Days of Heaven on Earth

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, February 03, 2013

This is true faith. When we can see, it is not faith but reasoning. In crossing the Atlantic by ship, I observed this very principle of faith. We could see no path upon the water or sign of the shore. And yet day by day the helmsman was in a path as exactly as if he had been following a great chalk line upon the sea. And when we came within 20 miles of land he knew where we were as surely as if he had seen it all 3,000 miles ahead.

How had we measured and marked our course? Day by day our captain had taken his instruments, and looking up to the sky had fixed his course by the sun. He was sailing by the heavenly lights, not the earthly lights. So faith looks up and sails on, by God's great Sun, not seeing one shoreline or earthly lighthouse or path upon the way. Often our steps seem to lead into utter uncertainty or even darkness and disaster. But He opens the way, making our midnight hours the very gates of day.

Let us go forth this day, not knowing, yet trusting.

Scripture
He went out, not knowing whither he went—Hebrews 11:8

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, February 02, 2013

The first word here used for service is diakanos, which means minister to others in any usual way or work. The word doulos, however, means a bondservant, and the Lord here plainly teaches us that this is the highest form of service.

Christ made himself the servant of all, and he who would come nearest to Him and stand closest to Him at last must likewise learn the spirit of the ministry that has utterly renounced selfish rights and claims forever.

It is quite possible for us to be entirely loyal to the Lord Jesus, and yet for His sake to be servants and under the authority of those who are over us in the Lord.

The doulos spirit is the spirit of self-renunciation and glad submission to proper authority-service utterly disinterested, yielding its own preferences and interests unreservedly for the glory of the Master and the sake of our brethren. Lord, clothe us with such humility and make us wholly Thine.

Scripture
But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant—Matthew 20:26-27

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, February 01, 2013

In the life overflowing in service for others we find God's deep fountain spilling over the spring to find outlet in rivers of living water that bless and save the world around us. It is beautiful to notice that as the blessing grows unselfish it grows larger. The water in the heart is only a well, but when reaching out to the needs of others it is not only a river but a delta of many rivers overflowing in majestic blessing. This overflowing love is connected with the person and work of the Holy Spirit who was poured out upon the disciples after Jesus was glorified.

This is the true secret of power for service-the heart filled and satisfied with Jesus and so baptized with the Holy Spirit that it is impelled by the fullness of its joy and love to impart to others what it has so abundantly received. And yet each new ministry only makes room for a new filling and a deeper receiving of the life which grows by giving.

Letting go is twice possessing.

Would you double every blessing?

Pass it on.
Scripture
A . . . well of water springing up—John 4:14
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, January 31, 2013

More and more we are realizing the supreme importance of getting the right conception of sanctification- not as a blessing but as a personal union with the personal Savior and the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Thousands of people get stranded after they have embarked on the great voyage of holiness. They find themselves failing and falling and are astonished and perplexed. They conclude that they must have been mistaken in their experience. So they make a new attempt at the same thing and again fall. At last, worn out with their efforts, they conclude that the experience is a delusion, or at least that it was never intended for them. Then they fall back into the old way, and their last state is worse than their first.

What people need today to satisfy their deep hunger and to give them a permanent and divine experience is to know not sanctification as a state but Christ as a living person who is waiting to enter the heart that is willing to receive Him.

Scripture
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption—I Corinthians 1:30

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, January 30, 2013

How did God bring about the miracle of the Red Sea? By shutting His people in on every side so that there was no way out but the divine way. The Egyptians were behind them, the sea was in front of them, the mountains were on both sides of them. There was no escape but from above.

Someone has said that the devil can wall us in, but he cannot roof us over. We can always get out at the top. Our difficulties are but God's challenges, and many times He makes them so hard that we must get above them or go under.

In the Providence of God, such an hour furnishes us with the highest possibilities for faith. We are pushed by the very emergency into God's best.

Beloved, this is God's hour. If you will rise to meet it you will get such a hold upon Him that you will never be in extremities again; or if you are, you will learn to call them not extremities, but opportunities. Like Jacob, you will go forth from that night at Peniel, no longer Jacob, but victorious Israel. Let us bring to Him our need and prove Him true.

Scripture
Cast down, but not destroyed—2 Corinthians 4:9
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Nehemiah gives us a graphic picture concerning what took place during the celebration of their glorious Feast of Tabernacles. Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared . . . neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

How many there are on every side for whom nothing is prepared! Let us find some sad and needy heart whom there is no one else to think of or care for. Let us pray for someone who has none to pray for him. Let us be like Him who, one Christmas Day, came to a world that would not appreciate Him, to be rejected and finally murdered.

