Day 3 - Tuesday | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Hour |

 Morning, October 29 Go To Evening Reading

"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, etc."

—Matthew 6:9

This prayer begins where all true prayer must commence, with the Spirit of adoption, "Our Father." There is no acceptable prayer until we say, "I will arise and go unto my Father." This child-like Spirit soon perceives the grandeur of the Father "in heaven" and ascends to devout adoration, "Hallowed be thy name." The child lisping, "Abba, Father," grows into the cherub crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy." There is but a step from rapturous worship to the glowing missionary spirit, which is a sure outgrowth of filial love and reverent adoration—"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Next follows the heartfelt expression of dependence upon God—"Give us this day our daily bread." Being further illuminated by the Spirit, he discovers that he is dependent and sinful. Hence, he entreats for mercy, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors:" being pardoned, having the righteousness of Christ imputed, and knowing his acceptance with God, he humbly supplicates for holy perseverance, "Lead us not into temptation." The man who is really forgiven is anxious not to offend again; possessing justification leads to an anxious desire for sanctification. "Forgive us our debts," that is justification; "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," that is sanctification in its negative and positive forms. As the result of all this, a triumphant ascription of praise follows: "Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever, Amen." We rejoice that our King reigns in providence and shall reign in grace, from the river even to the ends of the earth, and of his dominion, there shall be no end. Thus, from a sense of adoption to fellowship with our reigning Lord, this short model of prayer conducts the soul. Lord, teach us, therefore, to pray.

Go To Morning Reading Evening, October 29

"But their eyes were holden that they should not know him."

—Luke 24:16

The disciples ought to have known Jesus, they had heard his voice so often, and gazed upon that marred face so frequently, that it is wonderful they did not discover him. Yet is it not so with you also? You last saw Jesus a while ago. You have been to his table and have yet to meet him there. You are in a dark trouble this evening, and though he plain"  y says,""It is I, be n"" afraid"" you cannot discern him. Alas! Our eyes are held. We know his voice; we have looked into his face; we have leaned our head upon his bosom, and yet, though Christ is very near us, we are "" lying,""O that I knew where I might find""him"" We should know Jesus, for we have the Scriptures to reflect his image, and yet how possible it is for us to open that precious book without a glimpse of the Wellbeloved!

Dear child of God, are you in that state? Jesus feedeth among the lilies of the word, and you walk among those lilies, and yet you behold him not. He is accustomed to walking through the glades of Scripture and to commune with his people, as the Father did with Adam in the cool of the day, and yet you are in the garden of Scripture but cannot see him, though he is always there. And why do we not see him? In our case, as in the disciples, it must be ascribed to unbelief. They evidently did not expect to see Jesus, so they did not know him.

In spiritual things, we significantly get what we expect of the Lord. Faith alone can bring us to see Jesus. Make it your "" layer,""Lord, open my eyes so that I may see my Saviour present  " "th m"." It is a blessed thing to want to see him, but oh! it is better far to gaze upon him. He is kind to those who seek him, but he is dear to those who find him beyond expression!

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

October 29: Apocalyptic at Its Best

Daniel 7:1–8:27; 2 Thessalonians 1:1–12; Job 41:21–34

Daniel is full of spooky scenes. Idoesn'tdoesn't scare you. You've probably watched too many horror movies.

Apocalyptic literature in the Bible has a way of playing tricks. It's full of vivid imagery that can be haunthat's intentional. The pictures it paints are meant to stay here, meant to remember what these passages are teaching. Of course, the same can be said of the Bible. Still, apocalyptic literature is incredibly vivid because its message requires us to choose: to follow or turn away from God at the most critical timthDaniel'saniel's dreams, including those recorded in Dan 7:3–14, are images of what is and is to come. The beasts in Daniel were evocative symbols for his audience. When they heard of the lion with eagles, they envisioned Babylon (Dan 7:4). When the bear appeared, they thought of Media (Dan 7:5). Likewise, the leopard with four wings and heads symbolized Persia (Dan 7:6). And the ten-horned beast with iron teeth represented Greece (see Dan 7:7; see also Dan 2). These beasts would become memory devices. Later, when Greece entered the scene, the people could "don't follow the empire, for they are evil. Like a ten-horned beast with iron teeth, the empire will maul us and eat "s" alive.""

When we misread large sections of the Bible, such as apocalyptic literature, we lose sight of what matters most about it: remembering the truth. Daniel wanted us to call it like it is. If we see evil, we need to remember that it will destroy us. We need to place the vivid descriptions of Daniel's descriptions. Evil can and will capture us if we compromise. But our good God is here; let's lean on Him.

Where are you currently compromising?

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).

October 29

Substitution

He hath made Him sin for us, … that we might be made the righteousness of God.… 2 Cor. 5:21.

The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sins through sympathy and identification. He was made to be a sin. Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy with us. We are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed or promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and in no other way. We say that Jesus Christ came to God's Fatherhood and loving-kindness; the New Testament says He came to bear the world's sin. The revelation of His Father is to those to whom He has been introduced as Saviour: Jesus Christ never spoke of Himself to the world as one Who revealed the Father, but as a stumbling block (see John 15:22–24 ). John 14:9 was spoken to His disciples.

That Christ died for me, therefore I go scot-free, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament "s" tha" "He die" "or a"l" (not—He died my death) and that by identification with His death, I can be freed from sin and have imparted to me His very righteousness. The substitution taught in the New Testament is  "w "fol": "He hath made Him sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of G"d "n H"m." It is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me.

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

October 29

He riseth from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself. After that, he poureth water into a basin and began wadisciples'ciples'es' feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded

.John 13:4, 5

Acts are called everyday meanings because they are ordinarily expressive of the ordinary and mean thoughts of men. Let us not accuse the acts that make up our daily life of meanness but our ignoble souls that reveal themselves so unworthily through those acts. The same act may successively mount up through every intermediate stage from the depth of unworthiness to a transcendent height of excellence, according to its manifested soul. One of the glorious ends of the Lord's incarnation was that He might propitiate life details, so we should not disdain these as insignificant but rather disdain ourselves for our inability to make these details interpreters of a noble nature. Oh, let us then look with affectionateness and gratitude upon the daily details of life, seeing the sanctifying imprint of the hand of Jesus upon them all!

George Bowen

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