Days of Heaven on Earth

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, May 30, 2015

I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments. I will put my fear in [your] hearts, that [you] shall not depart from me (Jeremiah 32:40). Would you not find that a blessed rest when you are worn out from struggling in your own strength? Do you not feel the need of an invincible man to conquer the strong man of self and sin? Do you want a leader? Do you want God Himself to be with you, to be within you? Do you want rest? Are you conscious of this need?

Are you weary of this sense of being beaten back, of longing, wanting but not accomplishing? That is what He comes to do. Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you (Acts 1:8). Better than that, "Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you. 11 That is the true version, and is immensely different from the other. You shall not receive power yourself, so that people will say, "How much power that man has!" You shall not have any power whatever, but you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you. The power is His!-and it is sufficient.

Scripture
I will put my spirit within you—Ezekiel 36:27

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 29, 2015

Just as it was Christ Himself who justified us, and Christ Himself who was made unto us sanctification, so it is only by personal union with Him that we can receive this physical life and redemption. indeed, it is not a touch of power upon our bodies which restores and then leaves them to the mere resources of natural strength and life for the future. Rather, it is the vital and actual union of our mortal bodies with the risen body of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that His own very life comes into our frames and He is Himself made unto us strength, health and full physical redemption.

He is alive forevermore and condescends to live in these houses of clay. They who thus receive Him may know Him as none ever can who exclude Him from the bodies which He made for Himself. This is one of the deep and precious mysteries of the gospel. The body is . . . for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, . . . and ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, which [is] God's (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Scripture
The body is . . . for the Lord; and the Lord for the body—1 Corinthians 6:13

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, May 28, 2015

0ne of the hardest things for those having a lofty and superior nature is to be under authority, to renounce their own will and to take a place of subjection. Christ took upon Him the form of a servant, gave up His independence, His right to please Himself, His liberty of choice. After having had from eternal ages the right to command, He gave Himself up to implicit obedience.

I knew a man who was once a wealthy employer but became a clerk in the same store. It was not an easy or graceful position, I assure you.

But Jesus was such a perfect servant that His Father said: Behold, my servant . . . in whom my soul delighteth (Isaiah 42:1). All His life His watchword was, the Son of man came . . . to minister (Matthew 20:28). I am among you as he that serveth (Luke 22:27). I can of mine own self do nothing (John 5:30). Not as I will, but as thou wilt (Matthew 26:39).

And then at last He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. His life was a continual dying, and at last He gave all up to death, and also shame, in His crucifixion. This final act was the consummation of His love.

Have you, have I, learned the servant's place?

Scripture
He humbled himself—Philippians 2:8

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, May 27, 2015

You cannot make the heart restful by stopping its beating. Certain drugs will do that, but that is not really rest. Let the breath of life come-God's life and strength-and there will be sweet rest. Home ties and family affection will not bring it. Deliverance from trouble will not bring it. Many a tried heart has said: "if this great trouble were only gone, I would have rest." But as soon as one crisis goes another comes.

The poor wounded deer on the mountainside thinks if it could only bathe in the cold mountain stream it would have rest. But the arrow is in its flesh, and there is no rest for it until the wound is healed. It is as sore in the mountain lake as on the plain.

We shall never have God's rest and peace in our hearts until we have surrendered everything, even our work, to Christ and believe He has taken it all. Then we have only to be still and trust.

It is necessary to walk in holy obedience and let God have the government on His shoulder. Paul said, "This one thing I do." There is one narrow path for us all-Christ's will and work for us.

Scripture
The government shall be upon his shoulder—Isaiah 9:6

Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Commit means to hand over, to trust wholly to another. So, if we give our trials to Him, He will carry them. If we walk in righteousness He will carry us through. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time (I Peter 5:6).

There are two hands there-God's hand pressing us down, humbling us, and then God's hand lifting us up. [Cast] all your care upon him; for he careth for you (1 Peter 5:7).

There are two cares in this verse-your care and His care. They are different in the original. One means anxious care, the other means Almighty care. Cast your anxious care on Him and take His Almighty care instead. No longer be overwhelmed by trouble, but believe God is able to sustain you through it. The government is on His shoulder. Believe that if you trust and obey Him and meet His will, He will look after your interests. Simply exchange burdens. Take His yoke upon you, and let Him care for you.

Scripture
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God—Philippians 4:6

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, May 25, 2015

Better to know Jesus Himself than to know the truth about Him, for the deep things of God are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Paul's great desire was, that I may know him. Not just know about Him, or the mysteries of the wonderful world, or even the deeper and higher teachings of God, but to enter into the Holy of Holies where Christ is, where the Shekinah is shining, making the place glorious with the holiness of God. it is to enter into the secret of the Lord Himself.

it was what Jacob strove for at Peniel when he pleaded with God. God has given us he light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). That is the secret. It is the Lord Himself, and nothing else; it is acquaintance with God; it is knowing Jesus Christ as we know no one else.

It is being able to say not only "I believe Him, but "I know Him. "It is being able to say not only "I know about Him," but "I know Him." That is the secret above all others that God wants us to have; it is His provision for glory and power, and it is given freely to the single-hearted seeker.

Scripture
That I may know him—Philippians 3:10

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, May 24, 2015

Jewels, in themselves, are valueless unless they are brought into contact with light. If they are put into certain positions they will reflect the beauty of the sun. There is no beauty in them otherwise. The diamond that is stored in a dark gallery or remains down in the deep mine displays no beauty whatever. What is it but a piece of charcoal, a bit of common carbon, unless it becomes a medium for reflecting light?

So it is also with the other precious gems. if they are many-sided, they reflect more light and display more beauty. In its crude state the diamond does not reflect light at all. We are in a crude state and are of no use until God comes and shines upon us. The light that is in a diamond is not its own possession; it is the beauty of the sun. What beauty is there in the child of God? Only the beauty of Jesus. We are His peculiar people, chosen to show forth the excellencies of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). Let us reflect today His light and love.

Scripture
Where is the way where light dwelleth—Job 38:19

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, May 23, 2015

Many Christians fail to see all the blessings that are centered in Christ. They want to get the blessing of salvation, but that is not the Christ. They want to get the blessing of His grace to help, but that is not Him. They want to get answered prayer from Him in order to work for Him. You might have all that and not have the blessing of Christ Himself.

A great many people are attached to the system of doctrine. They say, "Yes, I have the truth; I am orthodox." That is not the Christ. It may be like the cold statue in the fountain with the water pressing from the cold hands and lips, but having no life.