Let us not be afraid to know something even of the love that is unrequited and is thrown away on the unworthy. That is the love of Christ, and God has for such love a rich recompense.

How Christ must weep over the selfishness that meets Him from those for whom He died!

Scripture
Send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared-Nehemiah 8:10

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, January 28, 2013

There is a joy that springs spontaneously in the heart without any external or even rational cause. It is like an artesian fountain. It rejoices because it cannot help it. It is the glory of God; it is the heart of Christ; it is the joy divine of which He says, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full (John 15:11). And your joy no man can take from you. Those who possess this fountain are not discouraged by surrounding circumstances. Rather, they are often surprised at the deep, sweet gladness that comes without apparent cause-a joy that frequently is strongest when everything in their condition and circumstances would tend to fill them with sorrow and depression.

It is the nightingale in the heart that sings at night because it is its nature to sing.

It is the glorified and incorruptible joy that belongs with heaven and anticipates already the everlasting song. Lord, give us Thy joy under all circumstances this day, and let our full hearts overflow in blessing to others.

Scripture
That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full—John 15:11

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, January 27, 2013

0ne of Satan's favorite employees is the switchman. He likes nothing better than to sidetrack one of God's express trains sent on some blessed mission and filled with the fire of a holy purpose.

Something will come up in the pathway of the earnest man to attract his attention and occupy his strength and thought. Sometimes it is a little irritation or provocation. Sometimes it is some petty grievance he stops to pursue or adjust. Sometimes it is somebody else's business in which he becomes interested, and he feels bound to rectify. Before he knows it, he is absorbed in many distracting cares and interests that turn him aside from the great purpose of his life.

Perhaps he does not do much harm, but he has missed his connection. He has left the main line.

Let all these things alone. Let grievances come and go, but press forward steadily and irresistibly, crying as you speed toward the goal, This one thing I do!

Scripture
This one thing I do—Philippians 3:13

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, January 26, 2013

Raising rice in the Orient is a beautiful process. The rice is sown on a morass of mud and water ploughed up by great buffaloes. After a few weeks the pale green shoots spring up, appearing above the water. The seed has been sown very thickly and the plants are clustered together in great numbers. The farmer can pull up a score in a single handful. At that point the shoots are ready for transplanting.

So God first plants us and lets us grow very close to some of His children. We may be in great clusters in the nursery or the hothouse. But when we reach a certain stage we must be transplanted or come to nothing. God calls us out by His Spirit and Providence into situations where we have to lean directly on Him. He puts upon us a weight of responsibility so great that we are thrown upon the limitless resources of His grace and have an opportunity to develop.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

Scripture
I called him alone, and blessed—Isaiah 51:2
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, January 25, 2013

It is good to be able to receive new truth and blessing without sacrificing the truths already proved or abandoning foundations already laid.

Some persons are always laying the foundations, until, finally, they appear like a number of abandoned sites and half-constructed buildings. Nothing is ever brought to completion.

If today you are abandoning for some new truth the things that a year ago you counted most precious and believed to be divinely true, this should be sufficient evidence that a year from now you will probably abandon your present convictions for the next new light that comes to you.

God wants to continually add to us, to develop us, to enlarge us, to teach us more and more but always building on what He has already taught us and what He has established in our lives.

While we are to prove all things, let us hold fast that which is good, and whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing (Philippians 3:16).

Scripture
Hold fast that which is good—1 Thessalonians 5:21

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, January 24, 2013

When God does anything marked and special for our souls or bodies, He intends it as a sacred trust for us to communicate to others. Freely ye have received, freely give.

It has pleased the Master in these closing days of His dispensation of grace to reveal Himself in peculiar blessing to the hearts of His chosen disciples in all parts of the Christian church. But this is intended to be communicated to a still wider circle. Every one of us who has been brought into these intimate relations with God becomes a trustee or witness for these higher truths to everyone we can influence.

If God has revealed Himself to us as our Sanctifier, it is that we may help others to Him as a Sanctifier.

If He has become our Healer, it is because there are sick and suffering people to whom we can bring some blessing.

In like manner, if the hope of the Lord's coming has become precious to us, it would be worse than ingratitude for us to hide our testimony to this truth and hold it only for our own personal comfort.

