEN.

“And David enquired of the Lord.”
- 2Sa_5:23
When David made this enquiry he had just fought the Philistines, and gained a signal victory. The Philistines came up in great hosts, but, by the help of God, David had easily put them to flight. Note, however, that when they came a second time, David did not go up to fight them without enquiring of the Lord. Once he had been victorious, and he might have said, as many have in other cases, “I shall be victorious again; I may rest quite sure that if I have conquered once I shall triumph yet again. Wherefore should I tarry to seek at the Lord’s hands?” Not so, David. He had gained one battle by the strength of the Lord; he would not venture upon another until he had ensured the same. He enquired, “Shall I go up against them?” He waited until God’s sign was given. Learn from David to take no step without God. Christian, if thou wouldst know the path of duty, take God for thy compass; if thou wouldst steer thy ship through the dark billows, put the tiller into the hand of the Almighty. Many a rock might be escaped, if we would let our Father take the helm; many a shoal or quicksand we might well avoid, if we would leave to his sovereign will to choose and to command. The Puritan said, “As sure as ever a Christian carves for himself, he’ll cut his own fingers;” this is a great truth. Said another old divine, “He that goes before the cloud of God’s providence goes on a fool’s errand;” and so he does. We must mark God’s providence leading us; and if providence tarries, tarry till providence comes. He who goes before providence, will be very glad to run back again. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go,” is God’s promise to his people. Let us, then, take all our perplexities to him, and say, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Leave not thy chamber this morning without enquiring of the Lord.

Evening
“Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil [or, the evil one].”
- Luk_11:4
What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue or avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoid temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience, that we may never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter the thicket in search of the lion. Dearly might we pay for such presumption. This lion may cross our path or leap upon us from the thicket, but we have nothing to do with hunting him. He that meeteth with him, even though he winneth the day, will find it a stern struggle. Let the Christian pray that he may be spared the encounter. Our Saviour, who had experience of what temptation meant, thus earnestly admonished his disciples-”Pray that ye enter not into temptation.”
But let us do as we will, we shall be tempted; hence the prayer “deliver us from evil.” God had one Son without sin; but he has no son without temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, and the Christian man is born to temptation just as certainly. We must be always on our watch against Satan, because, like a thief, he gives no intimation of his approach. Believers who have had experience of the ways of Satan, know that there are certain seasons when he will most probably make an attack, just as at certain seasons bleak winds may be expected; thus the Christian is put on a double guard by fear of danger, and the danger is averted by preparing to meet it. Prevention is better than cure: it is better to be so well armed that the devil will not attack you, than to endure the perils of the fight, even though you come off a conqueror. Pray this evening first that you may not be tempted, and next that if temptation be permitted, you may be delivered from the evil one.

CHRIST’S TEACHING ABOUT BLESSEDNESS
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful: but his delight is in the law of the Lord.”– Psa_1:1-2.

OUR LORD lived inside the City of Blessedness, and in Mat_5:1-12 He reveals to all men the eight gates by which that City may be entered. For myself, I cannot go in by the Gate of Poverty of spirit, for I am not humble enough; nor by the Gate of the Mourners, for I am not grieved enough for my own sins or the sins of others; nor by the Gate of the Meek, for I often resent injury; nor by the Gates of Mercy, or Purity, or Peace. But I may claim to enter by the fourth Gate, for I Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness. And as I go in, I find myself inside the City, and in the company of all holy souls that have entered by the other gates. For in the Heavenly City, to enter by any gate is equivalent to having entered by all; and one grace which is inwrought by the Holy Spirit will ultimately lead on to all the rest.
What is Blessedness? According to our Lord’s teaching, it is a condition or state of heart. Outward circumstances are not mentioned, unless it be reproach and persecution, as though they were matters of indifference. Blessedness is altogether independent of our outward lot, whether prosperous or perplexed, rich or poor. Blessedness begins and ends with a contented recognition of the Royalty of Christ’s Kingdom; in the power of seeing the good in everything, and so inheriting the earth; in being satisfied, in obtaining mercy, in seeing God and being called His sons and daughters. Is it not worth while to strive to enter in at these wide-open doors? And if you can say that you really do yearn after better things, hungering and thirsting for more likeness to Christ, and more fitness for His Kingdom; if that desire really represents the purpose of your life, you may account yourself as being already admitted within the Gates of the Blessed Life.
We must not suppose that Our Lord allocated the award of Blessedness to the possessors of certain attributes with an arbitrary and royal prerogative. He simply declared what was true in the very nature of things. To be true, pure, merciful, and meek, is to have in your possession the seed-germs of the harvest of Blessedness. If you turn from this wonderful enumeration of Christian qualities to Gal_5:22, you will find all of them set forth in the list of the fruit of the Spirit. May He work in us and through us a well-balanced and full-orbed Christian character.

