Dawn 2 Dusk Clothed in a Different Kind of BeautyWe spend a lot of time thinking about what we wear—how we appear, what image we project, how others see us. In Romans 13:14, Paul shifts our attention from outward clothing to something far more important: he calls us to “clothe” ourselves with Christ and to stop making space for the cravings of our old nature. This is not a gentle suggestion; it’s a clear line in the sand between living for the flesh and living for the One who bought us with His blood. Today’s verse is a summons to a new wardrobe of the heart. Dressed for the Daylight Romans 13 sits in the context of urgency. Paul has just said, “The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). In other words, the age of rebellion is fading, and the return of Christ draws nearer with every tick of the clock. Followers of Jesus don’t belong to the shadows anymore, and our lives should look like we know what time it is. We are called to live as children of the dawn, not as people who are still half-asleep in their sin. That’s why Paul presses further: “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy” (Romans 13:13). Notice how specific that is. Our culture normalizes many of these things, but God calls them “deeds of darkness.” When we step into gossip, impurity, or drunkenness, we are dressing like we still belong to the night. But when we choose purity, self-control, and love, we are putting on the “armor of light,” showing the world that Jesus has already turned the lights on in our hearts. Putting On a Person, Not a Performance “Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh” (Romans 13:14). Notice Paul does not say, “Clothe yourselves with better habits,” or even “Clothe yourselves with Christian values.” He says to clothe yourselves with a Person. This is deeply relational. To “put on” Christ is to so identify with Him—His character, His priorities, His purity—that people see more of Him and less of us. As Galatians 3:27 says, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. Conversion wasn’t just a prayer you prayed; it was the moment your old garment was taken off and Christ Himself became your covering. This means our daily life is not about trying to impress God or others with religious performance. It is about abiding in the One we are wearing. We remember whose name we bear, whose righteousness covers our shame, whose Spirit lives within us. Colossians 3:10 says we “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator”. Every choice today—what we watch, what we say, what we dwell on—either lines up with the “new self” that looks like Christ or drifts back toward the old self that He died to rescue us from. Putting on Christ is a daily, conscious act of faith and affection. No Room Left for the Old Life The second half of Romans 13:14 is sharp: “and make no provision for the desires of the flesh”. “Provision” means planning ahead, stocking the shelves, arranging your life so sin has an easy path. Paul is saying, “Stop feeding what is trying to kill you.” We often claim to be fighting temptation while secretly keeping it on life support—saving that contact, keeping that app, lingering on that website, returning to that conversation we know is dangerous. Scripture is blunt: “Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). This is a war, not a game. The good news is that grace does not just forgive; it trains. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone. It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11–12). In Christ, you are not a helpless victim of your old desires. By the Spirit, you can start removing the “provisions” that keep those desires strong—confessing sin, cutting off access, changing routines, seeking accountability. As you do, you make more room in your life for Christ’s presence, power, and joy to be experienced and seen. Father, thank You for clothing me in the righteousness of Your Son. Today, help me to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in every choice I make, and to remove anything that feeds my flesh instead of honoring You. Amen. Morning with A.W. Tozer Hearing the Voice of God. . . There are two questions before us. The first question is: How many of us are willing to hear the voice of God? Jesus said, Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate (Matthew 23:34,37-38). Were these people willing to hear the voice of God? Thousands of years before Christ was born in Bethlehem, the Holy Spirit said, Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you" (Proverbs 1:20-26). Music For the Soul Christ Glorified in His SaintsHe shall come to be glorified in His saints. - 2 Thessalonians 1:10 The two Epistles to the Thessalonians, which are the Apostle’s earliest letters, both give very great prominence to the thought of the second coming of our Lord to judgment. In the immediate context we have that coming described, with circumstances of majesty and of terror. He "shall be revealed .... with the angels of His power." " Flaming fire " shall herald His coming; vengeance shall be in His hands; punishment shall follow His sentence; everlasting destruction shall be the issue of evil confronted with "the face of the Lord ’" - for so the words in the previous verse, rendered "the presence of the Lord" might more accurately be translated. And all these facts and images are, as it were, piled up in one half of the Apostle’s sky, as in thunderous lurid masses; and on the other side there is the pure blue and the peaceful sunshine. For all this terror and destruction, and flashing fire, and punitive vengeance come to pass in the day when " He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be wondered at in all them that believe." Christ is glorified in the men who are glorified in Christ. If you look on a couple of verses you will find that the Apostle returns to this thought, and expresses in the clearest fashion the reciprocal character of