Dawn 2 Dusk When Peace Calls the ShotsThere are so many contenders vying to rule your heart—fear, anger, insecurity, the latest headline or notification. In Colossians 3:15, Paul points to a very different ruler: the peace that comes from Christ Himself. He reminds us that this peace is tied to our calling together as one body and that it flourishes in an atmosphere of thankfulness. Today is an invitation to step out of inner chaos and let Christ’s peace take the lead. Let the King of Peace Rule “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15) Notice that little word “let.” Peace is not something you manufacture; it is something you yield to. To “rule” is to act like an umpire, deciding what gets to stay and what has to go. Christ doesn’t offer a vague calm; He gives His own peace: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) Letting that peace rule is intensely practical. It means when anxiety surges, you don’t let it call the shots—you hand the situation to God in prayer. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6–7) Today, when something rattles you, pause and ask, “What would it look like, right now, for the peace of Christ to make this decision instead of my fear?” One Body, One Atmosphere Paul doesn’t stop at your inner world; he immediately reminds you that “to this you were called as members of one body” (Colossians 3:15). The peace of Christ is not just a private feeling—it’s meant to be the shared atmosphere of His church. If Christ’s peace is ruling in me and in you, then there is a powerful foundation for unity, even when we disagree. Scripture urges, “So then, let us pursue what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Romans 14:19) That means we don’t just avoid conflict; we actively chase what makes for peace—listening carefully, speaking gently, forgiving quickly. Instead of winning arguments, we aim to win our brother or sister. We “preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3) by refusing to let bitterness, gossip, or pride be in charge. Ask yourself: in my home, my church, my online interactions, am I contributing to an atmosphere where Christ’s peace can rule, or am I quietly feeding division? Gratitude: The Guardian of Peace Paul ends the verse with three simple words: “And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15) That’s not a throwaway line; it’s a key. A thankful heart is inhospitable to constant turmoil. When you deliberately remember who God is and what He has done, your soul begins to align with His peace. Just a few lines later Paul writes, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17) Gratitude is a discipline, not a mood. You give thanks in the middle of unanswered prayers, not just after the breakthrough. Scripture calls you to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18), because God’s will is that your heart stay anchored in Him, not in your situation. Today, name specific gifts—salvation, daily bread, people you love, mercies you don’t deserve. As you practice thanksgiving, you’ll find it quietly reinforcing the rule of Christ’s peace in places where anxiety once ran wild. Lord Jesus, thank You for giving me Your peace. Today, teach me to let that peace rule my heart and my relationships, and to walk in thankful obedience to You. Amen. Morning with A.W. Tozer When Pentecost CameAs we read the New Testament, we find a very simple and very plain and very forceful truth-the Holy Spirit makes a difference! Consider the early disciples-Jesus Himself had taught them for more than three years-the greatest Bible school! But still He had to caution them and encourage them not to depend on their own wisdom and strength: "Tarry ye . . . until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49b). He promised that they would receive the Person of the Holy Spirit to carry out His plan of world evangelization. After Pentecost, the Spirit brought them a new and vivid consciousness of the actual Presence of God. He gave them the gifts of divine joy and peace. He gave them great and continuing delight in prayer and communion with God! Finally, we recall that before Pentecost the disciples could only ask questions. After Pentecost, throughout the record in the book of Acts, they stood in the authority of the Spirit and answered all of the questions of the people concerning God's plan of salvation through the crucified and risen Christ! Music For the Soul The Sleep of DeathOur friend Lazarus is fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. - John 11:11 It is to Jesus primarily that the New Testament writers owe their use of this gracious emblem of sleep. For, as you remember, the word was twice upon our Lord’s lips; once when, over the twelve year-old maid, from whom life had barely ebbed away, he said, "She is not dead, but sleepeth"; and once when, in regard of the man Lazarus, from whom life had removed further, he said, " Our friend sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of his sleep." But Jesus was not the originator of the expression. You find it in the Old Testament, where the prophet Daniel, speaking of the end of the days and the bodily resurrection, designates those who share in it as " them that sleep in the dust of the earth." And the Old Testament was not the sole origin of the phrase. For it is too natural, too much in accordance with the visibilities of death, not to have suggested itself to many hearts and been shrined in many tongues. Many an inscription of Greek and Roman date speaks sadly of death under this figure. But almost always it is with the added, deepened note of despair, that it is a sleep which knows no waking, but lasts through eternal night. Now, the Christian thought associated with this emblem is the precise opposite of the pagan one. The pagan heart shrank from the ugly thing because it was so ugly. So dark and deep a dread coiled round the man as he contemplated it that he sought to drape the grimness in