Dawn 2 Dusk Love With Shoes OnJohn ties love to movement: a steady walk that follows what God has already spoken. He doesn’t let love drift into vague feelings; he anchors it to obedience that has been the way from the start. Love That Walks, Not Talks It’s easy to say “I love God” and still keep a careful distance from what He commands. But biblical love has traction. It shows up in what we choose when no one is clapping, in the words we won’t say, the promises we keep, the forgiveness we give, and the purity we protect. Jesus made the connection plain: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) Not to earn His love, but because His love has taken root in us. Love isn’t just a warm idea—it’s loyalty in action. Commandments as a Path, Not a Cage Sometimes we hear “commandments” and think restriction, but God’s commands are a path to life. They don’t shrink the soul; they train it. They don’t smother joy; they guard it from counterfeit versions that always cost more than they promise. Scripture says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3) When we’re tempted to negotiate or delay obedience, it helps to remember that His Word isn’t a weight on our shoulders—it’s “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105) Stay in the Teaching, Stay in the Love Walking in love means staying close to what Christ has taught—because real love always has truth in it. In a world that redefines love as self-first and boundaryless, God calls us to a love that is faithful, discerning, and anchored in Jesus Himself. And this walk isn’t theoretical. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” (James 1:22) Today is an opportunity to love with your choices: to obey quickly, to repent honestly, to speak truth graciously, and to do “the good works God prepared in advance as our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:10) Father, thank You for loving us first and for giving us a clear path to walk; help me obey You today with a willing heart, and make my love visible in action. Amen. Evening with A.W. Tozer Faith DivisionsIt should always be kept in mind that the Church is a divine family and that its loyalties sometimes cut sharply across the ties that bind earthly families together. The cross is a sword and often separates friends and divides households. The idea that Christ always brings peace and patches up differences is found nowhere in His own teachings. Quite the contrary is true. For a man to cast in his lot with Christ often means that he will be opposed by his blood relatives and will find his true family ties only in the community of regenerated souls.
Surely it is a most desirable thing to be reared in a Christian home. When a young man or woman is thus happily situated, conversion to Christ brings no rift to the family circle but rather seals and cements the earthly ties. We see sometimes whole families from the aged grandparents to the youngest child all joyously serving the Lord, and hardly anything under the sun could be more delightful. But it is not often so. More often the presence of a true Christian in the home, if it does not actually divide, does at least bring a serious divergence of interest and puts a real strain upon the solidarity of the household. Music For the Soul Unconscious Power for ServiceWe know not with what we must serve the Lord. - Exodus 10:26 The weakest and the lowest, the roughest and the hardest, the most selfishly-absorbed man and woman amongst us has lying in him and her dormant capacities for flaming up into such a splendor of devotion, and magnificence of heroic self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice as is represented in many words of the Bible. A mother will do it for her child, and never think that she has done anything extraordinary; husbands will do such things for wives; wives for husbands; friends and lovers for one another. All who love the sweetness and power of the bond of affection know that there is nothing more gladsome than to fling one’s self away for the sake of those whom we love. And the capacity for such love and sacrifice lies in all of us; prosaic, commonplace people as we are, with no great field on which to work out our heroism’s, yet it is in us all to love and give ourselves away thus if once the heart be stirred. If once the capacity is roused to action, it will make a man blessed and dignified as nothing else will. The joy of unselfish love is the purest joy that man can taste; the joy of perfect self-sacrifice is the highest joy that humanity can possess, - and it lies open for us all. And wherever, in some humble measure, these emotions of which I have been speaking are realized, there you get weakness springing up into strength, and the ignoble into loftiness. Astronomers tell us that, sometimes, a star that has shone inconspicuous, away down in their catalogs fifth or sixth magnitude, will all at once flame out, having kindled and caught fire somehow, and will blaze in the heavens, outshining Jupiter and Venus. And so some poor, vulgar, narrow nature, touched by this Promethean fire of pure love that leads to perfect sacrifice, will "flame in the forehead of the morning sky," an undying splendor, and a light for evermore. All have this capacity in them, and all are responsible for the use of it. What have you done with it? Is there any person or thing in this world that has ever been able to lift you up out of your miserable selves? Is there any magnet that has proved strong enough to raise you from the low levels along which your life creeps? Have you ever known the thrill of resolving to become the bond servant and the slave of some great cause not your own? Or are you, as so many are, like spiders living in the midst of your web, mainly intent upon what it can catch for you? Have you ever set a light to that inert mass of enthusiasm that lies in you? Have you ever woke up the sleeper? Learn the lesson that there is nothing that so ennobles and dignifies a common nature as enthusiasm for a great cause, self-sacrificing love for a worthy heart. