A man that hath friends must show himself friendly:
and there is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24
None complain so loudly of the lack of love and friendliness on the part of others as those
who manifest very little of either themselves.
He who busies himself to show love will receive it back again.
He who is himself a friend will find friends to reciprocate his kindness.
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17.
But the true Friend is ever such.
His heart is unchanged by the slights of the objects of His devotion.
There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
He always manifested love and grace in a world where all by nature
were estranged from Him.
Let those who complain of lack of love on the part of fellow-saints imitate His holy example.
Be concerned, not about receiving kindness, but about manifesting it, and
“good measure, pressed down, shall men give into your bosom.”
Luke 6:38 .
Proverbs - H. A. Ironside
N.J. Hiebert - 7694
January 12
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young,
spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with Him.
Deuteronomy 32:11:12
What would it be if one morning we woke up to find a strange god with us—a stranger,
a foreigner, as the word means—one whom we did not know at all? What would it be? It will never
be. "So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.” We may rest our hearts on that.
Job 19:26-27 "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another;—"not a stranger"— not a foreigner—not one whom I shall have to learn to know and love—but the God Who has led me all my life long, and not another.
No strange face will meet us us on that Day, we shall be awakened by the vision
of His face—His face, not the face of a stranger.
A little girl was slowly dying in her worldly home in India, and a Christian doctor who was called to see her told her of our Lord Jesus. After a little while she began to understand and to love Him.
One day she said, “I don’t know anyone one in Heaven. I shall feel very shy there.” “But you
know our Lord Jesus,” said the doctor, "you won’t be shy of Him,” and she was
comforted. Soon after that she saw Him—not another, not a stranger,
But the Lord Who loved her and gave Himself for her.
Edges of His ways - Amy Carmichael
N.J. Hiebert - 7695
January 13
Who was delivered for our offences,
and was raised again for our justification. Romans 4:25
As we look back to the cross, we exclaim, “What has God done?”
and as we look at the empty tomb, we again exclaim , “What has God done?”
At the cross the Lord Jesus “obtained eternal redemption for us,” (Hebrews 9:12).
In His glorious resurrection He triumphed over sin, death and the grave and He assures us,
"because I live ye shall live also" John 14:19.
Today as we look into an empty tomb we proclaim,
“This is the glory of the risen Christ.”
What assurance we have in this living hope!
Jim Comte
Because He lives I can face tomorrow;
Because He lives all fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.
W. and G. Gaither
N.J. Hiebert - 7696
January 14
And God heard their groaning, and God
remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exodus 2:24
God always hears, and He never forgets.
His silence does not mean that He is not listening and is not planning.
Probably it means that the best time of deliverance has not come yet, and that He
is patiently waiting for the moment to arrive when He may prove His love and His power.
Cromwell said to his soldiers just before a great battle:
“Know ye soldiers all, that God always comes to man’s help in the nick of time.”
Yes, God is always on time; never behind and never ahead.
Happy the man who learns to wait as he prays, and never loses patience with God.
Men Who Prayed
N.J. Hiebert - 7697
January 15
So the shipmaster came to him (Jonah), and said unto him, what meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. . . . Let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
Jonah 1:6-8
Notice Jonah’s answer. He ignored all the questions but the last, and to this he replied: “I am a Hebrew.” The name ”Hebrew” seems to have been one of contempt. The name of dignity was “Israelite.” “Israel,” means “A Prince with God.” In Jonah’s downward pathway, away from God, he had lost the sense of the dignity of his position and citizenship, and used the name that the enemies of Israel used of them in scorn.
It is easy for us, also, to lose a sense of the dignity of the position in which the Lord has so graciously placed us, and sink down to acknowledge the name which the world in contempt and ignorance use of us. We have the name of Christian given to us in the New Testament.
Now notice Jonah’s next words—not an answer to their questions but better than that. He began to get his eyes off himself, and what a difference it made. “And I fear Jehovah, the God of the heavens, who hath made the sea and the dry land.” The sailors had been crying every man to his god, but they did not know Jehovah, the God of the heavens. They prayed that the sea might be still from its raging, but they did not know the God who had made the sea.
This was a fine answer that Jonah gave to these heather sailors. He may have lost the sense of the dignity of the place into which God had put him, but he had not lost the sense of the God whom he feared. There is the remedy of all our troubles. Turning our eyes away from self, away from the world, away from the raging seas around us, let us look off unto Jesus, and then, He will enable us to give a true and ringing testimony of the One whom we fear:
“Whose I am, and whom I serve” Acts 27:23.
Lessons From Jonah the Prophet by G. C. Willis
N.J. Hiebert - 7698
January 16
Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude;
for the battle is not yours but God’s. 2 Chronicles 20:15
So spake the prophet Jahaziel to Jehoshaphat and the people,
when they were facing a confederacy of three hostile nations and defeat seemed certain.
