Days of Heaven on Earth

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, November 01, 2012

The idea of trying to obtain a holiness of our own, and then having Christ reward us for it, is not His teaching. Oh, no. Christ is the holiness. He Himself, the Holy One, will come to dwell in the heart forever.

When a millionaire buys a piece of property with an old shanty on it, he does not fix up the old shanty. He contracts with someone to tear it down. in its place he then builds a mansion. We are not to try to fix up the old shanty; rather, we are to give Christ the property. He will excavate below our old life and build a suitable house where He will live forever.

That is what we mean when we say that Christ will be the preparation for the blessing of holiness and make way for His own approach. Picture a great Assyrian king setting out on a march. He did not command the people to make a road, but he sent his own men on ahead to cut down the trees, fill the ravines and level the mountains. So, if we will let Him, will Christ be the Coming King, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

Scripture
We will come unto him, and make our abode with him—John 14:23

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 31, 2012

God allowed the crisis that closed around Jacob, on the night when he bowed at Peniel in supplication, to bring him to the place where he could take hold of God as he never would have done. From that narrow pass of peril Jacob came, enlarged in his faith and knowledge of God and in the power of a new and victorious life.

God had to compel David, by a long and painful discipline of years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness of his God, and to grow up into the established principles of faith and godliness which were indispensable for his subsequent and glorious career as the king of Israel.

Nothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed could ever have taught him, and taught the Church through him, the full meaning of the great promise he so learned to claim, My grace is sufficient for thee. And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some of us to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have and to draw from Him the measures of grace which our very extremities made indispensable.

Scripture
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness—2 Corinthians 12:9
Simpson Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, October 30, 2012

God's presence blends with every other thought and consciousness, flowing sweetly and evenly through our business plans, our social interactions, our hearts' affections, our manual toll, our entire lives. Like the fragrance of a flower or the presence of a friend consciously near, and yet not hindering in the least the most intense and constant preoccupation of the hands and brain, so God consecrates all and is conscious through all. How beautiful the established habit of this unceasing communion and dependence amid and above all thoughts and occupations! How lovely to see a dear old saint folding away his books at night and humbly saying, "Lord Jesus, things are still just the same between us" and then falling asleep in His keeping.

So let us be stayed upon Him. Let us grow into Him with all the roots and fibers of our beings. He will not get tired of our friendship. He will not want to put us off sometimes. Beautiful words of the suffering saint: 44 He never says goodbye. He stays. So let us be stayed on Him.

Scripture
Dwell deep—Jeremiah 49:8
I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
Psalm 18:1 (KJV)

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 29, 2012

Two men go to the bank cashier, both holding in their hands a piece of paper. One is dressed expensively and presents a gloved and jeweled hand. The other is a rough, unwashed workman. The first is rejected with a polite sentence; the second receives a thousand dollars over the counter.

What was the difference? The one presented a worthless name; the other handed in a note endorsed by the president of the bank. just so, the most virtuous moralist will be turned away from the gates of mercy and the vilest sinner, if he presents the name of Jesus, welcomed in.

What shall we give to infinite purity and righteousness? Jesus! No other gift is worthy for God to receive. And He has given Him to us for this very end, to give back as our substitute and satisfaction. And God has "testified" of this gift what He has of no other: in Him He is well pleased, and all who receive Him are accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 2:6). Shall we accept the testimony that God is satisfied with His Son? Shall we be satisfied with Him?

Scripture
Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you-John 16:23

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, October 28, 2012

It is not our success in service that counts, but our fidelity. Caleb and Joshua were faithful and God remembered their faithfulness when the day of visitation came. For them it was a very difficult and unpopular position. For us, too. We are called in the crises of our lives to stand alone. In the very matter of trusting God for victory over sin and our full inheritance in Christ we all have to be tested as they.

Even in the Church of God our brethren, while admitting in the abstract the loveliness and advantages of life-in Christ, tell us that it is impracticable and impossible. Many of us have had to stand alone for years witnessing to the power of Christ to save His people to the uttermost. Like Joshua and Caleb, we have had to follow God alone as we followed Him wholly. But this is the real victory of faith and the proof of our uncompromising fidelity.

Let us not, therefore, complain when we suffer reproach for our testimony or stand alone for God. Let us, rather, thank Him that He so honors us and stand the test so that He can afterwards use us when the multitudes are glad to follow.

