"Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more." (John 14:19)
We must be broken off from the world. He gives us everything needed in the way, but never presents that as our end. This world is neither Canaan nor Egypt, but a wilderness.
By clinging to it we are not in the wilderness but in Egypt, and that is why we need chastening; for if we make a Canaan of this world, then it becomes Egypt to us. The moment we make it our home, and settle down in it, it is our Egypt.
The Lord must break our will. He says, "A little while and the world seeth Me no more." It is all done with. He puts a distinction between Himself and the world; therefore if we take Him we cannot have the world, and if we take the world we cannot have the enjoyment of Him - we cannot have both. "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." (2 Timothy 4:10)
(J.N. Darby - Lectures on the First Epistle of John)
N.J.Hiebert — 9523
"The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." (Isaiah 50:4)
If God had passed over the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden, I should have been able to say, Sin is no matter, but when I look at the cross I cannot. (J.N. Darby)
N.J.Hiebert — 9524
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:13)
An old gentleman who was leaving for the Continent called upon his lawyer to have his will attested. Everything in the will was clearly stated; and he concluded it with these words: "I wish to testify that I die trusting the merits of my Saviour, Jesus Christ, and hope that I am accepted by God for His sake."
The lawyer was a Christian man and said to him: "Mr.-, why do you only hope that you are accepted when God says that "He hath made us accepted in the beloved?" - Ephesians 1:6. He answered: "Because it would be presumption." "Well," said the solicitor, "if it be presumption, God has endorsed it." There is the word: "He hath made us accepted in the beloved."
Without another word, the aged man drew his pen through the word "hope" and wrote the word "KNOW." "I die trusting in the merits of my Saviour, Jesus Christ, and KNOW that I am accepted by God for His sake."
(George Henderson - In Pastures Green)
N.J.Hiebert — 9525
"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." (Isaiah 43:2)
"Precious thought, my Father knoweth, in His love I rest,
For whate'er my Father doeth, must be always best;
Well I know the heart that planneth naught but good for me,
Joy and sorrow interwoven - love in all I see.
We should remember, that the husbandman is never so near the vine as when He is pruning it. It is the experience of all deeply-taught Christians that God is never so real, or so consciously near, as He is in times of trial.
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow,
For I will be with thee thy trials to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
(His Last Word - Henry Durbanville)
N.J.Hiebert — 9526
"And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And He (Jesus) was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake Him, and say unto Him, Master, carest Thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:37,38)
"Faith delights in "man's extremity," simply because it is "God's opportunity." It delights in being "shut up" to God - in having the platform thoroughly cleared of the creature in order that God may display His glory - in the multiplying of empty vessels in order that God may fill them. (2 Kings 4:1-7)
Such is faith. It would, we may surely say, have enabled the disciples to lie down and sleep beside their Master in the midst of the storm. Unbelief, on the other hand, rendered them uneasy; they could not rest themselves, and they actually aroused the blessed Lord out of His sleep by their unbelieving apprehensions. He, weary with incessant toil, was snatching a few moments repose while the vessel was crossing the sea. He knew what fatigue was; He had come down into all the circumstances.
He made Himself acquainted with all our feelings and all our infirmities, being in all points tempted like as we are, sin excepted. He was found as a man in every respect, and as such, He slept on a pillow, and was rocked by the sea's wave. The storm beat upon the vessel, and the billows rolled over it, although the Creator was on board in the Person of that weary, sleeping Workman. (Christian Truth - Vol. 22 December 1969)
N.J.Hiebert — 9527
"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." (Malachi 3:3)
He sat by a fire of seven-fold heat,
As He watched by the precious ore
And closer He bent with a searching gaze
As He heated it more and more.
He knew He had ore that could stand the test,
And He wanted the finest gold
To mould as a crown for the King to wear,
Set with gems with a price untold.
So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
Tho' we fain would have said Him 'Nay,’
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
And it melted and passed away.
And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright,
But our eyes were so dim with tears,
We saw but the fire - not the Master's hand,
And questioned with anxious fears.
Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
As it mirrored a Form above,
That bent o'er the fire, tho' unseen by us,
With a look of ineffable love.
Can we think that it pleases His loving heart
To cause us a moment's pain?
Ah, no! but He saw through the present cross
The bliss of eternal gain.
So He waited there with a watchful eye,
With a love that is strong and sure,
And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat,
Than was needed to make it pure.
