From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening...
Isaiah 36:5 Now on whom dost thou trust?
Reader, this is an important question. Listen to the Christian's answer, and
see if it is yours. "On whom dost thou trust?" "I trust," says the Christian,
"in a triune God. I trust the Father, believing that He has chosen me from
before the foundations of the world; I trust Him to provide for me in
providence, to teach me, to guide me, to correct me if need be, and to bring me
home to His own house where the many mansions are. I trust the Son. Very God of
very God is He-the man Christ Jesus. I trust in Him to take away all my sins by
His own sacrifice, and to adorn me with His perfect righteousness. I trust Him
to be my Intercessor, to present my prayers and desires before His Father's
throne, and I trust Him to be my Advocate at the last great day, to plead my
cause, and to justify me. I trust Him for what He is, for what He has done, and
for what He has promised yet to do. And I trust the Holy Spirit-He has begun to
save me from my inbred sins; I trust Hi m to drive them all out; I trust Him to
curb my temper, to subdue my will, to enlighten my understanding, to check my
passions, to comfort my despondency, to help my weakness, to illuminate my
darkness; I trust Him to dwell in me as my life, to reign in me as my King, to
sanctify me wholly, spirit, soul, and body, and then to take me up to dwell
with the saints in light for ever." Oh, blessed trust! To trust Him whose power
will never be exhausted, whose love will never wane, whose kindness will never
change, whose faithfulness will never fail, whose wisdom will never be
nonplussed, and whose perfect goodness can never know a diminution! Happy art
thou, reader, if this trust is thine! So trusting, thou shalt enjoy sweet peace
now, and glory hereafter, and the foundation of thy trust shall never be
removed.
Morning...
Luke 5:4 Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
We learn from this narrative, the necessity of human agency. The draught of
fishes was miraculous, yet neither the fisherman nor his boat, nor his fishing
tackle were ignored; but all were used to take the fishes. So in the saving of
souls, God worketh by means; and while the present economy of grace shall
stand, God will be pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. When God worketh without instruments, doubtless He is glorified; but
He hath Himself selected the plan of instrumentality as being that by which He
is most magnified in the earth. Means of themselves are utterly unavailing.
"Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing." What was the
reason of this? Were they not fishermen plying their special calling? Verily,
they were no raw hands; they understood the work. Had they gone about the toil
unskillfully? No. Had they lacked industry? No, they had toiled. Had they
lacked perseverance? No, they had toiled all t he night. Was there a deficiency
of fish in the sea? Certainly not, for as soon as the Master came, they swam to
the net in shoals. What, then, is the reason? Is it because there is no power
in the means of themselves apart from the presence of Jesus? "Without Him we
can do nothing." But with Christ we can do all things. Christ's presence
confers success. Jesus sat in Peter's boat, and His will, by a mysterious
influence, drew the fish to the net. When Jesus is lifted up in His Church, His
presence is the Church's power-the shout of a king is in the midst of her. "I,
if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Let us go out this morning on
our work of soul fishing, looking up in faith, and around us in solemn anxiety.
Let us toil till night comes, and we shall not labour in vain, for He who bids
us let down the net, will fill it with fishes.
1 Peter 5:6-8
(6) Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time: (7) Casting all your care upon him; for he
careth for you. (8) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as
a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Satan may or may not be the cause of the situation, but even if he
is not, he is prowling around to take advantage of it, in the hopes that he
might pick us off. What does the roaring lion most likely attack? The strays,
the ones on the fringes, and those not keeping up with the flock. Spiritually,
the ones most likely to be attacked are those who are not spiritually with it.
Wearied by a barrage of problems, they begin to separate themselves, then
Satan, the roaring lion, picks them off.
He is especially adept at taking advantage of people's feelings.
All too often, we are dominated by our emotions rather than facts or, we could
say, the truth of God. In such a circumstance, it is easy for us to get our
feelings hurt, ignore the facts, and proceed to lie to ourselves, just as Satan
did to himself when he first sinned.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Satan (Part 4)
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daily devotional
Evening...
Jude 20: Praying in the Holy Ghost.
Mark the grand characteristic of true prayer-"In the Holy Ghost." The seed of
acceptable devotion must come from heaven's storehouse. Only the prayer which
comes from God can go to God. We must shoot the Lord's arrows back to Him. That
desire which He writes upon our heart will move His heart and bring down a
blessing, but the desires of the flesh have no power with Him. Praying in the
Holy Ghost is praying in fervency. Cold prayers ask the Lord not to hear them.
