Day 5 - Thursday | Daily Devotions | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Hope for His Highest | Thoughts for the Hour |

 Go To Morning Reading Evening, August 29

“All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.”

—Numbers 6:4

Nazarites had taken one which debarred them from using wine, among other vows. So that they might not violate the obligation, they were forbidden to drink the vinegar of wine or strong liquors and to make the rule still more precise, they were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes nor even to eat the fresh fruit or dried. To ensure the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed anything that had to do with the vine; they were, in fact, to avoid the appearance of evil. Indeed, this is a lesson to the Lord’s separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin in every form, to avoid its grosser shapes and its spirit and similitude. Strict walking is much despised nowadays, but rest assured, dear reader, it is both the safest and the happiest. He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah. A little crevice in the sea bank in Holland lets in the sea, and the gap speedily swells till a province is drowned. To any degree, worldly conformity is a snare to the soul and makes it more and more liable to presumptuous sins.

Moreover, as the Nazarite who drank grape juice could not be entirely sure whether it might not have endured a degree of fermentation and consequently could not be apparent in the heart that his vow was intact, the yielding, temporizing Christian cannot wear a conscience void of offense but must feel that the inward monitor is in doubt of him. Things doubtful we need not doubt about; they are wrong to us. Things are tempting. We must not dally with them but flee from them with speed. Better be sneered at as a Puritan than be despised as a hypocrite. Careful walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures that are more than sufficient recompense.

Morning, August 30 Go To Evening Reading

“Wait on the Lord.”

—Psalm 27:14

It may seem easy to wait, but it is one of the postures a Christian soldier learns only with years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier for God’s warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God to spread the case before him; tell him your difficulty, and plead his promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child and to wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God. But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in him, for unfaithful, untrusting waiting is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if he keeps you tarrying even till midnight, yet he will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, “Now, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until thou shalt cleave the floods or drive back my foes. I will wait if thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for thee in the full conviction that thou wilt be my joy, salvation, refuge, and strong tower.”

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

August 29: Becoming a Saved People

Isaiah 60:1–62:12; Luke 22:63–23:25; Job 13:13–28

For Luke, Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah’s message. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, according to Luke, Jesus opened the Isaiah scroll in a synagogue and proclaimed that the words in Isa 61 are about Him (Luke 4:17–19): “The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me because Yahweh has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives and liberation to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and our God’s day of vengeance, to comfort all those in mourning” (Isa 61:1–2). This moment defines what Jesus’ life would mean—and He was immediately persecuted for claiming the authority rightfully given to Him by God (Luke 4:20–30).

Luke’s message—an extension of Isaiah’s—is played out near the end of Jesus’ life. Jesus’ claim to authority resulted in His being sentenced to death (Luke 23). It is easy to view the events of Jesus’ life as proof that He was the figure that Isaiah prophesied—that He was exactly who He said He was. But if we stop there, we miss the larger picture. Luke has an agenda: He draws on Isaiah and uses the story of Jesus reading in the synagogue because he intends for our lives to be changed by Jesus. We are the oppressed receiving the good news. We are the captives being liberated. We are meant to be a people called out to follow Him (Isa 40:1–2; 53:10–12).

When we look upon Jesus—the Suffering Servant, Messiah, prophet, and savior—we should be confronted with the reality that we’re still so far from what He has called us to be. We should be prompted to put Him at the center of our lives and change. We must realize our place as the people He has saved and respond with gratitude.

How is Jesus’ sacrifice changing your life?

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).

August 29

Sublime intimacy

Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? John 11:40.

Every time you venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in your commonsense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the natural and spiritual relation. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture heroically on Jesus Christ’s statements when the facts of your commonsense life shout, ‘It’s a lie’? On the mount, it is easy to say—‘Oh yes, I believe God can do it,’ but you have to come down into the demon-possessed valley and meet with facts that laugh ironically at the whole of your mount-of-transfiguration belief. Every time my program of belief is clear to my own mind, I come across something that contradicts it. Let me say I believe God will supply all my needs, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith or sink back to something lower.

Faith must be tested because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict. What is your faith up against just now? The test will either prove that your faith is correct or it will kill it. “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” The final thing is confidence in Jesus. Believe steadfastly in Him; all you come up against will develop your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith; the last great test is death. May God keep us in fighting trim! Faith is unutterable trust in God, which never dreams that He will not stand by us.

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

August 29

Ye serve the Lord Christ

Col. 3:24

Our business as Christians is to serve the Lord in every business of life.

Mark Guy Pearse

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