“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
(John 3:3)
“For sin shall not have dominion over you . . .”
(Romans 6:14)
I do not get rid of sin till Christ changes this vile body, but sin has no longer dominion over me.
In being made a new creature in Christ, the body is not changed, but a new nature is
communicated, and we are brought into the light; and while walking
in the light, we have a good conscience.
The root of sin is there still, but the heart occupied with Christ does not go out to see sin.
But if a saint leaves that place, and gets occupied with things down here,
he wil lose the power which, being in the light, gives the heart
to detect everything contrary to it.
If I get out of that blessed place to which the Father brought me when He sought me out,
I am back where evil reigns, I get where every one has likes and dislikes,
then sorrow comes and chastisement.
(Gleanings - G. V. Wigram)
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November 12
“The gift of God is eternal life.”
(Romans 6:23)
Our eternal life is the sum of what we have been given.
Our temporal life is the sum of what we give.
Ultimately, we can only give what we have received; and so the essence of our
temporal life is also an expression of what we have received.
We enrich others and ourselves as well as we give with a sense of the
wealth of grace we have received.
Every circumstance is a gift and test—a gift to be used for God’s glory,
and a test of our faith and of our character.
(Nuggets—Food for Thought - John Kaiser)
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November 13
“Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart.”
(1 Kings 3:9)
A man filed a lawsuit against a woman, claiming she had his dog.
In court, the woman said her dog couldn’t be his and told the judge where she had purchased it.
The real owner’s identity was revealed when the judge released the animal in the courtroom.
Tail wagging, it immediately ran to the man!
Solomon, a judge in ancient Israel needed to settle a somewhat similar issue.
Two women each claimed to be the mother of the same baby boy.
After considering both arguments, he requested a sword
to divide the infant in half.
The real mother begged Solomon to give the baby to the other woman,
choosing to save her son’s life even if she could not have him
(1 Kings 3:26). Solomon gave the baby to her.
Wisdom is necessary as we decide what’s fair and moral, right and wrong.
If we truly value wisdom, we can ask God for a discerning heart
like Solomon did (v. 9).
God may answer our request by helping us balance our needs and desires with the interests of others. He may also help us to weigh short-term benefits agains long-term (sometimes eternal)
gains so we can honour Him in how we live.
Our God is not only a perfectly wise judge, but He is also a personal counsellor
who is willing to give us godly wisdom in great amounts.
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally,
and upbraideth (reproaches) not: and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).
(Our Daily Bread - Jennifer B. Schuldt)
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November 14
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called,
and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”
(1 Timothy 6:12)
Exercise thy faith, if thou meanest to preserve thy faith.
We live by faith, and faith lives by exercise.
The devil is wily, thou hadst need be wary.
None long for heaven more than those that enjoy most of heaven.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful”
(Proverbs 27:6).
God’s wounds cure; ---- sin’s kisses kill.
The Christian in Complete Armour
William Gurnall - 1617-1679
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November 15
“Then said they unto him (Jonah), What shall we do unto thee, that the sea my be calm unto us? For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.”
(Jonah 1:11)
The matter is being pressed close home to Jonah now. "What shall we do unto thee?” Well Jonah knew that the awful storm about them, every moment getting worse and worse, was all his fault.
Though Jonah had not “feared exceedingly“ when he ought to have done so, now he began to find out that God is not mocked, and that it is no light thing to try and trifle with Him. I suppose that most of us are not in any position to say very many words of blame to Jonah.
Have not most of us had to learn the same bitter lesson? How natural to the heart of man is the thought, and how eager the enemy is to tell us, that we may sin with impunity and "get away with it."
No, whether it was Jonah, or whether it is you or I, “God is not mocked.”
“Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).
Sin will surely bring bitter, bitter fruit.
(Lessons from Jonah the Prophet - G. C. Willis)
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November 16
“The poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb,
which he had bought and nourished up.”
(2 Samuel 12:3)
“There was found in it a poor wise man, and he by
his wisdom delivered the city.”
(Ecclesiastes 9:15)
“He is the Saviour of the body.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh;
but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
(Ephesians 5:23,29)
Abba’s purpose gave us being when in Christ, in that vast plan,
Abba chose the saints in Jesus long before the world began;
O what love the Father bore us! Oh how precious in His sight!
When He gave the church to Jesus! Jesus, His whole soul’s delight!
(Hawker - 1837)
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November 17
"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them:
because greater is He that is in you than he
that is in the world.”
(1 John 4:4)
Nothing is impossible for the devil to attempt: nothing is impossible for the Lord to achieve;
for greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
Notice the difference in the verbs, attempt, achieve.
(Whispers of His Powers - Amy Carmichael)
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November 18
MESSENGER OR SATAN
“There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the
messenger of Satan to buffet me. . . .”
