GOD AT EVENTIDE

by Two Listeners

Edited by A. J. Russell

March

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

March 1 - Arise From Defeat

It is not upon one battle alone that all depends, or there would be no hope for My failures.

You enter upon a long campaign when you enter My army. Is the battle lost? Acquaint yourself with the cause, discover your weakness, and with dauntless faith, go forth resolved this time to conquer.

No man can conquer who has not learned his weakness, not made ready for the next conflict, and who does not know and claim and trust My strength, always available when summoned, as you have already proved.

March 2 - Complete In Me

A Rock of Defense. A Joy to the saddened. A Rest to the weary. Calm to the ruffled.

A Companion of the sunlit glades. A Guide through the deserts of life. An Interpreter of experience. A Friend. A Savior.

All these and many more would I be to you. Never a heart's need that I could not soothe and satisfy.

Search the ages. Many men have been many things to other hearts, but never one man to all men, never one man all to one man. This only the Maker of Hearts could be.

Not only so, but in Me the soul finds its completion.

March 3 - Shining Through

As you grow like Me so My Love must reflect more and more through you, Divinity and Majesty.

Sublime thought, yes, but you doubt if this can be. But God is Love, so God is Majesty. Thus gradually into the lives of those who follow Me there comes My Dignity and Majesty.

Have you not traced it in My closest friends?

March 4 - To The Water's Edge

As God was in the days of Moses, so is He today. Responsive to the prayer of faith. Still ready and willing to make a path through the Red Sea.

Have the faith of Moses, who never faltered in his trust, even with the sea before, the advancing host behind, and no visible way of escape. To the very edge of the waters he led his people.

His task was done. It was for God, his God, in whom he trusted, to act now. Moses waited for, and expected, that act. But to the edge he had to go.

How often man draws back, halts at the thought of the troubled sea ahead. To go further is useless, he says, and gives up.

Or he goes within sight of the sea, and pauses. He must go on, always as far as he can; he must do all his share. God will not. On --to the Edge of the Sea.

Learn from this a mighty lesson. Do all your work, and leave your salvation to God. To say it will be no good is not to go to the edge, and that is to miss the saving Power of God.

The waters shall be divided, and you shall walk through the midst of the see on dry land. I have said it. I, the Lord. Have I not done this for so many in your own day? For you? Think on these things.

March 5 - "Share Share"

I am your Lord. Obey Me in all. You are being surely lead into prosperity and true peace.

Let many share in your every gain. There must be no hoarding in the Christ-life. Not what you can gain, but what you can give. Keep your eyes fixed on Me. Seek to know My Will. Share. Share.

I am a Risen Lord. You cannot live with Me without partaking of My Risen Life. My Kingdom is sharing.

I must share all I have with My followers. So you, too, must share all that I give you -- material and Spiritual Blessings -- with others.

March 6 - Your Circle Widens

As the circle of your life widens you will feel ever more and more the need of Me. The need indeed to draw from My unfailing resources to gain the help and wisdom required to deal with these new contacts.

Do not refuse them, only let nothing idle or of little worth engross your attention.

As your circle is enlarged, your means to deal with it adequately must grow too.

This is My desire. Ever walk with Me. Learn of Me. Witness for Me, Glorify Me.

March 7 - How Firm Your Foundation

As one in a storm needs to dwell in quiet thought upon the firmness of the foundation of his home, so you need in dangers and difficulties of whatever kind to withdraw, and in quiet assurance dwell upon that foundation upon which the house of your life and character is built.

Rest your thoughts on this, on Me. Do not dwell on the channels through which My Help may be directed to you. To do so is indeed to feel at the mercy of wind and the weather. You can draw no strength from such.

No, a sense of security can only come from relying on Me, the All-powerful, the Unchanging.

Security engenders Strength, then Peace, then Joy.

"Other foundations can no man lay."

March 8 - New Life

Eternal Life gives a youthful resiliency.

Think of My parable of the wine-skins. Those who merely worship Me as a creed are like unto old wine-skins.

