“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?
behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,
which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me
in the day of his fierce anger.”
(Lamentations 1:12).
I admire those sensitive souls who are so moved by the sufferings
of the dying Redeemer that they break down and cry. I think of my Christian barber, Ralph Ruocco.
Often as he stood over me, he would talk about the agonies which the Savior endured.
Then with his tears falling on the cloth cover, he would say,
“I don’t know why He was willing to die for me. I am such a wretch.
Yet He bore the penalty of my sins in His body on the Cross.”
I think of the sinful woman who washed the Savior’s feet with her tears,
and wiped them with her hair, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with ointment (Lu. 7:38).
Although living on the other side of the Cross,
she was more attuned emotionally than I with all my superior knowledge and privilege.
And I take as my own the immortal words of Isaac Watts:
Well might I hide my blushing face, while His dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, and melt my eyes to tears.
Lord, deliver me from the curse of a dry-eyed Christianity!
(Adapted)
N.J. Hiebert - 5982
August 18
“For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity,
but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 2:17)
I have often thought that the ideal way of speaking would be to be so conscious of the
Lord’s presence as to have no eyes for the saints who are present.
Indeed, this should always be the case,
and then one would only seek to commend oneself to the Lord.
Alas! how seldom this is the case.
And yet, even in preaching the apostle says,
“As from God, and as before God, we speak in Christ.”
This would be the perfection of speaking.
(Edward Dennett)
N.J. Hiebert - 5983
August 19
“They did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with
their tongues. For their heart was not right with Him,
neither were they stedfast in His covenant."
(Psalm 78:36-37)
We are flattered into good thoughts of people,
and slighted into hard ones.
(J.G. Bellett)
N.J. Hiebert - 5984
August 20
"Who gave Himself for our sins,
that He might deliver us from this present evil world.”
(Galatians 1:4)
The world is menace, violence, lust, self-love, fraud, deceit, envy.
The list of sins could go on and on.
The person without God is lost in it, tied to it, tainted by it.
Fear and sorrow is his lot.
His end is death.
But the child of God can be delivered from it all now.
The work of Christ offers present salvation — freedom from this world,
peace despite this world, and joy while in this world!
On our behalf, Christ has overcome this world.
Let us so live, as truly delivered from this awful world.
(Doug Kazen)
N.J. Hiebert - 5985
August 21
(Philippians 4:12)
Cold is the affection, and small the energy; but in principle I know nothing at all worthy
of such visions of faith, but that spirit of devotedness that can say with Paul,
“I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound,”
and that spirit of desire which looks after Him still,
and says, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
Our God has joined Himself thus by links which never can be broken,
which His own delight and glory in them, as well as
His counsel and strength, will secure for ever.
These links we have gazed at, mysterious and precious as they are.
He has formed them, yes, He constitutes them, faith understands them;
and on the Rock of Ages the believing sinner rests,
and rests in peace and safety.
(J.G. Bellett)
N.J. Hiebert - 5986
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