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Daily devotions for 10-31-2004:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: The Same Grace
Evening Title: Never Ashamed
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Morning: The Same Grace
"Renew a right spirit within me." --Psalm 51:10
A backslider, if there be a spark of life left in him will groan after
restoration. In this renewal
the same exercise of grace is required as at our conversion. We needed
repentance then; we
certainly need it now. We wanted faith that we might come to Christ at first;
only the like
grace can bring us to Jesus now.
We wanted a word from the Most High, a word from the lip of the loving One, to
end our fears then; we shall soon discover, when under a sense of present sin,
that we need it now. No man can be renewed without as real and true a
anifestation of the Holy Spirit's energy as he felt at first, because the work
is as great, and flesh and blood are as much in the way now as ever they were.
Let thy personal weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make thee pray
earnestly to thy God for help. Remember, David when he felt himself to be
powerless, did not fold his arms or close his lips, but he hastened to the
mercy-seat with "renew a right spirit within me." Let not the doctrine that
you, unaided, can do nothing, make you sleep; but let it be a goad in your side
to drive you with an awful earnestness to Israel's strong Helper.
O that you may have grace to plead with God, as though you pleaded for your
very life--"Lord,
renew a right spirit within me." He who sincerely prays to God to do this, will
prove his honesty by using the means through which God works. Be much in
prayer; live much upon the Word of God; kill the lusts which have driven your
Lord from you; be careful to watch over the future uprisings of sin. The Lord
has His own appointed ways; sit by the wayside and you will be ready when He
passes by. Continue in all those blessed ordinances which will foster and
nourish your dying graces; and, knowing that all the power must proceed from
Him, cease not to cry, "Renew a right spirit within me."
Evening: Never Ashamed
"I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." --Hosea 13:5
Yes, Lord, Thou didst indeed know me in my fallen state, and Thou didst even
then choose me for Thyself. When I was loathsome and self-abhorred, Thou didst
receive me as Thy child, and Thou didst satisfy my craving wants. Blessed for
ever be Thy name for this free, rich, abounding mercy.
Since then, my inward experience has often been a wilderness; but Thou hast
owned me still as Thy beloved, and poured streams of love and grace into me to
gladden me, and make me fruitful. Yea, when my outward circumstances have been
at the worst, and I have wandered in a land of drought, Thy sweet presence has
solaced me. Men have not known me when scorn has awaited me, but Thou hast
known my soul in adversities, for no affliction dims the lustre of Thy love.
Most gracious Lord, I magnify Thee for all Thy faithfulness to me in trying
circumstances, and I deplore that I should at any time have forgotten Thee and
been exalted
in heart, when I have owed all to Thy gentleness and love. Have mercy upon Thy
servant in this
thing!
My soul, if Jesus thus acknowledged thee in thy low estate, be sure that thou
own both Himself and His cause now that thou art in thy prosperity. Be not
lifted up by thy worldly
successes so as to be ashamed of the truth or of the poor church with which
thou hast been
associated. Follow Jesus into the wilderness:
bear the cross with Him when the heat of persecution grows hot. He owned thee,
O my soul,
in thy poverty and shame--never be so treacherous as to be ashamed of Him. O
for more shame at the thought of being ashamed of my best Beloved!
Jesus, my soul cleaveth to Thee.
"I'll turn to Thee in days of light,
As well as nights of care,
Thou brightest amid all that's bright!
Thou fairest of the fair!"
Daily devotions for 11-01-2004:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: The Church in Thy House
Evening Title: Safe Within
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Morning: The Church in Thy House
"The Church in thy house." --Philemon 2
Is there a Church in this house? Are parents, children, friends, servants, all
members of it?
or are some still unconverted? Let us pause here and let the question go
round--Am I a member of the Church in this house? How would father's heart leap
for joy, and mother's eyes fill with holy tears if from the eldest to the
youngest all were saved! Let us pray for this great mercy until the Lord shall
grant it to us. Probably it had been the dearest object of Philemon's desires
to have all his household saved; but it was not at first granted him in its
fulness. He had a wicked servant, Onesimus, who, having wronged him, ran away
from his service. His master's prayers followed him, and at last, as God would
have it, Onesimus was led to hear Paul preach; his heart was touched, and he
returned to Philemon, not only to be a faithful servant, but a brother beloved,
adding another member to the Church in Philemon's house. Is there an
unconverted servant or child absent this morning?
Make special supplication that such may, on their return to their home, gladden
all hearts with
good news of what grace has done! Is there one present? Let him partake in the
same earnest
entreaty.
