TFTD - December 2012

[Resource Manager]

01 December 2012

 

"We want to be like that man Jesus. We would dare to hope that when at last our tiny characters are put into the projector of God’s Judgment, an image of Christ will be seen on the screen. Paul could say it clearly of himself. We say it in symbol as we take the emblems and ask the Lord to help us gradually to turn it into reality:

 

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20"

 

- L.W. Richardson

[Resource Manager]

02 December 2012

 

"The living ecclesia exists because God, the Father is the living head of His family, through Christ. The ecclesia abides because in His love He cares for it and forgives it its faults. The whole Household has the inspiring vision of a marriage feast with its Bridegroom, and a world at rest and at peace in the Kingdom, which it is to inherit with its Lord."

 

- John Marshall

The Living Ecclesia (1971)

[Resource Manager]

03 December 2012

 

"Astonishingly Jesus revealed that faithful saints would also share with him his kingly authority and power symbolised by his imperial crown (diad): "He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sit down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21; 19:12).

 

It should humble us, therefore, that this mark of the highest divine reward to all faithful saints should be promised for what is after all our very meagre response to the Father’s love for us, compared with the self-sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ for our sakes. May each of us faithfully and courageously bear his cross so that we may receive, at his hands, the crown of victory."

 

- John Marshall

The Promised Crown

[Resource Manager]

04 December 2012

 

"Being "saved" is a process that lasts a lifetime. Certainly the initial rescue, the beginning of the whole sequence of events which can lead to immortality, is found when we are converted and baptized. How often we have heard it said that at that time only in our walk would we be truly found without stained garments! Rising from the water, the convert is a new creation. If only we could stay free from sin from that moment on! How soon the old man of the flesh re-asserts himself, and how soon we need to start asking afresh for forgiveness!"

 

- David N. Wood

Being Saved (1962)

[Resource Manager]

05 December 2012

 

"Humility is an essential condition for faith, and so for life and for God’s dwelling with men. That is why God declares:

 

"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, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isaiah 57:15"

 

- L.G. Sargent

The Way of Approach (1969)

[Resource Manager]

06 December 2012

 

"Think of our Lord’s gracious words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” remembering also that he was the Lamb of God’s providing which bears away the sins of the world. At all times, let us have in our minds the overwhelming love of God for us sinners and let each one of us be more prepared to show that quality of self sacrificing love towards others:

 

"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:7-8)"

 

- Trevor A. Pritchard

The Quality of Forgiveness

[Resource Manager]

07 December 2012

 

"Because we have been called to spread the light of his Gospel we must see to it that we listen to him with the right attitude and faith. Only when our own lives are brightly illuminated shall we be able to let our light shine upon others. Every believer is called upon to "take heed how he hears" and to let his light shine in and through our life — in word and act."

 

- N. Geldenhuys

Right Listening

[Resource Manager]

08 December 2012

 

"The wise man says: "The prince that lacks understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hates covetousness shall prolong his days." (Proverbs 28:16). The writer to the Hebrews says: "Let your conduct be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5). We need to pray in the spirit and in the words of the Psalmist: "Incline my heart unto your testimonies, and not to covetousness." (Psalm 119:36)."

 

- S. Thomas

Shiloh - A Warning

[Resource Manager]

09 December 2012

 

"Our sharing together of the bread and wine is a sharing of the things associated with the Lord’s suffering and death. But it is more; it carries us forward in spirit to an eating and drinking anew in his Kingdom when in the grace of God we shall share fully in the things that pertain to his resurrection and his glory, for "we shall be like him" and in the strength of immortalised natures we shall "see him as he is"."

 

- N. Rodgers

“We Shall be Like Him” (1975)

[Resource Manager]

10 December 2012

 

"Let criticism motivate you."

- Jan Ruhe

 

"A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool."

Proverbs 17:10

[Resource Manager]

11 December 2012

 

"The Gospels record various appearances of Jesus after his resurrection to individual and assembled disciples, but there is no record of an appearance to his mother, perhaps because this was too private to reveal. Meditation cannot take us very far into her feelings at this point, because nobody else has been in such a situation in the world’s history. To see him alive and well again after the anguish of watching his tortured death—to see the very first man ever to be filled with immortal life—to see the ages-old purpose of God fulfilled in him as the firstfruits of all men—to know that he had killed death itself, the terrible enemy of all men—to know that all the suffering and struggling of all the years since she first conceived him were crowned with glorious and perfect victory that would spread all over the world and make immortal life possible to all men everywhere—these things beggar the imagination. But even the fringes of perception of what it must have been like, lift us out of our own mediocre lives and give us indescribably rich food for thought."

 

- Peggy Price

After the Resurrection (1969)

[Resource Manager]

12 December 2012

 

"Our rule of conduct should be to seek the true and faithful, the considerate and brotherly way of life, and to pursue it patiently without being distressed by the opinions of those who have no right to judge us, and certainly without any feeling of envy of those who seem to achieve temporal success through taking a course less carefully chosen."

 

- I. Collyer

Called to Be Saints

[Resource Manager]

13 December 2012

 

"It has often been remarked that the value of a book lies more in what it suggests than in what it actually states. This is another way of saying that the author who most benefits his readers is the one who best teaches them to think for themselves."

