February 10
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness . . . Hebrews 12:12-14
Some years ago, at a Special Olympics event, eight young contestants who were either physically or mentally challenged, lined up on the track to compete in the 100 yard dash. At the sound of the starter's pistol, they began an excited, exuberant dash.
One of the participants, a little boy, stumbled and tripped as he ran. He fell, tumbling and rolling to a stop in crumpled heap. He began to cry. The rest of the runners, not far away, heard him. Each slowed, looked back at the crying boy, and also stopped. Without hesitation everyone of the other runners turned around and went back to where their fellow competitor lay crying. One of the children, afflicted with Down Syndrome, kneeled down beside him, and, giving him a kiss, said in her sweet, gentle voice, "That will make it better." At that, the little boy was helped to his feet and all eight runners with arms locked together walked to the finish line crossing it as one triumphant group.
How often, and in how many different ways, do we find illustrated in God's precious Word the principles of love, oneness, and comfort. And never was there a day when it has been more important for the people of God to walk together in love "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the (uniting) bond of peace" Ephesians 4:3. These last moments before the Lord's return are times when all the people of God, wherever they may be found, are experiencing violent, unprecedented Satanic attacks.
Comfort, consolation and fellowship in the Spirit are directly linked to believers having the "the mind of Christ". Philippians 2:5--that divine mind which willingly took the lowest place in perfect humility that there might be eternal blessing for a vast, innumerable company. To have and display the mind of Christ is to show humility, love and care for one another.
"Two are better than one. . . For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up" (Ecclesiastes 4:9,10) The Christian Shepherd - Doug Nicolet 2005
N.J. Hiebert - 8388
February 11
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost. John 19:30
Wonderful climax of all the events of that unforgettable day! The holy, blessed Son of God had been apprehended the night before. All night long He had been subjected to the hateful persecution of the Jewish council. He had stood before them with calm, quiet dignity, falsely accused and slandered, but not opening His mouth in self-defence, not making the slightest suggestion of resenting their cruel, unjust treatment. They had sought every means of intimidating Him to draw from His lips some bitter, angry reply, but they were defeated by the dignity of His lowliness.
Early in the morning they brought Him to Pilate, the Roman governor, determined to have Him condemned. But they had no real charge against Him that Pilate could even consider. Yet instead of dismissing the case, Pilate joined in with their persecution, and his soldiers added their heartless mockery and cruel violence. Jesus spoke in such calm authority that Pilate was made to feel himself the criminal before his judge. Yet he gave in to the Jews, delivering the Lord of glory to be crucified.
Nailed to the cross, He showed His heart's faithful, tender grace as He pled, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He was still in control of the whole situation.
But at noon thick darkness enveloped Him and the whole land, and for three hours He suffered under God's hand, with no eye to observe. There He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and cried out, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" How penetrating, how awesome His cry!
Then those wonderful words, spoken with a loud voice, "It is finished" (John 19:30). The great Victor, in perfect control of all the circumstances, pronounced His work complete. How great, how good He is! The Lord is Near
N.J. Hiebert - 8389
February 12
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Mere natural and physical powers will not avail in the hour when one is called upon to face great mental and spiritual emergencies.
But they who have learned to refer everything to God and to wait quietly upon Him will be given all needed strength to rise above depressing circumstances, thus enabling them to mount heaven ward as eagles facing the sun, to run their race with patience, and to walk with God with renewed confidence and courage, knowing that they are ever the objects of His love and care.
It is one thing to wait on the Lord. It is quite another to wait for Him. As we wait on Him we are changed into His likeness. As we wait for Him in patience we are delivered from worry and fretfulness, knowing that God is never late, but that in His own time He will give the help we need.
Someone has suggested that we may apply Isaiah's words, verse 31, as representing Christians or children of God in different ages. The young believers mount up with wings of hope and expectancy as eagles flying into the height of Heaven.
The middle-aged ones are running with patience the race set before them, while those who have reached old age have come down to a quiet walk with God as they near the portals of the eternal Home of the saints. H. A. Ironside
Through waves, through clouds and storms, God gently clears the way;
We wait His time; so shall the night soon end in blissful days.
