Dawn 2 Dusk Steady Hearts in a Shaking WorldThe chapter that leads into today’s verse is all about the resurrection—Christ’s and ours. Paul is not giving us a motivational slogan; he is calling us to live, work, and persevere in light of a real, bodily, victorious future. Because death has been defeated and eternity is sure, he urges believers to stand firm, refuse to be moved, and pour themselves into the Lord’s work with confidence that none of it is wasted. Anchored When Everything Moves “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Steadfast and immovable are not passive words; they are battle-words. The storms will come—cultural pressure, personal disappointment, unanswered questions, spiritual warfare—but by God’s grace you can plant your feet on the unshakable ground of Christ’s resurrection. You are not asked to stand on your own strength; you are standing on a finished victory. This firmness is a command, but it is also a comfort. God is not surprised by the shaking around you. “Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage. Be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). When doubts whisper, “Is this worth it?” the empty tomb answers, “Yes.” When obedience feels costly, remember that the ground under your feet is not your feelings, but the risen Christ who declared, “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19). The more clearly you see His victory, the less easily you will be moved. Abounding, Not Just Surviving The call is not only to stand, but to overflow: “always excelling in the work of the Lord.” This is more than squeezing in a little spiritual activity when life slows down. It is a posture of whole-life devotion: using your time, gifts, conversations, resources, and daily tasks so that Christ is honored. “Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). In other words, the Lord’s work is not just what happens in a church building; it’s what happens when you do everything for Him. Excelling does not mean burning out; it means being all-in where God has actually placed you. At home, at work, at school, in your church, ask, “How can I be faithful here, today?” God is not asking you to do everything, but to do your assignment wholeheartedly. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life” (Ephesians 2:10). You are not inventing a purpose; you are stepping into the one He already prepared. Your Hidden Labor Is Seen God roots this call to steadfast, overflowing service in a promise: “because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” The world overlooks what God celebrates: late-night prayers, quiet acts of service, faithfulness in a hard marriage, integrity when no one is watching, consistent teaching of a small group, patient parenting when you are exhausted. “For God is not unjust; He will not overlook your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so” (Hebrews 6:10). Nothing done for Him disappears. Sometimes the fruit of your labor shows up quickly; often, it doesn’t. You may feel like you are sowing and never reaping. Yet His Word assures you, “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). Eternity will reveal that not one prayer, not one tear, not one sacrifice in Jesus’ name was pointless. Stand firm. Keep going. The risen Christ Himself is your reward: “You know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:24). Lord, thank You that in You my labor is not in vain; today, help me stand firm, abound in Your work, and obey You with all my heart. Amen. Morning with A.W. Tozer True LoveAmong the innocent victims of this effete and degenerate age, there is none so pure and so beautiful as love. Next to the word God with its various forms, there is no word so fair in all the language. Yet it may be said without qualification that this beautiful word has so suffered in the house of its friends as now to be scarcely recognizable. For the great mass of mankind, love has lost its divine meaning. The novelist, the playwright, the psychoanalyst, the writer of popular love songs, have abused this fair being too long. For filthy lucre, they have dragged her through the sewers of the human mind until she appears to the world as no more than a blowzy and bloated strumpet for whom no one any longer has the least trace of respect, the mention of whose name brings no more than a wink or an embarrassed simper. By losing the divine content from the concept of love, modern man now has remaining only what we might expect--a brazen-faced dowd whom he courts at all hours of the day and night with songs that should make a chimpanzee blush.
Music For the Soul Christ’s Yearning CompassionIt is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to Me, . . . for My head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night. - Song of Solomon 5:2 Men that bear precious gifts for the world do not often need to beseech that they shall be accepted, but He comes to it and "prays us with much entreaty that we should receive the gift." We are mostly too proud to sue for love, especially if once the petition has been repulsed, but He asks to be let into your heart because His nature and His name is Love, and, being such. He yearns to be loved by you, and He yearns to bless you. His asking entrance is, then, a revelation of His tenderness, a revelation of His lowliness, and also a revelation of His patience. Repulsed, He continues to plead; neglected and unanswered, still that uninterrupted craving admission goes on; Like Peter at the gate of Mary’s house, " He continues knocking." Christ never gives up anybody, Christ never abandons as hopeless the task of drawing any to Himself. We are weary of trying to reclaim the "irreclaimable " people, and we talk very glibly - some of us- about the "hopeless classes" that are outside the reach of moral influences, and the like. There are no such classes in His vision. With patience of a God, patience that accepts as its own the limits which He set for ours, "until seventy times seven," He will not be put away: but He pleads with you, my brother! as He did when you were a little child; as He did in the hot heyday of your early youth, when passions were strong, and novelty was attractive, and bonds were unwelcomed, and religion seemed too serious for the brightness that was