Spurgeon & Chambers Devotions August 31st

Morning, August 31  




“On mine arm shall they trust.”

Isaiah 51:5

Charles Spugeon

In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father’s arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy full confidence in him. Dishonour not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as he built the heavens and the earth, glorify himself in thy weakness, and magnify his might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you to rest in Jesus this closing day of the month.




My Utmost for His Highest

August 31st

My joy … your joy

That My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:11

What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. “I delight to do Thy will.” Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?

The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had. The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God’s word. Before we know where we are, we are caught up in the shows of things. All that God has done for us is the mere threshold; He wants to get us to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim Who Jesus is.

Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a centre for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.






Evening, August 31



“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light.”

John 1:7

Charles Spurgeon

As he is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as he is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is written, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all?” Certainly, this is the model which it set before us, for the Saviour himself said, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;” and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to his image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, “We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality.” We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God in his holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.

C.H. Spurgeon Quotes

Inside The Heart

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 01:00 AM PDT


“Outside the door of our heart Jesus is a stranger; He is no Savior to us—but inside the heart which has been opened, by Divine Grace, to admit Him, His power is displayed, His worth is known and His goodness is felt!”

C.H. Spurgeon




Faith’s Checkbook August 31

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT


Divine, Ever-Living, Unchanging



But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:25)

All human teaching and, indeed, all human beings shall pass away as the grass of the meadow; but we are here assured that the Word of the Lord is of a very different character, for it shall endure forever.

We have here a divine gospel; for what word can endure forever but that which is spoken by the eternal God?

We have here an ever-living gospel, as full of vitality as when it first came from the lips of God; as strong to convince and convert, to regenerate and console, to sustain and sanctify as ever it was in its first days of wonder-working.

We have an unchanging gospel which is not today green grass and tomorrow dry hay but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah. Opinions alter, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it.

Here, then, we have a gospel to rejoice in, a word of the Lord upon which we may lean all our weight. “For ever” includes life, death, judgment, and eternity. Glory be to God in Christ Jesus for everlasting consolation. Feed on the word today and all the days of thy life.

C.H. Spurgeon

Nothing but the cross!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~



(William S. Plumer, "The Rock of Our Salvation" 1867)

"They will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn" Zechariah 12:10

Nothing but the cross will...
  melt a hard heart,
  or bend a stubborn will,
  or give a death-blow to corruption.      

A sight of Hell never frightened one out of the love of sin.     
The thunders of Sinai never made a rebellious heart submit to God.     

Pliny, the naturalist, says that blood readily extinguishes fire. However that may be--the blood of Christ not only quenches the flaming wrath of God, but it also extinguishes the fires of unhallowed desires in the soul. It begets hatred to sin--and love to holiness.

When the Romans saw Caesar's bloody robes, they said,  "His murderers shall die!" And when by faith, the sinner sees how his sins crucified the Lord of glory--he will mortify his sins!

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Occupied With God

From the Pastor:  Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.



“…I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: …” (Ezra 9:5-6) 

Worldly societies by nature occupy themselves with day to day distractions of fleshly lust and wicked imaginations.  Of this they also were condemned of in the days of Noah.  Honest students of the Scriptures are not shocked at the realities of this fact.  The saints acknowledge it and seek to sound the alarm to all who would believe in God, Jesus, and the eternal abode to seek the things from above and not hold to the filth of this world.  Occupy thyself with God!!! 

Ezra reveals for us a crucial key to becoming effectively engaged in a right and holy intimacy with the Father.  It begins with a sincere affliction of the spirit and builds to a tormented spirit that is so agonizing that the mind and heart become consumed with every association with sin.  Humanly speaking, every minute speck of sin is understood to be as a great mountain of hindrance hiding the face of the Father’s favor.  Next, we witness the weight of humility bringing Ezra to his knees, the direction of His hope as he spreads his pleading arms toward the heavenly Almighty, then he cries out from his unbearable shame and wounded conscience.  To bring all into perspective Ezra gives knowledge of the lordship of GOD. 

Brethren, God is the King of kings, the Lord of lord, and the Creator of all things for the purpose of His own good pleasure.  If we are indeed the sons of God, where are the evidences of shame and blushing over sin?  Where is the crushing humility that forces us to our knees?  Where is the earnest wide-open-arm pleading to the Father?  Where is the conceding to His sovereign lordship?  Where is the true worship from the sons of a Holy God?  When Isaiah was occupied with God he saw “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.”  If we were occupied with God where would see Him? 

C.H. Spurgeon Quotes

First Business With God

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 01:00 AM PDT


“Your first and chief business with your God has to do with your innermost self—your real self. You shall come to keep your outward rightly enough if you will begin to cleanse the inside of the platter first.”

