Gems for the Week
April 1 - 4
"Let your lights so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
If Satan can get a Christian to give an unchristian testimony to the world, he is satisfied. If he can dim the heavenly testimony for Christ here, his object is gained. Christ was God's testimony here. We ought to be so now; and what Satan is striving at now is to dim it. (The Young Christian - February 1947 - Vol. 37 - No. 2)
N.J. Hiebert # 2569
"Christ is all, and in all." (Colossians 3:11)
Christ is all and all is of Christ.
Built on Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11-12) and by Christ (Matthew 16:18)
Built up and growing in Christ (Ephesians 2:21-22)
Increasing from Christ (Ephesians 4:16)
Strengthened through Christ (Philippians 4:13)
Growing up into and unto Christ (Ephesians 4:13,15)
Crucified, dead and risen with Christ
(Galatians 2:19-20, Colossians 2:20, 3:1)
Becoming like Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Conformed to Christ (Romans 8:29)
Going to be with Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:17, Philippians 1:23)
Surely without Him we are nothing and can do nothing!
(Michel Payette - Le Lien Fraternal - Meditation 39)
N.J. Hiebert # 2570
"Ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints." (Jude 3)
The Christian teaching is not in process of evolution; it is not passing from one stage to another as theologians and religious philosophers devise new systems. It is "the faith once delivered to the saints." That which is new and not "from the beginning" is but a deceit and a delusion. (H.A. Ironside)
N.J. Hiebert # 2571
"Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry." (Luke 15:21-23)
The poor prodigal would never have known such high communion, had he not known the humiliating depths of the far country. The grace which decked him in the best robe would not have shone so brightly, had he not been clad in filthy rags. God's grace is magnified by man's ruin; and the more keenly the ruin is felt, the more highly the grace is valued. The elder brother never got a kid that he might make merry with his friends; and why? Because he imagined he had earned it. "Lo," he says, "these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment." Vain man! How could he expect the ring, the robe, or the fatted calf? Had he obtained them, they would have been but the trappings of self-righteousness, and not the ornaments with which grace decks the believing sinner. (C.H. Mackintosh)
N.J. Hiebert # 2572
