Morning
"Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer."
Psalm 66:20
In looking back upon the character of our prayers, if we do it honestly, we shall be filled with wonder that God has ever answered them. There may be some who think their prayers worthy of acceptance--as the Pharisee did; but the true Christian, in a more enlightened retrospect, weeps over his prayers, and if he could retrace his steps he would desire to pray more earnestly. Remember, Christian, how cold thy prayers have been. When in thy closet thou shouldst have wrestled as Jacob did; but instead thereof, thy petitions have been faint and few--far removed from that humble, believing, persevering faith, which cries, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." Yet, wonderful to say, God has heard these cold prayers of thine, and not only heard, but answered them. Reflect also, how infrequent have been thy prayers, unless thou hast been in trouble, and then thou hast gone often to the mercy-seat: but when deliverance has come, where has been thy constant supplication? Yet, notwithstanding thou hast ceased to pray as once thou didst, God has not ceased to bless. When thou hast neglected the mercy-seat, God has not deserted it, but the bright light of the Shekinah has always been visible between the wings of the cherubim. Oh! it is marvellous that the Lord should regard those intermittent spasms of importunity which come and go with our necessities. What a God is he thus to hear the prayers of those who come to him when they have pressing wants, but neglect him when they have received a mercy; who approach him when they are forced to come, but who almost forget to address him when mercies are plentiful and sorrows are few. Let his gracious kindness in hearing such prayers touch our hearts, so that we may henceforth be found "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit."
Evening
"Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ."
Philippians 1:27
The word "conversation" does not merely mean our talk and converse with one another, but the whole course of our life and behaviour in the world. The Greek word signifies the actions and the privileges of citizenship: and thus we are commanded to let our actions, as citizens of the New Jerusalem, be such as becometh the gospel of Christ. What sort of conversation is this? In the first place, the gospel is very simple. So Christians should be simple and plain in their habits. There should be about our manner, our speech, our dress, our whole behaviour, that simplicity which is the very soul of beauty. The gospel is pre-eminently true, it is gold without dross; and the Christian's life will be lustreless and valueless without the jewel of truth. The gospel is a very fearless gospel, it boldly proclaims the truth, whether men like it or not: we must be equally faithful and unflinching. But the gospel is also very gentle. Mark this spirit in its Founder: "a bruised reed he will not break." Some professors are sharper than a thorn-hedge; such men are not like Jesus. Let us seek to win others by the gentleness of our words and acts. The gospel is very loving. It is the message of the God of love to a lost and fallen race. Christ's last command to his disciples was, "Love one another." O for more real, hearty union and love to all the saints; for more tender compassion towards the souls of the worst and vilest of men! We must not forget that the gospel of Christ is holy. It never excuses sin: it pardons it, but only through an atonement. If our life is to resemble the gospel, we must shun, not merely the grosser vices, but everything that would hinder our perfect conformity to Christ. For his sake, for our own sakes, and for the sakes of others, we must strive day by day to let our conversation be more in accordance with his gospel.
Tarshish, Tharshish
[Tär'shish,Thär'shish] - hard orcontemplation. This name is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, principally in connection with a place hard to identify. The navy and ships of Tarshish prove it to have been of maritime importance. Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrongly identified it with Tarsus (1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chron. 9:21; Jonah 1:3; 4:2).
- A grandson of Javan, grandson of Noah ( Gen. 10:4; 1 Chron. 1:7).
- A Benjamite, son of Bilhan, the grandson of Benjamin (1 Chron. 7:10).
- One of the seven highest princes of Persia who were privileged to enter the king's presence when they desired (Esther 1:14).
Today's reading: 1 Chronicles 22-24, John 8:28-59 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: 1 Chronicles 22-24
1 Then David said, "The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel."
Preparations for the Temple
2 So David gave orders to assemble the foreigners residing in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God. 3 He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed. 4 He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought large numbers of them to David....
...read the rest on Bible Gateway
Today's New Testament reading: John 8:28-59
28 So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." 30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him....  | Having trouble seeing this email? View it online. |
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IMAGE IS EVERYTHINGIn the beginning God created all things, and that tells us about his character. The world is a place of beauty, complexity and order, because that is what God is like. But it is when the Genesis account gets to telling us about the creation of humanity that we get the real clue about the meaning of our lives, and the assurance that what God began he will keep going. Even if it means he has to repair and renew. Here is the great clue of life: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). No matter who you are, no matter your age, no matter where you live, this is true: you were made in the image of God. No matter whether rich or poor, healthy or ill, successful or failing in the eyes of the world, this cannot be denied and it cannot be reversed: you were made in the image of God. That’s our template, our purpose, and the only worthwhile pattern of life. But what does it mean? At a basic level it means this: you are less than God (because you were created by God), and you are more than the animals (because the Genesis account said God did a different thing when he created the man and the woman). Having this perspective on life solves so many of our problems. You probably know people who think they are god. No one is going to tell them what to do. There is no higher authority. They steer their own ship. The problem is that the position of God has already been taken. And even the best of human beings make very poor substitutes for God. You probably know people who don’t believe they are any more than animals. They live just by following their appetites and primitive instincts. Or they believe that any educated and enlightened person must give up any naive notions of special human dignity. We are animals–so we should just accept that, they believe. What is ironic about this is that the goal of humanism is to dignify human life. But to remove God from the equation is to relinquish our dignity. Humanism that denies God is a pit. Next time we’ll look at the question: but “like God” in what sense? In the meantime, consider this: what do we need to do to make sure we are not trying to be God, but we are living at a level higher than the animals?
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