Text 432, 236 rader
Skriven 2005-07-01 03:04:40 av Bob Hoffman (8:8/2)
Ärende: God With Us
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From: "Bob Hoffman" <bhoffman@fmlynet.org>
Faith's Checkbook - Powered by InJesus
Friday 07-01 thru Thursday 07-07
Robert Prodoehl
Jun 30, 2005
Going on vacation .... will do on a daily basis when I get back! Robert
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Friday July 1
God With Us
"God shall be with you" (Genesis 48:21).
Good old Jacob could no more be with Joseph, for his hour had come to die: but
he left his son without anxiety, for he said with confidence, "God shall be
with you." When our dearest relations or our most helpful friends are called
home by death, we must console ourselves with the reflection that the LORD is
not departed from us but lives for us and abides with us forever.
If God be with us, we are in ennobling company, even though we are poor and
despised. If God be with us, we have all sufficient strength, for nothing can
be too hard for the LORD. If God be with us, we are always safe, for none can
harm those who walk under His shadow. Oh, what a joy we have here! Not only is
God with us, but He will be with us. With us as individuals; with us as
families; with us as churches. Is not the very name of Jesus, Emmanuel -- God
with us? Is not this the best of all, that God is with us? Let us be bravely
diligent and joyously hopeful. Our cause must prosper, the truth must win, for
the LORD is with those who are with Him. All this day may this sweet word be
enjoyed by every believer who turns to "Faith's Check Book." No greater
happiness is possible.
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Saturday July 2
Refreshing Sleep
"So He giveth His beloved sleep" (Psalm 127:2).
Ours is not a life of anxious care but of happy faith. Our heavenly Father will
supply the wants of His own children, and He knoweth what we have need of
before we ask Him. We may therefore go to our beds at the proper hour and not
wear ourselves out by sitting up late to plot, and plan, and contrive. If we
have learned to rely upon our God, we shall not lie awake with fear gnawing at
our hearts; but we shall leave our care with the LORD, our meditation of Him
shall be sweet, and He will give us refreshing sleep.
To be the LORD's beloved is the highest possible honor, and he who has it may
feel that ambition itself could desire no more, and therefore every selfish
wish may go to sleep. What more is there even in heaven than the love of God?
Rest, then, O soul, for thou hast all things. Yet we toss to and fro unless the
LORD Himself gives us not only the reasons for rest but rest itself. Yea, He
doth this. Jesus Himself is our peace, our rest, our all, On His bosom we sleep
in perfect security, both in life and in death.
Sprinkled afresh with pardoning blood, I lay me down to rest As in the embraces
of my God, Or on my Savior's breast.
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Sunday July 3
A Guide All the Way
"He will be my guide even unto death" (Psalm 48:14).
We need a guide. Sometimes we would give all that we have to be told exactly
what to do and where to turn. We are willing to do right, but we do not know
which one of two roads we are to follow. Oh, for a guide!
The LORD our God condescends to serve us as guide. He knows the way and will
pilot us along it till we reach our journey's end in peace. Surely we do not
desire more infallible direction. Let us place ourselves absolutely under His
guidance, and we shall never miss our way. Let us make Him our God, and we
shall find Him our guide. If we follow His law we shall not miss the right road
of life, provided we first learn to lean upon Him in every step that we take.
Our comfort is that as He is our God forever and ever, He will never cease to
be with us as our guide. "Even unto death" will He lead us, and then we shall
dwell with Him eternally and go no more out forever. This promise of divine
guidance involves lifelong security: salvation at once, guidance unto our last
hour, and then endless blessedness. Should not each one seek this in youth,
rejoice in it in middle life, and repose in it in old age? This day let us look
up for guidance before we trust ourselves out-of-doors.
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Monday July 4
The Word, Necessary Food
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).
