From: [email protected] daily devotional
Evening...
Isaiah 41:1 Let the people renew their strength.
All things on earth need to be renewed. No created thing continueth by
itself. "Thou renewest the face of the year," was the Psalmist's utterance.
Even the trees, which wear not themselves with care, nor shorten their lives
with labour, must drink of the rain of heaven and suck from the hidden
treasures of the soil. The cedars of Lebanon, which God has planted, only live
because day by day they are full of sap fresh drawn from the earth. Neither can
man's life be sustained without renewal from God. As it is necessary to repair
the waste of the body by the frequent meal, so we must repair the waste of the
soul by feeding upon the Book of God, or by listening to the preached Word, or
by the soul-fattening table of the ordinances. How depressed are our graces
when means are neglected! What poor starvelings some saints are who live
without the diligent use of the Word of God and secret prayer! If our piety can
live without God it is not of divine creating; it is but a dream; for if God
had begotten it, it would wait upon Him as the flowers wait upon the dew.
Without constant restoration we are not ready for the perpetual assaults of
hell, or the stern afflictions of heaven, or even for the strifes within. When
the whirlwind shall be loosed, woe to the tree that hath not sucked up fresh
sap, and grasped the rock with many intertwisted roots.When tempests arise, woe
to the mariners that have not strengthened their mast, nor cast their anchor,
nor sought the haven. If we suffer the good to grow weaker, the evil will
surely gather strength and struggle desperately for the mastery over us; and
so, mayhap, a painful desolation, and a lamentable disgrace may follow. Let us
draw near to the footstool of divine mercy in humble entreaty, and we shall
realize the fulfillment of the promise, "They that wait on the Lord shall renew
their strength."
Morning...
Isaiah 49:8 I will give thee for a covenant of the people.
Jesus Christ is Himself the sum and substance of the covenant, and as one of
its gifts. He is the property of every believer. Believer, canst thou estimate
what thou hast gotten in Christ? "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily." Consider that word "God" and its infinity, and then meditate
upon "perfect man" and all his beauty; for all that Christ, as God and man,
ever had, or can have, is thine-out of pure free favour, passed over to thee to
be thine entailed property forever. Our blessed Jesus, as God, is omniscient,
omnipresent, omnipotent. Will it not console you to know that all these great
and glorious attributes are altogether yours? Has he power? That power is yours
to support and strengthen you, to overcome your enemies, and to preserve you
even to the end. Has He love? Well, there is not a drop of love in His heart
which is not yours; you may dive into the immense ocean of His love, and you
may say of it all, "It is mine." Hath He justice? It may seem a stern
attribute, but even that is yours, for He will by His justice see to it that
all which is promised to you in the covenant of grace shall be most certainly
secured to you. And all that He has as perfect man is yours. As a perfect man
the Father's delight was upon Him. He stood accepted by the Most High. O
believer, God's acceptance of Christ is thine acceptance; for knowest thou not
that the love which the Father set on a perfect Christ, He sets on thee now?
For all that Christ did is thine. That perfect righteousness which Jesus
wrought out, when through His stainless life He kept the law and made it
honourable, is thine, and is imputed to thee. Christ is in the covenant.
"My God, I am thine-what a comfort divine!
What a blessing to know that the Saviour is mine!
In the heavenly Lamb thrice happy I am,
And my heart it doth dance at the sound of His name."
Acts 5:3
(3) But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to
lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for
yourself?
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
This verse is unclear on the nature of the Holy Spirit, and it must
stand in the light of verses from other parts of the Bible before it is
correctly understood. For instance, nowhere in the Bible is the Holy Spirit
shown to have manlike shape. The Father and the Son are revealed to have body
parts like us—they even sit on thrones—but the Spirit is described to be like
wind, oil, fire, and water.
