Gems for the Week
December 11 - 12
"Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, 'I thirst.' " (John 19:28)
The Lord one day was seated at Jacob's well (John 4). A woman came to draw water. "Give me to drink," was His request. We don't know if He ever got that drink, but we do know that she got a draught of the Living water and the promise that she would "never thirst again." In order to supply this, He must of necessity endure the agony of Golgotha and the thirst accompanying it. Because of the thirst He endured, we are able to say with David, "My cup runneth over." May we come today with overflowing hearts, ready to worship our wonderful Saviour. (Reg L. Jordan)
N.J. Hiebert # 3184
"Nevertheless afterward." (Hebrews 12:11)
There is a legend that tells of a German baron who, at his castle on the Rhine, stretched wires from tower to tower, that the winds might convert them into an Aeolian harp. And the soft breezes played about the castle, but no music was born.
But one night there arose a great tempest, and hill and castle were smitten by the fury of the mighty winds. The baron went to the threshold to look out upon the terror of the storm, and the Aeolian harp was filling the air with strains that rang out even above the clamor of the tempest. It needed the tempest to bring out the music!
And have we not known men whose lives have not given out any entrancing music in the day of a calm prosperity, but who, when the tempest drove against them have astonished their fellows by the power and strength of their music?
You can always count on God to make the "afterward" of difficulties, if rightly overcome, a thousand times richer and fairer than the forward. "No chastening . . . seemeth joyous, . . . nevertheless afterward . . ." What a yield! (Streams in the Desert)
N.J. Hiebert # 3185
