Gems from August 1- 10, 2017

THE DAY OF TROUBLE

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble:

I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me.”

(Psalm 50:15)

It has been said that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7)

So that we may be quite sure a text such as this 

appeals to a great many.

It presents to us four points, each of which is worthy of consideration.

They are—first, “The day of trouble.”

Secondly, what we are to do in it: “Call upon Me.”

Next, what God will do in answer to our call: “I will deliver thee.”

Lastly, the end God has in view: “Thou shalt glorify Me.”

(Angels in White - Russell Elliott)

N.J. Hiebert - 6795

August 1

“He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me:

and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will 

love him, and will manifest Myself to him.”

(John 14:21)

Neither you nor I were ever caught by Satan and tripped up, we never made a mistake in our history, that it was not the direct results of neglect of some part of the Word of God.

The Lord answered and defeated Satan in the wilderness as the result of having lived by the Word of God. When we have been beaten by Satan, it was because we had not obeyed the Word of the Lord, to go by.

I believe there is in the Word, divine guidance for your soul and mine, for every step of our history from first to last. 

There are principles to be found in it that would guide us at all times, if we were only subject to it.

(W. T. P. Wolston)

N.J. Hiebert - 6796

August 2

“Where there is no vision, the people perish" [cast off restraint - JND] 

(Proverbs 29:18)

When the modern man would be putting on his slippers, in retirement to sleep himself to death,

Abraham put on his seven-league sandals and strode away from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan.

At eighty, Moses (with Aaron at eighty-three) defied Pharaoh and delivered Israel so that 

they were redeemed from bondage.

Joshua at eighty-five concluded his military conquest.

And at seventy, Paul pressed toward the mark so that in his majestic final song he could sing, 

“I have fought . . . finished… kept,” and then add with rejoicing, “henceforth there is laid up.”

I have all that is stored up for me around their personalities and performances 

to inspire and enrich my endeavour.

Is that dwelling on the past?

Then let me dream of the future as the

saintly seer of Patmos who saw over a stretch 

of two centuries the Holy city—the new land and life.

The only way to remain young is to grow old gracefully.

Each age has something beautiful in it.

Don’t fight the fact that you are getting old—use it.

(Traveling Toward Sunrise)

N.J. Hiebert - 6797

August 3

“Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away 

the sin of the world.”

(John 1:29)

“BEHOLD YOUR SAVIOUR COME!"

We often hear these days the question, “What is the world coming to?”

It is an interesting subject and most of the discussion relieves the speakers but not the situation.

The chief theme of the Gospel is not what the world is coning to 

but rather the One who has come to the world.

It is also very popular now to behold the sin of the world.  There never was more of 

it and it never was more evident.  But John the Baptist was pointing

out the cure for sin, the Lamb who came to take it away.

Of course, there is a very real sense in which men need to see their sin and themselves 

to be sinners.  There has not been enough preaching on sin with that in view.

But the Gospel is Good News that the problem of our sin

finds its answer in the person of God’s Son.

He has been made sin—not a sinner or sinful, but sin—for us, though He knew no sin,

that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.  

Let us not be so taken up with beholding the sin of the world 

that we do not behold Him who came to take it away.

(Day by Day - Vance Havner)

N.J. Hiebert - 6798

August 4

“I am the Lord, I change not.”

 (Malachi 3:6)

What peace it brings to the Christian’s heart to realize that our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself.  In coming to Him at any time we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood. He is always receptive to misery and need, as well as to to love and faith.

He does not keep office hours nor set aside periods when He will see no one. Neither does He change His mind about anything.  Today, this moment, He feels toward His creatures, toward babies, toward the sick, the fallen, the sinful, exactly as He did when He sent His only-begotten Son into the world to die for mankind. 

God never changes moods or cools off in His affections or loses enthusiasm. His attitude toward sin is now the same as it was when He drove out the sinful man from the eastward garden, and His attitude toward the sinner the same as when He stretched forth His hands and cried,

“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  

God will not compromise and He need not be coaxed.  He cannot be persuaded to alter 

His Word nor talked into answering selfish prayer.  In all our efforts to find God, to please Him, 

to commune with Him, we should remember that all change must be on our part.

“I am the Lord, I change not.”

We have but to meet His clearly stated terms, bring

our lives into accord with His revealed will, and His infinite 

power will become instantly operative toward us in the manner 

set forth through the gospel in the Scriptures of truth.

(A. W. Tozer)

N.J. Hiebert - 6799 

August 5

“Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them,

as Thou hast loved Me.”

(John 17:23)

Just suppose somebody stood up and declared this without Scriptural authority.

It would be too much to take in!

“That the world may know that Thou hast sent me, 

and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me.”

Is that really true?

Does God the Father love me as much as He loves Jesus Christ?

