Fee Fee Baptist Church

Tag: Devotional

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 61, No. 1

    Taken from Mrs. Charles E. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Vol. Two

    “Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: for thou art my rock and my fortress,” (Psalm 71:3).

    Near the Capitol in Rome there stands an ancient building, built when Christianity was still very young in the world. In one of its corridors is a stone bench where the little pages sat waiting calls from their masters. On the wall, right over the bench, is scratched a rude cross with an outstretched figure on it. Beneath it the mischievous artist had cartooned one of his companions, and had written, “Silly Aleximos worships Christ.” The other boys thought it strange that Aleximos should look up to Jesus Christ as his King. For, as someone has pointed out, the world had never seen a King who had no possessions…

    At His birth Jesus was born in a borrowed manger. He preached a sermon in a borrowed boat. He rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed beast. He ate His last supper with His disciples in a borrowed room. He was buried in a borrowed grave. Yet He stands, the Living, Risen Son of God, stripped of all earthly possessions, saying, “All authority has been given Me in heaven and earth.”

    Other kings have always needed to be propped up; have needed to lean against many supports: gold in the treasury to buy men’s souls; a host of marching legions to destroy all opposition; games in the arena to keep the crowds in good humor; bread to feed the hungry to keep them from becoming dangerous.

    But Jesus Christ leaned on none of these supports. He leaned only on the Eternal God, the unseen and everlasting Father. And, while the supports of other kings had always crumbled in the end, the Supporter of Jesus stood firm as Pilate growled, ‘Behold your King!’; stood unshaken as the mob yelled, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’

    Then Easter came, and the centuries began to file by; and the world began to see that true Kingliness needs no gold or armies to hold it up. Men began to see that a Kingly Spirit stands unbroken, unbreakable, before all the blows of life, because the Spirit of the Living God within a man is stronger than any enemy there is!

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 25

    Taken from Mrs. Charles E. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Vol. Two

    “Forgetting the things which are behind,” (Phil. 3:13).

    “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee,” (Deut. 8:2).

    Forgetting ills behind me, the sorrows past and gone,

    Forgetting all my wanderings, too sad to dwell upon,

    Remembering God’s great goodness, in times of stress and strain,

    Remembering His restorings, I praise my God again.

    We stand together at the gateway of another year. It may be a year of many blessed experiences. Follow Him who goes before—the One who went before His people of old—a guiding light, a constant protection, an unfailing Friend and Counselor, and almighty Saviour.

    When shadows deepen, and fear rides on the moaning wind; when sorrow comes, and we wander in this misty vale of grief; when joy beckons, and our way is sunlit—”remember” His past leading and know that all is well. When spectres rise hauntingly from the past, when old heartaches and sorrows seem to weigh us down and blot out the sunshine forget “those things which are behind,” and reach forward to the joys before us. Paul says, “I press toward the mark” — here there is urgency, and nothing must be allowed to hamper the runner’s progress.

    We make our own hindrances many times—our Master has done all He can do to free us from every weight, giving us forgiveness for the past, help in the present, and assurance for the future. So as we face the coming days of a new year, knowing that each one brings our Master’s return nearer, let us “lay aside every weight…and press toward the mark,” with singleness of heart “looking unto Jesus.”

     Forgetting all my doubtings, which dimmed faith’s vision bright,

    Forgetting all the earth-clouds, the darkness, gloom and night,

    Remembering God’s bright sunshine, and radiance of His face,

    Remembering His long patience, I praise my God for grace.

     

    Forgetting all unkindness which friends and foes have shown,

    Forgetting and forgiving the wrongs that I have known,

    Remembering God provided, unsought, each faithful friend,

    Remembering love’s devotion, I’ll praise Him to the end.

     

    Forgetting my repinings when disappointments came,

    Forgetting all the murmurings, which filled my soul with shame,

    Remembering God was ever true to His Holy Word,

    Remembering He was faithful, I praise my sovereign Lord.  —A.G.

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 23

    Taken from Mrs. Charles E. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Vol. Two

    “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” (Psalm 30:5).

    Paul did not take pleasure in infirmities. He tells us that he was anxious to get rid of the infirmity that clouded his life. But when he saw that God supplied the grace he began to love the supply better than freedom from infirmity.

