Thursday, December 8, 2011

Daily Reflections from the Word Dec 8, 2011

December 8

THE MIRROR OF TRUTH

"If any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."--
Jam_1:23-24.
THERE IS an old fable of a palace, in which one room was remarkable above all others because it was lined with glass of a special quality.

Whenever a person entered whose life was inconsistent with truth, a mist blurred the surface of the mirrors so that he was unable to see himself clearly. It was when the Apostle Paul compared" his own self-centred goodness with the love and purity of Christ, he lost all hope of justifying himself, and confessed that the things which he had counted gain were only loss.

Truth and Love are indissolubly connected. Love is of God, and so is Truth. If you have the one, the other must follow. If the soul, looking into the mirror of God's Word, perceiving that there is a blur, and sets itself to remove all that has caused it; and if it continues in this attitude, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer that works, he shall be "blessed in his doing."

The blessedness of doing and becoming. It is only as we do, that we become. Even to behold Christ will not make us Christlike in character, unless we translate into action what we have discovered in Him. The impressions made on the hearer through the ear are very vagrant, like the breeze on the water. We look at ourselves in the mirror held up before us, and straightway go off and forget what manner of persons we were. It is only as we cease to be hearers who forget, and become doers that work, that we can make any progress in the Christian life and walk.

Listen attentively to the Word of Truth, written or spoken. Be quick to notice the smallest symptom of inconsistency between your life and the perfect beauty of Jesus, and set yourself immediately to correct it. Be merciful to the failings of everyone else, but be merciless to your own. Let no fault remain uncorrected, and no call to duty unanswered. For you to live, let it be Christ. Your blessedness and happiness will come in choosing the Christ-life, in doing, and continuing to do what He would have you do.

PRAYER
Help us to cast out all those things which are contrary to Thy peace, or that are not according to Thy will, so that ours may be the quiet life of trust, and faith, and obedience, longing for Thy truth, and walking in the light thereof. AMEN.

by F. B. Meyer

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Daily Reflections from the Word Dec 6, 2011

December 6, 2011

Luke 10:38-42 While Jesus and his followers were traveling, he went into a town, and a woman named Martha let him stay at her house. She had a sister named Mary. Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to him teach. But her sister Martha was busy doing all the work that had to be done. Martha went in and said, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are getting worried and upset about too many things. Only one thing is important. Mary has made the right choice, and it will never be taken away from her." (ERV)
Luke 11:8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. (KJV)

Be persistent, fervent, and constant in prayer every day to your Heavenly Father.
Luke 11:20-23 But I use the power of God to force out demons. This shows that God's kingdom has now come to you. "When a strong man with many weapons guards his own house, the things in his house are safe. But suppose a stronger man comes and defeats him. The stronger man will take away the weapons that the first man trusted to keep his house safe. Then the stronger man will do what he wants with the other man's things. "Whoever is not with me is against me. And anyone who does not work with me is working against me. (ERV)

The Lord Jesus is referring to His Kingdom (thru His death, burial, and resurrection) overcoming that of satan’s here on earth. All who receive the Lord Jesus Christ; satan has no more power or dominion in their lives.
Luke 11:27-28 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman with the people there called out to him, "Blessings from God belong to the woman who gave birth to you and fed you!" But Jesus said, "The people who hear the teaching of God and obey it--they are the ones who have God's blessing." (ERV)

We must go about isolating the Word of God in the heart and mind and to watch and be on guard in your life by using the Word of God as your weapon against the enemy. We must preserve the Word of God in us and obey all that it speaks to our hearts and minds.
Luke 11:39-40 And the Lord said to him, You Pharisees make the outside of the cup and the plate clean; but inside you are thieves and full of evil. O you foolish ones! did not he who made the outside in the same way make the inside? (BBE)

Wow! Remember what David said in Psalm 51:6 “Your desire is for what is true in the inner parts: in the secrets of my soul you will give me knowledge of wisdom.”
1 Samuel 27 Do you realize that David was the anointed King of Israel and went and joined himself with the Philistines (Israel’s enemy) and fought with them and for them, until the Princes of the Philistines rejected him (at the Lord’s prompting I believe).

