DAILY, WEEKEND, AND HOLIDAY INTERNET EVANGELIZE TO THE WORLD MINISTRY

Morning, September 30 Go To Evening Reading “Sing forth the honor of his name; make his praise glorious.” —Psalm 66:2 It is not left to our own option whether we shall praise God or not. Praise is God’s most righteous due, and every Christian, as the recipient of his grace, is bound to praise God from day today. We have no traditional rubric for daily praise. No commandments prescribing certain hours of song and thanksgiving. But the law written upon the heart teaches us that it is right to praise God, and the unwritten mandate comes to us with as much force as if it had been recorded on the tables of stone or handed to us from the top of thundering Sinai. Yes, the Christian must praise God. It is not only a pleasurable exercise, but it is the absolute obligation of his life. Think not ye who are always mourning, that ye are guiltless in this respect, or imagine that ye can discharge your duty to your God without songs of praise. You are bound by the bonds of his love to bless hi...

September 30: Key Players and Main Narratives Malachi 2:10–4:6; Acts 28:1–31 ; Job 31:23–40 The book of Acts ends on a somewhat unsatisfying note. After all that Paul has been through—imprisonment, trial, shipwreck—we expect a showdown with Caesar or mass conversions of the Jews. Instead, the plot seems to sputter out. Paul arrives in Rome and appeals to the Jews living there. He quotes Isaiah to the Jewish leaders: “You will keep on hearing, and will never understand, and you will keep on seeing and will never perceive” (Acts 28:26). When they fail to respond, Paul determines to reach out to the Gentiles. “They also will listen ” (Acts 28:28) and will react differently. The poignant end of this book leaves Paul “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance” (Acts 28:31). Facing either rejection or reception, he continues proclaiming the good news to both Jew and Gentile. Paul is a critical player in the...

  September 30th The commission of the call Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake. Col. 1:24. We make calls out of our own spiritual consecration, but when we get right with God, He brushes all these aside and rivets us with a pain that is terrific to one thing we never dreamed of, and for one shining, flashing moment, we see what He is after, and we say— “Here am I, send me.” This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers and make me broken bread and poured out wine in a unique way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom. If ever we are t...

  September 30 He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways Ps. 91:11 Count no duty too little, no round of life too small, no work too low, if it comes in thy way since God thinks so much of it as to send His angels to guard thee in it. Mark Guy Pearse  Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour . Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.

Morning, September 29 Go To Evening Reading “Behold, if leprosy has covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.” —Leviticus 13:13 Strange enough, this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his own and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt, it has received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness or mo...

  September 29: Rebuilding Is Not Always Wise Malachi 1:1–2:9 ; Acts 27:1–44; Job 31:9–22 Who can rebuild what Yahweh tears down? The prophets articulate this message again and again. Yahweh tears down evil things; evil people rebuild them; the prophets insist that He will just tear them down again. God tolerates evil for a time, waiting for people to repent, but when His patience is up, it’s up. “ ‘I have loved you,’ says Yahweh, but you say, ‘How have you loved us?’ ‘Is Esau not Jacob’s brother?’ declares Yahweh. ‘I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have made his mountain ranges a desolation and given his inheritance to the jackals of the desert.’ If Edom says, ‘We are shattered, but we will return and rebuild the ruins,’ Yahweh of hosts says this: ‘They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called a territory of wickedness, and the people with whom Yahweh is angry forever.’ Your eyes will see this, and you will say, ‘Yahweh is great beyond t...

September 29th The consciousness of the call For necessity is laid upon me: yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! 1 Cor. 9:16. We are apt to forget the magical, supernatural touch of God. If you can tell where you got the call of God and all about it, I question whether you have ever had a call. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of it in a man’s life may come with a sudden thunderclap or a gradual dawning, but in whatever way it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural, something that cannot be put into words; it is always accompanied with a glow. At any moment, there may break the sudden consciousness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life— “I have chosen you.” The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. It is not because you are sanctified that you are therefore called to preach the gospel; the call to preach the gospel is infinitel...

September 29 This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith 1 John 5:4 The world conquers me when it succeeds in hindering me from seeing, loving, holding communion with, and serving my Father, God. I beat it when I lay my hand upon it and force it to help me to get nearer Him, to get more like Him, to think oftener of Him, to do His will more gladly and more constantly. The one victory over the world is to bend it to serve me in the highest things—the attainment of a clearer vision of the divine nature, the achievement of a more profound love to God Himself, and a more glad consecration and service to Him. That is the victory—when you can make the world a ladder to lift you to God. When the world comes between you and God as an obscuring screen, it has conquered you. When the world comes between you and God as a transparent medium, you have destroyed it. To win victory is to get it beneath your feet and stand upon it, and reach up thereby to God. Alexander Maclaren ...

