JESUS CHRIST, PERFECT GOD AND PERFECT MAN
". . . When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, . . . He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied . . ." (Isaiah 53:10,11)
It is true that He emptied Himself. He laid aside the outward appearance of Deity. His Godhead was veiled. But it was there! Again and again His Godhead shows itself. As man, He slept in the boat. As God, He calmed the waves. As man, He wept. As God, He cried, "Lazarus, come forth!" (John 11:43) As man, He was laid in the tomb--as God, He arose! A. E. Hughes.
Calvary has no date. "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8)
Oh, the love that drew salvations's plan,
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man,
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span At Calvary!
Mercy there was great, and grace was free,
Pardon there was multiplied to me,
There my burdened soul found liberty, At Calvary! (W. R. Newell)
"Calvary stills all questions."
The cross spells two stories: one in black--ugly black--the story of sin. Sin carpentered the Cross, and wove the thorns, and drove the nails--our sin! And a story too, in red--bright-flowing red--the story of LOVE, HIS LOVE that yielded to the cross and nails and shame for us! And only the passion of His love burning within will make us hate sin, as only HIS BLOOD can wash it out.
The hill of the Cross is the highest hill on earth in its significance. There hate's worst and love's best met. "AND LOVE WON." Dr. S. D. Gordon
N.J. Hiebert - 20284
April 20
"BUT HE ROSE AGAIN"
He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. . . . Matthew 28:6
I was going down a street in Chicago, when in a window I saw a very moving picture of the crucifixion. As I gazed spellbound at the vividly pictured story, I suddenly became conscious that at my side stood a street urchin. He, too, was gazing, and his tense expression made me know that "The Crucifixion" had really gripped his little soul.
Touching him on the shoulder, I said, "Sonny, what does it mean?" "Doncha know?" he asked, his face full of marvel at my ignorance. "That there man is Jesus, and them others is Roman soldiers, and the woman that's cryin' is His mother, and," he added, "they killed Him."
I was loathe to leave that window, but I could not tarry always at the world's tragedy, so I turned and walked quietly down the street. In a moment I heard pattering footsteps at my heels, and there stood my little street urchin. "Say, Mister," he breathlessly announced, I fergot to tell yer, He rose again!"
The sign of our faith is an empty Cross, and empty tomb--He is not here: for He is risen!
REDEMPTION
A mother and her Child; a wondrous Boy, a dead man raised to life;
A few poor fishermen, an Upper Room, a feast, a garden and a judgment hall.
A crown of thorns, a scourge, a bitter cross; a great stone rolled away and tears;
A springtime morning and an empty tomb; a feast a Blessing and a Risen Christ.
Mary Winter Ware
Oh, let me live as If He died but yestertide;
And I myself had seen and touched His pierced side.
20285
N.J. Hiebert - 20285
April 21
REDEEMED (Being set free - Bought Back)
Your redemption draweth nigh. . . . Luke 21:28
REDEMPTION FROM SIN has been accomplished already. All who avail themselves of what was wrought on Calvary have been bought in the market, bought out of the market, never again to be on sale in the market.
The redemption of our bodies awaits the resurrection when all who have been redeemed through faith in Christ shall be transformed and take their new bodies fashioned like His glorious body. Then follows the redemption of all creation.
When the saints rule over the earth set free from the blight of decay and death, man and beast will be at peace. God has set His face to redeem man and nature from the havoc wrought by the devil. "Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh!" All The Days - Vance Havner
Redeemed-how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed thro' His infinite mercy, His child, and forever, I am.
Redeemed and so happy in Jesus, No language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence With me doth continually dwell.
I think of my bless-ed Redeemer, I think of Him all the day long;
I sing, for I cannot be silent; His love is the theme of my song.
I know I shall see in His beauty The King in whose word I delight;
Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps, and giveth me songs in the night.
Chorus: Redeemed, . . Redeemed, . . Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed, . . redeemed, . . His child, and forever I am. Fanny J. Crosby
N.J. Hiebert - 20286
April 22
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee. . . 2 Timothy 1:6
Having expressed his love for and confidence in Timothy, Paul passes on to exhortation, encouragement and instruction. First, he exhorts him to stir up "the gift of God" which had been imparted to him for the service of the Lord.
In the presence of difficulties, dangers and general unfaithfulness, when there would appear to be little result from the ministry, there is the danger of thinking it is almost useless to exercise gift. Therefore we need the warning against letting the gift fall into disuse. We are to stir it up; and, in a day of ruin, to be all the more insistent in its use. A little later the Apostle can say, "Preach the word; be instant (urgent) in season, out of season" (2 Timothy 4:2).
