Month: July 2014

Dear Young Christian:

What do you think? As you look back and assess last week, and your spiritual life and walk with the Lord, do you think you really had the Lord’s approval? Remember last Monday we talked about “acceptance” and how important it is to “be accepted of Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9).

Maybe you have been criticized for things you have tried to do for the Lord. While it is good to weigh all criticism before the Lord and in the light of Scripture, the bottom line is, Does the Lord approve?

Remember too, when it comes to the service of Christ, if He has something for you to do and the time is right, He will work in the hearts of others so that they will recognize that it is of the Lord. However, remember also, if we put ourselves on the front line, we can expect the brunt of the battle.

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

We would love to hear from you. Send your comments or questions to jhyland@primus.ca

Thank You

“Thanks be to God” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

“Please,” and “Thank you,” are amongst the most common expressions in use. I wonder whether “Please” is heard more often than “Thank you,” at the Throne of Grace. Of course it is not possible to find out the proportion, but could we make a guess that it is about nine to one?

I would base this on Luke 17:12-13, where we read of the ten lepers who said, “Please,” but verses 15 and 16 tell of only one who gave “Thanks.” “And one of them…turned back…giving Him thanks.”

It is not to be overlooked that Christ asked, “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17).

What will be the proportion of our praise to our prayers today?

There are almost as many references to praise as there are to prayer in the Bible. I feel sometimes that there is a greater proportion of prayer to praise in our lives. But let’s learn to follow the exhortation of the hymn — “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.”

Finished

“These words spake Jesus…I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (John 17:1,4).

Seeking something to while away his time, Hudson Taylor turned over a basket of tracts in his father’s library and selected one that looked interesting. While reading it he was struck with the phrase, “The finished work of Christ.” Immediately the words attracted his attention. “What was finished?” he asked himself. Reading further, the tract explained the finished work as, “a full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.”

Then Hudson thought, “If the whole work was finished on the cross of Calvary, and the whole debt of sin paid, what is there left for me to do?” Hudson was thus convinced, as the light of God’s truth flashed into his soul by the Holy Spirit. He later stated: “There was nothing to be done but to fall down on my knees and accept the Saviour and His salvation, and praise Him forever.”

Hudson Taylor was seventeen years old at the time. He then went on to faithfully serve his Lord and Saviour for many years in China.

Mountain Air

“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light” (Matthew 17:1-2).

Mountains are invigorating. It is the place of vision. These disciples were favored to be with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. Such experiences are indeed wonderful. Let us, if and when we are favored to be with Him in the Mount of Communion, beware of using the hilltop experience for an occasion of boasting.

Rather may it serve as a stimulus for serving in the valley or on the plain. If you have been climbing with Jesus it will be evident by your face where you have been.

It was so in Old Testament days, for “Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone” (Exodus 34:29). But we read that “the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone” (Exodus 34:34).

You may be able to shine where you cannot speak.

The Twelve Apostles – Part 7

Simon Zelotes

“and Simon called Zelotes” (Luke 6:15).

“Simon the Canaanite” (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18).

There is very little known about this disciple, except that he was a Zealot. The Zealots were a nationalistic sect with very strong political views. They hated the Romans and the historian Josephus says that they were reckless persons zealous in good practices and extravagant and reckless in the worst actions.

It is wonderful to see how the Lord took a fanatical nationalist and transformed him into a man of faith, even to being associated with Matthew, the Roman tax collector. It shows how lives can be turned completely around and how the Lord can take a person with a certain bent to their nature and use them for His glory. The zeal that Simon once had against Romans was no doubt turned into zeal in following and serving his Master.

He is listed with those that were waiting in the upper room after the ascension in obedience to the word of the Lord. “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode…Simon Zelotes” (Acts 1:13).

Purpose

“Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (Daniel 1:8).

“Barnabas…when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord”
(Acts 11:22-23).

Someone once wisely said: “A river becomes crooked by following the line of least resistance, and so does a person.”

Someone else said, “If we don’t stand for something, we’ll fall for anything.”

These are thoughts worth pondering. Nobody is worth much who doesn’t have a purpose in life to which he sticks through thick and thin. The line of resistance is a rotten, twisted line. Daniel and Barnabas were men of “purpose.”

Purpose and conviction are essential to faithful living for Christ. “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13).

Up

“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3).

The story has often been told of a man many years ago who wanted to steal some potatoes from his neighbour’s field. One evening he put his little son on a fence to watch. “Is anyone coming from the north?” he asked. “No,” replied his son. “From the south?” “No.” “From the east?” “No.” “From the west?” “No, Daddy.” “Then I can go ahead and take the potatoes,” said the man. “But there is one direction we forgot to look,” said the boy. “Which direction is that?” asked his father. “Up,” answered the boy.

Yes, it is good to realize that we cannot hide from the all-seeing eye of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We may hide things from others…our parents…our family…our teachers…our employer…other Christians…but not from above. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth” (2 Chronicles 16:9). When you think no one else is looking, always look up. There is Someone who is always watching you.

Dear Young Christian:

“Peer pressure!” We feel it every day. We want to fit in with the crowd, we don’t want to be different, we want to be looked up to, be part of the group.

As young people it is not wrong to want to be accepted. The question is, whose acceptance do we really want? Paul summed up his desire to be accepted by saying, “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). Above all he wanted the Lord’s approval in everything he did. He was misunderstood and even reproached by the Christians at Corinth, who he loved and tried to serve so faithfully. But he was willing to leave all that with the Lord, if it meant he had the Lord’s approval and acceptance. That counted most!

Whose acceptance will you seek this week, and when you look back on Saturday, whose approval will you have? How good to have the Lord’s “well done” (Matthew 25:21), in everything we say and do.

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

We would love to hear from you. Send your comments or questions to jhyland@primus.ca

Love

“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned” (Song of Solomon 8:7).

Over and over in the Word of God, He brings before us in one way or another His great love. In the above verse it is impressed upon our hearts in a very real way by the symbolism and analogy that the Spirit of God uses.

The cold, cruel, overwhelming waters of death didn’t even slow the Lord’s love, let alone quench it. His love was, and still is, so immense that nothing could stop the greatest act of love that man has ever shown. He died at Calvary voluntarily, so that we wouldn’t have to spend eternity in the lake of fire. He said to His disciples just before He was taken away to be tried and eventually crucified, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

The Lord went under the waters of judgment for us, and gave His life to win our love. How much do you love Him?

Example of Love

“I love…I will not go out free” (Exodus 21:5).

On May 2, 1962, an advertisement appeared in the San Francisco Examiner: “I don’t want my husband to die for a crime he did not commit. I will offer my services for 10 years as a cook, maid, or housekeeper to any leading attorney who will defend him and bring about his vindication.”

One of San Francisco’s great attorneys, Vincent Hallinan, read the ad and contacted Gladys Kidd, who had placed it. Her husband, Robert Lee Kidd, was to be tried for the slaying of an antique dealer. Kidd’s fingerprints had been found on a bloodstained ornate sword in the victim’s shop. During the trial, Hallinan proved that the dealer had not been killed by the sword, and that Kidd’s fingerprints and blood on the sword got there because Kidd had once toyed with it while playfully dueling with a friend when they were out shopping. The jury, after 11 hours, found Kidd to be not guilty. Attorney Hallinan refused Gladys Kidd’s offer of 10 years’ servitude.

This is a wonderful example of human love. But there is a love beyond all human love, the love of the Lord Jesus, who gave His life to save sinners. Do you know that love?