Gems for the Week
December 14
"But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy." (2 Chronicles 36:16)
"I love my job," said Maggie, a young nurse, "but it's so frustrating when I tell people what they need to do to stay healthy and they don't follow my advice."
I smiled in empathy. "I felt that way when I started my editorial career," I told her. "It was frustrating when authors would disregard the advice I gave them about improving their manuscripts."
Then I realized the spiritual implication. "If you and I feel frustrated when people don't follow our professional advice, " I said, "imagine how God feels when we ignore His." He's the only One with perfect knowledge of what's good for us, yet we often behave as if we know better.
This was the case in ancient Israel. Thinking that they knew more than God did, the people followed their own way. (Note the verse quoted above.) As a result, Jerusalem and the house of God fell into the hands of the Babylonians.
This is also the case with us when God's instructions seem difficult. We may conclude that He had exceptions in mind for our particular circumstance.
God graciously teaches what is best (Isaiah 48:17-18) but doesn't force us to do it. He patiently presents what is right and good, and allows us to choose it. (Julie Ackerman Link)
What freedom lies with all who choose
To live for God each day!
But chains of bondage shackle those
Who choose some other way.
(D. DeHaan)
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God's teaching may not always make sense,
but it's always senseless to think we know better.
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Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries, Copyright (2006), Grand Rapids, MI. - Reprinted permission
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N.J. Hiebert # 3553
December 15
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before." (Philippians 3:13")
What are the things behind that the Apostle says he forgets? He does not tell us: he does not say if they were the victories or the failures. But I think it is anything and everything that would take our eyes off Christ. I think it is like Psalm 45:10: "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thing ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty." When Rebecca was going through the desert she would have had nothing if she had forgotten Isaac. Isaac was the attraction, the object before her heart, and I doubt not her heart was filled with thoughts of him; and in a sense she forgot her own people and her father's house: but I do not suppose the Lord meant that she should never think of them again: but Isaac was the supreme object of her heart. We find the Apostle, when occasion served, remembered both his victories and his failures; but his heart was not set on either.
To remember our victories tends to make us proud: to remember our failures tends to cast us down and discourage us, so we are tempted to give up. If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. He knows the failure and the sin; and He knows if we have confessed it, and it is all forgiven: He does not cast it up against us. So let us take Him at His word, and forget it: not surely to make us careless: but to magnify His grace. (Christopher Willis - Sacrifices if Joy)
N.J. Hiebert # 3554
December 16
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgment) but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24)
The believer never comes into judgment as our Lord Himself laid down in John 5; if he did he must be LOST. Life and judgment are incompatible. He that refuses Christ and life in Him will assuredly be judged. He is lost, and it will be manifest then.
Thus is the honour of Christ vindicated by God on such as have spurned His Son. Those who believe in Him are called to no such compulsory and ruinous homage; they gladly bow even now to Him their Lord and life. They will give account to God; they will receive according to the things done in the body, as they will be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ; but they will never come into judgment, having already faith and eternal life in Him. They exercise themselves, therefore, to have a good conscience now. (William Kelly - Notes on the First Epistle to the Corinthians)
N.J. Hiebert # 3555
December 17
"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing . . . " (2 Corinthians 6:10)
Good Rules for Keeping Happy
Among them are these: "Never allow yourself to complain of anything, even the weather, for God overrules all for good. Never dwell with dread upon to-morrow; God will then be as much as now."
Another man, when asked how he always seemed happy, answered that he had learned to look three ways:
- First, he looked up to Heaven that he might remember that he was going to spend Eternity there;
- Second, he looked to the earth that he might remember that one day (if the Lord didn't come first) his body would return to dust, stripped of all earthly possessions;
- Third, he looked within his heart, that he might realize how many people were worse off than he was.
The Christian must not forget that worry is sin. He must be sorrowful yet always rejoicing. If he is worrying, he is denying the care of God over his life. He has been give a peace and joy that are full. (Donald Grey Barnhouse - Happy Though Poor)
N.J. Hiebert # 3556
