December 2005
Friday, December 2, 2005 Zechariah 13:1-3
"Only a literal application of these prophecies to the restoration and conversion of the Jewish nation at the second advent of Christ can satisfy the scope of these prophetic disclosures. Other interpretations ignore the true scope of Zechariah's prophecy as a whole, violate the immediate context, resort to pointless mysticalizing and end up in a morass of uncertainty and confusion."
–Dr. Merrill F. Unger, Unger's Bible Commentary: Zechariah
Friday, December 9, 2005 Malachi 1:2-8
"I am more afraid of the profanity of the sanctuary than I am of the profanity of the street."
–Dr. G. Campbell Morgan
Monday, December 12, 2005 Malachi 1:8-13
"I get tired in the work, but I never get tired of the work."
–Dwight L. Moody
Friday, December 16, 2005 Malachi 2:11-15
"At too many colleges today, sexual promiscuity among students is a dangerous and growing evil."
–Judge Barron of the Superior Court of Massachusetts
"So our young people go riding down the highroad to hell in an atmosphere that would make any self-respecting animal sick to its stomach, and no one thinks that matters are as bad as they seem."
–The Billy Graham paper, Decision, circa 1964
"One of the troubles with the world is that people mistake sex for love, money for brains, and transistor radios for civilization."
–Dan Bennett
Monday, December 19, 2005 Malachi 2:10-15
"Infinity and eternity are difficult if not impossible for the human mind to comprehend. It's much easier to deal with beginnings and endings because these are what we experience and observe everyday. The world is one of finite things, with edges, boundaries, dimensions, origins, endings, startings, stoppings, appearances, disappearances. Only when we gaze into the starry heavens do we begin to grasp, however dimly, the idea of infinity. But the same questions that stirred the first inquiring minds thousands of years ago still plague the sophisticated, far seeing scientist of today. What lies beyond? Always one can imagine a boundary. But never a boundary with nothing beyond."
–Dr. William Lee Stokes, The Genesis Answer: A Scientist's Testament for Divine Creation
Friday, December 23, 2005 Malachi 3:7, 8
THE BEAUTIFUL STORY OF CHRISTMAS
The beautiful story of Christmas
Grows sweeter and dearer each year.
The Bethlehem star glowing brighter
In a world that is dark with fear.
For deep in the heart of a Christian
There is peace in a world at war.
For the signs of His second coming
Are greater than ever before.
So let's think of Him in our giving,
This gift we've so freely received,
And lovingly share Him with others
Who never before have believed.
One candle of faith in the darkness
Can dispel every shadow of fear.
The beautiful story of Christmas
Grows sweeter each day of the year.
–Alice H. Mortenson
"The offerings in Israel were the first-fruits, not less than one-sixtieth of the corn, wine, and oil. (Deuteronomy 18:4). There were several kinds of tithes: (1) the tenth of the remainder after the first-fruits were taken, this amount going to the Levites for their livelihood (Leviticus 27:30-33); (2) the tenth paid by Levites to the priests (Numbers 18:26-28); (3) the second tenth paid by the congregation for the needs of the Levites and their own families at the tabernacle (Deuteronomy 12:18); and (4) another tithe every third year for the poor (Deuteronomy 14:28-29)."
–Dr. Charles Feinberg, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi
Wednesday, December 28, 2005 Malachi 4:2-4
"An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!"
–From Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling
Thursday, December 29, 2005 Revelation Introduction
"The Lord has more truth yet to break forth from His Holy Word…Luther and Calvin were great shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated no the whole counsel of God…Be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written Word of God."
–Pastor at Leyden to the Pilgrims when they sailed to America
November 2005
Friday, November 18, 2005 Zechariah 9:4-9
THE CONQUERORS
Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three.
One lived and died for self; one died for you and me;
The Greek died on a throne; the Jew died on a cross;
One's life a triumph seemed; the other but a loss.
One led vast armies forth; the other walked alone.
One shed a whole world's blood; the other gave His own.
One won the world in life and lost it all in death;
The other lost His life to win the whole world's faith.
Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three.
One died in Babylon, and one on Calvary.
One gained all for himself; and one Himself He gave,
One conquered every throne; the other every grave.
The one made himself God, the God made Himself less,
The one lived but to blast, the other but to bless.
When died the Greek, forever fell his throne of swords;
But Jesus died to live forever Lord of lords.
Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three.
The Greek made all men slaves; the Jew made all men free.
One built a throne on blood; the other built on love.
The one was born of earth; the other from above.
One won all this earth, to lose all earth and heaven.
The other gave up all, that all to Him be given.
The Greek forever died; the Jew forever lives.
He loses all who gets, and wins all things who gives.
–Charles Ross Weede
Monday, November 21, 2005 Zechariah 9:9
"That crowd that followed Him, that said, 'Hosanna,' they never thought of Him as the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. But that same crowd that said, 'Hosanna,' one day, said 'Crucify Him' the next day."
–Bishop Rule
Tuesday, November 22, 2005 Zechariah 9:10-17
THE CONQUERORS–See Friday, November 18, above.
Monday, November 28, 2005 Zechariah 11:7-17
"If the Methodists were just as afraid of sin as they are of holiness, they would be a better people."
–Bishop Moore
"If you had a lion in a cage in your backyard, you wouldn't employ a guard to stay at the door of the cage to protect the lion from pussycats in the neighborhood. All you would need to do would be to open the door of the cage, and the lion would take care of himself."
–Dr. Bob Shuler
Tuesday, November 29, 2005 Zechariah 11:15–12:3
"Woe! Worthless shepherd, forsaker of the flock! Let the sword be against his arm and against his right eye! His arm shall be completely dried up and his right eye shall be completely blind."
–Dr. Merrill Unger, translating Zechariah 11:17
October 2005
Monday, October 3, 2005 Jude 11–13
“When a man is born once, he will have to die twice. When a man is born twice, he will only have to die once.”
–Dwight L. Moody
Tuesday, October 4, 2005 Jude 13–16
He that has light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the midday sun;
Himself is his own dungeon.
–John Milton
Wednesday, October 5, 2005 Jude 16–19
“These are the complainers against their lot, ordering their course of conduct in accordance with their own passionate cravings, and their mouth speaking immoderate extravagant things, catering to personalities for the sake of advantage.”
