Saturday, August 30
But Jesus knew that these men were really trying to trick him.
Jesus said, "Why are you trying to catch me saying something wrong?
Bring me a silver coin. Let me see it."
They gave Jesus a coin and Jesus asked,
"Whose picture is on the coin?
And whose name is written on it?"
They answered, "It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name."
~Mark 12:15-16 (ERV)~
KEY THOUGHT:
Jesus' opponents could not play games or trick him.
He knew their hearts.
He knew what was inside people.
He still does!
Rather than trying to play games with Jesus or pretend we are something we are not,why not be honest.
He came so we could be honest with him and with God.
When we are weak, let's be honest about our weakness and vulnerability.
When we are weary, let's go to him for rest.
When we are grief-stricken and sad, let's go to him for comfort.
When we are confused, let's be honest about our confusion and ask for his wisdom and discernment.
When we are angry, let's confess our anger and its source to him.
Jesus knows us.
Let's be honest and come to him for grace and not try to pretend we are something we are not.
Our games may not be based upon the same kind of deceit that his opponents used to try to trick him,
but deceit, dishonesty, and pretension are still tools Satan uses to keep our hearts away from the Savior.
TODAY'S PRAYER:
O LORD God, please forgive me.
I confess to you that I have sometimes tried to be something in your presence that I am not.
Even though I believe you know me through and through, I still sometimes fear bringing you
the darker sides of my personality and the most deeply wounded parts of my heart.
Please cure me of my pretension and deliver me from deception.
I want to be honest as well as reverent in your presence, dear God, my Abba Father.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Thursday, August 28
"Sing, O barren."
~Isaiah 54:1~
Though we have brought forth some fruit unto Christ, and have a joyful hope that we are
"plants of his own right hand planting,"
yet there are times when we feel very barren.
Prayer is lifeless, love is cold, faith is weak, each grace in the garden of our heart languishes and droops.
We are like flowers in the hot sun, requiring the refreshing shower.
In such a condition what are we to do?
The text is addressed to us in just such a state.
"Sing, O barren, break forth and cry aloud."
But what can I sing about?
I cannot talk about the present, and even the past looks full of barrenness.
Ah! I can sing of Jesus Christ.
I can talk of visits which the Redeemer has aforetimes paid to me;
or if not of these, I can magnify the great love wherewith he loved his people when
he came from the heights of heaven for their redemption.
I will go to the cross again.
Come, my soul, heavy laden thou wast once, and thou didst lose thy burden there.
Go to Calvary again.
Perhaps that very cross which gave thee life may give thee fruitfulness.
What is my barrenness?
It is the platform for his fruit-creating power.
What is my desolation?
It is the black setting for the sapphire of his everlasting love.
I will go in poverty, I will go in helplessness, I will go in all my shame and backsliding,
I will tell him that I am still his child, and in confidence in his faithful heart, even I,
the barren one, will sing and cry aloud.
Sing, believer, for it will cheer thine own heart, and the hearts of other desolate ones.
Sing on, for now that thou art really ashamed of being barren, thou wilt be fruitful soon;
now that God makes thee loath to be without fruit he will soon cover thee with clusters.
The experience of our barrenness is painful, but the Lord's visitations are delightful.
A sense of our own poverty drives us to Christ, and that is where we need to be,
for in him is our fruit found.
Monday, August 25
"If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."
~Acts 8:37~
These words may answer your scruples, devout reader, concerning the ordinances.
Perhaps you say, "I should be afraid to be baptized;
it is such a solemn thing to avow myself to be dead with Christ, and buried with him.
I should not feel at liberty to come to the Master's table;
I should be afraid of eating and drinking damnation unto myself, not discerning the Lord's body."
Ah! poor trembler, Jesus has given you liberty, be not afraid.
If a stranger came to your house, he would stand at the door, or wait in the hall;
he would not dream of intruding unbidden into your parlour-he is not at home:
but your child makes himself very free about the house;
and so is it with the child of God.
