Gems for the Week
November 5
November 6
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3)
Not long ago I loafed all morning in a small town, waiting for my "ship" to come along. On a grassy church lawn I "unlaxed" and watched the world go by.
There came along somewhere a dainty, light-haired, blue-eyed little child just out to pass the time away. Together we sat through the sunny morning and became good friends in that artless playfulness that our superficial modern sport tries so vainly to recover. Finally the little fellow must go, and as far as I could watch down the street, he turned every few seconds to wave a fresh good-by.
That left me in the grass a little lonesome and "smitten with the plague of thought." The Lord said, "Except ye be converted and become as a little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," and I do not wonder that He said that. How we do strain and pose to be impressive when the truest soul is most gently simple and childlike! When the Lord wanted a type for His disciples He set a little child in the midst of them. Some of us need to lay aside our weighty volumes and forsake our strenuous strivings to learn a lesson from the babies. (Vance Havner - In Tune with Heaven - May 24, 1931)
N.J. Hiebert # 3515
November 7
November 8
"Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days." (Ecclesiastes 11:1)
In the Battle of Tarawa, in November 1943, Harry Starner was wounded and lost a lot of blood. As medics transfused plasma into his veins, he saw his own name on the bag. His life was being rescued by the very blood that he had donated before leaving the U.S.! While the chance of that occurring was one in ten million, it is a sure and certain promise of God that: "if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday" (Isaiah 58:10). Let's spread heaven's bread today. (D. Logan)
N.J. Hiebert # 3517
November 9
"And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. . . . And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents." (Genesis 25:24,27)
We cannot find a better example of two men with equal background and opportunity than that of Jacob and Esau, for they were not merely brothers of different ages; they were twins. And yet one of them had faith in God, and the other did not. While Jacob valued God's promise to the land of Canaan, his brother Esau sold his birthright - the natural title to the promised land - for one very ordinary meal. God's comment is, "Thus Esau despised his birth right." (Genesis 25:34). Because of this, God calls him a profane man.
Thus it is today with the people of this world; they make everything as sure as they can for this life, and ignore the life which is hereafter. They make no provision for the future; that is, beyond the grave. In the book of Revelation there is a class frequently mentioned as "those that dwell on the earth." This has a moral character and denotes the attitude of having their hopes and aspirations down here. (Selected)
N.J. Hiebert # 3518
