MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind. Acts 20:19
The eye that is most anointed will not be the first to see failure in others, and the soul that knows most of walking under the yoke with the Master will not be the first to undertake the putting right, according to its own mind, of what halts and limps in others.
Prayer is sure work and the harbinger of blessing . . . and often what sets us a praying for more is the a first dropping of His rich love and grace.
Through evil report and through good report Paul had to pass, and so far as any accusation against me is known to me as not true . . . I do not think one need to be unhappy about it. . . . But there is a reward for our bearing false accusations.
G. V. Wigram
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Matthew 5:11-12
N.J. Hiebert - 8042
March 2
Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. John 21:17
It is not someone else, some temporarily possessing spirit, which says these words, but our true and very self, only changed and renewed
by the power of the Holy Spirit. And when "I do that which I
would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin
that dwelleth in me" (Romans 7:16-17).
Our true self is the new self, taken and won
by the love of God and kept by the power of God.
Yes, kept! There is the promise on which we ground our prayer; or,
rather, one of the promises. For, search and look for your own
strengthening and comfort, and you will find it repeated in
every part of the Bible from "I am with Thee, and will keep
thee (Genesis 28:15) to "I also will keep thee from
the hour of temptation" (Revelation 3:10).
And kept for Him! Why should it be thought a thing incredible
with you when it is only the fulfilling of His own eternal
purpose in creating us? "This people have I formed
for Myself" (Isaiah 43:21). Not ultimately only
but presently and continually, "Thou shalt
abide for Me." (Hosea 3:3). "He that
remaineth, even He shall be for
our God" (Zechariah 9:7).
Are you one of His people by faith in Jesus Christ?
Then see what you are to Him. You, personally and individually,
are part of the Lord's portion and of His inheritance. His portion and
inheritance would not be complete without you; you are His
peculiar treasure (Exodus 19:5); a special people
unto Himself (Deuteronomy 7:6).
Kept for the Master's Use - Frances R.Havergal
N.J. Hiebert - 8043
March 3
Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
It has been rightly said that prayer does not equip us for greater work--
prayer is the greater work.
Some of God's people are given the responsibility to preach His word in public settings, even before large audiences, but the privilege of all God's people is to pray.
It can and must involve the sacrifice of time, the giving up of other things to focus upon the Lord. The joy of prayer and the power that flows from it is very much anchored to the discipline of interceding with God.
The need today is for true intercessors and that is
the challenge for each of us!
Paul Young
In the busy round of life, do we stop to pray?
commit each day into His care, and seek His help alway.
Norah A. Young
N.J. Hiebert - 8044
March 4
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.
Psalm 127:1
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11
We are building day by day a temple the world cannot see;
building, building, for eternity.
If you are to have a good tomorrow you must lay the right foundation today. A foundation of wood, hay, or stubble will never support a character-making building.
An aged low-caste woman in India was once asked the price of a temple in the process of building. She turned to the missionary in surprise and said: "Why, we do not know! It is for our god; we don't count the cost."
He who builds with God, builds not alone.
Mountain Trailways for Youth
We are building every day in a good, or evil way,
And the structure as it grows, will our inmost self disclose.
Build it well, what'er you do, build it straight, and strong and true;
Build it clean, and high and broad, build it for the eye of God.
I. E. Dickenza
N.J. Hiebert - 8045
March 5
"STEP BY STEP"
Then said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day.
Exodus 16:4
A doctor was once asked by a patient who had met with a serious accident, "Doctor, how long shall I have to lie here?" The answer, "Only a day at a time," taught the patient a precious lesson.
The same lesson God taught His people, and the people of all ages since, through the method. of His provision for Israel during their wilderness journey. "The day's portion in its day". Day by day the manna fell, enough for each day, and no more and no less.
So God promises us, not "As thy weeks," or "As thy months," but "As thy DAYS, so shall thy strength be." And that means Monday's grace for Monday, and Tuesday's grace for Tuesday, and so on. Why, then, borrow trouble for the future?
We are especially told by the Lord to "Take no thought for tomorrow." Deuteronomy 33:25. The true rule is to live by the day, to live a life of trust. The law of Divine grace is, "Sufficient unto the day." The law of Divine deliverance, is,
"A very present help." The law of Divine guidance is, "Step by step."
