Morning, April 12 Go To Evening Reading
“My heart is like wax; it is melted amid my bowels.”
—Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. The suffering Savior might cry to his God, “Be not far from me,” for above all other seasons, a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than anyone among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father’s love enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair since, through this dark room, the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint and thirst even hold the light of the Lord’s countenance: at such times, to anguish to b let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs, but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O solid and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord’s feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he puts his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.
Go To Morning Reading Evening, April 12
“The king’s garden.”
—Nehemiah 3:15
The mention of the king’s garden by Nehemiah brings to mind the paradise the King of kings prepared for Adam. Sin has utterly ruined that fair abode of all delights and driven forth the children of men to till the ground, which yields thorns and briers unto them. My soul, remember the fall, for it was thy fall. Weep much because the Lord of love was so shamefully ill-treated by the head of the human race, of which thou art a member, as undeserving as any. Behold how dragons and demons dwell on this fair earth, which once was a garden of delights.
See another King’s garden, which the King waters with his bloody sweat—Gethsemane, whose bitter herbs are sweeter far to renewed souls than even Eden’s luscious fruits. The mischief of the serpent in the first garden was undone: there, the curse was lifted from the earth and borne by the woman’s promised seed. My soul, think thee much of the agony and the passion; resort to the garden of the olive and view thy great Redeemer rescuing thee from thy lost estate. This is the garden of gardens, wherein the soul may see the guilt of sin and the power of love, two sights surpassing all others.
Is there no other King’s garden? Yes, my heart, thou art, or shouldst be such. How do the flowers flourish? Do any choice fruits appear? Does the King walk within and rest in the bowers of my spirit? Let me see that the plants are trimmed and watered and the mischievous foxes hunted out. Come, Lord, and let the heavenly wind blow at thy coming, that the spices of thy garden may flow abroad. Nor must I forget the King’s garden of the church. O Lord, send prosperity unto it. Rebuild her walls, nourish her plants, ripen her fruits from the vast wilderness, reclaim the barren waste, and make thereof “a King’s garden.”
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
April 12: Costly Grace
Deuteronomy 23:1–25:19; 2 Corinthians 6:1–13; Psalm 39
When we say something hurtful to a friend or a family member, we know we can’t ignore the harm we have caused (we should know, anyway). We must acknowledge the rift we've created to repair the relationship and earn back trust. But when it comes to our relationship with God, we don’t always look at it the same way. Sometimes, consciously or unconsciously, we belittle the incredible love He has shown us.
When we don’t acknowledge our sin as an act of rebellion, we feel far from God. We’ve created this great divide because we’ve tarnished our relationship with Him. In Psalm 39, the psalmist is in great agony over his sin—to the point where he acknowledges that people are nothing and his life is vanity: “Surely a man walks about as a mere shadow” (Psa 39:6).
Without God, life is meaningless. The psalmist acknowledges that his transgression has done great harm. He turns to God and says: “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?” (Psa 39:7). At the heart of that cry is a need for redemption from a God that answers. He provided a way of salvation that was incredibly costly through Christ. In 2 Corinthians, Paul stresses the importance of not taking this excellent gift for granted: “Now because we are fellow workers, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.… Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor 6:1–2).
Paul’s call is urgent because Jesus’ coming to earth wasn’t a small gesture. It was incredible. If we aren’t amazed at it or scorn it (even by accident), we may miss out. We have a greater hope than the psalmist could ever realize; his broken cry would not be fully answered for centuries. So, don't respond with silence when you hear God’s call. Respond with a thankful heart.
Are you ignoring sin in your life? How can you live with a thankful heart since Christ has bought you with such a great sacrifice?
Rebecca Van Noord
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
April 12th
Moral dominion
Death hath no more dominion over Him … in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God. Romans 6:9–11.
Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life was the life Jesus Christ exhibited on the human plane, and it is the same life, not a copy of it, that is manifested in our mortal flesh when we are born of God. Eternal life is not a gift from God; it is. The energy and power that Wereesus will manifest in us by God's sovereign grace. The gift of God manifested in Jonce is that we have made the moral decision about sin.
“Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost”—not as a gift from the Holy Ghost; the power is the Holy Ghost, not something He imparts. The life in Jesus is made ours using his Cross when we decide to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we will not decide definitely about sin. Immediately we do decide, the entire life of God comes in. Jesus came to give us endless supplies of life: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eternal life has nothing to do with time; it is the life Jesus lived when He was down here. The only source of Life is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The weakest saint can experience the power of the Deity of the Son of God if once he is willing to ‘let go.’ Any strand of our own energy in ourselves will blur the life of Jesus. We have to keep letting go, and slowly and indeed, the tremendous entire life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).
April 12
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God who worketh in you both to will and do of his good pleasure.
Phil. 2:12, 13
It is not your business and mine to study whether we shall get to Heaven or even be good men if we come into the midst of God's purposes. Our business is to examine how to have the unspeakable privilege in these few years of doing something of His work.
Phillips Brooks
Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997).
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