Gems for the Week
April 26 - 30
"If we love one another, God dwelleth in us,
and His love is perfected in us." (1 John 4:12)
You are writing a Gospel, a chapter a day,
By deeds that you do, by words that you say.
Men read what you write, whether faithless or true;
Say, what is the Gospel according to you?"
A great many men never read the Gospel according to Matthew, they never put in any time on the Gospel according to Luke, they never look into the Gospel according to Mark, never weigh the Gospel according to John, but they are reading the gospel according to you, and weighing you; they are watching you, listening to what you say, observing what you do, and getting their ideas of Christ and their ideas of God from what they see in you. (Selected)
N.J. Hiebert # 2958
"I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5)
There is a legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage.
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone.
He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.
He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even
some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. it would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.
It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God, our Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to HIM. (Submitted by a reader of the "Gems")
N.J. Hiebert # 2959
"And he (prodigal son) arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, 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: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry." (Luke 15:20-24)
The extent of Christ's love for those given Him by the Father, the Father alone can understand. Look at the prodigal - what a pitiable object! and yet there he is in the father's arms, all the expression of the father's love put on him, all the joy of the house flowing out in response to the gladness of the father's heart. What did the prodigal bring? Nothing save the marks of misery. Starvation and rags. The angels did not understand God's mercy till then. They could not know it till Christ became man. When they saw the Babe lying in the manger, they knew that Babe to be the eternal God from off the throne. And it was only by the church that they learnt the manifold wisdom of God. (Gleanings - G.V.Wigram)
N.J. Hiebert # 2960
"A merry hear doeth good like a medicine." (Proverbs 17:22)
"A time to weep and a time to laugh." (Ecclesiastes 3:4)
God means us to be happy; His fills the short-lived years
With loving, tender mercies - With smiles as well as tears.
A close friend of mine, who is now with the Lord, was endowed with a great sense of humor. We know that humor used ill-advisedly can hurt and be counter-productive. However, my friend used it to alleviate many a problem between the Lord's people, often at the expense of himself. A little smile and laugh can be such a blessing, an uplift to the heart, not to mention the testimony of joy it witnesses to the world. How many of the saints miss that God-given medicine? Try to pass on a smile today. (Brian Russell)
N.J. Hiebert # 2961
"To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth."
(Isaiah 40:25,26)
A businessman with a keen mind once wrote, "It takes a girl in our factory about two days to learn to put the seventeen parts of a meat chopper together. There may be those who say that these millions of worlds, each with its separate orbit, all balanced so wonderfully in space, just happened - that by a billion years of tumbling about they finally arranged themselves. I am merely a manufacturer of cutlery, but this I know, that you can shake the seventeen parts of a meat chopper around in a washtub for the next seventeen billion years, and you will never have a meat chopper." (Dr. J.M. - TCN - July/ August 1990)
N.J. Hiebert # 2962
