Gems from October 1- 10, 2016

September 30

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,

that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

(Romans 15:4)

Can you think of a time when you faced a stiff test and God provided a solution?

Then, after that, God brought you to a place of rest and peace?

In Exodus there is an account where the Children of Israel 

provided us something from which we can learn a lesson.

Not long after God’s great deliverance of them from Egyptian slavery, and after they had

miraculously passed though the Red Sea on dry ground, they found themselves out 

of water and thirsty.  When they did come to water it was bitter.  They grumbled. 

That place was called Marah, which means “bitter.” We encounter bitter circumstances too. But God showed Moses a particular piece of wood; Moses threw it into the water and the water became sweet.

(Exodus 15:23-25)

Could that piece of wood make us think of the cross of Christ, that wood by which

we find life when we put our trust in what took place there?

So, they and all their livestock were revitalized so they could go on.  God then made a decree that if they listened to His voice, paid attention to His commands and kept His decrees, He would spare 

them from the diseases they’d been exposed to in Egypt. (Exodus15:26)

Where did God lead them next?  To a place called Elim:  “And they came to Elim, 

where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: 

and they encamped there by the waters” (Exodus 15:27). 

(Adapted - L.I.F.E. lines - F.P.)

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October 1

“The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live”. 

(John 5:25)

What is a Christian? You say a "living stone.”    

And what is a stone?   A stone is a bit of a rock.

See what security it gives! 

Where first do we get the illustration?    

In Peter’s own case.

Peter is brought to Jesus, and what does Jesus say?

“Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone” (John 1:42) 

This act of the Lord’s is most significant.  

He takes the place of being Simon’s Lord, and his possessor.

Changing the name always indicated that the person whose name was changed, 

became the possession, or vassal (subject) of the one who changed his name.

How does this change of name take place?

The Lord speaks to Peter.

How do we become living stones?  

Because we have heard the voice of the Son of God. (John 5:25).

(Simon Peter - W.T.P. Wolston)

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October 2

“Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon; for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?”

(Song of Solomon 1:7)

The word appreciation seems more fitly to express the little I know of this blessed matter,

than the idea of the sensations of an earnest, ardent affection.  

What is there in existence, I inquire, that I care

more for than my Saviour—that I

would prefer to Him?

What is this?    Is it love?

Who else—what else—is loved more?

But, oh! the day draws near, when these eyes shall see the King in His glory.

Then shall this cold, dull heart be ravished with His beauty,

and burn for ever with a pure flame of

perfect love for Him alone.

“Soon shall our eyes behold Thee with rapture, face to face;

And, resting there in glory, we’ll sing Thy power and grace:

Thy beauty, Lord, and glory, the wonders of Thy love,

Shall be the endless story of all Thy saints above.”  

(J.G. Deck) 

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October 3

“Who are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they?"  (Revelation 7:13).

When Duncan Matheson, the Scotch evangelist, was working in the Crimea, he was returning one night, worn out, from Sebastopol to the old stable at Balaclava where he lodged.  He was trudging through mud knee-deep, and the siege seemed no nearer to an end, yet above the stars were looking down from the clear sky.  He began to sing, 'How bright those glorious spirits shine.’

Next day he found a soldier shivering under a verandah, with his bare toes showing through his worn-out boots.  Matheson gave him money to buy a new pair.  The soldier thanked him. ‘I am not what I was yesterday.  Last night as I was thinking of our miserable condition, I grew tired of life, and said to myself, “I can bear this no longer, and may as well put an end to it.” 

So I took my musket and went down yonder in a desperate state, about eleven o’clock; but as I got round the point, I heard some person singing, “How bright those glorious spirits shine”; and I remembered the old school and the Sabbath school where we used to sing it.

I felt ashamed of being so cowardly, and said, “Here is some one as badly off as myself, and yet he is not giving in.”  I felt, too, he had something to make him happy which I had not, but I began to hope I, too, might get the same happiness. I returned to my tent, and to-day I am resolved to seek the one thing.’