Gerhardt tr. by J. Wesley
N.J. Hiebert - 8390
February 13
For your heavenly Father knoweth. Matthew 6:32
A visitor at a school for the deaf and dumb was writing questions on the blackboard for the children. By and by he wrote this sentence: "Why has God made me to hear and speak, and made you deaf and dumb?" The awful sentence fell upon the little ones like a fierce blow in the face. They sat palsied before that dreadful "Why?" And then a little girl arose. Her lip was trembling. Her eyes were swimming with tears. Straight to the board she walked, and picked up the crayon, wrote with firm hand these precious words: "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight!" (Luke 10:21).
What a reply! It reaches up and and lays hold of an eternal truth upon which the maturest believer as well as the youngest child of God may alike securely rest--the truth that God is your Father.
Do you mean that? Do you really and fully believe that? When you do, then your dove of faith will no longer wander in weary unrest, but will settle down forever in its eternal resting place of peace. "Your Father!"
I believe that a day comes for all of us, however far off it may be, when we shall understand; when these tragedies that now blacken and darken the very air of heaven for us, will sink into their places in a scheme so august, so magnificent, so joyful, that we shall praise Him with wonder and delight. Arthur C. Bacon.
No chance hath brought this ill to me; 'tis God's own hand, so let it be,
He seeth what I cannot see--there is a need-be for each pain,
And He one day will make it plain that earthly loss is heavenly gain.
Like as a piece of tapestry viewed from the back appears to be
Not but threads tangled hopelessly; but in the front a picture fair
Rewards the worker for his care, proving his skill and patience rare.
Thou art the Workman, I the frame. Lord, for the glory of Thy Name,
Perfect Thine image on the same. Selected
N.J. Hiebert - 8391
February 14
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to loved one another."
1 John 4:11
I like the word, ought, it suggests duty. Sometimes Christians do not like to be reminded of duty, for they have an idea that duty is not consistent with grace. But the grace of God, when it is active in the life, leads men and women to do the things they ought to do.
Here is one thing we ought to do, we ought to love one another; we ought to love those that do not love us, those who mistreat us, those who speak evil of us, those who harm us, those who would ruin us if they could. That is the way God loves us.
Nothing that men did to our blessed Lord Jesus, nothing that they said about Him could change the attitude of His heart toward them. As He was hanging extended upon the cross of shame, that angry rabble cried out for His life, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!" Luke 23:34
This is not natural. No man will love like this naturally. But this is spiritual, this is divine, and this is possible as we walk in the power of the new nature which God has communicated to those who believe. The Epistle of John - H. Ironside
Living for Jesus who died in my place, bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace,
Such love constrains me to answer His call, follow His leading and give Him my all.
Living for Jesus thru earth's little while, my dearest treasure, the light of His smile,
Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem, bringing the weary to find rest in Him.
O Jesus, Lord and Saviour, I give myself to Thee;
For Thou, in Thy atonement didst give Thyself for me.
I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne,
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone. Thomas Chisholm
N.J. Hiebert - 8392
February 15
The Lord God prepared a gourd. . . Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm. . . and it smote the gourd that it withered. . . . Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd. . . which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should I not spare Nineveh. Jonah 4:6-11
The Lord did not rebuke Jonah for having pity on the gourd. There was nothing wrong in that. The wrong lay in the fact that he gave more pity, more thought, more care, for a gourd that came up in a night and perished in a night, than for the teeming, perishing thousands of a great city.
It is not by any accident that God used that expression, "perished" in a night. It is the fourth time in this little book we have heard that word "perish." Surely there would echo back in Jonah's mind the frantic words of that shipmaster, as he roused Jonah from his sleep, "Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not." (Jonah 1:6)
Or again, could he ever forget the fervent prayer of those sailors as they cast him into the sea: "Let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee." (1:14)
Also, the agonized words of the people of Nineveh must have still been ringing in his ears: "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?" (3:9)
These people all perished not. God knew they were of more value than many gourds, and He found a way that they should not perish. He was willing that the gourd which came up in a night should perish in a night, in order to teach His servant the lesson he so greatly needed. Alas, how different was that servant! He would have been wiling enough for all these men to perish, if his gourd might have been saved. Jonah - G. C. Willis (To be continued)
N.J. Hiebert - 8393
February 16
Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? Jonah 4:10,11
What does that tell us? It tells us of God's tender care, not for the gourd alone, but for the many thousands of Nineveh. Each individual life in that great city was precious in God's sight. Each one was the work of God's hand, for each one He had laboured, and it was God alone who had made each one to grow.