–Translation of Jude from Word Studies from the Greek New Testament by Kenneth S. Wuest
Friday, October, 7, 2005 Jude 20–25
“Prayer is the Holy Spirit speaking in the believer, through Christ, to the Father.”
–From a missionary in Venezuela
Monday, October 10, 2005 Haggai Introduction
“When a man prays for a corn crop, God expects him to say Amen with a hoe.”
–Bishop Mooson, from Georgia
Thursday, October 13, 2005 Haggai 1:9-15
“First there was an appeal to the mind. He told them that at the very beginning. He said, ‘You say it is not time to build God’s house? I want you to think about this, how is it that you are living in fine houses?’ And that was the appeal to the mind. The second was the call to consider. And that was an appeal to the heart. He says, ‘Set your hearts, lay your hearts to this.’”
–Dr. Frank Morgan
When asked what is the mark of a great statesman, Gladstone said, “A man who knows the direction God is going for the next 50 years.”
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Haggai 2:5-9
Mid blended shouts of joy and grief were laid the stones
Whereon the exile’s hopes were based.
Then foes conspired, the king’s courage retraced
His throne against the enterprise arrayed,
And now self-seeking apathy in vain all hearts
The pulse grows faint, the will unbraced
They rear their houses, let God’s house lie waste.
So heaven from dew and earth are stayed
There comes a swift messenger from higher court
With rugged message of divine import
Your ways consider, be ye strong and build
With greater glory shall this house be filled.
He touched their conscience, and their spirits stirred
To nerve their hands for work, their loins regird.
–Author unknown
Thursday, October 27, 2005 Zechariah 2:5-13
“The science to which I pinned my faith has failed, and you are beholding an atheist who has lost his faith.”
–George Bernard Shaw
Monday, October 31, 2005 Zechariah 3:3-10
“A brand plucked from the burning.”
–John Wesley, speaking of himself
September 2005
Thursday, September 8, 2005 Habakkuk 2:13-20
“In our youth we had a profound sense of national purpose that we lost over the years of our rise to glory.”
–Attributed to Clinton Rossiter
“In public they talk about how optimistic and wonderful the future is, but the private conversations of thoughtful men in Washington are quite different.”
–Attributed to James Reston
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Zephaniah 1:2-5
Is there no other way, Oh God,
Except through sorrow, pain and loss?
To stamp Christ’s likeness on my soul,
No other way except the cross?
And then a voice stills all my soul,
That stilled the waves of Galilee,
Cans’t thou not bear the furnace,
If midst the flames I walk with thee?
I bore the cross, I know its weight,
I drank the cup I hold for thee.
Cans’t thou not follow where I lead?
I'll give thee strength, lean hard on Me!
–Author unknown
WHAT GOD HATH PROMISED
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain, rocky and steep,
Never a river, turbid and deep.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the laborer, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
–Annie Johnson Flint
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Zephaniah 1:2-5
“This betrayal of Christ in the name of Christianity is one reason for the moral and spiritual malaise with which this country is afflicted. The melancholy fact is that the churches no longer influence the development of national character. People go to church mainly because of an impulse to participate in a service of worship, not because of any spiritual guidance they expect from the clergy man.”
–Editorial from a major metropolitan newspaper
Historian Edward Gibbons’ five reasons for the decline and fall of Rome:
1) The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2) Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3) The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
4) The building of great armaments when the great enemy was within; the decay of individual responsibility.
5) The decay of religion, fading into a mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.
“It was (Charles) Spurgeon who noticed a weather vane that a farmer had on his barn. It was an unusual weather vane, for on it the farmer had the words, GOD IS LOVE. Mr. Spurgeon asked him, ‘Do you mean by this that God’s love is as changeable as the wind?’ The farmer shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I do not mean that God’s love changes like that. I mean that whichever way the wind blows, God is love.'”
–Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Edited Messages on Zephaniah
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 Zephaniah 3:9-20
IN THE CRUCIBLE
Out from the mine and the darkness,
Out from the damp and the mold,
Out from the fiery furnace,
Cometh each grain of gold.
Crushed into atoms and leveled
Down to the humblest dust
With never a heart to pity,
With never a hand to trust.
Molten and hammered and beaten
Seemeth it ne'er to be done.
Oh, for such fiery trial,
What hath the poor gold done?
Oh, 'twere a mercy to leave it
Down in the damp and the mold.
If this is the glory of living,
Then better to be dross than gold.
Under the press and the roller,
Into the jaws of the mint,
Stamped with the emblem of freedom,
With never a flaw or a dint.
Oh, what a joy, the refining,
Out of the damp and the mold.
And stamped with the glorious image,
Oh, beautiful coin of gold!
–Author unknown
Friday, September 23, 2005 Jude 1–3
“Jude, a bondslave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who by God the Father have been loved and are in a state of being the permanent objects of His love, and who for Jesus Christ have been guarded and are in a permanent state of being carefully watched, to those who are called ones.”
–Translation of Jude from Word Studies from the Greek New Testament by Kenneth S. Wuest
“While charis [grace] has thus reference to the sins of men, and is that glorious attribute of God which these sins call out and display, His free gift in their forgiveness, eleos [mercy], has special and immediate regard to the misery which is the consequence of these sins, being the tender sense of this misery displaying itself in the effort, which only the continued perverseness of man can hinder or defeat, to assuage and entirely remove it… In the divine mind, and in the order of our salvation as conceived therein, the eleos (mercy) precedes the charis (grace). God so loved the world with a pitying love (herein was the eleos), that He gave His only begotten Son (herein the charis), that the world through Him might be saved (compare Eph. 2:4; Luke 1:78-79). But in the order of manifestation of God’s purposes of salvation the grace must go before the mercy, the charis must go before and make way for the eleos. It is true that the same persons are the subjects of both, being at once the guilty and the miserable; yet the righteousness of God, which it is quite necessary should be maintained as His love, demands that the guilt should be done away before the misery can be assuaged; only the forgiven can be blessed.”
–Dr. R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament
Monday, September 26, 2005 Jude 3, 4
“Divinely-loved one, when giving all diligence to be writing to you concerning the salvation possessed in common by all of us, I had constraint laid upon me to write to you, beseeching (you) to contend with intensity and determination for the Faith once for all entrusted into the safekeeping of the saints.”
