Where the Heavens Begin

"My Lord!" exclaimed once a devout soul, "give me every day a little work to occupy my mind; a little suffering to sanctify my spirit; a little good to do to comfort my heart."

"Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none." Benjamin Franklin

"whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4:8

His Love

No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:

hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 1 John 4:12-14

An excerpt from D.L. Moody's classic works:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Many people would put it thus: “For by your works are ye saved,—or by your tears, or your prayers, or your fastings, or your trials, or your good resolutions, or your money!” But Paul tells us plainly that it is “not of works, lest any man should boast.”

The forgiving grace of God is wonderful. He will save you this very minute, if you are willing to be saved. He delights in mercy. He wants to show that mercy to every soul. The religion of Christ is not man working his way up to God; it is God coming down to man. It is Christ coming down to the pit of sin and woe where we are, bringing us out of the pit, putting our feet upon a rock, and a new song in our mouth.

Save your money - Don't Drink Alchohol

When a young man, Hugh Miller once drank the two glasses of whiskey which fell to his share at the usual treat of drink of the masons with whom he worked. On reaching home he tried to read Bacon's Essays, his favorite book, but he could not distinguish the letters or comprehend the meaning. "The condition into which I had brought myself was, I felt, one of degradation," said he. "I had sunk, by my own act, for the time, to a lower level of intelligence than that on which it was my privilege to be placed; and though the state could have been no very favorable one for forming a resolution, I in that hour determined that I should never again sacrifice my capacity of intellectual enjoyment to a drinking usage; and with God's help I was enabled to hold by the determination."

In a certain manufacturing town an employer one Saturday paid to his workmen $700 in crisp new bills that had been secretly marked. On Monday $450 of those identical bills were deposited in the bank by the saloon-keepers. When the fact was made known, the workmen were so startled by it that they helped to make the place a no-license town. The times would not be so "hard" for the workmen if the saloons did not take in so much of their wages. If they would organize a strike against the saloons, they would find the result to be better than an increase of wages, and to include an increase of savings.

How often we might read the following sign over the threshold of a youthful life: "For sale, grand opportunities, for a song;" "golden chances for beer;" "magnificent opportunities exchanged for a little sensual enjoyment;" "for exchange, a beautiful home, devoted wife, lovely children, for drink;" "for sale, cheap, all the magnificent possibilities of a brilliant life, a competence, for one chance in a thousand at the gambling table;" "for exchange, bright prospects, a brilliant outlook, a cultivated intelligence, a college education, a skilled hand, an observant eye, valuable experience, great tact, all exchanged for rum.

The moral? Save your money. Don't waste it at the bar!

Love and God's Grace

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. " 1 John 4:12-16

Today's thoughts come courtesy of D.L. Moody -

"For six thousand years, God has been trying to teach the world this great and glorious truth—that He wants to deal with man in love and in grace. It runs right through the Bible; all along you find this stream of grace flowing. The very last promise in the closing chapter of Revelation, like the first promise in Eden, is a promise of grace: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” So the whole revelation, and the whole history of man is encircled with grace, the free favor of God."

From the morning of the creation down to the present time no man or woman ever went to God with a broken heart without experiencing the forgiving love and grace of God, if they believed His Word.

Let Him In!

Will you let Christ come in and save you? It is not a question of whether He is able. Who will open their hearts, and let the Saviour come in?

“There’s a stranger at the door:

Let Him in!

He has been there oft before:

Let Him in!

Let Him in, ere He is gone;

Let Him in, the Holy One,

Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son:

Let Him in!

Open now to Him your heart:

Let Him in!

If you wait He will depart:

Let Him in!

Let Him in, He is your Friend;

He your soul will sure defend;

He will keep you to the end:

Let Him in!

Hear you now His loving voice?

Let Him in!

Now, oh now, make Him your choice:

Let Him in!

He is standing at the door;

Joy to you He will restore,

And His name you will adore:

Let Him in!

Now admit the heavenly Guest.

Let Him in!

He will make for you a feast:

Let Him in!

He will speak your sins forgiven,

And when earth-ties all are riven,

He will take you home to heaven,

Let Him in!”

