Gems to consider
June 9 - 10
"Thou art not able to go against this Philistine (Goliath) to fight with him, for thou art but a youth." (1 Samuel 17:33)
"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and, have not works?" (James 2:14)
"Thou art not able to go against this Philistine (Goliath) to fight with him, for thou art but a youth." (1 Samuel 17:33)
The path of faith is a very simple and a very narrow one. It neither deifies the means on the one hand, nor despises it on the other; it simply values it so far as it is evidently God's means, and no further. There is a vast difference between God's using the creature to minister to me, and my using it to shut Him out. This difference is not sufficiently attended to. God used the ravens to minister to Elijah, but Elijah did not use them to exclude God. If the heart be really trusting in God, it will not trouble itself about His means. It waits on Him, in the sweet assurance that by what means soever He pleases, He will bless, He will minister, he will provide. (C.H. Mackintosh)
N.J. Hiebert # 2274
"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and, have not works?" (James 2:14)
Will either God or man be satisfied with a powerless and profitless profession? Surely not. God looks for reality, and honours it where He sees it; and as for man, he can understand naught save the living and intelligible utterance of a faith that shows itself in acts. We are surrounded by the profession of religion, - the phraseology of faith is on every lip; but faith itself is as rare a gem as ever - that faith which will enable a man to push out from the shore of present circumstances, and meet the waves and the winds, and not only meet them, but endure them, even though the Master should seem to be asleep on the pillow. (C.H. Mackintosh)
N.J. Hiebert # 2275