A great many other people want to get the blessing of joy, but this is not the blessing of Christ personally. Many people become attached to their church and pastor, or to dear Christian friends, but that is not the Christ. The blessing that alone will fill our hearts when all else fails is the loving heart of Jesus united to us, the fountain of all our blessings and the unfailing One when all others wither and are exhausted-Jesus Christ Himself.

Scripture
The fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ—Romans 15:29

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, May 21, 2015

The Bible has always held out two great promises respecting Christ. First, He will come to us. Second, He will come into us.

For four thousand years the world looked forward to the fulfillment of the first promise. The other is the secret which Paul says hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, which is Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:26-27). This is just as great a revelation of God as the incarnation of Jesus, for it makes us like Christ, as free from sin as He is.

If Christ is in us, what will be the consequences? Why, He will put us aside entirely. The I in us will go. We will say, "Not I, but Christ." Christ undertakes our battles for us. Christ becomes purity and grace and strength in us.

We do not try to attain these things; we have obtained them in Jesus. This brings glorious rest with the Master. Jesus does not say, "Now we must bring forth fruit, we must pray much, we must do this or that." There is no constraint about it, except that we must abide in Him. That is the center of all joy and help.

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

nspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 22, 2015

How must God feel when we disappoint Him after He has given us His heart's blood, put so many advantages in our way and expended upon us so much grace and care. it makes the spirit cry, "Who is sufficient for these things?"

In my mind's eye I can see before me the time when we shall stand on heaven's shore and look back upon the years that have been, these few short years of time. May we cast ourselves at Jesus' feet and say: "Many a time have I faltered; many a hard fight has come, but Thou hast kept me and held me, thanks to God, who has given me the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ."

Fresh from the battlefields a little band of veterans Came forth. To each was given a medal with the names of their battles on one side, and on the other side this little sentence, "I was there. "Oh, when that hour shall come, may it be a supremely happy thought to look back over the trials and sacrifices of these days and remember, "I was there, and by the help of God and the grace of Jesus, I am here."

Scripture
Fight the good fight of faith—1 Timothy 6:12

Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Recently I passed a garden. The gardener had finished his pruning and the wounds of the knife and saw were just beginning to heal. The warm April sun was gently nourishing the stricken plant into fresh life and energy.

As I looked at that plant I thought how cruel it would be were the owner to begin next week to cut it down. The gardener's business now is to revive and nourish it into life. Its business is not to die, but to live.

So it is with the discipline of the soul. It, too, has its dying hour, but it must not always be dying. Rather we are to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Death is but a moment. We should live, then, as children of the resurrection, depending more and more on His glorious life. The fullness of our lives will then repel the intrusion of self and sin and overcome evil with good. Our existence will not then be the dreary repression of our own struggling but the springing tide of Christ's spontaneous overcoming and everlasting life.

Scripture
He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit—John 15:2

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, May 20, 2015

What a privilege that we may consecrate ourselves! What a mercy that God will take such worthless creatures! What rest and comfort lie hidden in those words, "Not your own." We are not responsible for our salvation, not burdened by our cares, not obliged to live for our interests, but altogether His. We are redeemed, owned, saved and kept in the strong, unchanging arms of His everlasting love.

What unbroken rest from sin and self and destructive care which true consecration brings! To be able to give Him our poor weak lives, with their awful possibilities and their utter helplessness, and know that He will accept them and take joy and pride in making out of them the utmost possibilities of blessing, power and usefulness. To give all, and find in so doing we have gained all! To be so yielded to Him in entire self-surrender that He is bound to care for us as for Himself. in such a step of consecration we are putting ourselves in the hands of a loving Father, more solicitous for our good than we can be and only wanting us to be fully submitted to Him that He may be freer to bless us.

Scripture
Ye are not your own—1 Corinthians 6:19

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, May 16, 2015

United to Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, we are accepted in the Beloved. He does not merely take our place as a man and settle our debts. He does that and more. He comes to give a perfect ideal of what a man should be. He is the model man, not for us to copy, for that would only bring discouragement and utter failure; but He will come and reproduce Himself in us.

If Christ lives in me, I am another Christ. I am not like Him, but I have the same mind. The very Christ is in me. This is the foundation of Christian holiness and divine healing. Christ is developing a perfect life within us. Some say man can never be perfect. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. We are all failures. This is true, but we should go further. We must take God's provision for our failure and rise above it through His grace. We must take Jesus as a substitute for our miserable selves. We must give up the good as well as the bad and take Him instead. It is hard for us to learn that we must relinquish even the good in order that we will depend upon divine impulses rather than even our best attainments.

Scripture
It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps—Jeremiah 10:23

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, May 17, 2015

A precious secret of Christian life is to have Jesus dwelling within the heart and conquering things that we never could overcome. it is the only secret of power in our lives. Men cannot understand it nor will the world believe it, but it is true that God will come to dwell within us and be the power, the purity, the victory and the joy of our lives. Our attitudes will no longer be, "What is the best that I can do?" but we will ask, "What is the best that Christ can do?" it enables us to say with Paul in that beautiful passage in Philippians, I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to stiffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (4:12-13).

With this knowledge I go forth to meet my testings, and this knowledge enables me to stand. I could never keep myself, but because Christ has met the adversary and defeated him for me I am kept pure and clean. Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:57).

Scripture
To him that overcometh, will I give—Revelation 2:17

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, May 18, 2015

This definite, absolute and final putting off of ourselves in an act of death is something we cannot do ourselves. It is not self-mortifying, but it is dying with Christ. Nothing can do it but the cross of Christ and the Spirit of God.

The church is full of half-dead people who have been trying to slay themselves for years and have not had the courage to strike the fatal blow. Yet if they would just put themselves at Jesus' feet and let Him do it, there would be accomplishment and rest. On the cross He provided for our death as well as our life, and our part is just to let His death be applied to our nature as it has been to our old sins. When we have done this we must leave it all with Him, think no more about it and count it dead. Recognizing it as no longer ourselves, but another, we must refuse to obey it, or fear it, to be identified with it, or even try to cleanse it. We must consider it utterly in His hands-and dead to us forever-and depend on Him for every breath of our new life as a newborn baby depends upon the life of its mother.

Scripture
For ye are dead—Colossians 3:3

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, May 14, 2015

What else do we really need? What else is He trying to make us understand? The religion of the Bible is wholly supernatural. The one resource of faith has always been the living God, and Him alone. The children of Israel were utterly dependent upon Jehovah as they marched through the wilderness. The one reason their foes feared them and hastened to submit themselves was that they recognized among them the shout of a King and the presence of One compared with whom all their strength was vain.

