Dawn 2 Dusk Mercy Over the Finish LineSome days feel like a race you can’t win. You push harder, try to be better, do more, and yet your heart still whispers, “Not enough.” Romans 9:16 shatters that lie. It reminds us that the decisive thing in your salvation and calling is not how hard you run or how badly you want it, but the mercy of God. That truth doesn’t make effort meaningless; it puts effort in its rightful place—far beneath the sovereign, surprising kindness of a God who loves to show mercy. When Effort Isn’t Enough We live in a world that runs on scoreboards—grades, promotions, followers, wins and losses. Without even noticing, we start to treat God the same way, as if He is tallying our quiet times, our church attendance, our “good days” versus “bad days,” and then deciding how He feels about us. But Scripture says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Your rescue was never a group project with God. It was His gift, His initiative, His mercy. Romans 9:16 drives the point deeper: “So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy”. That does not mean our choices are meaningless; it means they are not ultimate. The ground under your feet is not your performance, but God’s compassion. When you fail, you are not falling from your own height; you are falling into the arms of a Father who already knew, already provided, already forgave in Christ. That kind of mercy doesn’t make us lazy; it makes us amazed. The God Who Chooses to Be Merciful Behind Romans 9 stands the God who spoke to Moses: “I will cause all My goodness to pass before you,” the LORD replied, “and I will proclaim My name—the LORD—in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Exodus 33:19). Mercy is not something God is pressured into; it is something He freely delights to give. His sovereignty doesn’t make Him cold—it reveals that His kindness is not forced or fragile, but chosen and unstoppable. This means your hope does not hang on your ability to cling to God, but on His decision to set His love on you in Christ. “He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Your story is not, “I held on and made it.” Your story is, “He had mercy and would not let me go.” The more deeply you believe that, the more you can rest, even when everything in you feels weak and wobbly. Living Like Mercy Is Your Identity If mercy is the foundation of your life with God, then humility becomes your native language. You don’t have to prove you belong, because Jesus already proved it with His blood. You don’t have to compete spiritually with other believers, because you’re all standing on the same ground—grace alone. As Paul says, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). Every good thing in you is a reason to praise, not to parade. And mercy received must become mercy given. “For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” (James 2:13). If God has carried you when you were stubborn, cold, or afraid, how can you withhold patience from others? Today, living out Romans 9:16 looks like refusing to write people off, refusing to keep score, and choosing to treat others not as they deserve, but as you have been treated in Christ—with lavish, undeserved mercy. Lord, thank You that my hope rests not on my desire or effort, but on Your mercy. Help me live today in humble confidence and pour out the same mercy on others that You have so richly given to me. Morning with A.W. Tozer Spiritual PrideIt might be a shock to some of us if we could know why we are disliked and why our testimony is rejected so violently. Could it be that we are guilty of a deep sinfulness of disposition that we just cannot keep hidden? Arrogance, lack of charity, contempt, self-righteousness, religious snobbery, fault-finding--and all this kept under careful restraint and disguised by a pious smile and synthetic good humor. This sort of thing is felt rather than understood by those who touch us in everyday life. They do not know why they cannot stand us, but we are sure that the reason is our exalted state of spirituality! Perilous comfort. Deep heart searching and prolonged repentance would be better. Yet let us not assume that if we are persecuted it is because of our faults. The opposite may be the fact. They may hate us because they first hated Christ, and if that is so, then blessed are we indeed. The point is, let us take nothing for granted. We may be better than we think we are, but the likelihood is not overwhelming. Humility is best. Music For the Soul It Is the LordThat disciple therefore whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. - John 21:7 Now and always, as in that morning twilight on the Galilean lake, Christ comes to men. Everywhere He is present, everywhere revealing Himself. Now, as then, our eyes are holden by our own fault, so that we recognise not the merciful Presence which is all around us. Now, as then, it is they who are nearest to Christ by love who see Him first. Now, as then, they who are nearest to Him by love are so because He loves them, and because they know and believe the love which He has to them. Only they who love see Christ. John, the Apostle of Love, knew Him first. In religious matters love is the foundation of knowledge. There is no way of knowing a person except love. A man cannot argue his way into knowing Christ. No skill in drawing inferences will avail him there. The treasures of wisdom - earthly wisdom - are all powerless in that region. Man’s understanding and natural capacity - let it keep itself within its own limits and region, and it is strong and good; but in the region of acquaintance with God and Christ, the wisdom of this world is foolishness, and man’s understanding is not the organ by which he can know Christ. Oh no! there is a better way than that: "He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." As it is, in feebler measure, with regard to our personal acquaintance with one another, where it is not so much the power of the understanding, or the quickness of the perception, or the talent and genius of a man, that make the