    He saw that it was better to have darkness with stars brought out by it, than all sunshine and no stars; that the cold winds of winter are as necessary for the world’s development as the cheerful warmth of spring and summer; that the mantle of snow is as good for earth as its mantle of grass and flowers. But for the snow mantle the mantle of flowers might not be. When a mean learns that God’s strength is perfected through his infirmity, necessities, persecutions, and distresses, he will by and by begin to welcome them as an angel sent from heaven to minister to him. —A.C. Dixon

    Any man can sing by day; but only he whose heart has been tuned by the gracious hand of Jehovah can sing in the darkness. The things of earth may satisfy for the hours of prosperity; but only the peace of God can give gladness in the darkness of adversity. God gives joy in sorrow; and when the sad one sings through his tears, then the Lord comes out to him with new and more tender assurances, so that by his very hymn he is made more gladsome. That which is born of trust rises in rapture. —William M. Taylor

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 22

    Taken from L.B. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Zondervan Updated Edition

    “You have shown your people desperate times,” (Psalm 60:3).

    I have always been glad that the psalmist said to God that certain times are desperate or difficult. Make no mistake about it, there are difficult times in life.

    This summer someone gave me some beautiful pink flowers, and as I took them, I asked, “What kind are they?” My friend answered, “They are rock flowers. They grow and bloom only on rocks where you can see no soil.” Then I thought of God’s flowers growing in desperate times and hard places, and I somehow feel that He may have a certain tenderness for His “rock flowers” that He may not have for His lilies and roses. —Margaret Bottome

    The trials of life are sent to make us, not break us. Financial troubles may destroy a person’s business but build up his character. And a direct blow to the outer person may be the greatest blessing possible to the inner person. So if God places or allows anything difficult in our lives, we can be sure that the real danger or trouble will be what we will lose if we run or rebel against it. —Maltbie D. Babcock

    Heroes are forged on anvils hot with pain,

    And splendid courage comes but with the test.

    Some natures ripen and some natures bloom

    Only on blood-wet soil, some souls prove great

    Only in moments dark with death and doom.

    God finds His best soldiers on the mountain of affliction.

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 21

    Taken from L.B. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Zondervan Updated Edition

    “All your waves and breakers have swept over me,” (Psalm 42:7).

    Stand firmly in the place where your dear Lord has put you, and do your best there. God sends us trials and tests, and places life before us as a face-to-face opponent. It is through the pounding of a serious conflict that He expects us to grow strong. The tree planted where the fierce winds twist its branches and bend its trunk, often nearly to the point of breaking, is commonly more firmly rooted than a tree growing in a secluded valley where storms never bring any stress or strain.

    The same is true of human life. The strongest and greatest character is grown through hardship.

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 20

    Taken from L.B. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Digital Edition

    “He opened not his mouth,” (Isaiah 53:7).

    How much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly, and to receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests the Christian character more than to have some evil thing said about him. This is the file that soon proves whether we are electro-plate or solid gold. If we could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our trials we would say like David, when Shimei cursed him, “Let him curse;… it may be… that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.”

    Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life-work by pursuing their own grievances and enemies, until their life gets turned into one little petty whirl of warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. You may disperse the hornets, but you will probably get terribly stung, and get nothing for your pains, for even their honey is not worth a search.

    God give us more of His Spirit, “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again”; but “committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” “Consider him that endureth such contradiction of sinners against himself.” —A. B. Simpson

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 19

    Taken from L.B. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Zondervan Updated Edition

    “When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to” (Acts 16:7).

    What a strange thing for the Lord to prohibit, for they were going into Bithynia to do Christ’s work! And the door was shut before them by Christ’s own Spirit. There have been times when I have experienced the same thing. Sometimes I have been interrupted in what seemed to be quite productive work. And at times, opposition came and forced me to go back, or sickness came and forced me to rest in some isolated place.

    During such times, it was difficult for me to leave my work unfinished when I believed it was service done in the power of His Spirit. But I finally remembered that the Spirit requires not only a service of work but also a service of waiting. I came to see that in the kingdom of Christ, there are note only times for action but times to refrain from action. And I also came to learn that a place of isolation is often the most useful place of all in this diverse world. Its harvest is more rich than the seasons when the corn and wine were the most abundant. So I have learned to thank the blessed Holy Spirit that many a beautiful Bithynia had to be left without a visit from me.