'Do you know who the singer was?’  I asked the missionary.  ’No,’was the reply.  'Well,’ said Mr. Matheson, ‘it was I.’  Tears rushed into the soldier’s eyes, and handing back the money, he said, ’never, sir, can I take it from you after what you have been the means of doing for me.’

How bright these glorious spirits shine! Whence all their white array?

How came they to the blissful seats of everlasting day?

Lo! these are they from sufferings great who came to realms of light;

And in the blood of Christ have washed those robes which shine so bright.

Now with triumphal palms they stand before the throne on high,

And serve the God they love amidst the glories of the sky.

His presence fills each heart with joy, tunes every mouth to sing;

By day, by night, the sacred courts with glad hosannas ring.

Hunger and thirst are felt no more, nor suns with scorching ray;

God is their sun, whose cheering beams diffuse eternal day.

The Lamb, Which dwells amidst the throne  shall over them still preside,

Feed them with nourishment divine, and all their footsteps guide.

Midst pastures green He’ll lead His flock where living streams appear;

and God the Lord from every eye shall wipe off every tear.

To Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the God Whom we adore,

Be glory, as it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

(Isaac Watts - 1674-1748)

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October 4

THE SANDS OF TIME ARE SINKING  

“As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: 

I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness."

(Psalm 17:15)

What beautiful pictures of Christ and our relationship to Him as His bride are portrayed for us in this lovely hymn text which was inspired by the dying words of a 17th Century Scottish preacher.  The colourful imagery enhances the truths of these very thoughtful lines.

“And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land” were the final triumphant words spoken by Samuel Rutherford, a forceful evangelical preacher who suffered much persecution in Scotland.  His open opposition to the state church resulted in banishment from his pulpit and home.

When his courageous loyalty to Christ continued throughout his life, Rutherford was eventually charged with high treason, which could mean being beheaded.  Already on his death bed, however, he sent back this message: “I behoove to answer my first summons, and ere your day for me arrive, I will be where few kings and great folks come.”  

Two hundred years after the death of Rutherford in 1661, his victorious life, writings, and final words so impressed Anne Ross Cousins that she was moved to write this remarkable text.  Mrs. Cousins describes vividly the glories of heaven.  Her wonderful closing proclamation that “the Lamb is all the glory” is a fitting climax to the hymn’s vibrant exaltation of Christ and His eternal abode.

The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of heaven breaks; 

The summer morn I’ve sighed for—the fair, sweet morn awakes.

Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but day-spring is at hand,

And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

Oh Christ! He is the fountain, the deep sweet well of love!

The streams on earth I’ve tasted, more deep I’ll drink above!

There, to an ocean fulness, His mercy doth expand,

And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

Oh! I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved’s mine!

He brings a poor vile sinner into His “house of wine”!

I stand upon His merit, I know no safer stand, 

Not e’en where glory dwelleth, in Immanuel’s land.

The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom’s face;

I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of Grace—

Not at the crown He giveth, but on His pierced hand:

The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.  (Anne Ross Cousins)

(Kenneth W. Osbeck)

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October 5

“God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister."

(Hebrews 6:10) 

You remember David made it a rule “ . . .but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, 

so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike” (1 Samuel 30:24).

They were having joint participation in the war.

But gifts are not the only way of showing fellowship in the Gospel: there are countless 

other ways. Epaphras laboured fervently in prayer: and so may we.

What a cheer an encouraging letter is!

Some hold the hats of those preaching in the open air; some help with the singing:

Some bring friends to the meetings.  Love of the gospel, and love of the One who is 

the theme of  the Gospel, will devise means to have a share in the interests of the Gospel.

(G. Christopher Willis)

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October 6

PASSING THROUGH

“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee;

and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee . . .”

(Isaiah 43:2)

“Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well . . .”

(Psalm 84:6)

"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee . . .”

Tell me friend is this true comfort? My Lord walks with me.

Passing through the weeping valley, let’s make it a spring;

Thus we read: Psalm 84:6, God our joy shall bring.

And passing through the rivers, they shall not o’erflow thee;

Sweet the promise of our Saviour, He will with us be. 

