Dawn 2 Dusk The Keys to Your BodyRomans 6:13 presses a simple but searching question: Who gets access to your hands, your mouth, your mind, and your time? Paul doesn’t treat your body like neutral territory; he treats it like a set of doors and windows that can be opened to sin—or offered to God for something holy and alive. Choosing Your Hands’ Employer Your body will serve something today. If you don’t decide, your old habits will decide for you. That’s why Scripture doesn’t merely say, “Avoid the bad,” but “Offer the good.” Jesus framed it this way: “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). It’s not just about behavior management; it’s about allegiance. Your fingers can scroll into envy or reach out in mercy. Your tongue can sharpen a room with sarcasm or heal it with courage. Start small and concrete: What will your hands build today? What will your eyes feed on? Where will your feet take you? The Lord isn’t asking for vague sincerity; He’s inviting deliberate surrender. “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). That kind of offering turns ordinary moments into worship and makes temptation feel less like a private battle and more like a public question: Who do I represent? From Resisting Sin to Presenting Yourself Many of us know how to say “no,” but Paul pushes further: don’t merely resist sin—present yourself to God. The Christian life isn’t a vacuum where you try not to fail; it’s a new direction where you actively belong to Someone. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1). That’s not gloomy; it’s freeing. A living sacrifice isn’t tossed away—it’s set apart for purpose. And notice the confidence underneath Romans 6: you aren’t presenting yourself to earn life, but because you’ve been brought from death to life. You’re not negotiating with sin anymore; you’re learning new instincts. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). When you stumble, you don’t surrender your identity—you return to your true Owner. Repentance becomes less like groveling and more like coming home and handing the keys back where they belong. Weapons in the Right Hands Paul uses a striking word: “instruments”—tools, even weapons. Your body can become a toolkit for darkness or an arsenal for righteousness. The enemy loves to recruit your strengths for self, your cravings for control, your wounds for bitterness. But God delights to take the same hands that once grasped and turn them into hands that give; the same mouth that once complained and turn it into a mouth that blesses. “For the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). This makes today feel charged with meaning. A conversation could become a battleground for truth and love. A private choice could become a declaration of freedom. You don’t fight alone, either: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). When you present yourself to God, you’re not just removing yourself from sin’s reach—you’re placing yourself within grace’s strength. Father, thank You for bringing me from death to life through Jesus. Take my body today—my words, eyes, hands, and plans—and use me as an instrument of righteousness; help me say no to sin and yes to Your will. Amen. Evening with A.W. Tozer Decisions or Disciples?Today we need people who dare to question the status quo and say, Wait a minute here. Where do you find this in the Bible? The idea that all you have to do is to accept Christ and you are in is a great mistake. It leaves people with the impression that if they accept Christ they have no fight to fight, no warfare, no job to do and no temptations. They are just in. When you accept Christ rightly as your Lord and Savior you are in, but to be honest, you have just started to fight. People get converted and we do not tell them that they must fight all the way through to heaven because of the spirit of degeneration and the tendency to deteriorate. They must fight, pray through, suffer it out and live in praise and worship, because if they do not they will deteriorate. Read the history of the Christian church if you can keep your faith and keep from weeping. Music For the Soul God Guides His People into WorkHe guideth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. - Psalm 23:3 The quiet mercies of the preceding verse are not in themselves the end of our Shepherd’s guidance; they are means to an end, and that is - work. Life is not a fold for His sheep to he down in, but a road for them to walk on. All our blessings of every sort are indeed given us for our delight. They will never fit us for the duties for which they are intended to prepare us, unless they first be thoroughly enjoyed. The highest good they yield is only reached through the lower one. But, then, when joy fills the heart, and life is bounding in the veins, we have to learn that these are granted, not for pleasure only, but for pleasure in order to power. We get them, not to let them pass away like waste steam puffed into empty air, but that we may use them to drive the wheels of life. The waters of happiness are not for a luxurious bath where a man may lie, till, like flax steeped too long, the very fiber be rotted out of him; a quick plunge will brace him, and he will come out refreshed for work. Rest is to fit for work; work is to sweeten rest. All this is emphatically true of the spiritual life; its seasons of communion, its hours on the mount, are to prepare for the sore sad work in the plain. And he is not the wisest disciple who tries to make the Mount of Transfiguration the abiding place for himself and his Lord. It is not well that our chief object should be to enjoy the consolations of religion; it is better to seek first to do the duties enjoined by religion. Our first question should be, not " How may I enjoy God?" but "How may I glorify Him?" " A single eye to His glory " means that even our comfort and joy in religious exercises