some kind of thin transparent veil, and to put the buffer of a word between him and its ugliness. But the Christian’s motive for the use of the word is the precise opposite. He uses the gentler expression because the thing has become gentler. You find one class of representations in the New Testament which speak of death as being a departing and a being with Christ; or which call it, as one of the Apostles does, an "exodus," where it is softened down to be merely a change of environment, a change of locality. Then another class of representations speak of it as "putting off this my tabernacle," or, the dissolution of the " earthly house" - where there is a broad, firm line of demarcation drawn between the inhabitant and the habitation, and the thing is softened down to be a mere change of dwelling. Again, another class of expressions speak of it as being an "offering," where the main idea is that of a voluntary surrender, a sacrifice or libation of myself, and my life poured out upon the altar of God. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Psalm 22:14 My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his God, "Be not far from me," for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father's love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord's countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord's feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever. Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook He Remembers No MoreWhen we know the LORD, we receive the forgiveness of sins. We know Him as the God of grace, passing by our transgressions. What a joyful discovery is this! But how divinely is this promise worded: the LORD promises no more to remember our sins! Can God forget? He says He will, and He means what He says. He will regard us as though we had never sinned. The great atonement so effectually removed all sin that it is to the mind of God no more in existence. The believer is now in Christ Jesus, as accepted as Adam in his innocence; yea, more so, for he wears a divine righteousness, and that of Adam was but human. The great LORD will not remember our sins so as to punish them, or so as to love us one atom the less because of them. As a debt when paid ceases to be a debt, even so doth the LORD make a complete obliteration of the iniquity of His people. When we are mourning over our transgressions and shortcomings, and this is our duty as long as we live, let us at the same time rejoice that they will never be mentioned against us. This makes us hate sin. God’s free pardon makes us anxious never again to grieve Him by disobedience. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer He Cannot Deny HimselfGOD has opened His heart to us in His word. He has told us all His mind, He intends every word He has spoken, and will fulfill every promise He has made. He cannot deny Himself or falsify His word; He can have no temptation to do so. Man may be fickle, He is but a bruised reed; Jehovah is always the same, He is the Rock of Ages. He will have compassion on the miserable who seek His face; and show mercy to all who plead with Him in Jesus’ name. He cannot cast out a coming sinner, or refuse to receive a confessing backslider. He cannot turn a deaf ear to our cries, or refuse to deliver us when we call on His name. He will take His own time, but will never dishonour His faithful word. He will be rigidly faithful, both to His threatenings and promises. Let us take courage and trust in Him; we have His word, it is true, from the beginning; we have this assurance, that HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF. Let us then stay ourselves on the word of our God; let us trust Him, though the night be dark and the burden be heavy. He exhorts, "Trust ye in JEHOVAH for ever, for in JAH, JEHOVAH. there is everlasting strength." Engraved as in eternal brass The mighty promise shines; Nor can the powers of darkness rase Those everlasting lines. Bible League: Living His Word And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.— Exodus 13:21 ESV When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt there was no pillar of cloud or pillar of fire to lead them along the way. Why not? It's because they were not going anywhere. They were stuck where they were. They were stuck in a life of sin and slavery. If the Lord had shown up and given them a sign that showed them the way, they probably would not have been spiritually mature enough to have followed it. Indeed, they probably would not have even realized that they were being given a sign. Spiritually immature as they were, signs would have been wasted on them. Once they broke free from their Egyptians slavery, however, signs became important. The Lord showed up and showed them the way. He did it with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. That way they could travel by day or by night. The point is, the Lord was leading them night and day. If the pillars did not move, then the Israelites knew that they should not move from that place. If the pillars began moving again, the people knew it was time to break camp and follow them (Exodus 40:36-38). There was a time when the leading of the Lord would have been wasted on you as well. Although you were a Christian, you were still caught up in the sin and slavery of your personal Egyptian experience and too immature to have followed the Lord anywhere. When you finally broke free from Egypt, however, everything changed. It's a difficult journey from Egypt to the Promised Land and now you need all the guidance you can get. You may not see any pillars up ahead of you, but the Lord is leading you just the same. Indeed, just as He did for the Israelites, He's leading you night and day. If you want to make it to the Promised Land, then you must pay heed to His direction. If you want to make it, then you'll move when the Lord moves, and you'll stop when the Lord stops. Daily Light on the Daily Path Romans 