Saturday, February 1, 2020

Gems from February 1- 10, 2020

February 1
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Ephesians 6:16
Myself I cannot save, Myself I cannot keep; But strength in Thee I surely have whose eyelids never sleepThe moment we enter upon the enjoyment of any blessing Satan will seek to rob us of it.
An unsatisfied heart is a source of danger, and a divided heart is the continual cause of inconsistency of walk.  On the other hand, when Christ possess and engrosses the affections we are superior to every temptation of the enemy.
We never enter upon any service rightly unless we expect to encounter the opposition of Satan.
Footprints for Pilgrims
N.J. Hiebert - 8013
February 2

But not as the offence, so also is the free gift.
For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God,
and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Romans 5:15 


Although God's love never changes, we do not always live in the joy of it.
When sin comes between God and our soul, as a dark cloud
between the sun and the earth, our communion
with Him is broken.

Let us therefore avoid everything that might rob us of enjoying
God's immeasurable love.

Corrie Ten Boom

N.J. Hiebert - 8014

February 3

But whoso harkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall
be quiet from fear of evil. Proverbs 1:33 


These words must ever possess a tender and precious interest for the writer.
It was through having learned them as a lad in the Sunday-school that I was, when 
fourteenth years of age, truly awakened by the Spirit of God to see the awful result of
rejecting the call of the gospel.

Unable to shake off the vivid impression of God's righteous wrath if I longer
refused His grace, I fell down before Him confessing myself a lost,
undone sinner, and found in John 3:16 the 
solace my conscience needed:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.


It was a night to be remembered forever!
H. A Ironside - Notes on Proverbs

N.J. Hiebert  - 8015 

February 4

GRACE ABOUNDING

She fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
Ruth 2:10


We cannot but admire the gracious manner in which Boaz dealt with Ruth as she gleaned in his field, and how beautifully she acknowledged in a practical manner his kindness to her, and her own sense of unworthiness.

How many of the Lord's loved ones go on day by day, like Job, having a knowledge of God by the hearing of the ear; but the moment the eye sees Him, they will abhor themselves in dust and ashes.

How little we comprehend the grace of that blessed One until we see Him and know what it cost Him to obtain eternal redemption for those who believe in Him:

Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:11

Meditations on Ruth - C. McKendrick

N.J. Hiebert - 8016  

February 5

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on thevright hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1-2  

World-bordering is perilous for our souls in this age.  

It exposes us unnecessarily to the enemy.  We are only safe as we take our place definitely outside everything here, as dead to it.

When our minds are really set upon things above, with the risen Christ as our sole object, 

we are proof against the seductions of the world and the devil.

A position of compromise, once accepted, lays us open to trouble at every turn.  

W. W. Fereday

N. J. Hiebert - 8017  

February 6

Dreadful as are the consequences of the sin, the outgoings of grace exceed them.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.  Romans 5:20

The life and happiness of the Christian is learning about Christ.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.   Romans 15:4

To be associated with Christ where He is, we must follow the road He went through death.
Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.  1 Peter 1:21

Hunt's Sayings

N.J. Hiebert - 8018  

February 7

CLIMATE  AND  CONSCIENCE

And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of
offence toward God, and toward men.
Acts 24:16


They tell us that times have changed, that we live in a new moral climate and must learn to live with it. I also have a conscience and must live with it.

Paul lived in an evil day and the spiritual climate was bad.  He wrestled with principalities and powers of the world of darkness.  He was most concerned to have a good conscience. 

He is a foolish man who comes to terms with this world at the expense of his soul.  We have to live
with ourselves and, while everybody is majoring on how to get along with the times,
let us remember that we are not thermometers to register the
prevailing temperature but thermostats to change it.
All the Days - Vance Havner

N.J. Hiebert - 8019   

February 8

I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day;
the night cometh when no man can work.
John 9:4


We must solemnly devote each day and all its actions to the glory of God.

They say the world has an eagle eye for anything inconsistent,
an eye sharp to discover the vagaries and inconsistencies in the defaulty and the unworthy.

It has an eagle eye; but the eagle winks before the sun, and the burning iris of its eye shrinks abashed before the unsullied purity of noon.

Let your light so shine before men, that others, awed and charmed by the consistency of your godly life day by day, may come to enquire, and to say you have been with Jesus.

Punshon  (from Thoughts for the Quiet Hour).

N.J. Hiebert - 8020  

February 9

Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.
And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.  Jonah 1:17


When we shut God out of His own universe we are immediately in difficulties, but when we accept what God says, just as He says it, there is no difficulty whatsoever.

God is well able to prepare a great fish, to preserve His servant's life; He is able to have that special fish ready, waiting outside the boat, in exactly the right place, and at just the right time.

This is not one miracle only, this is a combination of many miracles, and to the one who knows God,
and His ways, there is nothing impossible, or even improbable in what happened here, 
but rather just what we might expect our gracious God to do for one of His own.

This great fish is the first thing the book tells us that Jehovah prepared for His servant, 
but it was by no means the last.

The gourd, the worm, and the sultry east wind, were each in turn specially prepared by God, 
and each one was just as truly a miracle of God, as the great fish. 
Lessons From Jonah the Prophet  - G. C. Willis 

N.J. Hiebert - 8021   

February 10

Having loved His own which were in the world,
He loved them unto the end.
John 13:1


Our God and Father looks after the little as well as the big.
He makes the tides in the sea and shapes the wing of the sparrow.

Nothing is big enough to to defy Him and nothing is so little as to escape Him.
The ray of light from the farthest solar system and the blush on the
primrose alike reveal His radiance.

Back of it all is His infinite, everlasting personal love.  Why should we ever forget Him,
or think that anything is too difficult for Him, or fear that He has forgotten us?

Joseph Anderson Vance

There's not a bird, with lonely nest
In pathless wood or mountain crest,
Nor meaner thing, which does not share
O God, in Thy paternal care.


Love holds the field when all else dies.  

N.J. Hiebert - 8022


February 11

. . . There was a famine in the land.
And a certain man of Bethlehem-Judah went to sojourn in  the country of Moab,
he, and his wife, and his two sons.  Ruth 1:1 


Why did Elimelech and Naomi really go to Moab? In these anxious times when difficulties and problems increased and the neighbours could not help either, their faith simply could not rise above the circumstances.  And they are not the only ones of whom this can be said.
How many there who, although saved by faith, are not able to walk
by faith in times of testing and trial.

How many there are who, though trusting God for salvation, yet are fearful and anxious concerning their family needs.  Has HE ceased to exist then - He who has said, 
"I will never leave thee nor forsake thee"?    

How great is our loss of knowledge, even knowledge which we once possessed, when we lose sight 
of and forget the true Redeemer, and when our hearts long for the things of the world!
The Book of Ruth - H. L. Heijkoop

N.J. Hiebert - 8023 

February 12

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