Dawn 2 Dusk Walking Out of the GraveSome days it feels like nothing really changes—same routines, same struggles, same temptations knocking at the door. But in Christ, God declares something radically different over us. Paul tells us that when we were united with Jesus, we were not just forgiven; we were buried with Him and raised with Him so that we could actually live a new kind of life. Today is not just another day to “try harder”; it is another day to step into what God has already accomplished in His Son. Buried with Him Paul writes, “We therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). He is not describing a religious ceremony alone, but a spiritual reality: when you trusted Christ, God counted you as having gone into the grave with Him. Your old self—your guilty record, your love of sin, your slavery to it—was given a death sentence at the cross. “We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6). This means the Christian life does not begin with “Do better,” but with “You died.” You are not trying to reform the old you; God has declared that old you executed with Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). When you feel chained to your past, God calls you to remember that, in His courtroom, that old person is buried. Faith looks at the cross and says, “That’s where my old life ended.” Raised to Newness of Life The good news does not stop at burial. The same verse that takes you into the tomb brings you back out: “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Newness of life is not a slogan; it is resurrection power applied to your heart. The Father did not leave His Son in the grave, and He will not leave you in dead patterns of sin and despair. The very life that surged through the body of Jesus on that first resurrection morning now defines your identity. This is why Scripture can say, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God is not asking you to pretend you are new; He is telling you that in Christ, you are new. And the One who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25), now lives in you by His Spirit. Your addictions, fears, and ingrained habits are not stronger than the resurrection of Jesus. Learning to Walk Differently If we have been raised with Christ, why do we still stumble? Because learning to walk in newness of life is just that—learning. Babies who are born healthy still have to grow, stand, and take wobbly steps. You have truly been made new, but you are being taught, day by day, to live like it. God calls you to cooperate with His grace: “to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24). So today, when temptation whispers, you can say, “That’s not who I am anymore.” When shame resurfaces, you can answer with the truth: “I have been buried and raised with Christ.” When you feel weak, you can lean into the promise: “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). Step by step, conversation by conversation, choice by choice, you are invited to walk out of the grave and into the newness He has already given you. Lord Jesus, thank You for burying my old life and raising me to walk in newness of life; by Your Spirit, help me today to reject my old ways and actively choose thoughts, words, and actions that reflect the new creation You have made me to be. Morning with A.W. Tozer Walking in TruthAny man who would escape the heavy tax which humankind lays upon the righteous must make a satisfactory compromise with error. This is so because sin has perverted the nature of things. He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey is as true now as when it was first uttered. Little as we like to admit it, two thousand years of Christianity have not made much difference. The human race is still cursed with what Bacon called a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. Nevertheless the hazards of truth should not count in our final tally. Truth is such a royal patron that we should embrace it without regard to cost. The cautious calculator, who tinkers with truth for fear of consequences, is no worthy servant of such a noble master. We Christians above all people should value truth, for we profess to belong to the One who is the Truth. The Stoics who had no access to the Scriptures nevertheless had a noble concept of truth and of mans responsibility to it. When on trial for his life before a hostile and prejudiced court one of them told his accusers: A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong-acting the part of a good man or a bad. The true follower of Christ will not ask, If I embrace this truth, what will it cost me? Rather he will say, This is truth, God help me to walk in it, let come what may! Music For the Soul What Wilt Thou Have Me to Do?And the multitudes asked Him, saying, What then must we do? - Luke 3:10 What is there to do? First, and last, and midst, keep close to Jesus Christ. In the measure in which we keep ourselves in continual touch with Him will His law be written upon our hearts. If we are for ever twitching away the paper; if we are for ever flinging blots and mud upon it, how can we expect the transcript to be clear and legible? We must keep still that God may write. We must keep near Him that He may write. We must wait habitually in His presence. When the astronomer wishes to get the image of some far-off star, invisible to the eye of sense, he regulates the motion of his sensitive plate, so that for hours it shall continue right beneath the invisible beam. So we have to still our hearts, and keep their plates - the fleshly tables of them- exposed to the heavens; then the likeness of God will be stamped there. Be faithful to what is written there, which is the Christian shape of the heathen commandment, "Do the duty that lies nearest thee; so shall the next become plainer." Be faithful to the line that is " written," and