This was true not alone of the grown men and women, but of the little children, and the cattle, whom God especially mentions in these verses. What a lesson this is to us as we see the vast numbers of the heathen, those utterly without God in the world. For each of these individually, God has a tender care, on the ground that He has laboured for them, He has made them to grow.
It is truly His hand that provides them day by day with their daily bread, though they have never learned to acknowledge Him as "Father." May the Lord help us to look on them with His own thoughts, and love them with a little of that wondrous love told out with such ringing eloquence in those words so familiar to us all: "God so love the world"!
The Lord could say to His disciples, "Ye are of more value than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:21) Here was Jonah placing a higher value on a gourd (more worthless than a sparrow), than on a city that was so immense that there were a hundred and twenty thousand tiny children in it (notice the Lord had counted the little children--He knew them each one) "and also much cattle." Jonah - G. C. Willis - # 2
N.J. Hiebert - 8394
February 17
Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? Jeremiah 18:14
Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Job 38:22
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater . . ." Isaiah 55:10
The mountain peaks of Lebanon are snow-capped all year, resulting in a steady flow of melt-water to the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan Valley. It would be a foolish farmer who chose to leave his riverside farm and opt for a cistern of water elsewhere. So we would be foolish to ignore God's wonderful blessings and turn instead to attempting to find happiness in what we ourselves can build.
The new snow covers everything in a blanket of pure white, hiding all the grime left from weeks of pollution. In the Bible, snow is often used to describe what God deems pure and clean. "Come now, let us reason together, saith Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" Isaiah 1:18. Just as God provides the snow of Lebanon, so He has given His Son, whose blood shed cleanses us from all sin. God does not only hide the grime from sight, but removes it from His memory forever.
Never give up what you possess forever in Christ, for some temporary enjoyment that will surely fade away. The water of God's Word is like the snow-melt from Lebanon that keeps flowing all year. Lorne Perry
Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to live in my soul;
Break down every idol, cast out every foe--
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. James Nicholson
N.J. Hiebert - 8395
February 18
And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8
Who can estimate the greatness of the willing humiliation of our blessed Lord Jesus! Lord of glory, from the highest heights of majestic splendour and equality with the Father, where He held the awesome dignity of creatorial power as the living God from all eternity, He came down to the lowest depths of degradation and of unfathomable anguish. He was mocked and despised even by creatures of the lowest human character.
It was a tremendous stoop of love and grace that brought Him down from His great glory to be born of a virgin in an obscure village. Angels announced Him to shepherds alone--He was unknown, unsought by the dignities of the world. Yet He was a Babe perfect in purity, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the eternal God in bodily form.
Passing through the world in lowly simplicity and devotion to God, He was recognized only by few as the Son of God. Does it not amaze us that He should willingly take so humble a place in His 33 years of sojourning on earth?
But how much further our verse takes us! How much greater was His willing humiliation as He submitted to His creatures' bitter hatred. They subjected Him to cursing and spitting, tore out His hair, lashed Him with metal-tipped whips, crowned Him with thorns, and nailed Him to a cross!
That cross! What does it tell us? Not only of a violent death but death under God's curse--utter humiliation indeed! He willingly bore the unalleviated judgment of a holy God against our many sins. None other could suffer as He did. How rightly has God now exalted Him to the highest place of eternal glory. Well may we in lowliest, worshipping adoration give glory to Jesus our Lord! The Lord is Near
N.J. Hiebert - 8396
February 19
Jesus entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word. Luke 10:38,39
In the home of His special friends at Bethany, how courteously Jesus behaved. Remember the occasion when Martha was cumbered about much serving. She looked with impatient eye on Mary "sitting at Jesus feet": "Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me."
