Lord, hear our prayer:
Lord, we praise you that though the temple of his body was broken on the cross, he has opened the kingdom of heaven through the power of his resurrection. By your Holy Spirit give us the desire, the will and the power to worship you, the one true living God.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
Wednesday Reflecting
“They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, on the day that I make them My jewels.” – Malachi 3:17.
“What dirty, dreadful, disgusting stuff,” exclaims a man regarding that peculiarly unpleasant compound, the mud of London streets. “Hold, my friend,” says Ruskin. “Not so dreadful after all. What are the elements of this mud? First there is sand, but when its particles are crystallized according to the law of its nature, what is nicer than clean white sand? And when that which enters into it is arranged according to a still higher law, we have the matchless opal. What else have we in this mud? Clay. And the materials of clay, when the particles are arranged according to their higher laws, make the brilliant sapphire. What other ingredients enter into the London mud? Soot. And soot in its crystallized perfection forms the diamond. There is but one other—water. And water when distilled according to the higher law of its nature, forms the dewdrop resting in exquisite perfection in the heart of the rose.” So in the muddy, lost soul of man is hidden the image of his Creator, and God will do His best to find His opals, His sapphires, His diamonds and dewdrops..
~ RAINSFORD
Wednesday July 12, 2023
Mark 11:24
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray,
believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
Consecration is entered by an act of faith. You are to take the gift from God, believe you have, and confess that you have it. Step out on it firmly, and let the devil know you have it as well as the Lord. When once you say to Him boldly, “I am Thine,” He answers back from the heavenly heights, “Thou art Mine,” and the echoes go ringing down through all your life, “Mine! Thine!” If you dare confess Christ as your Saviour and Sanctifier He has bound Himself to make it a reality, but you must stand behind His mighty Word. It is the essence of testimony to tell of what Jesus has promised to become to you. It is right to have glorious words of thanksgiving, but these are not exactly testimony. God would have us put our seal on the promises, and lift up our hands and acknowledge them as ours.
Then you are to ignore the old life and reckon it no longer yours if it should come up again. Every time it appears say, “This is from the under world. I am sitting in the heavenly places with Christ.”
In our country we do not realize the intimacy of a shepherd with his flock as they do in Syria and in parts of Southern Europe. It was my daily delight every day for many weeks and a dozen times a day, to watch a shepherd who had this almost incredibly close communion with his flock. Many times have I accompanied him through the green pastures and by the stream. If my shepherd wished to lead his sheep from one pasture to another, he went before them, and he was usually singing.
He led them with a song or with a sweet, low, wooing whistle like the call of a bird, and the sheep raised their heads from the herbage, looked at their guardian and guide, and followed on. I have heard his song and his low birdcall by the watercourse, and have seen the sheep follow his course over the rocky boulders to the still waters, where they have been refreshed. At noon he would sit down in a place of shadows, and all his flock crowded around him for rest. At night, when the darkness was falling, he gathered them into the fold.
We must realize an intimacy like this if we wish to understand the shepherd imagery of the Old Book. The communion is so intimate that the shepherd knows if one of his sheep is missing.
~ John H. Jowett
We’re all faced with difficult tasks. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was forced to confront their spiritual problems, which were slowly destroying God’s work among them. Paul was thankful for them (1 Corinthians 1:4–8), but he was also called to a high purpose as an apostle. His calling meant saying what people didn’t want to hear (1 Corinthians 1:1).
There were divisions among the Corinthians that were going to rip their fledgling church apart, and Paul implored them to make some difficult changes: “Now I exhort you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that . . . there not be divisions among you, and that you be made complete in the same mind and with the same purpose. For . . . there are quarrels among you” (1 Corinthians 1:10–11). And here’s where something amazing happens that we often overlook. Paul, a confident man and a former Law-abiding Pharisee, could have stated why he was right and moved on, but he does something else:
“Each of you is saying, ‘I am with Paul,’ and ‘I am with Apollos,’ and ‘I am with Cephas,’ and ‘I am with Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I give thanks that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name” (1 Corinthians 1:12–15). Paul sticks it to them, and he reminds them that Christ deserves all the credit.
We all have moments like this, where we have the opportunity to take credit for someone else’s work—or even worse, for Jesus’ work. Paul had the strength and character that we should all desire.
Jesus returned to Capernaum, possibly to Peter’s house, and the crowd gathered to see Him heal and to hear Him teach. But a new element was added: some of the official religious leaders from Jerusalem were present to investigate what He was doing. They had every right to do this since it was the responsibility of the elders to prevent false prophets from leading the people astray (Deuteronomy 13; 18:15–22). They had interrogated John the Baptist (John 1:19–34) and now they would examine Jesus of Nazareth.
