Heavenly Springs

Holding Fast The Doctrines of Grace

Your Sanctification Is Not Just A Private Matter

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Many people think sanctification is only a personal matter between themselves and God. This is not true.  Every decision that we make, public or private, has implications that go beyond the immediate.  You see, true fellowship with Christ is what makes for right relationship with others. When we neglect or abandon our spiritual responsibilities, we are not the only ones who will feel it.  Other people will inevitably suffer too. This is especially true when we live in covenant community. When we tremble at God’s Word and esteem Him more than the passing pleasures of this world — when we flee darkness and chose instead to walk in light and truth — the glory of God, not selfish gain, becomes the goal. This bears a tremendous influence on our ability to pray for and love others sincerely.  In the following Puritan prayer, we feel the heart cry of a saint panting for holiness. It is the deepest yearning of every Christian to be kept from temptation and sin.  But beyond this longing is the godly recognition that the well-being of others is directly related to our sanctification. The souls who have been providentially placed in our lives –  at home, at church, in our community, in the workplace have been entrusted to our care by Almighty God. Are we being faithful stewards by diligently keeping our hearts? We do not live in a vacuum.  Other people are wrapped up with us and therefore their lives will be effected by how aggressive we are when it comes to killing sin and pursuing holiness. Sanctification is not just a private matter. May God, by His grace, cause us to repent and mourn over those who have suffered because of our lack of diligence. May we say ‘No’ to ungodliness and instead live self-controlled, godly, and upright lives (Titus 2:1). It matters.  

“Help me to hate and forsake every false way
to be attentive to my condition and character,
to bridle my tongue,
to keep my heart with all diligence,
to watch and pray against temptation,
to mortify sin,
to be concerned for the salvation of others.
O God, I cannot endure to see the destruction
of my kindred.
Let those that are united to me in tender ties
be precious in thy sight and devoted to thy glory.
Sanctify and prosper my domestic devotion,
instruction, discipline, example,
that my house may be a nursery for heaven,
my church the garden of the Lord,
enriched with trees of righteousness of
thy planting, for thy glory …”

The Valley of Vision, “The Family”, pages 208-209

Cleanse Thou Me From Secret Faults

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Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. – Psalms 19:12

“The world wants men who are saved from secret faults. The world can put on an outside goodness and go very far in uprightness and morality, and it expects that a Christian shall go beyond it, and be free from secret faults. A little crack will spoil the ring of the coin.… The world expects, and rightly, that the Christian should be more gentle, and patient, and generous, than he who does not profess to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus. For the sake of those who take their notion of religion from our lives, we need to put up this prayer earnestly, “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

Mark Guy Pearse

Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997).

Blinded By A Charlatan: A Lesson From The Life Of Fanny Crosby

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The next time you are tempted to complain about a trial or hardship, think about Fanny Crosby.  Painful though it may be, could it be that God has tucked you away in a hard place for your own spiritual safety?

Frances Jane Crosby was born in 1820 in Putnam County, New York.  Within two months Fanny became gravely ill and her parents, desperate to save their little girl, sought assistance from the family doctor who, as it turned out, was out-of-town. When a stranger, who claimed to be a doctor, offered help they were more than happy to invite him into their home to take a look at their ailing daughter. The man ordered  hot mustard poultices to be applied to Fanny’s eyes and within days the infant was blinded.  Upon being exposed for the fraud that he was, the man disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.  It wasn’t long after that Fanny’s father died, forcing her mother to earn a living as maid in  order to support the family.  The responsibility of Fanny’s upbringing fell on Fanny’s grandmother, a devoted Christian who was more than up to the task. Among other things, Fanny’s grandmother would read her long passages from the Bible each day.  By the time Fanny was ten years old, she had half of the New Testament memorized and more than 5 books of the Old Testament.

At 8 years old, Fanny wrote her first poem.

Oh, what a happy soul I am,
Although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don’t,
To weep and sigh because I’m blind
I cannot, and I won’t!1

Once, a well-meaning preacher remarked to Fanny, “I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when he showered so many other gifts upon you”.  To which Fanny responded,

Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I was born blind? Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.2

Fanny Crosby went on to write more than 8,000 hymns, some of which include; “To God Be The Glory,” “Praise Him, Praise Him,” “Tell Me The Story Of Jesus,” and “I Am Thine O Lord” — all of which have lyrics that reflect a soul who loved and exalted Christ over and above all things.

Sometimes, the very thing that you think was designed to destroy you, is actually God’s tool to heal you and make you whole.

Yea, these afflictions and sufferings of the saints not only reveal and heal their sins, but also put them upon the exercise of grace: ‘In their affliction (says God) they will seek me early,’ Hosea 5:15. Yea, they not only draw out their graces but reveal their graces too, which possibly they never took notice of before. – William Bridge, “A Lifting Up for the Downcast”

1 Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000) 161.

2 Ibid

One Reason God Delays Answers To Prayer

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The following excerpt is from a sermon entitled, “The Woman of Canaan in Prayer.”  Here, Ichabod Spencer, affectionately regarded as The Bunyan of Brooklyn, encourages his congregation to persevere in prayer when God delays answers. The text for his sermon is Matthew 15:28, “Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”

“God is not to be judged of by man’s wisdom. He has a way of his own. But one thing is certain, delay of answer is no denial; and the woman who lies at Christ’s feet in tears, where faith put her, shall yet be glad that she lay there. If you can not rejoice in the answer as you seek God, keep seeking, and the answer is sure; it may be swelling in sweetness and magnitude as it delays. The woman’s power to persevere in prayer was itself part of her answer. It was grace which Christ bestowed upon her, while he did not appear to be bestowing anything. Consequently her prayer becomes the more earnest and humble as she waits and pleads for an answer.

Sometimes when a desired blessing comes at once the soul is rather injured than benefited by it. Prayer languishes, and the sense of dependence melts away, and the soul wanders off from God. At other times the answer is delayed, and then faith is stirred upon the soul, and the individual cries like the Psalmist: My soul followeth hard after thee. As the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

It is one of the marks of true prayer where the heart is quickened, and will not be discouraged or dispirited by delayed answer.  While this heart stricken woman was holding on to her purpose and refusing to give back, perhaps, indeed probably it never entered into her heart that her Lord was strengthening her just to pray.  She probably felt just as any of you would, or as many of you have, when in the time of your trouble you have not obtained your request, but have not ceased to solicit.  Your felt unanswered – not satisfied – not happy.  Oh, you did not know that the grace to persevere in that prayer was the very richest answer you could have.  You knew it only afterward. And you could remember it then with such a vividness and belief in the power of prayer as you never could have had, if your answer had come as soon as you opened your lips to supplicate.

“There is a light in the inner sanctuary which does not shine in the exterior courts of God’s house. There is a spirit of intimacy and communion, of solemnity and satisfaction in God, which no man can reach without mustering all the power within him, and embarking all his soul in supplication. God delays to answer in order to draw the sinner. He is too far off for one of God’s children.  God wants him nearer. And he lets them go unanswered till he comes nearer and nearer, and gets into the presence of God, and is filled with the sacredness and sweetness of the secrets of God’s tabernacle.  The delay just leads him up to God’s heart and makes him acquainted with it.” 

Rev M. Sherwood, The Bunyan of Brooklyn: the Life and Practical Sermons of Ichabod Spencer, (Birmingham: Solid Ground Books, 2004), 243-245.