TFTD - October 2016

[Resource Manager]

01 October 2016

 

"... when all is said and done, the true motive for getting things into the right perspective is not fear or dread or blind compulsion. It is the master principle of love. People give the Truth top priority because they love it. Any other motive will fail and eventually the disciple becomes disgruntled and half-hearted. But when they are love-impulsed, and inspired by what the King has done for our sakes, they favour his cause gladly, happy to be his bond-servants and heavily weighted in his favour. They are not dragging themselves after him, resentful and lukewarm. They follow him with joy and give him their allegiance in the everyday things of the Truth without demur. Loyal for love’s sake: this is the true perspective."

 

- Dennis Gillett

The Genius of Discipleship

[Resource Manager]

02 October 2016

 

"His own closing prayer (Paul, Ephesians 6:21-24) is that grace should be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. As we remember the Lord’s love for us, expressed in the symbols of bread and wine, we are reminded of the grace bestowed on us through God’s own Son, and we are presented with another opportunity to consider in our hearts the sincerity of our love for him. If we find ourselves wanting we can take hope in the certainty that at this table we can seek and find forgiveness; here we can ask that we might once more be made strong in the Lord; that we might continue in the protection of the whole armour of God; and that, having in Christ overcome all, we might in God’s good grace "stand complete at last."

 

- Graham Cooke

The Whole Armour of God (1994)

[Resource Manager]

03 October 2016

 

"... He overcame all his temptations by putting the picture out of his mind, quickly, before it had time to mature into sin. Let us try not only to remember his example and the way in which he overcame, but also to follow his example and find the way of life. We have access to the same Word of God that he had access to, and which gave him the strength and guidance that he needed, and he used. So let us try to use our imaginations for the Lord’s service, to strengthen our faith, and concentrate our thoughts and purposes on the things that really matter, and pray that God will help us to do this."

 

- John V. Collyer

Using Our Imagination (1988)

[Resource Manager]

04 October 2016

 

"He who created the sun darkened it on the day of the Cross. He who created the earth shook it when the Son of God died.

 

Let us see the wholeness of things, the robe that is without seam from top to bottom, and give God thanks. The ox knoweth his Owner and the ass his Master’s crib. Let, then, Israel know and let His people consider."

 

- Harry Tennant

Both Small and Great (1961)

[Resource Manager]

05 October 2016

 

"... God has worked our redemption and wishes us to receive it with intense relief and joy, and to deal with our brethren and sisters as He has dealt with us. He wants us to live in His pure, fresh air, honest, unsuspicious, clear-thinking, esteeming above all things His love and the life of communion with Him and the practice of the presence of His Son. He wants us to worship Him, overcoming in our services themselves all those features that so easily distract our gaze from Him towards each other and ourselves. He wants us, truly, to humble ourselves before Him, but not with that abasement which bends its head so far over as a bulrush that it finishes by seeing only its own prostration. He wants us to say, and mean it, that all His service is our delight, earning nothing from Him, conferring nothing upon Him, but rendering to Him the joyous response that is befitting from those for whom the joy of Tabernacles is in store and who may know it in measure already according as they trust in Him."

 

- H.A. Twelves

The Fast which the Lord has Chosen (1955)

[Resource Manager]

06 October 2016

 

"Jesus, as Son of Man, had to take up his work as world ruler where Adam left off. Jesus was born a man of today, the son of Mary. It was the strength given by His Father and his own perfect obedience to the Father that made Jesus the first Man of Tomorrow, the Son of Man. He was made “perfect through sufferings”, but these sufferings were not weakness, but evidence of his overwhelming strength in overcoming."

 

- Richard Purkis

The Son of Man (1970)

[Resource Manager]

07 October 2016

 

"Would that the nation had listened to the Lord their God as He revealed His heart to them, and His love for them. Or, during the ministry of Jesus had listened to the voices of the two blind men: “Have mercy on us, thou son of David.” Or, heeded the voices of the multitude who cried: “Hosanna to the son of David” (Matthew 20:30-31; 21:9). However, the tragedy of the nation was our blessing, for what Jesus told the disciples is true of us also: “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matthew 13:16-17)."

 

- John Marshall

The Door of Hope (1980)

[Resource Manager]

08 October 2016

 

"What is there in the teaching of Jesus that places it on this pedestal? Does it give men practical help in solving the many problems which this world sets? Does it assist nations to choose their governments? Or governments to determine domestic or foreign policies? Can the legislator find guidance in the principles of law? Or the magistrate in its administration? Does it speak of the privileges and responsibilities of the citizen towards the State? To ask these questions is to answer them. Jesus spoke not one recorded word on any such matter. He dealt only with the thoughts and actions of men in their individual relationships to their God and their fellow man ..."

