Dawn 2 Dusk The Promise in the Secret PlaceIn one breathtaking sentence, Jesus ties together intimacy with Him, saturation in His Word, and powerful answers to prayer. He tells us that when we truly remain in Him and His words remain in us, our asking changes—and so do the outcomes. This isn’t a blank check for selfish wishes; it’s an invitation into a relationship so close that our desires begin to mirror His. Today is about living in that place: where heart, Word, and prayer all move in step with the Savior. Rooted in the Vine John 15 is all about connection: Jesus as the true vine, and us as branches utterly dependent on Him. Just two verses earlier He says, “I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Remaining in Him is not a quick check-in on Sundays; it is a settled, ongoing, conscious dependence—like a branch that never stops drawing life from the vine. The life of Christ is meant to be flowing into every corner of your day, not just your “spiritual” moments. Think of how easily we try to live on yesterday’s grace or last week’s quiet time. Yet Jesus calls us to a present-tense, moment-by-moment abiding. He is not an emergency power source; He is our constant lifeline. When we feel dry, anxious, or fruitless, the question isn’t “What can I do differently?” so much as “Am I truly remaining in Him—trusting, obeying, and drawing near?” The more honestly we answer that, the more we see how much He is ready to supply when we stay in Him. Shaped by His Words Jesus doesn’t just say, “If you remain in Me.” He adds, “and My words remain in you” (John 15:7). His words are not meant to pass through us like headlines; they are meant to take root, to dwell, to shape our instincts. Colossians echoes this: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you” (Colossians 3:16). When Scripture richly dwells in us, our thoughts, reactions, and priorities begin to change. We stop approaching life like everyone else, because we’re being re-trained by the voice of our Shepherd. This is why a casual relationship with the Bible will always lead to a casual, powerless prayer life. If His words are thin in us, our prayers will be thin, too—mostly driven by fear, pressure, or impulse. But when His promises, commands, and stories are fresh in our hearts, they give shape and substance to what we ask. We start praying, not just what we feel in the moment, but what God has already revealed to be His will. Over time, we find that our deepest longings are increasingly aligned with His written Word. Asking with the King’s Heart Here is the staggering promise: “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). That could sound like a license for selfishness, but the conditions protect it from abuse. A heart that truly abides in Christ and is saturated with His Word will not be dominated by selfish wishes. It will be increasingly tuned to what delights Him. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart”. When He is your delight, He also becomes the architect of your desires. This is why John can say, “And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). Abiding brings confidence in prayer because we are not guessing at God’s will; we’re walking in it. So, when you come to God today, don’t just rush into asking. First, draw near to the Vine. Open His Word and linger. Ask Him to reshape your desires, to burn away what is merely selfish, and to grow in you a holy boldness to ask for what brings Him glory. Those are the prayers Heaven delights to answer. Lord Jesus, thank You for inviting me to remain in You and for giving me Your living Word. Today, draw me closer, saturate my heart with Scripture, and move me to pray boldly for what pleases You—and then help me to act in obedience to what You show me. Morning with A.W. Tozer Mature LivingThe absence of spiritual devotion today is an omen and a portent. The modern church is all but contemptuous of the sober virtues--meekness, modesty, humility, quietness, obedience, self-effacement, patience. To be accepted now, religion must be in the popular mood. Consequently, much religious activity reeks with pride, display, self-assertion, self-promotion, love of gain and devotion to trivial pleasures. It behooves us to take all this seriously. Time is running out for all of us. What is done must be done quickly. We have no right to lie idly by and let things take their course. A farmer who neglects his farm will soon lose it; a shepherd who fails to look after his flock will find the wolves looking after it for him. A misbegotten charity that allows the wolves to destroy the flock is not charity at all but indifference, rather, and should be known for what it is and dealt with accordingly.
It is time for Bible-believing Christians to begin to cultivate the sober graces and to live among men like sons of God and heirs of the ages. And this will take more than a bit of doing, for the whole world and a large part of the church is set to prevent it. But if God be for us, who can be against us?
Music For the Soul The Healer and the HealedAnd Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. - Mark 10:52 Bartimaeus had scarcely ended speaking when Christ began. He was blind at the beginning of Christ’s little sentence; he saw at the end of it. " Go thy way; thy faith hath saved thee." The answer came instantly, and the cure was as immediate as the movement of Christ’s heart in answer. I here and now proclaim the possibility of an immediate passage from weakness to light. Some folk look askance at us when we talk about sudden conversions, but these are perfectly reasonable; and the experience of thousands asserts that they are actual. As soon as we desire we have, and as soon as we have we see. Whenever the lungs are open the air rushes in; sometimes the air opens the lung that it may. The desire is all but contemporaneous with the fulfillment, in Christ’s dealings with men. The message is flashed along the wire from earth to heaven in an incalculably brief space of time, and the answer comes swift as thought and swifter than light. So, dear friend, there is no reason whatever why a similar instantaneous change should not pass over you now. You are unsaved; you may be saved. It is for yourself to settle whether you are