Since this is the first time the scribes and Pharisees are mentioned in Luke’s Gospel, it would be good for us to get acquainted with them. The word Pharisee comes from a Hebrew word that means “to divide, to separate.” The scribes and Pharisees probably developed out of the ministry of Ezra, the priest, who taught the Jewish people to obey the Law of Moses and be separate from the heathen nations around them (Ezra 9–10; Nehemiah 8–9). The great desire of the scribes and Pharisees was to understand and magnify God’s Law and apply it in their daily lives.
However, the movement soon became quite legalistic and its leaders laid so many burdens on the people that it was impossible to “serve the Lord with gladness.” – Psalm 100:2. Furthermore, many of the Pharisees were hypocrites and did not practice what they preached (see Matthew 15:1–20; 23:1–36). In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5–7, Jesus exposed the shallowness of pharisaical religion. He explained that true righteousness is a matter of the heart and not external religious practices alone.
The scribes and Pharisees picked a good time to attend one of our Lord’s meetings, because God’s power was present in a special way and Jesus would heal a man with palsy. If leprosy illustrates the corruption and defilement of sin, then palsy is a picture of the paralysis that sin produces in a life. But Jesus would do more than heal the man; He would also forgive his sins and teach the crowd a lesson in forgiveness.
The paralytic was unable to come to Jesus himself, but he was fortunate enough to have four friends who were able to get him to Jesus. These four men are examples of how friends ought to minister to one another and help needy sinners come to the Saviour.
To begin with, they had faith that Jesus would heal him (Luke 5:20); and it is faith that God honors. Their love for the man united them in their efforts so that nothing discouraged them, not even the crowd at the door. (How tragic it is when spectators stand in the way of people who want to meet Jesus. Zacchaeus would have this problem. See Luke 19:3.) When they could not get in at the door, they went on the roof, removed the tiling, and lowered the man on his mat right in front of the Lord!
Jesus could have simply healed the man and sent him home, but instead, He used the opportunity to teach a lesson about sin and forgiveness. Certainly it was easier to say to the man, “Your sins be forgiven!” than it was to say, “Rise up and walk!” Why? Because nobody could prove whether or not his sins really were forgiven! Jesus took the harder approach and healed the man’s body, something everybody in the house could witness.
Was the man’s affliction the result of his sin? We do not know, but it is probable (see John 5:1–14). The healing of his body was an outward evidence of the spiritual healing within. Jesus astounded the religious leaders by claiming to have authority both to heal the body and to forgive sins. The people had already acknowledged His authority to teach and to cast out demons (Luke 4:32, 36), but now He claimed authority to forgive sins as well. The scribes and Pharisees could not deny the miracle of healing, but they considered His claim to forgive sins nothing less than blasphemy, for only God can forgive sins. For making that kind of statement, Jesus could be stoned, because He was claiming to be God.
In Luke 5:24, we have the first recorded use of the title Son of man in Luke’s Gospel, where it is found twenty-three times. Our Lord’s listeners were familiar with this title. It was used of the Prophet Ezekiel over eighty times, and Daniel applied it to the Messiah (Daniel 7:13, 18). “Son of man” was our Lord’s favorite name for Himself; this title is found at least eighty-two times in the Gospel record. Occasionally He used the title “Son of God” (Matthew 27:43; Luke 22:70; John 5:25; 9:35; 10:36; 11:4), but “Son of man” was used more. Certainly the Jewish people caught the messianic character of this title, but it also identified Him with the people He came to save (Luke 19:10). Like Ezekiel, the Old Testament “son of man,” Jesus “sat where they sat” (Ezekiel 3:15).
The healing was immediate and the people glorified God. But even more than receiving healing, the man experienced forgiveness and the start of a whole new life. Our Lord’s miracles not only demonstrated His deity and His compassion for needy people, but they also revealed important spiritual lessons about salvation. They were “object lessons” to teach spiritually blind people what God could do for them if only they would believe in His Son.
Lord, hear our prayer:
Father, we praise you for coming in Jesus. We praise you for his zeal for your house – his determination that it should be open for all people to find you, know you, love you and praise you there. We praise you for his utter determination to demonstrate your perfect love – no matter how great the cost; for his conviction that not even death could hinder the fulfilment of your great purposes in him for the salvation of the world.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
Tuesday Reflecting
“I am the LORD, I do not change.” – Malachi 3:6.
