WEATHER WATCHERS
He that observeth the winds shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. Ecclesiastes 11:4
If a farmer waited until he was sure of the weather he would never raise a crop. He has to reckon with the weather and contend with it, but he cannot be sure of it. So every year he makes a venture of faith.
We cannot let the wind and clouds of circumstance determine our course. We cannot grow a harvest for God with one eye on the weather. Just as with the farmer, circumstances are to be considered, and we shall not foolishly disregard them. But we must not let them be the main factors in making our decisions.
Too many saints live fearfully from one “weather report” to another, scanning the skies and watching the clouds, conscious of “conditions“ rather than of Christ. Faith goes ahead in fair weather and foul. It breaks up the fallow ground, sows the seed, cultivates the crop, and gathers the harvest.
There may be pests and floods and droughts, but the Lord of the Harvest will see to it that our labour is not in vain. Day by Day with Vance Havner
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Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends. John 15:13,14
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O, what peace we often forfeit, O, what needless pain we bear;
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a Friend so faithful, Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness—Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge,—take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, thou wilt find a solace there.
Joseph M. Scriven (1819—1886)
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We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. 1 John 3:14
Sorrows and trials are not only like the sand and grit that polish a stone, but I shall be made to taste, through the trouble, what Christ is to me.
If an angel from heaven were to come to my bedside, and tell me that Christ was occupied with me, as a member of His body, should I be more certain of that love than I am?
It is no delusion but a fact, that Christ loves me, and will love me right on to the end; and He will not cease making me know it till He gets me into the Father’s house to be eternally in the full fruition of it.
What a happy people we should be if we were mirrors reflecting Christ, in the perfect consciousness of our weakness, but looking at Christ in heaven, bearing up amidst all the evil that is coming in like a flood, because He is up there!
Gleanings From the Teaching of - G. V. Wigram
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The heart knoweth his own bitterness. Proverbs 14:10
There is one heart that fits into that sentence; It is the heart that was broken by reproach; that was melted in the hot furnace of deepest affliction, and that experienced the unspeakable bitterness of Calvary’s woe.
The Father knows and understands what it meant to His Son to bear sin’s judgment, and the Holy Spirit can gauge the infinite depths of suffering into which He went when He suffered, the Just One for us the unjust; but none other in the wide universe can share with Him the knowledge of the mystery of those awful hours, the bitterness of the cup that He drank then, or know the cost that redemption laid upon Him.
The suffering is over now and the judgment is all exhausted for us forever, for He has been raised up from the dead, but His love abides in all its unchanging strength, and it can only be measured by what it suffered. J. T Mawson
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Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Matt. 10:29-31
There is nothing great or small to Him who rules the world. Page after page in God’s blessed Book reveals this. Those who delight to follow the unfolding of the Divine purpose, in the minute chain of circumstances developed there, will love to see God everywhere, and to find a speech and language in the daily events of life: the heart will be full of Him who filleth all creation.
When the stripling shepherd (1 Sam. 17;17) took corn and loaves to his brethren, it was his first step towards the throne. Ahasuerus’s sleepless night led to (Esther 6:1-10) Mordecai’s promotion. When Ruth went forth to glean in the fields of Boaz, (Ruth 2:2-3) she knew not that her foot was on her own fair inheritance.
When the woman of Samaria (John 4:6-39) carried her pitcher to the well, it was to meet One greater than her father Abraham, and One who gave unto her the living water.
The Lord, will be all things to us according to our faith. He manifests Himself as the Friend who sticketh closer than a brother. Whatever thy need; the almighty Lord can meet it.
He condescended to encourage the timid Gideon (Judges 6:37,39:713) by a twofold sign, and strengthen him by by the narration of a dream. He manifests Himself to the doubting Thomas (John 24-28) in the way best calculated to dispel his doubt and remove his unbelief. He is still the same Jesus. He knows the hearts He has to deal with. He knew what we were when He called us to follow Him. He foresaw that we should distrust Him, deny Him, forsake Him. But He is the Almighty God, and not man; He loves us with an everlasting love.
