Day 2 - Monday | Daily Devotions | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Utmost for His Highest | Thought for the Quiet Hour |

 Morning, June 16 Go To Evening Reading

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”

—John 10:28

The Christian should never think or speak lightly of unbelief. For a child of God to mistrust his love, truth, and faithfulness must be greatly displeasing. How can we ever grieve him by doubting his upholding grace? Christian! It is contrary to every promise of God’s precious Word that thou shouldst ever be forgotten or left to perish. If it could be so, how could he be true who has said, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I never forget thee.” What was the value of that promise—“The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” Where was the truth of Christ’s words—“I give unto my sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; no man can pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

Where were the doctrines of grace? They would all be disproved if one child of God should perish. Where was the veracity of God, his honour, power, grace, covenant, and oath, if any of those for whom Christ has died, and who have put their trust in him, should nevertheless be cast away? Banish those unbelieving fears which so dishonour God. Arise, shake thyself from the dust, and put on thy beautiful garments. Remember it is sinful to doubt his Word wherein he has promised thee that thou shalt never perish. Let the eternal life within thee express itself in confident rejoicing.

“The gospel bears my spirit up:

A faithful and unchanging God

Lays the foundation for my hope,

In oaths, and promises, and blood.”

Go To Morning Reading Evening, June 16

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

—Psalm 27:1

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Here is personal interest, “my light,” “my salvation;” the soul is assured of it, and therefore avows it. Into the soul at the new birth, divine light is poured as the precursor of salvation; where there is not enough light to reveal our own darkness and to make us long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. After conversion, our God is our joy, comfort, guide, teacher, and in every sense our light: he is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Note, it is not said merely that the Lord gives light, but that he is light; nor that he gives salvation, but that he is salvation; he, then, who by faith has laid hold upon God, has all covenant blessings in his possession. This being made sure as a fact, the argument drawn from it is put as a question, “Whom shall I fear?” A question that is its own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared, for the Lord, our light, destroys them; and the damnation of hell is not to be dreaded by us, for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different challenge from that of boastful Goliath, for it rests, not upon the conceited vigour of an arm of flesh, but upon the real power of the omnipotent I am. “The Lord is the strength of my life.” Here is a third glowing epithet, to show that the writer’s hope was fastened with a threefold cord which could not be broken. We may well accumulate terms of praise where the Lord lavishes deeds of grace. Our life derives all its strength from God, and if he deigns to make us strong, we cannot be weakened by all the adversary's machinations. “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The bold question looks into the future as well as the present. “If God be for us, who can be against us, either now or in time to come?

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

June 16: Not Perfect?

Ezra 1:1–2:70; 1 John 3:5–10; Psalm 106:1–15

Sometimes sin can discourage us to the point that we loathe ourselves. At first glance, John’s letter seems to encourage this. Addressing a struggling church community, John calls for perfection: “And you know that that one was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. Everyone who resides in him does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen nor known him” (1 John 3:5–6). Does this mean that people who struggle with sin are unable to know God?

In his letter, John addresses the false idea that was rampant in the community he addressed—that Christ’s sacrifice had covered sin. Therefore, it was permissible to keep sinning. This is an issue that Paul addresses in his letter to the Roman Christians: “Should we go on sinning then, that grace may increase? May it never be!” (Rom 6:2). John answers the same way. He’s not saying that any sin indicates an inability to know God—he’s addressing the heart of the practice of sin (1 John 3:8).

Unchecked sin is an offense against God—it’s rebellion against Him and an attack on His character. Before we were brought into a relationship with God, we were characterized by enslavement to sin. Through Christ’s sacrifice, we’re in relationship with Him, and our lives begin to reflect our new identity in Him. What should our lives look like now? John gives us an idea later in the chapter: “Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, namely, the one who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10). Instead of rampant disobedience, then, the practice of “the children of God” is righteousness and love for others.

Though sin is still present in our lives, and we may be discouraged by it, we are no longer defined by it. Instead, we desire a new type of obedience and love, which God works in us.

Does your perspective on sin need to change? How can your actions reflect your freedom from sin?

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).

June 16th

What do you make of this

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend … I have called you friends. John 15:13, 15.

Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said, “I will lay down my life for Thy sake,” and he meant it; his sense of the heroic was magnificent. It would be a bad thing to be incapable of making such a declaration as Peter made; the sense of our duty is only realized by our sense of the heroic. Has the Lord ever asked you—“Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake?” It is far easier to die than to lay down one's life day in and day out with a sense of a high calling. We are not made for brilliant moments, but we have to walk in the light of them in ordinary ways. There was only one brilliant moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration; then He emptied Himself the second time of His glory, and came down into the demon-possessed valley. For thirty-three years, Jesus laid out His life to do the will of His Father, and, John says, “we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” It is contrary to human nature to do it.

If I am a friend of Jesus, I have deliberately and carefully laid down my life for Him. It is difficult, and thank God it is difficult. Salvation is easy because it cost God so much, but the manifestation of it in my life is complex. God saves a man, endues him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, ' Now work it out, be loyal to Me, whilst the nature of things round about you would make you disloyal.’ “I have called you friends.” Stand loyal to your Friend, and remember that His honour is at stake in your bodily life.

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

June 16

I know whom I have believed

2 Tim. 1:12

Personal acquaintance with Christ is a living thing. Like a tree that uses every hour for growth, it thrives in sunshine, it is refreshed by rain—even the storm drives it to fasten its grip more firmly in the earth for its support. So, troubled heart, in all experiences, say, “This comes that I may make closer acquaintance with my Lord.”

Selected

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