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Luke 2:20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. What was the subject of their praise? They praised God for what they had heard--for the good tidings of great joy that a Saviour was born unto them. Let us copy them; let us also raise a song of thanksgiving that we have heard of Jesus and his salvation. They also praised God for what they had seen. There is the sweetest music--what we have experienced, what we have felt within, what we have made our own--"the things which we have made touching the King." It is not enough to hear about Jesus: mere hearing may tune the harp, but the fingers of living faith must create the music. If you have seen Jesus with the God-giving sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among the harp strings, but loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and harp. One point for which they praised God was the agreement between what they had heard and what they had seen. Observe the last sentence--"As it was told unto them." Have you not found the gospel to be in yourselves just what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said he would give you rest--have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in him? He said you should have joy, and comfort, and life through believing in him--have you not received all these? Are not his ways ways of pleasantness, and his paths paths of peace? Surely you can say with the queen of Sheba, "The half has not been told me." I have found Christ more sweet than his servants ever said he was. I looked upon his likeness as they painted it, but it was a mere daub compared with himself; for the King in his beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness. Surely what we have "seen" keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds, what we have "heard." Let us, then, glorify and praise God for a Saviour so precious, and so satisfying. Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Tears Shall CeaseYes, we shall carne to this if we are believers. Sorrow shalt cease, and tears shall be wiped away. This is the world of weeping, but it passes away. There shall be a new heaven and a new earth, so says the first verse of this chapter; and therefore there will be nothing to weep over concerning the Fall and its consequent miseries. Read the second verse and note how it speaks of the bride and her marriage. The Lamb’s wedding is a time for boundless pleasure, and tears would be out of place. The third verse says that God Himself will dwell among men; and surely at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore, and tears can no longer flow. What will our state be when there will be no more sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain? This will be more glorious than we can as yet imagine. O eyes that are red with weeping, cease your scalding flow, for in a little while ye shall know no more tears! None can wipe tears away like the God of love, but He is coming to do it. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Come, LORD, and tarry not; for now both men and women must weep! The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer We Have an AdvocateYes: Jesus pleads for us in heaven. By His own blood He entered once into the holiest, there to appear in the presence of God FOR US. He pleads for us against Satan, answering all his accusations; and for us with the Father, that we may be kept, supplied, and glorified. O what a comfort when the heart is straitened in prayer, when the mouth is closed by guilt, when the spirit is harassed by temptation, to know that Jesus as our Advocate appears and pleads for us above! Beloved, Jesus is before God for YOU this morning, and every morning; and the benefit of His intercession you daily enjoy. When doubting and fearful, put your cause afresh into His hands, and leave Him to carry it; He can plead well; His arguments are powerful, and His manner is Divine. Keep Jesus before thee this day as thy Advocate; rejoice in His office and name, and remember He is saying, "Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, to behold My glory." Him the Father heareth always; and all for whom He pleads are safe and shall be happy. Look up, my soul, with cheerful eye; See where the great Redeemer stands, The glorious Advocate on high, With precious incense in His hands; And on His pleading still depend, Who is thy Advocate and Friend. Bible League: Living His Word The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.— Isaiah 9:2 NLT Apart from Christ, people walk in darkness. The sun, of course, still shines and the things of life can still be seen. The darkness in question is not physical darkness, but spiritual darkness. It's the kind of darkness in which you see things clearly, but without understanding their true meaning and purpose. For example, you view God's creation, but you don't see it as God's creation. You see sin and evil, but you don't see them as sin and evil. You see goodness and grace, but you don't see them as such. Your physical sight is 20/20, but your spiritual sight is far less. People who live in a land of deep darkness don't know who they are and what they stand for. They live in God's world, they're indebted to His will and ways, but they don't realize it or act like it. As a result, they sin against God by going their own way. They pay a heavy price for this. Indeed, they pay the heaviest of prices. The Apostle Paul says of them, "But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." (Romans 2:5) The good news is that there's a spiritual light available. There's a spiritual light that can shine into the land of spiritual darkness and light it up. Jesus is the light. He's the light because His teachings explain the world as it really is, and His life models the way we should go in the world. The Apostle John said, "... his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." (John 1:4-5) You don't have to make use of the spiritual light, you can stay in the darkness if you want, but you can never keep it from shining. Today, then, make use of the light, accept it for what it is. If you do, you will start to see things as they really are, and you will start to act like you really should act. Your transformation will be radical—like night to day. Daily Light on the Daily Path Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Isaiah 27:8 You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind. Psalm 103:13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. • For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, • while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Hebrews 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 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 If I have sinned, what have I done to you,O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? Am I a burden to you? Insight Job referred to God as a watcher or observer of humanity. He was expressing the feeling that God seemed like an enemy to him—someone who mercilessly watched him squirm in his misery. We know that God does watch over everything that happens to us. Challenge We must never forget that he sees us with compassion, not merely with critical scrutiny. His eyes are eyes of love. Devotional Hours Within the Bible Crossing the Red Sea“At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well! Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead! Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night. “Leave us!” he cried. “Go away, all of you! Go and serve the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, and be gone!” The people of Egypt were urgent that the Israelites should be sent away in haste. “If they are not, we are all dead men,” they said. The Egyptians were disposed to be kind also to the Israelites, and responded generously to their requests for gifts, jewels of silver and gold and clothing. The children of Israel took their journey, gathering together, perhaps two million people in all, and began their march. It was four hundred and thirty years since the little company had come down to Egypt. God’s covenant with Abraham had been fulfilled. “Know for certain,” God had said to him, “that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” When Pharaoh had thrust the people out of his land, God took charge of them. He chose the route they were to take. The shortest way would have been through the country of the Philistines but that route was avoided, because they would have had to fight their way, and they were not trained soldiers and might be afraid and turn back again to Egypt. God never leads His people by any way that is too hard for them. He has compassion on our inexperience and weakness . It is mentioned in the narrative, that the bones of Joseph were taken by Moses when the people moved. They had been kept unburied, because they were to be laid to rest in the land of promise. The people had Divine guidance the Lord Himself led them, even directing their movements so as to draw Pharaoh’s pursuing army to destruction. The narrative is full of instruction. It shows us that God is in all our life. We do not think enough of this indeed, we sometimes forget it altogether. It will do us great benefit, to see the Divine part in all this story. Pharaoh was sorry that he had let Israel go, and soon was in hot pursuit. The Lord did not hinder him but so directed the Hebrews that they were safe. They were in great terror when they found that the Egyptian army was closing in behind them. Moses quieted them, bidding them not to be afraid but to stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah. “Jehovah Himself will fight for you. You won’t have to lift a finger in your defense!” We need not be afraid to believe this record. This is history written from the Divine side. We see only the human side, and write our history from what men do. Here we see God proposing, planning and active in all things. There always are these two sides in life. We think that we are directing our affairs but One we cannot see is the real Master and director. “God is on the field when He is most invisible.” Some men may tell us that the world has now got quite beyond belief in such a narrative as this. But this is God’s world as truly as ever it was, and God is on the field as actually as He was that night by the Red Sea! There is no conflict here with science. There comes a time when prayer is not the duty. Moses was called to get up off his knees, and lead the people forward. They thought they were hopelessly shut in between the mountains and the sea, with Pharaoh’s army behind them. But they did not see the way of escape before them, through the sea! They did not need to cry to God for deliverance they needed only to go forward . They had a heavenly escort the angel of the Lord, first before them, and then behind them. It is always safe to follow the guidance of an angel of God. God never sends a heavenly messenger to lead us into unsafe ways. This angel was revealed in the form of cloud land fire. Sometimes God sends us angels that wear robes of sorrow. It was wonderful guidance which God gave to His people in their marches out of Egypt. By day the pillar of cloud sheltered them; and then by night the same cloud was fire, to fill their camp with brightness. By day it was shelter, by night it was light, and always it was guidance . This was supernatural guidance but we have God’s presence just as really, though in no visible pillar, to lead us in life. God guides His people by His Word, by His Providence, by His Spirit. If we truly want to be led and are willing to follow unquestioningly, we shall never be left long in perplexity, as to the way we should take. Our guidance is given to us only as we will receive it and follow it. God does not compel us to go in the right way. Nor is the guidance given in maps and charts, showing us miles and miles of the road at one glance; it is given only step by step as we go on. At a certain time, the angel changed his position and went behind the people. The pillar of cloud also moved and took its place behind them. Sometimes it is not guidance that we most need. Sometimes we must stand still, and then God goes behind us to shelter us, when there is danger behind us. He always suits Himself to our needs. When it is guidance we need He leads us. But when we need protection He puts Himself between us and the danger. There is something very striking in this picture the Divine presence moving behind and becoming a wall between Israel and their enemies. There are some mother - birds that cover their young with their own bodies in time of peril to shield them, receiving the dart themselves. Human love often interposes itself as a shield to protect its own. On the cross Jesus bared His bosom to receive the storm, that on His people no blast of the awful tempest might strike! Not only does