The only shape it is ever given is that of a dove (Matthew 3:16;
Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32), and some dispute that the Spirit looked like
a dove but rather in a visible form descended like a dove. Nevertheless, the
Spirit is never described to have a humanlike shape. Man was created in the
image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27), so man looks like God. If the
Spirit were also a person in a "trinity," it too would look like a man just as
the Father and Son do (John 14:9). Yet, at best, the Spirit had a dove's shape
in one instance, and a man and a dove have never been mistaken for each other.
Other verses show the apostles giving praise, glory, and honor to
the Father and Son without mentioning the Spirit (Romans 1:7; I Corinthians
1:1-4; Galatians 1:1-5; and so on through the epistles). If it were part of the
Godhead, this would be a grave omission.
Many of the Spirit's attributes can be shown to originate in the
Father or the Son. For example, the Spirit is named "Comforter" in John 14:26
(KJV), yet the Father is called "the God of all comfort" in II Corinthians
1:3-4. Other examples include making intercession: Romans 8:26 — I Timothy 2:5
and Hebrews 7:25; and enabling spiritual understanding: I Corinthians 2:10 — I
Corinthians 2:16 and I John 5:20.
In addition, the Spirit has no familial relationship to Christians.
God is our Father and Christ is our Elder Brother. Paul says "Jerusalem above .
. . is the mother of us all" (Galatians 4:26). The Spirit, though, is not a
person but a gift of God, the mind and power of God working in and through us
(II Timothy 1:7).
Finally, the history of the trinity doctrine is open knowledge. The
true church never accepted the idea, and even the false church did not embrace
it until three centuries after Christ! Even then, it was only accepted as a
political concession to the Roman emperor, Constantine. Add these facts to its
absence in the Scripture, and it is no wonder the Catholics and Protestants
call it a mystery!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
From Lying to the Holy Spirit
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daily devotional
Evening...
Luke 3:4 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the
Lord, make his paths straight.
The voice crying in the wilderness demanded a way for the Lord, a way
prepared, and a way prepared in the wilderness. I would be attentive to the
Master's proclamation, and give Him a road into my heart, cast up by gracious
operations, through the desert of my nature. The four directions in the text
must have my serious attention. Every valley must be exalted. Low and
grovelling thoughts of God must be given up; doubting and despairing must be
removed; and self-seeking and carnal delights must be forsaken. Across these
deep valleys a glorious causeway of grace must be raised. Every mountain and
hill shall be laid low. Proud creature-sufficiency, and boastful
self-righteousness, must be levelled, to make a highway for the King of kings.
Divine fellowship is never vouchsafed to haughty, highminded sinners. The Lord
hath respect unto the lowly, and visits the contrite in heart, but the lofty
are an abomination unto Him. My soul, beseech the Holy Spirit to set thee right
in this respect. The crooked shall be made straight. The wavering heart must
have a straight path of decision for God and holiness marked out for it.
Double-minded men are strangers to the God of truth. My soul, take heed that
thou be in all things honest and true, as in the sight of the heart-searching
God. The rough places shall be made smooth. Stumbling-blocks of sin must be
removed, and thorns and briers of rebellion must be uprooted. So great a
visitor must not find miry ways and stony places when He comes to honour His
favoured ones with His company. Oh that this evening the Lord may find in my
heart a highway made ready by His grace, that He may make a triumphal progress
through the utmost bounds of my soul, from the beginning of this year even to
the end of it.
Morning...
2 Peter 3:18 Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ.
"Grow in grace"-not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that
root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let
faith increase in fulness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that
your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every
thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and
know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also
to grow upward-having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate
fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to "grow in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour." He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus,
refuses to be blessed. To know Him is "life eternal," and to advance in the
knowledge of Him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more
of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst
for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that
the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus-as the
hart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of
His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for
love always cries, "Nearer, nearer." Absence from Christ is hell; but the
presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing
acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in His
human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in
His present glorious intercession, and in His future royal advent. Abide hard
by the Cross, and search the mystery of His wounds. An increase of love to
Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us is one of the best
tests of growth in grace.
