Dawn 2 Dusk Held Together by the Unseen KingSome days life feels stitched together with loose thread—plans tugged out of shape, emotions fraying, the future uncertain. Colossians 1:17 pulls our attention to the One who existed before anything we can name and who actively keeps everything from flying apart. This isn’t a distant idea; it’s a daily anchor. Living in the “Before” of Jesus Before your calendar, before your family story, before your regrets and your dreams—He is. That means Jesus isn’t simply one option among many supports you can lean on; He is the ground beneath every support. When your mind races and you start measuring your security by what you can control, remember what is already true: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The One who holds your life is not moody, not fickle, not improvising. And because He is “before,” He is not threatened by what comes next. We get anxious because we stand inside time, staring at what we can’t see. He stands over time, fully present, fully Lord. Scripture invites us to rest our fears where they belong: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Trust is not denial; it’s choosing a better foundation. Held Together When Everything Feels Loose Colossians 1:17 doesn’t just tell us who Jesus is; it tells us what He is doing right now—sustaining, holding, keeping. The same Christ who spoke galaxies into existence is attentive to your ordinary Tuesday and your heavy conversations. When it feels like your circumstances are unraveling, you’re not abandoned to chaos. “He upholds all things by His powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3). If all things includes stars and seasons, it surely includes your heart. This is where peace becomes practical. Not a personality trait, not positive thinking, but a Person. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you… Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid” (John 14:27). Notice: He gives peace while the world is still the world. Holding doesn’t always mean immediate fixing; it means nothing is slipping out of His hands. Joining His Order in a Chaotic World If Jesus holds all things together, then following Him means we stop partnering with what fractures—bitterness, pride, secret sin, anxious striving—and start partnering with what restores. God is not the author of spiritual disorder in you; “For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). When your soul feels scattered, that’s an invitation to come back under His rule, where alignment brings life. So what does it look like today to live “held together”? It can be as simple as choosing obedience when it’s inconvenient, forgiving when you’d rather rehearse the offense, speaking truth gently instead of winning an argument. “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). The One who holds the universe also shapes a steady life—one faithful decision at a time. Father, thank You that Jesus is before all things and holds my life together. Help me trust You today, obey quickly, and bring Your peace into every place I touch. Amen. Evening with A.W. Tozer Persistence in Going OnIsrael allowed themselves to settle down and became contented with circumstances that were all right, but which could and did break their spirit of adventure and cause them to accept the status quo as being final for them. Every once in a while through prophet, apostle or psalmist, God stretches out His hand and tries to arouse His people from their sleep. Somebody once said that man is made of dust and dust tends to settle. People tend to settle down and do the same things year in and year out, slowly going around in a circle. When this gets into religion, it is deadly and evil. The majority of Christians are asleep and in a spiritual rut. Sometimes Christians who realize they are in a rut put pressure on others to adopt their viewpoint. But even if truth does not convince and persuade a man or woman, nobody has the right to set up a pyschological squeeze on someone else. If people yield under pressure, it shows that they are too weak to resist. If they are too weak to resist, and if they take a religious position because they are too weak to resist, they will also be too weak to persist. When we follow Christ there must be persistence. We must go on. Music For the Soul Christ’s Voluntary SufferingsTherefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. - John 10:17-18 All the suffering and solitude of Christ were voluntarily endured, and that for us. All man’s sorrow He experienced. Every ingredient that adds bitterness to our cup was familiar to His taste, ind He tasted them, as He tasted death, "for every man," that His experience of them might make them less hard for us to bear, and that the touch of His lips lingering on the cup might sweeten the draught for us. His endurance of this, as of all the sorrows of human life, was at every moment a fresh act of willing surrender of Himself for us. He wore our manhood and He bore manhood’s griefs, not because He must, but because He would. He willed to be born. He willed to abide in the flesh. He willed, pang by pang, to bear our sorrows. He could have ended it all. But His love held Him here. That was the cord which bound Him to the stake. His enemies were wiser than they knew, when they mocked at Him, and said He saved others - and precisely, therefore - Himself He cannot save. So all that drear solitude in which He groped for a hand to grasp and found none was voluntarily borne and was as truly a part of His bearing the consequences of man’s sin, as when He bowed His head to death, and, therefore, to be gazed on by us with thankfulness as an element in the suffering wherewith He has redeemed us. These thoughts may encourage us all to bear the necessary isolation of life, and in a special manner may strengthen some of us whom God in His providence has called upon to live outwardly lonely lives. But after all companionship, we have to live alone. Each man has to live his own life. We come singly into the world; and though God setteth the solitary in families, and there are manifold blessings of love and companionship for most of us, yet the awful burden of personality weighs upon us all. Alone we live in the depths of our hearts; alone we have to front joy and sorrow. