August 9
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)
"A little child was playing by the shore of the broad blue sea,
And oft he looked away across the waves, so wonderingly:
It was a new entrancing sight to him, that watery waste,
The tossing billows breaking on the sands with foam-wreaths graced;
And often in his distant inland home, with childish glee,
The boy would say to young and older friends: ‘I’ve seen the sea!’
And so he had; the child made no mistake, his words were true;
But yet, how much of ocean’s vast expanse had met his view?
Only the waves that rippled on the shore; while far away
The broad Atlantic in its depth and strength beyond him lay.
And thus we say we know the love of Christ; and so we do;
’Tis no exaggeration or mistake, but sweetly true.
But ah! how much of that unfathomed love do we yet know?
Only the ripples on the shores of time, that nearer flow.
The mighty ocean of redeeming love rolls deep and wide,
Filling eternity, and heaven and earth, with its vast tide.
We know it by a sweet experience now; yet shall explore
Its breadth and length, its depth and height of grace, for evermore.”
(Heaven’s Cure for Earth’s Care)
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August 10
“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”
(Ephesians 6:16)
Satan cannot touch the obedient believer.
As long as he is kept in dependence and obedience all Satan’s assaults are foiled.
It is easier to keep the enemy out than it is to expel him after he has effected an entrance.
There is not a single operation of the Spirit of God, nor a single form of His working,
but Satan does not imitate.
The Spirit and the word of God are sufficient to preserve us from the most dangerous
simulations of the truth that Satan may present to our souls.
We may rest confidently, whatever the present seeming success of the evil one,
for “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
(Romans 16:20)
(Edward Dennett)
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August 11
“And the king said unto Joab . . . bring the young man Absalom again. . . . So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. And the king said, let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king’s face. . . . and Absalom answered . . . let me see the king’s face . . . he came to the king and the king kissed Absalom.
(2 Samuel 14:21-33)
David’s inordinate tenderness only paved the way for Absalom’s open rebellion. Terrible warning!
Deal tenderly with evil, and it will assuredly rise to a head, and crush you in the end.
On the other hand, meet evil with a face of flint, and your victory is sure.
Sport not with the serpent, but at once crush it beneath your foot.
Plain, unflinching decision is, after all, the safest and happiest path.
It may be trying at first, but the end is peaceful.
(C.H. Mackintosh)
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August 12
As He IS
“We know that when He shall appear . . . we shall see Him as He is.”
(1 John 3:2)
We shall see Him as He is—let this hope in us undying,
Keep us pure as He is pure, all the wiles of sin defying,
Till before the rainbow throne beauteous beyond all telling,
We shall join unnumbered throngs in the new song, loudly swelling:
“Worthy is is the Lamb once slain Who hath given us salvation,
And redeemed us by His blood out out of every tribe and nation;
Who hath made us kings and priests over all our foes victorious,
Blessing, honour, praise and power, to the King of Saints all glorious.”
Then shall we be satisfied, ended all the soul’s endeavour;
We shall see Him as He is, and shall reign with Him forever.
(Annie Johnson Flint )
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August 13
“And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.”
(2 Kings 19:30)
Judah had suffered greatly under the hand of invading armies and all the crops were destroyed.
If, going forward, there was to be fruit where would it come from?
It is a principle of horticulture that before fruits come roots!
Fruit upward demands root downwards.
Planting needed to be undertaken immediately and roots would go downward,
thus, in course of time, producing fruit upward.
So too, spiritually, we must be rooted in faith and love,
in God and His word, before we can expect to bear fruit to His glory.
(Roy Hill)
O multiply the sower’s seed! and fruit we every hour shall bear,
Throughout the world Thy Gospel spread, the everlasting truth declare.
(Augustus G. Spangenberg)
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August 14
“God loveth a cheerful giver.”
(2 Corinthians 9:7)
Suspicion is the death-blow to all loving intimacy, and God
would not have it in the midst of His congregation.
There is not a single act of service which we render to
our Lord that will not be set down in His book;
and not only the substance of the act,
but the style of it also, for
God appreciates style as well as we do.
He loves a cheerful giver, and a cheerful worker,
because that is precisely what He is Himself.
(Food for the Desert)
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August 15
“I had fainted unless . . .!”
(Psalm 27:13)
"FAINT NOT"
(Galatians 6:9)
Hudson Taylor was so feeble in the closing months of his life that he wrote a dear friend:
"I am so weak I cannot write;
I cannot read my Bible;
I cannot even pray.
I can only lie still in God’s arms like a little child, and trust.”
This wondrous man of God with all his spiritual power came to
a place of physical suffering and weakness where he could only lie still and trust.
And that is all God asks of you, His dear child,
when you grow faint in the fierce fires of affliction.
Do not try to be strong.
Just be still and know that He is God, and will sustain you,
and bring you through.
“God keeps His choicest cordials for our deepest faintings.”
“Stay firm and let thine heart take courage.” (Psalm 27:14)
(Streams in the Desert)
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August 16
"He shall choose our inheritance for us, the
excellency of Jacob whom He loved.”
