Gathered<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in\nthe midst of them.\u201d Matthew 18:20<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Holy Spirit is the only Gatherer. Christ Himself is the only\nobject to which we are gathered, and our assembly, when convened, is to be\ncharacterised by holiness. The Holy Spirit can only gather to Christ. He\ndoesn\u2019t gather to a system, a name, a doctrine or an ordinance. He gathers to a\nPerson and that Person is a glorified Christ in Heaven. \n \n \n <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scott Richardson<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Glad Worshippers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some will read this and think that it is an attempt to\nshame or rebuke those who have fallen away. It is not. Not much chance they\u2019ll\nread it anyway. If these words cause us to feel anything other than humility\nand fear for our own souls, they have been misunderstood. Why do some who have\nprofessed faith in Christ and are able to attend public worship, end up\nforsaking the assembling of themselves with the church? If you ask them, it is\nalways someone else\u2019s fault. Truth is, if one can leave, they eventually will\nleave. Something will happen. Someone will offend them. One reason will be as\ngood as another when men seek to justify themselves before men. But God knoweth\nthe heart.( Lk. 16:15). Hungry men must have the bread of life. Thirsty\nmen must come to the fountain for the water of life. Those in love with the\nLord Jesus Christ also love His people. (I Jn. 4:21). Those who have seen the\nbeauty of Christ want to be where He has promised to show forth more of His\nglory. (Matt. 18:20). They have tasted of the heavenly gift and it is\nimpossible for them to fall away. (Heb. 6:4-5). What about those of us who\nremain? We are kept BY the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to\nbe revealed in the last time. (I Pet. 1:5). He that glorieth, let him glory in\nthe Lord. (I Cor. 1:31).\u201d I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the\nhouse of the Lord.\u201d Ps. 123:1. \n Greg Elmquist<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their\nstrength.” Isaiah 40:31<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n How different the religion of a living soul is from the religion\nof a dead professor! The religion of a dead professor begins in self, and ends\nin self; begins in his own wisdom, and ends in his own folly; begins in his own\nstrength, and ends in his own weakness; begins in his own righteousness, and\nends in his own damnation! There is in him never any going out of soul after\nGod, no secret dealings with the Lord, no actings of faith upon the divine\nperfections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the child of God, though he is often faint, weary, and\nexhausted with many difficulties, burdens and sorrows; yet when the Lord does\nshow himself, and renews his strength, he soars aloft, and never ceases to\nmount up on the wings of faith and love until he penetrates into the very\nsanctuary of the most High. A living soul never can be satisfied except in\nliving union and communion with the Lord of life and glory. Everything short of\nthat leaves it empty. All the things of time and sense leave a child of God\nunsatisfied. Nothing but vital union and communion with the Lord of life, to\nfeel his presence, taste his love, enjoy his favour, see his glory–nothing but\nthis will ever satisfy the desires of ransomed and regenerated souls. This the\nLord indulges his people with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They shall renew their strength.” They shall not be\nalways lying groaning on the ground, not always swooning away through the\nwounds made by sin, not always chained down by the fetters of the world, not\nalways hunted in their souls like a partridge upon the mountains. There shall\nbe a renewal of their strength; and in their renewal, “they shall mount up\nwith wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,\nand not faint.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n A certain cure for every ill.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (by Spurgeon)<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Abide in Me.” John 15:4<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communion with Christ is<\/p>\n\n\n\n a certain cure for every ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether it be the wormwood of woe,<\/p>\n\n\n\n or the cloying excess of earthly delight,<\/p>\n\n\n\n close fellowship with the Lord Jesus<\/p>\n\n\n\n will take bitterness from the one, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n satiety from the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Live near to Jesus, Christian, and it is matter<\/p>\n\n\n\n of secondary importance whether you live on the<\/p>\n\n\n\n mountain of honour or in the valley of humiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Living near to Jesus, you are covered with the wings<\/p>\n\n\n\n of God, and underneath you are the everlasting arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let nothing keep you from that hallowed<\/p>\n\n\n\n communion, which is the choice privilege<\/p>\n\n\n\n of a soul wedded to the ‘well beloved’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do not be content with an interview now and then,<\/p>\n\n\n\n but seek always to retain His company, for only in<\/p>\n\n\n\n His presence have you either comfort or safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus should not be unto us a friend who calls upon us<\/p>\n\n\n\n now and then, but one with whom we walk evermore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have a difficult road before you: see, O traveler<\/p>\n\n\n\n to heaven, that you go not without your guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have to pass through the fiery furnace; enter it<\/p>\n\n\n\n not unless, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,<\/p>\n\n\n\n you have the Son of God to be your companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have to storm the Jericho of your own<\/p>\n\n\n\n