Dawn 2 Dusk When the Spotlight ShiftsIt’s natural to want credit—especially when you’ve worked hard, held on through stress, or finally see something go right. But Psalm 115:1 invites us to a better reflex: let the spotlight move off self and land where it belongs—on the Lord’s name, His steadfast love, and His faithfulness. Dying to the Need to Be Noticed The tug for recognition isn’t just pride; sometimes it’s insecurity dressed up as “I just want to be appreciated.” Psalm 115:1 gently cuts through both. If God is truly faithful, then your life doesn’t have to be a performance to prove you matter. You already do—because you belong to Him. John the Baptist modeled this freedom: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). That isn’t self-hatred; it’s sanity. When you stop needing applause, you can finally love people without using them to feed your ego, and you can serve without secretly keeping score. Let Grace Cancel Boasting One of the sweetest tests is success. When something works, the heart wants to say, “Look what I did.” But Scripture keeps pulling our hands off the trophy and pointing upward: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). If salvation is all grace, then everything that flows from it is grace too. That doesn’t make effort meaningless—it makes it worshipful. You can work hard and still refuse to steal glory. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Even ordinary tasks become holy when your aim is God’s honor rather than your image. Trusting God With the Outcome Psalm 115:1 anchors glory in God’s character—His loving devotion and faithfulness—which means your confidence doesn’t have to ride on results. When you’re weak, overlooked, or misunderstood, you can still rest in what God is like. “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). And when you’re strong, successful, and celebrated, you still hand it back. God is clear: “I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not give My glory to another” (Isaiah 42:8). The safest place for your life is where the glory goes to God, the thanks rises to Him quickly, and the credit doesn’t linger in your hands. Lord, thank You for Your loving devotion and faithfulness. Keep me from seeking my own glory today; help me gladly decrease so Christ increases, and let my words and work point to Your name. Amen. Evening with A.W. Tozer Christ’s Unique SacrificeIn a friendly conversation with a Catholic priest I learned from the lips of this appointed spokesman of the Roman Church the philosophy of the Mass. He started with the blood offering of Abel and traced the practice of propitiatory sacrifice down through the Scriptures to the cross. There must always be a sacrifice, he said, and in the Mass the sacrifice is repeated each time the bread and wine are consecrated on the altar. At each celebration of the Mass the sacrifice of Christ is repeated.
If the Mass rests upon the notion of the perpetual sacrifice then its foundation is only sand, for the New Testament is very clear that Christ's sacrifice is a once-for-all act and can never be repeated. Whatever tradition and dogma may say, thus saith the Lord.
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:10-12).
And if that is not plain enough the inspired writer further says, Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (verse 14); and, where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin (verse 18).
Music For the Soul Our Sonship: No Empty TitleLet us not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him. - 1 John 3:18-19 "AND such we are." This is a kind of "aside," in which John adds the Amen for himself and for his poor brothers and sisters, toiling and moiling, obscure among the crowds of Ephesus, to the great truth. He asserts his and their glad consciousness of the reality of the fact of their sonship, which they know to be no empty title. He asserts, too, the present position of that sonship, realizing it as a fact today, amid all commonplace vulgarities and carking cares and petty aims of life’s little day. "Such we are" - the "Here am I, Father," of the child, answering the Father’s call, "My Son." He turns doctrine into experience. He is not content with merely having the thought in his creed, but his heart clasps it, and his whole nature says Amen! to the great truth. I ask you, do you do that? Do not be content with hearing the truth, or even with assenting to it, and believing it in your understandings. The truth is nothing to you, unless you have made it your very own by faith. Do not be satisfied with the orthodox confession; unless it has touched your heart, and made your whole soul thrill with thankful gladness and quiet triumph, it is nothing to you. The mere belief of thirty-nine, or thirty-nine thousand, Articles of Christianity is nothing! But when a man has a true heart-faith in Him whom all articles are meant to make us know and love, then dogma becomes life, and the doctrine feeds the soul. Does it do so with you, my brother? Can you say, " And such are we "? Take another lesson. The Apostle was not afraid to say, "I know that I am a child of God." There are many very good people whose tremulous, timorous lips have never ventured to say " I know." They will say, "Well, I hope," or sometimes, as if that was not uncertain enough, they will put in an adverb or two, and say, " I humbly hope that I am." It is a far robuster kind of Christianity, a far truer one, aye! and a humbler one, too, that throws all considerations of my own character and merits, and all the rest of that rubbish, clean behind me; and when God says " My son! " says " My Father "; and when God calls us His sons and daughters, leaps up and gladly answers, "And we are! " Do not be afraid of being too confident, if your confidence is built on God, and not on yourself; but be afraid of being too diffident, and be afraid of having a great deal of self-righteousness masquerading under the guise of such a profound consciousness of your own unworthiness that you dare not call yourself a child of God. It is not a question of worthiness or unworthiness; it is a question, in the first place and mainly, of the truth of Christ’s promise and the sufficiency of Christ’s Cross; and in a very subordinate degree of anything belonging to you. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation. Come, my soul, think thou of this. Believing in Jesus, thou art actually and effectually cleared from guilt; thou art led out of thy prison. Thou art no more in fetters as a bond-slave; thou art delivered now from the bondage of the law; thou art freed from sin, and canst walk at large as a freeman; thy Saviour's blood has procured thy full discharge. Thou hast a right now to approach thy Father's throne. No flames of vengeance are there to scare thee now; no fiery sword; justice cannot smite the innocent. Thy disabilities are taken away: thou wast once unable to see thy Father's face: thou canst see it now. Thou couldst not speak with him: but now thou hast access with boldness. Once there was a fear of hell upon thee; but thou hast no fear of it now, for how can there be punishment for the guiltless? He who believeth is not condemned, and cannot be punished. And more than all, the privileges thou mightst have enjoyed, if thou hadst never sinned, are thine now that thou art justified. All the blessings which thou wouldst have had if thou hadst kept the law, and more, are thine, because Christ has kept it for thee. All the love and the acceptance which perfect obedience could have obtained of God, belong to thee, because Christ was perfectly obedient on thy behalf, and hath imputed all his merits to thy account, that thou mightst be exceeding rich through him, who for thy sake became exceeding poor. Oh! how great the debt of love and gratitude thou owest to thy Saviour! "A debtor to mercy alone, Of covenant mercy I sing; Nor fear with thy righteousness on, My person and offerings to bring: The terrors of law and of God, With me can have nothing to do; My Saviour's obedience and blood Hide all my transgressions from view." Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Blessed in the FieldSo was Isaac blessed when he walked therein at eventide to meditate. How often has the LORD met us when we have been alone! The hedges and the trees can bear witness to our joy. We look for such blessedness again. So was Boaz blessed when he reaped his harvest, and his workmen met him with benedictions. May the LORD prosper all who drive the plow! Every farmer may urge this promise with God, if indeed he obeys the voice of the LORD God. We go to the field to labor as father Adam did; and since the curse fell on the soil through the sin of Adam the first, it is a great comfort to find a blessing through Adam the second, We go to the field for exercise, and we are happy in the belief that the LORD will bless that exercise and give us health, which we will use to His glory. We go to the field to study nature, and there is nothing in a knowledge of the visible creation which may not be sanctified to the highest uses by the divine benediction. We have at last to go to the field to bury our dead; yea, others will in their turn take us to God’s acre in the field. But we are blessed, whether weeping at the tomb or sleeping in it. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer Search Me, O God.None can search the heart but God; none are desirous or willing for the heart to be searched but real Christians. A believer desires to know the worst. He dreads deception. Grace has made him honest, and he prays, "Lord, search me." If a man was to search, he would expose, irritate, and injure us; but if God search, He will humble, strengthen, and heal us. The man who sees himself in the light of truth, and knows himself as the effect of divine searching, cannot trust himself for one moment. He flees from self to Jesus, from law to grace; he loathes himself; and while he confidently trusts in Jesus, and rejoices in hope, he walks humbly with his God. He cannot boast, he dares not presume; but walks in holiness, and ascribes all to free grace. Beloved, take the heart to Jesus to be searched. He says, "I am He that searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins." If He search you, He will save you from deception, self-righteousness, and every false way. Be this your daily prayer, "Search me, O God, and lead me in the way everlasting. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me: try my reins and my heart." Let a man examine himself. You need searching. Lord, search my heart, and try my ways, And make my soul sincere; Then shall I stand before Thy face, And find acceptance there. Bible League: Living His Word Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about all that silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?” The man of God replied, “The LORD is able to give you much more than this!”— 2 Chronicles 25:9 NLT Amaziah was 25 years old when he became the king of Judah. As soon as he gained the throne, he began the process of organizing his army. His plan was to attack the Edomites. He took a census and found that he had 300,000 select troops. He decided it was not enough and, consequently, he paid 7,500 pounds of silver to hire 100,000 experienced fighting men from the Northern Kingdom of Israel (2 Chronicles 25:5-6). The Lord didn’t like the fact that Amaziah had hired the Israelites. So, He sent a man of God, a prophet, to warn him. The prophet said, “Your Majesty, do not hire troops from Israel, for the LORD is not with Israel. He will not help those people of Ephraim! If you let them go with your troops into battle, you will be defeated by the enemy no matter how well you fight. God will overthrow you, for he has the power to help you or to trip you up.” (2 Chronicles 25:7-8). That’s when Amaziah asked the prophet, “But what about all that silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?” The prophet replied, “The LORD is able to give you much more than this!” Amaziah was obedient and he discharged the hired troops and sent them back to Israel. He then went out