that "glorifying" of which he has been speaking. "The name of our Lord Jesus Christ," says he, "may be glorified in you, and ye in Him." So, then, glorifying has a double meaning. There is a double process involved. It means either "to make glorious" or "to manifest as being glorious." And men are glorified, in the former sense, in Christ, that Christ in them may, in the latter sense, be glorified. He makes them glorious by imparting to them of the lustrous light and flashing beauty of His own perfect character, in order that that light, received into their natures, and streaming out at last conspicuously manifest from their redeemed perfectness, may redound to the praise and the honour, before a whole universe, of Him who has thus endued their weakness with His own strength, and transmitted their corruptibility into His own immortality. We are glorified in Christ in some partial, and, alas! sinfully fragmentary manner here; we shall be so perfectly in that day. And when we are thus glorified in Him, then - wondrous thought! - even we shall be able to manifest Him as glorious before some gazing eyes, which without us would have seen Him as less fair. Dim, and therefore great and blessed, thoughts about what men may become are involved in such words. The highest end, the great purpose of the Gospel and of all God’s dealings with us in Christ Jesus is to make us like our Lord. As we have borne the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. "We, beholding the glory, are changed into the glory." Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Isaiah 59:5 They weave the spider's web. See the spider's web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite's religion. It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Custom, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are the small game which hypocrites take in their nets. A spider's web is a marvel of skill: look at it and admire the cunning hunter's wiles. Is not a deceiver's religion equally wonderful? How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel answer so well the purpose of gold? A spider's web comes all from the creature's own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length. Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their own hands. They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God. But a spider's web is very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the servant's broom, or the traveller's staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the besom of destruction begins its purifying work. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord's house: he will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed forever. O my soul, be thou resting on something better than a spider's web. Be the Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place. Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Confidence Not MisplacedThese are in prophecy the words of Messiah in the day of His obedience unto death, when He gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He was confident in divine support and trusted in Jehovah. O my soul, thy sorrows are as the small dust of the balance compared with thy LORD’s! Canst thou not believe that the LORD God will help thee? Thy LORD was in a peculiar position; for as the representative of sinful men -- their substitute and sacrifice -- it was needful that the Father should leave Him and cause Him to come under desertion of soul. No such necessity is laid upon thee: thou art not bound to cry, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Did thy Savior even in such a case still rely upon God, and canst not thou? He died for thee and thus made it impossible that thou shouldst be left alone; wherefore, be of good cheer. In this day’s labors or trials say, "The LORD God will help me." Go forth boldly. Set your face like a flint and resolve that no faintness or shamefacedness shall come near you. If God helps, who can hinder? If you are sure of omnipotent aid, what can be too heavy for you? Begin the day joyously, and let no shade of doubt come between thee and the eternal sunshine. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer Owe No Man AnythingRASH speculations are inconsistent with Christianity; and getting in debt is as much a breach of the divine precept as robbery or murder. Every believer should live within his income, and not bring a disgrace on religion, by contracting debts which he is unable to pay. If he has done so, he should be very humble; he should confess his sin before God, and pray to be enabled to fulfil his engagements. It is not necessary that he should make an appearance, as it is called; but it is necessary that he should adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour. He that is in debt, and is not grieved by it, humbled under it, and striving to extricate himself from it, is a very suspicious character, whatever profession he may make. Our God says, and He speaks to all who profess His name, "Owe no man any thing but love." A Christian’s payments should be prompt and punctual; his word should be as firm as a bond, and his promise as sacred as an oath. Oh, may our God bring back His people to primitive simplicity! May they all be slow to promise, quick to perform, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Let those who bear the Christian name Their holy vows fulfil; The saints the followers of the Lamb, Are men of honour still. Their Saviour’s precepts they obey, And hasten to the judgment-day. Bible League: Living His Word Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.