“How excellent [precious] is Thy lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.”
(Psalm 36:7)
People think it humility to doubt God’s grace.
It is no such thing.
It is thinking your own thoughts when God has spoken . . .
True lowliness is to accept God’s thought.
We have no business to think when God has spoken;
our business is to believe.
(J.N. Darby)
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April 2
“For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me,
and have believed that I came out from God.”
(John 16:27)
God never spares His rod if thereby
He can bless His children.
But -
“He lifts it up on high, with pity in His heart,
That every stroke His children feel may peace and joy impart.”
To enter into this will make an immense change in our experience.
Meeting with trials and difficulties we shall instantly ask,
“What has the Father to say to us through these things?”
In this way we shall receive nothing but blessing through the most adverse circumstances.
Like vines, our poor hearts send out tendrils in all directions,
winding themselves around this and that object,
and then it is that the Father permits trials . . .
to come in to snap these ties to objects other than Christ,
and by the discovery of Himself and His love to us in these chastenings
He seeks to wean us from everything that might hinder our progress, and to
attract us more fully to Himself.
(Edward Dennett)
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April 3
“Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with Me.”
(Matthew 26:38)
"The way to show true sympathy is not to pity,
but to stand by and strengthen the sufferer to do God’s will.
And in Gethsemane, when Christ turned to the three for sympathy,
it was with the words, 'Watch with Me,' 'Stand by Me.’ "
He asked for no pity, but for the strengthening which might seem a feeble help,
just that they might let their presence and prayer be there for Him.
The Lord help each one of us to “stand by” one another
with just this kind of bracing sympathy.
(Amy Carmichael—1867-1951)
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April 4
“In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works:
in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity."
in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity."
(Titus 2:7)
Inside the parking compound for staff of the Police Station at Calgary, is a sign
to warn police officers about to drive out onto the public road.
It says “Drive as if all eyes were on you; they are!”
This is a lesson for Christians to remember.
The world is watching us.
We must act the part.
We must represent our Saviour’s interests well.
We must bear a good testimony.
(Brian Powlesland)
Help me remember when others I see,
They are reading the Gospel according to me.
At verses of Scripture lost men merely grope,
But my life goes under the microscope.
(Anon)
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April 5
“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble;
and He knoweth them that trust in Him.”
(Nahum 1:7)
Charity Island is the largest island in Saginaw Bay in the Michigan waters of Lake Huron. For many years the island has provided a lighthouse for navigational aid and a safe harbour for those sailing these waters. The island received its name because sailors believed it was there “through the charity of God.”
Sometimes in life we have to navigate through seas of troubling circumstances. Like those sailors we need guidance and a place of safety; we might wish for our own Charity Island.
The psalmist understood that God is the one who can bring tranquillity to troubled waters and guide us to safe harbours. He wrote,
“He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven” (Psalm 107:29-30).
While no one asks for the storms of life, they can multiply our appreciation for the guidance and refuge God provides. He offers the light of His Spirit and His Word to guide us. It is the safe harbour of His love that we long for. He alone can be our ultimate “Charity Island.” (Dennis Fisher)
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______________________________
“Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries, Copyright (2015). Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted permission."
April 6
“. . . fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.”
(Hebrews 6:18-19)
The captain of the old ironclad Merrimac was a skeptic.
One day the chaplain of the soldier’s home where he was staying gave him this challenge:
“Read your Bible and mark in red anything you don’t believe—Begin with the Gospel of John.”
With a glitter in his eye the captain accepted the challenge.
Whenever the chaplain would pass the room where the captain was confined because of illness,
he would stop and say, “Captain, have you marked anything yet?”
The old captain would only grin and remain silent.
A number of days later the chaplain stepped into his room to find him dead on his bed.
His Bible was open, and the chaplain began looking through the Gospel of John for red marks.
Nothing was marked in all the first chapter, nor in the second,
nor in the third, until he came to the sixteenth verse.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Beside this one he found these words, written in red,
“I have cast my anchor in safe harbour, thank God.”
"I yielded myself to His tender embrace, and faith taking hold of the Word,
My fetters fell off, and I anchored my soul; the ‘Haven of Rest,’ is my Lord."
(With thanks G.W.)
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April 7
“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
You can not think of a prayer so large that God, in answering it,
will not wish that you had made it larger.
Pray not for crutches, but for wings.
(Phillip Brooks)
If our walk is truly godly, we will be roundly criticized;
but we will be more believable that our critics.
“That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory.”
(1 Thessalonians 2:12)
A preacher ought to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable but to make us comforters.
(Vance Havner)
“Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith
we ourselves are comforted of God.”
(2 Corinthians 1:4)
(Nuggets of Truth - J.K.)
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April 8
“What saith the Scriptures”
(Romans 4:3)
"The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity."
(Psalm 94:11)
This settles everything. From the decision of the Word of God there must be no appeal.
When God speaks man must bow.
It is not by any means a question of obstinate adherence to a man’s own notions.
Quite the opposite. It is reverent adherence to the Word of God.
It often happens that, when one is determined, through grace, to abide by Scripture, he will be pronounced dogmatic, intolerant, and imperious; and, no doubt, one has to watch over his temper, spirit, and style, even when seeking to abide by the Word of God.
But, be it well remembered, that obedience to Christ’s commandments
is the very opposite of imperiousness, dogmatism, and intolerance.
It is not a little strange that when a man tamely consents to place his conscience in the keeping of his fellow, and to bow down his understanding to the opinions of men, he is considered meek, modest, and liberal; but let him reverently bow to the authority of the Holy Scripture, and he will be looked upon as self-confident, dogmatic, and narrow-minded - - - Be it so.
The time is rapidly approaching when obedience shall be called by its right name,
and meet its recognition and reward.
and meet its recognition and reward.
For that moment the faithful must be content to wait, and while waiting for it, be satisfied to let men call them whatever they please.
(C.H. Macintosh)
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April 9
“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.”
(1 Corinthians 3:9)
He turns to the servants as a whole and likens them to a field and a building.
First we read, “Ye are God’s husbandry”—or God’s tilled field.
You remember how the Lord Jesus Christ used that figure.
The sower sows the Word and when the Word is sown and people believe it,
He likens them to wheat in a field.
That is a beautiful picture of His people, God’s tilled field.
One lovely thing about a field of wheat is that the heads are rising up
toward the sun and they are very much on a level.
We area all members one of another; one is not to tower above the other,
but together we are to bring forth fruit to the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(H.A. Ironside)
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April 10
“. . . thou art ever with me, all that I have is thine.”
(Luke 15:31)
He holds nothing back,
reserves nothing from His dear children,
and what we cannot receive now He is keeping for us.
He gives us (Isaiah 45:3) “hidden riches of secret places” now,
but by and by He will give us more and the glorified intellect will be filled
continually out of His treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Bu the sanctified intellect will be, must be,
used for Him, and only for Him, now.”
(Francis Ridley Havergal)
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April 11
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