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Daily devotions for 06-28-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Wilderness of Separation
Evening Title: Serving in Your Calling
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Morning: Wilderness of Separation
"Only ye shall not go very far away." --Exodus 8:28
This is a crafty word from the lip of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. If the poor
bondaged
Israelites must needs go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them that it shall
not be very far away; not too far for them to escape the terror of his arms,
and the observation of his spies.
After the same fashion, the world loves not the non-conformity of
nonconformity, or the
dissidence of dissent, it would have us be more charitable and not carry
matters with too severe a hand. Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are
experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and hence the ordinance
which sets them forth is almost universally neglected, and even condemned.
Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise, and talks of "moderation."
According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but
we are warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but
error is not to be severely denounced. "Yes," says the world, "be spiritually
minded by all means, but do not deny yourself a little gay society, an
occasional ball, and a Christmas visit to a theatre. What's the good of crying
down a thing when it is so fashionable, and everybody does it?"
Multitudes of professors yield to this cunning advice, to their own eternal
ruin. If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the
wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We
must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far away to
the place where the Lord calls His sanctified ones. When the town is on fire,
our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man
cannot be too far from its haunts. The further from a viper the better, and the
further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the
trumpet-call be sounded, "Come ye out from among them, be ye separate."
Evening: Serving in Your Calling
"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called." --1
Corinthians 7:20
Some persons have the foolish notion that the only way in which they can live
for God is by becoming ministers, missionaries, or Bible women.
Alas! how many would be shut out from any opportunity of magnifying the Most
High if this were the case. Beloved, it is not office, it is earnestness; it is
not position, it is grace which will enable us to glorify God.
God is most surely glorified in that cobbler's stall, where the godly worker,
as he plies the
awl, sings of the Saviour's love, ay, glorified far more than in many a
prebendal stall where
official religiousness performs its scanty duties. The name of Jesus is
glorified by the
poor unlearned carter as he drives his horse, and blesses his God, or speaks to
his fellow labourer by the roadside, as much as by the popular divine who,
throughout the country, like Boanerges, is thundering out the gospel.
God is glorified by our serving Him in our proper vocations. Take care, dear
reader, that you do not forsake the path of duty by leaving your occupation,
and take care you do not dishonour your profession while in it. Think little of
yourselves, but do not think too little of your callings. Every lawful trade
may be sanctified by the gospel to noblest ends. Turn to the Bible, and you
will find the most menial forms of labour connected either with most daring
deeds of faith, or with persons whose lives have been illustrious for holiness.
Therefore be not discontented with your calling.
Whatever God has made your position, or your work, abide in that, unless you
are quite sure that he calls you to something else. Let your first care be to
glorify God to the utmost of your power where you are. Fill your present sphere
to His praise, and if He needs you in another He will show it you. This evening
lay aside vexatious ambition, and embrace peaceful content.
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Daily devotions for 06-23-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: The Material of Christ's Temple
Evening Title: Those Things Permanent
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Morning: The Material of Christ's Temple
"He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory."
--Zechariah 6:13
Christ Himself is the builder of His spiritual temple, and He has built it on
the mountains of His unchangeable affection, His omnipotent grace, and His
infallible truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon's temple, so in this; the
materials need making ready. There are the "Cedars of Lebanon," but they are
not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into
those planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad the courts of
the Lord's house in Paradise. There are also the rough stones still in the
quarry, they must be hewn thence, and squared. All this is Christ's own work.
Each
individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his
place in the
temple; but Christ's own hand performs the preparation-work. Afflictions cannot
sanctify, excepting as they are used by Him to this end.
Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of
Jesus, who fashioneth our hearts aright.
As in the building of Solomon's temple, "there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor
any tool of iron, heard in the house," because all was brought perfectly ready
for the exact spot it was to occupy--so is it with the temple which Jesus
builds; the making ready is all done on earth.
When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us
with affliction, no planing us with suffering. No, we must be made meet
here--all that Christ will do beforehand; and when He has done it, we shall be
ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to the
heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.
"Beneath His eye and care,
The edifice shall rise,
Majestic, strong, and fair,
And shine above the skies."
Evening: Those Things Permanent
"That those things which cannot be shaken may remain." --Hebrews 12:27
We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be
shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there
is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all
things. Yet, we have certain "things which cannot be shaken," and I invite you
this evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should
all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be
shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy
present salvation. You are standing at the foot of His cross, trusting
alone in the merit of Jesus' precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets
can interfere with your salvation in Him; no breaking of banks, no failures and
bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening.
God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that.
Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, "He is
my Father still. In my Father's house are many mansions; therefore will I not
be troubled." You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus
Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of His
affectionate nature--nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and
the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing,
"My Beloved is mine, and I am His."
Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come,
let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be
cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country
is Immanuel's land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the
summer's ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice
in the God of our salvation.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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