(Author Unknown)
N.J.Hiebert — 9528
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5,6
Here we have the entire story of the Bible epitomized: Man's ruin both by nature and practice, and God's marvelous and all-sufficient remedy. The verse
begins with all and ends with all. An anxious soul was directed to this passage and found peace. Afterward he said, "I bent low down and went in at the first all. I
stood up straight and came out at the last." The first is the acknowledgment of our deep need. The second shows how fully that need has been met in the Cross of
Christ. How happy to be numbered among those who have put in their claim and found salvation through the atoning work which there took place!
N.J.Hiebert — 9529
"When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto Him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They said, Seven. And He sald unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?" (Mark 8:19-21)
When the multitude was greater and the supply less, they had twelve large baskets of fragments; and, on the other hand, when the multitude was less and the supply greater, they had only seven small baskets. The greater the demand, and the deeper the need, the more the magnificence of divine grace shines out. Eternal and universal homage to the peerless name of our adorable Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
(C.H. Macintosh)
N.J.Hiebert — 9530
"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed."
(1 Peter 2:24)
I see in the cross the power which meets everything in me. If I turn to the cross, saying, "How horribly unlike I am to that Christ who died there!" the answer is, it is because you are so that He died there. Was not the death of Christ the perfect expression of God's holiness?
All the perfect attributes of God shine out through the cross of Christ. If Satan had got man into a position in which it was impossible for God to bless him, and all was broken up in connection with the first Adam, it was only that it might all drop into the hands of the last Adam (Christ). All was accomplished at the cross.
(Gleanings From the Teaching of G. V. Wigram)
N.J.Hiebert — 9531
"And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient
waiting for Christ." (2 Thessalonians 3:5)
There are two things which constitute the joy of a Christian. The first is the hope of the coming of the Lord; the second is present communion and fellowship with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these two cannot be separated without loss to our souls, for we cannot have all the profit without both of them.
If we are not looking for the coming of the Lord, there is nothing whatever that can separate us in the same way from this present evil world; neither will Christ Himself be so much the object before the soul; nor yet shall we be able, in the same measure, to apprehend the mind and counsels of God about the world.
(Christian Truth - Vol. 14. February 1991)
N.J.Hiebert — 9532
"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich,
yet for your sakes He became poor,
that ye through His poverty might be rich.
(2 Corinthians 8:9)
Time is short, remember "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich" (in all the glory which He had with the Father before the world was),
"yet for your sakes He became poor" (even to the shedding His precious blood on Calvary's cross to make us His own and fit us for Himself), "that ye through His poverty might be rich." (Selected)
N.J.Hiebert — 9533
"There came a messenger unto (King) Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land. Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela-ham-mahlekoth" (that is, the rock of divisions or escape). And David went up from thence." (1 Samuel 23:27-29)
Saul was pressing David very close. It seemed as if Saul had captured his long pursued quarry on this occasion — "Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them" (verse 26)”.
But suddenly a messenger appeared, saying to Saul, "Haste thee, and come." Saul was called away, and thus one of the spots of David's greatest danger became henceforth a monumental place of divine deliverance; for in all this the believer sees God's intervention in David's escape. Are there not places in our own experience over which we too might write as truly as these Hebrews did, the long and difficult word, "SELA-HAM-MAHLEKOTH"?
God was no more David's deliverer than He is the deliverer in these days of those who put their trust in Him. Let us not forget the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matthew 10:29-30)
(Christian Truth - Vol. 21 - March 1968)
N.J.Hiebert — 9534
"Whatsoever things are true." (Philippians 4:8)
The Word says of us: "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). If a man constantly thinks of something, the time will come when he cannot stop thinking of it: and woe be it to him, if these thoughts are evil and impure and false.
Our thoughts form us; and it is “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34) And let us not forget that our thoughts are formed by what we read, and look at, and hear. How much about us is superficial, or false. Our newspapers, the radio, the magazines about the house: do these help us to meditate on whatsoever things are true?
Do we realize what a terrific influence these things have on our children, as well as on ourselves? And how much of all this is not true, but utterly false, as we very well know. Little wonder the Spirit of God exhorts us to think on, to meditate on, to calculate, “whatsoever things are true”.
The Word here tells us to calculate. Let us calculate the awful loss to one who does not heed this admonition. It may mean the loss of a soul: if not your own soul, it may be the soul of one you love even better than yourself. It has been well said:
"Light obeyed increaseth Light.
Light refused, but bringeth night.
Who shall give us power to choose,
If the love of Light we lose?"
(G. Christopher Willis - Sacrifices of Joy -Philippians)
N.J.Hiebert — 9535
