. . . Stormy wind fulfilling His Word. Psalm 148:8
I once lived in an old house in the country where the wind would
sometimes whistle around.
Thinking I would have some music if it must blow like that,
I made a rude Aeolian harp of sewing silk strung across a board.
I placed it under the slightly lifted sash of a north window and the
music could be heard 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 than we dream of comes this way.
God has many an Aeolian harp. Will you be one?
Crumbs
N.J. Hiebert - 7633
November 12
Underneath are the everlasting arms — Deuteronomy 33:27
On April 30, 1868, Dr. W. H. Doane came into my house and said, "I have exactly forty minutes
before my train leaves for Cincinnati. Here is a melody. Can you write words for it?"
I replied that I would see what I could do.
Then followed a space of twenty minutes during which I was wholly unconscious of all else
except the work I was doing. At the end of that time I recited the words to “Safe in
the Arms of Jesus." Dr. Doane copied them, and had time to to catch his train.
SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS
Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’er shadowed, sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark! ’tis the voice of angels borne in a song to me,
Over the fields of glory, over the jasper sea.
Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world’s temptations, sin cannot harm me there.
Free from the blight of sorrow, free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials, only a few more tears.
Jesus my heart’s dear refuge, Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages ever my trust shall be.
Here let wait with patience, wait till the night is o’er —
Wait till I see the morning break on the golden shore.
CHORUS: Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’er shadowed, sweetly my soul shall rest.
TREASURES FROM FANNY CROSBY
N.J. Hiebert - 7634
November 13
EATING WITH
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
Revelation 3:20
You probably know the value of sitting down to a meal with someone. In fact, if you’re married,
I’d venture to say that you and your spouse ate together a lot during the courtship.
That was a very natural way to get to know that person.
It seems that most often, there is much emphasis on opening the door and letting in, and rightly so.
When we sense that the Lord is knocking on the door of our heart, desiring entrance,
that is the appropriate response - to open the door and let him in.
But that isn’t where it stops.
The issue of eating together is very significant. To do no more than just letting Him in, might be similar to getting married. When we get married, do we make it official and then, after the ceremony, go our separate ways, only to have occasional contact with each other? That would be unthinkable.
The eating with is spending time with the Lord. When we’re eating, we’re feeding and being fed.
Feeding on God’s precious word, growing in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus—yes, our knowledge of Him, getting to know Him more intimately, not just knowing about Him. To know Jesus is to love Him.
To know Him more and more is to love Him more and more. The better we know Him, the more like
Him we become! If we let Jesus into our heart, then let’s be faithful to eat with Him.
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
Philippians 3:8
With thanks - Fred Pratt - L.I.F.E.LINES
N.J. Hiebert -7635
November 14
NO QUESTIONS ASKED
I will see you again . . . And in that day ye shall ask me nothing.
John 16:22,23
Our Lord did not say, “When I see you again, I will answer all your questions.”
He said, “You won’t ask any questions!"
Our minds and hearts are filled with whys and we can hardly wait
to hear the answers.
But when we see Him we will not bother to bring up those questions.
They will vanish in the glory of His presence.
He will not answer them for we will not ask them!
We see not yet all things put under Him.
There is much that puzzles us for we see through a glass as in a riddle.
We do not know all the answers, but He is the Answer.
Our whys will no longer have significance.
Don’t hang on to them now for they will be as a mist before the rising sun.
Everything will clear up one day. No questions asked.
The Answer will have come!
Vance Havner
N.J. Hiebert - 7636
November 15
. . . Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. John 3:3.
Have you been born again?
It is so important.
When a child is born, there is great joy for the parents.
The baby does a lot of crying, but we, who know what it means
to live, say, “Baby, why cry? You were born, and you received a life to live.”
Jesus told Nicodemus how important it is to be
born again and to receive another life: Eternal life.
