From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening ...
Ruth 2:17
So she gleaned in the field until even.
Let me learn from Ruth, the gleaner. As she went out to gather the ears of
corn, so must I go forth into the fields of prayer, meditation, the ordinances,
and hearing the word to gather spiritual food. The gleaner gathers her portion
ear by ear; her gains are little by little: so must I be content to search for
single truths, if there be no greater plenty of them. Every ear helps to make a
bundle, and every gospel lesson assists in making us wise unto salvation. The
gleaner keeps her eyes open: if she stumbled among the stubble in a dream, she
would have no load to carry home rejoicingly at eventide. I must be watchful in
religious exercises lest they become unprofitable to me; I fear I have lost
much already-O that I may rightly estimate my opportunities, and glean with
greater diligence. The gleaner stoops for all she finds, and so must I. High
spirits criticize and object, but lowly minds glean and receive benefit. A
humble heart is a great help towards profitably hearing the gospel. The
engrafted soul-saving word is not received except with meekness. A stiff back
makes a bad gleaner; down, master pride, thou art a vile robber, not to be
endured for a moment. What the gleaner gathers she holds: if she dropped one
ear to find another, the result of her day's work would be but scant; she is as
careful to retain as to obtain, and so at last her gains are great. How often
do I forget all that I hear; the second truth pushes the first out of my head,
and so my reading and hearing end in much ado about nothing! Do I feel duly the
importance of storing up the truth? A hungry belly makes the gleaner wise; if
there be no corn in her hand, there will be no bread on her table; she labours
under the sense of necessity, and hence her tread is nimble and her grasp is
firm. I have even a greater necessity, Lord, help me to feel it, that it may
urge me onward to glean in fields which yield so plenteous a reward to
diligence.
Deuteronomy 7:6-11
(6) For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God
hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are
upon the face of the earth. (7) The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor
choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the
fewest of all people: (8) But because the LORD loved you, and because he would
keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you
out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the
hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (9) Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is
God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him
and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; (10) And repayeth them
that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that
hateth him, he will repay him to his face. (11) Thou shalt therefore keep the
commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this
day, to do them.
Since God is holy, the people He chooses for Himself must also be holy, a
principle that continues under the New Covenant. As God lives by high
standards, so must His people keep those same high standards as an example to
the rest of the world. Just as a human government sends out ambassadors to
other nations to represent it in its affairs within those nations, God chose
Israel to represent Him. What were His reasons?
» He chose Israel to be His own people, a special treasure for His own
purposes.
» He chose them to demonstrate His love for them. He simply loved them.
When God loves someone, He puts a great deal of responsibility on him.
» He chose them to keep His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with
whom He also had a special relationship.
» He chose them to make a covenant with them, under which they were to
keep His commandments and obey Him in everything. In return, He would bless
them immensely.
God's choice of Israel was an act of love for them, even though He knew
from the start that they would ultimately fail. God knew from the foundation of
the world that all mankind would need a Savior ( I Peter 1:19-20; Revelation
13:8), including Israelites. Yet, if any people were to succeed as God's model
nation, it would be the children of Abraham. This is not because they were
better, but because they of all people had a relationship with God, which had
begun with Abraham. They had examples in their own ancestry that they could
study to see that it could be done if they remained close to God.
To help them to succeed, God gave them His laws, another act of love.
Moses writes:
Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my
God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you
go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom
and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these
statutes, and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people." For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord
our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great
nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all
this law which I set before you this day? ( Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
Even in their laws they were to be a model nation for the rest of the
world, not just for the Gentiles to notice, but to emulate. The Israelites
should have made a great impression on the Canaanites, Philistines, Edomites,
and all the nearby nations. This respect and admiration should have then spread
beyond them to other nations.
Yet, because they failed to live by those good and righteous laws and to
take advantage of God's nearness to them-in reality, they failed in just about
everything He asked of them-their influence as a model nation rarely stretched
beyond their borders. Too often, Israel was instead outright pagan!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
From Why Israel? (Part Two)
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
daily devotional
Evening ...
John 6:37
All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.
This declaration involves the doctrine of election: there are some whom the
Father gave to Christ. It involves the doctrine of effectual calling: these who
are given must and shall come; however stoutly they may set themselves against
it, yet they shall be brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light. It
teaches us the indispensable necessity of faith; for even those who are given
to Christ are not saved except they come to Jesus. Even they must come, for
there is no other way to heaven but by the door, Christ Jesus. All that the
Father gives to our Redeemer must come to Him, therefore none can come to
heaven except they come to Christ. Oh! the power and majesty which rest in the
words "shall come." He does not say they have power to come, nor they may come
if they will, but they "shall come." The Lord Jesus doth by His messengers, His
word, and His Spirit, sweetly and graciously compel men to come in that they
may eat of His marriage supper; and this He does, not by any violation of the
free agency of man, but by the power of His grace. I may exercise power over
another man's will, and yet that other man's will may be perfectly free,
because the constraint is exercised in a manner accordant with the laws of the
human mind. Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments addressed to the
understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the
mysterious influence of His Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and
passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once
rebellious, he yields cheerfully to His government, subdued by sovereign love.
But how shall those be known whom God hath chosen? By this result: that they do
willingly and joyfully accept Christ, and come to Him with simple and unfeigned
faith, resting upon Him as all their salvation and all their desire. Reader,
have you thus come to Jesus?
Matthew 5:12
(12) Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
What did Jesus mean when He told His disciples, "Be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven"? ( Matthew 5:12.) And why-only a few verses
before-did Christ say, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth"
(verse 5)? Do some of the saved-"the persecuted" (verses 11-12)- go to heaven
to collect their reward, while others-"the meek"-inherit the earth? Or did
Jesus Christ contradict Himself in His very next breath?
The apostle Peter was inspired to write, "Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you" ( I Peter 1:3-4). Notice it! The reward of the
saved-the inheritance of true Christian-is reserved in heaven. That is where it
is kept at this present time.
But do Christians go to heaven to receive their reward? Jesus Christ
explained it in the book of Revelation: "And, behold, I come quickly; and my
reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be"
(Revelations 22:12). When Christ returns from heaven the second time, He will
bring the reward of the saved with Him! Though now temporarily reserved in
heaven, Jesus will bring the reward of the saints ( true Christians) to this
earth!
Daniel wrote, "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of
the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall
serve and obey him" ( Daniel 7:27).
Jesus did not say Christians will inherit their reward in heaven. Rather,
the reward-authority, an office of power in the Kingdom of God-is being
temporarily reserved in heaven because that is where Jesus is. But it will be
brought to the earth, where Jesus will reward His saints, in the Kingdom of
God, with positions of rulership and authority over the nations.
Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
From What Is the Reward of the Saved?
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