TFTD - April 2013

[Resource Manager]

01 April 2013

"Doctrine is neither abstract nor arid. It should be real, it should be manifested in the life of the believer. So it is that to the undiscerning James appeared to contradict Paul when he stressed the need for works. Yes, he said in effect, you are justified in the sight of God by faith, initially by acceptance of doctrine. But that in itself is insufficient. Faith must be manifested and expressed by a manner of life. Faith is the foundation; the works of life are the building bricks. They will either contribute to the body of Christ in its completion, or they will help develop a structure of clay and stubble."

- Gareth Davies
The Teaching of the Apostles about Doctrine (1976)

[Resource Manager]

02 April 2013

"We are all striving towards the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. As individuals we have many and divers gifts, but our one aim should be to use those gifts to the end that the whole body may be fitly compacted together by that which every joint supplieth. That unity can only be supplied by the love which actuates us in the performance of our several parts. let us therefore keep in mind at all times the words of John:

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” (1 John 4:7)"

- E.J.N.
Diversity of Gifts (1945)

[Resource Manager]

03 April 2013

"These epistles with their wonderful promises were not sent to Kings and Counsellors, nor to the great and mighty of the earth who have no ear for them, but to the brethren and sisters of the Lord Jesus, members of the seven ecclesias which represent the whole ecclesia of God who have an ear for the Truth. It is required of us not only to hear these things but to do them. Their importance cannot be overemphasised. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

- George T. Fryer
The Messages to the Churches (1930)

[Resource Manager]

04 April 2013

"Here is our defence -­ here is our guide ­- the holy scriptures, by which we have been called out of the surrounding darkness to God’s kingdom and glory; and gathered together in the light of which we remember our Lord Jesus Christ, who has "overcome," and who promises a throne to all those who overcome in him."

- C.C. Walker (1929)

[Resource Manager]

05 April 2013

"Our duty ... is plain. It is to engage in loving and devoted service to Christ. Nothing else really matters. By nothing else can we hope to merit the approval of the Lord when he comes."

- E.W. Newman (1932)

[Resource Manager]

06 April 2013

"The pure of heart do not take delight in vanity. The vanity of life is part of the world and feeds upon the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. The children of God are not of the world: their hopes, desires and pleasures are on a higher plane; they are centred in Christ, who was not of the world. He came not to save the world but to take out of the nations a people for God’s name."

- W. Rothwell
Seeking the Face of God (1939)

[Resource Manager]

07 April 2013

"Our service to Jesus must be modelled on his service to his Father: not the mechanical soulless obedience, which so often characterized fixed and ceremonial offerings, but the spontaneous and gladsome doing of His will, which springs from the knowledge that, if we are the bondservants of the Lord, we are so from choice, since his word has entered our ears and hearts, revealing to us the most excellent way of life and love. To serve him is perfect freedom.

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:57)"

- F.E. Mitchell
Jesus, The Lord (1954)  

[Resource Manager]

08 April 2013

"We show our gratitude to God and to Jesus by making their love to us the pattern of our love to one another. This is the quality which will stamp us as the people of God and open His Kingdom to us. Is this Divine love seen in my life, in your life, in the life of our ecclesia and of the world-wide brotherhood?"

- W.L. Bedwell
A Feeling of Gratitude (1976)

[Resource Manager]

09 April 2013

"The Lord ... calls us to an active, growing, living faith in which we are constantly open and ready to learn. Only thus can Christ be formed in us. And it is in this opening of our minds and in allowing his mighty works to be done and seen in us that we render to him and to the Father that honour which is his due. He is now not just the carpenter of Nazareth but Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Saviour of the world."

- Paul Wasson
Is not This the Carpenter? (1986)

[Resource Manager]

10 April 2013

"Life immortal, health unfailing, strength inexhaustible, beauty unfading, riches inestimable, honour overwhelming, glory incorruptible, delight ineffable, society most glorious, and joy everlasting, are but items in the eternal weight of glory being worked out for us by our light affliction, which is but for a moment."

- Robert Roberts

[Resource Manager]

11 April 2013

"We must remember that we also are sinful wayward sheep and very prone to stray from the paths of righteousness. "All we like sheep have gone astray" (Isaiah 53:6). Let us remember that Jesus Christ is our "righteousness" and that we should follow him, trusting him to lead us into good pastures, and being fed by him with the true nourishment which comes from the Word of God. If we earnestly and sincerely strive to follow the example of our Good Shepherd, then we shall be members of the Lord’s flock, of the true Israel, when Jesus returns to gather them into the Kingdom of his Father.

“Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the coastlands afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.” (Jeremiah 31:10)."

- John Shelmerdine
Sheep and Shepherds (1976)

[Resource Manager]

12 April 2013

"God is the source and origin of love–His very nature is love–and the evidence is in the fact that He loved us when we were unlovable, and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10). Since love is God’s supreme characteristic, those who are God’s must needs reflect it to one another."