Comforted of God - A. J. Pollock
N.J. Hiebert - 8046
March 6
THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD
God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.
2 Samuel 12:23
Having anointed both Saul and David--the man of the people's choice, and the man
after God's own heart, Samuel's public work was finished. Henceforward
he lived in quiet retirement at Ramah.
But one thus constrained to live in quietness has not necessarily ceased to be of value to
his brethren. The ministry of intercession is open to all who have the heart for it.
To this ministry Samuel devoted himself until his life's end.
Aged brethren, crippled brethren, imprisoned brethren, take courage!
Although you can no longer run the Lord's errands, you can
still serve the people of God at the throne of grace.
Paul in his Roman prison ceased not to give thanks for his Ephesian brethren, making mention of them in his prayers (Ephesians 1:16); the Philippians also he
remembered in every prayer for them making request with joy
(Philippians 1:4); for the Colossians too he prayed
regularly, and doubtless also for saints in other
places, both known and unknown.
Epaphras, when deprived of his liberty, laboured fervently for his brethren that they
might "stand perfect and complete in all the will of God" (Colossians 4:12).
W.W. Fereday - God's Emergency Man
N.J. Hiebert - 8047
March 7
THE SLACK BOW-STRING
Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9
The word used here is ek-luo,'I loose,' or,' I unloose,' as, for example,
a bow-string: letting it become slack.
When I was a boy my father took me down to a wagon shop (I suppose there are no such things now) and there he got a piece of nice,well seasoned ash; and from this he made me a beautiful bow.
The good piece of ash alone could not make the bow, there had to be a strong cord, tied from end to end of the wood, and tightened till the
wood was well bent, and the cord was taut. Then with a good
straight arrow, what a joy it was to any boy!
But suppose the cord got slack, and loose, what then? The bow is useless in spite of having such a good piece of ash to make it. One secret
of a good bow is having a good tight bow-string.
Notice that in the Gospels it is our body that faints, and in Hebrews it is our mind. Note again Galatians 6:9 quoted above. I suppose it might be
both body and mind that faint. But in all these cases we grow
slack, like the bow-string: and a slack bow-string
is no use to its master.
Hid Treasures - G. C. Willis
N.J. Hiebert - 8048
March 8
God's Finished Product
The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Psalm 138:8
I have heard of a little boy whose sailor father was coming home to see him. The youngster worked the afternoon long trying to carve
a ship model from a block of wood.
He fell asleep, with very little success achieved for all his whittling.
That night his father came, removed the block of wood and
put in its place a real wooden ship exquisitely carved
and rigged to perfection.
Your life and mine often bears poor resemblance to the Perfect Model.
At our best we are like the carving of the little boy. But one day we
shall awake in His likeness and see Him as He is. And
we shall find that we bear the image of the heavenly.
He who has begun a good work in us in regeneration will perform it
in sanctification until the day of Jesus Christ in glorification.
We were predestinated to be conformed to the image
of God's Son, and God will make of us a
finished product and a perfect creation.
It will be great to awaken in the morning and find that we are just
like Jesus! Cheer up my brother. He will perfect
that which concerneth you!
Day by Day with Vance Havner
N.J. Hiebert - 8049
March 9
And Joseph said unto them (his brethren), Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
(Genesis 50:19-20)
The mixing of good and evil is like a stream flowing with polluted water. Shall I drink of this water that may poison me? I cannot, but this stream is absorbed by the river into which it flows.
The river is a great waterway receiving water from the muddiest of streams and bearing them to the sea. So it is with the ways of God; His ways make use of the most unlikely elements to feed the vast sea of His counsels.
The sea engulfs and deposits in its depths--in other words, judges--every impure element so that nothing but pure water rises from the sea to the sky to which the sun draws it.
This is the work of the sea and the sun and not our work. God is sovereign; He alone may use evil, but I have no option but to withdraw from evil.
Meditations on 2 Samuel - Dr. H. L. Rossier
N.J. Hiebert - 8050
March 10
All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
Proverbs 8:8-9
This is faith's answer to the caviler who prates of contradictions and errors in the inspired Word of God. Modesty alone might suggest the thought that the fault might be in the reader--not in the Word.
