GOD AT EVENTIDE
by Two Listeners
Edited by A. J. Russell
February
1
2 3
4 5
6 7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
15
16 17 18
19 20
21 22
23 24
25 26
27 28
February 1 - All Love
Excelling
Softly I approach. Gently My Spirit speaks to your heart.
The mystery of man's communion with Me lies in the beauty and
wonder of its aloneness. For the moment the world seems not to exist.
Its noise and traffic seem hushed.
There is indeed wonder in that stillness. A faint glimpse is
seen in the sudden realization of Love between two human beings. Surprise
and wonder . . . the world is for them alone . . . no claim other than
their love.
What wonder in the heart of man when he realizes the beauty, tenderness, and closeness of Communion with Me!
February 2 -
My Wages
If the world understands you, then you are speaking its language,
actuated by its motives, living its life according to its standards.
Will you have this?
Remember I said very clearly, "Ye cannot serve God and
mammon." If you serve God, then, for your work, you should surely
look to God for reward.
So many of My servants serve Me, and yet expect to receive the
gratitude and praise, or at least the acknowledgment of the world. Why?
You are not doing the work of the world. Why expect its pay?
February 3 - Ambassadors All
If you love Me and long to serve others by showing them what I am
like, you will assuredly do so.
Because self will disappear, be cast out.
When self has gone then those who see you will not see the self in
you; only the ambassador of your King.
You have here in this seemingly narrow life of yours countless
opportunities of overcoming self. Let this be your great task.
February 4 - Wise
Rest
Rest should play a large part in the lives of My followers, for
tiredness and physical strain can cause man to lose his consciousness of My
Presence.
Then the Light that banishes evil seems to be withdrawn -- never by
deliberate act of Mine, but as the result of man's attitude towards Me.
Ponder on this.
February 5 - The Aching Spirit
Just as I said that those who hungered and thirsted after
righteousness would be filled, so I say to you -- none ever longed to know Me
better and remained unsatisfied. Even with your imperfect knowledge, you
are daily realizing how true this is.
Man dwells so much on material things that he fails to grasp the
Spiritual laws that never fail.
For all spirit-longing there is fulfillment. I soothe the aching
Spirit.
You think I answer your prayer. Yes, but the answer was there,
awaiting the prayer.
February 6 - True Humility
If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought
also to wash one another's feet.
How My followers have misunderstood this. They interpret
the required attitude to be one of service. In service there can be
condescension, there can be a total lack of humility.
I sought to teach a lesson to those who would approach Me to
partake of that wonderful Union
with Me, vouchsafed to those who worthily eat of My Flesh and drink of My
Blood.
I desired to teach them that they must come to Me in the Spirit
of humility towards others. No sense of superiority, especially
Spiritual superiority. True humility. Learn this lesson in
daily Companionship with Me. "For I am meek and lowly of heart."
February 7 - The Way Of
Progress
Impress upon all that growth is one of the laws of My Kingdom.
However long your span of life on earth, it can never be too long
for growth and progress.
Be ever seeking My Will for you. Not a new religion, nor the
right religion, but -- My Will. Then all will be well and growth will
follow.
February 8 - Future All
Unknown
Probe not into the future. Prophecies are not for you.
Be a humble follower in the crowd. Live with Me. Ponder My Words, My
Teaching, My Actions.
Soon you will find that more and more opportunities of speaking of
Me will present themselves. Do not make them. They will proceed from
the pressure of inward growth, and not from outward stress.
February 9 - All Will Be Well
In humble anticipation -- wait.
Wait as a servant anticipating orders. Wait as a lover eager
to note a need, and to supply it.
Wait for My Commands; wait for My Guidance; wait for My Supply.
All will come.
In such a life you may well be of good cheer. Can a life be
dull when always there is that watchful expectancy, anticipation of glad
surprise, that wonder of fulfillment, that Joy of full supply?
February 10 - Your Power
In your hands I have placed a wonderful force against evil.
You cannot realize as yet the mighty weapon you wield.
Make known the Power of Prayer. A force so wonderful, so
miracle-working, that when it is united with a will that seeks only My Will and
with a Friendship with Me that calms, enobles and enriches, then nothing can
withstand its Power.
