Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”
(Ephesians 5:19)
One lovely June morning I went out to work in the yard just at the break of day when the sun began to rise. A little mountain canary lighted on a branch of the tree next to where I was standing and began his morning song of praise.
At first I was so intent upon the work before me, and quite accustomed to the sounds of the mountain folk both day and night, that I hardly noticed his singing. Determined that there was to be an appreciative audience for his melodious performance, he hopped down to a branch within arm’s reach and warbled more resoundingly. This time I stopped, gazed and listened.
This little yellow creature put his whole soul into his ethereal song; and I sensed deep within me that he was a choralist sent from God to brighten my whole day with his aria.
Someone has said that a song at the right time and in the right place will outlive any sermon.
Perhaps it may be that a song really comes from the melody in the heart.
Down through the ages singing has been the
mode of expression of all people.
Song has immortalized national events, has cemented relationships,
has endeared experiences. To those who are parted, a certain song can fuse their breach.
That feathered messenger caused me to avow that I was to keep the spirit of song in my life;
to be useful to others, and become an inspiration to those within the sound of my voice.
(M. Taylor)
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“In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.”
(Psalms 30:6)
Beware of the smooth places of the way; if you’re treading them, or if the way be rough,
thank God for it.
If God should always rock us in the cradle of prosperity; if we were always dangled on the knees of fortune; if we had not some stain on the alabaster pillar; if there were not a few clouds in the sky; if we had not some bitter drops in the wine of this life, we should become intoxicated with pleasure, we should dream “we stand”; and stand we should, but it would be upon a pinnacle; like the man asleep upon the mast,
each moment we should be in jeopardy.
We bless God, then, for our afflictions; we thank Him for our changes;
we extol His name for losses of property; for we feel that had He
not chastened us thus, we might have become too secure.
Continued worldly prosperity is a fiery trial.
(C. H. Spurgeon)
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October 2
“Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly."
(Jonah 2:1)
When Jonah was in the belly of the great fish, his tongue overflowed with the thoughts of his heart. And what was in his heart?
There are echoes of psalms in his prayer—he mentions fleeing from God’s presence,
crying for help from the depths of Sheol, being cast
into the depths of the sea.
He ends his prayer in psalmist fashion as well,
“I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Psalm 116:17).
The result?
“The Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10).
Let me like Jonah know my Bible well enough to speak truth to my own soul when I am
overwhelmed with darkness or the disciplining hand of God’s waves and billows.
(Marilyn MacMullen)
Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, Thou art mine;
Mine to comfort in distress, suffering in this wilderness.
(J. Burton Sr.)
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October 3
“Who is he that overcometh the world,
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”
(1 John 5:5)
The cross shows that man’s nature is utterly incapable of being acted on
by any motive whatever which could set it right.
This is very humbling, yet very blessed.
Heaven will not do. Earth will do. The law will not do.
“I have yet one thing in heaven—My beloved Son; I will send Him.
It may be that they will reverence Him when they see Him.”
(Matthew 21:33-39)
But no. The determination of man’s will is to have the world without God.
This is what man wants. He will not have God in any sense.
Here it is brought to a climax;
and the very worst display of Christianity will be just this.
(J. N. Darby)
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October 4
“This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will,
He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.”
(1 John 5:14-15)
I know not if the blessing sought
Will come in just the way I thought;
But leave my prayers with Him alone,
Whose will is wiser than my own,
Assured that He will grant my quest,
Or send some answer far more blest.
(Eliza M. Hickok)
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October 5
“Lord Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or even thou hadst formed
the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.”
(Psalm 90:1-2)
The Christian knows no change with regard to God.
He himself may be rich today--and poor tomorrow, he may be sickly today--and well tomorrow,
he may be in happiness today--tomorrow he may be distressed; but there is
never any change with regard to his relationship to God.
If He loved me yesterday--then He loves me today.
My unmoving mansion of rest,
is my blessed Lord.
Let prospects be ruined, let hopes be blasted, let joy be withered,
let mildews destroy everything — I have lost nothing of what I have in God.
