Gems from May 2018

April 30

“Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we

 look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

(Philippians 3:20)

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:

for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead 

shall be raised incorruptible, and

we shall be changed.

(1 Corinthians 15:52) 

Our earthen vessels break; the world itself grows old;

But Christ our precious dust will take and freshly mould:

He’ll give these bodies vile a fashion like His own;

He’ll bid the whole creation smile, and hush its groan.

(Mary Bowley)

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Psalm 23

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”

I shall not want REST.  “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.”

I shall not want REFRESHMENT.  “He leadeth me beside the still waters.”

I shall not want REVIVING.  “He restoreth my soul.”

I shall not want GUIDANCE.  “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” 

I shall not want COMPANIONSHIP.  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 

I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me.”

I shall not want COMFORT. “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” 

I shall not want SUSTENANCE.  “Thou preparest a table before me in the the presence of mine enemies.”

I shall not want JOY.  “Thou anointest my head with oil.”

I shall not want ANYTHING.  “My cup runneth over.” 

I shall not want ANYTHING IN THIS LIFE. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

I shall not want ANYTHING IN ETERNITY.  And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

(Comforted of God -  A. J. Pollock)

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May 1

“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, 

and he shall go no more out.”

(Revelation 3:12)

Let our Lord’s sweet hand square us and hammer us,

and strike off the knots of pride, self-love and world-worship, and

infidelity, that He may make us stones and pillars in His Father’s house.

(Revelation 3:12)  

Think ye much to follow the Heir of the crown, 

Who had experience of sorrows and was acquainted with grief. 

(Isaiah 53:3)

(Samuel Rutherford  1600-1661)

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May 2

“All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by 

 Jesus Christ . . . God was in Christ, reconciling the world 

unto Himself . . . we pray you in Christ’s stead, 

be ye reconciled to God.”

(2 Corinthians 5:18-20)

The Cross was the termination of the probation of man.

God’s eternal “So be it” is Christ, "the Amen.”

The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the basis of

all God’s dealings, with even unconverted men.

He approaches them in grace, recognizing their enmity,

and says, “Be ye reconciled.”

(Hunt’s Sayings)

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May 3

“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.”

(Colossians 3:15)

If we open the shutters in the morning the light will pour in.

We do not need to beseech it to pour in.

It will pour in if we will let it.

If we open the sluice in flood-time the water will flow through.

We do not plead with it to flow.  It will flow if we will let it.

It is so with the peace of God.  It will rule in our hearts if only we will let it.

If a heart that is disturbed about anything will “let the peace of God rule”

(instead of its own desires), that heart may 

this very day prove this truth.

Let not your heart be troubled - John 14:1

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts - Colossians 3:15

(Amy Carmichael - Edges of His ways)

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May 4

THE WORK HAS BEEN DONE

“It is finished . . .” (John 19:30)

We need to be delivered from the power of the devil, we need death and the grave to be conquered—

and our Lord Jesus Christ has done it all.  And beyond all that, we need a new nature, because we need not only forgiveness of sins, but to be made fit to have communion and fellowship with God.

We need to have a nature that can stand before God, for 

“God is light,  and in Him is no darkness at all"(1 John 1:5).  

And Christ has come and given Himself, His own nature, the eternal life  of which he speaks in John 17:1-5. So here, looking at it all, Jesus can say, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” (verse 4)  

He has done everything that is necessary for man to be reconciled to God.  Have you realized that this work is finished, as far as you are concerned?  You are asked whether you are a Christian, and you reply that you are hoping to be, but you need to do this, that, and the other. No!

Christ says, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."  The work has been done, and what proves whether we are truly Christians or not is whether we know and realize that the work has been done and that we then rest, and rest only, upon the finished work of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  If we see it all in Him and the work done and completed in Him, it means we are Christians.

The way for you to know God and to be reconciled to Him is wide-open in the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work on your behalf.  If you have never entered in before, enter in now, rest upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and begin to rejoice, immediately, in your great salvation.

(Martin Lloyd Jones)

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May 5

“And let us not be weary in well doing: 

for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

(Galatians 6:9)

A dying soldier asked the hospital chaplain to send a message to his Sunday school teacher:

“Tell her I die a Christian and that I have never forgotten her teaching.”

