Day 3 - Daily, Devotions - Logos

 February 3: Wisdom Can Quickly Become Folly

Exodus 7–8; John 1:35–51; Song of Solomon 1:8–14

What we need to hear and what we want to hear are rarely the same thing. Leaders who encourage honesty, allow for errors and establish an environment of trust usually hear what they need to hear. A dictator, on the other hand, will never learn what they really need to know. People shield them or stay away from them; an environment of fear is only destructive. With this point in mind, the story of Moses, Aaron, and Pharaoh becomes even more intriguing.

Pharaoh surrounded himself with people who would tell him what he wanted to hear (Exod 7:22), not what he needed to hear: “You’re oppressing the Hebrew people, and they will rise up against you. And furthermore, we’re afraid of their God, and we can’t really do what He can do. We’re small-time dark magic; their God is a big time.” Instead of speaking this truth, Pharaoh’s advisors went on pretending and conjuring up cheap tricks.

Plague after the plague hit Egypt, but Pharaoh’s heart remained hard. And this is where we don’t really know what happened: when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, was it already too difficult for Pharaoh to give in on his own accord? We don’t know the answer, but we know that God ended up making an example of his foolishness.

Even when water turns to blood, frogs appear everywhere—followed shortly by gnats and flies (Exod 7:14–8:32)—Pharaoh didn’t listen. Instead of turning to Yahweh, he turned to the same sources: his gods, his belief that he is a god (common for Egyptians), and his ill-advised counselors. And that’s the lesson: if you surround yourself with “yes” people, they will say yes, and you will be ignorant. You will lose, and you will end up on the wrong side of God.

Who do you turn to for advice? Are your friends, mentors, and church leaders more apt to tell you the truth or say something that makes you happy? If it’s the latter, who can you turn to who will speak honestly to you about faith?

John D. Barry

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

Morning, February 3 Go To Evening Reading

“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors.”

—Romans 8:12

As God’s creatures, we are all debtors to Him: to obey him with all our body, and soul, and strength. Having broken his commandments, as we all have, we are debtors to his justice, and we owe to him a vast amount which we are not able to pay. But of the Christian it can be said that he does not owe God’s justice anything, for Christ has paid the debt His people owed; for this reason, the believer owes the more to love. I am a debtor to God’s grace and forgiving mercy, but I am no debtor to his justice, for he will never accuse me of a debt already paid. Christ said, “It is finished!” and by that he meant, that whatever His people owed was wiped away forever from the book of remembrance. To the uttermost, Christ has satisfied divine justice; the account is settled; the handwriting is nailed to the cross; the receipt is given, and we are debtors to God’s justice no longer. But then, because we are not debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become ten times more debtors to God than we should have been otherwise. Christian, pause and ponder for a moment. What a debtor thou art to divine sovereignty! How much thou owest to his disinterested love, for he gave his own Son that he might die for thee. Consider how much you owe to His forgiving grace, that after ten thousand affronts, he loves you as infinitely as ever. Consider what you owe to his power; how he has raised you from your death in sin; how He has preserved your spiritual life; how he has kept you from falling; and how, though a thousand enemies have beset your path, you have been able to hold on your way. Consider what you owe to His immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, he has not changed once. Thou art as deep in debt as thou canst be to every attribute of God. To God thou owest thyself, and all thou hast—yield thyself as a living sacrifice, it is but thy reasonable service.

Go To Morning Reading Evening, February 3

“Tell me … where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.”

—Song of Solomon 1:7

These words express the desire of the believer after Christ and his longing for present communion with him. Where doest thou feed thy flock? In thy house? I will go if I may find thee there. In private prayer? Then I will pray without ceasing. In the Word? Then I will read it diligently. In thine ordinances? Then I will walk in them with all my heart. Tell me where thou feedest, for wherever thou standest as the Shepherd, there will I lie down as a sheep; for none but thyself can supply my need. I cannot be satisfied to be apart from thee. My soul hunger and thirsts for the refreshment of thy presence. “Where dost thou make thy flock rest at noon?” for whether at dawn or at noon, my only rest must be where thou art and thy beloved flock. My soul’s rest must be a grace-given rest and can only be found in thee. Where is the shadow of that rock? Why should I not repose beneath it? “Why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?” Thou hast companions—why should I not be one? Satan tells me I am unworthy, but I always was unworthy, and yet thou hast long loved me, and therefore my unworthiness cannot be a bar to my having fellowship with thee now. I am indeed weak in faith and prone to fall, but my very feebleness is the reason why I should always be where thou feedest thy flock, that I may be strengthened and preserved in safety beside the still waters. Why should I turn aside? There is no reason why I should, but there are a thousand reasons why I should not, for Jesus beckons me to come. If he withdrew himself a little, it is but to make me prize his presence more. Now that I am grieved and distressed at being away from him, he will lead me yet again to that sheltered nook where the lambs of His fold are sheltered from the burning sun.

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

February 3rd

The recognized ban of relationship

We are made as to the filth of the world. 1 Cor. 4:9–13.

These words are not an exaggeration. The reason they are not true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot the exact truth in using them, but that we have too many discreet affinities to allow ourselves to be made refuse. “Filling up that which is behind the afflictions of Christ” is not evidence of sanctification but of being “separated unto the gospel.”

“Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,” says Peter. If we think it strange concerning the things we meet with, we are craven-hearted. We have discreet affinities that keep us out of the mire—‘I won’t stop; I won’t bend.’ You do not need to; you can be saved by the skin of your teeth if you like; you can refuse to let God count you as one separated unto the gospel. Or you may say—‘I do not care if I am treated as the offscouring of the earth as long as the Gospel is proclaimed.’ A servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to go to martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God. When a merely moral man or woman comes in contact with baseness and immorality and treachery, the recoil is so desperately offensive to human goodness that the heart shuts up in despair. The marvel of the Redemptive Reality of God is that the worst and the vilest can never get to the bottom of His love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal his Son in me.”

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

February 3

Love not the world

1 John 2:15

Love it not, and yet love it. Love it with the love of Him who gave His Son to die for it. Love it with the love of Him who shed His blood for it. Love it with the love of angels who rejoice in its conversion. Love it to do it well, giving your tears to its sufferings, your pity to its sorrows, your wealth to its wants, your prayers to its miseries, and to its fields of charity, and philanthropy, and Christian piety, your powers and hours of labor. You cannot live without affecting it or being affected by it. You will make the world better, or it will make you worse.

God help you by His grace and Holy Spirit to live in the world as to live above it, and look beyond it; and so to love it that when you leave it, you may leave it better than you found it.

Guthrie

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