From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening ...
Acts 10:38 Who went about doing good.
Few words, but yet an exquisite miniature of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are
not many touches, but they are the strokes of a master's pencil. Of the Saviour
and only of the Saviour is it true in the fullest, broadest, and most
unqualified sense. "He went about doing good." From this description it is
evident that He did good personally. The evangelists constantly tell us that He
touched the leper with His own finger, that He anointed the eyes of the blind,
and that in cases where He was asked to speak the word only at a distance, He
did not usually comply, but went Himself to the sick bed, and there personally
wrought the cure. A lesson to us, if we would do good, to do it ourselves. Give
alms with your own hand; a kind look, or word, will enhance the value of the
gift. Speak to a friend about his soul; your loving appeal will have more
influence than a whole library of tracts. Our Lord's mode of doing good sets
forth His incessant activity! He did not only the good which came close to
hand, but He "went about" on His errands of mercy. Throughout the whole land of
Judea there was scarcely a village or a hamlet which was not gladdened by the
sight of Him. How this reproves the creeping, loitering manner, in which many
professors serve the Lord. Let us gird up the loins of our mind, and be not
weary in well doing. Does not the text imply that Jesus Christ went out of His
way to do good? "He went about doing good." He was never deterred by danger or
difficulty. He sought out the objects of His gracious intentions. So must we.
If old plans will not answer, we must try new ones, for fresh experiments
sometimes achieve more than regular methods. Christ's perseverance, and the
unity of His purpose, are also hinted at, and the practical application of the
subject may be summed up in the words, "He hath left us an example that we
should follow in His steps."
Morning ...
Psalm 73:23 Nevertheless I am continually with Thee.
"Nevertheless,"-As if, notwithstanding all the foolishness and ignorance
which David had just been confessing to God, not one atom the less was it true
and certain that David was saved and accepted, and that the blessing of being
constantly in God's presence was undoubtedly his. Fully conscious of his own
lost estate, and of the deceitfulness and vileness of his nature, yet, by a
glorious outburst of faith, he sings "nevertheless I am continually with Thee."
Believer, you are forced to enter into Asaph's confession and acknowledgment,
endeavour in like spirit to say "nevertheless, since I belong to Christ I am
continually with God!" By this is meant continually upon His mind, He is always
thinking of me for my good. Continually before His eye;-the eye of the Lord
never sleepeth, but is perpetually watching over my welfare. Continually in His
hand, so that none shall be able to pluck me thence. Continually on His heart,
worn there as a memorial, even as the high priest bore the names of the twelve
tribes upon his heart for ever. Thou always thinkest of me, O God. The bowels
of Thy love continually yearn towards me. Thou art always making providence
work for my good. Thou hast set me as a signet upon thine arm; thy love is
strong as death, many waters cannot quench it; neither can the floods drown it.
Surprising grace! Thou seest me in Christ, and though in myself abhorred, Thou
beholdest me as wearing Christ's garments, and washed in His blood, and thus I
stand accepted in Thy presence. I am thus continually in Thy
favour-"continually with Thee." Here is comfort for the tried and afflicted
soul; vexed with the tempest within-look at the calm without. "Nevertheless"-O
say it in thy heart, and take the peace it gives. "Nevertheless I am
continually with Thee."
Today's Verse and Comment
a..
Luke 16:27-31
(27) Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou
wouldest send him to my father's house: (28) For I have five brethren; that he
may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. (29)
Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
(30) And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead,
they will repent. (31) And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
The rich man's last thought flashes to concern for the fate
of his five brothers. He utters a final cry to Abraham, begging him to send
Lazarus to plead with his brothers to heed his warning testimony. Abraham
replies that they had the writings of Moses and the prophets. The rich man,
however, thinks his brothers would listen to one from the dead, indicating that
he realizes that Lazarus had been resurrected. Abraham replies that, if they
would not follow the Scriptures, they would certainly not be persuaded even by
one raised from the dead. These final verses show that Jesus' purpose in giving
the parable was to reveal the truth of the resurrection.
Other scriptures tell us what happens where this parable
leaves off. Matthew 13:30 speaks symbolically of the wicked being gathered into
bundles to be burned. Matthew 3:12 records John's warning to the Pharisees that
they would be burned up as chaff if they did not repent. They are to be burned
in a fire so hot that no amount of water could put it out because the flames
would turn the water to steam. When God punishes the wicked, the fire will be
unquenchable. This does not mean, however, that it will not burn itself out
when it has no more combustible materials to burn. An unquenchable fire cannot
be put out, but it can burn itself out when it has consumed everything. Malachi
4:1, 3 also speaks of this fire, reporting the end of the wicked: They will be
ashes and smoke (see Psalm 37:20).
