THE SLACK BOW-STRING
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 - 9566
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 - 9567
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 - 9568
THE WORK OF CHRST
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 - 9569
Daniel. . . kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed. Daniel 6:10
You have prayed — but have you prayed again? True petition may require
repetition. Maybe you should pray again. Not that God may be persuaded, but as evidence that you are not dissuaded. God often withholds that He may become more completely the object of your trust.
Pray—pray again; though weary, faint and lone;
Prayer rises to the Father’s mighty throne.
All earthly things with earth shall fade away;
Prayer grasps eternity; Pray, always pray!
Choice Supplication
N.J.Hiebert — 9660
“By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.” (Psalm 17:4)
As the end approaches, the power of the enemy (Satan) is increasing, and he often seeks to display such by imitation. We are warned of this in 2 Timothy 3:8, where we are told of how the magicians of Egypt, under Satan’s power, withstood Moses by imitation.
“Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.”
This is the character of the last days.
The Christian who would be kept in an evil day, must learn the importance of meeting all the attacks of the enemy by the written Word of God.
H. E. Hayhoe
N.J.Hiebert - 9661
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read
of all men. 2 Corinthians 3:2
The great nineteenth century evangelist, D. L. Moody used to say, "Where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me."
Today fewer and fewer people spend time in serious reading of Holy Scripture but Christians are "read" every day.
Do the readers see kindness, compassion, patience and purity or something else? Do they see a reflection of the attractive character of Christ and yearn to see more?
That is the challenge for us as Christians today.
Paul Young
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,
All His wondrous compassion and purity.
By the Spirit divine may Christ from my life shine,
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.
Tom M. Jones
N.J. Hiebert - 9662
The Test
Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication. Ephesians 6:18.
During the American Revolutionary war a British soldier--a Scottish Highlander--was brought before his commanding officer who also was a Scotsman. The charge against the young soldier was that he had been communicating with the enemy. If proven guilty the sentence would be immediate execution.
Though there was no direct proof against the Highlander of subversion or contact with the enemy, British tempers were riled to a peak due to the previous capture and execution as a spy of Major Andre, a high ranking officer.
The circumstantial evidence against the young Scottish soldier was that he had been seen in the darkening twilight furtively stealing out from a thick clump of bushes and underwood that bordered the dense forest.
Though in the immediate neighbourhood of the British, the forests swarmed with the General George Washington's troops. The charges brought against the young soldier were based on the conjectures and assumptions of those who saw him.
The Highlander's defence to his commanding officer was given in few words. He claimed that having some 'off duty' time, he had quietly left his fellow soldiers to spend an hour or two in secret prayer.
The Scottish commanding officer sternly asked the young soldier; "Have you been in the habit of spending hours in secret prayer?" Receiving an affirmative reply he drew out his watch and continued; "Then never in all your life had you more need for prayer than now; Kneel down, Sir, and pray aloud that we may hear you".
Expecting instant death the young Highlander knelt down and began to earnestly pray. His prayer was obviously uttered by one used to communing with his God. His language, earnestness, reverence and calm demeanour all gave clear testimony to the reality of his Christianity and the reliability of his defence.
When he finished praying his commanding officer quietly said; "You may go, sir. You have not, I dare say, had any contact with the enemy tonight".
The Christian Shepherd - 2009
N.J. Hiebert - 9663
Do you think that God will welcome that prayer to heaven which has not your heart to bear it company? And how can your heart go with it, when you have sent it another way?
Will God hear you when you mock Him? And if this be not to mock Him, what is it? Like children that knock at a door, and then run away to their play again; thus you raise your voice to God, and then are gone in your roving thought to hold converse with the world, or worse. Is this not trifling with God?
Satan disturbs you in praying, that he may make you weary of praying. Indeed he is not likely to miss his mark, if you let these vermin go on to breed in your heart; for these will rob you of the sweetness of prayer; and when the marrow is once out, you will easily be persuaded to throw the bone away.
He is in danger to forsake his meat, who has lost his relish for it. Prayer is a tedious work for him who has no pleasure in it: and weariness in it stands next door to weariness of it.
The Christian in Complete Armour - William Gurnall (1617-1679)
N.J. Hiebert - 9664
The world has more power over a Christian in a low state than the Word and promises of God. Satan's aim always is to rob us of those things which constitute our joy and strength; and he succeeds only too well. Let us not forget how gradual declension is.