If there be such a Church in our house, let us order it well, and let all act
as in the sight of
God. Let us move in the common affairs of life with studied holiness, diligence
kindness, and
integrity. More is expected of a Church than of an ordinary household; family
worship must, in
such a case, be more devout and hearty; internal love must be more warm and
unbroken and external conduct must be more sanctified and Christlike.
We need not fear that the smallness of our number will put us out of the list
of Churches, for the Holy Spirit has here enrolled a family-church in the
inspired book of remembrance. As a Church let us now draw nigh to the great
head of the one Church universal, and let us beseech Him to give us grace to
shine before men to the glory of His name.
Evening: Safe Within
"And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so shall also the
coming of the Son of man be." --Matthew 24:39
Universal was the doom, neither rich nor poor escaped: the learned and the
illiterate, the
admired and the abhorred, the religious and the profane, the old and the young,
all sank in one
common ruin. Some had doubtless ridiculed the patriarch-- where now their merry
jests? Others had threatened him for his zeal which they counted madness--where
now their boastings and hard speeches? The critic who judged the old man's work
is drowned in the same sea which covers his sneering companions. Those who
spoke patronizingly of the good man's fidelity to his convictions, but shared
not in them, have sunk to rise no more, and the workers who for pay helped to
build the wondrous ark, are all lost also. The flood swept them all away, and
made no single exception. Even so, out of Christ, final destruction is sure to
every man of woman born; no rank, possession, or character, shall suffice to
save a single soul who has not believed in the Lord Jesus. My soul, behold this
wide-spread judgment and tremble at it.
How marvellous the general apathy! they were all eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, till the awful morning dawned. There was not one wise
man upon earth out of the ark. Folly duped the whole race, folly as to
self-preservation-- the most foolish of all
follies. Folly in doubting the most true God--the most malignant of fooleries.
Strange, my soul, is it not? All men are negligent of their souls till grace
gives them reason, then they leave their
madness and act like rational beings, but not till then.
All, blessed be God, were safe in the ark, no ruin entered there. From the huge
elephant down
to the tiny mouse all were safe. The timid hare was equally secure with the
courageous lion, the helpless cony as safe as the laborious ox. All are safe in
Jesus. My soul, art thou in Him?
Daily devotions for 11-02-2004:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Eternally Unchanged
Evening Title: The Horror of Sin
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Morning: Eternally Unchanged
"I am the Lord, I change not." --Malachi 3:6
It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom
change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow
mutability can make no furrows.
All things else have changed--all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim
with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has
commenced; the heavens and
earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a
garment; but there
is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose
person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when, after
having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore,
is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this
troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth--"I am the Lord,
I change not."
The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a
hold-fast, is like
that which the Christian's hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this
glorious truth. With God "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." What
ever His attributes were of old,
they are now; His power, His wisdom, His justice, His truth, are alike
unchanged. He has ever been the refuge of His people, their stronghold in the
day of trouble, and He is their sure Helper still. He is unchanged in His love.
He has loved His people with "an everlasting love"; He loves them now as much
as ever He did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the last
conflagration, His love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the
assurance that He changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle
is eternal love.
"Death and change are busy ever,
Man decays, and ages move;
But His mercy waneth never;
God is wisdom, God is love."
Evening: The Horror of Sin
"Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Thy law."
--Psalm 119:53
My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of others? for otherwise
thou lackest inward holiness. David's cheeks were wet with rivers of waters
because of prevailing unholiness; Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains that he
might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was vexed with the conversation
of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in Ezekiel's vision, were
those who sighed and cried for the abominations of Jerusalem. It cannot but
grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the
evil of sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying like
moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder, because it violates a
holy law, which it is to every
man's highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth.
Sin in others
horrifies a believer, because it puts him in mind of the baseness of his own
heart: when he sees a transgressor he cries with the saint mentioned by
Bernard, "He fell to-day, and I may fall to-morrow."
Sin to a believer is horrible, because it crucified the Saviour; he sees in
every iniquity
the nails and spear. How can a saved soul behold that cursed kill-Christ sin
without abhorrence?
Say, my heart, dost thou sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to
insult God to His
face. The good God deserves better treatment, the great God claims it, the just
God will have it, or repay His adversary to his face. An awakened heart
trembles at the audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its
punishment.
How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How direful a doom is prepared for the
ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin's fooleries, lest thou come to smile at
sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord's enemy--view it with detestation,
for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without which no
man can see the Lord.