Scripture
Thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities—Luke 19:17

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, October 27, 2012

Cyrus the king was compelled to fulfill the vision of Jeremiah by making a decree declaring that Jehovah had bidden him rebuild Jerusalem and invite her captives to return to their native home. In this way Jeremiah's faith was vindicated and Jehovah's prophecy gloriously fulfilled, as faith ever will be honored. Oh, for the faith that in the dark present and the darkest future shall dare to subscribe the evidences and seal up the documents for the time of waiting and then begin to testify to its hope like the prophet of Anathoth!

The word Anathoth has a beautiful meaning: echoes. So faith is the echo of God, and He always gives the echo to faith as he answers it in glorious fulfillment. Let our faith echo also the brave claim of the ancient prophet and take our full inheritance with his glorious shout, "0 Lord, Thou art the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for [thee]?" Back like an echo will come the heavenly assurance to our hearts, "For the God of all flesh: nothing is too hard."

Scripture
Behold, I am the Lord, the god of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?-Jeremiah 32:27
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, October 26, 2012

In the parable in Luke 14 of the great supper an ancient lord prepared for his friends and neighbors, there is a significant picture and object lesson of the program of Christianity in this age.

In the first place, it is obvious to every thoughtful mind that the Master is hearing an increasing number of excuses from the gospel-hardened people of Christian countries. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to interest the unsaved of our own land, especially those who have been accustomed to hearing the gospel, in the things of Christ. They have asked to be excused from the feast, and the Lord is turning from them.

At the same time two remarkable alternatives indicated in the parable are becoming more and more manifest. One is the movement to take the gospel to the slums and the neglected classes at home; the other is the movement to take the gospel to the neglected classes abroad.

Scripture
Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in—Luke 14:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, October 25, 2012

Let us wake out of sleep, let us be alert, let us be alive to the great necessities that really concern us.

Let us put off the garments of the night and the indulgences of the night, the loose robes of pleasure and the flowing garments of repose. The festal pleasures of the hours of darkness are not for the children of the day. Let us cast off the works of darkness.

Let us arm ourselves for the day. As we put on our clothes let us put on our weapons, for we are stepping out into a land of enemies and a world of dangers. Let us put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith. Let us stand armed and vigilant as the dangers of the last days gather around us.

Let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our robe of day-not our own works or righteousness, but the person and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us His very life and becomes to us our All-Sufficiency.

Scripture
Now it is high time to awake out of sleep; . . . let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light—Romans 13:11-12

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 24, 2012

In order to be successful in Christian work, it is essential that a person be loyal not only to Go d but to the work with which he or she is associated. The more deeply a person knows the Lord, the easier it is for him to get along with others.

Superficial Christians are apt to be eccentric. Mature Christians are so near the Lord that they are not afraid of missing His guidance. They are not always trying to promote their loyalty to God by their independence from others.

The Corinthians, who had given themselves first to the Lord, had no difficulty in giving themselves to His apostle by the will of God. it is delightful to work with true hearts who can be utterly depended upon. May God give us the spirit of a sound mind and a heart to "help along."

You can help by holy prayer,

Helpful love and joyful song;

Oh, the burdens you may bear;

Oh, the sorrows you may share;

Oh, the crowns you may yet wear,

If you help along.

Scripture
First gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God—2 Corinthians 8:5

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, October 23, 2012

It is strange that people will not get over the idea that a consecrated life is a difficult one. A simple illustration will answer this foolish impression. Suppose a streetcar operator were to say, "It is much easier to run with one wheel on the track and the other off." His line would soon be dropped by the public, who would prefer to walk. Of course, it is ever so much easier to run with both wheels on the track-and always on the track-and it is much easier to follow Christ fully than to follow Him with a half heart and halting step. Elijah was right in his pungent question, How long halt ye between two opinions? The undecided man is a halting man. The halting man is a lame man and a miserable man, but the out-and-out Christian is the admiration of men and angels and a continual joy to himself.

Say, is it all for Jesus,

As you so often sing?

Is He your Royal Master,

Is He your heart's true King?

Scripture
How long halt ye between two opinions?—1 Kings 18:21

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 22, 2012

Some of us know a little what it is to be affected with a sense of the sufferings, and sometimes the sins, of others-sins, as they come into contact with us, that seem to saturate us and throw over us an awful sense of need.

