TFTD - August 2016

[Resource Manager]

01 August 2016

 

"... It is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, reserved for us who are kept by the power of God unto salvation soon to be revealed when the faith for which we contend and upon which we build will be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen we love; and though even now we see him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable. This joy unspeakable, this joy inexpressible, is but the foretaste of what is soon to be revealed."

 

- S.L. Hale

Contending and Building (1953)

 

[Resource Manager]

02 August 2016

 

"In pointing out Biblical teaching, we may be charged with "exclusiveness"; but it is not our exclusiveness—we have no prerogative in the matter. If there is exclusiveness, it is the "Word of God" which has determined the scope of the salvation He offers, and the principles of its application to men. The words of Jesus concerning the Way of Life are "Few there be that find it."

 

- Edmund Green

The Grounds of Salvation (1982)

[Resource Manager]

03 August 2016

 

"It is our hope and desire to live with Christ and enter into the joy of our Lord. If we achieve it it will be the greatest day of our lives ... The questions of Psalm 24 are therefore relevant to us: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” The answer is, those who live truth and practice it relentlessly; to do so is to have holiness without which no man shall see God. If we would live with God in eternity we must allow Him to dwell in us now, to recognize that, though unseen, the reality of His presence is with us day in and day out, and allow Him to take all that seems to be ours and make it His own."

 

- John Boulton

Lift Up Your Heads (1960)

[Resource Manager]

04 August 2016

 

“And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.” The fountains of tears opened in Eden have flowed incessantly, as rivers of waters, into the ocean of time, and as sorrows increased and deepened through ages of human experience, the saints of God have abundantly contributed their share to the troubled waters. The shedding of tears in all time has been nature’s provision to relieve, in some measure, the tension caused by trouble and distress. But the greatest relief is that which comes with the crowning act of Fatherly compassion which closes the scenes of suffering for the favoured sons and daughters of God, when, by change into the spirit nature, He finally “wipes every tear from their eyes.”

 

- J.E. Jarvis

From the Still Waters to the Living Fountain (1933)

[Resource Manager]

05 August 2016

 

"Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God. Faith is a matter of development. It is useless, however, to pray "Increase our faith," unless we are diligent in the cultivation of it. Faith is confidence in God, and faith in God is created in the same way as faith in one another is created. If we by experience know a brother or sister to be wise, kind, upright, and God-fearing, we trust them, and on the same principle, we require to know God and the better we know Him the more we trust Him. Faith is not a spontaneous production. It does not spring up like a mushroom in a night. It grows slowly, but nevertheless surely, if we avail ourselves of the way God has given us to increase it. This can only come through familiarity with His sayings and doings as revealed in His Word. In this book, God has proved himself to be faithful, loving, merciful, just, almighty and infallible."

 

- J.S. Mann

The Measure of God (1932)

[Resource Manager]

06 August 2016

 

"... The Lord’s association with Olivet, however, has not yet ended, for it will be the scene of momentous things when he returns. For "his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. The Mount will cleave in the midst, and half the mountain shall move to the north and half to the south" (Zechariah 14:4). Living waters from Jerusalem will pour through toward the Dead Sea, and the glory of the Lord will be seen. His saints will be with him and the way will be prepared for the setting up of the kingdom of peace. He is king as well as prophet and priest."

 

- F.E. Mitchell

Olivet (1960)

[Resource Manager]

07 August 2016

 

"The coming day is a day of judgment, when men will pass from the trials of this life to the trial of the Lord. To "sons of light" the dawn will bring the deliverance from an environment to which they did not belong and plant them in conditions for which enlightenment has been gradually preparing them ... Will the morning be light or darkness to us? It depends upon our present response to the call, "If you will enquire, enquire you; return, come."

 

- John Carter

The Morning Cometh (1959)

[Resource Manager]

08 August 2016  

 

"The wonders performed by Christ he declared to be the works of his Father: which thus conveyed to their minds the indisputable evidence of God’s existence and power. The apostles on one occasion said to Jesus: "Lord, increase our faith". This earnest appeal would not go unanswered. But by no mechanical act could they become thus enriched. It must be by experience. Education of this kind was to serve a great purpose in their future work; so great an effect did it produce that they laboured faithfully and continuously in God’s service, willingly laying down their lives for His sake. Their writings now bear to us that testimony, and, in conjunction with the Old Testament writings, become the source from which we receive our education, in acquiring our knowledge of what it means to have "faith in God."

