Gems for the Week
January 23 - 31
"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." (Isaiah 1:5,6)
Reading of a biographical character is always interesting, and it is frequently profitable. But the Spirit of God, when recording the life-stories of men, differs from all others in the line that He pursues. Human biographers aim at presenting the commendable side of the characters with which they deal, and they either draw a veil over their ugly features, or touch them lightly or apologetically. But the Spirit of God tells us the whole truth about the men whose lives He is pleased to record. It could not be otherwise. The Bible is the revelation of God Himself - all that He is is told out there; and the same Book must needs also show us man as he really is. The goodness of God and the badness of man are there presented side by side for our instruction and blessing. (W.W. Faraday - Peter the Apostle)
N.J. Hiebert # 2866
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
(Romans 3:19,20)
It is very surprising to many people to discover that the purpose of the law was never to make a man right with God. All the law can do is to declare a standard and condemn a person for failure. It's just like a mirror. A mirror can show you that your face is dirty, but it cannot wash your face for you.
The law is like those pass/fail tests that I can remember having in school. Back then, I thought it was good news to have a pass/fail test - anything above a 70 was passing. But in regard to the law of God, the only acceptable grade is an unblemished 100 percent! It's pass/fail all right. You just have to be perfect, or you have failed, and are doomed to judgment. (Selected)
"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without
a cause shall be in danger of the judgment."(Matthew 5:21,22)
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
(Romans 3:23)
N.J. Hiebert # 2867
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God believe
also in Me. " (John 14:1)
Many can say with Job (chapter 5:7) that man is born unto trouble; for their passage through life is marked by a succession of happenings that have turned existence into one long-drawn-out catastrophe. They tread a path that is beset with difficulties; it is "through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of God". To us all, therefore, the words in the opening verses of John 14 come laden with comfort, with healing, and with uplifting power. They are words that have consoled the prisoner in his lonely dungeon, the slave in his little cabin, the pilgrim on his weary journey, the martyr marching to his painful death. For heart trouble there is but one remedy, and it is prescribed by the Good Physician.
"Let not your heart be troubled." The italicized word includes the entire personality - intellect, emotion, and will. "Let not your heart be troubled." The word means, to be agitated, to be disturbed, or thrown into confusion, as its use in John 5:7 indicates. To counter-act the sorrows which were filling their hearts, the Master imparts to His disciples consolations appropriate to their griefs, and encouragements adapted to their fears. He claims their faith, strengthens their hope, deepens their love. (Henry Durbanville - His last Words)
N.J. Hiebert # 2868
"How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father."
(Luke 15:17,18)
How can I progress, unless I accept the place God has put me in? How can I progress, unless I am in the Father's house. (Food for the Desert)
N.J. Hiebert # 2869
"I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Faith is, at once, the power of ministry, the power of testimony, and the power of worship. If we are not living "by faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us," we shall neither be effectual servants, faithful witnesses, nor true worshippers. (Selected)
N.J. Hiebert # 2870
"Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand
words in an unknown tongue." (1 Corinthians 14:19)
Our care should ever be, not to suffer ourselves to proceed for a single moment beyond the energy of the Spirit, as the time for the Spirit will always keep us directly occupied with Christ. If the Holy Spirit produces "five words" of worship or thanksgiving, let us utter the five and have done. If we proceed further, we are eating the flesh of our sacrifice beyond the time; and so far from its being "accepted," it is really"an abomination." (Adapted)
N.J. Hiebert # 2871
"And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron." (Deuteronomy 28:23)
Mysterious providences in the lives of God's people abound. Why must some pass from deep unto deep, from sorrow unto sorrow, from loss unto loss? Why are others, so promisingly endowed with gifts for great service to God and humanity, suddenly cut off? Why do tragedies of a shocking character overtake the most saintly of the household of faith? And so we could continue. There is no answer. True faith bows in trusting submission; faith looks up and knows "He does all things well," and hope awaits that day, when the mists have rolled away, when our all-wise Lord will answer every "why" and unravel to our eternal joy and glory His ways with His own, which down here are past finding out. (Arno Clemens Gaebelein - Listen! - God Speaks)
N.J. Hiebert # 2872
"Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this Man's disciples? He saith, I am not. . . .they said therefore unto
him, art thou not also one of His disciples? He denied it, and said,
I am not. . . . Did not I see thee in the garden with Him (Jesus)?
Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew."
(John 18:17,25,26,27)
We never know what is in our hearts until circumstances arise to draw it out. Peter did not imagine that he could deny his Lord, but when he got into circumstances which were calculated to act upon his peculiar weakness (self-confidence), he showed that the weakness was there. (C.H. Mackintosh - The Lord's Coming - The Call of God)
N.J. Hiebert # 2873
"He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:11)
One of the greatest blessings the soul can have is the power of entering into the refreshment the Lord Jesus Christ had while He was on the earth, and it is that which makes the scene between Himself and the dying thief so precious; not only that poor thing finding light through an open door, but the thought is so exceedingly precious, that He who saved that thief saw in him one of the fruits of the travail of his soul; so precious, that He should there see fruit of His travail, before he could turn and crave a blessing; and to hear Him speak of blessing to that poor thing before he cried out with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. (Gleanings From the Teaching of G.V. Wigram)
N.J. Hiebert # 2874
