From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening ...
Luke 8:42
But as He went.
Jesus is passing through the throng to the house of Jairus, to raise the
ruler's dead daughter; but He is so profuse in goodness that He works another
miracle while upon the road. While yet this rod of Aaron bears the blossom of
an unaccomplished wonder, it yields the ripe almonds of a perfect work of
mercy. It is enough for us, if we have some one purpose, straightway to go and
accomplish it; it were imprudent to expend our energies by the way. Hastening
to the rescue of a drowning friend, we cannot afford to exhaust our strength
upon another in like danger. It is enough for a tree to yield one sort of
fruit, and for a man to fulfil his own peculiar calling. But our Master knows
no limit of power or boundary of mission. He is so prolific of grace, that like
the sun which shines as it rolls onward in its orbit, His path is radiant with
lovingkindness. He is a swift arrow of love, which not only reaches its
ordained target, but perfumes the air through which it flies. Virtue is
evermore going out of Jesus, as sweet odours exhale from flowers; and it always
will be emanating from Him, as water from a sparkling fountain. What delightful
encouragement this truth affords us! If our Lord is so ready to heal the sick
and bless the needy, then, my soul, be not thou slow to put thyself in His way,
that He may smile on thee. Be not slack in asking, if He be so abundant in
bestowing. Give earnest heed to His word now, and at all times, that Jesus may
speak through it to thy heart. Where He is to be found there make thy resort,
that thou mayst obtain His blessing. When He is present to heal, may He not
heal thee? But surely He is present even now, for He always comes to hearts
which need Him. And dost not thou need Him? Ah, He knows how much! Thou Son of
David, turn Thine eye and look upon the distress which is now before Thee, and
make Thy suppliant whole.
Obadiah 1:3-4
(3) The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the
clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who
shall bring me down to the ground? (4) Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle,
and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down,
saith the LORD.
Pride deceives one into believing and eventually doing wrongly. What does
it deceive a person into believing?
In this context God quotes Edom as saying, "Who will bring me down to the
ground?" Edom dwelt in the mountainous country southeast of Judea, and Petra
was their stronghold. They thought their combination of military strength and
impregnable position made them impossible to defeat. Yet notice what verse 4
adds: "'Though you exalt yourself as high as the eagle, and though you set your
nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,' says the LORD."
What had pride done? It had deceived them into believing they were
secure, self-sufficient, quick-witted, intelligent, and strong enough to
withstand anybody. This clearly illustrates that pride's power lies in its
ability to deceive us into believing in our self-sufficiency. Even in our
everyday relationships with other people, this is a serious deception, but when
the deception involves our relationship with God, the level of seriousness
reaches alarming proportions.
The Edomites looked at their stronghold and then at themselves and their
enemies. They concluded they were stronger than all-they were impregnable!
Their evaluation was in error because they left God out of the picture. Therein
lies much of the problem concerning pride. Against whom do we evaluate
ourselves? Pride usually chooses to evaluate the self against those considered
inferior. It must do this so as not to lose its sense of worth. To preserve
itself, it will search until it finds a flaw.
If it chooses to evaluate the self against a superior, its own quality
diminishes because the result of the evaluation changes markedly. In such a
case, pride will often drive the person to compete against-and attempt to
defeat-the superior one to preserve his status ( Proverbs 13:10). Pride's power
is in deceit, and the ground it plows to produce evil is in faulty evaluation.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Pride, Humility and the Day of Atonement
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
daily devotional
Evening ...
Psalm 65:11
Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness.
All the year round, every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both
when we sleep and when we wake His mercy waits upon us. The sun may leave us a
legacy of darkness, but our God never ceases to shine upon His children with
beams of love. Like a river, His lovingkindness is always flowing, with a
fulness inexhaustible as His own nature. Like the atmosphere which constantly
surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the
benevolence of God surrounds all His creatures; in it, as in their element,
they live, and move, and have their being. Yet as the sun on summer days
gladdens us with beams more warm and bright than at other times, and as rivers
are at certain seasons swollen by the rain, and as the atmosphere itself is
sometimes fraught with more fresh, more bracing, or more balmy influences than
heretofore, so is it with the mercy of God; it hath its golden hours; its days
of overflow, when the Lord magnifieth His grace before the sons of men. Amongst
the blessings of the nether springs, the joyous days of harvest are a special
season of excessive favour. It is the glory of autumn that the ripe gifts of
providence are then abundantly bestowed; it is the mellow season of
realization, whereas all before was but hope and expectation. Great is the joy
of harvest. Happy are the reapers who fill their arms with the liberality of
heaven. The Psalmist tells us that the harvest is the crowning of the year.
Surely these crowning mercies call for crowning thanksgiving! Let us render it
by the inward emotions of gratitude. Let our hearts be warmed; let our spirits
remember, meditate, and think upon this goodness of the Lord. Then let us
praise Him with our lips, and laud and magnify His name from whose bounty all
this goodness flows. Let us glorify God by yielding our gifts to His cause. A
practical proof of our gratitude is a special thank-offering to the Lord of the
harvest.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
(15) See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and
evil; (16) In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in
his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that
thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the
land whither thou goest to possess it. (17) But if thine heart turn away, so
that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and
serve them; (18) I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and
that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over
Jordan to go to possess it. (19) I call heaven and earth to record this day
against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: (20) That thou
mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that
thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days:
that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Revelation 20:15
(15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into
the lake of fire.
1 Corinthians 10:11
(11) Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
God-by His calling, granting us repentance, giving us His Spirit, helping
us understand the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and the revelation of Jesus
Christ and His sacrifice-has brought us to a place that is spiritually
identical to that of the Israelites after the Old Covenant was confirmed. Thus,
this passage cries out to us with great forcefulness.
The world, and even some who claim membership in the church of God, tell
us that salvation is secure once we have been justified by God's grace. They
say that salvation from that point on is unconditional. If salvation is
unconditional from justification on, why does God admonish us to choose between
life and death? Why does He command us to choose to keep His law so that we may
live and inherit the land? Why does God threaten us, His children, with the
Lake of Fire ( Revelation 20:15)? Are His threats hollow? Are they lies because
there really is no Lake of Fire?
If salvation is unconditional after we receive God's Holy Spirit, then
the death of an entire generation (except for Joshua and Caleb), lost because
of faithlessness, is nothing but a misleading waste. God, then, expended over a
million lives for no good reason. But I Corinthians 10:11 says, "Now all these
things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the ages have come."
John W. Ritenbaugh
From After Pentecost, Then What?
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