Gems from April 21- 30, 2020

April 21

He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, . . . That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.   Philippians 2:8-10.

- The officers of the Sanhedrin slapped and buffeted Him and thought they humbled Him.
- The rulers had Him crucified and thought they humbled Him.
- The Roman soldiers stripped Him and gambled for His clothes and thought they humbled Him.

But such was His power that their efforts were only as He allowed.  The truth is He humbled Himself.

Wherefore God has highly exalted Him.
God asks us to bow our knees to the Saviour today.
Some day in the future, as Judge, He will demand it.
What a privilege to do it now.
Ken Gross

Within the holiest of all cleansed by His precious blood;
Before the throne we prostrate fall and worship Thee our God.
J. Deck

N.J. Hiebert - 8093 

April 22

". . . Ye shall find rest for your souls . . ."  (Jeremiah 6:16)

Laid aside by illness?  No, laid aside for stillness.  I have found a great deal of comfort more than once in my own experience in a little word of the Shepherd Psalm - "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures."

I like to emphasize the "maketh" for we are not always willing  ourselves to stop for rest,  and gentle compulsion is needed.  He will not have me always on the stretch.

The bow of the best violin sometimes needs to have its strings loosened, and so my Lord gives me rest.

Then it is pleasant to know that it is not on the dusty road, nor on the dreary, parched hillside, that we are made to lie down, but in the green pastures.  It is only and always for rest and renewal that we are made to stop and lie down.  The time is not lost.
Dr. J. R. Miller

N. J. Hiebert - 8094   

April 23

Then she (Naomi) arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab . . . Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voices and wept.  And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.  And Naomi said, Turn again my daughters; why will ye go with me . . . Orpha kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.   
Ruth 1:6,9,10,11,14.

We see how deeply below the principles of God believers can sink.  Naomi was full of complaints about her lot, and she tried to keep her daughters-in-law from sharing it with her.  She suggested that they had better prospects in Moab.

In Canaan and in the midst of her people they would only be strangers.  Besides, she had no more sons to restore the link which death had broken.  Why should they go with her?  Would not the Lord, bless them even if they remained in Moab?  Dangerous theory!  Poisoning service!

The soul is not taken into account; eternity is forgotten; and God and His goodness and grace are not for a moment considered. Alas, it suited Orpha nicely, but it was her ruin.  So often a conviction of sin is suppressed and an awakened conscience is smothered.

So many young hearts have been mislead and made to stray from the right path because Christian parents wanted to secure some worldly advantage for them.
The Book of Ruth - H. L. Heijkoop

Those who are young, O God, Make them Thine own;
Hear from Thy blest abode, Make them Thine own;
Now in their early days, turn them to Thy blest ways,
Save from the giddy maze, Make them Thine own.
A. Midlane

N.J. Hiebert - 8095      

April 24

T H A R S E I T E!

Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.   Matthew 14:27

My father often had to use a seal in his work, and he loved this word (Tharseite) so much that he had the Greek letters of it engraved on the seal he always used, so that he might ever be reminded of its message.

As a little child I loved to watch the hot, red sealing wax, as he sealed his important letters; and when a little older, loved to trace out the strange Greek letters, which he told me meant  "CHEER UP".  So this word was my introduction to the Greek New Testament.  Do you wonder I love it?

It was a dark, stormy night, and the disciples were far out on the sea, and the wind was contrary, and for hours they had been battling with wind and waves.  It is at such a time this word sounds the sweetest.

The disciples were toiling in rowing.  They were alone, without their Lord in the boat.  But unknown to them, He had been watching them in their toil and fear, though they had no idea He was doing so.

Then they saw a strange sight, Someone walking on the water, and coming near to them.  They were troubled and cried out with fear.  So would you and I, had we been in their  place.

Then straight-way, Jesus spoke to them.  What did He say? "THARSEITE!"  "Cheer Up! it is I; be not afraid!"  Or, as the old Wycliff translation so beautifully puts it: "I AM nyl ye dread."
Hid Treasures - G. C. Willis

N.J. Hiebert - 8096    

April 25

And so he that received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.  His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.   Matthew 25:20-21. 

Everyone has talents, given by the Lord.
And, we who have salvation by trusting in His Word,
Can put them to His service as we march along our way,
Till He will say "Well done, My servant", on that glory day.

One servant had one talent, quite some money's worth.
He thought it best to hide it, well buried in the earth.
He took it proudly to the boss, all tarnished from the soil.
But he was spurned, it had not earned one cent for all his toil.

Another had five talents that he wisely set in motion,
Doubling the investment; to his master: pure devotion.
You have many talents; but that's just the beginning.
Put them to our Master's use, that way is always winning.

Life is like a canvas, staring at your face,
Blank and ready to be painted any time and place.
You can fill it with the worldly stuff with all its grit and grime,
Or do the Master's bidding now while still, you have the time.
Lorne Perry

N.J. Hiebert - 8097  

April 26

C H R I S T  I S  ALL

The heart is satisfied; can ask no more;
All thought of self is now for ever o'er:
Christ, its unmingled object, fills the heart
In blest adoring love - its endless part.

