TFTD - December 2016

[Resource Manager]

01 December 2016

"... If, indeed, there is this simple, unclouded, unsullied honesty about all your motives, says Jesus, if your self-awareness of the tortuosities of your own mind and its emotions is vivid and clear, then truly will your whole being be a lampstand ablaze with glory to God."

- Harry Whittaker
Dark Light (1950)

[Resource Manager]

02 December 2016

 

"... Right understanding will depend on the spirit in which the Bible is approached. The man who comes to put it in the dock and cross-examine it will not get the same result as the man who approaches it in humility as the Word of God. It is the humble and contrite heart that will come to true knowledge, while the intellectually proud will remain outside as a critic. This is true in measure of all knowledge; every subject, scientific or otherwise, demands a certain self-submission to learn of it and not to try and teach it; humility is the only basis for knowledge. It is especially and in a higher sense true of the Word of God."

 

- Ray Walker

The Answer to Rationalists (1968)

[Resource Manager]

03 December 2016

 

"Jesus finds his strength in temptation in the clearness of his vision of God, the assurance of his faith. And so he comes out of the temptation with the wisdom he had drawn from the word of God brought to a focus. He declares the reality of God, the supremacy of God’s will, and the holiness of His name, for he exalts God alone as the object of worship and the end for whom all things exist. To this Reality, this supreme Will, this Holy One, he subordinates himself: "Not my will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42)."  

 

- L.G. Sargent

Strength Against Temptation (1973)

[Resource Manager]

04 December 2016

"God is gracious: but He will not coerce. Sin has a corrupting power and quickly enslaves: we must observe its subtlety and deceptiveness so that we do not fit ourselves for destruction. Fleeing for safety to the grace of God, submitting to His preparation in the humility that God requires, brings the recognition that it is grace that reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ."

- John Carter
Searchings of Heart (1954)

[Resource Manager]

05 December 2016

 

"... we are reminded that the greatest gift of all came in the form of a sinless man, wherein we see the wonder of creation in its highest, purest, noblest, and most complete form. It is only in and through that highly exalted one that we can enjoy earth’s blessings and God’s great gifts to the full. We see, indeed, not yet all things put under him, but we do see Jesus, crowned with glory and honour; and in him, and only in him, can we look to see the blessings and great gifts of God in all their glory and completion. When we contemplate this perfect gift, and allow our minds to dwell, however imperfectly, upon the great things that have been accomplished for us in and through him, surely it is then that we feel prompted to echo the Psalmist’s words: “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits toward me? ... I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the name of the LORD!” (Psalm 116:12,17)"

 

- Cyril Cooper

This is the Gift of God (1961)

[Resource Manager]

06 December 2016

 

"The only way in which the sons of Adam, alienated from God, can be brought back to God is through God’s communication to them; and that communication comes through the word in all its aspects and in all its work. The Word is the channel through which God reaches out to man in order to bring men to Himself. That word is made available to us in the Holy Writings, and here only can we find the ground of faith and the means of life. The word “God-breathed” in the writings is an essential aspect of God’s self-revelation and of His redeeming work with men. How much, then, should we treasure the written word as the "lively oracles of God!"

 

Foundations

Revelation (March, 1965)

[Resource Manager]

07 December 2016

 

"Truth is the very essence of both the Jewish and Christian faiths. If, as we understand, religion sets out to bind man to his Maker, it must first of all reveal what sort of character God has in order that man may know what he is required to do. The Jews were not left to explore and experiment and make assumptions; it was revealed. And this is the revelation in Deuteronomy 32:34: “Ascribe you greatness unto our God, he is the rock, his work is perfect; all his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he”. This through the mouth of Moses, who repeatedly claimed to speak in the name of God. There could thus be no doubt in the minds of the devout Jew that all that God said was truth, and moreover that all that He commanded was a way of truth.

