Writings of a yesteryear preacher

I came across the following writing that greatly blessed me, when I was at a low point spiritually. I hope this will revive some others as well. The excerpt follows: Looking ForwardBrethern, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Phil. 3:13 St. Paul is a positive thinker. Sound faith in Jesus makes us look forward always. There is no defeated mentality in St. Paul. He says, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." We must one day attain to this great consciousness. Our lip-prayers must become our heart-prayers. These two must become one. When these work together there will be faith, with no doubt in such a man. He will be a matured man in faith. We must be careful not to speak any insincere words to please men. "Forgetting those things which are behind." This is a further step to be reached. What are those things which are behind? Our failures are behind. Once we have humbly confessed our sins and been forgiven, we need not think of them and be discouraged. They must not prevent you from reaching forward to those things before. Those who run the hundred yards sprint do not look back. They cannot win if they do so. The devil wants us to look back. When anyone has done us evil we must not think of it. As quickly as possible we must forgive and forget. Evil will never succeed. We often think it does, and try to defend ourselves against it. Evil is a defeated power. There is no place for evil in a Christian's philosophy of life. We must never resort to evil. "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil.." Matt. 5:39. Why? Do not recognize evil as a power - to resist it. Evil is not a power. In the lives of Joseph and Daniel there is no negative thinking. Theirs are lives of great victory because they did not resist evil. Joseph never brooded over the evil done to him, Daniel did not brood over the evil done to him. He did not even care to defend himself but left it to God to prove him to be rght. Blessed is the man who can forgive. Forgiving, one must go forward. A man who believes the Word of God must believe that God is always thinking of him. Resist not evil. Do not recognize evil as a power. Love, faith, holiness and purity are the powers that will last. Hatred, anger and envy will perish. they destroy those that entertain them. They ruin your personality. You have to fight a big battle against negative thoughts. God Almighty has got great things for you. Don not think of lower things. When God has a palace for you why are you angry with those that have denied you a room in a hut? Forgive those who have acted negatively. Think of God who has wonderful blessings and a wonderful place for you. If you read Matt. 5:39-48, these are statements of a God that won the battle. When we are trying to be perfect like our Father in Heaven, even nature will co-operate with us. Let us not make much of our enemies in our thoughts when a mighty God is prepared to give us all things. I have seen people going down, down, down in their spiritual life and becoming wicked by thinking of the evil done to them. Do not look back. Jesus, even at the point of death, forgave His enemies. Let us think well of our enemies. They know not what they do. Let us keep ourselves from evil. What a privilege it is to be like Jesus! He has called us into His marvelous light that we may be like Him. Do not brood over your failures. You must say like Paul, "I shall do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me!"Excerpt of a message by N. Daniel.

The following is another one of Mr Daniel's writings. A soul stirring message!

The Great Truth
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you, Matt.6:31-32

Jesus is revealing a great truth here. Many people blunder and suffer by not believing this truth. When you seek first the Kingdom of God, there will be a change in your personality, which draws out of you the hidden talents of God in you. These talents cannot come out of you until you make up your mind to seek the kingdom of God first. Till then your talents lie hidden under sin. The saint you were meant to be is hidden and a wicked man is seen.
In God's sight there is something great in every man. When you seek His kingdom and His righteousness, God gets a chance to operate in you. He knows you can be very different. He knows there is great grace and power hid in you. But Satan sees to it that you are always anxious and worried about unnecessary and transient things. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. If you fight the evil of today and overcome it and establish the truth of God in your heart and your surroundings, that is a great thing. But there is an unnecessary unrest in you about tomorrow.
No one knew Augustine was such a great writer. But his talents were lying hidden because of his adulterous life. When the Spirit of God come upon the dull Anne Preston she became wiser than other women. When Madam Guyon was spending here time and thoughts on enhancing her beauty, God's talents in her did not come out. The gift of prophecy did not come out. She could be a counselor to archbishops, but this talent was not seen. Then God sent her smallpox. God comforted her when this struck at her beauty and damaged it. She reached a great height in holiness. No one knew Peter would be such. When Jesus set His eyes on him, He saw him as a rock. At the moment he was an unstable man, but Jesus saw him differently.
Jesus sees you differently - not as your mother or fatehr sees you. "Upon this rock I will build my church. The gates of hell cannot prevail against you." Seek first the kingdom of God, so that what God has hid in you may come out. Some young people grieve over their external appearance. But God sees different things in you. You are not getting your desires fulfilled because you are not seeking the kingdom of God first.
When a godly missionary died in my home town, another missionary said it was a great loss to all because he had been a great intercessor. When godly parents die, you lose fervent intercessors. Jesus says,"why do you think of your dress? Look at the lilies of the field. How God has decorated these flowers which last for a day!" God's wisdom is declared in the petals of these flowers. How God has woven them! A blue flower on a thorny bush by the roadside used to arrest my attention. I used to kneel down by it and pray, "Lord this flower of a day glorifies Thee. Will I ever glorify Thee? Will I open up my heart to You like this flower to the sun?"
God is thinking of you. He is thinking of your future. He is making arrangements for you. But you are not able to enjoy all this because you do not seek the kingdom of God. Do not got to bed with a guilty heart. Go to bed with the consciousness of having pleased Him all the day. Good rest at night is the blessing of God. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Thank you for posting this. It is a very timely word for me. I need to print it out so I can read it over and over today.
blessings
Hope

