TFTD - December 2013

[Resource Manager]

01 December 2013

"All that was right, all that God requires of His children, was embodied in Jesus. He could say, "I am the truth". We see in him one of absolute integrity, of single-minded devotion to the will of God, whose life was spent in "doing justly, in loving mercy and walking humbly with God". His was the truly upright life, without any shadow of duplicity. He had "a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure", in all his doings. Let us measure ourselves against him."

- L.W. Richardson
A Just Weight and a Just Measure (1950)

[Resource Manager]

02 December 2013

"We can only know this "light of knowledge" by the word of God. There only we know of His re-creative work; of the Son of God who is the great light; of the purpose by which darkness will be dispelled and the earth made full of the knowledge of the glory of God. We come then to the light, to let it shine in our hearts, to lighten our path and to receive the life that comes with light. "How wonderful are your works, O Lord"; and not least of these is His word."

- John Carter
The Sustaining Word (1952)

[Resource Manager]

03 December 2013

"There have been many in our time who having accepted the Gospel message have not had the patience and stamina to continue the race; faith has grown cold with the passage of time, and the question is asked: "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." To such the prophet replies: "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). And the Hebrews were exhorted: "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:37). We live at the end of the Gentile times when human arrogance has reached its full. The days are numbered, and as of old, the just shall live by faith."

- C.R. Cookson
The Just Shall Live by Faith (1967)

[Resource Manager]

04 December 2013

"You are the light of the world!" But what are we amongst six thousand millions, and what are our resources? Let us remember the two thousand years through which the Gospel has been preserved, and the many miles it has travelled from Jerusalem through the world. Let ours be the faith, and the Lord will do great things ... We must not wait with folded hands for what the Lord will do in the Millennium. Our service begins in willing minds, bent in prayer, adding to our labours at home in the towns of our homelands the needs of the world beyond. The Lord can still use weak things to confound the mighty, that the glory might be His. And when we resolve to labour, let none of us do it as seeking self-aggrandisement, nor as faithless before God’s power. Rather let us cheerfully quit ourselves like men, being strong and of good courage; that in the day when the holy city is set once again on a hill, and all nations stream into it, we might know for ourselves the inheritance of the saints in light."

- Harry Tennant
You are the Light of the World!
From the Bible Missionary (1956)

[Resource Manager]

05 December 2013     

"Truly the doors of heaven were opened when the Lord God provided the Lord Jesus Christ through Mary. He was the answer to the question: "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" (John 6:5) God gave seed to the Sower and thereby bread to the eater. He is our daily need and satisfaction. Neither is there salvation in any other. He has gathered us in companies upon the green grass and we remember. This is not the manna which vanished in the heat of day or corrupted during the night hours. What is it? "This is that bread which came down from heaven ... he that eats of this bread shall live forever." (John 6:58)"

- Harry Tennant
Both Small and Great (1961)

[Resource Manager]

06 December 2013

"Think first of all what the Bible says about Light. Remember that in the realm of God, whether it be natural or spiritual, light is an elemental thing. It is primal, fundamental, essential. We read in the book of Genesis that in the beginning the earth was without form and void. But God did a fundamental thing. He said, "Let there be light", and there was light. That was not done arbitrarily, it was done essentially. It was the beginning of an unalterable process ending in life."

- Dennis Gillett
A Light Into the World (1999)

[Resource Manager]

07 December 2013
 
"To the thoughtful mind the greatest argument for the resurrection of Christ must always be the fact that Christianity arose with its founder. Nothing but Resurrection can explain the transformation of the men we saw running in panic from Gethsemane into the fearless evangelists of the Acts of the Apostles. These cowed, despondent men stood forth in the city they dreaded and faced rulers and people alike, indicting them for slaying their Lord, announcing his resurrection, and baptising thousands of repentant Jews who trembled at their words. Before they had been in mortal fear of arrest; now they were to go forth boldly facing imprisonment, persecution and death, and they were to go forth gloriously, counting it joy to suffer for his sake."