–Translation of Jude from Word Studies from the Greek New Testament by Kenneth S. Wuest
Tuesday, September 27, 2005 Jude 4–6
“There is a surge of immorality in civilian and military life. Moral decay is an acute national problem, and there is an urgent need to improve moral leadership among youth.”
–Vice Admiral Robert Goldwaithe, Chief of Naval Air Training, 1959
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 Jude 6, 7
“The belief in God is like the fading smile of a Cheshire cat; it is disappearing in this scientific age.”
–Attributed to Aldus Huxley
“The most amazing event to enter modern history has been generally snubbed by our chroniclers. It is the petering out of Christianity. Not only are the Bible stories going by the board, but a deeper side of religion seems also to be exiting. This is the mystic concept of the human soul and its survival after death.
"Parsons are still preaching away on this topic and congregations are still listening. But congregation and parson both seem to have moved from church to museum.
"Fifty years ago religion was an exuberant part of our world. Its sermons, bazaars, tag days, taboos and exhortations filled the press. Its rituals brought a glow to our citizenry. At their supper tables a large part of the voting population bowed its head and said grace.
"Religion today is a touchy subject, not because people believe deeply and are ready to defend such belief with emotion, but because they do not want to hear it discussed. They do not know quite what they feel and they do not know what to say about God, His angels and the record of His miracles. Not wanting to sound anti-Christian (or antisocial or anti-anything not under general condemnation) they settle for silence. In this silence, more than in all the previous agnostic hullabaloos, religion seems swiftly disappearing.”
–Ben Hecht , "New God for the Space Age" (1963)
“U.S. Protestantism–once famous for its diversity–is homogenizing into what is almost a new faith, and if it continues in its present direction, it will be stone-cold dead in a couple of dozen years.”
–Gibson Winter, The Suburban Captivity of the Churches
“And angels who did not carefully guard their original position of preeminent dignity, but abandoned once for all their own private dwelling-place, with a view to the judgment of the great day, in everlasting bonds under darkness, He has put under careful guard.”
–Translation of Jude from Word Studies from the Greek New Testament by Kenneth S. Wuest
Thursday, September 29, 2005 Jude 8, 9
“A pledge ‘to have not part in any war’ has been taken by a large body of leading Protestant clergymen in the east. Among them are some of the wisest and most influential ministers we have–men such as Fosdick, Holmes and Sockman in New York for example. This Covenant of Peace Group declares that war settles no issues, is futile and suicidal and is a denial of God and the teachings of Christ. It asserts that the ‘chain if evil’ which holds us to war can and must be broken now. This is noble doctrine. However, much events may lead us to differ with it, when these bold and sincere men stand in their pulpits and preach this rejection of all war, let us remember that these clergymen by their record have earned the right to their belief. In a great democracy suppression of the clergy in war or peace can never justly become an instrument of policy, as it has under the dictators.”
–Editorial from Woman’s Home Companion
Friday, September 30, 2005 Jude 9–11
“Out of a poll of 700 preachers, the following results were given: 48% denied the complete inspiration of the Bible; 24% rejected the atonement; 12 % rejected the resurrection of the body; 27% did not believe that Christ will return to judge the quick and the dead. A Washington, D.C. minister said, ‘We liberal clergymen are no longer interested in the fundamentalist-modernist controversy. We do not believe we should even waste out time engaging in it. So far as we are concerned, it makes no difference whether Christ was born of a virgin or not. We don’t even bother to form an opinion on the subject.’ An Arlington, VA. Minister said, ‘We have closed our minds to such trivial consideration as the question of the resurrection of Christ. If you fundamentalists wish to believe that nonsense we have no objection, but we have more important things to preach than the presence or absence of an empty tomb 20 centuries ago.’ A leading minister in Washington, D.C. said flatly, ‘In our denomination what you call the “faith of our fathers” is approaching total extinction. Of course a few of the older ministers still cling to the Bible. Bur among the younger men, the real leaders of our denomination today, I do not know of a single one who believes in Christ, or any of the things that you classify as fundamentals.”
–From a study and statements by liberal preachers
“Yet Michael, the archangel, when disputing with the devil, arguing concerning the body of Moses, dared not bring a sentence that would impugn his dignity, but said, May the Lord rebuke you.”
–Translation of Jude from Word Studies from the Greek New Testament by Kenneth S. Wuest
August 2005
Tuesday, August 9, 2005 2 John 1-5
“Mercy, on the other hand, is that in God which duly provided for the need of sinful man.”
–Dr. Lewis Chafer
Friday, August 19, 2005 Nahum 1:1-3
“America today is going downhill with a godly ancestry. God pity America when we reach the bottom of the hill.”
–Dr. J. Gresham Machen
Monday, August 22, 2005 Nahum 1:3-10
“The very brilliant Oxford don, C.S. Lewis, wrote a story in which he tells about a bus trip that was run from hell to heaven. It was the sort of tour in which those who were in hell could take a bus trip to heaven. The bus was filled and, when it arrived in heaven, the driver parked the bus in a parking lot (I’m sure there are plenty of parking spaces up there). The driver told everyone on the bus, ‘At four o’clock this afternoon, the bus is going to leave and head for home.’ Home just happened to be hell. And at four o’clock that afternoon, the bus was filled–everyone was back. The bus driver told them, ‘If you want to stay, you can stay.’ Why didn’t they stay? It was because they had found out they had no place in heaven.”
–Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Edited Messages on Nahum
Monday, August 29, 2005 Nahum 3:7-19
“It was the capital city of the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Dynasties, and boasted such architecture as the Greeks and Romans admired. The Greeks called it Diospolis, because the Egyptian counterpart of Jupiter was worshipped there. It was located on both banks of the river Nile. On the eastern bank were the famous temples at Karnak and Luxor. Homer, the first Greek poet, spoke of it as having 100 gates. Its ruins cover an area of some 27 miles. Amon, the chief god of the Egyptians, was shown on Egyptian relics as a figure with a human body and a ram’s head. The judgment of this godless and idolatrous city was foretold by Jeremiah (46:25) and Ezekiel (30:14-16). No-Amon was situated favorably among the canals of the Nile with the Nile itself as a protection. The Nile appears as a sea when it overflows its banks annually. Nineveh can read her fate in that of No-Amon, for she is no better than the mighty Egyptian capital.”
