“And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.”
(Matthew 11:6)
All of us are sometimes troubled by questions.
Why is the secret of healing not opened more fully?
Why is that key not put into wise and loving hands?
Why does He whose touch has not lost its ancient power not come immediately and touch and heal?
Why have the wicked such awful power?
Why are we ourselves sometimes like the little ship on the sea of Galilee beaten by the winds?
And even after we have heard our dear Lord’s Peace, be still, why is it
that there is not always instantly a great calm, a lasting calm?
Why do the winds return again?
We could go on forever, piling question on question. Why? Why? Why?
But faith is not “trusting God when we understand His ways” — there is no need for faith then.
Faith is trusting when nothing is explained.
Faith rests under the Unexplained.
Faith enters into the deep places of our Lord’s words,
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.
Faith, having entered into those deep places, stays there in peace.
(Whispers of His Power - Amy Carmichael)
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March 2
"Our days on earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."
(1 Chronicles 29:15)
“Remember how short my time is.”
(Psalm 89:47)
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
(Psalm 90:12)
But Thou, O God, hast life that is eternal;
That life is mine, a gift through Thy dear Son;
Help me to feel its flush and pulse in all,
Assurance of the morn when life is done.
Help me to know the value of these hours;
Help me the folly of all waste to see;
Help me to trust the Christ who bore my sorrows,
And thus to yield for life or death to Thee.
(Christian Calendar)
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March 3
THEN THE LORD
“When my father and my mother forsake me,
then the Lord will take me up.”
(Psalm 27:10)
My father and mother went to heaven long ago.
My dearest wife left this world some time ago.
Almost all of my immediate family live on the other side.
But God remains and I am not alone.
Those I love have not left me forever.
I am just lagging behind a little! Forsaken?
Yes, for a moment. Then the Lord!
"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
(Hebrews 13:5)
(All the Days- Vance Havner)
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March 4
FAITHFULNESS
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life.” (James 1:12)
The story is told of an event that took place many, many years ago in the rural English countryside. A farmer was working his fields, planting them for the coming year’s crops. Hearing a commotion in the distance, he looked up to see a group of sportsmen on horseback entering his property.
The field he had just planted was one which he was very concerned they not ride through. Calling one of his young helpers he told the boy, “Shut the gate to this field and on no account allow it to be opened”.
Quickly obeying, the lad was barely finished securing the gate when the party of riders stopped and ordered him to open the gate. The young lad refused, explaining that he had received orders from his master to keep it closed—orders he intended to keep. Threats and bribes from the party of sportsmen had no effect on the faithful lad.
Finally, one of the riders, an elderly man, spoke to him in commanding tones. “My boy, you do not know me. I am the Duke of Wellington* and I command you to open that gate so that I and my friends may pass through."
*(The Duke of Wellington was the famous general who had defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo)
The young lad very respectfully lifted his cap, and stood uncovered before the great military man whom all England delighted to honour. Speaking in firm but courteous tone, he said: “Sir, I am sure that the esteemed Duke of Wellington would not want me to disobey orders. I have been ordered by my master to keep the gate shut, not allowing anyone to pass through except with his permission”.
The elderly Duke was silent a moment, then with a broad smile he lifted his own hat saying; "I honour the boy or man who can neither be bribed nor frightened into doing wrong!” Handing the boy a gold coin, the Duke of Wellington and his group of sportsmen turned their horses and galloped away.
Dear believer, our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ has told us to be faithful to Himself: “be faithful unto death”. Daily we are tempted by Satan to do or say those things which are clearly disobedient and displeasing to our blessed Lord and Master. Do we put to death, as we may say, these wrong desires? Let’s all remember the divinely inspired words of James 1:12.
(The Christian Shepherd - December 2010 - Doug Nicolet)
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March 5
PATIENCE AND HOPE
“What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God?”
(2 Peter 3:11,12)
Live up to thy hopes, Christian; let there be a decorum kept
between thy principles and thy practices—
between thy principles and thy practices—
thy hope of heaven, and walk on earth.
The eye should direct the foot.
Thou lookest for salvation; walk the same way thy eye looks.
There is a decorum, which if a Christian doth not observe in his walking,
he betrays his high calling and hopes unto scorn.
To look high and live low, how ridiculous it appears?
(The Christian in Complete Armour)
(William Gurnall 1617-1679)
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March 6
“The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.”
(Psalm 92:12)
These trees are not trained and pruned by man: palms and cedars are trees of the Lord,
and it is by His care that they flourish; even so it is with the saints of the Lord;
they are His own care!
These trees are evergreen and are beautiful objects at all seasons of the year.
Believers are not sometimes holy and sometimes ungodly; they
stand in the beauty of the Lord under all weathers.
Everywhere these trees are noteworthy: no one can gaze upon a landscape in which there are either palms or cedars without his attention being fixed upon these royal growths. The followers of Jesus are the observed of all observers: like a city set on a hill, they cannot be hid.
The child of God flourishes like a palm tree, which pushes all its strength upward in one erect column without a single branch. It is a pillar with a glorious capital. It has no growth to the right nor to the left, but sends all its force heavenward, and bears its fruit as near the sky as possible. Lord, fulfill this type in me!
The cedar braves all storms, and grows near the snow, the Lord Himself filling it
with a sap which keeps its heart warm and its boughs strong.
Lord, so let it be with me, I pray!
(Charles H. Spurgeon)
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March 7
“In whom (Christ) also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.”
(Ephesians 1:11)
God has ordained that every believer be with Him in heaven.
The Lord Jesus, by His death has not only redeemed man but has been established in heaven having obtained glories through His work which He delights to share with all believers.
We now have a place in heaven with Him that awaits us, kept by His promise and power for us to share in His glories and all the riches of heaven.
(Bry’n Ross)
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March 8
“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you."
(Ephesians 4:31-32)
Believers collectively are the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. We
are reminded that as individuals we are sealed by the Spirit.
God has marked us out as His own in view of the
day of redemption by giving us the Spirit.
We are to beware of grieving the Holy Spirit by allowing bitterness,
the heat of passion, wrath and noisy clamour,
injurious language and malice.
In contrast to the evil speaking and malice of the flesh, we are to be kind, tender-hearted and forgiving towards one another in the consciousness of the way God has acted towards us in forgiving us for Christ’s sake.
(The Epistle to the Ephesians - Hamilton Smith)
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March 9
“He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.”
(John 16:14)
Some souls often say, “I believe all the value and efficacy of Christ’s work,
but I cannot apply it.”
Who asks you to do so? It is God who applies it, and He has applied it to you, if you believe in its value and efficacy. The moment we believe in Christ, we have the Holy Ghost as bearing witness:
“He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you.”
Just as the Son came down to do God’s will, and then ascended up again into heaven, so, at the Son’s ascension, the Holy Ghost came down as a person on the earth; for the Holy Ghost is always spoken of as being now on earth, and it is this which gives the true and peculiar character of the Church of God.
(J. N. Darby)
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March 10
Refreshed By God
“For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them:
and that Rock was Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 10:4)
All the way my Saviour leads me—
cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial,
feeds me with the living bread.
Though my weary steps may falter
and my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo!
A spring of joy I see.
(The Treasury of Fanny Crosby)
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March 11
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