Good Cheer for the New Year E-Book

Charles Spurgeon

• Herausgeber: Editora Oxigênio
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 36

Beschreibung

Good Cheer for the New Year is a message of meditation based on the Bible and written by one of the most important Christian writers of all time. A devotional message of faith and hope for the new year.

Leseprobe

Summary

Summary

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 1

The Israelites had sojourned for a while in Egypt, a land which only produces food for its inhabitants by the laborious process of irrigating its fields. They had mingled with the sons of Ham as they watched with anxious eyes the swelling of the river Nile; they had shared in the incessant labors by which the waters were preserved in reservoirs, and afterwards eked out by slow degrees to nourish the various crops.

Moses tells them in this chapter that the land of Palestine was not at all like Egypt; it was a land which did not so much depend on the labor of the inhabitants as upon the good will of the God of heaven. He calls it a land of hills and valleys, a land of springs and rivers, a land dependent not upon the rivers of earth but upon the rain of heaven, and he styles it in conclusion, “A land which the Lord your God cares for: the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.” 

Observe here a type of the condition of the natural and the spiritual man. In this world in temporals and in all other respects the merely carnal man has to be his own providence, and to look to himself for all his needs. Hence his cares are always many, and frequently they become so heavy that they drive him to desperation. He lives a life of care, anxiety, sorrow, fretfulness and disappointment; he dwells in Egypt, and he knows that there is no joy, or comfort, or provision if it does not wear out his soul in winning it. 

But the spiritual man dwells in another country; his faith makes him a citizen of another land. It is true he endures the same toils, and experiences the same afflictions as the ungodly, but they deal with him after another fashion, for they come as a gracious Father’s appointments and they go at the bidding of loving wisdom. By faith the godly man casts his care upon God who cares for him, and he walks without worrying care because he knows himself to be the child of heaven’s loving-kindness, for whom all things work together for good. God is his great guardian and friend, and all his concerns are safe in the hands of infinite grace. 

Even in the year of drought the believer dwells in green pastures, and lies down beside the still waters; but as for the ungodly, he abides in the wilderness and hears the mutterings of that curse, “Cursed is he who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm: he shall be like the heath in the desert; he shall not see when good comes.”

Do you question my assertion, that Canaan is a fitting type of the present condition of the Christian?

We have frequently insisted upon it that it is a far better type of the militant believer here than of the glorified saint in the New Jerusalem. Canaan is sometimes used by us in our hymns as the picture of heaven, but it is scarcely so; a moment’s reflection will show that it is far more distinctly the picture of the present state of every believer. While we are under conviction of sin we are like Israel in the wilderness, we have no rest for the sole of our feet; but when we put our trust in Jesus we do as it were cross the river and leave the wilderness behind: “we who have believed do enter into rest,” for “there remains a rest for the people of God.” Believers have entered into the finished salvation which is provided for us in Christ Jesus. 

The blessings of our inheritance are in a great measure already in our possession; the state of salvation is no longer a land of promise, but it is a land possessed and enjoyed. We have Peace with God; we are even now justified by faith. “Beloved, now