  Morning, September 28 Go To Evening Reading “The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.” —Psalm 33:13 Perhaps no figure of speech represents God in a more gracious light than when he is spoken of as stooping from his throne and coming down from heaven to attend to the wants and to behold the woes of mankind. We love him, who, when Sodom and Gomorrah were full of iniquity, would not destroy those cities until he had made a personal visitation of them. We cannot help pouring out our heart in affection for our Lord who inclines his ear from the highest glory and puts it to the lip of the dying sinner, whose failing heart longs after reconciliation. How can we but love him when we know that he numbers the very hairs of our heads, marks our path, and orders our ways? Especially is this great truth brought near to our heart when we recollect how attentive he is, not merely to the temporal interests of his creatures, but to their spiritual concerns. Though le...

  September 28: Turning the Tables Zechariah 12:1–14:21; Acts 26:1–32 ; Job 31:1–8 When Paul presents the gospel before King Agrippa, we expect him to be defensive. But Paul is ready to shift the spotlight. He offers a surprisingly simple explanation of recent events and a testimony of his faith, and then he describes how the resurrection of Jesus changes everything. He deftly turns the tables and allows the king to believe. Paul describes the gospel as something that was intended all along—it is nothing new: “Therefore I have experienced help from God until this day, and I stand here testifying to both small and great saying nothing except what both the prophets and Moses have said were going to happen, that the Christ was to suffer and that as the first of the resurrection from the dead, he was going to proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:23). Paul respectfully tells Agrippa that his testimony should come as no great surprise. Agrippa knows of the ...

September 28th The “go” of unconditional identification One thing thou lackest.… come, take up the cross, and follow Me. Mark 10:21. The rich young ruler had the master's passion for being perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple; He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself—a relationship with Himself in which there is no other relationship. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification but with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us know the absolute “go” of abandonment to Jesus. “Then Jesus beholding him loved him.” The look of Jesus will mean a heartbroken forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked at you? The face of Jesus transforms and transfixes. Where you are ‘soft’ with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are brutal and vindictive, insistent on your own ...

  September 28 Wait for the promise of the Father Acts 1:4 Tarry at a promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of His promises. Selected  Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour . Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.

  Morning, September 27 Go To Evening Reading “Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord!” —Deuteronomy 33:29 He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable is himself an utter stranger to it. It was strange indeed, if it made us wretched, to what a position it exalts us ! It makes us sons of God. Suppose God will give all the happiness to his enemies and reserve all the mourning for his own family? Shall his foes have mirth and joy, and shall his home-born children inherit sorrow and wretchedness? Shall the sinner, who has no part in Christ, call himself rich in happiness, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless beggars? No, we will rejoice in the Lord always, and glory in our inheritance, for we “have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The rod of chastisement must rest upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable frui...

  September 27: The True Source of Leadership Zechariah 10:1–11:17 ; Acts 25:1–27; Job 30:16–31 When leaders latch onto power, considering it their right, it’s destructive. God holds leaders to a higher standard because their words and actions cause others to rise or fall. When leaders of corporations, churches, or other organizations take their authority for granted, entire communities may end up fighting against God rather than with Him. Such was the case for the Israelites in Zechariah’s lifetime. The context suggests the people were mistakenly relying on Baal (the storm god) rather than Yahweh. Yahweh responded by reminding them and their leaders that He is the one who sends rain: “Ask rain from Yahweh in the season of the spring rain—Yahweh, who makes storm clouds, and he gives showers of rain to them, to everyone the vegetation in the field. Because the household gods speak deceit, and those who practice divination see a lie, and the dreamers of vanity speak in vain. There...

  September 27th The “go” of renunciation Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. Luke 9:57. Our Lord’s attitude to this man is one of severe discouragement because He knew what was in man. We would have said— ‘Fancy losing the opportunity of winning that man!’ ‘Fancy bringing about a north wind that froze him and turned him away discouraged!’ Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to hurt or offend. Jesus Christ has no tenderness whatever toward anything that is ultimately going to ruin a man in the service of God. Our Lord’s answers are based not on caprice but on a knowledge of what is in man. If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you may be sure that there is something He wants to hurt to death. v. 58. These words knock the heart out of serving Jesus Christ because it is pleasing to me. The rigor of rejection leaves nothing but my Lord, and myself, and forlorn hope. ...

September 27 Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1:27 Religion is not the simple fire escape you build in anticipation of possible danger outside your dwelling and leave there until trouble comes. You go to it some morning when a fire breaks out in your house, and the poor old thing that you built up there, and thought that you could use someday, is so rusty and broken, and the weather has so beaten upon it, and the sun so turned its hinges, that it will not work. That is the condition of a man who has built himself what seems a creed of faith, a trust in God in anticipation of the day when danger is to overtake him and has said to himself, I am safe, for I will take refuge in it then. But religion is the house in which we live; it is the table we sit; the fireside we draw near; The room that arches its graceful and familiar presence; it is the bed on which we lie and think of the past, and anticipate the future, and gather our refreshment. Phillips Brooks  Hardman, Samuel G., a...

