(Isaiah 30:7)
Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side; bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide; in ev’ry change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly, Friend thro’ thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake to guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake; all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know His voice, who ruled them while He dwelt below.
(Katharina von Schlegel)
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in
fortune or misfortune at their own private pace,
like a clock during a thunderstorm.
(Traveling Toward Sunrise)
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October 1
“And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar . . . bought him. . . . Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: . . .”
(Genesis 39:1,4)
Cut off from his (Joseph's) own people in a strange land he becomes a slave in the house of the Egyptian; falsely accused by a wicked woman, and under the stigma of a great sin, he is cast into prison.
There treated with base ingratitude, he is left to languish, a forgotten man. Suffering dishonour upon dishonour, his path is ever downward. The clouds gather round him and his way grows darker, until apparently his sun has set in hopeless gloom.
But behind all that is apparent to nature, faith can discern the purpose of God to exalt Joseph to a position of supremacy and glory. If God is set upon the fulfilment of His purpose, Satan will put forth every effort to thwart God’s purpose.
Satan uses the wickedness of the brethren to banish Joseph from house and home; he uses Potiphar’s wicked wife to bring Joseph into prison; and he uses Pharaoh’s ungrateful butler to keep him there.
Every step in the downward path is an apparent triumph for Satan, and would seem to make the fulfillment of God’s purpose more remote.
To the natural view Satan’s plans appear to prosper, and God’s purposes suffer apparent defeat. Faith, however, can discern the hand of God behind the wiles of Satan. If Satan is using man to hinder God’s purposes, God is using Satan to carry them out. Every kind of agent is at God’s disposal.
Angels and archangels, saints and sinners, the devil and his demons, all serve to carry out God’s plans. The very elements—fire and hail, snow and vapours, and stormy wind—are "fulfilling His word” (Psalm 148:8).
Nor is it otherwise with the circumstances of life, as we see in the story of Joseph.
(Hamilton Smith)
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"The shipmaster came to him [Jonah], and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”
(Jonah 1:6)
Good, sensible shipmaster! He well knew what Jonah ought to be doing, surely not sleeping at such a time! Arise, call upon thy God! It is a message from the heathen about us that we all would do well to hear.
We cannot all go out to the heathen, but we all can arise and call upon our God. Was not this just the point? Jonah could not arise and call upon his God nor do we hear that he even tried to do as the shipmaster commanded him.
How could Jonah call on the name of the very One from whose presence he was even then fleeing?
No, dear fellow-Christian, you and I know very well that sin and prayer do not go together: we must give up one or the other. Sad to say, Jonah had chosen sin, and he could not pray. He knew perfectly well what was the cause of that storm, and he knew equally well the remedy.
This was not a time for prayer, but a time for confession, and bowing to the just punishment that he so rightly merited for his sin against his God. Though indeed confession and prayer might, and should have been found together in the same breath.
Jonah had not yet come to the point were he was willing to humble himself to do this. Therefore, God allowed these heathen sailors to force him to do what he would not do of his own will.
(G. C. Willis)
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October 3
“Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he . . . gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.”
(Luke 15:12-13)
We may be tempted to criticize the father’s haste in complying with the demands of a wayward son.
But the father knew he had lost the boy’s heart and there was little point in trying to keep him against his will.
He also knew that the educative process of the far country was a necessary though painful experience to produce in him repentance and restoration.
Many a parent sees in this a comforting precedent and yearns for the day when their loved one will return from the far country.
Perhaps it will be today.
(Drew Craig)
Back to my Father and home, back to my Father and home;
I will arise and go now, back to my Father and home.
(Thomas Chisholm)
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October 4
THE UNITY OF THE BIBLE
“Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
(2 Peter 1:21)
There are two kinds of unity. There is a unity that is merely mechanical, such as that of a watch or a building, and there is a unity that is organic, such as that of a plant or a flower. The former are put together from without; the later grow together from within.
The laws of organic unity have been expounded by Cuvier, the great comparative anatomist, and, summarized, are three in number:
(1) That each and every part is essential to the whole.
(2) That each part is related to, and corresponds with, all other parts, as in the human body, hand corresponds to hand, and eye to eye.
(3) That all the parts of such an organism must be pervaded by the spirit of life.
Tested by these criteria, the Bible must stand confessed, as a miracle of literary unity.
This unity becomes the more amazing when we recall the wonder of its formation. Parts of it were written by Kings, statesmen, soldiers, philosophers, priests, scholars, poets, physicians, prophets, tentmakers, herdsmen, and fishermen.
Sections of it were written in the desert of Sinai, in the wilderness of Judea, by the river of Babylon, in a dungeon at Rome, and on the rock-bound isle of Patmos.
Between Moses, its first writer, and John, its last, lies a period of1600 years. Its contents include history, biography, legislation, poetry, philosophy, doctrine, ethics,
and perfect guidance for personal, civic, and national life.