Having spoken of gifts that are special to the individual, the Apostle passes on to remind Timothy of the gift that is common to all believers. To some God gives a special gift for the ministry of the word, to all His people He gives the spirit of power, and of love, and of wise discretion. It is the state and spirit of the believer that is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit and therefore partakes of the character of the Spirit, as the Lord said, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:6)
By nature Timothy may have been timid, and retiring in disposition, but the Holy Spirit does not produce the spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. In the natural man we may find power without love, or love degenerating into mere sentiment. With the Christian, under the control of the Spirit, power is combined with love, and love expressed with a wise discretion. Thus, however difficult the day, the believer is well equipped with power to do the will of God, to express the love of God, and to exercise a sober judgment in the midst of the ruin.
Hamilton Smith - Expository Outline of Second Timothy
N.J. Hiebert - 20287
April 23
Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7
Do you know the One who says this? In the same epistle there is a verse, which precedes the one we are considering, and must precede it, too, in our own experience. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3:18) This deals with the sin question, which must be dealt with before the care question.
But the latter is not overlooked, for what we are invited to do when we are brought to God is to cast all our care upon Him. If God has laid your sins upon Christ, you may lay all your care upon God. And the reason is given why we may: "For He careth for you." Christ once suffered for your sins and bore them, and He now wants you to let Him bear your care.
Here, then, is the answer to the unbelief that thinks God allows the world to drift on, and has left it to take care of itself. This is as untrue as every other lie of which Satan is the source. Those words, "He careth;" that invitation to "cast all our care upon Him," come to us with the very stamp of truth. It would be fiendish to mock us with such words. Ah! mockery cannot coin such words as those. They tell their own tale, that behind them there is a heart we may well trust.
They are words, too, that appeal to all, for who does not know care? Recently we had the opportunity of watching the faces of people in a crowded London thoroughfare. Hundreds passed us, among them different classes, and creeds, and nationalities; but in one respect they were all alike--there was more or less of care depicted in every countenance.
Their cares were not alike, yet there was one remedy for all. How many knew that they might have the peace of God, which passeth all understanding? How many could look up and say, "He careth for me?" Angels in White - Russell Elliott.
N.J. Hiebert - 20288
April 24
He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life. John 5:24.
Not surprisingly, heaven's words come only from heaven. You could get the fragrance of roses from a dungeon, if first the lovely flowers were carried there. This fragrant knowledge of a God of love could never have been told except by the lips of the One who came from His Father in heaven. He alone could speak words of eternal life. In almost every chapter of John's inspiring Gospel, these words of eternal life are found.
A learned rabbi hears them at night from an object lesson of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14). An ignorant and licentious, though religious Samaritan woman hears them from "a prophet" who sits on Sychar's well (4:14). A hopeless paralytic, waiting thirty eight-years at Bethesda's pool, hears them also, and so did those that day who accused the Mighty Healer of making a man whole on the Sabbath day.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you: He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life; and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life (5:24). There were words of eternal life when He fed the hungry multitudes with five loaves and two small fishes, "I am the Bread of Life: He that cometh to Me shall shall never hunger and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst" (6:35).
Hear His words about the living water when the unsatisfied crowd at Jerusalem kept the feast of Tabernacles: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (7:37). Read words about eternal life when He opened the eyes of the blind in chapter 9, words about Himself as the resurrection and the life, when He wept with others at the grave of Lazarus. These words of eternal life took deep root in the hearts of His disciples, and when the cross blasted their superficial expectations, His resurrection raised them again to a living hope, for "they remembered His words" (Luke 24:8) Plant of Renown - Leonard Sheldrake
N.J. Hiebert - 20289
April 25
"Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report" Philippians 4:8
Whatsoever things are lovely, or lovable. Oh, that we might have our minds occupied with such things! Oh, that we might meditate on the gracious, winsome things in the saints, and in others about us! Oh, that we might put the most favourable construction on every report we hear.
Love thinketh no evil. Love believeth all things: not the evil things, but the good ones: and where it cannot actually believe all the good it would like, it at least hopeth all things: it hopes the good report is true, and the evil one false.
Notice there is not the slightest suggestion we should meditate on the evil report: but only on the good. A scripture that might go well with this part of our verse is 1 Peter 4:8: Above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins." With the sins and evil reports covered by love, we will be free to meditate on whatsoever things are of good report.