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself, and, if thou scornest, thou alone shall bear it. The heart knoweth its own bitterness. All human love feels its own limitations in presence of the impossibility of sharing the bodily sicknesses of those nearest to us. Two hearts shall be bound in closest love, and the one shall beat languidly in a wasted frame and the other throb in ruddy health. Two hearts shall be knit in tender sympathy, and the one shall have a sense of guilt from some dark passage in its past history, of which no shadow falls on the other. For some of us solitary days are appointed. We may think of Christ and see the prints of His footsteps before us on the loneliest road. If any of us are called to know the pain of unsatisfied longings for earthly companions, let us stretch out our hands to lay hold on the hand of that solitary Man who knew this, as He knows all, sorrow. He felt all the bitterness of having to stand alone, with no arm to lean upon and no heart to trust. If we are left alone, let us make Christ our companion. We shall not be utterly solitary if He is with us. Perhaps God takes away earthly props that our love and desires may reach higher, and twine round the throne where Christ sits. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Acts 1:8 And ye shall be witnesses unto me. In order to learn how to discharge your duty as a witness for Christ, look at his example. He is always witnessing: by the well of Samaria, or in the Temple of Jerusalem: by the lake of Gennesaret, or on the mountain's brow. He is witnessing night and day; his mighty prayers are as vocal to God as his daily services. He witnesses under all circumstances; Scribes and Pharisees cannot shut his mouth; even before Pilate he witnesses a good confession. He witnesses so clearly, and distinctly that there is no mistake in him. Christian, make your life a clear testimony. Be you as the brook wherein you may see every stone at the bottom--not as the muddy creek, of which you only see the surface--but clear and transparent, so that your heart's love to God and man may be visible to all. You need not say, "I am true:" be true. Boast not of integrity, but be upright. So shall your testimony be such that men cannot help seeing it. Never, for fear of feeble man, restrain your witness. Your lips have been warmed with a coal from off the altar; let them speak as like heaven-touched lips should do. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand." Watch not the clouds, consult not the wind--in season and out of season witness for the Saviour, and if it shall come to pass that for Christ's sake and the gospel's you shall endure suffering in any shape, shrink not, but rejoice in the honor thus conferred upon you, that you are counted worthy to suffer with your Lord; and joy also in this--that your sufferings, your losses, and persecutions shall make you a platform, from which the more vigorously and with greater power you shall witness for Christ Jesus. Study your great Exemplar, and be filled with his Spirit. Remember that you need much teaching, much upholding, much grace, and much humility, if your witnessing is to be to your Master's glory. Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook True Humility RewardedIt ought not to be difficult for us to humble ourselves, for what have we to be proud of? We ought to take the lowest place without being told to do so. If we are sensible and honest, we shall be little in our own eyes. Especially before the LORD in prayer we shall shrink to nothing. There we cannot speak of merit, for we have none; our one and only appeal must be to mercy: "God be merciful to me a sinner." Here is a cheering word from the throne. We shall be exalted by the LORD if we humble ourselves. For us the way upward is downhill. When we are stripped of self we are clothed with humility, and this is the best of wear. The LORD will exalt us in peace and happiness of mind; He will exalt us into knowledge of His Word and fellowship with Himself; He will exalt us in the enjoyment of sure pardon and justification. The LORD puts His honors upon those who can wear them to the honor of the Giver. He gives usefulness, acceptance, and influence to those who will not be puffed up by them but will be abased by a sense of greater responsibility. Neither God nor man will care to lift up a man who lifts up himself; but both God and good men unite to honor modest worth. O LORD, sink me in self that I may rise in Thee. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer As Having Nothing, and Yet Possessing All ThingsThe Lord’s family are generally poor; men may look at them as having nothing valuable, important, or calculated to make them happy; but in reality they possess all things, because God is theirs. Our God has said, "I am their inheritance," and we say, "Thou art my portion, O Lord." His eternity is the date of our happiness; His unchangeableness, the rock of our rest; His omnipotence, our constant guard; His faithfulness, our daily security; His mercies, our overflowing store; His omniscience, our careful overseer; His wisdom, our judicious counsellor; His justice, our stern avenger; His omnipresence, our sweet company; His holiness, the fountain from which we receive sanctifying grace; His all-sufficiency, the lot of our inheritance; and His infinity, the extent of our glorious portion. This is the blessedness of the people of the Lord: they have God for their God, and all His perfections engaged to make them blessed. O love the Lord! Live upon the Lord! Glorify God in the day of visitation! Make Him your portion and everlasting all! To us the privilege is given To be the sons and heirs of heaven; Sons of the God who reigns on high, And heirs of joys beyond the sky: Oh, may our conduct ever prove Our filial piety and love. Bible League: Living His Word Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. — Psalm 100:4—5 ESV Scientists and psychologists of the previous century have studied and recognized that gratitude is a positive attribute of life, generally improving one's sense of well—being and cultivating generosity in many ways throughout society. Research in the last two decades of the 21st century has both verified and clarified this idea. A study just two years ago by the Mayo Clinic confirmed that behavior changes biology. Evidently, the expression of gratitude more rapidly dispenses the hormone oxytocin from the posterior pituitary gland (a hormone more generally related to both male and female reproductive functions). Scientists