EIGHTH DAY.
THE GIFT OF PEACE.
'My peace I give unto you.' - John 14:27.
Col. 1:20 Ro. 5:1 Eph. 2:15, 16 Ps. 68:18 Pro. 17:8 John 17:22 Php. 4:7 | 'PEACE I leave with you' is much; 'My peace I give unto you' is more. The added word tells the fathomless marvel of the gift - 'My peace.' Not merely 'peace with God;' Christ has made that by the blood of His cross, and being justified by faith we have it through Him. But after we are thus reconciled, the enmity and the separation being ended, Jesus has a gift for us from His own treasures; and this is its special and wonderful value, that it is His very own. How we value a gift which was the giver's own possession! what a special token of intimate friendship we feel it to be! To others we give what we have made or purchased; it is only to very near and dear ones that we give what has been our own personal enjoyment or use. And so Jesus gives us not only peace made and peace purchased, but a share in His very own peace, - divine, eternal, incomprehensible peace, - which dwells in His own heart as God, and which shone in splendour of calmness through His life as man. No wonder that it 'passeth all understanding.' | ||
John 15:5; 1Co. 6:17 John 1:16 Eph. 3:19 Ps. 133:2 Is. 48:18 | But how? Why does the sap flow from the vine to the branch? Simply because the branch is joined to the vine. Then the sap flows into it by the very law of its nature. So, being joined to our Lord Jesus by faith, that which is His becomes ours, and flows into us by the very law of our spiritual life. If there were no hindrance, it would indeed flow as a river. Then how earnestly we should seek to have every barrier removed to the inflowing of such a gift! Let it be our prayer that He would clear the way for it, that He would take away all the unbelief, all the self, all the hidden cloggings of the channel. | ||
| John 15:10, 11 2Co. 12:9 Is. 11:10, mar.; Heb. 4:5 John 17:22, 24 1Th. 4:17 | Then He will give a sevenfold blessing: 'My peace,' 'My joy,' 'My love,' at once and always, now and for ever; 'My grace' and 'My strength' for all the needs of our pilgrimage; 'My rest' and 'My glory' for all the grand sweet home-life of eternity with Him. |
Thy reign is perfect peace,
Not mine, but Thine;
A stream that cannot cease,
For its fountain is Thy heart. Oh, depth unknown!
Thou givest of Thine own,
Pouring from Thine, and filling mine.
Hi Pam: What beautiful postings about Frances Ridley Havergal. The Lord introduced me to F.R.H. in the Spring of 1995. I woke up one morning with her name going through my mind. . .I went to the bookcase in my room and found an obscure little book, "Kept for the Master's Use". I remembered buying it but had never read it. So I read it. Then I began a search to find other things by Frances and her life and writings have been a rare and deep benefit to my life. Her work is very fine and certainly a picture of the crucified life, the process of sanctification being worked in every true believer. May the Lord bless all that you do with this material, Pam. I have learned a lot from Frances, for she, being dead, "yet speaketh!"
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