TFTD - July 2017

[Resource Manager]

01 July 2017

 

"The trend of Nature is towards completion and perfection. A cut finger tends to heal. The scarred earth tends to become reclothed in living green, and "though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). The characteristic Christian response to life is not anxiety but thanksgiving: "God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19)."

 

- Claud Lamb

Be Careful for Nothing (1981)

[Resource Manager]

02 July 2017

 

"All the provisions of Israel’s law emphasised the holiness of God and the uncleanness of man. None but the high priest was permitted to enter the Most Holy place of the tabernacle, and he could only enter once in the year, with flesh meticulously washed, with the specially wrought linen garments to cover him, with a perfect sacrifice to offer, and with a cloud of incense to cover the mercy seat. Thus provided, the high priest was required on the day of atonement to enter the Most Holy place to seek grace for the people, just as Jesus has entered into heaven; and the high priest returned with a message of peace to those who waited for him, just as Jesus will shortly return to his waiting disciples.

 

From all this there emerges a clear principle, fraught with vital significance for the guidance of human conduct. The final object of the Christian religion is expressed in the crucifixion. It is the conquest and the cutting off of human flesh as unfit to stand before God, and in this process of destruction, characters are to be purified, rendering free service to God, and by divine wisdom and mercy at last to be endowed with the power of eternal life."

 

- Islip Collyer

The Guiding Light

[Resource Manager]

03 July 2017

 

"We must know "the due order" that God has enjoined for us: and finding it, seek to follow it with humble, obedient hearts. The word of the Lord is set aside by many who yet mean well, but will do their own ways. What is plainer than the command to believe and be baptized? Yet men calmly change the ordinance and expect God to accept their action. We can well believe that "many nations will be startled" when the Lord himself appears and shows how with the return of God’s visible action there will also come the enforcement of God’s will and judgment sharp and stern upon those who anarchically have defied it. The whole incident connected with the return of the Ark is full of significance and of lessons we all must learn. "Who shall abide in thy tabernacle? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart ... He that doeth these things shall never be moved."

 

- John Carter

Searchings of the Heart (1954)

[Resource Manager]

04 July 2017

 

"... He is the God of love and causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. There is no variableness in God, no petty favouritism: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34,35). This was Peter’s fine testimony at Caesarea in the first century and it has always been true. Those who seek to know God must “follow on to know Him” (Hosea 6:3) so that they may be perfect even as their Father in heaven is perfect. The pursuit of this perfection is the noblest end to which a man can bend his powers. In thus seeking to know God the disciple is helped by the study of Christ, for to see him is to see the Father."

 

- T.J. Barling

The Broad and Narrow Ways (1961)

[Resource Manager]

05 July 2017

 

"... The Word of the Lord is the true guide: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” When a man seeks first the virtues and values of the Kingdom of God, all other things are held in right perspective. The flesh is made subservient to spirit. The eye is opened—the ear is unstopped—the lost sense is restored. Life is God-governed. The demand to sweat and strain and toil for the transitory is seen to be folly. Use money and things but never, never imagine that they are more than part of human life. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God ...” In answer to the world’s mania—this is the Sublimest sanity."

 

- Dennis Gillett

Diseases of the Soul (1975)

[Resource Manager]

06 July 2017

 

"... In the days of her impending desolation, Isaiah who, like other prophets often spoke about Judah and Jerusalem, thus emphasising the special importance both in privilege and responsibility of the city, speaks of the LORD as saying: “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth” (Isaiah 62:1). And no marvel considering the vital role of the city in accomplishing His great desire—the unity of His whole family."

 

- Alfred Nicholls

The Fundamental Doctrine of Unity (1984)

[Resource Manager]

07 July 2017

 

"We need diligent and constant clearing of the garden of the mind. Let the Lord grow there and root out every other plant. Some of us, even though we are the Lord’s disciples, grow some strange plants in our minds—self-assurance, pride, private grudges, laziness, forgetfulness. We need not look very far for the causes of compromise in our times of weakness. Let us then gird the loins of our mind, seek anew the face of him before whom all sin was dispelled and cry with the psalmist:

 

"I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify your name forevermore." (Psalm 86:12)"

 

- Harry Tennant

Compromise? (1960)

[Resource Manager]

08 July 2017

 

"In Scripture the existence of God is proclaimed as a fact, not discussed as a theory. It is not reasoned out philosophically, it is not testified by some independent witness: it is declared by God Himself, who alone can assert it with absolute finality. Is not this the only way in which it could be presented in God's own revelation? Anything else would be absurd. How could Absolute Being argue His existence with the creatures He had created?"

 

- L.G. Sargent

A Sound Mind  

[Resource Manager]

09 July 2017

 

"The wholesome word is equally tempered together of two opposite qualities, Truthfulness and Tenderness. The Gospel is in health just because it is so.