Scripture
Freely ye have received, freely give—Matthew 10:8

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, January 23, 2013

It is a great deliverance to lose one's self. There is no heavier millstone than self-consciousness. It is so easy to become introverted and coiled around ourselves in our spiritual consciousness. There is nothing that is so easy to fasten onto as our misery: there is nothing that is more apt to produce self-consciousness than suffering. Then it becomes almost a settled habit to hold onto our burden and pray it unceasingly into the very face of God until even our prayer saturates us with our own misery. Rather, we should ask for power to drop ourselves altogether and leave ourselves in His loving hands and know that we are free. Then we may rise into the blessed liberty of His higher thoughts and will and demonstrate His love and care for others.

The very act of letting go of ourselves lifts us into a higher place and relieves us from the thing that is hurting. This habit of prayer for others, and especially for the world, brings its own recompense and leaves upon our hearts a blessing, like the fertility which the Nile deposits upon the soil of Egypt as it flows through to its ultimate goal.

Scripture
I knew a man in Christ—2 Corinthians 12:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
There is danger of becoming morbid even in preparing for the Lord's coming. I remember a time when I determined to devote myself to a month of waiting upon the Lord for a baptism of the Holy Ghost. Before the end of the month the Lord had shaken me out of the seclusion and compelled me to go out and carry His message to others. As I went He met me in my service to Him.

There is a musty, monkish way of seeking a blessing. There is also a wholesome, practical holiness which finds us in the company of the Lord Himself, not only in the closet and on the mountaintop of prayer but among publicans and sinners and in the practical duties of life.

The practical preparation for the Lord's coming consists first of fully entering into fellowship with Him in our own spiritual lives, letting Him not only cleanse us, but perfect us in all the finer touches of the Spirit's deeper work. Following that it will mean getting out of ourselves and living for the benefit of others and the preparation of the world for His appearing.

Scripture
His wife hath made herself ready—Revelation 19:7


Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Someone has said that the most spiritual people are the easiest to get along with. When one has a little of the Holy Spirit it is like "a little learning, a dangerous thing." But a full baptism of the Holy Spirit and a really disciplined established and tested spiritual life makes one simple, tender, tolerant, considerate and childlike.

James and John, in their early zeal, want to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans. But John, the aged, allowed Demetrius to exclude him from the church, and, with the patience of Jesus, suffered on Patmos for the kingdom. And aged Paul was willing to take back even Mark, whom he had refused as a companion in his early ministry and to acknowledge that he was profitable to him for the ministry.

I want the love that cannot help but love;
Loving, like God, for very sake of love.
A spring so full that it must overflow,
A fountain flowing from the throne above.
Now abideth faith, hope, [love]; but the greatest of these is [love] (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Scripture
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of—Luke 9:55

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, January 21, 2013

An important help in the life of prayer is the habit of bringing everything to God, moment by moment, as it comes to us in life. This may become a habit the same way all habits are formed: repeated and constantly attended, moment by moment, until that which is at first an act of will becomes spontaneous and second nature.

If we will watch our lives, we shall find that God meets the things that we commit to Him in prayer with special blessing. He often allows the best things that we have not committed to Him to be ineffectual, simply to remind us of our dependence upon Him for everything. It is very gracious and thoughtful of God to compel us gently to remember Him. He would hold us so close to Himself that we cannot get away for a single minute from His all-sustaining arm. In every thing . . . let your requests be made known unto God (Philippians 4:6).

Let us bring our least petitions,

Like the incense beaten small,

All our cares, complaints, conditions

Jesus loves to bear them all.

Scripture
Pray without ceasing—1 Thessalonians 5:17

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, January 19, 2013

I once heard an old man say something that I have never forgotten. "When God tests you it is a good time for you to test Him by putting His promises to the proof. Claim from Him just as much as your trials have made necessary."

There are two ways of getting out of a trial. One is simply to try to get rid of the trial, and be thankful when it is over. The other is to recognize the trial as a challenge from God to claim a larger blessing than we have ever had. We should greet it with delight as an opportunity of obtaining a larger measure of divine grace.

Thus even the adversary becomes an auxiliary, and the things that seem to be against us turn out to be for the furtherance of our way. Surely, we are to be more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37).

Blessed Rose of Sharon

Breathe upon our heart,

Fill us with Thy fragrance,

Keep us as Thou art.

Then Thy life will make us

Holy and complete;

In Thy grace triumphant,

In Thy sweetness, sweet.

Scripture
Prove me now herewith—Malachi 3:10

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, January 17, 2013

God does not have two ways for any of us, but one. Not two things for us to do which we may choose between, but one best and highest choice. It is a blessed thing to find and fill the perfect will of God. It is a blessed thing to have our life laid out and our Christian work adjusted to God's plan.

