Gems for the Week
March 8 - 12
"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:1)
Every believer is a child of God. We are not children of God by natural birth. I know there is a teaching abroad that all men are God's children. All men are God's creatures: He is the Creator of them all. But only those who are born again are spoken of as children of God, and they alone are entitled to look up into the face of God and say, "Our Father." (H.A. Ironside)
N.J. Hiebert # 2545
"From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." (Psalm 61:2)
"Overwhelmed"! Does this word describe your present state of mind? Have fears, sorrows, and disappointments so assailed you that you feel totally crushed? To add to your problems, Satan targets you, causing you to question the love and wisdom of your Heavenly Father. In your extremity, take fresh hold upon the fact that however "low" you may be, "the Rock that is higher" stands unchanged. In Him you will find the stability and the support you need. (G. Hall)
Hiding in Thee, hiding in Thee,
Thou blest Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee.
(Wm. O. Cushing)
N.J. Hiebert # 2546
"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever
the earth was." (Proverbs 8:22-23)
Nothing more effectually baffles the mind of man than the concept of eternity before the world began. Man can know nothing at all concerning it except what God has revealed. Scripture is comparatively silent about the eternal past. Even in the New Testament, where the clearest and fullest light of God's revelation shines, very few passages reach backward further than the foundation of the world and the beginning of the ages of time. But these few allusions of choicest worth unveil to us a little of God's secret purposes formed by Him before He launched the universe into being by His omnipotent word and furnished it by His omniscient wisdom.
The "foundation of the world" is frequently mentioned in Scripture as the extreme borderline of the past from which human history is reckoned. The names found in the book of life were written "from the foundation of the world," the Revelation declares. The divine record of these elect persons began at that point.
But what lies beyond that borderline of creation's beginning, when God was all? What took place when the Deity was Absolute, and unrelated to the nonexistent universe? From the disclosures God has been pleased to make in His Word, we learn of His love, of His foreknowledge, of His election, and of His promise of eternal life; and we know, therefore, that these plannings of infinite love were formulated before the foundation of the world. The counsels of grace existed in the Godhead from eternity, but the fact of their existence then was necessarily revealed to man in time. (W.J. Hocking)
N.J. Hiebert # 2547
"The BLOOD of Jesus Christ His (God's) Son cleanseth us
from all sins." (1 John 1:7)
Let us beware how we trifle with sin. Let us remember that before one stain of guilt of sin - even the very smallest could be removed, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ had to pass through all the unutterable horrors of Calvary. That intensely bitter cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" is the only thing that can give us any proper idea of what sin is; and into the profound depths of that cry no mortal or angel can ever enter. But though we can never fathom the mysterious depths of the sufferings of Christ, we should at least seek to meditate more habitually upon His cross and passion, and, in this way, reach a much deeper view of the awfulness of sin in the sight of God. If, indeed, sin was so dreadful, so abhorrent to a holy God, that He was constrained to turn away the light of His countenance from that blessed One who had dwelt in His bosom from all eternity; if He had to forsake Him because He was bearing sin in His own body on the tree, then what must sin be?
How lightly, at times, do we think of that which cost the Lord Jesus every thing - not only life, but that which is better and dearer than life, even the light of God's countenance! May we have a far deeper sense of the hatefulness of sin. May we most sedulously watch against the bare movement of the eye in a wrong direction; for we may rest assured that the heart will follow the eye, and the feet will follow the heart, and thus we get away from the Lord, lose the sense of His presence and His love, and become miserable, or, if not miserable, what is far worse, dead, cold, and callous - "hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (C.H. Mackintosh)
N.J. Hiebert # 2548
"He gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called
the saints and widows, presented her (Dorcas) alive." (Acts 9:41)
Dorcas is one of the most amazing women in scripture. She was always doing good and helping the poor. She then received her reward - to be taken to be with the Saviour. What a shock for her to have to return for the sake of the saints. There were no complaints. She just continued serving. Thank God for insignificant, hardworking sisters, whose whole aim is to serve Christ and the saints. We do not read of any man who was raised again following Pentecost, apart from Eutichus - and he had fallen asleep!
(Brian Russell - Choice Gleanings)
N.J. Hiebert # 2549
