Devotional: Our Daily Bread

The Determination To Serve — Thu February 23, 2012

Thu, 23 Feb 2012div id=”mu-item”h4Verse/h4div class=”verse”The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister./divP#8212; a href=”http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=mt+20%3A28″mt 20:28/a/Ph4Thought/h4PPPaul’s idea of service is the same as Our Lord’s: quot;I am among you as He that serveth;quot; quot;ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.quot; We have the idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be a different kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he is called to be the quot;door-matquot; of other men; their spiritual leader, but never their superior. quot;I know how to be abased,quot; says Paul. This is Paul’s idea of service – quot;I will spend myself to the last ebb for you; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no difference.quot; So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does. The mainspring of Paul’s service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men. P Paul’s realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. quot;I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious personquot; – no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake./P/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/hl-devos-mu/~4/iTVKK8f6LW4″ height=”1″ width=”1″/… Read More

The Discipline Of Spiritual Tenacity — Wed February 22, 2012

Wed, 22 Feb 2012div id=”mu-item”h4Verse/h4div class=”verse”Be still, and know that I am God./divP#8212; a href=”http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=ps+46%3A10″ps 46:10/a/Ph4Thought/h4PPTenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for – love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men – will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o’-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted. P If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. quot;Because thou hast kept the word of my patience.quot; P Remain spiritually tenacious./P/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/hl-devos-mu/~4/GKdBAcNkA6k” height=”1″ width=”1″/… Read More

Have You Ever Been Carried Away For Him? — Tue February 21, 2012

Tue, 21 Feb 2012div id=”mu-item”h4Verse/h4div class=”verse”She hath wrought a good work on Me./divP#8212; a href=”http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=mr+14%3A6″mr 14:6/a/Ph4Thought/h4PPIf human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it. P Have I ever been carried away to do something for God not because it was my duty, nor because it was useful, nor because there was anything in it at all beyond the fact that I love Him? Have I ever realized that I can bring to God things which are of value to Him, or am I mooning round the magnitude of His Redemption whilst there are any number of things I might be doing? Not Divine, colossal things which could be recorded as marvellous, but ordinary, simple human things which will give evidence to God that I am abandoned to Him? Have I ever produced in the heart of the Lord Jesus what Mary of Bethany produced? P There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion – quot;Am I of any use?quot; and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time./P/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/hl-devos-mu/~4/8SL1lqMYQmw” height=”1″ width=”1″/… Read More

The Initiative Against Dreaming — Mon February 20, 2012

Mon, 20 Feb 2012div id=”mu-item”h4Verse/h4div class=”verse”Arise, let us go hence./divP#8212; a href=”http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=joh+14%3A31″joh 14:31/a/Ph4Thought/h4PPDreaming about a thing in order to do it properly is right; but dreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong. After Our Lord had said those wonderful things to His disciples, we might have expected that He would tell them to go away and meditate over them all; but Our Lord never allowed quot;mooning.quot; When we are getting into contact with God in order to find out what He wants, dreaming is right; but when we are inclined to spend our time in dreaming over what we have been told to do, it is a bad thing and God’s blessing is never on it. God’s initiative is always in the nature of a stab against this kind of dreaming, the stab that bids us quot;neither sit nor stand but go.quot; P If we are quietly waiting before God and He has said – quot;Come ye yourselves apart,quot; then that is meditation before God in order to get at the line He wants; but always beware of giving over to mere dreaming when once God has spoken. Leave Him to be the source of all your dreams and joys and delights, and go out and obey what He has said. If you are in love, you do not sit down and dream about the one you love all the time, you go and do something for him; and that is what Jesus Christ expects us to do. Dreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him./P/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/hl-devos-mu/~4/sGsyNpU_Fl8″ height=”1″ width=”1″/… Read More