Gems for the Week
December 26-31
monthly archive http://biblegems.blogspot.com
"Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee."
(Song of Solomon 4:8)
It is a blessed thing to cultivate in our hearts not only the sense of what God has done for us, but also what He in grace has made us to be for Himself. It is most blessed to get away from ourselves, and entering into the secret of God's presence, there learn what those sentiments are which fill His heart. The Spirit of God makes those who believe in Christ to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory - 1 Peter 1:8 That is our side of this joy, but it is "meet that we should make merry, and be glad" (Luke 15:32) is His, for the Father has His joy as well, and it is boundless. He rejoices to have children near to Him - children who can enjoy God. "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God"; and "we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." (Romans 5:11) (W.T.P. Wolston)
N.J. Hiebert # 2473
"Christ is all and in all." (Colossians 3:11)
It is an important thing to preserve the balance of truth in our souls, and to give every part of God's Word and revelation its divinely ordered place. Our portion, then, is Christ Himself! And what a portion!
Now while it is blessedly true that it is not in our power to forfeit the possession of our portion, or to lose it by any folly of ours, it is equally true that the realization of its blessedness, the satisfaction of enjoying it, the consciousness of our union with Him who is our portion, all depend upon ourselves. It is only by the Holy Ghost who dwells in us that we have power. If He be grieved, His witness in this respect is for the time suspended in us; in that case He witnesses against us, that the failure which we have allowed may be judged, and He be free once more to pass the glories of Christ before our souls, and occupy us with them; thus we have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and thus our joy is full. (W.T.T.)
N.J. Hiebert # 2474
"There is nothing better for me than that I (David) should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines." (1 Samuel 27:1)
This was the language of David immediately after God had delivered him in a most remarkable manner from the hand of King Saul. For a long while Saul had been hunting David from place to place, with the full intention of putting him to death . . .
Has it never been so with us? In time of pressing need, we have cast ourselves upon God, and He did not fail us; but when the pressure was past, we got our eyes off God and upon the difficulties. It seemed as though we could not always expect help and deliverance; and then we began to parley with sin, and to try to justify ourselves for yielding. "There is nothing better," we thought, than a compromise; and we settled down to a position that was wholly dishonoring to God. While the Lord lives and reigns, it is downright unbelief on our part that would lead us to be satisfied with anything short of a real and compete obedience. "There is nothing better" means, in effect, the Lord is no longer able to hold me up.
May the Lord help us to ever be conscious of the fact that we always have in Himself a sure resource. In this connection it is nice to see what David himself brings before us.
"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1)
"Though a host should encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear." (Psalm 27:3)
"For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion (dwelling):
in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me;
He shall set me up upon a rock." (Psalm 2:5)
"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage,
and He shall strengthen thine heart:
Wait, I say, on the Lord." (Psalm 27:14)
(Christian Truth - Vol. 19)
N.J. Hiebert # 2475
"Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." (John 6:67,68)
When Paul had come to the end of his pathway of service, and saw dark clouds gathering round, and all his work here threatened with failure, he could say with unshaken confidence, "I know whom if have believed."
When the clouds that Paul saw on the horizon had gathered heavy and dark, and the threatened failure had already set in, John had still a message for the worst day that can ever come - "And now, little children, abide in Him."
That is the stamp of God's own work. When the Father draws, He draws to Christ and nowhere else. It is not a place, a creed, a belief, but a Person.
The heart that is restlessly wandering, beating against the bars of doubt, needs the revelation of Christ to satisfy the deep need that causes this misery and unrest. But this is always God's end, the purpose for which He draws souls out of the place where all their lives have been lived without Christ." (S.H.H.)
N.J. Hiebert # 2476
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4)
How do these "exceeding great and precious promises" make us "partakers of the divine nature"? I believe in this way: It is entering into and enjoying these exceeding great and precious promises (what God has done, is doing, and is going to do) as realities. The result is that I am so attracted and under the power of them that other things lose their charm. So we become more "imitators of God"; being occupied with the Object that is His; that is, that which occupies the heart of God. When we really lay hold on the promises that are ours, that hope works out in the life in a practical way, and we are seen to be "partakers of the divine nature." (C.H. Brown)
N.J. Hiebert # 2477
"He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality." (1 Timothy 5:16)
God is the only one who has immortality in Himself. When we speak of mortality, it only applies to the body. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4,20) means that each one shall die for his own sin: in other words, it is individual responsibility. (Extract)
N.J. Hiebert # 2478