A few weeks later the chaplain received this reply from the teacher: “May God have mercy on me! Only last month I resigned my Sunday school class for I felt my teaching had done no good through the years.  I am  going back to my pastor at once to tell him that I will try again in Christ’s name, and that I will be steadfast to the end.” 

We should learn a lesson from the farmer.  He plants, waits, but though discouragement abounds, the reaping finally comes.  Just as the farmer is supported by the hope of a sure harvest, so every Christian worker should sow, weep, pray,  and labour in the hope of reaping fruit in God’s appointed time. 

~~~~~~~~~

The least promising lad in a lady’s class was a raggedly dressed boy named Bob.  The superintendent gave him a new suit of clothes.  After three Sundays Bob was missing.  The teacher visited him to discover that his new clothes were torn and dirty.  The superintendent gave him a second new suit. He returned to Sunday school.  This time he came twice.

Again the teacher learned that the second suit had gone the same way as the first.  Utterly discouraged, she told the superintendent she must give him up.  “Please don’t do that," urged the superintendent.  “I’ll give him a third suit if he’ll promise to attend regularly.”  Bob did promise. He became an earnest Christian, attended church, then studied for the ministry.

  

The ragged little boy became Dr. Robert Morrison, honoured missionary to China who translated the Bible into the Chinese language and opened the gate to millions in that country.

Keep on keeping on.  In due season you will reap if you faint not,

for your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

(Leslie B. Flynn)

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May 6

“Come unto me . . . I will give you rest.”

(Matthew 11:28)

Why, in a time when there are so many “things” to make life easier, 

do we struggle and stress to get through a day.

From vocations to vacations, has there ever been such a time of plenty? Yet so often the child of God is caught on the treadmill of life, ever running with no apparent progress.

Busy-ness in our work is encouraged in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, 

and responsibility to family essential in Ephesians 6:4, 

but in it all, rest is available in Jesus Christ.

“Come," He says, “unto Me”.

Coming will take time, effort and perhaps sacrifice, 

but it will be worth it. 

Are you burdened and weary today, then “come”.  

He will give you rest.

(C. Tempest)

“Come unto Me, ye weary, and I will give your rest.”

O blessed voice of Jesus, which comes to hearts oppressed!—

(W. C. Dix)

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May 7

“Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” (Acts 5:20)

There is immense power in this charge, “Speak to the people all the words of this life.” The gospel was, and is, the power of God.  It alone can meet man’s necessity.All other agencies are really futile.

We live in a day when education, equalization, social elevation, and temperance reformation have each and all their many advocates.  They all fail to meet the case.

Man’s condition as a sinner away from God, and sunk under sin, and the power of Satan, is alone met by the gospel of Christ, which quickens him out of death, gives him a new nature, a new life, a new power, and a new object.  To attempt to patch up, improve, mend, or reform the old nature is a hopeless, and God-forbidden task. 

“Go, stand and speak to the people all the words of this life” is the divine commission now. This is God’s panacea for the hopeless ruin, and moral pravity in which the whole human family is sunk.

A dead man needs life.

“Dead in trespasses and sins” exactly describes man’s condition. How sweetly suited to his state is the remedy the servants of God are to use, “the words of this life.”  Let us see to it that we use only this divine remedy. It is all powerful.  Like Goliath’s sword, “there is none like it.” The Lord’s command is plain.

Ring out the Gospel.  Preach it “In season and out of season.” It alone will lift man up to God, as, in it, God has come down to man.

(W. T. P. Wolston)

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May 8

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusted in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

(Isaiah 26:3,4)

INEVITABLE

It is necessary to utter this truism about old age, because many think of its approach only with regret and misgiving.  But just as in Nature we have spring, summer, autumn, winter, and everything belonging to these seasons is beautiful in its time, so, in the story of man there are the clearly defined stages of infancy, youth, manhood, age, and each has its own peculiar advantages and joys. 

In the natural world we usually associate with winter the ideas of sunless skies and dreary days; but the moral equivalents of these things are not at all necessary in the corresponding period of the life of the believer.

His head may be white with the snows of many winters; in his heart there may be eternal spring.  

And so the lengthening of the shadows and the deepening of the twilight should have in then no cause for sorrow.

Looked at hopefully, grey hairs are the streaks of the dawn of the eternal day. (Heaven’s Cure for Earth’s Care)

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May 9

God Willing

"If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."  

(James 4.15)

Life is so full of variables. 

