A collection of scriptures with appropriate quotations for every day in the year.
- 2626.April.Friday
April 26
He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his--Heb. 4: 10.
Instead of demanding one day of the seven, the law of love really controls, regulates our entire time; seven days of the week we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength; seven days of the week we are to love our neighbor as ourselves; and seven days in the week we are to rest also—rest from our own works; rest by faith in the finished work of Christ; rest in the love of God; and rest in the peace of God which passes understanding, ruling in our hearts continually—Z '02, 205 (R 3037).
To enter into rest implies that we accept Christ's finished work as our justification before God, and that we abide with perfect assurance in the consciousness of the reckoned enjoyment of all Millennial blessings. He who has this faith, instead of going about to establish his own righteousness, has peace in the sense of enjoying Christ's righteousness. Thus justifying faith gives Him the rest of justification. Furthermore, in consecration, ceasing from living for self and the world, and looking forward with perfect assurance to the successful outcome of God's Plan, he has the same kind of rest that God enjoys—P '34, 47.
Parallel passages: Heb. 3: 7—4: 11; Job 22: 21, 26; 34: 29; Psa. 4: 8; 17: 15; 25: 12; 29: 11; 37: 4, 11, 37; 119: 165; 125: 1, 5; Prov. 3: 17, 24; Isa. 26: 3, 12; 28: 12; 53: 5; 54: 10, 13; 57: 2, 19; John 14: 27; 16: 33; Acts 10: 36; Rom. 5: 1; 8: 6; 14: 17; 15: 13; Gal. 5: 22; Eph. 2: 14-17; Phil. 4: 7, 9; Col. 3: 15; 2 Thes. 3: 16.
Hymns: 251, 97, 115, 179, 244, 305, 307.
Poems of Dawn, 83: Assurance.
Tower Reading: Z '14, 25 (R 5387).
Questions: What have been this week's experiences in line with this text? How were they met? What helped or hindered therein? In what did they result?ASSURANCE
IT may not come to us as we have thought,
The blessed consciousness of sins forgiven;
We may not hear a voice that shall proclaim
Our title clear to the sweet rest of heaven.
We may not see a light upon the path
Above the brightness of the noonday sun,
Whose radiance shall reveal our names enrolled
As ransomed by the Lord's Anointed One.
Not thus may the sweet knowledge come to us,
That all is well with us forevermore;
Not with a flash of glory on the soul
Do all pass into life through Christ the door.
But like the winter merging into spring,
Or gently as the trees put forth their leaves,
May come to us the impulse of that life
Which God bestows on those sin truly grieves.
If we are conscious of a firm resolve
To follow Jesus as our constant guide;
If, in prosperity or in distress,
Our hearts cling closely to the Crucified;
If we are not ashamed to have it known
That in His service is our chief delight;
Though we may never feel the ecstasy
Which those attain who reach the mountain height;
Yet, if the hour of secret prayer be sweet,
When we hold converse with the Friend Divine,
And dear the time when with His "own" we meet,
For us the promise stands, "They shall be Mine."
