The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. Lamentation 3:24,25.
"Therefore have I hope." An exalted strain of joyous confidence is sustained. In place of complaining that his woes were greater than he had deserved, Jeremiah justifies God, and gratefully acknowledges that justice has been tempered with grace.
"It is of the Lord's mercies," He owns, "that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22:23). How precious the faith that, at such a time, could so speak! And what tried saint can truthfully say otherwise?
No self-judged believer ever yet failed to own that he was far from receiving the full reward of his deeds. Rather, it seems as though God's grace leads Him to overlook even serious failure, and to correct but in part. "His compassions fail not."
The rod is never directed by a cold, indifferent heart. He feels as no other can for the people of His choice, the children He loves. Every morning witnesses fresh evidences of His loving-kindness. Lamentations of Jeremiah - H. A. Ironside
N.J. Hiebert - 10020
"It is of the Lord's mercies," He owns, "that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22:23). How precious the faith that, at such a time, could so speak! And what tried saint can truthfully say otherwise?
No self-judged believer ever yet failed to own that he was far from receiving the full reward of his deeds. Rather, it seems as though God's grace leads Him to overlook even serious failure, and to correct but in part. "His compassions fail not."
The rod is never directed by a cold, indifferent heart. He feels as no other can for the people of His choice, the children He loves. Every morning witnesses fresh evidences of His loving-kindness. Lamentations of Jeremiah - H. A. Ironside
N.J. Hiebert - 10020
July 31
THE DAY OF CHRIST
Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Philippians 2:16
Ye also are our's (our boast) in the day of the Lord Jesus.
2 Corinthians 1:14
And what is this "Day" of which the Apostle so often speaks? This "Day of our Lord Jesus Christ"? We speak of "Caesars day" or, "Napoleon's day"; and we all understand by this that it means the day when Caesar or Napoleon held sway, and exercised his will.
So is it now: it is "man's day," (1 Corinthians 4:3) when man is permitted to act according to his own will. But the time is coming when the Lord Jesus Christ will have His day: when He will come again and take all His own to be with Himself forever.1 Thessalonians 4.
This is the beginning of the day of our Lord Jesus Christ: but it will include the Judgment Seat of Christ. I think this is the time that the Apostle refers to in Philippians 2. When He sees His beloved brethren from Philippi receive their reward for their faithful walk down here, it will be a boast to Paul, that not in vain he ran, and not in vain he toiled.
And, beloved fellow labourer, you and I have that same bright hope: nor do I mean by that word "fellow labourer" (1 Corinthians 3:9) any special class of persons. A child who seeks to lead a school-mate to the Saviour; the Sunday School teacher who seeks to win the class to Him; the worker who points his companion to Christ: and, perhaps the sweetest of all, the parents who win their own child: these all are "labourers" for Christ: these all may look forward to that same boast the apostle had: if these dear souls continue in the path marked out. Meditations on Philippians - G. Christopher Willis
N.J. Hiebert - 10021
Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Philippians 2:16
Ye also are our's (our boast) in the day of the Lord Jesus.
2 Corinthians 1:14
And what is this "Day" of which the Apostle so often speaks? This "Day of our Lord Jesus Christ"? We speak of "Caesars day" or, "Napoleon's day"; and we all understand by this that it means the day when Caesar or Napoleon held sway, and exercised his will.
So is it now: it is "man's day," (1 Corinthians 4:3) when man is permitted to act according to his own will. But the time is coming when the Lord Jesus Christ will have His day: when He will come again and take all His own to be with Himself forever.1 Thessalonians 4.
This is the beginning of the day of our Lord Jesus Christ: but it will include the Judgment Seat of Christ. I think this is the time that the Apostle refers to in Philippians 2. When He sees His beloved brethren from Philippi receive their reward for their faithful walk down here, it will be a boast to Paul, that not in vain he ran, and not in vain he toiled.
And, beloved fellow labourer, you and I have that same bright hope: nor do I mean by that word "fellow labourer" (1 Corinthians 3:9) any special class of persons. A child who seeks to lead a school-mate to the Saviour; the Sunday School teacher who seeks to win the class to Him; the worker who points his companion to Christ: and, perhaps the sweetest of all, the parents who win their own child: these all are "labourers" for Christ: these all may look forward to that same boast the apostle had: if these dear souls continue in the path marked out. Meditations on Philippians - G. Christopher Willis
N.J. Hiebert - 10021
August 1
- There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
- By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this (lame) man stand here before you. (v.10)
- They (council) commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus (v.18).
