GOD AT EVENTIDE
by Two Listeners
Edited by A. J. Russell
October
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 29
30 31
October 1 - Have Confidence
Nothing happens to you that is not the answer to your prayers, the fulfillment of your desire to do, and have, in all, My Will.
So go forward into each day unafraid.
October 2 - No Greater Joy
On earth, or even in Heaven, there can be no greater joy than realizing that My Will is being accomplished in the little as well as in the big things.
Indeed, it can be your "meat" as I said it was Mine. It is the very sustenance of body, mind, and spirit, that Trinity of being, symbolized in the Temple in the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and then in the very Holy of Holies, where man speaks with God and dwells with Him.
Into that Holy of Holies there can be no entrance except to sacrifice, to bring an offering of the physical and mental being in Spirit to identify the whole with that Supreme Sacrifice I offered for My World.
October 3 - Constant Companion
Not unto us, O Lord . . . but unto Thy Name be Glory.
My Name. I AM. Existent before all Worlds, changeless through Eternity, changeless in Time.
All I have ever been through the ages I AM.
All that you ever crave I may be to you -- I AM.
In a changing world you need to dwell much upon Me, your Master, the Jesus Christ of whom is what was said --
"The same yesterday, today and forever."
Then it follows that with you today is The Lord of Creation, Jesus of Nazareth, and that Christ of the Cross, the Risen Savior, the Ascended Lord. What a Companionship for the uncertain ways of a changing world.
October 4 - Bright Reality
O Jesus make Thyself to me A living, bright reality.
Then will you show Me as a living bright reality? I died that I might live in you, My followers, and you present Me to the world as a dead Christ.
"I am alive for evermore."
Though you may repeat those words they are not vibrant with Life, here and now. They speak but of My existence in another sphere far removed from this earth and its joys and sorrows, achievement and stress.
Yet in all these daily things I would have My Spirit active in and through you.
How can man so misread My Teaching?
October 5 - One With Me
One with the God of Creation.
One with the Jesus of Calvary.
One with the Risen Christ.
One with His Spirit operating in every corner of the Universe, energizing, renewing, controlling, all-powerful.
Could man ask more? Could thought rise higher?
October 6 - Power-Seekers
How pitiful man's striving after power when God's Power, with all its mighty possibilities, is there for him did he but know how to obtain it.
To tell one such that this would only be possible for one who has entered My Kingdom of Heaven, might indeed arouse his curiosity.
But tell him the way into that Kingdom is one of self-effacement, obedience to and love of My Will, tell him that he must enter as a little child, that only by spiritual progress can he attain to a man's true estate, and that the training might be long, the discipline hard -- tell him this and he will turn empty away.
Yet in so doing he will renounce, all unknowing the victor's prize, the life of peace, and power, and joy.
October 7 - The Upward Way
Only with Me, and in My Strength will you have Grace and Power to conquer the weakness, the evil, in yourself. Your character-garment is spoiled. Only by applying My Salvation can it to become a wedding garment, fit robe in which to meet the Bridegroom.
The foundation-cleansing of the garment is belief in Me as your Savior, your Redeemer. Thereafter to each fault and evil in your nature must be applied that evil-eradicating Power that can only come from relying on My Strength, and from living with Me, from loving Me, and loving to do My Will.
Mere general belief in Me as Redeemer and Savior is insufficient. Set yourself now to walk steadily the upward way, strong in Me and in the power of My Might.
October 8 - "Lord, Save Me"
I will, be thou clean.
Saved from all that tarnishes the purity of your soul.
Saved from harsh judgments.
Saved from disobedience to My Command.
Saved from all that offends My Justice, all that sins against My Love. I will, be thou clean.
October 9 - Overcome Desire
The listening ear --
Train the listening ear to hear Me.
The first step is to subdue earth's desires and to want only My Will.
Desire as a control must be overcome.
Then follows the turning within to speak with Me.
Then the listening ear.
October 10 - Peter's Example
My child, I will never fail you.
My Promise is not dependent upon your perfection, only upon your accepting My Will and striving ever to walk in it.
But, for your happiness, I give you Divine Assurance that though you may fail in achievement, if not in desire, I cannot plead human frailty, so My Promises must be fulfilled.
When I chose Peter I saw in him not only one who after failure and denial, would become a Power for Me in My Strength; I chose him that others, frail and weak, might take courage as they remembered My Love and forgiveness, and his subsequent spiritual progress.
October 11 - All Clear
Love is the great power of understanding. Love explains all, makes all clear.
