Calendar:Oct. l&th to Nov. 15th. DAILY BIBLE READING ………. Oct. 16th, Job 32; Oct. 31st, Ps. 5; Nov. 15th, Ps. 20.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING ….. Oct. 16th, Acts 20; Oct. ,31st, Rom. 7; Nov. 15th, 1 Cor. 6.
An Appeal to Young Christians
My dearly beloved young brethren and sisters in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ:-
We are surely living in dark, perilous times, and there is great danger that we may neglect our Christian responsibility, both to God and man, by not giving heed to the things we have heard but allowing them to slip away from us (Heb. 2:1-3). Are we, as young believers, giving attendance to reading, exhortation, doctrine and meditation, that our profiting may appear to all (1 Tim. 4:13-16)? Are we able to say with the prophet, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and they were to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart?" (Jer. 15:16). Can we say with Job, "I esteemed the words of Thy mouth more than my necessary food?" Do we exclaim with David, "Oh, how I love Thy Word! It is my meditation. How sweet are Thy words to my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Ps. 119:97-103). In the light of these scriptures we have miserably failed. If Daniel said, "Shame must cover our face," how much more can we say, "We have sinned and departed from Thy precepts!" Sad to say, it is because of neglect of reading the Scriptures prayerfully that many have lost interest in the things of God, and have been led into paths of disobedience, and become conformed to this present world. Their lives have known little of the reality of true Christian experience.
Let us remember, beloved believer in Christ, God has a claim on us-on you and me. If the time spent in reading the newspapers and magazines, and on worldly entertainments, were spent in reading and meditation on the Scriptures, how we would grow in the grace and knowledge of our blessed Lord, whom we have learned to love. We are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). But knowledge of our Lord and His preciousness comes by work, by labor. The manna of old had to be gathered. Our Lord said, "Labor… for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life" (John 6:27). We must dig into the Word. "The soul of the diligent shall be made fat" (Prov. 13:4), and, "The substance of a diligent man is precious" (Prov. 12:27). If this was practiced in our lives, how much closer we would be drawn to our blessed Lord. Our zeal for others would increase; the lost all round about us would see Jesus in us; saints would be edified, sinners saved, and, above all, God would be glorified. Let us cry to the Lord for a greater desire for the things of God and seek His face in deep humility and confession, knowing He is faithful. Let us hold fast what God has given us, holding forth His Word, strengthen the things that remain by not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, and wait and watch for His soon return.
"Now unto Him that is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever" (Jude 24, 25; 1 Cor. 15:58).
From your brother in Christ Jesus our Lord, in searching the Scriptures,
James Derks.