 

- J.E. Jarvis

Have Faith in God (1941)

[Resource Manager]

09 August 2016

"... we may reflect that the faith of the believer is present in the small as well as in the great things of his life. The seed is like leaven which, silently and unseen, works till the whole is leavened. While our minds and intellects will be exercised to the height of their powers in the apprehension of those profound realities involved in our beliefs, we must not be so preoccupied with the great things of our faith that we overlook their relation to the smaller duties of living. In matters of the mind and spirit, the riches of the gospel are beyond compare, yet these riches are not to be isolated and protected like the crown jewels, they must spill over into common ways of life and become part of our daily currency."

- Ralph Smalley
The Great and the Small (1963)

[Resource Manager]

10 August 2016

 

"The Apostle Peter was with the Lord when these gracious words fell from his lips, and after a lifetime’s experience of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, he could exhort the early believers with these words: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:6-7)."

 

- Harry Sheppard

The Moral Teaching of Jesus (1960)

[Resource Manager]

11 August 2016

 

"The apostle tells us that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God”. The reconciliation of the world will not be completed until the end of the thousand years reign of Christ. Until that happy consummation of God’s purpose, we share with Christ in his God-blessed labour of love. His yoke makes easy the burden of service in his Father’s name, for we may rest assured that he will bear his full share of the load to which we were yoked with him when we believed the truth of God’s purpose of love, and were immersed in his name for the remission of our sins."

 

- W. Tunstall

Sharing Christ’s Yoke (1953)

[Resource Manager]

12 August 2016

"Jesus is set before us as the highest model to study and imitate; the excellences which are supreme and glorious in him should inspire us with desire and resolve to copy and to acquire them in measure for ourselves. Jesus is our guide; where he treads it is for us to follow, placing our feet in the footmarks he has left behind him. As we behold Jesus in the Gospels, a great desire should spring up from our hearts; a yearning to have that mind that was in him, to be like him. Do we have that desire in our hearts?"

- Anthony Higginson
Transformed by Beholding (1977)

[Resource Manager]

13 August 2016

 

"Just as the eagle soars yet higher to points of vantage in the sky, in keeping with his kingly status among birds, so must the disciples of Christ today lift their vision above earthly things, as Paul enjoins the members at Colosse: "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2). The Psalmist says much the same thing: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help" (Psalm 121:1). Our vision of faith must rise beyond earth’s corrupting influences, "for our citizenship is in heaven."

 

- D.M. Elliott

A Rising of Eagles (1988)

[Resource Manager]

14 August 2016

 

"... God has “not made the earth in vain. He formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18). It is reserved for that seed which shall serve God and be counted by Him for a generation (Psalm 22:30), even that “chosen generation” spoken of by the apostle Peter. The earth stands waiting for the age of blessedness and for the divinely begotten generation which is to inhabit it."

 

- Islip Collyer

The Book of Ecclesiastes (1940)

[Resource Manager]

15 August 2016

 

"Our zeal should be focused in the right way. The early church was a peculiar mixture of individuals—those zealous for the right way but also zealous apostates, those who possessed the Truth but were apathetic, and those who had drifted from the Truth in their apathy and torpor. There were those such as Apollos who is described as "an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures ... being fervent in the spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord" (Acts 18:24–28). In his introduction to Letters to Young Churches, J. B. Phillips remarks that "If we believe what they believed then we might achieve what they achieved."

 

- Ken Camplin

Zeal (1986)

[Resource Manager]

16 August 2016

 

"Forget Not All His Benefits.­We are too slow to cultivate a spirit and habit of praise, and, like David, we need to stir up the depths of our souls to this delightful and essential service. Twice the Psalmist repeats the words, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul.' It is not a vain repetition, but shows us that we have need, again and again, to bestir ourselves to worship God in spirit and in truth. Memory is very treacherous, and it is a needful exercise to recall the heaven-sent benefits, and with 'all that is within us, bless His holy Name.'"

 

- Selected (1943) 

[Resource Manager]

17 August 2016

 

"God is creating a new heaven and a new earth; the first man has been created, and now a help meet is being formed for him. For this bride he has already given his life, 'that they might be with me where I am'. The bride is no ordinary woman, she bears a remarkable likeness to her husband. One member of the bride has said, 'We shall be like him'."