around you; and as He has done with some of you in the maturity of life, when cares have burdened your hearts, and the deceitfulness of riches and the anxieties of life have made such a din that you could not hear His fingers on the door. He pleads with us all, and after every repulse: " I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord." At your heart, dear friend, by all your mercies and by all your cares, by the sudden impressions that have been made upon you, by the quick monitions of conscience, by the emotions of the mind within, by the words of human teachers, by His Book and Gospel, by all life and all nature which are in His hands, and by hidden ways which only a Divine foot can tread. He draws nearer to us, pleading with us - all for this, that we will let Him come into our hearts. So, dear brother, when He stands before you with the old summons and the old promise on His lips, "Lift up your heads! O ye gates! and the King of Glory shall come in," I beseech you fling wide your hearts; say to Him: " If Thou hast judged me to be faithful, come and abide in my house "; and He will enter in, and bring with Him His gifts - peace, pardon, purity, and blessedness, and He and you will, even on earth, sit together at His table. When after tossing and toil on the midnight sea the morning brings us to the shore, we shall find Him waiting with His welcome and a feast spread and prepared by His own hands, to which He will honour us by bidding us bring the results of the long night of labour; and so in highest fashion this great word will be fulfilled, and at His table in His Kingdom the King Himself shall sup with us and we with Him. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world's tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, "It is I, be not afraid." He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, "If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it." "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that he governs wisely, that he brings good out of evil, the believer's heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, "Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from thee; never came there an ill portion from thy table to any of thy children." "Say not my soul, From whence can God relieve my care?' Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere. His method is sublime, his heart profoundly kind, God never is before his time, and never is behind." Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Law in the HeartPut the law into the heart, and the whole man is right. This is where the law should be; for then it lies, like the tables of stone in the ark, in the place appointed for it. In the head it puzzles, on the back it burdens, in the heart it upholds. What a choice word is here used, "the law of his God"! When we know the LORD as our own God His law becomes liberty to us. God with us in covenant makes us eager to obey His will and walk in His commands. Is the precept my Father’s precept? Then I delight in it. We are here guaranteed that obedient-hearted man shall be sustained in every step that he takes. He will do that which is right, and he shall therefore do that which is wise. Holy action is always the most prudent, though it may not at the time seem to be so, We are moving along the great highroad of God’s providence and grace when we keep to the way of His law. The Word of God has never misled a single soul yet; its plain directions to walk humbly, justly, lovingly, and in the fear of the LORD are as much words of wisdom to make our way prosperous as rules of holiness to keep our garments clean. He walks surely who walks righteously. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer He Will Ever Be Mindful of His CovenantTHE Lord’s people knew their God as a covenant God, reconciled to them, at peace with them, and dwelling among them, through the work of Jesus. He has made a covenant in which they are interested, from which all their blessings flow, and on which their confidence is founded. Of this covenant, God is ever mindful. He is mindful of the engagements of Jesus as our Surety; of the relationship in which He was pleased to manifest Himself, as our Father; of the state in which He viewed us, as poor wretched sinners; of the provision He made for His own glory and our needs; of the promise made to Jesus including all the promises made to us; of the oath He swore, that He would not be wroth with us; of the blood of His Son, as the Victim slain to confirm and ratify it; of the end He had in view in making it, even the display of all His glorious perfections in our eternal salvation. He will ever be mindful of His covenant, He cannot forget it; He will not act contrary to it, but will confirm it even to the end. Beloved, let us also be ever mindful of His covenant. Firmer than heaven His covenant stands; Tho’ earth should shake, and skies depart, We’re safe in our Redeemer’s hands, Who bears our name upon His heart; For us He lived, and died, and rose, And triumph’d over all our foes. Bible League: Living His Word For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.— 1 Peter 3:17 ESV In the days in which we live, Christians are finding it more difficult to take their stand in the world. Society unknowingly continues to lose ground ethically and morally, and this causes Christians to "look down" where they are standing and question if they ought not to move also. After all, believers do not want to appear either too tolerant or intolerant of the world in which they also must live, a common excuse posed by some. The pending dilemma is that any such move usually negatively impacts our testimony and weakens the Church's proclamation of the truth. The words of Peter, spoken amid a Roman society steeped in debaucherous moral decay, can also help modern believers know exactly where to stand in their faith, and we should be very glad for them. Read carefully these four verses again and note that in the middle of verse 15, believers are given their mark for where to firmly stand in a world crumbling around them: "...in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you..." The word used for "honor" is perhaps more accurately understood as a word for "proving" Christ as holy, set apart for obedience