But that would have been out of place for Him as a guest to take the place of master in the house of His friends. Martha wanted Him to assume the role of head of that house, but He was too courteous to leave the character of guest.
He was charity that did not "behave itself unseemly." (unmannerly) Although Lord of all, He respected the honour of His friends ruling in their own house. But He did give Martha needed instruction as to what delighted Him most. He did not desire to sit alone while both the sisters busied themselves preparing Him many dishes.
The Word of God was more to Him than His necessary food. When the care of "many things" took the place of hearing His Word, it is the "many things" that must go. So our Lord, when a guest, maintained the character of of a guest, and did it in a lovely way. He was the courteous Gentleman in the home.
A Plant of Renown - Leonard Sheldrake
Thou wast the image, in man's lowly guise, of the invisible to mortal eyes;
Come from His bosom, from the heavens above, we see in Thee incarnate, God is love.
Thy lips the Father's name to us reveal; what burning power in all Thy words we feel,
When to our raptured hearts we hear Thee tell the heavenly glories which Thou knowest so well. J. G. Deck
N.J. Hiebert - 8397
February 20
Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heaves; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Psalm 36:5
A remarkable principle that the ocean has impressed upon my spirit is one shaped by the action of the waves upon sand. I see it repeated a hundred thousand times when I walk softly between the tides. Every wave or wavelet that surges across the sand seems to run up the beach in threatening fashion. The water foams and froths ominously. It comes swishing up the sand, hissing menacingly. It seems intent on shifting and sweeping everything before it.
Yet, mysteriously, wondrously, incredibly, I have seen those same threatening waves come to a quiet end. Their energy spent, they simply sink into the sand. The water not soaked up recedes gently, to be reclaimed by the next incoming wave. The threatening presence is lost and dissipated in the matrix of the great white beach. Only tiny bursting rainbow bubbles and a vanishing fleck of foam remain to remind one of the menace.
It seemed so real, so overwhelming, so all-engulfing. Yet it came to nothing. Life, too, is like that. So many of the events or things we fear often come to nothing. Initially they may appear, like a rising wave on the sea, intent on sweeping right over us. We are sure they will engulf us in calamity and chaos. We are terrified at times that they will fling us off our feet, to toss us up, crumpled and broken, on the beach of life.
Yet again and again, like waves that run out of energy, to spend themselves softly on the sand, the threats of our day fade away. They look so menacing, they appear so formidable; we want to turn and run from them. Yet time tames most of them. They dissolve into nothing. Lord, help me to remember this word from the waves. Songs of My Soul - W. Philip Keller
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head. Cowper - 1779
N.J. Hiebert - 8398
February 21
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then said Jesus unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered Him, No. John 21:3-5.
You remember how Jesus stood on the shore, and called to the disciples who were in the fishing boat, "Children, Have ye any meat?" And they had to answer, "No!" In the Greek Testament the word the Lord used is not "Children" but the diminutive of children, Paidia or as we would say "Little children." But I do not think He was thinking of their age or size: I think that diminutive was called forth by the Lord's loving concern for their long, discouraging night of failure; and now no breakfast; for the very form of His question as recorded in Greek, intimates that He knew the answer must be, "No!"
Then the same love that asks the question in that particular form, tells them what to do: "Cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find." And then the answering chord in the heart of the disciple (John) whom Jesus loved tells him who is that "Stranger" standing on the beach, and he says to Peter, "It is the Lord!"
Then He invites them to breakfast: the breakfast His own hands have prepared, and after they have finished eating, you remember He asks Peter if he loved Him more than the other disciples. Peter dare not use the strong word (agapao) for love, that the Lord had used, but replies, Thou knowest that I am fond of of Thee, (phileõ). Then the Lord says, "Feed my arnia." Arnia is the diminutive of 'lambs" or "Feed my lambkins."
The Lord said to Peter, "Feed My beloved lambs." And let us not forget that He meant size or age as well as affection. So let us not pass by the Children.
Hid Treasures - G. C. Willis
N.J. Hiebert - 8399
February 22
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