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daily devotional
Evening...
Romans 8:23 Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption,
to wit, the redemption of our body.
This groaning is universal among the saints: to a greater or less extent we
all feel it. It is not the groan of murmuring or complaint: it is rather the
note of desire than of distress. Having received an earnest, we desire the
whole of our portion; we are sighing that our entire manhood, in its trinity of
spirit, soul, and body, may be set free from the last vestige of the fall; we
long to put off corruption, weakness, and dishonour, and to wrap ourselves in
incorruption, in immortality, in glory, in the spiritual body which the Lord
Jesus will bestow upon His people. We long for the manifestation of our
adoption as the children of God. "We groan," but it is "within ourselves." It
is not the hypocrite's groan, by which he would make men believe that he is a
saint because he is wretched. Our sighs are sacred things, too hallowed for us
to tell abroad. We keep our longings to our Lord alone. Then the apostle says
we are "waiting," by which we learn that we are not to be petulant, like Jonah
or Elijah, when they said, "Let me die"; nor are we to whimper and sigh for the
end of life because we are tired of work, nor wish to escape from our present
sufferings till the will of the Lord is done. We are to groan for
glorification, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord
appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door
expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to Himself. This "groaning"
is a test. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after
wealth-they worship Mammon; some groan continually under the troubles of
life-they are merely impatient; but the man who sighs after God, who is uneasy
till he is made like Christ, that is the blessed man. May God help us to groan
for the coming of the Lord, and the resurrection which He will bring to us.
Morning...
Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you.
We know of a place in England still existing, where a dole of bread is served
to every passerby who chooses to ask for it. Whoever the traveller may be, he
has but to knock at the door of St. Cross Hospital, and there is the dole of
bread for him. Jesus Christ so loveth sinners that He has built a St. Cross
Hospital, so that whenever a sinner is hungry, he has but to knock and have his
wants supplied. Nay, He has done better; He has attached to this Hospital of
the Cross a bath; and whenever a soul is black and filthy, it has but to go
there and be washed. The fountain is always full, always efficacious. No sinner
ever went into it and found that it could not wash away his stains. Sins which
were scarlet and crimson have all disappeared, and the sinner has been whiter
than snow. As if this were not enough, there is attached to this Hospital of
the Cross a wardrobe, and a sinner making application simply as a sinner, may
be clothed from head to foot; and if he wishes to be a soldier, he may not
merely have a garment for ordinary wear, but armour which shall cover him from
the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. If he asks for a sword, he shall
have that given to him, and a shield too. Nothing that is good for him shall be
denied him. He shall have spending-money so long as he lives, and he shall have
an eternal heritage of glorious treasure when he enters into the joy of his
Lord. If all these things are to be had by merely knocking at mercy's door, O
my soul, knock hard this morning, and ask large things of thy generous Lord.
Leave not the throne of grace till all thy wants have been spread before the
Lord, and until by faith thou hast a comfortable prospect that they shall be
all supplied. No bashfulness need retard when Jesus invites. No unbelief should
hinder when Jesus promises. No cold-heartedness should restrain when such
blessings are to be obtained.
Hebrews 3:19
(19) So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Paul puts his finger on the source of the Israelites' problem, why
their heart could not be changed, why they consistently and persistently sinned
and rebelled: "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."
Paul later turns this thought into an admonition for us:
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us
fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was
preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. (Hebrews 4:1-2)
Not only did Israel have the witness of numerous demonstrations of
God's presence and power among them to provide a foundation for faith, but they
were also given the Word of God by His servants Moses and Aaron. In addition,
they had living examples of faith in Moses, Aaron (most of the time), Joshua,
Caleb, and others. God supplied these men with gifts by His Spirit as a
testimony that should have provided more incentive for the Israelites to
believe Him. But Hebrews 3:17 says He was angry with them forty years! If ever
a people almost drove God to the point of exasperation, it was Israel in the
wilderness.
We must not allow such a powerful lesson to pass by unheeded. Paul
agrees, "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning,
that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope"
(Romans 15:4).
The lesson is clear. Those who believe God reveal their faith by
obeying Him. Those who do not believe, disobey. Hebrews 3:12 warns, "Beware,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God." Unbelief is evidence of an evil heart, and an evil heart
departs from God. Like Hebrews 3:16—4:2, this verse equates unbelief with
disobedience.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Wandering the Wilderness in Faith
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daily devotional
Evening...
Ecclesiastes 1:14 Behold, all is vanity.