Wherein, asked Moses, shall it be known here that Iand thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? (Exodus 33:16). A church relying on human wisdom, wealth or resources ceases to be the body of Christ and becomes an earthly society. When we dare to depend entirely upon God and do not doubt, the humblest and feeblest agencies will become mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4).

May the Holy Spirit give to us at all times His own conception of these two great words, But God!

Scripture
But God—Luke 12:20

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 15, 2015

We have thought much about what we have received. Let us think of the things we have not received, of some of the vessels that have not yet been filled, of some of the places in our lives that the Holy Spirit has not yet possessed for God and signalized by His glory and His presence.

Shall the coming months be marked by a diligent, heart-searching application of the rest of the oil (see Leviticus 14:17-20) to the yet unoccupied possibilities of our life and service?

Have we known His fullness of grace in our spiritual lives? Have we tasted a little of His glory? Have we believed His promise for the mind, the soul, the spirit? Have we known all His possibilities for the body? Have we tested Him in His power to control the events of nature and to move the hearts of men and nations? Has He opened to us the treasure house of God and met our financial needs as He might? Have we begun to understand the ministry of prayer, as God would have us exercise it? God give us the rest of the oil!

Scripture
I press toward the mark—Philippians 3:14

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, May 09, 2015

It was a stirring greeting which the Lord of Life spoke to His first disciples on the morning of the resurrection. It is a bright and radiant word which, in His Name, we would speak to His beloved children at the commencement of another day.

it means a good deal more than appears on the surface. It is really a prayer for our health, but which none but those who believe in the healing of the body can fully understand. A thoughtful friend suggested once that the word "hail" really means health, and it is just the old Saxon form of the word. We all know that a hale person is a healthy person. Our Lord's message, therefore, was substantially that greeting which from time immemorial we give to one another when we meet: "How is your health?" "How are you?" or, better still, "I wish you health."

Christ's wish is equal to a promise and command. It is very similar to the apostle John's benediction to his dear friend Gaius, and we would re-echo it to our beloved friends according to the fullness of the Master's will. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth (3 John 2).

Scripture
All hail—Matthew 28:9

Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, May 10, 2015

Here is the message of the Christ of the cross and the still more glorious and precious Christ of the resurrection. It is beautiful and inspiring to note the touch of light and glory with which these simple words invest the cross. It does not say, I am he that was dead and liveth, but I am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold, I am alive forevermore. Life is mentioned before the death.

There are two ways of looking at the cross. One is from the death side and the other from the life side. One is the Ecce Homo (behold the man) and the other is the glorified Jesus with only the marks of the nails and the spear. It is thus we are to look at the cross. We are not to carry about with us the mold of the sepulcher, but the glory of the resurrection. It is not the Ecce Homo, but the Living Christ.

Our crucifixion is to be so complete that it shall be lost in our resurrection, and we shall even forget our sorrow and carry with us the light and glory of the eternal morning. So let us live the death-born life, ever new and full of a life that can never die because it is dead and alive forevermore.

Scripture
I am alive forevermore—Revelation 1:18

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, May 11, 2015

First and foremost Christ teaches resurrection and life. The power of Christianity is life. It brings us not merely law, duty, example, with high and holy teaching and admonition; it brings us the power to follow the higher ideal and the life that spontaneously does the things commanded. And it is not only life, but resurrection life.

It begins with a real crisis, a definite transaction, a point of time as clear as the morning dawn. It is not an everlasting dying and an eternal struggle to live. But it is all expressed in a tense that denotes definiteness, fixedness and finality. We actually died at a certain point and as actually began to live the resurrection life.

Let us reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11).

And death is only the pathway and portal

To the life that shall die nevermore;

And the cross leadeth up to the crown everlasting,

The Jordan to Canaan's bright shore.

Scripture
Whosoever will save his life shall lose it—Luke 9:24

Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Beloved, do you not long for God's quiet, the inner chambers, the shadow of the Almighty, the secret of His presence? Your life has been, perhaps, all driving and doing; or perhaps straining, struggling, longing and not obtaining. You long for rest! you long to lie down close to His heart and know that you have all in Him, that every question is answered, every doubt settled, every interest safe, every prayer answered, every desire satisfied. Lift up the cry, Tell me, 0 thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon!

Blessed be His name! He has for us His exclusive love-a love which each individual feels is all for himself, one in which he can lie alone upon His breast and have a place which no other can dispute. And yet His heart is so great that He can hold a thousand millions just as near, and each heart seems to possess Him as exclusively for his own as the thousand little pools of water upon the beach can reflect the sun, and each little pool appears to have the whole sun captured in its beautiful depths. Christ can teach us this secret of His inmost love.

Scripture
Tell me . . . where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon—Song of Solomon 1:7

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Christianity may mean nothing more than a religious system. The Christian life may mean nothing more than an earnest and honest attempt to follow and imitate Christ.

The Christ life is more than these and expresses our actual union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is actually in us as the life and source of all our experience and work.

This conception of the highest Christian life is at once simpler and more sublime than any other. We do not teach that the purpose of Christ's redemption is to restore us to Adamic perfection, for if we had it we should lose it tomorrow. Rather, it is to unite us with the second Adam, and to lift us up to a higher plane than our first parents ever knew.

This is the only thing that can reconcile the warring elements of diverse schools of teaching with respect to Christian life. The Spirit of God will lead us to have no controversy respecting mere theories. Rather, we are simply to hold to the person and life of Jesus Christ Himself and the privilege of being united to Him through living in constant dependence upon His keeping power and grace.

Scripture
Abide in me—John 15:4

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 08, 2015

Death and resurrection are the central ideas of nature and Christianity. We see them in the transformation of the chrysalis, in the buried seed bursting into the bud and blossom of spring, in the transformation of the cold shroud of winter into the tinted robes of spring. We see it throughout the Bible in the symbol of circumcision with its significance of death and life, in the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan leading out and leading in, and in the cross of Calvary and the open grave of the Easter morning.

We see it in every deep spiritual life. Every true life is death-born, and the deeper the dying the truer the living. No doubt the passing months have shown us all many places where there ought to be a grave, and many lingering remnants of the natural and sinful which we ought gladly to commit to a bottomless grave. God help us to pass upon them the irrevocable sentence of death and to let the Holy Spirit make the interment eternal. Then our life shall be continually budding and blossoming and shedding fragrance over all.

Scripture
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die—John 12:24

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, May 07, 2015

It is a blessed moment when we are born again and a new heart is created in us after the image of God. It is a more blessed moment when, in this new heart, Christ Himself is born and Christmas time is reproduced in us as we, in some real sense, become incarnations of the living Christ. This is the deepest and holiest meaning of Christianity. It is expressed in Paul's prayer for the Galatians. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.