Rev. J. B Atchinson

Thrift

A grasshopper, half starved with cold and hunger, came to a well-stored beehive at the approach of winter, and humbly begged the bees to relieve his wants with a few drops of honey.

One of the bees asked him how he had spent his time all the summer, and why he had not laid up a store of food like them.

"Truly." said he, "I spent my time very merrily, in drinking, dancing, and singing, and never once thought of winter."

"Our plan is very different," said the bee; "we work hard in the summer, to lay by a store of food against the season when we foresee we shall want it; but those who do nothing but drink, and dance, and sing in the summer, must expect to starve in the winter."

Thrift began with civilization. It began when men found it necessary to provide for to-morrow, as well as for to-day. It began long before money was invented.

Thrift means private economy. It includes domestic economy, as well as the order and management of a family.

While it is the object of Private Economy to create and promote the well-being of individuals, it is the object of Political Economy to create and increase the wealth of nations.

Private and public wealth have the same origin. Wealth is obtained by working diligently. Wealth is preserved by saving your money and investing wisely.

There is no Substitute for Hard Work

All noble effort, as Sarah K. Bolton beautifully expresses it, is its own reward:

"I like the man who faces what he must
With step triumphant and a heart of cheer;
Who fights the daily battle without fear;
Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust
That God is God; that, somehow, true and just,
His plans work out for mortals; not a tear
Is shed when fortune, which the world holds dear,
Falls from his grasp. Better, with love, a crust,
Than living in dishonor; envies not
Nor loses faith in man; but does his best,
Nor ever murmurs at his humbler lot;
But with a smile and words of hope, gives zest
To every toiler. He alone is great
Who, by a life heroic, conquers fate."

Love in Deeds

"let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" 1 John 3:18

"I know no great men," says Voltaire, "except those who have rendered great services to the human race." Men are measured by what they do; not by what they seem or possess.

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths:
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best;
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest."

In the sublimest flights of the soul, rectitude is never surmounted, love is never outgrown. —Emerson.

Ask and You Shall Find

"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." John 14:13-20

Love Your Family And Your Fellow Man

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. " John 13:34-35

The relationship between man and woman is important to men, but also is a part of God’s plan for the reconciliation of the world unto Himself. It is given to us for our own sakes and also for the accomplishment of God’s purposes.

I once knew a bus driver who discovered that he, too, could call forth people by the way in which he greeted them and did business with them. On his morning runs he observed that many people were grumpy and sullen, and treated him and their fellow passengers discourteously. At first his inclination was to respond in the same way.

Then he discovered that by taking the initiative and greeting his passengers with a smile and cordial word, and by making change cheerfully and being patient with their grumpiness, the spirit of his passengers underwent a transformation. Over the years a number of people told him how grateful they were for his good cheer. They said that his influence had often been decisive in their lives. It had affected their relations with other people.

Thus, his attitude toward people and his method of relating himself to them as a driver of a bus became his ministry; and since he was a member of the church, the church’s ministry reached out and worked through that bus driver into the lives of many who may never have come anywhere near the church. Through such relationships. God is present and active in the world.

We are to love God by loving one another, and in loving one another we introduce one another to God. This is the work of the church and the vocation of the people of God. We are called to love one another with the love wherewith God loved us.

In order for us to participate in the love of God which is at work in the world, we need to understand ourselves and our own human problems in relation to love.

We do not find love by looking for it; we find it by giving it. And when we find love by loving, we find God. Our Lord gave us His love generously, not in order that we might be loved, but that we might be freed to love one another.

The place where we encounter God first is in the family. The family provides the individual with his first experience of living in relation to other persons, and this is his first experience of Christian fellowship. Immediately we are confronted with the nature of God’s creation and, therefore, with the revelation of Himself and of how He works. We are confronted with the relational nature of all life; for nothing exists in isolation. Everything and every person finds full meaning only in relation to other things and persons

Character - Look on the Bright Side!

"that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:15-18

Benjamin Franklin attributed his success as a public man not to his talents or his powers of speaking—for these were but moderate—but to his known integrity of character. Self-respect, self-help, application, industry, integrity - all are of the nature of habits. Even happiness itself may become habitual. Make a habit of looking at the bright side of things.