He is "my strong habitation where unto I can continually resort.”
I am a pilgrim in the world, but at home in my God. In the earth
I wander, but in God I dwell in a quiet habitation.
(Charles Spurgeon)
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in
the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no
meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength!"
(Habakkuk 3:17-19)
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October 6
“Draw me, we will run after Thee . . .”
(Song of Solomon 1:4)
I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice, and it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee.
~~~~~~~~~~
“I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I,
but the grace of God which was with me."
(1 Corinthians 15:10)
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, and my will be lost in Thine.
~~~~~~~~~~
“And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh unto his friend.”
(Exodus 33:11)
O the pure delight of a single hour that before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God I commune as friend with friend!
(The Treasures of Fanny Crosby)
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October 7
"There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel
of the Lord, that shall stand.”
(Proverbs 19:21)
To true happiness here, as well as for a guard against the dangers of it,
some strain of sorrow seems of necessity to mingle with it,
something wherein the soul has to submit itself
to God—to say: “It is the Lord” (John 21:7).
~~~~~
You may be sure of this, that God never sent a trial so bitter that a Christ-filled Christian
could not draw some honey out of it. God does not expect us to be callous under
trial, or ask us to make merry at a funeral. But away down, deep under
the tempest of trial He gives us a serene sense that whatever
He does is right. "Jesus wept” (John 11:35)
~~~~~
Oh! the power and the joy of being nothing, having nothing, and knowing nothing but a glorified
Christ up there in heaven; and of being “Careful for nothing” (Philippians 4:6)
but the honour of His precious Name down here on earth.
(Comforted of God - A. J. Pollock)
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October 8
“. . . ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”
(2 Peter 1:19)
Our fair morning is at hand, the day-star is near the rising, and we are not many miles from home;
what matters the ill entertainment in the smoky inns of this miserable life?
We are not to stay here, and we will be dearly welcome
to Him whom we go to.
Be patient; Christ went to Heaven with many a wrong.
His visage and countenance was all marred more than the sons of men.
You may not be above your Master; many a black stroke received innocent Jesus, and He
received no mends, but referred them all to the great court-day, when all things shall be righted.
(Samuel Rutherford - 1600 - 1661)
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October 9
“Can the fig tree . . . bear olive berries? either a vine, figs?
so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.”
(James 3:12)
The Three Sieves
Is it True? Is it Kind? Is it Necessary?
All of us who have tried to remember these three sieves, and have used them, know what a help they are.
We are sorry when we ever forget them, and we are very grateful when we are reminded of them
in time to keep us from saying something untrue, unkind, or unnecessary.
Sometimes when I listen to hymn-singing
I think of the words about the fig tree and
I think of the words about the fig tree and
the vine and the fountain. (Note James 3:12 quoted above).
Can the lips which have sung these beautiful
loving words speak those other words?
But they sometimes do.
Perhaps these three sieves will help to keep some words from being spoken that would grieve the Spirit of love and hurt someone whom our Lord loves.
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
(Amy Carmichael)
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October 10
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.”
(Isaiah 1:18)
One day I went out to walk alone in the silence that follows heavy snowfall. I climbed a remote ridge that stood sentinel above a broad upland basin of rolling hills. The whole world was wrapped in white, pensive, pure, and still unmarked by man or his machines.
It was a morning to think long thoughts—as far-reaching as the distant views that stretched fifty miles to the far horizons of the sky edge. There were precious moments to muse over the meaning of life. They provided a gentle interlude in which I could be open and receptive to the soft, still impulses of God’s gracious, Holy Spirit.
It came home to me with intense clarity, equal to the brightness all about me, that just as the earth needed this great snowfall to make it utterly lovely, so, too, my life needed the unfolding purity of Christ’s life to cover all my deficiencies. The ancient prophet of old, Isaiah, spoke of this in eloquent and moving language when he declared on God’s behalf:
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18)
“The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
(Phillip Keller - Songs of My Soul)
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