- L.G. Sargent
Faith and Love (1954)

[Resource Manager]

13 April 2013

"Christ asks for oneness of mind among all who profess his name. Let us not show indifference to this divine requirement. Speaking in the name of his Master, Paul puts the matter very plainly–"Be of one mind" (2 Corinthians 13:11), "All speak the same thing" (1 Corinthians 1:11), "With one mind and one mouth glorify God" (Romans 15:6). The apostle adds, in another place, the subject to which the required oneness refers–"The faith of the gospel," "Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel" (Philippians 1:27)."

- Meditations (1909)

[Resource Manager]

14 April 2013

"When God promised the new covenant He promised with it the complete blotting out of their sins. What a contrast to Israel’s offerings under the old covenant with the "remembrance of sins every year." For such a result a perfect offering must have been made. "Where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:18)."

- John Carter
Letter to the Hebrews

[Resource Manager]

15 April 2013

"The application of the plumb-line of God in holding fast the faithful word is Paul’s antidote for the spirit of vain contention. Sound doctrine and pure practice will stop the mouths of the gainsayers and build up the faithful. They go hand in hand and help each other as Jesus said, "If any man will do God’s will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Personal education in the Word, personal experience of its effects, are what Paul insists upon for Titus, and he spoke God’s words out of the depths of his own experience."

- C.A. Ladson
The Plumb-Line of God (1934)

[Resource Manager]

16 April 2013

"Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?" (Psalm 24:3) The answer given directs our attention to what our attitude should be as we also approach: "He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." (Psalm 24:4-5)"

- Philip Hinde
The Table of the Lord (1978)

[Resource Manager]

17 April 2013

"It is one thing to believe in the principle of love, but to be real it needs a loving relationship with others. That is why the ecclesia is called a family and a commonwealth. The Apostle Paul teaches us that if one member suffers, the tremor is felt through all the members; if one member rejoices, the ripple spreads to every heart (1 Corinthians 12:26). So it is evident that the individual relationship which a disciple has with God is not just for himself, alone. It has also to do with that individual disciple fitting into the corporate body of believers."

- Dennis Gillett
The Genius of Discipleship

[Resource Manager]

18 April 2013

"We ... behold him as the one whom his Father gave to be the light of the world, the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person. We are able to see in him the unfading and eternal glory of the Son whom God has appointed heir of all things; the Son who, in securing our redemption by his sacrifice and in guaranteeing eternal life by his resurrection, demonstrates personally and completely that God’s grace is sufficient for each one of us; that His strength is made perfect in our weakness."

- Alan Watkins
My Grace is Sufficient for Thee (2000)

[Resource Manager]

19 April 2013

"Sincerity implies a continuous harmony between our convictions and our words and deeds. Convictions are not adaptable to circumstances, else they are no longer convictions. We must not be play-actors, for that is hypocrisy; we must not conceal truth in a polite guise, for that is insincerity."

- W.A. McLennan
A Harmony of Thought and Deed

[Resource Manager]

20 April 2013

 

"The natural mind is quickly discouraged with the hardness of the way, but it is equally quick to confidence when our path is through pleasant fields. We need to resist both the despair and the confidence of the natural heart and to walk with Him. We will find His peace as we consciously seek His guidance."

 

- Roy Styles

God’s Discipline (1961)

[Resource Manager]

21 April 2013

"The unity of the Old and New Testaments is one of the strong evidences of the truth of the claims that the writers were moved by divine inspiration. That unity is seen, not only in the teaching on great themes, but in countless hidden harmonies. It is as if one mind was behind the whole. This indeed is the fact, although fifteen hundred years separated the earliest and latest contributions to the canon of Scripture."

- John Carter
Delight in God's Law  

[Resource Manager]

22 April 2013

"We are to walk:

• in newness of life
• by faith
• worthy of our calling
• in love
• as children of light
• honestly
• in truth
• after his commandments

... or, to sum up all those requirements, we should "walk in the Spirit"."

- Tecwyn Morgan
Walking in the Spirit (1987)

[Resource Manager]

23 April 2013

"For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame." (Hebrews 12:2)

"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied." (Isaiah 53:11)

"He has been raised from the dead as an assurance to all men that the day will come when the world shall be ruled in righteousness."

- F.V. Morgan
The Man Born Blind (1944)

[Resource Manager]

24 April 2013

"Above all things, let simplicity and sincerity, with mutual love, joy and humility, be laid by every means as a sort of foundation among the brotherhood, that we may not, by setting up ourselves above others, and by murmuring, prove unprofitable labourers."

- Simplicity, Sincerity and Humility (1935)

[Resource Manager]

25 April 2013

"The course of our ship through the turbulent waters of life is ever under the watchful eye and care of the Captain of our Salvation; a captain who has experienced life’s difficulties, one who has been tempered and matured by being a man of sorrows and acquainted with a grief we shall never know. This great Commander suffered the buffetings of life’s bitter tempests: as a result he can appreciate and understand our problems much more than our fellows, and he does not condemn our failures, but is prepared to help pilot our lives to the haven of rest. Not only so, but he is glad to accept us as part of his crew so that we can sail and labour under his direction.

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it befitted him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare your name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto you." (Hebrews 2:9-12)."

- Fred J. Cummins
The Ship (1968)