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daily devotional
"The trees of the Lord are full of sap."
- Psalm 104:16
Without sap the tree cannot flourish or even exist. Vitality
is essential to a Christian. There must be life -a vital principle infused into
us by God the Holy Ghost, or we cannot be trees of the Lord.
The mere name of being a Christian is but a dead thing, we
must be filled with the spirit of divine life. This life is mysterious. We do
not understand the circulation of the sap, by what force it rises, and by what
power it descends again.
So the life within us is a sacred mystery. Regeneration is
wrought by the Holy Ghost entering into man and becoming man's life; and this
divine life in a believer afterwards feeds upon the flesh and blood of Christ
and is thus sustained by divine food, but whence it cometh and whither it goeth
who shall explain to us? What a secret thing the sap is! The roots go searching
through the soil with their little spongioles, but we cannot see them suck out
the various gases, or transmute the mineral into the vegetab le; this work is
done down in the dark. Our root is Christ Jesus, and our life is hid in him;
this is the secret of the Lord.
The radix of the Christian life is as secret as the life
itself. How permanently active is the sap in the cedar! In the Christian the
divine life is always full of energy-not always in fruit- bearing, but in
inward operations. The believer's graces, are not every one of them in constant
motion? but his life never ceases to palpitate within.
He is not always working for God, but his heart is always
living upon him. As the sap manifests itself in producing the foliage and fruit
of the tree, so with a truly healthy Christian, his grace is externally
manifested in his walk and conversation. If you talk with him, he cannot help
speaking about Jesus.
If you notice his actions you will see that he has been with
Jesus. He has so much sap within, that it must fill his conduct and
conversation with life.
Evening Devotion
"He began to wash the disciples' feet."
- John 13:5
The Lord Jesus loves his people so much, that every day he is
still doing for them much that is analogous to washing their soiled feet. Their
poorest actions he accepts; their deepest sorrow he feels; their slenderest
wish he hears, and their every transgression he forgives. He is still their
servant as well as their Friend and Master.
He not only performs majestic deeds for them, as wearing the
mitre on his brow, and the precious jewels glittering on his breastplate, and
standing up to plead for them, but humbly, patiently, he yet goes about among
his people with the basin and the towel. He does this when he puts away from us
day by day our constant infirmities and sins. Last night, when you bowed the
knee, you mournfully confessed that much of your conduct was not worthy of your
profession; and even tonight, you must mourn afresh that you have fallen again
into the selfsame folly and sin from which special grace delivered you long
ago; and yet Jesus will have great patience with you; he will hear your
confession of sin; he will say, "I will, be thou clean"; he will again apply
the blood of sprinkling, and speak peace to your conscience, and remove every
spot. It is a great act of eternal love when Christ once for all absolves the
sinner, and puts him into the family of God; but what condescending patience
there is when the Saviour with much long-suffering bears the oft recurring
follies of his wayward disciple; day by day, and hour by hour, washing away the
multiplied transgressions of his erring but yet beloved child! To dry up a
flood of rebellion is something marvellous, but to endure the constant dropping
of repeated offences-to bear with a perpetual trying of patience, this is
divine indeed! While we find comfort and peace in our Lord's daily cleansing,
its legitimate influence upon us will be to increase our watchfulness, and
quicken our desire for holiness. Is it so?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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