- But Peter and John answered . . . Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye (v.19).
- For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. (v.20)
The council admit defeat, (v.16) and then, calling in the apostles, commanded them (v.18). This command raised the most important question possible: Was God to be obeyed or man? Peter and John answered (v.19,20).
It is to be noted here that the action of the apostles is in no sense opposed to the scripture that enjoins: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers" (Romans 13:1,2) (1 Peter 2:13,14). In the case before us it was not a question of the king or of the civil power,--which the saint ever recognizes as the sword of God put into man's hand,--but of ecclesiastical and priestly arrogance, which has no claim on the conscience for allegiance.
This is a principle of immense importance here, viz., that a child of God is never supposed to disobey God, in order to obey man. The civil power may make regulations which deprive the saint of privileges he would like to enjoy, but the latter must never disobey God, in order to conform to the will of the former. He may have to endure deprivation of a privilege, but never can disobey a divine command. This Peter's action here makes abundantly clear.
(Simon Peter - W. T. P. Wolston)
N.J. Hiebert - 10022
- By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this (lame) man stand here before you. (v.10)
- They (council) commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus (v.18).
- But Peter and John answered . . . Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye (v.19).
- For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. (v.20)
The council admit defeat, (v.16) and then, calling in the apostles, commanded them (v.18). This command raised the most important question possible: Was God to be obeyed or man? Peter and John answered (v.19,20).
It is to be noted here that the action of the apostles is in no sense opposed to the scripture that enjoins: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers" (Romans 13:1,2) (1 Peter 2:13,14). In the case before us it was not a question of the king or of the civil power,--which the saint ever recognizes as the sword of God put into man's hand,--but of ecclesiastical and priestly arrogance, which has no claim on the conscience for allegiance.
This is a principle of immense importance here, viz., that a child of God is never supposed to disobey God, in order to obey man. The civil power may make regulations which deprive the saint of privileges he would like to enjoy, but the latter must never disobey God, in order to conform to the will of the former. He may have to endure deprivation of a privilege, but never can disobey a divine command. This Peter's action here makes abundantly clear.
(Simon Peter - W. T. P. Wolston)
N.J. Hiebert - 10022
August 2
Looking unto Jesus . . . Hebrews 12:2 (Continued from Gem # 8530)
Only three words, but in those three words is the whole secret of life.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS to receive from Him the task and the cross for each day, with the grace which is sufficient to carry the cross and to accomplish the task;
the grace that enables us to be patient wth His patience, active with His activity, loving with His love;
never asking "What am I able for?" but rather: "What is He not able for?" and waiting for His strength which is made perfect in our weakness.
(2 Corinthians 12:9)
LOOKING UNTO JESUS to go forth from ourselves and to forget ourselves; so that our darkness may flee away before the brightness of His face; so that our joys may be holy, and our sorrow restrained;
- that He may cast us down, and that He may raise us up;
- that He may afflict us, and that He may comfort us;
- that He may deprive us, and that He may enrich us;
- that He may teach us to pray, and that He may answer our prayers;
- that while leaving us in the world, He may separate us from it, our life being hidden with Him in God, and our behaviour bearing witness to Him before men.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS and at nothing else,
as our text expresses it in one untranslatable word (aphoroontes),
which at the same time directs us to fix our gaze upon Him, and to turn it away from everything else.
Theodore Monod
N.J. Hiebert - 10023
Only three words, but in those three words is the whole secret of life.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS to receive from Him the task and the cross for each day, with the grace which is sufficient to carry the cross and to accomplish the task;
the grace that enables us to be patient wth His patience, active with His activity, loving with His love;
never asking "What am I able for?" but rather: "What is He not able for?" and waiting for His strength which is made perfect in our weakness.
