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daily devotional
Evening...
Romans 3:31
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the
law.
When the believer is adopted into the Lord's family, his relationship to old
Adam and the law ceases at once; but then he is under a new rule, and a new
covenant. Believer, you are God's child; it is your first duty to obey your
heavenly Father. A servile spirit you have nothing to do with: you are not a
slave, but a child; and now, inasmuch as you are a beloved child, you are bound
to obey your Father's faintest wish, the least intimation of His will. Does He
bid you fulfil a sacred ordinance? It is at your peril that you neglect it, for
you will be disobeying your Father. Does He command you to seek the image of
Jesus? It is not your joy to do so? Does Jesus tell you, "Be ye perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"? Then not because the law
commands, but because your Saviour enjoins, you will labour to be perfect in
holiness. Does He bid his saints love one another? Do it, not because the law
says, "Love thy neighbour," but because Jesus says, "If ye love Me, keep My
commandments;" and this is the commandment that He has given unto you, "that ye
love one another." Are you told to distribute to the poor? Do it, not because
charity is a burden which you dare not shirk, but because Jesus teaches, "Give
to him that asketh of thee." Does the Word say, "Love God with all your heart"?
Look at the commandment and reply, "Ah! commandment, Christ hath fulfilled thee
already-I have no need, therefore, to fulfill thee for my salvation, but I
rejoice to yield obedience to thee because God is my Father now and He has a
claim upon me, which I would not dispute." May the Holy Ghost make your heart
obedient to the constraining power of Christ's love, that your prayer may be,
"Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments; for therein do I delight."
Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin.
Morning...
Matthew 6:26
Your heavenly Father.
God's people are doubly His children, they are His offspring by creation, and
they are His sons by adoption in Christ. Hence they are privileged to call Him,
"Our Father which art in heaven." Father! Oh, what precious word is that. Here
is authority: "If I be a Father, where is mine honour?" If ye be sons, where is
your obedience? Here is affection mingled with authority; an authority which
does not provoke rebellion; an obedience demanded which is most cheerfully
rendered-which would not be withheld even if it might. The obedience which
God's children yield to Him must be loving obedience. Do not go about the
service of God as slaves to their taskmaster's toil, but run in the way of His
commands because it is your Father's way. Yield your bodies as instruments of
righteousness, because righteousness is your Father's will, and His will should
be the will of His child. Father!-Here is a kingly attribute so sweetly veiled
in love, that the King's crown is forgotten in the King's face, and His sceptre
becomes, not a rod of iron, but a silver sceptre of mercy-the sceptre indeed
seems to be forgotten in the tender hand of Him who wields it. Father!-Here is
honour and love. How great is a Father's love to his children! That which
friendship cannot do, and mere benevolence will not attempt, a father's heart
and hand must do for his sons. They are his offspring, he must bless them; they
are his children, he must show himself strong in their defence. If an earthly
father watches over his children with unceasing love and care, how much more
does our heavenly Father? Abba, Father! He who can say this, hath uttered
better music than cherubim or seraphim can reach. There is heaven in the depth
of that word-Father! There is all I can ask; all my necessities can demand; all
my wishes can desire. I have all in all to all eternity when I can say,
"Father."
James 3:18
(18) And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make
peace.
For the seed which one day produces the reward which righteousness
brings can only be sown when personal relationships are right and by those
whose conduct produces such relationships. ( James 3:18; William Barclay's
Daily Bible Study)
In this verse, James is talking about a social situation. God's
purpose—the fruit that He wants from His way of life, the kind of character
that He wants in us—has to be produced in peace. It cannot be produced in war.
Why it cannot be produced in war is obvious. When one is involved in war,
he is thinking only of himself, which runs 180 degrees counter to God's nature.
God's nature is outgoing. When one is engaged in war, all one is seeking to do
is to preserve the self. For God's purpose to be fulfilled to the very best
degree, peace is required.
The seed, which one day produces the reward that righteousness brings,
can only be sown when personal relationships are right, and by those whose
conduct will produce such relationships.
Jesus says that peacemakers will be the children of God, not those who
butt others aside, aggressively trying to get to the top, asserting themselves,
their will, and their ideas in every circumstance, angling to be the big shot.
"Out of my way, buddy. That is my beat." Those people, by implication, will not
see God.
This is why God will permit a divorce. Does He not say through Paul in I
Corinthians 7:15, "If the unbeliever departs, let him depart"? The believer "is
not under bondage in such cases" because "God has called us to peace." God will
permit a divorce so that a person can be saved due to the subsequent peace. In
a family in which a war rages between a husband and wife, it is possible that
God may lose both of them.
When those who butt and disturb the flock are present, the flock will not
prosper. The shepherd has to ensure that there is peace, freedom from fear from
the outside, freedom from tension within, and freedom from aggravation. (We
even use the term "bug," which is what insects do to sheep: They irritate them
to no end so they cannot gain weight and are discontented.) The shepherd must
also make sure there is freedom from hunger—a congregation, a flock, will
prosper if it is being well-fed.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Psalm 23 (Part 1)
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daily devotional
Morning...
