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Daily devotions for 07-13-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Work of God
Evening Title: What is Heaven?
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Morning: Work of God
"Sanctified by God the Father." --Jude 1
"Sanctified in Christ Jesus." --1 Corinthians 1:2
"Through sanctification of the Spirit." --Jude 1
Mark the union of the two Divine Persons in all their gracious acts. who think
of Jesus as if He were the embodiment of everything lovely and gracious, while
the Father they regard as severely just, but destitute of kindness. Equally
wrong are those who magnify the decree of the Father, and the atonement of the
Son, so as to depreciate the work of the Spirit. In deeds of grace act apart
from the rest. They are as united in their deeds as in their essence. In their
love towards the chosen they are one, and in the actions which flow from that
great central source they are still undivided. Specially notice this in the
matter of sanctification. While we may without mistake speak of sanctification
as the work of the Spirit, yet we must take heed that we do not view it as if
the Father and the Son had no part therein. It is correct to speak of
sanctification as the work of the Father, of the Son.
Still doth Jehovah say, "Let us make man in our own image after our likeness,"
and thus we are "his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." See the value
which God sets upon real holiness, since the two Persons are represented as
co-working to produce a Church without "spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing."
And you, believer, as the follower of Christ, must also set a high value on
holiness--upon purity of life and godliness of conversation.
Value the blood of Christ as the foundation of your hope, but never speak
disparagingly of the work of the Spirit which is your meetness for the
inheritance of the saints in light. This day let us so live as to manifest the
work God in us.
Evening: What is Heaven?
"His heavenly kingdom." --2 Timothy 4:18
Yonder city of the great King is a place of active service. Ransomed spirits
serve Him day and night in His temple. They never cease to fulfil the good
pleasure of their King. They always "rest," so far as ease and freedom from
care is concerned; and never "rest," in the sense of indolence or inactivity.
Jerusalem the golden is the place of communion with all the people of God. We
shall sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in eternal fellowship. We shall hold
high converse with the noble host of the elect, all
reigning with Him who by His love and His potent arm has brought them safely
home. We shall not sing solos, but in chorus shall we praise our King. Heaven
is a place of victory realized.
Whenever, Christian, thou hast achieved a victory over thy lusts--whenever
after hard struggling, thou hast laid a temptation dead at thy feet--thou hast
in that hour a foretaste of the joy that awaits thee when the Lord shall
shortly tread Satan under thy feet, and thou shalt find thyself more than
conqueror through Him who hath loved thee. Paradise is a place of security.
When you enjoy the full assurance of faith, you have the pledge of that
glorious security which shall be yours when you are a perfect citizen of the
heavenly Jerusalem. O my sweet home, Jerusalem, thou happy harbour of my soul!
Thanks, even now, to Him whose love hath taught me to long for Thee; but louder
thanks in eternity, when I shall possess thee.
"My soul has tasted of the grapes,
and now it longs to go
Where my dear Lord His vineyard keeps
And all the clusters grow.
"Upon the true and living vine,
My famish'd soul would feast,
And banquet on the fruit divine,
An everlasting guest."
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Spurgeon's Morning & Evening Devotions
Morning, July 11
"Exceeding great and precious promises." - 2 Peter 1:4
If you would know experimentally the preciousness of the promises, and enjoy
them in your own heart, meditate much upon them. There are promises which are
like grapes in the wine-press; if you will tread them the juice will flow.
Thinking over the hallowed words will often be the prelude to their fulfilment.
While you are musing upon them, the boon which you are seeking will insensibly
come to you. Many a Christian who has thirsted for the promise has found the
favour which it ensured gently distilling into his soul even while he has been
considering the divine record; and he has rejoiced that ever he was led to lay
the promise near his heart.
But besides meditating upon the promises, seek in thy soul to receive them as
being the very words of God. Speak to thy soul thus, "If I were dealing with a
man's promise, I should carefully consider the ability and the character of the
man who had covenanted with me. So with the promise of God; my eye must not be
so much fixed upon the greatness of the mercy-that may stagger me; as upon the
greatness of the promiser-that will cheer me.
My soul, it is God, even thy God, God that cannot lie, who speaks to thee. This
word of his which thou art now considering is as true as his own existence. He
is a God unchangeable.
He has not altered the thing which has gone out of his mouth, nor called back
one single consolatory sentence. Nor doth he lack any power; it is the God that
made the heavens and the earth who has spoken thus. Nor can he fail in wisdom
as to the time when he
will bestow the favours, for he knoweth when it is best to give and when better
to withhold.
