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July 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Jeremiah 3:1-25
“…When a man makes a god according to the pattern of his own being, he makes a god like himself, an enlargement of his own imperfection. Moreover, the god which a man makes for himself will demand from him that which is according to his own nature. It is clearly evident in Mohammedanism. Great and wonderful and outstanding in his personality as Mohammed was, yet the blighting sensuality of the man curses the whole of Islam today. Men will be faithful to those gods who make no demands upon them which are out of harmony with the desires of their own hearts. When God calls men, it is the call of the God of holiness, the God of purity, the God of love; and He demands that they rise to His height. He cannot accommodate Himself to the depravity of their nature. He will not consent to the things of desire within them that are of impurity and evil. He calls men up, and even higher, until they reach the height of perfect conformity to His holiness. God’s call to humanity is always first pure, and then peaceable; first holy, and then happy; first righteous, and then rejoicing.”
--Studies in the Prophecy of Jeremiah by Dr. G. Campbell Morgan
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Jeremiah 9—11
“America is coasting downhill on a godly ancestry, and God have mercy on us when we reach the bottom of the hill.”
--Dr. J. Gresham Machen
“We can go the way of Babylon because we’ve lost our moral purpose.”
--Dr. Albert Hyma
Friday, July 10, 2009
Jeremiah 18, 19
“An irreverent equalizing of man with God.”
--Dr. William Shedd, describing “questioning God”
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Jeremiah 25:15—28:17
“It is said of Socrates made the statement that he was the wisest man in Athens. When asked on what grounds he made such a claim he replied that he was the wisest man because he realized that his wisdom was worthless!”
--Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Edited Messages on Jeremiah
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool. Shun him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a child. Teach him
He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep. Wake him.
He who knows and knows that he knows is wise. Follow him.
--Persian Proverb
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Jeremiah 29, 30
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade.
A breath can make them as a breath has made,
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.
A time there was ’ere England's griefs began
When every root of ground maintained its men;
For him, like labor, spread her wholesome store,
Just gave what life required but gave no more.
--Oliver Goldsmith
“A great statesman is a man who knows where God is going for the next fifty years.”
--William Gladstone
Friday, July 17, 2009
Jeremiah 31, 32
How canst Thou think so well of us
Yet be the God Thou art,
Is darkness to my intellect
But sunshine to my heart.
Yet Thou dost think so well of us,
Because of what Thou art;
Thy love illumines out intellect,
Yet fills with fear our heart.
--Frederick W. Faber
“The love of God toward us comes from love, and has no other cause above or beside itself, but is in God, and remains in God, so that Christ who is in God is its centre.”
--J.A. Cramer
Monday, July 20, 2009
Jeremiah 33—36
“Maw, I found an old, dusty thing high upon the
shelf. Just look!”
“Why, that's a Bible, Tommy dear, be careful.
That’s God's Book.”
“God’s Book?” the young one said, “Then, Maw,
before we lose it
We’d better send it back to God, ’cause you know
we never use it.”
--Author unknown
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Jeremiah 39:7—44:30
“Prisons are in the interest of the free. Hell is the safe-guard of heaven. A state that cannot punish crime is doomed and a God who tolerates evil is not good. Deny me my biblical revelation of the anger of God and I’m insecure in the universe. But reveal to me this throne established, occupied by One whose heart is full of tenderness; whose bowels yearn with love—then I am assured that He will not tolerate that which blights and blasts and damns, but will destroy it and all its instruments in the interest of that which is high and noble and pure.”
--G. Campbell Morgan
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Jeremiah 45:1—49:6
“What we supremely need in the life of our nation today is the moral equivalent of war.”
--William James
Robert William Dale, when asked the question, “Do you believe in peace at any price?” replied, “I certainly do. Sometimes at the price of war.”
“Finally we come to that which is the most hopeless thing” corruption of conscience. All its fine sensitiveness is gone. There is no high idealism in national outlook and national thought. Or to use the almost terrific word of the Bible, “the conscience is hardened,” so that there is no blanching with fear and no blushing with shame. There is cynicism instead of faith. Pessimism instead of hope. And utilitarianism instead of love.”
--G. Campbell Morgan
Monday, July 27, 2009
Lamentations 1:1-12
“There is nothing like the Lamentations of Jeremiah in the whole world. There has been plenty of sorrow in every age, and in every land, but such another preacher and author, with such a heart for sorrow, has never again been born. Dante comes next to Jeremiah, and we know that Jeremiah was that exile’s favorite prophet.”
--Dr. Alexander Whyte
Laugh, and world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone:
For this sad old earth must borrow its Mirth,
But it has trouble enough of its own.
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox
A woman’s heart—tender and quick and warm;
But man’s in iron will and courage strong.
