"Whose heart the Lord opened."—

"Whose heart the Lord opened."—Acts 16:14.

IN Lydia's conversion there are many points of interest. 
It was brought about by providential circumstances. 
She was a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, but just at the right time for hearing Paul we find her at Philippi; providence, which is the handmaid of grace, led her to the right spot. Again, grace was preparing her soul for the blessing—grace preparing for grace. 


She did not know the Saviour, but as a Jewess, she knew many truths which were excellent stepping-stones to a knowledge of Jesus. Her conversion took place in the use of the means. 
On the Sabbath she went when prayer was wont to be made, and there prayer was heard. 


Never neglect the means of grace; God may bless us when we are not in His house, but we have the greater reason to hope that He will when we are in communion with His saints. Observe the words, "Whose heart the Lord opened." 


She did not open her own heart. Her prayers did not do it; Paul did not do it. The Lord Himself must open the heart, to receive the things which make for our peace. 
He alone can put the key into the hole of the door and open it, and get admittance for Himself. 


He is the heart's master as He is the heart's maker. The first outward evidence of the opened heart was obedience. As soon as Lydia had believed in Jesus, she was baptized. It is a sweet sign of a humble and broken heart, when the child of God is willing to obey a command which is not essential to his salvation, which is not forced upon him by a selfish fear of condemnation, but is a simple act of obedience and of communion with his Master. 


The next evidence was love, manifesting itself in acts of grateful kindness to the apostles. Love to the saints has ever been a mark of the true convert. 


Those who do nothing for Christ or His church, give but sorry evidence of an "opened" heart. 
Lord, evermore give me an opened heart.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Reflection and inspiration 

from the "Prince of Preachers,"

Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

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"Therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you."

GOD often DELAYS IN ANSWERING PRAYER. 

We have several instances of this in sacred Scripture.


 Jacob did not get the blessing from the angel until near the dawn of day—he had to wrestle all night for it. The poor woman of Syrophenicia was answered not a word for a long while. 


Paul besought the Lord thrice that "the thorn in the flesh" might be taken from him, and he received no assurance that it should be taken away, but instead thereof a promise that God's grace should be sufficient for him. 


If thou hast been knocking at the gate of mercy, and hast received no answer, shall I tell thee why the mighty Maker hath not opened the door and let thee in? Our Father has reasons peculiar to Himself for thus keeping us waiting.


 Sometimes it is to show His power and His sovereignty, that men may know that Jehovah has a right to give or to withhold. More frequently the delay is for our profit.


 Thou art perhaps kept waiting in order that thy desires may be more fervent. God knows that delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if He keeps thee waiting thou wilt see thy necessity more clearly, and wilt seek more earnestly; and that thou wilt prize the mercy all the more for its long tarrying.


 There may also be something wrong in thee which has need to be removed, before the joy of the Lord is given. Perhaps thy views of the Gospel plan are confused, or thou mayest be placing some little reliance on thyself, instead of trusting simply and entirely to the Lord Jesus. 


Or, God makes thee tarry awhile that He may the more fully display the riches of His grace to thee at last. Thy prayers are all filed in heaven, and if not immediately answered they are certainly not forgotten, but in a little while shall be fulfilled to thy delight and satisfaction. 


Let not despair make thee silent, but continue instant in earnest supplication.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Reflection and inspiration 

from the "Prince of Preachers,"

Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

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A sight of the glorified Christ..

It was no small honor to have seen our risen Lord while yet he lingered here below. 

What must it be to see Jesus as he is now! He is the same Jesus as when he was here; yonder memorials as of a lamb that has been slain assure us that he is the same man. 

Glorified in heaven his real manhood sits, and it is capable of being, beheld by the eye, and heard by the ear, but yet how different. 

Had we seen him in his agony, we should all the more admire his glory. 

Dwell with your hearts very much upon Christ crucified, but indulge yourselves full often with a sight of Christ glorified. 

Delight to think that he is not here, for he is risen; he is not here, for he has ascended; he is not here, for he sits at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us.

 Let your souls travel frequently the blessed highway from the sepulcher to the throne. 

As in Rome there was a Via Sacra along which returning conquerors went from the gates of the city up to the heights of the Capitol, so is there another Via Sacra which you ought often to survey, for along it the risen Savior went in glorious majesty from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea up to the eternal dignities of his Father’s right hand. 

Your soul will do well to see her dawn of hope in his death, and her full assurance of hope in his risen life.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Power of the Risen Savior ," delivered October 25, 1874.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Reflection and inspiration 

from the "Prince of Preachers,"

Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Copyright Statement

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Following Leads to Honor

If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. 

(John 12:26)

The highest service is imitation.

 If I would be Christ's servant I must be His follower.