1 John 3:20
(New King James Version)
(20) For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart,
and knows all things.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
This is vitally important to us because we of all people are
subject to intense feelings of self-condemnation and guilt from knowing that we
are not living up to God's standard. We truly care about what God thinks of us
because we know more than most about Him.
Our faith is not to be blind and unthinking but based on truth.
Our application of faith in light of this verse necessitates a fascinating
balance between two extremes that arise from our more precise knowledge of
God's way. Both extremes are wrong. The first extreme, already noted, is that
we live life in constant guilt and fear that God's hammer will fall and smash
us to smithereens at any moment due to our imperfections.
The second is a laissez-faire, God-is-very-merciful-and-tolerant,
He-understands-my-weaknesses attitude. In this extreme, sins are accepted as
part of the normal course of life, and no determined effort is made to overcome
them. Some have given in to a particular sin, exclaiming, "God understands my
needs." God also understands rebellion.
But whatever happened to Jesus' strong admonition, "If your right
eye causes you to sin, pluck it out," or "If your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off" (Matthew 5:29-30)? Certainly, He does not mean this literally, but
it illustrates the serious determination, vigor, and strength we are to employ
in overcoming sin. Those who minimize sin come close to trampling the Son of
God underfoot and putting His sacrifice to an open shame (see Hebrews 6:6;
10:29).
How good is the sacrifice of such a person's life? He is guilty
of practicing sin. John writes, "Whoever is born of God does not sin, for His
seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God" (I
John 3:9). Later, in Revelation 22:15, he adds, "But outside [the New
Jerusalem] are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and
idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie." Such people will not be in
God's Kingdom.
Their consciences have adjusted in a similar way to the situation
in Malachi 1. Sin, a defiled life, is acceptable, and their attitude seems to
be that God will just have to be satisfied with children who will not strive to
overcome. This is dangerous business indeed because God says only those who
overcome will inherit all things (Revelation 21:7). Is God satisfied with such
a situation? Does He not desire a better offering from His children for their
welfare and His glory? If He is not content, the fellowship is either already
broken or is breaking down.
Our concern, however, is for those who are striving to overcome
but still failing from time to time—those who know they are not living up to
the standard and struggle with a guilty conscience and feel their fellowship
with God is cut off because of occasional sin. The majority of us probably fall
into this category.
When we commit the occasional sin, are we no longer acceptable to
God? Is our fellowship truly cut off? While it is true that sin separates us
from Him, do we remain unsatisfied because we feel there is no communion? Once
again, God's grace rescues us from what would otherwise be an impossible
situation.
The answer to this confounding situation lies in a change of our
natures arising from repentance, receipt of God's Holy Spirit, and—perhaps
above all—access to God through Jesus Christ. Through these come fellowship and
experience with Them throughout the remainder of life and access to God's
merciful grace when we fall short. There can be no doubt we are saved by grace
through faith. Our depression and extreme self-condemnation reveals a lack of
faith in God's willingness to forgive upon repentance. Though works are
required of us, we cannot earn our way into the Kingdom through them because
they will forever fall short in providing payment for sin.
As mentioned earlier, there is a tension between the two extremes
of excessive guilt and feelings of worthlessness in contrast to the casual,
careless, irresponsible, "God will just have to take me as I am" disregard of
our responsibility to glorify God in all we think, say, and do.
This is why John says, "God is greater than our heart." He is
ever willing to accept us as Christ—even though we personally bring Him
blemished offerings in our life's experiences—as long as our attitude has not
turned to trampling the sacrifice of His Son underfoot and treating it as a
common thing.
We will never enter into God's acceptance and fellowship based on
any work of offering we sacrifice to Him. The only thing He will accept is the
unblemished offering of Christ's life, and because it accompanies or precedes
us into His presence, we are accepted, have communion with Him, and are fed.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Offerings of Leviticus (Part Four): The Peace Offering
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