Dawn 2 Dusk Held by the VineOn days when you feel dry, hurried, or secretly afraid you’re slipping backward, Jesus’ words in John 15:5 cut through the noise. He pictures Himself as the Vine and us as the branches, fully dependent, entirely connected. He reminds us that any real fruit in our lives—victory over sin, courage to witness, love that keeps forgiving—doesn’t spring out of our willpower, but out of a living union with Him. Apart from Him, we are not just weak; we are unable. But joined to Him, we are not just barely hanging on; we are made abundantly fruitful. Staying Close to the Source Jesus does not invite us into a religious project; He calls us into a living attachment. He says, “I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Branches are not occasionally connected— they live in the vine. In the same way, Christ is not meant to be a weekend add-on or a spiritual emergency kit. He is our life, our strength, our wisdom, our righteousness. To “remain” in Him is to settle the question of who you belong to and where your life actually comes from. This abiding is deeply personal. Paul could say, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). Faith is not just agreeing with doctrines; it is trusting a Person, day after day, as your only source. The more you lean your weight on Christ—your fears, temptations, plans—the more you realize He truly is enough. Remaining in Him means refusing the illusion of independence and joyfully confessing: “Lord, without You, I have nothing and can do nothing—but in You, I lack nothing I truly need.” Fruit That Proves the Root Real connection to Christ always shows. Branches don’t strain to prove they’re alive; they simply stay in the vine and fruit appears. Jesus said, “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:8). Fruit is the visible evidence that the life of Jesus is flowing in you—changed desires, cleaner speech, deeper compassion, growing obedience. When the Father sees that fruit, He is glorified, because everyone knows only Christ could have produced it in a heart like ours. Scripture shows us what this fruit looks like: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). These are not personality upgrades; they are the character of Christ growing in us. Psalm 1 describes the righteous as “like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does” (Psalm 1:3). The more rooted you are in Christ, the more steady you become in storms, the more nourishing your life becomes to others. The world doesn’t just need your opinions; it needs the unmistakable fruit of a life that is truly attached to Jesus. Abiding in the Everyday Moments Abiding is not a mystical fog; it looks very ordinary and very intentional. Jesus links remaining in Him with remaining in His words: “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). Opening your Bible with a surrendered heart is not a box to check; it’s a branch drawing sap from the Vine. Prayer becomes less of a duty and more of a lifeline, a constant turning of your heart toward Him: “Lord, what do You say about this? How do You want me to respond here?” You begin to treat His voice as final, His promises as solid, His commands as good. Abiding also shapes how you walk through your day. “Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6–7). Every decision—how you speak to your spouse, how you respond to that irritating coworker, how you handle hidden sin—is an opportunity either to act like a cut-off branch or to remain in the Vine. Abiding means you carry Christ into your schedule, your phone habits, your entertainments, your disappointments. Today, His call is simple and strong: Don’t try to live for Me on your own. Live from Me, in Me, and through Me. Lord Jesus, thank You for being the true Vine and for giving me Your very life. Teach me today to remain in You in every thought, word, and decision, that my life would bear real fruit for Your glory. Amen. Morning with A.W. Tozer Our Ultimate TeacherWhen we think about spiritual things there is always danger that we think like men instead of like God. Theological truth cannot enter the mind as a separate substance or as an experience complete in itself. It must be grasped by the mind in an act of response; and the response is conditioned by everything that has gone before in the learner's life. Whether or not we are conscious of doing so, we invariably add something to the truth as it enters (or take something away) to make it fit into the total body of ideas we hold and call "truth."
To show how this works let us imagine two men reading the same passage of Scripture, one a Calvinist who has been brought up on Calvinistic theology from his youth, the other reared in the Arminian tradition and thoroughly indoctrinated in Arminianism. The passage they read is Hebrews 6:4-6, "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened - if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance.? The impressions the Calvinist receives from these words will differ radically from those received by the Arminian, yet neither one will be conscious of adding to, subtracting from or otherwise altering the passage in any way. Each will understand the words to mean exactly what he has been taught that they mean. The meaning he sees there will appear to him so natural, so logical and right that he will