Tag: E. Michael and Sharon Rusten

Are You About To Slip?

Their foot shall slide in due time. (KJV) Deuteronomy 32:35

“As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation in a moment!”…

“The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and JUSTICE bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that have never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls, all you that were never born again and made new creatures, raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God…

“…And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands calling, and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with thier hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.”

The preacher Jonathan Edwards spoke these words on July 8, 1741 while preaching his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in Enfield, Connecticut. As he preached some people called out for him to stop. At one point there was so much noise, he had to ask them to be quiet so he could be heard.

He concluded the sermon by saying, “Let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let everyone fly out of Sodom: ‘Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.’ “

The people of Enfield were never the same.

Have you fled to Christ, the Lamb of God, to be cleansed by his shed blood on Calvary? We all need to flee to Jesus to escape the coming wrath of God. If you have not, why not today?

“They cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who will be able to survive? “ Revelation 6:16

Source: E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, The One Year Christian History. A great daily devotional based on historical events.

“His Love Has the Power to Change Even the Most Ruined Life”

The son of a saloon keeper, Mel Trotter had learned bartending from his father when his dad was too drunk to pour a drink at the bar. As a young man, Trotter had resolved to escape the saloon, leaving home to take up barbering. Unfortunately, he was so successful as a barber that the income gave him the opportunity to gamble and drink at will.

Trying to escape big city temptations, Mel Trotter moved to Iowa about 1890 and managed to stay sober long enough to marry. But his wife soon discovered that she was married to an alcoholic. He repeatedly vowed to straighten out his life, once staying sober for 11 months. But even the birth of a beloved son could not keep him from drinking. After one 10 day binge, Trotter returned home to find his wife weeping over the dead body of their two year old son.

Trotter left his son’s funeral for a saloon. Then he hopped a train for Chicago, running from his failure, from alcohol, and from the certainty he could not conquer his addiction. He knew his life was running out, but he resolved to end it in anonymity.

The night of January 19, 1897, homeless, hatless, and coatless, Mel Trotter sold his shoes for one last drink before planning to commit suicide. The alcohol barely warmed him as he trudged barefoot through a Chicago blizzard, trying to find lake Michigan so he could drown his sorrows forever. Passing the darkened businesses on Van Buren Street, Trotter stumbled. A young man stepped out of the doorway of the only lit building, helped Trotter up, and invited him inside. Trotter followed, too numb to read the sign over the door: Pacific Garden Mission.

The man sat Trotter down in a warm room full of derelict men. The missions Superintendent, Harry Monroe, was in the middle of his evening message but broke off his comments when he saw Trotter. Monroe felt compelled to pray aloud, “Oh, God, save that poor, poor boy.”

Monroe then shared the story of his own troubled life before he had met Christ. “Jesus loves you”, he concluded, “and so do I. He wants to save you tonight. Put up your hand for prayer. Let God know you want to make room in your heart for him.” Barely understanding what he was doing, Trotter raised his hand. Something inside him rose up and accepted the invitation in simple faith. And in that moment the shackles of alcoholism and despair fell away.

Trotter spent the next 43 years ministering to the men and women he met on the streets, as lost and hopeless as he had been. His message was simple: “God loves you in the midst of the deepest failure and despair and his love has the power to change even the most ruined life.” He was ordained in 1905 and for 40 years served as a supervisor of a rescue mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Alumni of his mission founded 68 other rescue missions across the United States, and Trotter became an international evangelist.

That dark night in Chicago Mel Trotters life didn’t end — it began!

Have you ever struggled with an addiction, whether alcohol, drugs, sex, or something else? God is in the business of delivering men and women from addictions. He did it for Mel Trotter, and he can do it for you.

He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.  Psalms 40:2

Source: E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, The One Year Christian History (Tyndale, 2003) pp. 38-39 (If you are a looking for an historical daily devotional, I heartily recommend this book.)

Do not stay in the chains of addiction. Let Jesus Christ deliver you today. Humble yourself and ask him to do it today, right now. God bless you.

Carl