- Melva Purkis
A Life of Jesus  

[Resource Manager]

08 December 2013 

"The work has been done for us, the way of salvation has been opened for us. Ages have been employed in the preparation. It will be said to those who are worthy, "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34) So in our meeting there is no need for outward show and elaborate display. The spectacular aspect of the truth appertains to the future, when "The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." (Isaiah 40:5)"

- J.E. Jarvis
Drawn of the Father, Taught of God (1937)

[Resource Manager]

09 December 2013

"The word is a light, continues the word of him who was and is the Light of the World. The light must not be hidden, it is not for the benefit only of the holder. It is for the light of the house. The Kingdom of God in the preaching of it by life and word is like seed cast into the ground. Once cast it is beyond the control of the sower. He may weed and water and help the conditions of growth in another man’s mind, but the harvest and the reaping are of God."

- C.A. Ladson
Solomon’s Choice (1931)

[Resource Manager]

10 December 2013

"The commandment "Love one another", with its special qualification, "as I have loved you", is then a new commandment given to a new community to meet new circumstances, at once capable of and demanding a richness and fullness and intensity of expression not hitherto possible in men’s relations with one another before God. It embraces and transcends all other commandments, including the commandment "Love your enemies"; and it will abide as the rule of life among the saints of God in the day when God is all in all and no enemy remains: "Love one another."

- Neville Smart
Love One Another (1963)

[Resource Manager]

11 December 2013
 
"Humility, like all other Christian qualities, needs to be cultivated. We must ask God insistently to grant us the grace to think less of, and about, ourselves. Developing humility can exercise a softening influence, restraining the tongue of the eloquent, checking the boasting of the vainglorious, bridling the anger of the quick tempered, subduing the resentment of the sensitive, sweetening the judgments of the uncharitable. With growth in humility, we come increasingly to see ourselves as others see us, and as God sees us, and that has a wonderfully sobering effect."

- T.J. Barling
The Blessings of Humility (1956)

[Resource Manager]

12 December 2013

"When we come upon difficulties, and the incidents in our lives wherein we seem to come short, can we not make good our insufficiency, by keeping at all times in mind the thought of the invisible? "O God, you are my God; early will I seek you: my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see your power and your glory, so as I have seen you in the sanctuary. Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you." (Psalm 63:1-3)."

- E.J. Green
Seeing Him Who Is Invisible (1952)

[Resource Manager]

13 December 2013

"The One whose name is above every name, the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. What of our Lord in that great day? In words of exquisite beauty and with a flash of insight from eternity, the Master tells his servants the remarkable truth:

“Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he comes shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to eat, and will come forth and serve them. ” (Luke 12:37)."

- Harry Tennant
By Love Serve One Another (1970)

[Resource Manager]

14 December 2013

"When we understand what his Father’s will was, and how the love of God was manifested in sending His beloved Son to fulfil it. How we were comprehended in that gracious purpose, and that it was for our sakes the Lord Jesus was obedient amidst all the sufferings he underwent. When we come to realise this, and are moved with delight to respond to the Father’s will and treasure His law in our hearts, it is then we experience the thrill of that love which has its source in the mind of the eternal and becomes evident to all with whom we are brought into contact as a light that shineth in a dark place and cannot be hid."

- J.E. Jarvis
The Love of God (1931)

[Resource Manager]

15 December 2013

"Unlike natural riches, the riches of God are to be given away, handed to anyone who will receive them, not stored up in a dark corner to be counted in seclusion like the miser’s hoard. Even with spiritual riches it is possible for us to develop a sense of covetousness unless we use them in God’s service. So we should not let ourselves be deceived into thinking that our spirituality is necessarily godliness. Jesus in his giving is our perfect example and Paul tells us how we have all received abundantly from his hand:

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9)."

- Tony Read
Riches Through Poverty (1973)

[Resource Manager]

16 December 2013

"What, then, would be our answer to the question, “What is truth?” First, knowledge of God; second, action in obedience to His commands. Here is the alpha and the omega; the beginning and the ending of all things."

- W. Williams
What is Truth? (1947)

[Resource Manager]

17 December 2013
 
"We have the truth. Let us hold fast to it in all sincerity. Let us heed the command to "Come out from among them, and be separate." (2 Corinthians 6:17) And having come out, let us keep out. The good things of Egypt should be no lure to us. Their ways lead to nothing but death. If truly separated to, and for God, we have his assurance, "I will receive you; and I will be a Father to you; and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:18)."