(2 Corinthians 12:7)
It might have been embarrassing to Paul, who had been used to heal others,
that he must carry a thorn in his flesh that God would not remove.
He had healed others, but himself he could not heal.
God works in strange ways to make us spiritually strong when we are weak,
by making us physically weak when we were strong.
We are not to groan about it but rather glory in it—not glorify our infirmities but glory in them,
and take pleasure in them if by them the power of Christ may rest upon us.
Moreover, we recognize the scourge for what it is—a messenger of Satan
allowed in God’s permissive will.
(Vance Havner)
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November 19
“Whom I shall see for myself . . .” (Job 19:27)
Tho’ the road may be rough where He leads me, still His footprints I plainly can trace,
And the trials I meet will seem nothing, when I look in my dear Saviour’s face.
So I keep my eyes fixed upon Jesus, while I’m running life’s wearisome race;
I’ll forget the hard pathway I traveled, when I look in my dear Saviour’s face.
Tho’ the shadows around me may gather, safe I rest in my Lord’s secret place,
For I know there’ll be glorious sunshine, when I look in my dear Saviour’s face.
When I look in His face, His wonderful face, in heaven, that beautiful place!
All the hardships of earth will seem nothing—when I look in my dear Saviour’s face.
The path of sorrow and that path alone leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.
(Lizzie DeArmond - 1847-1936)
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November 20
The Perpetual Presence
“Lo, I am with you alway” (Matthew 28:20).
Some of us think and say a good deal about ‘a sense of His presence;’ sometimes rejoicing in it,
sometimes going mourning all the day long because we have it not; praying for it,
and not always seeming to receive what we ask; measuring our own position,
and sometimes even that of others, by it; now on the heights,
now in the depths about it.
And all this April-like gleam and gloom instead of steady summer glow, because
we are turning our attention upon the sense of His presence,
instead if the changeless reality of it!
All our trouble and disappointment about it is met by His own simple word, and vanishes in the simple faith that grasps it. For if Jesus says simply and absolutely, “Lo, I am with you alway,” what have we to do with feeling or “sense” about it? We have only to believe it, and to “recollect” it. And it is only by thus believing and recollecting that we can realize it.
It comes practically to this: Are you a disciple of the Lord Jesus at all? If so, He says to you,
"I am with you alway.” That overflows all the regrets of the past and all the possibilities
of the future, and most certainly includes the present. Therefore, at this very
moment, as surely as your eyes rest on this page,
so surely is the Lord Jesus with you.
"I am,” is neither “I was,” nor “I will be.” It is always abreast of our lives,
always encompassing us with salvation. It is a splendid perpetual “Now.”
It always means “I am with you now,” or it would cease
to be “I am” and “alway.”
(Frances Ridley Havergal)
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November 21
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”
(Psalm 23:4)
THE SHEPHERDS of Palestine will tell you the purpose for their staff. One such shepherd was asked in what sense the staff could be said to be a comfort for his sheep.
The experienced leader of his flock proceeded to explain that in daylight he always carried the staff across his shoulder, and when the sheep saw it, it spoke of the presence of the shepherd (to guide), and thus it was a means of comfort.
On the other hand, if night overtook him with the sheep on the mountainside, or if they were caught
in a heavy mountain mist so that the sheep could no longer see the staff, then he would lower it,
and as he walked he would tap with it on the ground, so that by hearing if not by sight
the staff (to guide) comforted the sheep by speaking the presence of the shepherd.
If wild animals would prey upon his flock, he could use the rod (to protect) and ward them off.
On occasion the lambs would fall into ravines and among brambles. The shepherd
would use the crook on the end of the staff for lifting the fallen one to safety.
The person who is carrying the rod is the leader or ruler of his flock.
The sheep know their shepherd by his rod and they follow him—not
any other person who may pass by, or attempt to lead them astray.
David remembered these things and said in effect to himself,
“It would be unreasonable to suppose that God has
less care for me than I had for the sheep!”
(Streams in the Desert)
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November 22
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
(Matthew 3:17)
Who can explain the riddle of this miserable world without Christ?
Go into the alleys and lanes of this vast city, and see the woe
and degradation even in this best and most civilized
of countries, and learn there what sin does.
In the drawing-room you may philosophize about it, but it is not
in a drawing-room that you will learn what the world is.
When you tell me it was because of all this sin and wretchedness that God’s Son
came down into this world to put the sin away, then I can understand it;
and God gives eternal life—not life for a moment, or a life we can
sin away, as Adam’s, but eternal life which is above and
beyond sin altogether, being in His Son, and
therefore as near to God as can be.
“This life is in His Son,” who was ever the object of His Father’s delight;
for when Christ was down here God could not be silent in His
expression of joy, “This is my beloved Son.”
(J.N. Darby)
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November 23
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