Do you believe it, my sister?  Does He love you, my brother, as much as He loves Jesus Christ?

What an amazing truth this is!

I can understand that because He loves His Son He will take me 

into favour and give me a measure of affection because I believe in His Son.

But here I find there is no difference between the love the Father has for His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love He has for His children of faith in Jesus Christ.

(H. A. Ironside) 

So near, so very near to God, nearer I could not be; 

For in the person of His Son, I am as near as He.

So dear, so very dear to God, dearer I could not be;

The love wherewith He loved His Son, such is His love to me.

(C. Paget)

N.J. Hiebert - 6800

August 6

Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”

(Joshua 24:15)

As Joshua was nearing the end of his life, he gathered the children of Israel together at Shechem.

And there, from the lips of a man who was close to death, came an appeal

that throughout the centuries has moved the hearts of many.

Joshua said, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”.

This challenge, viewed in the light of the New Testament, 

suggests three outstanding lessons in regard to our salvation.

First, we must make a choice between God and the devil.

To refuse Christ leaves us automatically on the devil’s side.  

Jesus said, "He that is not with Me is against Me; 

and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad” (Matthew 12:30).  

Second, this choice is a personal matter.  Joshua said, 

”Choose for your selves . . . whom you will serve.”  Through faith 

in Jesus Christ, we can be born again and made a child of God.  

But we must do the believing for ourselves. 

Third, there is an urgency in this charge. "Choose for yourselves this day.” 

not next month, not a week from today, not tomorrow, but this day. 

Have you made that all-important choice?

Have you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your 

Saviour?  If not, do so right now!  Remember, the choice is yours.

Salvation is available for everyone to choose;  

But if we do not take it now, that choice we just might lose.

(Selected)

N.J. Hiebert - 6801

August 7

“David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, 

which sent thee this day to meet me: and blessed be thy advice,

and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day.”

(1 Samuel 25:32-33)

"Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart:

so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.”

(Proverbs 27:9)

I want to give good measure running over,

And into angry hearts I want to pour

The answer soft that turneth wrath away,

Because I shall not pass again this way.

I want to give the oil of joy for tears,

The faith to conquer cruel doubts and fears;

Beauty for ashes may I give always—

Because I shall not pass again this way.

(Anon)

N.J. Hiebert - 6802

August 8

“Oh, how I love Thy law!  It is my meditation all the day.”

(Psalm 119: 97)

It is well to meditate upon the things of God—because it is only by pondering the Scriptures, 

that we get the real nutriment out of them.  A man who hears many sermons—is

not necessarily well-instructed in the faith.

We may read so many religious books that we overload our brains, and they 

may be unable to work under the weight of the great mass of paper and of printer’s ink. 

The man who reads but one book, and that book his Bible, and then meditates much

upon it - will be a better scholar in Christ’s school than he who merely

reads hundreds of books, and does not meditate at all!

Oh, that we might get into the very heart of the Word of God— 

and get that Word into ourselves!

As I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf and consume it, so ought we to do with the  

Word of the Lord—not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it until

we have taken it into our inmost parts.

It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the words, or to recollect the poetic expressions,

or the historic facts; but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last,

you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned 

upon scripture models—and, what is better still, your spirit is

redolent with the words of the Lord!

“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and

rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts.”

(Jeremiah 15:16)

(Charles Spurgeon)

N.J. Hiebert - 6803 

August 9

"And the priests . . . and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground,

until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.”

(Joshua 3:17)

After 40 years in the wilderness the people arrived at the Jordan in flood season.

Could there have been a worse time to cross?

The Lord told them to wait by the banks for three days—

perhaps to assess the situation and to unanimously 

agree that crossing was humanly impossible.

Are you facing an impossible situation?

Perhaps, as with the Israelites, the God of the 

impossible is now ready to “do wonders among you.”

(M. MacMullen)

Got any rivers you think are uncrossable?

Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?

God specializes in things thought impossible;

And does the things that others cannot do.

(Oscar C. Eliason)

N.J. Hiebert - 6804

August 10

“And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.”

(Genesis 47:12)

“And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.”

(Genesis 47:25)

But not only were people saved by Joseph, but they prospered under Joseph. This we see set forth in the history of Israel and his sons.

The Lord Jesus does a great deal more for His people than save them from the world’s famine.

He brings us into a good land, a heavenly country, and blesses us with spiritual blessings, and as we enter into those spiritual blessings we shall grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Hamilton Smith)

Trembling, we had hoped for mercy—some lone place within His door;

But the crown, the throne, the mansion, all were ready long before.

And in past and distant ages, in those courts so bright and fair,

Ere we were, was He rejoicing, all He won with us to share.

(Mrs. Bevan)

N.J. Hiebert - 6805 

August 11