Much strength is lost by working at a venture. Much spiritual force can be expended in wasted effort and in scattered, indefinite and inconstant attempts at doing good. There is spiritual force and financial strength enough in the hands and hearts of the consecrated Christians of today, if it were only wisely directed and used according to God's plan, to bring about the evangelization of the world in a generation.

Christ has laid down a definite plan of work for His Church, and He expects us to understand it and to work up to it. As we catch His thought and obediently, loyally fulfill it, we shall work with purpose. In so doing we please Him far better than by our thoughtless, reckless and indiscriminate attempts to carry out our ideas and compel God to bless our work.

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

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The water in a steam locomotive may be at any one of three temperatures. It may be cold, although clean and ready for the fire. It may be hot, very hot-hot enough to scald you, almost boiling. Or the water may be just one degree hotter-at the boiling point-pouring out its vapor in clouds of steam, pressing through the valves and driving the mighty pistons that turn the wheels and propel the train.

There are three kinds of Christians. The first we will call cold-water Christians-perhaps better, clean-water Christians.

The second are hot-water Christians. They are almost at the boiling point.

One degree more, and we come to the third class of Christians-the boiling-water Christians. The difference between the latter two is a very slight one. It is simply the removal of one last reservation, the dropping of one "if." Yet it makes all the difference in the world. That one degree changes that engine into a motive power, not now just a machine to be looked at, but a locomotive to go.

Scripture
Prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God—Romans 12:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Let us abide in Him. It is much easier to keep the fire burning than to rekindle it after it has gone out. Let us not have to remove the cinders and ashes from our hearthstones every day and kindle a new flame; but let us keep it burning and never let it expire. Among the ancient Greeks the sacred fire was never allowed to go out. So, in a higher sense, let us keep the heavenly flame aglow upon the altar of our hearts.

It takes much less effort to maintain a good habit than to form it. A true spiritual habit once formed becomes a spontaneous tendency of our being, and we grow into delightful freedom in following it. Let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works (Hebrews 6:1); whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing (Philippians 3:16).

Every spiritual habit begins with difficulty and effort and watchfulness. But if we will only let it get thoroughly established, it will become a channel along which the currents of life will flow with divine spontaneousness and freedom.

Scripture
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him—Colossians 2:6

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, January 05, 2013

God wants people whom He can depend upon. He could say of Abraham, I know, him, . . . that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. God can be depended upon. He wants us to be just as decided, just as reliable and just as stable. This is what faith means. God is looking for men on whom He can put the weight of all His love and power and faithful promises. When God finds such a soul there is nothing He will not do for him. God's engines are strong enough to pull any weight we attach to them. Unfortunately, the cable which we fasten to the engine is often too weak to hold the weight of our prayer; therefore, God is drilling us, disciplining us and training us that we may achieve stability and certainty in the life of faith. Let us learn our lessons and let us stand fast.

God has His best things for the few

Who dare to stand the test;

God has His second choice for those

Who will not have His best.

Give me, 0 Lord, Thy highest choice,

Let others take the rest.

Their good things have no charm for me,

For I have got Thy best.

Scripture
I know him . . . that [he] will keep the way of the Lord—Genesis 18:19

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, January 14, 2013

God loves us so well that He will not permit us to take less than His highest will. Some day we shall thank our faithful Teacher who kept the standard inflexible and then gave us the strength and grace to reach it. We shall thank Him who would not excuse us until we had accomplished all His glorious will.

Let us be inexorable with ourselves. Let us mean exactly what God means, and have no discounts upon His promises or commandments. Let us keep the standard up, and never rest until we reach it. Let God be true, but every man a liar (Romans 3:4). Even if we fail a hundred times, let us not accommodate God's ideal to our thinking, let us rather be like the brave ensign who stood in front of his company waving the regimental banner. When the soldiers tried to call him back, he only waved the banner higher and cried, "Don' t bring the colors back to the regiment; bring the regiment up to the colors."

Forward, forward, leave the past behind thee,

Reaching forth unto the things before;

All the Land of Promise lies before thee,

God has greater blessings yet in store.

Scripture
Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ—Ephesians 4:13

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, January 12, 2013
We must receive, as well as ask. We must take the place of believing and recognize ourselves as in it.

A friend once said to me, "I want to get into the will of God." I answered: "Will you then step into the will of God? And now, are you in the will of God? My question aroused in the man a thought he had not considered. He saw that he had been straining after but not receiving the blessing he sought.