This day is the Lord’s - Corrie Ten Boom
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November 16
GOODNESS AND MERCY
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
Psalm 23:6
Psalm 23 represents us as occupying successively seven distinct positions:
(1) underneath us—green pastures;
(2) beside us—still waters;
(3) with us—the Lord;
(4) before us—a table prepared;
(5) around us—enemies;
(6) behind us—goodness and mercy;
(7) above us—the House of the Lord.
Thus, if the retrospective glance calls forth gratitude and thankfulness,
the prospective glance imparts joyfulness and confidence.
We praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that’s to come.
The Pearl of Psalms
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November 17
Search me, O God, and know my heart . . . and see if there be any wicked
way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23-24
On a November morning when looking out of my kitchen window,
I noticed the Osage Orange tree across the road was leafless.
Yet clinging to its topmost branches was a cluster of hedge apples.
As in nature, so too, we must at times be stripped of the entanglements of life.
Maybe it is excess busyness or a hindering habit. Perhaps discipline or an
exhortation is needed to reveal a blind spot we are unaware of.
Our lives rise to a higher level of holiness the more we walk in the Spirit.
Fruitfulness pleasing to the Lord will follow.
—E. Dyck
We are Thine, do thou befriend us, be the guardian of our way;
Keep Thy flock; from sin defend us; seek us when we go astray.
—D Thrupp
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November 18
SHACKLED BY MAN . . . SET FREE BY GOD
"And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison,
charging the jailer to keep them safely. . .
Acts 16:23.
Paul and Silas had just seen God's power manifested through them, in casting out the evil spirit that possessed a young girl. They were falsely accused, stripped, beaten, unjustly thrown into prison, and their feet bound fast to the stocks. This was the unjust reaction of ungodly men, shackled by man. What a scene!
They had every human right to complain, cry out for justice, and plead for mercy.
Their eyes were not fixed upon their circumstances, for they knew God was in control, and in
His providential care, permitted this encounter to reach one man, the jailer...and then, his whole family.
Look at the scene. Paul and Silas were a pitifully beaten sight of humanity, and what was their response?
"At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” Acts 16:25
Can you imagine what went through the minds of these prisoners as they heard Paul and Silas pray and praise God in word and song? But then, we see them set free by God. “Suddenly there was a great earthquake . . . and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed.” Acts 16:26
We may not be responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us: we can either allow them to defeat us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Paul said, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Romans 8:37).
God has promised an overcoming spirit to all who will dare to trust Him!
“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the
savour of His knowledge by us in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14 Shackled by man...set free by God!
(Daily Devotions - R. L.)
N.J. Hiebert - 7640
November 19
He answered nothing. Mark 15:3
There is no spectacle in all the Bible so sublime as the silent Saviour answering not a word to the men who were maligning Him, and whom He could have laid prostrate at His feet by one look of Divine power, or one word of fiery rebuke. But He let them say and do their worst, and He stood in THE POWER OF STILLNESS—God’s holy silent Lamb.
There is a stillness that lets God work for us, and holds our peace; the stillness that ceases from its contriving and self-vindiction, and its expedients of wisdom and forethought, and lets God provide and answer the cruel blow, in His own unfailing, faithful love.
How often we lose God’s interposition by taking up our own cause, and striking for our defence. God give to us this silent power, this conquered spirit! And after the heat and strife of earth are over, men will remember us as we remember the morning dew, the gentle light and sunshine, the evening breeze, the Lamb of Calvary, and the gentle, holy, heavenly Saviour.
A. B. Simpson
The day when Jesus stood alone and felt the hearts of men like stone,
And knew He came but to atone—that day “He held His peace.”
They witnessed falsely to His word, they bound Him with a cruel cord,
And mockingly proclaimed Him Lord; "But Jesus held His peace.”
They spat upon Him in the face, they dragged Him on from place to place,
They heaped upon Him all disgrace; "But Jesus held His peace.”
My friend, have you for far much less, with rage, which you called righteousness,
Resented slights with great distress? Your Saviour “held His peace.”