corruptions: attempt not the warfare until,<\/p>\n\n\n\n like Joshua, you have seen the Captain of the<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord’s host, with His sword drawn in His hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You are to meet the Esau of your many<\/p>\n\n\n\n temptations: meet him not until at Jabbok’s<\/p>\n\n\n\n brook you have laid hold upon the angel,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and prevailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In every case, in every condition, you will<\/p>\n\n\n\n need Jesus; but most of all, when the iron<\/p>\n\n\n\n gates of death shall open to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep you close to your soul’s Husband,<\/p>\n\n\n\n lean your head upon His bosom, ask to<\/p>\n\n\n\n be refreshed with the spiced wine of His<\/p>\n\n\n\n pomegranate, and you shall be found of<\/p>\n\n\n\n Him at the last, without spot, or wrinkle,<\/p>\n\n\n\n or any such thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seeing you have lived with Him, and lived in<\/p>\n\n\n\n Him here, you shall abide with Him forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Come and eat!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Horatius Bonar, “The Bread of Immortality”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I am the bread of life.” John 6:48<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I am the living bread.” John 6:51<\/p>\n\n\n\n All food is for the sustaining of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus announces Himself as the bread which will sustain<\/p>\n\n\n\n the life of the soul. Not merely some doctrine\u2014but Himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He is the bread; not merely bread\u2014but the bread\u2014the one<\/p>\n\n\n\n true bread; without whom the soul cannot grow, nor its life<\/p>\n\n\n\n be sustained. For only by this life-sustaining bread, can<\/p>\n\n\n\n such sickly souls be nourished. As such, Jesus is necessary<\/p>\n\n\n\n to the soul as its food\u2014its bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside of Him, there is no nourishment, no sustenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He feeds\u2014He alone. He feeds us on Himself! All else is<\/p>\n\n\n\n husks, or mere air and vapour. Jesus, in His glorious person,<\/p>\n\n\n\n is our food\u2014the true bread and sustenance of the soul;<\/p>\n\n\n\n the hidden manna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus applies various names to it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “bread from heaven”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “true bread”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “the bread of God”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “bread of life”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “living bread.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n All these are names indicative of its excellence, its power,<\/p>\n\n\n\n it’s suitableness. It is the very bread we need; no other<\/p>\n\n\n\n would do. Jesus is the soul’s eternal food. This<\/p>\n\n\n\n storehouse is inexhaustible\u2014and ever accessible!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Come as you are, poor prodigal, starving on husks\u2014come<\/p>\n\n\n\n and eat! Eat, O friends! Eat, and live! Eat, and be strong!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eat, and be in soul health!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will satisfy her poor with bread.” Psalm 132:15<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n What a sweetness there is in the word “satisfy!” The\nworld cannot satisfy the child of God. Have we not tried, some of us perhaps\nfor many years, to get some satisfaction from it? But can wife or husband\n“satisfy” us? Can children or relatives “satisfy” us? Can\nall the world calls good or great “satisfy” us? Can the pleasures of\nsin “satisfy” us? Is there not in all an aching void? Do we not reap\ndissatisfaction and disappointment from everything that is of the creature, and\nof the flesh? Do we not find that there is little else but sorrow to be reaped\nfrom everything in this world? I am sure I find, and have found for some years,\nthat there is little else to be gathered from the world but disappointment,\ndissatisfaction, “vanity and vexation of spirit.” The poor soul looks\nround upon the world and the creature, upon all the occupations, amusements and\nrelations of life, and finds all one melancholy harvest, so that all it reaps\nis sorrow, perplexity, and dissatisfaction. Now when a man is brought here, to\nwant satisfaction, something to make him happy, something to fill up the aching\nvoid, something to bind up broken bones, bleeding wounds, and leprous sores,\nand after he has looked at everything, at doctrines, opinions, notions,\nspeculations, forms, rites and ceremonies in religion, at the world with all its\ncharms, and at self with all its varied workings, and found nothing but\nbitterness of spirit, vexation and trouble in them all, and thus sinks down a\nmiserable wretch, why, then when the Lord opens up to him something of the\nbread of life, he finds a satisfaction in that which he never could gain from\nany other quarter. And that is the reason why the Lord so afflicts his people;\nwhy some carry about with them such weak, suffering tabernacles, why some have\nso many family troubles, why others are so deeply steeped in poverty, why\nothers have such rebellious children, and why others are so exercised with\nspiritual sorrows that they scarcely know what will be the end. It is all for\none purpose, to make them miserable out of Christ, dissatisfied except with gospel\nfood; to render them so wretched and uncomfortable that God alone can make them\nhappy, and alone can speak consolation to their troubled minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way to spiritual wealth!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Peter After His Restoration” #2035. Luke 22:32<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communion with Christ is the happiest life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you gained all the world and did not lose<\/p>\n\n\n\n your soul but only lost the light of Christ’s<\/p>\n\n\n\n countenance for a few days, you would have<\/p>\n\n\n\n made a poor bargain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is Heaven in every glance of His eye!