The Lord who said, “I will bring the blind by a way they know not,” (Isaiah 42:16) also promised, “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21).
The Secret of the Lord - Anna Shipton
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Inclusive of all (or most) except God!
For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought. (Isaiah 29:20)
Some topics are very sensitive to many people. Some take offence at one ill chosen word. Public discourse is highly monitored and any carelessness is quickly pointed out and brought to light. Many have lost job or social position over some word or expression many a time gratuitously qualified as “hate speech”. Reminds me of God’s warning to such persecutors—(Isaiah 29:20)
We have new nouns and pronouns being promoted for people: non-binary person for one confused about their identity, gender fluid a similar confusion, they for her or him, birthing person for mother! Now, how about MAP, for Minor Attracted Person (not to be so bigoted as to call them pedophiles).
Is it not time to wake up and take note of the very perilous times we are in when good is called evil and evil is called good. (Isaiah 5:20)
God speaking through His prophet Isaiah says: Judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. (Isaiah.29:20).
Michel for Vision 2020 in 2023
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I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20
One subject for which there is an open season for criticism, and often qualified as bigotry, closed mindedness or archaic beliefs is the Christian faith and the God it confides in. Berating the Lord Jesus Christ is not passible of any legal pursuit or public reproach. Yet the One to Whom all will have to answer to is still waiting in patience to eternally bless some ultimate lost soul.
There is judgment coming; make no mistake about it! But God is patient not willing that any should perish. You may ignore this message, pass it on (we hope), or send it to the trash box on your computer.
But, sincerely, our desire is only to afford you perhaps one last opportunity to turn to God and put you trust in One Who loves you and was ready to give His life for you by dying on the cross for your sins.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only One Who can save you from the judgment which is soon to fall upon this guilty Christ rejecting world. They hated Him without a cause! yet, He loved them still!
His love constrains us to urge you to believe in Him and be able to say as the apostle Paul did: ”The Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Michel for Vision 2020 in 2023
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For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
Titus 2:11
The Christian is not to
Receive the grace of God in vain (2 Corinthians 6:1)
Set aside the grace of God (Galatians 2:21)
Fall away from grace (Galatians 5:4)
Do despite unto the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29)
Fall sort of the grace of God (Hebrews 12:15)
Turn the grace of God into lasciviousness (Jude 4)
But on the contrary, the Christian is to
1. Continue in the grace of God (Acts 13:43)
2. Stand in grace (Romans 5:2 Compare 1 Peter 5:12)
3. Be strengthened in the grace that is Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1)
4. Draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16)
5. Be established in heart by grace (Hebrews 13:9)
6. Grow in the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18) Meditations on Galatians - G. C. Willis
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For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9
What a challenge it is to be taught by God Himself!
When we consider the school of God, we must acknowledge that there we not only have to learn many things, but that we also have to “unlearn” other things, because we entered His school with our minds set to our own ways. God speaks so His thoughts as being higher than our thoughts, and of His ways as different from ours. This is what we learn in the school of God.
God’s school places emphasis upon discipline, even for lovers of God. Perhaps we don’t like this subject, because in our minds it has negative connotations. However, discipline is positive; it is meant to draw us. Certain languages, like Dutch and German, have a word for discipline, the root of which refers to the basic thought of drawing. Discipline actually is kind of being drawn:
—drawn to the Father of lights, (James 1:17)
—drawn to the Lord of Glory, (1 Corinthians 2:8)
—drawn to the wisdom from above, (James 3:17)
—drawn through the Holy Spirit, who is in control. (Romans 8:9)
That is God’s principle of discipline. If we follow our own ways, God sometimes has to deal with us in a severe manner in order to remove hindrances and obstacles. He has to stop us, sometimes even force us, although He doesn’t like to do so.
God wants to act according to the principle of attraction, but at times He has to correct us or to punish us in His governmental dealings. A. E. Bouter
Submission to the will of Him Who guides me still is surety of His love revealed.