there will be more on the tablet tomorrow. Now this is a promise for us all. However blotted and blurred and defaced by crooked, scrawling letters, like a child’s copybook, with its first pothooks and hangers, our hearts may be, there is no need for any of us to say despairingly, as we look on the smeared page, " What I have written I have written." He is able to blot it all out, to " take away the handwriting" - our own - " that is against us, nailing it to His Cross," and to give us, in our inmost spirits, a better knowledge of, and a glad obedience to, His discerned and holy will. So that each of us, if we like, and will observe the conditions, may be able to say with all humility, " Lo! I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Thy will. Yea! Thy law is within my heart." Two mirrors set one against each other reflect one another, and themselves in each other, in long perspective. Two hearts that love, with similar reciprocation of influence, mirror back to each other their own affections. " I am thine; thou art mine," is the very mother-tongue of love, and of blessedness the source. All loving hearts know that. This mutual surrender, and, in surrender, reciprocal possession, is lifted up here into the highest regions. " I will be their God, they shall be My people." Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Amos 9:9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. Every sifting comes by divine command and permission. Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger upon Job. Nay, more, in some sense our siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text says, "I will sift the house of Israel." Satan, like a drudge, may hold the sieve, hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the Master is accomplishing the purity of the grain by the very process which the enemy intended to be destructive. Precious, but much sifted corn of the Lord's floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth both flail and sieve to his own glory, and to thine eternal profit. The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in his hand, and will divide the precious from the vile. All are not Israel that are of Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender, and hence the winnowing process must be performed. In the sieve true weight alone has power. Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before the wind, and only solid corn will remain. Observe the complete safety of the Lord's wheat; even the least grain has a promise of preservation. God himself sifts, and therefore it is stern and terrible work; he sifts them in all places, "among all nations;" he sifts them in the most effectual manner, "like as corn is sifted in a sieve;" and yet for all this, not the smallest, lightest, or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground. Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child, nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of his redeemed people. However little we may be, if we are the Lord's, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus. Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook The Lord Our CompanionSweet are these words in describing a deathbed assurance. How many have repeated them in their last hours with intense delight! But the verse is equally applicable to agonies of spirit in the midst of life. Some of us, like Paul, die daily through a tendency to gloom of soul. Bunyan puts the Valley of the Shadow of Death far earlier in the pilgrimage than the river which rolls at the foot of the celestial hills. We have some of us traversed the dark and dreadful defile of "the shadow of death" several times, and we can bear witness that the LORD alone enabled us to bear up amid its wild thought, its mysterious horrors, its terrible depressions. The LORD has sustained us and kept us above all real fear of evil, even when our spirit has been overwhelmed. We have been pressed and oppressed, but yet we have lived, for we have felt the presence of the Great Shepherd and have been confident that His crook would prevent the foe from giving us any deadly wound. Should the present time be one darkened by the raven wings of a great sorrow, let us glorify God by a peaceful trust in Him. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer It Is God That JustifiethTO be justified is to be acquitted, and pronounced righteous. Every believer in Jesus, however ungodly he may have been, or however vile and unworthy he may feel, is justified by Jehovah. The perfect work of Jesus is imputed to him, free grace is glorified in him, and he is passed from death unto life. To him there is no condemnation; no one can lay any thing to his charge; he is accepted in the Beloved; Christ lived and died for him, and now he liveth and shall be glorified through and with Jesus. All his trespasses are freely forgiven and eternally forgotten. God has cast all our sins behind His back, and now He pronounces us just. Let us approach God, believing that He has justified us; and let us look forward and rejoice that the Judge of all the earth will declare us righteous. Who shall lay anything to our charge? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. My soul, look to Jesus, to His perfect work and prevalent intercession, and there see thy salvation and find peace. Turn then, my soul, unto Thy rest; The merits of Thy great High Priest, Speak peace and liberty: Trust in His efficacious blood, Nor fear thy banishment from God, Since Jesus died for thee. Bible League: Living His Word “Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.”