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Daily devotions for 06-15-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Holiness and Delight
Evening Title: Sinning Christians
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Morning: Holiness and Delight
"Delight thyself also in the Lord." --Psalm 37:4
The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are
strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the
inculcation of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described
as a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true
religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors
never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or
necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it
is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do
otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that
no two words in their language stand further apart than "holiness" and
"delight." But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are
so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them.
They who love God with all their hearts, find that His ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful delights,
such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so
far from serving Him from custom, they would follow Him though all the world
cast out His name as evil.
We fear not God because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our
profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty.
No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our
delight. Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as
indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels
glittering side by side in a setting of gold.
"'Tis when we taste Thy love,
Our joys divinely grow,
Unspeakable like those above,
And heaven begins below."
Evening: Sinning Christians
"O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face...because we have sinned against
Thee."
--Daniel 9:8
A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the punishment which
it deserves, should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as
Christians. Alas! that it should be so. Favoured as we have been, we have yet
been ungrateful: privileged beyond most, we have not brought forth fruit in
proportion.
Who is there, although he may long have been engaged in the Christian warfare,
that will not blush when he looks back upon the past? As for our days before we
were regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we
have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against
love--light which has really penetrated our minds, and love in which we have
rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner
sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God's own elect ones, who has had
communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus' bosom.
Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look at his
repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans out its
dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall upon the ground, and the deep
sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp! We have erred:
let us, therefore, seek the spirit of
penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter's denying his Master.
Remember, it is written, "He wept bitterly." Have we no denials of our Lord to
be lamented with tears? Alas! these sins of ours, before and after conversion,
would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for the
sovereign mercy which has made us to differ, snatching us like brands from the
burning. My soul, bow down under a sense of thy natural sinfulness, and worship
thy God.
Admire the grace which saves thee--the mercy which spares thee--the love which
pardons thee!
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Daily devotions for 06-14-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Take Freely
Evening Title: The State of Holiness
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Morning: Take Freely
"Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." --Revelation 22:17
Jesus says, "take freely." He wants no payment or preparation. He seeks no
recommendation from our virtuous emotions. If you have no good feelings,
if you be but willing, you are invited; therefore come! You have no belief and
no repentance,--come to Him, and He will give them to you. Come just as you
are, and take "Freely," without money and without price. He gives Himself to
needy ones.
The drinking fountains at the corners of our streets are valuable institutions;
and we can
hardly imagine any one so foolish as to feel for his purse, when he stands
before one of them, and to cry, "I cannot drink because I have not five pounds
in my pocket." However poor the man is, there is the fountain, and just as he
is he may drink of it. Thirsty passengers, as they go by, whether they are
dressed in fustian or in broadcloth, do not look for any warrant for drinking;
its being there is their warrant for taking its water freely. The liberality of
some good friends has put the refreshing crystal there and we take it, and ask
no questions.
Perhaps the only persons who need go thirsty through the street where there is
a drinking fountain, are the fine ladies and gentlemen who are in their
carriages. They are very thirsty, but cannot think of being so vulgar as to get
out to drink. It would demean them, they think, to drink at a common drinking
fountain: so they ride by with parched lips. Oh, how many there are who are
rich in their own good works and cannot therefore come to Christ! "I will not
be saved," they say, "in the same way as the harlot or the
swearer." What! go to heaven in the same way as a chimney sweep. Is there no
pathway to glory but the path which led the thief there? I will not be saved
that way. Such proud boasters must remain without the living water; but,
"WHOSOEVER WILL, LET HIM TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY."
Evening: The State of Holiness
"Remove far from me vanity and lies." --Proverbs 30:8
"O my God, be not far from me." Psalm 38:21. Here we have two great
lessons--what to deprecate and what to supplicate. The happiest state of a
Christian is the holiest state. As there is the most heat nearest to the sun,
so there is the most happiness nearest to Christ. No Christian enjoys comfort
when his eyes are fixed on vanity--he finds no satisfaction unless his soul is
quickened in the ways of God. The world may win happiness elsewhere, but he
cannot. I do not blame ungodly men for rushing to their pleasures. Why should
I? Let them have their fill. That is all they have to enjoy. A converted wife
who despaired of her husband was always very kind to him, for she said, "I fear
that this is the only world in which he will be happy, and therefore I have
made up my mind to make him as happy as I can in it." Christians must seek
their delights in a higher sphere than the insipid frivolities or sinful
enjoyments of the world. Vain pursuits are dangerous to renewed souls. We have
heard of a philosopher who, while he looked up to the stars, fell into a pit;
but how deeply do they fall who look down. Their fall is fatal.
No Christian is safe when his soul is slothful, and his God is far from him.
Every Christian is always safe as to the great matter of his standing in
Christ, but he is not safe as regards his experience in holiness, and communion
with Jesus in this life. Satan does not often attack a Christian who is living
near to God. It is when the Christian departs from his God, becomes spiritually
starved, and endeavours to feed on vanities, that the devil discovers his
vantage hour. He may sometimes stand foot to foot with
the child of God who is active in his Master's service, but the battle is
generally short: he
who slips as he goes down into the Valley of Humiliation, every time he takes a
false step invites Apollyon to assail him. O for grace to walk humbly with our
God!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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