This is My beloved Son: hear Him. And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only.    Mark 9:7-8

Jesus is the fountain of all blessedness, sent to poor, weak, wretched sinners, that they may have abundance of comfort, of peace and of enjoyment. We must find everything, but Christ, - nothing.

No trial can touch a person who has Christ for his all.  He may have lost this or that; but if he has Christ he has that which he cannot lose.

It is not the quantity we do that makes spirituality, but the measure of presenting Christ: that is the value of our service, in a world where there is nothing of God.
Pilgrim Portions - J. N. Darby

Nothing but Christ, as on we tread,
The Gift unpriced - God's living Bread,
With staff in hand and feet well shod,
Nothing but Christ - the Christ of God.
Samuel O'Malley Cluff

N.J. Hiebert - 8098 

April 27

And thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.    Matthew 1:21

Our blessed Lord not only saves us from the guilt of sin through the work of His cross, but He has provided the means whereby He may save us from the power of sin, take away the habit of sinning, through the indwelling Holy Spirit after the new nature has been communicated to us through the new birth; so that people who loved to sin, loved to take their own way, now delight in holiness and find their joy in doing His will.

That is the characteristic mark of a Christian.  A man who has professed to accept Christ as his Saviour, to have been justified by faith through His atoning blood, and yet goes on living in the world and like the world, shows that he has never had a renewed nature; is simply a hypocrite, because he is pretending to be what he is not; or else he is self-deceived.

But a real Christian is one who has been born again, one who has a new life and a new nature and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and therefore, he has learned to hate the sin in which once he lived.
1 John - H. A. Ironside

N.J. Hiebert - 8099  

April 28

R E P E N T A N C E 

The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.   Romans 2:4

What is repentance?  Owning that what God says of you is true.  Repentance is the judgment that the soul passes on itself.

It receives the testimony of God, and when a soul believes there is a Saviour in glory, and that it has never yet bowed down to that Saviour, I believe an arrow of conviction goes through that soul.

Peter was repentant when he said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

Job, when he said to God, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee," was repentant, for he adds, "Wherefore I abhor myself. " (Job 42:5-6).   

Never let us forget that, "Repentance is the tear drop in the eye of Faith."  If you are brought to repentance, self-judgment, and contrition now, I know the hand that will wipe that tear from your eyes.  It is the hand that was nailed to the tree for you!
Simon Peter - W. T. P. Wolston

N.J. Hiebert - 8100  

April 29

But the Word of the Lord endureth forever.  1 Peter 1:25

The wreck of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, left little behind.  The burning jet fuel incinerated virtually everything.

However, one of the items discovered was a fully intact copy of a well used Bible, complete with a prayer list - the possession of a dedicated Christian aboard the doomed aircraft.

Almost everything else from that flight was destroyed or burned - nearly everything that is, except the Word of God!

Heaven and earth will pass away, but not God's Word.  It will last forever.  Let's read it today, so that we can enjoy its truth throughout eternity.
Mark Kolchin

The Bible stands though the hills may tumble,
It will firmly stand when the earth shall crumble;
I will plant my feet on its firm foundation,
For the Bible stands.
Haldor Lillenas

N.J.Hiebert - 8101    

April 30

A l l

The Request - Drink ye all of it. - Matthew 26:27
The Response - They all drank of it. - Mark 14:23

"Would He, then, miss me if I did not come?"
While one is absent, then He hath not all.
"Lacks He His portion if my heart is dumb?"
The whole requires each part, howe'er so small.

"All," Love demands; and love respondeth, "All!"
When there's a praiseless heart, a vacant seat,
A cord is lacking; and the strains that fall
Upon the listening Ear are incomplete.
Bells & Pomegranates - James M. S. Tait     

N.J. Hiebert - 8102

May 1

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Romans 6:11

Regeneration is a new birth - the imparting of a new life - the implantation of a new nature - the formation of a new man.  The old nature remains in all its distinctness; and the new nature is introduced in all its distinctness.

The new nature has its own habits, its own desires, its own tendencies, its own affections.  All these are spiritual, Heavenly, Divine.  Its aspirations are all upward.  It is ever breathing after the heavenly source from which it has emanated.

It partakes of the nature of its source.  A child partakes of the nature of its parents; and the believer is made "a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).  "Of His own will begat He us. (James 1:18).

Regeneration or the new birth, is not a change of man's fallen nature, but the imparting of a new - a Divine nature.  In a word, then, regeneration is God's own work, from first to last.  God is the Operator, man is the happy, privileged subject.  His cooperation is not sought in a work which must ever bear the impress of one almighty hand.

God was alone in creation - alone in redemption - and He must be alone in the mysterious and glorious work of regeneration.
C. H. Macintosh

N.J. Hiebert - 8103  

May 2

Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.  Psalms 16:11

Tell the birds amidst the buds of spring not to sing;
Tell the waters welling from the depths not to flow;
Tell the happy child not to laugh and jump;
Tell the sun and the stars not to shine;

And when these have obeyed you, then tell the soul which has new life through the love of God that it must not speak of Him!  It cannot  but speak what it has seen and heard.
Dr. F. B. Meyer - Mountain Trailways

N.J. Hiebert - 8104

May 3