February 11 - No Remorse
I seek to save you not only from falling into sin, but from the
overwhelming remorse that follows the realization of sin.
I know that for frail man this is too great a burden. So when
you let it overwhelm you, you nullify My saving Power.
I seek to save you from oppression and depression too.
I bid you leave all to follow Me. That is, leave the sins and the failures
of the past.
Out of the shadow into the sunlight of My Love and Salvation you
must go.
February 12 - See Me
Everywhere Still
See Me in all your daily life.
See Me in the little happenings. Recognize me as the source
of every act of kindness and Love.
Feel My Power with you when you face any task or danger. Know
My consoling tenderness in every sorrow and disappointment.
I, the Master-Painter, can work into the ordinary colors of beauty
until you see the befitting background for the joy and ecstasy of the radiance I
give.
February 13 - Ever Secure
Abide secure in My friendship.
A friend who knows you through and through; knows all your pitiful
attempts at living for Me, your many and tragic failures, your childish
misunderstanding of Me and what I would do for you.
Your desire to serve Me, your clinging to Me in the dark hours of
helplessness; your stumbling confidence in your efforts to walk alone -- I know
all.
I have seen your persistent blindness to My guidance; I have seen
how you obstruct the answers to your own prayers; I have noted your easy
acquiescence to those forces that oppose My loving purposes.
I know all this, and yet I say again: Abide with Me secure in
My friendship.
February 14 - Thanks For All
Thank Me for all the withholding as well as for the giving.
Thank Me for sunshine and rain, for drought and springs of water, for sleep and
wakefulness, for gain and loss. Thank Me for all.
Know beyond all doubt, all fear, that all is well. Cling to
Me in moments of weakness. Cling still in moments of strength, imploring
that you may never feel self-sufficient.
No evil shall befall you, rest in this knowledge.
February 15 - Green Pastures
After each salutary experience of life, each blow it may deal you,
separate yourself from the world for a time. Walk in My Green Pastures,
and wander with Me beside the Waters of Comfort, until your soul is restored.
This is necessary so that you may readjust yourself to life.
For you are a new being; you have had a new experience. Learn a new
lesson. Your
This is the time when My Love can whisper new meanings to you, can
make the Friendship between us a closer, more holy
Come with your Lover into the stillness of My Green Pastures, and
walk with Me beside hushed waters.
February 16 - He Changeth Not
Mark My Changelessness.
If I am truly the same, yesterday, today, and forever, then I am no
God of moods as so often man portrays Me. Can you worship a God swayed
this way and that at man's demand?
Dwell upon the thought of My Changelessness until you grasp the Truth that only as man changes and comes within the influence of My unchanging Law of Love can he realize and experience the Power and Love I have unchangingly for all mankind.
February 17 - Practice Peace
Peace must fill your hearts and lives, and then you will find that
ills and difficulties and sorrows and changes leave you unmoved. Practice
that steadfast immobility, no matter what may threaten. This spirit of
calm trust is the shield that turns aside the darts and stings of adversity.
Practice it.
Then you must seek to abide at the heart of the Universe with Me,
at the center with Me. There alone is changlessness and calm WITH ME.
February 18 - The Perfect
Pattern
See that thou make all things according to the pattern that was
shown thee on the Mount.
Otherwise it would have been better not to have gone up the Mount
at all? Take this lesson to heart. In your daily valley-life you
must live out what you learn in the alone-time on heights with Me.
The Spirit-pattern is so glorious because it is made to fit your
life, specially planned for you.
Obeying the command made Moses the good leader he became.
This is the time, then, humbly to see your weakness, to adjust your life to the
work of My Kingdom, to prepare to live in all things according to the pattern
that was shown you on the Mount.
February 19 - Youth Renewed
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
To discover the Pearl of Great Price is to renew your youth.
The
Kingdom
of Heaven is a kingdom of perennial youth.
February 20 - The Secret Of
Joy
Such rapture is yours. Count it all Joy to know Me, and to
delight in Me. The secret of Joy is the longing to have My Will, and the
gratification of that longing.
There is nothing in Heaven that transcends the Joy, the ecstasy, of
loving and doing My Will. To a soul who realizes this wonder,
Heaven is already attained as far as mortals here can attain it. My Will
for you is My joyous arranging for you.