1Samuel 30:11-19 And in the fields they saw an Egyptian whom they took to David, and they gave him bread, and he had a meal, and they gave him water for drink; And they gave him part of a cake of figs and some dry grapes; and after the food, his spirit came back to him, for he had had no food or drink for three days and nights. And David said to him, Whose man are you and where do you come from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master went on without me because three days back I became ill. We made an attack on the south part of the country of the Cherethites, and on the land which is Judah's, and on the south of Caleb; and we put Ziklag on fire. And David said to him, Will you take me down to this band? And he said, If you give me your oath that you will not put me to death or give me up to my master, I will take you to them. And when he had taken him down, they saw them all, seated about on all sides, feasting and drinking among all the mass of goods which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah. And David went on fighting them from evening till the evening of the day after; and not one of them got away but only four hundred young men who went in flight on camels. And David got back everything the Amalekites had taken; and he got back his two wives. There was no loss of anything, small or great, sons or daughters or goods or anything which they had taken away: David got it all back. (BBE)
The Lord will use the enemies’ cruelty and carelessness against him to give you back all that he has stolen from you and give you complete Victory in Jesus Name Amen!!!

MAN'S WAY! GOD'S DIRECTION

"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps."-- Pro_16:9.
THE WAYS of a man, we justify them to ourselves, and think that they are necessarily right, but we are liable to be self-deceived. We must employ our sanctified common-sense, or, to adopt the phrase of our text, our heart must seriously and thoughtfully devise our way. First pray for direction; then weigh the pros and cons; then view the matter from the standpoint of trusted friends; see that your eye is single to do only the will of God; be sure that no selfish or evil consideration is allowed to bias or divert you: then make your decision, asking God to block you in whatever would be hurtful, foolish, or perilous. You will not make a mistake if you sincerely and prayerfully adopt these rules. If your eye is single (i.e., straight), your whole body will be full of light.

There is every reason why we should employ the faculties of judgment and choice. When Samuel sent the young Saul away, he said, "Thou shalt do as occasion shall serve thee"; we are also told of Peter, that when the angel left him, he considered the matter, and came to Mary's house.
But God's purpose is behind all human decisions. There must be room for man to devise his steps, else we should become automatons. But all our volitions and choices must be ultimately subjected to the Rule and Will of the Most High. Let us commit our works and ways to God. We must roll our burden and ourselves on our faithful Creator. Of what use is it to worry over past mistakes? We cannot undo them, but we can ask God to bring good out of evil. He will put right the mistakes, and compensate for the failures. Let the Father's hand direct your steps. If with all your devising and planning, you cannot settle the matter, throw the whole responsibility back on Him and ask Him to undertake it.

Let us seek so to live that our ways may please the Lord (Pro_16:7). "We beseech you," said St. Paul, "that as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and please God, even so ye do walk." We need to wait on God that He may show us the right way, and there is a sure sign--Via Crucis, via lucis. Jesus said, "I am the Way: Follow Me!"
PRAYER

Lead us, O God, bypaths we have not known. Make the darkness light before us, the crooked places straight, and the rough places plain. Let Thine Angel lead us forth into the liberty of the sons of God. AMEN.
By F. B. Meyer




Sunday, December 4, 2011

Daily Reflections from the Word Dec 4, 2011

In Leviticus Chapter 14, everywhere the phrase “running water” is found, this speaks of “living water” and that represents both the Word of God and the Spirit of God who are the Mother and Father respectively in the New Birth. John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (KJV)

Luke 9:17 And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets. (KJV)
When you daily eat of the Bread of Life (Christ) you will always be filled or satisfied.

