Bits and Pieces – 46th Edition – January 17, 2021

A little girl who had just returned from Sunday school was asked by her mother, “What did the teacher tell you today?”  The little girl answered that she had heard about a wonderful man called Enoch [Genesis 5:24] and how he walked with God.  She said, “Every day Enoch visited God, and they went out for walks together.  Then one day, Enoch walked too far with God, and He said, ‘It’s getting late, and I better go home.’  Then God said,  ‘Enoch, you are closer to my home than to yours, so just come home with me.”  So Enoch went home with God.

What a lovely picture of what is yet to come for the child of God.  For when life comes to an end, he, like Enoch, will hear the Lord say, “Just come home with me.”

I may care about myself till I grow morbid; I may watch over my own feelings till I feel nothing; I may lament my own weakness till I grow almost too weak to lament.  It will be far more profitable for me to become unselfish, and out of love to my Lord Jesus, begin to care for the souls of those around me.  My tank is getting very low; no fresh rain comes to fill it; what shall I do?  I will pull up the plug and let its contents run out to water the withering plants around it.

What do I see?  My cistern seems to fill as it flows.  A secret spring is at work.  While all was stagnant, the fresh spring was sealed, but as my stock flows out to water others, the Lord thinketh upon me. [C.H. Spurgeon].

The human body is a marvel of engineering.  The Lord has given to each of us a remarkable body as a tabernacle for the soul, and no two bodies are alike.  We live in these bodies for a lifetime.  We get to know them very well and are acquainted with their fortes and their foibles.  Often the latter seem to outnumber the former.  The days of childhood and youth are great as our bodies grow and develop, but it is not long until they crest the hill of peak strength and begin the steady decline towards the great unavoidable appointment with death. Growing old is a challenge, both physically and mentally. The senior years are often referred to as the golden age, but for many, the gold is as elusive as the legendary pot at the end of the rainbow.  Loss of strength, sickness, disease, aches and pains ravage the ageing body.

As a tentmaker, Paul likens the body to a temporary “tabernacle” or tent [2 Corinthians 5:1]. He speaks of its dissolution as if it were a tent whose ropes are gradually loosened prior to its complete collapse.  But never forget, it is the Lord’s loving hand that does the loosening.

It took a year to demolish some huge reinforced concrete silos on the Toronto waterfront, to be replaced by beautiful new buildings.  The Lord is demolishing our earthly bodies prior to changing our “vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” [Philippians 3:21].  Be patient.  Soon your body will be made sinlessly glorious like the body of the ascended Christ.

Those are blessed who have the privileges of God’s House.  If we cannot go to the House of the Lord, we may go by faith to the Lord of the House, and in Him, we shall be happy.

These Canadian pulpit slips bring a smile. The guilty shall go unnamed:

“So sad, it would bring tears to your ears.”

“Though your skins be as scarlet.”

“Lord send us a freth bresh from heaven.”

“’ Tis holy ground – take your feet from off your shoes.”

“The sins of the prostate (apostate) churches.”

The pandemic continues to dominate the news.  There is such an overload about Covid 19 that many people no longer watch the daily newscasts as they are but a source of discouragement.  The number of infections is rising at an alarming rate, not only in Canada but also across the globe.  Still, we have to hear a major political leader call the people to prayer and seek divine intervention.  God has said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble.”  In response, God has pledged, “I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” [Psalm 50:15].

The Toronto church is technically able to be open, but with a maximum of ten people.  However, it continues to broadcast each Sunday on sermonaudio.com at 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., with the pre-service prayer time at 5:50 p.m. on Zoom.   The Wednesday prayer meeting is at 7:30 p.m. again on Zoom.