There will yet be a more glorious era when we, like Him, shall be transformed and transfigured into His glory, and in the resurrection shall be, in spirit, soul and body, even as He.

Let us be, under the power of the inspiring thought, incarnations of Christ, not living our life, but the Christ life, and showing forth the excellencies, not of ourselves, but of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. As a result our lives shall be to all the reliving of the Christ life, as He would have lived it had He been here.

Scripture
I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you—Galatians 4:19

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 01, 2015

Nature's harshness has melted away and she is now beaming with the smile of spring, and everything around us whispers of the gentleness of God. This beautiful fruit is in lovely harmony with the gentle month of which it is the keynote. May the Holy Spirit lead us these days into His purity, quietness and gentleness, subduing every coarse, rude, harsh and unholy habit. May He make us like Him-of whom it is said, He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets (Matthew 12:19)

The man who is truly filled with Jesus will always be a gentleman. The woman who is baptized of the Holy Spirit will have the instincts of a perfect lady, although lowborn and untutored in the schools of earthly refinement. Let us receive and reflect the gentleness of Christ until the world will say of us, as the polished infidel Chesterfield once said of the saintly Fenelon, "if I had remained in his house another day, I should have had to become a Christian."

Lord, help us today to so yield to the gentle Dove-Spirit that our lives shall be as His life.

Scripture
The fruit of the Spirit is . . . gentleness—Galatians 5:22

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, May 02, 2015

How these words help us! Think of them when people rasp you, when the devil pricks you with his fiery darts, when your sensitive, self-willed spirit chafes or frets. Let a gentle voice be heard above the strife, whispering, "Keep sweet, keep sweet!" And, if you will but heed it quickly, you will be saved from a thousand falls and kept in perfect peace.

True, we cannot keep ourselves sweet, but God will keep us if He sees that it is our fixed, determined purpose to be kept sweet, and to refuse to fret or bear a grudge or retaliate. The trouble is, we may at times enjoy a little irritation and morbidness. We want to cherish the little grudge, and sympathize with our hurt feelings and nurse our little grievance.

God will give us all the love we really want and honestly choose. We can have our grievance, or we can have the peace that passeth all understanding; but we cannot have both.

There is a balm for a thousand heartaches, and a heaven of peace and power in these two little words-keep sweet.

Scripture
Always causeth us to triumph—2 Corinthians 2:14

Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, May 03, 2015

Here lies the secret of abiding peace-God's peace. We give ourselves to God and the Holy Spirit takes possession of our hearts. It is indeed "Peace, peace." But it is at this precise point that the devil begins to interfere, and he does it through our thoughts, diverting or distracting them as the occasion requires.

This is the time to prove the sincerity of our consecration and the singleness of our hearts. If we truly desire His presence more than anything, we will turn away from every conflicting thought and look steadily up to Jesus. But if we desire the gratification of our impulses more than His presence, we will yield to the passionate word, or the frivolous thought, or the sinful diversion. Then when we come back, our Shepherd has gone, and we wonder why our peace has departed.

Failure occurs often in some insignificant thing-usually a thought or word. The soul that would not fear to climb a mountain may actually stumble over a straw.

The real secret of perfect rest is to be jealously, habitually occupied with Jesus.

Scripture
My peace I give unto you—John 14:27

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, May 04, 2015

Satan loves to trip us over little things. The reason for this is that it is generally a greater victory for him and shows that he can upset us by a shaving and knock us down with a straw. It is the old boast of the Jebusites, when they told David they could defend Jerusalem by a garrison of the blind and lame.

Most of us manage better in our great struggles than we do in our minor ones. It was over a little piece of fruit that Adam fell, but all the world was wrecked. Keep a close watch for the little stumbling blocks and do not let Satan laugh at you and tell his demons how he tripped you over a banana peel. Then, too, when the devil wants to hinder some great blessing in our lives, he generally throws some ugly shadow over it and makes it look distasteful to us. How many times has the devil succeeded in preventing us from receiving God's greatest blessing by keeping us from certain truths or places or persons which we avoided because of our false or foolish prejudice!

Scripture
Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world—1 John 4:4

Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, May 05, 2015

God is waiting today to mark the opening hours, for every ready and willing heart, with a touch of life and power that will lift us to higher pleasures and offer to our vision grander horizons of hope and holy service.

We shall not need to look far to discover our risen Lord. He was in advance even of the earliest seeker that Easter morning, and He will be waiting for us before the break of day with His glad "All hail" if we only have eyes to see and hearts to welcome and obey Him.

What is His message to us this springtime? If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1, 3).

It is not just risen with Christ, but resurrected. It is not rising a little higher in the old life, but it is rising from the dead. The resurrection will mean no more than the death has meant. Only so far as we are really dead shall we live with Him.

Scripture
If ye then be risen—Colossians 3:1

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Death is but for a moment; life is forever. Let us live, then, as children of the resurrection, finding His glorious life more and more abundant, and the fullness of this life will repel the intrusion of self and sin and overcome evil with good. Then our existence will not be the dreary repression of our own struggling, but the springing tide of Christ's spontaneous overcoming life.

Once in a religious meeting a dear pastor gave us a most exhilarating talk on the risen life. Then another minister got up and talked for a long time on the necessity of self-crucifixion. A cold feeling came over us all and we could scarcely understand why. But after he had finished, one of the women clarified the whole situation by saying, "Pastor S. took us all out of the grave, and then Pastor P. put us back again. "

Let us not go back into the grave once we have been delivered, but let us live like Christ, who liveth and was dead; and, behold, [he is] alive forevermore, and [has] the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1: 18). Let us keep out of the tomb. Keep the door locked and the keys in Christ's risen hands!

Scripture
Reckon ye also yourselves to be . . . alive unto God—Romans 6:11

Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, April 26, 2015

If you have ever tried to plough a straight furrow in the country-I feel sorry for the man who does not know how to plough and more sorry for the man who is too proud to want to know-you have no doubt found it necessary to have two stakes in a line and to drive your horses by these stakes. If you have only one stake before you, you will have no steadying point for your vision, and you can swerve about without knowing it, making your furrows as crooked as a serpent's coil. But if you have two stakes and always keep them in line, you cannot deviate an inch from a straight line, and your furrow will be as an arrow speeding to its target.

This can be a great lesson to us in our Christian lives. If we would run a straight course, we must have two stakes-the near and the distant. it is not enough to be living in the present; it is likewise a great and glorious thing to have a distant goal.

