TFTD - June 2016

[Resource Manager]

01 June 2016

 

"One is a beginning. Indeed, it was the beginning, for all things spring from the one God. Such, too, was the beginning of the human race. Paul gave emphasis to this on Mars Hill when he declared: "God ... made of one every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26, R.V.). From one man all men have come, and all share the one’s blessings and cursings. And so with the new creation. There was one new man when Christ our Lord was glorified in immortality. He remains the unique, the first, the one Lord who still awaits the day of meeting with his brethren. The black heavens hold one star, the Star of Jacob, and we wait in faith for the day when he shall be joined by a numberless host of radiant orbs whose eternal light will show forth the praises of the Father of lights and His Son, the light of the world."

 

- Harry Tennant

One (1963)

 

[Resource Manager]

02 June 2016

 

"No one else can change us for God has given him power to bestow eternal life on men, power to make them godlike—bearers of the Divine glory. This is his mission. It is the reason why we were called to a knowledge of the Truth—it is our life’s work in the Truth. Is his work being accomplished in us? The Truth—true Christianity—is something very much more than mere assent to necessary first principle doctrines. The true disciple bears living witness in his changed life to the transforming power of his Master, and unless, as Peter says, we show forth the praises, the virtues, the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light our knowledge of the Truth will be in vain."

 

- W.L. Bedwell 

God’s Glory in Christ (1937)

[Resource Manager]

03 June 2016

 

"The Lord Jesus knew the most effective way in which to complete his work—in subjection to his Father’s will. He has left us the greatest example to follow. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9)."

 

- Sam Tomkins

The Most Effective Way (1999) 

[Resource Manager]

04 June 2016

 

"The Edenic symbol of fire and sword exactly defines our position while we are outcasts from the Paradise of God. Christ by his perfect righteousness has been able to survive the sword and the fire. He has made a way for us, and bids us come to him through the water. If we repudiate that offer, and refuse the merciful provision God has made, if we try to alter the divine appointment and make it more in accordance with human taste, can we complain if, after all, we find ourselves outside the guarded gate, with fire and sword turning every way to bar the way to the Tree of Life?"

 

- Islip Collyer

Barred from Eden (1942)

[Resource Manager]

05 June 2016

 

"Why I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth. Yes, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance" (2 Peter 1:12-13). 

 

"The wisdom of this approach is clear. Unless all our discussions are built on a firm and readily demonstrated understanding of the "first principles", the direction of our thoughts may well be away from the truth. Indeed many controversies flourish only because the "first principles" are not given "first" place."

 

- Stephen Palmer

The Vision of the Kingdom (1977)

[Resource Manager]

06 June 2016

 

"Seeking his Father’s blessing upon the apostles and their forthcoming mission, Jesus said, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us “(John 17:20–21). The very object of discipleship is to “shew forth the excellencies of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). The name which was revealed to Moses at the bush fulfils its ultimate prophetic purpose in the heart and mind of the believer in Christ Jesus."

 

- R. Thompson

The Mystery of Godliness (1977)

[Resource Manager]

07 June 2016

 

"Action is so very important. It is true that God will not judge us alone by our deeds, but it is reasonably certain that the world will. In the world, for every man who is impressed by our words perhaps ten will be more influenced by our deeds. We cannot be surprised nor can we complain at this. A tree is judged by its fruit. Action is the crowning point, the goal of thought, and its ultimate criterion. It is difficult to unsay a thing that has been said. It is far more difficult to cancel out an action, for one action sets in train a whole series of other actions, it may be for good or for evil."

 

- H. Smalley

Christian Living: Thinking, Speaking and Doing (1960)

[Resource Manager]

08 June 2016

 

"There are people who will say that it is only the dangerous “little knowledge” that puffs men up, while those who have studied deeply are truly humble and never boast. This thought has been stated often, but it is not true. Indeed it would be difficult to define the words of such a saying. All the knowledge of mankind is only little. The most ignorant and the most cultured are only separated by a few degrees. It is quite true that intelligent people perceive the ugliness and folly of blatant boasting and so if they boast they do it more skilfully. Or it is possible for a man to feel himself so superior to the common run of humanity that he finds no pleasure in the admiration of the multitude. His detachment is a form of pride and he may fall into the worst of errors by being puffed up against God."

