Gems for the Week
May 27 - 31
"Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward
receive me to glory." (Psalm 73:24)
One of the offices which our Lord Jesus sustains is "Counsellor." (Isaiah.9:6) Now there are numberless things before us continually in our earthly pilgrimage regarding which we need counsel, we need advice; and then under these circumstances we should go to our Lord Jesus Christ and say to Him: "My Lord, I am ignorant; now what am I to do? Thou art my Counsellor, now show me clearly and distinctly how to act under these circumstances." And what will be the result? We shall be taught!
You need never take a step in the dark. If you do, you are sure to make a mistake. Wait! Wait till you have light. Remind the Lord Jesus that as He is Counsellor to the Church of God, He will be, in your particular case, Counsellor and Guide, and will direct you, and if you patiently wait, believingly, expectantly, you will find that the waiting is not in vain, and that the Lord will prove Himself a Counsellor both wise and good. (George Mueller, of Bristol)
N.J. Hiebert # 2625
" . . . Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." (Colossians 3:13)
How beautiful, and yet how rare, is forgiveness! Christ taught His disciples to forgive their enemies, and He is our great example. He said amid the agonies of the crucifixion, "Father, forgive them!"
A custom away out in the African bush which has no equivalent in this part of the world is "Forgiveness Week." Fixed in the dry season, when the weather itself is smiling, this is a week when every man and woman pledges himself or herself to forgive any neighbour any wrong, real or fancied, that may be a cause for misunderstanding, coldness, or quarrel between the parties.
A deaf mute, being asked, "What is forgiveness?" took a pencil and wrote, "It is the odour which a flower yields when trampled upon," and the Persian poet, Sadi, has given us these lines:
"The sandal tree perfumes, when riven,
The axe that laid it low;
Let man, who hopes to be forgiven,
Forgive and bless his foe."
(Mountain Trailways for Youth)
N.J. Hiebert # 2626
". . . Ye ought to be quiet, . . ." (Acts 19:36)
In all the departments of life it is the quiet forces that effect most. The sunbeams fall all day long, silently, unheard by human ear; yet there is in them a wondrous energy and a great power for blessing and good. Gravitation is a silent force, with no rattle of machinery, no noise of engines, no clanking of chains, and yet it holds all the stars and worlds in their orbits and swings them through space with unvarying precision. The dew falls silently at night when men sleep, yet it touches every plant and leaf and flower with a new life and beauty. It is in the lightning, not in the thunderpeal, that the electric energy resides. Thus even in nature, strength lies in quietness, and the mightiest energies move noiselessly. (Dr. J.R. Miller)
Nature's greatest miracles are wrought in silence. The wheels of the universe do not creak. Confusion and noise are man-made. In a jangling age such as this there must daily be found a place of solitude if we are to keep our sanity. The admonition of Christ, "Enter into thy closet and shut thy door," was faithfully followed in His own life. If the quiet hour was such a necessity in Christ's life, how much more so in our own! (Selected)
N.J. Hiebert # 2627
". . . In the selfsame day, as God had said unto him." (Genesis 17:23)
Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Every time God calls us to any duty He is offering to make a covenant with us; doing the duty is our part, and He will do His part in special blessing.
The only way we can obey is to obey "in the selfsame day," as Abraham did. To be sure, we often postpone a duty and then later on do it as fully as we can. It is better to do this than not to do it at all. But it is then, at the best, only a crippled disfigured, halfway sort of duty-doing; and a postponed duty never can bring the full blessing that God, intended, and that it would have brought if done at the earliest possible moment.
It is a pity to rob ourselves, along with robbing God and others, by procrastination. "In the selfsame day" is the Genesis way of saying, "Do it now." (Messages for the Morning Watch)
N.J. Hiebert # 2628
"But God commendeth His love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
If God has commended His love toward us, it is when we were sinners; but I learn it all in joy in God. He loved me when there was nothing in me to love; and the grand testimony of absolutely divine love is that God loved sinners. So the grace of Christ to me is not my highest place, but it is the highest place of Christ. It makes me little and Christ great. To be put into Christ makes me great; to find Christ going the same path as myself, that He might understand every feeling I have, makes His grace great. And this is most precious. (Christian Truth - Volume 20 - April 1967)
N.J. Hiebert # 2629