Perhaps this is intended to give us some faint conception of the sympathy that Jesus felt when He had taken our sins, our sicknesses and our sorrows. Let us not hesitate to lay them on Him! it is far easier for Him to bear them than for us to bear them. He has already borne them for us, both in His life and in His death.

Let us roll the burden upon Jesus and let it roll away. Then, strong in His strength and rested in His life and love, let us go forth to minister to others the sympathy and help which He has so richly given us. The world is full of sorrow, and they that have known its bitterness and healing' are God's ministers of consolation to a weeping world.

Oh, the tears that flow around us.

Let us wipe them while we may;

Bring the broken hearts to Jesus,

He will wipe their tears away.

Scripture
Touched with the feeling of our infirmities—Hebrews 4:15

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, October 21, 2012

Who shall separate us from-the love of Christ? After all the possible obstacles and enemies have been mentioned, one by one, the triumphant answer comes: In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (v. 37). Our trials will be turned to helps; our enemies will be taken prisoners and made to fight our battles. Like the weights that keep the tall pendulum clock going, so our very difficulties will prove incentives to faith and prayer and occasions for God's becoming more real to us. We shall acquire from our troubles not only deliverance but triumph, and in all these things we shall be even more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Our security depends not upon our unchanging love but on the love of God in Christ Jesus toward us. It is not the clinging arms of the baby that keep it from falling, but the strong arms of the loving mother. God loves us with an everlasting love, and although all else may change He will never leave us, never forsake us.

Scripture
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?—Romans 8:35

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, October 19, 2012

Let us say no to the flesh, the world and the love of self, and learn the holy self-denial of which so much of the life of obedience consists. We must make no provision for the flesh, give no recognition to our lower life. We must say no to everything earthly and selfish. How very much of the life of faith consists in simply denying ourselves.

We begin with one great yes to God, and then we conclude with an eternal no to ourselves, the world, the flesh and the devil.

Nearly every commandment of the Decalogue is a Thou shalt not. In First Corinthians 13, with its beautiful picture of love, most of the characteristics of love are in the negative-what love does not, thinks not, says not, is not. And so you will find that the largest part of the life of consecration is really saying no.

I am not my own,

I belong to Him.

I am His alone,

I belong to Him.

Scripture
Denying ungodliness- Titus 2:12

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Abraham's faith reposed in God Himself. He knew the God he was dealing with. It was a personal confidence in One whom he could utterly trust.

The real secret of Abraham's whole life was in his friendship with God. He knew God to be his great, good and faithful Friend. Taking Him at His word, he stepped out from all that he knew and loved and went forth upon an unknown pathway with none but God.

In addition to trusting in the Word of God, have we learned to lean our whole weight upon God, the God of infinite love and power, our covenant God and everlasting Friend?

We are told that Abraham glorified God by this life of faith. The truest way to glorify God is to let the world see what He is and what He can do. God does not so much want us to do things as to let people see what He can do. God is not looking for extraordinary characters as His instruments, but He is looking for humble instruments through whom He can be honored throughout the ages.
Scripture
Abraham believed God-Romans 4:3

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Abraham's faith reposed in God Himself. He knew the God he was dealing with. It was a personal confidence in One whom he could utterly trust.

The real secret of Abraham's whole life was in his friendship with God. He knew God to be his great, good and faithful Friend. Taking Him at His word, he stepped out from all that he knew and loved and went forth upon an unknown pathway with none but God.

In addition to trusting in the Word of God, have we learned to lean our whole weight upon God, the God of infinite love and power, our covenant God and everlasting Friend?

We are told that Abraham glorified God by this life of faith. The truest way to glorify God is to let the world see what He is and what He can do. God does not so much want us to do things as to let people see what He can do. God is not looking for extraordinary characters as His instruments, but He is looking for humble instruments through whom He can be honored throughout the ages.

Scripture
Abraham believed God-Romans 4:3

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, October 16, 2012

God loves to take the worst of lost men and make them the most magnificent memorials of His redeeming love and power. He loves to take the victims of Satan's hate and the most fearful examples of his power to destroy and use them to illustrate and illuminate the possibilities of divine mercy and the creativity of the Holy Spirit.