Our hope is not hung upon such untwisted thread as “I imagine so,” or “It is likely”; but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity: our salvation is fastened with God’s own hand and Christ’s own strength to the strong stake of God’s unchanging nature.
~ RUTHERFORD
Tuesday July 11, 2023
Luke 19:10
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
It is strange what unusual places Christ finds some of his people in! I knew one of Christ’s sheep who was found out by his Master while committing robbery. I knew another who was found out by Christ, while he was spiting his old mother by reading the Sunday newspaper and making fun of her. Many have been found by Jesus Christ, even in the midst of sin and vanity. I knew a preacher of the gospel who was converted in a theatre. He was listening to a play, an old-fashioned piece, that ended with a sailor drinking a glass of gin before he was hung, and he said, “Here’s to the prosperity of the British nation, and the salvation of my immortal soul;” and down went the curtain; and down went my friend too, for he ran home with all his might. Those words, “The salvation of my immortal soul,” had struck him to the quick; and he sought the Lord Jesus in his chamber. Many a day he sought him, and at last he found him to his joy and confidence. But for the most part Christ finds his people in his own house; but he finds them often in the worst of tempers, in the most hardened conditions; and he softens their hearts, awakens their consciences, subdues their pride, and takes them to himself; but they would never come to him unless he came to them. Sheep go astray, but they do not come back again by themselves. Ask the shepherd whether his sheep come back, and he will tell you, “No, sir; they will wander, but they never return.” When you find a sheep that ever came back by himself, then you may hope to find a sinner that will come to Christ by himself. No; it must be sovereign grace that must seek the sinner and bring him home.
A tourist in Syria observed with interest how a shepherd drove all his sheep into a sheepfold one evening. The fold was an enclosing wall with only one opening. On that opening he noticed that there was neither door nor gate. He remarked to the shepherd: “Can’t wild beasts get in there?” “No,” answered the shepherd, “because I am the door. When the sheep are in for the night, I lie down across that doorway. No sheep can get out except over my body, and no wolf or thief can get in except over me.”
Every leader faces power struggles—from those who follow the leader and from those the leader follows. If there isn’t some sort of struggle, the leader probably isn’t doing his or her job well. It’s simple: those who make everyone happy probably aren’t pushing people to be better, and pushing will—at times—frustrate both the leaders and the followers.
Moses regularly experienced leadership struggles. In Numbers 16, Korah—accompanied by 250 men who were leaders in Israel—calls Moses and Aaron’s leadership into question, saying, “You take too much upon yourselves! All of the community is holy, every one of them, and Yahweh is in their midst, so why do you raise yourselves over the assembly of Yahweh?” (Numbers 16:3). They’re using Moses’ words, spoken on behalf of Yahweh, against him here: “you will belong to me as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). But they made one faulty assumption in doing so. Yahweh had prefaced these words by saying, “if you will carefully listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will be a treasured possession for me out of all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, but . . .” and then He continued with the line Korah quoted (Exodus 19:5–6).
Surely Moses knows this, and he is well aware of their folly. But rather than answering the fool according to his folly, he responds by prostrating himself—an act of worship toward God and humility toward those he serves: the people of Israel. He then says, “Tomorrow morning Yahweh will make known who is his and who is holy, and he will bring him near to him, whomever he chooses he will bring near to him” (Numbers 16:5). It appears that in that moment of prostration, Moses prayed and was immediately given an answer. He insists on bringing the matter before God Himself.
Moses could have defended himself by insisting upon the special nature by which God had revealed Himself to him. Or he could have noted to Korah that he is only out of Egypt—and thus able to call Moses into question—because Moses was obedient to God. He even could have noted that Korah was only in leadership at all because Moses listened to God and appointed him. But instead, he insisted on bringing it before God. He did, though, follow up by telling Korah that he had plenty of authority and shouldn’t be so greedy (Numbers 16:8–11).
This event demonstrates the kind of faith that we should all have in what God asks us to do.
The next person was a man who needed to be changed, for he was a leper. Among the Jews, several skin diseases were classified as leprosy, including our modern Hansen’s disease. In spite of modern medical advances, an estimated 10 million people around the world have leprosy. One form of leprosy attacks the nerves so that the victim cannot feel pain. Infection easily sets in, and this leads to degeneration of the tissues. The limb becomes deformed and eventually falls off.
It was the task of the Jewish priest to examine people to determine whether they were lepers (Leviticus 13). Infected people were isolated and could not return to normal society until declared “cleansed.” Leprosy was used by Isaiah as a picture of sin (Isaiah 1:4–6), and the detailed instructions in Leviticus chapters 13–14 would suggest that more was involved in the procedure than maintaining public health.
