THE SAINT'S JOY--W.F. BELL

Delight yourself also in the LORD" (Psalm 37:4). "And He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen with gladness" (Psalm 105:43).

We live in a world of awful sin and bad news. We are inundated today with news of illegal aliens, war with terrorism, senseless murders, high gasoline prices, political knavery, and religious hypocrisy. Why do we even listen to all of this horrible news? Only because depraved minds crave depraved man's latest bad happenings. But not so the joyful Christian. Those who are "delighting" themselves in the Lord Jesus Christ truly feed on better things than the vomit and stench of this world. God-fearing people don't find cause for joy in the cesspools of sin.

We rarely ever meet a truly joyful person. The ills of society have rubbed us all the wrong way. It is easy to complain and be bitter about things. But, let us "look again" at the wonderful Word of God, meditating therein for just a moment. Listen to the Psalmist: "I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD" (Psalm 104:33-34). How's that for true, holy, positive thinking? "I will sing." "Unto the LORD." "My meditation of Him." "Shall be sweet." "I will be glad." "In the LORD."

Charles Spurgeon comments on the above verses: "We never sing so well as when we know that we have an interest in the good things of which we sing, and a relationship to the God whom we praise....Meditation is the soul of religion. It is the tree of life in the midst of the garden of piety, and very refreshing is its fruit to the soul which feeds thereon." Beloved, have we lost our song? Even in our night of sin, God will give us "songs in the night" (Job 35:10; Psalm 42:8). Christ Jesus Himself, even though "a Man of Sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3), once "rejoiced in spirit" (Luke 10:21), praising His Father's sovereign good pleasure, stating "All things are delivered to me of my Father" (Luke 10:22). We too rejoice in the sovereignty of God, even when we do not understand God's mysterious providences.

Let us return to singing! Let us return to holy meditation! Let us return to rejoicing in this great truth: "The glory of the LORD shall endure forever: the LORD shall rejoice in His works" (Psalm 104:31). Let us return to clapping and shouting: "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph" (Psalm 47:1). Why? Simply because we know who our God is -- we know Him as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Blesser and Provider of His people, the Redeemer and Savior of His elect. "For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding" (Psalm 47:7).

Our God is the Most High! Our God rules and reigns! "He is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet" (Psalm 47:2-3). Does this not bring us true joy? Can we forbear to sing His praises? Does this not loosen our tongues to praise our great King? No wonder the Psalms are filled with praises to our Sovereign Lord: "Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name" (Psalm 103:1), and "Glory ye in His holy name: let the heart of them REJOICE that seek the LORD" (Psalm 105:3). As true Christians, let us ever remember this admonition: "REJOICE EVERMORE" (I Thessalonians 5:16). Yes, despite a world of sin and "the world of spin," let us not become bitter, but better -- better at praising our Lord Jesus Christ, and better at remembering that a day is coming when "sinners shall be consumed out of the earth" (Psalm 104:35), "and the trail of the serpent is cleansed from the globe" (Spurgeon). Truly, LET US REJOICE! HALLELUJAH!

POTPOURRI EVANGELISM-JAMES A.STEWART

Dr. James A. Stewart and his wife, Ruth were greatly used of the Lord to spread the word of God in Europe around the World War Two era (both before and after the war). There were many reported conversions. Many testimonies have been given that this was a genuine revival. Brother Stewart was a Scotsman, and of the old evangelical school. He opposed neo-evangelical, and ecumenical evangelism, which he saw rapidly developing in his lifetime. He wrote against it and preached against it. He fought it every way he could. Today he would be regarding as "against everything" because he would not compromise. He warned about what became "Post-modernism" and "Emergent Church" (the two most deviant and unscriptural movements in our day). He called what was happening "Potpourri evangelism". A potpourri is like a "smorgasbord". One definition I found is a "collection containing a variety of sorts of things." Certainly it does; the good and the bad and the ugly. Here are some things Brother Stewart had to say regarding this ecumenical evangelism.

We must be more afraid of flattery from the camp of the enemy than persecution. Read the pages of Church history. Persecution never did the Church of God any harm, but compromise with the world has always robbed it of the power of its purity. ... Potpourri Evangelism consists of two features: mixed evangelistic campaigns and mixed Christianity. By mixed evangelistic campaigns I mean the alliance of Modernistic and Evangelical churches together in an evangelistic effort.

When religion gets up a revival, it must have from five to twenty churches of heterogeneous creeds and sectarian bodies to go into a great union effort; it must have a mammoth choir with great musical instruments, and many preachers and multiplied committees, and each committee headed by some banker, judge, mayor, or millionaire’s wife. It signs cards as a substitute for the broken-hearted cry of scriptural repentance. It must count its converts by the hundreds in a few days’ meeting. It must apologize for natural depravity.

Human religion’s enterprises have an atmosphere of earthiness about them. It despises the day of small things and scorns little humble people and lonely ways. It is eager to jump to the height of prosperity. Its music has no pathos in it, its laughter lacks divine cheerfulness, its worship lacks supernatural love, its prayers bring down no huge answers, it works no miracles, calls forth no criticism from the world, and has no light of eternity in its eyes. It is a poor, sickly thing, born of the union of the heart of the world with the head of Christian theology--a mongrel, bastard thing with a backslidden church for its mother and the world for its father. Oh, my dear brother and sister, never forget that this unnatural monster will be destroyed at the coming-again of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

(From Evangelism, James A. Stewart, Asheville, NC: Revival Literature, pp. 25-28).