Jump to content

TFTD - December 2017


Resource Manager
 Share

Recommended Posts

01 December 2017

 

"Courtesy teaches us self-control that may have far-reaching results for our personality. The undisciplined are almost necessarily discourteous. He who would be the servant of Christ, and the friend of the Son of Man, who "came not to be ministered unto but to minister" (Mark 10:45), must be courteous to all: if we are courteous to everyone at all times we are thereby serving our Master. And who serves Christ does to himself the best of service. "A gracious woman retaineth honour. A merciful man doeth good to his own soul" (Proverbs 11:16-17)."

 

- Claud Lamb

Be Courteous (1993)

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

02 December 2017

 

"Let us rejoice that our Lord Jesus was perfectly obedient to his last breath. Let us be truly grateful for the mercy of God in that He gave His only begotten Son for our forgiveness; and that Jesus, now triumphant and holy, sits at the right hand of God in heaven as our mediator and High Priest."

 

- Grahame A. Cooper

And I, if I be Lifted Up From the Earth (1992)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

03 December 2017  

 

“We have come to remember our Redeemer in the appointed way; and we remember that he was described as a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”. That links him up with words of the Psalmist: “Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” ... “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

 

- Islip Collyer

The Seed and the Harvest (1946)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

04 December 2017

 

"A man gives light to the extent that meekness, mercy, pureness of heart and sincerity are of his very being, and not awkward poses that he assumes when he remembers. The light is blocked to the extent that self gets in the way. Jesus is not calling for self-conscious efforts to “shine the light” but for self-effacing “letting it shine”; to let it shine because it is the disciples’ very nature to do so. Jesus himself is the ideal illustration. The light which must be allowed to shine is the glory of God."

 

- Norman Richards

Thoughts from the Mount (1965)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

06 December 2017

 

"We venerate the Scriptures because they contain what we describe as the Truth and some may think that this is the whole story. But as the character of God is compounded of compassionate virtues, as well as the Truth, so the Truth needs the fellowship of the household to make its revelation a divine reality. This is what Paul was implying when he defined for Timothy the status of the ecclesia as: “The household of God, which is the church (ecclesia) of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15)."

 

- John Marshall

Spiritual Men and Women (1970)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

07 December 2017

 

"For many today love and commandments, or love and authority of any sort, are a contradiction in terms. Love, they say, goes with freedom and not authority. The Scriptures teach us the folly of such an attitude. “Happy are your men, and happy are these your servants”, said the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. To be in the service of a wise king, to stand continually before him and hear his wisdom, was a privilege and a source of happiness. Freedom would not have made those servants happy. And again Solomon becomes a type of the Lord Jesus our king: we too are happy to serve him in love, to stand continually before him and hear his wisdom. And in these circumstances it is a privilege and not a burden to be a servant. But in fact Christ has promoted us to a higher status: “Henceforth I call you not servants ... but I have called you friends” (John 15:15)."

 

- John Morris

Beloved of God (1973)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

08 December 2017

 

"... the death which he dies on account of human sin is itself his own righteous act, perfecting a righteous life; righteous not only in the negative sense that it transgressed no law, but because it positively and actively fulfilled the will of God. The whole life—including its end in death—was a “delight” in the will of God, and was therefore a “delight” to God. And thus the bonds of death were broken in the very act of dying, for “it was not possible that he should be holden” by a death which he died to fulfil the will of God. Resurrection followed as a sequel, for that God should raise him from the dead was a moral necessity of God’s own nature. Therefore that hour of darkness when the power of death seemed to have him in its grip was the very point where the power of death was conquered, the serpent was bruised in the head; and in his resurrection triumph he led that power captive."

 

- L.G. Sargent   

The Heart of the Apocalypse (1972)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

09 December 2017

 

“The Christian should be a person who is kind and generous to his fellowsa man of compassion, one to whom men and women seek in their troubles; to whom they look for an example; from whom they may expect to get a kind reaction and a sympathetic understanding. Yet he is not “of the world”; his outlook and ambitions are centred round the Word of God and the purpose of God; his separation is a positive rather than a negative; as Paul described himself in Romans 1:1: “separated unto the Gospel of God.”