Self-discipline and self-control are the beginnings of practical wisdom; and these must have their root in self-respect. Hope springs from it—hope, which is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for whoso hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.

And as the thoughts are, so will the acts be. Man cannot aspire if he looks down; if he will rise, he must look up. The very humblest may be sustained by the proper indulgence of this feeling. Poverty itself may be lifted and lighted up by self-respect; and it is truly a noble sight to see a poor man hold himself upright amidst his temptations, and refuse to demean himself by low actions.

Love

But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;

rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;

beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
1 Corinthians 13:1-7

Come to Him

It's so easy to get caught up in - maybe even overwhelmed by - our day to day responsibilities. Many of us say we have so many cares and troubles, we have about as much as they can carry. Well, a good way to forget your trouble is — to go and help some one else who is carrying a heavier burden than yourself.

If there is any child of God who has a “thorn in the flesh,” God has grace enough to help you to bear it if you will but go to Him for it. The difficulty is that so many are looking at their troubles and sorrows, instead of looking toward the glorious reward, and pressing on their way by God’s help.

In 2nd Corinthians 9:8, we read: “God is able to make all grace abound towards you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” There are three thoughts here—God makes all grace to abound, that we may have all sufficiency in all things. This is one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible.

Are you full of grace? Well, it is our privilege to be full. What is the best way to get full of grace? It is to be emptied of self. How can we be emptied? Suppose you wish to get the air out of this tumbler; how can you do it? I will tell you: by pouring water into the tumbler till it is full to overflowing. That is the way the Lord empties us of self. He fills us with His grace. “I will pour water on him that is thirsty.” Are you hungering to get rid of your sinful selves? Then let the Spirit of God come in and fill you. God is able to do it.

“Oh, word of words the sweetest,
Oh, word in which there lie
All promise, all fulfillment,
And end of mystery!
Lamenting or rejoicing,
With doubt or terror nigh,
I hear the ‘Come!’ of Jesus,
And to His cross I fly.

Come! oh, come to me!

Come! oh, come to me!

Weary heavy-laden,

Come! oh, come to Me!

O soul! why shouldst thou wander
From such a loving Friend?
Cling closer, closer to Him,
Stay with Him to the end
Alas! I am so helpless,
So very full of sin;
For I am ever wandering,
And coming back again.

Oh, each time draw me nearer,
That soon the ‘Come!’ may be
Nought but a gentle whisper
To one close, close to Thee;
Then, over sea and mountain,
Far from, or near, my home,
I’ll take Thy hand and follow,
At that sweet whisper, ‘Come!’”

Serving

"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." - Mark Twain

“Grace taught my soul to pray,

And pardoning love to know;

’Twas grace that kept me to this day,

And will not let me go.

Grace all the work shall crown,

Through everlasting days;

It lays in heaven the topmost stone,

And well deserves the praise!”

He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour. Proverbs 21:21

Seeds for Thought

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matthew 7: 7-8

"As a rule," said Benjamin Disraeli, "the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information."

"Reading is to the mind," says Addison, "what exercise is to the body. As by the one health is preserved, strengthened and invigorated, by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished and confirmed."

"No entertainment is so cheap as reading," says Mary Wortley Montagu; "nor any pleasure so lasting." Good books elevate the character, purify the taste, take the attractiveness out of low pleasures, and lift us upon a higher plane of thinking and living. It is not easy to be mean directly after reading a noble and inspiring book. The conversation of a man who reads for improvement or pleasure will be flavored by his reading; but it will not be about his reading.

Perhaps no other thing has such power to lift the poor out of his poverty, the wretched out of his misery, to make the burden-bearer forget his burden, the sick his sufferings, the sorrower his grief, the downtrodden his degradation, as books. They are friends to the lonely, companions to the deserted, joy to the joyless, hope to the hopeless, good cheer to the disheartened, a helper to the helpless. They bring light into darkness, and sunshine into shadow

Ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
—Shakespeare.

Prefer knowledge to wealth; for the one is transitory, the other perpetual. —Socrates.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. —Franklin

This above all,—to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—Shakespeare.