He loves to take the things in our own lives that have been the worst, the hardest and the most hostile to God, and to transform them so that we shall be the opposites of our former selves.

The sweetest spirits are made from the most stormy and self-willed; the mightiest faith is created out of the wilderness of doubts and fears; the divinest love is transformed out of stony hearts of hate and selfishness.

The grace of God is equal to the most uncongenial temperaments and to the most unfavorable circumstances. Its glory is to transform a curse into blessing and show to men and angels of ages yet to come that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Romans 5:20).

Scripture
Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, . . . I will make thee . . . a joy—Isaiah 60:15

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 15, 2012

True faith drops its letter in the post office box and lets it go. Distrust holds onto a corner of it and wonders why the answer never comes.

In my desk are some letters that I wrote weeks ago. But there was some slight uncertainty about the address or the contents so they are yet unmailed. As yet they have not done me or anyone else any good. They will never accomplish anything until I let them go out of my hands and trust them to the postal system.

This is the case with true faith. it hands its case over to God and then He works.

There is an appropriate verse in Psalm 37: Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he [worketh] (v. 5). But He never works until we commit.

Faith is a receiving-or still better-a taking of God's proffered gifts. We may believe and come and commit and rest, but we will not fully realize all our blessing until we begin to receive and come into the attitude of abiding and taking.

Scripture
Faith is . . . the evidence of things not seen—Hebrews 11:1

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, October 14, 2012

If when it seems your old self has come back, you listen to it, fear it, believe it, it will have the same influence upon you as 'f it were not dead. It will control you and destroy you. Instead, simply ignore it and say: "You are not I, you are Satan trying to make me believe that my old self is not dead. I refuse you. I treat you as a demon power outside of me, I detach myself from you." The evil thing will disappear, the shadow will vanish, the wand of faith will dispel the troubling spirit and send it back to the abyss. In its place we will find Christ there instead with His risen life to back up our confidence and seal our victory.

Satan can stand anything better than neglect. If we ignore him he becomes disgusted and disappears. Jesus turned His back upon him and said, Get thee behind me, Satan. So let us refuse him, and we shall find that he will be compelled to act according to our faith.

Once I believed I must always be stumbling

For my old nature was poisoned with sin;

Now there's a mightier Power upholds me,

Cleansing and keeping and dwelling within.

Scripture
Get thee behind me, Satan—Matthew 16:23

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, October 13, 2012

The flesh is incurably bad. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. It can never be any better. It is no use trying to improve the flesh. We may educate it all we please. We may train it by the most approved methods, we may set before it the brightest examples, we may pipe to it or mourn before it we may treat it with encouragement or severity. But its nature will always be incorrigibly the same.

The wild hawk which the little child captures in its infancy and tries to train in the habits of the dove will fasten its cruel beak upon the gentle fingers that caress it, showing the old wild spirit of fear and ferocity. So the flesh is a hawk by nature, and it can never be made a dove. For the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

The only remedy for human nature is to destroy it and receive instead the divine nature. God does not improve man. He crucifies the natural life with Christ and creates the new man in Christ Jesus.

Scripture
The carnal mind is enmity against God—Romans 8:7
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, October 12, 2012

The life of Jesus Christ brought into our heart s by the Holy Spirit operates there as a new law of divine strength and vitality. it counteracts, overcomes and lifts us above the old law of sin and death.

Let us illustrate these two laws by a simple comparison. By the law of gravity my hand naturally falls upon the desk and lies there, attracted downward by that natural law which makes heavy bodies fall to the earth.

But there is a stronger law than the law of gravity-my own life and will. Through the operation of this higher law-the law of vitality-I can defy the-law of gravity, lift my hand and hold it above its former resting place and move it at my will. The law of vitality has freed me from the law of gravity.

Precisely so the indwelling life of Christ Jesus, operating with the power of a new law, lifts me above and counteracts the power of sin in my fallen nature.

Scripture
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free—Romans 8:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Holy Spirit becomes to the consecrated heart the Spirit of intercession. We have two Advocates. We have an Advocate with the Father, who prays for us at God's right hand. We also have the Holy Spirit, the Advocate within who prays in us, inspiring our petitions and presenting them, through Christ, to God.

We need this Advocate. We know not what to pray for and we know not how to pray as we ought, but He breathes in the holy heart the desires that we may not always understand, the, groanings which we could not utter.