 

- Islip Collyer

Conviction and Conduct

[Resource Manager]

14 December 2012

 

"How many times have we pondered over how best to tell our friends of our beliefs, worried perhaps that we were going to be rejected or mocked, worried that our knowledge was insufficient to enable us to relate the message clearly.

 

Then let Paul tell us of his approach to preaching at Corinth:

 

"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Corinthians 2:45)"

 

- David Reed

A Word in Season

[Resource Manager]

15 December 2012

 

"It is this Son of God who gives such high evaluation to the Scriptures that, whatever our problems, we do well to remember when we walk with the Word of God we tread on holy ground. This will not prevent our searching, nor will it put blinkers on our eyes, but it will preserve us from rashness, and help us to show due respect to what God has "magnified above all his Name" (Psalm 138:2)."

 

- Alfred Norris

"It Is Written", and "I Say Unto You" (1968)

[Resource Manager]

16 December 2012

 

" ... the emblems of Christ’s death and resurrection remind us that the way into the holiest of all is made manifest, the grave has been unsealed, and shortly we shall behold that "door opened in heaven". For the way of the tree of life has been kept from the beginning, that he that overcometh may enter in and partake of its fruit. Let us resolve to open the one door which it is in our power to keep closed. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will eat with him, and he with me. To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne." (Revelation 3:20-21)"

 

- Alfred Nicholls

An Open Door (1970)

[Resource Manager]

17 December 2012

 

"The Bible teaching of the One Body, examined carefully, yields two points of view which ought to be balanced against one another. For one, the teaching reminds us of the blessings and privileges we should share in common with all members in that Body. But it also reminds us of the shared duties and responsibilities that go along with membership in that One Body."

 

- George Booker

[Resource Manager]

18 December 2012

 

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23).

 

"The Lord requires these lovely characteristics in all those who will share his Kingdom and rule for him. How splendidly different the world will be when these principles prevail from Christ’s throne in Jerusalem down to the remotest village in the furthest corner of the earth. With this wonderful and sure hope before us, let us meditate upon the Kingdom more often and more deeply and let us pray most earnestly that the Lord will say to each one of us:

 

"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34)."

 

- Joan P. Thomas

Some Thoughts on the Saints in the Kingdom (1979)

[Resource Manager]

19 December 2012

 

"Everyone must give account for his own actions. At that time each shipmaster will be less exercised about the cargo line of another than of the contents of his own hold. Transfer of trading results will be impossible; and each man must give his own report."

 

- John Carter

Life is Like a Trading Enterprise

[Resource Manager]

20 December 2012

 

"Paul loved his Lord deeply, courageously and devotedly. He not only taught the wonder of his sacrifice for sinners, but the unity, the harmony and the love that fills the life of one devoted to his service. There can be no greater triumph in life than that which Paul achieved and left as an example for others: "All are yours; And you are Christ's; and Christ is God's." (1 Corinthians 3:22-23)."

 

- John Marshall

The Apostle Paul

[Resource Manager]

21 December 2012

 

"We must see the world as it is without blinkers, and then look away—away unto Jesus, "the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). In him we see the perfect loyalty and the perfect love. His body broken is our Passover sacrifice; his blood shed is the seal of our covenant. In these we find the love which overcame the world. Let us see him in the emblems of his sacrifice which speak also of his Kingdom. Let us take them as "discerning the Lord’s body", and so find an answering love in which we too may overcome."

 

- L.G. Sargent

Covenant with God (1958)

[Resource Manager]

22 December 2012

 

"The letters to the seven churches of Asia, given in the Apocalypse, give many examples of success and failure on which modern believers may reflect. They were written that believers of the Twentieth Century should do so. "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches." Each of the letters contains messages that should be reflected upon. They furnish various yardsticks against which modern believers may measure themselves, but they need serious reflection. To read them and then to pass them by is useless. They were written for Christians of all eras. This first, and introductory article may well finish with a slight alteration of a message of Jesus "What I say unto you, I say unto all, REFLECT"."

 

- W.H. Boulton

Reflections (1956)

[Resource Manager]

23 December 2012

 

"The twin concepts of joy and suffering are deeply etched into the fabric of the early experience of the ecclesia. The height of joy can be experienced only in the context of suffering, and it enables the believer to bear suffering and not to be overcome by it (1 Thessalonians 3:7; 1 Peter 1:6; 4:13; 2 Corinthians 8:2; Philippians 2.17; Colossians 1:24). The joy which comes from the absolute acceptance of the gospel and its hope is—or should be—of such intensity that a believer is prepared to put up with what are by comparison minor trials.

 

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17)."

 

- George Booker

Waiting for His Son

[Resource Manager]

24 December 2012

 

"There is a form of sound words which is unique to each one of us, and it represents our response to the Truth. It is the picture we are painting of our life in the Truth, and it is presented within the frame of the "form of sound words" which the Truth is. Will my picture, will your picture be chosen to be hung in the Gallery of Eternity?"

 

- D. Bedson

The Form of Sound Words

[Resource Manager]

25 December 2012

 

"The fellowship of our Saviour’s suffering is a wonderful privilege open to all who become vitally responsive to His Father’s will. God needs and seeks men and women after His own heart, not having ends of their own to serve, not having errands of their own to run, but whose whole joy it is to yield to Him, embraced by His great redemptive purpose: "Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24)."

 

- Claud Lamb

Alive Unto God (1976)