PRAYER
Lord, take my lips, and speak through them; take my mind, and think through it; take my heart, and set it on fire. AMEN.

“So shall we ever be with the Lord.”
1 Thessalonians 4:17

Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are—and how transitory! One moment our eyes see him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, but again a little time and we do not see him, for our beloved withdraws himself from us; like a roe or a young hart he leaps over the mountains of division; he is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies.

“If to-day he deigns to bless us
With a sense of pardoned sin,
He to-morrow may distress us,
Make us feel the plague within.”

Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at a distance, but see him face to face: when he shall not be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of his glory. We shall not see him for a little season, but

“Millions of years our wondering eyes,
Shall o’er our Saviour’s beauties rove;
And myriad ages we’ll adore,
The wonders of his love.”

In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping shall dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts; we shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing for ever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one’s eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

Somebody’s Prayin’
“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also praying for us!” (Romans 8:33-34, TNIV).
What a thought! Jesus Himself is even now at God’s right hand in heaven praying for YOU. Therefore, no weapon formed against you can prosper. No one who rises up to condemn you can succeed. No accuser can stand — for Jesus has got you covered!
One of my favorite songs by Ricky Skaggs is Somebody’s Prayin’ — here are the lyrics. May today for you be filled with the overwhelming sense of the Lord’s personal care for you life!
“Somebody’s prayin, I can feel it. Somebody’s prayin’ for me. Mighty hands are guiding me to protect me from what I can’t see. Lord I believe, Lord I believe that somebody’s prayin’, for me.
“Angels are watchin’, I can feel it. Angels are watchin’ over me. There’s many miles ahead ’til I get home, still I’m safely kept before your throne, ‘Cause Lord I believe, Lord I believe Your angels are watchin’ over me.
“Well, I’ve walked through barren wilderness When my pillow was a stone, and I’ve been through the darkest caverns Where no light had ever shown. Still I went on ’cause there was someone Who was down on their knees. And Lord, I thank you for those people prayin’ all this time for me.
“Somebody’s prayin’, I can feel it Somebody’s prayin’ for me. Mighty hands are guiding me to protect me from what I can’t see. Lord I believe; Lord I believe — Somebody’s prayin’ for me…”
Are you prayin’ for somebody? It would mean more than you can imagine if you would let them know it.

The Genius of Good Grief
“Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way.” (1 Peter 4:1, The Message).
Remember the old country western classic — “I beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there’s got to come a little rain some time.” I can’t help but wonder if there are times when Jesus pick up a trusted six string and belts this one out from the clouds of glory to His “naming-claiming-gabbing-grabbing kids.”
“Oh hallelujah!” we say, when things are going great and good. The stock market is up and increasing everyday; blessings abound in every part of life; no problems, no worries, not setbacks, no struggles, no grief. “Glory to God in the highest returns on my investments!”
But wait a minute. Didn’t Jesus say that in this world we would have trouble. Yes, and that He would be with us through it all. Sometimes the Lord opens the back door on our happy estate and all sorts of things start going wrong. It’s at that moment we discover where our faith and affections really stand.
Sometimes grief is a good thing. And the genius of good grief is that, once it trims away the fat and fluff of pretentious and superficial living, we become more able to live out our days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what we thought we wanted.
Good grief!

25 times my operating system has been downloaded at http://www.klamux.com.  That is strange and that has been this year.