I get these daily and read them on my walk to work. Today's Spurgeon sermon about praying continually struck me. There are always things to pray for, and bringing light to the world is always worth it.
Daily Blessing
Wednesday November
14, 2012
Today's
Verse:
And
be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God.
Today's
Psalm:
I
have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not
be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also
shall rest in hope.
Today's
Proverb:
The
mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of
the wicked.
Today's
Promise:
God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves
therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to
God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Charles Spurgeon
Daily Readings Morning and Evening
Evening
Tuesday November 13, 2012
Men ought always to pray.”
- Luke 18:1“
If men ought always to pray and not to faint, much more
Christian men. Jesus has sent his church into the world on the same errand upon
which he himself came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say
that the church is the world’s priest? Creation is dumb, but the church is to
find a mouth for it. It is the church’s high privilege to pray with acceptance.
The door of grace is always open for her petitions, and they never return empty-handed.
The veil was rent for her, the blood was sprinkled upon the altar for her, God
constantly invites her to ask what she wills. Will she refuse the privilege
which angels might envy her? Is she not the bride of Christ? May she not go in
unto her King at every hour? Shall she allow the precious privilege to be
unused? The church always has need for prayer. There are always some in her
midst who are declining, or falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed
for, that they may be carried in Christ’s bosom? the strong, lest they grow
presumptuous; and the weak, lest they become despairing. If we kept up
prayer-meetings four-and-twenty hours in the day, all the days in the year, we
might never be without a special subject for supplication. Are we ever without
the sick and the poor, the afflicted and the wavering? Are we ever without
those who seek the conversion of relatives, the reclaiming of back-sliders, or
the salvation of the depraved? Nay, with congregations constantly gathering,
with ministers always preaching, with millions of sinners lying dead in
trespasses and sins; in a country over which the darkness of Romanism is
certainly descending; in a world full of idols, cruelties, devilries, if the
church doth not pray, how shall she excuse her base neglect of the commission
of her loving Lord? Let the church be constant in supplication, let every
private believer cast his mite of prayer into the treasury.
Morning
Wednesday November 14, 2012
“I will cut off them that worship and that swear by
the Lord, and that swear by Malcham.”
Such persons thought themselves safe because they
were with both parties: they went with the followers of Jehovah, and bowed at
the same time to Malcham. But duplicity is abominable with God, and hypocrisy
his soul hateth. The idolater who distinctly gives himself to his false god,
has one sin less than he who brings his polluted and detestable sacrifice unto
the temple of the Lord, while his heart is with the world and the sins thereof.
To hold with the hare and run with the hounds, is a dastard’s policy. In the
common matters of daily life, a double- minded man is despised, but in religion
he is loathsome to the last degree. The penalty pronounced in the verse before
us is terrible, but it is well deserved; for how should divine justice spare
the sinner, who knows the right, approves it, and professes to follow it, and
all the while loves the evil, and gives it dominion in his heart?
My soul, search thyself this
morning, and see whether thou art guilty of double-dealing. Thou professest to
be a follower of Jesus-dost thou truly love him? Is thy heart right with God?
Art thou of the family of old Father Honest, or art thou a relative of Mr.
By-ends? A name to live is of little value if I be indeed dead in trespasses
and sins. To have one foot on the land of truth, and another on the sea of
falsehood, will involve a terrible fall and a total ruin. Christ will be all or
nothing. God fills the whole universe, and hence there is no room for another
god; if, then, he reigns in my heart, there will be no space for another
reigning power. Do I rest alone on Jesus crucified, and live alone for him? Is
it my desire to do so? Is my heart set upon so doing? If so, blessed be the
mighty grace which has led me to salvation; and if not so, O Lord, pardon my
sad offence, and unite my heart to fear thy name.
Faith’s Checkbook
By C.H. Spurgeon
Tuesday November 13, 2012
The Name to Use
If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.
(John 14:14)
What a wide promise!
Anything! Whether large or small, all my needs are covered by that word
anything. Come, my soul, be free at the mercy seat, and hear thy Lord saying to
thee, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill
it."
What a wise promise!
We are always to ask in the name of Jesus. While this encourages us, it also
honors Him. This is a constant plea. Occasionally every other plea is darkened,
especially such as we could draw from our own relation to God or our experience
of His grace; but at such times the name of Jesus is as mighty at the throne as
ever, and we may plead it with full
assurance.
What an instructive
prayer! I may not ask for anything to which I cannot put Christ's hand and
seal. I dare not use my Lord's name to a selfish or willful petition. I may
only use my Lord's name to prayers which He would Himself pray if He were in my
case. It is a high privilege to be authorized to ask in the name of Jesus as if
Jesus Himself asked; but our love to Him will never allow us to set that name
where He would not have set it.
Am
I asking for that which Jesus approves? Dare I put His seal to my prayer? Then
I have that which I seek of the Father.