C.H. Spurgeon




Faith’s Checkbook August 30

Posted: 29 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT


Solace, Security, Satisfaction



Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. (2 Samuel 23:5)

This is not so much one promise as an aggregate of promises—a box of pearls. the covenant is the ark which contains all things.

These are the last words of David, but they may be mine today. Here is a sigh: things are not with me and mine as I could wish; there are trials, cares, and sins. These make the pillow hard.

Here is a solace—”He hath made with me an everlasting covenant.” Jehovah has pledged Himself to me, and sealed the compact with the blood of Jesus. I am bound to my God and my God to me.

This brings into prominence a security, since this covenant is everlasting, well ordered, and sure. There is nothing to fear from the lapse of time, the failure of some forgotten point, or the natural uncertainty of things. The covenant is a rocky foundation to build on for life or for death.

David feels satisfaction: he wants no more for salvation or delectation. He is delivered, and he is delighted. The covenant is all a man can desire.

O my soul, turn thou this day to thy Lord Jesus, whom the great Lord has given to be a covenant to the people. Take Him to be thine all in all.

C.H. Spurgeon

Morning, August 30  




“Wait on the Lord.”

Psalm 27:14

Charles Spurgeon

It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God’s warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the case before him; tell him your difficulty, and plead his promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God. But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if he keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet he will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, “Now, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for thee in the full conviction that thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower.”






My Utmost for His Highest

August 30th

Am I convinced by Christ?

Notwithstanding in this rejoice not …, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Luke 10:19, 20

Oswald Chambers

Jesus Christ says, in effect, Don’t rejoice in successful service, but rejoice because you are rightly related to Me. The snare in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service, to rejoice in the fact that God has used you. You never can measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your relationship right with Him, then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is of His mercy that He does not let you know it. When once you are rightly related to God by salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by God; and by the reaction of your life on the circumstances around you, you will fulfil God’s purpose, as long as you keep in the light as God is in the light.

The tendency to-day is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make usefulness their ground of appeal. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure that ever lived. The lodestar of the saint is God Himself, not estimated usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that Our Lord heeds in a man’s life is the relationship of worth to His Father. Jesus is bringing many sons to glory.






Evening, August 30



“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.”

 Jeremiah 17:14

“I have seen his ways, and will heal him.”

 Isaiah 57:18

Charles Spurgeon

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honour is to be given to God who giveth virtue unto medicine, and bestoweth power unto the human frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone; he claims it as his prerogative, “I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal;” and one of the Lord’s choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee. “I will heal thee of thy wounds,” is a promise which could not come from the lip of man, but only from the mouth of the eternal God. On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, “O Lord, heal me, for my bones are sore vexed,” and again, “Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.” For this, also, the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying, “He healeth all our diseases.” He who made man can restore man; he who was at first the creator of our nature can new create it. What a transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily!” My soul, whatever thy disease may be, this great Physician can heal thee. If he be God, there can be no limit to his power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding, come with the limping foot of wasted energy, come with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the ague of shivering despondency, come just as thou art, for he who is God can certainly restore thee of thy plague. None shall restrain the healing virtue which proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have been made to own the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has he been baffled. All his patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and thou shalt be one among them, my friend, if thou wilt but rest thyself in him this night.

The secret of true happiness!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~



(Timothy Shay Arthur, "Sweethearts and Wives")

Man's unhappiness springs from his blind love of self.

True happiness can only spring from a self-sacrificing spirit--a spirit which seeks to bless and serve others. In this humble spirit, resides the secret of true happiness on earth.

"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:29

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

We are all going, going, going!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

(J.C. Ryle, "Eternity!" 1878)

"So we fix our eyes not on what is   seen, but on what is unseen.

 For what is seen is temporary, but   what is unseen is eternal."

  2 Corinthians 4:18

"This world in its present form is passing away." 1 Corinthians 7:31

"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while--and then vanishes!" James 4:14

We live in a world where all things are temporary and passing away. Surely, a man must be blind, who cannot realize this. Everything around us is decaying, dying, and coming to an end.

We are all going, going, going--whether . . .

  eminent or unimportant,

  gentle or cruel,

  rich or poor,

  old or young.

We are all going--and will soon be gone!

The houses we live in,

the homes we love,

the riches we accumulate,

the professions we follow,

the plans we formulate,

the relations we enter into--

they are only for a short time!

Oh, you who love the world--awake to see things in their true light, before it is too late. The things you live for now, are all temporary and passing away! The pleasures, the amusements, the recreations, the profits, the earthly callings, which now absorb all your heart and drink up your entire mind--will soon be over! They are poor fleeting things, which cannot last.

Oh, do not love them too much;

do not hold on to them too tightly;

do not make them your idols!

You cannot keep them--and you must leave them!