His harp was set to weird, pathetic song,
Yet when time called for deeds, no wrathful storm
From throne or altar could his soul disarm—
His disheartening battle fierce and long.
--Mrs. Elizabeth Cook
“Prisons are in the interest of the free. Hell is the safe-guard of heaven. A state that cannot punish crime is doomed and a God who tolerates evil is not good. Deny me my biblical revelation of the anger of God and I’m insecure in the universe. But reveal to me this throne established, occupied by One whose heart is full of tenderness; whose bowels yearn with love—then I am assured that He will not tolerate that which blights and blasts and damns, but will destroy it and all its instruments in the interest of that which is high and noble and pure.”
--G. Campbell Morgan
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Lamentations 1:12—3:4
Laugh, and world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone:
For this sad old earth must borrow its Mirth,
But it has trouble enough of its own.
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I am the man sore smitten with the wrath
Of Him who fashioned me; my heart is faint,
And crieth out, “Spare, spare, O God! Thy saint”;
But yet with darkness doth He hedge my path.
My eyes with streams of fiery tears run down
To see the daughter of my people slain,
And in Jerusalem the godless reign.
Trouble on trouble are upon me thrown.
Mine adversaries clap their sinful hands
The while they hiss and wag their heads and say,
“Where is the temple but of yesterday—
The noblest city of a hundred lands?”
We do confess our guilt; then, Lord, arise,
Avenge, avenge us of our enemies!
--G. Smith
JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU*
I oft read with pleasure
to soothe or engage
Isaiah’s wild measure
or John’s simple page.
But e’en when they pictured
the blood-sprinkled tree,
Jehovah-Tsidkenu was nothing to me.
Like tears from the daughters
of Zion that roll
I wept when the waters
went over His soul.
Yet thought not that my sins
had nailed to the tree
Jehovah-Tsidkenu was nothing to me.
When free grace awoke me
by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me
I trembled to die.
No refuge, no safety
in self could I see,
Jehovah-Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.
My terrors all vanished
before that sweet name.
My guilty fears banished,
with boldness I came
To drink at the fountain
life-giving and free,
Jehovah-Tsidkenu is all things to me.
--Robert Murry McCheyne
* “Jehovah-Tsidkenu”: “The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6; Lamentations 2-5)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Lamentations 3:4—5:22
“If religious books are not circulated among the masses and the people do not turn to God, I do not know what is to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be. If God and His Word are not received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy. If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will. If the power of the gospel is not felt through the length and breadth in the land, anarchy, misrule, degradation, misery, corruption, and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.”
--Daniel Webster
“America is coasting downhill on a godly ancestry, and God have mercy on us when we reach the bottom of the hill.”
--Dr. J. Gresham Machen
“We can go the way of Babylon because we’ve lost our moral purpose.”
--Dr. Albert Hyma
“The longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of the truth that God governs in the affairs of men.”
--Benjamin Franklin
Friday, July 31, 2009
1 Timothy 1:1-2
“The salutation on 1 Timothy as a whole has no parallel in Paul.”
--Dr. Marvin R. Vincent
June 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
1 Thessalonians 1:2
Sickened with slaughter and weary of war,
Torn by bereavement and pain.
Daily our eyes are searching the skies
For signs of His coming again.
Longing we pray at dawning of day,
“Lord wilt Thou come before noon?”
Imploring Him yet, in the fading sunset,
“Oh, blessed Lord Jesus come soon.”
Precious the Word, the ear of faith heard,
“Lo, I come quickly my bride.
This longing of thine is not greater than Mine
To have thee at last by My side.”
--Martha Snell Nicholson (written during World War II)
Tuesday, June 2. 2009
1 Thessalonians 1:2, 3
“I am weary in the work, but I am not weary of the work.”
--Dwight L. Moody
“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.”
--Martin Luther
“It is hope which maintains most of mankind.”
--Sophocles
“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.”
--O.S. Marden
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”
--Alexander Pope
“I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern.”
--Thomas Jefferson
“Man is, properly speaking, based on hope, he has no other possession but hope; this world of his is emphatically the place of hope.”
--Thomas Carlyle
“The time I live in is a time of turmoil. My hope is in God.”
--Frederick the Great
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
1 Thessalonians 1:4-6
“For the past fifty years America has been under the control of men who do not know the origin and the beginning of our nation.”
--Attributed to Dr. Albert Hyma
Monday, June 8, 2009
1 Thessalonians 2:7-13
“Some sermons don’t have enough gospel in them to make soup for a sick grasshopper.”
--Attributed to “a great Methodist evangelist” in the South
Friday, June 12, 2009
1 Thessalonians 4:3-12
To dwell above
With the saints in love--
Oh, that will be glory!