are finding expanded considerations of the hormone in the improvement of the immune system, of sleep, and of mood in cultivating relationships with other people. The summary article concluded that those who determine to express thanksgiving benefit from very positive results. God, of course, knew of this from the beginning! Throughout Scripture, God reminds His people to be thankful and to express thanksgiving close to 140 times. In our verses for today, through the psalmist, He reminds those who would go through the eight gates of the temple court to begin to set their mind on gratitude. Even while they were walking into the courtyard, they were to begin giving thanks for all the goodness of the Lord. Then, as they entered in, they would be prepared to bless His name; and if they needed any ideas as to what to offer as a blessing, they could remember the constancy and endurance of God's love and faithfulness upon His people throughout all time! Obviously, what was true for God's people of an earlier era is true for His people today. Begin expressing thanks for the very goodness of the Lord in your life and discover your ability to give praise more readily to God who loves you and desires to draw you closer to Himself. Glenn Sunshine of the Colson Center recently reviewed the history of the German Lutheran pastor Martin Rinkart (1586—1649) who served in the region of Ellenburg during the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, a time of destruction more dire than that of World War 1. As a city of refuge during the war, because of its surrounding wall, it also became a hotbed of disease and death because of the years of plague throughout Europe. Many sick people found their way and lay at the doors of the church, with Rinkart left alone to tend them and bury the dead. In all, he tended to over 4,500 people who would die, including his wife. It is said that there were days he performed up to 50 funerals. Surprisingly, amid such daily difficulties, Rinkart penned prayers and hymns of worship that were full of praise, trust, and constant thanksgiving for God's goodness to him. One such table prayer we know well, for it is found in every hymnal of every denomination since its writing: "Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices. Who wondrous things hath done, in whom His world rejoices. Who from our mother's arms hath blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today." Rinkart joins the chorus of many others both in the Scripture and throughout the history of the church who found joy in their faith by learning to express deep gratitude to God who loves, protects, and provides for His children throughout the ages. May we continue this habit of the heart throughout this season of thanksgiving. By Bill Niblette, Ph.D., Bible League International staff, Pennsylvania U.S. Daily Light on the Daily Path James 5:11 We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.Romans 5:3-5 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; • and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; • and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 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. James 1:2,4,12 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, • And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. • Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. • Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. 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 So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.Insight Paul told the Colossian Christians not to let others criticize their diet or their religious ceremonies. Instead of outward observance, believers should focus on faith in Christ alone. Our worship, traditions, and ceremonies can help bring us close to God, but we should never criticize fellow Christians whose traditions and ceremonies differ from ours. More important than how we worship is that we worship Christ. Challenge Don't let anyone judge you. You are responsible to Christ. Devotional Hours Within the Bible Beneficial Warnings“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” It was not easy for Christ to be our Redeemer. He was in this world as the Captain of our salvation, and His work here was a conflict. He came to destroy the works of the Devil. He met sin and sin’s influences everywhere. It was not easy for Him to fight the battle. He resisted unto blood, striving against sin. He went to the cross for us, bearing our sin. We are His followers, and should be inspired by His example should arm ourselves with the same mind. Jesus taught that not only He must bear His cross but that every one that would follow Him must likewise take up the cross. He taught that the only way to save one’s life is to lose it, to hate it, to be ready to sacrifice it. We never can get through life victoriously, unless we fight. The armor we need is not something to put on outside but a holy heart and mind within. That was Christ’s armor as He went through life. He had no helmet of brass, no sword of steel; His holy purpose was His armor, and He was victorious. If we have a pure heart and a holy life, the world will have no power over us. The best armor is the armor of the soul. We are not to understand that the Christian who has died with Christ, shall never sin any more but that he has given up his sins, repented of them, and renounced them. He used to make his sins part of the aim of his life. He loved them; his heart ran to them greedily. Now he is a Christian, he has taken Christ as his Savior, he has found mercy. Hence he gives up the sins which he used to commit. Instead of following the devices and desires of his own evil heart he now lives according to the will of God. This is the way every Christian should live. We should crucify the flesh the old evil things, and let Christ live in us. This is the change that Christ works in every life that is given to Him. That is what the new birth means. There is an old legend of an instrument which hung upon a castle wall. Its strings were broken and it was filled with dust. No one understood it, and no one could put it in order. But one day a stranger came to the castle. He saw the instrument on the wall. Taking it down, he quickly brushed the webs of dust from it, and with gentle hand reset the broken strings and began to play upon it. The chords long silent awoke, beneath his touch, and the castle was filled with