foundation of his knowledge of his friend, as the force of his sympathy and the depth of his affection; so - with the necessary modification arising from the transference from earthly acquaintance to the great Friend and Lover of our souls in heaven - so is it with regard to our knowledge of Christ. Love will trace Him everywhere. Love’s quick eye pierces through disguises impenetrable to a colder scrutiny. Love has in it a longing for His presence which makes us eager and quick to mark the lightest sign that He for whom it longs is near, as the footstep of some dear one is heard by the sharp ear of affection long before any sound breaks the silence to those around. Love to Him strips from our eyes the film that self and sin, sense and custom, have drawn over them. It is these which hide Him from us. It is because men are so indifferent to, so forgetful of, their best Friend that they fail to behold Him. "It is the Lord’’ is written large and plain on all things, but, like the great letters on a map, they are so obvious, and fill so wide a space, that they are not seen. They who love Him know Him, and they who know Him love Him. The true eye-salve for our blinded eyes is applied when we have turned with our hearts to Christ. The simple might of faithful love opens them to behold a more glorious vision than the mountain full of chariots of fire, which once flamed before the prophet’s servant of old - even the august and ever-present form of the Lord of life, the Lord of history, the Lord of providence. When they who love Jesus turn to see the voice that speaks with them, they ever behold the Son of man in His glory; and where others see but the dim beach and a mysterious stranger, it is to their lips that the glad cry first comes, "It is the Lord! " Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Micah 5:4 He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord. Christ's reign in his Church is that of a shepherd-king. He has supremacy, but it is the superiority of a wise and tender shepherd over his needy and loving flock; he commands and receives obedience, but it is the willing obedience of the well-cared-for sheep, rendered joyfully to their beloved Shepherd, whose voice they know so well. He rules by the force of love and the energy of goodness. His reign is practical in its character. It is said, "He shall stand and feed." The great Head of the Church is actively engaged in providing for his people. He does not sit down upon the throne in empty state, or hold a sceptre without wielding it in government. No, he stands and feeds. The expression "feed," in the original, is like an analogous one in the Greek, which means to shepherdize, to do everything expected of a shepherd: to guide, to watch, to preserve, to restore, to tend, as well as to feed. His reign is continual in its duration. It is said, "He shall stand and feed;" not "He shall feed now and then, and leave his position;" not, "He shall one day grant a revival, and then next day leave his Church to barrenness." His eyes never slumber, and his hands never rest; his heart never ceases to beat with love, and his shoulders are never weary of carrying his people's burdens. His reign is effectually powerful in its action; "He shall feed in the strength of Jehovah." Wherever Christ is, there is God; and whatever Christ does is the act of the Most High. Oh! it is a joyful truth to consider that he who stands today representing the interests of his people is very God of very God, to whom every knee shall bow. Happy are we who belong to such a shepherd, whose humanity communes with us, and whose divinity protects us. Let us worship and bow down before him as the people of his pasture. Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Reward for the RighteousGod’s judgments in this life are not always clearly to be seen, for in many cases one event happeneth alike to all. This is the state of probation, not of punishment or reward. Yet at times God works terrible things in righteousness, and even the careless are compelled to own His hand. Even in this life righteousness has that kind of reward which it prefers above all others, namely, the smile of God, which creates a quiet conscience. Sometimes other recompenses follow, for God will be in no man’s debt. But, at the same time, the chief reward of the righteous lies in the hereafter. Meanwhile, on a large scale, we mark the presence of the great Ruler among the nations. He breaks in pieces oppressive thrones and punishes guilty peoples. No one can study the history of the rise and fall of empires without perceiving that there is a power which makes for righteousness and, in the end, brings iniquity before its bar and condemns it with unsparing justice. Sin shall not go unpunished, and goodness shall not remain unrewarded. The Judge of all the earth must do right. Therefore, let us fear before Him and no more dread the power of the wicked. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer My Presence Shall Go with TheeSO the Lord promised Moses, and so He has promised us. Let us never venture any where, if we have reason to think the Lord will not favour us with His presence there. The Lord’s presence produces holiness, imparts power, fires with zeal, brings into union, and often fills with comfort, joy, and peace. His presence is our glory, and it will yield us support under losses, crosses, and bereavements. Let us plead for the Lord’s presence to go with us; let us expect it; let us not be satisfied with anything else. He went with Moses, and he persevered; with Joshua, and he conquered; with David, and he reached the throne; with Paul, and he was more than a conqueror. Nothing can be a substitute for the Lord’s presence; and as it is so graciously promised, let us not attempt to find a substitute, but daily cry, "If Thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence." Jesus has said, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and WE will come unto him, and make our abode with him." O Lord, be ever near us, Fix in our hearts Thy home: By Thine appearing cheer us, And let Thy kingdom come: Fulfil our expectation, And give our souls to prove, Thine uttermost salvation, Thine everlasting love. Bible League: Living His Word (It doesn't matter to me if they were "important" or not. To God everyone is the same.)