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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
December 23: Morning"Friend, go up higher." - Luke 14:10
When first the life of grace begins in the soul, we do indeed draw near to God, but it is with great fear and trembling. The soul conscious of guilt, and humbled thereby, is overawed with the solemnity of its position; it is cast to the earth by a sense of the grandeur of Jehovah, in whose presence it stands. With unfeigned bashfulness it takes the lowest room.
But, in after life, as the Christian grows in grace, although he will never forget the solemnity of his position, and will never lose that holy awe which must encompass a gracious man when he is in the presence of the God who can create or can destroy; yet his fear has all its terror taken out of it; it becomes a holy reverence, and no more an overshadowing dread. He is called up higher, to greater access to God in Christ Jesus. Then the man of God, walking amid the splendours of Deity, and veiling his face like the glorious cherubim, with those twin wings, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, will, reverent and bowed in spirit, approach the throne; and seeing there a God of love, of goodness, and of mercy, he will realize rather the covenant character of God than his absolute Deity. He will see in God rather his goodness than his greatness, and more of his love than of his majesty. Then will the soul, bowing still as humbly as aforetime, enjoy a more sacred liberty of intercession; for while prostrate before the glory of the Infinite God, it will be sustained by the refreshing consciousness of being in the presence of boundless mercy and infinite love, and by the realization of acceptance "in the Beloved." Thus the believer is bidden to come up higher, and is enabled to exercise the privilege of rejoicing in God, and drawing near to him in holy confidence, saying, "Abba, Father."
"So may we go from strength to strength,Evening
And daily grow in grace,
Till in thine image raised at length,
We see thee face to face."
"The night also is thine." - Psalm 74:16
Yes, Lord, thou dost not abdicate thy throne when the sun goeth down, nor dost thou leave the world all through these long wintry nights to be the prey of evil; thine eyes watch us as the stars, and thine arms surround us as the zodiac belts the sky. The dews of kindly sleep and all the influences of the moon are in thy hand, and the alarms and solemnities of night are equally with thee. This is very sweet to me when watching through the midnight hours, or tossing to and fro in anguish. There are precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by the sun: may my Lord make me to be a favoured partaker in them.
The night of affliction is as much under the arrangement and control of the Lord of Love as the bright summer days when all is bliss. Jesus is in the tempest. His love wraps the night about itself as a mantle, but to the eye of faith the sable robe is scarce a disguise. From the first watch of the night even unto the break of day the eternal Watcher observes his saints, and overrules the shades and dews of midnight for his people's highest good. We believe in no rival deities of good and evil contending for the mastery, but we hear the voice of Jehovah saying, "I create light and I create darkness; I, the Lord, do all these things."
Gloomy seasons of religious indifference and social sin are not exempted from the divine purpose. When the altars of truth are defiled, and the ways of God forsaken, the Lord's servants weep with bitter sorrow, but they may not despair, for the darkest eras are governed by the Lord, and shall come to their end at his bidding. What may seem defeat to us may be victory to him.
"Though enwrapt in gloomy night,===
We perceive no ray of light;
Since the Lord himself is here,
'Tis not meet that we should fear."
Ahio
[Ăhī'ō] - fraternal or his brother.1. A son of Abinadab and brother of Uzzah. It was in Abinadab's house that the Ark of God rested for twenty years after its return by the Philistines (2 Sam. 6:3-4; 1 Chron. 13:7).
2. A son of Elpaal, a Benjamite (1 Chron. 8:14).
3. A son of Jehiel by his wife Maachah and an ancestor of Saul (1 Chron. 8:31; 9:37).
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Reading 11: The Birth of John the Baptist
Zechariah and Elizabeth became the parents of John, just as the angel Gabriel had told Zechariah. Their son became the prophet who later announced the great news of the Messiah to the people of Israel and prepared them for Jesus' coming.
Luke 1:57-80
The Birth of John the Baptist
57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John."
61 They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name."
62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.
Zechariah's Song
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come and has redeemed his people.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us--
72 to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace."
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.
Further Study
JUST THE FACTS
- What name did the people want Elizabeth to give her son? Why? (v. 59)
- How was the baby's name finally chosen? (v. 63)
- What happened to Zechariah when he wrote down the baby's name? (v. 64)
- Names were very important during Bible times. They often told what the child meant to the parents or described who he or she would become. Why did your parents give you the name you have? Discuss the names of the people in your family and what they mean.
- What do you suppose the people were actually saying when they were "talking about all these things" (v. 65)? What would you have talked about if you had heard something like this?
This story shows how much God loves us. He made sure that everything was ready for Jesus' birth by sending a messenger, John. God kept every promise he made and did the "impossible" to make it all happen just as he had said.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1:60 In Bible times, the mother often named a child. In the Old Testament, Leah, Rachel and Hannah named their children. A few times, someone else named a child: Pharaoh's daughter named Moses and the village women named Ruth's child Obed. Occasionally the father named a child or changed the name after the mother had selected one. That's why the people asked Zechariah what name he wanted for his son. He confirmed that the name of his son was John.
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The Letter
Retold from public records
In the shabby basement of an old house in Atlanta, Georgia, lived a young widow and her little girl. During the Civil War, she had married a young Confederate soldier, against her Yankee father's will, and had moved with him south, to Atlanta. Her wealthy father, angry and hurt at what he considered to be her disloyalty, both to him and the North, told her never to come back.
The soldier had died bravely during the war, and his death left his wife and child without any support. Alone in Atlanta, Margaret did washing, ironing, and other menial jobs that she could find to help her scrape by and feed little Anna. Their clothes became ragged, and they were both ill from sleeping in the damp, cold basement.
Anna loved to hear her mother's stories about her home in the North. She sat in her mother's lap and listened for hours to descriptions of the big, brick house in Boston, the sprawling shade trees, the beautiful flower gardens, and the wide grassy lawn. She loved to imagine the horses trotting across the meadow, the smell of bread baking in the kitchen, and the soft feel of the four-poster feather beds. Although Anna had never seen her mother's home, she thought it must be marvelous and secretly hoped that someday they would go there to live.
Margaret often sat looking wistfully up through the narrow basement windows at the blue sky, remembering her mama's smile, laughing with her two sisters, chasing her little brother, and sitting on her father's lap. She missed her family and home so much. But there was nothing she could do. She could never earn enough money to pay the train fare to Boston, no matter how hard she worked. And when she remembered her father's hurt, angry expression when she left, she knew there was little hope of ever seeing her family again.
On Christmas Eve, the landlady of the house knocked on the basement door. Anna ran to answer, and the lady handed her a letter. Margaret knew immediately that the broadly scrawled handwriting on the envelope was her father's. With trembling fingers she pulled open the flap of the envelope. When she pulled out the single-sheet letter, two one-hundred dollar bills fell out on the floor. The letter had just three words: "Please come home."
Family Moment
Spend some time talking together about home and what each one loves about it. Ask, "What would you miss most about home if you had to leave?"
An Advent Prayer
Father, we are so happy to be your children and to know that we will have an eternal home in heaven with you. Home is such abeautiful word, and how can we even begin to imagine your home--its splendor, its joy, its peace and comfort and love. Help us to open our home to those who are less fortunate than we are, and to share the magnificent gifts with them that you gave to us on that first Christmas. In Jesus's name, amen.
Today's Advent reading is from 25 Days of Christmas by Greg Johnson. Greg Johnson is the author of more than 20 books. He is President of WordServe Literary Group, a Denver-based literary agency that serves more than 100 authors (www.wordserveliterary.com).
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