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is infinite joy in every word of His mouth<\/p>\n\n\n\n when He speaks comfortably to His servants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do not go away from Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abide in Christ and let His Words abide in you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Closer, closer, closer- this is<\/p>\n\n\n\n the way to spiritual wealth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n To follow afar off and live at a distance from<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christ, even if it does not make your soul<\/p>\n\n\n\n perish, yet it will wither up your joys and make<\/p>\n\n\n\n you feel an unhappy man, an unhappy woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n REST IN THE HOLY SPIRIT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n John MacDuff<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will\ngive you rest.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another\nComforter, that He may abide with you forever.” John 14:16<\/p>\n\n\n\n A gracious Hospice opened by Christ to His disciples in the near\nprospect of His departure, was the promise of a divine Comforter, whose advent\nwould more than compensate them for His own personal absence and loss; not a\ntemporary visitant, like the angels who from time to time gladdened both\ndispensations; not like the Abrahams, and Elijahs, and Isaiahs, and Davids, and\nBaptists–brilliant passing meteors shining for a season and then lost in the\ndarkness–no satellite with reflected or derivative light, but an abiding Presence\nand glory “above the brightness of the sun.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n This heavenly Paraclete was to “teach them all\nthings;” to “guide them into all truth;” to energise, with\nsuperhuman wisdom and power–a continued strength and inspiration for His\npeople in the time to come. And, best of all, He was to be the ever-present\nRevealer of an absent Lord, magnifying Him in the affections of His Church and\npeople–“He shall glorify Me for He shall receive from Me, and shall show\nit unto you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Pentecost there was the full realisation of the promise. The\nwindows of heaven were then opened, and showers of blessing descended. The\ngathered disciples were “baptised with the Holy Spirit and with\nfire,” each brow haloed with flame–a radiance of unearthly brightness. It\nwas the predicted “times of refreshing.” The prophetic announcement\nwas fulfilled–“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, and as\nshowers that water the earth.” Multitudes were enabled to call Christ\n“Lord, by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Living as we do under “the dispensation of the\nSpirit,” we have in His bestowal and name a true Refuge and House of Rest.\nHe is emphatically the Spirit of peace, brooding with halcyon calm over the\nchaos of unrest. COMFORTER is surely the most precious of balm-words for the\nweary and heavy laden, the sin-burdened and sorrow-burdened. Filled with all\njoy and peace in believing, we “abound in hope by the power of the Holy\nSpirit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Filled with the Spirit”–that is the secret and\nexplanation of the rest this Hospice affords. Its every window is thrown open\nto catch the divine breath and echoes from the everlasting hills. There,\nreplenished and recruited with His varied gifts, the traveler is ready to\nprosecute his upward and onward way, with the new song on his lips–“Your\nSpirit, O God, is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” The chalice\nof joy given by the divine Agent is so full of the living water of which He is\nthe emblem, that there is no room in it for the poison-drops of sin, the\ncontamination of any baser earthly admixture. Rather, in His hands, life is\nlike the vessels of Cana, not only filled to the brim, but the contents are\ngradually transfused and transfigured into the wine of heaven. Commonest\nblessings and joys are in Him sanctified, and become sacramental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood\nand cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me, and drink. This\nspoke He of the Spirit” (John 7:37, 39).<\/p>\n\n\n\n May it be mine personally to appropriate this richest boon and\nlegacy bequeathed by the departing Saviour to His Church and people;\nrecognising in the presence and supporting grace of “the Comforter”\nthe chief well of refreshment for pilgrims “passing through the Valley of\nBaca.” It is an additional encouragement, too, in pleading for the\npeerless gift, that the divine Father is harmonised with the divine Son in the\nloving and bountiful bestowment. Does an earthly parent delight in lavishing\ntokens of affection on his offspring? “How much more shall your Father in\nheaven give the Holy Spirit unto those who ask Him?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Happy those who are able, in some feeble measure, yet with lowly\nconfidence, to join in the apostle’s testimony\u2013 “The love of God is shed\nabroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This is the resting place, let the weary rest. This is the\nplace of repose.” Isaiah 28:12<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gathered \u201cWhere two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.\u201d Matthew 18:20 The Holy Spirit is the only Gatherer. Christ Himself is the only object to which we are gathered, and our assembly, when convened, is to be characterised by holiness. The Holy Spirit can only gather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6082","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=6082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6083,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6082\/revisions\/6083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}