— Galatians 2:6 ERV Although there are various levels of service in the church, every member is the same to God. Some people may have high authority in the church. The Apostle Paul even ranked them according to the office they hold. He says, "And in the church God has given a place first to apostles, second to prophets, and third to teachers. (1 Corinthians 12:28). Despite this, Paul also says that God considers the weakest members of the church to be indispensable and has given them greater honor (1 Corinthians 12:22-23). He also says that God did this so "that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another" (1 Corinthians 12:25 ESV). There are at least three things that follow from this: First, it is important that you do not allow your sense of self-worth to become attached to what position you hold in the church. Just because you have a high position in the church does not mean that you are of greater value to God than others. Likewise, just because you have a low position in the church does not mean that you are of lesser value to God. When it comes to God's love, care, and concern for His people, every member is the same. Every member is important. Second, it means you should not allow your sense of self-worth to become attached to what others in the church say about you. That's what Paul did. He was not over-awed by the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, even though they held positions of high authority. As our verse for today makes clear, it didn't matter to him that they were considered important in the church, because to God everyone is the same. Finally, it means that you should not strive for a position of high authority in the church simply to improve your sense of self-worth. You are already important to God. You won't become any more important to Him by gaining in authority. You are free, then, to do what God calls you to do, not what you feel you need to do in order to feel good about yourself. If you strive and struggle for importance, you are not really serving God. Be at peace, then, with what you are in Christ Jesus. Don't strive to be something you're not simply to improve your sense of self-worth. If it is His will, God will lift you up in due time. Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Peter 1:15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;1 Thessalonians 2:11,12 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, • so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; Ephesians 5:8-11 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light • (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), • trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. • Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; Philippians 1:11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 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 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand.Insight Just as a shepherd protects his sheep, Jesus protects his people from eternal harm. While believers can expect to suffer on earth, Satan cannot harm their souls or take away their eternal life with God. There are many reasons to be afraid here on earth because this is the devil's domain. Challenge But if you choose to follow Jesus, he will give you everlasting safety. Devotional Hours Within the Bible Christ the Life and Light of MenThe first three Gospels begin on the earth ; the fourth Gospel begins back in eternity. There are no sublimer words in all language than the first words in John’s prologue. They give us a glimpse of the eternal past and show us the Word existing then. In the beginning, before anything else was He was. Genesis is the book of earthly beginnings, but this first verse of John’s gospel carries us back far beyond Genesis. We find precious comfort in human friends when we can rest in their love and know that they are indeed ours, true to us and faithful. Yet all the while, as we lean upon them, we know, too, that they are only creatures of a day. They have not lived long, and their wisdom is only inexperience, their strength only weakness. Their love is liable to change and decay; their very life is only a breath, a mere comma in the great sentence of eternity. But in the friendship of Christ we know that we are in the clasp of One who is eternal the same yesterday and today, yes, and forever. We are told also plainly who this divine Friend is. “The Word was God .” A word reveals thoughts. We cannot know what is in our friend’s heart until he speaks. We never could have known what God’s thoughts about us are if He had not spoken to us. Jesus Christ is the Word, that is, the revealer to us of the mind and heart of God. The Incarnation of Christ brings Him very close to us. In His human life He is one of ourselves, our brother, with feelings, affections and sympathies like ours. But when we can add to our thought and experience of Christ’s humanity the wonderful truth that He is divine, it puts a marvelous element of strength and security into our trust. The Incarnation is God coming to us with a great heart of love, offering Himself to us. A great preacher says, “In the last analysis Christianity is nothing more or less than a great dear Figure, standing with outstretched arms.” God is love, and He is love yearning, that comes to us in the Word. All divine revelation has been made to the world through the Word. “All things were made by him.” One was showing an old watercolor picture which hung in his room. It was beautiful, but the good man said that nothing among his possessions was so precious to him as this faded bit of painting, because his mother had made it. Just so, everything in nature is made sacred and beautiful to one who loves Christ, when he remembers that his Savior made it. The sweet flowers by the wayside