Zeal - Love Ablaze # 2

Zeal - Love Ablaze # 2

The Pharisee's Prayer

The Pharisee who prayed in the temple said, "God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers." There are many so-called Spirit-filled men today, who cannot even pray that prayer! Unjust they are for sure; they pay low wages and tell their workers that they are "doing this sacrifice for Jesus." They, of course, have an explanation for their infidelity, yet many are accepted at conferences as keynote speakers. Extortioners the radio preachers almost have this as a monopoly. A $25 Bible (God's Holy Word) is offered for a $100 gift! Other books are offered five times their cost. "You are judging!" someone will say. Correct, I am told to judge (John 7:24). Jesus says, "Judge with righteous judgment." Also, I, along with other true preachers of the Gospel, am a watchman and so have to warn others. Also, "judgment must begin at the house of the Lord." This bait to get money is an abomination. Preachers whine for money over the radio and television. "For this ministry" they say, and yet much of it is to sustain their extravagant lifestyle, costly airplanes, and fixing up luxury Bible conference grounds. And now they have joined the Pharisees who "rob widows" houses." After emptying your pockets while you live, they ask for your house and estate after you die. What next?

Stealing the Glory

This is a day of the personality cult. Men on TV gospel shows are presented at having given up so much for the Lord. All they gave up with their retirement from stardom was hell and eternal punishment. Let it be shouted from the housetops that no man does God a favor. Elegant living for the rich evangelists proves nothing except that they have not left all to follow Him. The Spirit-filled need no status symbols!

The flattering introduction for gospel preachers is another great piece of blockage to revival. John 5:41 and 44 need soul-searching consideration. My heart is burdened and burning. God's house is polluted. The sinners scoff and say of the rich preachers, "Their creed is greed and their god is gold." We need a baptism of holy zeal to get us back to holy indignation that the money grabbers are back in the temple, and that God's heart is hurting!

The Church began in the Spirit; now She is operating in the flesh. There is no pillar of fire over the sanctuary. There are no preachers who can hold the hell-bound spell-bound. I am not sure that it can be proved that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. It can be proved that the Church is fiddling while the world is burning! The one reason that we do not have revival today is that we are content to live without it!

O for a generation of believers who can honestly say, "The Zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up."

~Leonard Ravenhill~

(The End)
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Thomas Watson Gems

We spend our years with sighing - it is a valley of tears. Death is the funeral of all our sorrows.

None are so empty of grace - as he who thinks he is full.

How soon are we broken on the soft pillow of ease! Adam in paradise was overcome - when Job on the dunghill was a conqueror!

Though we as Christians are like Christ, having the first fruits of the spirit - yet we are unlike him, having the remainders of the flesh.

To know that nothing hurts the godly, is a matter of comfort. But to be assured that all things which happen shall cooperate for their good, that their crosses shall be turned into blessings, that showers of affliction water the withering root of their grace and make it flourish - this may fill their hearts with joy until they run over.

God takes away the world - that the heart may cleave more to Him in sincerity.

The growth of grace is the best evidence of the existence of grace in the heart. Things which have no life, will not grow.

God sweetens outward pain - with inward peace.

When God calls a man, He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do - love one day, and hate another. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of no alteration. God's all is founded upon His decree, and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed. God blots out His people's sins - but not their names!

A man's greatest care should be for that place where he lives longest - therefore eternity should be his scope.

The right manner of spiritual growth, is to grow less in one's own eyes!

~Thomas Watson~