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Daily devotions for 10-14-2004:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Knowing God
Evening Title: Distinctly Christian
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Morning: Knowing God
"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord."
--Philippians 3:8
Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus
through another person's acquaintance with Him. No, I must know Him myself; I must
know Him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge--I must know Him, not
as the visionary dreams of Him, but as the Word reveals Him. I must know His natures,
divine and human. I must know His offices--His attributes--His works--His shame--His
glory. I must meditate upon Him until I "comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge." It will be an affectionate knowledge of Him; indeed, if I know Him at all,
I must love Him. An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning.
Our knowledge of Him will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know my Saviour, my mind
will be full to the brim--I shall feel that I have that which my spirit panted after.
"This is that bread whereof if a man eat he shall never hunger." At the same time it
will be an exciting knowledge; the more I know of my Beloved, the more I shall want to
know. The higher I climb the loftier will be the summits which invite my eager
footsteps. I shall want the more as I get the more. Like the miser's treasure, my gold
will make me covet more. To conclude; this knowledge of Christ Jesus will be a most
happy one; in fact, so elevating, that sometimes it will completely bear me up above
all trials, and doubts, and sorrows; and it will, while I enjoy it, make me something
more than "Man that is born of woman, who is of few days, and full of trouble"; for it
will fling about me the immortality of the everliving Saviour, and gird me with the
golden girdle of His eternal joy.
Come, my soul, sit at Jesus's feet and learn of Him all this day.
Evening: Distinctly Christian
"And be not conformed to this world." --Romans 12:2
If a Christian can by possibility be saved while he conforms to this world, at any
rate it must be so as by fire. Such a bare salvation is almost as much to be dreaded
as desired. Reader, would you wish to leave this world in the darkness of a desponding
death bed, and enter heaven as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native
country? then be worldly; be mixed up with Mammonites, and refuse to go without the
camp bearing Christ's reproach. But would you have a heaven below as well as a heaven
above? Would you comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths, and know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge? Would you receive an abundant entrance
into the joy of your Lord? Then come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and
touch not the unclean thing. Would you attain the full assurance of faith? you cannot
gain it while you commune with sinners. Would you flame with vehement love? your love
will be damped by the drenchings of godless society. You cannot become a great
Christian--you may be a babe in grace, but you never can be a perfect man in Christ
Jesus while you yield yourself to the worldly maxims and modes of business of men of
the world.
It is ill for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. It has a
bad look
when a courtier is too intimate with his king's enemies. Even small inconsistencies are
dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters, little moths destroy fine garments, and
little
frivolities and little rogueries will rob religion of a thousand joys. O professor, too
little separated from sinners, you know not what you lose by your conformity to the
world. It cuts the tendons of your strength, and makes you creep where you ought to
run. Then, for your own comfort's sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if
you be a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one.
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Daily devotions for 10-13-2004:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: True Repentance
Evening Title: Strongest Love
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Morning: True Repentance
"Godly sorrow worketh repentance." --2 Corinthians 7:10
Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is
too choice a flower to grow in nature's garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but
penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou
hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human
nature's thorns never produced a single fig. "That which is born of the flesh is
flesh."
True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. When we repent of sin, we
must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if
we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only, in the light of His
love.
True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives
in it.
Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but
experimentally--as a burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it, as a
man who has lately been
stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway; and we shall shun it--shun
it in everything--not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little
vipers as well
as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue, lest
it should say a wrong word; we shall be very watchful over our daily actions, lest in
anything we offend, and each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of
shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this day God would
hold us up that we may not sin against Him.
Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This dropping
well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow
grows with our growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted
to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.
Evening: Strongest Love
"Love is strong as death." --Song of Solomon 8:6
Whose love can this be which is as mighty as the conqueror of monarchs, the destroyer
of the human race? Would it not sound like satire if it were applied to my poor, weak,
and scarcely living love to Jesus my Lord? I do love Him, and perhaps by His grace, I
could even die for Him, but as for my love in itself, it can scarcely endure a
scoffing jest, much less a cruel death. Surely it is my Beloved's love which is here
spoken of--the
love of Jesus, the matchless lover of souls. His love was indeed stronger than the
most terrible death, for it endured the trial of the cross triumphantly. It was a
lingering death, but love survived the torment; a shameful death, but love despised
the shame; a penal death, but love bore our iniquities; a forsaken, lonely death, from
which the eternal Father hid His face, but love endured the curse, and gloried over
all. Never such love, never such death. It was a desperate duel, but love bore the
palm. What then, my
heart? Hast thou no emotions excited within thee at the contemplation of such heavenly
affection?
Yes, my Lord, I long, I pant to feel Thy love flaming like a furnace within me. Come
Thou Thyself and excite the ardour of my spirit.
"For every drop of crimson blood
Thus shed to make me live,
O wherefore, wherefore have not I
A thousand lives to give?"
Why should I despair of loving Jesus with a love as strong as death? He deserves it: I
desire it.
The martyrs felt such love, and they were but flesh and blood, then why not I? They
mourned their weakness, and yet out of weakness were made strong. Grace gave them all
their unflinching constancy--there is the same grace for me. Jesus, lover of my soul,
shed abroad such love, even Thy love in my heart, this evening.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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