My soul shall rise above this world in which I move;
I conquer only where I yield. C. A, Miles
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Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. John 5:39
The empire of Caesar is gone, the legions of Rome are mouldering in the dust; the avalanches that Napoleon hurled upon Europe have melted away; The pride of the Pharaohs is fallen; Tyre is a rock for bleaching fisherman’s nets; Sidon has scarcely scarcely left a wreck behind; but the Word of God still survives.
All things that threaten to extinguish it, have only aided it; and it proves every day how transient is the noblest monument that man can build, how enduring is the least word God has spoken. The old simile of the hammers and the anvil is one of the truest and best.
One day I passed beside a smithy’s door, and heard the anvil sound the vesper chime;
Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor, old hammers worn with beating years of time.
How many anvils have you here, said I, to wear and batter all these hammers so?
Just one, the blacksmith said, with twinkling eye; the anvil wears the hammers out, you know.
And so, said I, the anvil of God’s Word, for ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the sound of hammers thus was heard, the anvil yet remains; the hammer’s—gone! The Wonderful Word - George Hnderson
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For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: and when He had given thanks He brake it, and said, Take, eat: This is my body which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. 1 Corinthians11:23-24
The Lord Jesus cannot bear to be forgotten by those He loves to the end. Worthless hearts, some may say truly. Yes, but Jesus cares for them: He has died to make them His, and counts on remembrance of Him—giving us only that which may be the sweet expression of Him and His death for us.
If the supper of the Lord means anything then, it meant this, that we love Him and miss Him in the world that cast Him out. He invests it with just this character Himself. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” (v.26).
It is in a scene that has been desolated for her by the death of Christ, and in which the Christ’s assembly finds no rest for her heart, only lingering around the spot where His cross and grave express the heart of the world towards Him. We know Him by faith in the glory, and have rest in communion with Him there. This only make us feel the world’s rejection of Him more keenly as we walk our path through it. It makes the cross that by which the world is crucified to us and we to the world.
We recoil in our hearts from this blighted scene, and get away in spirit as far as possible from it, for we are only seeking more complete identification with Him in His rejection, as the best and brightest portion He can give us in such a world.
This is not the attainment of an advanced Christian, but what Christ looks for from every heart that loves Him. Hear Him say “This do in remembrance of Me,“ and again,”Ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” It is not as though He were saying, “Do they miss Me? Do they long for Me to come again? What answer do lour hearts give to these challenges of His Love? J. A. Trench
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Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. 1 Peter 1:23
An old professor of Biology used to hold a little brown seed in his hand and say, “I know just exactly the composition of this seed.
It has in it nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon. I know the exact proportions. I can make a seed that will look exactly like it. But if I plant my seed it will come to nought: its elements will be absorbed in the soil.
If I plant the seed that God made, it will become a plant, because it contains the mysterious principle which we call “the life principle”.
The Bible looks like other books. We cannot understand altogether its marvellous power. Planted in good ground it shows that it has the life principle in itself; it brings forth spiritual fruit.”
Each page of thine hath true life in it,
And God’s bright mind expressed in print.
Christain Calendar
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But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. John 19:34
QUESTION: Please explain why it was necessary that the spear should be thrust into the side of Christ, seeing He was already dead. Was His death not full payment to God for sin? Why is it said, "It is the blood [not the death] that maketh an atonement for the soul?" (Leviticus 17:11) .
ANSWER:The spear thrust into the side (the heart) of Christ showed to all that His death was real, and moreover drew out those tokens of atonement and purification (blood and water) on which we rest, and by which we are cleansed.
The death of Christ was a full atonement for sin, but blood out of the body, apart from it, is a proof of death (in the body, it is the life of it); and hence the blood is every where used for the atoning value of the death of Christ; not that blood is different from death, but because it is a proof of it.
The blood "making atonement" is a more beautiful thought than the death, because it means the perfect life given up in death. The blood which was the life, now poured forth in death, is that which is so precious in God's sight.
You will observe that when the death is spoken of, it is more often in connection with resurrection, presenting the truth of deliverance from sin (Romans 6), rather than atonement for sins (Romans 3) The Young Christian, 1932
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