Gems for the Week
January 17 - 19
"I shall not want." (Psalm 23:1)
When walking in lowliness we are not likely to wound other people, and when walking in meekness we shall not allow ourselves to be offended should they happen to treat us in an unseemly manner. Is it not just the absence of these graces that cause so much fevered restlessness in our lives? We want to do the work of the man with ten talents when God has gifted us with only one; to occupy a prominent position in public when He intends us to fill a lowly place in private. Let us never forget that "when God intends a creature to fly He always provides it with wings"; that if He has fitted one for publicity and prominence, the gift with which He has endowed that one will inevitably make room for itself. "A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men." (Proverbs 18:16) And the strong probability is that, did we but know the perils which surround those who occupy high positions and the fierce conflict which those have to wage who lead the van in Christian warfare, we would cease envying them and commence praying for them, and be thankful and content that we are filling, in lowly obscurity, the niche which God intends us to fill.
" . . . As the storm that makes
The high elm crouch and rends the oak
The humble lily spares - so, a thousand blows
That shake the lofty monarch on his throne
We lesser folk feel not. Keen are the pains
Advancement often brings. To be secure
Be humble; to be happy be content."
(The Pearl of Psalms - George Henderson)
N.J. Hiebert # 3221
"Be it known unto you therefore that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."
(Acts 13:38,39)
What a wonderful declaration! Forgiveness of sins! justification from all things - offered to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! Here are two things absolutely in contrast one to the other. Man could not do what Paul here declares God will do through Christ Jesus. You could not forgive a man and justify him at the same time. If you forgive him he is guilty, and you cannot justify him. If a man is justified he does not need forgiveness.
You can imagine a court scene - you are on trial and the jury decides you are innocent of the charge against you and they bring in the verdict, "Not guilty!" It means you are justified. As you walk out of the courtroom, suppose someone come up and says, "That was an interesting session this morning. I think it was very gracious of the judge to forgive you." You look at him with indignation. "Forgive me! The jury cleared me. I am justified, I am not forgiven, for I did not need pardon for a crime I had not committed."
But it is other wise with God in His dealing with sinners. We are all guilty and have come short of the glory of God; we have all failed again and again, and there is no hope until we come into His presence and acknowledge our sins. Then, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But is that all? No, we are now linked up with divine life by the Christ who died and rose again, and we now stand before God on altogether different and new ground, and God can say, I justified that man; from henceforth I look on him as though he had never committed any sin at all. I hold him clear of every charge. Christ has settled for everything. (H.A. Ironside - Lectures on Acts)
N.J. Hiebert # 3222
"Consider the lilies of the field. . . ." (Matthew 6:28)
NOT ARTIFICIAL MAN MADE lilies of the hothouse, but lilies of the open field exposed to wind and rain. They may not look as good, sometimes frayed and torn by tempest, too much sun or too much rain, bedraggled maybe, but real lilies. Some Christians who have wrestled long with the powers of darkness and suffered the pressures of this age may not be as elegant as manufactured varieties or sheltered souls who have not been in the thick of the fight. Paul was perhaps not an impressive sight physically. Some of the things he wrote indicate such limitations. Compared to some of the scribes in all their fancy garb, he looked like the itinerant battle-scarred veteran - this Gospel vagabond on the earth - that he was. The list he gives us of what he had been through (2 Corinthians 11:23-28) would make that abundantly clear. We need more lilies of the field out in the wind and weather. (Vance Havner - All the Days)
N.J. Hiebert # 3223