Jesus had said, Ask, and ye shall receive (John 16:24). The very strain keeps back the blessing. The strong tension of all your spiritual nature so binds you that you are not open to the blessing which God is waiting to give you. Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17).

He tells me there is cleansing

From every secret sin,

And a great and full salvation

To keep the heart within

And I take Him in His fullness,

With all His glorious grace,

For He says it is mine by taking,

And I take just what He says.

Scripture
Ask, and it shall be given you—Matthew 7:7

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, January 11, 2013
A Jewish man was asked how it was that his countrymen were so successful in acquiring wealth. "Ah," said he, "we do not make more money than other people, but we keep more." Beloved, let us be on guard this day against spiritual pickpockets and spiritual leakage. Let us lose not those things which we have wrought. Let us be sure we receive a full reward (2 John 8). As each day comes and goes, let us deposit in the savings bank of eternity its treasures of grace and victory, being conscious that something real and everlasting is being added daily to our eternal fortune.

It may be but a little, but if we can save all that God gives us and pass it on to His keeping, when the end of all things comes, we shall be amazed to see how much the accumulated treasures of a well-spent life have laid up on high. We shall see how much more God has added to them by His glorious investment of the life committed to His keeping.

How the days are passing! How precious these golden hours will seem sometime! God help us to make the most of them now.

Scripture
Hold fast till I come—Revelation 2:25
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, January 10, 2013

The graceful dress of the Hindu woman is fastened upon her person by means of a single knot. The long strip of cloth is wound around her so that it falls in soft folds like a ready-made garment. The end, however, is fastened by a little knot, and the whole thing hangs by that single fastening.

So it is in the spiritual life; our habits of grace can be compared to garments. It is also true that the garment of love, which is the beautiful adorning of the child of God, is entirely fastened by little nots.

If you will read First Corinthians chapter 13 with care, you will find that most of the qualities of love are purely negative. Love . . . envieth not, love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Here are "nots" enough to hold on our spiritual wardrobe. Here also are reasons enough to explain the failure of so many, and the reason why they walk naked, or with torn garments, allowing others to see their shame. Let us look after the nots.

Scripture
Charity . . . doth not behave itself unseemly-1 Corinthians 13:5

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, January 09, 2013

There are two attitudes in which our will should be given to God.

First, we should have the surrendered will. This is where we must all begin, by yielding up to God our natural will and having Him possess it.

But next, He wants us to have the victorious will. As soon as He receives our will in honest surrender, He wants to put His will into it and make it stronger than ever for Him. It is hence-forth no longer our will, but His will. And having yielded to His choice and placed itself under His direction, He wants to put into it all the strength and intensity of His own great will and make us positive, forceful, victorious and unmovable-even as Himself.

Not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42). That is the first step. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me (John 17:24). That is the second attitude. Both are divine; both are right; both are necessary to our right living and successful working for God.

Scripture
Not as I will but as thou wilt (Matt. 26:39). To will and to do of his good pleasure-Philippian s 2:13

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, January 08, 2013

A little child with a tale of woe on his heart flies to his mother's arms for comfort-intending to tell her the whole story of his trouble. But as soon as that mother takes the child in her arms and expresses her love, the child becomes so occupied with her and the sweetness of her affection that he forgets to tell his story, and in a little while even the memory of the trouble is forgotten. It has just been loved away and the mother has taken its place in the heart of her child.

In this same manner, God comforts us. It is I, be not afraid is His reassuring word. The circumstances are not altered, but He Himself comes in their place and satisfies our every need, and we forget all things in His gracious presence as He becomes our all in all.

I am breathing out my sorrow

On Thy kind and loving breast;

Breathing in Thy joy and comfort,

Breathing in Thy peace and rest.

I am breathing out my longings

In Thy listening, loving ear;

I am breathing in Thy answer,

Stilling every doubt and fear.

Scripture
It is I, be not afraid—Mark 6:50

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, January 07, 2013

This is a most precious promise. The revised translation is both accurate and suggestive. It is not merely from falling that He wants to keep us, but from even the slightest stumbling.

We are told that Abraham staggered not at the promise (Romans 4:20). God wants us to walk so steadily that there will not even be a quiver in the line of His regiments as they face the foe. It is the little stumblings of life that most discourage and hinder us, and most of these stumblings are over trivialities. Satan would much rather knock us down with a feather than with a gun. It is much more to his honor and delight to defeat a child of God by some insignificant matter than by some great temptation.