— Luke 6:28 NLT In the previous verse, Jesus says, “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). In saying this, Jesus shows us that the second greatest commandment, the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18), applies to our enemies as well as to our family and friends. In our verse for today, He gives us two particular ways that we should fulfill the commandment. First, He says that we should bless those who curse us. In this context, to bless someone means to “speak well of them,” or to “speak well to them.” Obviously, it’s not an easy thing to do. The first inclination of the sinful self is to verbally lash out at those who curse us. Loving our enemies, however, requires that we speak well of them and speak kindly to them. It’s probably the last thing we want to do, but by doing it we will be following Jesus’ command. Second, He says that we should pray for those who hurt us. In this context, to be hurt by someone means to be injured by them in some way or to be persecuted by them. Instead of responding in kind, we should pray for them. No doubt, praying for someone is one of the highest manifestations of loving our enemies. After all, enemies who hurt us are in desperate need of prayer. They need to be delivered from sin and evil just as we needed to be delivered. Since Jesus’ two ways of loving our enemies go against the ways that people usually respond in these situations, we might well ask the question – Why? Why should we love our enemies in these ways? The answer comes a few verses later in the chapter. When we love our enemies, we are “acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked” (Luke 6:35b). The Most High is compassionate, so we should be compassionate as well (Luke 6:36). The Lord realizes how difficult this will be for His followers, because He gives an incentive to do it. He says (Luke 6:35) that if we do these things, our “reward from heaven will be very great.” Daily Light on the Daily Path Exodus 2:9 Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.Matthew 20:4 and to those he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went. Mark 9:41 "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. Proverbs 11:25 The generous man will be prosperous, And he who waters will himself be watered. Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 1 Corinthians 3:8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. Matthew 25:37,38,40,34 "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? • 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? • "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' • "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 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 The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Insight Jesus challenged society's norms. To him, greatness comes from serving—giving of yourself to help God and others. Service keeps us aware of others' needs, and it stops us from focusing only on ourselves. Jesus came as a servant. Challenge What kind of greatness do you seek? Devotional Hours Within the Bible The TransfigurationThe Transfiguration was one of the most remarkable events in our Lord’s life. The object, so far as the disciples were concerned, probably was to restore their confidence in Christ’s Messiahship, after the staggering blow to their faith which had come to them in the announcement by Himself, that He must suffer and be killed. So far as Jesus Himself was concerned, the object of the Transfiguration would seem to have been to strengthen and encourage Him as He set out on His last journey to the cross. For companions and witnesses on this occasion, Jesus had Peter, James and John. These were His special friends, admitted by Him to His closest friendship. On several occasions we find Him choosing the same three for special companionship. There must have been something in these three men, which fitted them for the place of honor to which they were admitted. We know that the holiest people will get nearest to Christ. We know, too, that faith always brings us near, while doubt and unbelief separate us from Him. Purity of heart brings us close the pure in heart see God. Likeness to Christ fits us for personal friendship. Jesus said that those who serve most self-forgetfully, are first in His kingdom. Selfishness keeps us far off from Jesus. No doubt the eye of Christ saw in the three favored disciples, reasons why they were best fitted to be witnesses of His glory that night. It was not an accident that these, and not three other men were with their Lord on that occasion. It is a special comfort to find that Peter, through such a faulty disciple, was one of those who were admitted to closest fellowship with his Master that night. Luke tells us that Jesus was engaged in prayer when the wonderful change in His appearance took place. From this we learn that prayer has a transforming power. Communion with God, brings heaven down into our life. Tennyson said, “Prayer is to me the lifting up of the sluice-gate between me and the Infinite.” Prayer lets God’s own life into our souls. While we pray we are in the very presence of God! When Moses had spent forty days on the mountain alone with God, and then returned again to the plain, the people saw the dazzling brightness of heaven on his countenance. When Stephen was looking up into heaven at the glory of God as revealed now in holy vision, even his enemies saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Only the upward look can give heavenly beauty. Our communing makes our character. If we think of earthly things we will grow earthly. If we dote on gold our lives will harden into sordidness. If we look up toward God we shall grow like God. A life of prayer will transform us into spirituality, and bring down upon us the beauty of the Lord. Another strange thing happened that night. There appeared unto Jesus and His disciples two men from heaven, not mere apparitions but actual men, not men either from the earth but from heaven Moses and Elijah. There was something very wonderful in this. For more than nine hundred years