–Description of No-Amon (Thebes) from Jonah, Micah, and Nahum by Dr. Charles Feinberg
Tuesday, August 30, 2005 Habakkuk Intro–1:1
“Habakkuk signifies an embracer, or one who embraces another, takes him into his arms. He embraces his people, and takes them to his arms, i.e., he comforts them and holds them up, as one embraces a weeping child, to quiet it with the assurance that, if God wills, it shall soon be better.”
–Martin Luther’s definition of the name “Habakkuk” from Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Haggai by Dr. Charles Feinberg
July 2005
Friday, July 1, 2005 1 John 4:1-3
“I just want to take just a moment to clarify the statement I made relative to the fact that we are not attempting to use propaganda on this program either for or against any group, nor do we make announcements relative to certain things. We feel that our work is cut out for us. And I do not attack or defend any particular group. I avoid taking a stand relative to any organization. I may seem to be attacking a certain group if they are teaching something contrary to the Scripture as I see it when I'm teaching that particular section. Now, I do not deal in personalities, although I may mention them by name, never to condemn, but to complement. We're teaching the Bible. I set my hand to the plow about 40 years ago and the Lord told me not to look back to see if I was popular, or if I was unpopular. Just keep plowing a straight furrow, and let the clods fall where they may.”
–Dr. J. Vernon McGee
“Beware of the wild utterances of prophecymongers.”
–Sir Robert Anderson
Tuesday, July 5, 2005 1 John 4:7-11
Years ago a lady who prided herself on belonging to the intelligentsia said to me, "I have no use for the Bible, for Christian superstition, and religious dogma. It is enough for me to know that God is love."
"Well," I said, "do you know it?"
"Why of course I do," she said. "We all know that, and that is religion enough for me. I do not need the dogmas of the Bible."
"How did you find out that God is love?" I asked.
"Why," she said, "everybody knows that."
"Do they know it yonder in India?" I asked. "That poor mother in her distress throwing her little babe into the holy Ganges to be eaten by filthy and repulsive crocodiles for her sins–does she know that God is love?"
"Oh well, she is ignorant and superstitious," she replied.
"Those poor wretched negroes in the jungles of Africa, bowing down to gods of wood and stone, and in constant fear of their fetishes, the poor heathen in other countries, do they know that God is love?"
"Perhaps not," she said, "but in a civilized land we all know it."
"But how is it that we know it? Who told us so? Where did we find it out?"
"I do not understand what you mean," she said, "for I’ve always known it."
"Let me tell you this," I answered, "no one in the world ever knew it until it was revealed from heaven and recorded in the Word of God. It is here and nowhere else. It is not found in all the literature of the ancients."
–From The Epistles of John by Dr. H. A. Ironside
Wednesday, July 6, 2005 1 John 4:12-21
“The radiant light is the shadow of God.”
–Plato
Thursday, July 7, 2005 1 John 5:1-4
Some time ago I read of a man who spent a few months in India. When he came back, he was discussing India at the home of some of his friends, and the talk drifted to missions, and this man, out of his wide experience, about five months in India, said, "I have no use for missions and missionaries. I spent months there, and I didn’t see that they were doing anything; in fact, in all that time I never met a missionary. I think the church is wasting its money on missions."
A quiet old gentleman sat near. He had not said anything, but now he spoke up and said, "Pardon me, how long did you say you were in India?"
"Five months."
"What took you there?"
"I went out to hunt tigers."
"And did you see any tigers?"
"Scores of them."
"It is rather peculiar," said the old gentleman, "but I have spent thirty years in India, and in those years I never saw a tiger but I have seen hundreds of missionaries. You went to India to hunt tigers and you found them. I went to India to do missionary work and found many other missionaries.”
–Dr. H. A. Ironside
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 1 John 5:13-21
“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.”
–George Muller
Sunday, July 17, 2005 "Who? Jesus the Man"
He made the forests whence there sprung
The tree on which His body hung;
He died upon a cross of wood
Yet made the hill on which it stood!
The sky which darkened o’er His head
By Him above the earth was spread;
The sun which hid from Him its face
By His decree was poised in space!
–Author unknown
Thursday, July 21, 2005 Micah 3:5-12
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Can you see our nation fall?
Headlines scream of our decay.
Is there any hope today?
Smog doth blind and traffic choke,
Wages bind and buildings smoke.
Welfare roles are soaring high,
And hard drugs cause one young to die.
Villains are heroes on TV
While legal loopholes set them free.
“Morality” is a foreign word,
Love with marriage is absurd.
Campus riots, no-win war,
Busing is a festered sore.
Candidates are often shot
When they seek a major spot.
Highjacked planes, a lefty press,
Schools are in an awful mess.
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Is there any hope at all?
–Author unknown
June 2005
Wednesday, June 1, 2005 Jonah 2:7–3:2
“I wanted to be that man, but it is still true that the world has yet to see what God can do with the man who is fully yielded to Him.”
–D.L. Moody
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 1 John Intro–1:1
“The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.”
–Dr. Edwin Conklin
Thursday, June 9, 2005 1 John 1:1-4
“Agnostic is but the Greek word for the Latin ignoramus.”
–Charles Spurgeon
Friday, June 10, 2005 1 John 1:5-7
Our thoughts lie open to Thy sight;
And naked to Thy glance;
Our secret sins are in the light
Of Thy pure countenance.
–John G. Whittier
“Secret sin down here is open scandal in heaven.”
–Dr. Lewis Chafer
Thursday, June 17, 2005 1 John 2:8-16
I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s light.
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy days be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my star, my sun,
And in that light of life I’ll walk,
Till traveling days are done.
–Author unknown
Friday, June 17, 2005 1 John 2:13-16
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays.
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten.
–From “The Vision of Sir Launfal” by James Russell Lowell
Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth beneath is sweeter green!
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen:
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flow’rs with deeper beauty shine,
Since I know, as now I know
I am His, and He is mine.
–“I Am His and He Is Mine” by Wade Robinson
Monday, June 20, 2005 1 John 2:16-19
“If I had only served my God like I served my king!”