Beloved, let us be on guard against the banana peels that trip us on our pathway, the little foxes that destroy the vines and the dead flies that spoil a whole vessel of precious ointment. "Trifles make perfection," and as we get farther on in our Christian life, God will hold us much more closely to obedience in things that seem insignificant.

Scripture
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling—Jude 24

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, January 06, 2013

"Lovest thou me?" the Master asks of each disciple. He expects our first and highest love for Himself, personally, and He has a right to it. More than all our service, more than all our work to build up a cause, He desires our personal devotion to Him. Mary's gift was precious because it was personal. Ye have the poor with you always; but me ye have not always (Mark 14:7), was His tender suggestion of a danger which defeats His purpose-our being more occupied with the work of Christ than with Christ Himself.

We need the love of Christ in order to fit us for His work. Nothing else will give it its true aim and center; nothing else will sustain us amid its pressures.

When Jesus was about to send Simon to take care of His flock, He did not ask Him, "Lovest thou my sheep and my lambs?" He asked, "Lovest thou me?" Mere love for people will not enable us to be true to them; but love for Christ will give us a reflected love for others that will enable us to touch them for Him and to bless them as our direct touch never could.

Scripture
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments— 1 John 5:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, January 04, 2013

Three things are notable about this blessed man:

1. His company. He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2. His reading and thinking. His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3. His fruitfulness. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The river is the Holy Spirit; the planting, the deep abiding life in which, not occasionally but habitually, we absorb Him. The fruit is not once in a while, but continual and appropriate to each changing season.

His life is also prosperous and his spirit fresh, like the unfading leaf. Such a life must be happy. Indeed, happiness is a matter of spiritual conditions. Put a sunbeam in a cellar and it must be bright. Put a nightingale in the darkest midnight, and it must sing.

Scripture
Blessed is the man—Psalm 1:1

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, January 03, 2013

We need to watch our prayers as well as watch for the answers to our prayers. It requires as much wisdom to pray rightly as it does faith to receive the answers to our prayers.

A Christian confided that he had been in years of darkness because God had failed to answer certain of his prayers. As a result, he had been in a state bordering on infidelity.

A very few moments were sufficient to convince this friend that his prayers had been entirely unauthorized and that God had never promised to answer such prayers. They were for things which, in the exercise of ordinary wisdom, he should have accomplished himself. The result was deliverance from the cloud of unbelief which was almost wrecking his Christian life.

There are some things about which we do not need to pray as much as to take the light which God has already given. Many people are asking God to give them peculiar signs, tokens and supernatural intimations of His will. Our business is to use the light He has given, and then He will give whatever more we need.

Scripture
Watch and pray—Matthew 26:41
Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, January 02, 2013

The highest spiritual condition is one where life is spontaneous and flows without effort, like the deep floods of Ezekiel's river, where the struggles of the swimmer ceased, and he was borne by the current's resistless force.

So God leads us into spiritual conditions and habits which become the spontaneous impulses of our being, and we live and move in the fullness of the divine life.

These spiritual habits are not the outcome of some transitory impulse, but often are acquired and established slowly. They begin, like every true habit, in a definite act of will, and they are confirmed by the repetition of that act until it becomes a habit. The first stages always involve effort and choice. We have to take a stand and hold it steadily, and after we have done so a certain time, it becomes second nature and carries us by its own force.

The Holy Spirit is willing to form such habits in every direction of our Christian lives. If we will obey Him in the first steps of faith, we will soon become established in the attitude of obedience, and duty will be delight.
Scripture
I will . . . cause you to walk in my statutes—Ezekiel 36.27

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Two little words are found in the Greek version here-ton kairon. They are translated in the revised version, "Buying up for yourselves the opportunity. " The two words ton kairon mean, literally, the opportunity.

They do not refer to time in general, but to a special point in time, a juncture, a crisis. They refer to a moment full of possibilities quickly passing by, which we must seize and make the best of before it has passed away.

It is intimated that there are not many such moments of opportunity, because the days are evil. These moments are like flowers which appear here and there in the barren desert: pluck them while you can. Or they are like a business opportunity which comes once in a lifetime; buy it up while you have the chance. Be spiritually alert; be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is (v. 16). Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise (v. 15), buying up for yourselves the opportunity.

Sometimes it is a moment of time to be saved; sometimes a soul to be led to Christ; sometimes it is an occasion for love; sometimes for patience; sometimes for victory over temptation and sin. Let us redeem it.

Scripture
Redeeming the time—Ephesians 5:16