Fri.-Sabbath, 7/29-31/22 Devotion

Thank God—it is almost Sunday! We get to go to church again! Here is Tho-mas Watson, from his, "The Happiness of Drawing Near to God" book. . . .

"A gracious soul cannot but draw near to God, because of the intimate rela-tionship between God and him. God is a Father—Isa. 64:8: 'Doubtless You are our Father.’ Does not the child delight to draw near to his father? There is no father like God for love; His children shall never want; He has land enough to give to all His heirs. God loves His children so entirely, that He will never disinherit them. How then can believers keep away from their Father? They do not know how to be long out of His presence.

"A gracious soul cannot but draw near to God, because he has found so much sweetness and contentment in it. While he has drawn near to God, he has drawn virtue from Him. . . . In drawing near to God a Christian's heart has been warmed and melted; the Lord has kindled His sacrifice from Heaven. In our approaches to God, we have had the blessings of the Spirit, the incomes of God's love, the previews of glory. God has given us a 'bunch of grapes' by the way; we have 'tasted that the Lord is good.' No wonder then we are so frequent in our approaches to the divine majesty; we have found the comfort of drawing near to God."

Thurs., 7/28/22 Devotion (Mk. 10:35-36)

Today's encouragement comes from Mark 10:35 & 36, where we read these words:

“Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to [Jesus], saying, 'Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.' And He said to them, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' "

This exchange (above) is a very interesting one. James and John, the ever-bold brothers, come to the Messiah with an audacious statement: "We want You to do for us whatever we ask." The impressive thing here is that Jesus does not reprove, rebuke, or correct them in *any way*. The Lord simply asks, "What do you want Me to do for you?"

Could it be, that we believers are often just not "intrepid" enough to ask God for *everything* we really want? The Lord knows our hearts and desires any-way—why should we not have the candor of laying them bare before Him?

[Puritan quote of the day: "Though God does not answer you immediately, yet He does hear you immediately.” —William Bridge, in, "A Lifting Up for the Downcast"]

Wed., 7/27/22 Devotion (Acts 13:7)

Today's encouragement comes from Acts 13:7, where we read these words:

"The proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man . . . called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God."

Sometimes we Christians wrongly imagine that no one "out there" wants to hear the Word of the Lord. We often feel that we are all alone, as the only ones who have any interest in the truth, or the gospel. The Bible—the New Testament in particular—challenges this notion. Here, a smart man wants to hear the Word of God. (Cf. also in this connection Acts 13:42 & 44, where people "beg" to hear the Word, and show up in big numbers [to do so].)

Therefore, let us always be prepared to speak the gospel of Christ's grace to any and all who will hear it. We are likely to be surprised by those who are (and who are not) interested.

[Puritan quote of the day: "Our victory lies not in ourselves and our own habit-ual strength, but in Christ's fresh assistance.” —William Bridge, in, "A Lifting Up for the Downcast"]

Tues., 7/26/22 Devotion (Mk. 8:34b, 35)

Today's encouragement comes from Mark 8:34b & 35, wherein the Lord Jesus said this:

"Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but who-ever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it."

Notice that the key here is Jesus' twice-repeated word, "desires." What do we desire? If we desire to love and follow Christ, this is good—but it will cost us everything. It will cost us our sin, our autonomy, and our false sense of "free-dom." We cannot live in Christ, until we die to our old selves. This is very dif-ficult. In fact, aside from God’s sovereign grace, it is virtually impossible.

. . . But, once we do this (by faith in Jesus), we are truly liberated. God will be no man's debtor. If we give Him all of who and what we are—He will give us far more than we could ever imagine—all in Christ.

[Puritan quote of the day: "Consider that God's mercy and Christ's merits in pardoning the guilt of the sin you have committed are far greater than the greatness of your own guilt.” —Christopher Love, in, "The Dejected Soul's Cure"]

Mon., 7/25/22 Devotion (Mk. 7:15)

Today's encouragement comes from Mark 7:15, where the Lord Jesus said this:

"There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man."

These words of our Savior lay-out a basic difference between the true religion and all false religion. False religion is concerned about externals, first and foremost, and often exclusively. The true religion deals with the sinful and fall-en nature of the heart, and how this problem must be resolved before a Holy God through the glorious gospel of His Son Jesus Christ.