This does not, of course, mean that we are to make light of evil, or go on with it. But evil that is dealt with in true love, will win the erring one again, instead of driving him further away. Meditations on Philippians - G Christopher Willis
Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter.
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.
Fanny Crosby
N.J. Hiebert - 20290
April 26
He is not here, but is risen...And they remembered His words. Luke 24:6,8
Joey was a severely disabled student with a terminal disease who attended a Christian school. Spring had come and Easter was near. The teacher spent time teaching her class about the resurrection of Jesus from among the dead. Then she gave each of her students a large plastic egg.
"Now," she said to them, "I want you to take this home and bring it back tomorrow with something inside that shows new life. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Miss Nelson!" The children responded enthusiastically--all except for Joey. He just listened intently, his eyes never leaving her face. Miss Nelson wondered if he had understood what she had said about the Lord Jesus' death and resurrection? Perhaps she should call his parents that evening and explain the assignment to them. But in the busyness of her day she forgot about phoning Joey's parents.
The next morning, 19 excited children came to school, laughing and talking as they placed their eggs in the large wicker basket on Miss Nelson's desk. Soon it was time to open the eggs and in the first egg, she found a flower. Oh yes, a flower is certainly a sign of new life," she said. "When plants peek through the ground we know that spring is here."
The next egg contained a realistic plastic butterfly. "We all know that a caterpillar changes and grows into a beautiful butterfly. Yes, that is new life, too."
Next was a rock with green moss on it. She explained that moss, too, showed life.
The fourth egg--Joey's egg--was empty. Because she did not want to embarrass him, she quietly set the egg aside and reached for another. Joey spoke up; "Miss Nelson, aren't you going talk about my egg?" She stammered, "Joey...your egg is empty". But tears filled her eyes as she listened to Joey's explanation. He said softly, "Yes, but Jesus' tomb was empty, too. Jesus was killed and put in there. Then His Father raised Him up to life!"
Three months later, Joey died. On the top of his casket were 19 empty plastic eggs.
"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25). T.C.S. (Doug Nicolet - 2008
N.J. Hiebert - 20291
April 27
He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Isaiah 53:3
O what cruelties men inflicted upon God's Son. They bound Him with cords; they crowned Him with thorns; they lashed Him with a scourge: they beat Him with a rod; they mocked Him with a scarlet robe; they burdened Him with a cross; they pierced Him with nails; and finally, when He had expired, they wounded Him with a spear. It was all for you and me.
"Man of sorrows," what a name for the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood; Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
Guilty, vile and helpless we; spotless Lamb of God was He;
"Full atonement!" can it be? Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
Lifted up was He to die, "It is finished," was His cry;
Now in heaven exalted high; Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
When He comes, our glorious King, all His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing: Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
P. P. Bliss
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.8 John 1:29
N.J. Hiebert - 20292
April 28
When they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushments . . .and they were smitten. 2 Chronicles 20:22
Oh, that we could reason less about our troubles, and sing and praise more! There are thousands of things that we wear as shackles which we might use as instruments with music in them, if we only knew how.
Those men that ponder, and meditate, and weigh the affairs of life, and study the mysterious developments of God's providence, and wonder why they should be burdened and thwarted and hampered--how different and how much more joyful would be their lives, if, instead of forever indulging in self-revolving and inward thinking, they would take their experiences, day by day, and lift them up, and praise God for them.
We can sing our cares away easier than we can reason them away. Sing in the morning. The birds are the earliest to sing, and birds are more without care than anything else that I know of.
Sing at evening. Singing is the last thing that robins do. When they have done their daily work; when they have flown their last flight, and picked up their last morsel of food, then on a topmost twig, they sing one song of praise.
Oh, that we might sing morning, and evening, and let song touch song all the way through. Selected
Don't let the song go out of your life though it chance sometimes to flow
In a minor strain; it will blend again with the major tone you know.
What though shadows rise to obscure life's skies, and hide for a time the sun,
The sooner they'll lift and reveal the rift, if you let the melody run.
Don't let the song go out of your life; though the voice may have lost its trill,
Though the the tremulous note may die in your throat, let it sing in your spirit still.
Don't let he song go out of your life; let it ring in the soul while here;
And when you go hence, "twill follow you thence, if redeemed, in that heavenly sphere.
N.J. Hiebert - 20293
April 29
All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:3) For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him" (Colossians 1:16).
