Gems from February 1- 10, 2017

"To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,

that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

(Ephesians 3:19)

O Lord! Thy rich, Thy boundless love no thought can reach, no tongue declare;

Oh give our hearts its depths to prove, and reign without a rival there.

From Thee, O Lord, we all receive, Thine, wholly Thine, alone we’d live.

(Gerhardt) 

“Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

(1 John 1:3)

Fellowship with the Father is to be filled with His thoughts,

 His desires, His objects and His affections.

It is also so with fellowship with the Son. . . . It is our privilege to be taken out  

of ourselves altogether—to be lost in the affections and aims of the Father and the Son! . . . 

Self disappears before such a blessed possibility.

Shall I cling to my own thoughts and purposes when 

I may be occupied with those of the Father and the Son? 

Shall I have my own affections when I may be possessed with

those that fill the heart of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ?

Far be the thought!

Rather let me be lost in this illimitable sea of 

bliss opened out before me in the marvellous grace of God.  

(Divine Possibility -  Edward Dennett - with thanks - F.P.)

N.J. Hiebert - 6516

February 1

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

(2 Timothy 4:7)

For more than two decades, Andrew Carroll has been urging people NOT to throw away the letters written by family members or friends during a time of war.  Carroll, director of the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University in California, considers them an irreplaceable link to tie families together and open a door of understanding.

“Younger generations are reading these letters,“ Carroll says, “and asking questions and saying, ’Now I understand what you endured, what you sacrificed.’ “ 

When the apostle Paul was imprisoned in Rome and knew his life would soon end, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote a letter to a young man whom he considered a “son in the faith,” Timothy.  Like a soldier on the battlefield, Paul opened his heart to him: 

“The time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 

I have kept the faith:  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 

which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that Day: and not to

me only, but unto to all them also that love His appearing.” 

(2 Timothy 4:6-8)     

When we read the inspired letters in the Bible that the heroes of the Christian faith have left for us and grasp what they endured because of their love for Christ, we gain courage to follow their example and to stand strong for those who come after us.

(DAVID MCCASLAND)  

Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries, Copyright (2015), Grand Rapids, MI  Reprinted permission

N.J. Hiebert - 6517

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ADDENDUM - The Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Philippians 2:5-8 left a letter which exceeds all, and more than all that man could ever do.

“Christ Jesus:  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  

February 2

“For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.”

(Psalm 32:6)

"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.”

(Psalm 34:7)

Sometimes I walk in the valley, sometimes on the mountain crest,

But whether on low or high land, the Lord is manifest.

Sometimes I walk in the desert, sometimes in waters cold,

But whether by sands or streamlets the Lord does me enfold.

N.J. Hiebert - 6518

February 3

“Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.”

(Psalm 51:4)

All sin is against God; and it is a painful thing to have to do with God about our sin.

But right into the presence chamber of of the Holy One we must go, 

just as we are, if we would get rid of the awful burden of sin.  

There, and there only, can we find full relief.

The weeping penitent must lay down the multitude of his sins, 

side by side with the multitude of God’s tender mercies.

Only there can he learn what that word means,

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20).

The Father meets His child, blessed be His name, in the boundless grace of His heart,

on the ground of the precious blood of Jesus.

As the rising wave from the fathomless ocean hastens to meet and embrace the

descending stream, and overflow all its limits, so does grace meet the 

penitent sinner, and obliterate for ever all trace of his sin.

Its course, like a river, may have been long and deep,

but now its very course and limits are untraceable.

“O love divine, Thou vast abyss! my sins are swallowed up in Thee;

Covered is my unrighteousness from condemnation I am free;

While Jesu’s blood, through earth and skies, Mercy! free, boundless mercy! cries.”

(Andrew Miller)

N.J. Hiebert - 6519 

February 4

“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”

(Philippians 3:8)

The legalist teaches that we must surrender earth in order to get heaven.  But how can fallen nature surrender that to which it is allied?  How can it be attracted by that in which it sees no charms?  Heaven has no charms for nature; yea, it is the very last place it would like to be found in.

Nature has no taste for heaven, its occupations, or its occupants.  Were it possible for nature to find itself there, it would be miserable.  Thus, then, nature has no ability to surrender earth, and no desire to get heaven.  True, it would be glad to escape hell and its ineffable torment, gloom and misery; but the desire to escape hell, and the desire to get heaven, spring from two very different sources.

The former may exist in the old nature; the latter can only be found in the new.  Were there no “lake of fire,” and no “worm” in hell, nature would not so shrink from it.  The same principle holds good in reference to all of nature’s pursuits and desires.

The legalist teaches that we must give up sin before we can get righteousness.  But nature cannot give up sin; and as to righteousness, it absolutely hates it.  True, it would like a certain amount of religion; but it is only with the idea that religion will preserve it from hell fire.  It does not love religion because of its introducing the soul to the present enjoyment of God and His ways. (C.H. Mackintosh)

N.J. Hiebert - 6520

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: 

old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

February 5

“Much people . . . came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead.  But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.”

