ACTIONS SPEAK LOUD
"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin.”
(Romans 6:13)
Quick, angry motions of the heart will sometimes force themselves into expression by the hand,
though the tongue may be restrained.
The very way in which we close a door or lay down a book may be a victory or a defeat,
a witness to Christ’s keeping or a witness that we are not truly being kept.
How can we expect that God will use our hand as an instrument
of righteousness unto Him, if we yield it thus as an
instrument of unrighteousness unto sin?
Therefore, let us see to it, that it is at once yielded to Him whose right it is; and let our sorrow that it should have ever been for an instant desecrated to Satan’s use, lead us to entrust it henceforth to our Lord, to be kept by the power of God through faith “for the Master’s use.” For when the gentleness of Christ dwells in us, He can use the merest touch of a finger.
Have we not heard of one gentle touch on a wayward shoulder being the turning-point of a life?
I have known a case in which the Master made use of less than that—only the quiver of a
little finger being made the means of touching a wayward heart.
(Opened Treasures - Francis Ridley Havergal)
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June 22
“We hanged our harps upon the willows . . .
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
(Psalm 137:2,4)
A thousand full-stringed harp is man, and each cord gives a jarring sound,
Till God, the mighty harmonist, the proper note for each has found.
By no small work can all be tuned how skilled and patient He must be
To bring the thousand jangling notes in sweetest heavenly harmony.
Count not our Father’s chastening sore, but yield thine all to His kind hand;
The strains and tests and pulls and turns in heaven’s song we’ll understand.
No human power can master all the compass vast of harp so fine;
The pierced hand of Christ and God alone can make its praise divine.
(C. H. P.)
I lived in an old house in the country once, where the wind would sometimes whistle around so
that I thought I would have some music if it must blow like that.
So I made a rude Aeolian harp of mere sewing-silk strung acros a board, and placed it under the slightly lifted sash of a north window, and the music was so sweet through all the house when the wild storms came!
Is there any north window in your life? Could you not so arrange the three wires of faith, hope,
and love that the storms of life should only bring more music into this sad world?
Many are doing it, and perhaps more music that we dream of comes this way.
God has many an Aeolian harp.
(Crumbs)
If you hung your harp upon the willow, take it down and let the Lord blow blessings
across its strings — even though you be in a strange land.
(Streams in the Desert - Volume 2)
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June 23
“. . . that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world . . .”
(Revelation 12:9)
The Bible speaks of the enemy of our souls as one who “deceiveth the whole world . . . for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44). He still is. How clever his approach can be! Veiled in language which professes a concern for our happiness, it can be accompanied by the fairest of promises.
That was the approach he made to our first parents in the garden of Eden. “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden . . .? "And the serpent said, . . . ye shall not surely die . . . For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1 4-5).
It has been said that in time of war truth is the first casualty. This is certainly true in the spiritual warfare. There is only one answer to deceit, and that is truth. We have that in the Word of God— the truth about sin, the truth about happiness, the truth about ourselves, the truth about God.
How vital it is that every Christian should be steeped in the Word of God so that we are not deceived by the enemy of our souls.
(Every Day With Jesus - G. Duncan)
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June 24
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;
and every one that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God.”
(1 John 4:7)
Though we have the new nature,
we want the power of the Holy Spirit
in us to remove the obstacles to its display.
Labour will not do; you may labour,
but just as a mountain of cold snow, which no labour may
remove, melts before the bright shining of the sun, and all vanishes away.
So nothing but the warm kindlings of divine affection in the
soul by the power of the Holy Spirit will dissolve the thick ice of our hearts,
and melts away all that which is in us to obstruct and hider its fuller manifestaion.
(J. N. Darby)
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June 25
“I will put my trust in Him.”
(Hebrews 2:13)
"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble;
and He knoweth them that trust in Him.”
(Nahum 1:7)
Lord teach me how to trust in Thee, and thus less unbelieving be;
To place on Thine unerring care those I love most, and leave them there.
For faith is not a mere belief that Thou canst aid in bitter grief;
Oh, ’tis far greater blessings, Lord, are promised in Thy gracious Word.
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June 26
“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
(Philippians 4:6)
Be on the lookout for mercies.
Blessings brighten when we count them.
Out of the determination of the heart the eyes see.
If you want to be gloomy, there’s gloom enough to keep you glum;
if you want to be glad, there’s gleam enough to keep you glad.
Better lose count in enumerating your blessings than lose your
blessings in telling your troubles.