 

- L.W. Richardson

The Importance of Right Attitudes (1970)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 December 2017  

 

"Wisdom comes not from the knowledge gathered by blind men stumbling about until they fall over the laws of nature; it cannot be harvested in the field, dredged from the sea, dug from the mine, gathered from the tops of the mountains or brought back at the cost of trillions of dollars from the barren moon. The greatest evil men do is to persuade themselves and their fellows that there is no God. To recognise the visible hand of God is to begin to walk the way of understanding and be led into that wisdom which opens the eyes so that, as we pass by and behold, we see not a cold impersonal “nature”, but a warm, responsible, inviting God."

 

- Leslie Johnson

As I Passed by and Beheld ... (1973)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 December 2017

 

"Every important doctrine can be placed under one of two headings: as affecting our attitude towards God, or towards man. It is only reasonable that this should be the case, since the foundation of all morality is of the same twofold character. The Lord Jesus said that all the Law and the Prophets depended upon the two fundamental precepts of the law of love: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart", "You shall love your neighbour as yourself". All sound doctrine is simply elaboration of these principles."

 

- Islip Collyer

Conviction and Conduct
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 December 2017

 

"Without the Word we cannot know God or His purpose; through the Word we know that He has created and sustains the world, and will accomplish His end; His command is the basis of all the visible world, and the only foundation for an abiding life. If we are to maintain our lives before Him, it can only be through that living faith which “sees Him who is invisible”. Nothing else can provide the standard by which to judge our daily walk before Him."

 

- L.G. Sargent

Strength Against Temptation (1973)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 December 2017

 

"People need from us nothing so much as good cheer and encouragement. Life is hard for most, and needs inspiration.

 

The best friendship is that which inspires us to do better, to do our best.

 

It is worth while to do even the smallest kindnesses as we go along the way. Nothing is lost. No dewdrop perishes, but, sinking into the flower, makes it sweeter.

 

Strength and beauty combine in the making of the truest manliness.

 

Two good rules for life are: Never be discouraged; never be a discourager."

 

- J.R. Miller

Morning Thoughts (1915)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 December 2017

 

"If we go through this beautiful world with no eye for beauty, if we have no ear for beautiful sounds, and no mind for beautiful thoughts, and no worship for what is worshipful, then we are dead while we live. What is there worthy to endure in such a temple? It cannot be a temple of the God who has made everything beautiful in its time, and who asks for the beauty of holiness. Holiness is beauty because it is the doing of God’s will and "He that does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17)."

 

- C.A. Ladson

God’s Dwelling Place (1932)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 December 2017

 

"... Literal salt cannot help that which is already gone far in decay, in like manner those who are the salt of the earth cannot hope to regenerate the world as a whole, the greater part of it being beyond their efforts, but they can, and indeed must, so act that they may thereby arrest some and direct them away from those paths which are leading to eternal oblivion. Hence that saying of Jesus: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

 

As natural salt is now essential to the present life, so is the spiritual salt essential for the life that is to come, without it it is impossible to receive that life which Jesus describes as being more abundant (John 10)."

 

- H. Hunt

The Significance of Salt (1934)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 December 2017

 


"Only God knows whether we love Him with all our heart, and only He can tell how much of our heart is given to Him. Only God can tell whether we love our neighbour as ourselves, or whether the appearance of concern for him is prompted by a lesser motive. Only He can, without failure, see beneath our speaking with the tongues of men and of angels, our giving of our bodies to be burned, our bestowing of all our goods to feed the poor—did we indeed approach this level even of outward perfection—and only He can decide whether we deserve all to be assessed as “nothing” or to receive His own love, to answer ours (as it provoked it) and call it forth again."

 


- A.D. Norris

The Fool Hath Said: There is No God (1946)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 December 2017
 
"The Bible speaks of “ends” with divine wisdom and beauty. Solomon says, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof; and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” (Ecclesiastes 7:8). And in the first verse of the same chapter he says, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” And if we are inclined to think this last “a hard saying,” we have only to look at our Lord Jesus Christ. How good a Name is his; and how much better for him “the day of death” than the day of his birth! Consider the manger at Bethlehem, and the whole generation of suffering and endurance that lay before the royal Babe thus humbly introduced into “this present evil world.” And then consider the unspeakable sweetness of the resurrection-morning that so soon succeeded “the day of death.” “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is Peace” (Psalm 37:37-38). Jesus said, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 1:8) ..."
 