They cannot accept new truth, new life. It would destroy, not increase their faith.

Those who have My Gift of Eternal, youth-giving Life have the ever-expanding, revitalizing, joy-quality of that Life.

The new wine poured so freely into new bottles. That bracing wine sustains the many who receive it.

March 9 - Bear One Another's Burdens

Do not judge of another's capacity by your own.

If the burden another bears presses too heavily, what matter that you could bear that load lightly?

You must learn of Me to judge of the sorrow or strain of another, not with a feeling of superiority, but with one of humble thankfulness.

Would not your burdens have seemed light to Me? But insofar as they pressed heavily upon you so did I judge of them.

That which tore your heart may seem light to another.

Truly I said -- Judge not. Only to God can the heart of man be made plain.

Seek My Presence, not only that you may understand Me, but that you may gain the insight to understand more clearly My other children.

March 10 - Turn It To Good

Never flinch. My standard-bearers must you ever be. Bear your standard high.

Life has its dangers and difficulties, but real as these seem, the moment you see in them a power of evil which will in response to your faith be forced to work in some way for your good, in that moment of recognition evil and danger cease to have any power over you.

This is a wonderful truth. Believe it. Rejoice in it.

March 11 - Accept Your Task

Take life as a task; each step of it to be practiced until it can be done perfectly, that is, with patience, with soul harmony, and rest.

Remember that Christ of the humble ways is with you. His "Well done, good and faithful servant," is spoken, not to the great of earth but to the humble bearer of pain and annoyance, to the patient worker in life's ways of service.

So even on the quietest day, and in the lowliest way, mighty opportunities are given you of serving the King of King's. See that you welcome and do not resent these opportunities.

March 12 - The Springs Of Joy

Be gentle to all.

Drink of the Living water, deep draughts from the inexhaustible wells into which the very springs of Eternal Life flow from the Hills of God.

Think thoughts of Love and Beauty. Know no limit to all you can possess and be and do. Live in My Love; surrounded by It, blessed by It, shedding It bountifully on all about you, ever conscious of It being present with you.

You are here to reflect It.

Seek to see the good in all you meet -- and in those of whom you hear.

March 13 - You Are Complete

Be happy in Me. Feel that your life is complete in Me. Know the Joy of a friendship in which those who love Me share.

Know a glad contentment in the security of your protected and guided life. Value the Power that Union with Me gives you.

The greatest power that money, fame, or position of the world can give, still leaves the possessor but as a child beating helpless hands against an impregnable fortress, as compared with the Power of My Spirit, which can render a follower of Mine himself an invincible, an all-conquering force.

March 14 - Your Weak Point

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

The instruments in your hand for good are invincible against evil, did you but use them.

Every evil you face boldly, in My Spirit, flees at once, ashamed. No evil can look good in the face. Teach to all -- that good is stronger than evil. You must answer the challenge of evil.

This spiritual warfare must be ceaselessly waged by My followers. Remember it is not where you are strongest that evil will attack you, but at your weak points. Hence the need to overcome. Be ready to see a weakness in yourself, and attack that until you are victor.

March 15 - Guidance Is Guidance

Be still before Me. How often in a crisis man rushes hither and thither. Rush is a sign of weakness. Quiet abiding is a sign of strength.

A few quiet actions, as you are led to do them, and all is accomplished wisely and rightly, more quickly and more effectually than could be done by those who rush about and act feverishly.

Guidance IS Guidance, the being led, the being shown the way. Believe this.

Softly across life's tumult, comes a gentle Voice, "Peace, be still." The waves of difficulty will hear. They will fall back. There will be a great calm.

And then the Still Small Voice of Guidance.

March 16 - Perfect Everything

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven."

That was the aim I set before My disciples when I spoke to them on the Mount.

That is the aim I set before you and every follower of Mine today.

To achieve this you would be as God.

To aim at less would mean an unworthy standard.

To keep your gaze on this as your standard means that your eyes are fixed on the Heights of God, always directed above the difficulties and the lower aims and desires and standards of others round you.