–Cardinal Woolsey on his deathbed
Thursday, June 23, 2005 1 John 2
“God is in His world, but Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed are in their little private closets, and we shall thank them, but never return to them.”
–From Living Religions and a World Faith by Dr. William E. Hocking
“Whoever you are that worship here, in whatever household of faith you were born, whatever creed you profess, if you come to this sanctuary to seek the God in whom you may believe or to rededicate yourself to the God in whom you do believe, you are welcome.”
–Cover page from Riverside Church Bulletin pastored by Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick
Monday, June 27, 2005 1 John 3:1-9
I was a wandering sheep,
I did not love the fold,
I did not love my Shepherd’s voice,
I would not be controlled.
I was a wayward child,
I did not love my home,
I did not love my Father’s voice,
I loved afar to roam.
–"I Was a Wandering Sheep” by Horatius Bonar
Tuesday, June 28, 2005 1 John 3:8-12
WOULD YOU HIRE THIS PREACHER?
"One of the toughest tasks a church faces is choosing a good minister. A member of an official Board undergoing this painful process finally lost his patience. He watched the Pastoral Relations Committee reject applicant after applicant for some fault, alleged or otherwise. It was time for a bit of soul searching on the part of the committee. So he stood up and read a letter purporting to be from another applicant and this is the letter:
'Gentlemen: Understanding your pulpit is vacant, I would like to apply for the position. I have many qualifications. I’ve been a preacher with much success and also had some success as a writer. Some say I’m a good organizer. I’ve been a leader most places I’ve been. I’m over 50 years of age. I have never preached in one place for more than three years. In some places I’ve left town after my work has caused a riot and disturbances. I must admit that I’ve been in jail three or four times, but not because of any real wrongdoing. My health is not good, though I still get a great deal done. The churches I’ve preached in have been small, though located in several large cities. I’ve not got along well with religious leaders in towns where I’ve preached. In fact, some have threatened me and even attacked me physically. I am not too good at keeping records. I’ve been known to forget whom I have baptized. However, if you can use me, I shall do my best for you.'
"The Board member looked over to the committee. 'Well, what do you think? Shall we call him?'
"The good church folk were aghast. Call an unhealthy, trouble-making, absent-minded, ex-jailbird? Was the Board member crazy? Who signed the application? Who had such colossal nerve?
"The Board member eyed them all keenly before he answered. 'It’s signed, The Apostle Paul.' And may I say to you, friends, it does have a message in it, does it not?"
–Author unknown, as quoted by Dr. McGee
“I’m not going to judge you, but I am a fruit inspector.”
–Dr. James McGinley
May 2005
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 2 Peter 2:21, 22
A PIG IS A PIG
"Come home with me," said the prodigal son.
"We'll sing and dance and have lots of fun.
We'll wine and dine with women and song.
You'll forget you're a pig before very long."
So the pig slipped out while mamma was asleep,
Shook off the mud from the mire so deep.
Around his neck was a bow so big,
He's gonna show the world a pig's not a pig!
With his snout in the air he trotted along
With the prodigal son, who was singin' a song.
It must be great to be a rich man's son.
He would surely find out 'fore the day was done.
It didn't take him long to realize his mistake–
He'd been scrubbed and rubbed 'til his muscles ached!
He squealed when they put a gold ring in his nose
And winced with pain when they trimmed his toes.
He sat at the table on a stool so high
A bib 'round his neck and a fork to try,
While the prodigal son, in his lovely robe,
Kept feeding his face, so glad to be home!
When the meat came around, the pig gave a moan.
It looked too much like a kind of his own.
He jumped from his chair with a grunt and a groan,
Darted through the door and headed for home.
His four little feet made the dust ride high,
For he didn't stop till he reached that sty!
It's what's on the inside that counts, my friend,
For a pig is a pig to the very end!
–Evelyn C. Sanders
"Friends, if you came in here today unsaved and you walk out of here unsaved, I am the worst enemy that you have ever had, because you have heard the gospel and you can never go into the presence of God and tell Him you have never heard the gospel. You have heard it, and it will be worse for you when God pronounces judgment than for any heathen in the darkest part of earth today."
–Attributed to Dr. A. C. Gaebelein
"Someone asked the late Dr. Harry Rimmer, 'Suppose the boy had died in the pigpen? What then?' Dr. Rimmer said, 'Well, if he had died in the pigpen, there is one thing for sure, he would not have been a dead pig. He was a son.'"
–Dr. J. Vernon McGee
Thursday, May 12, 2005 2 Peter 3:1-13
PIGS AND SONS
The pigs and sons are marching–to and fro
From pigpen to the Father’s house
And back again they go.
It’s hard for me to tell just who is who,
With cleaned-up pigs and dirty sons
And (then) vice versa, too.
But in the end–on this you can rely–
The sons will fill the Father’s house,
The pigs will fill the sty.
–Listener from Northridge, California
Monday, May 16, 2005 2 Peter 3:8-18
We mutter and sputter, we fume and we spurt.
We mumble and grumble, our feelings get hurt.
We can’t understand things, our vision grows dim,
When all that we need is a moment with Him.
–Author unknown
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven–
All’s right with the world.
–Robert Browning, Pippa Passes
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 Obadiah 1–4
“The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.”
–Dr. Edwin Conklin
Thursday, May 19, 2005 Obadiah 4–9
“I’m no child. I do not want a heavenly father any more.”
–Heinrich Heine
“We asked Compte to lift the veil from the holy of holies and show us the all perfect object of worship. He produces a looking glass and shows us ourselves.”
–James Martineau
“The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.”
–Dr. Albert Einstein
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell....
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
–W. H. Auden, "The More Loving One" from Homage to Clio
How well do I remember,
'Twas in the bleak December
As I was strolling down the street in manly pride,
When my heart began to flutter
And I fell into a gutter,
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
As I lay there in the gutter,
My heart still all a-flutter,
A man passing by chanced to say,
“You can tell a man that boozes
By the company he chooses,”
And the pig got up and slowly walked away.