 To do as Jesus did is the surest way of bringing honor to His name. 

Let me mind this every day.

If I imitate Jesus I shall have His company: if I am like Him I shall be with Him. 

In due time He will take me up to dwell with Him above, if, meanwhile, 

I have striven to follow Him here below.

 After His suffering our Lord came to His throne, and even so, after we have suffered a while with Him here below, we also shall arrive in glory. 

The issue of our Lord's life shall be the issue of ours: if we are with Him in His humiliation we shall be with Him in His glory. 

Come, my soul, pluck up courage and put down thy feet in the blood-marked footprints which thy Lord has left thee.

Let me not fail to note that the Father will honor those who follow His Son.

 If He sees me true to Jesus, He will put marks of favor and honor upon me for His Son's sake. 

No honor can be like this.

 Princes and emperors bestow the mere shadows of honor; the substance of glory comes from the Father. Wherefore, my soul, cling thou to thy Lord Jesus more closely than ever.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Reflection and inspiration 

from the "Prince of Preachers," 

Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Copyright Statement

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"Thou, O God, hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor."

—Psalm 68:10.

ALL God's gifts are prepared gifts laid up in store for wants foreseen. 


He anticipates our needs; and out of the fulness which He has treasured up in Christ Jesus, He provides of His goodness for the poor. 


You may trust Him for all the necessities that can occur, for He has infallibly foreknown every one of them. He can say of us in all conditions,
 "I knew that thou wouldst be this and that."


 A man goes a journey across the desert, and when he has made a day's advance, and pitched his tent, he discovers that he wants many comforts and necessaries which he has not brought in his baggage. 


"Ah!" says he, "I did not foresee this: if I had this journey to go again, I should bring these things with me, so necessary to my comfort." But God has marked with prescient eye all the requirements of His poor wandering children, and when those needs occur,
 supplies are ready. 


It is goodness which He has prepared for the poor in heart, goodness and goodness only. "My grace is sufficient for thee." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

Reader, is your heart heavy this evening? 
God knew it would be; the comfort which your heart wants is treasured in the sweet assurance of the text.


 You are poor and needy, but He has thought upon you, and has the exact blessing which you require in store for you. 


Plead the promise, believe it and obtain its fulfillment. 
Do you feel that you never were so consciously vile as you are now? Behold, the crimson fountain is open still, with all its former efficacy, to wash your sin away. 


Never shall you come into such a position that Christ cannot aid you.


 No pinch shall ever arrive in your spiritual affairs in which Jesus Christ shall not be equal to the emergency, for your history has all been foreknown and provided for in Jesus.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Reflection and inspiration 

from the "Prince of Preachers," 

Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Copyright Statement

This resource was produced before 1923 and therefore is considered in the"Public Domain".

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"I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

"I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

—1 Corinthians 9:22.


PAUL'S great object was not merely to instruct and to improve, but to save. Anything short of this would have disappointed him; he would have men renewed in heart, forgiven, sanctified, in fact, saved.


Have our Christian labours been aimed at anything below this great point? Then let us amend our ways, for of what avail will it be at the last great day to have taught and moralized men if they appear before God unsaved? Blood-red will our skirts be if through life we have sought inferior objects, and forgotten that men needed to be saved.


Paul knew the ruin of man's natural state, and did not try to educate him, but to save him; he saw men sinking to hell, and did not talk of refining them, but of saving from the wrath to come.


To compass their salvation, he gave himself up with untiring zeal to telling abroad the gospel, to warning and beseeching men to be reconciled to God. His prayers were importunate and his labours incessant. To save souls was his consuming passion, his ambition, his calling. He became a servant to all men, toiling for his race, feeling a woe within him if he preached not the gospel.


He laid aside his preferences to prevent prejudice; he submitted his will in things indifferent, and if men would but receive the gospel, he raised no questions about forms or ceremonies: the gospel was the one all-important business with him. If he might save some he would be content. This was the crown for which he strove, the sole and sufficient reward of all his labours and self-denials.


Dear reader, have you and I lived to win souls at this noble rate? Are we possessed with the same all-absorbing desire? If not, why not? Jesus died for sinners, cannot we live for them?
Where is our tenderness? Where our love to Christ, if we seek not His honour in the salvation of men?


O that the Lord would saturate us through and through with an undying zeal for the souls of men.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Reflection and inspiration 

from the "Prince of Preachers," 

Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Copyright Statement

This resource was produced before 1923 and therefore is considered in the"Public Domain". 

Do you enjoy this blog ?

just click on links below. 

if you like to visit my others blogs 

God bless, your day !!!

ENGLISH

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SPANISH WITH TRANSLATOR TO ANY LANGUAGE

http://poderosoguerrerodejesus.blogspot..