- John Carter
Sunday Morning (1937)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 December 2017  

 

"We know there is none other God but one: and "of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever and ever" (Romans 11:36). He is the source of all things; He is the directing and sustaining purpose within all things; He is the object in which all things will find their end. He is the Father: pre-eminently the Father of the only-begotten Son; but through that Son He also becomes our Father."

 

- L.G. Sargent

Power Perfected in Weakness (1940)    
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 December 2017

 

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it: because it will surely come, it will not tarry" (Habakkuk 2:3)

 

"... take 'a look round the troubled world' and we see more than our brethren and sisters of the last generation saw, because we have experienced more. But with them we rejoice in the certainty of the remedy. Though it tarry, we will wait for it."

 

- F.W. Turner

Meditations (1947)    
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 December 2017

 

"The general good effects of Christianity are almost universally acknowledged. No other teaching and practice has so moved men and women to deeds of love and compassion, to the helping of the needy and unfortunate, and the rescuing from the power of sin. C.H. Spurgeon, quoting the words, "by their fruits ye shall know them," used to remind the secularists that in the case of Christianity these fruits found practical expression in hospitals, orphanages, and many other benevolent organizations for dealing with the many ills which flesh is heir to. There is, however, a higher and more exacting objective in Christianity than this; God’s desire is for a people of His own, a family, a household, consisting of men and women who gladly surrender their will to His and make this their chief joy."

 

- J.W. Dorricott

The Acts of the Apostles (1943)     

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 December 2017

 

"The statement that the earliest years are the all-important years is true of the moulding of disposition and the formation of character, rather than of the intellectual development. While the infant is still in the cradle, the foundations of his character are being laid and a multitude of influences are at work. It is for parents to see that these influences should be as far as possible favourable. And, since at this stage and throughout the years of childhood these influences come almost exclusively by way of personal contact, the main thing is to secure that the persons in contact with the child are persons of happy constitution and admirable character. For the processes of character formation, though they are intimately subtle, may without serious error be regarded as in the main, in the early stages at least, a process of absorption from surrounding persons."

 

- William McDougall

Character and the Conduct of Life (1927)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 December 2017

 

"... Men who walk close to the Lord, as did the disciples, sometimes reject the cross in the way they least think possible. Peter rejected the cross at Ceasarea Philippi when he rebuked the Lord: “Be it far from thee, this shall not be unto thee.” James and John rejected the cross in Samaria, when they asked if they might call down fire from heaven to consume men. They had to learn that the cross means to suffer power, not exercise it; to yield and not to rule; to give unstintingly and unsparingly, when it is easier to take."

 

- Graham Smith

Take up the Cross (1968)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 December 2017

 

"The supreme triumph of the Christian Gospel is that it springs from an actual life lived in history, lived out in time, lived triumphantly in the pangs and pains of our humanity; that it speaks of the redemption of the body, the glorifying of the earth and the enriching of human experience. And because it was lived in human life, its power can penetrate into the dull clay of our mortality, into the humdrum tasks and mundane world of our petty existence and make it radiant and rich, because it was here that God acted supremely."

 

- S. Harris

What It Means to be a Christian (1969)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 December 2017  

 

"At the beginning, what have we but degeneration and a hope of regeneration? There were originally a Paradise, with our first parents therein; Adam, “who was a figure of him that was to come”; Eve, who was a figure of his bride. Sin entersshame, fear, disease and death, and expulsion from Eden follows. Yet there is hope. Cursing the serpent, the Lord God said that the “Seed of the Woman” whom He would raise up should bruise the serpent’s head, but that he, in that process, should bruise the Deliverer’s heel. What was this but a promise of the regeneration that figures in Isaiah’s prophecy, and which is visible in the everlasting priesthood of Melchizedek, spoken of in Hebrews?"

 

- C.C. Walker

Sunday Morning (1924)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 December 2017

 

"... the resurrection of Christ links together the reality of Creation, the truth of the fall of man, the hope of resurrection for believers, and the certainty of the Kingdom of God. The more fully its implications are explored the more far-reaching they are seen to be, and the more evidently the resurrection is a touchstone for all thinking and belief."

 

- L.G. Sargent

The Risen Lord (1966)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...