–Author unknown
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 Jonah Introduction
"We reject with scorn all those learned and laboured myths that Moses was but a legendary figure upon whom the priesthood and the people hung their essential social, moral and religious ordinances. We believe that the most scientific view, the most up-to-date and rationalistic conception, will find its fullest satisfaction in taking the Bible story literally, and in identifying one of the greatest human beings with the most decisive leaps forward ever discernible in the human story. We remain unmoved by the tomes of Professor Gradgrind and Dr. Dryasdust. We may be sure that all these things happened just as they are set out in the Holy Writ."
–Sir Winston Churchill
"Jonah is the most beautiful story ever written in so small a compass."
–Charles Reade
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Jonah Introduction–1:2
WHY?
Why must God's children suffer?
Why must we feel pain?
Why must we keep on fighting
When it seems, we fight in vain?
Why do the ones who do not choose
To follow where He's led
Seem to walk an easy road
When a hard path we must tread?
Why does He give the riches here
To those who never heed?
Doesn't He see His own dear ones
Who really are in need?
So when they seem to sneer at us
When we speak of life above,
Remember, precious child, God chastens
those He loves.
God only sends these trials
To those He really loves.
His children will get their rewards
In Heaven up above.
So, though for now I'm tested,
Though I'm sick as I can be,
I know my Father really loves,
Because He chastens me.
–By a 17-year-old girl from Grand Haven, Michigan
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 Jonah 2:1-6
"There are at least two known monsters of the deep who could easily have swallowed Jonah. There are the Balaenoptera musculus or sulphur-bottom whale, and the Rhinodon typicus or whale shark. Neither of these monsters of the deep have any teeth. They feed in an interesting way by opening their enormous mouths, submerging their lower jaw, and rushing through the water at terrific speed. After straining out the water, they swallow whatever is left. A sulphur-bottom whale, one hundred feet long, was captured off Cape Cod in 1933. His mouth was ten or twelve feet wide–so big he could easily have swallowed a horse. These whales have four to six compartments in their stomachs, in any one of which a colony of men could find free lodging. They might even have a choice of rooms, for in the head of this whale is a wonderful air storage chamber, an enlargement of the nasal sinus, often measuring seven feet high, seven feet wide, seven feet long. If he has an unwelcome guest on board who gives him a headache, the whale swims to the nearest land and gets rid of the offender as he did Jonah.
"The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently quoted an article by Dr. Ransome Harvey who said that a dog was lost overboard from a ship. It was found in the head of a whale six days later, alive and barking.
"Frank Bullen, F.R.G.S., who wrote, 'The Cruise of the Cathalot,' tells of a shark fifteen feet in length which was found in the stomach of a whale. He says that when dying the whale ejects the contents of its stomach.
"The late Dr. Dixon stated that in a museum at Beirut, Lebanon, there is a head of a whale shark big enough to swallow the largest man that history records! He also tells of a white shark of the Mediterranean which swallowed a whole horse; another swallowed a reindeer minus only its horns. In still another Mediterranean white shark was found a whole sea cow, about the size of an ox.
"These facts show that Jonah could have been swallowed by either a whale or a shark. But has any other man besides Jonah been swallowed and lived to tell the tale? We know of two such instances.
"The famous French scientist, M. de Parville, writes of James Bartley, who in the region of the Falkland Islands near South America, was supposed to have been drowned at sea. Two days after his disappearance, the sailors made a catch of a whale. When it was cut up, much to their surprise they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale. He revived and has been enjoying the best of health ever since his adventure.
"Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, writes of another case. 'In the Literacy Digest we noticed an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic Rhinodon in the English channel. Briefly, the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard, and before he could be picked up again, the shark turned and engulfed him. Forty-eight hours after the accident occurred, the fish was sighted and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors, they were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive! He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone, and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit. The account concluded by saying that the man was on exhibit in a London Museum at a shilling admittance fee; being advertised as "The Jonah of the Twentieth Century."'
"In 1926 Dr. Rimmer met this man, and writes that his physical appearance was odd; his body was devoid of hair and patches of yellowish-brown color covered his entire skin.
"If two men could exist for two days and nights inside of marine monsters, could not a prophet of God, under His direct care and protection, stand the experience a day and night longer–so why should we doubt God's Word?"
–The Bible Today by Grace W. Kellogg
April 2005
Friday, April 1, 2005 1 Peter 4:12-19
WHAT GOD HATH PROMISED
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain, rocky and steep,
Never a river, turbid and deep.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the laborer, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
–Annie Johnson Flint
IN THE CRUCIBLE
Out from the mine and the darkness,
Out from the damp and the mold,
Out from the fiery furnace,
Cometh each grain of gold.
Crushed into atoms and leveled
Down to the humblest dust
With never a heart to pity,
With never a hand to trust.
Molten and hammered and beaten
Seemeth it ne'er to be done.
Oh, for such fiery trial,
What hath the poor gold done?
Oh, 'twere a mercy to leave it
Down in the damp and the mold.
If this is the glory of living,
Then better to be dross than gold.
Under the press and the roller,
Into the jaws of the mint,
Stamped with the emblem of freedom,
With never a flaw or a dint.
Oh, what a joy, the refining,
Out of the damp and the mold.
And stamped with the glorious image,
Oh, beautiful coin of gold!
–Author unknown
Friday, April 15, 2005 Amos 4:10–5:5
AUNT JANE OF KENTUCKY
"How much piecin' a quilt is like livin' a life. Many a time I've set and listened to Parson Page preachin' about predestination and free will and I said to myself, if I could just get up there in the pulpit with one of my quilts, I could make life a heap plainer than Parson's making it with his big words.
"You see, to make a quilt, you start out with just so much calico. You'll go to the store and pick it out, n' buy it, but the neighbors give you a piece here and a piece there and you'll find you'll have a piece left over every time you cut out a dress and you just take whatever happens to come. That's predestination.
"But when it comes to cutting the quilt, why, you're free to choose your own pattern. You give the same kind of pieces to two persons and one'll make a nice patch quilt and the other one'll make a wild goose chase. There'll be two quilts made of the same kind of pieces, but just as different as can be. That's the way of living.
"The Lord sends us the pieces, we can cut 'em out and put them together pretty much to suit ourselves. There's a heap more in the cutting out and the sewing than there is in the calico."
