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daily devotional
Evening ...
Psalm 31:4 Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for Thou
art my strength.
Our spiritual foes are of the serpent's brood, a and seek to ensnare us by
subtlety. The prayer before us supposes the possibility of the believer being
caught like a bird. So deftly does the fowler do his work, that simple ones are
soon surrounded by the net. The text asks that even out of Satan's meshes the
captive one may be delivered; this is a proper petition, and one which can be
granted: from between the jaws of the lion, and out of the belly of hell, can
eternal love rescue the saint. It may need a sharp pull to save a soul from the
net of temptations, and a mighty pull to extricate a man from the snares of
malicious cunning, but the Lord is equal to every emergency, and the most
skilfully placed nets of the hunter shall never be able to hold His chosen
ones. Woe unto those who are so clever at net laying; they who tempt others
shall be destroyed themselves. "For Thou art my strength." What an
inexpressible sweetness is to be found in these few words! How joyfully may we
encounter toils, and how cheerfully may we endure sufferings, when we can lay
hold upon celestial strength. Divine power will rend asunder all the toils of
our enemies, confound their politics, and frustrate their knavish tricks; he is
a happy man who has such matchless might engaged upon his side. Our own
strength would be of little service when embarrassed in the nets of base
cunning, but the Lord's strength is ever available; we have but to invoke it,
and we shall find it near at hand. If by faith we are depending alone upon the
strength of the mighty God of Israel, we may use our holy reliance as a plea in
supplication.
"Lord, evermore Thy face we seek:
Tempted we are, and poor, and weak;
Keep us with lowly hearts, and meek.
Let us not fall. Let us not fall."
Morning ...
2 Samuel 23:1 The sweet psalmist of Israel.
Among all the saints whose lives are recorded in Holy Writ, David possesses
an experience of the most striking, varied, and instructive character. In his
history we meet with trials and temptations not to be discovered, as a whole,
in other saints of ancient times, and hence he is all the more suggestive a
type of our Lord. David knew the trials of all ranks and conditions of men.
Kings have their troubles, and David wore a crown: the peasant has his cares,
and David handled a shepherd's crook: the wanderer has many hardships, and
David abode in the caves of Engedi: the captain has his difficulties, and David
found the sons of Zeruiah too hard for him. The psalmist was also tried in his
friends, his counsellor Ahithophel forsook him, "He that eateth bread with me,
hath lifted up his heel against me." His worst foes were they of his own
household: his children were his greatest affliction. The temptations of
poverty and wealth, of honour and reproach, of health and weakness, all tried
their power upon him. He had temptations from without to disturb his peace, and
from within to mar his joy. David no sooner escaped from one trial than he fell
into another; no sooner emerged from one season of despondency and alarm, than
he was again brought into the lowest depths, and all God's waves and billows
rolled over him. It is probably from this cause that David's psalms are so
universally the delight of experienced Christians. Whatever our frame of mind,
whether ecstasy or depression, David has exactly described our emotions. He was
an able master of the human heart, because he had been tutored in the best of
all schools-the school of heart-felt, personal experience. As we are instructed
in the same school, as we grow matured in grace and in years, we increasingly
appreciate David's psalms, and find them to be "green pastures." My soul, let
David's experience cheer and counsel thee this day.
Matthew 13:48-50
(48) Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and
gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. (49) So shall it be at
the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from
among the just, (50) And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall
be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus tells us that the bad fish are thrown into the fire. John the
Baptist says this in a slightly different way in Matthew 3:12: "[Jesus] will
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." This principle appears somewhat
differently in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats (Matthew 25:31-46): Christ is
Judge, and He sets the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left. He
judges that the sheep can enter eternal life, while the goats receive the
destructive judgment of fire.
Although a final judgment is coming for the world, the church is now
under God's judgment (I Peter 4:17; Revelation 11:1-2). Not only is the
sentence coming, but our conduct and growth are also currently being
judged—Christ is evaluating whether we meet His high standards. Ultimately,
everyone is judged the same way, according to the same standard, by the same
criteria. The "bad fish" among us are not ours to judge, but Jesus, the
righteous Judge, has promised to judge with equity (Psalm 98:9).
Matthew 13:50 says they are thrown "into the furnace of fire." A
similar thing occurs in the Parable of the Weat and the Tares: At the end of
the age, the tares will be gathered and thrown into the furnace (verses 30,
41-42). The emphasis in the Parable of the Tares is on the wicked and their
evil works and their subsequent judgment. However, in the Parable of the
Dragnet, instead of highlighting the wickedness, Jesus focuses on the process
of judgment, not necessarily on condemning evildoers. Some people are condemned
for doing wicked things, but others are saved and rewarded for doing the good
works assigned to them. God's calling is first impartial, and then His judgment
is absolutely fair. The wicked will get only what they deserve.
God's "catch" is the church, a chosen cross section of the entire
world; He casts a wide net. However, once those He calls accept Jesus Christ,
God does show Himself partial to the "good fish"—those who love Him, obey Him,
serve others, grow, and produce spiritual fruit. In the process of salvation,
God judges whether we are good, useable fish or substandard fish fit only for
the fire. He judges us according to how we measure up against His standard of
righteousness, "the perfect man, . . . the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). God throws His net into the world and
drags us in, and if we are unwilling to comply with His holy standard, our
eternal judgment will be to be discarded in the fire.