In this, Jesus is preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of
God, revealing salvation, the resurrection to eternal life as the gift of God,
and inheritance of the Kingdom of God on this earth. Jesus teaches that if we
refuse to hear Moses and the prophets—if we refuse to believe the inspired,
written Word of God—we have no hope of salvation. All Scripture, the whole
Bible containing both the Old and New Testaments, is profitable for doctrine
and instruction in receiving the gift of salvation (II Timothy 3:16-17).
Martin G. Collins
From Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Part Tw
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daily devotional
Evening ...
Ruth 2:17 So she gleaned in the field until even.
Let me learn from Ruth, the gleaner. As she went out to gather the ears of
corn, so must I go forth into the fields of prayer, meditation, the ordinances,
and hearing the word to gather spiritual food. The gleaner gathers her portion
ear by ear; her gains are little by little: so must I be content to search for
single truths, if there be no greater plenty of them. Every ear helps to make a
bundle, and every gospel lesson assists in making us wise unto salvation. The
gleaner keeps her eyes open: if she stumbled among the stubble in a dream, she
would have no load to carry home rejoicingly at eventide. I must be watchful in
religious exercises lest they become unprofitable to me; I fear I have lost
much already-O that I may rightly estimate my opportunities, and glean with
greater diligence. The gleaner stoops for all she finds, and so must I. High
spirits criticize and object, but lowly minds glean and receive benefit. A
humble heart is a great help towards profitably hearing the gospel. The
engrafted soul-saving word is not received except with meekness. A stiff back
makes a bad gleaner; down, master pride, thou art a vile robber, not to be
endured for a moment. What the gleaner gathers she holds: if she dropped one
ear to find another, the result of her day's work would be but scant; she is as
careful to retain as to obtain, and so at last her gains are great. How often
do I forget all that I hear; the second truth pushes the first out of my head,
and so my reading and hearing end in much ado about nothing! Do I feel duly the
importance of storing up the truth? A hungry belly makes the gleaner wise; if
there be no corn in her hand, there will be no bread on her table; she labours
under the sense of necessity, and hence her tread is nimble and her grasp is
firm. I have even a greater necessity, Lord, help me to feel it, that it may
urge me onward to glean in fields which yield so plenteous a reward to
diligence.
Morning ...
Revelation 21:23 The Lamb is the light thereof.
Quietly contemplate the Lamb as the light of heaven. Light in Scripture is
the emblem of joy. The joy of the saints in heaven is comprised in this: Jesus
chose us, loved us, bought us, cleansed us, robed us, kept us, glorified us: we
are here entirely through the Lord Jesus. Each one of these thoughts shall be
to them like a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol. Light is also the cause of
beauty. Nought of beauty is left when light is gone. Without light no radiance
flashes from the sapphire, no peaceful ray proceedeth from the pearl; and thus
all the beauty of the saints above comes from Jesus. As planets, they reflect
the light of the Sun of Righteousness; they live as beams proceeding from the
central orb. If He withdrew, they must die; if His glory were veiled, their
glory must expire. Light is also the emblem of knowledge. In heaven our
knowledge will be perfect, but the Lord Jesus Himself will be the fountain of
it. Dark providences, never understood before, will then be clearly seen, and
all that puzzles us now will become plain to us in the light of the Lamb. Oh!
what unfoldings there will be and what glorifying of the God of love! Light
also means manifestation. Light manifests. In this world it doth not yet appear
what we shall be. God's people are a hidden people, but when Christ receives
His people into heaven, He will touch them with the wand of His own love, and
change them into the image of His manifested glory. They were poor and
wretched, but what a transformation! They were stained with sin, but one touch
of His finger, and they are bright as the sun, and clear as crystal. Oh! what a
manifestation! All this proceeds from the exalted Lamb. Whatever there may be
of effulgent splendour, Jesus shall be the centre and soul of it all. Oh! to be
present and to see Him in His own light, the King of kings, and Lord of lords!
Hosea 10:1-2
(1) Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself:
according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according
to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. (2) Their heart is
divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he
shall spoil their images.