A stranger may not intrude where a child may venture.
When the Holy Ghost has given you to feel the spirit of adoption, you may come
to Christian ordinances without fear.
The same rule holds good of the Christian's inward privileges.
You think, poor seeker, that you are not allowed to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;
if you are permitted to get inside Christ's door, or sit at the bottom of his table, you will be well content.
Ah! but you shall not have less privileges than the very greatest.
God makes no difference in his love to his children.
A child is a child to him;
he will not make him a hired servant;
but he shall feast upon the fatted calf, and shall have the music and the dancing as much
as if he had never gone astray.
When Jesus comes into the heart, he issues a general licence to be glad in the Lord.
No chains are worn in the court of King Jesus.
Our admission into full privileges may be gradual, but it is sure.
Perhaps our reader is saying, "I wish I could enjoy the promises, and walk at liberty in my Lord's commands."
"If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."
Loose the chains of thy neck, O captive daughter, for Jesus makes thee free.
Sunday, August 24
"The breaker is come up before them."
~Micah 2:13~
~Micah 2:13~
Inasmuch as Jesus has gone before us, things remain not as they would have been had he never passed that way. He has conquered every foe that obstructed the way.
Cheer up now thou faint-hearted warrior.
Not only has Christ travelled the road, but he has slain thine enemies.
Dost thou dread sin?
He has nailed it to his cross.
Dost thou fear death?
He has been the death of Death.
Cheer up now thou faint-hearted warrior.
Not only has Christ travelled the road, but he has slain thine enemies.
Dost thou dread sin?
He has nailed it to his cross.
Dost thou fear death?
He has been the death of Death.
Art thou afraid of hell?
He has barred it against the advent of any of his children;
they shall never see the gulf of perdition.
Whatever foes may be before the Christian, they are all overcome.
There are lions, but their teeth are broken;
there are serpents, but their fangs are extracted;
there are rivers, but they are bridged or fordable;
there are flames, but we wear that matchless garment which renders us invulnerable to fire.
The sword that has been forged against us is already blunted;
the instruments of war which the enemy is preparing have already lost their point.
God has taken away in the person of Christ all the power that anything can have to hurt us.
Well then, the army may safely march on, and you may go joyously along your journey,
for all your enemies are conquered beforehand.
What shall you do but march on to take the prey?
They are beaten, they are vanquished;
all you have to do is to divide the spoil.
You shall, it is true, often engage in combat;
but your fight shall be with a vanquished foe.
His head is broken;
he may attempt to injure you, but his strength shall not be sufficient for his malicious design.
Your victory shall be easy, and your treasure shall be beyond all count.
"Proclaim aloud the Saviour's fame, Who bears the Breaker's wond'rous name;
Sweet name; and it becomes him well, Who breaks down earth, sin, death, and hell."
"If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn,
or the field, be consumed therewith;
he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution."
~Exodus 22:6~
But what restitution can he make who casts abroad the fire-brands of error, or the coals of lasciviousness, and sets men's souls on a blaze with the fire of hell?
The guilt is beyond estimate, and the result is irretrievable.
If such an offender be forgiven, what grief it will cause him in the retrospect, since he cannot undo the mischief which he has done!
An ill example may kindle a flame which years of amended character cannot quench.
To burn the food of man is bad enough, but how much worse to destroy the soul!
It may be useful to us to reflect how far we may have been guilty in the past, and to enquire whether,
even in the present, there may not be evil in us which has a tendency to bring damage to the souls of
our relatives, friends, or neighbours.
The fire of strife is a terrible evil when it breaks out in a Christian church.
Where converts were multiplied, and God was glorified, jealousy and envy do the devil's work most effectually. Where the golden grain was being housed, to reward the toil of the great Boaz, the fire of enmity comes in and leaves little else but smoke and a heap of blackness.