Presently, the church's function is not judicial but declarative. On
the one hand, the church is responsible to warn sinners of the dire
consequences of sin and of the time of God's judgment coming upon all humanity.
On the other hand, we are to witness of God's way of life, as well as to
proclaim the return of Christ's return and the establishment of God's
wonderful, benevolent government here on earth. That is good news!
Martin G. Collins
From The Parables of Matthew 13 (Part Eight): The Parable of the
Dragnet
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daily devotional
Evening ...
Nehemiah 3:8 And they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall.
Cities well fortified have broad walls, and so had Jerusalem in her glory.
The New Jerusalem must, in like manner, be surrounded and preserved by a broad
wall of nonconformity to the world, and separation from its customs and spirit.
The tendency of these days break down the holy barrier, and make the
distinction between the church and the world merely nominal. Professors are no
longer strict and Puritanical, questionable literature is read on all hands,
frivolous pastimes are currently indulged, and a general laxity threatens to
deprive the Lord's peculiar people of those sacred singularities which separate
them from sinners. It will be an ill day for the church and the world when the
proposed amalgamation shall be complete, and the sons of God and the daughters
of men shall be as one: then shall another deluge of wrath be ushered in.
Beloved reader, be it your aim in heart, in word, in dress, in action to
maintain the broad wall, remembering that the friendship of this world is
enmity against God. The broad wall afforded a pleasant place of resort for the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, from which they could command prospects of the
surrounding country. This reminds us of the Lord's exceeding broad
commandments, in which we walk at liberty in communion with Jesus, overlooking
the scenes of earth, and looking out towards the glories of heaven. Separated
from the world, and denying ourselves all ungodliness and fleshly lusts, we are
nevertheless not in prison, nor restricted within narrow bounds; nay, we walk
at liberty, because we keep His precepts. Come, reader, this evening walk with
God in His statutes. As friend met friend upon the city wall, so meet thou thy
God in the way of holy prayer and meditation. The bulwarks of salvation thou
hast a right to traverse, for thou art a freeman of the royal burgh, a citizen
of the metropolis of the universe.
Morning ...
Proverbs 11:25 He that watereth shall be watered also himself.
We are here taught the great lesson, that to get, we must give; that to
accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy, we must make others
happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous, we must seek the
spiritual good of others. In watering others, we are ourselves watered. How?
Our efforts to be useful, bring out our powers for usefulness. We have latent
talents and dormant faculties, which are brought to light by exercise. Our
strength for labour is hidden even from ourselves, until we venture forth to
fight the Lord's battles, or to climb the mountains of difficulty. We do not
know what tender sympathies we possess until we try to dry the widow's tears,
and soothe the orphan's grief. We often find in attempting to teach others,
that we gain instruction for ourselves. Oh, what gracious lessons some of us
have learned at sick beds! We went to teach the Scriptures, we came away
blushing that we knew so little of them. In our converse with poor saints, we
are taught the way of God more perfectly for ourselves and get a deeper insight
into divine truth. So that watering others makes us humble. We discover how
much grace there is where we had not looked for it; and how much the poor saint
may outstrip us in knowledge. Our own comfort is also increased by our working
for others. We endeavour to cheer them, and the consolation gladdens our own
heart. Like the two men in the snow; one chafed the other's limbs to keep him
from dying, and in so doing kept his own blood in circulation, and saved his
own life. The poor widow of Sarepta gave from her scanty store a supply for the
prophet's wants, and from that day she never again knew what want was. Give
then, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and running
over.
Luke 21:36
(36) Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before
the Son of man.
While prayer is important, notice that in Luke 21:36, Jesus does
not use just the word "pray" but the phrase "pray always." Why is this
significant?
As we begin to answer this question, it is good to know that the
word "always" is a translation of three Greek words. A literal translation of
those three words, en pantí kairoó, would be "in all times," and many Bible
translations have chosen to use similar wording, such as "at all times." Other
versions may use "all the time," while some use words like "constant" and
"constantly." Weymouth's New Testament goes so far as to read, "every moment."
Christ is speaking, not just about prayer, but also about the
frequency of our prayers. How often are we in contact with God throughout our
day? Do we give Him some time in the morning or evening, but the rest of the
day He is in none, or very few, of our thoughts? Doing so places us in very
dangerous company (Psalm 10:4).
Laodiceans have lukewarm relationships with God, thus Christ has
to say to them in Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If
anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with
him, and he with Me." He calls for them to rekindle the relationship. Making
the first move, He suggests what friends who have a close relationship do—they
share a meal. What happens at a meal with friends? Conversation, which is what
prayer is. Humans, whether with people or with God, build their relationships
the same way: They talk to each other—a lot.
We can see why Christ tells those living at the end, when
Laodiceanism reigns, that we have to overcome and pray always. Generally, the
relationship between God and the Christian is weak and must be rebuilt,
requiring considerable conversation, prayer, at all times of the day.
If we observed a marriage in which the husband and wife only
mumbled to each other a little in the morning and/or a little at night, we
would conclude that that relationship was in trouble. Our God who sees all
knows the same thing when He experiences it.
How does a Christian "pray always"? In one of Herbert W.
Armstrong's radio broadcasts on the book of Hebrews, he says, paraphrased, "You
need to be in contact with God every hour!" I Thessalonians 5:17 instructs,
"Pray without ceasing." Hebrews 13:15 urges us to offer prayer to God
"continually." God's purpose for us requires a great deal of contact with Him.
Pat Higgins
From Praying Always (Part Two)
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