rich music. Every human life, in its unrenewed state, is such a harp, with broken strings, tarnished by sin. It is capable of giving forth music marvelously rich and sweet but first it must be restored, and the only one who can do this is the maker of the harp, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only He can bring the jangled chords of our life into tune, so that when played upon, they shall give forth sweet music. If we would make our lives beautiful, we must surrender them into the hands of Him who alone can repair and restore them. “As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.” Not a moment of life should ever be given up to sin. Life is too precious to be stained and wasted in evil. Those who are thus throwing away their life should instantly abandon all that is wrong, and turn to God and to the life to which He invites them. The time past which has been spent in sin is surely enough for such a ruinous waste. Few things are sadder, than the story of one who lives in sin all his days and then, at the last, creeps back to God’s feet to find mercy. One such, lying in a hospital, and near unto death, was very happy, for he had found Christ and had the assurance of eternal life. A friend said to him, “You are not afraid to die?” “No,” answered the man, “but I am ashamed to die.” He was ashamed because he had nothing to bring to God but a wasted life forgiven at last but of no service in the world. The words used in the third verse, which describe the life of wickedness, are black with shame. We turn away from them with loathing, if we are walking in Christ’s way. But we must not forget that these very words describe what is going on continually in thousands of places. Modern life is no better than was the life of men nineteen hundred years ago. This is the end to which sin leads. We need not go to the slums to find this picture realized; we can find it in many places which are regarded as respectable and high-toned. The encouraging note in this sad verse, is that the evil things he named were things of the past of those to whom Peter wrote. The gospel of Christ saves men. It turns men’s Sodoms into Edens ! “They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you!” Those who find their pleasures in sin’s evil and debasing ways, cannot understand the secret of the Christian’s joy. They think it must be dreary and dismal to be a Christian. They cannot conceive of any happiness in the life which turns away from sinful indulgences, which restrains evil appetites and passions, which curbs the natural sinful desires. To them it seems impossible that there should be any real joy in living a holy life, in walking with God, in prayer and Bible reading and hymn singing or in Christian work and fellowship. The blessedness of the Christian life is all a mystery to those who know only this world’s detestable life, and find their pleasures in lust or passion. A prayer meeting would be to them intolerably dreary, because they know not God and have no fellowship with Him. “But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” It is not only in this world, that the superiority of the Christian’s exalted position is seen; the world to come will also reveal this. This world does not mean the end of life; it goes on into the unseen future, and things begun here are finished there. We are sowing now, and there will be a harvest by and by, when we shall reap there what we have sown. Those who sow in the flesh shall reap corruption from the flesh. Those who live in unrestrained lust and unbridled passion must give account to God. They are without excuse, for the gospel was preached “even to the dead.” Some people trouble themselves about the heathen who have died without hearing the gospel. But we may safely leave them in God’s hands. We need never fear that He will be unjust to any soul He has made. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right!” We need not fret ourselves over any such questions. Our only care need be that we who have the gospel shall live worthily of the gospel. We, too, shall have to give an account of our privileges and how we have used them. We must remember, too, that to whom much is given of the same shall it be required. “The end of all things is near! Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” In view of the eternity on whose edge we are living all the while, we should walk thoughtfully and prayerfully. We do not know when the end of this life for us may be. This should not sadden us and spoil this world for us that is not the way God wants us to be affected by thoughts of eternity. But we should look at life seriously and learn to live earnestly. If any day may be our last, we should make every day beautiful enough and complete enough to be a fitting last day. We should leave none of its duties undone, none of its tasks unfinished. We should live unselfishly and kindly, so as to leave no pain or bitterness in any heart. Then, we should live in constant communion with God a life of prayer. We need God at every point, at every step, and no day can be beautiful or complete, without its portion of divine help. A day without prayer is never a good day. “Above all, LOVE each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” Above all things, we must be loving. Love is always the most important thing. One may be honest and truthful and just and upright and diligent and sound in the faith and yet if he has not love his life shows a great lack. Paul tells us this in the wonderful thirteenth chapter of Corinthians. Christians should be affectionate among themselves. Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” Love makes us patient with others. We all have our faults our friends have their faults but if we love them we do not see their faults. We overlook the things that are not beautiful, and see them as Christ sees them. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJeremiah 46, 47, 48 Jeremiah 46 -- Jeremiah Prophesies the Overthrow of Pharaoh's Army at Euphrates NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 47 -- Prophecy against the Philistines NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 48 -- Prophecy against Moab NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Hebrews 4 Hebrews 4 -- The Sabbath-Rest; Jesus the Great High Priest NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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