But to stay below
With the saints I know--
That’s another story!
--Author unknown
Monday, June 15, 2009
1 Thessalonians 4:13
“I’d like today to preface our study and give all our time to it, but we do need to understand what the Lord meant in John 14, when He says, ‘I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.’ Now a very fine young scholar, Dr. Renald Showers, has made a study of this and puts it on the background of a first century wedding. And we understand that, because all the gospel writers and all the New Testament writers went back to that statement of our Lord. They understood it, but apparently we have missed it. And in the first century when a young man had fallen in love with a girl, why he went over to the girl’s house. He left his father’s house and he bargained with the father of the girl. And then a purchase price was determined upon and when it was agreed upon, a marriage covenant was made. The bride was declared to be set aside and apart for the bridegroom. In other words, we would say, ‘engaged.' It was the espousal or betrothal ceremony that was performed at that time, not the marriage. Each one of them took a glass of wine and I should say, they both drank out of the same glass, and then the ceremony was performed. They made their pledge, and the betrothal benediction was pronounced. And then the young man returned to his father’s house to prepare a place for his bride in his father’s house. And the bride to be, she prepared herself to become a bride and to enter married life. Now this was the first stage and you can certainly recognize the parallel to Christ and the church. He left heaven’s glory, His Father’s house, and He came down to this earth to seek a bride. And He left the Father’s house to come to our house, this world. And He put it like that. He said, ‘I am come forth from the Father, and am come into the world, again, I leave the world and I go to the Father. He came down to this earth and He took upon Himself our humanity, and He paid a price for the church. He paid with His own blood and He said, ‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.’ Now He went back to the Father’s house and in that first century marriage, the thing that took place was, the young man returned. It is said, he wouldn’t return for at least a year. No date was ever set and all the bride had to do was to wait in anticipation, expectation, and preparation. And one day, He’d come. It was generally at night. A group came with Him and He came with a shout! And that is what Paul is going to mean in this passage we’re looking at, at this time. He says, ‘The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout.’ It’s the bridegroom coming for the bride, you see. Therefore today you can set no date. We’ll see that there is no date set for the rapture at all. Because it parallels the first century wedding. So, one day He’s coming to get His church, to take the church up yonder to His Father’s house. And that’s this vast universe to a place that He’s prepared for His bride. What a glorious and what a marvelous picture we have here.”
--Dr. J. Vernon McGee
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
“Last time we made it very clear that Paul, as well as the other New Testament writers, when he was speaking of the Rapture, put them always on the background of what the Lord Jesus said in John 14, when He was speaking about, actually, a first century wedding, when the bridegroom became engaged to the bride, he went away to prepare a place, and then he came to take the bride to be with him, back to the father’s house. And so the great anticipation of the church is the Rapture. It gives a hope today. It gives a hope that the most hopeless time of life, and that’s at the time of death. There’s nothing as tragic as the death of a lost person. I tell you, many times you hear the howling and the screaming and the carrying on--well, may I say to you, I don’t blame them. They’ve got no hope. But the child of God has a hope. The Lord Jesus is going to come one day and raise up that sleeping body of the believer.”
--Dr. J. Vernon McGee
“I am told that when President Adams was an old man, a friend inquired about his health. He answered that he was fine, but the house he lived in was getting rickety and was not in good repair.”
--Dr. J. Vernon McGee
Friday, June 26, 2009
2 Thessalonians 3:8-18
Of all the sad surprises
There's nothing to compare
With treading in the darkness
On a step that isn't there.
--Author unknown
Monday, June 29, 2009
Jeremiah Intro—1:3
“It is difficult to conceive any situation more painful than to watch the lingering agony of an exhausted country, to tend it during the alternate fits of stupefaction and raving which precede its dissolution, and to see the symptoms of vitality disappear one by one, till nothing is left but coldness, darkness, and corruption.”
--Zachary Macaulay
“It was Jeremiah’s lot to prophesy at a time when all things in Judah were rushing down to the final and mournful catastrophe; when political excitement was at its height; when the worst passions swayed the various parties, and the most fatal counsels prevailed. It was his to stand in the way over which his nation was rushing headlong to destruction; to make an heroic effort to arrest it, and to turn it back; and to fail, and be compelled to step to one side and see his own people, whom he loved with the tenderness of a woman, plunge over the precipice into the wide, weltering ruin.”
--Dr. W. G. Moorehead, Studies in the Prophecy of Jeremiah
May 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Isaiah 36—37
“Divine history is never merely history, never simply a true account of past events.”
