Daily Promises

Blue Letter Bible
January 25, 2015

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. (Luke 10:19)

The compelling blood of Christ offers great power to Christians as they fight this spiritual battle against evil. By the magnificent name of Jesus Christ, we can conquer all things and nothing shall destroy us! We are victorious because Christ is with us; therefore, no one could possibly be against us (Romans 8:31).

A real influence!

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(Letters of John Newton)

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

The saving grace of God has a real influence upon the whole man. It . . .
enlightens the understanding,
directs the will,
purifies the affections,
regulates the passions, and
corrects the different excesses to which different people are by constitution or habit inclined. It does not impart any new natural powers, though it teaches the use and improvement of those we have received.

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Daily Promises

Blue Letter Bible
January 24, 2015

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, [ye are] God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:9)

Once we have devoted our lives to Christ, we become a working part to further the kingdom of God. We are His field that He cultivates as we produce fruits for His glory. We are the structure of His building as He resides in our hearts. Yet, we are only His field and building by the grace of God. The triumph of Christ over death allows us to be used to His glory. After all, to be used of Christ is one of the greatest blessings in the Christian life.

Other Descriptions of New Covenant Living

Bob Hoekstra

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me . . . be filled with the Spirit . . . I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.  (Luk_9:23; Eph_5:18; and Joh_10:10)
Living as servants of the new covenant is not some exclusive, esoteric religious concept, available only to an initiated few. Rather, it is just another way to speak of the life that is to be, and can be, lived by all who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The difference is that the language used is unfamiliar to many Christians.
Some familiar terminology that speaks of the same biblical reality would be "Christian discipleship." A disciple is a follower of Jesus Christ. In Luke 9:23, Jesus explained what was involved in following Him as a disciple. "Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me'." In order to follow the Lord, a person must be willing to renounce the self-life, which is produced by one's own sufficiency. Then, that person must agree that such a self-produced life deserves to be judged and separated from God. Finally, everything that is needed for godly living must be found by pursuing a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some other terminology that describes the essence of new covenant living would be "the Spirit-filled life." "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit." The Lord calls His people away from earthly influences that can dominate and diminish lives and urges us to live by the fullness of His Spirit. When Christians answer this call, they are willing to live by God's powerful, unlimited resources, instead of by man's feeble, finite means.
One other familiar phrase that depicts the same reality as life in the new covenant is "the abundant life." "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." When Jesus came into this world, His mission was not only to rescue us from the consequences of our sins but also to provide us with "abundant life,"  a spiritually enriched life that only He could produce in us.
New covenant living — it is the same reality as "Christian discipleship," "the Spirit-filled life," and "the abundant life."
Lord Jesus, I thank You so much for speaking of life in Christ in diverse terminologies. I want to be your true disciple. I want to be Spirit-filled. I want to live the abundant life. Each perspective offers beautiful insights and necessary confirmations. Lord, help me also to understand and embrace the refreshing language of the new covenant of grace. Dear Savior, I need all of the life-giving insights that Your rich vocabulary is designed to unfold, in Your name, Amen.

Spurgeon & Chambers Devotions January 23rd

Morning, January 23

“I have exalted one chosen out of the people.”

Psalm 89:19

Why was Christ chosen out of the people? Speak, my heart, for heart-thoughts are best. Was it not that he might be able to be our brother, in the blest tie of kindred blood? Oh, what relationship there is between Christ and the believer! The believer can say, “I have a Brother in heaven; I may be poor, but I have a Brother who is rich, and is a King, and will he suffer me to want while he is on his throne? Oh, no! He loves me; he is my Brother.” Believer, wear this blessed thought, like a necklace of diamonds, around the neck of thy memory; put it, as a golden ring, on the finger of recollection, and use it as the King’s own seal, stamping the petitions of thy faith with confidence of success. He is a brother born for adversity, treat him as such.

Christ was also chosen out of the people that he might know our wants and sympathize with us. “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” In all our sorrows we have his sympathy. Temptation, pain, disappointment, weakness, weariness, poverty—he knows them all, for he has felt all. Remember this, Christian, and let it comfort thee. However difficult and painful thy road, it is marked by the footsteps of thy Saviour; and even when thou reachest the dark valley of the shadow of death, and the deep waters of the swelling Jordan, thou wilt find his footprints there. In all places whithersoever we go, he has been our forerunner; each burden we have to carry, has once been laid on the shoulders of Immanuel.

“His way was much rougher and darker than mine

Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?”

Take courage! Royal feet have left a blood-red track upon the road, and consecrated the thorny path for ever.

My Utmost for His Highest

January 23rd

Transformed by insight

We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image. 2 Cor. 3:18

Oswald Chambers

The outstanding characteristic of a Christian is this unveiled frankness before God so that the life becomes a mirror for other lives. By being filled with the Spirit we are transformed, and by beholding we become mirrors. You always know when a man has been beholding the glory of the Lord, you feel in your inner spirit that he is the mirror of the Lord’s own character. Beware of anything which would sully that mirror in you; it is nearly always a good thing, the good that is not the best.

The golden rule for your life and mine is this concentrated keeping of the life open towards God. Let everything else—work, clothes, food, everything on earth—go by the board, saving that one thing. The rush of other things always tends to obscure this concentration on God. We have to maintain ourselves in the place of beholding, keeping the life absolutely spiritual all through. Let other things come and go as they may, let other people criticize as they will, but never allow anything to obscure the life that is hid with Christ in God. Never be hurried out of the relationship of abiding in Him. It is the one thing that is apt to fluctuate but it ought not to. The severest discipline of a Christian’s life is to learn how to keep “beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.”

Evening, January 23

“We will remember thy love more than wine.”

Song of Solomon 1:4

Charles Spurgeon

Jesus will not let his people forget his love. If all the love they have enjoyed should be forgotten, he will visit them with fresh love. “Do you forget my cross?” says he, “I will cause you to remember it; for at my table I will manifest myself anew to you. Do you forget what I did for you in the council-chamber of eternity? I will remind you of it, for you shall need a counsellor, and shall find me ready at your call.” Mothers do not let their children forget them. If the boy has gone to Australia, and does not write home, his mother writes—“Has John forgotten his mother?” Then there comes back a sweet epistle, which proves that the gentle reminder was not in vain. So is it with Jesus, he says to us, “Remember me,” and our response is, “We will remember thy love.” We will remember thy love and its matchless history. It is ancient as the glory which thou hadst with the Father before the world was. We remember, O Jesus, thine eternal love when thou didst become our Surety, and espouse us as thy betrothed. We remember the love which suggested the sacrifice of thyself, the love which, until the fulness of time, mused over that sacrifice, and long for the hour whereof in the volume of the book it was written of thee, “Lo, I come.” We remember thy love, O Jesus as it was manifest to us in thy holy life, from the manger of Bethlehem to the garden of Gethsemane. We track thee from the cradle to the grave—for every word and deed of thine was love—and we rejoice in thy love, which death did not exhaust; thy love which shone resplendent in thy resurrection. We remember that burning fire of love which will never let thee hold thy peace until thy chosen ones be all safely housed, until Zion be glorified, and Jerusalem settled on her everlasting foundations of light and love in heaven.