Scripture
Strangers and pilgrims—Hebrews 11:13

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, April 27, 2015

Spiritual conditions are inseparably connected with our physical life. The flow of the divine life-currents may be interrupted by a little clot of blood; the vital current may leak out through a very small wound.

If you want to keep the health of Christ, keep from all spiritual infections, from all heart wounds and irritations. One hour of worry will wear out more vitality than a week of work; one minute of malice or jealousy or envy will hurt more than a drink of poison. Pleasantness of spirit and joyousness of heart are essential to full health. Quietness of spirit, gentleness, tranquility and the peace of God that passes all understanding are worth more than all the sleeping pills in the country.

We do not wonder that some people have poor health when we hear them talk for half an hour. They have enough dislikes, prejudices, doubts and fears to exhaust the strongest constitution.

My friend, if you would maintain God's life and strength, keep out the things that kill it. Keep yourself for Him and for His work, and you will find enough and to spare.

Scripture
The sweetness of the lips—Proverbs 16:21

Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Sanctification is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the prepared inheritance of all who enter in. It is the obtainment of faith, not the attainment of works. It is divine holiness, not human self-improvement or perfection. It is the inflow into man's being of the life and purity of the infinite, eternal and Holy One. It is the bringing in of God's own perfection and the working out of His own will.

How easy, how spontaneous, how delightful this heavenly way of holiness! Surely it is a "highway" and not the low way of man's vain and fruitless mortification. It is God's great elevated railway, sweeping over the heads of the struggling throngs who toil along the lower road when they might be borne along on His ascension pathway by His own almighty impulse. It is God's great elevator carrying us up to the higher chambers of His palace, without arduous efforts, while others struggle up the winding stairs and faint by the way.

Let us today so fully take Him that He can cause [us] to walk in [his] statutes (Ezekiel 36:27).

Scripture
For it is God which worketh in you—Philippians 2:13

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, April 29, 2015

This is a most serious thought, this thought of finishing our work. There is nothing in the Christian life quite so sad as unfinished work.

As I look over the work of God, I see strewn all along the way this curse of incompleted work. The book of Judges tells us of five hundred years of declension because God's people did not complete their work when they were in possession of Canaan. They conquered Jericho; they conquered 31 kingdoms; they divided the land among 12 victorious tribes; but they left here and there little strongholds that were not subdued-little tribes that could not or would not be driven out-and it was not long until they brought Israel under subjection and neutralized all the work of Joshua's conquest.

Consider the ministry of Elijah. Never has the world seen anything more sublime than his victory on Carmel. But who has not grieved at his reaction on the following day when, at the shaking of a woman's finger, he fled into the desert and left the field in possession of God's enemies.

It is not enough to go on for a while. It is the last step that wins. May God put on our hearts this thought, that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have receive of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Scripture
That I might finish my course with joy—Acts 20:24

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, April 30, 2015

There is a beautiful expression in the book of Isaiah which reflects with accuracy the depth of the love of God. He said, They are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour (Isaiah 63:8). They lied, but He would not believe it. At least He speaks as if He would not believe it, in the greatness of His love, because they were His people. He has not seen iniquity in Jacob nor perversity in Israel. There is plenty of it to see, and the devil sees it all, and a good many people are only too glad to see it, but the dear Father will not see it. He covers it with His love and the precious blood of His atoning Son.

Such a wonderful love ought surely to make us more gentle to others and more anxious to cause our Father less need to hide His loving eyes from our imperfections and faults.

if we have the mind and heart of Christ, we shall clothe even the non-Christians with those graces which faith can claim for them. We shall try our best to count them as if they were real, and by love and prayer we shall at length make them real. Love believeth all things (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Scripture
Love believeth all things—1 Corinthians 13:7

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, April 25, 2015

The great tide is bearing up the stranded ship until she floats above the sand bar with neither straining seam nor struggling seaman. No need now for the ineffectual and toilsome efforts of the crew and the strain of the engines which had tried in vain to move her an inch before that heavenly impulse lifted her by its own attraction.

God lifts up, by means of His sunbeams, the mighty iceberg which a million men could not raise a single inch, but which melts away before the sun's warm rays and rises in vapor clouds to meet its embrace until that cold and heavy mass is floating in glorious fleecy clouds in the blue ocean of the sky.

How easy all this! How mighty! How simple! How divine! Beloved, have you come into the divine life of holiness? If you have, how your heart must swell with gratitude! If you have not, do you not long for it, and will you not unite in the prayer of the text that the very God of peace will sanctify you wholly?

Scripture
The very God of peace sanctify you wholly—1 Thessalonians 5:23

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, April 24, 2015

A life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden upon the ark of God. They were placed upon it with the best intent to steady the ark as the oxen drew the cart carrying it along the rough way. But they touched God's work presumptuously, and they fell paralyzed and lifeless.

Much of the life of faith consists in letting things alone. If we wholly trust an interest to God we can keep our hands off it, and He will guard it for us better than we can help Him. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass (Psalm 37:7).

Things may seem to be going all wrong, but He knows better than we, and He will arise in the right moment if we are really trusting Him completely enough to let Him work in His own way and time. There is nothing so effective as inactivity in some things, and there is nothing so damaging as restless working, for God has undertaken to work His sovereign will.

Scripture
Fret not thyself in any wise—Psalm 37:8

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, April 23, 2015

Some time ago I was talking with a greatly suffering woman about healing. She was quite burdened physically and sincerely wanted to be able to trust the Lord for deliverance. After a short conversation I prayed with her, committing her case to the Lord, asking that in absolute trust she might claim deliverance.

As soon as I ended my prayer she grasped my hand and asked me to unite with her in the burden that was most upon her heart. And then, without a word of reference to her own healing or the burden under which she was being crushed to death, she burst into an impassioned prayer for an orphan boy of whom she had just heard that day. Never have I heard a prayer surpass it for sympathy and love, as she implored God in agonizing sobs to help him and save him. And then she ceased without even referring to her own need.

I was deeply touched by the spectacle of love, and I thought how the Father's heart must be touched for her own need.

Scripture
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities—Hebrews 4:15

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, April 15, 2015

There is a very singular shrub which grows abundantly in the west and is to be found in all parts of Texas. The mesquite, sometimes called the "mosquito tree," is a very slim and willowy looking shrub and would seem to be of little use for any industrial purposes; but it has extraordinary roots growing like great timbers underground and possessing such qualities of endurance in all situations that it was once valued as pavement material. It is said that the city of San Antonio was once paved with these roots.

The mosquito tree reminds us of those Christians who make little show externally, but their growth is chiefly underground-out of sight in the depth of God. These are the men and women that God uses for the foundations of things, and for the pavements of that city of God which will stand when all earthly things have crumbled into ruin and dissolved into oblivion.

