Weekday Devotions August 26th

Faith’s Check Book

By Charles H. Spurgeon

 

HE OF TENDER CONSCIENCE

 

"I will judge between cattle and cattle" Ezekiel 34:22

 

Some are fat and flourishing, and therefore they are unkind to the feeble. This is a grievous sin, and causes much sorrow. Those thrustings with side and with shoulder, those pushings of the diseased with the horn, are a sad means of offense in the assemblies of professing believers. The Lord takes note of these proud and unkind deeds, and He is greatly angered by them, for He loves the weak.

 

Is the reader one of the despised? Is he a mourner in Zion, and a marked man because of his tender conscience? Do his brethren judge him harshly? Let him not resent their conduct; above all let him not push and thrust in return. Let him leave the matter in the Lord’s hands. He is the Judge. Why should we wish to intrude upon His office? He will decide much more righteously than we can. His time for judgment is the best, and we need not be in a hurry to hasten it on.

 

Let the hardhearted oppressor tremble. Even though he may ride roughshod over others with impunity for the present, all his proud speeches are noted, and for every one of them account must be given before the bar of the Great Judge.

 

Patience, my soul! Patience! The Lord knoweth thy grief. Thy Jesus hath pity upon thee!

Thought’s for the Quiet Hour

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him

2 Timothy 2:12

The photographer must have a negative, as he calls it, in order to furnish you with a picture. Now, the earthly cross is the negative from which the heavenly crown is to be made; the suffering and sorrow of the present time determining the glory, honor and immortality of the life to come.

A. J. Gordon

His testing room of suffering!

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      (John MacDuff)

"I have tested you in the furnace of affliction!" Isaiah 48:10
I stood once in the test room of a great steel mill. All around me were little partitions and compartments. Steel had been tested to the limit, and marked with figures that showed its breaking point. Some pieces had been twisted until they broke, and the strength of torsion was marked on them. Some had been stretched to the breaking point, and their tensile strength indicated. Some had been compressed to the crushing point, and also marked. The master of the steel mill knew just what these pieces of steel would stand under strain. He knew just what they would bear if placed in a great ship, or building, or bridge. He knew this, because his testing room revealed it.

It is often so with God's children. God does not want us to be like fragile vases of glass or porcelain. He would have us like these toughened pieces of steel--able to bear twisting and stretching and crushing to the uttermost, without collapse.

He wants us to be, not hot-house plants--but storm-beaten oaks. He wants us to be, not sand dunes driven with every gust of wind--but granite rocks withstanding the fiercest storms! To make us such, He needs to bring us into His testing room of suffering.

Many of us need no other argument than our own experiences to prove that suffering is indeed God's testing room of faith. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds--because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." James 1:2-3

"When He has tested me--I will come forth as gold!" Job 23:10

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Daily Promises

Blue Letter Bible
August 26, 2016

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:6)

God promises mercy to those who keep His holy commands, yet what man could ever see this promised mercy? Only one. Only One. Only Christ. And by His love for us, we too see God's mercy. Christ's infinitely valuable obedience bought mercy for all those who would seek it. Praise our Lord and Saviour for our bountiful access to His saving mercy!

Weekday Devotions August 25th

Faith’s Check Book

By Charles H. Spurgeon

 

FOOD AND REST

 

"I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God" #Eze 34:15

 

Under the divine shepherdry saints are fed to the full. Theirs is not a windy, unsatisfying mess of mere human "thought"; but the Lord feeds them upon the solid, substantial truth of divine revelation. There is real nutriment for the soul in Scripture brought home to the heart by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, Himself, is the true life-sustaining Food of believers. Here our Great Shepherd promises that such sacred nourishment shall be given us by His own self. If, on the Lord’s Day, our earthly shepherd is empty-handed, the Lord is not.

 

When filled with holy truth the mind rests. Those whom Jehovah feeds are at peace. No dog shall worry them, no wolf shall devour them, no restless propensities shall disturb them. They shall lie down and digest the food which they have enjoyed. The doctrines of grace are not only sustaining, but consoling: in them we have the means for building up and lying down. If preachers do not give us rest, let us look to the Lord for it.

 

This day may the Lord cause us to feed in the pastures of the Word, and make us to lie down in them. May no folly, and no worry, but Meditation and Peace mark this day.

 

Thought’s for the Quiet Hour

Nevertheless, at thy word

Luke 5:5

Oh, what a blessed formula for us! This path of mine is dark, mysterious, perplexing; nevertheless, at Thy word I will go forward. This trial of mine is cutting, sore for flesh and blood to bear. It is hard to breathe through a broken heart, Thy will be done. But, nevertheless, at Thy word I will say, Even so, Father! This besetting habit, or infirmity, or sin of mine, is difficult to crucify. It has become part of myself—a second nature; to be severed from it would be like the cutting off of a right hand, or the plucking out of a right eye; nevertheless, at Thy word I will lay aside every weight; this idol I will utterly abolish. This righteousness of mine it is hard to ignore; all these virtues, and amiabilities, and natural graces, it is hard to believe that they dare not in any way be mixed up in the matter of my salvation; and that I am to receive all from first to last as the gift of God, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Nevertheless, at Thy word I will count all but loss for the excellency of His knowledge.

Macduff^[1]

 

He shall bring forth from us the sweet music!

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(Frederick Marsh)

Mendelssohn, on one occasion, hearing an organ being played--asked permission to play it for a few minutes. The organist reminded Mendelssohn that he was a total stranger to him--and that strangers were not allowed to touch the valuable instrument.

At last permission granted, and then Mendelssohn brought forth such music from the organ as to make the organist weep! Ah! But before the music came forth, there were two things necessary:
  the first was, the instrument had to be abandoned to Mendelssohn;
  and the second, Mendelssohn had to take control of it.

The same is true with us in the spiritual realm. There must be the entire surrender to Christ first--and then He shall bring forth from us the sweet music of . . .
   a holy heart,
   a lovely character,
   a gentle disposition,
   a surpassing peace,
   a sweet humility,
   a lowly service,
   a beautiful sympathy,
   and a Christlike life!

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship!" Romans 12:1

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