False religion is very easy to practice: do a few things, and one can imagine he or she is in God's good standing. True religion focuses entirely on Jesus, who is our only hope, our only righteousness, and our only justification.

[Puritan quote of the day: "It is a true rule in divinity that the desire for any grace is the grace itself; for to desire to believe is faith, and true desire to re-pent is repentance, and true desire to mourn for sin is mourning for sin.”
—Christopher Love, in, "The Dejected Soul's Cure"]

Fri.-Sabbath, 7/22-24/22 Devotion

Praise God—it is almost Sunday! We *get* to go back to church! In order to help get us ready for worship, here is the Puritan pastor Jeremiah Burroughs, from his, "Gospel Remission" book. . . .

"When God comes to pardon sin, it is such a mercy as comes from the foun-tain of His everlasting love. Other mercies do not. Where this is not present, you cannot have evidence of God's eternal love. If God gives you health of body, good voyages at sea, and good success in respect of the world, you cannot draw arguments from this that God bears eternal love to your soul. But when He comes to pardon your sins, it is a certain evidence that God has set His love on you from all eternity.

"If there were a chain let down from heaven and you could take hold but of one link that would certainly bring you there, both ends would come together. In Romans 8:30, there is a chain of many links let down, and if you can catch hold of the link of justification, you may certainly catch hold of predestination, for all hang together. If you are justified, then know for certain that you are a predestined man or woman upon whom God has set His heart from all eter-nity to do you good. And this is a great happiness for a poor creature while he lives in this world, to know that God has set His heart upon him from all eter-nity to do him good. And, indeed, we can never be at rest until we come to this."

Thurs., 7/21/22 Devotion (Acts 8:35)

Today's encouragement comes from Acts 8:35, where these words are spok-en of Philip, with regard to the Ethiopian eunuch:

"Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him."

Anywhere we turn in our Bibles we find, ultimately, the very same message: it is that the Son of God would be/is incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and glor-ified. Some texts, like the Isaiah passage that Philip expounded to the Ethio-pian, are more specific than others—but every jot and tittle of the OT, and every Greek letter of the NT speaks of Jesus.

Let this inform us as we study the Scriptures, and when we share its truth with others. If we do not "preach Jesus to [them]," we are doing them no ser-vice at all.

[Puritan quote of the day: "The love of Christ for the elect is so great that God the Father looks upon it proper and suitable to account Christ and the elect as one, and accordingly to account what Christ does and suffers as if they did it and suffered it.” —Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon entitled, "The Wisdom of God"]

Wed., 7/20/22 Devotion (Jer. 16:19)

Today's encouragement comes from Jeremiah 16:19, where we read these words:

"O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, 'Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.' "

When Jeremiah wrote these words things were not going particularly well for the prophet, and certainly not for his countrymen. Still, Jeremiah found com-fort and courage in his God. On top of this, he drew strength from the fact that though his generation was quite corrupt—there would indeed be people from all over the world who, in God's time, would cling to Jesus in the gospel of His grace.

Let all God's sincere churchmen—be we clergy or laity—trust in the Lord, and persevere; knowing that nothing done from genuine faith in Christ is insignifi-cant or vain, (cf. 1 Cor. 15:58).

[Puritan quote of the day: "But now Christ does that which we could not do, that is, fulfill the law for us. And He also does that which the law could not do, which was justify us.” —Obadiah Grew, in, "The Lord our Righteousness"]

Fri.-Sabbath, 7/1-3/22 Devotion

Praise the Lord—it is almost Sunday! In order to help get us ready for church, here is Thomas Watson, from his, "The Ten Commandments" book: 

"Each Sabbath may be the last one we shall ever keep. We may go from the place of hearing to the place of judging—and shall we not give careful atten-tion to the Word? If we thought this way, when we come into God's house, 'Perhaps this will be the last time that God will ever counsel me about my soul; and before another sermon death's alarm may sound in my ears’—then, what attention and devotion we would feel, and our affections would be all on fire in hearing the Word! 

“We must give an account for every sermon we hear. 'Give an account of your stewardship,' (Lk. 16:2). So will God say, 'Give an account of your hearing. Have you been affected with the Word? Have you profited by it?' How can we give a good account, if we have been distracted in our hearing, and have not taken notice of what has been said to us? The Judge to whom we must give an account is God. . . . "