Day 1 - Lord's Day (Sunday) | Daily Devotions | Morning and Evening: Gail Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

  Go To Morning Reading Evening, September 15

“A people near unto him.”

—Psalm 148:14

The dispensation of the old covenant was that of distance. When God appeared even to his servant Moses, he said, “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet,” and when he manifested himself upon Mount Sinai to his own chosen and separated people, one of the first commands was, “Thou shalt set bounds about the mount.” The thought of distance was always prominent in worshipping the tabernacle and the temple. The masses of people did not even enter the outer court. Into the inner court, none but the priests might dare to intrude, while into the innermost place, or the holy of holies, the high priest entered but once a year. It was as if the Lord in those early ages would teach man that sin was so utterly loathsome to him, that he must treat men as lepers put without the camp; and when he came nearest to them, he yet made them feel the width of the separation between a holy God and an impure sinner. When the gospel came, we were placed on quite another footing. The word “Go” was exchanged for “Come”; the distance was made to give place to nearness, and we who aforetime were afar off were made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ. Incarnate Deity has no wall of fire about it. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest,” is the joyful proclamation of God as he appears in human flesh. Not now does he teach the leper his leprosy by setting him at a distance, but by himself suffering the penalty of his defilement. What a state of safety and privilege is this nearness to God through Jesus! Do you know it by experience? If you know it, are you living in its power? Marvellous is this nearness, yet it is to be followed by a dispensation of greater nearness still when it shall be said, “The tabernacle of God is with men, and he doth dwell among them.” Hasten it, O Lord.

Morning, September 16: Go To Evening Reading

“Partakers of the divine nature.”

—2 Peter 1:4

To be a partaker of the divine nature is not, of course, to become God. That cannot be. The essence of Deity is not to be participated in by the creature. Between the creature and the Creator, a gulf must ever be fixed in essence. Still, as the first man, Adam was made in the image of God, we, by the renewal of the Holy Spirit, are, in a diviner sense, made in the image of the Most High and are partakers of the divine nature. We are, by grace, made like God. “God is love”; we become love—“He that loveth is born of God.” God is truth; we become authentic and love what is true. God is good, and he makes us suitable by his grace so that we become the pure in heart who shall see God. Moreover, we become partakers of the divine nature in even a higher sense than this—in fact, in as lofty a sense as can be conceived, short of our being absolutely divine. Do we not become members of the body of the divine person of Christ? Yes, the same blood which flows in the head flows in the hand, and the same life which quickens Christ quickens his people, for “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Nay, as if this were not enough, we are married unto Christ. He has betrothed us unto himself in righteousness and faithfulness, and he who is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Oh! Marvelous mystery! We look into it, but who understands it? One with Jesus—so one with him that the branch is not more one with the vine than we are a part of the Lord, our Saviour, and our Redeemer! While we rejoice in this, let us remember that those who are made partakers of the divine nature will manifest their high and holy relationship in their intercourse with others and make it evident by their daily walk and conversation that they have escaped the corruption in the world through lust. O for more divine holiness of life!

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

September 15hat to renounce

But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. 2 Cor. 4:2.

Have you “renounced the hidden things of dishonesty”—the things your sense of honor will not allow to come to light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone which you would not like to be dragged into the light? Renounce it as soon as it springs up; renounce the whole thing until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you. Envy, jealousy, strife—these things arise not necessarily from the disposition of sin, but from the make-up of your body, which was used for this kind of thing in days gone by (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1–2 ): Maintain a continual watchfulness so that nothing of which you would be ashamed arises in your life.

“Not walking in craftiness,” that is, resorting to what will carry your point. This is a great snare. You know that God will only let you work in one way, so be careful never to catch people the other way; God’s blight will be upon you if you do. Others are doing things that to you would be walking in craftiness, but it may not be so with them; God has given you another standpoint. Never blunt the senstandpoint Utmost for His Highest. For you to do a sure thing would mean the incoming craftiness for an end other than the highest and the blunting of the motive God has given you. Many have gone back because they fear looking at things from God’s standpoint. The crisis comes from a standpoint when a man has to emerge a bit farther on than the creed he has accepted.

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

September 15he Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Matt. 20:28

We are so to surrender ourselves to Christ that this great purpose of His coming shall claim and possess the whole life. We are to live like God, to bless others. This is His will, His purpose concerning us. This is what His power waits to do for us. And this, too, is the claim of His great love upon us.

Refrain from sighing a poor assent to the truth and then pass by neglectfully on the other side. Do not think about it and pray without hope that the prayer will be answered. Do not gather yourself up in great resolutions to be good and valuable. Kneel in sight of the Crucified. In the cross of Christ, spell out His great purpose and yearning love for men. Let the heart feel all the might of the appeal that comes to us from those torn hands and feet and bleeding brow, from all the dreadful shame and agony of our dear Lord. And, bought and bound by all this, surrender yourself to Him for His great purpose. Take Him as your strength for this life work.

Mark Guy Pearse

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