Therefore, seeing that it is the word of a God so true, so immutable, so
powerful, so wise, I will and must believe the promise. " If we thus meditate
upon the promises, and consider the Promiser, we shall experience their
sweetness, and obtain their fulfilment.
Evening, July 11
"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" - Romans 8:33
Most blessed challenge! How unanswerable it is! Every sin of the elect was laid
upon the great Champion of our salvation, and by the atonement carried away.
There is no sin in God's book against his people: he seeth no sin in Jacob,
neither iniquity in Israel;
they are justified in Christ for ever. When the guilt of sin was taken away,
the punishment of sin was removed.
For the Christian there is no stroke from God's angry hand-nay, not so much as
a single frown of punitive justice. The believer may be chastised by his
Father, but God the Judge has nothing to say to the Christian, except "I have
absolved thee: thou art acquitted." For the Christian there is no penal death
in this world, much less any second death.
He is completely freed from all the punishment as well as the guilt of sin, and
the power of sin is removed too. It may stand in our way, and agitate us with
perpetual warfare; but sin is a conquered foe to every soul in union with
Jesus. There is no sin which a Christian cannot overcome if he will only rely
upon his God to do it.
They who wear the white robe in heaven overcame through the blood of the Lamb,
and we may do the same. No lust is too mighty, no besetting sin too strongly
entrenched; we can overcome through the power of Christ. Do believe it,
Christian, that thy sin is a
condemned thing.
It may kick and struggle, but it is doomed to die. God has written condemnation
across its brow. Christ has crucified it, "nailing it to his cross. " Go now
and mortify it, and the Lord help you to live to his praise, for sin with all
its guilt, shame, and fear, is gone.
"Here's pardon for transgressions past,
It matters not how black their cast;
And, O my soul, with wonder view,
For sins to come here's pardon too."
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Daily devotions for 07-12-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Established Through Suffering
Evening Title: Instruction in the Family
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Morning: Established Through Suffering
"After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen,
settle you."
--1 Peter 5:10
You have seen the arch of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are its
colours, and rare its hues. It is beautiful, but, alas, it passes away, and lo,
it is not. The fair colours give way to the fleecy clouds, and the sky is no
longer brilliant with the tints of heaven. It is not established. How can it
be? A glorious show made up of transitory sun-beams and passing rain-drops, how
can it abide? The graces of the Christian character must not resemble the
rainbow in its transitory beauty, but, on the contrary, must be stablished,
settled, abiding.
Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May
your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the
rock! May your faith be no "baseless fabric of a vision," but may it be builded
of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay,
and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your
convictions be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life
be so settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms
of earth shall never be able to remove you.
But notice how this blessing of being "stablished in the faith" is gained. The
apostle's words point us to suffering as the means employed--"After that ye
have suffered awhile."
It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough winds pass
over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak tree, and those strange
twistings of the branches, all tell of the many storms that have swept over it,
and they are also indicators of the depth into which the roots have forced
their way. So the Christian is made strong, and firmly rooted by all the trials
and storms of life. Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial, but
take comfort, believing that by their rough discipline God is fulfilling this
benediction to you.
Evening: Instruction in the Family
"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and
their children
another generation." --Joel 1:3
In this simple way, by God's grace, a living testimony for truth is always to
be kept alive in the land--the beloved of the Lord are to hand down their
witness for the gospel, and the covenant to their heirs, and these again to
their next descendants. This is our first duty, we are to begin at the family
hearth: he is a bad preacher who does not commence his ministry at home. The
heathen are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be
searched, but home has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order
of the Lord's arrangements.
To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday
School Teachers, or other friendly aids, these can assist us, but cannot
deliver us from the sacred obligation; proxies and sponsors are wicked devices
in this case: mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households
in the fear of God, and
talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the Most High.
Parental teaching is a natural duty--who so fit to look to the child's
well-being as those who are the authors of his actual being? To neglect the
instruction of our offspring is worse than brutish. Family religion is
necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. By
a thousand plots Popery is covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most
effectual means for resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the
instruction of children in the faith.
Would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter. It
is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so
because it has often proved to be an accepted work, for God has saved the
children through the parents' prayers and admonitions. May every house into
which this volume shall come honour the Lord and receive His smile.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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