  Morning, September 29 Go To Evening Reading “Behold, if leprosy has covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.” —Leviticus 13:13 Strange enough, this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his own and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt, it has received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteou...

  Morning, September 26 Go To Evening Reading “The myrtle trees that were in the bottom.” —Zechariah 1:8 The vision in this chapter describes the condition of Israel in Zechariah’s day, but being interpreted in its aspect towards us, it tells the Church of God as we find it now in the world. The Church is compared to a myrtle grove flourishing in a valley. It is hidden , unobserved, secreted, courting no honor and attracting no observation from the careless gazer. The Church, like her head, has a glory, but it is concealed from carnal eyes, for the time of her breaking forth in all her splendor is not yet come. The idea of tranquil security is also suggested: for the myrtle grove in the valley is still and calm while the storm sweeps over the mountain summits. Tempests spend their force upon the craggy peaks of the Alps, but down yonder where flows the stream which maketh glad the city of our God, the myrtles flourish by the still waters, all unshaken by the impetuous wind....

September 26: Unexpected Opportunities Zechariah 8:1–9:17; Acts 23:23–24:27 ; Job 30:1–15 When we are busy doing the kingdom's work, how do we respond to obstacles that get in our way? Do we expect God to blast a path straight through so that we can proceed? We might read the drama of Paul’s life through this lens, waiting anxiously for God to open the way for Paul to continue his spectacularly successful work. Instead, God allows Paul to be imprisoned and put on trial. But as Paul defended himself before Roman officials, he recognized that God was using him in ways he hadn’t expected. The conflict and rejection Paul encountered from the Jews allowed him to share the gospel with some of the most influential Gentiles he would ever meet. God used Paul’s trials to expand his ministry from the Jews to the Gentiles. Through Paul’s life, God displayed His power to bring about the growth of the Church and the spread of the gospel message far beyond Israel. God is working in and among us t...

September 26th The unblameable attitude If … thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee … Matthew 5:23. If when you come to the altar, there you remember that your brother has anything against you, not—If you rake up something by a morbid sensitiveness, but— “If thou rememberest,” that is, it is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God: “first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Never object to the intense sensitiveness of the Spirit of God in you when He is educating you down to the scruple. “First be reconciled to thy brother …” Our Lord’s direction is simple— “first be reconciled.” Go back the way you came, go the path indicated to you by the conviction given at the altar; have an attitude of mind and a temper of the soul to the one who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus does not mention the other person, and he says— you go. There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the...

  September 26 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom Ps. 90:12 Every day is a little life, and our whole life is but a day repeated: whence it is that old Jacob numbers his life by days, and Moses desires to be taught this point of holy arithmetic—to number not his years, but his days. Those, therefore, that dare lose a day are dangerously prodigal; those that dare misspend it, desperate. Bishop Hall  Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour . Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.

Morning, September 25 Go To Evening Reading “Just, and the justifier of him which believeth.” —Romans 3:26 Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of his people to the last jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt; and unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell. It seems to be one of the very principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and this gives us our terror at first; but is it not marvelous that this very same belief that God just becomes afterwards the pillar of our confidence and peace! If God is just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be punished; but Jesus stands in my s...

  September 25: Visions, Revelations, and Questions Zechariah 6:1–7:14 ; Acts 22:22–23:22; Job 29:13–25 The prophets of old had visions and dreamed dreams. They experienced apocalyptic nightmares and witnessed breathtaking scenes of beauty. Perhaps most fascinating, though, is how they reacted. Zechariah provides us with an example of both the revelation and the proper response. “I looked up again, and I saw, and look!—four chariots coming out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze.… And I answered and said to the angel that was talking to me, ‘What are these, my lord?’ And the angel answered and said to me, ‘These are the four winds of the heavens going out after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth ” (Zech 6:1–5). Zechariah could not have understood what he was seeing, but he paid attention and asked questions. Although we may not experience visions as confounding as Zechariah’s, we certainly have the opportunity to be pe...

September 25th The “go” of relationship And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Matthew 5:41. The summing up of Our Lord’s teaching is that the relationship He demands is impossible unless He has done supernatural work in us. Jesus Christ requires that there be not the slightest trace of resentment even suppressed in the head of a disciple when he meets with tyranny and injustice. No enthusiasm will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His worker. only one thing will, and that is a personal relationship to Himself which has gone through the mill of His spring-cleaning until there is only one purpose left— ‘I am here for God to send me where He will.’ Every other thing may get fogged, but this relationship to Jesus Christ must never be. The Sermon on the Mount is not ideal; it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has altered my disposition and put in nature like His own. Jesus Christ is the only One Who can fulfill the Se...