without them and defeated the Edomites in battle. (2 Chronicles 25:10-12). Like Amaziah, maybe you’ve taken steps in a direction that you thought was right. You organized your effort and took stock of what you had and what you didn’t have. As a result of this, you decided to make a heavy investment in the effort. The problem, however, was that the Lord was not happy with your plan. He had other plans for you. What do you do now about the investment? What about all the time and money you’ve spent? Does it make any sense to just throw it away? The message in our verse for today is simple. It’s more important to obey the Lord. He’s more than able to make up for anything you lose as a result of being obedient to Him. Daily Light on the Daily Path Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction, That Your word has revived me.1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. John 5:26 "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; John 11:25,26 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, • and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 1:4,12,13 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. • But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, • who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. I called on the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies. Insight God's protection of his people is limitless and can take many forms. David characterized God's care with five military symbols. God is like (1) a rock that can't be moved by any who would harm us, (2) a fortress or place of safety where the enemy can't follow, (3) a shield that comes between us and harm, (4) a horn of salvation—a symbol of might and power, and (5) a stronghold high above our enemies. Challenge If you need protection, look to God. Devotional Hours Within the Bible The Curse of MerozIt was in the days of the judges. The Israelites were suffering sore oppression under their ancient enemies, the Canaanites. Deborah was raised up as a deliverer. She called Barak, a brave general, to her aid, and an army of ten thousand men was gathered. With this army, Deborah and Barak went against the army of Sisera and were victorious. Sisera’s horses and chariots were put to flight and his men slain in battle. Sisera himself, after playing a timid and unsoldierly part, was slain by a woman, who drove a nail through his head. Thus a great victory was achieved under Deborah’s leadership of her people. In this battle nearly all the people were loyal and enthusiastic. They “willingly offered themselves.” But there were some that held back. One village, or hamlet, in particular, is mentioned which took no part in the effort to cast off the oppressor’s yoke. When the call for men went forth over all the country, the call to patriots to arise and come to battle with the foe, Meroz did not respond. In Deborah’s song of victory after the battle occurs this solemn anathema: ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord. ‘Curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.’ Judges 5:23 What was the cause of this curse? What had the people of Meroz done? They had not joined with the enemies of the country. They had not harbored the foe within their gates. They had not spoken disloyal words when the nation was in danger. They had only not come to the battle when the call rang in their ears. Almost the whole land responded. From north, south, east and west they came the patriot Israelites to help drive out the enemy and bring deliverance. But amid this universal outpouring, there was one place from which no soldier came. The curse was for not doing . The story is old but the lesson is always timely. Every good cause is the cause of God. The battle is forever going on in this world, and the trumpet is evermore sounding, calling men to the help of the Lord against the mighty. It is not enough not to be against the right, the true and the good; God wants us to come to His help in every contest. Not to act for God is to act against Him. “He who is not with Me,” said the Master, “is against Me.” We are not told why the inhabitants of Meroz did not come to help in the battle that day. We may think of several possible reasons: It may have been from cowardice. Perhaps the men of Meroz feared to go to battle against such strong and cruel enemies. However it may have been that day there is no doubt that the cause of the inaction of many men in the Lord’s work in these times, is moral cowardice. No man wants to be called a coward. It is an insult to his manliness. Yet moral cowardice is a great deal more common than most of us would like to confess. Too many people are held back by it from faithful service for Christ. Men are not brave enough to be peculiar, to stand out alone, to wear their colors where other people do not wear them. They do not take an active part in Christian work because somebody would laugh or sneer. Or the inhabitants of Meroz may have thought there were so few of them that they could be of little use, and that it was not worth while for them to go up to battle. “We cannot do anything to help. We are not warriors. We could not add to the force of the army. We may as well stay quietly at home.” That is the way many Christian people talk about the Lord’s work. They have no talents. They would be no strength, to the good cause that lacks assistance. They are not talkers, or they have little money to give, or they cannot do any church work. So they stay in their tents and come not to the help of the Lord. Their conscious littleness is a burden to them. It is a large tribe this tribe of Meroz. We find them everywhere. They are not of any use to God, because they think they could not do anything, and therefore fold their hands and sit still. Israel won the battle that day without the men of Meroz. But it might easily have been that the absence of a handful from the ranks had caused defeat and disaster. There are times when the failure of one person to do his duty in his place has brought disaster to a cause. Miss Havergal tells her