Gems from December 11- 21, 2016

December 11

“Let us lay aside every weight,  and the sin 

which doth so easily beset us.”

(Hebrews 12:1)

Cares are more subtle things, because they enter as necessary duties, 

and there is no sin in doing one’s duty.

But if these duties choke the word and a man loses 

his soul through it, what then?

(Footprints for Pilgrims)

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December 12

"I have called you friends.”

(John 15:15)

The nearer we are to God the more we lose sight of ourselves and the better 

we are able to apprehend and to communicate His mind.

(Edward Dennett)

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December 13

“His brethren therefore said unto Him . . . for there is no man that doeth any thing in secret,and He Himself seeketh to be known openly.  If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world.”

(John 7:3-4)

“But He answered, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.”

(Matthew 12:39

Excellent, indeed, are these traces of God’s perfect Servant.

David and Paul, standing, as it were, on either side of 

Him, like Moses and Elias on the holy hill, reflect

this Servant thus hiding of Himself.

David slew the lion and the bear, and Paul was caught up to the third heaven; 

but neither of them spoke of those things.

And lovely reflections of the perfect Servant such actings 

were.  But they, and all like them which we may find in Scripture, or among

the saints, are more distant from the great Original than we have measure to measure. 

He hid "the form of God" under "the form of a servant."

Jesus was the strength of David when he killed the lion and the 

bear; and He was the Lord of that heaven to which Paul was caught up; but

He lay under the form of one who had "not where to lay His head" (Matthew 10:20.)

(J. G. Bellett)

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December 14

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

(1 Peter 1:18-19)

The blood of Christ is precious  because of its infinite value to God and to the redeemed.

It is precious because it will never lose its power in cleansing the vilest of sinners.

Never depreciate the value of the precious blood.

What a great dishonour we bring to God and 

to the Lamb when we limit its value, its

effectiveness and its atonement!

He could give no more than when He sacrificially shed His precious 

blood for you, for me and for the whole world!

(Jim Comte)

Precious blood, whose full atonement, bringeth us to God!

Precious blood, our song and glory, praise and laud!

(Francis R. Havergal)

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December 15

“While we look not at the things which are seen, but 

at the things which are not seen: for the things 

which are seen are temporal; but the things 

which are not seen are eternal.”

(2 Corinthians 4:18)

We tend to be shortsighted, and consequently discouraged or fearful.

If we look back, let us look back to Calvary and see the infinite 

love which God has had for us from eternity past.

If we look forward, let us look forward to the glory which shall be revealed in us at the

 appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ and to us throughout eternity future.

Faith takes the long view.

(Nuggets of truth - J. Kaiser)

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December 16

“In Whom (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, 

according to the riches of His grace; Wherein He hath abounded toward 

us in all wisdom and prudence; having made know unto us the

mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure

which He hath purposed in Himself.”

(Ephesians 1:7-9)

It is obvious that nothing but the highest condition and position in 

which a man can be found is adequate for such great ends.

When angels and principalities “see a poor sinner, and the whole Church, in the same

glory as the Son of God, they will understand, as much as it is possible for them 

to understand, the exceeding riches of the grace that  has set them there.”

All is brought to pass by the grace of God, and every blessing 

we enjoy is the gift of God.

The very faith by which salvation is received is the gift of God.

The works of man have no place in securing this blessedness; all is of God,

and hence there is no room for man to boast.

(Hamilton Smith)

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December 17

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.

Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh 

away: and every branch that beareth fruit, 

He purgeth it, that it may bring 

forth more fruit.”

(John 15:1-2)

Ed Lawrence, a prominent Canadian horticulturist, 

gave five principle for pruning plans: anything 

that is dead, damaged, diseased, 

dangerous, or not desirable 

must be removed.

The result is a healthier, stronger, more beautiful and more fruitful plant.

What a comfort to know that, as the Master Gardiner tends to us, 

He only removes what He knows is for our good.

He is growing us into what He desires us to be, 

conformed to the image of His Son.

(L. Shatford)

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December 18

"Jesus answered and said unto him (Nicodemus), Verily, verily, I say unto thee,

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

(John 3:3)

This was very humiliating to “a man of the Pharisees”—

“a ruler of the Jews”—“a master of Israel.”

There is nothing of which man is so tenacious as his religion and his learning;   

and, in the case of Nicodemus, it must have sounded passing strange 

upon his ear when “a teacher come from God” declared to him, 

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, 

he cannot see the kingdom of God.”   

Being by birth a Jew, and, as such, entitled to all the privileges of a son of Abraham, it must have 

involved him in strange perplexity, to be told that the must be born again—that he must 

be the subject of a new birth, in order to see the kingdom of God.

This was a total setting aside of all his privileges and distinctions.  It called him down at once

from the very highest to the very “lowest step of the ladder.”

This was deeply humbling.

(C.H. Mackintosh)

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December 19

Weeping in Heaven

“I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open

and to read the book, neither to look thereon.”  

(Revelation 5:4)

What, tears in heaven!  Can it be, a saint in tears in that glad place?

Yes, I could weep, as well as he, if there I missed my Saviour’s face.

“Weep not.  Behold!” No matter where, our tears are dried if He appear.

Without Him, we’d be mourning there; with Him, we can be joyful here.

(James M. S. Tait)

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December 20

“And the Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? And he said, a rod.

And He said, cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and

it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord

said unto Moses, put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. 

And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it 

became a rod in his hand.”

(Exodus 4:2-4)   

“What is that in thine hand?”  Let us examine honestly whether it is something which He can use for His glory or not. If not, do not let us hesitate an instant about dropping it.

It may be something we do not like to part with; but the Lord is able to give thee much more than this, and the first glimpse of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord will enable us to count those things loss which were gain to us. 

But if it is something which He can use, He will make us do ever so much more with it than before.  Moses little thought what the Lord was was going to make him do with that rod in his hand!

The first thing he had to do with it was to cast it on the ground, and see it pass through a startling change.  After this he was commanded to take it up again, hard and terrifying as it was to do so.

But when it became again a rod in his hand, it was no longer what it was before, the simple rod of a wandering desert shepherd.  Henceforth it was “the rod of God in his hand” (Exodus 4:20), wherewith he should do signs, and by which God Himself would do marvellous things (Psalm 78:12). 

(Kept for the Master’s Use - Francis Ridley Havergal)

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December 21

“These all . . . confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

(Hebrews 11:13)

Lord, since we sing as pilgrims, O give us pilgrims’ ways;

Low thoughts of self, befitting proclaimers of Thy praise;

O make us each more holy, in spirit pure and meek;

More like to heavenly citizens, as more of heaven we speak.

(Mary Bowley)

The early Christians presented in a beautiful way the Nazarite character.

They walked as those whose hearts Christ had taken away with Him into heaven.

So immensely are our lives below the mark as nominal Christians that we have next to no idea of the distance  at which we walk from God, and when the soul is turned to seek . . . Him only . . . we discover with amazement how many false props we have had, and how often we have been leaning

on the love and approbation of others and not upon a Father’s love alone.

(G.V.Wigram)

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December 22