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Daily devotions for 05-17-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Endless Mercies
Evening Title: Expected Blessing
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Morning: Endless Mercies
"Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." --1 Timothy 6:17
Our Lord Jesus is ever giving, and does not for a solitary instant withdraw His
hand. As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil
shall not be stayed. He is a sun
ever-shining; He is manna always falling round the camp; He is a rock in the
desert, ever
sending out streams of life from His smitten side; the rain of His grace is
always dropping;
the river of His bounty is ever-flowing, and the well-spring of His love is
constantly
overflowing. As the King can never die, so His grace can never fail. Daily we
pluck His fruit,
and daily His branches bend down to our hand with a fresh store of mercy. There
are seven
feast-days in His weeks, and as many as are the days, so many are the banquets
in His years.
Who has ever returned from His door unblessed?
Who has ever risen from His table unsatisfied, or from His bosom
un-emparadised? His mercies are new every morning and fresh every evening. Who
can know the number of His benefits, or recount the list of His bounties? Every
sand which drops from the glass of time is but the tardy follower of a myriad
of mercies. The wings of our hours are covered with the silver of His kindness,
and with the yellow gold of His affection. The river of time bears from the
mountains of eternity the golden sands of His favour. The countless stars are
but as the standard bearers of a more innumerable host of blessings. Who can
count the dust of the benefits which He bestows on Jacob, or tell the number of
the fourth part of His mercies towards Israel? How shall my soul extol Him who
daily loadeth us with benefits, and who
crowneth us with loving-kindness? O that my praise could be as ceaseless as His
bounty! O
miserable tongue, how canst thou be silent? Wake up, I pray thee, lest I call
thee no more my glory, but my shame. "Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will
awake right early."
Evening: Expected Blessing
"And he said, Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus
saith the Lord,
Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be
filled with water, that
ye may drink, both ye and your cattle, and your beasts." --2 Kings 3:16,17
The armies of the three kings were famishing for want of water: God was about
to send it, and in these words the prophet announced the coming blessing. Here
was a case of human helplessness: not a drop of water could all the valiant men
procure from the skies or find in the wells of earth. Thus often the people of
the Lord are at their wits' end; they see the vanity of the creature, and learn
experimentally where their help is to be found. Still the people were to
make a believing preparation for the divine blessing; they were to dig the
trenches in which
the precious liquid would be held. The church must by her varied agencies,
efforts, and
prayers, make herself ready to be blessed; she must make the pools, and the
Lord will fill them.
This must be done in faith, in the full assurance that the blessing is about to
descend. By-and-by there was a singular bestowal of the needed boon.
Not as in Elijah's case did the shower pour from the clouds, but in a silent
and mysterious manner the pools were filled. The Lord has His own sovereign
modes of action: He is not tied to manner and time as we are, but doeth as He
pleases among the sons of men. It is ours
thankfully to receive from Him, and not to dictate to Him. We must also notice
the
remarkable abundance of the supply --there was enough for the need of all. And
so it is in the
gospel blessing; all the wants of the congregation and of the entire church
shall be met by the divine power in answer to prayer; and above all this,
victory shall be speedily given to the armies of the Lord.
What am I doing for Jesus? What trenches am I digging? O Lord, make me ready to
receive the blessing which Thou art so willing to bestow.
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Daily devotions for 05-14-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: The Night Ends
Evening Title: With God As Our Portion
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Morning: The Night Ends
"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." --Psalm 30:5
Christian! If thou art in a night of trial, think of the morrow; cheer up thy
heart with the
thought of the coming of thy Lord. Be patient, for
"Lo! He comes with clouds descending."
Be patient! The Husbandman waits until He reaps His harvest. Be patient; for
you know who has said, "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to
give to every man according as his work shall be." If you are never so wretched
now, remember
"A few more rolling suns, at most, Will land thee on fair Canaan's coast."
Thy head may be crowned with thorny troubles now, but it shall wear a starry
crown ere long; thy hand may be filled with cares--it shall sweep the strings
of the harp of heaven soon. Thy garments may be soiled with dust now; they
shall be white by-and-by. Wait a little longer. Ah! how despicable our troubles
and trials will seem when we look back upon them! Looking at them here in the
prospect, they seem immense; but when we get to heaven we shall then
"With transporting joys recount, The labours of our feet."
Our trials will then seem light and momentary afflictions. Let us go on boldly;
if the night be
never so dark, the morning cometh, which is more than they can say who are shut
up in the darkness of hell. Do you know what it is thus to live on the
future--to live on expectation--to antedate heaven? Happy believer, to have so
sure, so comforting a hope. It may be all dark now, but it will soon be light;
it may be all trial now, but it will soon be all happiness. What matters it
though "weeping may endure for a night," when "joy cometh in the morning?"
