"In summer and in winter shall it be."

Nile river... 

"In summer and in winter shall it be."

Zechariah 14:8

The streams of living water which flow from Jerusalem are not dried up by the parching heats of sultry midsummer any more than they were frozen by the cold winds of blustering winter. 

Rejoice, O my soul, that thou art spared to testify of the faithfulness of the Lord. 

The seasons change and thou changest, but thy Lord abides evermore the same, and the streams of his love are as deep, as broad and as full as ever. 

The heats of business cares and scorching trials make me need the cooling influences of the river of His grace; I may go at once and drink to the full from the inexhaustible fountain, for in summer and in winter it pours forth its flood. 

The upper springs are never scanty, and blessed be the name of the Lord, the nether springs cannot fail either. Elijah found Cherith dry up, but Jehovah was still the same God of providence. Job said his brethren were like deceitful brooks, but he found his God an overflowing river of consolation.

 The Nile is the great confidence of Egypt, but its floods are variable; our Lord is evermore the same. By turning the course of the Euphrates, Cyrus took the city of Babylon, but no power, human or infernal, can divert the current of divine grace. 

The tracks of ancient rivers have been found all dry and desolate, but the streams which take their rise on the mountains of divine sovereignty and infinite love shall ever be full to the brim. Generations melt away, but the course of grace is unaltered. 

The river of God may sing with greater truth than the brook in the poem--

"Men may come, and men may go,

But I go on forever."

How happy art thou, my soul, to be led beside such still waters! never wander to other streams, lest thou hear the Lord's rebuke, "What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink of the muddy river?"

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PSALM 23 !!!

"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them."

"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them."

John 17:22

Behold the superlative liberality of the Lord Jesus, for he hath given us his all. 

Although a tithe of his possessions would have made a universe of angels rich beyond all thought, yet was he not content until he had given us all that he had. 

It would have been surprising grace if he had allowed us to eat the crumbs of his bounty beneath the table of his mercy; but he will do nothing by halves, he makes us sit with him and share the feast.

 Had he given us some small pension from his royal coffers, we should have had cause to love him eternally; but no, he will have his bride as rich as himself, and he will not have a glory or a grace in which she shall not share. 

He has not been content with less than making us joint-heirs with himself, so that we might have equal possessions. 

He has emptied all his estate into the coffers of the Church, and hath all things common with his redeemed. There is not one room in his house the key of which he will withhold from his people. He gives them full liberty to take all that he hath to be their own; he loves them to make free with his treasure, and appropriate as much as they can possibly carry. 

The boundless fulness of his all-sufficiency is as free to the believer as the air he breathes. Christ hath put the flagon of his love and grace to the believer's lip, and bidden him drink on forever; for could he drain it, he is welcome to do so, and as he cannot exhaust it, he is bidden to drink abundantly, for it is all his own. 

What truer proof of fellowship can heaven or earth afford?

"When I stand before the throne

Dressed in beauty not my own;

When I see thee as thou art,

Love thee with unsinning heart;

Then, Lord, shall I fully know--

 till then--how much I owe."

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

"Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us!

"Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart."

2 Chronicles 32:31

Hezekiah was growing so inwardly great, and priding himself so much upon the favour of God, that self-righteousness crept in, and through his carnal security, the grace of God was for a time, in its more active operations, withdrawn. Here is quite enough to account with the Babylonians; for if the grace of God should leave the best Christian, there is enough of sin in his heart to make him the worst of transgressors. 

If left to yourselves, you who are warmest for Christ would cool down like Laodicea into sickening lukewarmness: you who are sound in the faith would be white with the leprosy of false doctrine; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would reel to and fro, and stagger with a drunkenness of evil passion.

Like the moon, we borrow our light; bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are darkness itself when the Sun of Righteousness withdraws himself. Therefore let us cry to God never to leave us. "Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us! Withdraw not from us thine indwelling grace! Hast thou not said, I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day'? Lord, keep us everywhere. 

Keep us when in the valley, that we murmur not against thy humbling hand; keep us when on the mountain, that we wax not giddy through being lifted up; keep us in youth, when our passions are strong; keep us in old age, when becoming conceited of our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than the young and giddy; keep us when we come to die, lest, at the very last, we should deny thee! Keep us living, keep us dying, keep us labouring, keep us suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for everywhere we need thee, O our God!"

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

Many women do noble things !!!

Proverbs 31:28-29 (NIV). Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:''Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.''...... 
Thoughts on This Verse... 
When's the last time you praised a godly woman for her life of faith and grace? Why not take time to write a note or two of appreciation and thanks to several of these women today. Where would we be today without the faithfulness of godly women? I can't imagine, and don't want to! Let's tell them today how precious they are to us and our faith.