Christ put Himself between us and our sins; He puts Himself also between us and any danger! Many of our dangers come upon us from behind. They are stealthy, insidious, treacherous, assaulting us when we are unaware of their nearness. The tempter is cunning, shrewd, watching for opportunities to destroy us. He does not meet us full-front. We need a guardian behind us to shelter and defend us. It is a comfort to know that our Savior comes behind us when it is there that we need the protection! The pillar stood between the Egyptians and the Israelites. But it was not the same to the two camps. The same cloud was darkness to the Egyptians, gloom, hostility, confusing and hindering them; and to the Israelites light, friendly, favorable, showing the way. To His own people God is light, protection, shelter, blessing but those who are not reconciled to Him, who are fighting against Him, do not find these favoring things in Him. To the unreconciled, the thought of God brings terror and alarm. The truth that God perfectly sees into every heart brings to the Christian a sense of security, and fills him with peace and confidence; but the same truth makes the unreconciled sinner tremble. God’s providence in like manner has this double aspect. The Christian sees God’s love everywhere. He knows that all things are working together for good to him because he is God’s child. He sees his Father ordering and shaping all events with loving wisdom, and he is never afraid. Every flower breathes love. When he cannot understand what God is doing he trusts the heart of God, and waits. But to him who does not have God as his friend this same Providence is a dark mystery. He has no sense of safety, no assurance of protection, no consciousness of God’s love anywhere in the universe for him. Death also to the unbeliever is a dark cloud, filled with terrors but to the Christian it is a glorious blaze of Divine love, a pathway of light through the valley into the heavenly glory! It will be the same also in judgment. To His own people Christ will then be all glorious, and His appearance will give unspeakable joy; but to the ungodly His presence will bring terror! As the people went forward they found an open way. God had cut the path for them through surging waters. Thus God always opens ways for His people, when they are following His guidance. He never asks us to take paths which do not lead at length, into blessedness. He never leads us into traps that we may be destroyed by enemies. Sometimes we think we are shut in, and that no way can be made for us out of our difficulties; but we have only to wait for God, and at the right time He will open the door for us. We have only one thing to care for that we are doing God’s will and obeying His commandments. All else belongs to Him, and He will never fail us. Thus God always changes dangers into walls of safety for those who obey Him, and go firmly in the path of duty. So it is continually in life. Things we dread, when we go quietly forward in Christ’s name to meet them become helpers and protectors. We need never be afraid of anything into which our Master leads us if we are faithfully following Him. “All things are yours,” all things become your helpers. The storms only waft your barque towards home. The sickness that shuts you in teaches you new songs. The sorrow that makes life dark for you enriches you with heavenly comforts. While the Lord was leading His own people in the light, helping them on He was making it hard for their enemies. On one side of the cloud an eye of love looked down upon the people of God; on the other side it was the eye of an offended Judge which looked out on those who were fighting against God and trying to destroy His people. It makes a world of difference with us on which side of God we are on! From the one side love streams; from the other side wrath bursts! A great fort in war times, is a protection to those who are inside its walls! Amid the roar and crash they can lie down and sleep in peace. But those outside the fortification find no such protection from it. The walls that shelter those within frown upon those without, and from its guns the deadly fire belches. So God is the refuge of those who have fled to Him for safety but it is a terrible thing to have God against us, to be on the wrong side, among His enemies! The Egyptians at last saw that it was a resistless power against which they were contending, and that they could only be destroyed if they followed further, and they sought to retreat. But it was too late. They had gone too far in fighting against the Almighty ! The destruction of the Egyptians was complete. They had seen the Israelites enter the parted sea, and supposed they could go in the same open way. But where the former found safety the latter found death. The path which God opens for His own people is not a safe path for His enemies. It was not made for them. The very Providence that protects the former, destroys the latter. There are many promises to those who believe in Christ and follow Him; but not one of these is for those who believe not on Him. The angels who protect the one destroy the other. The waters which are a defense for God’s own children become a flood to overwhelm His enemies! Let no unbelieving person venture into the way marked out for God’s own children, hoping while unrepentant to find the same protection and blessing that they have found! Life is full of illustrations of this truth but its most striking application is to death. The believer finds the way open. “Why, there is no river here!” exclaimed a dying Christian. God opens a path through the waters for His own people. But not so for the unbeliever; death’s waters roll over him and overwhelm him in their blackness! Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingExodus 16, 17, 18 Exodus 16 -- Manna, Quail and the Sabbath NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Exodus 17 -- Water from the Rock; the Defeat of the Amalekites NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Exodus 18 -- Jethro Visits and Counsels Moses NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 19:16-30 Matthew 19 -- Divorce; Jesus and the Little Children; the Rich Young Ruler NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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