Gems for the Weekend
April 23-24
"Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1,2)
We are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, not spectators of us, but giving testimony to faith; but the call is to look away from all else to Jesus, the leader and completer of faith. Neither sentiment nor superstition can do any thing here but hinder our running the race well; and this can only be with endurance rather than energy. (Christian Truth - Vol. 13 - 1960)
N.J. Hiebert # 2225
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah." (Psalm 46:1-3)
Well might he pause (Selah!) at this point. What more suggestive of stability than the earth we walk upon and the everlasting hills? What more emblematic of instability than the restless sea? Yet when the most unstable thing overcomes the most stable, the psalmist has something immovable on which to rest. "God is our refuge and help."
. . . We know God as FATHER. He numbers the hairs of our heads. He puts our tears in the bottle of His remembrance. (A.J.P.)
N.J. Hiebert # 2226