There are many things over which we have no control. 

Plans have to be changed because of ill health, accidents or even the weather!

The Christian understands that the variables of life are not out of control. 

God is on the throne and that means that nothing that happens on 

Earth or in Heaven can take place unless He allows it. 

It is something that we can easily lose sight of in the frustrations that arise in our lives when things just don’t go to plan. The question is - whose plan do we expect to come to pass; ours or God's? The God who controls the weather and actually holds our breath in His hand is the God whose plan never fails.

It is good to make plans. If we never plan then we will probably never accomplish much for God.

When making our plans we should have in our hearts and express with our mouths that our plans are "if the Lord will".

(Christian Living Today - B. L.)

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May 10

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever.” (John 14:16)

There is a guide in the deserts of Arabia who is said never to lose his way. They call him “The Dove Man.”

He carries in his breast a homing pigeon with a very fine cord attached from the pigeon to one of his arms. When in any doubt as to which path to take, the guide throws the bird in the air.  The pigeon quickly strains at the cord to fly in the direction of home and so leads his master unerringly.

They call that guide "The Dove Man.” The Holy Spirit, the heavenly Dove, is willing and able to lead us if we will only allow Him to do so. 

“The Holy Spirit is our indwelling Partner.”

(Mountain Trailways for Youth)

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May 11

IN THE NAME OF CHRIST

“Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do.  
If ye shall ask anything in My Name, I will do it. 
I have appointed you, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, He may give it you.

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.

At that day ye shall ask in My Name. 

(John 14:13-16  16:23,24,26)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IN MY NAME—repeated six times over.  

Our Lord knew how slow our hearts would be to take it in,

and He so longed that we should really believe that His Name is 

the power in which every knee should bow, and in which every prayer

could be heard, that He did not weary of saying it over and over: 

In My Name!

Between the wonderful whatsoever ye shall ask, and the Divine I will do it, the Father will give it, this one word is the simple link.

In My Name.

Our asking and the Father’s giving are to be equally in the Name of Christ.

Everything in prayer depends upon our apprehending this—

In My Name.  

(Andrew Murray)

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May 12

LET IT SHINE!

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

(Matthew 5:16)

Some hide their light under bushel or bed (Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16), being busy or lazy, so that it fails to shine.

Some go to the other extreme, like the Pharisees (Matthew 6:1,2,16) who wanted to impress people with their piety.  It is not a glare but a glow, and we are simply to let it shine.

Some saints remind us of a man with a high-powered flashlight trying to dazzle people with a blinding display.  God prefers stars to comets. His figure is a candle, not a firecracker.

Between the saints who hide their light and those who display it we have hard going these days. We learn more and more to appreciate those who just let it shine.

We are too aware of the “men” in our text and not aware enough of our Father. Our sole business is to glorify Him and so let our light shine that others will glorify Him too.

(Vance Havner)

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May 13

“Be careful for nothing.”

(Philippians 4:6)

I know no word more settling to the soul than, “Be careful for nothing.”

How often have I found it so . . . "for nothing.”

How little we gain by the prudence of unbelief;

 it gives occasion to the power and attacks of the enemy.

Never can unbelief—however good its intentions in joining 

the work of faith—do anything except spoil it.

How far the child of God may go astray when he puts himself under

the protection of unbelievers, instead of relying on the help of 

God in all the difficulties which beset the path of faith!

(J. N. Darby)

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May 14

“For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Philippians 3:20)

The standing of the Christian is to be found in Christ; The object of the Christian is to know Christ; and the hope of the Christian is to be like Christ.

How beautifully perfect is the connection between these three things.No sooner do I find myself in Christ as my righteousness, than I long to know Him as my object, and the more I know Him, the more ardently shall I long to be like Him, which hope can only be realized when I see Him as He is.

Having a perfect righteousness, and a perfect object, I just want one thing more, and that is to be done with every thing that hinders my enjoyment of that object. 

(Note Philippians 3:20 quoted above.)  

Now putting all these things together, we get a very complete view of true Christianity. We cannot attempt to elaborate any one of the three points above referred to; for, it may be truly said, each point would demand a volume to treat it fully.  