wonder how anyone can see any other. (And sadly enough each will more than likely think the other a hypocrite who receives his teaching from the devil. But that is not pertinent to this particular argument.) Music For the Soul Sleeping Through JesusFor if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. - 1 Thessalonians 4:14 They " sleep through Him." It is by reason of Christ and His work, and by reason of that alone, that death’s darkness is made beautiful, and death’s grimness is softened down to this. Now, in order to grasp the full meaning of such words as these of the Apostle, we must draw a broad distinction between the physical fact of the ending of corporeal life and the mental condition which is associated with it by us. What we call death, if I may so say, is a complex thing - bodily phenomenon plus conscience; the sense of sin, the certainty of retribution in the dim beyond. And you have to take these two apart. The former remains; but if the other is removed, the whole has changed its character, and is become another thing, and a very little thing. The death of Jesus Christ takes all the - I was going to say the nimbus of apprehension and dread arising from conscience and sin, and the forecast of retribution - takes all that away. There is nothing left for us to face except the physical fact; and any poor soldier, with a coarse red coat upon him, will face that for eighteen pence a day, and think himself well paid. Jesus Christ has abolished death, leaving the mere shell, but taking all the substance out of it. It has become a different thing to men, because in that death of His He has exhausted the bitterness, and has made it possible that we should pass into the shadow, and not fear either conscience or sin or judgment. So, dear " brethren, I would not have you ignorant concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope." And I would have you to remember that whilst Christ by His work has made it possible that the terror may pass away, and death may be softened and minimized into slumber, it will not be so with you - unless you are joined to Him, and by trust in the power of His death, and the overflowing might of His resurrection, have made sure that what He has passed through, you will pass through, and where He is, and what He is, you will be also. Two men die by one railway accident, sitting side by side upon one seat, smashed in one collision. But though the outward fact is the same about each, the reality of their deaths is infinitely different. The one falls asleep through Jesus, in Jesus; the other dies indeed, and the death of his body is only a feeble shadow of the death of the spirit. Do you knit yourself to the Life, which is Christ, and, then, "He that believeth on Me shall never die! " Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Luke 23:27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to his doom, there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and lamentations--fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul can, in imagination, see the Saviour bearing his cross to Calvary, she joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief--cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought. They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried "Crucify him! crucify him!" and laid the cross upon his gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity: but my having been his murderer, is more, infinitely more, grief than one poor fountain of tears can express. Why those women loved and wept it were not hard to guess: but they could not have had greater reasons for love and grief than my heart has. Nain's widow saw her son restored--but I myself have been raised to newness of life. Peter's wife's mother was cured of the fever--but I of the greater plague of sin. Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast--but a whole legion out of me. Mary and Martha were favored with visits--but he dwells with me. His mother bare his body--but he is formed in me the hope of glory. In nothing behind the holy women in debt, let me not be behind them in gratitude or sorrow. "Love and grief my heart dividing, With my tears his feet I'll lave-- Constant still in heart abiding, Weep for him who died to save." Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook The Bible’s Supreme PlaceYes, a true love for the great Book will bring us great peace from the great God and be a great protection to us. Let us live constantly in the society of the law of the LORD, and it will breed in our hearts a restfulness such as nothing else can. The Holy Spirit acts as a Comforter through the Word and sheds abroad those benign influences which calm the tempests of the soul. Nothing is a stumbling block to the man who has the Word of God dwelling in him richly. He takes up his daily cross, and it becomes a delight. For the fiery trial he is prepared and counts it not strange, so as to be utterly cast down by it. He is neither stumbled by prosperity -- as so many are -- nor crushed by adversity -- as others have been -- for he lives beyond the changing circumstances of external life. When his LORD puts before him some great mystery of the faith which makes others cry, "This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" the believer accepts it without question; for his intellectual difficulties are overcome by his reverent awe of the law of the LORD, which is to him the supreme authority to which he joyfully bows. LORD, work in us this love, this peace, this rest, this day. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer Lord, Increase Our FaithTHE believer is as his faith is. If faith is weak, he is fearful, fretful, and troubled; if faith is strong and rightly placed, he is courageous, active, and happy. Faith comes from Jesus, He is its Author; it leads to Jesus, He is its object. Faith is like a grain of mustard-seed, it grows and increases; but Jesus alone can increase our faith. Let us apply to Him this morning, and let this be our prayer, "LORD, INCREASE MY FAITH." Strong faith will believe without feeling, yea, against feelings or appearances. It will trust God where it cannot trace Him; it assures the soul that what He has promised He is able to perform, and will assuredly do so. Great faith will have great trials; for God never gives faith without trying it; and the heat of the furnace is in proportion to the strength of our faith. Little faith lays hold on Christ, and brings salvation: strong faith receives much and often from Christ and brings great consolation. Go to Jesus with the faith thou hast, and plead with Him for the faith He requires. He gives freely to every importunate pleader; and He will assuredly give to thee. O Jesus, now Thyself impart And fix Thy presence in my heart, Give strong and living faith! Then will I throw off every load, And walk delightfully with God, Observing all He saith. Bible League: Living His Word "You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance."— Psalm 65:11 NLT Sometimes we forget that life is to be lived one step at a time. Recently, I was wrongfully terminated for doing something that I didn't do. When the unemployment office provided justice in my favor, I remembered "Be still and know that [He is] God" (Psalm 46:10). Upon resting, the Lord gave me a word in a new tongue. "Luber" is Indonesian for "overflow." After the job loss, I contemplated getting a master's degree in dance and movement therapy, and I felt myself slipping into a "future-tripping" mode of operation. "Lord, WHEN I get the degree title, THEN I'll more effectively minister," I thought. One day, though, I stumbled upon a picture of a dancer with a caption written by another believer. Jeremiah 29:11 was the verse reference; my Christian sister wrote that you can have joy today and dance with the Lord, because even though you don't know the future, God does, and He has promised that it is good. It was profound advice. I began to worship the Lord through dance in my living room, knowing that I'm loved. Right. This. Moment. After all, that's the reason why I worship Him through movement to begin with. My personal relationship with God is wonderful now. I get to live in the moment, one step at a time, being present with God's presence. That, my friend, is "living your best life" currently, without anything else added to or subtracted from your circumstances. The job loss was a shock, yet the reality is that most of life is lived during the moments of journeying, not in summiting the destination. If you are in Christ, you've already summitted your peaceful purpose in this life: being loved by God. That's how "even the hard pathways overflow with abundance." Some days bring shock, while others are mundane; still, we're often impatiently waiting for the days that produce "what we want when we want it." This mindset makes our moments appear to be a hard trek. However, life is to be lived one step at a time. Be present with God's presence today and watch all future-focused worry fade away. What you perceive to be your "hard pathway" right now can overflow with spiritual abundance, or peace, yet today. By Jenny Laux, Bible League International contributor, Wisconsin U.S. Daily Light on the Daily Path Isaiah 43:1 But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!Isaiah 54:4,5 "Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; But you will forget the shame of your youth, And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. • "For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth. Isaiah 44:22 "I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you." 1 Peter 1:19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. Jeremiah 50:34 "Their Redeemer is strong, the LORD of hosts is His name; He will vigorously plead their case So that He may bring rest to the earth, But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon. John 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Galatians 1:3-5 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, • who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, • to whom be the glory forevermore. 