 

- Islip Collyer

The Proverbs (1934)

[Resource Manager]

09 June 2016  

 

"Wait for it" is the counsel of Scripture. The blessings promised relate to the future, but will one day be realised in the earth, when the Lord of Life shall come. "Though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come". Many generations of believers have fallen asleep, waiting for their promised redemption to come. And still we wait. Sometimes it seems as if it will never come, but it will, in God’s own time. And then the proverb of Scripture will be filled full with meaning in the experience of His waiting saints:

 

“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12)."

 

- Len Richardson

Fundamental Doctrines (1978)

[Resource Manager]

10 June 2016

"The gospel of the kingdom will be no longer a matter of hope, but a reality; and those who have believed it, and submitted cheerfully and lovingly to the law of faith in the obedience it requires, and have perfected their faith by works meet for repentance, will be shining 'as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever'. This is the Hope of Israel."

- John Thomas
Elpis Israel

[Resource Manager]

11 June 2016

 

"While we wait to be "changed into the same image from glory into glory", may we who are numbered among the living, "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints" and continue "in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints" (2 Corinthians 3:18; Jude 4; Romans 12:13).

 

"Here is the patience and faith of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12)."

 

- Alfred Nicholls

Foundation Words of the Faith (1991)

[Resource Manager]

12 June 2016

 

"... It is that sacrifice we commemorate in this sharing of bread and wine; and when we seek God’s blessing on these provisions for our needs we pray to him “in the name of Jesus”, and those words are not a mere acceptable formula but an acknowledgment of his everlasting priesthood and a recognition of our own insufficiency. Like the Israelite of old, we come to worship our God, and in and through our high priest we enter into His very presence."

 

- J.G. Buckler

The Unchangeable Priesthood (1953)

[Resource Manager]

13 June 2016

 

"Isaiah declares: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). That promise can be made good in the lives of all of us. Troubles may remain, but there will be courage to endure: and imaginary troubles will not be allowed to add to those actually existing. Anxieties will be resolved in the assurance of God’s care. Fears will be relegated to the night which begot them, and as children of the light and of the day and of God, in Paul’s apt figure to the Philippians, who lived in a garrison town, we shall be surrounded as with a garrison with the peace of God; and if we are faithful to the end it may be ours to have boldness in the day of judgment."

 

- John Carter

Fear Not (1948)

[Resource Manager]

14 June 2016

 

"Throughout ancient times a host of our Father’s faithful servants did His will and devotedly carried out His commands. But nowhere was the determination to do God’s bidding better expressed than in the terse reply of the young Jesus when Mary questioned him about his absence from the company on the journey home from Jerusalem: “How is it that you sought me? knew you not that I must be about my Father's business?” (Luke 2:49). Here is the true reason for our call; in this will lie the final justification for our election: that we faithfully went about our Father’s business."

 

- John Marshall

Reflections on the Way (1960)

[Resource Manager]

15 June 2016

 

"All that was right, all that God requires of his children, was embodied in the life and character of Jesus. In his absolute integrity we see that single minded devotion to the will of God which emanated in doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. He is our pattern, our standard. Tried against his spotless life, our own feeble attempts must look very impoverished and dull, but such a test must surely evoke in us the humble, repentant attitude of the Publican who was justified. We shall not then belong to the class of those Corinthian brethren who commended themselves in their mutual admiration, but with singleness of eye and purpose we shall endeavour to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; not seeking the commendation of our brethren, not commending ourselves by judging ourselves too kindly, but seeking only to obtain the approval of him whom we have met to remember, always bearing in mind the words of the Apostle Paul: "For not he that commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends" (2 Corinthians 10:18)."