experience in a girls’ school at Dusseldorf. When she entered the school she discovered that she was the only Christian in a company of a hundred. Her sensitive heart shrank from confessing Christ there. What good could it do? One little voice for Christ, could not make itself heard amid all the din of worldliness and triviality. Her second, better thought, however, was: “I dare not hide my religion. I am the only one Christ has in this school to represent Him among these girls, and I dare not hide my light. I must own myself as Christ’s friend.” No one can tell what a loss it would have been to the cause of Christ if this one young girl had not come to the help of the Lord in that school. Perhaps you are the only one Christ has at some particular point, where your failure to come to His help would cause irreparable hurt to His Kingdom, perhaps be the occasion of the perishing of a soul. You are the only one to stand for your Master in your home, in your class in school, in the office or store where you are engaged. In our schoolbooks we have read of the boy who, one evening at his play, found a little leak in the dike that walls the sea off from Holland. He stopped the leak with his hand until help could come, calling meanwhile as loudly as he could. But no one came, and all night the boy held his hand to the place and kept back the floods. Soon the tiny stream would have washed a wide break in the dike, and the waters would have poured over fields and homes. All night long there was nothing between the sea and the ruin of the people’s homes, but a boy’s hand. Suppose the boy had failed? Suppose he had said: “I cannot do anything. I am not able to keep back these floods”? Who can measure the disaster that would have followed his failure? Do you know that your life may not stand, any quiet day, and be all that stands between some great flood of moral ruin, and broad, fair fields of beauty? Do you know that your failure in your lowly place and duty may not let in a sea of disaster, which would sweep away human hopes and joys? Or even if it would make no difference to the cause of Christ whether we do our part or not, it makes infinite difference to ourselves. You remember the cost to the man with one talent of his failure to use his talent. He lost it! It was taken from him. Not using our gifts, however small, is the sure way to the losing of them. The penalty of indolence, is the loss of the power to be useful. Meroz was cursed because her people came not to the help of the Lord. The battle was won without Meroz but Meroz never got again what it lost that day. Or the inhabitants of Meroz may have stayed back from sheer indolence. They had their own little affairs to attend to their vineyards, their gardens, their fields. They were comfortable in their pleasant homes among the hills. They were interested in the saving of their country. They hoped that Deborah would conquer and that the cruel yoke of the Canaanites would be thrown off. But almost everybody was going to the battle, and the people of Meroz felt sure that victory was certain without them. So they self-indulgently kept out of the conflict, stayed at home and looked after their own personal interests. They seemed to be saving their lives and sparing themselves much cost and loss and sacrifice. Yes but when it was all over, when the battle had been fought and the victory won without them, this curse rang out: ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord. ‘Curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.’ This was the outcome of the self - saving of Meroz. No doubt if the thoughts of men’s hearts were read, it would appear that much of the uselessness of people’s lives could be traced to this cause, self-indulgence, unwillingness to make sacrifices for the sake of Christ’s Kingdom. We are all the time in serious danger of living for SELF, of putting our own affairs first, of neglecting the duties which we owe to others, of withholding ourselves even from service and sacrifice for Christ. The centering of our thought and effort on SELF is always a fatal error in any life and always brings a curse with it. It is easy to allow self-indulgence to come to rule in our habits. Others need us but we are busy with our own affairs, and are not willing to put ourselves out to help them. That was the trouble with the priest and the Levite on the Jericho road. They did not want to give up their time and to be at the expense and pains necessary to assist the wounded man. Who does not ofttimes commit the same mistake? We see about us those who are in need, perhaps of spiritual help, perhaps of help for the body. But to do that which is required, we would have to miss some engagement, some good time, some season of rest, to give up some ease or gain or comfort or pleasure of our own. There is a little struggle in our heart, and then we decide that we cannot turn aside from our own business, or give up our own convenience, or make the self-denial. The result is that we come not to the help of the Lord. We have saved our life. We are spared the discomfort or the sacrifice. Our hands are not soiled with the rough work. We have our money still in our pocket. But as we go back to our self-seeking pursuits we hear the words ringing out: ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the LORD. ‘Curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty.’ We have saved our life but we have failed God and received a curse instead of a blessing! Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingLeviticus 15, 16, 17 Leviticus 15 -- Cleansing Unhealthy Discharges NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Leviticus 16 -- The Day of Atonement NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Leviticus 17 -- Blood Designated for Atonement, Forbidden as Food NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 27:1-31 Matthew 27 -- Judas Hangs Himself; Jesus' Trial, Crucifixion and Burial NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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