God understands, and He, with a loving Father's heart, is always searching our hearts to find the Spirit's prayer and to answer it. He finds many a prayer there that we have not discovered, and answers many a cry that we never understood. And when we reach our heavenly home and read the records of life, we shall better know and appreciate the infinite love of that Divine Friend who has watched within as the Spirit of prayer and breathed out our every need to the heart of God.

Scripture
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God—Romans 8:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Holy Spirit is the only one who can kill us and keep us dead. Many Christians try to do this disagreeable work themselves, and they are going through a continual crucifixion but can never accomplish the work permanently. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and when we really yield ourselves to the death, it is delightful to find how sweetly He can execute the sentence.

They tell us that by the touch of the electric spark life is extinguished almost without a quiver of pain. However this may be in natural things, we know the Holy Spirit can touch with celestial fire the surrendered thing, after it is really yielded up to the sentence of death, and slay it in a moment. The yielding is our business, and it is God's business to execute the sentence and to keep it constantly operative.

May we not live in the pain of perpetual and ineffective suicide, but reckoning ourselves dead indeed, let us leave ourselves in the hands of the blessed Holy Spirit. He will slay whatever rises in opposition to His will and keep us true to our heavenly reckoning and filled with His resurrection life.

Scripture
If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live—Romans 8:13
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Peace be unto you. These words are a type of Jesus' first appearing to our hearts when He comes to bring us His peace and to teach us to trust Him and to love Him.

But there is a second peace which He has to give. Jesus said unto them again, Peace be unto you. There is a "peace," and there is an 44 again peace." There is a peace with God, and there is the peace of God, which passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7). It is the deeper peace that we need before we can serve Him or be used for His glory.

While we are burdened with our own cares, He cannot give us His. While we are occupied with ourselves, we cannot be at leisure to serve Him. Our minds will be so filled with our own anxieties that we would not be equal to the trust which He requires of us. Before He can entrust us with His work, He wants to deliver us from every burden and anxiety.

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?

The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?

To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Scripture
Peace be unto you—John 20:21

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 08, 2012

Some day even you, trembling faltering one, shall stand upon those heights that Joshua knew. As you look back upon all you have passed through, all you have narrowly escaped, all the perils through which He guided you, the stumblings through which He guarded you and the sins from which He saved you; you will shout, with a meaning you cannot understand now, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb (Revelation 7:10).

Some day He will sit down with us in that glorious home, and we shall have all the ages in which to understand the story of our lives. He will read over again this marked old Bible with us, He will show us how He kept all these promises, He will explain to us the mysteries that we could not understand, He will recall all the finished story. Then I am sure we will cry: "Blessed Christ! you have been so true, you have been so good! Was there ever love like this?" And then the great chorus will be repeated once more-There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken; . . . all came to pass.

Scripture
There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken—Joshua 21:45

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, October 07, 2012

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 us. This is the file that soon proves whether we are electroplate or solid gold. If we could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our lives, we would say like David, when Shimei cursed him, Let him curse; . . . It may be the Lord will . . . requite me good for his cursing this day (2 Samuel 16:11-12).

Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life work by pursuing their own grievances and enemies. Soon their lives become one little whirl of petty warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. We may disperse the hornets, but we will probably get terribly stung and get nothing for our pains, for even their honey is not worth a search.

God give us more of Jesus' Spirit. When he was reviled, [he] reviled not again; . . . but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously (1 Peter 2:23).

Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself (Hebrews 12:3).

Scripture
He opened not his mouth—Isaiah 53:7

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, October 06, 2012

It is a great thing to learn to take God first. Then He can afford to give us everything else without the fear of its hurting us.

As long as you want anything very much, especially more than you want God, it is an idol. When you become satisfied with God, however, everything else so loses its charm that He can give it to you without harm. Then you can take just as much as you choose and use it for His glory.

There is no harm whatever in having money, houses, lands, friends and children if you do not value these things or ones for themselves.

If you have been separated from them in spirit and become satisfied with God Himself, then they will become to you channels to be filled with God and to bring Him nearer to you. Then every little lamb around your household will be a tender cord to bind you to the Shepherd's heart. Then every affection will be a golden cup filled with the wine of His love. Then every bank, stock and investment will be but a channel through which you can pour out His benevolence and extend His grace.