--F.C. Jennings, Studies in Isaiah
Monday, May 4, 2009
Isaiah 38—39
“‘Behold, I will cause the shadow of the steps to return, which is gone down on the steps of Ahaz with the sun, backward ten steps. And the sun returned ten steps by the steps which it had gone down.’ We can now transport ourselves in spirit to Hezekiah’s palace, and into his chamber. There lies the king, still prone on his couch, but with his face no longer turned to the wall, but joy and hope brightening his eye as he looks out the window to the gardens, in the midst of which, and in full view, stands an obelisk, or column, with a series of steps leading up to it, and at least ten of these are lying in the column’s shadow; for the sun has gone so far down as to throw the shadow over that number of steps. But look again, the once darkened steps are now in clearest sunlight—‘tis the sign for which the king had asked.”
--F.C. Jennings, Studies in Isaiah
Friday, May 14, 2009
Isaiah 53:1-6
“God created the universe without half trying.”
--Attributed to Dr. T. DeWitt Talmadge
Monday, May 18, 2009
Isaiah 53:5—54:17
Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand—
The shadow of a might Rock
Within a weary land;
A rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat,
And the burden of the day.
Upon the cross of Jesus
Mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One
Who suffered there for me:
And from my stricken heart with tears
Two wonders I confess—
The wonders of redeeming love
And my unworthiness.
--Elizabeth C. Clephane, “Beneath the Cross of Jesus”
Tuesday, May 20, 2009
Isaiah 55
“Let us listen then, as if we had never heard the melody of this tender and gracious invitation before. Who are the guests here invited? All who thirst! All that is needed to be welcome then, is—not to need (for that is true of all)—but to want what is offered. Am I utterly dissatisfied with myself? I thirst! Am I dissatisfied with all the world can offer me, and of which I have tasted? I thirst! Is my spirit altogether dissatisfied with all the formalism of religion? Then do I thirst! Blessed thirst! It is the only prerequisite to enjoyment!”
--F.C. Jennings, Studies in Isaiah
“Joy is the flag that is flown in the heart when the Master is in residence.”
--Motto in a preacher’s study in Salem, Oregon
“I suppose I am the most miserable devil on earth.”
--Jay Gould, dying American millionaire
“The worm, the canker, and the grief are mine alone.”
--Lord Byron, “On My Thirty-sixth Year”
Friday, May 22, 2009
Isaiah 58:4—59:21
“It is not because God is great and I am small, it is not because He lives forever, and my life is but a hand-breadth, it is not because of the difference between His omniscience and my ignorance, His strength and my weakness, that I am parted from Him: ‘Your sins have separated between you and your God.’ And no man, build he Babels ever so high, can reach thither. There is one means by which the separation is at an end, and by which all objective hindrances to union, and all subjective hindrances, are alike swept away. Christ has come, and in Him the heavens have bended down to touch, and touching to bless this low earth, and man and God are at one once more”
--Alexander MacLaren, The Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Isaiah 63
“Read your Bible; prevent truth decay!”
--from a listener in Vista, California
Friday, May 29, 2009
Isaiah 65:3—66:24
Dr. George Gill, when asked, “Who ever heard of a lion eating straw? Anyone knows that a lion never eats straw!” replied, “Young man, if you can make a lion, then I will make him eat straw. The One who created the lion will equip him to eat straw when He wants him to do it.”
April 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Isaiah 5:25—6:2
Our Prayerless Sin
We have not wept for thy grief,
Israel, scattered, driven,
Shut up to darkened unbelief
While we have heaven.
We have not prayed for thy peace,
Jerusalem forsaken;
Thy root’s increase, by God’s great grace,
We age-long have partaken.
How trod thy street our Saviour’s feet;
How fell His tears for thee;
How, loving Him, can we forget,
Nor long thy joys to see.
Zion, thy God remembers thee
Though we so hard have been;
Zion, thy God remembers thee,
With blood-bought right to cleanse,
May He remove our prayerless sin.
--Author unknown
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Isaiah 8
“I have learned that when you fear God, you have no man to fear.”
--Oliver Cromwell
Friday, April 10, 2009
Isaiah 10
“One with God is a majority.”
--Martin Luther
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Isaiah 24:16—26:18
“My misery, my misery.”
--Dr. F. C. Jenkins’ translation of “My leanness, my leanness.”
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Isaiah 29:5—31:9
“Carelessness in prayer dwarfs every other aspect of need in the Lord’s work. Our theology of prayer is flawless, but our practice is faulty. Our intentions are good, but prayer’s usually a last resort. We have committees, retreats, seminars, conferences, tapes and a flood of printed matter – but little prayer. Prayer meetings are the most poorly attended functions in our Bible-believing churches. Our fundamentalism has become sophisticated to the point where we give little more than lip service to the doctrine of prayer. Could it be that personal needs, financial limitations, ineffective ministry and unsolved personal problems are all related to our superficial approach to prayer?”