Let us rise above all the imperfections and inconsistencies of Christians, and gaze upon the moral grandeur of Christianity as exemplified in the life and character of the model Man presented to our view.  

May the language of the heart be, “Let others do as they will, as for me, nothing short of this lovely model shall ever satisfy my heart.  Let me turn away my eye from men altogether, and fix it intently upon Christ Himself, and find all my delight in Him as my righteousness, my object, my hope.” 

(C.H. Mackintosh)

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May 15

"When we were yet without strength . . . while we were yet sinners . . . when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” 

(Romans 5:6-10)

The love of God is such that it goes over and beyond what we deserve or can hope for. We can’t earn it, for we are “without strength.” We can’t be good enough to deserve it.  No, we are sinners, committing atrocities, little and large, that build a wall between us and God.

But God’s love is still demonstrated towards us.  Even in direct opposition, His love is directed to you and to me, feeble, sinning enemies of God.  There is no greater love than this.

Have you experienced it?

(Jason Bechtel)

And can it be, that I should gain, an interest in the Saviour’s blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain?  For me, who Him to death pursued?

(Charles Wesley)

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May 16

“In whom [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

(Ephesians 1:7)

Creature mind can never know all Thy sufferings here below;

Mortal tongue can ne’er express Thy vast love and matchless grace.

Then for sinners Thou didst die, by Thy blood to bring them nigh;

Sovereign mercy without bound! God alone its depth can sound.

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May 17

COME THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING

"O LORD, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."

(Isaiah 25:1)

During his early teen years, Robert Robinson lived in London, where he mixed with a notorious gang of hoodlums and led a life of debauchery.  At the age of seventeen he attended a meeting where the noted evangelist George Whitfield was preaching.

Robinson went for the purpose of “scoffing" and ended up professing faith in Christ as his Saviour. Soon he felt called to preach the gospel.  Despite his young age, Robinson became known as an able minister and scholar, as well composing several hymns, including these words written when he was just twenty-three years of age.

(Kenneth W. Osbeck)

Come Thou fount of ev’ry blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace; streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.  Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above; praise the mount—I’m fixed upon it—mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer—hither by Thy help I’m come; and I know by Thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.  Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God; He to rescue me from danger interposed His precious blood.   

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!  Let Thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee.  Prone to wander—Lord, I feel it—prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart—O take and seal it seal it for Thy courts above.  

(Robert Robinson)

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May 18

"Then shall the man bring . . . an offering of memorial, bringing 

iniquity to remembrance."

(Numbers 5:15)

"But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again 

made of sins every year."

(Hebrews 10:3)

"Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

(Hebrews 10:17)

The memory of past failures can haunt us.

It is good for us to remember that although we are failures 

because of Christ we can leave those sins at the cross—under the blood.

May God give us grace to enjoy the fact that our sins are GONE.

(William H. Gustafson)

Gone, gone, gone, gone, yes, my sins are gone.

Now my soul is free and in my heart’s a song.

Buried in the deepest sea, yes, that’s good enough for me;

I shall live eternally—praise God, My sins are G-O-N-E.

(Helen Griggs)

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May 19

“And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”

(Genesis 45:7)

Joseph had saved their lives with a great deliverance  (Genesis 45:7);

he had put them in possession of “the best of the land” of Egypt, 

and he nourished them with bread.  (Genesis 47:12).

For 17 years they had been the recipients of Joseph’s bounty, and the special objects of his loving care, and yet—when a crisis arises—it becomes manifest that they have no personal knowledge of Joseph.

They know something of his greatness and glory; they know the great work he has accomplished, they know that every blessing they enjoy is owing to his position and work, but they had no personal acquaintance with his mind and heart.

It is as if they said, “WE know what he has done for us, 

but we do not know how he feels about us." 

And not knowing his mind, when the crisis arises it becomes manifest that they have no confidence in him, with the result that they conclude that he will think and act towards them according to the way they had thought and acted towards him. 

(Hamilton Smith)

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May 20

“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature."

(James 3:6) 

