Gems for the Week
October 27 - 30
"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my name sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." (Matthew 5:11,12)
Through evil report and through good report Paul had to pass, and so far as any accusation against me is known to me as not true . . . I do not think one need to be unhappy about it. . . . But there is a reward for our bearing false accusations. (G.V. Wigram)
N.J. Hiebert # 2413
"Ye shall receive power,
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." (Acts 1:8)
It is a mistake to suppose that we can be endowed, so to speak, with spiritual power. God never gives a fund of strength to any of His servants on which they can draw from time to time until the whole is used. The power is always in Himself, and not in them, and only supplied moment by moment to those who are walking with and in dependence upon Him. (Edward Dennett)
N.J. Hiebert # 2414
"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
(apart) from the deeds of the law." (Romans 3:28)
When we place our trust in Jesus, we are "justified." All our sins are forgiven, and we are fully accepted by God. We experience this tremendous spiritual benefit on the basis of Christ's sacrificial death as full payment for our sins. We don't deserve this; we can't work for it; we can't pay for it. Rather, we are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24).
Nonconformist English preacher Rowland Hill (1744-1833) was attending a fair and noticed all the people selling their wares. He said, "I am going to sell what I have to offer, the blessings of salvation, without money and without price. The other merchants find it very difficult to get customers up to their price; my difficulty is to bring them down to mine, which is nothing. It's to be received by faith."
Commenting on this incident, C.H. Spurgeon said, "So it is with men. If I could preach justification to be bought, or to be had by walking a hundred miles, or by some torture, who would not seek it? But when it is offered freely, men turn away. . . . What poor ideas men have of the value of Christ's gospel if they think they can buy it!" Yes, we are "justified by faith."
Have you been declared right with God? If not, receive Christ as your Savior, and enjoy that "righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22). (Selected)
N.J. Hiebert # 2415
"But when thou art bidden,
go and sit down in the lowest room;
that when he that bade thee cometh,
he may say unto thee, Friend, go higher:
then shalt thou have worship
in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee."
(Luke 14:10)
When God gives me a place it is one of power and nighness to Himself; but when a man takes a place for himself it is one of weakness and alienation from God, because self is the object. (J.N. Darby)
N.J. Hiebert # 2416