Hebrews 7:15-19 And this is even more clear if a second priest has come up who is like Melchizedek, That is to say, not made by a law based on the flesh, but by the power of a life without end: For it has been witnessed of him, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. So the law which went before is put on one side, because it was feeble and without profit. Because the law made nothing complete, and in its place there is a better hope, through which we come near to God. (BBE)
The Law (Ten Commandments) was given to restrain man from evil; however, Grace through Christ Jesus is given to empower us to good (moral virtue). The closer to Christ we live daily, the more sin is destroyed. Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (KJV)

Hebrews 7:27-28 Who has no need to make offerings for sins every day, like those high priests, first for himself, and then for the people; because he did this once and for ever when he made an offering of himself. The law makes high priests of men who are feeble; but the word of the oath, which was made after the law, gives that position to a Son, in whom all good is forever complete. (BBE)
This is why we must receive Christ and He will change our hearts and nature.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will also put a new spirit in you to change your way of thinking. I will take out the heart of stone from your body and give you a tender, human heart. I will put my Spirit inside you and change you so that you will obey my laws. You will carefully obey my commands. (ERV)

“Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

Rom_8:23

This groaning is universal among the saints: to a greater or less extent we all feel it. It is not the groan of murmuring or complaint: it is rather the note of desire than of distress. Having received an earnest, we desire the whole of our portion; we are sighing that our entire manhood, in its trinity of spirit, soul, and body, may be set free from the last vestige of the fall; we long to put off corruption, weakness, and dishonour, and to wrap ourselves in incorruption, in immortality, in glory, in the spiritual body which the Lord Jesus will bestow upon his people. We long for the manifestation of our adoption as the children of God. “We groan,” but it is “within ourselves.” It is not the hypocrite’s groan, by which he would make men believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. Our sighs are sacred things, too hallowed for us to tell abroad. We keep our longings to our Lord alone. Then the apostle says we are “waiting,” by which we learn that we are not to be petulant, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, “Let me die”; nor are we to whimper and sigh for the end of life because we are tired of work, nor wish to escape from our present sufferings till the will of the Lord is done. We are to groan for glorification, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to himself. This “groaning” is a test. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth-they worship Mammon; some groan continually under the troubles of life-they are merely impatient; but the man who sighs after God, who is uneasy till he is made like Christ, that is the blessed man. May God help us to groan for the coming of the Lord, and the resurrection which he will bring to us.
By Charles H. Spurgeon


Saturday, December 3, 2011

Daily Reflections from the Word Dec 3, 2011



ILLUMINATED LIVES

"The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord."--
Pro_20:27. "'For Thou wilt light my candle."-- Psa_18:28.
THE TABERNACLE constructed by Moses, and Solomon's Temple were modelled on the divine pattern, and consisted of three parts, outer Court, with its altar and laver, facing the world of human life; the Holy of Holies, facing the unseen and divine; between them, the Holy place, with its candlestick, altar, and table. Transfer that picture to your own nature. The body is the outer court, and through it we touch the world around us; the spirit is our most holy place, and through it we enter into fellowship with God; the soul lies between the two, the seat of our personality, including conscience, will, intellect, and emotion.

Our text tells us that "the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." The candle is for illumination, but there are many unlit candles! Has the Divine Spirit kindled your spirit, and is the flame burning clear? The windows of your spirit command a view of the Delectable Mountains and the City of God, but have the blinds been drawn up all round, so that the sunshine may shed its radiance into the common places Of daily living? In other words, Is your religious life in living touch with the Person of Jesus Christ?

In its ultimate essence, Christ is the All and In-All of our holy religion. Not creed, nor ceremonials, nor the life of active philanthropy, but His personal life and presence in the heart are the supreme goal of the New Testament. What the Father was to Him, He desires to be to us. Remember He said: "As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth (receiveth) Me, he also shall live because of Me," but this indwelling can only be experienced when we have learnt to find all our fresh springs of life, love, and inspiration from Him with whom our life is hid in God.

When we sit before the Lord in meditation, or kneel in our accustomed place, we shall know that the Lord, whom we seek, has suddenly come to His Temple, and the glory of the Lord will illuminate the house of our life, and shed its radiance on the world around. Our life will still retain its characteristic nature, but it will be infilled by the "second man, the Lord from Heaven."


PRAYER
O Holy Spirit, Love of God, infuse Thy grace, and descend plentifully into my heart; enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling, and scatter there Thy cheerful beams; dwell in the soul that pangs to be Thy temple. AMEN.

by F. B. Meyer