— 1 John 4:1 ESV Every Christian is a prophet, just like every Christian is a priest and a king. But there are also Christians who have the special gift of prophecy and who are specifically called to exercise it on a regular basis. Ordained ministers and evangelists are examples of such men. Although there are prophets in the church, not every prophet is a true prophet. Our verse for today tells us that there are many false prophets. What is a false prophet? A false prophet is one who falsely claims to receive special revelations from the Lord, or who claims to receive special revelations from a source other than the Lord. Although they may be capable of performing great signs and wonders (see Matthew 24:24), their inspiration and power comes from Satan rather than the Holy Spirit. Instead of leading people into the truth, they lead them into the lies of Satan. Hence, you can't simply believe whatever a person who claims to be a prophet tells you. You can't naively accept someone as a prophet simply because he or she claims to be a prophet. Jesus Himself said we should "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15). His point is that false prophets may come in the name of the Lord, may look good on the surface, but in actuality are tools of Satan trying to use the church for selfish and nefarious purposes. That's why we must, as our verse for today tells us, test the spirits to see whether they are from God. How do we test the spirits? Here are some ways: First of all, a prophet must come in the name of the Lord and not some other name. Second, a prophecy must be in harmony with the Bible. Third, a prophecy that denies Jesus is Lord is a false prophecy (See 1 John 4:2-3). Fourth, a prophet that says "I am the Christ" (Matthew 24:5), or that says "Look, here is the Christ" (Matthew 24:23), is a false prophet. Fifth, if a prophecy predicts the future, it must come to pass (Deuteronomy 18:22). Finally, false prophets can be recognized by their fruit. False prophets bear bad fruit (Matthew 7:16-20). Beware, then, the false prophets. Make sure the leaders you are listening to come from God. Daily Light on the Daily Path Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Hosea 6:3 "So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth." Matthew 13:43 "Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 13:10,12 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. • For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 John 3:2,3 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. • And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 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 “For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”Insight “God is Spirit” means he is not a physical being limited to one place. He is present everywhere and he can be worshiped anywhere, at any time. It is not where we worship that counts, but how we worship. Challenge Is your worship genuine and true? Do you have the Holy Spirit's help? How does the Holy Spirit help us worship? The Holy Spirit prays for us, teaches us the words of Christ, and tells us we are loved. Devotional Hours Within the Bible The Lesson of WatchfulnessIt was Tuesday evening. Jesus had left the temple, to return to it no more. His last words to the people had been spoken. On the way His disciples called His attention to the temple, perhaps suggesting its magnificence and its solidity. It was indeed a wonderful building. But Jesus said, “I tell you the truth not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” The little company moved out to the Mount of Olives and sat down. A deep solemnity filled their hearts. The disciples asked Him to tell them when the things He had foretold should come to pass. They had in mind three events the destruction of the temple, the Lord’s final coming, and the end of the world. He warned them first against being led astray by impostors. “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many!” He bade them to be in readiness for whatever might come. The parable of the fig tree taught them to expect tribulations. The precise day and hour, “No one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” The stupendous events would come unheralded. It would be as in Noah’s days. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man!” The great lesson Jesus taught His disciples was in the word “Watch!” which sounds in every-recurring strokes in His discourse like a great bell. Questions as to when or how are discouraged but they are always to watch. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come!” Matthew 24:42 We must be always watching watching ourselves lest we do wrong; watching our Guide that we may follow Him closely and carefully; watching our duty that we may always know it and do it; watching for danger for on every hand danger lurks. It is not a safe world to live in that is, it is not safe unless we watch, and unless we are in divine keeping. Satan is so vigilant, his approaches are so insidious and stealthy, and sin is so alluring and deceptive, that only sleepless vigilance can insure our safety. In this passage, however, the watching is for the coming of Christ, for which we are commanded to be always in readiness. He will surely come, and His coming will be sudden and unannounced. There will be a great final coming of Christ but really He is always coming. The only way, therefore, to be prepared for Him at any most sudden moment, is to be ready all the time. If there is one hour when we relax our vigilance and cease to watch, that may be the hour when He will come. There is an old legend of a man who waited a thousand years before the gates of paradise, watching for them to open, that he might enter in. At last, yielding to weariness, he slept for just one hour. And during that hour the gates opened for a few moments and closed again. Thus by being off his guard a little while, he missed his opportunity. The coming of Christ will be so sudden that no preparation can be made for it after He appears. We must learn to live so that there will not be a moment, day or night, when we would be afraid or ashamed to have Him come into our house or place of business and find us as we are. There is no day which may not be our last. Therefore, we should