How can you understand Me unless you love Me? How can men see My purposes unless they love Me?
Love is indeed the fulfilling of the law. It is also the understanding of the law.
He that loveth is born of God, because he enters into a new life in God who is Love. Live in that Love.
Love it is that prepares the ground for My teaching, that softens the hardest heart, that disposes the most indifferent, that creates desire for My Kingdom.
Therefore love. Love Me first. Then love all, and so you link them to Me.
October 12 - Eyes Of The Spirit
You have much to learn.
Life will not be long enough to learn all, but you are gaining that Spirit-Vision which replaces the eyes of your mortal body when you enter into a life of fuller comprehension with My Father and Me.
October 13 - Stories In The Bud
Learn a further lesson from the Two Debtors . . .
A lesson in forgiving others as you realize My forgiveness of sins committed, lessons slowly learnt, faults and shortcomings so easily condoned, which hinder your progress, and work for Me.
Can you show to others My patience to you?
Can you, too, give to others freely, while you claim My unrestricted Bounty? Meditate on this.
A story of Mine is like a bud. Only to the Sun of self-effacement and Spirit-Progress does it unfold.
October 14 - Receptivity
Only those in close touch with Me, inspired by My Spirit, infected by My Love, impregnated with My Strength, retain a resilience of being and receptivity to new Truth.
The child heart that I enjoined upon My followers is ever ready to be renewed, is ever responsive to all that is prepared for "the new creature in Christ Jesus."
October 15 - The Way Of The Lord
Always before My coming into a life there must be a time of preparation. This is the work of those who already know Me.
The preparation may differ in each individual case. The Baptist came with his thunder-note of repentance!
In many cases a loving hand of help may be needed before the ground is ready for Me, The Sower.
Prepare My Way -- by loving intercourse, by Spirit-led example, by tender help, by unflinching adherence to Truth and Justice, by ready self-sacrifice, and by much prayer. Prepare ye the Way of the Lord.
October 16 - In Step
This means endeavoring to suit your steps to Mine. Yet know full well, with the trust that gives security, that I ever suit My Steps to your weakness.
Divine restraint springs ever from a tender understanding. With Me beside you there is the hope, the assurance, that the day will come when My firm tread will be yours.
"Keep pace with us," the world says as it rushes by.
But there is One Who knows no feverish haste. He walks with you. Be not afraid.
October 17 - See Clearly
Then will you see clearly how to take out the grain of dust from your brother's eye. This is a promise.
You note the fault of another. You long to help.
You need the Spirit-inspired vision for this work. That cannot be granted until all obstruction is removed. Obstructions are caused not by the sins of others but by your own sins and imperfections.
So look within. Seek to conquer those, and so to gain the Spiritual insight which will enable you to help your brother. My Promises are always kept.
October 18 - Grace That Transfigures
My Grace is sufficient for you, all-satisfying.
Meditate upon this GRACE. Study what the Scriptures say of it. Learn to value it. Crave it as a gift from Me.
It can be the charm that transfigures all that without it might be sordid or dreary or monotonous. It is the leaven to the dough, the oil to the machine.
It is a priceless gift. Wait with bowed head and heart at that blessing, "The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."
October 19 - The Royal Giver
You tell Me that your hearts are full of gratitude. I do not want from you gratitude as much as the joy of friendship. Realize that I love to give.
As the Scriptures say, "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." I love to give. The Divine Nature is the Nature of a Royal Giver.
Have you ever thought of My Delight when you are ready to receive? When you long to hear My Words and to receive My Blessings?
October 20 - Force
My Kingdom must be won by force, that is, by effort. How can you reconcile this with My free gift of Salvation?
My gift is free truly, and is not the reward of any merit on the part of Man. But just as God and mammon cannot both be given the overlordship in any one life, so My Kingdom, where I rule as King, cannot be inhabited by one in whom self reigns.
Therefore the violence is that of discipline and self-conquest, together with the intensity of longing for My Kingdom and tireless effort to know and do My Will.
October 21 - Absorb Good
The only way to eradicate evil is to absorb good. This is My story of the seven other spirits.
This story was to illustrate the vast difference between the Mosaic Law and My Law. The Pharisees and the Elder Brother were the observers of the Mosaic Law.
You have proved this in your own life. To pray that you may resist temptation and conquer evil is in itself but useless.
Evil cannot live in My Presence. Live with Me. Absorb My Life, and evil will remain without.
October 22 - The Peace Of God
The Peace of God lies deeper than all knowledge of earth's wisest. In that quiet realm of the Spirit, where dwell all who are controlled by My Spirit, there can all secrets be revealed, all Hidden-Kingdom-Truths be shown and learned.