Unbraid the verse into three cords and bind yourself to God with them
in trustful, prayerful, thankful bonds, — Anxious for nothing, Prayerful for everything,
Thankful for anything — and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
(Thoughts for Every-Day Living)
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June 27
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
Louisa Stead and her husband were relaxing with their four-year-old daughter on a Long Island beach when they heard a desperate child’s cry. A boy was drowning, and Louisa’s husband tried to rescue him. In the process, however, the boy pulled Mr. Stead under the water, and both drowned as Louisa and her daughter watched.
Louisa Stead was left with no means of support except the Lord. She and her daughter experienced dire poverty. One morning, when she had neither funds not food for the day, she opened the front door and found that someone had left food and money on her doorstep. That day she wrote this hymn. “’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”.
Sometimes we mouth platitudes about our Christianity—glibly quoting Scripture
and singing songs about trusting Jesus. For Stead, there was nothing glib or superficial about it.
Her hymn remains a timeless reminder and comfort to all believers who have experienced this same truth:
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His Word,
Just to rest upon His promise, just to know Thus saith the Lord.”
CHORUS: Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! how I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more!
O how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to trust His cleansing blood,
Just in simple faith to plunge me 'Neath the healing, cleansing flood!
Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease,
Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.
I’m so glad I leaned to trust Him, precious Jesus, Saviour, Friend;
And I know that He is with me, will be with me to the end.
(Louisa M. R. Stead 1850 - 1917) .
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June 28
“Take . . . No Thought for the Morrow"
“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”
(Matthew 6:27)
All one’s anxiety cannot add a cubit to the stature, and how
much there is in this way for which we are absolutely dependent on the will
of Another. Why not then leave all things to Him, to whom we have to leave so much?
The weakness of a man’s faith is the only really sorrowful weakness after all. And here the
Lord appeals to us, whether those who know God are to find His presence with them count for anything or not.
The Gentiles away from God, seek after these things as His people do;
but we have a Father in heaven who knows our need. We have but to set the heart on His things,
and let Him take the burden of ours. Seeking first His kingdom and righteousness, all these things shall be added to us.
He gives us a limit for care, which by itself would very much exclude it. How much of the burden that we carry belongs really to the morrow—a burden not yet legitimately ours, for who can really tell what shall be on the morrow?
Each day will have its own sufficient evil—not too much, for a careful hand has apportioned it;
but by borrowing trouble not yet come, we not only necessarily make the burden of the day too heavy, but we cannot reckon upon divine grace for that which is not come, and bear it thus far without assistance.
Nay, we have lost Him from our thoughts in all this calculation of the unknown future which is in His hands. How often has love in the most undreamed-of way disappointed all our fears!
(Comforted of God - A. J. Pollock)
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June 29
“To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
(Ephesians 3:19)
Blessed were we if we could make ourselves masters of that invaluable treasure,
the love of Christ; or rather suffer ourselves to be mastered and subdued
to Christ’s love, so as Christ were our all things, and all others things
our nothings, and the refuse of our delights.
O, let us be ready for shipping against the time our Lord’s
wind and tide call for us.
There are infinite layers in His love that the
saints will never get to unfold.
(Samuel Ruterford - 1600-1661)
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June 30
Following Christ
“Lead me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness.”
(Psalm 5:8)
All the way my Saviour leads me—O the fulness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal, wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.
(The Treasures of Fanny Crosby)
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July 1
“Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
and when they looked, they saw that the stone was
rolled away: for it was very great.”
(Mark 16:3-4)
Another translation states "And looking up they see”.
The sorrowful women were looking down as they walked.
We often do that in sorrow.
They were wondering who would roll away the stone.
They did not see till they looked up that it had been rolled away.
We do not always see the stones that are exceeding great
rolled back the moment we look up.
“Cast not away therefore your confidence . . .”(Hebrews 10:35)
you who are, as it seems, looking up in vain.
It “hath great recompense of reward.”
Only be sure not to look down or even too much at the stone.
Look up.
(Edges of His Ways - Amy Carmichael)
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July 2
July 2
“I have . . . poured out my soul before the Lord . . .
for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto."
(1 Samuel 1:15-16)
"Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify Me.”
(Psalm 50:15)
And when my heart melts within me and weakness takes control,
He gathers me in His arms; He soothes my heart and soul.
The great “I AM” is with me; my life is in His hand;
The Son of God—all my hope, it is in Him I stand.
- - - -
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