- J.T. Irwin
Holiness (1922)

[Resource Manager]

18 December 2013

"Thy kingdom come." That is the true prayer of faith; the incentive to overcome day-to-day setbacks and to revive our flagging spirits for the tasks ahead. Sometimes, as individuals, that vision of the promised rule of God in the earth seems to be rather remote and unreal. In the company of kindred spirits professing the same sound hope, that objective becomes an inspiring prospect ... We are not an assembly of units having no adhesion, but members of one Body of which Christ is the living head. And we pray that the divine ideal for an ecclesia laid down by its Founder that all its several parts "may be one" in aim and purpose shall be realised in us, that the name of God may be honoured in our midst."

- Harold Smalley
Seeking After God (1988)

[Resource Manager]

19 December 2013

"We need to thank our Heavenly Father that not only are we related to things which are in the future, but that we have so much help and light and hope now in these mortal days. That help can raise our lives far above the ordinary to something higher and more lovely, if only we will take God’s Word, read it, meditate upon it, and let its influence soak into us. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

- R. Brandon
As a Man Thinketh in His Heart, so is He (1972)

[Resource Manager]

20 December 2013

"Since Christ has risen, you have a sure foundation: build your life securely upon it. You have a rock that cannot be moved: be yourself immovable in your attachment to it. You have a Gospel which is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth": make your belief firm and unwavering. Let your work in the Lord be abundant to overflowing, for here is labour which is not "emptiness and a striving after wind", as the Preacher in the Book of Ecclesiastes found all human effort which was directed merely to its own ends. Labour is not empty but full of meaning and promise so long as it is "in the Lord"; so long as it is moved by the truth of his resurrection, pursued for his ends and within his fellowship, and finds in him its object and its strength."

- L.G. Sargent
Not in Vain in the Lord (1968)

[Resource Manager]

21 December 2013

"We have been permitted the great honour of becoming acquainted with the word of God in this dark age. Let nothing come between us and its pure and glorious light. Though the vision may seem to tarry, wait for it, "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay". (Habakkuk 2:3) Let us "hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end"; (Hebrews 3:14) “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved". (Matthew 24:13)."

- R. Roberts
The Bible and Right Views

[Resource Manager]

22 December 2013

"The source of love is God. "God is love", and our progress in that virtue is directly proportional to our appreciation of God’s love, for "we love, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Our love to God is reciprocal, so if we do not understand and appreciate His love toward us, we are incapable of truly loving Him. To appreciate God’s love is to be grateful or thankful. Conversely, the more we are thankful the greater is our appreciation; and the greater will be our reciprocation of His love. If then we would love God, we must be thankful."

- Arthur Armstrong
Love and Thanksgiving (1958)

[Resource Manager]

23 December 2013

"When as natural men and women, walking more or less aimlessly through life, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the provision of Jesus as the sacrifice for sins, shone upon us, our way was turned from darkness to light, and we began to tread a path that is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day. We began to live a new life. Old things passed away; life took on new aspects. Earlier motives lost their appeal. New activities took the place of some, at least, of those that had previously appealed to us. Our love became changed. It was no longer the outcome of affection only; we learned the wider scope of love, a scope that included an effort to follow the steps of Jesus."

- W.H. Boulton
Life, Light and Love (1956)

[Resource Manager]

24 December 2013

"The comfort and power of prayer, the working of Providence, the support of brethren and sisters, all are ours. God has established a new relationship with us. Whereas before our hearts were blind, moved by passions from below, now they are enlightened and moved by the love of God from above. As we grow in appreciation of His love, an answering love is kindled in our hearts. If this is slow to come, God is patient and pleased to receive and answer our prayer: "And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ" (2 Thessalonians 3:5)."

- Norman Richards
The Heart - Scripturally Understood (1975)

[Resource Manager]

25 December 2013

"Patience is not simple resignation. It is not allowing the tide of events to flow over us. It is not only the ability to bear things. It is the ability to turn the circumstances of life, however bleak, into glory; to deal triumphantly with anything that life can do to us. It is the confidence that it is God who sees and will give us the victory."

- David Nightingale
So Run, that Ye May Attain (1990)