March 17 - The Real World

"Blessed are they that hear My Voice."

Deaf to My Voice man can so often be. Live, My children, more in the Unseen World. There, in the contemplation of Me, your whole nature becomes sensitive to My faintest whisper.

I have told you, I tell you again, the Unseen World is the real world. Realize more and more as you go through this earth-life that this is only a material-plane parenthesis. The real paragraph, chapter, book of Life is the Spirit-Life.

This point of view will alter your idea of suffering, failure, and the work of life here. It will give you a new view of death. Birth begins the parenthesis, death closes it. Then back to real Life-History. Absorb this.

When you have done so, you will get that same idea about the various periods of your earth-life. Times of struggle, defeat, joy, failure, work, rest, success -- treat them all as parts of a parenthesis in the one Eternal Life of spiritual progress.

March 18 - Joy For Sorrow

I bind up the broken hearts with the cords wherewith men scourged Me in the Judgment Hall, with the whips of scorn wherewith men have mocked My Love and Divinity down the ages.

Symbol, this, of the way in which, out of seeming obstacles stepping-stones can be fashioned, and, out of trials undreamt-of, blessings can be wrought.

Share My Life with its longings and tears, with its Joys unspeakable and its heartaches beyond human description.

Share My Joy.

March 19 - Your Resolutions

"By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."

Obedience is the keystone of your arch of worship. On it depends your Love and Power.

Through that archway shall many pass into My Holy Place. Once therein their questing souls will pass into My Holy of Holies. Is it too much to ask of you obedience that this may be accomplished?

Do not fret that your life is lived in lowly places. It is not to be lived to impress this earth-plane, but to be so faithful and obedient that those for whom you desire much, shall have THAT much impressed upon them on the spirit-plane.

That much, and more, than you can desire for them.

March 20 - First Place

I do not promise My followers the world's ease and pleasures. I promise those Joys that the world can neither give nor take away.

I promise the heart-rest found in Me alone.

It does not mean that all the beauties and pleasures of the world can be renounced, but that they must be enjoyed only after the treasures and Joys of My Kingdom have been learned, appreciated, and given first place.

March 21 - Simplicity

Be content to do the simple things.

Never think that if you have not the cleverness of the world I cannot use your services.

Pure sparkling wine may be in a silver goblet or in a simple glass, but, to the one who receives, it is the wine that matters, not the vessel, provided that be pure and clean.

It is My truth that matters, not the person that utters it, provided the desire is there to deliver My Message for ME.

True simplicity is found only as you live in Me and act in My Strength; for only in our close companionship can real value be achieved.

Never accept the values of earth. Be content with simplicity.

March 22 - Love's Overflow

I desire the love of man's heart in abundant measure.

Not because God would be adored for Himself and for His own gratification, but because I know that only as the love of man flows out to Me does man attain to his purest and best.

That rush of love, which follows the understanding and realization of My Love for man, sweetens and purifies his whole being.

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

The love you give to your neighbor is the overflow of your love to me.

March 23 - No Personalities

Deal with each difficulty as you must.

Then live above it. Say "In Him I conquered." The fight is ever between you and evil, never between you and another. Never make it a personal matter.

If you are fighting with the weapons of the world -- envy, resentment, anger -- you cannot use those of My Kingdom -- Prayer, Love, Peace -- which would give you a God-given conquering strength.

It is the endeavor to call both God and mammon to your aid that makes for lack of success. The world looks on in scornful pity, and My followers themselves doubt and wonder.

So often they do not see their own error, but attribute to suffering for My Sake that which may not be according to My Will.

March 24 - If It Offends--

Question yourself as to your weakness. What caused your failure? To continue to bemoan your folly is in itself a weakness. My followers must be strong, not in themselves, but in Me.

The look at Self, however penitent, cannot give strength.

Look unto Me, and, whatever the seeming sacrifice, be ruthless with what hindered or caused you to fall.

March 25 - Sift Your Motives

Walk in My Ways. Follow the path I have bidden you tread.

Humble yourselves before Me, and keep My laws, so shall you have perfect peace.