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,Hebrews 10:1,2 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. • Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? Acts 13:39 and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. Hebrews 2:14-17 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, • and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. • For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. • Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 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 Pride goes before destruction,and haughtiness before a fall. Insight Proud people take little account of their weaknesses and do not anticipate stumbling blocks. They think they are above the frailties of common people. In this state of mind they are easily tripped up. Ironically, proud people seldom realize that pride is their problem, although everyone around them is well aware of it. Challenge Ask someone you trust whether self-satisfaction has blinded you to warning signs. He or she may help you avoid a fall. Devotional Hours Within the Bible Solomon’s SinThe religion of Solomon has been much discussed. It has been generally supposed that he was not as good a man as David. Yet David was not ideal in his religious character. He had grave defects. The often quoted saying, that he was a man after God’s own heart, probably had chief reference to his conduct as a king rather than to his personal moral life. The name of Solomon was not stained by such crimes and cruelties as was David’s. He began his life worthily, showing a sincere desire to please God. He delighted in the worship of God. In building the temple he showed devoutness. His prayer at the dedication of the temple ranks among the most remarkable “devotional utterances to be found in pre-Christian devotional literature.” Just when Solomon’s apostasy began, we do not know. “When he was old” is the only indication of the time in the Scripture. The nature and extent of his departure from the Lord are not definitely defined. It is said that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. He loved many foreign wives and these drew him from his loyalty to Jehovah. A good wife is a great blessing to a man. Many a man owes everything to his wife. Many great men who have risen to honor and power and to noble character, have said that they owed it all to their wives. But Solomon made two mistakes : First, he had too many wives. Any plural number is too many. One wife is “a good thing,” if she is a faithful and true woman; but more than one brings a curse, and not a blessing. Solomon had many wives, and it is no wonder that they turned both his head and his heart . The other mistake was that his wives were not godly women. He did not follow God’s counsel in choosing his wives but married heathen women. They did not convert to the faith of Solomon’s house but remained heathen in the holy city. They must have chapels and priests for their different gods, and in the very shadow of the temple, the smoke arose from many a heathen altar. At first Solomon only permitted these ceremonies, tolerating all religions; but later, as he grew older, he attended upon the rites, and his heart was turned away after heathen deities. These foreign wives were from the very tribes which the Israelites had been commanded to destroy utterly. “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.” 1 Kings 11:1-4 Thus his religious life was wrecked! The lesson has its solemn warning for all young people, not to form intimate relations with those who are wicked. To do so almost surely leads to apostasy from God and to ruin in the end. It is pathetic to note that it was in his old age that Solomon was thus led away. Many men stand through their middle life and past it, and then in their advanced years depart from God and fall into sin. His heart was turned away after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God. The trouble was in his heart. It was his heart that was turned away not his head. It was not a change of theological views or opinions that led to his defection. His heart was not perfect in its loyalty. The life follows the heart wherever it leads. The heart determines the character; the heart is the character, as God sees it. It is the heart, therefore, that needs keeping with all diligence. Solomon’s heart wholly devoted in its aim and motive to God and His service. None but Christ was ever perfect in character. David’s heart is here referred to as perfect. Yet he was not free from sin. He was perfect in his loyalty to God. He never turned away after any other gods. He fell once into sad sin but his deep penitence afterwards shows how true was the cleaving of his life to God. David had an undivided heart for God; Solomon had a corner in his heart for the Lord, and then other corners for the gods of all the other nations. The Master said: “You cannot serve God and mammon.” No one can serve the Lord and any other god. We need to be on our guard against this Solomonian religion. There is plenty of it all about us. It is very broad Church, and liberal. It abhors the preaching of the severe truths of God’s Word about sin and damnation, and about holiness. It sends well-nigh everybody to heaven, and regards hell as a mere fable. It calls strict Christians puritanic or strait-laced, and finds no use for such psalms as the Fifty-first. It is not hard to see in this verse, however, which of the two kinds of religion pleases God the better and which leads to the better end. If what his religion did for Solomon is a fair sample of the outcome of that sort of religion it does not appear to be quite satisfactory. The turning of Solomon from the Lord was very serious. It was not negative merely. It did not end with a change of opinion. “He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.” 