Gems for February - wk 4
February 21
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."
(1 John 4:16)
God's love for us is expressed in how He has given us His Son as a sacrifice. He has not only expressed His love in this manner but has given the Son to take up residence within us. By the miracle of the Spirit (the person of God) we are indwelt with all He is, the result should be on our part the same style of heart and mind, selfless. So much are we personally indwelt that God Himself cannot separate us from Christ so that where He is we are now and will be and how He is we are now and will be in perfect union.
Love makes for actions towards others. God set forth the perfect example in giving His Son and He the perfect example of sacrifice towards us. Until we are endued with Their love we cannot attempt to love others in our own feeble strength. True love is unconditional and always has the object of affection in mind. (B.R. - Meditations on 1 John)
N.J.H. # 3256
February 22
"Go and wash in Jordan seven times." (2 Kings 5:10)
Naaman was an able captain in the Syrian army, in good standing with King Ben-hadad, but he was a leper. When he took off his decorations at night and looked at his decaying body, his military glory departed. He came to Elisha to be healed and that man of God did not even come out to meet him but simply commanded, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times." Naaman lost his temper, "Dip in Jordan, that dirty creek! We have Abana and Pharpar in Syria" (5:12) His companions persuaded him to give it a try, but when he had gone down and up six times there was no sign of a miracle. They might have begun to wonder whether their captain had been "taken" by a false prophet. But on the seventh dip Naaman's flesh became as the flesh of a child!
The miracle happened at the end of compete obedience. If the blind man sent by Jesus to the pool of Siloam, his eyes covered with mud, had not felt his way down the street in simple obedience, he would have died a blind man. John MacNeill preached about this incident and shouted to his congregation, "Aye, and some of you have had the mud applied again and again, you have heard the gospel again and again, but you've never done the next thing and you're blinder than you ever were before!" Faith must be followed by obedience. (Vance Havner - Don't Miss Your Miracle)
N.J.H. # 3257
February 23
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)
The WORD never had a beginning. The SON is as truly eternal as the FATHER. To teach otherwise is to deny the very foundations of our faith. HE could not have beginning, for HE HIMSELF is the beginning and the end. (Revelation 22:13)
The WORD never had a beginning. The SON is as truly eternal as the FATHER. To teach otherwise is to deny the very foundations of our faith. HE could not have beginning, for HE HIMSELF is the beginning and the end. (Revelation 22:13)
But it is not merely that HE was eternally in the Godhead. Scripture is equally insistent regarding His distinct Personality. This is implied in the expression "The WORD was with GOD." We are told of Wisdom, in Proverbs 8:27, "When He prepared the heavens I was there." And again in verse 30, "I was by Him as One brought up with Him." The Eternal Wisdom and the Eternal Word are one and the same. Throughout all the ages of the past CHRIST was a distinct Personality in the Godhead. There was communion between the FATHER and the SON.
But this does not imply the inferiority of the SON. Full Deity was HIS: "The WORD was GOD." Just as truly as the FATHER was GOD and the HOLY SPIRIT was GOD, so the WORD was GOD. More than this could not be said. (H.A. Ironside - Gospel of John)
N.J.H. # 3258
February 24
"With me thou shalt be in safeguard." (1 Samuel 22:23)
"Come thou and all thy house into the ark." (Genesis 7:1)
"Come thou!" We are either inside or outside the Ark. There is no half-way in this. Outside is death, inside is life. Outside is certain, inevitable, utter destruction. Inside is certain and complete safety. Where are you at this moment? Perhaps you dare not say confidently and happily, "I am inside "; and yet you do not like to look the alarming alternative in the face, and say, "I am outside!" And you prefer trying to persuade yourself that you do not exactly know, and can't be expected to answer such a question. And you say, perhaps with a shade of annoyance, "How am I to know?" God's infallible Word tells you very plainly, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (Francis Ridley Havergal - Opened Treasures)
N.J.H. # 3259
"Come thou and all thy house into the ark." (Genesis 7:1)
"Come thou!" We are either inside or outside the Ark. There is no half-way in this. Outside is death, inside is life. Outside is certain, inevitable, utter destruction. Inside is certain and complete safety. Where are you at this moment? Perhaps you dare not say confidently and happily, "I am inside "; and yet you do not like to look the alarming alternative in the face, and say, "I am outside!" And you prefer trying to persuade yourself that you do not exactly know, and can't be expected to answer such a question. And you say, perhaps with a shade of annoyance, "How am I to know?" God's infallible Word tells you very plainly, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (Francis Ridley Havergal - Opened Treasures)
N.J.H. # 3259
February 25
"Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed." (Nehemiah 7:1)
For Nehemiah and the people of God, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem was an exhausting task. But when they finished, the sweat and fatigue were all forgotten. Now it was time for the singers to praise and the Levites to lead the worship. We by faith recall another greater work that was realized through the sorrow and suffering of Golgotha. Our Lord cried in triumph, "It is finished," and now with full salvation, we can take our place and sing with a new song in our mouths, even praise unto our God (Psalm 40). (Neil Dougal)
N.J.H. # 3260
February 26
"And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."
(John 16:23,24)
These verses present a cluster of jewels.
- Questioning ended - "In that day ye shall ask Me nothing."
- Desires satisfied - "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you."
- Joy completed - "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."
That promise is large in its scope, clear in its terms, unfailing in its issues. (Henry Durbanville - His Last Words)
N.J.H. # 3261
February 27
"Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness; and Thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side." (Psalm 65:11,12)
Dry times are in a way trusted times. My word this morning was in Psalm 65:12, about the drops of His blessing falling on the pastures of the wilderness. It is a most comforting word.
Life, any life, can be stifled by the pettiness of the daily round. But yours won't be. One quick look up in the dullest moment and you are with Him whom your heart loves, your Life, your All.
All sorts of days come and go - they go, that's the best of them. Don't let the dull days pass without giving you what only dullness ever can give. It isn't the days of high tension that try us most, and so give us most; it's the days that seem all grey and dull. They test the quality of the gold. They prove it. 'Salute Apelles, the approved in Christ.' 'God knows, not we, the test he stood' is Moule's note on Romans 16:10, "Salute Apelles approved in Christ." I shall think of you as Apelles. (Amy Carmichael - Candles in the Dark)
N.J.H. # 3262
February 28
". . . except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:5)
Jesus said, "Repent," or, in other words, judge yourself in the presence of God. You have perhaps measured yourself with your fellows and found yourself better than they. This may be possible and probable; but have you measured yourself with God? Have you ever thought how these little sins that are as nothing in the eye of man are glaring and flagrant in the eye of the One who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13)? Comeliness before man is but corruption in the presence of God (Daniel 10:8); and even the one that was perfect and upright, so that there was none like him in all the earth, abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes, confessing himself vile when he came to measure himself with God (Job 42:5,6). Can you hold fast your uprightness in the presence of the light of the glory of God? Job, Isaiah, Daniel, Peter and Paul could not. Surely you too must take a sinner's place in the presence of the "Holy, holy, holy" God. (D.T.G.)
N.J.H. # 3263