and adoration. The Christian's stand in life, is that of proving and proclaiming the very character of Christ the Lord, verified by those observing our lifestyle. This is the "reason for the hope" that is in us (verse 15), and life lived in such a way can dispel whatever fear arises within our souls. Read the passage once more and recognize that Christians who know their standing in Christ stand out! They are characterized by being "zealous for what is good," and then allowing their "good conscience" to motivate their "good behavior in Christ." Most Bible teachers believe the word "good" is a working synonym for the word "God," since God is the essence of all that is good. In a society which is now consciously moving away from God, it is all the more necessary for Christians to stand firm and zealously pursue godliness. Rest assured, you will be noticed, for "good" is the declarative mark of a Christian in both its pursuit and proclamation. Peter has questioned what harm can come to the Christian who has staked his life in God (verse 13). Indeed, he was talking of a Spiritual protection that keeps the Christian focused and in fellowship with Christ, for he was very much aware of the physical suffering Christians endure for their faith. He would soon be experiencing persecution himself. But for Peter, his words for Christians of every generation are that "it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil" (verse 17). Charles Stanley summarized this passage by stating that God's "voice leads us not into timid discipleship but into bold witness." Herein is the Christian to take his stand. Such commitment marks a bright light of righteousness in such a dark world. By Bill Niblette, Ph.D., Bible League International staff, Pennsylvania USA Daily Light on the Daily Path Romans 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. Romans 12:1,2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. • And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Galatians 6:15,16 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. • And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. Ephesians 4:17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, Ephesians 4:20,21,24 But you did not learn Christ in this way, • if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, • and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. 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 “Though his ministry follows mine, I'm not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandal.”Insight John the Baptist said he was not even worthy to be Christ's slave, to perform the humble task of unfastening his shoes. But according to Luke 7:28, Jesus said that John was the greatest of all prophets. If such a great person felt inadequate even to be Christ's slave, how much more should we lay aside our pride to serve Christ! Challenge When we truly understand who Christ is, our pride and self-importance melt away. Devotional Hours Within the Bible Two Parables of Judgment“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.” The parable interprets itself. The people of Israel were familiar with the use of a vineyard as an image or illustration of themselves. The prophets had employed it. It is easy to explain the parable in its historical sense but it has a reference also to us. God is continually planting vineyards and leaving them in the care of farmers. He has placed one in your care it is your own life. He has placed in it many vines, which, if well tended and cultivated, will produce rich fruits. He has put a hedge about it, the walls and defenses of your own home and of the Church, and the restraints and safeguards of Christian friendships and associations. You were not born in a heathen land, your life open and unfenced like a public common, to be trodden down by every unholy foot. God has made every provision for His vineyard that is necessary for its fruitfulness. It is well watered the influences of Divine grace flow all through your life. He has done for His vineyard all that could be done. It is yours now to keep and care for, not as owner but as tenant. You are not your own; you belong to Christ (see 1 Corinthians 6:19); your life is His, and you are to keep it and cultivate it for Him. You are really one of God’s tenants. He has “assigned” to you a little vineyard, for whose care and cultivation you are responsible. You He does not compel you to obey Him, to keep your heart, to bring forth fruit; you are free but He holds you accountable for the way you keep your vineyard. The analogy is followed: “When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.” This is the way the farmers were to pay their rent; they were to give to the owner each year a certain proportion of the fruits of the vineyard. God expects us to return something to Him of the fruits of the vineyard He has assigned to us. It belongs to Him, and he has done all that needs to be done to render it fruitful. He expects a proper “rental.” The rental of this vineyard was to be paid, not in money but in the fruit of the vineyard itself. This is suggestive. God is not satisfied with the mere giving to Him of money or of a portion of the earthly possessions that may belong to us. Of course, our money is part of our vineyard and should pay rent, too; a share of its fruit or earnings should be returned to God, to whom it all actually belongs. But the vineyard proper is our own life and we are to pay our rental to God, the owner, in the fruits of our life in love, obedience, worship, honor, service. No amount of money will ever satisfy God if we do not also love Him and do His will. This businesslike illustration of our relation to God is very suggestive. We are His tenants, and all we are and all we have belong to Him. Every tenant must pay a proper rent, or he cannot remain on the property that has been assigned to him. The larger our vineyard and the greater our privileges and blessings the more rent we must pay. If we do not thus make suitable return we are robbing God. The reception given to the servants sent to receive the rental was not merely discourteous, it was cruel and an act of rebellion: “The farmers took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.” The servants who come to us are those that God sends to