TFTD - September 2013

[Resource Manager]

01 September 2013

"The words of Jesus contain the life, and they must be assimilated day by day. Today’s manna will not do for tomorrow; we must seek fresh supplies daily. The daily reading and study of God’s word is the only way to partake of the hidden manna in Christ Jesus. Our life is hid with Christ in God. Of ourselves we are dead. But the continual partaking of the hidden life in Christ by association through the word will ensure that when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory. He will appear as dew upon the herb, which when the morning sunlight arises, will disclose that hidden manna, that we may eat of it, and live for ever."

- H. Lander
The Hidden Manna (1949)

[Resource Manager]

02 September 2013

"Paul prays that God will "Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working" . . . or, as the margin has it, "doing"; it repeats the word "do," God working to do His will, doing in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight. This follows, if Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep has been raised from the dead. God is going to gather in one His flock and He has prepared Christ for the work that he did. So God will carry on His work in us, says the apostle, helping us to perform His will that we, too, may be well-pleasing to Him, that we may meet the risen Lord in the day of his coming."

- John Carter
The Resurrection of Christ (1930)

[Resource Manager]

03 September 2013

"Stay close, whether the way be smooth or rough. He may well lead us into paths we would have avoided, left to our own wisdom. It is so easy to ask God to direct our paths, meaning all the time those paths we want to take!"

"Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." Proverbs 3:6

- Roy Waddoup
The Way of the Saints (1980)

[Resource Manager]

04 September 2013

"We have every reason to be confident in the word of promise. That word that "was made flesh" is the greatest expression of God’s faithfulness to Israel, and to us. Their salvation and ours is assured by his resurrection and exaltation to God’s right hand in the heavens."

- J.E. Jarvis
Remembrance (1933)

[Resource Manager]

05 September 2013

The Gardener

"Our hearts are gardens where the great Gardener wants to plant flowers. It is our part to submit these gardens to His care and root out all the weeds that tend to choke the flowers. To make and keep the soil rich and fertile, that in the sunshine of His love, and with the refreshing water of His word, the seeds may grow and thrive, and the gardens be beautiful."

- Helen B. Webster
The Christadelphian Magazine (1935)

[Resource Manager]

06 September 2013

"The divine fellowship which stands in contrast to the present world and is the basis of the future world has its origin in Christ who came in the flesh. That is not an abstract statement, but a living fact; in him the light and life of the Father are made manifest so that men may be brought into them and in them have eternal fellowship with God, who is love."

- L.G. Sargent
Faith and Love in John’s Epistle (1954)

[Resource Manager]

07 September 2013

"These four qualities, love, faith, humility, and service, are to be expected in two of God’s greatest servants. But we are not to take them for granted, and in consequence neglect them. We must examine ourselves to find them, and foster them, if they are absent. At times we seek comfort by noting the human failings of great Biblical characters. To emulate their virtues is of greater benefit."

- Peter Cox
Moses and Paul (1963)

[Resource Manager]

08 September 2013

"The Christ-body, like the human body, is a frame well knit together, consisting of various parts, each contributing its share in varying ways to the maintenance of the body. The whole being in vital contact with the Head, harmonious working is ensured; the co-operation of all resulting in all being built up in love."

- J. Carter
The Letter of the Ephesians

[Resource Manager]

09 September 2013

"Everything in the present state which is conducive to that desired end is surely a matter for rejoicing, and everything can be used and turned to that purpose, seeing that we are on the King’s Highway, and nothing passes on that road that He does not notice and provide for. It is not always light on the road, nor always smooth underfoot, and there are sharp turns and steep hills and unexpected obstacles; but there is beauty along the way, and help always at hand, and the road leads ever up and on, so that if we do not stray out of it, it will lead us eventually to the Promised Land of joy everlasting."

- Edith Ladson
Rejoicing Always (1938)

[Resource Manager]

10 September 2013

"There is no delay: there can be no delay in God’s purpose. We may think the time is ripe and fret ourselves if our calculations and expectations are not immediately realised. But this is not wise. Remember the Master’s warning: "Be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes." (Matthew 24:44)"

- F.W. Turner
Meditations (1938)

[Resource Manager]

11 September 2013

"From prayer to praise is a natural step. Receiving answers to petitions calls for thankfulness, and praise is the highest form of thanksgiving. Illustrations of such thanksgiving and praise abound in the Scriptures, particularly in the Psalms. Even unanswered prayer calls for praise, for our prayers should always include the thought, whether expressed in words or not; "Not my will, but yours, be done". (Luke 22:42)"

- W.H. Boulton
Reflections (1956)

[Resource Manager]

12 September 2013

"The call of the gospel is a call to repentance: the prospect of the glories of the age to come, of closest communion with the Lord God and His Christ, of bringing the Father’s grace and love to a cleansed world, demands that the conscience shall be purged from dead works to serve the living God. The repentance required must be from the heart, the reformation must be thorough and complete without reservation. Our preaching must make it clear that "the temple of God is holy" ... "

- D.D. Palmer
Called to be Saints (1965)

[Resource Manager]

13 September 2013

"The crown waits the victor, and the victory is not an impossible one. It requires but the constancy of a faith that works by love: that faith which is the confidence of things hoped for—hoped for because they are coming, and coming because they are promised: and promised because they are purposed as the only reasonable object in the framing of so glorious a world as this. God asks this honour at our hands—the honour of faith in His promised goodness. It is the highest honour mortal man can have—the honour of having it in his power to honour God; and it will be found in the glorious issue of things that no higher proof exists of the wisdom of God in requiring, as a basis of our friendship with Him, obedient faith, which not only honours Him, but purifies those who render it, and sows for them a harvest of unspeakable goodness and joy."

