GOLDEN WORDS
The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
Psalm 119: 130
Robert Moffat's Conversion
When Robert Moffat, the great missionary was about twenty, he wrote this:
"Living alone in an extensive garden, my leisure was my own. While poring over the
Epistle to the Romans, I could not help wondering over a number of passages which I had
read many times before. They appeared altogether different. I exclaimed with a heart
nearly broken, 'Can it be possible that I have never understood what I have been reading?'
turning from one passage to an-other, each sending light into my darkened soul. The Book
of God seemed to be laid open, and I saw at once what God had done for the sinner. I felt
that, being justified by faith, I had peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ."
The income of God's Word is the outcome of a changed life.
Edwin Louis Cole
Daily Meditations by Pat Nordman
January 20
"Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you
will not grow weary and lose heart" Hebrews 12:3.
Evaluate! Appreciate! Contemplate! Consider Him who confronted all sorts of affronts so
that we can have patience and persistence. The Noblest Man suffered a most ignoble life.
Even as He was dying, "The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him.
They said, `He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen
One'" Luke 23:35. The feet that carried Him to others with His good news (Romans
10:15) and the hands that lifted and blessed (Matthew 8:3,15; Mark 10:13) went back to
heaven permanently scarred because of His love for us.
Consider also what Jesus said: "Only in his home town, among his relatives and in his
own house is a prophet without honor" Mark 6:4. He didn't say it in selfpity or with
cynicism as we might do in a similar circumstance. He was being realistic. "He was
amazed at their lack of faith" but He went on with life: "Then Jesus went around
teaching from village to village" v. 6b. "He could not do any miracles
there" so He went on with His mission and His truth. What a grand lesson we have
here. When we feel we must win in a situation, whether it's a conversion or our particular
version of something, it might help us to remember that even Jesus saw the futility of
staying with a particular circumstance. With God all things are possible, but it must be
in His good time and in His way. It wasn't that He would not, but even Jesus COULD not do
anything for people were not ready.
It will help us to keep from becoming immobilized emotionally and physically when we
cannot help a relative or a friend if we realize that God works in His and their time
frame. It then becomes our responsibility to let Him do His work while we do ours, even if
it is in the midst of friction and fray.
Pat Nordman ©
January 21
"Like a lily among thorns is my darling
among the maidens" Song of Solomon 2:2.
The lily is beautiful, simple, pure and fragrant;
the thorn is unsightly, sharp and barren. The world is divided between the
lilies and the thorns; the believers and unbelievers, the regenerates and
degenerates, the constructs and destructs. We ask ourselves which are we, lilies
or thorns? Are we clothed with the graces of His Holy Spirit, the ornaments of
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
selfcontrol (Galatians 5:22,23) or are we bound in a corset of the disgraces of
the unholy spirit?
We are advised: "Do not be afraid, though briars and thorns are all around
you..." Ezekiel 2:6b. Certainly Jesus was surrounded by thorns and even was
crowned with them: "They...twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on
him" Mark 15:17. The prophet Micah laments, "The best of them (us!) is
like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge" Micah 7:4. We all
crown Jesus time and again with bristles and barbs, sins that crucify Him again
and again because He loves us so.
The lily and the thorn grow and thrive in the same soil. "He causes his sun
to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous" Matthew 5:45. God's generosity seems unfair, but only God
knows when a thorn can convert into a fair flower. It may take more sunshine
from those who profess to receive Light from the Son.
The lily stays soft and pure; the thorn becomes hard and causes pain. There is
that inside each of them which causes them to react to the outside elements
differently. What a beautiful lesson for us. God's grace dignifies us that we
may flourish as the lily rather than make thorns of our surroundings because we
lack decency and graciousness. "I will be like...dew to Israel; he will
blossom like a lily" Hosea 14:5. The dew of God's love makes us gentle and
beautiful and fruitful lilies in His valley.
Pat Nordman ©
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Excerpts from today's Spurgeon's Devotions |
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Spurgeon's Morning for January 20 |
Spurgeon's Evening January 20 |
"Abel was a keeper of sheep." -Genesis 4:2 |
"Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way." - Psalm 119:37 |
It is precious beyond all preciousness to stand at the altar of our good Shepherd! to see him bleeding there as the slaughtered priest, and then to hear his blood speaking peace to all his flock, peace in our conscience, peace between Jew and Gentile, peace between man and his offended Maker, peace all down the ages of eternity for blood-washed men. |
There are divers kinds of vanity. The cap and bells of the fool, the mirth
of the world, the dance, the lyre, and the cup of the dissolute, all these men know to be
vanities; they wear upon their forefront their proper name and title. Far more treacherous
are those equally vain things, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. |
Spurgeon's Morning for January 21 |
Spurgeon's Evening January 21 |
"And so all Israel shall be saved." -Romans 11:26 |
"He was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst?" - Judges 15:18
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As many as God hath chosen, as many as Christ hath redeemed, as many as the Spirit hath called, as many as believe in Jesus, shall safely cross the dividing sea. We are not all safely landed yet: |
It is very usual for God's people, when they have enjoyed a great
deliverance, to find a little trouble too much for them. Samson slays a thousand
Philistines, and piles them up in heaps, and then faints for a little water! |
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... by Pat Nordman Proverbs 30:8
There
are several verses in the Bible that encourage us to be content with our lives:
"I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am" (Philippians
4:11b); "And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content" (1
Timothy 6:8); ". . .Be content with your pay" Luke 3:14c. 1) Allow thyself to complain of nothing, not even
the weather; Religion
News RealAudio format Return to DM's HOME
January 20 Exodus 8:1 - 10:29
January 21 Exodus
11:1 - 13:22
Linked to Bible Gaitway TM
Today's Devotion
Not
An Afterthought
"Give me
neither poverty nor riches, but only my daily bread"
Whittier said that contentment is "The harvest song of inward
peace." Then let us sing His praises for all He has given us, quit worrying about
what we don't have, and enjoy that inner peace that seems to elude those grasping for more
and more of the world's goods.
"If we wished to gain contentment, we might try such rules as
these:
2) Never picture thyself to thyself under any circum-stances in which thou art not;
3) Never compare thine own lot with that of another;
4) Never allow thyself to dwell on the wish that this or that had been, or were, otherwise
than it was, or is. God Almighty loves thee better and more wisely than thou dost thyself;
5) Never dwell on the morrow. Remember that it is God's, not thine. The heaviest part of
sorrow often is to look forward to it. `The Lord will provide.'" -
E.B. Pusey.
"A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the
Lord" Proverbs 19:3. What we do to ourselves hurts God as much as it hurts us. In
fretting against Him, we affront Him and His justice and goodness, along with losing peace
of mind and possibly causing others to lose their peace.
... enjoy that inner peace that seems
to elude those grasping for more and more of the world's goods.
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