 

The foundation is equally secure for the Christian. In the Gospel of John, that gospel which sets Jesus forth as the Son of God, displaying His likeness, proclaiming His word, the word “truth” and associated words appears many more times than in all the other gospels put together. As a matter of statistics the words “truth”, “true” and “truly” appear in Matthew, Mark and Luke together 18 times, and 56 times in John. Typical of John’s point of view is the statement in John 1:17-18: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”.

 

Truth has a twofold application, first doctrinal, then moral. "It first reveals what is good and true, and then inspires what is good and true in conduct" ..."

 

- W. Williams

What is Truth? (1947)

[Resource Manager]

08 December 2016

 

"Humility, submission, obedience; the surrender of self to God; these are the qualities we note in Christ at the beginning of his ministry. He comes to do God’s will, for he knows that God has created all things for His pleasure. In Christ’s attitude, and in the tokens of God’s approval, we see a pleasing contrast with the story of Eden. The first Adam had rebelled and been cursed; the second submits and is blessed."

 

- T.J. Barling

The Blessings of Humility (1956)

[Resource Manager]

09 December 2016

 

"With no conscience of Divine things there can be no faith, since faith is more than intellectual assent or a drawing nigh with the lips: “the devils also believe”. Faith is manifested in the deeds of a man sensitive to God’s commands because he believes in them."

 

- Alfred Nicholls

Sound Words for Ecclesias Under Pressure (1977)

[Resource Manager]

10 December 2016

 

"We are counselled, “Harden not your hearts”, as did Israel in the wilderness. That will forfeit entry into rest. What exactly causes hardening of heart? The writer to the Hebrews explains in Hebrews 3:13. It is “the deceitfulness of sin”, which is not difficult to interpret as absorption with the present worldly order of things. The antidote to hardening of heart is suggested in Hebrews 4:2 : “The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” So a lively, thrilling faith counteracts hardness of heart. Such a faith can look forward joyfully from the scene of this toil to the shining hill of Zion where tireless, happy pilgrims ascend to worship in God’s place of rest."

 

- C.A. Macdonald

The Rest That Remains (1960)

[Resource Manager]

11 December 2016

 

“… the New Testament makes it explicit that through Jesus many others will be brought to the same fulness of life. This is what God intended from the beginning: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). A process is involved that transfigures dying descendants of Adam into glorious children of God. It takes place in those who steadfastly look to Jesus: “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed (transfigured) into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The first evidence of this transfiguration is growth toward the moral likeness of the Lord. The end of the process will be physical glorification at his coming: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:20,21). The purpose of God will then be fulfilled in many. The kingdom life that was revealed to men when Jesus went about all Galilee will be permanently manifested in a multitude, and they will live and reign with him when, at last, he makes the kingdoms of this world his own.”

 

- James Harper

The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand (1977)

[Resource Manager]

12 December 2016

 

"Maybe, in our thoughts, we have stood outside the door too long. The prancing chariot horses have clattered to a standstill at the door of the house. In the dignity of his station, Naaman has stood at the door, and he has thought of the most fitting way in which a nobleman should be healed. He knew just how it ought to happen. In his anger he storms, “Behold, I thought ...” How dangerous those words can be in the search for salvation. Second thoughts and reasonableness do not prevail with all. It is not God who limits salvation to the few, but the many who will think their own thoughts."

 

- D.L. Jenkins

Within the Door (1962)

[Resource Manager]

13 December 2016

 

"... The remembrance that is most charged with inspirational power is the fervent remembrance of our Saviour. The saving truths about him should be stamped indelibly on our memory. “Christ died for our sins”; “Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”; “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

 

The power of clear recollection can be generated daily in our lives by the Word. Let memory fulfil her gracious work. Let us forget the lower things, the claims of the world and self, in favour of the claims of Christ, and always remember he was “made higher than the heavens” (Acts 8:26)."

 

- Claud Lamb

Do You Not Remember? (1996)

[Resource Manager]

14 December 2016

 

"Jesus has brought us back to God. In our remembrance of him week by week this fact should always be with us, for if he had not died for our sins that he might bring us to God we should still be standing afar off."

