Day 7 - Sabbath - Saturday | Daily Devotions | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | Connecticut the Testaments | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

 Morning, September 13 Go To Evening Reading

“Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools.”

—Psalm 84:6

This teaches us that the comfort obtained by one may often prove serviceable to another, just as wells would be used by the company that came after. We read a book full of consolation, which is like Jonathan’s rod, dropping with honey. Ah! We think our brother has been here before us and dug this well for us as well as for himself. Many a “Night of Weeping,” “Midnight Harmonies,” an “Eternal Day,” “A Crook in the Lot,” a “Comfort for Mourners,” has been a well dug by a pilgrim for himself, but has proved quite as helpful to others. Notably, we see this especially in the Psalms, as in the beginning, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” Travellers have been delighted to see the footprint of man on a barren shore, and we love to see the waymarks of pilgrims while passing through the vale of tears.

The pilgrims dig the well, but strangely, it fills from the top instead of the bottom. We use the means, but the blessing does not spring from the means. We dig a well, but heaven fills it with rain. The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. The means are connected with the end, but they do not produce it of themselves. See here, the rain fills the pools, so that the wells become useful as reservoirs for the water; labour is not lost, but yet it does not supersede divine help.

Grace may well be compared to rain for its purity, for its refreshing and vivifying influence, for its coming alone from above, and for the sovereignty with which it is given or withheld. May our readers have showers of blessing, and may the wells they have dug be filled with water! Oh, what are means and ordinances without the smile of heaven! They are as clouds without rain, and pools without water. O God of love, open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing!

Go To Morning Reading Evening, September 13

“This man receiveth sinners.”

—Luke 15:2

Observe the condescension of this fact. This Man, who towers above all other men, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners—this Man receiveth sinners. This Man, who is no different than the eternal God, before whom angels veil their faces—this Man receiveth sinners. It needs an angel’s tongue to describe such a mighty stoop of love. That any of us should be willing to seek after the lost is nothing extraordinary—they are of our own race; but that he, the offended God, against whom the transgression has been committed, should take upon himself the form of a servant, and bear the sin of many, and should then be willing to receive the vilest of the vile, this is marvellous.

“This Man receiveth sinners”; not, however, that they may remain sinners, but he receives them that he may pardon their sins, justify their persons, cleanse their hearts by his purifying word, preserve their souls by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and enable them to serve him, to show forth his praise, and to have communion with him. Into his heart’s love he receives sinners, takes them from the dunghill, and wears them as jewels in his crown; plucks them as brands from the burning, and preserves them as costly monuments of his mercy. None are so precious in Jesus’ sight as the sinners for whom he died. When Jesus receives sinners, he has not some out-of-doors reception place, no casual ward where he charitably entertains them as men do passing beggars. Still, he opens the golden gates of his royal heart, and receives the sinner right into himself—yea, he admits the humble penitent into personal union and makes him a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. There was never such a reception as this! This fact remains particular this evening: he is still receiving sinners; would that sinners would receive him.

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

September 13: Who Can Bring Me Down?

Obadiah 1:1–21; Acts 11:19–12:25; Job 21:17–34

“The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of a rock, the heights of its dwelling, you who say in your heart: ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ ” (Obad 3).

Pride is an especially dangerous sin because it deludes us into elevating ourselves above everyone else. It can even lead us to betray or hurt other people. In this passage, Obadiah addresses the Edomites, who lived in the hills above Judah. The Edomites should have helped Judah when they were attacked, but instead they conducted raids. They believed that they were superior to and had been wronged by the Judahites and that their actions were therefore justified. This type of pride puts us in a precarious position. No wonder the Bible addresses this topic frequently.

Pride can get the best of us when we place ourselves in the “clefts” above others. It usually emerges from one of two places: Either we believe that we’re as important as people tell us we are (the folly of the celebrity), or we think that we’re better than everyone else and that others just don’t understand us. Either way, pride is dangerous. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “Pride always means enmity … not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.”

Job is also accused of pride, but unjustly. He confronts his persecutors about retribution related to pride: “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and their disaster comes upon them? He distributes pains in his anger” (Job 21:17). Job recognizes the ultimate source of pride: a refusal to fear Yahweh. It’s challenging to maintain a superior position when we realize that everything we have comes from Him. When we fear Yahweh—when we acknowledge that He created and reigns over all things—we discover our rightful place. We can then lift Him back to the place He deserves—as ruler over us, our master.

What are you proud of, and what can you do to remedy the problem?

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).

September 13th

After surrender—what?

I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. John 17:4.

Surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the Will; when that is done, all is done. There are very few crises in life; the great crisis is the surrender of the will. God never crushes a man’s will into surrender; He never beseeches him; He waits until the man yields up his will to Him. That battle never needs to be re-fought.

Surrender for Deliverance. “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” It is after we have begun to experience what salvation means that we surrender our wills to Jesus for rest. Whatever is perplexing heart or mind is a call to the will—“Come unto Me.” It is a voluntary coming.

Surrender for Devotion. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” The surrender here is of myself to Jesus, my self with His rest at the heart of it. “If you would be My disciple, give up your right to yourself to Me.’ Then the remainder of one's life is nothing but the manifestation of this surrender. Once the surrender has taken place, we never need to ‘suppose’ anything. We do not need to worry about our circumstances; Jesus is amply sufficient.

Surrender for Death. John 21:18–19 . “… another shall gird thee.” Have you learned what it means to be bound for death? Beware of a surrender which you make to God in an ecstasy; you are apt to take it back again. It is a question of being united with Jesus in His death until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.

After surrender—what? The whole of life after surrender is an aspiration for unbroken communion with God.

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

September 13

These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work

1 Chron. 4:23

Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell “with the King, for his work.” We may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a bit of country life, with little enough to be seen of the “goings” of the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us “there” will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do away with them; and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, this is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, “His work.”

Frances Ridley Havergal

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

September 13

These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work

1 Chron. 4:23

Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell “with the King, for his work.” We may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a bit of country life, with little enough to be seen of the “goings” of the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us “there” will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do away with them; and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, this is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, “His work.”

Frances Ridley Havergal

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