Like sin, leprosy is deeper than the skin (Leviticus 13:3) and cannot be helped by mere “surface” measures (see Jeremiah 6:14). Like sin, leprosy spreads (Leviticus 13:7–8); and as it spreads, it defiles (Leviticus 13:44–45). Because of his defilement, a leprous person had to be isolated outside the camp (Leviticus 13:46), and lost sinners one day will be isolated in hell. People with leprosy were looked on as “dead” (Numbers 12:12), and garments infected with leprosy were fit only for the fire (Leviticus 13:52). How important it is for lost sinners to trust Jesus Christ and get rid of their “leprosy”!
This man not only needed to be changed, but he wanted to be changed. Lepers were required to keep their distance, but he was so determined that he broke the Law and approached the Lord Jesus personally. Throughout his Gospel, Luke makes it clear that Jesus was the Friend of the outcast, and they could come to Him for help. The man humbled himself before the Lord and asked for mercy.
By the grace and power of God, this man was changed! In fact, Jesus even touched the man, which meant that He became unclean Himself. This is a beautiful picture of what Jesus has done for lost sinners: He became sin for us that we might be made clean (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). Jesus is not only willing to save (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9), but He is also able to save (Hebrews 7:25); and He can do it now (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Jesus encouraged the man to see the priest and to obey the rules for restoration given in Leviticus 14. The ceremony is a picture of the work of Jesus Christ in His incarnation, His death, and His resurrection. All of this was done over running water, a symbol of the Holy Spirit of God. This sacrifice reminds us that Jesus had to die for us in order to deliver us from our sins.
Jesus instructed the man not to reveal who had healed him, but the cleansed leper became an enthusiastic witness for the Lord. (Compare this to the fact that Jesus commands us to tell everybody, and we keep quiet!) Because of this witness, great multitudes came to Jesus for help, and He graciously ministered to them. But Jesus was not impressed by these great crowds, for He knew that most of the people wanted only His healing power and not His salvation. He often left the crowds and slipped away into a quiet place to pray and seek the Father’s help. That’s a good example for all of God’s servants to follow.
“Stand up and praise the LORD your God, for he lives from everlasting to everlasting!” Then they prayed: “May your glorious name be praised! May it be exalted above all blessing and praise! “You alone are the LORD. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you. “You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and renamed him Abraham. When he had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and his descendants the land . . . and you have done what you promised, for you are always true to your word.”
Lord, hear our prayer:
Lord, no words we can use will ever be sufficient to declare your glory. No thought we have of you will ever be great enough. No song we sing will ever reach the heights that you deserve. Wonderful God, we come in confidence to praise you. We come in assurance to receive your forgiveness. We come in joy to share your love and be lifted by your power. We come as living temples of your praise.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
Monday Reflecting
“I . . . will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.” – Zechariah 13:9.
I have read of a fountain that is cold at midday, and warm at midnight. Thus are saints frequently cold in the midday of prosperity, and warm in the midnight of adversity. Afflictions are not a consuming, but a refining fire to the godly. They are like the thorn at the nightingale’s breast, which rouses and puts her upon her delightful notes.
~ SECKER
Monday July 10, 2023
Luke 2:7
And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths,
and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
So completely are we carried away by the excitement of this midwinter festival that we are apt to forget that its romantic appeal is the least significant thing about it. The theology of Christmas too easily gets lost under the gay wrappings, yet apart from its theological meaning it really has none at all. A half dozen doctrinally sound carols serve to keep alive the great deep truth of the Incarnation, but aside from these, popular Christmas music is void of any real lasting truth. . . .
It does seem strange that so many persons become excited about Christmas and so few stop to inquire into its meaning; but I suppose this odd phenomenon is quite in harmony with our unfortunate human habit of magnifying trivialities and ignoring matters of greatest import. . . .
The Christmas message, when stripped of its pagan overtones, is relatively simple: God is come to earth in the form of man.
The Rev. R. I. Williams telephoned his sermon topic to the Norfolk Ledger Dispatch.
“The Lord is my Shepherd,” he said.
“Is that all?” he was asked. He replied, “That’s enough.” And the church page carried Mr. William’s sermon topic as: “The Lord is my Shepherd—that’s enough.”
The minister rather liked the idea. He used the expanded version as his sermon title that Sunday at Fairmont Park Methodist Church.
~ Gospel Herald
“You are my Lord,” the psalmist acknowledges. “I have no good apart from you” (Psalm 16:2).
