Gems for the Week
November 23
"There came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto Him (Jesus), Get Thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill Thee. And He said unto them, go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected." (Luke 13:31,32)
When the Pharisees tried to frighten our Lord with a threat from Herod our Lord gave an amazing answer, found only in Luke. He said in effect, "I have a life work to do and a ministry to perform and I will complete it." When man sets out to do the will of God he will hear from the Pharisees and the "foxes," to use our Lord's word for Herod, who intends to divert and destroy it. But this passage is just another way of saying that when we are in God's work and will we are immortal until our work is done.
When the Pharisees and the foxes try to confuse and discourage us with their predictions and warnings, let us tell them we are on God's schedule and He who has begun a good work in us will finish it. The man who has set out to do the will of God in his life is linked up with heaven, and nothing that happens on earth can defeat him unless he himself departs from what God called him to do and be.
Jesus was often saying, "My time is not yet come." Then on the night of His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane He said, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." His hour and the Jewish leaders' hour met in a head-on collision. It looked like Jesus lost, but He won through death and resurrection. Whoever lives for Christ is immortal; he lives until his work is finished on earth, and he then continues life in heaven. (Vance Havner - Don't Miss Your Miracle)
N.J. Hiebert # 3532
November 24
"The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness." (Psalm 41:3)
Those who are ill can get strength and comfort from the passage above. The Hebrew indicates, "Thou turnest or changest his bed in his sickness."
This is most wonderful! God takes a personal interest in His sick saints! He whispers words of comfort to them, and in many ways, makes their "bed" of suffering - whereon they are languishing - easier to lie on. He not only eases the pain, but He assures His children who are enduring affliction that their "light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
(2 Corinthians 4:17)
Be encouraged, dear suffering saint. Your affliction, if faithfully endured, for His glory, is actually working for you - piling up GLORY!
To get the needed strength, day by day, in the time of testing, it is necessary that we "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not see are eternal."
(2 Corinthians 4:18) (Selected)
N.J. Hiebert # 3533
