There is a poem called "The Changed Cross." It represents a weary one who thought that her cross was surely heavier than those of others whom she saw about her, and she wished that she might choose another instead of her own. She slept, and in her dream she was led to a place where many crosses lay, crosses of different shapes and sizes. There was a little one most beauteous to behold, set in jewels and gold "Ah, this I can wear with comfort," she said. So she took it up, but her weak form shook beneath it. The jewels and the gold were beautiful, but they were far too heavy for her.

Next she saw a lovely cross with fair flowers entwined around its sculptured form. surely that was the one for her. She lifted it, but beneath the flowers were piercing thorns which tore her flesh .

At last, as she went on, she came to a plain cross, without jewels, without carvings, with only a few words of love inscribed upon it. This she took up and it proved the best of all, the easiest to be borne. And as she looked upon it, bathed in the radiance that fell from heaven, she recognized her own old cross. She had found it again, and it was the best of all and lightest for her.

God knows best what cross we need to bear. We do not know how heavy other people's crosses are. We envy someone who is rich; his is a golden cross set with jewels, but we do not know how heavy it is. Here is another whose life seems very lovely. She bears a cross twined with flowers. If we could try all the other crosses that we think lighter than our own, we would at last find that not one of them suited us so well as our own.

 

copied from:
August 29 "Streams In The Desert 1" by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
From "Glimpses through Life's Windows"

PRAISE CHANGES THINGS

Nothing so pleases God in connection with our prayer and our praise, and nothing so blesses the man who prays as the praise which he offers. I got a great blessing once in China in this connection. I had received bad and sad news from home, and deep shadows had covered my soul. I prayed, but the darkness did not vanish. I summoned myself to endure, but the darkness only deepened. Just then I went to an inland station and saw on the wall of the mission home these words: "Try Thanksgiving." I did, and in a moment every shadow was gone, not to return. Yes, the psalmist was right, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord."




copied from:
August 4 "Streams In The Desert 1" by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Rev. Henry W. Frosts

I recollect, when a lad, and while attending a classical institute in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant, sitting on an elevation of that mountain, and watching a storm as it came up the valley. The heavens were filled with blackness, and the earth was shaken by the voice of thunder. It seemed as though that fair landscape was utterly changed, and its beauty gone never to return.

But the storm swept on, and passed out of the valley; and if I had sat in the same place on the following day, and said, "Where is that terrible storm, with all its terrible blackness?" the grass would have said, "Part of it is in me," and the daisy would have said, "Part of it is in me," and the fruits and flowers and everything that grows out of the ground would have said, "Part of the storm is incandescent in me."

Have you asked to be made like your Lord? Have you longed for the fruit of the Spirit, and have you prayed for sweetness and gentleness and love? Then fear not the stormy tempest that is at this moment sweeping through your life. A blessing is in the storm, and there will be the rich fruitage in the "afterward."



copied from:
July 28 "Streams In The Desert 1" by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Henry Ward Beecher

I pray to God this day to make me an extraordinary Christian.

copied from:
July 19 "Streams In The Desert 1" by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Whitefield

Nearly all God's jewels are crystallized tears.

copied from:
July 7 "Streams In The Desert 1" by
Mrs. Charles E. Cowan

A life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden upon the ark of God. They were placed upon it with the best intent, to steady it when trembling and shaking as the oxen drew it along the rough way; but they touched God's work presumptuously, and they fell paralyzed and lifeless. Much of the life of faith consists in letting things alone.

If we wholly trust an interest to God, we must keep our hands off it; and He will guard it for us better than we can help Him. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; fret not thyself because of Him who prospereth in His way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass."

Things may seem to be going all wrong, but He knows as well as we; and He will arise in the right moment if we are really trusting Him so fully as to let Him work in His own way and time. There is nothing so masterly as inactivity in some things, and there is nothing so hurtful as restless working, for God has undertaken to work His sovereign will.




copied from:
"A.B. Simpson" from
July 6 "Streams In The Desert 1" by
Mrs. Charles E. Cowan

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 
Romans  1:16  (NKJV)

 "What do you believe about Jesus?"  Marilyn Kunz asked her high school English teacher one afternoon.  Using simple words, the Christian teacher, Vera Ehnbom, explained the gospel to Marilyn.  She accepted Christ and began attending the teacher's Sunday school class.


After college Marilyn and her friend, Kay Schell, saw the need for home Bible study and the two women started a neighborhood group.  They developed study guides, and in five years, two hundred groups were meeting in New York City suburbs to study the Bible.


From there, Neighborhood Bible Study spread across the country and around the world.  Eventually Marilyn and Kay's guides were translated into over thirty languages and dialects.  It began when one teacher unashamedly shared the truth about Jesus with a student.


Don't discuss the few words you may share about Christ with an unsaved person.  Because all of heaven's power stands behind your witness, the little you say has the potential to begin an avalanche of blessings.  It did for teacher Vera Ehnbom.  It will for you, also.

Taken from   "Daily Devotions for Women"
                     by Jewell Johnson
                     Day 171

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed. 
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah  53: 5, 6  (NKJV)


The plainest and most powerful language in all Scripture describing the substitutionary  death of Jesus is found in these verses.  Read them again and notice the plural pronouns, our, we, and us.   The whole human race stands guilty before god.  Isaiah compares us with sheep, and the comparison is apt.  there is no animal more foolish than a sheep.  One of the flock breaks through the fence and plunges over the cliff, and the rest follow.  Adam broke through the law fence and plunged into the pit of death, and every descendant of his, save One, has followed.  Indeed, we are well likened to foolish sheep.


It is that One who paid our penalty.  He is the One who was wounded, bruised, chastised, and beaten for our sins.  He is the One upon whom His Father has laid all our iniquities.  Sin cost Heaven a price that was actually paid with the blood of precious Jesus.


As we consider the price paid for our redemption, how can we ever complain or grieve over the trials we face?  How can we ever distrust the love of our Father?  Even in the darkest moments of life, how can we refuse to lift up our hearts in gratitude and praise to the One who has delivered us from eternal death?  As we view the cross and see such amazing love, our stubborn hearts cannot but melt and surrender to Him.


To make this text even more personal, read it again and replace all the plural pronouns with singular ones.  He was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities .... with His strips I am healed.


Could Jesus have done any more?  Could He have suffered a more humiliating death?  He went the limit -- the absolute extreme.  He gave up all -- His own life -- so that we as straying sheep can be brought home to live in peace and safety in the lamb shelter of heaven.  Thank You, Lord, for Your marvelous love!

taken from: First Things First
June 6
by: Bob Spangler