Day 3 - Tuesday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments: Morning and Evening | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

 May 12: The Bible in the Developed World

Ruth 1:1–2:23; 1 Timothy 1:1–11; Psalm 73:1–10

In our developed world, we don’t often think about famines. If there were a famine in our lands, we could navigate through it because of our importing infrastructure. This isn’t the case for the developing world: famines mean walking miles to find food and water, and often dying or suffering terrible violence just to stay alive. (Currently, there are two major famines in Africa bringing these desperate situations to life.) When I used to read about famines in the Bible, I thought of hunger, but I didn’t necessarily think of pain and persecution. Now that I’m more aware of what’s happening in the world, stories of famine in the Bible are very vivid for me.

Consider Naomi, whose husband died during a famine, and the pain she must have felt over that loss and the loss of her two sons (Ruth 1:1–7). She was left with her daughters-in-law. As widows, they were completely desolate. Women were considered a lower class at the time; they could not own property or provide for themselves in an agrarian society. When I see photos of hurting women in the Horn of Africa, I’m reminded of Ruth and Naomi.

I think this is what the Bible is meant to do. We’re called to read it historically and culturally. But we’re also called to read the Bible with a sense of urgency about what’s happening in our world today. We know there is no end to extreme global poverty and unnecessary pain. We can’t rightfully imagine that those of us with resources and the ability to help will have stepped up to eradicate these issues. But we can make the biblical story our story. We can feel their pain and think as they think. And we can act. Imagine God showing providence in your life like He did Ruth’s and Naomi’s, and then help those who need you.

What can you do today to make a difference in the life of a person living in extreme poverty?

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).

Morning, May 12: Go To Evening Reading

“And will manifest myself to him.”

—John 14:21

The Lord Jesus gives special revelations of himself to his people. Even if Scripture did not declare this, many of the children of God could testify to its truth from their own experience. They have had manifestations of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ peculiarly, such as no mere reading or hearing could afford. In the biographies of eminent saints, you will find many instances recorded in which Jesus has been pleased, in a very special manner to speak to their souls, and to unfold the wonders of his person; yea, so have their souls been steeped in happiness that they have thought themselves to be in heaven, whereas they were not there, though they were well nigh on the threshold of it—for when Jesus manifests himself to his people, it is heaven on earth; it is paradise in embryo; it is bliss begun. Especially, manifestations of Christ exercise a holy influence on the believer’s heart. One effect will be humility. If a man says, “I have had such-and-such spiritual communications, I am a great man,” he has never had any communion with Jesus at all; for “God hath respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” He does not need to come near them to know them, and will never give them any visits of love. Another effect will be happiness, for in God’s presence there are pleasures forevermore. Holiness will be sure to follow. A man who has no holiness has never had this manifestation. Some men profess a great deal, but we must not believe anyone unless we see that his deeds answer to what he says. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” He will not bestow his favors upon the wicked: for while he will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he respect an evil doer. Thus, there will be three effects of nearness to Jesus: humility, happiness, and holiness. May God give them to thee, Christian!

Go To Morning Reading Evening, May 12

“Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again.”

—Genesis 46:3,4

Jacob must have shuddered at the thought of leaving the land of his father’s sojourning and dwelling among heathen strangers. It was a new scene, and likely to be a trying one: who shall venture among couriers of a foreign monarch without anxiety? Yet the way was evidently appointed for him, and therefore he resolved to go. This is frequently the position of believers now—they are called to perils and temptations altogether untried: at such seasons let them imitate Jacob’s example by offering sacrifices of prayer unto God, and seeking his direction; let them not take a step until they have waited upon the Lord for his blessing: then they will have Jacob’s companion to be their friend and helper. How blessed to feel assured that the Lord is with us in all our ways, and condescends to go down into our humiliations and banishments with us! Even beyond the ocean, our Father’s love beams like the sun in its strength. We cannot hesitate to go where Jehovah promises his presence; even the valley of deathshade grows bright with the radiance of this assurance. Marching onwards with faith in their God, believers shall have Jacob’s promise. They shall be brought up again, whether it be from the troubles of life or the chambers of death. Jacob’s seed came out of Egypt in due time, and so shall all the faithful pass unscathed through the tribulation of life, and the terror of death. Let us exercise Jacob’s confidence. “Fear not” is the Lord’s command and his divine encouragement to those who, at his bidding, are launching upon new seas; the divine presence and preservation forbid so much as one unbelieving fear. Without our God, we should fear to move; but when he bids us to, it would be dangerous to tarry. Reader, go forward, and fear not.

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

May 12th

Make a habit of having no habits.

For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful. 2 Peter 1:8 (R.V.).

When we begin to form a habit, we are conscious of it. There are times when we are conscious of becoming virtuous, patient, and godly, but it is only a stage; if we stop there, we shall get the strut of the spiritual prig. The right thing to do with habits is to lose them in the life of the Lord, until every habit is so practiced that there is no conscious habit at all. Our spiritual life continually resolves into introspection because we have not yet added certain qualities. Ultimately, the relationship is to be a completely simple one.

Your god may be your little Christian habit, the habit of prayer at stated times, or the habit of Bible reading. Watch how your Father will upset those times if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes—‘I can’t do that just now, I am praying; it is my hour with God.’ No, it is your hour with your habit. There is a quality that is lacking in you. Recognize the defect, then look for an opportunity to exercise yourself along the line of the quality to be added.

Love means that there is no habit visible; you have come to the place where the habit is lost, and by practice, you do the thing unconsciously. If you are consciously holy, there are certain things you imagine you cannot do, certain relationships in which you are far from simple; that means there is something to be added. The only supernatural life is the life the Lord Jesus lived, and He was at home with God anywhere. Is there any way that you are not at home with God? Let God press through in that particular circumstance until you gain Him, and life becomes the simple life of a child.

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

May 12

I know how to abound

Phil. 4:12

It is a dangerous thing to be prosperous. The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the Christian than the refining pot of prosperity. It needs more than human skill to carry the brimming cup of mortal joy with a steady hand; yet Paul had learned that skill, for he declares, “In all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry.” When we have much of God’s providential mercies, it often happens that we have but little of God’s grace; satisfied with earth, we are content to do without Heaven. Rest assured, it is harder to know how to be full than to know how to be hungry, so desperate is the tendency of human nature to pride and to forgetfulness of God. Take care that you ask in your prayers that God would teach you “how to be full.”

Spurgeon

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