Morning, December 27 Go To Evening Reading
“Can the rush grow up without mire?”
—Job 8:11
The rush is spongy and hollow, and even so, he is a hypocrite; he has no substance or stability. It is shaken to and fro in every wind just as formalists yield to every influence; for this reason, the rush is not broken by the tempest, and neither are hypocrites troubled with persecution. I would not willingly be a deceiver or be deceived; the text for this day may help me to decide whether I will be a hypocrite. The rush, by nature, lives in water and owes its very existence to the mire and moisture wherein it has taken root; let the mud dry, and the rush withers very quickly. Its greenness depends upon circumstances, a present abundance of water makes it flourish, and a drought destroys it at once. Is this my case? Do I serve God only when I am in good company, or is religion profitable and respectable? Do I love the Lord only when temporal comforts are received from his hands? If so, I am a base hypocrite, and like the withering rush, I shall perish when death deprives me of outward joys. But when bodily comforts have been few, and my surroundings have been rather adverse to grace than helpful, I still hold fast to my integrity. Then have I hope that there is genuine vital godliness in me. The rush cannot grow without mire, but plants of the Lord’s proper hand planting can and do flourish even during drought. A godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay. He who follows Christ for his bag is a Judas; they who follow for loaves and fishes are children of the devil, but they who attend him out of love to himself are his own beloved ones. Lord, let me find my life in thee and not in the mire of this world’s favor or gain.
Spurgeon, C. H. Morning and Evening: Daily Readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896. Print.
Go To Morning Reading Evening, December 27
“And the Lord shall guide thee continually.”
—Isaiah 58:11
“The Lord shall guide thee.” Not an angel, but Jehovah shall guide thee. He said he would not go through the wilderness before his people; an angel should go before them to lead them in the way, but Moses said, “If thy presence goes not with me, carry us not up hence.” Christian, God has not left you in your earthly pilgrimage to an angel’s guidance: he leads the van. You may not see the cloudy, fiery pillar, but Jehovah will never forsake you. Notice the word shall—“The Lord shall guide thee.” How certain this makes it! How sure it is that God will not forsake us! His precious “shalls” and “wills” are better than men’s oaths. “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Then observe the adverb continually. We are not merely to be guided sometimes, but we are to have a perpetual monitor; not occasionally to be left to our own understanding and so to wander, but we are continuing to hear the guiding voice of the Great Shepherd. If we follow close at his heels, we shall not err but be led by a proper way to a city to dwell in. If you have to change your position in life; if you have to emigrate to distant shores; if you should be cast into poverty or uplifted suddenly into a more responsible position than the one you now occupy; if you are thrown among strangers, or cast among foes, yet tremble not, for “the Lord shall guide thee continually.” There are no dilemmas out of which you shall not be delivered if you live near God and your heart is kept warm with holy love. He goes not amiss who goes in the company of God. Like Enoch, walk with God, and you cannot mistake your road. You have infallible wisdom to direct you, steadfast love, comfort, and eternal power to defend you. “Jehovah”—mark the word—“Jehovah shall guide thee continually.”
Spurgeon, C. H. Morning and Evening: Daily Readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896. Print.
December 27: Love Is Good News
Jeremiah 51:1–64; Romans 13:8–14:12; Proverbs 28:1–28
Love is good news for those seeking guidance. Love is the guide we need.
Many first-century Jewish Christians faced the question of what to do with the Law (the first five books of the Bible) by which they had lived previously. Now that they had Jesus, what would they do with their traditions? Paul’s answer is based on love: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another, for the one who loves someone else has fulfilled the law” (Rom 13:8). He goes on: “For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are summed up in this statement: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does not commit evil against a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13:9–10). These are beautiful words, and I’m not saying that because they let me off the hook for keeping the law; they also answer the problem that the ot prophets addressed.
The prophet Jeremiah, commenting on the sin of Babylon, notes: “All humankind turns out to be stupid, without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by the divine image. His cast image is a lie, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of mockery. At the time of their punishment, they will perish. The portion of Jacob is not like this, for he is the creator of everything and the tribe of his inheritance. Yahweh of hosts is his name” (Jer 51:17–19).
Jeremiah’s words teach us that we are lost without Yahweh as our guide. Without Him, we will, like Babylon, seek things as dumb as golden images. Yahweh, in His great love for us, guides us to Himself. In Him, we see love; in Jesus, we see His loving image made visible. In Yahweh, we know how we should go; in Jesus, we see the way back to Yahweh.
Are you seeking love or golden images? What law do you need to be free from? Are you fully living the good news?
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.
December 27th
Where the battle’s lost and won
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord.… Jeremiah 4:1.
The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends me, and I am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until this is done, I lose every time. The action may take one minute or a year, depending on me, not on God, but it must be wrestled out alone before God, and I must resolutely go through the hell of a renunciation before Him. Nothing has any power over the man who fought the battle before God and won there. If I say—‘I will wait till I get into the circumstances and then put God to the test,’ I shall find I cannot. I must settle the thing between myself and God in the secret places of my soul where no stranger intermeddles, and then I can go forth with the certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and upset are as sure as God’s decree. The competition is not won because I first try to win it in the external world. Get alone with God, fight it out before Him, and settle the matter there once and for all.
In dealing with other people, the line is to push them to an issue of will. That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again, not often, God sometimes brings us to the point of climax. That is the Great Divide in life; from that point, we either go towards a more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God—“My Utmost for His Highest.”
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986. Print.
December 27
He ever liveth
Heb. 7:25
It is our hope for ourselves, His truth, and mankind. Men come and go. Leaders, teachers, and thinkers, speak and work for a season and then fall silent and impotent. He abides. They die, but He lives. They are lights kindled and, therefore, sooner or later quenched, but He is the true Light from which they draw all their brightness, and He shines always.
Alexander Maclaren
Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour. Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.
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