Take Care of Your Thoughts - Excerpt of a message by Mr N. Daniel

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasing. Ps. 139:23,24

This is a very great prayer. Some of the prayers of David are very deep and are born out of revelation. One thought of Nebuchadnezzar made him lose his kingdom. He said to himself, "Have not I built this great Babylon by my might for the honor of my majesty?" Take care of your thoughts, You may lose your family by one wrong thought. You may ruin a nation.
David says, "How wonderful are thy thoughts!" The greatest men of the world are the sum total of the thoughts of God. Jesus Christ was nothing but the thought of God in flesh. So twenty centuries have gone by. Nobody could find any fault in that Savior. It is God's thought that caused the incarnation. His disciples received Him. Those who invited Hime became like Him.
Thoughts are so forcible. If they are of the devil, he wants them to be executed very quickly. When you are urged to do anything so quickly that you can't even take time to pray about, then it is of the devil. The devil alsways says, "Why pray and waste time?" Even when you are in church, a wrong thought can possess and dominate you. It depends upon the atmosphere of the church. Even from the pulpit can come thoughts that are dangerous. Churches are expected to be places where godly men congregate and create an atmosphere conducive for spiritual growth. Churches should not become a resort for fashionable people.
David is praying that among his many thoughts Satan should not thrust in a single thought which is wrong. When you move with God's children, that wrong thought can be detected and put away. You may have entertained it for a long time but God would want it eliminated. Even our sympathies must be in the will of God.
There are sympathetic and kind thoughts but are they of God? Nothing which is not of God must be included in your thoughts. Your thoughts create your character. If you are with a proud man you become proud. Hitler's one thought was, "If I live I will destroy England." Finally he brought Germany very low. All this was the result of an evil thought. Our enemies may do us harm., but are we doing things according to the will of God? "The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver is refined in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." Ps. 12:6. When you read the Bible remember you are reading the thoughts of God.
One great comfort for a child of God is: "Thou knowest my downsitting and my uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways." Ps. 139:2-3. What a chance for God to help us with this all-pervasive knowledge. When our thoughts are afar off, He knows it. Some of the wrong thoughts are from our friends.
Put every thought before God. To be amidst God's children and taking in correct thoughts is a great blessing. Some of those thoughts are the promises of God for your life. Are you claiming the promises of God for your life? Are you claiming the promises given to you of God? If you do not claim the promises of God, you will be claiming the promises of the world. 'A man who works hard becomes rich' is a maxim that works in the world. With riches you can buy many things. There are many things and much goods you can buy. But they will carry you in a wrong direction.
Today if we put ourselves to a test in the sight of God and discard thoughts that are not of God, how many of our thoughts would still remain? An unconverted man's thoughts just evaporate without fulillment. If from the beginning you have been having thoughts that are of God, you must know that through marriage, through friendships, the devil wants to shabilize you in his ways. Set your thoughts right. Then God will help you.