shall be subordinated, and, if need were, postponed, to the doing of His will. While, on the one hand, there is no more certain means of enjoying Him than that of humbly seeking to walk in the ways of His commandments, on the other hand, there is nothing more evanescent in its nature than a mere emotion, even though it be that of joy in God, unless it be turned into a spring of action for God. Such emotions, like photographs, vanish from the heart unless they be fixed. Work for God is the way to fix them. Joy in God is the strength of work for God, but work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God. Here is the figurative expression of the great evangelical principle, that works of righteousness must follow, not precede, the restoration of the soul. We are justified, not by works, but for works; or, as the Apostle puts it, which sounds like an echo of this psalm, we are " created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." The basis of obedience is the sense of salvation. We work, not for the assurance of acceptance and forgiveness, but from it. First the restored soul; then the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake who has restored me, and restored me that I may be like Him. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening 1 Samuel 15:22 Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. Saul had been commanded to slay utterly all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the king, and suffered his people to take the best of the oxen and of the sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it with a view of offering sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion. The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and to be hung up before the eyes of the present idolatrous generation, who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship, but utterly neglect the laws of God. Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the path of your Saviour's command is better than any outward form of religion; and to hearken to his precept with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams, or any other precious thing to lay upon his altar. If you are failing to keep the least of Christ's commands to his disciples, I pray you be disobedient no longer. All the pretensions you make of attachment to your Master, and all the devout actions which you may perform, are no recompense for disobedience. "To obey," even in the slightest and smallest thing, "is better than sacrifice," however pompous. Talk not of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners; the first thing which God requires of his child is obedience; and though you should give your body to be burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not hearken to the Lord's precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child, but it is a much more blessed thing when one has been taught the lesson, to carry it out to the letter. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse to obey the word of the Lord! My soul, come not thou into their secret. Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Tears, Then Joyful HarvestWeeping times are suitable for sowing: we do not want the ground to be too dry. Seed steeped in the tears of earnest anxiety will come up all the sooner. The salt of prayerful tears will give the good seed a flavor which will preserve it from the worm: truth spoken in awful earnestness has a double life about it. Instead of stopping our sowing because of our weeping, let us redouble our efforts because the season is so propitious. Our heavenly seed could not fitly be sown laughing. Deep sorrow and concern for the souls of others are a far more fit accompaniment of godly teaching than anything like levity. We have heard of men who went to war with a light heart, but they were beaten; and it is mostly so with those who sow in the same style. Come, then, my heart, sow on in thy weeping, for thou has the promise of a joyful harvest. Thou shalt reap. Thou, thyself, shalt see some results of thy labor. This shall come to thee in so large a measure as to give thee joy, which a poor, withered, and scanty harvest would not do. When thine eyes are dim with silver tears, think of the golden corn. Bear cheerfully the present toil and disappointment; for the harvest day will fully recompense thee. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer I Will Call Upon Thee, for Thou Wilt Answer Me.Such was David’s purpose, and such his assurance; and we have the same warrant for confidence as he had. Our God will answer prayer. Let us inquire what is necessary, in order to the assurance that our God will answer us. We must really mean what we say when we pray. We must pray for a definite object. We must pray in accordance with the will of God, as revealed in His promises and precepts. We must pray in submission to the will of God, as to the time when, and the means by which He will answer us. We must heartily desire what we pray for. Our motives must be pure, as that God may be glorified, sin subdued, and Jesus exalted. We must pray with importunity and perseverance. We must offer all our prayers in the name of Jesus, and expect them to be accepted and honoured only for His sake. There must be no sin indulged; for if we indulge iniquity in our hearts, God will not hear our prayer. We must pray in faith, believing that God is, and that He is the rewarder of all them who diligently seek Him. Lord, on me Thy Spirit pour, Turn the stony heart to flesh: And begin from this good hour, To revive Thy work afresh: Lord, revive me! All my help must come from Thee. Bible League: Living His Word Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD."— Jeremiah 17:5 NKJV Who do you trust — the Lord, or people? The question pertains to the kind of trust mentioned in our verse for today. That is, it pertains to religious trust. Religious trust is the kind of trust you put into practice in the final analysis, when all is said and done, and at the end of the matter. It's the kind of trust you give on an unqualified and ultimate basis to that which you take to be worthy of such trust. Religious trust is something more than the kind of trust we ordinarily place in created things. Everyone places trust in created things — more or less, from time to time, and on a limited and qualified basis. Indeed, you have to do it. For example, you have to trust the person you hire to fix your car. You have to trust your spouse to be faithful. You have to trust the alarm clock to wake you up at the right time. You have to trust all sorts of things. Our question, however, is not about ordinary trust, but religious trust. Who do you trust over and above everything else and in an unqualified way: created things, like people, or the Lord? When it is put in this way it is difficult to believe that anyone would ever place religious trust in created things. Created things, people in particular, are just too untrustworthy. You have to trust them on occasion and from time to time, but not on an unqualified and ultimate basis, not without checks and balances. Nevertheless, that's what our verse for today accuses some people of doing. Some people put religious trust in people. It's pathetic, really. But what else can they do? If you reject the Lord, if you depart from Him, the only focus left for your religious trust is something created. The only focus left is something not worthy of religious trust. You're forced to elevate something created to a God-like status it doesn't deserve. Actually, it's worse than pathetic. It's downright sinful. It's the sinful focus of religious trust on something not worthy of it. Moreover, it's the failure to glorify and honor the One who actually is worthy of religious trust. (Romans 1:21). It's the failure to glorify and honor the Lord. That's why there are curses for doing it. You can't disrespect the Lord God of heaven and earth and expect to get away with it. Daily Light on the Daily Path Matthew 6:13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'1 Kings 1:36 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, "Amen! Thus may the LORD, the God of my lord the king, say. Isaiah 65:16 "Because he who is blessed in the earth Will be blessed by the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Will swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight! Hebrews 6:13,16-18 For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, • For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. • In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, • so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. Revelation 3:14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 2 Corinthians 1:20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Psalm 72:18,19 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, Who alone works wonders. • And blessed be His glorious name forever; And may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen. 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 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!Insight The fruit of the Spirit is the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in us. The Spirit produces these character traits that are found in the nature of Christ. They are the by-products of Christ's control—we can't obtain them by trying to get them without his help. Challenge If we want the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us, we must join our lives to his. We must know him, love him, remember him, and imitate him. As a result, we will fulfill the intended purpose of the law—to love God and our neighbors. Which of these qualities do you want the Spirit to produce in you? Devotional Hours Within the Bible Abstaining for the Sake of Others“Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.” When Paul said to the Corinthians that “knowledge puffs up,” he did not mean to depreciate knowledge, nor was he glorifying ignorance. Knowledge builds up, too. He who is content to be ignorant in this world while the stores of knowledge are accessible, fails to grasp the meaning of life. Knowledge makes one’s life broader and deeper and adds to one’s power of usefulness. But there is a knowledge, which makes a man cold, haughty and proud. He stalks through the world, thinking only of himself, without regard to others. He knows his Christian liberty and he thinks no further about it. He says it is no business of his, if any weaker Christians are hurt. They ought not to be so weak. It is all nonsense for them to keep their old superstitions. They cannot expect him to limit his privileges by their narrow scruples. He is going to exercise his liberty without regard to any such childish whims. We may apply the principle to the matter of temperance. A man claims his right to take a glass of wine at dinner. He has always done it, and it has never hurt him. All around him are those who are not so strong as he is. His example may lead them into a course, which will be ruinous in the end. But he knows he has a right to his wine, and that it will do him no harm; so he refuses to think of others. They have no right to be “weak” in this intellectual age. Thus mere “knowledge” puffs up, makes one haughty, vain, coldly selfish. But while, “knowledge puffs up,” “love builds up.” Love may know just as much as knowledge does. The man who has Christian love, knows that there is no harm in eating theses meats. But he knows also that there are Christians only recently converted, who think differently. If he asserts his privilege, he knows it will grieve them, and also may lead them to violate their conscience and thus start on a course of sin, which will end in the loss of their souls. This man, with love as well as knowledge, thinks of other people, and