Gems for the Week
January 12 - 13
"If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained." (1 Timothy 4:6)
The seducing spirits, of which the Holy Spirit speaks, sought to exalt man with a sense of religious importance and sanctity. The true servant seeks to exalt Christ by ministering the truth.
To be a good servant of Jesus Christ, it is not enough to know the truth, and hold the truth; we need to be nourished by the truth, and, in practice, to follow up fully the truth. Our own souls must be fed if we are to feed others. We must be nourished, not simply in the words of teachers, however true, but "with the words of the faith" which convey to us "the good teaching" of Christianity and, if followed up, will produce a practical effect in our lives, preserving us from the evils of the latter times. (Hamilton Smith)
N.J. Hiebert # 3216
"Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee."
(Psalm 139:12)
At eighty-four, Amelia Barr was at work on her sixty-sixth book. Her secret for such activity is quiet and darkness. All forms of life need them. The plant cannot bloom continuously; it must lie its time in the earth in quiet and darkness. Trees have their winter rest. All animals must sleep. The human being cannot maintain efficient life unless it retreats daily into death, back to nothingness, cessation, stillness. When we lie down at night in sleep all the invisible workmen of the body set about their task, cleaning, repairing, restoring, adjusting, just as the cleaners go over a locomotive when it comes in from its run. These workers operate only in quiet and darkness.
It is the same with the mind. Keep constantly on the go and your thoughts get clogged, you have confusion, imperfect judgment, awkwardness. Most of the worries that beset us would vanish of themselves if we would take a rest in quietness and darkness. Evil, fevered, extravagant, hurtful ideas and beliefs are bi-products of too much activity; they dissolve in quiet and darkness.
Never mind whether you sleep or not, just be still. It is in quiet and darkness you hear those still, small voices your life misses in the hurly-burly. It is there you find God. (Traveling Towards Sunrise - Mrs. Charles E. Cowman)
N.J. Hiebert # 3217
