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
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Psalm 22:1
This, the deepest suffering of all, came from God, not from men, though caused by our sins.
Some people would tell us that the Lord Jesus only thought that God had forsaken
Him, as in Jonah’s case: “I said, I am cast out of Thy sight.” Jonah 2:4.
It was, however, very different in the case of our Lord and Saviour. There on the cross,
He bore our sins; and with all those mountains of sins upon Him, God must turn away from Him,
and it was in very truth that He uttered that awful cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
We may, to some small extent (never fully), enter into what it meant to our pure and holy Saviour to bear those external sufferings and shame and reproach from man; but no human mind can ever fathom the depth of suffering contained in that terrible cry,
“Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?”
Here, indeed, the waters compassed Him about, to the soul. It was then He took that awful cup
of the wrath of a holy God agains sin (the cup you and I deserved to drink),
and drank it to its very dregs.
G. C. Willis
The depth of all Thy suffering no heart can e’er conceive;
The cup of wrath o’er flowing,
for us Thou didst receive.”
G. W. Frazer
N.J. Hiebert - 7647
November 26
For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8
It was April 14, 1912.
Two men floated in the cold North Atlantic.
They were within hailing distance and one who was wearing a
life-jacket looked at his fearful friend and asked,
“Are you saved, and on your way to heaven?”
The response came through chattering teeth to say, “No”.
"Then take my life jacket and accept the Lord Jesus as your Saviour.”
When the lists of the Saved and Lost appeared in New York,
the willing donor was listed among the Lost—but only physically.
The recipient of his life-jacket was among the Saved—but without
Christ he was still spiritually lost.
If you accept the Lord Jesus now, you will be eternally saved.
Arnot P. McIntee
Out of Christ without a Saviour, O can it, can it be?
Like a ship, without a rudder, on a wild and stormy sea.
F. M. Davis
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November 27
RELIEF IN SUFFERING
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1
But to receive this “help” we must learn to "be still" and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10).
God has His time as well as His way to bring His purposes to pass.
In the mean time, if man forgets to show Joseph kindness, God will not forget to show him mercy. As we read, “The Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy.” Joseph may fail, just as we may and do, but the Lord’s "compassions fail not, they are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion saith my soul; therefore I hope in Him.” Lamentation 3:22-24.
The devil may tempt us day by day, and God may test by keeping us, waiting from day to day; nevertheless His mercy will be renewed every day. Thus though we oft-times have to wait for the Lord’s deliverance, yet “The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him,” and on our side we learn that “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation the Lord.” Lamentation 3:25,26.
Forgotten by man Joseph is remembered by the Lord, until in God’s due time he learns that
“those that wait upon the Lord . . . shall inherit the earth” Psalm 37:9.
Joseph - Hamilton Smith
Commit thy way to God, the weight that makes thee faint;
Worlds are to Him no load, to Him breathe thy complaint.
He, who for winds and clouds maketh a pathway free,
Through wastes and hostile crowds, can make a way for thee.
Hope, then, though woes be doubled; hope and be undismayed;
Let not thy heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid.
This prison where thou art—thy God will break it soon,
And flood with light thy heart in His own blessed noon.
Paul Gerhardt
N.J. Hiebert - 7649
November 28
POWER OVER PERILS
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God,
an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 Corinthians 5:1
The Christian life is a perilous one; it is threatened with danger and destruction on every hand.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted,
but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying
of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10.
This is the exact picture of how a virile Christian responds to the stimuli of perils which encircle him.
How do I realize this resurrection life within? How do I acquire this vitality to counteract all the
forces of evil and sin and despair that surround me in a dying and despairing world?
By calmly claiming and acting on God’s own declaration:
"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He [Christ]
that is in you, than he [Satan] that is in the world” 1 John 4:4.
This takes trust, simple faith, implicit confidence in God. Faith is more than mere belief;
it is an absolute conviction, an implicit confidence that gives me the
grit to act on and respond to the declaration of divine truth.
Songs of My Soul - W. Phillip Keller
N.J. Hiebert - 7650
November 29
A TROUBLING REMEMBRANCE
I remembered God, and was troubled. Psalm 77:3
One would expect it to read, “I remembered God and was comforted.” But remembering God may sometimes make us unhappy.
As a truant child remembers his parents and dreads their discipline, so when we go astray we remember that evil doings brings consequences. When we remember God’s holiness and our sinfulness we are troubled.
Then, again, when we remember God’s goodness and our ingratitude we are troubled. The goodness of God is meant to lead us to repentance.
Like the Psalmist here, we call to mind better days and are brought to consider our ways to discover where we have departed from His Way.
Finally, when we remember God’s service and our unfaithfulness we are troubled. So much to do, so little done! If that does not trouble us, then we are in a low state indeed.
But the kind of trouble the remembrance of God brings is trouble that leads through tears to triumph. May God stir up our minds by way of remembrance, lest we forget Him too long!
Day by Day with Vance Havner
N.J. Hiebert - 7651
November 30
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.”
Hebrews 12:12-13
It is at once interesting and profitable to mark the way in which Moses presses upon the congregation the varied motives of obedience arising from the past, the present, and the future. Every thing is brought to bear upon them to quicken and deepen their sense of Jehovah’s claims upon them.
They were to “remember" the past, they were to “consider" the present, and they were to anticipate the future; and all this was to act on their hearts, and lead them forth in holy obedience to that blessed and gracious One who had done, who was doing, and who would do such great things for them.
C. H. Macintosh
Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God,
to walk in His ways, and to fear Him.
Deuteronomy 8:6
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