Woe unto those by whom offences come.
May they never come through us, for although we cannot make restitution, we shall certainly be the
chief sufferers if we are the chief offenders.
Those who feed the fire deserve just censure, but he who first kindles it is most to blame.
Discord usually takes first hold upon the thorns;
it is nurtured among the hypocrites and base professors in the church, and away it goes among
the righteous, blown by the winds of hell, and no one knows where it may end.
O thou Lord and giver of peace, make us peacemakers, and never let us aid and abet the men of strife, or even unintentionally cause the least division among thy people.
Friday, August 22
"The unsearchable riches of Christ."
~Ephesians 3:8~
My Master has riches beyond the count of arithmetic, the measurement of reason, the dream of imagination, or the eloquence of words.
They are unsearchable!
You may look, and study, and weigh, but Jesus is a greater Saviour than you think him to be
when your thoughts are at the greatest.
My Lord is more ready to pardon than you to sin, more able to forgive than you to transgress.
My Master is more willing to supply your wants than you are to confess them.
Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus.
When you put the crown on his head, you will only crown him with silver when he deserves gold.
My Master has riches of happiness to bestow upon you now.
He can make you to lie down in green pastures, and lead you beside still waters.
There is no music like the music of his pipe, when he is the Shepherd and you are the sheep,
and you lie down at his feet.
There is no love like his, neither earth nor heaven can match it.
To know Christ and to be found in him-
oh! this is life, this is joy, this is marrow and fatness,
wine on the lees well refined.
My Master does not treat his servants churlishly; he gives to them as a king giveth to a king;
he gives them two heavens-
a heaven below in serving him here, and a heaven above in delighting in him forever.
His unsearchable riches will be best known in eternity.
He will give you on the way to heaven all you need;
your place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks, your bread shall be given you, and your waters shall be sure; but it is there, THERE, where you shall hear the song of them that triumph,
the shout of them that feast, and shall have a face-to-face view of the glorious and beloved One.
The unsearchable riches of Christ!
This is the tune for the minstrels of earth, and the song for the harpers of heaven.
Lord, teach us more and more of Jesus, and we will tell out the good news to others.
"I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love."
~Song of Solomon 5:8~
Such is the language of the believer panting after present fellowship with Jesus, he is sick for his Lord.
Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease except they are in a state of nearness to Christ;
for when they are away from him they lose their peace.
The nearer to him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven;
the nearer to him, the fuller the heart is,
not only of peace, but of life, and vigour, and joy, for these all depend on constant intercourse with Jesus.
What the sun is to the day, what the moon is to the night, what the dew is to the flower, such is Jesus Christ to us.
What bread is to the hungry, clothing to the naked, the shadow of a great rock to the traveller in a weary land, such is Jesus Christ to us;
and, therefore, if we are not consciously one with him, little marvel if our spirit cries in the words of the Song,
"I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell him that I am sick of love."
This earnest longing after Jesus has a blessing attending it:
"Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness";
and therefore, supremely blessed are they who thirst after the Righteous One.
Blessed is that hunger, since it comes from God:
if I may not have the full-blown blessedness of being filled, I would seek the same blessedness in its sweet bud-pining in emptiness and eagerness till I am filled with Christ.
If I may not feed on Jesus, it shall be next door to heaven to hunger and thirst after him.
There is a hallowedness about that hunger, since it sparkles among the beatitudes of our Lord.
But the blessing involves a promise.
Such hungry ones "shall be filled" with what they are desiring.
If Christ thus causes us to long after himself, he will certainly satisfy those longings;
and when he does come to us, as come he will, oh, how sweet it will be!
(Other Charles Spurgeon's devotions can be found at http://www.heartlight.org)
Sunday, August 17
"This sickness is not unto death."
John 11:4
From our Lord's words we learn that there is a limit to sickness.
Here is an "unto" within which its ultimate end is restrained, and beyond which it cannot go.
