Day 1 - Lord's Day (Sunday) | Daily Devotions |

 Morning, August 25 Go To Evening Reading

"His fruit was sweet to my taste."

—Song of Solomon 2:3

In the Scripture, faith is spoken of under the emblem of all the senses. It is sight: "Look unto me and be ye saved." It is hearing: "Hear, and your soul shall live." Faith is smelling: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia"; "thy name is as ointment poured forth." Faith is a spiritual touch. By this faith, the woman came behind and touched the hem of Christ's garment; by this, we handle the things of the good word of life. Faith is equally the spirit's taste. "How sweet are thy words to my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my lips." "Except a man eats my flesh," saith Christ, "and drink my blood, there is no life in him."

This "taste" is faith in one of its highest operations. One of the first performances of faith is hearing. We hear the voice of God, not with the outward ear alone, but with the inward ear; we listen to it as God's Word, and we believe it to be so; that is the "hearing" of faith. Then our mind looketh upon the truth as it is presented to us; that is to say, we understand it, we perceive its meaning; that is the "seeing" of faith. Next, we discover its preciousness, admire it, and find how fragrant it is; that is faith in its "smell." Then we appropriate the mercies prepared for us in Christ; that is faith in its "touch." Hence, follow the enjoyment, peace, delight, and communion, faith in its "taste." Any one of these acts of faith is saving. To hear Christ's voice as the sure voice of God in the soul will save us; but that which gives true enjoyment is the aspect of faith wherein Christ, by holy taste, is received into us, and made, by inward and spiritual apprehension of his sweetness and preciousness, to be the food of our souls. Then we sit "under his shadow with great delight" and find his fruit sweet.

Go To Morning Reading Evening, August 25

"If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."

—Acts 8:37

These words may answer your scruples, devout reader, concerning the ordinances. Perhaps you say, "I should be afraid to be baptized; it is such a solemn thing to avow myself to be dead with Christ and buried with him. I should not feel at liberty to come to the Master's table; I should be afraid of eating and drinking damnation unto myself, not discerning the Lord's body." Ah! Poor trembler, Jesus has given you liberty, so be not afraid. If a stranger came to your house, he would stand at the door or wait in the hall; he would not dream of intruding unbidden into your parlor—he is not at home, but your child makes himself very complimentary about the house; and so is it with the child of God. A stranger may not intrude where a child may venture.

When the Holy Ghost has given you the spirit of adoption, you may come to Christian ordinances without fear. The same rule holds good of the Christian's inward privileges. You think, poor seeker, that you are not allowed to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; if you are permitted to get inside Christ's door or sit at the bottom of his table, you will be well content. Ah! But you shall not have fewer privileges than the very greatest. God makes no difference in his love for his children. A child is a child to him; he will not make him a hired servant, but he shall feast upon the fatted calf and have the music and the dancing as much as if he had never gone astray. When Jesus comes into the heart, he issues a general license to be glad in the Lord. No chains are worn in the court of King Jesus. Our admission into full privileges may be gradual, but it is sure. Perhaps our reader is saying, "I wish I could enjoy the promises and walk at liberty in my Lord's commands." "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." Lose the chains of thy neck, O captive daughter, for Jesus makes thee accessible.

 C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).

August 25: Riddle Me This

Isaiah 50:1–51:23; Luke 20:1–40; Job 11:12–20

Jesus' enemies regularly attempted to make Him look foolish or to disprove His authority. The absurd questions they concocted to discredit Him are rather amusing. The Sadducees posed one of the most preposterous questions about the resurrection of the dead and its relevance to divorce (Luke 20:27–33): If a woman has been married seven times, whose wife will she be when the dead are resurrected?

This scene is incredibly humorous in light of the rabbis' habit of playing mind games to outsmart (or "outwise") one another and the Sadducees' belief that resurrection does not exist. Jesus' opponents thought they had rigged the game: Any answer to their riddle would need to be corrected. It was an attempt to trap Jesus into agreeing that the resurrection of the dead is a myth. Jesus, however, offered an answer that put them in their place (Luke 20:34–40). His response made the Sadducees look even more foolish in light of more extensive biblical theology about marriage and divorce.

More than 500 years before this conversation, Isaiah remarked, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Where is this divorce document of your mother's divorce, with which I dismissed her? or to whom of my creditors did I sell you? Look! You were sold because of your sin, and your mother was dismissed because of your transgressions" (Isa 50:1). The Sadducees—along with the entire nation of Israel—had already been condemned for not honoring marriage in life.

So often, we are concerned with logistics or details, such as when our energy should be spent on discerning God's will for our lives and whether we are in that will. Like the Sadducees, we tell ourselves witty lies to get around doing the will of God. We believe we can justify our inactions if we reason our way forward. But as Jesus taught the Sadducees, faith will always win in any game of riddles or reason.

What are you wrongly justifying or "witting" yourself out of doing?

John D. Barry

 John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

August 25

The fruitfulness of friendship

I have called you friends. John 15:15.

We never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we abandon in every particular. Self-surrender is the most challenging thing—' I will if …!' 'Oh well, I suppose I must devote my life to God.' There is none of the joy of self-sacrifice in that.

As soon as we do abandon, the Holy Ghost gives us an intimation of Jesus's joy. The final aim of self-sacrifice is laying down our lives for our Friend. When the Holy Ghost comes in, the great desire is to lay down the life for Jesus; the thought of sacrifice never touches us because sacrifice is the love and passion of the Holy Ghost.

Our Lord is our example in the life of self-sacrifice—"I delight to do Thy will, O My God." He went on with His sacrifice with exuberant joy. Have I ever yielded in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If Jesus Christ is not the lodestar, there is no benefit in the sacrifice, but when the sacrifice is made with the eyes on Him, the molding influence slowly begins to tell.

Beware of letting natural affinities hinder your walk in love. One cruel way to kill natural love is to build disdain for natural affinities. The affinity of the saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not sentimental; to love as God loves is the most practical thing for the saint.

"I have called you friends." It is a friendship based on the new life created in us, which has no affinity with our old life but only with the life of God. It is unutterably humble, unsulliedly pure, and absolutely devoted to God.

 Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).

August 25

Nevertheless, at thy word

Luke 5:5

Oh, what a blessed formula for us! This path of mine is dark, mysterious, and perplexing; nevertheless, I will go forward at Thy word. This trial of mine is cutting, sore for flesh and blood to bear. It is hard to breathe through a broken heart; thy will be done. But, nevertheless, at Thy word, I will say, Even so, Father! My besetting habit, infirmity, or sin is challenging to crucify. It has become part of myself—a second nature; to be severed from it would be like the cutting of a right hand or the plucking out of a right eye; nevertheless, at Thy word, I will lay aside every weight; this idol I will utterly abolish. This righteousness of mine is rigid to ignore; all these virtues, and amiabilities, and natural graces, it is hard to believe that they dare not in any way be mixed up in the matter of my salvation and that I am to receive all from first to last as the gift of God, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Nevertheless, at Thy word, I will count all but loss for the excellency of His knowledge.

Macduff

 Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997).