or are not. Here we have a clear statement of the path by which Christ’s mercy rushes into a man’s soul. "Thy faith hath saved thee." But it was Christ’s power that saved him. Yes! it was; but it was faith that made it possible for Christ’s power to make him whole. Physical miracles indeed did not always require trust in Christ, as a preceding condition, but the possession of Christ’s salvation does, and cannot but do. There must be trust in Him in order that we may partake of the salvation which is owing solely to His power, His love, His work upon the Cross. The condition is for us; the power comes from Him. My faith is the hand that grasps His. It is His hand, not mine, that holds me up. My faith lays hold of the rope. It is the rope, and the person above that holds it, that lifts me out of the horrible pit and the miry clay. My faith flees for refuge to the City. It is the City that keeps me safe from the Avenger of Blood. Brother! exercise that faith, and you will find that vision. If you will fling away your hindrances, and grope your path to His feet, and fall down before Him, knowing your deep necessity, and trusting to Him to supply it. He will save you. Your new sight will gaze upon your Redeemer, and you will follow Him in the way of loving trust and glad obedience. Jesus Christ was passing by. He was never to be in Jericho any more. If Bartimaeus did not get his sight then, he would be blind all his days. Christ and His salvation are offered to thee, my friend, now. Perhaps if you let Him pass you will never hear Him call again, and may abide in the darkness for ever. Do not run the risk of such a fate. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Exodus 8:28 Only ye shall not go very far away. This is a crafty word from the lip of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. If the poor bondaged Israelites must needs go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them that it shall not be very far away; not too far for them to escape the terror of his arms, and the observation of his spies. After the same fashion, the world loves not the non-conformity of nonconformity, or the dissidence of dissent; it would have us be more charitable and not carry matters with too severe a hand. Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and hence the ordinance which sets them forth is almost universally neglected, and even condemned. Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise, and talks of "moderation." According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we are warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but error is not to be severely denounced. "Yes," says the world, "be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny yourself a little gay society, an occasional ball, and a Christmas visit to a theatre. What's the good of crying down a thing when it is so fashionable, and everybody does it?" Multitudes of professors yield to this cunning advice, to their own eternal ruin. If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far away to the place where the Lord calls his sanctified ones. When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man cannot be too far from its haunts. The further from a viper the better, and the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the trumpet-call be sounded, "Come ye out from among them, be ye separate." Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Thank Him; Dwell AcceptablyOh, that my heart may be upright, that I may always be able to bless the name of the LORD! He is so good to those that be good, that I would fain be among them and feel myself full of thankfulness every day. Perhaps, for a moment, the righteous are staggered when their integrity results in severe trial; but assuredly the day shall come when they shall bless their God that they did not yield to evil suggestions and adopt a shifty policy. In the long run true men will thank the God of the right for leading them by a right way. Oh, that I may be among them! What a promise is implied in this second clause, "The upright shall dwell in thy presence!" They shall stand accepted where others appear only to be condemned. They shall be the courtiers of the great King, indulged with audience whensoever they desire it. They shall be favored ones upon whom Jehovah smiles and with whom He graciously communes. LORD, I covet this high honor, this precious privilege. It will be heaven on earth to me to enjoy it. Make me in all things upright, that I may today and tomorrow and every day stand in Thy heavenly presence. Then will I give thanks unto Thy name evermore. Amen. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer Remember Lot’s WifeSHE received the angels, and hospitably entertained them, she believed their message, and prepared to act upon it: she obeyed their command, and left Sodom and her children behind her. She forsook the ungodly, and went in company with the saints; yet her heart was left in the city, and she looked back. She was deprived of life, for too highly prizing its comforts. She was cut off by a visible display of God’s judgment. The situation in which she died was instructive: it was not in Sodom, but on the plain; she escaped one judgment, but was overtaken by another. She was left as sad example of God’s jealousy, and displeasure against sin. Here is a warning to the covetous, whose hearts are set on things below; to the self-willed, who trifle with God’s commands; and to the undecided, who stand between Sodom and Zoar. God will be honoured by our obedience, or by our sufferings. It is dangerous to trifle with the smallest of God’s commands. We may overcome one temptation, and yet fall by another. Let us examine, are our hearts detached from the world? Be not high-minded, but fear. Remember Lot’s wife. Waiting for our Lord’s returning, Be it ours His word to keep; Let our lamps be always burning; Let us watch, while others sleep; We’re no longer of the night; We are children of the light. Bible League: Living His Word “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”— Matthew 6:27 NLT Are you the one that always worries about things? You may say, “I can’t just sit there and do nothing—life demands some concern.” Responsible people go over things. Lazy