“Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”
(Matthew 5:14)
“Let your lights so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
(Matthew 5:16)
Moody once said, "Do you know what the moon did when the dog barked at it?
It just kept on shining!” If the sons of darkness bark at us,
just keep on shining, and someone who is stumbling in
the darkness will be guided to Christ.
(E. MacLelland)
Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light,
Like a little candle burning in the night;
In this world of darkness we all must shine,
You in your small corner and I in mine.
(Susan Warner)
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February 2
This Is the Way
"This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand,
and when ye turn to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21)
We can walk together with God. We can share life with Him.
We can be acutely aware of His presence on the path. We can know His intimate friendship.
We can be guided by Him in every area we enter.
We can sense His gracious Spirit by our side, speaking
distinctly, emphatically saying to us, “This is the way; walk in it.”
This is the life to which God calls human beings. He longs for our companionship.
Down through the long centuries of human history, He has come and come and
come, calling men and women to walk with Him, just as today He calls us.
(Songs of My Soul - W. Phillip Keller)
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February 3
“Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.”
(Romans 12:12)
Are you passing through tribulation in some form or another? It seems a rough pathway to it,
perhaps, but it is that you may sing, that God may (to speak figuratively) add another
string, and thus get music from you such as He has never had before.
Perhaps you say, “How can I glory in tribulations? It seems so impossible.” One way is by seeing that they can benefit you as nothing else can. The apostle does not say, “We glory in tribulations also,“ without indicating the method by which it is reached.
“Knowing,” he says, “That tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope.” (Romans 5:3)
And another thing we notice is, these tribulations stand in direct relation with the love of
God—the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost.
This is the climax of the passage. He knew what tribulation could do for him, and so he gloried in it; and more than that, he knew that the One who sent the tribulation loved him perfectly. These two things, the conviction that tribulations are are only a blessing in disguise, and that it must be so because the One who permits it all loves us, will enable the weakest saint to glory in them.
(Angels in White - Russell Elliott)
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February 4
OUR MOMENTS KEPT FOR JESUS
“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."
(Ephesians 5:16-17)
(Ephesians 5:16-17)
Keep my moments and my days;
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
When we take a wide sweep, we are so apt to be vague.
When we are aiming at generalities we do not hit the practicalities.
We forget that faithfulness to principle is only proved by faithfulness in detail.
Has not this vagueness had something to do with the constant ineffectiveness of our feeble desire that our time should be devoted to God?
In things spiritual, the greater does not always include the less, but, paradoxically, the less
more often includes the greater. So in this case, time is intrusted to us to be traded with for our Lord. But we cannot grasp it as a whole. We instinctively break it up ere we can deal with it for any purpose.
So when a New Year comes round, we commit it with special earnestness to the Lord.
(Kept for the Master's Use - Francis Ridley Havergal)
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February 5
“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.”
(Colossians 4:5)
Our times are in Thy hand, Father, we wish them there;
Our life, our soul, our all, we leave entirely to Thy care.
(W. F. Lloyd - 1835)
So when a New Year comes round, we commit it with special earnestness to the Lord.
But as we do so, are we not conscious of a feeling that even a year is too much for us to deal with? And does not this feeling, that we are dealing with a larger thing than we can grasp, take away from the sense of reality?
Thus we are brought to a more manageable measure; and as the Sunday mornings or the Monday mornings come round, we thankfully commit the opening week to him, and the sense of help and rest is renewed and strengthened.
But not even the six or seven days are close enough to our hand; even tomorrow exceeds our tiny grasp, and even tomorrow's grace is therefore not given to us. So we find the need of considering our lives as a matter of day by day, and that any more general committal and consecration of our time does not meet the case so truly.
Here we have found much comfort and help, and if results have not been entirely satisfactory, they have, at least, been more so than before we reached this point of subdivision.
(Kept for the Master’s Use - Francis Ridley Havergal)
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February 6
“I will make all my mountains a way (road).”
(Isaiah 49:11)
Do not try to tunnel under them, nor to squeeze through them, nor to run away from them,
but to claim them. Tighten your loins with the promises of God!
These mountains of difficulty are His stepping stones; walk on them with holy joy.
Keep the strong staff of faith well in hand,
and trust God in the dark.
We are safer with Him in the dark than without Him in the sunshine.
At the end of the gloomy passage beams the heavenly light!
When we reach heaven we may discover that the richest and most profitable experiences
that we had in this world were those gained in the very roads from which we shrank back in dread.
It was because Job was on God’s main line that he found so many tunnels.
The great thing to remember is that God’s darknesses are not His goals.
His tunnels must be traveled to get somewhere else.
Therefore, be patient! The darkness is not thy (destination); the tunnel is not thy abiding home!
The traveler who would pass from the wintry slops of Switzerland into the summer beauty of the plains of Italy, must be prepared to tunnel the Alps.
The tunnel is never on a siding—it is planned to lead somewhere!
(Springs in the Valley)
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February 7
“Faith as a grain of mustard seed.”
(Matthew 17:20)
Sand or Seed
If you would develop a living faith, not like a grain of sand but like a grain of seed,
do not read too many books on faith.
One dear brother will tell you that you must agonize and strive to enter,
while another would have you “take it by faith.”
Both are right: you must mean business and be in dead earnest,
but beyond that you must, like Hudson Taylor, quit working at your faith and rest in the Faithful One.
Books on faith are coloured by the author’s temperament, theology, experience, style of expression.
You can become more concerned about the quantity and quality of
your faith than about its object.