True to the prophet’s word, these nations were distracted by fighting among themselves
and Judah was left unharmed.
There are times when we feel that we face impossible situations and it appears
that the enemy has the upper hand.
Never fear. Our God is the God of the impossible and He is well able to intervene
in a mighty way for our deliverance.
W. H. Burnett
Faint not Christian! Though the road, leading to thy blest abode,
Darksome be and dangerous too, Christ
thy guide, will bring thee through.
James Harinton Evans
N.J. Hiebert - 7699
January 17
Fear not: for God is come to prove you,
and that His fear may be before your faces that ye sin not.
Exodus 20:20.
Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her,
Neither do I condemn thee:
go, and sin no more.
John 8:10-11
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
Only through the blood of Jesus
Can the guilty soul have peace;
Only through the death of Jesus
Satan’s captives find release;
Jesus died—thy condemnation,
Thine, believer, Jesus bore;
Conquered grave, thy desolation,
Rose, and lives to die no more.
N.J. Hiebert - 7700
January 18
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27
I WISH THEE PEACE
I wish thee peace! The earth is full of trouble—
And days are marked by rush, and strain and test;
And life grows one unceasing round and struggle;
I wish thee peace! God’s peace—thy heart’s deep rest!
I wish thee peace! the peace of sins all taken—
All cleansed away through Christ’s atoning Blood;
The peace which rests, untroubled and unshaken,
Since God’s redeeming grace is understood.
I wish thee peace! the peace of His near presence;
The peace of glad abandon to His will;
The peace which is of God’s own heart the essence;
The peace which reigns—serene, and strong and still.
I wish thee peace! peace past all understanding—
Which comes through prayer, and loving God’s dear Word;
So shall thy life be fruitful, strong, outstanding—
And thou shalt be of service to thy Lord.
J. Danson Smith
This was found in an old Bible with a hand written note from
one relative to another.
N.J. Hiebert - 7701
January 19
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13
The Lord does not enumerate our victories until warfare is over.
Until the goal is reached, the believer should not be occupied with his progress.
The apostle says: “forgetting the things that are behind.”
The race is not the moment for pausing; the apostle had to reach forward
to the things that are before, and every backward glance was not only
lost time, but a positively evil thing, inasmuch as it divided the
thoughts, affections, and aim of his heart, and hindered
him in doing "one thing”. (Philippians 3:13)
Ah! when the goal is reached, it will be time enough to enumerate our victories,
and God will not leave the charge of this to us;
He will reckon them Himself.
Meanwhile, then, let us run that we may win Christ; let us fight that we may receive the prize.
The end of the struggle is near, and others have already gone before us.
May we be enabled to say with them:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
Meditations on the Book of Joshua - Dr. H. L. Rossier
N.J. Hiebert - 8000
January 20
CLEAR INSIGHT
“And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all
this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art.
Genesis 41:39
It is still the possession of the Spirit of God that makes the immeasurable difference
between the children of God and the wise men of the world.
Many indeed may possess giant intellects, well stored with such learning as this world can afford,
holding, too, high rank in the religious world.
But unless born again they are mere natural men, without the Spirit, and cannot even see
the things that belong to the kingdom of God,
much less enter that fair kingdom.
Joseph - Hamilton Smith
N.J. Hiebert - 8001
January 21
And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:
for My strength is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9
SHOW US THY GRACE
Show us our need, O Lord; How lost, How helpless,
How poor, How sunk in sin our carnal hearts;
Show us how vain to change our sad condition,
Our best endeavour and our utmost arts;
Show us how weak we are, and how dependent,
How multiplied defeats our pride abase;
And then—O Lord, lest we despair too wholly—
Show us Thy grace!
Show us Thy grace, the great, the all-sufficient,
Infinite riches for our poverty,
Mercy of God for uttermost salvation,
Weapon that turns defeat to victory;
Gladness unspeakable and full of glory,
Beyond our needs, a vast, unmeasured space.
Lord, as we never yet have seen or known it, show us Thy grace!
Annie Johnson Flint’s Best-loved Poems
N.J. Hiebert - 8002
January 22
“Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
Philippians 4:6
The prayer is to be with “supplication” and “thanksgiving.”
We can go again and again to God about the same thing, and be as importunate as we like.
At the same time do not let us omit to mingle our thanksgivings with it all,
for while there may be much to ask Him to give and take away, yet, if sufficiently
observant, we shall find many blessings to count, and very much demanding our praise.
And this will bring us to the very verge of that marvellous blessing contained in the verse following:
"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:7.
Here God does not promise to do what we ask, nor does He undertake to alter our
circumstances; but something better is offered us, even His peace, that
passeth all understanding, to keep our hearts and minds.
God’s own peace, this becomes ours—a thing that has never been disturbed by anything
that has happened, nor can be by anything that may yet happen.
Angels in White - Russell Elliot
N.J. Hiebert - 8003
January 23
No comments:
Post a Comment