Deeper, deeper let the living waters flow;

Blessed Holy Spirit! River of Salvation!

All Thy fullness let me know.

Scripture
Rooted and grounded in love—Ephesians 3:17

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, April 16, 2015

Be brave. Cowards always get hurt. Brave men generally come out unharmed. Jeremiah, was a hero. He shrank from nothing. He faced his king and countrymen with dauntless bravery, and the result was he suffered no harm but came through the siege of Jerusalem without a hair being injured. Zedekiah, the cowardly king, was always afraid to obey God and be true, and the result was he at last met the most cruel punishment ever inflicted on a human being.

The men and women who from the beginning stand true to their convictions have the fewest tests. When God gives to you a hard trial, if you can stand the strain He may not repeat it. When Abraham offered up his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, it was a final testing for the rest of his life. Do not let Satan see that you are afraid of him, for he will pursue to the death if he thinks that he has a chance of getting you.

Be true, be true,

Whether friends be false or few,

Whatsoe'er betide, ever at His side,

Let Him always find you true.

Scripture
Quit you like men—1 Corinthians 16:13

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, April 17, 2015

Temperance is true self-government. It involves the grace of self-denial and the spirit of a sound mind. It is that poise of spirit that holds us quiet, self-possessed, composed, deliberate and subject to the voice of God and the conviction of duty in every step we take. Many persons do not have that poise and serenity. They are drifting at the impulse of their own impressions and moods, the influence of others or the circumstances around them.

No desire should ever control us. No purpose, however right, should have such mastery over us that we are not perfectly free. Our pure affection may be an inordinate affection. Our work itself may be a selfish passion. That thing that we began to do because it was God's will we may cling to and persist in, ultimately, because it is our own will.

Lord, give us a spirit ever controlled by Thy Spirit and will and the eye that looks to Thee every moment as the eyes of a maiden to the hands of her mistress (Psalm 123:2). So shall Thy service be our perfect freedom, and our subjection divinest liberty.

Scripture
He that ruleth his spirit [is better] than he that taketh a city—Proverbs 16:32

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, April 18, 2015

They shall mount up with wings as eagles is God's preliminary; the next promise is, they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Hours of holy exultation are the reward for hours of patient plodding, waiting and working. Nature has its springs, and so has grace.

Let us rejoice in the Lord always. Let us take Him to be our continual joy, whose heart is a fountain of blessedness and who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows.

We must not be disappointed if the tides are not always equally high. Even at low tide the ocean is just as full. Human nature could not stand perpetual excitement, even of a happy kind, and God often rests in His love.

Let us live as unselfconsciously as possible, filling up each moment with faithful service and trusting Him to stir the springs at His will. Then as we go on in faithful service, we shall bear, again and again, His glad whisper: Well done, thou good and faithful servant: . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Matthew 25:21).

Scripture
They shall mount up with wings—Isaiah 40:31

Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, April 19, 2015

The Gospel of Mark, which is the gospel of service, contains a very suggestive thought. We hear the Master saying to His disciples, Come ye apart into a desert place, and rest a while (Mark 6:31). It is possible to possess an energy that may be tireless and ceaseless, and yet still as the ocean's depth. It is possible to know the peace of God which passes all understanding.

The two deepest secrets of rest are to be in harmony with the will of God and to trust. Great peace have they that love thy law (Psalm 119:165), expresses the first. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee (Isaiah 26:3), describes the second.

There is much involved in learning to "stay." Sometimes we forget that it literally means to stop. It is a great blessing even to stop all thought. Often, the only way to counter the devil's whirlwind of irritating questions and thoughts is to be absolutely still, to refuse even to think and to meet his evil voice with a simple and everlasting No!

If we will be still, God will give us peace.

Scripture
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him—Psalm 37:7

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, April 20, 2015

It is easy for water to run down from the upper springs, but it requires a divine impulse for it to flow up from the valley in the subterranean springs. There is nothing that tells more of Christ than to see a Christian rejoicing and cheerful in the humdrum and routine of commonplace work. He or she is like the sailors who stand on the dock loading their vessel and singing as they swing their loads. The praiseful Christian is keeping time in spirit with the footsteps and movements of labor and duty.

No one has a sweeter or higher ministry for Christ than men and women at their regular occupations who can carry the light of heaven in their faces all day long. Certain sea fowl can plunge beneath the ocean's surface and come forth without one drop of water adhering to their beautiful plumage, burnished breasts and glowing wings. On their feathers is a subtle oil that keeps the water from sticking. So, thank God, we too may be anointed with the Holy Spirit to the extent that sin, sorrow and defilement will not adhere to us. Instead, we shall pass through every sea as the ship passes through the waves-in, but above the floods around us.

Scripture
There they dwelt with the king for his work—1 Chronicles 4:23

Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Divine anointing is the secret of the deeper life, but that ye [may be] rooted and grounded in love (Ephesians 3:17) is the substance and sweetness of it.

The fullness of the divine love in the heart will make everything easy. It is very easy to trust those whom we love, and the more we realize their love the more we will trust them for it. This love is the source of healing. The tide of love flowing through our bodies will strangely strengthen our very frame and the spring of youth and freshness in our physical being.

The secret of love is very simple. It is to take the heart of Jesus for our love and claim His love for every need of life, whether it be toward God or toward others. It is very satisfying to think of other persons in this way. "I will take the heart of Jesus toward them, to let me love them as He loves them." Then we can love even the unworthy in some measure, if we see them in the light of His love-as they shall be and not as they now are, unworthy of our love.

Scripture
The anointing which ye have received—1 John 2:27

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Often we want people to pray for us and help us, but we always defeat our object when we look too much to them and lean upon them. The true secret of union is for both to look upon God, and in the act of looking past themselves to Him they are unconsciously united.

The sailor was right when he saw the little boy fall overboard and waited a minute before he plunged to his rescue. When the distracted mother asked him in agony why he had waited so long, he calmly replied: "I knew that if I went in sooner he would clutch at me and drag me down. I waited until his struggles were over, and then I was able to help him when he did not grasp me too tightly."

When people grasp us too strongly, either with their love or with their dependence, we are intuitively conscious that they are not looking to God, and we become paralyzed in our efforts to help them. United prayer, therefore, requires that the one for whom we pray be looking away from us to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we together look to Him alone.

Scripture
Christ is the head—Ephesians 5:23

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, April 09, 2015

It is a good thing to keep short accounts with God. I was very much struck some years ago with an interpretation of the verse: So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God (Romans 14:12). The thought it conveys is that of accounting to God daily. For us judgment is passed as we lay down on our pillows each night.

