I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
Psalm 102:7
The man who wrote that must have known sparrows well. A sparrow alone would indeed be a lonely bird. Who can read those words without seeing that solitariness of the soul which all of us by nature most dread?
Surely the Spirit guided the sequence of the Psalms, for the next, Psalm 103, opens a certain and glorious way of escape for that sparrow on the house top. Fly into that air and there is instant deliverance from that which gives loneliness its power to crush and weaken.
There is a sense in which every soul that follows hard after its God must find itself alone.
“He who follows Him the nearest needs must walk alone.”
It is part of the discipline of life.
It is not explained.
Let us rest our hearts on our Lord’s words about the sparrows, not one of whom,
not even the one on the house top, is unregarded.
Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? . . .
Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Luke 12:6-7
Whispers of His Power - Any Carmichael
N.J. Hiebert - 7663
December 12
The flowers appear on the earth . . . Song of Solomon 2:12
God who gave the flowers gave His Son to be a plant of renown on earth that by it He might reveal the life of heaven. Life and light are the source of all the fragrant beauty of the garden, which brings such gladness to appreciative hearts.
Like the herb of the field, He was for the service of man. Like the leaves of the tree,
He was for the healing of the nations. Like the fruit of the vine, He cheered God and man.
Like the myrrh, the aloe, the cassia, He grew and suffered and died to fill the presence of God
and the joy of His people with the most delightful fragrance.
Like the flowers appearing on the earth, His coming brought the springtime when the birds sing,
and when He and His people could walk together in a fellowship
that shall one day be unbroken and unending.
A Plant of Renown - Leonard Sheldrake
N.J. Hiebert - 7664
December 13
THE WARNING OF A SILENT HEAVEN
To day thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my Lord,
O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant.
2 Samuel 14:22
An answered prayer makes us glad for its own sake. But there
is grace behind the gift which is better and more gladdening than the gift itself.
For which is most valued, the engagement ring, or the favour of which it is the token?
Setting aside judicial answers to unspiritual prayers, which an honest conscience will have no difficulty in distinguishing, the servants of the King may take it that His answers to their requests are
proofs and tokens of His grace and favour—of His real, and present,
and personal love to themselves individually.
When they are receiving few or none, they should search for the cause,
lest it should be some hidden or unrecognized sin.
For “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” Psalm 66:18;
So never let us go on comfortably and easily when He is silent to us. And
instead of envying others who get such wonderful answers,
“let us search and try our ways.” Lamentations 3:40
And evermore the Father sends radiantly down
All-marvellous responses, His ministers to crown;
The incense-cloud returning as golden blessing-showers,
We in each drop discerning some feeble prayer of ours,
Transmuted into wealth unpriced, by Him who giveth thus
The glory all to Jesus Christ, the gladness all to us!
Opened Treasures - Frances Ridley Havergal
N.J. Hiebert - 7665
December 14
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth:
And a word spoken in due season, how good is it!
Proverbs 15:23
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
Proverbs 25:11
The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than
the cry of him that ruleth.
Ecclesiastes 9:17
’Tis the little kindly acts you do that heartens one along,
And sends the friend away from you with glad and happy song.
’Tis the little word you’re led to say which touched that other life,
And gave it nerve and strength again to conquer in the strife.
N.J. Hiebert - 7666
December 15
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3
The word “simplicity” from our passage may also be translated as “sincerity,” so we can say there is both a simplicity and a sincerity associated with the things of Christ. Yes, there are difficulties.
Even the apostle Peter had to admit that some of the apostle Paul’s writings on the subject of
salvation, for example, were "hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16).
Paul himself said that we don’t understand all biblical mysteries and we only see things
“through a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
However, the apostle Paul is simple when it comes to the central facts relating to Christ.
In Titus 2:11-13 we learn three simple things:
(1) God’s grace and salvation has appeared to to all men;
(2) accordingly, we should live in a godly manner;
(3) the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back.
Don’t ever let the devil deceive you in this. Never let what you don’t understand rob from you what
you do know to be true. God has made it simple and it is for us to simply believe and obey.
Brian Reynolds
N.J. Hiebert - 7667
December 16
THE UPWARD LOOK
They looked unto Him and were lightened.
Psalm 34:5
O Lord! we would delight in Thee, and on Thy care depend,
To Thee in every trouble flee, our safe unfailing Friend.
When human cisterns all are dried, Thy fulness is the same,
May we with this be satisfied, and glory in Thy name.