keep our work done up to the moment, finishing it every evening as if we were never to come back to it anymore. Christ illustrates His teaching to make it more emphatic. “If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.” Thieves do not send a notification of the hour when they will break into the house; they make their coming as stealthy as possible. They come when they will be the least expected and when the master of the house is least likely to be watching. If one would be prepared against them when they come he must always be prepared. Christ will come as a thief in the night. That means that His coming will be without warning, without any token to indicate His approach. All efforts of wise men to compute the time and settle upon a year or a day when He will come are useless, for Jesus Himself said, “Of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven!” What is it to be ready for the coming of Christ? For one thing, it is to be at peace with God, reconciled to Him, saved. In a sense, death is a coming of Christ to individuals, for it ends their probation and ushers them into the presence of God. What is it to be prepared for death? No one is prepared, who has not accepted Christ as Savior and Lord, finding forgiveness of sins and new life and love in Him. Nothing could be more terrible than the sudden coming of death to one whose sins are not forgiven, and who is thus unprepared to meet his God. But forgiveness is not the only thing in preparation for death. One’s work should be well done. There is a story of man who had wasted his life and who at last, near the end, found peace in believing. A friend said to him, “Are you afraid to die?” He answered, “No, I am not afraid to die; but I am ashamed to die.” He meant that while his salvation was assured in Christ, he was ashamed to go home, having wasted all his years and having done nothing for the honor of his Master. We should do our best possible work every day that we should never be ashamed to have Christ come. Jesus sought to make the meaning of His words very clear. “Who then, is a faithful and wise servant,” He asked, “whom his lord has made ruler over his household?” The answer is implied in the form of the words used. He is both faithful and wise. Then comes the assurance of reward, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes, shall find so doing.” Doing how? Doing his work with fidelity. The watching that Christ wants is not sitting at the window and looking out to see Him approach but diligence in all duty. If a man went away, leaving a servant in charge of a certain work, fixing no time for his return what should the servant do? Stand in the door, gazing down the road, watching to get the first glimpse of the master’s return? No, that is not the kind of watching that would please his master. The way to be ready for Christ’s coming, is not to sit down in idleness to wait and watch for His appearance but to keep at one’s work with unceasing diligence, so that when He comes He may not find us in the midst of unfinished tasks, away behind with our work. There can be no better rule in life than to make every day of life complete, to finish everything each night before retiring, so that if we should never come back to our work again, nothing would suffer. A Christian woman was told by her physician that she could not live a great while, and that she might die any hour. She did not, however, drop her work and shut herself away to prepare for death. She went on with all her usual duties, only with more earnestness and greater diligence, knowing now that the time must be short. Some people would suppose that in a case like this, one should give up all active work and spend the short and uncertain time in praying and reading the Bible; but this Christian woman’s way was the better way. Long before she had made her peace with God, and all her life had lived in readiness for eternity. When the warning came that the time was growing short, she was not flustered. Thus far she had done her duty as well as she could and all she had to do now was the work of the few remaining days and hours. This she did with love and faith, and with diligence, and when the Master came she quietly went away home with Him. “But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” Matthew 24:48-51 While there is reward for the servant who is faithful, there is punishment for the evil servant who fails in his duty. Judgment will come upon him suddenly. “The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of!” There are several things said her about this unfaithful servant. He is unbelieving. The delay of his lord leads him to conclude that he is not going to return at all. His unbelief leads him to abuse his position he becomes tyrannical and despotic in his treatment of those placed under his care. Then his own habits become unworthy; we find him eating and drinking with drunken men. These are characteristics of those who reject Christ through unbelief and become unfaithful. The punishment of the unfaithful servant is vividly described. It is a fearful thing to live regardless of life’s sacred trusts and solemn responsibilities. It is a terrible thing to die after having lived thus. We should compare these two pictures the faithful and the unfaithful servant and know positively which one of the two is our own portrait . Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingPsalm 82, 83, 84 Psalm 82 -- God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 83 -- God, don't keep silent. Don't keep silent, and don't be still, God. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 84 -- How lovely are your dwellings, O Lord Almighty! NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Romans 8:19-39 Romans 8 -- No Condemnation for those in Christ Jesus; We Are More than Conquerors NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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