--Great Commission Prayer League’s Global Circle magazine
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Isaiah 34—35
“Hasten, O Saviour, the time of Thy return. Delay not, lest the living give up their hope. Delay not, lest the earth shall grow like hell, and Thy church shall be crumbled to dust. O haste, that great resurrection day, when the graves that received by rottenness, and retain by dust, shall return Thee glorious stars and suns. Thy desolate Bride saith, Come. The whole creation saith, Come, even so come, Lord Jesus. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God.”
--Richard Baxter
March 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Song of Solomon 2:12-15
O sing unto this glittering glorious king,
O praise his name let every living thing;
Let heart and voice, like belles of silver, ring
The comfort that this day did bring.
--Kingwellmersh
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyelids close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
--Augustus M. Toplady
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Song of Solomon 5:6-16
"All other greatness has been marred by littleness, all other wisdom has been flawed by folly, all other goodness has been tainted by imperfection; Jesus Christ remains the only Being of whom, without gross flattery, it could be asserted, He is altogether lovely. My theme, then, is: The Loveliness of Christ. First of all, as it seems to me, this loveliness of Christ consists in His perfect humanity. Am I understood? I do not now mean that He was a perfect human, but that He was perfectly human. In everything but our sins, and our evil natures, He is one with us. He grew in stature and in grace. He labored, and wept, and prayed, and loved. He was tempted in all points as we are—sin apart. With Thomas, we confess Him Lord and God; we adore and revere Him, but beloved, there is no other who establishes with us such intimacy, who comes so close to these human hearts of ours; no one in the universe of whom we are so little afraid. He enters as simply and naturally into our twentieth century lives as if He had been reared in the same street. He is not one of the ancients. How wholesomely and genuinely human He is! Martha scolds Him; John, who has seen Him raise the dead, still the tempest and talk with Moses and Elijah on the mount, does not hesitate to make a pillow of His breast at supper. Peter will not let Him wash his feet, but afterwards wants his head and hands included in the ablution. They ask Him foolish questions, and rebuke Him, and venerate and adore Him all in a breath; and He calls them by their first names, and tells them to fear not, and assures them of His love. And in all this He seems to me altogether lovely.”
--From The Loveliness of Jesus by Dr. C.I. Scofield
Friday March 6, 2009
Song of Solomon 5:10—8:14
“The saintliness of Jesus is so warm and human that it attracts and inspires. We find in it nothing austere and inaccessible, like a statue in a niche. The beauty of Hid holiness reminds one rather of a rose, or a bank of violets. Jesus receives sinners and eats with them—all kinds of sinners. Nicodemus, the moral, religious sinner, and Mary of Magdala, ‘out of whom went seven devils’—the shocking kind of sinner. He comes into sinful lives as a bright, clear stream enters a stagnant pool The stream is not afraid if contamination but its sweet energy cleanses the pool. I remark again, and as connected with this that His sympathy is altogether lovely. He is always being ‘touched with compassion.’ The multitude without a shepherd, the sorrowing widow of Nain, the little dead child of the ruler, the demoniac of Gadara, the hungry five thousand—what ever suffers touches Jesus. His very wrath against the scribes and Pharisees is but the excess of His sympathy for those who suffer under their hard self-righteousness. Did you ever find Jesus looking for ‘deserving poor’? He ‘healed all their sick.’ And what grace in His sympathy! Why did He touch that poor leper? He could have healed him with a word as He did the nobleman’s son. Why, for years the wretch had been an outcast, cut off from kin, dehumanized. He lost the sense of being a man. It was defilement to approach him. Well, the touch of Jesus made him human again. A Christian woman, laboring among the moral lepers of London, found a poor street girl desperately ill in a bare, cold room. With her own hands she ministered to her, changinf her bed linen, procuring medicines, nourishing food, a fir, and making the poor place as bright and cherry as possible, and then she said, “May I pray with you?’ ‘No,’ said the girl, ‘you don’t care for me; you are doing this to get to heaven.’ Many days passed and the Christian woman unwearily kind, the sinful girl hard and bitter. At last the Christian said, ‘My dear, you are nearly well now, and I shall not come again, but as this is my last visit, I want you to let me kiss you,’ and the pure lips that had known only prayers and holy words me the lips defiled by oaths and unholy caresses—and then, my friends, the hard heart broke. Can you fancy Him calling a convention of the Pharisees to discuss methods of reaching the ‘masses’? That leads me to remark that His humility was altogether lovely, and He, the only one who ever had the choice of how and where He should be born, entered this life as one of the ‘masses.’ What meekness, what lowliness! ‘I am among you as one that serveth.’ He ‘began to wash the disciples’ feet.’ ‘When He was reviled He revileth not again.’ ‘As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.’ Can you think of Jesus posing and demanding His rights? But it is in His way with sinners that the supreme loveliness of Christ is most sweetly shown. How gentle He is, yet how faithful; how considerate, how respectful. Nicodemus, candid and sincere, but proud of his position as a master in Israel, and timid lest he should imperil it, ‘comes to Jesus by night.’ Before he departs, ‘the Master’ has learned his utter ignorance of the first step toward the kingdom, and goes away to think over the personal application of ‘they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.’ But he has not hear one harsh word, one utterance that can wound his self-respect. When He speaks to that silent despairing woman, after her accusers have gone out, one by one, He uses for ‘woman’ the same word He used when addressing His mother from the cross. Follow Him to Jacob’s well at high noon and hear His conversation with the woman of Samaria. How patiently He unfolds the deepest truths, how gently, yet faithfully He presses the great ulcer of sin which is eating away her soul. But He could not be more respectful to Mary of Bethany. Even in the agonies of death He could hear the cry of despairing faith. When conquerors return from far wars in strange lands they bring their chiefest captive as a trophy. It was enough for Christ to take back to heaven the soul of a thief. Yea, He is altogether lovely. And now I have left myself no room to speak of His dignity, of His virile manliness, of His perfect courage. There is in Jesus a perfect equipoise of various perfections. All the elements of perfect character are in lovely balance. His gentleness is never weak. His courage is never brutal. My friends, you may study these things for yourself. Follow Him through all the scenes of outrage and insult on the night and morning of His arrest and trial. Behold Him before the high priest, before Pilate, before Herod. See Him brow-beaten, bullied, scourged, smitten upon the face, spit upon, mocked. How His inherent greatness comes out. Not once does He lose His self-poise, His high dignity. Let me ask some unsaved sinner her to follow Him still further. Go with the jeering crowd without the gates; see Him stretched upon the great rough cross and hear the dreadful sound of the sledge as the spikes are forced through His hands and feet. See, as the yelling mob falls back, the cross, bearing the gentlest, sweetest, bravest, loveliest man, upreared until it falls into the socket in the rock. ‘And sitting down, they watched Him there.’ You watch, too. Hear Him ask the Father to forgive His murderers, hear all the cries from the cross. Is He not altogether lovely? What does it all mean? 'He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.’ By Him all that believe are justified from all things.’ ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.’ I close with a word of personal testimony. This is my beloved, and this is my friend. Will you not accept Him as your Saviour, and beloved and friend?”
--From The Loveliness of Jesus by Dr. C.I. Scofield
“She delights in her husband, in his person, his character, his affection. To her he is not only the chief and foremost of mankind, but in her eyes, he’s all in all. Her heart’s love belongs to him, and to him only. He is her little world—her paradise—her choice treasure. She’s glad to sink her individuality in his. She seeks no renown for herself. His honor is reflected upon her and she rejoices in it. She will defend his name with her dying breath. Safe enough is he where she can speak of him. His smiling gratitude is all the reward she seeks. Even in her dress she thinks of him, and considers nothing beautiful that is distasteful to him. He has many objects in life—some of which she does not quite understand, but she believes in them all, and anything she can do to promote them, she delights to perform. Such a wife, as a true spouse, realizes the model marriage relation, and sets forth what our oneness with the Lord ought to be.”
--Charles Spurgeon
Monday, March 9, 2009
Colossians 1:1, 2 Introduction
“Thou, O Christ, art all I want; more than all in Thee I find.”
--Charles Wesley
“Look on thine own nothingness; be humble, but look at Jesus, they great representative, and be glad. It will save thee many pangs if thou will learn to think of thyself as being in Him.”
--Charles Spurgeon
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Colossians 1:2-14
“We pray Thee, forgive us our sins and wash us in the blood of Jesus. Receive us into Thy kingdom. Give us of Thy Holy Spirit, and save us at last for Christ’s sake. Amen.”
--Dr. H.A. Ironside
Friday, March 13, 2009
Colossians 1:24-29
“When a child is born into this world, some woman must travail in pain; and the reason there are not more people being born again is because there are not enough believers who are willing to travail.”
--Dr. George Gill
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Isaiah 1:4-18
“The United States of America in the past fifty years has been dominated to a large extent by persons who do not understand the spiritual heritage bequeathed by their own ancestors.”
--Dr. Albert Hyma
“America is coasting downhill on a godly ancestry, and God pity America when we hit the bottom of the hill.”
--Dr. J. Gresham Machen
“Sixty years ago I told God if He would let me alone, I would let Him alone, and He has kept His word!”
--Aaron Burr
Philosophy says: Think your way out.
Indulgence says: Drink your way out.
Politics says: Spend your way out.
Science says: Invent your way out.
Industry says: Work your way out.
Communism says: Strike your way out.
