TFTD - July 2013

[Resource Manager]

01 July 2013

"There is no state of mind so excellent as that of thankfulness to God. It is not he who prays most or fasts most who is the greatest saint in the world. It is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice. But it is he who is always thankful to God, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness, and has a heart always ready to praise God for it."

- William Law
In Everything Give Thanks

[Resource Manager]

02 July 2013

"If we are to be part of the multitudinous divine manifestation when it is complete, we must demonstrate our unity with it now. On account of faith, by participation in Christ’s sacrifice, by baptism, we are leagued with God, and spiritually and potentially parts of the body of Christ. That state must be made a deep spiritual reality. Our hearts, the focus of our whole being, must be buried in Christ in greater and ever greater degree. We must continually more and more surely be knit to the Head "by joints and bands." All must be in Christ, and Christ dwelling in all by faith."

- L.G. Sargent
One Body Fitly Joined

[Resource Manager]

03 July 2013

"The way to ... glorious consummation is through the exercise of godly self-control. Let it be a guiding spirit in our lives: let us weigh every action that comes before us by that spirit. Let us in the little ways of life be thus exercised, and then when the greater trials, come, we will not be found lacking. Let us have the spirit of those who stood before the flames of the furnace, and let us say, as Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:" (Job 13:15) We know that those who trust in the Lord will not be disappointed, and that the day comes when all those who have sacrificed little things, which appear great to us in this day of deprivation and weakness, will reap the rich things of the Spirit. They will drink of the river of God’s pleasures: they will have in his presence "fulness of joy for evermore." They will be among those to whom the word comes, "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of your lord." (Matthew 25:34, 23)

- C.A. Ladson
Self Control (1921)

[Resource Manager]

04 July 2013

"It is the Apostle Paul who gives this sound advice in Hebrews 13:5, "Be content with such things as you have", coupling with it the equally good advice about refraining from covetousness. While, however, we all appreciate (or do we?) the advice he gives, have we noticed not only the reason why he thus advises, but also the circumstances associated therewith? Paul goes on to say, "For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you"; or, as we are told it can be rendered still more forcibly, "I will never, no, never leave you nor forsake you".

- James Carter
Be Content (1956) 

[Resource Manager]

05 July 2013

"Faith without works is dead. Our lay organization of active members gives a structure in which no one need die for lack of works. We haven’t a sit-in-the-pew-on-Sunday religion. We have an active relationship with an abundantly kind and merciful God. He wants to know - and wants us to know - how much we really appreciate and understand His gracious offer of forgiveness and eternal life. A developing, active faith answers the question."

- David Levin
Legalism and Faith

[Resource Manager]

06 July 2013

"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)

[Resource Manager]

07 July 2013

"If we trifle with His word, or allow other things to have a higher place in our affections, we have no ground for peace; but if we magnify His word and give ourselves to the contemplation of it, we may indulge a peace that passeth understanding."

- Robert Roberts

[Resource Manager]

08 July 2013

"While we look at those eternal things, unseen, but which have to do with the great purpose of God, the inner man is renewed day by day; there is a very helpful thought in this idea, that these eternal things are able to guide us into the kingdom of God, and renew the inner man day by day. While they are not seen as outward objects around us are seen, they are always visible to the eye of faith. We are not dependent upon the meetings, or even the reading of the word of God, entirely; for when we are away from the actual book itself, we can reflect upon it. Even when we have not the opportunity to read a chapter from the Word, we can have it in our minds, and in that way be always associated with the eternal things unseen; on the principle laid down by the apostle, "doing all to the glory of God," "as unto the Lord, and not unto men," and thus develop the inner man day by day."

- Islip Collyer (1909)

[Resource Manager]

09 July 2013

"We believe that our Lord was tempted like us and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and that we may obtain forgiveness in him and grace to help in time of need. This is the faith so pleasing to God, the faith that will be counted to us for righteousness. This is the faith that enables us to go quietly forward, doing our tasks with a conscious feeling of needing and seeking His help, not waiting until we begin to sink below the waves before pleading His grace."

- Roy Styles
God's Discipline (1961)

[Resource Manager]

10 July 2013

"Joy is included by Paul among the fruit of the Spirit because, like love, it is a response to the action of God so wonderfully shown in and through His Son: "We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement" (Romans 5:11).

Joy is for us all. It is a product of faith, the word heard and kept "the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jeremiah 15:16). As love makes possible reverence for life, so joy gives it meaning, and both affect it totally."

- Claud Lamb
Fruit of the Spirit (1980) 

[Resource Manager]

11 July 2013

"By prayer we pass from our own littleness into the greatness of God, and there find peace with the comforting assurance that "as our days, so shall our strength be". Through the medium of prayer we are "complete in Him", and "find rest for our souls". By prayer, we can meet all the difficulties of life with the confidence that while "with men there is an arm of flesh, with us there is the living God, to help us and to fight our battles". Can we not, then, "cast our burden on the Lord", with the assurance that He will sustain us?

“They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever” (Psalm 125:12).

- Hubert W. Craddock
Awareness of God (1940)

[Resource Manager]

12 July 2013

"None of us is self-sufficient; just as we are called upon to lean upon the Lord, so also we are commanded to bear one another’s burdens. We are to rejoice with those who are joyful, and to sorrow with those who are sad; we are to help to bind up the broken heart and to comfort those who mourn; above all things we are to exhort one another daily."

- G.H. Oulton
The Fellowship of the Saints (1972)

[Resource Manager]

13 July 2013

"That which is good, everyone desires to obtain quickly. The second appearing of the Lord from heaven involves the coming of every good that it is possible for the heart of man to conceive, and good that it is not possible for the heart of man to conceive. Therefore those who are "looking for him" and "love his appearing," join naturally in the prayer of John, "Lord Jesus, come quickly!"

