Gems for the Week
December 13 - 14
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)
If we are really, and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever the King appoints, all the trials and vexations, arising from any change in His appointments, great or small, simply do not exist. If He appoints me to work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here? If He appoints me to wait indoors today, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work out of doors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I grumble because He sends interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I am to speak them, or "show kindness" for His sake, or at least obey His command, "Be Courteous"? If all my members are really at His disposal, why should I be put out if today's appointment is some simple work for my hands or errand for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important doing of head or tongue? (Francis Ridley Havergal - 1902)
N.J. Hiebert # 3186
"Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."
(1 Corinthians 10:12)
Had anyone told Peter on the day of his enthusiastic confession of the Master as "the Christ, the Son of the living God" that the moment would come when he would repudiate Him with oaths and curses, he would have been disposed to reply, in the words of another: "What, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" (2 Kings 8:13). But he did!
It was first a simple denial, in answer to the challenge of the maid who kept the High-Priest's door (Matthew 26:69-70). In answer to the questions of several in the porch, he added an oath to his second denial. Then, being identified by a relative of the man whose ear he cut off in the garden (John 18:26), he broke out into a regular volley of oaths and curses. "I know not this man of whom ye speak" (Mark 14:71).
Surely the Spirit of God had His reasons for giving us a fourfold (recorded in all the four gospels) account of Peter's miserable fall. It is an abiding warning against self-sufficiency in any of us. What Peter did yesterday, we may do tomorrow, unless upheld by infinite grace. (W.W. Fereday - Peter The Apostle)
N.J. Hiebert # 3187