2 Pet 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.
Lot went to this wicked place by his own choice. God would never have chosen that way for him. Lot vexed his soul with the evil conversation and the evil deeds of that place. Many in our churches are vexed with the evil there but have no remedy for it. Those who are born of the Spirit should not waste time, but rapidly grow into deeper knowledge and greater obedience to the word of God. Being born of the Spirit means getting a first hand knowledge of God. It is not a borrowed knowledge of God.
God has a particular will for each one of us. Only those who follow that particular will, will be able to glorify God. Lot did the utmost harm to hos own daughters. What is the use of vexing one's soul? He had no remedy. Because he did not have first hand knowledge of God, he found no remedy. Every one who knows God's will, will be a terrible enemy of the devil. If we follow the will of God, the Spirit of God will urge us and help us to follow God closer.
Lot vexed himself, but he did not repent for going to Sodom. The gold of Sodom was more precious to him than the welfare of his family. Such people become like Balaaam, whom a donkey had to rebuke! Some people speak great swelling words against God's children. It is very dangerous. They speak that way, because there is sin in them. Even if a daughter is living a godly life, some parents are offended. They cannot bear the light. But they still go to church and tame communion.
You may be born of the Spirit , but do you know the mind of God? As you are exposing yourself to the word of God, your mind is cleansed of evil thoughts. All your leisure time must be given to a closer study of the word of God. When you are praying according to the word of God, the word of God sinks in and captures the power of the heart to subdue and control it.
Some very good preachers have become wicked and sinful. At some stage, satisfaction and pride come in and they begin to slide back. Their last stage is worse than the first. If you are in a sound Fellowship, such things will not happen. More harms is done to the kingdom of God by those who profess religion and go back, than those who know not God. There are people who complain about others who are going back, but they cannot help them. We must be alert. Watch therefore and pray always. More purity and holiness and obedience to the word must be sought after. Otherwise you too will be carried away by the world, like Lot.
When we started this work in 1935, so many people gave me advice. When I went and prayed to God, He told me not to do those things but only to obey Him. I learned to listen to God and to do His will. It saved me from a lot of wastage in my life. God will stand with those who obey Him.
Be prepared to meet any situation with prayer. Here we see Lot completely defeated. If only he had sought to worship God and do God's will like Abraham, how different his life would have been. So he paid a heavy price for choosing his own way rather than doing God's perfect will. We must go to God and do His will in everything that we do. That is the only way to glorfiy Him.

[b]Standing in the gap- Excerpt of a message by Mr N Daniel[/b]

[i]And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Ezek 22:30[/i]

God is seeking men to carry out His purpose of salvation. It is a great pity when no well-equipped peple are available. King Saul, who was suddenly elevated to kingship, was ill-equipped. People like him are commonplace.
There is a difference betwen those seasoned in faith and those just beginning. There are upsarts who rise fast and fall equally fast. Christian life must be a steady growth. Every member of our Felowship is being trained for God's work. If we do not yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we will find ourselves ill- equipped. God is looking for men who will prepare themselves for His work, men who will forget about themseles and magnify the Lord.
The moment you think of yourself, you are finished. Your self contaminates every gift of God, and drains away all His blessings. One who is dominated by self is useless to God. But one who feels a burden for souls is purified by God within and without, and used in His work.
Will you be held responsible for the destruction of your relatives? "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4) This is God's promise of victory. You will be able to win over your relatives. All your relatives put together have not the ability to topple your faith. Every one of you has a part in God's great work: you hold a special place in God's heart.
A pastor by the name of Brown was in charge of a very bad church that changed pastors often, because nobobdy could endure for long. Pastor Brown found himself inadequate. But he searched himself, not wanting to leave the place defeated.
Pastor Brown saw the verse 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Apppropriating this pledge, Pastor Brwon humbled himself and confessed every sin, every kind of pride, evny and hatred.
Suddenly, Pastor Brorwn was filled with the peace and power of the Holy Spirit. He was able to exercise love towrads those who persistently tried to spoil his name and his work. Even the toughtest opponents were won over by love. They were transformed. Soon, his whole church changed. When we exercise love towards those who hate us, we show the best in us and rise to levels far above what we have ever seen.
Armed with the weapons of his time, Hitler conquered nations much faster than Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon ever did. Now even faster conquests are feasible with the nuclear bomb. God has revealed such possibilities in the physical realm; surely He can display greater power in the spiritual realm.
God has called us to stand in the gap. Can you stand in the gap without faltering or failing? Let us be filled with the Holy Spirit. Let us fully equip ourselves. Let us desist from every wasteful diversion. Carry the Bible with you and learn the Word of God by heart. God is looking for suitable persons for His service. Every one of us must qualify.