Lazarus might pass through death, but death was not to be the ultimatum of his sickness.
In all sickness, the Lord saith to the waves of pain, "Hitherto shall ye go, but no further."
His fixed purpose is not the destruction, but the instruction of his people.
Wisdom hangs up the thermometer at the furnace mouth, and regulates the heat.
1. The limit is encouragingly comprehensive.
The God of providence has limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition, and effects of all our sicknesses;
each throb is decreed, each sleepless hour predestined, each relapse ordained, each depression of spirit foreknown, and each sanctifying result eternally purposed.
Nothing great or small escapes the ordaining hand of him who numbers the hairs of our head.
2. This limit is wisely adjusted to our strength, to the end designed, and to the grace apportioned.
Affliction comes not at haphazard-the weight of every stroke of the rod is accurately measured.
He who made no mistakes in balancing the clouds and meting out the heavens, commits no errors in
measuring out the ingredients which compose the medicine of souls.
We cannot suffer too much nor be relieved too late.
3. The limit is tenderly appointed.
The knife of the heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary.
"He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."
A mother's heart cries, "Spare my child";
but no mother is more compassionate than our gracious God.
When we consider how hard-mouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with a sharper bit.
The thought is full of consolation, that he who has fixed the bounds of our habitation, has also fixed
the bounds of our tribulation.
~this devotion is written by Charles Spurgeon and can be found at www.heartlight.org~
"The mercy of God."
Psalms 52:8
Meditate a little on this mercy of the Lord.
It is tender mercy.
With gentle, loving touch, he heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
He is as gracious in the manner of his mercy as in the matter of it.
It is great mercy.
There is nothing little in God;
his mercy is like himself-it is infinite.
You cannot measure it.
His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time,
and then gives great favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the
great heaven of the great God.
It is undeserved mercy, as indeed all true mercy must be, for deserved mercy is only a misnomer for justice.
There was no right on the sinner's part to the kind consideration of the Most High;
had the rebel been doomed at once to eternal fire he would have richly merited the doom,
and if delivered from wrath, sovereign love alone has found a cause, for there was none in the sinner himself.
It is rich mercy.
Somethings are great, but have little efficacy in them, but this mercy is a cordial to your drooping spirits;
a golden ointment to your bleeding wounds;
a heavenly bandage to your broken bones;
a royal chariot for your weary feet;
a bosom of love for your trembling heart.
It is manifold mercy.
As Bunyan says, "All the flowers in God's garden are double."
There is no single mercy.
You may think you have but one mercy, but you shall find it to be a whole cluster of mercies.
It is abounding mercy.
Millions have received it, yet far from its being exhausted;
it is as fresh, as full, and as free as ever.
It is unfailing mercy.
It will never leave thee.
If mercy be thy friend, mercy will be with thee in temptation to keep thee from yielding;
with thee in trouble to prevent thee from sinking;
with thee living to be the light and life of thy countenance;
and with thee dying to be the joy of thy soul when earthly comfort is ebbing fast.
Sunday, August 3
{this devotion is originally from www.heartlight.org}
"Then they came to the town of Jericho.
Jesus was leaving that town with his followers and many other people.
A blind man named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting by the road.
This man was always begging for money.
The blind man heard that Jesus from Nazareth was walking by.
The blind man shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, please help me!"
~Mark 10:46-47 (ERV)~
KEY THOUGHT:
So often we let pride and social convention keep us from asking from God what we most need from Him
and what He is often most willing to give us ~
mercy.
Let's not be shamed into silence.
When we realize we need mercy, grace, and forgiveness, let's not be shy about humbly asking for it
from our generous and loving Father.
TODAY'S PRAYER:
O Father, without Your mercy and grace I would surely fail to find my way into Your holy presence.
Thank You for lavishing Your gifts of grace and the Holy Spirit upon me.
Let me never forget Your mercy, love, and grace.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
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