"Looking unto Jesus."

"Looking unto Jesus."

Hebrews 12:2

It is ever the Holy Spirit's work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan's work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ. 

He insinuates, 

"Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of his children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus." All these are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. 

But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: he tells us that we are nothing, but that 

"Christ is all in all." 

Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee--

it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee--

it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that 

be the instrument--

it is Christ's blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to thy hand with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hope, 

but to Jesus, 

the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, 

but to Jesus, 

the author and finisher of thy faith. 

We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by 

"looking unto Jesus."

 Keep thine eye simply on him; let his death, his sufferings, his merits, his glories, his intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look to him; when thou liest down at night look to him. 

Oh! let not thy hopes or fears come between thee and Jesus; follow hard after him, and he will never fail thee.

"My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness:

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus' name."

My soul yearns for you

Isaiah 26:9 (NIV).

 My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.......

Thoughts on This Verse... 

When young people in love are apart, 

they long to be with each other again. 

When a parent is separated from his or her child, 

the parent misses the child intensely. 

When a spouse can no longer be with a long time marriage partner because of disease, death, or divorce, that person's soul can ache to be reunited to the one they have loved. 

Do you recognize your spirit aching to be with God? Do you end each day and begin the next longing to be in the presence of God? 

Let's recognize our God-hunger and not only satisfy it by spending time in his presence, but let's also communicate our desire, affection, and need for the presence of our heavenly Father in our lives.

"Only ye shall not go very far away."

"Only ye shall not go very far away."

Exodus 8:28

This is a crafty word from the lip of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. 

If the poor bondaged Israelites must needs go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them that it shall not be very far away; not too far for them to escape the terror of his arms, and the observation of his spies. 

After the same fashion, the world loves not the non-conformity of nonconformity, or the dissidence of dissent; it would have us be more charitable and not carry matters with too severe a hand. 

Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and hence the ordinance which sets them forth is almost universally neglected, and even condemned. 

Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise, and talks of "moderation." According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we are warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but error is not to be severely denounced.

 "Yes," says the world, "be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny yourself a little gay society, an occasional ball, and a Christmas visit to a theatre. What's the good of crying down a thing when it is so fashionable, and everybody does it?" Multitudes of professors yield to this cunning advice, to their own eternal ruin. 

If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far away to the place where the Lord calls his sanctified ones. When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man cannot be too far from its haunts. 

The further from a viper the better, and the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the trumpet-call be sounded, 

"Come ye out from among them, be ye separate."

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

"Art thou become like unto us?"

"Art thou become like unto us?"

Isaiah 14:10

What must be the apostate professor's doom when his naked soul appears before God? How will he bear that voice, "Depart, ye cursed; thou hast rejected me, and I reject thee; thou hast played the harlot, and departed from me: I also have banished thee forever from my presence, and will not have mercy upon thee.

" What will be this wretch's shame at the last great day when, before assembled multitudes, the apostate shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. 

"There he is," says one, 

"will he preach the gospel in hell?" 

"There he is," 

says another, "he rebuked me for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself!" "Aha!" says another, "here comes a psalm-singing Methodist--one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life; and here he is!" No greater eagerness will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors, than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite's soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back-way to hell. 

Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords, and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had professed to walk, and thrust him through the back-door into hell. 

Mind that back-way to hell, professors! 

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith." 

Look well to your state; see whether you be in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when oneself is to be tried; but O, be just and true here. 

Be just to all, but be rigorous to yourself. 

Remember if it be not a rock on which you build, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of it. 

O may the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day, however evil, may you be led to turn aside.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

WARRIOR'S PRAYER !!!

"Get thee up into the high mountain."

"Get thee up into the high mountain."

Isaiah 40:9

Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little: the mountain itself appears to be but one-half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens beneath your feet. 

Go higher, and you see the country for four or five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect. Mount still, and the scene enlarges; till at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest in some distant county, perhaps two hundred miles away, and here the sea, and there a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a manufacturing town, or the masts of the ships in a busy port. 

All these things please and delight you, and you say, "I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation.

" Now, the Christian life is of the same order. 

When we first believe in Christ we see but little of him. The higher we climb the more we discover of his beauties. 

But who has ever gained the summit? 

Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, "I know whom I have believed," for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like ascending another summit, and his death seemed like gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of him to whom he had committed his soul. 

Get thee up, dear friend, into the high mountain.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."