Daily devotions for 11-03-2004:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Heard Above
Evening Title: Always an Option
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Morning: Heard Above
"Behold, he prayeth." --Acts 9:11
Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray the Lord
heard him.
Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor
broken-hearted one bends his knee, but can only utter his wailing in the
language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven
thrill with music; that tear has been caught by God and treasured in the
lachrymatory of heaven. "Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle," implies that
they are caught as they flow. The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words,
will be well understood by the Most High. He may only look up with misty eye;
but "prayer is the falling of a tear." Tears are the diamonds of heaven; sighs
are a part of the music of Jehovah's court, and are numbered with "the
sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high." Think not that your prayer,
however weak or trembling, will be unregarded. Jacob's ladder is lofty, but our
prayers shall lean upon the Angel of the covenant and so climb its starry
rounds.
Our God not only hears prayer but also loves to hear it. "He forgetteth not the
cry of the
humble." True, He regards not high looks and lofty words; He cares not for the
pomp and
pageantry of kings; He listens not to the swell of martial music; He regards
not the triumph and pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big with
sorrow, or a lip quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential sigh,
the heart of Jehovah is open; He marks it down in the registry of His memory;
He puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of His book of
remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last, there shall be a precious
fragrance
springing up therefrom.
"Faith asks no signal from the skies,
To show that prayers accepted rise,
Our Priest is in His holy place,
And answers from the throne of grace."
Evening: Always an Option
"Their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, even unto heaven."
--2 Chronicles 30:27
Prayer is the never-failing resort of the Christian in any case, in every
plight. When you
cannot use your sword you may take to the weapon of all-prayer. Your powder may
be damp, your bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need
never be out of order. Leviathan laughs at the javelin, but he trembles at
prayer.
Sword and spear need furbishing, but prayer never rusts, and when we think it
most blunt it cuts the best. Prayer is an open door which none can shut. Devils
may surround you on all sides, but the way upward is always open, and as long
as that road is unobstructed, you will not fall into the enemy's hand. We can
never be taken by blockade, escalade, mine, or storm, so long as heavenly
succours can come down to us by Jacob's ladder to relieve us in the time of our
necessities.
Prayer is never out of season: in summer and in winter its merchandize is
precious. Prayer gains audience with heaven in the dead of night, in the midst
of business, in the heat of noonday, in the shades of evening. In every
condition, whether of poverty, or sickness, or obscurity, or slander, or doubt,
your covenant God will welcome your prayer and answer it from His holy place.
Nor is prayer ever futile. True prayer is evermore true power. You may not
always get what you ask, but you shall always have your real wants supplied.
When God does not answer His children according to the letter, He does so
according to the
spirit. If thou askest for coarse meal, wilt thou be angered because He gives
thee the finest
flour? If thou seekest bodily health, shouldst thou complain if instead thereof
He makes thy
sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies? Is it not better to have
the cross sanctified than removed? This evening, my soul, forget not to offer
thy petition and request, for
the Lord is ready to grant thee thy desires
Daily devotions for 11-04-2004:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Don't Go Alone
Evening Title: Receive the Vision
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Morning: Don't Go Alone
"For my strength is made perfect in weakness." --2 Corinthians 12:9
A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for
doing God's work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness.
When God's warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might, when he
boasts, "I know
that I shall conquer, my own right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto
me the victory," defeat is not far distant. God will not go forth with that man
who marches in his own strength. He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned
wrongly, for "it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts." They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess, shall
return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their armour stained
with disgrace.
Those who serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His strength, or He
will never accept their service.
That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere
fruits of the earth He casteth away; He will only reap that corn, the seed of
which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine
love. God will empty out all that thou hast before He will put His own into
thee; He will first clean out thy granaries before He will fill them with the
finest of the wheat. The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it
flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in His battles but
the strength which He Himself imparts. Are you mourning over your own weakness?
Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord
will give thee
victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your
casting down is
but the making ready for your lifting up.
"When I am weak then am I strong,
Grace is my shield and Christ my song."
Evening: Receive the Vision
"In Thy light shall we see light." --Psalm 36:9
No lips can tell the love of Christ to the heart till Jesus Himself shall speak
within.
Descriptions all fall flat and tame unless the Holy Ghost fills them with life
and power; till
our Immanuel reveals Himself within, the soul sees Him not. If you would see
the sun, would you gather together the common means of illumination, and seek
in that way to behold the orb of day?