 

- David Rowe

The Marriage Feast (1951)

[Resource Manager]

18 August 2016

 

"If we are to be part of the multitudinous divine manifestation when it is complete, we must demonstrate our unity with it now. On account of faith, by participation in Christ’s sacrifice, by baptism, we are leagued with God, and spiritually and potentially parts of the body of Christ. That state must be made a deep spiritual reality. Our hearts, the focus of our whole being, must be buried in Christ in greater and ever greater degree. We must continually more and more surely be knit to the Head "by joints and bands." All must be in Christ, and Christ dwelling in all by faith."

 

- L.G. Sargent

One Body Fitly Joined  

[Resource Manager]

19 August 2016

 

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:17-18].  It is somewhat paradoxical, no doubt, but nevertheless expressive. We often get deep truth expressed in paradox. It expresses our attachment to the Lord of Glory whom having not seen we love, and it is to Him that we look though we do not know him from a physical point of view, yet truly in every respect we know him from a spiritual point of view. We have accepted him as our Saviour and we look for him again to manifest himself in the earth according to the Word of God."

 

- W.N.

Things Unseen (1941)

[Resource Manager]

20 August 2016

 

"... David knew there was no hope in humanity to redeem itself: perhaps the events of his own life emphasised it. All had to come from God, and it would come through God’s Son, whose soul would not be left to see corruption, as a guarantee of all God promised. David saw this, and God wants to see it in all our hearts. The emblems of bread and wine remind us of it each week, not just of the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus made, but of that glorious future when he will "drink it new with you in his Father’s kingdom."

 

- Don McColl

After God’s Own Heart (1991)

[Resource Manager]

21 August 2016

 

"Life has always had its burden. "Your burden", said Moses: he meant the burden the people were to him. But all the people had their own burden. And it’s just the same today. We may deem our burden the heaviest of all but if we knew the gravity of our neighbour’s burden it would reconcile us to our own. Our Heavenly Father deals out all burdens and lays upon each of us the very burden which is best adapted to us. Our burden is the very one which, if faithfully borne, will discipline us best for active service in the Kingdom. Let this thought stay with us--there may be times when we cannot find help, but there is no time when we cannot give help (Galatians 6:2)."

 

- Claud Lamb

Our Cumbrance (2000)

[Resource Manager]

22 August 2016

 

"... There can be little doubt of our conviction of the Truth, because our preaching, our writings, our language, even our very lives often bear testimony to it, although here, as in every other aspect of our lives we need to exercise constant self-examination particularly with the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in mind. Like all the virgins we may be convinced of the coming of the Bridegroom, but like the unwise virgins we may make very little preparation to meet him ..."

 

- John Marshall

Reflections on the Way (1960)

[Resource Manager]

23 August 2016

 

"The word of God is a critic, discerner, or judge of human thoughts and ways (Hebrews 4:12). Its record reveals men as God sees them, without any veiling; all things are naked and open to Him. But the word of God also reveals God’s thoughts which are heavens higher than our thoughts, and in these two facts we find two aspects of instruction. To see ourselves for what we really are, and to know what we should be, provide the conditions for progress Godward. Man’s thoughts tend to evil; God’s thoughts are holy and righteous. Hence to know God personally, to appreciate His holiness fervently, to seek His ways earnestly calls for a change of heart, a transformation of thought, a renewing of the mind. As a person takes on the tones of those with whom he associates, so we can only become more like God as we hear His words. Only in one way is this possible—by the daily reading of God’s word.—Meditate on these things”, said Paul of divine counsel: “continue in them” as thought passes into action."

 

- John Carter
Searchings of the Heart (1954)

[Resource Manager]

24 August 2016

"We are all striving towards the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. As individuals we have many and divers gifts, but our one aim should be to use those gifts to the end that the whole body may be fitly compacted together by that which every joint supplieth. That unity can only be supplied by the love which actuates us in the performance of our several parts. let us therefore keep in mind at all times the words of John:

 

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” (1 John 4:7)"

 

- E.J.N.

Diversity of Gifts (1945)

[Resource Manager]

25 August 2016

 

"The pure of heart do not take delight in vanity. The vanity of life is part of the world and feeds upon the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. The children of God are not of the world: their hopes, desires and pleasures are on a higher plane; they are centred in Christ, who was not of the world. He came not to save the world but to take out of the nations a people for God’s name."

 

- W. Rothwell

Seeking the Face of God (1939)