# The Wilderness Wanderer



## Blueridge Believer (Dec 17, 2007)

“They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary
way; they found no city to dwell in.” Psalm 107:4

The true Christian finds this world to be a wilderness.
There is no change in the world itself.
The change is in the man’s heart.

The wilderness wanderer thinks it altered a
different world from what he has hitherto known . . .
his friends,
his own family,
the employment in which he is daily engaged,
the general pursuits of men—
their cares and anxieties,
their hopes and prospects,
their amusements and pleasures, and
what I may call ‘the general din and whirl of life’,
all seem to him different to what they were—and
for a time perhaps he can scarcely tell whether the
change is in them, or in himself.

This however is the prominent and uppermost feeling
in his mind—that he finds himself, to his surprise—a
wanderer in a world which has changed altogether its
appearance to him. The fair, beautiful world, in which was
all his happiness and all his home—has become to him
a dreary wilderness.

Sin has been fastened in its conviction on his conscience.
The Holy Spirit has taken the veil of unbelief and ignorance
off his heart. He now sees the world in a wholly different
light–and instead of a paradise it has become a wilderness—
for sin, dreadful sin, has marred all its beauty and happiness.

It is not because the world itself has changed that the Christian
feels it to be a wilderness—but because he himself has changed.

There is nothing in this world which can really gratify or satisfy
the true Christian. What once was to him a happy and joyous
world has now become a barren wilderness.

The scene of his former . . .
pursuits,
pleasures,
habits,
delights,
prospects,
hopes,
anticipations of profit or happiness—
is now turned into a barren wasteland.

He cannot perhaps tell how or why the change has
taken place, but he feels it—deeply feels it. He may
try to shake off his trouble and be a little cheerful
and happy as he was before—but if he gets a little
imaginary relief, all his guilty pangs come back upon
him with renewed strength and increased violence.

God means to make the world a wilderness to every
child of His, that he may not find his happiness in it,
but be a stranger and a pilgrim upon earth. - J. C. Philpot


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## Pergamum (Dec 17, 2007)

Thanks brother!


We are pilgrims and strangers in this world......uh, the stranger the better!


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## Blueridge Believer (Dec 18, 2007)

Pergamum said:


> Thanks brother!
> 
> 
> We are pilgrims and strangers in this world......uh, the stranger the better!



Amen dear brother!


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## Blueridge Believer (Dec 18, 2007)

Easy? 

(by Newman Hall) 

"He who overcomes will inherit all this, and 
I will be his God and he will be my son." Rev. 21:7 

To be a true Christian is not so easy a thing 
as some suppose. It is not merely . . .
true beliefs, 
an evangelical creed,
a scriptural church, 
a comfortable sermon once or twice a week. 

It is not this which constitutes Christianity. 

You who think religion so very easy a thing, 
be apprehensive lest, when too late, you find 
that you knew not what true religion meant. 

Easy? A depraved being to trample upon his 
lusts? a proud being to lie prostrate with 
humility and self reproach? those who are 
"slow of heart, to believe," to receive the 
Gospel as little children? 

Easy? To "crucify the flesh," "to deny ungodliness," 
"to cut off a right hand, and to pluck out a right eye?" 

Easy? To be in the world, and yet not of the world; 
to come out from it, not by the seclusion of the 
cloister, but by holiness of life; to be diligent in 
its duties, yet not absorbed by them; appreciating 
its innocent delights, and yet not ensnared by them; 
beholding its attractions, and yet rising superior to them? 

Easy? To live surrounded by objects which appeal to 
the sight, and yet to endure as seeing what is invisible? 

Easy? To pray and see no answer to prayer, and still 
pray on; to fight this battle, and find fresh foes ever 
rising up, yet still to fight on; to be harassed with 
doubts and fears, and yet walk on in darkness, though 
we see no light, staying ourselves upon God? 

Easy? To be preparing for a world we have never 
visited, in opposition to so much that is captivating 
in a world where we have always dwelt, whose 
beauties we have seen, whose music we have 
heard, whose pleasures we have experienced? 

Easy? To resist that subtle foe who has cast 
down so many of the wise and the mighty? 

Easy? When Jesus says it is a "strait gate," 
and that if we would enter we must "strive,"
bidding us "take up our cross daily, deny 
ourselves, and follow Him?" 

Ah! it is no soft flowery meadow, along 
which we may languidly stroll; but a rough, 
craggy cliff that we must climb. 

It is no smooth, placid stream, along which 
we may dreamily float, but a tempestuous 
ocean we must stem. 

It is no easy lolling in a cushioned chariot, that 
bears us on without fatigue and peril. If we are 
to be saved, we must "overcome."


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