{"id":3596,"date":"2016-02-11T06:07:46","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T06:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3596"},"modified":"2016-02-11T06:07:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T06:07:46","slug":"holy-zeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3596","title":{"rendered":"HOLY ZEAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOLY ZEAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLet this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cZeal for Your house will consume Me.\u201d\u2014John 2:17<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cZeal is a principle; enthusiasm is a feeling. The one is the spark of a sanguine temperament and overheated imagination. The other a sacred flame kindled at God\u2019s altar and burning in God\u2019s shrine.\u201d\u2014(Vaughan) Such was the holy heavenly zeal of our Great Exemplar. His were no transient outbursts of ardor which time cooled and difficulties impeded. His life was one indignant protest against sin, one ceaseless current of undying love for souls which all the malignity of foes and unkindness of friends could not for one moment divert from its course. Even when He rises from the dead, and we imagine His work at an end, His zeal only meditates fresh deeds of love. \u201cStill His heart and His care,\u201d says Goodwin, \u201cis upon doing more. Having now dispatched that great work on earth, He sends His disciples word that He is hastening to heaven as fast as He can, to do another\u201d (John 20:17<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reader! do you know anything of this zeal, which \u201cmany waters could not quench?\u201d See that, like your Lord\u2019s, it be steady, sober, consistent, undeviating. How many are, like the children of Ephraim, \u201ccarrying bows\u201d\u2014all zealous when zeal demands no sacrifice, but \u201cturning their backs to the day of battle!\u201d Others running well for a time, but gradually \u201chindered,\u201d through the benumbing influences of worldliness, selfishness, and sin. Two disciples, apparently equally devoted and zealous, send through Paul, in one of his epistles, a joint Christian salutation\u2014\u201dLuke and Demas greet you.\u201d A few years afterwards, thus he writes from his Roman dungeon\u2014\u201dOnly Luke is with me,\u201d \u201cDemas has forsaken me, having loved this present world!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

While zeal is commendable, remember the Apostle\u2019s qualification, \u201cIt is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.\u201d There is in these days much base coin current, called \u201czeal,\u201d which bears not the image and superscription of Jesus. There is zeal for church-membership and party; zeal for creeds and dogmas; zeal for figments and nonessentials. \u201cFrom such turn aside.\u201d Your Lord stamped with his example and approval no such counterfeits. His zeal was ever brought to bear on two objects, and two objects alone\u2014the glory of God and the good of man. Be it so with you. Enter, first of all (as He did the earthly temple), the sanctuary of your own heart, with \u201cthe scourge of small cords.\u201d Drive out every unhallowed intruder there. Do not allow yourself to be deceived. Others may call such jealous searchings of spirit it \u201csanctimoniousness\u201d and \u201centhusiasm.\u201d But remember, to be almost saved, is to be altogether lost!\u2014to be zealous about every thing but \u201cthe one thing needful,\u201d is an insult to God and your everlasting interests!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have a zeal for others. Dying myriads are around you. As a member of the Christian priesthood, it becomes you to rush in with your censer and incense between the living and the dead, \u201cthat the plague may be stayed!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be it yours to say, \u201cBlessed Jesus! I am Yours!\u2014Yours only!\u2014Yours wholly!\u2014Yours forever! I am willing to follow You, and (if need be) to suffer for You. I am ready at Your bidding to leave the homestead in the valley, and to face the cutting blasts of the mountain. Take me\u2014use me for Your glory. Lord! what will You have me to do?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cArm yourselves likewise with the same mind.\u201d John MacDuff.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLY ZEAL \u201cLet this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.\u201d \u201cZeal for Your house will consume Me.\u201d\u2014John 2:17 \u201cZeal is a principle; enthusiasm is a feeling. The one is the spark of a sanguine temperament and overheated imagination. The other a sacred flame kindled at God\u2019s altar and burning in God\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-macduff","category-believers-rule-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3597,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions\/3597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}