Fascism says: Bluff your way out.
Militarism says: Fight your way out.
The Bible says: Pray your way out,
But Jesus Christ says: “I am the way (out)…”
--Author unknown
Monday, March 30, 2009
Isaiah 3
“America is coasting downhill on a godly ancestry, and God pity America when we hit the bottom of the hill.”
--Dr. J. Gresham Machen
February 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Ecclesiastes 1:1-5
The Weaver
My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.
Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow,
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I, the underside.
Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver's skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
--Author Unknown
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Ecclesiastes 1:5-14
“There is danger in pressing the words in the Bible into a positive announcement of scientific fact, so marvelous are some of these correspondencies. But it is certainly a curious fact that Solomon should use language entirely consistent with discoveries such as evaporation and storm currents (vv. 6, 7). Some have boldly said that Redfield’s theory of storms is here explicitly stated. Without taking such ground, we ask, who taught Solomon to use terms that readily accommodate facts that the movement of the winds which seem to be so lawless and uncertain, are ruled by laws as positive as those which rule the growth of the plant; and that by evaporation, the waters that fall on the earth are continually rising again, so that the sea never overflows? Ecclesiastes 12:6 is a poetic description of death. How the ‘silver cord’ describes the spinal marrow, the ‘golden bowl’ the basin which holds the brain, the ‘pitcher’ the lungs, and the ‘wheel’ the heart. Without claiming that Solomon was inspired to foretell the circulation of the blood, twenty-six centuries before Harvey announced it, is it not remarkable that the language he uses exactly suits the facts—a wheel pumping up through one pipe to discharge through another?”
--Dr. Arthur T. Pierson
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Ecclesiastes 9:1-14
“Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”
--Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 1, Section 1
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Ecclesiastes 12
Thou knowest, Lord, I’m growing older.
My fire of youth begins to smolder;
I somehow tend to reminisce
And speak of good old days I miss.
I am more moody, bossy, and
Think folk should jump at my command.
Help me, Lord, to conceal my aches
And realize my own mistakes.
Keep me sweet, silent, sane, serene,
Instead of crusty, sour, and mean.
--Author unknown
When as a child, I laughed and wept,
Time crept;
When as a youth, I dreamed and talked,
Time walked;
When I became a full-grown man,
Time ran;
When older still I daily grew,
Time flew;
Soon I shall find in traveling on,
Time gone.
--Author unknown
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Song of Solomon 1:7-13
My soul’s a shepherd too, a flock it feeds
Of thoughts and words and deeds;
The pasture is thy word, the streams thy grace,
Enriching all the place.
--George Herbert
See how from far upon the Eastern road,
The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet;
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honor first they Lord to greet.
--John Milton
A bundle of mellifluous myrrhe,
Is my Beloved best
To me, which I will bind between
My breasts, while I do rest
In silent slumbers.
--Troth-plight Spouse
As myrrh new bleeding from the tree,
Such is a dying Christ to me;
And while He makes my soul his guest,
My bosom, Lord, shall be thy rest.
--Isaac Watts
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Song of Solomon 2:1-7
“Close by these lilies there grew several of the thorny shrubs of the desert; but above them rose the lily, spreading out its fresh green leaf as a contrast to the dingy verdure of these prickly shrubs—‘like the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.’”
--Horatius Bonar
Friday, February 27, 2009
Song of Solomon 2:4-11
The love, the love that I bespeak,
Works wonders in the soul;
For when I’m whole it makes me sick,
When sick it makes me whole.
I’m overcome, I faint, I fail,
Till love shall love relieve;
More love divine the wound can heal,
Which love divine did give.
More of the joy that makes me faint,
Would give me present ease;
If more should kill me, I’m content
To die of that disease.
--Ebenezer Erskine
When manifold obstructions met,
My willing Saviour made
A stepping-stone of every let,
That in his way was laid.
--Ebenezer Erskine
The legal wintery state is gone,
The mists are fled, the spring comes on;
The sacred turtle dove we hear
Proclaim the new, the joyful year.
And when we hear Christ Jesus say,
Rise up my Love, and come away,
Our heats would fain outfly the wind,
And leave all earthly joys behind.
--Isaac Watts
January 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Proverbs 26:23—27:27
“A wife laughs at her husband’s jokes, not because they are clever, but because she is!”
--Author unknown
“It’s impossible to govern the world without the Bible.”
--George Washington
“It is common for a man to hate those whom they have injured.”
--Tacitus
“Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in, the knowledge of the same.”
--Jonathan Edwards
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Proverbs 30:20—31:31
“God took Eve from the side of Adam, not from his foot to be his menial or slave or servant, not from his head to be his mental superior, and did take him from that which is nearest his heart, that he might love her, and that which is under his arm, that he might protect her.”