We know that God is everything we need, but somehow the details still get in the way. We want to alleviate our troubles through other means—that vacation, the position that will bring recognition, or the spouse who will complete us. The psalmist says that anyone who places their desire in anything other than God will only increase in sorrow (Psalm 16:4).
It seems radical and difficult to live out the psalmist’s simple confession. The ancient practice of idol worship is alive and well in our modern-day culture and in our own hearts. (Just look at the magazine rack or tv shows if you think I’m wrong: what is worshiped there?) We are just like the Israelites—unfaithful and prone to “hurry after another god” (Psalm 16:4).
For the psalmist, however, “Yahweh is the portion which is my share and my cup” (Psalm 16:5). He is all the psalmist ever needs: “I have set Yahweh before me always. Because he is at my right hand I will not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8). God brings the psalmist hope, and He can do the same for us. We just need to turn to Him.
Jesus was concerned about individuals. He preached to great crowds, but His message was always to the individual; and He took time to help people personally. His purpose was to transform them and then send them out to share His message of forgiveness with others. Luke describes in this chapter our Lord’s meetings with four individuals and the changes they experienced because they trusted Him.
This event is not parallel to the one described in Matthew 4:18–22 and Mark 1:16–20. In those accounts, Peter and Andrew were busy fishing, but in this account they had fished all night and caught nothing and were washing their nets. (If nets are not washed and stretched out to dry, they rot and break.) Jesus had enlisted Peter, Andrew, James, and John earlier, and they had traveled with Him in Capernaum and Galilee (Mark 1:21–39), but then they went back to their trade. Now He would call them to a life of full-time discipleship.
It is possible that at least seven of the disciples were fishermen (John 21:1–3). Consider the fact that fishermen generally have the qualities that make for success in serving the Lord. It takes courage and daring, patience and determination to work on the seas; and it also takes a great deal of faith. Fishermen must be willing to work together (they used nets, not hooks) and help one another. They must develop the skills necessary to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
If I had fished all night and caught nothing, I would probably be selling my nets, not washing them to get ready to go out again! But true fishermen don’t quit. Peter kept on working while Jesus used his boat as a platform from which to address the huge crowd on the shore. “Every pulpit is a fishing boat,” said Dr. J. Vernon McGee, “a place to give out the Word of God and attempt to catch fish.”
But there was another side to this request: Peter was a “captive audience” as he sat in the boat listening to the Word of God. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” – Romans 10:17. In a short time, Peter would have to exercise faith, and Jesus was preparing him. First He said, “Thrust out a little”; and then, when Peter was ready, He commanded, “Launch out into the deep.” If Peter had not obeyed the first seemingly insignificant command, he would never have participated in a miracle.
Peter must have been surprised when Jesus took command of the boat and its crew. After all, Jesus was a carpenter by trade (Mark 6:3), and what do carpenters know about fishing? It was a well-known fact that, in the Sea of Galilee, you caught fish at night in the shallow water, not in the daytime in the deep water. What Jesus asked Peter to do was contrary to all of his training and experience, but Peter obeyed. The key was his faith in the Word of God: “Nevertheless, at Your word” (Luke 5:5).
The word translated “Master” in verse 5 is used only by Luke and it has a variety of meanings, all of which speak of authority: chief commander, magistrate, governor of a city, and president of a college. Peter was willing to submit to the authority of Jesus, even though he did not understand all that the Lord was doing. And remember, a great crowd was watching from the shore.
How people respond to success is one indication of their true character. Instead of claiming the valuable catch for themselves, Peter and Andrew called their partners to share it. We are not reservoirs, but channels of blessing, to share with others what God has graciously given to us.
Matthew Henry: Piercing Heaven – Puritan’s Prayers
Many may ask, “Who will help us?”
We say, “Lord, show us your face.” That will give us glad hearts, even so much more than farmers after a great harvest.
We ask your favor and acceptance with our whole heart. Hear our prayer, Lord, and in your faithfulness answer us. Be close to us in everything. You that hear the young ravens cry, do not be silent. Otherwise we are like those who go down to the pit.
Let our prayer be to you like incense, and may our outstretched hands be acceptable in your sight.
We beg for the powerful help and influence of the blessed Spirit of grace in our prayers. We do not know what to pray for as we ought. But let your Spirit help our illnesses, and pray for us.
Pour upon us the Spirit of grace and prayer. Through the Spirit of adoption, teach us to cry, “Abba, Father!” Send your light and truth; let them lead and guide us to your holy hill and your tabernacles. Lead us to you, God, our exceeding joy.
Lord, open our lips, and our mouth will praise you.
Amen.
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FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 