Gems for the Week
December 8 - 10
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1 John 4:10,11)
It is easy to love those that love us, but what if someone doesn't love us? Do we still love them? It was this very type of love that Christ walked in. He loved us unto death while we hated Him and desired His death. His was a love that comes only from above. Is there someone today that you are finding it very hard to love? Ask the Lord to give you this love, this selfless love that He "manifested toward us" on the cross (v. 9). (Jason Betchel)
N.J. Hiebert # 3181
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Philippians 4:11)
"Be (anxious) about nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know unto God." (Philippians 4:6)
I once wrote that God always answers us in the deeps, not in the shallows of our prayers. Hasn't it been so with you?
One of the hardest things in our secret prayer life is to accept with joy and not with grief the answers to our deepest prayers. At least I have found it so. It was a long time before I discovered that whatever came was the answer. I had expected something so different that I did not recognize it when it came.
And He doesn't explain. He trusts us not to be offended; that's all. (Amy Carmichael - Candles in the Dark)
N.J. Hiebert # 3182
"And, hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called The fair havens; nigh whereunto was the city [of] Lasea." (Acts 27:8)
Fair Havens - here was a place of safety. I want you to think of Fair Havens as a little picture of blessings of true Christianity. These blessings and safety will be found in Christian homes, the assembly where you live, and in the example of faith of the believers with whom you associate. Also think of this harbour as a little picture of the Christ of Christianity. The world sees nothing attractive in the Lord Jesus Christ, though it does willingly practice and embrace religion. But Fair Havens was the only place where protection from the coming storms of winter could be found - and it wasn't attractive.
Even if you have not been raised in a "Christian family," if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, then the grace of God has surely brought you, in Him, to a place of refuge from all you are sure to meet on your voyage. Ask Him - He who loves you with a Divine, eternal love - to make His Word good to you, that you might never stray from the place of safety that He has provided. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine Heart." (Jeremiah 15:16) Oh! do accept the safe shelter of the Fair Havens.
(D.N. - The Journey of Life)
N.J. Hiebert # 3183