It wasn’t as simple as crossing another river. By law, no Roman general could lead armed troops into Rome.

So when Julius Caesar led his Thirteenth Legion across the Rubicon River and into Italy in 49 BC, it was an act of treason.  The impact of Caesar’s decision was irreversible, generating years of civil war before Rome’s great general became absolute ruler. Still today, the the phrase “crossing the Rubicon” is a metaphor for “passing the point of no return.”

Sometimes we can cross a relational Rubicon with the words we say to others. Once spoken, words can’t be taken back.  They can can either offer help and comfort or do damage that feels just as irreversible as Caesar’s march on Rome. 

James gives us another word picture about words when he wrote the scripture above. When we fear we have crossed a Rubicon with someone, we can seek their forgiveness—and God’s (Matthew 5:23-24; 1 John 1:9).

But even better is to daily rest in God’s Spirit, hearing Paul’s challenge,  “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6), so that our words will not only honour our Lord, but lift up and encourage those around us.

(Bill Crowder)

When the words become weapons, 

our relationships soon become casualties. 

  (Our Daily bread)

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(Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries, Copyright (2018), Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted permission)

May 21

“A certain man made a GREAT supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at suppertime to say to them that were bidden, come; for all things are now ready.”

(Luke 14:16-17)

"How shall we escape, if we neglect so GREAT salvation."

(Hebrews 2:3)

"Between us and you there is a GREAT gulf fixed.”

(Luke 16:26) 

Oh! the love that drew salvation’s plan; 

Oh! the grace that brought it down to man; 

Oh! the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary.

Mercy there was great, and grace was free;

Pardon there was multiplied to me;

There my burdened soul found liberty

At Calvary. 

(William R. Newell - 1895)

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May 22

“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

(Matthew 4:19)

I do not suppose that the Lord Jesus says exactly those words to everybody.

He does not call everybody to give up their temporal employment, and go forth in the ministry of the gospel, or to go out as missionaries to distant lands.  

But He does call everybody to be devoted to Himself.  If devoted to Him, whatsoever your calling in life, whatsoever your station, however you may be occupied, you will be enabled to glorify Him. 

And though it may not be for you to do the work of an evangelist, though it may not be for you to go out as an apostle as Peter did, you will be able to influence others by your life, a life lived for God, which is the best testimony anyone can give to the saving grace of God.

Fear not.  It is true you are a sinner in yourself, but if your trust is in Christ and you are resting in Him who died to save you, in Him who shed His blood to put away your guilt, you can go forth in confidence to serve.

“From henceforth thou shalt catch men".

(H. A. Ironside)

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May 23

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;

and him that cometh to Me I will

in no wise cast out.”

(John 6:37)

An offered gift must be either accepted or refused.

Can he have refused it when He has said,

“Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”?

If not, then it must have been accepted. 

It is just the same process as when we came to Him first of all,

with the intolerable burden of our sins.  

There was no help for it but to come with them to Him,

 and take His word for it that He would not and did not cast us out.

And so coming, so believing, we found rest to our souls;

we found that His word was true, and that his

taking away our sins was a reality.

(Kept for the Master’s Use - Francis Ridley Havergal)

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May 24

“I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the

 cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm,

my great army which I sent among you.”

(Joel 2:25)

“My days are in the yellow leaf, the flowers and fruits of love are gone;

The worm the canker, and the grief are mine alone.”

(Lord Byron)

How few there are into whose life the locusts have not come at some time or other. You may have had to spend years in pain and weariness; a burden to yourself and to others.

Or, constant failure may have dogged your efforts as to some pursuit in life in which you have striven for success.  Your expenditure of toil, and, it may be, of treasure has brought you no reward.  Or, you may be one who has to look back over years of doubt and barren speculation.

You cast off your first faith, and since then you have followed one ‘will o’ the wisp’ after another only to find yourself in deeper darkness.

One view after another has had to be abandoned, and there is nothing left for it now except an utter blank or a return to simple faith in the Bible, and to a refuge in the atoning work of Christ.

How cruelly the locusts of unbelief have wasted the years!

Years of of useless thought in which you have wandered in a hopeless maze, where you have arrived at nothing, and, indeed, are less assured of anything than when you set out.  

In all these cases, and others too numerous to mention, the promise holds good,