I am with you to give you the needed strength. Go forward unafraid. Grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of Me, your Master and your Friend. Count all the learning of earth's wisest as nothing compared with the wisdom that I, your Lord, would show you.

Love and learn. You have much, very much to do for My Kingdom. So seek to become perfect. Sift your motives. All that is unworthy cast aside, uproot its inner growth.

You are freely forgiven. Forgive freely, largely, wonderfully.

March 26 - Keep Step

Go forward, glad indeed.

Walk with Me until your faltering, flagging footsteps learn to keep in step with Me, and gain a firmness and a confidence unknown before.

Walk with Me until a gladsome rhythm reveals the conquest-spirit that you draw from Me and your whole being thrills with the joy of being, doing, and even suffering with Me.

Thus in loving Communion with Me you learn to know my needs and My wishes for others.

"Hear am I, Lord, send me" shows very surely a child-like eagerness, the eagerness of love, even the eagerness for adventure for My cause

For in My Secret Service there is surely the thrill of adventure.

March 27 - Spirits In Training

Go on along the highway of the Kingdom until all that comes, that touches your outward lives and circumstances, has no power to ruffle your spirit-calm. Make it a delight so to train yourselves.

Why does man rebel at aught that should teach him poise of spirit, whilst in the physical world he welcomes severe exercise that would increase his powers?

The children of this world are surely wiser in their generation than the children of light. If My Children of Light gave to their spirit and character-training all the care that the children of this world give to the body -- its feeding, its clothing, its wellbeing -- how rapid would their spiritual progress be!

Yet how little does the body matter compared with the growth of the Spirit. "Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul."

March 28 - In Eternity Now

Heirs of God. Joint heirs with Me of Eternal Life, if so be that you suffer with Me, that we may also be glorified together.

Glory denotes perfection of character. This can only be learned as you allow discipline to play its part in your life, and also as you entrust your sinful past to Me.

Perfect through suffering. You cannot escape discipline and be truly My disciple.

If you think that life is too short for all you have to do and to conquer, then remember that you have already entered upon ETERNITY.

March 29 - The True Sign

How many believed on My Name after seeing the signs which I did?

Not for the signs, not for the water made wine, not for My miracles will My true follower believe in Me.

No, for something deeper, seen only with the eyes of faith, realized only by a heart of love responding to My Heart of Love. Not of these must it be said, "I do not trust Myself unto them" as I did of those who saw My signs.

I must trust Myself and My Cause to My followers who see me with the eyes of faith. How else can I be loved and known?

They will meet Me, the outcast Savior, when I am performing no mighty deeds, wandering unheeded and unacclaimed through dark and lonely ways, and they will pause, all other pursuit forgotten, and will yet turn and follow Me.

Follow because of some chord in them responsive to the yearning of My Heart for Man, who has shut Me out. Follow, too, because of that in Me which is responsive to the cry of man's hungering soul.

March 30 - The Love Of Your Life

I am beside you. I am with you in all that you do. I control your thoughts, inspire your impulses, guide your footsteps.

    I strengthen you, body, mind, and spirit.
    I am the link between you and those who are in the Unseen.
    I am the Love of your lives.
    Controller of your destinies.
    Guardian, advocate, provider, Friend.

Yes, love Me more and more. So will you not only enjoy to the full the treasures and pleasures of My Kingdom, but increasingly those of Nature, My gift to My world.

March 31 - The Wrong Voice

I am the Great Teacher, so ready to explain the simplest lesson to the most ignorant.

It is not for you to seek everywhere explanations of Me and My Kingdom, its laws and its purposes.

Learn of Me. How often I would have spoken to some heart, but the voice of one too eager with explanations about Me crowded Me out.

When Andrew brought Simon to Me he was silent to let his brother learn of Me.

The reason for this crowding out of My Voice by My disciples is their unwillingness to believe that I do speak today. So, thinking they worship a silent Christ, they seek to make amends by their much speaking.

"To Thee our morning song of praise,
To Thee our evening prayer we raise."

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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