We all belong to a period of declension. It is too late for the Church, collectively, to return; but let us, at least, individually, avoid this slippery path. Let us watch against the world, and mistrust even its fairest baits, seeking, in these closing days, to be among the faithful ones to whom the Lord can say, "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20).
God grant that holy separation from the world, and increasing communion with the Lord, may characterize us until the close of our course.
Meditations on the Book of Judges - H. L. Rossier
N.J. Hiebert - 9665
I am in the war, and I can never get out of it, though I may get out of the evil day. What then am I to do? I am to take the whole armour of God.
And now I just ask you to inspect each part of this armour. Is there one single piece of that which is declared to be the armour of God fitted to send you out into the field of battle with flesh and blood?
Is that the way God armed Joshua and David? They were to meet flesh and blood; and they were carnal weapons which He put into their hands. Now there is not a touch of that here. There are no slings and stones and jaw-bones of donkeys; and this is declared to be the whole armour of God.
If this is not the armour I have on me, I am not fighting for Christ. Saints may take carnal weapons; but if I do--if, for instance, I go into a court of justice to assert my rights--do not let me talk of being in the light God. That is where dispensational truth is so important.
I find here that the Spirit sends me into a field of battle, and I find that my security depends on truth, righteousness, faith, peace, and the sword of the Spirit.
Ephesians - J. G. Bellett
N.J. Hiebert - 9666
We have the fullest assurance that our God can and does guide His children in all things. He can signify His mind to us as to this or that particular act or movement. If not, where are we?
How are we to get on? How are we to regulate our movements? Are we to be drifted hither and thither by the tide of circumstances? Are we left to blind chance, or to the mere impulse of our own will?
Thank God, it is not so. He can, in His own perfect way, give us the certainty of His mind in any given case; and, without that certainty, we should never move.
Our Lord Jesus Christ can intimate His mind to His servant as to where He would have him go, and what he would have him do, and no true servant will ever think of moving or acting without such intimation.
If we are not sure, let us be quiet and wait. Very often we harass and fret ourselves about movements that God would not have made us make at all.
A person once said to a friend, "I am quite at a loss to know which way to turn." "Then don't turn at all," was the friend's wise reply.
Traveling Toward Sunrise
N.J. Hiebert - 9667
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14
And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9
Do we not always fail when God confers a responsibility upon us? Only grace can keep us. How thankful we can be that grace always overrules when we have spoiled everything. It gives us an "open door."
No, this is not to return to what we have ruined. Rather, grace gives us something entirely new--something better than what we previously possessed.
When Sardis did not repent, the Lord gave an open door--not a door back to the beginning of Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6), but a door to Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13). The meaning of this open door is not liberty in preaching the gospel; it has nothing to do with this.
Even when it concerns the gospel an open door does not mean that we will not have any opposition. On the contrary the apostle Paul writes: "For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries." (1 Corinthians 16:9).
An open door means that the Lord is clearly showing us which way He wants us to go. In a world where Satan has his way there will always be tremendous opposition and problems to overcome.
The Book of Ruth - H. L. Heijkoop
N.J. Hiebert - 9668
And stayed by joy divine, as hireling fills his day,
Through scenes of strife, and desert life, I tread in peace my way.
It is a serious thing, whatever be the goodness of God, to find peace with a God of holiness. Christ has made peace; but He would have us feel what it is to have need of it, in order that we may know it.
You look to getting the victory in order to get peace; we must get peace to get the victory--peace already made by Christ's work--then you will get strength. We do not find it till we see we have none.
The gospel of peace is ours in Christ; but I must have the spirit of peace in my heart. Peace has been made for us that we may dwell in peace.
It is Christ's work which gives peace to the conscience; but it is subdued will, having none of our own, which in great and in little things makes us peaceful in heart in going through a world of . . . trial.
In all things . . . instead of disquieting ourselves . . . we ought to present our request to God with prayer, with supplication . . . so that, even while making our petition to Him, we can already give thanks, because we are sure of the answer of His grace, be it what it may. . . . It does not say, you will have what you ask; but God's peace will keep your hearts. . . . Oh, what grace! that even our anxieties are a means of our being filled with this marvellous peace.
Pilgrim Portions for the Day of Rest. - J.N.D,
N.J. Hiebert - 9669
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