Gems for August - wk 1
August 1
"The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (Romans 8:26.27)
- Prayer is a cry of distress, a plea for help, a hymn of praise.
- Prayer, in its simplest definition, is merely a desire turned God-ward.
- Prayer reaches out to a dying world and says, "I care."
- God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds to day. Have you used one to say, "Thank you"? (A Collection of Wise Sayings - R.K.)
N.J.H. # 3051
"Turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven." (1 Thessalonians 1:9,10)
This is thought a strange thing now; but the Thessalonians were converted to this hope, for they belonged to a world which had rejected God's Son; therefore they had to turn from these idols "to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven."
What I desire to press upon you all, and myself too, is the individual waiting for the Lord; not as a doctrine merely, but as a daily waiting for Himself. Whatever the Lord's will may be, I should like Him to find me doing so when He comes. But that is not the question. Am I waiting for Himself day by day? (The Young Christian)
N.J.H. # 3052
August 2
"I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure." (Isaiah 46:9,10)
If the telescope opens many a wonder to man, the microscope is not less impressive. They are both important instruments in the hand of man; and they are both intended, doubtless, in God's providence, to show man from the natural world a witness of divine power in what is above, and also in that which is beneath. But in all things, what ought to be gathered from it is not incense for man, but the wonders of God in what He has wrought.
A similar principle applies to the Word of God; for therein, if God displays Himself in what is vast, quite as much does He appear in ways whose minuteness might easily escape observation. Everywhere perfection is claimed for God, whether in what He has made, or, above all, in that which He has written; and in that which He has written, beyond that which He has wrought, because His mind and ways must transcend His outward works. For the Word of God is claimed the very highest place, as the expression of His wisdom - His inner wisdom. For that which is connected with matter must yield to what has to do with mind and the affections, and, above all, the display of the divine nature.
(William Kelly)
N.J.H. # 3053
August 3
"And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came,
and destroyed them all." (Luke 17:26-27)
God has told us that the moral conditions that prevailed before the flood and before the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah will again be general when the Son of man comes in judgment. (Luke 17:26-30)
Now, what about the true Christian's attitude toward all this? Is he to accept the lowered and lowering standards around him? Is he to allow in himself, or sanction or condone in others, the customs of moral laxity that are prevalent? Is he to follow a course that leads in that direction? Most surely not. He is called to "holiness," "purity," and "virtue." "Be ye holy; for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:16)
Christians who are in close contact with the world are in danger. Defiling influences are to be found in the schools, colleges, factories, and offices - in fact, anywhere where the world is met. May we seek to walk with God and guard against any allowance of the first steps of conduct unbecoming for a saint (holy one) of God; for God's standards of holiness have not changed, nor will He accommodate them to the falling standards of popular opinion. (P. Wilson)
"God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness."
(1 Thessalonians 4:7)
N.J.H. # 3054
August 4
"And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, what is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And He said unto Him, thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10:25-29)
It is ever the way of man to want to be accredited for what he thinks himself to be. He would justify himself. And to do this, he would have the way of life to accommodate his convenience. He goes about to establish his own righteousness, not submitting himself to the righteousness of God; for the blessed thing is, God has a righteousness to render to man. (Job 33:26)
Yes, "Grace reign[s] through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." How honouring to God, for man weighed is found wanting. "There is none righteous, . . . there is none that seeketh after God. . . . There is none that doeth good, no, not one ." What a sweeping verdict! Who can gainsay it, when this "is written" as God's own summing up?
Luke 10:25-37, we have man's valuation of himself rebuked, but oh, after the divine way, by showing the riches of grace meeting the reality of the need. (Sound Words)
N.J.H. # 3055
August 5
"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity."
(Ecclesiastes 1:2)
The world has a philosophy that the pleasure is in the chase, and not in the prize. How often has it been proved that the world's favors have vanished just as easily and as disappointingly as the wayfarer's mirage in the desert has fled from him when he was faint and famished. The alluring oasis with its promise of water and shade proved to be only a deception to mock him when the reality was most needed.
The world's history is strewn with examples of those who vainly sought for happiness only to find it vanish as quickly as a broken bubble. That this world has its glory is not to be denied; that it is a vain and fleeting glory which will not satisfy the heart of man, is likewise a weighty fact. Solomon was allowed to taste most of the glories and pleasures here, but he wrote after each and all of them, "vanity and vexation of spirit." Oh, why should anyone have to learn the disappointing lesson for himself? (Paul Wilson)
N.J.H. # 3056
August 6
"And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying . . . send the multitude away. . . but Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat." (Matthew 14:15-16)
What a striking contrast between "Send them away," and "Give ye them to eat." Thus it is ever. God's ways are not as our ways, and it is by looking at His ways that we learn to judge our ways - by looking at Him that we learn to judge our ways - by looking at Him that we learn to judge ourselves. Jesus, in this lovely scene, corrects the selfishness of the disciples - first, by making them the channels through which His grace may flow to the multitude - second, by making them gather up "twelve baskets full of the fragments" for themselves.
Nor is this all. Not merely is selfishness rebuked, but the heart is most blessedly instructed. Nature might say, "What need is there of the five loaves and two fishes at all? Surely the One who can feed such a multitude with, can as easily feed them without, such an instrumentality." Nature might argue thus; but Jesus teaches us that we are not to despise God's creatures. We are to use what we have, with God's blessing. This is a fine moral lesson for the heart. "What hast thou in the house?" is the question. It is just that and nothing else that God will use. It is easy to be liberal with what we have not; but the thing is to bring out what we have, and with God's blessing, apply it to the present need
. (C.H. Mackintosh)
N.J.H. # 3057
August 7
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27)
The caring for souls - the binding up of those that are broken in spirit - the interesting ourselves in the troubles and trials and difficulties of the saints of God - is of great price with Him; and this kind of ministering is, I am afraid, often sadly neglected today. (Christian Truth - Vol. 22 - 1969)
N.J.H. # 3058
August 8
"Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth." (John 17:17)
An act may be unholy, though done with a good conscience, because "the truth," and not the conscience, is the rule of holiness. (Selected)
N.J.H. # 3059