Scripture
Epbraim, he hath mixed himself—Hosea 7:8

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, October 05, 2012
God calls us to victory. Have you given up the conflict, have you surrendered? Have you said, "This thing is too much?" Have you said, "I can give up anything else but this?"

If you have, you are not in the land of promise. God intends that you accept every difficult thing that comes into your life. He has started with you, knowing every difficulty, and if you dare to let Him, He will carry you through not only to be a conqueror but "more than conquerors."

Are you looking for all the victory God has for you? God gives His children strength for the battle and watches over them with a fond enthusiasm. He longs to fold you close and say to you, "I have seen thy conflict, I have watched thy trials, I have rejoiced in thy victory; thou hast honored Me." Remember what he told Joshua at the beginning, There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee (Joshua 1:5). And again, His word to us is, Fear . . . not, for I am with thee (Isaiah 41:10).

Scripture
He that triumphed gloriously—Exodus 15:1


Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, October 04, 2012

God's sweetest memorial is the transformed thorn and thistle blooming with flowers of peace and goodness where once recriminations grew.

God is waiting to make just such memorials in your life out of the things that are hurting you most today. Take the grievances, the separations, the strained friendships and the broken ties which have been the sorrow and heartbreak of your life and let God heal them. Allow Him to give you grace that can make you right with all those with whom you have been wrong. You will wonder at the joy and, blessing that will come out of the things that have caused you nothing but regret and pain.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9). The everlasting employment of our blessed Redeemer is to reconcile the guilty and the estranged from God. The highest and most Christlike work that we can do is to be like Him.

Shall we go forth to dry the tears of a sorrowing world, to heal the brokenhearted, to bind up the wounds of human lives, and to unite heart to heart and earth to heaven?

Scripture
Instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree—Isaiah 55:13

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 03, 2012

There are some things good without being perfect. You do not need to have a whole regiment firing outside your room to wake you. It is quite enough that your alarm clock rings. it is not necessary to fret about everything; it is quite enough if the devil gets your mind rasped with one little worry, one little thought which destroys your perfect peace.

It is like the polish on an exquisite table top. One scratch will destroy it; and the finer it is, the smaller the scratch that will deface it. And so your rest can be destroyed by a very little thing. Perhaps you have trusted in God about your future salvation; have you trusted Him about your present business or earthly cares, your money and your family?

What is meant by the peace [that] passeth all understanding? (Philippians 4:7). It does not mean a peace no one can comprehend. It means a peace no amount of reasoning will bring. You cannot get it by thinking. There may be perfect bewilderment and perplexity all around the horizon, yet your heart can rest in perfect security because God knows, He loves, He leads.

Scripture
The little foxes, that spoil the vines—Song of Solomon 2:15
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, October 02, 2012

The procedure was very significant. God gave the land to the other tribes of Israel, but He gave Himself to the Levites. There is such a thing in the Christian life as an inheritance from the Lord, and there is such a thing as having the Lord Himself for our inheritance.

Some people receive a sanctification from the Lord that is of much value, but variable and often impermanent. Others have learned the higher lesson of taking the Lord Himself to be their keeper and their sanctity, and abiding in Him they are kept above the vicissitudes of their own states and feelings.

Some receive from the Lord large measures of joy and blessing and times of refreshing. Others, again, learn to take the Lord Himself as their joy.

Some people are content to have peace with God, but others have taken the peace of God, which passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

Some have faith in God, while others have the faith of God. Some have many touches of healing from God, others have learned to live in the very health of God Himself.

Scripture
Moses gave not any inheritance: the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them—Joshua 13:33

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 01, 2012

Christ's great purpose for His people is to train them to know the hope of [their] calling, and . . . the riches of the glory of their inheritance, . . . and what . . . the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe (Ephesians 1:18-19).

Let us prove, in all our varied walks of life and scenes of conflict, the fullness of His power and grace, and thus shall we know in the ages to come . . . the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Are we thus following our Teacher in the school of faith, and finishing the education which is to fit us for a far more exceeding and eternal weight, of glory? (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Little can we now dream what these lessons will mean for us some day when we sit with Him on His throne and share with Him the power of God and the government of the universe. Let us be faithful students now, and soon with Him we, too, will have endured the cross, despising the shame, and shall sit down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

Scripture
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace—Ephesians 2:7