This same thought ought to cheer and comfort every true Christian. Your trials, crosses, and conflicts--are all temporary! Your cross will soon be exchanged for a crown!

"What is unseen is eternal." The world which we are going to, is  . . .

  an endless eternity,

  a sea without a bottom,

  and an ocean without a shore!

"And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18

   ~ ~  ~  ~  ~

God's hand in everything!

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  

(Mary Winslow)

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will  fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even  the very hairs of your head are all numbered!" Matthew  10:29-30

How unspeakably precious and sweet it is when we can believe that God our Father in Heaven is absolutely directing the most minute circumstances of our short sojourn in this wilderness world! That nothing, however trivial, takes place, whether it relates to the body or the soul--but is under His control, in fact, is ordered by Himself!

But how hard to believe this, particularly when things look dark, and we cannot discern the way we should take. It is, then, the province of faith to wait upon the Lord, keeping a steadfast eye upon Him only; looking for light, help, and deliverance, not from the creature, but from Jehovah Himself. Well may it be called precious faith!

How happy do those travel on, whose faith can discern God's hand in everything. But I fear the number is very small, who so live.

I cannot imagine how those who deny God's particular providence can get comfortably on, for they must perpetually be confronted with minute events in their history, as mysterious and baffling to them as greater ones.

 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

C.H. Spurgeon Quotes

Sad Fault Of Christians

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 01:00 AM PDT


“It is a sad fault with those Christians who think themselves full of Grace, when they begin to despise their fellows! They may rest assured they are greatly mistaken in the estimate they have formed of themselves.”

C.H. Spurgeon



Faith’s Checkbook August 28

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT


Out of Any Circumstance



As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. (Psalm 55:16)

Yes, I must and will pray. What else can I do! What better can I do? Betrayed, forsaken, grieved, baffled, O my Lord, I will call upon Thee. My Ziklag is in ashes, and men speak of stoning me; but I encourage my heart in the Lord, who will bear me through this trial as He has borne me through so many others. Jehovah shall save me; I am sure He will, and I declare my faith.

The Lord and no one else shall save me. I desire no other helper and would not trust in an arm of flesh even if I could. I will cry to Him evening, and morning, and noon, and I will cry to no one else, for He is all sufficient.

How He will save me I cannot guess; but He will do it, I know. He will do it in the best and surest way, and He will do it in the largest, truest, and fullest sense. Out of this trouble and all future troubles the great I AM will bring me as surely as He lives; and when death comes and all the mysteries of eternity follow thereon, still will this be true: “the Lord shall save me.” This shall be my song all through this autumn day. Is it not as a ripe apple from the tree of life? I will feed upon it. How sweet it is to my taste!

C.H. Spurgeon

Is God unjust?

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

(Don Fortner)

"Just as it is written: 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.' What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy." Romans 9:13-16

Though God is absolutely sovereign, having mercy on whom He will have mercy and hardening whom He will--He is strictly  just, both in bestowing His saving mercy upon His elect, and in the everlasting damnation of the reprobate.

"Therefore God has  mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." Romans 9:18

 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

My Friend!

(James   Smith, "The Love of Christ! The Fullness, Freeness, and Immutability of the Savior's Grace Displayed!")

"Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16

Jesus manifests His love--as the Friend of His people. He . . .

  fills every relation to them,

  performs every kind office for them, and

  comforts them with divine consolations.

He invites them to pour their griefs into His bosom--and tell out all their troubles before Him. He holds communion with them--and indulges them to converse with Him as a man with his friend. He encourages them by assurances of His love--and fortifies them by promises of His presence. "Fear not," He says, "for I am with you! Be not dismayed, I am your God! I will strengthen you, surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand!"

His power, His riches, His wisdom, and His Spirit--are devoted to their best interests, and employed for their present and everlasting welfare. He watches over them in tender love--and listens to them with compassionate concern.

He is a friend who loves at all times--a brother born for adversity. His love, in its immutability, fullness, and perfection--is the great bulwark of their safety; and His friendship--is the joy of their hearts. He sticks closer than a brother, and never will fail or forsake the soul that trusts in Him.

He performs all the kind offices of friendship . . .

  in sickness and health;

  in plenty and poverty;

  in life and death.

He has Heaven and earth at His command--as the friend of the defenseless soul.

   He has all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge--as the companion of the ignorant and fearful.

He calls His people, friends--and presents Himself to them as their friend for their comfort, confidence, and joy.

O how the love of Jesus shines in His friendship! As our friend, He . . .

  lived in our world,

  suffered in our place,

 died in our stead,

  rose as our representative, and

  ascended to Heaven, where He continually makes intercession for us!

He acknowledges that I am an undeserving vile worm--yet calls me His friend! He knows the worst parts of my character--and yet He says, "You are mine! I have chosen you--and will not cast you away!"

   ~ ~  ~  ~  ~