people don’t. You don’t want to be lazy. You want to be the kind of person that takes things seriously. You want to be known for the care and concern that you bring to the world. Do you go over and over everything that comes your way? And, if truth be told, do you go over everything that comes the way of friends and family as well? You don’t worry some of the time. You worry all of the time. You worry about all the bad things that could happen. You think that by going over all the possibilities for disaster, you’re being responsible. You think that by reminding others of all the possibilities, you’re helping them. If they can’t worry for themselves, then you’ll do it for them. They might not realize what they’re in for. They might not be aware of what could happen. So, you won’t let them leave until you warn them of everything bad that could happen. You’re also filled with anxiety. Worry isn’t enough for you. Fear and anxiety are necessary as well. You see that your friends and family don’t bring the same kind of care and concern to the situation that you do, and it fills you with distress. Surely, the worst will happen because they don’t care as much as you do. You allow yourself to be tormented and worn out by your anxieties. By the end of the day, you’re exhausted. If all this describes you, then our verse for today is for you. The thing about worry is that it can’t do anything for you. It can’t add a single moment to your life. Psalm 139 says that God numbered our days before there were any of them. You must trust the will of our sovereign God. Instead of helping, worry only adds a burden. Instead of solving a problem, it adds a second one. Now you have to deal with your worries and anxieties. Jesus’ question in our verse doesn’t expect an answer. It expects you to give up your worries. It expects you to trust God to take care of you and your loved ones. Daily Light on the Daily Path Revelation 6:17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"Malachi 3:2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. Revelation 7:9,14-17 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; • I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. • "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. • "They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; • for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes." Romans 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 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 Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven't done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”Insight What does your money mean to you? Although Jesus wanted this man to sell everything and give his money to the poor, this does not mean that all believers should sell all their possessions. Most of his followers did not sell everything, although they used their possessions to serve others. Instead, this story shows us that we must not let anything we have or desire keep us from following Jesus. We must remove all barriers to serving him fully. Challenge If Jesus asked, could you give up your house? Your car? Your level of income? Your position on the ladder of promotion? Your reaction may show your attitude toward money—whether it is your servant or your master. Devotional Hours Within the Bible False Excuses“A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.” This supper is a picture of the blessings of redemption. The redemption of Christ is said to be great he who prepares it, its blessings, and the numbers who enjoy it, its eternal duration, and the sweetness of its joys all are great. At a feast men provide the best provisions they can obtain; in the gospel we have the best that heaven has to give. At a feast there is plenty; in the gospel there is infinite abundance. There is pleasant fellowship at a feast, and the gospel brings us into intimate communion with God and into sweet fellowship with other Christians. There is one marked contrast, however earth’s feasts are soon over, while the gospel feast is unending. Next comes the invitation. “Come, for everything is now ready!” One of the things included, is forgiveness of sins. Deep in every soul, is the consciousness of sin and of separation from God because of sin. There is therefore a craving for the taking away of sin, and peace never can come until this craving is satisfied. Another hunger of the heart is for fellowship with God. The human soul was made for God and never can find rest until it finds it in reconciliation to God and restored communion with Him. Human friendship is very sweet and brings deep joy but we need also the love of God in our hearts to make the satisfaction complete. One who did not know the facts, would say that this invitation would find universal acceptance. We can scarcely think of anybody declining the invitation to such a festival as this. But instead of universal acceptance, “They all alike, began to make excuses!” Most people are eager to accept social honors. But this is a spiritual feast. It is not this world’s dainties which load the table but the things of God’s love. The joy to which men are here invited, is not earth’s festivity but the joy of forgiveness of sin and communion with God. To accept this invitation, men must leave their sins and enter upon a new life of holiness. The natural heart does not take kindly to this. The refusal of those invited, is true to nature. The excuses given, are only excuses they are not real reasons. The truth is, that those invited do not want to come to this feast, and therefore make up pretexts having the appearance of reasons for not accepting the invitation. Men do not like to say bluntly, that they will not come to Christ, nor accept His mercy and love. That would seem discourteous. Hence they resort to insincerity and hypocrisy, revealing under all kinds of flimsy and empty pretexts, their unwillingness to accept Christ as their Savior and Friend. The excuses which are given, are typical . One man said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.” This may be called the property excuse. That was a very costly piece of ground to its new owner, when we consider that it kept him away altogether from Christ and deprived him of eternal possessions. Yet