"I will restore to you the years that the locust have eaten.”  

(Angels in White - Russell Elliott)

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May 25

“The mountains melted from before the Lord."

(Judges 5:5)

“Ah Lord God!  Behold, Thou hast made the heaven and 

earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, 

and there is nothing too hard for Thee.”

(Jeremiah 32:17)

The dust of earth He measures out; He numbers all the stars of space; 

His mighty scales the mountains weigh, but what can weigh His grace?

His fingers spread the heavens forth; He cups the seas within His hand,

But who His mercies can compute, unnumbered as the sand?

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May 26

“Ye have compassed this mountain long enough:

turn . . . northward.”

(Deuteronomy 2:3)

Last summer a party of us lost our way among the lakes of Ontario.

A violent storm came up, but we found shelter under a great rock till the storm raged past. Then we resumed our hunt dispiritedly until one said, “Let us climb this rock; we may spy the trail from the top.”

It was a hard climb, but the challenge of the rock restored our courage. As we conquered the heights we gained confidence and mastery, and the hill top gave us a vision of our way out.

Get high enough up, you will be above the fog; and while the men down in it, are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside the mist, you from your sunny station will see the far off coasts, and 

haply catch some whiff of perfume from their shores, 

or see some glinting of glory upon the shining 

turrets of “the city that hath foundations.”

The soul which hath launched itself forth upon God is in a free place,

filled with the fresh air of the hills of God.

(Springs in the Valley)

Oh, there are heavenly heights to reach in many a fearful place,

While the poor, timid heir of God lies blindly on his face;

Lies languishing for light Divine that he shall never see

’Till he goes forward at Thy sign, and trusts himself to Thee.

(C. A. Fox)

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May 27

Mary of Bethany

This woman is mentioned three times in the New Testament 

and on each occasion she is found at the 

same place—at Jesus' feet.

We find her there:

As a Learner:

“Mary . . . sat at Jesus feet and heard His word . . . Mary hath chosen 

that good part which shall not be taken away from her.”

(Luke 10:39,42) 

As a Mourner:

“When Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, 

she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, 

Lord, if Thou hadst been here, 

my brother had not died.”

(John 11:32)

AS a Worshipper

“Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, 

very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His 

feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.”

(John 12:3)

(The Wonderful Word - G. Henderson)

N.J. Hiebert - 7095

May 28

"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust."

(Psalm 103:13-14)

He knoweth the need of my life for shelter and raiment and food;

In each trifling care of the day the word of His promise is good;

He knoweth my thoughts from afar, the wish that I never have told,

And every unspoken desire His wisdom doth grant or withhold.

He knoweth me—yet He can love, can wait with love’s patience divine,

My stubborn and arrogant heart its will to His own to resign;

He knoweth my frame is but dust;

 He knoweth how much it can bear;

I rest in that knowledge supreme; I trust in His power and care.

(Flint’s Best-loved Poems)

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May 29

"The LORD is good: His mercy is everlasting; and

His truth endureth to all generations.”

(Psalm 100:5)

The Lord is the very essence of goodness.  All His works are acts of love. His mercy flows on like a river.

Goodness and mercy are attributes of God that bring man to repentance toward God. When they come they find that His truth unswervingly endures.

Some may deny truth; but they can never change it.
Now that we have tasted His goodness and mercy,

it is needful that our ideas conform to God’s reality; because

He will never alter truth to suit our ideas.

(Doug Kazen)

Every joy or trial falleth from above, traced upon our dial by the Sun of love. We may trust Him fully, all for us to do, they who trust Him wholly, find Him wholly true.

(Frances Ridley Havergal)  

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May 30

“That in all things He might have the pre-eminence.”

(Colossians 1:18)

If I am not giving Christ the first place in my heart 

I am not in accord with the mind of God.

The most miserable man on the face of the earth is the

Christian who is trying to enjoy both worlds.

(Edward Dennett)

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May 31

"Having loved His own which were in the world,  

He loved them unto the end.”

(John 13:1)

Oh, how sweet this experience of Christ’s love in this cold world!

When the heart is chilled, and yearning for a little warmth,

how sweet to turn to the Lord Jesus and

feel the warmth of His love! 

Ah, looking up to Him, the heart is always warmed.

If you see any beauty in Christ, and say,

“I desire to have that,” God will work it in you.

Can you spread out no wants before Christ, the Giver, the Healer? 

Believers grieve the Spirit by not using Christ, 

and then God must compel them to do it.

(G.V. Wigram)

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June 1