This is surely the true way to live. It is the secret of great peace. It will be a delightful comfort when life is closing or at the Master's coming, to know that our account is settled and our judgment over. For us, then, there is only the waiting to hear the glad Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Matthew 25:21).

Step by step I'll walk with Jesus,

Just a moment at a time,

Heights I have not wings to soar to,

Step by step my feet can climb.

Jesus keep me closer-closer,

Step by step and day by day

Stepping in Thy very footprints,

Walking with Thee all the way.

Scripture
I do always those things that please him—John 8:29

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, April 10, 2015

Seldom will we see a sadder wreck of even the highest, noblest Christian character than when the enemy has succeeded in undermining the simple trust of a child of God and lured him into self-accusation and condemnation. it is a fearful place when the believer allows Satan to take the throne and act as God, sitting in judgment oil his every thought and act and keeping him in the darkness of ceaseless condemnation. Well indeed has the Apostle told us to hold firmly the shield of faith!

This is Satan's objective point in all hi upon us, to destroy Our trust. if he can get us to lose our simple confidence in God, he knows that he will soon have us at his feet.

For the Christian who has known the sweetness of God's love to lose his perfect trust in God is enough to wreck both reason and life. Let us hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of [our] hope firm unto the end.

Fear not to take your place

With Jesus on the throne,

And bid the powers of earth and hell,

His sovereign sceptre own.

Scripture
Hold fast the confidence—Hebrews 3:6

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, April 11, 2015

Rarely have I heard a better definition of faith than one given by a dear old woman, as she answered the question of a young man on how to take the Lord for needed help. In her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she said with great emphasis, "You've just got to believe that He's done it, and it's done."

The great danger with most of us is that after we ask God to do something, we do not believe it is done. Instead we keep on helping Him and getting others to help Him-superintending God.

Faith adds its amen to God's yea, and then takes its hands Off, and lets God finish His work. Its language is, Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him. And God worketh.

Lord, I give up the struggle,

To Thee commit my way,

I trust Thy Word forever,

And settle it all today.

Scripture
Commit thy way unto the Lord—Psalm 37:5

Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, April 12, 2015

There is a very remarkable phrase in the book of Numbers, in the account of the murmuring of the children of Israel in the wilderness. It reads like this: "When the people, as it were, murmured." Like most marginal readings, it is better than the text, and a great world of suggestive truth lies back of that little sentence.

Many a vivid picture rises before our imagination of people who do not dare to sin openly and unequivocally but manage to do it "as it were" only. They do not lie overtly, but they evade, or equivocate or imply enough falsehood to escape a real conviction of conscience. They do not openly accuse God of unkindness or unfaithfulness, but they strike at Him through somebody else. They find fault with circumstances and people and things that God has permitted to come into their lives and, "as it were" murmur. Perhaps they do not go any farther than that. But they feel like doing so. if they dared they would "charge God foolishly."

These things were written for our warning.

Scripture
And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord-(They were as it were, complainers)—Numbers 11:1

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, April 13, 2015

Whatever else you lose, do not lose your joy. Keep the spirit of spring. Rejoice evermore and again I say, rejoice.

The loss of Canaan began in the spirit of murmuring. When the people murmured, they displeased the Lord. The first break in their fellowship, the first falter in their advance, came when they began to doubt and grieve and fret.

Keep your heart from the perforations of depression, discouragement, distrust and gloom, for Satan cannot crush a rejoicing and praising soul.

Be on your guard against the beginning of sin. Don't let the first touch of evil be harbored. It is the first step that loses all. Let us keep so encased in the Holy Spirit and in the very life of Jesus that the evil cannot reach us!

The little fly on the inside of the windowpane may be attacked by the little bird on the outside, and it may seem to him that be is lost. But that thin pane of glass keeps him safely from all danger as certainly as if it were a mighty wall of iron.

Scripture
Rejoice evermore—1 Thessalonians 5:16

Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, April 14, 2015

A true and pure Christian life attracts the world. Men and women find no inducement whatever in the lives of mediocre Christians to interest them in practical religion, but they may be won at once by a true and victorious example. Men of the world tend to step directly into a life of entire consecration rather than into the intermediate state which is usually presented to them by the witnessing Christian.

There was a man, a very prominent citizen, who for half a century or more had lived without Christ. He was a man in public life, a man of irreproachable character and manners, a man of lofty intellect. Although he displayed a most winning spirit, he was utterly out of sympathy with the Christian life. At the close of a service for the promotion of deeper spiritual life, he stood to ask the prayers of the congregation, and before the end of the week he was himself a true and acknowledged follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had said, as he went home following the service, "If that is the religion of Jesus Christ, I want it."

Scripture
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me—John 12:32

Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, April 05, 2015

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried. This is the promise for the Lord's coming. It is more than purity. It is to be made white, lustrous or bright. To be purified is to have sin burned out; to be made white is to have the glory of the Lord burned in. The one is cleansing; the other is illumination and glorification. The Lord has both for us, but in order for us to have both we must be put into the fire to be tried. We must be led into difficult and strange places where Christ shall be more to us because of the very extremity of the situation. We are approaching these days. indeed, they are already around us, and they are the precursors of the Lord's coming.

Blesssed is he that . . . keepeth his garments lest he walk naked (Revelation 16:15).

There are voices in the air, filling men with hope and fear;

There are signals everywhere that the end is drawing near;

There are warnings to prepare, for the King will soon be here;

Oh, it must be the coming of the Lord!

Scripture
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried—Daniel 12:10

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, April 06, 2015

Sometimes our communion with God is cut off or interrupted because of a grievance against a brother, or some lack of unity in the body of Christ. We try to come to the Lord, but we cannot because we are separated from some member of the Lord's body or because the freedom of His love is not flowing through every organic part.

It does not require a blow on the head to paralyze the brain. A blow upon some nerve may do it. A wound in some artery at the extremities may be fatal to the heart. Therefore we must stand in right relationship with all God's children. if we would keep our perfect communion with Christ Himself, we must meet in the body of Christ in honest, open fellowship.

Sometimes we will find that an altered attitude to one Christian will bring us into the flood tides of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to have faith without love, or to have Christ alone without the fullness of fellowship with all His dear saints. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it (1 Corinthians 12:26).

Scripture
As we have many members in one body, . . . so we, being many, are one body in Christ—Romans 12:4-5

Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, April 07, 2015

The hand of Gehazi, and even the staff of Elisha, could not heal the lifeless boy. It required the living touch of the prophet's own divinely quickened flesh to infuse vitality into the cold clay. Lip to lip, hand to hand, heart to heart, he must touch the child before life could thrill his pulseless veins.