 

- N. Ward

Men’s Judgment and God’s (1953)

[Resource Manager]

16 June 2016

 

"To the victory of the cross must be added the triumph of the resurrection: they cannot be separated. Wicked hands had taken Jesus and crucified him: but God had raised him up, because it was not possible that he should be holden of death. So we pass to the next chapter in John’s gospel and behold the Risen Christ! We rejoice with his disciples in the knowledge that he is risen indeed; and we feel in some measure at least his triumph over death. The terrible ordeal of Calvary is past, his sacrifice accepted, his obedience vindicated; he is "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" ( Romans 1:4)."

 

- F.W. Turner

Meditations (1950)

[Resource Manager]

17 June 2016

 

"It will be an increasing comfort with the passing years to realize that though physically bound to the earth with all its limitations and disabilities, spiritually we can live in heaven. The things that are seen will lose much of their value to us, but the things that are not seen become increasingly precious and prepare us for the ultimate transformation to immortality and the glories of the everlasting Kingdom."

 

- Melva Purkis

Our Spiritual Heritage (1955)

[Resource Manager]

18 June 2016

 

"If a lecture is simple, all can understand it, but if a lecture is “highbrow” (to use the common expression) its value to most is small, and is doubtful even to the few. The Gospel can be stated in the simplest of terms, and is far better when so expressed ... Jesus always used simple illustrations, usually homely ones—the rising dough, the lost coin, the mended garment, the sower, the reaper, the steward—all of which were understood by his hearers."

 

- James Carter

Towards Simplicity (1961)

[Resource Manager]

19 June 2016

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, indeed, but it is not the substantiation of wishful thinking. Neither mountains nor motor vehicles are to be tamed by our caprice. He that cometh to God must believe that He is (a matter of sensible demonstration which our reason can accept), and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

- Alfred Norris
Jottings (1966)

[Resource Manager]

20 June 2016

 

"... "You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22) were God’s words at his baptism. If these words were true at his baptism, how much more did they apply to the risen Lord who had given himself as a sacrifice for sin? So great, indeed, was God’s love that in accepting the sacrifice of His Son He accepts too the lives of his friends: "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9,10)."

 

- John Morris

Beloved of God (1973)

[Resource Manager]

21 June 2016

 

"Jesus demonstrated a patient continuance in well doing throughout all his life, even to his death, because of the joy that was set before him of eternal life and a place at his Father’s right hand in heaven. Because he loved those who would be his saints, he endured the cross and despised the shame, that they might be saved."

 

- Grahame A. Cooper

Judge Not, That ye be Not Judged (1991)

[Resource Manager]

22 June 2016

 

"Over and over again do we read in the scriptures of the book of life or of remembrance. This is surely an expressive figure of the unfading memory of the Father and the Son concerning those who belong to them. Record in that book is of the greatest importance, for we read that there shall in no wise enter into the future and ultimate glory any but those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 21:27). To the faithful of Sardis there was the promise that "he that overcomes ... will I not blot his name out of the book of life" (Revelation 3:5)."

 

- S. Field

The Names of All the Saints (1961)

[Resource Manager]

23 June 2016

 

"... This "policy for life" needs a knowledge and understanding of the will of God for us which can only come from His word of Truth. It cannot truly be founded on any other basis. Let us not then be stampeded by pressures from within or without to pursue "intense" experiences. The word of the Lord to Israel applies with equal force to His servants of modern times: "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15)."

 

- Fred Pearce

The Ecclesia in the Last Days (1989)

[Resource Manager]

24 June 2016

 

"No day passes which is exempt from the master principles of the high calling. Discipleship is no small thing. It affects everything in its compass. There are no vacations, no retreats, no day-release. Our neglect does not lighten the responsibility; it may even intensify it."

 

- Dennis Gillett

The Genius of Discipleship

[Resource Manager]

25 June 2016

 

"We are living in an age when the great preparation is nearing completion. When men and women of faith of every century, along with those who are alive and remain, will receive the clarion call to meet the Lord who bought them with his blood. These are likened to the Bride, prepared and adorned for the Bridegroom. Is the Bride prepared for the call? Are her undergarments covering her, ready and prepared for the wedding garment to be worn?"

 

- John V. Collyer

The Great Preparation (1990)