Each New Day by Corrie ten Boom: 2012-01-15

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

January 31

How do you think of yourself—as owner or as captain of what you possess? Are you delivering the goods? The world does not read the Bible—it reads you and me. The godly man is the ungodly man’s Bible. Are you growing like Peter? Are you glowing like Stephen? Are you going like Paul?

People will ask: “Why was I not told

back at the crossroads of this Jesus?”

How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?

Romans 10:14

Thank You, Lord, that You will strengthen us by a dying Saviour’s love, a risen Saviour’s power, an ascended Saviour’s prayer, and an eternal Saviour’s glory.

January 30

A boy wrote: “Stewardship means that life is a great ship, loaded with a rich cargo to be delivered to many peoples in many places. God is the owner, but I am the captain.”

We give Thee but Thine own. Whate'er the gift may be

All that we have is Thine alone, A trust, O Lord, from Thee

William How

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

2 Corinthians 9:15

Father, as a ship’s owner trusts his captain to deliver the cargo safely to its destination, so do You trust us with Your blessings. Make us good captains by filling our hearts with Your Holy Spirit.

January 29

Do you want to receive the gift of eternal life? Jesus will make you an heir of eternal wealth. If you will receive it.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23 KJV

O Lord, thank You that I may enjoy eternal life now, and that the best is yet to be.

January 28

What can hinder our surrender? Sins, sorrows, possessions, family, our will, rights and duties. Sins such as doubt, fear, inferiority feelings, materialism, envy, self-centeredness and self-consciousness. All are the territory of the enemy.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any wicked way in me

and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalms 139:23, 24

Lord Jesus, put Your searchlight on my life, and show me where I need Your cleansing blood.

January 27

It is dangerous to live as a halfway Christian in this age filled with darkness, chaos, and hopelessness. In the center of a hurricane there is absolute quiet and peace. There is no safer place than in the center of the will of God.

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. . . Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich. . . .

Revelation 3:15,18

Lord, I know that when You ask us a question there are only two answers, yes or no (or nothing, which is the same as no). Show me what my answer meant.

January 26

Surrender to the Lord is not a tremendous sacrifice, not an agonizing performance. It is the most sensible thing you can do.

Who trusts in God’s unchanging love

builds on the rock that naught can move

George Neumark

Tr. by Catherine Winkeworth

Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

Isaiah 26:4

Who can direct our lives better than You, O Lord? Whom else should we trust? Certainly not ourselves!

January 25

Once, while we were on roll call, a cruel guard kept us standing for a long, long time. Suddenly a skylark began to sing in the sky, and all the prisoners looked up to listen to that bird’s song. As I looked at the bird I saw the sky, and I thought of Psalms 103:11. O love of God, how deep and great; far deeper than man’s deepest hate. God sent that skylark daily for three weeks, exactly during roll call, to turn our eyes away from the cruelty of men to the ocean of His love.

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

Psalms 103:11 KJV

Thank You, Lord, that You are always willing to turn our eyes in the right direction unto You.

January 24

In our World War II prison camp, Betsie and I had to go on roll call very early in the bitterly cold morning. Sometimes we would be sent too early. Then we would take a chance and walk quietly around the camp. Everything was black. There was no light anywhere.

In that cold blackness. Betsie and I walked with the Lord and talked with the Lord. Betsie said something. I said something, then the Lord said something. How? I don't know, but we both understood what He said. That was a little bit of heaven in the midst of hell.

Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the world.

Matthew 28:20 KJV

Lord, help me to speak with You always, especially in my times of darkness, and to listen when You speak to me.

January 23

Jesus has taken all of the evidence against us and has nailed it to the cross for you and me. There are many dangerous papers in our lives, and we all must come before God on Judgment Day. Have we refused Jesus in this life? Then we will be lost. Have we received Jesus in this life? Then we have nothing to fear, for He destroyed the papers that were against us when He died on the cross for you and me. What a joy!

At the Cross, at the Cross

where I first saw the light

and the burden of my heart rolled away

It was there by faith I received my sight. . . .

Ralph E. Hudson

I. I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.

Isaiah 43:11

Thank You, Jesus, for taking our sins upon Yourself, that we might be saved.

January 22

The judge in the prison still had his job to do, and there came a day when he showed me papers that could mean not only my death sentence but also the death sentence of family and friends.

“Can you explain these papers?” he asked.

“No, I can't,” I admitted.

Suddenly he took all the papers and threw them into the stove! When l saw the flames destroy those condemning papers, I knew I had been guarded by divine power and understood as never before Colossians 2:14:

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, (Jesus) took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.

Lord, we thank You for Your constant protection for Your ocean of love and forgiveness.

January 21

Many times I have been guarded by divine power. Once when I was a prisoner, I was brought to a judge who asked me many questions. There was a possibility that I would be shot! After he had asked me many things, I said to him, “May I ask you something?”

“Go ahead,” he said.

“Is there darkness in your life, or light?”

“Only darkness.”