Evening: With God As Our Portion
"Thou art my portion, O Lord." --Psalm 119:57
Look at thy possessions, O believer, and compare thy portion with the lot of
thy fellowmen. Some of them have their portion in the field; they are rich, and
their harvests yield them a golden increase; but what are harvests compared
with thy God, who is the God of harvests? What are bursting granaries compared
with Him, who is the Husbandman, and feeds thee with the bread of heaven? Some
have their portion in the city; their wealth is abundant, and flows to them in
constant streams, until they become a very reservoir of gold; but what is gold
compared with thy God? Thou couldst not live on it; thy spiritual life could
not be sustained by it. Put it on a troubled conscience, and could it allay its
pangs? Apply it to a desponding heart, and see if it could stay a solitary
groan, or give one grief the less? But thou hast God, and in Him thou hast more
than gold or riches ever could buy. Some have their portion in that which most
men love--applause and fame; but ask thyself, is not thy God more to thee than
that? What if a myriad clarions should be loud in thine applause, would this
prepare thee to pass the Jordan, or cheer thee in prospect of judgment?
No, there are griefs in life which wealth cannot alleviate; and there is the
deep need of a dying
hour, for which no riches can provide. But when thou hast God for thy portion,
thou hast more than all else put together. In Him every want is met, whether in
life or in death. With God for
thy portion thou art rich indeed, for He will supply thy need, comfort thy
heart, assuage thy
grief, guide thy steps, be with thee in the dark valley, and then take thee
home, to enjoy Him as thy portion for ever. "I have enough," said Esau; this is
the best thing a worldly man can say, but Jacob replies, "I have all things,"
which is a note too high for carnal minds.
============================================
Morning, May 15
"The king also himself passed over the brook Kidron." - 2 Samuel 15:23
David passed that gloomy brook when flying with his mourning company from his
traitor son. The man after God's own heart was not exempt from trouble, nay,
his life was full of it. He was
both the Lord's Anointed, and the Lord's Afflicted. Why then should we expect
to escape? At sorrow's gates the noblest of our race have waited with ashes on
their heads, wherefore then should we complain as though some strange thing had
happened unto us?
The KING of kings himself was not favoured with a more cheerful or royal road.
He passed over the filthy ditch of Kidron, through which the filth of Jerusalem
flowed. God had one Son without sin, but not a single child without the rod.
It is a great joy to believe that Jesus has been tempted in all points like as
we are. What is our Kidron this morning? Is it a faithless friend, a sad
bereavement, a slanderous reproach, a
dark foreboding? The King has passed over all these. Is it bodily pain,
poverty, persecution, or contempt? Over each of these Kidrons the King has gone
before us.
"In all our afflictions he was afflicted. " The idea of strangeness in our
trials must be banished at once and for ever, for he who is the Head of all
saints, knows by experience the grief which we think so peculiar. All the
citizens of Zion must be free of the Honourable Company of Mourners, of which
the Prince Immanuel is Head and Captain.
Notwithstanding the abasement of David, he yet returned in triumph to his city,
and David's Lord arose victorious from the grave; let us then be of good
courage, for we also shall win the
day. We shall yet with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation, though now
for a season we have to pass by the noxious streams of sin and sorrow. Courage,
soldiers of the Cross, the King himself triumphed after going over Kidron, and
so shall you.
Evening, May 15
"Who healeth all thy diseases." - Psalm 103:3
Humbling as is the statement, yet the fact is certain, that we are all more or
less suffering under the disease of sin. What a comfort to know that we have a
great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of him
awhile to-night. His cures are very speedy-there is life in a look at him; his
cures are radical-he strikes at the centre of the disease; and hence,
his cures are sure and certain.
He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ
heals; no fear that his patients should be merely patched up for a season, he
makes new men of them: a new heart also does he give them, and a right spirit
does he put with them. He is well skilled in all diseases.
Physicians generally have some speciality. Although they may know a little
about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease which they
have studied above all others; but Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with
the whole of human nature.
He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and never yet did he
meet with an out-of-the-way case that was difficult to him.
He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but he
has known exactly with one glance of his eye how to treat the patient. He is
the only universal doctor; and the medicine he gives is the only true
catholicon, healing in every instance. Whatever our spiritual malady may be, we
should apply at once to this Divine Physician.
There is no brokenness of heart which Jesus cannot bind up. "His blood
cleanseth from all sin. " We have but to think of the myriads who have been
delivered from all sorts of diseases
through the power and virtue of his touch, and we shall joyfully put ourselves
in his hands. We trust him, and sin dies; we love him, and grace lives; we wait
for him and grace is strengthened; we see him as he is, and grace is perfected
for ever.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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