–Eliza Calvert Hall, 1898
Monday, April 18, 2005 Amos 5:4-14
THE DRIVER
While flipping the radio dial...
Must have been 30 years ago,
I heard a voice that made me laugh,
But I listened for a minute or so.
"Hop on the Bible Bus
And come along with me.
I'll guide you through the Book of Life
Which leads to eternity."
"I'm only just the driver,"
I heard this voice on the radio say.
"But there's One who's always with me,
Who will teach you day by day."
I smiled when I heard that gravel voice.
And that accent! Heaven help that poor soul!
But I hopped onto the Bible Bus,
As through the pages it started to roll.
The Bible Bus kept chugging along
With that driver named McGee.
Each time that I'd think I was going to get off
He'd say, "Wait! There's more that I want you to see."
So the years went by. I stayed on that bus.
And so did my family.
And the pages of that Book became real
With the driver named McGee.
At night when I look at the stars that God made,
I think of J. Vernon McGee.
The accent, the voice, his love for our Lord
And the truth he wants us to see.
For me, he's still in the driver's seat.
He retired to heaven, you see.
But his Friend is still in charge of that bus;
The "Friend" of J. Vernon McGee.
McGee has a greater perspective now
As to what is in store for us.
His message, no doubt, he'd proclaim with a shout,
"Stick with my Friend on the Bible Bus."
–Author unknown
Tuesday, April 19, 2005 Amos 5:18-27
"If I had only served my God like I served my king!"
–Cardinal Woolsey on his deathbed
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 Amos 6:1-6
IT'S NOBODY'S BUSINESS
It's nobody's business what I drink;
I care not what my neighbors think
Or how many laws they choose to pass,
I'll tell the world I'll have my glass!
Here's one man's freedom cannot be curbed;
My right to drink is undisturbed.
So he drank in spite of law or man,
Then got into his old tin can,
Stepped on the gas and let it go
Down the highway to and fro.
He took the curves at fifty miles
With bleary eyes and a drunken smile.
Not long 'til a car he tried to pass;
Then a crash, a scream and breaking glass.
The other car was upside down
About two miles from the nearest town.
The man was clear, but his wife was caught,
And he needed the help of that drunken sot
Who sat in a maudlin, drunken daze,
And heard the scream and saw the blaze,
But too far gone to save a life
By helping the car from off the wife.
The car was burned, and a mother died,
While a husband wept and a baby cried
And a drunk sat by–and still some think
It's nobody's business what they drink.
–George Y. Hammond
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 Amos 9:2-15
THE HOUND OF HEAVEN
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbéd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat–and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet–
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."
I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised with intertwining charities;
(For, though I knew His love Who followèd,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside.)
But, if one little casement parted wide,
The gust of His approach would clash it to:
Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue.
Across the margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clangèd bars:
Fretted to dulcet jars
And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon.
I said to Dawn: Be sudden–to Eve: Be soon;
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover–
Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see!
I tempted all His servitors, but to find
My own betrayal in their constancy,
In faith to Him their fickleness to me,
Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit.
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue;
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind.
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,
The long savannahs of the blue;
Or whether, Thunder-driven,
They clanged his chariot 'thwart a heaven,
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' their feet:–
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbéd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet,
And a Voice above their beat–
"Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me."
I sought no more that after which I strayed
In face of man or maid;
But still within the little children's eyes
Seems something, something that replies,
They at least are for me, surely for me!
I turned me to them very wistfully;
But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair
With dawning answers there,
Their angel plucked them from me by the hair.
"Come then, ye other children, Nature's–share
With me" (said I) "your delicate fellowship;
Let me greet you lip to lip,
Let me twine you with caresses,
Wantoning
With our Lady-Mother's vagrant tresses,
Banqueting
With her in her wind-walled palace,
Underneath her azured dais,
Quaffing, as your taintless way is,
From a chalice
Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring."
So it was done:
I in their delicate fellowship was one–
Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies.
I knew all the swift importings
On the wilful face of skies;
I knew how the clouds arise
Spuméd of the wild sea-snortings;
All that's born or dies
Rose and drooped with; made them shapers
Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine;
With them joyed and was bereaven.
I was heavy with the even,
When she lit her glimmering tapers
Round the day's dead sanctities.
I laughed in the morning's eyes.
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather,
Heaven and I wept together,
And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine;
Against the red throb of its sunset-heart
I laid my own to beat,
And share commingling heat;
But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek.
For ah! we know not what each other says,
These things and I; in sound I speak–
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences.
Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth;
Let her, if she would owe me,
Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me
The breasts o' her tenderness:
Never did any milk of hers once bless
My thirsting mouth.
Nigh and nigh draws the chase,
With unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy;
And past those noised Feet
A voice comes yet more fleet–
"Lo! naught contents thee, who content'st not Me."
Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke!
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me,
And smitten me to my knee;
I am defenceless utterly.
I slept, methinks, and woke,
And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers,
I shook the pillaring hours
And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears,
I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years–
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream.
Yea, faileth now even dream
The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist.
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist
I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist,
Are yielding; cords of all too weak account
For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed.
Ah! is Thy love indeed
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah! must–
Designer infinite!–
Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou can'st limn with it?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust;
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
From the dank thoughts that shiver
Upon the sighful branches of my mind.
Such is; what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;
Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity;
Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then
Round the half-glimpséd turrets slowly wash again.
But not ere him who summoneth
I first have seen, enwound
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned;
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.
Whether man's heart or life it be which yields
Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields
Be dunged with rotten death?
Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
"And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing!
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said),
"And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited–
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!"
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."
–Francis Thompson
March 2005
Tuesday, March 15, 2005 1 Peter Intro
"…it is a cold and lifeless thing to speak of spiritual things on mere report; but when men can speak of them as their own–as having share and interest in them, and some experience of their sweetness–their discourse of them is enlivened with firm belief and ardent affection; they cannot mention them, but straight their hearts are taken with such gladness as they are forced to vent in praises."
–Robert Leighton, A Practical Commentary on First Peter
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1 Peter 1:2
"Having recognized the sovereign right of God over His creation and having assigned to Him a rational purpose in all His plan, the truth contained in the doctrine of election follows in natural sequence as the necessary function of one who is divine."
–Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology
The Reverend Mr. Harcourt, folk agree,
Nodding their heads in solid satisfaction,
Is just the man for this community!
Tall, young, urbane, but capable of action,
He pleases where he serves.
He marshals out the younger crowd,
Lacks trace of clerical unction,
Cheers the Kiwanis and the Eagle Scout,
Is popular at every public function.
And in the pulpit eloquently speaks on divers matters
With both wit and clarity–
Art, education, God, the early Greeks,
Psychiatry, St. Paul, true Christian charity,
Vestry repairs that shortly must begin–
All things but sin.
He seldom mentions sin.
–Author Unknown
Thursday, March 17, 2005 1 Peter 1:3-6
"…foreknowledge in God is that which He Himself purposes to bring to pass. In this way, then, the whole order of events from the least detail unto the greatest operates under the determining decree of God so as to take place according to His sovereign purpose. By so much, divine foreknowledge is closely related to foreordination. Likewise, foreknowledge in God should be distinguished from omniscience in that the latter is extended sufficiently to embrace all things past, present, and future, while foreknowledge anticipates on the future events."
–Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology
Monday, March 21, 2005 1 Peter 1:10-16
I NEEDED THE QUIET
I needed the quiet so He drew me aside,
Into the shadows where we could confide,
Away from the bustle where all the day long
I hurried and worried when active and strong.
I needed the quiet though at first I rebelled.
But gently, so gently, my cross He upheld
And whispered so sweetly of spiritual things.
Though weakened in body, my spirit took wings
To heights never dreamed of when active and gay.
He loved me so greatly He drew me away.
I needed the quiet. No prison my bed,
But a beautiful valley of blessings instead–
A place to grow richer in Jesus to hide,
I needed the quiet so He drew me aside.
–Alice Hansche Mortenson
Thursday, March 24, 2005 1 Peter 2:5-12
HIGHER EDUCATION
I don't have a Ph.D., or credits from Purdue,
But, I have learned a lot in life as I've been passing through.
I have a course of study, perhaps of it you've heard.
A Book known as the Bible, God's own Holy Word.
It teaches how God sent His Son, redeeming sinful man.
In Him believe, by faith receive; not, "Do the best you can."
You'll never need a credit card, because salvation's free.
Accept Christ as your Saviour. How happy you will be.
I'm in my last semester, and I can hardly wait
To wear my brand new cap and gown at Baccalaureate.
When on my graduation day I leave this world of strife,
I'll read on my diploma, "Received Eternal Life!"
–Author unknown
Monday, March 28, 2005 1 Peter 3:1-9
"I am out speaking in Bible conferences a great deal. When I come home, I am not looking for an assistant pastor, I'm not looking for an organist, I'm not looking for a soloist, and I'm not looking for the president of the missionary society. I want a woman there to meet me who is my wife and whom I can put my arms around and love."
–Lewis Sperry Chafer, speaking to Dr. & Mrs. McGee on the duties of a preacher's wife
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 1 Peter 4:1-4
RELIGION
If you've got religion, you don't know it.
If you know it, you haven't got it.
And if you've got it, you can't lose it.
And if you lose it, you didn't have it.
And if you never had it, you can't get it.
–Author unknown
Thursday, March 31, 2005 1 Peter 4:1-12
THE BIBLE AND THE TV GUIDE
On the table side by side,
The Holy Bible and the TV Guide.
One is well-worn but cherished with pride,
Not the Bible, but the TV Guide.
One is used daily to help folks decide.
No, it isn't the Bible; it's the TV Guide.
As pages are turned, what shall they see?
Or what does it matter? Turn on the TV!
Then confusion reigns and they can't all agree
On what they shall watch on the old TV.
So they open the book in which they confide,
No, not the Bible....It's the TV Guide.
The Word of God is seldom read,
Ere maybe a verse as they fall into bed.
Exhausted and sleepy and tired as can be,
Not from reading the Bible, but from watching TV.
Then back to the table side by side
Is the Holy Bible and the TV Guide.
No time for prayer, No time for the Word.
The plan of salvation is seldom heard.
Forgiveness of sin so full and free
Is found in the Bible, not TV.
–Author unknown
February 2005
Wednesday, February 9, 2005 James 1:1-3
"Someone in the Middle Ages said, 'God nothing does, nor suffers to be done, but what we would ourselves, if we could see through all events of things as well as He.'"
–Dr. J. Vernon McGee
Friday, February 11, 2005 James 1:3-13
Is there no other way, Oh God,
Except through sorrow, pain and loss?
To stamp Christ's likeness on my soul,
No other way except the cross?
And then a voice stills all my soul,
That stilled the waves of Galilee,
Cans't thou not bear the furnace
If midst the flames I walk with thee?
I bore the cross, I know its weight,
I drank the cup I hold for thee.
Cans't thou not follow where I lead?
I'll give thee strength, lean hard on Me.
–Author unknown
Wednesday, February 16, 2005 James 1:19-22
The Gospel is written a chapter a day
By deeds that you do and by words that you say.
Men read what you say, whether faithless or true.
Say, what is the Gospel according to you?
–Author unknown
Thursday, February 17, 2005 James 1:22-25
It's easier to preach than to practice;
It's easier to say than to do.
Most sermons are heard by the many,
But taken to heart by the few.
–Author unknown
Wednesday, February 23, 2005 James 3:1-4
If your lips would keep from slips,
Five things to observe with care:
To whom you speak, of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.
–Author unknown
"The boneless tongue, so small and weak,
Can crush and kill," declared the Greek.
"The tongue destroys a greater horde,"
The Turk asserts, "than does the sword."
The Persian proverb wisely saith,
"A lengthy tongue, an early death."
Or sometimes takes this form instead,
"Don't let your tongue cut off your head."
"The tongue can speak a word whose speed,"
say the Chinese, "outstrips the steed."
While Arab sages this impart;
"The tongue's great storehouse is the heart."
From Hebrew wit the maxim sprung,
"Though feet should slip, ne'er let the tongue."
The sacred writer crowns the whole,
"Who keeps the tongue, doth keep his soul."
–From Charles Spurgeon's "Salt Cellars"
Monday, February 28, 2005 James 4:5-17
TELL GOD
"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. J. Vernon McGee
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