 

- Spencer L. Hale

A People Near to God (1977)

[Resource Manager]

15 December 2016

 

"Christ-mindedness is not easily attained, especially as we tend to devote a great part of the daily round to the things of Caesar, frequently turning to God in a nocturnal epilogue when all other appointments have been diligently attended to. What a wealth of meaning there is in the words of Jesus to the Pharisees and Herodians: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17)."

 

- D.M. Elliott

Let This Mind be in You (1970)

[Resource Manager]

16 December 2016

 

"We entered the Father’s house when we became children of God in baptism; Jesus was at the threshold waiting to conduct us along the intricate and difficult ways to the throne of God. Without our guide we should never reach our goal, but “following his steps” we progress steadily forward, assimilating the royal law precept by precept, and finding in its interpretation a peace and joy which the world neither knows nor can take from us. And the final fulfilment of discipleship? The Word abounds in pictures of the eternal glory of the disciples’ inheritance, an inheritance that can bear no relationship to any sacrifices we may have made, any good he may have accomplished, any sufferings he may have endured; an inheritance that is a revelation of the Father’s love and the grace that is in Jesus Christ. Those inspired pictures of glory, wondrous as they sound to a disciple’s ear, can only be a divine concession to our human limitation, for no mortal eye can behold the brightness of the glory, no finite mind can measure the eternal height and depth of God’s completed purpose of redemption. Yet the outline, divinely etched in the language of our mortality, suffices to satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts and quicken our steps towards the throne of God."

 

- M. Purkis

... So Shall You be My Disciples (1963)

[Resource Manager]

17 December 2016

 

"The essential duties enumerated by the prophet Micah are substantially the same as those laid down by Christ. The prophet declared that the ideal was “to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.” Christ declared that the weightier matters of the law were judgment, mercy, faith and the love of God. Justice and judgment here surely have the same meaning. There can be no doubt as to the meaning of mercy. An infidel might be humble, but mere humility is not all that is required. A man cannot walk humbly with his God apart from faith. Conversely, if a man has the true faith and proper appreciation of the love of God, he will be guided to the true humility. Why is it that these principles, though never disputed, are nearly always neglected in favour of something which seems large in human affairs just for the moment, but which, after the lapse of a century or so, is seen even by men to be of little consequence?"

 

- Islip Collyer

Principles and Proverbs

[Resource Manager]

18 December 2016

 

"Ours is the God who created. Have we lost the marvel in all this? This should be an eternal joy, for the Lord Himself has opened the backward looking door and through it we have seen His hands at work. "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained ..." (Psalm 8:3). We can attribute greatness to our God by ascribing to Him the honour and the glory and the majesty which the universe makes plain. They are His, and He made them. This should be a principle of faith. In them we should see Him: in Him they are. We need not fear the true findings of science so long as we fear Him who gave minds to the finders and created hidden treasures to be explored." 

 

- Harry Tennant

First and Last (1963)

[Resource Manager]

19 December 2016

 

"Man is humble through the realisation of God’s greatness. "For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit" (Isaiah 57:15). Humility arises from reverence, and reverence is compelled by a realisation of what God is, what He has done in the past, what He is doing now and what He will do ere long. Humility arises from a recognition of the absolute and utter sufficiency of God; a recognition of God’s throne in the world and in human life.

 

It means bowing with awe in the presence of the aweful superiority of God. It comes from a recognition of our absolute dependence upon God. It is a confession that all we need for our life is to be found in the life of God; a surrender to the conviction that we are altogether incomplete, save as we are brought into relationship with Him.

 

A sense of our need and His wonderful resource provokes meekness. A sense of our predicament and His loving solution compels us to walk humbly before Him, doing justly and loving mercy."

