Month: March 2015

Loss

“Beware lest thou forget the Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:12).

If you meet me and forget me it is no great loss. (In fact it might not be such a bad thing). However, if you meet Christ and forget Him, it is eternal loss.

Many have attended gospel meetings, been handed gospel tracts, heard about the Lord Jesus from their parents, friends, family, or coworkers, and gone their way and forgotten about it. Someday they will remember the Lord and the time and way that they were introduced to Him, but sad to say, it will be too late. They will remember the One they forgot with remorse and anguish as they realize that they are doomed to eternal ruin in the lake of fire.

Perhaps there are some people we would like to forget, but the Lord Jesus is not one of them. His acquaintance and the salvation He offers are vital to our happiness in this life and the life beyond. The Lord through His prophet had to declare of those in the Old Testament, “Therefore have they forgotten Me” (Hosea 13:6). Have you met the Lord? Make sure the relationship is firmly established for time and for eternity.

Shine Out

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

You could not prove it by me, but an electrician once told me that it takes more power to make a small electric light work than it does to make a loud buzzer. Whether that is true or not, I know that in my life it is easier to “sound off” than “shine out.”

Keeping in constant, close, contact with the Lord Jesus Christ will make us “shine” for Himas bright lights in this dark work. This will result in blessing to our own souls, as well as testimony and blessing to others. We can only be a true light and witness as we walk in His company, drawing on Him as our source.

Here is the Lord’s desire for each believer: “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).

Minor Prophets — Amos

Here is what Amos himself tells us about his background: “Then answered Amos, and said … I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel” (Amos 7:14-15).

The practical lesson we learn from this is diligence and obedience. God always chooses people busy at their everyday task to do His work. Amos was obedient to the call of God and used to deliver a message to His people.

His prophesy is one of rehearsing the patience of God, and yet the ultimate judgment due to a lack of response on the part of His people. There is, however, the promise of a remnant being blessed, “That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My name, saith the Lord that doeth this” (Amos 8:12).

Both Israel (the ten tribes), and Judah are addressed. “O children of Israel…the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt” (Amos 3:1).

Amos, Hosea, and Jonah were the only writing prophets of Israel; all the rest were from Judah.

Visiting

Some time ago I had the privilege of visiting an elderly believer. She was 103 years of age, and it was a joy to speak of the Lord together. When we spoke of heaven and the soon coming of out Saviour to gather us to Himself in the Father’s house, her comment was, “What a wonderful hope.” I read a Psalm and prayed, said goodbye, and left. Three days later I received a call from her daughter-in-law telling me that she was with the Lord.

What a thrill is was to think that another believer was “absent from the body, and…present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8), and to think that we will all be caught away soon to join those who have gone on ahead. It made me look up and once more say, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

As I reflected on our visit I was glad I had taken the time to go and see her. It was my last opportunity this side of heaven, and I was encouraged by the time together. I will always remember the impact her faithful, quiet testimony had on my life.

Take time to do some visiting. Not only will you be an encourager, you will be encouraged.

Old Buildings

I love history, old buildings, architecture, and museums. So today my wife and I visited the Heritage House Museum in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada, where we live. My niece has work there as a summer job, and she gave us a very informative tour of the house and its artifacts, telling us about the former, long ago, inhabitant and how he lost the house and all his possessions due to a bad investment and bankruptcy

With all the homes, castles, palaces, chateaus and manor houses I have visited around the world, the one I want to see the most is the Father’s House. That is a home that is out of this world. We are told very little about it in the Bible, but the Lord did say, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” He also tells us, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3). While we don’t know a lot about heaven, one thing is for sure, it is a place that will far outshine any of our expectations. Best of all, it is where the Lord Jesus will be, and we will be eternally with Him. It is often said that four walls and fine furniture don’t make a home, and this is certainly true. Heaven wouldn’t be heaven without the presence of our Saviour.

Dear Young Christian:

I wonder how many lonely people there really are out there. I am sitting in the business lounge at the Toronto Canada International Airport, waiting for an evening flight to Chicago. As I look around and try to read people, I suspect that there are more empty aching hearts within these walls than anyone would care to admit. To be quite honest, I often find myself feeling alone in a crowd.

However, as a child of God we never have to feel alone. Our God is always available, always beside us, and always interested in every detail of our life. Here are some confirmations of that from Scripture: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest” (Exodus 33:14). “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).

So you don’t need to feel alone as you start out on another Monday morning. Go forth with a sense of His presence and you will have a happy, profitable week.

Your Christian Friend,

Jim Hyland

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

Our Passover

“Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).

What does this mean? Just that the sacrificial lamb that was killed in order to save the Israelites from the destroying angel is a picture to us of the death of the Lord Jesus to save us from the destruction of a lost eternity in hell. Therefore, let us remember Him today as we take the loaf and the cup.

Just as Israel had a feast of memorial from year to year, we have a feast of memorial as well. It is called “the Lord’s supper” (1 Corinthians 11:20). We are not just to eat of it once a year or on a special occasion, but we are told, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Will you partake of the Lord’s supper today? Will you remember Him in the breaking of bread? Will you respond to that request, “This do in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19)?

This could be the last time. Before another Lord’s Day we may be called home to heaven. Then we will no longer need this weekly reminder.

Meeting God

 “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12).

Many years ago, in Scotland, a teenage girl lay dying in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. She was very ill and rapidly sinking as life ebbed away and eternity loomed ahead.

One of the nurses brought the screens to put around her bed. The sick girl realized what it meant and cried to the nurse, “Take away the screens, I cannot die; I am not prepared.” The hospital chaplain, a man of God, sat by her bedside and tried to point her to the Saviour. The stricken teen looked into the nurse’s face and said, “Nurse I can meet my father and mother” (though she had sinned grievously against them) “but I cannot meet God.” With that she took her last breath and passed into eternity.

What a shocking account, but how true of so many. Not just older folks, but many young people are passing daily from this world to the next. From life here on planet Earth to the next life. But are they ready … are they prepared? We shake our heads at a story like this, but the word to each of us is, “Therefore be ye also ready” (Matthew 24:44).

Faint Not — Part 4

Why do we faint? We have considered just a few reasons this week. Here is one last reason, and something to really consider in the society in which many of us find ourselves today. David said, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). What he was really saying is, “If I lose a sense of the goodness of the Lord and the end of the journey, I will faint. It is those two things that keep me going.”

We live in a live for the moment society. But if we only live for the moment we are going to get discouraged and give up. David’s son, Solomon must have learned the lesson from his father, for he wrote, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Let’s live the rest of our life in view of eternity and the fact that we are going to be with the Lord Jesus in that wonderful place where we will be beyond the weariness, the trials, the need of chastening and the danger of fainting. In conclusion let’s remember the exhortation, “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9). It will be worth it all when we see HIM!

Faint Not — Part 3

“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint”
(Luke 18:1).

Here is perhaps one of the most important elements of our subject this week. More often than not, faintness in our Christian life is the result of not praying, and not praying always. Prayer is our powerhouse, and we cannot function as healthy, happy Christians without power, just as a light bulb cannot shine without drawing on the proper source of electrical current.

Notice, it’s not just praying when things are good, or praying once in awhile. It is ALWAYS! Sometimes we pray after we fall or faint, or when some great difficulty looms before us. If we are going to stand fast and “fight the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12), we must be “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance” (Ephesians 6:18).

The Prophet Isaiah put it this way: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).