Psalm 89:19
I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
Why was Christ chosen out of the people? Speak, my heart, for heart-thoughts
are best. Was it not that He might be able to be our brother, in the blest tie
of kindred blood? Oh, what relationship there is between Christ and the
believer! The believer can say, "I have a Brother in heaven; I may be poor, but
I have a Brother who is rich, and is a King, and will He suffer me to want
while He is on His throne? Oh, no! He loves me; He is my Brother." Believer,
wear this blessed thought, like a necklace of diamonds, around the neck of thy
memory; put it, as a golden ring, on the finger of recollection, and use it as
the King's own seal, stamping the petitions of thy faith with confidence of
success. He is a brother born for adversity, treat Him as such. Christ was also
chosen out of the people that He might know our wants and sympathize with us.
"He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." In all our
sorrows we have His sympathy. Temptation, pain, disappointment, weakness,
weariness, poverty-He knows them all, for He has felt all. Remember this,
Christian, and let it comfort thee. However difficult and painful thy road, it
is marked by the footsteps of thy Saviour; and even when thou reachest the dark
valley of the shadow of death, and the deep waters of the swelling Jordan, thou
wilt find His footprints there. In all places whithersoever we go, He has been
our forerunner; each burden we have to carry, has once been laid on the
shoulders of Immanuel.
"His way was much rougher and darker than mine
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?"
Take courage! Royal feet have left a blood-red track upon the road, and
consecrated the thorny path for ever.
Evening...
Song of Solomon 1:4
We will remember Thy love more than wine.
Jesus will not let His people forget His love. If all the love they have
enjoyed should be forgotten, He will visit them with fresh love. "Do you forget
my cross?" says He, "I will cause you to remember it; for at My table I will
manifest Myself anew to you. Do you forget at I did for you in the
council-chamber of eternity? I will remind you of it, for you shall need a
counsellor, and shall find Me ready at your call." Mothers do not let their
children forget them. If the boy has gone to Australia, and does not write
home, his mother writes-"Has John forgotten his mother?" Then there comes back
a sweet epistle, which proves that the gentle reminder was not in vain. So is
it with Jesus, He says to us, "Remember Me," and our response is, "We will
remember Thy love." We will remember Thy love and its matchless history. It is
ancient as the glory which Thou hadst with the Father before the world was. We
remember, O Jesus, Thine eternal love when Thou didst become our Surety, and
espouse us as Thy betrothed. We remember the love which suggested the sacrifice
of Thyself, the love which, until the fulness of time, mused over that
sacrifice, and long for the hour whereof in the volume of the book it was
written of Thee, "Lo, I come." We remember Thy love, O Jesus as it was manifest
to us in Thy holy life, from the manger of Bethlehem to the garden of
Gethsemane. We track Thee from the cradle to the grave-for every word and deed
of Thine was love-and we rejoice in Thy love, which death did not exhaust; Thy
love which shone resplendent in Thy resurrection. We remember that burning fire
of love which will never let Thee hold Thy peace until Thy chosen ones be all
safely housed, until Zion be glorified, and Jerusalem settled on her
everlasting foundations of light and love in heaven.
Luke 10:26-28
(26) He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest
thou? (27) And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;
and thy neighbour as thyself. (28) And he said unto him, Thou hast answered
right: this do, and thou shalt live.
These verses give us a formula for entering the Kingdom of God. It
is just that simple—or is it?
We should love the Lord our God more than anything else. Nothing
is to take precedent over Him, not our desires, our will, nor anything else.
God is always first. We are to love God with all of our soul. We are to be
ready to give up our lives to honor God, if it is required. We are to endure
all types of ridicule and torment for His sake, if it falls our lot. That is
part of loving God.
It is our loving God with all of our strength. Whatever we
possess has come from God. If we do something to physically serve God, or if we
have to give our substance as living sacrifice, this, too, is just part of
loving God with all of our strength.
Adam Clarke summed up the first part of verse 28:
In a word, he (one thinking with and using the mind of Christ)
sees God in all things; thinks of Him at all times; has his mind continually
fixed upon God; acknowledges Him in all his ways. He begins, continues, and
ends all his thoughts, words and works, to the glory of His name. This is the
person who loves God with all of his heart, his might, and strength and his
intellect.
That is a tall order, but it is exactly what God wants from us.
He wants us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, loving our
neighbors as ourselves. It is self-explanatory.
If we are in trouble, do we want someone to come and help us? Of
course! Do we want someone to listen to us when we need someone's ear? Of
course! Do we want someone to rescue us when we find ourselves in financial
difficulties? Certainly! Likewise, we should be concerned for others, as we are
concerned for ourselves.
John O. Reid
From Don't Take God for Granted
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