denies himself his liberty rather than harm them by his example. In the case of wine, this same man may feel just as confident as the other of the harmlessness to himself of his glass of drink; but he knows that not all are fortified as he is against the dangers of the wine cup, and he believes Christian love requires him to deny himself rather than put the least danger before any weaker person. He does not talk haughtily about his “rights” and “liberty.” He believes that it is his business to limit his privileges for the sake of his weaker brethren. Even knowledge depends upon love, “if any man loves God the same is known by Him.” We cannot know any person truly, unless we love the person. Mere knowledge sees people critically, sees their faults, the blemishes in them, the mistakes they make, the evil things they do but sees not the good. It takes love, mingled with knowledge to see people as they really are. We should have patience with all men. We should be charitable to all, and charity covers a multitude of sins. Our Lord’s own teaching is, “Judge not that you be not judged.” If only we would see people through eyes of love we would ofttimes find beauty, where now we find only spot and stain. One of the old legends of Jesus, says that as He and the disciples walked one day they saw a dead dog lying by the wayside. The disciples turned with loathing from the dead creature but Jesus remarked, “What beautiful teeth this animal has!” He saw beauty even amid the ruin and loathsomeness of death. An eye for the good and beautiful in others is a mark of a fine, loving character. We never can be of much use in the world until we learn this lesson. Charity should make us mindful of others, who have not the same advantages as we have. Certain things may do us no harm but those very things may do harm to others. The harm is in the influence of example on those whose “conscience being weak, is defiled.” Being influenced by the example of the strong Christian, they do that which they regard as wrong. Thus they sin against God. This meat sacrificed to idols question, which disturbed the Corinthians, will not come up in our modern church life but there are other applications of the same principle. It touches all personal liberty in matters involving no moral wrong. May a man drink wine? How richly may a Christian woman dress at church? How fine a residence may a Christian man build and live in? What games and amusements may Christian people enjoy? There are some things which we must never yield. We must never violate a moral principle, even to please some other one. We have no right to break any commandment of God, for anybody’s sake. It is only in matters involving no moral principle that we are to be ready to yield our liberty. It is no recommendation of us in God’s sight that we do or do not eat certain kinds of food. The laws of diet are not moral laws. We must be ready, therefore, to deny ourselves things that we like if the using of them will do harm to others. The example of the strong, emboldens the weak to do that which he himself thinks to be wrong; and when a man once violates his conscience, he has broken down the fence and started on a course the end of which may be destruction. It is a terrible thing to do even the slightest wrong. Jesus said to those who cause others to stumble, “Whoever shall cause one of these little ones who believe on me to stumble, it would be better for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea!” Such startling words from the Master’s own lips, should make us tremble at the very thought of causing another to stumble. He may stumble into hell and it will be our fault! We must see to it that never through our knowledge, that is through our selfishness in determining not to give up a privilege, does “he who is weak” perish, “the brother for whose sake Christ died.” It does not mean that we tempt the other to some great sin but that we forget that he may be influenced by our example. Thus we see the importance of example. We dare not strut through this world, doing just as we please, as if it mattered not, as if it were no one else’s affair. We must walk softly, ever asking ourselves what the effect of our walk will be upon others. Paul laid down a principle for all time when he said, “Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.” Elsewhere he says, “It is good not to eat flesh, not to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby your brother stumbles.” This was Paul’s application of the law of love. He would rather, as long as he lived, forego the exercise of a personal right, the indulgence of a personal taste than run the risk of causing another to sin. It is good not to drink wine, however harmless one may think it to be if it may make another stumble. Here we have a good temperance motive. Suppose that a man is satisfied that he has a right to drink moderately, and that he can do so with perfect safety to himself and without sinning; but suppose also that his example may cause others who are weaker to drink, and that they will drink to the destruction of their souls. What does this principle of Paul’s say to this man? Very clearly, that he should forego his liberty forever rather than cause his brother to do wrong. The application is very wide, referring to every possible cause: “It is good not to do anything whereby your brother stumbles.” Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingIsaiah 65, 66 Isaiah 65 -- Judgment; Salvation; New heavens and a New earth NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 66 -- Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; Rejoice with Jerusalem NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading 2 Thessalonians 1 2 Thessalonians 1 -- Thanksgiving for Faith, Love, and Patience NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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