Nothing can satisfy the entire man but the Lord's love and the Lord's own
self. Saints have tried to anchor in other roadsteads, but they have been
driven out of such fatal refuges. Solomon, the wisest of men, was permitted to
make experiments for us all, and to do for us what we must not dare to do for
ourselves. Here is his testimony in his own words:
"So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in
Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I
kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced
in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on
all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured
to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no
profit under the sun."
"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." What! the whole of it vanity? O favoured
monarch, is there nothing in all thy wealth? Nothing in that wide dominion
reaching from the river even to the sea? Nothing in Palmyra's glorious palaces?
Nothing in the house of the forest of Lebanon? In all thy music and dancing,
and wine and luxury, is there nothing? "Nothing," he says, "but weariness of
spirit." This was his verdict when he had trodden the whole round of pleasure.
To embrace our Lord Jesus, to dwell in His love, and be fully assured of union
with Him-this is all in all. Dear reader, you need not try other forms of life
in order to see whether they are better than the Christian's: if you roam the
world around, you will see no sights like a sight of the Saviour's face; if you
could have all the comforts of life, if you lost your Saviour, you would be
wretched; but if you win Christ, then should you rot in a dungeon, you would
find it a paradise; should you live in obscurity, or die with famine, you will
yet be satisfied with favour and full of the goodness of the Lord.
Morning...
Song of Solomon 4:7 There is no spot in thee.
Having pronounced His Church positively full of beauty, our Lord confirms His
praise by a precious negative, "There is no spot in I thee." As if the thought
occurred to the Bridegroom that the carping world would insinuate that He had
only mentioned her comely parts, and had purposely omitted those features which
were deformed or defiled, He sums up all by declaring her universally and
entirely fair, and utterly devoid of stain. A spot may soon be removed, and is
the very least thing that can disfigure beauty, but even from this little
blemish the believer is delivered in his Lord's sight. If He had said there is
no hideous scar, no horrible deformity, no deadly ulcer, we might even then
have marvelled; but when He testifies that she is free from the slightest spot,
all these other forms of defilement are included, and the depth of wonder is
increased. If He had but promised to remove all spots by-and-by, we should have
had eternal reason for joy; but when He speaks of it as already done, who can
restrain the most intense emotions of satisfaction and delight? O my soul, here
is marrow and fatness for thee; eat thy full, and be satisfied with royal
dainties. Christ Jesus has no quarrel with His spouse. She often wanders from
Him, and grieves His Holy Spirit, but He does not allow her faults to affect
His love. He sometimes chides, but it is always in the tenderest manner, with
the kindest intentions: it is "my love" even then. There is no remembrance of
our follies, He does not cherish ill thoughts of us, but He pardons and loves
as well after the offence as before it. It is well for us it is so, for if
Jesus were as mindful of injuries as we are, how could He commune with us? Many
a time a believer will put himself out of humour with the Lord for some slight
turn in providence, but our precious Husband knows our silly hearts too well to
take any offence at our ill manners.
Exodus 20:16
(New King James Version)
(16) “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Speech is arguably man's greatest gift and at the same time his
most dangerous ability. It is impossible to estimate the good it has done when
great men and women have truthfully instructed and inspired others. By
contrast, we cannot measure how much evil the tongue has perpetrated, for
falsehoods disguised as truth have destroyed reputations and even nations.
God devotes two of the Ten Commandments to the evils of false
witnessing, the third and the ninth. These seem to be broken with
impunity—sometimes even by those who are aware of their application—because the
drives that motivate people to break them are so powerful.
God commands, "You shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor," but liars and lying abound. Everybody knows that marketers lie about
what products can do. Books, magazines, and movies feature liars of many
different stripes. The media and the public have caught prominent government
figures from presidents on down lying about important issues.
According to an article by Jan Mendenhall in the June/July 1997
issue of Aspire, college kids lie to their moms in 50% of conversations. Dating
couples lie to each other a third of the time, and spouses deceive each other
in about 10% of major conversations. Twelve percent of four million Americans
lost their jobs for "misrepresentation." A November 1997 survey conducted by
the publishers of Who's Who Among American High Schools Students reveals that
76% of the students listed in their publication (supposedly the elite
achievers) admit having cheated. Two-thirds of these believe it is "no big
deal" to cheat to get a good test grade—and 65% of their parents agree!
We use a large number of euphemisms to soften the act of lying.
Some are: duplicity, fabrication, evasion, stringing someone along, inaccuracy,
exaggeration, fudging, rationalization, falsehood, "whopper," deception,
misrepresentation, dishonesty, putting someone on, putting up a front, and
fibbing.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Ninth Commandment (1997)
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