Month: April 2018

Fruit

“If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him” (1 John 2:29).

Someone I know writes the following account:

“I had been anxiously waiting the first sign of fruit from my young apple tree. One day – there it was. A large round green thing in my tree. I called my wife to share in the joy of the first fruit, but I soon became the laughing stock of my family. My apple turned out to be a pumpkin growing on a vine that had climbed the tree and begun bearing fruit. It has proved true so many times: if you meet someone who is a real Christian, he will act like one. If you meet someone who tries to act like a Christian but really is not one, he is like my “pumpkin tree” — the fruit is from below, not from above.”

This most interesting and applicable account reminded me of the Lord’s own words when He said, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). How are you known in your home, your school, at work, in your neighbourhood, and among those who know you best? Are you real? If you are, there will be real fruit for Christ.

Practical Applications
of God’s Word

Part 4 — The Word of God

“For the Word of God is … powerful” (Hebrews 4:12).
“The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”
(Ephesians 6:17).

The Bible is a powerful book. When the Lord was “led by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Luke 4:1), to be tempted, He answered Satan each time by simply saying, “It is written” (Luke 4:4, 8, 10). When we use the Word of God in communion with the Spirit it becomes a powerful and effective weapon against the enemy, as Ephesians 6:17 indicates.

This is illustrated by David taking “five smooth stones out of the brook” (1 Samuel 17:40). The brook is a type of the Spirit of God (as running water often is), and the stones taken and put in his shepherd’s bag a picture of the Word of God taken in the power of the Spirit and appropriated for oneself. In other words, it is the Word enjoyed personally and made good by the Spirit of God. Having taken these stones and carried them with him, he was then able to use one of them to meet and overcome Goliath, an apt picture of our enemy the Devil. We too can utilize this power in our day-to-day life.

Endurance

“Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame … For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds”
(Hebrews 12:2-3).

Think of what the Lord endured at the hands of man, and in those hours of darkness on the cross when He “bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

Then consider what He has called us to endure in the path of faith and service.

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation” (James 1:12).

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3).

“For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully” (1 Peter 2:19).

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons” (Hebrews 12:7).

“But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions” (2 Timothy 4:5).

Focus

We were driving through Georgetown Guyana when I noticed a bumper sticker on a truck beside us. This was the message:

My main focus in life is to remain focused!

At first this sounds good, but then the question arises, what am I focused on? It is good to have focus, as long as it is in the right direction. Many are focused on worldly pleasure, business, money, sports, and a host of other pursuits. But for the believer, our focus is to be Christ and to follow Him. Paul had focus when he said, “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). He went on to say, in the same epistle, “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).This was real focus! Everything in his life was Christ-centered, and in view of eternity.

What is your focus in life? Is it simply to have a good time and to be successful in this world? Or is it Christ and what will count for eternal gain and reward?

Dear Young Christian:

This morning I was sitting with my Christian friend in the principle’s office of a high school on the island of Dominica. As we waited for the young people to assemble so that we could speak to them and give a short gospel message, I noticed a poster on the wall. This is what it said:

3 D’s To Success

1. Desire

2. Discipline

3. Dedication

It made me think of some verses from the Bible that teach us how we can have and enjoy spiritual success.

1. “Desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). Do you have this Desire?

2. “Exercise thyself rather unto godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). This takes Discipline.

3. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).This is Dedication.

 Your Christian Friend,

 Jim Hyland

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

His Due

“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come before Him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (1 Chronicles 16:29).

Today is a special day for praise and worship and remembering. We give glory to the Lord when we thank Him for dying for us at Calvary. God wants us to exalt and honor His Son. What better way than by spending a few moments today remembering the Lord’s suffering and partaking of the loaf and the cup in remembrance of Him?

When the ten lepers were cleansed in the days when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, we find that there was only one who returned to give thanks and glory to the Lord for what had transpired in his life. Can’t you hear the question and sadness in the voice of the Lord as He asked “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger” (Luke 17:17-18).

Let’s not be counted amongst the nine who did not return to give Him His due. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.

Nothing Sweeter

“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him” (Psalm 34:8).

An Australian young person gives the following account as to how he came to know the Lord as a boy.

“I was a wild boy, but a local Christian man and his wife started a children’s Bible hour group and I heard that they gave out candy and other sweets. So I went, but only for the candy and sweets.”

“However, before the treats were given out the man would read the Bible and preach a simple gospel message concerning the Lord Jesus as the Saviour of sinners. Quite against my will, a seed was being sown in my heart. So much so, that I continued to attend, less and less for the sweets, and more and more to hear about Jesus and His love. Then one day the Lord opened my heart and I trusted Him as my own personal Saviour. I came to realize that there is nothing sweeter than to know the Saviour. He took all my sins away, all the bitterness in my heart, and filled me instead with His peace and joy and love!”

What a testimony! What testimony can you give? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour?

He Supplies

“Jesus called his disciples unto Him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with Me three days, and have nothing to eat: And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far” (Mark 8:1-3).

What an example these people are to us! They so hungered after the words of eternal life that they followed Jesus into the wilderness without taking enough physical food for the journey. Some were so hungry after three days that they would not have made it home if they didn’t have a meal before they left. But Jesus does not forsake or disappoint those who cast themselves on Him. They had put their lives into the hands of Jesus and it was in those hands that the He took the loaves and the fishes, blessed them, and they were multiplied.

Jesus will not let us down either. It there is a real desire and hunger for Himself, He will provide for our needs, both spiritually and physically as well. “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Commitment

“My son, give Me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26).

When we are in the days of our youth, it is so easy to give our hearts to having fun, or getting better at sports, or improving our education, or getting a good job and establishing a career. But the Lord wants your heart, and he wants it totally. Only He can fill it to the brim. He may allow you to get on the ball team, or become valedictorian. But first and above all else He wants your heart.

 Solomon also wrote, “I withheld not my heart from any joy” (Ecclesiastes 2:10). But across it all he also wrote, “Behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 2:22). He found that the things of this world did not satisfy! Remember, the world is too small to fill the human heart. Only the One who made us can truly and unequivocally fill that void.

Don’t waste the best years of your life, by not giving the Lord the full devotion of your heart. Be like Daniel, who as a young man “purposed in his heart” (Daniel 1:8), or like Ezra, who, “had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord” (Ezra 7:10).

Wolves And Lambs

I know there are a number of older folks who read this calendar. Today’s page is particularly for you.

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29).

A gentleman who was visiting a large sheepfold noticed that the owner seemed greatly discouraged. He asked him the reason. The shepherd answered: “The wolves entered the flock last night and caught sixty-five of my loveliest lambs.”

“And how many sheep were killed?” asked the visitor.

The shepherd looked at him with an air of astonishment: “Do you not know that a wolf will never take a sheep if he can seize a lamb?”

This is why we need to have a special prayerful concern and shepherding care for our young people, and why the Lord said to Peter, “Feed My lambs … Feed My sheep” (John 21:15-16). He could have just said “Feed My flock,” and that would have included the lambs and the sheep, but he knew there would be special needs and special attacks on the young. Do we who are older have a genuine desire to shepherd those who are younger?