--Matthew Henry
“The greatest threat to America is not Communist aggression, nuclear warfare, nor oil embargo. The greatest threat is a public education system that has abandoned principles on which America was founded. If sex education can be objective and value-free, then it follows that sex experimentation will be a required lab course. Christian education assures that a child will learn to view from God’s perspective. The most the public school system can promise is that a graduate can read at the ninth grade level. The largest group of parents who send their children to a Christian school are public school educators!”
--Paul Harvey
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Philippians Intro.
“Go west, young man, go west.”
--Horace Greeley
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Philippians 1:2-6
From "Portrait of a Christian"
Not only in the words you say,
Not only in your deeds confessed.
But in the most unconscious way
Is Christ expressed.
Is it a beatific smile?
A holy light upon your brow?
Oh no, I felt His presence when
You laughed just now.
For me ‘twas not the truth you taught,
To you so clear, to me so dim.
But when you came to me,
You brought a sense of Him.
And from your eyes He beckons me,
From your lips His love is shed,
'Til I lose sight of you and see
The Christ instead.
--Beatrice Clelland
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Philippians 1:14-30
“When I go down to the grave I can say I’ve finished my day’s work, but I cannot say I finished my life. My life’s work will begin the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley. It is a thoroughfare. It closes with the twilight to open with the dawn.”
--Victor Hugo
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Philippians 2:1-6
Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us:
Ye call Me Master and obey Me not.
Ye call Me Light and see Me not.
Ye call Me Way and walk Me not.
Ye call Me Life and desire Me not.
Ye call Me Wise and follow Me not.
Ye call Me Fair and love Me not.
Ye call Me Rich and ask Me not.
Ye call Me Eternal and seek Me not.
Ye call Me Gracious and trust Me not.
Ye call Me Noble and serve Me not.
Ye call Me Mighty and honor me not.
Ye call Me Just and fear Me not.
If I condemn you, blame Me not.
--Inscription in the cathedral in Lubeck
Friday, January 16, 2009
Phillipians 2:8-11
Consider Him
When the storm is raging high,
When the tempest rends the sky,
When my eyes with tears are dim,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
When my plans are in the dust,
When my dearest hopes are crushed,
When is passed each foolish whim,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
When with dearest friends I part,
When deep sorrow fills my heart,
When pain racks each weary limb,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
When I track my weary way,
When fresh trials come each day,
When my faith and hope are dim,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
Clouds or sunshine, dark or bright,
Evening shades or morning light,
When my cup flows o’er the brim,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
--Author unknown
Monday, January 19, 2009
Philippians 2:12-26
“Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.”
--John Calvin
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Philippians 3:7-14
“When I was converted, I lost my religion.”
--Dr. W.I. Carroll
Friday, January 23, 2009
Philippians 3:15-20
“To be anxious for souls, and yet not impatient; to be patient, and yet not indifferent; to bear the infirmities of the weak without fostering them; to testify against sin and unfaithfulness and a low standard of spiritual life, and yet to keep the stream of love full and free and open. To have the mind of a faithful, loving shepherd, a hopeful physician, a tender nurse, a skillful teacher requires the continual renewal of the Lord’s grace.”
--Missionary in Guatemala
I’ll stay where You put me, I will, dear Lord,
Though I wanted so badly to go.
I was eager to march with the rank and file,
Yes, I wanted to lead them, you know.
I planned to keep step to the music loud,
To cheer when the banner’s unfurled,
To stand in the midst of the fight, straight and proud,
But I’ll stay where you put me.
I’ll stay where you put me, I’ll work, dear Lord,
Though the field be narrow and small
And the ground be fallow and the stones are thick
And there seems to be no life at all.
The field is Thine own, only give me the seed.
I’ll sow it with never a fear.
I’ll till the dry soil while I wait for the rain
And rejoice when the green blades appear.
I’ll work where You put me.
I’ll stay where You put me, I will, dear Lord.
I’ll face the day’s burden and heat,
Always trusting Thee fully. When even has come,
I’ll lay heavy sheaves at Thy feet.
And then when my earth work is ended and done,
In bright eternity’s glow,
Life’s record all closed, I surely shall find
It was better to stay than to go.
I’ll stay where you put me.
--Mrs. Charles Cowman
“For our city home is in heaven.”
--Mrs. Montgomery
“Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.”
--John Calvin
Monday, January 26, 2009
Philippians 3:20—4:3
“All the way to heaven is heaven.”
--Dr. Herbert Bieber
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Philippians 4:4-6
“Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself as to others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration, just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.”
--Fenelon
“I carry this in the back of my Bible, everywhere I go, and every now and then I get it out and read it. This was written by Fenelon, a great saint and mystic of the Middle Ages.”
--Dr. McGee
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