(L. S. P. - Streams in the Desert)
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November 20
What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
Isaiah 36:4
The Lord shall be thy confidence,
and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
Proverbs 3:26
In Thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee.
Psalm 143:8
He holds the planets in His hands,
And all the universe;
What power can alter His commands,
Or change His holy course?
And they who trust in Him may rest
In calm and sweet repose
Upon His promise sure and blest;
He loves; He cares; He knows.
N.J. Hiebert - 7642
November 21
Without Me ye can do nothing. John 15:5
Oh, keep us, love divine, near Thee,
That we our nothingness may know
and ever to Thy glory be
Walking in faith while here below.
In every detail of our lives there is no blessing but in dependence on God.
. . . if in speaking to you now I were to cease from depending on the
Lord in doing it all blessing to my own soul would cease.
“Without Me ye can do nothing.”
Neither can I speak, nor you hear,
to profit without dependence on the Lord.
The point for us is to rest in the arm of the Lord, whatever may be,
and not run to get help elsewhere.
We may be saying true things in prayer or in testimony, but if we are not realizing
our dependence on the Lord we shall not have His strength in the battle.
Pilgrim Portions for the Day of Rest
N.J. Hiebert - 7643
November 22
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.
Matthew 24:35
Oh, wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord! the hope of our friends in the past:
Its truth where so firmly they anchored their trust, through ages eternal shall last.
Oh, wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord! unchanging, abiding and sure;
For we know that when time and the world pass away, God’s Word shall forever endure.
Julia Sterling
You never get to the end of the words of our Lord. They pass into proverbs,
they pass into laws, they pass into doctrines, they pass into consolations,
they pass into hymns, they pass into poems, but they never pass
away, and after all the use that is made of them they
are still as fresh and inexhaustible as ever.
F. E. W.
N.J. Hiebert - 7644
November 23
And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in
weakness . . . 2 Corinthians 12:9a
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ
may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9b
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day
Rest for the labour, light for the way,
Grace for all trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
Annie Johnson Flint
"We never prize the precious words of promise,”said Mr. Spurgeon, “ ‘till we are placed in conditions in which their suitability and sweetness are manifested.” All of us value those golden words: “When thou walkest through fire thou shalt not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee,” but few, if any of us, have read them with the delight of the martyr Binney. To him this passage was a stay while he was in prison awaiting burning at the stake.
His Bible, still preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, has the passage
marked with a pen in the margin.
Doubtless if all were known, every promise in the Bible has borne a special message to some one Christian, and so the whole volume might be scored in the margin with mementoes of Christian experience, every one appropriate to the very letter.
Every promise in the book is mine; every chapter, every verse, every line.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. 2 Peter 1:14.
“The promises of God are certain, but they do not all mature in ninety days.”
A. J. Gordon
N.J. Hiebert - 7645
November 24
He is risen . . . Mark 16:6.
A little lad was gazing intently at the picture in the art store window: the store
was displaying a notable picture of the crucifixion.
A gentleman approached, stopped, and looked. The boy, seeing his interest, said: “That’s Jesus.”
The man made no reply, and the lad continued: “Them’s Roman soldiers.”
And, after a moment: “They killed Him.”
"Where did you learn that?" asked the man. "In the Mission Sunday-school,” was the reply. The man turned and walked thoughtfully away. He had not gone far when he heard a youthful voice calling: "Say, Mister,” and quickly the little street lad caught up with him. “Say, Mister,” he repeated, ”I wanted to tell you that He rose again.”
That message, which was nearly forgotten by the boy, is the message which has been coming down through the ages. It is the story of the eternal triumph of life over death; the promise and pledge of man’s immortality.
The grave to Him was not the end!
“I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen;
and have the keys of hell and of death” Revelation 1:18.
Blessed be God! Jesus lives to die no more! Go quickly,
and tell everywhere the glad news!
Springs in the Valley
N.J. Hiebert - 7646
November 25
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