(2 Corinthians 12:9)
LOOKING UNTO JESUS to go forth from ourselves and to forget ourselves; so that our darkness may flee away before the brightness of His face; so that our joys may be holy, and our sorrow restrained;
- that He may cast us down, and that He may raise us up;
- that He may afflict us, and that He may comfort us;
- that He may deprive us, and that He may enrich us;
- that He may teach us to pray, and that He may answer our prayers;
- that while leaving us in the world, He may separate us from it, our life being hidden with Him in God, and our behaviour bearing witness to Him before men.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS and at nothing else,
as our text expresses it in one untranslatable word (aphoroontes),
which at the same time directs us to fix our gaze upon Him, and to turn it away from everything else.
Theodore Monod
N.J. Hiebert - 10023
August 3
Preach wisely.
Because the preacher was wise, he . . . sought to find out acceptable words. Ecclesiastes 12:9,10. Not rude, loose, and indigested stuff, in a slovenly manner brought forth, lest the carelessness of the cook should turn the stomachs of the guests.
Preach gently.
The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. 2 Timothy 2:24, 25. O how careful is God that nothing should be in the preacher to prejudice the sinner's judgment, or harden his heart against the offer of His grace! If the servant be proud and hasty, how shall they know that the Master is meek and patient?
He that will take the bird must not scare it. A forward, peevish messenger is no friend to him that sends him. Sinners are not pelted into Christ with stones of hard provoking language, but wooed into Christ by heart-melting exhortations.
The oil makes the nail drive without splitting the board. The word never enters the heart more kindly, than when it falls most gently. The word preached comes, indeed, best from a warm heart. "The words of wise men are heard in quiet." Ecclesiastes 9:17
Preach diligently.
All the water is lost that runs beside the mill, and all your thoughts are waste which help you not to do God's work withal in your general or particular calling. The bee will not sit on a flower where no honey can be sucked, neither should the Christian.
The Christian in Complete Armour - William Gurnall (1616 - 1679)
N.J. Hiebert - 10024
Because the preacher was wise, he . . . sought to find out acceptable words. Ecclesiastes 12:9,10. Not rude, loose, and indigested stuff, in a slovenly manner brought forth, lest the carelessness of the cook should turn the stomachs of the guests.
Preach gently.
The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. 2 Timothy 2:24, 25. O how careful is God that nothing should be in the preacher to prejudice the sinner's judgment, or harden his heart against the offer of His grace! If the servant be proud and hasty, how shall they know that the Master is meek and patient?
He that will take the bird must not scare it. A forward, peevish messenger is no friend to him that sends him. Sinners are not pelted into Christ with stones of hard provoking language, but wooed into Christ by heart-melting exhortations.
The oil makes the nail drive without splitting the board. The word never enters the heart more kindly, than when it falls most gently. The word preached comes, indeed, best from a warm heart. "The words of wise men are heard in quiet." Ecclesiastes 9:17
Preach diligently.
All the water is lost that runs beside the mill, and all your thoughts are waste which help you not to do God's work withal in your general or particular calling. The bee will not sit on a flower where no honey can be sucked, neither should the Christian.
The Christian in Complete Armour - William Gurnall (1616 - 1679)
N.J. Hiebert - 10024
August 4
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand. Isaiah 40:12
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands. Isaiah 49:16
Jesus said: I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them our of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. John 10:28-30
One day, deep in the forest, we came upon a rock in midstream scooped by the backwash of immemorial waters to a hollow like the palm of a man's hand. Over this rock fell a crystal sheet of water, and through that moving clearness we saw maidenhair fern growing in a lovely profusion in the hollow of the "hand".
It was not the place where we should have planted a fern; at any moment it might have been tossed, a piteous, crumpled mass, down the shouting river--this is how it seemed to us. But it was safe. The falls flowed over it, not on it. And it was blessed.
When the fern on the bank shrivelled in heat, it was green, for it was watered all the year long by dust of spray. So does our wonderful God turn that which had seemed to be a perpetual threat to a perpetual benediction. Is there anything to fear with such a God? Rose From Briar - Amy Carmichael
Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand;
Sheltered o'er, sheltered o'er with His love for evermore.
No ill can harm me, no foe alarm me,
For He keeps both day and night.
