“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, O most high: To show forth Thy loving kindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night, Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.”
(Psalm 92:1-3)
It has been well said that “We learn in suffering what we teach in song,”
and though only a very few can teach in song,
yet it is true of us all that our songs
are the fruit of our sufferings.
The children of Israel would never have sung with such triumph on the shores of the
Red Sea but for their previous experience.
The furnace of affliction, the recollection of the taskmasters' lash,
tuned their voices as nothing else could.
Indeed, ever since the entrance of sin into the world,
nothing has been produced apart from toil and travail.
The word to the woman was, “In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children;” and to the man,
“In sorrow shalt thou eat . . . all the days of thy life” (Genesis 3:16-19).
And the mystery wrapped up in that one word “sorrow” runs
through all the ages and through all human experience.
(Russell Elliott - Angels in White)
N.J. Hiebert - 6150
February 2
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me,
and I unto the world.”
(Galatians 6:14)
Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.
Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess:
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.
I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss,
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.
(Elizabeth C. Clephane - 1830-1869)
N.J. Hiebert - 6151
February 3
“For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
(Hebrews 12:3)
He who is the Bread of Life began His ministry with hunger.
He who gives the water of life ended His ministry with thirst.
He became weary; however, He is our rest.
He paid taxes; however, He is the King.
They said that He had a demon, but He cast out demons.
He prayed to the Father, and He listens to our prayers.
He wept, but He is the one who dries our tears.
They sold Him for 30 pieces of silver, but He is the one who redeemed the world.
As a sheep He was led to the slaughter, but He is the Good Shepherd.
He died, giving His life, and by His death destroyed death:
King of Kings and Lord of Lords for all eternity!
(Author Unknown - With Thanks - P.H.)
N.J. Hiebert - 6152
February 4
"Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”
(Psalms 1:1)
“HE IS ABLE"
So we see we may “walk” and “stand” and “sit”, in the wrong way,
as well as “run” and “walk” and “stand” in the right way.
May the Lord help us to choose the right!
(G.C. Willis - Meditations on Philippians)
N.J. Hiebert - 6153
February 5
“Go and search diligently for the young child . . . bring me word again, that I may come and worship Him also . . . Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was
exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in
Bethlehem . . . from two years old and under.”
(Matthew 2:8,16)
Nothing brings man’s evil into evidence like the presence of goodness.
It was the presence of Joseph that called forth the violence and corruption of his brethren;
even as the presence of perfect goodness in the Person of the Son of God became the occasion of the most furious outburst of man’s evil.
At His birth the enmity of man is ready to kill the child Jesus,
and to cover its murderous intent with lying words.
But at the cross goodness is displayed as nowhere else only to call forth the
greatest expression of man’s evil that the world has ever seen.
There goodness rises to its supreme height,
and evil sinks to unutterable depths.
The cross is the display of “hatred against God and good . . . the truest friend denies,
the nearest betrays, the weaker ones who are honest flee; the priests, set to
have compassion on ignorant failure, plead furiously against innocence;
the judge, washing his hands of condemned innocence;
goodness alone, and the world—all men—enmity,
universal enmity against it.
Perfect light has brought out the darkness; perfect love, jealous hatred.”
(Joseph - Hamilton Smith)
N.J. Hiebert - 6154
February 6
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is none else.”
(Isaiah 45:22)
“Looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) and not at the law.
The law gives commands, and gives no strength to carry them out; the law always condemns, and never pardons. If we put ourselves back under the law, we take ourselves away from grace.
In so far as we make our obedience the means of our salvation, we lose our peace, our joy, our strength; for we have forgotten that Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Romans 10:4).
As soon as the law has constrained us to seek in Him our only Saviour,
then also to Him only belongs the right to command our obedience: an obedience which includes nothing less than our whole heart, and our most secret thoughts, but which has ceased from being an iron yoke, and an insupportable burden, to become an easy yoke and a light burden (Matthew 11:30).
An obedience which He makes as delightful as it is binding, an obedience which He inspires, at the same time as He requires it, and which in very truth, is less a consequence of our salvation
than it is a part of this very salvation, — and, like all the rest, a free gift.
(Theodore Monod - translated
from French by Helen Willis)
N.J. Hiebert - 6155
February 7
“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children,
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 18:3)
IT IS A MASTERPIECE of the Devil to make us believe that children cannot understand religion.
Would Christ have made a child the standard of faith if He had known that it was not
capable of understanding His words? It is far easier for children to love and trust
than for grown-up persons, and so we should set Christ before
them as the supreme object of their choice.
(D. L. Moody)
N.J. Hiebert - 6156
February 8
“Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour:
but for this cause came I unto this hour.”
(John 12:27)
The Lord knew what trouble was; His soul was bowed down with trouble; but the first word is, “Father.”
The first moment we are in sorrow, instead of looking around for comfort, for sympathy,
or to the actings of the flesh, as to what I have done, or what I have not done,
and pouring forth our sorrow in nothing but fleshly murmuring,
let us turn immediately to God; then the heart would be
cast down in perfect submission to the will of God,
and thus the sting of the sorrow
would be removed.
The instant there is perfect submission there is perfect peace.
(J.N. Darby)
N.J. Hiebert - 6157
February 9
GOD’S SUFFICIENCY MORE THAN ADEQUATE
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves;
but our sufficiency is of God.”
(2 Corinthians 3:5)
Of ourselves we may have but little weight, no particular talents or position or anything else;
but let us remember that again and again God has shown that the influence of a
very average life when once really consecrated to Him may outweigh
that of almost any number of merely professing Christians.
Such lives are like Gideon’s three hundred, carrying not even the ordinary weapons of war,
but only trumpets and lamps and empty pitchers by whom the Lord wrought
great deliverance while He did not use the others at all.
For He hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty.
Distrust thyself, but trust His grace; it is enough for thee!
In every trial thou shalt trace its all-sufficiency.
.
Distrust thyself, but trust His love; rest in its changeless glow:
And life or death shall only prove its everlasting flow.
(Francis Ridley Havergal)
N.J. Hiebert - 6158
February 10
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling [stumbling], and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
(Jude verses 24,25)
Let the difficulties of the path be what they may—however thickly strewn with gins (nets)
and snares of Satanic devise—God is able to keep the trusting soul without stumbling.
David knew this when he sang, “Yea, though I walk thought the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me.”
This is enough for faith in the darkest and most trying hour.
I may not see a step before me, but He who is able sees
the end from the beginning, and bids me confide in
His love and wisdom, and thus implicitly trust
myself to His guidance.
(H.A. Ironside)
N.J. Hiebert - 6159
February 11
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