PRESSED OUT OF MEASURE

We can learn something about Christian hope from fishermen. In Pavlov’s Trout, Paul Quinnett writes: "It is better to fish hopefully than to catch fish. Fishing is hope experienced. To be optimistic in a slow bite is to thrive on hope alone. When asked, ‘How can you fish all day without a hit?’ the true fisherman replies, ‘Hold it! I think I felt something.’ If the line goes slack, he says, ‘He’ll be back!’"

When it comes to the human spirit, hope is all. Without hope, there is no yearning, no desire for a better tomorrow, and no belief that the next cast will bring the big strike. The Christian life is hope experienced. A hopeless Christian is a contradiction in terms. 

"Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance" (Psalm 42:5).

By Rev. Larry W. Greiner

The story is told of newlyweds Della and Jim. Though very poor, each had a cherished possession. For Della it was her beautiful long hair, which, when let down, almost enveloped her. Jim’s treasure was a gold pocket watch to which he was sentimentally attached because it had been a gift from his father.

As Christmas approached, each greatly desired to present a gift expressive of their deep love for each other. Della had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents with which to buy Jim a present. Feeling that this was too little, she had an idea. She decided to sell her cherished hair! She had it cut off and sold for twenty dollars. With the money, she bought a beautiful platinum chain for Jim’s treasured watch. When Jim saw his wife without her beautiful long hair, he gasped, not because she had ceased to be beautiful to him nor because his love for her had lessened. She was as lovely as ever. Slowly he handed Della her gift—a set of expensive tortoise-shell combs, set in jewels, for her hair. Della, with tears of gratitude, then gave her gift to Jim. Upon opening it, he stared in disbelief at the platinum chain. "Sweetheart," he said, "it’s beautiful! But I can’t use it. You see, I sold my watch to buy you the combs for your long hair."

When you love someone dearly you want to give him or her the best you can. If we love Jesus Christ more than anything or anyone, should we give Him less than our best? Are you willing to give Him your all, whatever the cost? "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all they soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Love makes obedience a thing of joy!
To do the will of one we like to please
Is never hardship, though it tax our strength;
Each privilege of service love will seize!
Love gives us satisfaction in our task,
And wealth in learning lessons of the heart;
Love sheds a light of glory on our toil
And makes us humbly glad to have a part.
Love makes us choose to do the will of God,
To run His errands and proclaim His truth;
It gives our hearts an eager, lilting song;
Our feet are shod with tireless wings of youth!

"The inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough today to last him for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at once to sustain life for a week to come. We must draw upon God’s boundless stores for grace from day to day, as we need it. —Dwight L. Moody

If you are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, meaning to clear them up someday; if you who are passing men sullenly upon the street, not speaking to them out of some silly spite, and yet knowing that it would fill you with shame and remorse if you heard that one of these men were dead tomorrow morning; if you are letting your neighbor starve, till you hear that he is dying of starvation; or letting your friend’s heart ache for a word of appreciation or sympathy, which you mean to give him someday—then if you only could know and see and feel, all of a sudden, that "the time is short," how it would break the spell! How you would go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do. —Phillips Brooks

"What are you doing?" a man asked of three laborers beside a building under construction. The first man replied, "Stone-cuttin’." The second smiled, "Puttin’ in time—until a better job comes along." The third man waited a moment and then said simply, "I’m building a cathedral!" —Anonymous

He who throws away faith in God casts overboard at one and the same time his compass, chart, his rudder and anchor. He has nothing before him but a wreck. He is without hope, completely overwhelmed with the sense of his own frailty. —Isobel Garver

THE DEW OF HEAVEN

The Christian character should savor of holiness. The promise is, "I will be as the dew unto Israel," and how sweet is the fragrance of the flower after the falling of the dew! So must the believer be as the soft dew of heaven falls on his heart.