(Psalm 47:4)
Have you ever looked longingly at another life and wished that you had as much as it has to offer?
But He shall choose, and He does not call the inheritance of any Jacob “poor.”
He calls it the "excellency of Jacob”.
The marvel is not that we have so little to
offer, but that we have anything at all.
There was no worthiness in Jacob.
"Whom He loved” is the
only explanation.
But — and is not this comforting? — God needs each separate soul,
each personality with the inheritance of His choice, for the
perfecting of His purpose in the spiritual creation.
And when it is perfected He will be satisfied,
and we too shall be satisfied,
“lost in wonder, love and praise”
that we ever were allowed the smallest
share in it.
(Amy Carmichael)
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August 17
“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.”
“Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost."
“Let us eat, and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive
again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”
(Luke 15: 6, 9, 23-24)
Each of the parables in Luke 15 illustrates the power and beauty of style. When the man finds his sheep, what does he do? Does he complain of all the trouble, and commence to drive the sheep home before Him? Ah! no; this would never do. What then? “He layeth it on his shoulders.” How? Complaining of the weight or the trouble? Nay; but “rejoicing”.
Here we have the lovely style. He showed that he was glad to get his sheep back again. The sheep would have been safe on the shoulder, however it had been placed there; but who would part with the word “rejoicing?” Who would bear to see the substance of the action stripped of its charming style?
So also in the case of the woman and her lost piece of silver. “She lights a candle, sweeps the house, and seeks.” How? With dulness, weariness, and indifference? By no means; but “diligently,” like one whose whole heart was in her work. It was quite manifest that she really wanted to find the lost piece of silver. Her style proved this.
Lastly, mark the style of the father in receiving the poor returning prodigal. “When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." He does not send out a servant to tell the erring one to turn aside into one of the out-offices, or betake himself to the kitchen, or even to confine himself to his own room. No; he himself runs.
He must prove that his whole heart is in the reception; and this he does, not merely by the substance of the act, but by his style of doing it.
(C.H. Macintosh)
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August 18
OUR WILLS KEPT FOR JESUS
“If ye ask any thing in My name, I will do it.
If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”
(John 14:14-15)
Keep my will, oh keep it Thine, for it is no longer mine.
Perhaps there is no point in which expectation has been so limited by experience as this.
We believe God is able to do for us just so much as He has already done, and no more.
We take it for granted a line must be drawn somewhere, and so we choose to
draw it where experience ends and faith would have to begin.
Even if we have trusted and proved Him as to keeping our members and our minds,
faith fails when we would go deeper and say, “Keep my will.”
And yet the only reason we have to give is that though we have asked Him to take our will we do not exactly find that it is altogether His but that self-will crops up again and again.
And whatever flaw there might be in this argument, we think the matter is quite settled by the fact that some whom we rightly esteem and who are far better than ourselves have the same experience and do not even seem to think it right to hope for anything better.
That is conclusive.
And the result of this, as of every other faithless conclusion, is either discouragement and depression or, still worse, acquiescence in an unyielded will as something that cannot be helped.
Turn from our thoughts to God’s thoughts.
“Unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”
(Ephesians 3:20)
(Kept for the Master’s Use - Francis Ridley Havergal)
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August 19
“The devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain."
(Matthew 4:8)
“He went up into a mountain, opened His mouth and taught."
(Matthew 5:1-2)
Would’st thou teach others? There is need, but ponder well the thought—
The Lord Himself, the living truth, first practised, then He taught.
Think not to climb where Jesus sat in moral elevation,
Till, like Him, you’ve triumphant left the mountain of temptation.
Dare one exhort, “For food, for drink, for raiment, have no care,”
Who ne’er himself a desert trod, fasting, yet trusting, there?
None may with power divine unfold the Heavenly Kingdom’s story,
Save those who’ve scorned the kingdoms of this world, and all their glory.
(Bells & Pomegranates - James M.S. Tait)
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August 20
“Speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things.”
(Ephesians 4:15)
A young man was asked the question, “What have you found to be the best translation of the New Testament?”
Without a moment’s hesitation he answered, “My mother’s.”
His friend said, “Your mother’s!
I didn’t know she was a scholar.
Did she translate the New Testament?”
"My mother was not a scholar, she could not read a word of
Greek, but she translated the New Testament into her beautiful life,
and that made more of an impression on me than anything else I have ever known.”
That is what you and I are called upon to do,
to manifest the truth in our lives.
The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which was
given unto us and now we are to be controlled by that Holy Spirit.
We are to manifest the love of God in
all our dealings with others.
Even,
“When truth compels us to contend,
What love with all our strife should blend.”
(H.A. Ironside)
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August 21
“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
(1 Corinthians 6:20)
Religions are concerned with sins.
The Bible deals with sin.
Our Lord bore the sin of the world by identification,
taking it upon Himself as if it were His own, not in sympathy.
And because God had to be true to His words, Jesus had to bear
the punishment for sin: death on the cross.
“Ye are bought with a price."
(Corrie Ten Boom)
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August 22
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