Live there, and Truth deeper than all knowledge shall be revealed to you.
Their lines are gone out into all the earth -- so travels the influence, ever-widening, of those who live near to Me.
Take time to be with Me. Take time in prayer to draw others to Me.
Count all things but loss, so that you may have Me.
October 23 - Passing Understanding
The Peace of God that passeth all understanding.
That Peace that both fills and encircles the soul that trusts in Me. It is born of a long faith-experience that is permeated through and through with the consciousness of the never-failing Love of a Father.
A Father Who supplies and protects, not alone because of His obligations of Fatherhood, but because of a longing, intense, enduring Love, that delights to protect and supply, and that cannot be denied.
October 24 - A Special Message
Peace has, for every true disciple, a special meaning and message. It is endeared to him by association. It was the parting gift of his Lord to His followers, bequeathed through them to followers of each succeeding generation. It is not the peace of indifference, of sloth; that is mere acquiescence.
No, the Peace I left to My own is vital and strong. It can exist only in the heart of one who lives with Me. It derives from Me that Eternal Life which is Mine, and which makes the Gift ever full of an imperishable beauty, and instinct with Life indeed.
October 25 - Fullness Of Joy
There is a Joy of My Kingdom that My followers may know, and that no shadow of the world's pessimism can endanger. It resists all cramping of outward, soulless convention.
Too often My followers fail to see how full of Joy I could be. They see Me, the JESUS who beheld the city and wept over it, Who was so touched by the suffering all round Me, and they fail to realize how filled with Joy I could be at the response to My Call.
No shadow of the Cross could darken that Joy. I was as a bridegroom among the friends he had chosen to share his wedding joys.
As such I refused to consider the implied reproof of the Pharisees. We were a band filled with desire to save the world, we were full of hope and enthusiasm. Our Spirits could not be compressed into the outworn bottles of mere pharisaic convention. Ponder this and recognize your Master Who bids you Love and Laugh.
October 26 - Love Is Duty-Free
How human, how earthbound are the thoughts man has of God. He judges of Me and My Father by his own frail impulses and feelings.
There is in Divine Love no compulsion of duty from the loved one to the Lover.
Love draws, certainly, and then love longs to serve and to express one's love.
But no question of duty in return for Love.
October 27 - Mysteries
There is only one road that leads to the solving of mysteries, the road of obedience and Love.
But in perfect Love there is no curiosity, only a certainty that when the time has come all will be clear, and that until that time there is no desire to know anything that the Beloved has not chosen to reveal.
Does it matter if no mystery is made plain down here? If you have Me, then in Me you have all. Continue ye in My Love.
October 28 - Growing Young
There will never be a time when you will have conquered all of self. As you mount higher and higher you will see more and more clearly the errors and shortcomings of your character and life.
That is as it should be. Progress means youth.
Arrested growth means stagnation. Lack of progress and failure to conquer mean -- old age.
In Eternal Life there can be no old age. Eternal Life is Youth-Life, full and abundant Life. "And this is Life Eternal that they may know Thee, the only True God, and JESUS Christ, Whom Thou hast sent."
October 29 - Little Difficulties
The secret of true discipleship is service and little things. So rarely do Mine understand this.
They are ready to die for Me, but not to live for Me, in all the small details of this life.
Is not this the way of men, so often, towards those they love in the world? They are so ready to make the big sacrifices, but not the little ones.
Guard against this in service for Me. Suffer little hardships gladly, overcome little proud impulses, little selfishnesses, and little difficulties. Serve Me in the little things. Be My servants of the little ways.
Again I would stress that the service of My followers must be ever one of Love, not of duty. Temptations can so easily overcome a resolution based on fear, on duty, but against Love temptation has no power. Live in My Spirit, rest in My Love.
Remember, if you look to Me for everything, and trust Me for everything, and if I do not send the full measure you ask, it must not be thought that it is necessarily some sin or weakness that is hindering My Help from flowing into and through you.
In some cases this may be so, but it may be simply My restraining Hand laid on you as I whisper, "Rest, step aside with Me. Come apart and rest a while."
October 31 - And Seek No Surplus
I would impress upon you again that only as you are channels can I make your supply plentiful and constant.
If you keep all you need, and then intend of your surplus to give to Me and Mine, there will be no surplus. I have promised to supply your need, so that as you impoverish yourselves, I repair that loss. Try and grasp that Truth in all its fullness.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, 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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