(John 12:9-11)

From the grave to the supper table, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.

Many came to see him and believed on Jesus as a result.

Lazarus was a living witness.

Has this same Jesus given eternal life to you?

Are you a witness to His life-giving power?

Do others believe after seeing your new life?

Oh that we would consistently show others what Christ can do for those who once were dead.

(Ken Gross)    

Living for Jesus a life that is true, striving to please Him in all that I do.

Seeking the lost He died to redeem, bringing the weary to find rest in Him.

(Thomas Obediah Chisholm 1866-1960)

N.J. Hiebert - 6521 

February 6

“The shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”

(Jonah 1:6)

Good, sensible shipmaster! He well  knew what Jonah ought to be doing, surely not sleeping at such a time! Arise, call upon thy God!  It is a message from the heathen about us that we all would do well to hear.

We cannot all go out to the heathen, but we all can arise and call upon our God. Was not this just the point? Jonah could not arise and call upon his God nor do we hear that he even tried 

to do as the shipmaster commanded him. 

How could Jonah call on the name of the very One from whose presence he was even then fleeing?

No, dear fellow-Christian, you and I know very well that sin and prayer do not go together: we

must give up one or the other.  Sad to say, Jonah had chosen sin, and he could not pray.

As we noted before, he did not even try to pray.  He knew perfectly well what was the cause of 

that storm, and he knew equally well the remedy.  This was not a time for prayer, 

but a time for confession, and bowing to the just punishment that he so rightly 

merited for his sin against his God.  Though indeed confession and prayer

might, and should, have been found together in the same breath.

(G.C. Willis)

N.J. Hiebert - 6522 

February 7

WHICH IS DESERT

“Arise and go toward the south unto the way. . .which is desert.

And he arose and went: and behold . . .”

(Acts 8:26-27)

Philip is in the midst of a great revival in Samaria when suddenly there comes a strange turn in the 

Divine direction.  I am sure friends must have said: “What!  From a revival to a desert?  

Are you sure God wants you to leave these thrilling meetings for a desolate trail?” 

But he went and behold . . . the evangelist meets the eunuch. 

Has God called you from a Samaria to a Sahara?  Has health failed, has adversity shut down,

have loved ones gone, must you undertake a hard work among strangers?

Does the sudden shift in His orders seem so abrupt that you hesitate and argue that it doesn’t 

make sense? Ah, but His ways are not ours.  If He sends you to the desert He can furnish 

streams of water there.  Philip had an appointment with the eunuch and didn’t know it.

If God orders you out on the lone road He has an appointment for you to keep with 

someone, maybe with some bewildered soul, maybe with Himself.

Jesus must needs go through Samaria to meet one needy woman; perhaps you must needs leave Samaria 

because somewhere out on a dismal way, not at all where you like to travel, someone needs you.

Philip “arose and went . . . and behold.”  He Who has said, 

“go ye therefore . . .” has said “Lo,

 I am with you.”

As you obey, you may not see the why of it,

but you shall see the Who.  He Who

says “Go” goes along.

(Vance Havner) 

N.J. Hiebert - 6523

February 8

THE DANGER OF DESPONDENCY

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? 

Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, 

Who is the health of my countenance,

 and my God”  (Psalm 42:11).

The book of Psalms, it has been said, contains the whole music  

of the heart of man swept by the hand of his Maker.

"In it are gathered 

the lyrical outburst of his tenderness - the moan of his penitence -

the pathos of his sorrow - the triumph of his victory -

the despair of his defeat - the firmness of his confidence,

the rapture of his assured hope.”

(Heaven’s Cure for Earth’s Care)

N.J. Hiebert - 6524 

February 9

"A brother is born for adversity.” 

(Proverbs 17:17)

It often happens that a season of adversity softens the heart, 

and renders it susceptible of kindness.

The claims of a brother’s trouble are answered by the 

affections of a brother’s heart.

Genuine faith, while it always renders us independent,

never renders us indifferent.  

It will never wrap itself up in its 

fleece while a brother shivers in the cold.

(Food for the Desert)

N.J. Hiebert - 6525

February 10

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, 

because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: 

great is Thy faithfulness.”

(Lamentations 3:22-23)

Past failure does not excuse present disobedience.

Past failure—no matter by whom—is not an excuse for present disobedience—no matter what.

Past failure never justifies present disobedience.

We tend to excuse our past or present failure because of 

other past or present failure—on our part or on the part of others.

But God does not, will not and can not lower His standards to 

accommodate our whims, reasonings or failures.  

All human action is accompanied by failure.

That is why principles, not precedents, must direct all present action.

And that is also why even principles themselves will not be rightly 

applied if we are not walking in communion with God.

(Nuggets of Truth - J. Kaiser)

N.J. Hiebert - 6526

February 11

February 12