I told him the way of salvation. My sister, Betsie, was questioned by the same judge, and she, too, brought him the Gospel. She even asked him if he would allow her to pray with him. He told me later, “I will never in my life forget your sister’s prayers.” Finally the Lord touched his heart, and he became our friend.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:21 KJV

Lord, thank You that You are willing to guard me also, with Your divine power.

January 20

I once saw a church that was really no more than a ceiling—here it was canvas, there it was metal. The people told me that once they had a beautiful brick church, but they were in a country where Christianity was not allowed, and someone burned down the church.

I told them that I was so sorry they had lost their building, but they smiled. “God does not make mistakes. Some time ago,” they said, “there was an earthquake on a Sunday morning. A thousand people were under this ceiling. Had we been in a brick building, many would have been injured, but this ceiling just quaked along with the earthquake, and no one was hurt.”

We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

O Lord, thank You that Your side of the embroidery of our life is always perfect. That is such a comfort when our side is sometimes so mixed up.

January 19

You and I are what we are through the grace of God. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace.

The grace of the Lord like a fathomless sea

sufficient for you, sufficient for me

Is tender and gracious and boundless and free

sufficient for every need

For the Grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men.

Titus 2:11

Lord, thank You for Your ocean of love and grace.

January 18

Oh, to have one’s soul as a field under heavenly cultivation: no wilderness, but a garden of the Lord. Walled around by grace, planted by instruction, visited by love, weeded by heavenly discipline, guarded by divine power. One's soul thus favored is prepared to yield fruit unto the Glory of God.

C. H. Spurgeon

Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

Isaiah 32:15

Father, make me Your garden. Prepare me to bring forth fruit to Your Glory.

January 17

Arthur T, Pierson says in God and Missions Today: “The Whole church of God should be a great body of evangelists. Instead of first absorbing pastor after pastor and then like insatiate sponges demanding ministrations of evangelists besides, church members should say to their minister. ‘Let us alone and go after the lost.’”

Ready to suffer grief and pain

Ready to stand the test

Ready to stay at home and send others

If He sees best

Ready to go

Ready to stay

Ready my place to fill

Reedy for service lowly or great

Ready to do His will

Ready to go

Ready to bear

Ready to watch and pray

Ready to stand aside and wait

‘Til He shall clear the way

Ready to speak

Ready to think

Ready with heart and brain

Ready to stand where He sees fit

Ready to bear the strain

Ready to speak.

Ready to warn

Ready o'er souls to yearn

Ready in life

Ready in death

Ready for His return

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. . . .

Matthew 28:19

My answer is yes, Lord Jesus, I mean it.

January 16

We possess a divine artillery which silences the enemy and inflicts upon him the damage he would inflict on us.

As you live this new life, we pray that you will be strengthened from God’s boundless resources, so that you will find yourselves able to pass through any experience and endure it with courage.

Colossians 1:11 Phillips

Lord, what joy to know that Your powers are so much greater than those of the enemy.

January 15

Who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The Lord is conqueror, and is able to hold you up and cause you to triumph in all situations. This has tremendously comforted me, even in the overwhelmingly difficult time when I was in prison.

He will keep you steadfast in the faith to the end, so that when His Day comes you need fear no condemnation.

1 Corinthians 1:8 Phillips

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for understanding our weakness and for giving us comfort, guidance, and power today and always.

January 14

Can you do the things Jesus does? Can I ? Yes! Because Jesus went to the Father, and there with His Father, He does greater things than He did when He was in the world. He does them through you and me.

I assure you that the man who believes in me will do the same things that I have done, yes, and he will do even greater things than these, for I am going away to the Father.

John 14:12 Phillips

Lord Jesus, thank You that You are willing to work through us. What a tremendous privilege!

January 13

Open our eyes, dear Lord

that we may see

the far vast reaches of eternity

Help us to look beyond life’s little cares

so prone to fret us

and the grief that wears

our courage thin

O may we tune our hearts

to Thy great harmony

that all the parts may ever be

in perfect, sweet accord

Give us Thine own clear vision, blessed Lord

Where there in no vision, the people perish.

Proverbs 29:18 KJV

Lord Jesus, it is only possible to have a view of unseen things through You. Thank You that You are willing to give it to us.

January 12

We must mirror God’s love in the midst of a world full of hatred. A mirror does not do much. It only hangs in the right direction and reflects the light. We are mirrors of God’s love, so we may show Jesus by our lives. He uses us to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom and to glorify Jesus.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV

Thank You, Lord, that by Your Holy Spirit You turn our eyes in the right direction, looking unto You, that You can make us Your mirrors. What an honor, what a joy!

January 11

In my late teens I was fortunate to hear Sadhu Sundar Singh speak about his experiences of actually seeing the Lord.

When I met him during a walk, I told him of a worry I had. “Is there something wrong with my faith?” I asked, “I know that the Lord is with me, but I have never seen a vision or a miracle.”

The Sadhu answered. “That I know Jesus is alive is no miracle—I have seen Him. But you, who have never seen Him, know His presence. Isn't that a miracle of the Holy Spirit?”

Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.

1 Peter 1:8

Lord, we thank You that the Holy Spirit moves us to believe beyond our inadequate senses.

January 10

William Nagenda continued: “One day the devil will give William a blow downwards so strung that he will go all the way to the valley of the shadow of death. There Jesus will give William a blow upwards so strong that he will come into heaven. The devil will say, ‘Where is William? I don’t see him anymore!’”

Even though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death

I fear no evil

for thou art with me. . . .

Palms 23:4

Lord Jesus, thank You that You have overcome the forces of evil. We know that You will never let us down.

January 9

William Nagenda, the African evangelist, said: “My life is like this ball bouncing on the floor. Sometimes the devil gives me a blow downwards, but at the deepest spot Jesus is there, and He gives me a blow upwards so that I come up higher than I was before.”

My soul clings to thee:

thy right hand upholds me.

Psalms 63:8

Lord, the devil is stronger than I am. But l know from the Bible that You are much stronger than the devil, and together with You I am much stronger than the devil. Thank You, Lord, for that encouragement.

January 8

God is voting for us all the time. The devil is voting against us all the time. The way we vote carries the election.

Choose you this day whom ye will serve. . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Joshua 24:15 KJV

Yes, Lord, I again, or for the first time, choose to be Yours. What joy to know that You chose me. I lay my weak hand in Your strong hand. Together with You, I am more than conqueror.

January 7

It has been said that the removal of small stones which frequently encumber the fields does not always increase the crop. In many soils they are an advantage, attracting the moisture and radiating the heat. In an experiment the results of removing the stones were so unfavorable to the crop that they were brought back again, we often cry to God, as Paul did, for the removal of some thorn in the flesh. Later experience teaches us that it was better for it to remain.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:10

Your strength, my weakness

here they always meet,

when l lay down my burden at Your feet

The things that seem to crush

will in the end,

be seen as rungs on which I did ascend!

Thank You, Lord.

January 6

God chose this world to be the arena of His plan, the center of what He has set Himself to do.

Watchman Nee

For God had allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: he purposes in his sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfillment in him. And here is the staggering thing—that in all which will one day belong to him we have been promised a share. . . .

Ephesians 1:9-11 Phillips

Lord, what a comfort it is to see Your perfect blueprint of this world. Thank You for making Your plan clear to us while we live in the midst of the chaos of today.

January 5

It is dark in the world. The mist is getting thicker and thicker. Where there is no vision, the people perish. The Lord is not willing to keep us in the dark, but wants to guide us with His victorious light.

We are asking God that you may see things, as it were, from his point of view by being given spiritual insight and understanding. We also pray that your outward lives, which men see, may bring credit to your master’s name, and that you may bring joy to his heart by bearing genuine Christian fruit, and that your knowledge of God may grow yet deeper.

Colossians 1:9,10 Phillips

Lord, what a comfort that Your insight and vision are perfect. Please help me to see things from Your point of view.

January 4

“How can I nourish the life abundant?"

The Lord will show you. Be patient and wait for direction. In the meantime, read the Bible, meet with other children of God to pray together. Prayer fellowship is vital for your health as a Christian, and to accomplish God’s work. Talk much with your Saviour. He knows, He loves, He cares.

Pray constantly.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Lord, teach us to pray.

January 3

Jesus is Victor. Calvary is the Place of victory. Obedience is the pathway of victory. Bible study and prayer the preparation. Courage, faith, the spirit of victory—every temptation is a chance for victory, a signal to fly the flag of our Victor, a chance to make the tempter know anew that he is defeated.

Roy Hession writes in Calvary Road: “Jesus is always victorious, we have only to keep the right relationship with Him and His victorious life will flow through us and touch other people.”

Put on the whole armour of God. . . .

Ephesians 6:11 KJV

Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You have won the victory for us.

January 2

May I give You something to do for the new year? Get alone before the Lord, and together with Him, examine yourself. Do you know that you are forgiven? Have you forgiven others? When you do that, God will give you a victorious new year.

(You) have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Colossians 3:10

Lord Jesus, at the start of this new year, we ask for a fresh beginning. Wipe our sins away with Your Precious blood. Cleanse our hearts of bitterness toward others. Help us to live each new day in close communion with You, our true and faithful guide.

January 1

May a dying Saviour’s love

And a risen Saviour’s power

And an ascended Saviour’s prayer

And a returning Saviour’s glory

Be the comfort and joy of your heart

In our home in Haarlem, Holland, Father used to read Psalm 91 from the Bible and pray the very moment the first of January began. We consciously went into the new year together with the Lord. Do you fear the possibilities of this new year? Do as he did. Trust the Lord that in these coming days He will be your hiding place.

He who dwells

in the shelter of the Most High

who abides

in the shadow of the Almighty

will say to the Lord,

“My refuge and my fortress

my God, in whom I trust”

Psalms 91:1,2

Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You will be our hiding place, whatever happens.

Each New Day by Corrie ten Boom