Posts made in June, 2009
Warm Yourself Twice
Henry Ford is credited with saying, “Cut your own wood and you warm yourself twice.” What he meant was that the man who chops his own firewood not only enjoys the heat from the logs burning in his fireplace, but he also gets physically warmed from the exercise involved in his labor.
If you really want to enjoy your Bible, you should “cut your own wood” by studying things for yourself. Check the cross references, look up the meaning of key words, and ask God to show you how the passage on which you are meditating applies to your life. The truth you discover for yourself in the Word will have a fresh, new flavor. Are you “cutting you own wood?”
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)
Read MoreChrist Is The Door
For a good many years we have wondered why Christ mixed His figures in His parable of the Good Shepherd. At one place He calls Himself the Shepherd and at another the Door.
A traveler in Palestine once had a conversation with a shepherd at work near a sheepfold who showed him the various features of the fold. Thereupon the traveler remarked: “You say, here is the sheepfold, there are the sheep, and this is the doorway; but where is the door?
“The door?” asked the shepherd. “I am the door. I lie across the entrance at night. No sheep can pass out, no wolf can come in, except over my body.” “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:7,9 KJV)
“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” (John 10:11,14 KJV)
Beautiful, isn’t it? Christ did not mix His figures after all. He is both the Shepherd and the Door.
Read MoreLess Sense Than Animals
Clem the cat came home after eight years of being who knows where. A homeowner in Bancroft, Wisconsin, said he heard a cat meowing on the front porch. When he opened the door, a big, long-haired, gray male cat walked in, checked things out, began purring, and then jumped up on his favorite chair. Family members couldn’t believe their eyes. But when they compared the cat to pictures taken eight years earlier, they could only conclude that Clem the cat had come home.
What remarkable homing instincts God has given to some animals! On a spiritual level, why is it that the backslidden child of God seems to have less? Why do we in our rebellion show less sense than the animals?
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 KJV)
Did you notice the all in this passage? It is “all inclusive!”
Read MoreHe Wanted A Burden For Souls
“Tom, you’re the sort of Christian I like.” The speaker was a young man of no religious profession. His companion was a church member in good and regular standing. “You’re the sort of a Christian I like. You never seem to bother yourself about a fellow’s soul.”
The words were lightly spoken, but they pierced like an arrow. If we had listened at Tom’s chamber door that night, we would have heard something like this: “O God, forgive me that I seemed indifferent to the welfare of my friends! Help me to trouble myself more and more about them. Give me a passion for souls!” Are you praying this more lately?
“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” (John 4:35 KJV)
Read MoreSpiritual Blindness
Helen Keller tells of the dramatic moment when Annie Sullivan first broke through her dark, silent world with the illumination of language.
“We walked down the path to the well house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten — a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.” -Helen Keller
Certainly, this was how the blind man must have felt when he saw water for the first time as he washed his eyes in the pool of Siloam. Just as the Light of the world gave sight to the blind beggar, and just as that “living word” awakened the soul of Helen Keller, so Jesus can awaken your life with the tender touch of His hand. He can give you light, hope, joy, and freedom like you’ve never known before. Surely there will still be barriers in your life, but barriers that can be swept away in time. Consider this:
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (Ephesians 5:8 KJV)
“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” (Philippians 2:15 KJV)
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6 KJV)
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