From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Morning ... John 16:32 Ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. Few had fellowship with the sorrows of Gethsemane. The majority of the disciples were not sufficiently advanced in grace to be admitted to behold the mysteries of "the agony." Occupied with the passover feast at their own houses, they represent the many who live upon the letter, but are mere babes as to the spirit of the gospel. To twelve, nay, to eleven only was the privilege given to enter Gethsemane and see "this great sight." Out of the eleven, eight were left at a distance; they had fellowship, but not of that intimate sort to which men greatly beloved are admitted. Only three highly favoured ones could approach the veil of our Lord's mysterious sorrow: within that veil even these must not intrude; a stone's-cast distance must be left between. He must tread the wine-press alone, and of the people there must be none with Him. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, represent the few eminent, experienced saints, who may be written down as "Fathers;" these having done business on great waters, can in some degree measure the huge Atlantic waves of their Redeemer's passion. To some selected spirits it is given, for the good of others, and to strengthen them for future, special, and tremendous conflict, to enter the inner circle and hear the pleadings of the suffering High Priest; they have fellowship with Him in his sufferings, and are made conformable unto His death. Yet even these cannot penetrate the secret places of the Saviour's woe. "Thine unknown sufferings" is the remarkable expression of the Greek liturgy: there was an inner chamber in our Master's grief, shut out from human knowledge and fellowship. There Jesus is "left alone." Here Jesus was more than ever an "Unspeakable gift!" Is not Watts right when he sings- "And all the unknown joys he gives, Were bought with agonies unknown." Exodus 31:15 (15) Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. The Sabbath is "holy to the LORD." This is not something that men dreamed up. God does not say it is holy to certain denominations or certain people. It is holy to the Lord-set apart or sanctified to Him. He Himself sanctified it, as it says right in the commandment. God, right in this covenant, sets how long it is to be observed or adhered to: as long as there are generations of Israelites. Are the generations of Israelites continuing? Yes, indeed. The generations continue, and therefore this covenant continues. He also says that the Sabbath and its roots go back to Creation. He takes the Sabbath back to Genesis 2, not Exodus 16. This is significant. God places the beginning of the Sabbath at Creation to confirm that a physical or spiritual Israelite's relationship is with the Creator. The events of Exodus 16 were only a reminder of what already existed from the seventh day of Creation. John W. Ritenbaugh >From The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 29) =============================================== From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional Morning ... Song of Solomon 2:8 My beloved. This was a golden name which the ancient Church in her most joyous moments was wont to give to the Anointed of the Lord. When the time of the singing of birds was come, and the voice of the turtle was heard in her land, her love-note was sweeter than either, as she sang, "My beloved is mine and I am His: He feedeth among the lilies." Ever in her song of songs doth she call Him by that delightful name, "My beloved!" Even in the long winter, when idolatry had withered the garden of the Lord, her prophets found space to lay aside the burden of the Lord for a little season, and to say, as Esaias did, "Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard." Though the saints had never seen His face, though as yet He was not made flesh, nor had dwelt among us, nor had man beheld His glory, yet He was the consolation of Israel, the hope and joy of all the chosen, the "beloved" of all those who were upright before the Most High. We, in the s ummer days of the Church, are also wont to speak of Christ as the best beloved of our soul, and to feel that He is very precious, the "chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." So true is it that the Church loves Jesus, and claims Him as her beloved, that the apostle dares to defy the whole universe to separate her from the love of Christ, and declares that neither persecutions, distress, affliction, peril, or the sword have been able to do it; nay, he joyously boasts, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." O that we knew more of Thee, Thou ever precious one! My sole possession is Thy love; In earth beneath, or heaven above, I have no other store; And though with fervent suit I pray, And importune Thee day by day, I ask Thee nothing more. Ecclesiastes 9:11 (11) I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. What does Solomon mean? How could the fastest runner not win the race? How could the strongest man not be victorious in battle? Is all human activity subject to fate? Time in this verse means "opportunity," and chance suggests "occurrence" or "incident." We all have the opportunity to make something of our lives, but eventually, death occurs to us all. Moffatt translates this phrase as "death and misfortune happen to all." Ecclesiastes 2:14 reinforces this, "The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived also that the same event happens to them all." Albert Barnes notes, "[Event] does not mean chance, independent of the ordering of Divine Providence: the Gentile notion of 'mere chance,' or 'blind fate' is never once contemplated by the writer of this book." Good or bad, we will all have the same fate, death, because we have all sinned ( Romans 6:23). A writer once stated in a magazine article, "Life is a lottery, not a chess game." We can only assume that he meant that we ultimately have no control over our lives and the events surrounding us. While this might be true to an extent, in the strictest sense of God's sovereignty, he is well off the mark. We always have the ability to rebel against God, to say "No," and walk away from our calling. God is always in charge, but we do have free moral agency. The dictionary defines chance as "the abstract nature or quality shared by unexpected, random, or unpredictable events; luck; the likelihood of occurrence of an event." Chance suggests total absence of design or predictability. It essentially leaves God out of the picture. While it does rain on the "just and the unjust," as Christ says in Matthew 5:45, and trials affect us all, it is not luck or chance that governs our lives. On a recent Fourth of July, my family and I went to Stone Mountain Park, outside Atlanta, Georgia, for the laser and fireworks show. We usually go every year, and it rains on us just about every year. Sure enough, after three trips back to the parking lot, lugging blankets, coolers, chairs, and so on to the lawn in front of the mountain and putting them in place, we had a sudden shower. We huddled under the tarp of the man next to us and waited it out. A lot of folks packed up and went home. True, our blankets were soggy, my newspaper and novel were soaked, our hair looked weird, but we had a great time. We all got rained on. That was chance, an unexpected and random event. Luck is defined as "the fortuitous happening of fortune or adverse events." Being caught in a rain shower could be called bad luck, although a possibility of showers was in the forecast. But was it an adverse event? That depends on one's outlook. Was God involved? Sure, He was. There was lightning along with this rain, and we were sitting in an open field. He answered our prayers and kept the lightning away from us. Did He make it rain on us? Probably not. It was a random event. However, God was in control at all times. He protected and guided us. Had the lightning been on top of us, had I sat in the middle of Stone Mountain's large lawn holding a metal rod, and had I been struck and killed, would that have been bad luck or stupidity? The answer is obvious. Random events happen to us all, but luck does not control our lives. We do not need a rabbit's foot in our pockets. It will not bring us luck. It did not bring the rabbit much luck, did it? We should not be crossing our fingers "for luck," which is pagan in origin anyway. Many times, in talking to someone in the world, I find myself saying, " good luck!" to him or her. I have determined to eradicate that phrase because, as we have seen, it is really not appropriate. Instead, we should say, "Do your best!" "I hope things go well!" or maybe, "Vaya con dios!" Mike Ford >From Do You Feel Lucky?