there are many fields which have done this very thing. They have cost men their souls. The parable is not overdrawn. There are a great many people who lose their souls for things worth even less than a ten-acre field. Esau got only a plain meal as the price of his birthright. Judas got about twelve or thirteen dollars for his act of treason to his Master which has blackened his name for all generations, and which sent his soul into eternal darkness. Caring for property is always an insidious danger. It is not meant to be a snare to men; business ought to be a help heavenward. And it is when it is followed as our Master means that it shall be followed. Many men, however, are led to give more thought to planning how to make the most of their farms and their money than to the saving of their souls and making the most of their spiritual lives. The second man offers the business excuse. “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” He already had engagements for the day on which the feast came, business engagements which he thought he could not set aside rather, which he would not set aside. He had no thought of postponing the breaking in of his oxen in order that he might attend the great gospel feast. That is, he was not willing to make a little readjustment of his business arrangements, even to honor his God and to get a new blessing for himself. The business of trying the oxen certainly could have waited another day but the man missed the feast altogether, while he spent the day out in the dusty field. Many people are kept away from the church services, from Christian duties, and from Christ Himself by business occupations. They say they have no time to pray or read the Bible, because their work is so pressing. They have no time to go to church, or to take an interest in spiritual affairs, because their worldly duties press them so. One man said the other day, that he always played golf on Sunday. His business during the week required every moment of his days. His mind was under a constant strain. In order to be able to begin again this life of stress on Monday he must have absolute rest on Sunday. He found this relaxation nowhere, he said, as he did in golf. This is the way many men talk about the matter of religion. They have no time for it. They need Sunday for rest. Yet some of these days they will have to take time to be sick; and then, someday, time to die. What comfort will they get in these hours, from all their life of engrossing business cares? The third man gave pleasure as his excuse. “I just got married, and therefore I am unable to come.” He was so much taken up with the joys of wedded life, that he could not turn aside. There is no doubt that home pleasures and delights do often so absorb people as to keep them away from Christian duties, and even from Christ. Sometimes the very blessings of home life interfere with faithful following of Christ. A loving wife may unintentionally hold her husband back from Christian service, by the exactions of her affection. She is unwilling to spare him from her side that he may do the work which the Master would have him do. Peter in his love for his Master would have kept Him from going to His cross. Too often a happy home by its very happiness, so satisfies men’s hearts that they do not feel the necessity for anything more. We all need to watch that we never allow our home or our love for dear ones to keep us in any sense from our full duty to Christ. If we love father or mother, wife or friend, more than Christ we are not worthy of Him. When the master received the “excuses” of his invited guests, he bade his servant go out quickly into the streets and lanes, and bring in the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame. The servant did this and reported, “Yet there is room!” There is always room. The heart of God is never full. The church is never full its doors ever stand open and its welcome is ever extended to everyone who will come. Heaven is never full there are places remaining still unfilled in its many mansions. In the description of heaven in the Book of Revelation we are told that the city has twelve gates, three entering from each point of the compass (Revelation 21:10-13). These gates forever voice heaven’s welcome to all those who will come. They are never shut, by day or by night, and no matter when one may come he will find ready admission and glorious welcome. Heaven must be filled. If those who are first invited will not come, the invitation is extended to others and pressed upon them. “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in,” was the bidding. These words show us the importance of earnestness in those whose duty it is to invite men to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not merely to find Christ ourselves, and then be satisfied. The first impulse of the true Christian is to seek other lost ones. The words of the parable suggest, first, that we are to go into all the world, wherever there is a lost soul, and invite all men to come. We are to invite them earnestly, to constrain them, to press the invitation upon them. The morning papers the other day, told of a policeman rushing into a burning building, climbing the stairways, through flame and smoke to save a mother and her children. We should have similar earnestness in rescuing perishing souls! How will it be with us when we reach the end of our life if we have not rescued anyone from the storms and the dangers? On the other hand, much of the joy of heaven will come from meeting those whom we have been allowed to bring to Christ. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJob 10, 11, 12 Job 10 -- Job Complains to God, Craves a Little Ease Before Death NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Job 11 -- Zophar Rebukes Job for Justifying Himself; God's Wisdom Is Unsearchable NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Job 12 -- Job Maintains Himself against His Friends; Acknowledges God's Omnipotence NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Acts 8:1-25 Acts 8 -- Saul Persecutes the Church; Philip in Samaria; Simon the Sorcerer; the Ethiopian NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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