Gems worth pondering
September 3
"In My Father's house are many mansions."
(John 14:2)
Spoken to His disciples . . . their earthly sun was sinking, but the stars were coming out in the sky to tell of a greater and a grander universe. Somewhere in that great universe, in the infinite realms of space, God has a place which He calls His "Home"; a house of many mansions, to which, one by one, He welcomes His children; and to which, sooner or later, He shall conduct all who are His.
"My Father's House! No strange and foreign land;
No wonderful new world, too coldly grand;
But Home - and a Father's outstretched, welcoming hand."
Those whose experiences in this world have made them conscious of homelessness and loneliness, can look forward to mansions of eternal abode, to couches of eternal rest, to the board of an eternal festival. Meantime, they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth: strangers because they are from Home; pilgrims because they are going Home. (HIS LAST WORDS - HENRY DURBANVILLE)
N.J. Hiebert - 3816
September 4
"For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God."
(1 Peter 2:20)
Anyone can endure reproof when he knows it is deserved. It takes grace to enable one to accept undeserved blame without complaining; but to God it is acceptable, or well-pleasing, for this is to follow Christ's blessed example. "It is hard to be blamed for what you did not do!" So said a troubled young Christian lately. But in this portion of God's Word we are bidden to take our blessed, adorable Lord Himself as our example in this as in all else.
He was falsely accused and bitterly persecuted for wrongs He had never done. As He left everything in the Father's hands, so should we. Nature will rebel when we have to say, as He did, "They laid to My charge things that I knew not." (Psalm 35:11). But grace will enable us to triumph and to rejoice when men speak evil of us and persecute us (Matthew 5:11).
If we endure patiently, as seeing Him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27), we shall be vindicated in His own way and time, and reward will be sure at His judgment-seat (1 Corinthians 4:5). (SELECTED)
N.J. Hiebert - 3817
September 5
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God." (Psalm 42:1)
The body craves for material things, so we buy food and clothes and houses and cars - things for the body. But the body eventually dies. The mind cries for intellectual things, so we build schools and buy books. We read and study and cultivate friendships. But toward the end the mind fails. The spirit calls for spiritual things. It needs God. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God." The spirit craves for something that material things can never supply. It craves after God. There is an emptiness in each human life that only God can fill.
"Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
(SELECTED)
N.J. Hiebert - 3818
September 6
The Best System
"A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger."
(Proverbs 15:1)
"Do you think it wrong for me to learn the art of self-defense?" asked a young man of an an older brother.
"Certainly not," he answered. I learned it in youth myself, and I have found it of great value during my life."
"Indeed, sir! Did you learn the old English system or Sullivan's system?"
"Neither. I learned Solomon's system."
"Solomon's system?"
"Yes; you will find it laid down in Proverbs 15:1, "A soft answer turneth away wrath." It is the best system of self-defense of which I know."
(TCNL)
N.J. Hiebert - 3819
September 7
" . . . 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 the throne of God."
(Hebrews 12:1,2)
"Lay aside," he says, "these useless and hurtful things; leave them behind." It is easy, when we look unto Jesus; but impossible unless our thoughts and affections are centered in Christ - unless we behold Him as our Lord and Bridegroom, our strength and joy. This is the only method of the new covenant. We are not under the law, but under grace. It is not by introspection, by self-discipline, by attempting first to lay aside our weight and our sin, that we gain the victory. These things do not precede the look unto Jesus.
- It is the light which dispels the darkness;
- It is the love of Jesus which separates us from the world;
- It is the grace of Christ that delivers us from all fear and doubt.
(EPISTLE to the HEBREWS - ADOLPH SAPHIR)
N.J. Hiebert - 3820
September 8
"And the serpent said unto the woman (Eve - in the garden of Eden), ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
(Genesis 3:4,5)
Wretched man thought that God did not wish to give him something through jealousy of his happiness, but this was the lie of Satan. God who seemed to refuse a fruit to man, innocent, has given His Son to man a sinner. And the heart of man is so perverted that he has no confidence though God has given His Son. The effect of the death of Jesus is to inspire us with perfect confidence. The death of Jesus puts us in relationship with God without fear and without difficulty, because it clothes us when we are naked and miserable. This confidence give us peace and obedience, because nothing is more precious than the love of God; and this love makes us prefer obedience and its consequences in spit of all the difficulties. (CHRISTIAN TRUTH - VOL. 15 - APRIL 1962)
N.J. Hiebert - 3821