 

It is an easy thing with some people to be truthful. It is an easy thing with other people to be tender. Of how few is the Apostolical saying descriptive in both its parts, speaking the truth--or rather, for the original word is far larger, being truthful--in love! The Gospel is healthy because it is truthful in love."

 

- C.J. Vaughan  

The Christadelphian (1955)

[Resource Manager]

10 July 2017

"... Because of ... complex advances in the natural world, many are thinking that of necessity similar advances must be made in the spiritual world. This is utterly fallacious thinking; Truth is not a variable quantity, to be "developed" from age to age. What was the Truth of God in the first century is still the Truth of God. He Himself says, "I am the Lord, I change not." Consequently, what Jesus and the apostles taught in the first century were not embryonic ideas to be developed in later years; they constituted the complete truth of God. They were simple truths capable of being understood by the unlearned. Two passages stand out very clearly in this respect:

"To the poor the Gospel was preached", and "The common people heard him gladly."

- James Carter
Towards Simplicity (1961)

[Resource Manager]

11 July 2017

 

"For the true follower of Christ the service of God is freedom. All other service must be in accord with this primary obedience. Freedom is serving God absolutely and others relatively. All of us must give God, and Him alone, pride of place in our lives. All of us are under a degree of authority, a derived authority. If it conflicts with the supreme authority of God, then it must be opposed."

 

- David J. Greathead

Obedience (1972)

[Resource Manager]

12 July 2017

 

"... "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope, that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised." Hope is grounded upon promise, even the promises made unto the fathers. God is faithful; the promise is sure. Only man's part is in doubt; their beginning was right in their confession of Christ. The end would also be so if they held fast to that confession. Every generation sees its quota of waverers, and to every generation may this appeal be made, "Let us hold fast."

 

- John Carter 

The Letter to the Hebrews

[Resource Manager]

13 July 2017

 

"Christ knew well this human weakness of anxiety and warned his disciples against it: "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ... for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ..." (Matthew 6:31-33). We can only rid ourselves of the cares and anxieties of this life if we see its problems in their true perspective. This we shall only do if we see them against the background of the eternal kingdom of God, and that demands that our minds should be bent upon seeking God’s kingdom and attaining His righteousness. Again, therefore, the task before us is one of bringing our minds to bear upon the things which are eternal and divine: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you" (Isaiah 26:3)."

 

- E.J. Newman

The Use of the Mind (1948)

[Resource Manager]

14 July 2017

 

"It is a first principle of the Gospel of Christ that God invites men to inherit a kingdom. They are urged to make this inheritance the first object of their lives:—“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Christ plainly told his apostles that their reward would be “to sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” and as Christ himself is King of Israel it follows that the apostles will be reigning with him as Princes when the Kingdom of Israel is restored. But this position of glory and honour will be shared by a great multitude besides, for in one of the visions of that future age seen by the apostle John in Patmos, all the redeemed were seen singing a song of praise to the Lamb, saying, “Thou art worthy ... for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests, and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). When this is an accomplished fact, the earth will be governed by a new order of rulers with Christ at their head. Present things will have passed away and all things have “become new”; in the language of the prophecy “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ” (Revelation 11:15)."

 

- Ernest Pitt

Kings and Priests (1917)

[Resource Manager]

15 July 2017

 

"... if the Truth has disarmed us—and "they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew 26:52)—it has also armed us; for “His truth shall be your shield and buckler ... and under His wings shall you trust” (Psalm 91:4). In this trust and confidence, rooted in the understanding of God’s Word, lies the strength of the saints. In that word many examples of God’s work on behalf of His children are recorded, and these all bring with them the assurance that salvation out of every trouble will come because the Faithful God has promised; and when it does it will be seen, as always, to be unaffected by human limitations, whether our own, or those of others upon whose help and service we have come to depend."

 

- W.H. Carter

Faithful Unto Death (1939)

[Resource Manager]

16 July 2017

 

"Blessed are the meek." The world has praise for the rich and powerful, the famous, the notorious. The Bible sings of the unsuccessful, those who have tried and done their best, those who miss success, not through lack of ability, but because they stop to help others on the way.

 

If we wish to gain success in the world, we usually have to push hard and assert ourselves, never minding the other man. The art of getting on involves skill in the art of self-advertisement. This is not Christian although it is admired of many. True humility is a recognition of one’s own unworthiness and unimportance."

 

- J. Blagburn

Sermon on the Mount (1942)

[Resource Manager]

17 July 2017

 

"According to wise King Solomon, who wrote by inspiration, to live according to the Spirit is to live according to the dictates of Divine Wisdom; and to walk in that way we must first be instructed accordingly, from the Word of God. If we choose to follow that path through life, like him, we shall eventually receive riches, honour and length of days. The difference is that Solomon received those blessings immediately, and they were only worldly ones. For the saints of God, the prospect before them is that of an eternal inheritance—­comprising the riches of God, the honour and glory of His Kingdom, and the lengthening of days to inherit the gift of everlasting life."

