“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”
I shall not want REST. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.”
I shall not want REFRESHMENT. “He leadeth me beside the still waters.”
I shall not want REVIVING. “He restoreth my soul.”
I shall not want GUIDANCE. “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
I shall not want COMPANIONSHIP. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me.”
I shall not want COMFORT. “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”
I shall not want SUSTENANCE. “Thou preparest a table before me in the the presence of mine enemies.”
I shall not want JOY. “Thou anointest my head with oil.”
I shall not want ANYTHING. “My cup runneth over.”
I shall not want ANYTHING IN THIS LIFE. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
I shall not want ANYTHING IN ETERNITY. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
(Comforted of God - A. J. Pollock)
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May 1
“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God,
and he shall go no more out.”
(Revelation 3:12)
Let our Lord’s sweet hand square us and hammer us,
and strike off the knots of pride, self-love and world-worship, and
infidelity, that He may make us stones and pillars in His Father’s house.
(Revelation 3:12)
Think ye much to follow the Heir of the crown,
Who had experience of sorrows and was acquainted with grief.
(Isaiah 53:3)
(Samuel Rutherford 1600-1661)
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May 2
“All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by
Jesus Christ . . . God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto Himself . . . we pray you in Christ’s stead,
be ye reconciled to God.”
(2 Corinthians 5:18-20)
The Cross was the termination of the probation of man.
God’s eternal “So be it” is Christ, "the Amen.”
The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the basis of
all God’s dealings, with even unconverted men.
He approaches them in grace, recognizing their enmity,
and says, “Be ye reconciled.”
(Hunt’s Sayings)
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“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.”
(Colossians 3:15)
If we open the shutters in the morning the light will pour in.
We do not need to beseech it to pour in.
It will pour in if we will let it.
If we open the sluice in flood-time the water will flow through.
We do not plead with it to flow. It will flow if we will let it.
It is so with the peace of God. It will rule in our hearts if only we will let it.
If a heart that is disturbed about anything will “let the peace of God rule”
(instead of its own desires), that heart may
this very day prove this truth.
Let not your heart be troubled - John 14:1
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts - Colossians 3:15
(Amy Carmichael - Edges of His ways)
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May 4
THE WORK HAS BEEN DONE
“It is finished . . .” (John 19:30)
We need to be delivered from the power of the devil, we need death and the grave to be conquered—
and our Lord Jesus Christ has done it all. And beyond all that, we need a new nature,
because we need not only forgiveness of sins, but to be made fit
to have communion and fellowship with God.
We need to have a nature that can stand before God, for
“God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all"(1 John 1:5).
And Christ has come and given Himself, His own nature,
the eternal life of which he speaks in John 17:1-5. So here, looking at it all,
Jesus can say, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” (verse 4)
He has done everything that is necessary for man to be reconciled to God. Have you realized that this work is finished, as far as you are concerned? You are asked whether you are a Christian, and you reply that you are hoping to be, but you need to do this, that, and the other. No!
Christ says, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." The work has been done, and what proves whether we are truly Christians or not is whether we know and realize that the work has been done and that we then rest, and rest only, upon the finished work of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If we see it all in Him and the work done and completed in Him, it means we are Christians.
The way for you to know God and to be reconciled to Him is wide-open in the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work on your behalf. If you have never entered in before, enter in now, rest upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and begin to rejoice, immediately, in your great salvation.
(Martin Lloyd Jones)
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May 5
“And let us not be weary in well doing:
for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
(Galatians 6:9)
A dying soldier asked the hospital chaplain to send a message to his Sunday school teacher:
“Tell her I die a Christian and that I have never forgotten her teaching.”
A few weeks later the chaplain received this reply from the teacher: “May God have mercy on me! Only last month I resigned my Sunday school class for I felt my teaching had done no good through the years. I am going back to my pastor at once to tell him that I will try again in Christ’s name, and that I will be steadfast to the end.”
We should learn a lesson from the farmer. He plants, waits, but though discouragement abounds, the reaping finally comes. Just as the farmer is supported by the hope of a sure harvest, so every Christian worker should sow, weep, pray, and labour in the hope of reaping fruit in God’s appointed time.
~~~~~~~~~
The least promising lad in a lady’s class was a raggedly dressed boy named Bob. The superintendent gave him a new suit of clothes. After three Sundays Bob was missing. The teacher visited him to discover that his new clothes were torn and dirty. The superintendent gave him a second new suit. He returned to Sunday school. This time he came twice.
Again the teacher learned that the second suit had gone the same way as the first. Utterly discouraged, she told the superintendent she must give him up. “Please don’t do that," urged the superintendent. “I’ll give him a third suit if he’ll promise to attend regularly.” Bob did promise. He became an earnest Christian, attended church, then studied for the ministry.
