Daily Devotional 9.30.11

The Talisman of Victory

“In all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.” (Romans 8:37)

Can anything separate me from the love of Christ? This was the only question that St. Paul felt worth consideration. In this paragraph he takes the extreme conditions of being, and carefully investigates them, knowing that they include all between. First, he interrogates Existence–“death and life”; next, created Intelligences–“Angels, principalities, and powers”; next, the extremes of Time–“things present, things to come”; next, of Space—“height and depth”; lastly, the created Universe –“any other creature.” Each of these extremes is passed in review. He is like a man proving every link of the chain in which he is going to swing out over the abyss. Carefully and fervently he has tested all, and is satisfied that none of them can cut him off from the love of God.

We strangely misjudge and mistrust the Love of God our Father, and think that our distresses and sufferings, our sins and failures, may make Him love us less. But in the home, it is not the troop of sturdy children that Continue reading …

Daily Devotional 9.29.11

Faith by Obedience

“I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness.” (John 12:46)

The light of Christ is always distinguishable because it means the deepest impression of what is right, the clearest conviction of the will of God. Everywhere men are asking how they may come to know Christ, and there is but one answer: believe that He loves you, that He died on the Cross to save you, that He is prompting you by His Spirit to follow every perception and longing for a better and holier life.

How different is this teaching from that of the world around! There we are bidden to know before we dare entrust our lives to any leader, whatever be his fair speeches and promises; but Christ bids us obey the first glimmer of light breaking on us, and He undertakes that if we do, we shall not walk in darkness. Disobedience, like scales, veils Christ from us; whilst obedience Continue reading …

Daily Devotional 9.28.11

Tale of the Years

“For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.” (Psalms 90:9)

This Psalm is almost without parallel for sublimity, a worthy monument of the inspired genius of Moses, “the man of God.” It reflects the wanderings and experiences of the wilderness march; the watch in the night against the intrusion of the Bedouin thief, or the prowl of the wild beast; the rush of the flood, caused by torrential rain, but disappearing as quickly as on the sandy soil; the morning grass, scorched by the sirocco; the tales borne by the camp spies so soon ended; the disappointment of the springs of Marah; the inevitable leaving of Elim! the long weary days of marching, the mother and babe, the aged and little children, the weakling on the desert trail; the constant pitching and removal of tents–all these emblems of transitories, depicting the hard experiences of life’s toil and trial. Secret sins and iniquities; the averted face of God because of transgression; the death of the old at eighty, and of the young child cut down as a frail flower. Yes! But in spite of all this, God as the dwelling-place and home of the individual soul, as of the succeeding generation. Continue reading …

Daily Devotional 9.27.11

Everyday Miracles

“Many resorted unto Him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things John spake of this Man were true. And many believed on Him there.” (John 10:41-42)

People were inclined to disparage the life of John the Baptist because he performed no miracle. But surely his whole life was a miracle; from first to last it vibrated with Divine power. This is still the mistake of men. They allege that the age of miracles has passed. If they admit that such prodigies may possibly have happened once, they insist that the world has outgrown them, and that in its maturity mankind has put them away as childish things!

No miracles! But last summer God made the handfuls of grain, which the farmers cast on the fields, sufficient to feed all the populations of the world as easily as He made five barley loaves suffice for more than five thousand persons! No miracles! But last autumn He changed the dews of night and the showers of morning into the fruits that rejoice the heart of man, as once in Cana He turned the water drawn from the stone jars into the blushing wine! No miracles! Continue reading …

Daily Devotional 9.26.11

The Armour of Light

“Awake, awake; put on thy strength; put on thy beautiful garments.” (Isaiah 52:1) “It is high time to awake out of sleep: let us cast off the works of darkness; let us put on the armour of light.” (Romans 13:11-12)

Put on strength. We have not to purchase it, or generate it by prayers and resolutions, but simply to put it on. As we awake in the early morning hour, and have to pass out into the arena of life, which has so often witnessed failure and defeat, let us put on the strength and might of the living Christ. He waits to strengthen us with all power, according to the riches of His glory. Do not simply pray to be kept and helped, but put on the whole armour of God. “The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?”

Put on beautiful garments. The emblem of the life of the Christian soul is that of the bridegroom or the bride decked with jewels; or a garden filled with beautiful flowers (Isaiah 61:10-11). Continue reading …