Ryland
God would have us to . . . count it a peculiar privilege to be whole-hearted for the Son of His love.
Remember that there is no path for us smoother or broader than the path of the Son of man while in the world. You may have gone through deep waters, and many a furrow, grief may have left on your forehead, but as you passed through the trouble which did you find most—the trial or Christ who passed through it with you?
I judge that the great thing is to own God and be still.
“I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it,“ Psalm 39:9, said David. . . .
There is rest in this—giving to God His own place.
I am sure it is better for us . . . for Divine Wisdom and Love to sit at the helm
and decide for us than for us to have to decide.
G. V. Wigram
N.J. Hiebert - 7668
December 17
PRAISE the LORD
The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Psalm 19:1
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear Hs voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things
He hath done.
The Treasures of Fanny Crosby
N.J. Hiebert - 7669
December 18
The word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Genesis 15:1
The Lord was to be Abram’s “Shield,” as he passed through this scene—his
“Great reward,” both now, and hereafter.
How often a soul makes alarming discoveries as to itself—and says. "I didn’t think it would come to that!” But God makes no discoveries. It is all know to HIM.
It isn’t that man stands as a sinner with an inexhaustible store of grace at his command;
but that he has a new life.
A Christian is not “let off” (so to speak).
But all the claims of God against him have been met to the very utmost in Christ.
The enemy knows all the history, and he knows the turns of the road where he can meet us and harass us: and unless we know God is for us, we have no answer to give Him.
If I bring a bit of myself, it’s unholiness. It is very humbling.
But we can’t have Christ any way but by the low door,—when it’s all up with you.
Hunt’s Sayings
N.J. Hiebert - 7670
December 19
Enter ye in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way,
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because straight
is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
Will the road you are traveling bring you to the place you hope to reach?
On Barr’s Trail up the slope of Pike’s Peak, there is a place where the trail divides.
One marker reads: “To the Summit”; the other, “To the Bottomless Pit.” A step decides the goal.
We too often do some shabby living and expect to reach nobleness.
We take short cuts in morality and expect to develop character.
The way we are living and the road we are traveling
determine the kind of character we will have in the end.
The road that nations take decides the goal at which the world will arrive.
The path of unrighteousness will not create a righteous world.
Right ends do not justify wrong means, for wrong means bring us to wrong ends.
To life a righteous life, we must do righteous deeds.
He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to.
Those who live on the mountain top have a much longer day.
Traveling Toward Sunrise
N.J. Hiebert - 7671
December 20
For we must needs die, and are as water spilled on the
ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect
any person: yet doth He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him.
2 Samuel 14:14
The action being altogether without precedent serves to show
that Israel perceived what was morally suitable to the circumstances of the
moment. Such an acknowledgement of weakness cannot fail to bring blessing from God.
In the spiritual realm, felt weakness is power, as the Apostle lets us know in 2 Corinthians 12:10 "When I am weak, then am I strong".
As Hannah also said, “they that stumbled are girded with strength”
1 Samuel 2:4. Is it not a singular lesson to have to learn that our self-sufficiency is our undoing?
1 Samuel 2:4. Is it not a singular lesson to have to learn that our self-sufficiency is our undoing?
God can use those who are “not anything,” [nothing] 1 Corinthians 3:7.
God alone counts, whether now or in ages past.
When weakness calls Him in, all is well.
Samuel - W.W. Feredy
N.J. Hiebert - 7672
December 21
FALLING APART
Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against Thee. Psalm 119:11
Somebody passed on to me recently a precious nugget:
"If you see a Bible that is falling apart, it probably belongs to someone who isn’t!”
A well-worn Bible speaks volumes.
Through the centuries, the old Book has kept unnumbered
millions from coming unstuck, cracking up, and going to pieces.
It has saved marriages from collapse, families from destruction,
and many a battered soul has made it through a stormy life with the help of a ragged
Bible thumbed with reverence and sobbed over in the small night hours when everything seemed lost.
It has healed more hearts than all the counsellors and prevented more breakdowns that all the psychiatrists.
Reading it until it falls apart will hold us together!
All the Days - Vance Havner
N.J. Hiebert - 7673
December 22
. . . Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? . . .
1 Samuel 15:22
No one can trust God who does not obey Him.
Obedience is the root of trust.
In Jesus’ life, trusting went quite without saying, because,
for Him, obedience went without saying.
Corrie Ten Boom
N.J. Hiebert - 7674
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