The ragged little boy became Dr. Robert Morrison, honoured missionary to China who translated the Bible into the Chinese language and opened the gate to millions in that country.
Keep on keeping on. In due season you will reap if you faint not,
for your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
(Leslie B. Flynn)
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May 6
“Come unto me . . . I will give you rest.”
(Matthew 11:28)
Why, in a time when there are so many “things” to make life easier,
do we struggle and stress to get through a day.
From vocations to vacations, has there ever been such a time of plenty?
Yet so often the child of God is caught on the treadmill of life,
ever running with no apparent progress.
Busy-ness in our work is encouraged in 2 Thessalonians 3:10,
and responsibility to family essential in Ephesians 6:4,
but in it all, rest is available in Jesus Christ.
“Come," He says, “unto Me”.
Coming will take time, effort and perhaps sacrifice,
but it will be worth it.
Are you burdened and weary today, then “come”.
He will give you rest.
(C. Tempest)
“Come unto Me, ye weary, and I will give your rest.”
O blessed voice of Jesus, which comes to hearts oppressed!—
(W. C. Dix)
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May 7
“Go, stand and speak in the temple to the
people all the words of this life.”
(Acts 5:20)
There is immense power in this charge, “Speak to the people all the words of this life.”
The gospel was, and is, the power of God. It alone can meet man’s necessity.
All other agencies are really futile.
We live in a day when education, equalization, social elevation, and temperance reformation
have each and all their many advocates. They all fail to meet the case.
Man’s condition as a sinner away from God, and sunk under sin, and the power of Satan, is
alone met by the gospel of Christ, which quickens him out of death, gives him a new
nature, a new life, a new power, and a new object. To attempt to patch up,
improve, mend, or reform the old nature is a hopeless,
and God-forbidden task.
“Go, stand and speak to the people all the words of this life” is the divine commission now.
This is God’s panacea for the hopeless ruin, and moral pravity
in which the whole human family is sunk.
A dead man needs life.
“Dead in trespasses and sins” exactly describes man’s condition.
How sweetly suited to his state is the remedy the servants of God are to
use, “the words of this life.” Let us see to it that we use only this divine remedy.
It is all powerful. Like Goliath’s sword, “there is none like it.” The Lord’s command is plain.
Ring out the Gospel. Preach it “In season and out of season.”
It alone will lift man up to God, as, in it, God has come down to man.
(W. T. P. Wolston)
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May 8
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusted in Thee.
Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”
(Isaiah 26:3,4)
INEVITABLE
It is necessary to utter this truism about old age, because many think of its approach only with regret and misgiving. But just as in Nature we have spring, summer, autumn, winter, and
everything belonging to these seasons is beautiful in its time, so, in the story
of man there are the clearly defined stages of infancy, youth, manhood,
age, and each has its own peculiar advantages and joys.
In the natural world we usually associate with winter the ideas of sunless skies and dreary days;
but the moral equivalents of these things are not at all necessary in the
corresponding period of the life of the believer.
His head may be white with the snows of many winters;
in his heart there may be eternal spring.
And so the lengthening of the shadows and the deepening of the
twilight should have in then no cause for sorrow.
Looked at hopefully, grey hairs are the streaks of the dawn of the eternal day.
(Heaven’s Cure for Earth’s Care)
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May 9
God Willing
"If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."
(James 4.15)
Life is so full of variables.
There are many things over which we have no control.
Plans have to be changed because of ill health, accidents or even the weather!
The Christian understands that the variables of life are not out of control.
God is on the throne and that means that nothing that happens on
Earth or in Heaven can take place unless He allows it.
It is something that we can easily lose sight of in the frustrations that arise in our lives when things
just don’t go to plan. The question is - whose plan do we expect to come to pass;
ours or God's? The God who controls the weather and actually holds
our breath in His hand is the God whose plan never fails.
It is good to make plans.
If we never plan then we will probably never accomplish much for God.
When making our plans we should have in our hearts and express with our mouths
that our plans are "if the Lord will".
(Christian Living Today - B. L.)
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May 10
“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may abide with you for ever.”
(John 14:16)
There is a guide in the deserts of Arabia who is said never to lose his way.
They call him “The Dove Man.”
He carries in his breast a homing pigeon with a very fine cord attached from the pigeon to one of his arms. When in any doubt as to which path to take, the guide throws the bird in the air. The pigeon quickly strains at the cord to fly in the direction of home and so leads his master unerringly.
They call that guide "The Dove Man.” The Holy Spirit, the heavenly Dove,
is willing and able to lead us if we will only allow Him to do so.
“The Holy Spirit is our indwelling Partner.”
(Mountain Trailways for Youth)
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May 11
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