But man's vanity and pride will not book such a conclusion. Yet so it shall soon be proven to be; for "one jot or one tittle (the smallest letter or vowel point) shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:18) How soon difficulties vanish when faith is in exercise!
Seemingly insuperable objections are swept away in a moment when the light of heaven shines into the soul and on the page
of Scripture. Jesus, in resurrection, opened
both the scriptures and the understanding
of the two with whom He (Jesus)
walked to Emmaus.
It is this double enlightenment that causes difficulties to vanish
like mist before the rays of the sun.
"They are all plain to him that understandeth."
Proverbs 8:9 for "The secret of the Lord
is with them that fear Him."
Psalm 25:14.
Proverbs - H. A. Ironside
N.J. Hiebert - 8051
March 11
THE WORK OF CHRST
It is finished: and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost.
John 19:30
It is finished: and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost.
John 19:30
"It is finished!" thus He spoke on the cross and the words assure us that all is done. The rent veil and the open tomb tell us "It is finished." But what has been accomplished in this blessed work? We cannot fully grasp it now as long as we look into a glass darkly.
When at last we are brought into His Presence, transformed into His own image, when we shall have share with Him in His glorious inheritance, when at last sin and death are no more and a new heaven and new earth are called into existence, then shall we more fully know what that work has accomplished.
All, ALL we have and are, all we shall have and shall be as His own, has its blessed source in the cross of Christ. He died for all. He gave Himself a ransom for all. He tasted death for every man. He is the propitiation for the whole world (not for the sins of the whole world, else the whole world would be saved).
It means His work is available to all sinners. Upon that fact that He died for all, the Gospel is preached to lost and guilty sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. "Whosoever will" - "Whosoever believeth," these are the precious conditions of the Gospel of Grace which sounds forth from the finished work of Christ on the cross.
And all who believe on Him and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, for them He bore their sins on the cross.
Each believing sinner can look back to the cross and can say, "He loved me, He gave Himself for me." He paid my debt. He bore my sins in His own body on the tree. He stood in my place. He was my substitute. He tasted death for me.
A. C. Gaebelein
N.J. Hiebert - 8052
When at last we are brought into His Presence, transformed into His own image, when we shall have share with Him in His glorious inheritance, when at last sin and death are no more and a new heaven and new earth are called into existence, then shall we more fully know what that work has accomplished.
All, ALL we have and are, all we shall have and shall be as His own, has its blessed source in the cross of Christ. He died for all. He gave Himself a ransom for all. He tasted death for every man. He is the propitiation for the whole world (not for the sins of the whole world, else the whole world would be saved).
It means His work is available to all sinners. Upon that fact that He died for all, the Gospel is preached to lost and guilty sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. "Whosoever will" - "Whosoever believeth," these are the precious conditions of the Gospel of Grace which sounds forth from the finished work of Christ on the cross.
And all who believe on Him and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, for them He bore their sins on the cross.
Each believing sinner can look back to the cross and can say, "He loved me, He gave Himself for me." He paid my debt. He bore my sins in His own body on the tree. He stood in my place. He was my substitute. He tasted death for me.
A. C. Gaebelein
N.J. Hiebert - 8052
March 12
And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, . . . Psalm 107:22
What is a sacrifice? It is an offering to God. A "sacrifice of thanksgiving" is to praise God when you do not feel like it; when you are depressed and despondent; when your life is covered with thick clouds and midnight darkness.
While we are admonished to "pray without ceasing," are we not also commanded to "rejoice evermore"?
Many homes display the motto, "Prayer changes things," and great blessing has resulted from this simple statement. We are all aware that prayer does change things.
We know, also, that many times the enemy has not been moved one inch from his stronghold, although we have persisted in prayer for days, months -- yes, often years.
Such was my own experience when passing through a time of very great pressure, and prayer did not change things.
I came into possession of a wonderful secret. That secret is simply this: after we have prayed and believed, "Praise Changes Things."
Streams in the Desert - Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
N.J. Hiebert - 8053
March 13
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