January 23
“…Seed to the sower, and bread to the eater” (Isa 55:10-11). “Now he that ministers seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown” (2 Cor 9:10). Two passages—one from the gospel prophet, Isaiah, and one from the evangelist to the Gentiles, Paul—are linked by the common idea of combining bread for food and seed for sowing. The Isaiah passage is a promise; the Corinthian verse is a prayer. In Bible days, if a farmer didn’t sow seed, he had two problems: no seed for his fields and no bread for his table. Is there a lesson here for us? If we are not in the...
Read MoreJanuary 22
On the last day of September 1816, Robert Moffat sailed from London for South Africa. Proceeding to Namaqualand on the west coast, he there acquired the Dutch language. While residing with a Boer farmer, he was asked to conduct a “service” in the house. Moffat requested that the master call his servants. “Do you mean the Hottentots?” replied the Boer with a sneer. “We may as well call in the dogs.” Moffat made no answer, but, after prayer, opened his Bible and read the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman, taking as his text her words to the Savior, “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs...
Read MoreJanuary 21
Whatever you know of God’s truth, do it. That is what the disciples were told in John 2:5, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Above all, it is what the Lord says, “You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you” (Jn 15:14). We never read of purifying our souls in hearing the truth; we do read of those who purified their souls in obeying it (1 Pet 1:22). “He that has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me” (Jn 14:21). Obedience, you see, is the test of love. God has joined the two together. If we want to know the extent of our devotion to Christ, it can be exactly...
Read MoreJanuary 20
Sir Moses Montefiore was the most famous Jew in the 19th Century. Linked by marriage and business to the Rothschilds, he was knighted by Queen Victoria and renowned for his philanthropy. He had an aunt Lydia in Marseille who was a determined Jewess. One day she received a visit from J.P. Cohen, a Jewish believer. Noticing her Bible, he took it up and read Isaiah 53, then asked what she thought of it. “I should like to hear your opinion,” replied Miss Montefiore. Cohen recounts, “I told her I could unhesitatingly say that it referred to the life and death of the Messiah, and that it had been...
Read MoreJanuary 19
Let others keep quiet about hell if they wish—I dare not. I see it plainly in Scripture, and I must speak about it. What would you say about the man who saw his neighbor’s house burning and never raised the cry of “Fire”? Call it bad taste, if you like, to speak about hell. Call it being charitable to make things pleasant and soothe people with a constant lullaby of “peace and safety.” From such notions of taste and charity may I ever be delivered! My notion of charity is to warn men plainly of their danger. My notion of taste is to declare all the counsel of God. If I never spoke of hell, I...
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