And yet, amid all this diversity of writers, places of composition, and contents,
there is a harmony which is the fruit of perfect unity, and which can be
accounted for only by the explanation give by Peter:
2 Peter 1:21 quoted above.
(The Wonderful Word - George Henderson)
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October 5
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
(Revelation 22:20)
That Day
That morn shall break as others break; the stars shall pale, the shadows flee;
Across the misty mountain-tops the sun shall gild the sleeping sea;
The busy world shall wake once more with smiles or sighs to greet the day,
To eat and drink, to buy and sell, to scheme and toil, to sin and pray.
That morn shall break as others break; but ere the day its course has run,
Full many a watching, waiting soul shall know the waiting-time is done.
They see a sign no others see, and hail the long-expected day;
They hear a voice no others hear—“Haste, my beloved, come away.”
That morn shall break as others break; but, ere another day shall dawn,
Where two were grinding, one is left; where two were sleeping, one is gone.
“Behold, He comes,” the Spirit saith; O Earth, Earth, Earth! the message hear,
O blind and deaf! the sign discern; redeem the hours, the time is near.
(Flint’s Best-Loved Poems)
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October 6
“And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. . . . And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! . . . I will arise and go to my father . . .”
(Luke 15:14,17, 18)
The prodigal may wander, and squander,
and come to poverty; but it must ever hold good
that “in my father’s house is bread enough and to spare.”
(Food for the Desert)
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October 7
“Men ought always to pray and not to faint.”
(Luke 18:1)
“Go to the ant.” (Proverbs 6:6)
Tammerlane used to relate to his friends an anecdote of his early life.
“I once,” he said, “was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined
building, where I sat alone many hours.
Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eye on an ant that was
carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall.
I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object.
The grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the insect persevered,
and the seventieth time it reached the top.
This sight gave me courage at the moment,
and I never forgot the lesson.
(The King’s Business)
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October 8
Sin has introduced great misery and universal disorder into the world!
“Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust,
neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the
sparks fly upward.”
Job 5:6-7
“In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
Whoever considers the manifold calamities to which mankind are exposed in the present state,
must feel some emotion of sorrow.
Sin has introduced great misery and universal disorder into the world! No person,
however obscure, or eminent or educated—can stand invulnerable
against the arrows of adversity.
It is, however, the peculiar privilege of a godly man, that though, alike with others,
he partakes of the sufferings of humanity—yet he sees a wise hand directing
every event, and rendering all subservient to a grand and glorious end.
He desires to learn the noble lessons of patience and submission, while his heart glows
with gratitude to Him to whom he is indebted for every comfort he enjoys,
and without whose permission he knows no evil can transpire!
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
(Romans 8:28).
(Charles Buck, 1771-1815 - R.L.)
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October 9
“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”
(Ephesians 6:16)
However necessary it is to have the thoughts and affections held in order by the girdle of truth,
and our conduct preserved in righteousness by the breastplate,
and to be walking in peace through this world,
something else is needed for the conflict.
We need “above all”, or “over all”, the shield of faith to protect us from the fiery darts of the enemy.
Here faith is not the reception of God’s testimony concerning Christ by which we are saved,
but the daily faith and trust in God which give us the assurance that God is for us.
In the pressure of the manifold trials that come upon us, whether from circumstances,
ill-health, bereavement, or in connection with the many difficulties that
constantly arise among the people of God, the enemy may seek
to cloud our souls with the horrible suggestion that
after all God is indifferent and not for us.
On that dark night when the disciples had to face the storm on the lake,
and the waves beat into the ship, Jesus was with them,
though asleep as one indifferent to their danger.
This was a test for faith.
Alas! unprotected by the shield of faith, a fiery dart pieced their armour, and the terrible thought
arose that, after all, the Lord did not care for them, for they awoke Him and said,
“Carest though not that we perish?” (Mark 4:37, 38)
(Hamilton Smith)
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October 10
“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."
(Ephesians 6:16)
Satan is never so completely defeated as in his apparent victories.
We do not sufficiently reckon on the activity of the foe,
and occupied with his instruments we often overlook the hand by which they are wielded.
Happy is he . . . who has learned to look beyond the actions of men to the power that controls them all, and to receive all, favour or persecution, aids or hindrances, from the Lord.
That soul has acquired the secret of perfect peace amid the confusion and turmoil of the world,
as well as in the presence of Satan’s power.
If believers settle down in the world, mind earthly things, become “dwellers on earth” (Revelation 3:10) —using this phrase in its moral sense—Satan will let them alone; but the moment wrought upon by the Spirit of God . . . they go forth in living testimony, the adversary will seek to turn
them aside by any art or device which is likely to accomplish his purpose.
(Edward Dennett)
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October 11
“And they remembered His words.”
(Luke 24:8)
How much mischief do we get into by not remembering God’s words!
When the Lord Jesus was tempted He had the word of God at hand,
and by that simple word He could claim the
victory in the battle.
(J.G. Bellett)
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October 12
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