 

- D.J. Wagner

The Aim of Jesus’ Ethic (1940)

[Resource Manager]

09 October 2016

 

"The Lord Jesus knew the greatness of the promises which were to be fulfilled in him, and he knew the tremendous power which God had placed in his hands when his Father gave to him the spirit without measure. Yet no one can deny that the Lord was confronted with the problems of daily life, for he was tempted in all points like us. Despised and rejected of men he was regarded as “condemned by Heaven, an outcast from his God”. But in his daily life he always felt that the Father was near to him. In a context which speaks of the obedience of the Messiah the prophet Isaiah had said, “For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me” (Isaiah 50:7). And while men mistakenly thought him condemned, he was in fact justified by God who approved of everything he did. Jeremiah had foretold that Messiah would draw near to God: “And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me; for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? said the Lord” (Jeremiah 30:21). It was Jesus who engaged his heart, who pledged himself, to God; and his perfect obedience made it possible for God to say to all who can draw near to him in Christ, “You shall be my people, and I will be your God”. These are the true children of Israel, a people near to Him."

 

- Spencer L. Hale

A People Near to God (1977)

[Resource Manager]

10 October 2016

 

"'Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.' We must ever look upon this prostrate form of our beloved Lord from the distance which separated him from his three disciples. We could not approach nearer if we would. Yet he desired his loved ones to witness the price he paid, that they might learn as much as the human heart can stand and the human mind conceive; that learning this they might love more fervently, and loving, be his disciples indeed, bound to him by the fellowship of his sufferings."

 

- Melva Purkis

A Life of Jesus

[Resource Manager]

11 October 2016

 

"In the Old Testament two lovely and familiar figures are used to describe the nearness of God’s relationship to His people, both as a nation and also as individuals. The figure of the shepherd is known and loved by all from the twenty-third Psalm, with its picture of a God who cares for His people as a shepherd for his flock, leading, guiding, encouraging and protecting and never being very far from any of them. This is an assurance which has comforted men and women of faith in all ages ... Jesus uses the same figure many times to describe his relationship with his disciples: “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15). In Matthew 18:11-13 he uses it to describe the very essence of his redemptive work as being “to save that which was lost”, as a shepherd seeks the sheep which has gone astray."

 

- E.J. Newman

The Life We Share (1962)

[Resource Manager]

12 October 2016

 

"Jesus Christ said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). There is power in the cross. Jesus on the cross must have seemed a defeated man, bearing all the shame of execution, but the cross has also glory and power; power that is magnetic to draw men to it, and men marvel because they cannot comprehend the depth of love that the Saviour had for sinners. That’s God’s power, and like the sun it is there for all to see. God’s mercy is no longer hidden away behind the curtains of the tabernacle but set forth for all to behold (Romans 3:25)."

 

- John B. Boulton

Shining Like the Sun (1973)

[Resource Manager]

13 October 2016

 

"And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)

 

"What the Creator beheld was a system of life in the physical setting which had been fashioned for its home, all forming a created whole. It was a system born in love: the Spirit of God, it is said, had moved upon the face of the waters; it had brooded or hovered like an eagle with outstretched wings—the very image in the language of the Bible of divine protective love. (Deuteronomy 32:11) The product of that brooding was not only a countless variety of living things, animal and vegetable, but a unity of interrelated things, each creature or each species dependent upon others and fitted to its environment."

 

- L.G. Sargent

A Living Relationship (1969)

[Resource Manager]

14 October 2016

 

"... Notice the irony. They had been bought by Christ, not with perishable things such as silver and gold but with his own precious blood. Now they were counselled to buy from him! Those who had nothing could buy the unsearchable riches of Christ without money and without price. Jesus, though he was rich, yet for their sakes became poor, so that by his poverty they might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9)."

 

-  W.L. Bedwell

The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, "Laodicea"  

[Resource Manager]

15 October 2016

 

"The Christian calling is to be followers of this “man for all seasons”, who is the only real answer to all our needs. “Come unto me”, is his invitation, “all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He does not offer a life of irresponsible idleness, but a life which is at peace with God, a truly happy and successful life. He offers to those who follow him strength in times of trial and forgiveness when they fail; comfort in sorrow; hope in bereavement; life out of death; order out of chaos; and the inheritance, at last, of a world which will be filled with joy and love, because it will reflect the glory of God, its Creator. But everything revolves round Jesus. If we want these blessings we need him above all else. We need him today, in the texture of our commonplace living; in the light and shade, the sorrows and joys, the successes and failures that make up life. For he is our man for all seasons, the Son of God who “took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” that he might be our Prince and Saviour—Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever."

 

- Len Richardson

Fundamental Doctrines (1977)

[Resource Manager]

16 October 2016

"We have all so much to learn, so much for which to pray: "This is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask anything according to His will he hears us" (1 John 5:14). Thus we have great things to live for, great things to die for, but in spite of the depth of our knowledge of the Truth we frequently need to ask ourselves: "Do we believe?" And in the ultimate we still need to pray: "I believe; Lord, help you my unbelief" (Mark 9:24)."