1 Kings 11:5-8. His apostasy was complete. He seems to have abandoned the temple which he had built for the Lord. At least he built chapels and shrines for all the gods of his wives and worshiped in them, degrading Jehovah to the level of the idols of the heathen nations! No wonder that Solomon lost the favor of the true God. All God’s promises to him were conditioned upon his obedience and faithfulness. “The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord.” We must not forget God’s uncompromising hatred of sin, and His inflexible justice while we extol His mercy and love. It is utterly impossible for us to turn away from Him, and yet have Him remain near to us in His gracious, favoring presence. We cannot leave His ways and hope to have Him walk with us. Holiness of heart and life is the unvarying condition of divine blessing. God does not withdraw His love from His children when they sin but He does withdraw His approving smile, without which life withers; and the blessedness of His favor can be restored only when we come back to Him from our wanderings with penitence and renewed consecration to obedience and holy living. The fact that the Lord had graciously appeared twice to Solomon is noted as an element of aggravation in his sin. Matthew Henry says: “God keeps account of the gracious visits He makes us, whether we do or no; knows how often He has appeared to us and for us, and will remember it against us if we turn from Him.” Every such gracious visit to us, adds to our responsibility for obedience and holy service. The more we know of God and the greater the favor He shows us the sorer is our sin if we forsake Him and go back to sin. A sculptor had a vision of Christ, which he reproduced in stone. He believed that he had seen the Christ in his vision, and that the form he had chiseled in the marble, was the very image of the glorious Person who had appeared to him. He grew famous afterwards and was asked to make statues of certain heathen deities. But he refused, saying: “A man who has seen the Christ would commit sacrilege, if he were to employ his art in the carving of a pagan goddess. My art is henceforth a consecrated thing.” When Solomon had seen the Lord in vision not once only but twice he should have been forever a consecrated man. The eyes that looked upon the Lord, should never have lusted after earth’s pleasures. The hands that had fashioned a glorious temple for God, should never have built chapels and altars for heathen deities. Solomon’s sins were far greater because of the special favors God had granted to him. Have we seen Christ? Has He appeared to us in His Word, or in prayer, or at the holy table? Let us not forget that having seen Christ, should set us apart forever for His service and for holy living. The Lord appeared again to Solomon in some way; at least He spoke to him in solemn warning: “Since you have not kept my covenant and have disobeyed my laws, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants.” God will not leave His work in the hands of those who will not obey Him. The vessels that He employs must be clean. He tries men with trusts. If they prove faithful He continues the trusts in their hands, and adds others. If they prove unfaithful and unworthy, He takes from them the things He has committed to them. It is personal obedience that is here made the test. Solomon may still have been a wise king, a good administrator but he was no longer a godly man. His heart was not right, his life was not holy, he was disobedient to God’s commands; and it was on account of this personal unholiness, that the kingdom was to be torn from him. In these days there is a great deal of talk about public and private character in men who aspire to office. Some contend that the people have no right to inquire into a man’s personal moral character; that they have to do only with the questions of his statesmanship and general ability for government. Very clearly, it was Solomon’s private and personal character, that brought upon him the divine wrath. God wants men with pure hearts and clean lives to represent Him in places of power and authority. The Lord was still gracious to Solomon. He would rend the kingdom from him but not until his life was completed. “But for the sake of your father, David, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son.” Lives are woven together, and the influence of one falls upon another. A godly man transmits blessings to his children, and one who turns away from God robs his children of blessings that ought to be theirs. David’s godly life kept from Solomon the visitation of the full consequence of his sin. There are many of us enjoying blessings on our thoughtless, reckless lives, because we had pious parents who walked in the ways of God and pleased Him. Their prayers form a shelter over our heads that shields us from the consequences of our own sins. But there are many people who, just like Solomon, live so as to rob their own children of the honors and privileges that they might and ought to transmit to them. Solomon’s son did not receive the kingdom of all Israel, getting but a fragment of it and it was Solomon’s fault! The man who, by drunkenness or gambling, or indolence or extravagance, wastes the fortune God has given him and transmits beggary to his children is guilty of like sin. Many children suffer sorely for the sins of their fathers! Bible in a Year Old Testament Reading1 Samuel 10, 11, 12 1 Samuel 10 -- Saul becomes King NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 1 Samuel 11 -- Saul Rescues Jabesh from the Ammonites; Saul Confirmed as King NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 1 Samuel 12 -- Samuel testifies to Israel; God sends Thunder and Israel Repents NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Luke 13:22-35 Luke 13 -- Call to Repent; Healing on the Sabbath; Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast; Enter by the Narrow Door NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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