We must come into personal contact with the risen Savior and have His very life quicken our mortal flesh before we can know the fullness and reality of His healing. This is the most frequent cause of failure. People are often trusting in something that his been done to them, or in something that they have done, or in something that they have believed intellectually. Their spirit, however, has not felt its way to the heart of Christ; they have not drawn His love into their being by the hunger and thirst of love and faith, and so they are not quickened. The greatest need of our souls and bodies is to know Jesus personally, to touch Him constantly, to abide in Him continually.

May we this day lay aside all things that could hinder our near approach to Him and walk hand in hand, heart to heart, with Jesus.

Scripture
In him we live, and move—Acts 17:28

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, April 08, 2015

King Solomon left among his wise sayings a prescription for sick and sad hearts, and it is one that we can safely take. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. Joy is the great restorer and healer. Gladness of spirit will bring health to the bones and vitality to the nerves when all other tonics fail and all other sedatives cease to quiet. Are you ill? Begin to rejoice in the Lord, and your bones will flourish like an herb, and your cheeks will glow with the bloom of health and freshness. Worry, fear, distrust, care-all are poisonous! joy is balm and healing, and if you will but rejoice, God will give power. He has commanded you to be glad and rejoice, and He never fails to sustain His children in keeping His commandments. Rejoice in the Lord always, He says. This means no matter how sad, how tempted, how sick, how suffering you are, rejoice in the Lord just where you are-and begin this moment.

The joy of the Lord is the strength of our body,

The gladness of Jesus, the balm for our pain,

His life and His fullness, our fountain of healing,

His joy, our elixir for body and brain.

Scripture
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine—Proverbs 17:22

Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, April 04, 2015

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. This is God's promise and He will keep it. if we resist the adversary, God will compel him to flee and will give us the victory. just as a citizen would claim the protection of his government against an outrage or injustice by violent men, so we can at all times fearlessly defy and resist Satan our enemy.

At the same time we are not to stand on the adversary's ground by any attitude or disobedience. In so doing we give him a certain power over us which, while God will restrain in great mercy and kindness, He will not fully remove until we get fully on holy ground. We must therefore be armed with the breastplate of righteousness as well as the shield of faith, if we would successfully resist . . . principalities, . . . powers, . . . rulers of the darkness of this world, . . . [and] spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).

Your full redemption rights

With holy boldness claim,

And to the utmost fullness prove

The power of Jesus' name.

Scripture
Resist the devil, and he will flee—James 4:7

Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, March 30, 2015

In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof is no death (Proverbs 12:28). That is the secret of healing. Be right with God. Live in the consciousness of it and nothing can hurt you. All the fiery darts of the devil will glance off the breastplate of righteousness, and faith will be stronger for every fierce assault. How true it is, Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? (1 Peter 3:13). And how true also: Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck (1 Timothy 1:19).

And yet again: If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt . . . keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee (Exodus 15:26).

There's a question God is asking

Every conscience in His sight, L

et it search thine inmost being,

Is it right with God, all right?

Scripture
I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth—3 John 2


Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Faith is not working up by willpower a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass. Rather, it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said this thing shall come to pass-and that it is true-and then rejoicing to know that it is true. It is simply resting and entering into it because God has said it.

Faith turns the promise into a prophecy. While it is merely a promise it is contingent upon our cooperation. It may or may not be. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy and we go forth feeling that it is something that must be done because God cannot lie.

Faith is the answer from the throne saying, "It is done." Faith is the echo of God's voice. Let us catch it from on high. Let us repeat it and go out to triumph in its glorious power.

Hear the answer from the throne,

Claim the promise, doubting one,

God hath spoken, "It is done."

Faith hath answered, "It is done;"

Prayer is over, praise begun,

Hallelujah! It is done.

Scripture
What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them—Mark 11:24

Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Our Father is fitting us for eternity. A vessel fitted for the kitchen will find itself in the kitchen. A vessel for the art gallery or the reception room will generally find itself there at last.

What are we bing fitted for? To be a garbage receptacle to hold all the trash that people pour into our ears? Or a vase to hold sweet fragrance and flowers for the King's palace? A harp of many strings to sound the melodies and harmonies of His love and praise? Each on of us is going to his own place. Let us be fitted now.

The days of heaven are Christly days,

The Light of heaven is He;

So walking at His side, our day

As the days of heaven would be.

The days of heaven are endless days--

Days of eternity;

So may our lives and works endure

While the days of heaven shall be.

Walk with us, Lord, through all the days,

And let us walk with Thee;

'Till as Thy will is done in heaven,

On earth so shall it be.

Scripture
Vessels of mercy, which he hadafore prepared unto glory—Romans 9:23

Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, April 02, 2015

It is easier for a consecrated Christian to live a total life for God than to live a mixed life. A soul redeemed and sanctified by Christ is too large for the shoals and sands of a selfish, worldly, sinful life. The great motor vessel can sail in deep waters without an effort, but she can make no progress in the shallow pool. In the crowded harbor, the smallest tugboat is worth a dozen of her, but out in mid-ocean she can outdistance it in an hour.

Beloved, your life is too large, too glorious, too divine for the small place in which you are trying to live. Your purpose is too petty. Arise and dwell on high in the resurrection life of Jesus and in the inspiring hope of His blessed coming.

Rise with thy risen Lord,

Ascend with Christ above,

And in the heavenlies walk with Him,

Whom seeing not, you love.

Walk as a heavenly race,

Princes of royal blood;

Walk as the children of the light,

The sons and heirs of God.

Scripture
He shall dwell on high—Isaiah 33:16

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, April 03, 2015

when we believe for a blessing, we must take the attitude of faith and begin to act and pray as if we already had it. We must treat God as if He had given us our request. We must lean our weight upon Him for the thing that we have claimed and just take it for granted that He gives it and is going to continue to give it. This is the attitude of trust.

When a young woman is married, she at once falls into a new attitude and acts in accordance with the fact. So it is when we take Christ as our Savior, our Sanctifier, our Healer and our coming Lord. He expects us to fall into the attitude of recognizing Him in the very capacity that we have claimed. Therefore, expect Him to be to you all that you have trusted Him for.

You may bring Him ev'ry care and burden,

You may tell Him ev'ry need in pray'r,

You may trust Him for the darkest moment

He is caring, wherefore need you care?

Faith can never reach its consummation,

'Til the victor's thankful song we raise:

In the glorious city of salvation,


God has told us all the gates are praise.

Scripture
My expectation is from him—Psalm 62:5