The frustration of the Divine Plan is man's tragedy.
February 21 - Wise As
Serpents
Each servant of Mine should regard himself as an outpost for My
Truths, where he must be prepared to receive My Messages, and to signal them on.
This is work of great importance in My Kingdom.
Wherever you go make Me known. That was My Risen injunction,
My Commission. Wherever you go establish outposts of My Empire, make
contacts for Me. Make Me known to men -- sometimes by speech, sometimes in
silence.
February 22 - Wonder-Work
All work with Me is wonder-work. God working in and through
man. This should be the normal work of every Christian's day. For
this I came to earth, to show man this could be.
For this I left the earth, so that this should be. Can life
offer anything more for you than that you fulfill in yourselves My expectations
for My disciples?
Satan frustrates My plan by whispering to My followers a mock
humility in which they trace not his evil hand -- "They are too weak, too
small, too unimportant to do much . . . .
Away with false humility, which limits not you but Me. Mine
is the Power.
February 23 - Conquering
And To Conquer
Always seek some conquest, for spiritual growth requires it.
In the natural world you see how necessary this striving is, and in the mental
and spiritual worlds there must be struggle too.
So, as you go forward in your spiritual life, you will see always a
fresh conquest demanding your effort.
Shun stagnation. Never be discouraged if always you see some
fault requiring to be overcome, some obstacle to be surmounted.
Thus you go forth with Me conquering and to conquer.
February 24 - Always
Antagonism
And He passing through the midst of them.
Face evil undaunted, and it will fall back, and let you pass on and
do your work for Me.
The maddened crowd had sought to cast Me headlong, but they
made way for Me, and through their midst I passed unhindered.
Do not be surprised to find antagonism where you meet evil, because
you are a home of My Spirit, and it is My Spirit that arouses the antagonism.
Go on your way so quietly, and trust in Me.
In My Strength My follower need not flinch, but, boldly facing
evil, will overcome evil with good.
You follow the dauntless Christ.
February 25 - The War Within
And he was dumb, because he believed not.
There is physical correspondence to faith and to doubt.
Especially is this so among those who would serve Me. For
unlike others, they are not so controlled by the law of physical success or
failure, but are under the direct control of the Laws of My Kingdom.
So, in many cases, you may note good health in one ignorant of
Me, and ill-health in one of My followers, until he has learned the full control
of the physical by the Spiritual. In his case the warring of
physical and Spiritual may cause physical ill-health, or unrest.
So do not fret about the physical side, aim increasingly at control by
My Spirit.
February 26 - As From Me
Take every little kindness, every faithful service, every evidence
of thought and of Love -- as from Me.
As you, and those who live with and for Me, show loving-kindness to
others, because you are actuated by My Spirit, so you draw contacts into
the circle of my ever-widening Spirit influence.
This is unfailingly so. It is a spiritual law. Though
no word of Me may be spoken, yet in this way souls are attracted until at
length they find Me, the center and inspiration of all.
Well did I urge My Followers to become fishers of men. No
great oratory or personality is needed for this soul-rescue work. Just
follow Me as little children.
February 27 - My Tireless
Search
Share with Me the tireless search for the lost, the ache of
disappointment, the sublime courage, the tenderness of complete forgiveness.
Share the Joys, the sorrows, the Love, the scorn.
I walk the lakeside still, and pause, as, to one and
another, I utter the same call I uttered in
February 28 - The Simple
Life
The Gift of Eternal Life is a most precious one. Each one who
receives it must demonstrate by Joy and Trust and radiancy of Spirit, expressed
in being and in bearing, the quality of the Life he possesses.
The other life is existence -- just not death.
Power and Joy must radiate from you. These are the
expressions of Eternal Life. Life Eternal is to know the Father and Me, His
Son, Whom He sent.
"God so Loved the world that He gave His only Begotten
Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting
(i.e., Eternal) Life."
Directly that Life is possessed by a man, all that Is not simple,
child-like has to go.
Not by complicated devices is My work accomplished.
My followers must be simple and direct. "Let your yea
be yea and your nay be nay," I said.
Simplicity Is forceful. Simplicity Is great . It Is a conquering Power.
UP-HILL
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
C. G. Rossetti
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25
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