Gems for the Week
August 2 - 7
"And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto [one] named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band." (Acts 27:1)
Our life has been determined by Another. No one planned his or her birth into this world - no one had any say about when, where, or into what conditions they would begin life's journey. All that has been determined by God. What a comfort to realize that our God has foreknown us - He has planned our lives, desires to bless us, and all in perfect love and wisdom. "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." (Romans 8:29-30)
Dear young person, even if you sometimes get discouraged and think you may have somehow been cheated in the circumstances into which you were born, always remember the question that is asked immediately after the above passage:"What shall we then say to these things? If God (be) for us, who (can be) against us?" The God who created you and determined the circumstances and time of your entering upon life's journey, is, if you know Him as your Saviour God, for you. He makes no mistakes - only Satan, who fooled Adam and Eve in the garden, would desire to get us to question God's perfect ways, His goodness and His love. The devil will always try to get us to question God's ability and desire to make us supremely happy. (Douglas Nicholas - The Journey of Life)
N.J. Hiebert # 2328
"They looked unto Him, and were lightened." (Psalm 34:5)
- Which would you rather have, a smooth path, or a path so rough that the Lord is compelled to show His face to you every step of the way?
- Christ wept; but He wept as in the sight of God . . . Let us see to it that the sorrows we have flow from Himself, and flow toward Him in God; they will be all the deeper, I am sure, but what is from God and to God is sustained by God, and so we can give thanks always for all things.
- It is a great thing for each to be . . . ready to act on and from his own responsibility, but never going beyond that which he sees to be his own duty, never acting under the light which others have. . . . I would rather act under God's measure of light vouchsafed to me, or not act, because I had none such, than be the one to carry out the mind of any man, without my being assured his mind was God's mind for me.
- More and more does it become clear to me that "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way thou shouldest go: I will guide thee with mine eye" is the only proper and safe guide for us. (G.V. Wigram)
N.J. Hiebert # 2329
"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. . . . God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able."
(1 Corinthians 10:12,13)
- Sympathy is the rarest of all ministries, as it is also the sweetest; it makes no show in the world, but it leaves its mark.
- In praying for the sick I once heard a brother use this expression: "May those who are too weak to PRAY be able to LEAN."
- There is no pillow like love, and we have the Lord's perfect love to rest upon. (Edward Dennett)
N.J. Hiebert # 2330
"My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)
- The path of strength . . . is the being made sensible of our own weakness, so that divine strength, which will never be a supplement of flesh's strength, may come in.
- He refreshes the spirit, raises above weakness and pain . . . Think much on Jesus (I do not mean as if you could think much in your weak state, but looking to Him), and lean on Him as a sick child lies in its mother's arms, because it has no strength - not because it can do much. (J.N. Darby)
N.J. Hiebert # 2331
"Him whom my soul loveth" (Song of Solomon 3:4)
Is there not a fear lest familiarity with the things of Christ be much more than the soul's real acquaintance with Himself? . . . I may be reading the books which tell of Him. . . . I may speak, nay, write about Him, while others . . . may be a good deal withdrawn from this, but their growth in divine knowledge and living understanding of Him may be far more advancing. (J.G. Bellett)
N.J. Hiebert # 2332
"For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matthew 12:34)
From tiny eggs come little birds,
And little thoughts hatch into words,
Which then take wings and fly away,
But may come back to roost someday!
Before some words are airborne things,
We would do well to clip their wings!
Some words are best left in the nest!
Don't let them fly without a test!
N.J. Hiebert # 2333
