Gems worth pondering
April 16
"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come." (John 16:13)
To understand God's Word, one must first of all be born again. Beside this, one must also be spiritual. This means that our thoughts, our feelings, our whole life must be formed by the Spirit. Only then can one read the Word with the consciousness that it is God's Word, given us by revelation of God, and that it can only be understood when God opens it to us. Realizing this, we will read it prayerfully, knowing that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all the truth (John 16:13). We do not understand God's Word primarily by means of our intellect, but by means of our faith and our conscience (Hebrews 11:1, 3). (H.L Heijkoop)
N.J. Hiebert # 3676
April 17
"Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are His: and He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings : He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding . . . light dwelleth with Him."
(Daniel 2:20-22)
- All error has a particle of truth in it, and that is why it is so dangerous.
- "Wisdom and might are His." A simple utterance, but how profound! For if wisdom and might are God's, they are nowhere else to be found, and it is in vain to turn for them to any but God.
- Philanthropy has man for its objects, religion has God for its object.
- Wherever there is a claim to great spirituality there is a danger.
- Nothing so injures the soul as controversy.
(Edward Dennett - Footprints for Pilgrims)
N.J. Hiebert # 3677
April 18
"God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)
"O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches." (Psalm 104:24)
All the living things in creation are here described by God as being very good. We can still see how true that was in areas where the changes produced by man are minimal.
God created nature in balance - everything is recycled! But man has disturbed that balance - Yellow Stone National Park in the USA had that balance - it was created by setting aside an area larger than some nations to preserve nature as it was. Then something happened! The abundant willow trees and aspen trees stopped regenerating, beavers disappeared, food for scavenger birds like eagles and ravens became extremely scarce, and so on.
What had happened? Man had decided that he could improve on Yellowstone as God had originally created it - he killed all the wolves! What was good about the wolves? Their predation had kept the elk population in check. But now the elk were eating all the young trees and the vegetation needed by the other species of animals. The balance had been destroyed! Finally the Park Service decide that letting "nature take its course" in what was a decidedly unnatural situation should not be allowed to continue. Wolves were good! Wolves were reintroduced from Canada and we are now seeing changes that seem to indicate that the reintroduction is achieving its objective.
What is the lesson in all this? Man in his arrogance should not think that he can improve on what God has pronounced "very good"! Man also, to his destruction, tries to "improve" on the Scriptures! God says, "All the day long they wrest My words" (Psalm 56:5) and they also "wrest . . . the Scriptures to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16). (A.H. Crosby)
N.J. Hiebert # 3678