You never will get your experience to suit you. You will never pray just as you want to,
or feel or preach or live just as you want to. Perfection is found only in Him.
Real faith stops studying itself and is occupied with Him.
Quit digging in the ashes of your poor heart for
satisfaction. Consider Him—not your faith—
“Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. ”(Hebrews 12:3)".
(Day by Day - Vance Havner)
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February 8
Creation and the Cross
“He humbled Himself,- and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.”
(Philippians 2:8)
“The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20)
Rolling wave and dashing spray
Cedar tall and daisy bright;
Every sunbeam of the day,
Every star that gems the night;
All the life of dell and plain;
Every burst of woodland song;
All combine to swell the strain —
“God is wise, and God is strong.”
Every tear my Saviour shed;
Traitor’s kiss and smiting sore;
Every thorn that pierced His head;
Yon sad Cross He meekly bore;
Pain and thirst, and darkness drear;
Grief all other griefs above;
Drooping head and thrusting spear:
O they tell me, “God is love.”
Bowing low would I adore
God, the Lord of earth and sea.
Lowlier still, my worship pour,
When I think of Calvary.
Not creation’s glories high,
So could move my soul within.
Power could spread the spangled sky,
Love alone my heart could win.
(Bells and Pomegranates - James M. S. Tait)
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February 9
“Up, make us gods, which shall go before us . . .”
(Exodus 32:1)
Whenever we turn away in heart from leaning exclusively upon God Himself, whether in the matter of salvation or the necessities of the path, we are, in principle, saying, “Up make us gods”.
“But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
(Luke 12:7)
Jesus tells us the hairs of our head are all numbered, and that
we shall never want any good thing; we through grace,
believe, and enjoy a sweetly tranquillized heart.
The most brilliant attractions and bewitching fascinations of the world are to the church of God what the serpents and scorpions, and the ten thousand other dangers of the wilderness were to Israel.
(Food for the Desert)
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February 10
“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.”
(John 10:11)
“As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep.”
(John 10:15)
“Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.”
(John 10:17-18)
Other men die because they have to die. Our Lord laid down His life of His own voluntary will.
The very first prophecy of Christ suggested His death. God said to Satan in Eden when announcing the coming of the Conquering seed, “It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).
The words of this promise probably seemed obscure to Adam and to his wife; but the subsequent unfoldings of Scripture show plainly that this first prophecy of Christ foretold His death.
Our Lord also “accomplished" His death. When Peter, James, and John were with the Lord in "the holy mount,” Luke records: “Behold there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias; who appeared in glory, and spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:30-31).
Moses had a remarkable death; God was his undertaker. Yet Moses did not “accomplish” his decease. The word “accomplish” does not fit any other death but the death of Christ. Death is the invasion of the territory of a man by an enemy.
The best of men, when they died, were said to give up the ghost, and to be gathered to their fathers; when they could live no longer, they succumbed to death. The death of the Lord Jesus was altogether different; it was perhaps the greatest of all His works. He Cried, “It is finished" when He bowed His head in death.
His death made all His work replete.
(A Plant of Renown - Leonard Sheldrake)
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February 11
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and your spirit, which are God’s.”
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
“For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”
(Romans 14:8)
______________________________
YOU BELONG TO SOMEONE ELSE NOW
Let us never forget this. The purchase price has been paid, and the Holy Spirit has taken possession of those whom God has purchased, for “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?” Not our souls only, but body, soul, and spirit are His now and forever.
If you have purchased a house and agreed to take possession of it at a certain date, you would think it strange if the old owner still remained in it, and insisted upon occupying some of the rooms. Would you not point out to him the unreasonableness and unrighteousness of such a course?
Yet how often we are found acting somewhat after that fashion. We say, “Yes, Lord, we are Yours!” but we do not yield ourselves to Him, and we like to use our bodies for our own selfish ends.
Ponder well the unrighteousness of this, and let us hold it as our sacred privilege to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, that He may be glorified in our body.
(William S. Ibrahim)
Living for Christ, my members I yield,
Servants to God, for evermore sealed,
“Not under law,“ I’m now “under grace,”
Sin is dethroned, and Christ takes its place.
Glory be to God.
(T. Ryder)
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February 12
“In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.”
(Ephesians 3:12)
“My Faith looks up to Thee” was written in 1832 by Ray Palmer, a twenty-two-year-old school teacher. Several months after his graduation from Yale University and while still living with the family of the lady who directed the girl’s school where he taught, Palmer wrote the text for this hymn.
He had experienced a very discouraging year in which he battled illness and loneliness.
"The Words for these stanzas were born out of my own soul with very little effort. I recall that I wrote the verses with tender emotion.
There was not the slightest thought of writing for another eye, least of all writing a hymn for Christian worship. It is well-remembered that when writing the last line, “Oh, bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!” the thought of the whole work of redemption and salvation was involved in those words, and suggested the theme of eternal praises, and this brought me
to a degree of emotion that brought abundant tears."
My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Saviour divine; now hear me when I pray, take all my sin away; O let me from this day be wholly thine!
May Thy rich grace impart strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire; as Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee pure, warm, and changeless be—a living fire!
While life’s dark maze I tread and griefs around me spread, be Thou my guide; bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow’s tears away, nor let me ever stray from Thee aside.
When ends life’s transient dream, when death’s cold sullen stream shall o’er me roll, Blest Saviour, then, in love, fear and distrust remove—O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul.
(Amazing Grace - Kenneth W. Osbeck)
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