Elijah had been in heaven, and for more than fourteen hundred years Moses had been away from this world; and now both reappear, still living, speaking, and working. There are many proofs of immortality but here is an illustration of the truth. Here we see two men, long centuries after they have left the earth still living and active in God’s service! It will be the same with us and our friends. Thousands of years after we have vanished from earth we shall still be alive and active somewhere. If only we can get this great truth into our heart, how much more grand it will make all life for us! We are told that these men had a talk with Jesus. One of the Gospels gives us the subject of the talk it was about Christ’s decease, His exodus from this world. These men were sent from heaven to comfort and strengthen Jesus for the journey to His cross. He would have bitter sorrows and great sufferings, and they came to cheer Him. We are not told that He was afraid or that He was in danger of growing faint-hearted before He reached His cross but the bravest and strongest are better for encouragement and cheer. So the heavenly messengers were sent to earth to talk with Jesus about His death, to show Him what it would mean to the world, that He might be strengthened for it. No doubt all the way unto the end of life, Jesus was braver and stronger because of this heavenly visitation. No doubt He had such a vision of redemption as He went to His cross that He rejoiced to suffer, that He saw of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. May there not be a hint in this, of the kind of employment that shall occupy the redeemed in the next life? Possibly we may be sent to distant worlds on errands of love to carry help to weary ones. At least we are sure that heaven is not merely a place of inactive rest. Praise will not be the only employment of the glorified ones. They will have opportunity to serve . The hearts of the disciples were filled with strange ecstasy that night. So absorbed were they in the blessedness of the vision, that Peter proposed that they should stay there, offering to build three tabernacles, one for Jesus and one for each of the heavenly visitors. Peter was right it was good to be there. But at that very moment, human need was waiting at the foot of the mountain for the Master’s coming. Then, farther on, were Gethsemane and Calvary for Jesus; and for Peter there was Pentecost, with years of earnest service, and then martyrdom. It is very sweet to commune with Christ in the closet, at the Lord’s Table; but we must not spend all our time in these holy exercises. While raptures fill our hearts human needs are crying to us for help and for sympathy, and we must hasten away from our peaceful enjoyment, to carry blessing and comfort to those who need. Another element of the Transfiguration, was the witness from heaven. It was the Father who spoke and said, “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!” The disciples had been greatly shocked by what Jesus had told them six days before that He must suffer and be killed. Now from heaven the Father speaks, assuring them that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, and that they should listen to His voice and to His voice only. Even if they could not understand, and the things He said seemed to destroy all their hopes they must be content to hear. There are times when God’s ways with us seem very hard, when we think disaster is coming to ever fair prospect in our lives. In all such hours, we should remember that He who rules over all is the Son of God, our Friend and Savior and our trust in Him should never fail. We should listen always quietly and submissively to what He says, and when everything seems strange and dark we should never doubt or be afraid. What so staggered the disciples then we now see to have been the most glorious and loving wisdom. Through the cross there came to the world the most wonderful blessing the world ever received. So in our strangest trials there are the truest wisdom and the highest love. As Jesus and the disciples came down from the mountain the next morning, He charged them that they should tell no man what they had seen until after He had risen from the dead. Just so, there are many things that it is hard or even impossible for us to understand at the time but which become clear enough when the other events follow and cast their light upon them. One riding along a road approaches a building which has no beauty and which seems to be only a confused pile. But when he has passed by and looks back at it, he sees a structure graceful, impressive, and beautiful. He saw it first from the wrong side. One looks at an artist at work on his canvas and sees only rude daubs. The picture has not yet been completed. By and by it is finished and is a rare work of art. We must wait for finished work before we judge. A boy enters the academy, and a page of Greek is put before him but it has no meaning for him. He cannot read it. He spends a few years in the study of the language, and again the same page is presented to him. Now he reads it off with ease, and every word glows with some high thought. We are in Christ’s school now, and there are many things we cannot understand until we get farther on and learn other things, and then the former will be made plain and clear. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingNehemiah 12, 13 Nehemiah 12 -- Priests and Levites Who Returned; Dedication of the Wall NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Nehemiah 13 -- Foreigners Excluded; Tobiah Expelled; Tithes and Sabbath Restored NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Acts 4:23-37 Acts 4 -- Peter and John Arrested and Released; Believers Share All NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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