When this perfect creation was ruined by the entrance of sin, when man fell and all creation on account of that fall was brought into the bondage of corruption, the work of redemption became a necessity. No creature of God was fitted or fit to do this. Only the Son of God, the Creator Himself, could undertake this mighty work and accomplish it to the Praise and Glory of God. To do this great work, He had to appear on this earth in the form of man.
This work of the Son of God has a threefold aspect. It is a past work, a present work and beyond the present there is His future work. His work and service will terminate when He delivers up the kingdom, so that God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15: 24-28). It has a special meaning for the church. "Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it." (Ephesians 5:25-27) This is His past work.
Since then He is sanctifying the the church by the washing of water by the Word, and in the future He will present it to Himself, a glorious church. In virtue of this threefold work of our Lord, believers are saved, are being saved, and will be saved. A. C. Gabelein - The Work of Christ.
N.J. Hiebert - 20294
April 30
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. 2 Peter 1:10
Diligence: constant effort to accomplish what is undertaken. The characteristics of diligence are: (1) a destination or objective, (2) the power to get there, and (3) the purpose of heart to continue in spite of whatever looms up to discourage.
If you look up "diligence" in either an English or French dictionary, one of the meanings is "a stage-coach". Diligence was the term applied in Quebec in the days before trains, to a "coach" that ran between towns on a schedule. This was an appropriate use of the word given the characteristics listed earlier.
(1) A destination or objective: Certainly the reason for taking the coach down the bumpy roads of early Quebec was to get to a desired destination town. Each believer has the objective of living out the new life that is in us through the work of Christ; that is, making our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). Not that we are responsible for the fact that it is "sure", but making that fact assured in our own hearts and then demonstrating it to others.
(2) The power to get there: The passenger on a "diligence" had no direct power to get it over the road to their destination. That power resided in sturdy horses, commanding coachman and reliable coach. So for the believer; the power to be diligent in spiritual things does not come from us, it comes from the Lord by His Spirit working within us. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
(3) The purpose of heart to continue: There was no point in getting off the coach midway in the wilderness. The journey once begun needed to be completed, even if the road was boggy and slow, or the cold penetrated the unheated coach, or highwaymen threatened. For the believer, we need to "Continue thou in the things which thou has learned." (2 Timothy 3:14) Whatever comes our way, it is important to continue thus all the way to our ultimate destination, heaven.
Our coachman is the Lord. He knows the way; He knows the dangers, and HE WILL bring us safely to the end of our journey. Meanwhile, trust Him, to keep us safely on course, while we diligently seek to remain assured of our relationship with Him, and diligently demonstrate this to others by our love, our patience and our words.
Lorne Perry
N.J. Hiebert - 20295
May 1
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
As we meditate on this first chapter of Jonah, and follow the disobedient servant of Jehovah along his pathway from his home in Gath-Hepher, down, down, down, till he reaches the belly of the fish, and thus saves the heathen sailors, we may realize that all this pathway is a picture of the perfect, obedient Servant of Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ.
He went down, down, down--down from His home in the glory, down to the manger, and from thence down to the cross, and down into the grave, and so saves us poor sinners. How marvellously is that pathway traced for us in Philippians.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Philippians 2:5-8
Little wonder that the Spirit of God should then burst forth: "Wherefore God also hath exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Lessons From Jonah - G. C. Willis
N.J. Hiebert - 20296
May 2
NOW OR NEVER
They that were ready went in . . . and the door was shut. Matthew 25:10
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door . . . he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not. (Luke 13:25)
There are plenty of things besides immediate death which may just as effectually prevent your ever coming to Christ at all, if you do not come now. This might be your last free hour for coming.
Tomorrow the call may be less urgent, and the other things entering in may deaden it, and the grieved Spirit may withdraw and cease to give you even your present inclination to listen to it, and so you may drift on and on, farther and farther from the haven of safety (into which you may enter NOW if you will), till it is out of sight on the horizon.
And then it may be too late to turn the helm, and the current may be too strong; and when the storm of mortal illness at last comes, you may find that you are too weak mentally or physically to rouse yourself even to hear, much less to come. What can one do when fever or exhaustion are triumphing over mind and body? Do not risk it. Come now! and "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18) .
What will you do without Him, in the long and dreary day
Of trouble and perplexity, when you do not know the way,
And no one else can help you, and no one guides you right,
And hope comes not with morning, and rest comes not with night.
Opened Treasures - Frances Ridley Havergal
N.J. Hiebert - 20297
May 3
