Day 7 - Sabbath (Saturday) | Daily Devotions | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Hour |

Morning, November 2 Go To Evening Reading

“I am the Lord, I change not.”

—Malachi 3:6

It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect, One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed—all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight that the mariner feels when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth—“I am the Lord, I change not.”

The stability that the anchor gives the ship when it has obtained a holdfast is like that which the Christian’s hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth. With God, “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Whatever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, wisdom, justice, and truth are alike unchanged. He has always been the refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and he is still their sure Helper. He is unchanged in his love. He has loved his people with “an everlasting love”; he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that he will not change! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love.

“Death and change are busy ever,

Man decays and ages move;

But his mercy waneth never;

God is wisdom, God is love.”

Go To Morning Reading Evening, November 2

“Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.”

—Psalm 119:53

My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of others? For otherwise, thou lackest inward holiness. David’s cheeks were wet with rivers of waters because of prevailing unholiness; Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was vexed with the conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in Ezekiel’s vision were those who sighed and cried for the abominations of Jerusalem. It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of Sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder because it violates a holy law, which is in every man’s highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth.

Sin in others horrifies a believer because it puts him in mind of the baseness of his own heart: when he sees a transgressor, he cries with the saint mentioned by Bernard, “He fell today, and I may fall tomorrow.” Sin, to a believer, is horrible because it crucified the Saviour; he sees in every iniquity the nails and spear. How can a saved soul behold that cursed kill-Christ Sin without abhorrence? Say, my heart, dost thou sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to insult God to his face. The good God deserves better treatment, the great God claims it, the just God will have it, or repay his adversary to his face. An awakened heart trembles at the audacity of Sin and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is a rebellion! How direful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at Sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at Sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy—view it with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without which no man can see the Lord.

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

November 2: Will We Follow?

1 Kings 2:1–46; Mark 1:35–2:28; Proverbs 1:8–12

The Gospel of Mark opens without fanfare—certainly nothing befitting literary greatness. There is no lofty imagery like the Gospel of John, no impressive genealogies like the Gospel of Matthew, and no historical narrative like the Gospel of Luke. Instead, Mark flashes rapidly through events that build on one another. John the Baptist’s prophecy is followed by short summaries of Jesus’ baptism and His temptation by Satan. After calling His first disciples, Jesus begins healing and preaching near and far—all within the first chapter. The unadorned, clipped prose communicates something urgent.

Mark’s narrative captures the coming kingdom that will erupt with a power only some can see. It imparts a sense of urgency to those who know they are needy.

Mark portrays the advancing kingdom through the person and work of Jesus, who draws people. The crowds at Capernaum seek Him out (Mark 2:2), as do those marginalized by society (Mark 1:40; 2:3). Although Jesus seeks to keep His movements hidden and warns the leper to conceal the miracle of his healing, the exact opposite occurs. The leper opts to “proclaim it freely and to spread abroad the account” (Mark 1:45). When Jesus secludes Himself in deserted places because of His fame, the crowds come at Him “from all directions” (Mark 1:45). Even roofs are removed to gain access to Him (Mark 2:4).

While some question His authority, others respond with radical allegiance. Jesus’ simple, direct call to Levi, the tax collector, “Follow me!” requires nothing less. Jesus came for lepers and paralytics, to sinners and tax collectors—those who are sick and in need of a physician (Mark 2:16). He came for us—those who know our desperate need—and reversed our fate. With unfettered truth, Mark presents us with the opportunity for the only healing response: Will we follow?

Are you following Jesus with total allegiance? What is holding you back?

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).

November 2

Authority and independence

If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments. John 14:15 (R.V.).

Our Lord never insists upon obedience; He tells us very emphatically what we ought to do, but He never takes the means to make us do it. We have to obey Him out of oneness of spirit. That is why when Our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an IF—you do not need to unless you like. “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself”; let him give up his right to himself to Me. Our Lord is not talking of eternal positions, but of being of value to Himself in this order of things, that is why He sounds so stern (cf. Luke 14:26). Never interpret these words apart from the One who uttered them.

The Lord does not give me rules; He makes His standards very clear, and if my relationship with Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone else in competition with Him, viz., myself. Jesus Christ will not help me to obey Him; I must abide by Him, and when I do follow Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with minor, petty incidents, altogether unnoticeable and mean. Still, if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God, and when I stand face to face with God, I shall discover that through my obedience, thousands were blessed. It always creates once God’s Redemption comes to the point of obedience in a human soul. If I obey Jesus Christ, the Redemption of God will rush through me to other lives because behind the deed of obedience is the Reality of Almighty God.

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

November 2

Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures always.

Ps. 16:11

The man who walks along the path of life lives in the presence of the joy-giving God. Just in so far as he is faithful to that path of life and wanders neither to the right hand nor the left, his joy becomes deeper; nay, he becomes a partaker of that fullness of joy in which God Himself lives, moves, and has His being. And while such is his experience amid all the trials of life, he also has the privilege of looking forward to grander things yet in store for him when that higher world shall be reached and the shadows of time have passed away forever. “At Thy right hand,” exclaims the psalmist, “there are pleasures always.”

W. Hay Aitken

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