 

- Tecwyn Morgan

The Way of Wisdom (1999)

[Resource Manager]

18 July 2017

 

"All of Scripture is fulfilled in the person of our Lord. He is not only our High Priest, the perfect sacrifice, but he is everything else as well—all things become real in Him. How this is emphasised in the letter to the Hebrews: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). We have no righteousness of our own, neither can we by the style in which we live earn any righteousness—it is the gift of God. It is Jeremiah who said, “The Lord our righteousness”. We are exhorted constantly, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”. That is the exhortation we have as we build ... no, as we are fashioned to be part of that building, a dwelling place for God."

 

- Trevor Pritchard

God's Dwelling Place (1988)

[Resource Manager]

19 July 2017

 

"It is not always wise to measure the effectiveness of our preaching by the heads we can count when the effort is complete ... That we may in some cases never see, in this dispensation, the immediate fruits of our labours, is not the most important thing."

- A.D. Norris
Preface to Preaching the Word

[Resource Manager]

20 July 2017

 

"The Christian ideal of being "blameless and harmless" is one to which the followers of Christ must strive, for it cannot be attained by anything less than a prayerful, dedicated faith. The Apostle John, in his First Epistle, says that the commandments of God "are not grievous" and, with this thought in mind, we, as disciples of Christ, find assurance in the things sincerely believed among us as we prayerfully and earnestly seek to be "blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a perverse nation", among whom we should try to "shine as lights in the world."

 

- D.M. Elliott

Blameless and Harmless (1983)

[Resource Manager]

21 July 2017 

 

"Christ having done all this for us, all is well while we are under his care. But can anything separate us from his love? ... Death cannot, for Christ has the keys of death. The things pertaining to life cannot, for all power is given unto Christ. Angels would not, human rulers cannot, affect him. No power can. Time will not change it: Christ is alive now, and for evermore. Distance is no barrier: Christ is now in heaven, and at his resurrection he came out of the depths of the earth. And in an all-embracing phrase, “any other creature”, Paul excludes every possibility of something coming between us and Christ’s love. Nothing at all, Paul is triumphantly assured, can thwart this purpose of love."

 

- John Carter

Paul’s Letter to the Romans

[Resource Manager]

22 July 2017

 

"All of the changes which have taken place during the thousands of years of our existence, did not sap or weaken the vital inner strength which has preserved our people throughout all of the ravages of time ... An amazing vitamin is stored up in this nation which preserves its existence and independence, and gives it the strength to face any foreign influence which threatens its national being and moral quality."

 

- David Ben-Gurion

A Lecture - "Israel’s Uniqueness and Destiny" (1950) 

[Resource Manager]

23 July 2017 

 

"The word of God written in the life of Christ had, for its completion, to be written in his death. Not until the great cry, “It is finished”, were the last syllables being recorded within his heart. Thus the wholly inspired and infallible word became the life and death of God’s only Son.

 

But the word of God abideth for ever, and it spoke surely on the morning of the resurrection:

 

“My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about your neck. When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; and when you awake, it shall talk with you.” (Proverbs 6:20-22)

 

Thus, by the Spirit of his Father, the scriptures which told of his resurrection spoke in certain voice on that glorious morn, and he who had believed that “Your word is truth”, was fully the Way, the Truth and the Life."

 

- Harry Tennant

Christ our Righteousness (1992)

[Resource Manager]

24 July 2017

 

"Do we sufficiently realize the greatness of the Lord Jesus? When Paul tries to estimate the exceeding greatness of God’s power towards us who believe, he directs us to look at Jesus whom He raised from the dead and exalted "far above everything that is named". The apostle exhausts his language in trying to describe the greatness of Jesus Christ raised from the dead, and then he adds, "and He has given him to be the head over all things" to the church which is his body. Thus "highly exalted" by God, as we think of his Lordship let us remember that it betokens his power and his relationship to those who are in him."

 

- John Carter

Lord of Both Dead and Living (1952)

[Resource Manager]

25 July 2017

 

"... As the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus had to do flawlessly the things that pleased his Father—to the total exclusion of that self-indulgence which disfigured Adam, and had hitherto frustrated the efforts of even the best of Adam’s descendants to let the will of God guide every motion of their lives. He had to follow the intimate guidance he received from God’s revelation, await the time of his willing renunciation even of the wishes of his own flesh, and finish the work that God gave Him to do. He had to await the time when His knowledge of God’s will would tell him that the hour for this had come, and then set his face stedfastly to go to Jerusalem, to "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26)."

 

- Alfred Norris

Jesus Christ: The Living Word of God (2000)