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 Pride leads to conflict;those who take advice are wise. Insight “I was wrong” or “I need advice” are difficult phrases to utter because they require humility. Pride is an ingredient in every quarrel. It stirs up conflict and divides people. Humility, by contrast, heals. Challenge Guard against pride. If you find yourself constantly arguing, examine your life for pride. Be open to the advice of others, ask for help when you need it, and be willing to admit your mistakes. Devotional Hours Within the Bible The Temple DedicatedThe temple was seven and a half years in being built. It rose silently. The stones were dressed in the quarries and all the timbers were made ready in the shops, so that no ax or hammer was heard in its erection. Thousands of workmen were engaged in the construction of the temple. The building was magnificent, with its terraced courts, its marble cloisters; then within all this mass of splendor, the temple itself, rising above all, a pile of marble and gold. Then came the dedication. It was a great day. All that vast and costly building had been erected for a definite purpose. It was not to be a great place of meeting for the people, like a Christian cathedral, or a modern church. While the people came to the courts of the temple, none ever entered the temple itself, except the priests. The temple was built expressly to be the home of the ark of God. It would have had no meaning, but for that little wooden chest, with the golden lid, surmounted by the cherubim. So the first thing when the building was finished, was to carry the ark from its old dwelling place in the tabernacle, which Moses had made for it, to this new abiding place now prepared for it. We are to be temples of the Holy Spirit. Our lives, however beautiful, cultured, and worthy they may be, do not reach to their real glory or the divine purpose in their existence, until God is enshrined in them. This is the object of our creation and redemption. If we miss having God in us we have failed in our highest purpose. A great sacrifice was offered. That was the way they worshiped God in those days. The offerings told of praise and rejoicing in the people’s hearts. It was a great day, not only for the king who had built the temple but for the people who had watched its rising. The offerings also spoke of the divine holiness, and of the atonement that must be made for sin. We know that there was no real spiritual efficacy in the sacrifices themselves, which were offered at that service. They had no power to put away sin. They did not cleanse the temple and make it fit to be God’s dwelling place. The Lord did not draw near to the people because of the many animals offered up by them in sacrifice to Him. Yet these offerings had their meaning. They declared that “apart from shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” We know, too, that they had another meaning that they prefigured the great all-availing sacrifice, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” There came another day, a thousand years afterwards, when upon another hilltop close by, the Son of God offered Himself without spot to God as the Redeemer of the world. In His sacrifice, He actually opened the way to God for all who will come to Him. The sacrifices which Solomon and the people offered that day, had their fulfillment and their real meaning in Christ’s sacrifice, when on Calvary He gave His life a ransom for many. After the offering, the ark of God was brought in and taken into its place in the inner sanctuary. This holy apartment was not open to the people. Indeed, no one of them was ever admitted, excepting the high priest. This was not meant to teach that men were really shut away from God; for God is merciful and has always welcomed sinners to Him. The exclusion of men from the Holy of holies, taught that God was holy and that sin could not dwell in His presence. It taught also that access to God can be had only through the Great High Priest. Heaven’s gates are wide open they are never shut; but we can enter only through Christ. “He is able to save to the uttermost all who draw near unto God through Him.” “The cloud filled the house.” This was the Lord actually taking possession of the house which had been built for His dwelling place. It was not an ordinary cloud at all, as we understand the use of the word, that filled the house that day it was the sacred symbol of the divine presence. It was an expression of the wonderful condescension of God, that He should actually accept an earthly temple as a dwelling place. It showed His love for the people of our race. We understand, too, its remoter meaning. This coming of God into the temple was the prefiguration of the Incarnation, when the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. Christ was the true temple. Thus God came down and dwelt with us in very truth. There is still another fulfillment which is to be realized only in the heavenly Jerusalem. This is pictured for us in the book of Revelation, where we read, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” In another place in Revelation, we have a glimpse also of the same glory: “Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat: for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life: and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.” It was a wonderful prayer that the king offered that day at the dedication of the temple. He asked God to accept the house he had built, and make it His dwelling place. We have a temple to dedicate to the Lord. It is a great deal more wonderful building than the house Solomon erected. It is in our own heart! The king asked, “Will God indeed dwell on the earth?” We know that God wants to dwell on the earth, not in houses of marble and cedar and gold but in human hearts. God has two