- Robert Roberts (1878)

[Resource Manager]

14 July 2013 

"We are told to seek peace, and pursue it, but we may also find it and possess it, and hold and guard it proof against all that would ruffle it. We must maintain this inward peace. One who is not at peace with God, cannot be at peace with himself in any but a false and delusive peace like the sleep of Jonah. Let us keep the peace unbroken, helped by that example that is before us in our remembrance of Christ this morning, whose blood was poured out and his body broken, but not his trust in God that gave him peace in the storm of suffering that swept over him. Let us know now, and cleave to the things that belong unto our Peace."

- C.A. Ladson
Sunday Morning (1939)

[Resource Manager]

15 July 2013

"God is not only Alpha, the beginning, but also Omega, the end (Revelation 21:6). He is actively guiding all things to the end which He has appointed, the filling of the earth with His glory. For this Jesus taught his disciples to pray in the words of the Lord's prayer: "Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:9-10)." 

- E.J. Newman
God Whom We Worship

[Resource Manager]

16 July 2013

"How many have ceased to pray, either from a sense of disappointment, or from a feeling of hypocrisy? How many find their prayer-life at a very low ebb, and know not what to do to put it right? Let us make no mistake; prayer is vital in the Christian life. Without it having its proper place we cannot grow in grace and become well-pleasing to God. Let those then who are in such a case find some quiet place, kneel to Him there, and pour out their soul to Him; tell Him their difficulties in relation to prayer, and ask for His help; such a request will not be made in vain. He will receive the seeker; He will understand him; He will reveal the pathway of prayer."

- W.G. Higginson
Prayer as a Spiritual Experience (1951)
 

[Resource Manager]

17 July 2013

"The individual touch, so appealing, so comforting, is everywhere present. From Psalm 37 we may cull six restful expressions. "Fret not"; that is, do not agitate yourself unduly concerning the present distress or things of little value. "Trust in the Lord"; place your confidence in One Who is all powerful and wise. "Delight thyself in the Lord"; this takes one to great heights, satisfying the soul in its inmost yearnings. "Commit thy way to the Lord"; never fear, having confidence that God will direct you the better way. "Rest in the Lord"; how solacing indeed is this thought! "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for the Lord makest me dwell in safety." "Wait on the Lord"; having a mind attentive to the call of duty, ready to be directed whenever God would have us to work and serve."

- A.E. Thorneloe
The Psalm of Life

[Resource Manager]

18 July 2013

"Can we realize how rich we are in the possibilities of everlasting glory: how rich now in being heirs of this great grace; how rich as being the recipients of the mercy of God in the forgiveness of sins? We are nigh to the Father, through Christ Jesus. The Lord is the example before us, says the Apostle, of what we ought to do."

- John Carter
The Example of the Prophets (1942)

[Resource Manager]

19 July 2013

"How Marvellously Accessible was Christ to faithful and humble approach for instruction or relief. Himself pressed beyond measure, persecuted and going forward to death, "he went about doing good," and with his last breath prayed for his enemies. Is he not fit to reign over the earth for God? How do we measure up by comparison with him?"

- Unknown
From The Christadelphian (1906)

[Resource Manager]

20 July 2013

"A friend has been visiting Westminster Abbey and was struck with the words on a tablet commemorating a statesman of England who died a few years ago. It read: Unmoved, unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal, Nor number, nor example, with him wrought To swerve from truth or change his constant mind. That is a good testimonial to a man, and sets a standard worth striving after for all of us."

- John Carter
A Good Record (1939)

[Resource Manager]

21 July 2013

"If we keep our eyes upon the goal, if we fix our affections upon Christ, then, although we fail, we shall never despair. God wants our failures to engender in us the spirit of humility, the knowledge that of ourselves we are weak, but that in Christ we are strong. God desires that we should be prompted by humility to confess our sins, that he might look upon us through the merits of Jesus."

- W.J. Owen
The Good Shepherd (1926)

[Resource Manager]

22 July 2013

"We are called upon to learn, and submit to, the same lesson. Those things in our lives which may appear to hinder our service, those tasks from which we most shrink, may be the very circumstances best fitted to bring us to final perfection. Let us determine that whatever comes our way, we will profit thereby. We will not hesitate to seek Divine help and guidance: we will acknowledge Him in all our ways in order that He may direct our paths. We will confess to Him our weakness and our utter inadequacy; and pray for a strength altogether greater than our own. And if we ask in faith, our prayers will be heard, and God’s strength will be made perfect in our weakness."

- Norman Rodgers
My Strength Is Made Perfect in Weakness (1955)

[Resource Manager]

23 July 2013 

"The Christianity of the New Testament did not arise out of a brave endeavour of men to lead a better life, but out of the entry into their lives of Jesus Christ. Nor is there any other way to the recovery of what they had than that of a rediscovery of him."

- Times Saturday Article (1957)

[Resource Manager]

24 July 2013   

"It is always difficult to resist fashions, whether in clothes or theology, and when we think we are quite unmoved by the stream, it often only means that we are lagging a little way behind."

- Islip Collyer
Conviction and Conduct

[Resource Manager]

25 July 2013

"As Jesus walked the roads of Israel he spoke of the Kingdom of God. As he opened the eyes of the blind and healed those who were infirmed, he proclaimed the Kingdom of God. When he brought loved ones back to life he was preaching the Kingdom of God. Each step he took brought him closer to his final destiny and every day he taught the people about the good news of the Kingdom of God. His message was strong and direct: he was there to bring about this Kingdom."

- Don Darley
Living by the Kingdom Laws (1990)