would be sweeter to us if we remembered, as we looked upon them, that the hand of Christ painted them. This is Christ’s world. His touch is on everything in it. Everything speaks of Him and of His love. Christ is also the source of all life. “In Him was life.” He is the one fountain of life. No one in the world, except God, can produce life. With all his skill, man cannot make the smallest living seed, or create the most infinitesimal particle of matter. Science, with all its wondrous achievements, has never been able to produce life in even the lowest form. No man can make a blade of grass, or the tiniest flower, or the lowest insect. All life comes from Christ. Our lesson turns now to the revealing of the divine Word. First, preparation. “There was a man sent from God.” He came as God’s messenger, to prepare the way for the divine revealing. Each one of us is likewise “sent from God.” We know what John’s mission was. We may not know yet what our own mission is but God will show it to us as we go on, if we are faithful. We may be sure, however, that we are here on no haphazard errand; we are really sent on some errand, some definite mission. There is some word that we were born to speak and if we do not speak it, the world will be poorer, some life will not know God’s message and will not know what God wants it to do. John came to tell men of the Messiah. “He came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light that all men through him might believe.” Our highest duty in this world is to give honor to Christ, to show some phase of His glory. Some men in their self-conceit, think only of making a show of themselves, getting people to see them and praise them. The mission of every Christian is to bear witness of the Light, to point others to Christ, that men may believe. It was said of a great preacher, that wherever he went, people, when they saw his life, fell in love with Jesus Christ. They forgot the preacher and thought only of the Master whom the preacher proclaimed, both in his words and in his life. John hid himself out of sight and wanted people to see only Christ. We cannot save any soul but we can point lost ones to Him who can save. We may bear witness of Christ in many ways. We may do it by our words, telling what He was and what He did for us; and by our life and character, showing what Christ can do for all who come to Him. It is strange that when the Son of God came to his world, He was not received. We would say that such a glorious being would have been hailed with highest honor. But there was not welcome for Him. “He came unto his own and his own received him not.” This was one of the saddest things about Christ’s mission to the world. For ages He had been waited for and watched for but when He came He was not recognized; He was even rejected and crucified. We say, “If He came now He would find a warm welcome.” But would He? He does come now as really as He came then. He comes to save us, to be our Friend, to help us in our need, and many of us turn our backs upon Him. He stands yet knocking before many a door which does not open to Him. There were some, however, who received Christ when He came, and to these He brought wondrous blessings. “As many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” Here we have the way of salvation made plain. We have only to accept Christ as He comes to us and we are led into the household, among God’s own children. We need not understand all about Christ, about His person or His work there may be a great deal of unexplained mystery about Him. There cannot but be, for the Incarnation is the most profound mystery of all ages. But we do not need to understand everything all we need to do is to accept Christ as our Savior, our Master, our Friend and we are led by Him into the full light. Then some day we shall understand. In the experience of divine love our joy will be so full that there shall be no question unanswered, no desire unsatisfied. The beginning of our passage tells us of the Word existing in the eternity past, the Word with God, the Word as God Himself; now we come to the revealing of the Word: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” It is not said that the Word was changed into flesh He continued to be divine. He became flesh. It does not mean, either, that He took up His abode in a human body merely He took upon Him the whole of human nature, body, soul and spirit. We cannot divide the activity of Christ into two sections and say, “This the divine nature did, and this His human nature did”; the human and the divine were inextricably blended into one. When we see Christ’s compassion, His thoughtfulness, His mercy, His kindness, His gentleness, these are divine qualities, revealed in human ways, through human life. It was all divine, all glory. Christ is the only revelation of God. “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father he has revealed him.” We never can know God, except through His Son. There is no other possible revelation of Him. Christ came in lowly form, and appeared to His friends as a man; but when they learned to know Him, when their hearts had fixed their tendrils about Him, they found that He was divine, the Son of God. If we ever see God and know Him, and enter His family as His own we must accept Christ. There is no other way. To reject Him is to shut ourselves away from God in darkness unillumined by a beam of love from His face. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingPsalm 112-115 Psalm 112 -- Blessed is the man who fears the Lord NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 113 -- Praise, you servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 114 -- When Israel went forth out of Egypt NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 115 -- Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading 1 Corinthians 1 1 Corinthians 1 -- Greetings and Thanksgiving; Exhortation to Unity; We preach Christ crucified NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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