As with those three Hebrew children, there was that fourth Man; 

Standing with them in the furnace, all as God had planned.

We don’t stay in those rough waters, we’re just passing through;

Safely on our earthly journey, this our God will do.

Thus our journey: onward, upward, with our Shepherd, Friend;  

Onward He doth lead His children safely to the end.

We are pilgrims on our journey traveling on to Home;

To be with our Lord in Glory, never more to roam.

Home at last! With Him who loved us, led us all the way;

Leaning upon our Beloved into heavenly Day. 

(C.H. Krause - June 2008)  

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October 7

“And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.”

(Judges 2:12)

Some move rapidly, some progress slowly, 

but one thing is constant about infections—they spread.

The decay of society is a constant danger and we must guard our thinking,

so it does not become infected with the mind of this age.

Daily immersion in God’s Word and daily contact with Him through 

prayer are the only things that can vaccinate 

the Christian against such infections.  

Heaven’s prescription!.

(Rick Morse)

"What has stripped the seeming beauty, from the idols of the earth;

Not the sense of right or duty, but the sight of peerless worth!" 

(Anon)

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October 8

“Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one 

toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with 

one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the 

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(Romans 15:5-6) 

One of the many wise counsels which was given by an older preacher to young preachers was that,

if they constantly preached to broken hearts, they would never want for an audience;

and, in his closing message to the world, another preacher declared that, if he had 

his life to live over again, he would speak more frequently than he had done 

WORDS OF COMFORT, CONSOLATION, AND CHEER. 

As men and women grow older, and are compelled to face the storms of life,

they discover how urgently they need a shelter in such times of stress.

Consequently the doctrine of divine consolation becomes

exceedingly precious to those who are of riper years,

and we do well to keep such a truth in 

the forefront  of our expository and

experimental considerations.

With our Bibles in our hands, we are to think of the Consoler,

the consoled, the consolation; and we shall finish up 

with a word to those who are inconsolable.

(Heaven’s Cure for Earth’s Care)

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.”

(2 Corinthians 1:3) 

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October 9

“. . . the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.  For when they shall say, 

Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as

travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 

(1 Thessalonians 5:1-2)  

I remember reading years ago of a gentleman who said that one day in every month he went to a certain city, a place where there were great steel mills.  These mills were going constantly, pounding, pounding, pounding, and he wondered how people could sleep; but the citizens were so used to the noise that it did not bother them.

He could get no sleep during the one night a month which he spent in that town. Then one time, in the middle of the night, something happened to the electric power, and in a moment the mills stopped.  Suddenly the whole town woke up.  They were so used to the noise that it put them to sleep.

Well, the world has heard the gospel down through the centuries and still sleeps on.  But some day the “Church” of God will be gone, and the gospel as now preached will be silenced.  Then the world will wake up to find that it is just entering upon the day of the Lord. 

The day of the Lord will so come as a thief in the night. (Note verse quoted above, (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2)

(H.A. Ironside)

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October 10

Crucified With Christ

"I am crucified with Christ;"

(Galatians 2:20-21)

Crucified with Christ were “our old man” (Rom 6.6), and “I” (Gal 2.20). 

There are only two races of people: Adam’s and Christ’s. “Our old man” refers to Adam’s race 

and anyone who is not “in Christ” (through faith) is “in Adam”. 

Sin had so corrupted Adam’s race that it was incapable of pleasing God, and at the cross He judged it.  That judgment clearly extended to us individually as belonging to Adam’s fallen race.

This is a humbling thing. We have nothing of ourselves in which we can boast before God. 

The life we now live is through faith in the Son of God who “loved me, and gave Himself for me”. 

There were people around Galatia who were boasting in thinking that they could and should add to what Christ had done for them by law keeping, but Paul shows us that all that we have is from the Son of God because He gave Himself for us.

Somebody once said that the only reasonable response to “Himself for me” is, “me for Himself”. 

This is the response of love to the love of Calvary. 

He gave all and demands our all.

(Christian Living Today)

Were the whole realm of nature mine That were an offering far too small; 

Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my heart, my life, my all! 

(Isaac Watts)

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October 11