Those who do not plead with fervency, plead not at all. As well speak of
lukewarm fire as of lukewarm prayer-it is essential that it be red hot. It is
praying perseveringly. The true suppliant gathers force as he proceeds, and
grows more fervent when God delays to answer. The longer the gate is closed,
the more vehemently does he use the knocker, and the longer the angel lingers
the more resolved is he that he will never let him go without the blessing.
Beautiful in God's sight is tearful, agonizing, unconquerable importunity. It
means praying humbly, for the Holy Spirit never puffs us up with pride. It is
His office to convince of sin, and so to bow us down in contrition and
brokenness of spirit. We shall never sing Gloria in excelsis except we pray to
God De profundis: out of the depths must we cry, or we shall never behold glory
in the highest. It is loving prayer. Prayer should be perfumed with love,
saturated with love-love to our fellow saints, and love to Christ. Moreover, it
must be a prayer full of faith. A man prevails only as he believes. The Holy
Spirit is the author of faith, and strengthens it, so that we pray believing
God's promise. O that this blessed combination of excellent graces, priceless
and sweet as the spices of the merchant, might be fragrant within us because
the Holy Ghost is in our hearts! Most blessed Comforter, exert Thy mighty power
within us, helping our infirmities in prayer.
Morning...
Jude 24: Able to keep you from falling.
In some sense the path to heaven is very safe, but in other respects there is
no road so dangerous. It is beset with difficulties. One false step (and how
easy it is to take that if grace be absent), and down we go. What a slippery
path is that which some of us have to tread! How many times have we to exclaim
with the Psalmist, "My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped."
If we were strong, sure-footed mountaineers, this would not matter so much; but
in ourselves, how weak we are! In the best roads we soon falter, in the
smoothest paths we quickly stumble. These feeble knees of ours can scarcely
support our tottering weight. A straw may throw us, and a pebble can wound us;
we are mere children tremblingly taking our first steps in the walk of faith,
our heavenly Father holds us by the arms or we should soon be down. Oh, if we
are kept from falling, how must we bless the patient power which watches over
us day by day! Think, how prone we are to sin, how apt to choose danger, how
strong our tendency to cast ourselves down, and these reflections will make us
sing more sweetly than we have ever done, "Glory be to Him, who is able to keep
us from falling." We have many foes who try to push us down. The road is rough
and we are weak, but in addition to this, enemies lurk in ambush, who rush out
when we least expect them, and labour to trip us up, or hurl us down the
nearest precipice. Only an Almighty arm can preserve us from these unseen foes,
who are seeking to destroy us. Such an arm is engaged for our defence. He is
faithful that hath promised, and He is able to keep us from falling, so that
with a deep sense of our utter weakness, we may cherish a firm belief in our
perfect safety, and say, with joyful confidence,
"Against me earth and hell combine,
But on my side is power divine;
Jesus is all, and He is mine!"
Luke 1:26-30
(26) And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God
unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, (27) To a virgin espoused to a man
whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
(28) And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly
favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. (29) And when
she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner
of salutation this should be. (30) And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary:
for thou hast found favour with God.
This is the sole scriptural reference that even remotely suggests
that Mary might be worthy of worship. While the angel gives Mary a number of
high compliments, nothing indicates that she is worthy of worship, let alone
being an intercessor between Jesus Christ and His followers, a Co-Redemptrix,
sinless for her entire life, or given any other honor aside from being God's
chosen vessel for the purpose of the Son of God being made flesh and blood.
This is not to denigrate that role in the least, because truly it is a great
honor, but God has throughout the ages chosen various people to fill different
roles according to His will and purpose—and none of them are shown to be worthy
of worship.
In verse 28, Gabriel tells Mary in his salutation that she is
"highly favored," and in verse 30, that she "has found favor with God." The
Greek word translated highly favored means "to grace," "to endue with special
honor," or "to be accepted." The only other place it is used is Ephesians 1:6,
where Paul says to the church at Ephesus and to the body of Christ generally,
". . . to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in
the Beloved." From this example, we can see that being "highly favored" is not
synonymous with being worthy of worship. Everyone in the body of Christ is
highly favored because God has accepted us through the justification brought
about by Christ's sacrifice.
In verse 30, Gabriel tells Mary that she has found favor with God.
"Favor" is the Greek word charis, which means "graciousness of manner or
action." It indicates favor on the part of the giver and thankfulness on the
part of the receiver. It is most often translated "grace" in the New Testament.
Gabriel tells Mary that she is the recipient of charis, of grace and favor by
God—the emphasis is on what God is doing. The type of grace bestowed on Mary is
implied to be sweetness, charm, loveliness, joy, and delight. Again, we see
nothing in this verse to give any indication that Mary should be worshipped.
She simply received God's favor by being chosen to fulfill this role.
David C. Grabbe
From Is Mary Worthy of Worship?
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