Author: BTP

I Belong to Him

“Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory”
(1 Peter 1:7-8).

Off the coast of Greece the fishing boats were setting out to sea. On the shore a crowd was watching, and saying goodbye to the sailors. A few young girls were waving, each one with a white scarf around their head. As soon as the boats were out of sight the girls took off their white scarves and put on black ones. “Why?” asked a visitor of Kristina, one of the girls.

“I wear the black scarf to show that my lover is at sea,” she said. “I want everyone to know that I belong to Paulos.”

So, Kristina, like the other Greek girls, wore her black scarf to show that her heart was with her loved one.

Our beloved is the Lord Jesus, whom we cannot see as yet. Are we as true to Him as those Greek girls were to their loved ones? We have a Saviour whom the world has refused. Let’s be faithful to Him during the little while that we have left us down here.

Dear Young Christian:

Do you really love the Lord? The writer of Psalm 116 begins with the statement, “I love the Lord.” He then goes on to give a reason why: “Because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.”

What a multitude of reasons we could give for loving the Lord Jesus. We love Him for what He is, the eternal Son of God. We love Him for what He became, a perfect, sinless man. We love Him for what He has done for us, by dying on the cross, and we love Him for what He is doing as our living Saviour now.

Like the Psalmist, we love Him for hearing our supplications; we love Him for His grace and for His mercy. We can say with John “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19), and we can say with Peter, “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee” (John 21:15-17). How much do you love the Lord? Really think about it this week.

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

We would love to hear from you. Send your comments or questions to [email protected]

Bethel

“And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God…Then Jacob said unto his household…Let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God” (Genesis 35:1-3).

Bethel means “the house of God.” Jacob had a desire to respond to God’s request in the first verse of the chapter to go to Bethel to worship. The Lord Jesus has asked us to go to the house of the Lord today to worship Him. What a privilege it is to respond to His request and remember Him in His death. There’s something really simple about salvation…the word is, BELIEVE. There’s something really simple about what to do as a Christian…the request is, REMEMBER. Are you going up to Bethel today?

David said: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1). Are we glad for the opportunity and privilege of going into the presence of the Lord with other believers at the beginning of another week?

Daily – Part 5

“They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required” (Ezra 3:4).

The burnt offering always brings before us what the person and work of Christ means to the heart of God the Father. It speaks of His delight in what His beloved and only begotten Son has accomplished to His glory and satisfaction when He “offered Himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:14). It is the ground of all our blessing and acceptance before God, and by faith we need to lay hold of this wonderful and vital truth.

Do you know the value of the work of Christ? Does it mean something to your heart, and are you basing your hope and eternity on what was accomplished there at the cross?

The person and work of Christ is precious to the heart of God every day, and it will never lose that value and preciousness.

May it be precious to us as well, from the moment we are saved, and more and more every day of our life.

Daily – Part 4

“Exhort one another daily” (Hebrews 3:13).

Here is instruction to speak of Christ and His Word to our fellow Christians, and to seek to be a help and encouragement to them on a daily basis. Another translation puts it this way: “Encourage yourselves each day.”

We need one another. There is so much to discourage us every day as we live in a world that hates Christ, and we face an enemy, Satan, who is opposed to everything that is of God. The Apostle John exhorted the Christians at Sardis to “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain” (Revelation 3:2). This is a good word for us in these days when so many real Christians are feeling the pressures of life and giving up. Try every day to be an encourager. Remember, many of your fellow young people are discouraged and distressed. The prophet said, “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall” (Isaiah 40:30).

Don’t forget your daily responsibility to exhort and encourage. Not only will others be blessed, but you will too.

Continued…

Daily – Part 3

“Lord, I have called daily upon thee” (Psalm 88:9).

Do you know what it is to call upon the Lord daily…to pray and make request? Do you commit your way to Him every day, and cast your cares and burdens on the one who delights to hear from us and have us express daily dependence? Whether we know it or not we can’t make it through a single day without Him.

Do you have some struggle or difficulty today? Our divine Friend says: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15). He is always available and always able for the situation. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

He wants us to call. He is waiting to hear our voice. Don’t let a day go by without prayer, without speaking to the Lord. David said: “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17). Let’s be like Daniel who prayed three times a day — every day!

Continued…

Daily – Part 2

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Act 17:11).

The Christians at Berea received a special commendation above their brethren in Thessalonica, because they not only listened to the ministry of the Apostle Paul, but they searched through whatever parts of the Word of God they would have had available to them at that time, to confirm what he had told them.

Let’s learn to search the scriptures on a daily basis. This is not just casual reading of the Bible, but diligent study and comparing scripture with scripture. It is following subjects through from beginning to end. It involves doing word studies, as well as making sure what you hear ministered by God’s servants orally is really based on the Bible…and so on.

We need the Holy Scriptures, and we need them every day! Don’t neglect your Bible. Job said: “I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).

Continued…

Daily – Part 1

“And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

To see a man carrying a cross in Bible times was to recognize that the person was under the sentence of death. To truly and wholeheartedly follow the Lord Jesus we must set aside our own will…in other words, die to self and live for Christ. The Lord said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35). We may never be called on to lay down our lives as martyrs in a physical sense, but each of us are called upon to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Paul said, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31).

Are we willing to give up the world and self and take up our cross? In the measure in which we do this, we will be despised by the world, just as it hated the Lord. It takes constant, daily spiritual exercise to practically deny ourselves and take up our cross, and follow our blessed Master.

Continued…

Dear Young Christian:

This week I want to take up some scriptures that bring before us the subject of things that should occupy a Christian on a daily basis. Christianity isn’t just a once-a-week or a once-in-awhile thing. It is something that we should live out in a practical way every day of our life.

In connection with this subject I have enjoyed what it says of the Lord Jesus regarding His relationship with God His Father. We read, “I was daily His delight” (Proverbs 8:30). From a past eternity He was the daily delight and joy of His Father, and the heavens could open up while He was here on earth, and the voice of the Father confirm, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

We too should find our daily delight in the one who delights the Father. David expressed it when he said, “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4). Make sure you enjoy something of the person of Christ everyday this week.

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

We would love to hear from you. Send your comments or questions to [email protected]

His Poverty

“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

When was He rich? Certainly not in this world. In fact we never read of the Lord handling a piece of money during His pathway in this world. On one occasion He had to say, “Show me a penny” (Luke 20:24).

He was not rich in this world but rather poor. In a past eternity dwelling with the Father, He was indeed rich, and yet, “He became poor.” The Son of God, “took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7, 8).

Now, as a result of His becoming poor and going to the cross, we are rich; rich in spiritual blessings, “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Don’t forget to thank Him today!