Go to this verse on Bible Tools
Hosea exposes the problem between God and Israel. He describes
Israel as a luxuriant grape vine sending runners in every direction, indicating
a bountiful crop. It indeed produces great material prosperity, but it is
consumed through self-indulgent gorging. This is God's way of showing that
Israel abused its prosperity: It used its prosperity for the purposes of
idolatry. Its prosperity played a part in corrupting the Israelites' hearts,
which is why Hosea mentions the divided or disloyal heart in context with its
bountiful fruit.
A large part of this world's appeal is its offer of financial
security. However, God shows there is a possible harmful, secondary effect: As
people become financially secure, their attention is diverted from His purpose
to vain and unimportant things. In other words, prosperity turns people's
heads. There is no doubt that prosperity is good, but unless one is properly
focused and disciplined, it can also be a demanding master because of its power
to distract one into idolatry. Recall God's prophecy in Deuteronomy 32:15,
predicting that when Israel prospered, then it would rebel.
This connects with the curse of Laodiceanism because God shows in
them what can happen spiritually as people increase materially. Because such
people are drunk through riches' deceptive promise, their judgment is in danger
of being radically altered. The Laodicean evaluates himself, saying, "I am
rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing" (Revelation 3:17).
He is deceived into thinking that his material prosperity proves
that God approves of his conduct and attitudes. His overall conduct may not be
too bad, but his poor self-analysis persuades him that he has no urgent need to
seek God any further. He then merely floats, going through the motions, even
feeling good about himself as he neglects so great salvation (Hebrews 2:3). His
opinion of his holiness as compared with God's judgment is so far off base, it
causes Jesus Christ to regurgitate him from His body.
Recall the mention in Hosea 10:1 of increasing and embellishing
altars just before Israel fell to Assyria. One would think that, if altars
increase during this period of prosperity, then religion is flourishing.
Indeed, religion flourished, as Amos, Hosea's contemporary, clearly reports
(see Amos 5:21-27). However, it was not the religion God gave through Moses,
but idolatry that flourished! It was a corruption of that religion, for the
Israelites syncretized that holy way with Baalism and other idolatries.
In Hosea 10:2, God charges Israel with having a divided heart.
Commentaries are at odds over what the Hebrew word translated divided means.
Most modern translations use "false," "deceitful," or "faithless," and none of
these are wrong, including "divided." The Hebrew word suggests "smoothness" or
"flattering," describing people who "talk the talk" but do not "walk the walk."
Isaiah 29:13 clarifies what God means: "Therefore the LORD said:
'Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their
lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is
taught by the commandment of men.'" Their reverence for Him was mere
intellectual accommodation intended to appease Him. They used the name of God
frequently, saying they trusted Him, but they filled the nation with stealing,
lying, and murder.
II Kings 17:33 illustrates their worship: "They feared the LORD,
yet served their own gods—according to the rituals of the nations from among
whom they were carried away." This describes to a T what Israel did then and
their descendants are continuing to do today. Moffatt renders this, "They
worshipped the Eternal, and they also served their own gods."
This chapter reports on the behavior of the people placed in
Israel after Israel's conquest and deportation by Assyria between 722-720 BC.
These people, who became known as the Samaritans, feared the Lord but
worshipped their own gods. They were afraid of God, but they did not really
change their way of life. Thus, they developed a syncretic religious system, a
blending of the truth of God and outright paganism. The Jews of Christ's day
clearly recognized this putrid blend and despised the Samaritans for it.
What is so interesting is that, by verse 36, God is no longer
reporting on the Samaritans but is addressing Israel. In other words, God is
saying that He was driven to defeat and scatter Israel because they were guilty
of exactly the same sin as the Samaritans! They too had blended the worship of
the true God with outright paganism, utterly corrupting the relationship He had
established with them.
It is urgent that we understand what is involved here because it
reveals the cause of God's anger that led to Israel's defeat and scattering. We
must understand that our god is not what we say we worship but what we serve.
Our god is what we give our lives over to.
Theoretically, the Israelites did not believe in idols, but in
reality, they did. They believed in a Creator God, but they worshipped Him at
the shrines they erected to the Baals. While they gave lip service to the
Creator, they adopted most of the Canaanitish religion with its lewd
immorality, and in actual practice, patterned their life after it. In daily
life, they conformed to and reflected the Babylonish system just as Israel does
today. This is exactly what God warns us to flee, and the only way to come out
of it is by developing and maturing in our relationship with God.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Be There Next Year
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