- Robert Roberts
Wisdom and Christ

[Resource Manager]

14 September 2013

"Until Jerusalem becomes a praise in the earth no Kingdom of God can be established. Zion, redeemed and triumphant, is the very core of the Divine purpose. Well then may they who truly seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness say with the Psalmist: "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in glory". (Psalm 53:6)"

- F.W. Turner
Meditations (1940)

[Resource Manager]

15 September 2013
 
Reactions

"When I hear a man say, 'My parents brought me up so rigidly that a reaction took place in my mind and I have turned away from religion.' I have sometimes asked, 'Did they teach you to be honest?' 'Yes.'  'Were they strict about it?' 'Yes.' 'Did they teach you to tell the truth?' 'Yes.' 'Were they strict about that?' 'Yes.' 'Has any reaction taken place on these points?'''

- Dr. John Hall
The Christadelphian Magazine (1931)

[Resource Manager]

16 September 2013

"God is the fountain of all life, the source of all activity and power; with Him life is associated with every joy, omnipotent in its strength, perfect in its intelligence, complete in its wisdom, and knows no beginning or end."

- W. Challinor, N.Z.
Exhort One Another (1912)

[Resource Manager]

17 September 2013

"If we enquire, "How then shall we know just what the apostles believed?", there can be only one answer: read the New Testament, all of it (noting also the allusions to the Old) and collect their allusions to principles of truth; and we shall find we have the teaching summarised as the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ (thus described three times in the Acts 8:12; 28:23, 31)."

- Fred Pearce
What is the "Simple Gospel"? (1981)

[Resource Manager]

18 September 2013  

"Speaking of evening prayer in the Liverpool Post "Commentator" continues:

"The rule of morning prayer is much less common. Yet the morning prayer, as a help to living worthily, is worth much more than the evening prayer. It is in the day-time that we need the grace of God for activity. An act of quiet recollection at the beginning of the day, even though only for a period of two or three minutes, would be a great gain to most of us, giving us self-possession, poise, a grip upon our lives, and getting rid of that early-morning irritability which is so trying a characteristic of many people."

Morning Prayer
The Christadelphian (1927)

[Resource Manager]

19 September 2013

"These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (John 20:31).

"Belief was a matter for approval; disbelief was the subject of disapproval. Hence, belief is something God requires of men and man is judged on the basis of it."

- Elwyn Humphreys
"Belief" in the Gospel of John (1960)

[Resource Manager]

20 September 2013

"We have become God’s elect by obedience, and we believe so, because He has declared that "he that believes and is baptized shall be saved." We have obeyed thus far, so we believe that if we continue faithful we shall be saved. It is a sobering thought! How wonderful is that, as we go through the world and try to realise that we are God’s elect. Peter says (1 Peter 1:2) that we are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit (word or truth which we have) unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." God knows that we are elect, separated by the truth, the blood sprinkled when we pass through the waters of immersion."

- F.W.P.
Exhort One Another (1905)

[Resource Manager]

21 September 2013

"The truth is that knowledge of God needs to be assimilated by the whole man. It needs to reside in the spiritual centre, the place where mind, emotion and will all meet. The mind is illuminated, the emotions are stirred, the will is energised. With some at Corinth this had happened and with others it had not. It is when the knowledge of God touches a man’s spirit that it communicates life and growth. It is in the recesses of the soul that the truth is either dynamic or doomed. True understanding is intended to result in pure motives and the purest motive is not to impress men with our intellectual superiority in Scriptural knowledge but to be well-pleasing to God. So disciples must take care to learn the meaning of this declaration: 'Knowledge puffeth up, love edifieth.'"

- Dennis Gillett
The Genius of Discipleship

[Resource Manager]

22 September 2013

"As a community, we find ourselves in the exact role of those who turned adversary to Jesus. We are God’s people, the custodians of His word, religious in every way. We see ourselves as holy, the New Israel. How does God see us? Have we maintained the faith of the New Covenant or slipped back into the law? We are in a blessed and serious position. We can go either way."

- David Levin
Legalism and Faith

[Resource Manager]

23 September 2013

 

"If you rise with him, then there is a future before you with him. A future that is related to this present, because although dead men normally have no future and have passed out of activity, you were raised to newness of life because you were made to live. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, and while you died, you also rose with a new life”—“to walk,” as Paul says in another letter, “in newness of life.” If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Set your affection, set your mind, on things above, not on things on the earth."

 

- John Carter

Be Ye Thankful (1943)

[Resource Manager]

24 September 2013

"One often sees lamentable cases in which interest in the truth is kept up so long as the excitement of polemic encounter is maintained, but disappears when that calm region is reached in which the truth has to work out the fruits of righteousness and true holiness. Argument and contention for the faith are not worth the trouble if they are to end in the mere establishment of a theory. The object of all work in the truth is to develop real, loving, warm-hearted, intelligent and consecrated disciples of Christ, who personally feel that they are not their own, but the property of him who died that he might purchase a people with his own blood."

- Robert Roberts
The Object of the Truth

[Resource Manager]

25 September 2013

"We do not know the exact time when the Lord will come, any more than the disciples at the beginning of the Christian era knew when Jerusalem was to be destroyed. The details are not revealed, but we do know that we have reached just that point of time when he may come any day.

Every true heart will say with John, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!" (Revelation 22:20). "Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he comes shall find watching." (Luke 12:37)."

- Robert Roberts
"Exhort one another" - Paul