- John Marshall
Reflections Along the Way (1960)
 

[Resource Manager]

17 October 2016

 

"The nails fastened Jesus to the cross, but it was not by them that he was kept there. His own miraculous power, or the work of angels, could have delivered him at any time. What held the Lord to the cross was his surrender to his Father’s will and his love for his people. “Greater love hath no man than this that a man should lay down his life for his friends.” He was bound to the cross by love, as the girdle was bound to the ephod."

 

- F.E. Mitchell

For Glory and for Beauty (1978)

[Resource Manager]

18 October 2016

"Fortification by the Word is much more than the useful exercise of learning a number of proof texts by heart. It involves the assimilation of divine principles from the Word. A mind that has received instruction from the Scriptures understands the ways of God, and learns to trust God implicitly."

- Peter Watkins
The Inspired Scriptures - Our Sure Foundation (1962)

[Resource Manager]

19 October 2016

 

"The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein" (Psalm 24:1; Jeremiah 23:24). Humanity fails utterly to recognise the fact that God owns the earth and fills it; and that none can hide from Him. It is God’s prerogative to lay down the law as to the conduct of His creatures; but He goes further, and by an expression of His love "draws" men to Himself. Moses’ declamation to Israel, therefore, must be just as relevant to us. "I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command you this day to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live that you may dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, to give them" (Deuteronomy 30:15,19; Jeremiah 21:8)."

 

- Edmund Green

The Light of the World (1981)

[Resource Manager]

20 October 2016

 

"A new Day is dawning when no longer will a man feel “a lonely stranger” among fellow travellers. The signs are bright in the world that God’s future Kingdom is very near when everyone will be voyaging towards Jerusalem together, when it will not be necessary to say “Know the Lord, for all will know him from the least to the greatest”; and every traveller will be a worshipper of the one True God."

 

- Wm. Hosking

They Shall Speak of the Glory of Thy Kingdom (1977)

[Resource Manager]

21 October 2016

 

"Faith changes the scene of action and places us on a vantage ground so that we are able to yield ourselves in simple but complete trust to the moulding influence of our heavenly Father’s all-embracing love which never fails, falters or forgets."

 

- Claud Lamb

Spiritual Wrestling (1998)

[Resource Manager]

22 October 2016

 

"The call to endure to the end implies that there are hardnesses to be endured: the call to be faithful unto death, implies that our faithfulness will be put to severe proof. Let us see to it that neither hardness or difficulty, nor any trial, shall cause us to fall; but rather, come what may, let us be steadfast in obedience, faith, and hope, knowing Whom we have believed (2 Timothy 1:12), and that in Christ all the promises of God are sure."

 

- F.W.L. Dagg

Take Heed Lest You Fall (1936)

[Resource Manager]

23 October 2016

 

"Natural goodness and honesty of heart will not in themselves bring forth the fruit of the spirit, and more than rich garden ground will grow roses and gooseberries without planting. Good ground will grow nettles as easily as bad ground, and a little more luxuriantly if it is turned to that use. An excellent constitution of mind requires the Spirit-seed before the Spirit-fruits can come. “The good seed is the word of the Kingdom”; the descending rain is to be found in the Spirit shed upon us through prophets and apostles, to the refreshment of our dry and thirsty souls. From thence issues the water of life, which the Spirit invites us to drink, that in the end we may thirst no more. In plain speaking, the root of the matter is to be found in the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."

 

- Robert Roberts

Sunday Morning (1871)

[Resource Manager]

24 October 2016

 

"Goodness is one of the first qualities to be mentioned in Scripture. When the work of creation was finished, God declared it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). All that the Lord God had made was good, reflecting His own goodness; the perfection, the excellence which belongs to the Creator Himself."

 

- John Morris

The God of Truth (1994)

[Resource Manager]

25 October 2016

 

"No better statement of the fundamental importance of the Word of God for the early Christadelphians can be found than in the opening chapter of Dr. Thomas’s Elpis Israel, for many years the one book available to introduce the Gospel. The first words are impressive: "Revolving on its own axis, and describing an ample circuit through the boundless fields of space, is a planet of the solar system bearing upon its surface a population of over a thousand millions subject to sin, disease and death." The description of the earth unfolds and man is set in his place upon it, his wisdom and his ignorance described, together with his powerlessness to answer from his own knowledge or reasoning the questions: "Whence comest thou, and what is thy destiny? Whence all the evil of thy nature, why art thou mortal, who made thee, who involved thee in the widespread ruin and calamity on every side?" The answers could only come by God’s revelation: "To the Bible, then, all must come at last if they would be truly wise in spiritual things. This is a great truth which few of the sons of men have learned to appreciate according to its importance."

 

- A.H. Nicholls

Remember the Days of Old