Robert A. Cook
Tuesday November 13, 2012
Thoughts
On Being Quiet
The word which Jeremiah
the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah . . . and this Seraiah was a
quiet prince. (Jer. 51:59)
Seraiah was chief chamberlain. Today
he might be likened to an army quartermaster. In any case, he was a "quiet
prince." There is something to be said in defense of quietness. In our
fast-paced, noisy culture this virtue is often maligned and tagged as a
weakness. The macho man and the assertive woman find no time for quietness in
the day's activities, no place for a quiet spirit in the inner universe of
their thoughts. The Apostle Paul wrote, however, that a meek and quiet spirit
is "in the sight of God of great price" (1 Peter 3:4). As a matter of
fact, there is some doubt as to whether one ever really knows God until he or
she becomes quiet before Him. The Lord Himself commands, "Be still, and
know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).
Every warrior of the Cross knows that
sometimes the victory is won, not by doing something, but by waiting on God.
The classic illustration of this truth is found in Exodus 14:13. "Fear ye
not," said Moses to the Israelites who were being pursued by Pharaoh's
chariots. "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." Indeed,
Egyptians by the thousands who were one day menacing and intent on Israel's
destruction were forever beneath the waters of the Red Sea the next!
So we come back to Seraiah, the
quiet prince. That blessed combination of royalty and poise is the birthright
of every Christian! We can be quiet because when we pray about everything we
have the "peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7).
And we are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a
peculiar people" (1 Peter 2:9).
Small thought here
Quietness is no accident; you have to plan for
it. Carve out some minutes every day during which you will be absolutely still
before God, allowing Him to speak to your heart.
My Utmost for His Highest
Oswald Chambers
Tuesday November 13, 2012
Discovering Divine
Design
“As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me
…” (Genesis 24:27
).
We should be so one with God that we don’t need to
ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the
children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses
disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict
is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit
of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in
the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2
). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered,
or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. “… the
Lord led me …” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If
we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it
requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never
believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s
appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and
everywhere.
Beware of being obsessed with
consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are
a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will
be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent
being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His
Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the
divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more
discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than
it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of
our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
Daily
Light On The Daily Path
Evening
Tuesday November 13, 2012
Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father. (Eph. 2:18
)
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one. (John 17:23
)
Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my
name, I will do it. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye
know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14:13
, 14 , 16 , 17 ) There is one body, and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
you all. (Eph. 4:4-6
) When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven. (Luke 11:2
)
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way … let us draw near. (Heb. 10:19
, 20 , 22 )
Morning
Wednesday November 14, 2012
Whom having not seen, ye love. (1 Pet. 1:8 )
We walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Cor. 5:7 ) We love him, because he first
loved us. (1 John 4:19 ) And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16 ) In whom ye trusted, after that ye
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that
ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. (Eph. 1:13
) God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among
the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col. 1:27
)
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he
is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he
love God whom he hath not seen? (1 John 4:20 )
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not
seen, and yet have believed. (John 20:29
) Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. (Psa. 2:12
)
Streams in the Desert
with Mrs. Charles
Cowman
Tuesday November 13, 2012
The Discipline of Faith
"All things are possible to him that
believeth" (Mark 9:23).
The "all things" do not always come simply for the asking, for
the reason that God is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith, and in our
training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the
discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith, and often
many stages are passed before we really realize what is the end of faith,
namely, the victory of faith.
Real moral fibre is developed through discipline of faith. You have made
your request of God, but the answer does not come. What are you to do?
Keep on believing God's Word; never be moved away from it by what you
see or feel, and thus as you stand steady, enlarged power and experience is
being developed. The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction as to God's
Word and being unmoved from your position of faith make you stronger on every
other line.
Often God delays purposely, and the delay is just as much an answer to
your prayer
as is the fulfillment when it comes.
In the lives of all the great Bible characters, God worked thus.
Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not great in the beginning, but were made great
through the discipline of their faith, and only thus were they fitted for the
positions to which God had called them.
For example, in the case of Joseph whom the Lord was training for the
throne of Egypt, we read in the Psalms:
"The word of the Lord tried him." It was not the prison life
with its hard beds or poor food that tried him, but it was the word God had
spoken into his heart in the early years concerning elevation and honor which
were greater than his brethren were to receive; it was this which was ever
before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible
of fulfillment, until he was there imprisoned, and all in innocency, while
others who were perhaps justly incarcerated, were released, and he was left to
languish alone.
These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth and
development, that, "when his word came" (the word of release), found
him fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a
love and patience only surpassed by God Himself.
No amount of persecution tries like such
experiences as these. When God has spoken of His purpose to do, and yet the
days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard; but it is a discipline of
faith that will bring us into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be
impossible.
Life Is God’s Gift
to you,
The Way You Live
It, Is Your Gift To Go
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