No, the wise man knoweth that the sun must reveal itself, and only by its own
blaze can that mighty lamp be seen. It is so with Christ. "Blessed art thou,
Simon Bar-jona:" said He to Peter, "for flesh and blood hath not revealed this
unto thee." Purify flesh and blood by any educational process you may select,
elevate mental faculties to the highest degree of intellectual power, yet none
of these can reveal Christ. The Spirit of God must come with power, and
overshadow the man with His wings, and then in that mystic holy of holies the
Lord Jesus must display Himself to the sanctified eye, as He doth not unto the
purblind sons of men.
Christ must be His own mirror. The great mass of this blear-eyed world can see
nothing of the
ineffable glories of Immanuel. He stands before them without form or
comeliness, a root out of a dry ground, rejected by the vain and despised by
the proud. Only where the Spirit has touched the eye with eye-salve, quickened
the heart with divine life, and educated the soul to a heavenly taste, only
there is He understood. "To you that believe He is precious"; to you He is the
chief corner-stone, the Rock of your salvation, your all in all; but to others
He is "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence." Happy are those to whom our
Lord manifests Himself, for His promise to such is that He will make His abode
with them. O Jesus, our Lord, our heart is open, come in, and go out no more
for ever. Show Thyself to us now! Favour us with a glimpse of Thine
all-conquering charms.
Daily devotions for 11-05-2004:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Our Heritage
Evening Title: See Him as We Should
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Morning: Our Heritage
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." --Isaiah 54:17
This day is notable in English history for two great deliverances wrought by
God for us. On this
day the plot of the Papists to destroy our Houses of Parliament was discovered,
1605.
"While for our princes they prepare
In caverns deep a burning snare,
He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
And the dark treachery brought to day."
And secondly--to-day is the anniversary of the landing of King William III, at
Torbay, by which
the hope of Popish ascendancy was quashed, and religious liberty was secured,
1688.
This day ought to be celebrated, not by the saturnalia of striplings, but by
the songs of
saints. Our Puritan forefathers most devoutly made it a special time of
thanksgiving. There is
extant a record of the annual sermons preached by Matthew Henry on this day.
Our Protestant feeling, and our love of liberty, should make us regard its
anniversary with holy gratitude. Let our hearts and lips exclaim, "We have
heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us the wondrous things which
Thou didst in their day, and in the old time before them." Thou hast made this
nation the home of the gospel; and when the foe has risen against her, Thou
hast shielded her. Help us to offer repeated songs for repeated deliverances.
Grant us more and more a hatred of Antichrist, and hasten on the day of her
entire extinction. Till then and ever, we believe the promise, "No weapon that
is formed against thee shall prosper." Should it not be laid upon the heart of
every lover of the gospel of Jesus on this day to plead for the overturning of
false doctrines and the extension of divine truth?
Would it not be well to search our own hearts, and turn out any of the Popish
lumber of
self-righteousness which may lie concealed therein?
Evening: See Him as We Should
"Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name." --Psalm 100:4
Our Lord would have all His people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning
His blessed person. Jesus is not content that His brethren should think meanly
of Him; it is His pleasure that His espoused ones should be delighted with His
beauty. We are not to regard Him as a bare necessary, like to bread and water,
but as a luxurious delicacy, as a rare and ravishing
delight. To this end He has revealed Himself as the "pearl of great price" in
its peerless beauty, as the "bundle of myrrh" in its refreshing fragrance, as
the "rose of Sharon" in
its lasting perfume, as the "lily" in its spotless purity.
As a help to high thoughts of Christ, remember the estimation that Christ is
had in beyond the
skies, where things are measured by the right standard. Think how God esteems
the Only
Begotten, His unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of Him, as
they count it
their highest honour to veil their faces at His feet. Consider what the
blood-washed think of
Him, as day without night they sing His well deserved praises. High thoughts of
Christ will
enable us to act consistently with our relations towards Him. The more loftily
we see Christ
enthroned, and the more lowly we are when bowing before the foot of the throne,
the more truly
shall we be prepared to act our part towards Him.
Our Lord Jesus desires us to think well of Him, that we may submit cheerfully
to His authority.
High thoughts of Him increase our love. Love and esteem go together. Therefore,
believer, think much of your Master's excellencies. Study Him in His primeval
glory, before He took upon Himself your nature! Think of the mighty love which
drew Him from His throne to die upon the cross! Admire Him as He conquers all
the powers of hell! See Him risen, crowned, glorified! Bow before Him as the
Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, for only thus will your love to Him
be what it should.
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