Safe am I, in the hollow of His hand. Mildred L. Dillon
N.J. Hiebert - 10025
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands. Isaiah 49:16
Jesus said: I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them our of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. John 10:28-30
One day, deep in the forest, we came upon a rock in midstream scooped by the backwash of immemorial waters to a hollow like the palm of a man's hand. Over this rock fell a crystal sheet of water, and through that moving clearness we saw maidenhair fern growing in a lovely profusion in the hollow of the "hand".
It was not the place where we should have planted a fern; at any moment it might have been tossed, a piteous, crumpled mass, down the shouting river--this is how it seemed to us. But it was safe. The falls flowed over it, not on it. And it was blessed.
When the fern on the bank shrivelled in heat, it was green, for it was watered all the year long by dust of spray. So does our wonderful God turn that which had seemed to be a perpetual threat to a perpetual benediction. Is there anything to fear with such a God? Rose From Briar - Amy Carmichael
Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand;
Sheltered o'er, sheltered o'er with His love for evermore.
No ill can harm me, no foe alarm me,
For He keeps both day and night.
Safe am I, in the hollow of His hand. Mildred L. Dillon
N.J. Hiebert - 10025
August 5
THE UNFATHOMABLE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST
Behold . . . is any sorrow like unto My sorrow. Lamentation 1:12
Many and various causes of sorrow are presented in the life of our blessed Lord on earth; one coming on another. And sorrow becoming more and more intense, up to the closing scene on Mount Calvary. Suffering, connected with testimony for God; whoever is for God will be sure to suffer in such a world.
Then there was the peculiarity of sorrow, as being the One to solve that problem which seemed so impossible to solve--how God and a sinner could go together. How God could find anyone to show the bearing of divine glory in connection with mercy towards one covered with sin? He did find One Who was to be the perfect measure of what sin was in His presence. That One takes the cup of wrath from God's hand; and in that hour, God cannot look at the One in whom was all His delight. The hour of forsaking, when the "sword" was to awake, only came out at the cross. (Zechariah 13:7) There was but the anticipation of its unsheathing at Gethsemane.
I see there God's estimate of sin when it comes into His presence. That Son of His love had to be treated as if the whole mass of sin was His, and the whole weight of wrath for that sin came upon Him. He had to bear it all there, alone. He may be a Man of sorrows all through His life, but He has God with Him in it. Never till the cross do we find the sense of God's distance from Him--expressed in that cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46)
He never could taste that before, for only then was He bearing sin in His own body, in God's presence. Not one ray of light came from Him while the Son of His love was there, suffering, the Just for the unjust. (1 Peter 3:18). Man tries to keep sin far away, out of God's presence, but Christ carried it right into His presence. G.V.Wigram
N.J. Hiebert - 10026
Behold . . . is any sorrow like unto My sorrow. Lamentation 1:12
Many and various causes of sorrow are presented in the life of our blessed Lord on earth; one coming on another. And sorrow becoming more and more intense, up to the closing scene on Mount Calvary. Suffering, connected with testimony for God; whoever is for God will be sure to suffer in such a world.
Then there was the peculiarity of sorrow, as being the One to solve that problem which seemed so impossible to solve--how God and a sinner could go together. How God could find anyone to show the bearing of divine glory in connection with mercy towards one covered with sin? He did find One Who was to be the perfect measure of what sin was in His presence. That One takes the cup of wrath from God's hand; and in that hour, God cannot look at the One in whom was all His delight. The hour of forsaking, when the "sword" was to awake, only came out at the cross. (Zechariah 13:7) There was but the anticipation of its unsheathing at Gethsemane.
I see there God's estimate of sin when it comes into His presence. That Son of His love had to be treated as if the whole mass of sin was His, and the whole weight of wrath for that sin came upon Him. He had to bear it all there, alone. He may be a Man of sorrows all through His life, but He has God with Him in it. Never till the cross do we find the sense of God's distance from Him--expressed in that cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46)
He never could taste that before, for only then was He bearing sin in His own body, in God's presence. Not one ray of light came from Him while the Son of His love was there, suffering, the Just for the unjust. (1 Peter 3:18). Man tries to keep sin far away, out of God's presence, but Christ carried it right into His presence. G.V.Wigram
N.J. Hiebert - 10026
August 6
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