Bear Vent

We are too disposed to forget that each action of our life shall at some moment be performed for the last time. It often seems as if we shall continue forever to fulfill certain routines of duties or enjoyments; but this shall never be. At length we are going to breathe our last, and then face God. How will it go for you, when your time comes, dear reader? Will you be numbered among those who, having repented of their sins and put their trust on the Savior, shall be given a grand entrance into heaven? or among those who, having failed to receive God's offer of salvation, shall suffer the torments of hell for all eternity? Think about it.

Some people allow their thoughts and desires to be chained down to earth by business duties or the worldly worries of everyday life. They are absorbed in these as if there were nothing higher or better. The sweet duty of prayer is neglected. They do not meditate on the great truths of God's holy word. Even the Lord's day makes only little difference; there is no real seeking after God's kingdom and righteousness. But you must not give up on your brightest and highest privilege. Do not cast off the joys which might in all other respects mix with your most ordinary duties. “Don’t pile up treasures on earth, where moth and rust can spoil them and thieves can break in and steal. But keep your treasure in Heaven where there is neither moth nor rust to spoil it and nobody can break in and steal. For wherever your treasure is, you may be certain that your heart will be there too!” ( Matthew 6:19-21 ) If you are then “risen” with Christ, reach out for the highest gifts of Heaven, w...

Those who labor for your souls, whether they be ministers or friends — don't let them look in vain for fruit in your life. Be warned, God can say to a person, as He once did to a tree, “No one will ever eat fruit from you again!” Could anyone bear the prospect of never being a blessing throughout all the ages of eternity? Many who are now useless and hurting, hope that they shall one day be different. But opportunities are quickly passing away. The trees, that are now bearing the lovely fruits of praise and holiness in heaven above, began to produce such fruits for God when on earth. Even that criminal whose Christian course lasted only an hour or two, produced good fruit in his trustful request to Jesus, and in his faithful reproof of his fellow sufferer; while the aged apostle Paul was like a tree whose boughs are bent to the ground under the weight of a fragrant and delicious load. Have you begun to bear heavenly fruit? If not, when will you begin? Delay no more; you do not know...

“The Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts — so that their eyes cannot see, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to Me and have Me heal them.” ( John 12:40 ) ——————— These words have puzzled many a mind. Does a loving God blind the eyes of His creatures? Were we not told that it is He who takes away the stony, stubborn heart and gives the tender, responsive heart? It is so. Whatever is good comes from Him, and nothing but good. But it is good to inflict righteous judgment; and there is a sin for which blindness is a righteous judgment.  You know, when people prefer darkness to light, and persistently avoid the light, eventually God blinds their eyes. For what use is sight to those who choose to remain in darkness? Jesus, God's light, came into the world; but there were many whose deeds were evil. They refused to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. It was these whose eyes were blinded, and whose hearts were hardened, so that their eyes...

What a moment that was when the Lord, looking up to heaven, stood before Lazarus' open tomb! All was quiet inside the cave, for death was there; and all must have been quiet outside, while the Son of God prayed to His Father in heaven. The first sentence shows His faith. “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” ( John 11:41 ) The next showed His confidence in His Father's love — “I know that You always hear Me.” (v. 42 ) The last displayed His own love to sinful people — “Because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me.” He knew their unbelief, and He wanted to convince them that He and the Father were One. Who can conceive the breathless expectation that filled every heart when He uttered the words, “Lazarus, come out?” (v. 43 ) If that voice had not been obeyed, it would have been little wonder that the sisters had never again seen their brother; the hopes of all the dead, the hopes of all the living, the hopes of future generations, were ...

All God's children desire to be with their Father, and their Father desires to have all His children with Him. Sin, like a cruel tyrant, has scattered His family abroad. Death divides them from each other, and even divides their souls from their bodies. But Christ's death on the cross has taken away the guilt of sin, and has destroyed the power of death. At the sound of the last trumpet, the bodies that lay rotting in the graves, or forgotten in the depths of the sea, shall be glorified and united to the happy spirits of the righteous ones. Those who were born in different ages of the world, or who were separated by wide oceans, shall see each other for the first time in their Father's everlasting home.