 

- D.G. Gillett

The Genius of Discipleship

[Resource Manager]

20 December 2016

 

"When men seek salvation by works they are moved by a desire for self-achievement, seeking to be independent of God. In this respect self-justification resembles Adam’s sin, which, springing from a desire to be as God, exalted Adam’s own will and disregarded the will of God. Self-righteousness, exalting self, perpetuates the sin of Adam. Fallen man should humbly accept God’s grace; but instead of walking in humility, in seeking righteousness by his own efforts he manifests arrogance and pride. His efforts begin and end with pride; blinded by self-esteem a man becomes increasingly satisfied with his own efforts, and less aware of his folly.

 

The fundamental issue between Jesus and the Pharisees may be found here. “He willing to justify himself” defines the very basis of human effort. “I fast, I tithe”—I do—the odious effects upon a man of his self-centreing labour is sketched by Jesus in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. Works are like the lush growth of a tree that bears no fruit. “Make the tree good” is the divine rule."

 

 - John Carter

The Letter to the Galatians

[Resource Manager]

21 December 2016

"... Jesus spoke only the truth. The Jews were divided into those who sought righteousness by the law and those who completely ignored the demands of God. When true righteousness was revealed from heaven in the person of Christ, it was the moral and spiritual outcasts who recognized and received it. The ministers of ceremonial righteousness had found so much personal satisfaction in the dignity and power which their office brought that they rejected the righteousness which is by faith."

- Melva Purkis
A Life of Jesus 

[Resource Manager]

22 December 2016

 

“We know, on excellent authority, that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draw him (John 6:44), and we could claim that the Father can draw without help from us. Indeed, we have heard that claim advanced as a thin disguise for our sloth. Yet, though the fact is true, this is not where it leads. It calls us, not to negligence, but to a proper humility in our activities, a salutary recognition that it is God that giveth the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). Whatever our ability and zeal, with whatever resource we apply them, the greatness of the power is of God, and as it is written, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31).”  

 

- A.D. Norris

Preaching the Word

[Resource Manager]

23 December 2016

 

"One who tries to write with the sole object of serving and helping must have two questions before his mind. Can I give some instruction or suggest thoughts that will be helpful? Can I write in a manner sufficiently interesting for people to read? It is easy to do either of these things alone but difficult to combine them, yet the combination must be effected if we are to achieve our purpose. The Lord Jesus suggested the right way. The instructed scribe must be like a householder bringing forth from his treasures things new and old. They must not be all new or no one would understand, but if possible some of the treasures must be new at least to some readers. It may be possible, too, to show the old in a new light so that even those who have forgotten how to learn may be stimulated into a revival of interest. It is not merely in the matter of humility that we need to become like children. Those who seek the Kingdom of God also need the childlike interest in things both new and old and the child’s readiness to learn, step by step, carrying the old thought a little further."

 

- Islip Collyer

Principles and Proverbs 

[Resource Manager]

24 December 2016

 

"The world about us is an evidence of the Creator’s existence; it is appealed to in the Scriptures as a reason why the actions of men should be influenced thereby. A further simple statement of the same argument is to be found in Hebrews 3:4. What God is doing with men may be compared to the selection and preparation of materials for a house of which God is builder. The writer remarks that every house is builded by some man, but he that built all things is God. As a house witnesses to the work of architect and builder so the world witnesses to its designer. A house reveals a plan and a purpose, and the history of man reveals the divine purpose working out God’s plan of redemption."

 

- John Carter

God’s Way (First Published 1947)

[Resource Manager]

25 December 2016

 

"Our attitude to the body is our attitude to Christ. The church is his body. If we are superior to it, we lack humility; if we are divisive within it, we deny the atonement by which we were reconciled and made one: if we neglect it, we diminish our affection for him: if we serve it, we do him service: if we edify it, we continue his work: if we bind up its wounds and take care of the weak, we fellowship his sufferings. Scripture after scripture urges this powerful and basic lesson in the continuing love of the Lord Jesus Christ ..."

 

- Harry Tennant

The Man David