If God so willed it we could live without bread, even as Jesus did for forty
days; but we could not live without His Word. By that Word we were created, and
by it alone can we be kept in being, for he sustaineth all things by the Word
of His power. Bread is a second cause; the LORD Himself is the first source of
our sustenance. He can work without the second cause as well as with it; and we
must not tie Him down to one mode of operation. Let us not be too eager after
the visible, but let us look to the invisible God. We have heard believers say
that in deep poverty, when bread ran short, their appetites became short, too;
and to others, when common supplies failed, the LORD has sent in unexpected
help.
But we must have the Word of the LORD. With this alone we can withstand the
devil. Take this from us, and our enemy will have us in his power, for we shall
soon faint. Our souls need food, and there is none for them outside of the Word
of the LORD. All the books and all the preachers in the world cannot furnish us
a single meal: it is only the Word from the mouth of God that can fill the
mouth of a believer. LORD, ever more give us this bread. We prize it above
royal dainties.
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Tuesday July 5
Complete Deliverance
"But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD; and thou shalt not be
given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid" (Jeremiah 39:17).
When the LORD's faithful ones are suffering for Him, they shall have sweet
messages of love from Himself, and sometimes they shall have glad tidings for
those who sympathize with them and help them. Ebed-melech was only a despised
Ethiopian, but he was kind to Jeremiah, and so the LORD sent him this special
promise by the mouth of His prophet. Let us be ever mindful of God's persecuted
servants, and He will reward us.
Ebed-melech was to be delivered from the men whose vengeance he feared. He was
a humble man, but Jehovah would take care of him. Thousands were slain by the
Chaldeans, but [he] could not be hurt. We, too, may be fearful of some great
ones who are bitter against us; but if we have been faithful to the LORD's
cause in the hour of persecution, He will be faithful to us. After all, what
can a man do without the LORD's permission? He puts a bit into the mouth of
rage and a bridle upon the head of power. Let us fear the LORD, and we shall
have no one else to fear. No cup of cold water given to a despised prophet of
God shall be without its reward; and if we stand up for Jesus, Jesus will stand
up for us.
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Wednesday July 6
His Love; His Gift; His Son
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life" (John 3:16).
Of all the stars in the sky, the pole-star is the most useful to the mariner.
This text is a pole-star, for it has guided more souls to salvation than any
other Scripture. It is among promises what the Great Bear is among
constellations.
Several words in it shine with peculiar brilliance. Here we have God's love
with a "so" to it, which marks its measureless greatness. Then we have God's
gift in all its freeness and greatness. This also is God's Son, that unique and
priceless gift of a love which could never fully show itself till heaven's Only
begotten had been sent to live and die for men. These three points are full of
light.
Then there is the simple requirement of believing, which graciously points to a
way of salvation suitable for guilty men. This is backed by a wide description
-- "whosoever believeth in him." Many have found room in "whosoever" who would
have felt themselves shut out by a narrower word. Then comes the great promise,
that believers in Jesus shall not perish but have everlasting life. This is
cheering to every man who feels that he is ready to perish and that he cannot
save himself. We believe in the LORD Jesus, and we have eternal life.
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Thursday July 7
A Mountain Choir
"Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O
mountains: for the LORD hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His
afflicted" (Isaiah 49:13).
So sweet are the comforts of the LORD, that not only the saints themselves may
sing of them, but even the heavens and the earth may take up the song. It takes
something to make a mountain sing; and yet the prophet summons quite a choir of
them. Lebanon, and Sirion, and the high hills of Bashan and Moab, He would set
them all singing because of Jehovah's grace to His own Zion. May we not also
make mountains of difficulty, and trial, and mystery, and labor become
occasions for praise unto our God? "Break forth into singing, O mountains!"
This word of promise, that our God will have mercy upon His afflicted, has a
whole peal of bells connected with it. Hear their music -- "Sing!" "Be joyful!"
"Break forth into singing." The LORD would have His people happy because of His
unfailing love. He would not have us sad and doubtful; He claims from us the
worship of believing hearts. He cannot fail us: why should we sigh or sulk as
if He would do so? Oh, for a well tuned harp! Oh, for voices like those of the
cherubim before the throne!
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