us to call us to duty. Of course, none of us ever treat the messengers God sends to us as His ancient people treated the prophets. We do not beat our teachers and preachers. We do not stone them and kill them. We are very kind to them. We show them courtesy. We even love them very much and, as a rule, we listen with great respect to what they have to say to us. We never think of arresting them and putting them in prison or of sawing them asunder. Surely, then, this part of the parable cannot have any application to us. But, wait a moment. On what errand are the servants sent? What is their request of us? They come to get the rental which we owe to God, to receive the fruits which are His due. We do not beat the messengers but do we grant what they in God’s name ask from us for Him? Do we give up our sins when they ask us to do it? Do we yield our hearts to God and begin to love and obey Him and live for Him when they ask these things of us? We are very respectful to God’s servants but we go on in our evil ways, and they carry back nothing from us, no fruits, to the God whose we are. We treat the messengers with high honor but the message we disregard and Him who sends it to us we reject and neglect. Nothing is sadder to the heart of a pastor or teacher than this, that while those to whom he bears God’s message treat him with finest courtesy and gentlest love, and are kind to him they do not learn to honor God and love and serve Him. “Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way.” We read the story of God’s dealing with His ancient people, and wonder at His marvelous patience with them. Though the treated His servants so badly He continued to send others. He seemed never to tire of trying to bless them. But is it not our own history as really as it was theirs? As soon as we are old enough to understand anything, God begins sending messengers to us loving mothers, faithful fathers, godly pastors, teachers and friends, the voices of conscience, of the Scriptures, of the Spirit, the leading of Providence. But we hear the calls and then go on as before, unheeding, despising, sinning. But God does not grow weary. He continues to send His messengers. Not only is this true of the impenitent but to every believer He sends again and again, seeking for fruits and finding none. We never can measure God’s patience. But we must remember that there will be a last call. “Last of all, he sent his son to them.” Mark says, “He still had one to send, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them” (Mark 12:6). There is a matchless pathos in these words when we think of them as referring to God and defining the acts of His love and mercy. All he had left now was his son. His servants had all been sent, and the last of them had been killed. There was no other messenger that he could send unless he would send his son. If he gave him he gave all, for he had not many sons but one, his only-begotten son. “Finally he sent him to them.” He kept nothing back, spared not even his own son, in his great desire to have men reconciled to him. Thus the sending of Jesus was the climax of a long history of gracious acts of love. There is another thought here. He sent his son last. Then there is no messenger of mercy after Jesus. He is God’s best and final gift. There is nothing more that even God in His infinite power and love can do to induce men to be reconciled. When men reject Christ, they throw away their last hope of mercy they lose their last opportunity. No other messenger will be sent no other can be sent. “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!” The rulers killed Jesus that the power might still be theirs. There are many now who reject Christ for very much the same reason. They think that the way to get liberty, pleasure and gain is to thrust Christ altogether away from their lives. To become Christians would interfere too much with their plans, perhaps with their business, or with their pleasure. They think that Christian people make great sacrifices. But the Bible puts it very differently. It tells us that those who receive Christ, instead of losing gain a glorious inheritance; they become children of God, and if children, then heirs to an unfading inheritance. The rulers killed their best friend when they killed Jesus. Had they accepted Him, they would have received His inheritance, becoming “joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). Rejecting and killing Him, they lost the very inheritance they thought to seize! Those who now reject Christ, reject the only One who could give them eternal life. Since Christ is God’s last messenger of mercy to men the rejection of Him is the thrusting away of the last hope of mercy. “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” They did not think Jesus suitable to be their Messiah, and so they rejected Him; now, however, He is the King of glory. The very men who rejected Him and crucified Him, when they awake on judgment morning, shall see Him whom they thus despised sitting as their Judge. But again, we must not apply it to the first rejecters only. A great many people now think Christ unsuitable to be their Lord. They do not consider it an honor to be called a Christian. They blush to own His name or enroll themselves among His followers. They do not care to build their life on Christ. But He has now the highest honor in heaven. The highest angels are not ashamed to own His name. Redeemed spirits praise Him day and night. The Father has exalted him to the throne of power and glory. Why then should sinful men be ashamed to own Him as their Lord? They should remember further that God has made Him the capstone of the whole building not made with hands. No life that is not built on Him can stand. If men ever are saved it must be by this same Jesus whom they are now rejecting. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingPsalm 75, 76, 77 Psalm 75 -- We give thanks to you, God. We give thanks, for your Name is near. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 76 -- In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 77 -- My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Romans 6 Romans 6 -- The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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