    Dear Holy Spirit, my desire is still to be led by You. Nevertheless, my opportunities for usefulness seem to be disappointed, for today the door appears open into a life of service for You but tomorrow it closes before me just as I am about to enter. Teach me to see another door even in the midst of the inaction of this time. Help me to find, even in the area of service where You have closed a door, a new entrance into Your service. Inspire me with the knowledge that a person may sometimes be called to serve by doing nothing, by staying still, or by waiting. And when I remember the power of Your “gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12), I will not complain that sometimes the Spirit allows me not to go.

    When I cannot understand my Father’s leading,

    And when it seems to be but hard and cruel fate,

    Still I hear that gentle whisper ever pleading,

    God is working, God is faithful, only wait.

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 18

    Taken from Mrs. Charles E. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Vol. Two

    “I have surely seen the affliction of my people… come now, therefore, I will send thee,” (Exodus 3:7,10).

    Does that seem a weak ending to a powerful beginning? The Lord God looks upon terrible affliction and He sends a weak man to deal with it. Could He not have sent fire from heaven? Could He not have rent the heavens and sent His ministers of calamity and disasters? Why choose a man when the archangel Gabriel stands ready at obedience?

    This is the way of the Lord. He uses human means to divine ends. He works through man to the emancipation of men. He pours His strength into a worm, and it becomes ‘an instrument with teeth.’ He stiffens a frail reed and it becomes as an iron pillar.

    And this mighty God will use thee and me. On every side there are Egypts where affliction abounds, there are homes where ignorance breeds, there are workshops where tyranny reigns, there are lands where oppression is rampant. “Come now, therefore, I will send thee.” Thus saith the Lord, and He who gives the command will also give the equipment.

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 17

    Taken from L.B. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Zondervan Updated Edition

    “I have received full payment and even more,” Philippians 4:18.

    In one of my garden books there is a chapter with a very interesting title: “Flowers That Grow in the Shade.” It deals with those areas of a garden that never catch direct sunlight, and it lists the kinds of flowers that not only grow in the dark corners but actually seem to like them and to flourish in them.

    There are similarities here to the spiritual world. There are Christians who seem to blossom when their material circumstances become the most harsh and severe. They grow in the darkness and shade. If this were not true, how could we otherwise explain some of the experiences of the apostle Paul?

    When he wrote the above verse, he was a prisoner in Rome. The primary mission of his life appeared to have been broken. But it was in this persistent darkness that flowers began to show their faces in bright and fascinating glory. Paul may have seen them before, growing along the open road, but certainly never in the incomparable strength and beauty in which they now appeared. And words of promise opened their treasures to him in ways he had never before experienced. Among those treasures were such wonderful things as Christ’s grace, love, joy, and peace, and it seemed as though they had needed the circumstance of darkness to draw out their secret and inner glory. The dark and dingy prison had become the home of the revealed truth of God, and Paul began to realize as never before the width and the wealth of his spiritual inheritance.

    Haven’t we all known men and women who begin to wear strength and hopefulness like a regal robe as soon as they must endure a season of darkness and solitude? People like that may be put in prison by the world, but their treasure will be locked away with them, for true treasure cannot be locked out of their lives. Their material condition may look like a desert, but “the desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom,” Isaiah 35:1. –John Henry Jowett

  • Devotional Corner – Vol. 60, No. 16

    Taken from L.B. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Zondervan Updated Edition

    “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior,” Habakkuk 3:17-18.

    Observe what a disastrous situation is being described in this passage and to notice how courageous is the faith that is expressed. It is as if the writer were actually saying, “Even if I am forced to undergo the extreme condition of not knowing where to find my next meal, and although my house is empty and my fields yield no crops and I see the evidence of divine pestilence where I once saw the fruit of God’s plentiful provision, ‘yet I will rejoice in the LORD.’”

    These words are worthy of being written forever in stone with a diamond tool. Oh, by God’s grace, may they be deeply etched on the tablets of each of our hearts! Although concise, this verse implies or expresses the following thoughts of the writer: that in his time of distress he would flee to God; that he would maintain his spiritual composure under the darkest of circumstances; and that in the midst of everything, he would delight himself with a sacred joy in God and have cheerful expectations of Him.—Phillip Doddridge