homes, “I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” So we may have a home for God in our heart, which we can dedicate to Him, to be used by Him as a temple. If we have not yet dedicated it to Him, why should we not do so now? Then God will come into our heart. It is said of the king: “He arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling. .. with his hands spread forth toward heaven.” There are three things in Solomon’s attitude in prayer which are suggestive. He prayed before the altar. The altar was the place of sacrifice, and sacrifice meant atonement. All our prayers should be made before the altar; that is, in dependence on the atonement of Christ. That is what we mean when we ask for blessings and favors for Christ’s sake. To pray anywhere but “before the altar” is to pray at unopened doors. We must come in Christ’s name, if we would gain access to the mercy-seat. “No one comes unto the Father but by Me.” The second thing to notice in Solomon’s attitude, is his posture of kneeling. This indicated reverence, humility, submission. Kneeling is always a fit posture before God. He is infinitely greater than we are, and infinitely holy and good. Kneeling also implies submission. A conquered prince kneels to his conqueror, thus indicating surrender, the laying down of arms, and a full allegiance. Whatever may be the posture of our body in prayer, our hearts should always kneel before God. The third thing to mark in the king’s praying, is the spreading of his hands forth toward heaven. Holding out the hands open and empty toward heaven, implies that we expect blessing from God and are ready to receive it. This, too, should be part of every true prayer sense of need, confidence that God will give us what we desire, expectancy, emptiness to be filled. In the building of the temple, Solomon saw the fulfillment of a promise which God had made to Moses hundreds of years before. He praised God for this and testified that not one word of all His good promise had failed. We can say now just as confidently as the king did that day, that in all these centuries since, not one word of all God’s good promise has failed any one of His people. No believer has ever leaned upon a divine promise and had it give way under him. No one has ever trusted the Word of God and had it fail of fulfillment. The most real and sure things in this world are the Words of God. In every one of them, God’s own almighty hand is gloved; we clutch them and find ourselves clutched by Divinity out of whose clasp we never can fall, nor can anyone ever snatch us. We lean upon these Words, and find ourselves encircled and upborne by the everlasting arms! We pillow our heads in weariness or sorrow upon God’s Words of love and comfort and find ourselves drawn close to our Father’s heart and held in His warm bosom and soothed by His tenderness, which is greater and gentler than a mother’s. So all through life in every experience, we may trust the promises of God and commit all our interests to them, and not one of them ever will fail us. We may trust them, too, in death, and we shall find everything just as God has said the divine presence in the dark valley, dying but going home, and absent from the body being at home with the Lord. It is a fit prayer to be always on our lips that God may incline our hearts unto Him, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments. Our hearts are prone to wander and need divine keeping. Fenelon’s prayer was: “Lord, take my heart for I cannot give it to You; and when You have it, O, keep it for I cannot keep it for You; and save me in spite of myself.” God will never compel us to be good and obedient but He will incline us, persuade us, draw us, help us. We need continually, therefore, to pray Him to throw over us the mystic influence of His Holy Spirit, that we may desire holiness and may seek to walk in God’s ways. Solomon asked that God might not forget his prayers, that they might be kept before Him day and night. Many prayers are for more than one answering. When a mother pleads for her child she would have her petition kept before God day and night. She would have God keep His eye ever on her boy, wherever he may be, whatever his danger may be. It is a precious thought that we do not need to be always reminding God of our desires for our friends but that our prayers stay before Him, are not filed away and forgotten, as are so many requests we make in places of power but are always remembered. Even if sometimes we forget to pray, God does not forget, for He knows our love and our heart’s wishes, and will do more for us than we ask or think. Our prayers are kept in heaven. We are told that God keeps our tears in His bottle that is, He remembers our sorrows, and our cries are sacred to Him! Bible in a Year Old Testament Reading1 Samuel 1, 2, 3 1 Samuel 1 -- Samuel Is Born to Hannah and Elkanah NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 1 Samuel 2 -- Hannah's Prayer; Eli's Sons; Samuel's Childhood NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 1 Samuel 3 -- Samuel's Vision of the Fall of Eli's House NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Luke 12:1-34 Luke 12 -- God Knows All; Parable of the Rich Fool; Anxiety; Watchfulness NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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