Blessed are they that hear the word of God !!!

"A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

"Luke 11:27-28

It is fondly imagined by some that it must have involved very special privileges to have been the mother of our Lord, because they supposed that she had the benefit of looking into his very heart in a way in which we cannot hope to do. 

There may be an appearance of plausibility in the supposition, but not much. We do not know that Mary knew more than others; what she did know she did well to lay up in her heart; but she does not appear from anything we read in the Evangelists to have been a better-instructed believer than any other of Christ's disciples. 

All that she knew we also may discover. Do you wonder that we should say so? Here is a text to prove it: 

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant." 

Remember the Master's words--"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." 

So blessedly does this Divine Revealer of secrets tell us his heart, that he keepeth back nothing which is profitable to us; his own assurance is, "If it were not so, I would have told you.

" Doth he not this day manifest himself unto us as he doth not unto the world? It is even so; and therefore we will not ignorantly cry out, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee," but we will intelligently bless God that, having heard the Word and kept it, we have first of all as true a communion with the Saviour as the Virgin had, and in the second place as true an acquaintance with the secrets of his heart as she can be supposed to have obtained. Happy soul to be thus privileged!

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

GRACE !!!

Romans 6:3-4 (NIV).

 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 

We were therefore 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 live a new life....... 

Thoughts on This Verse... 

Baptism is far more than getting wet or checking off another thing on our obedience to do list. 

You see, what saves is Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection 

(1 Cor. 15:1-5). 

God has given us the incredible grace 

(Rom. 6:1,14,15) 

of being able to share in Jesus' saving work through faith and experience it in baptism 

(Gal. 3:26-27). 

We die to the old way of life and bury it in the past. It no longer holds us. 

This death is the death that matters most. 

Raised to a new life, our life is now joined to Christ and his future becomes our own 

(cf. Col. 3:1-4). 

The life we now live is to glorify God and to live with him forever. 

That means the Gospel is not just something preached; it is something we experience by grace.

"Ephraim is a cake not turned."

"Ephraim is a cake not turned."

Hosea 7:8

A cake not turned is uncooked on one side; 

and so Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace: though there was some partial obedience, there was very much rebellion left. 

My soul, I charge thee, see whether this be thy case. Art thou thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very centre of thy being so as to be felt in its divine operations in all thy powers, thy actions, thy words, and thy thoughts? To be sanctified, spirit, soul, and body, should be thine aim and prayer; and although sanctification may not be perfect in thee anywhere in degree, yet it must be universal in its action; there must not be the appearance of holiness in one place and reigning sin in another, else thou, too, wilt be a cake not turned.

A cake not turned is soon burnt on the side nearest the fire, and although no man can have too much religion, there are some who seem burnt black with bigoted zeal for that part of truth which they have received, or are charred to a cinder with a vainglorious Pharisaic ostentation of those religious performances which suit their humour. 

The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness. 

The saint in public is a devil in private. 

He deals in flour by day and in soot by night. The cake which is burned on one side, is dough on the other.

If it be so with me, O Lord, turn me! Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of thy love and let it feel the sacred glow, and let my burnt side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and want of heat when I am removed from thy heavenly flame. 

Let me not be found a double-minded man, but one 

entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace; for well I know if I am left like a cake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of thy grace, I must be consumed forever amid everlasting burnings.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

He's life for our Salvation !!!

Isaiah 61:1-2a (NIV).

 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, 

because the LORD has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, 

to proclaim freedom for the captives and 

release from darkness for the prisoners, 

to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor 

and the day of vengeance of our God, 

to comfort all who mourn ......... 

Thoughts on This Verse... 

Jesus read this passage at a synagogue in Nazareth to describe his ministry 

(See Luke 4). 

He came to preach good news, to bind up, to bring deliverance, to offer release, to proclaim grace, and to offer comfort. 

If Jesus has sent us into the world as the Father sent him 

(John 20:21-23), 

shouldn't we be teaching and serving as he did? 

Believe me !!!

John 14:12

The Message (MSG)

    "Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. 

If you can't believe that, believe what you see—these works. 

The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. 

You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. 

That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. 

I mean it. 

Whatever you request in this way, I'll do.

Ephesians 2:13

New International Version (NIV)

 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

"He shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory."

"He shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory."

Zechariah 6:13

Christ himself is the builder of his spiritual temple, and he has built it on the mountains of his unchangeable affection, his omnipotent grace, and his infallible truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon's temple, so in this; the materials need making ready. There are the "Cedars of Lebanon," but they are not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into those planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad the courts of the Lord's house in Paradise. 

There are also the rough stones still in the quarry, they must be hewn thence, and squared. All this is Christ's own work. Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ's own hand performs the preparation-work. Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they are used by him to this end. Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashioneth our hearts aright.

As in the building of Solomon's temple, "there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house," because all was brought perfectly ready for the exact spot it was to occupy--so is it with the temple which Jesus builds; the making ready is all done on earth. When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no planing us with suffering. No, we must be made meet here--all that Christ will do beforehand; and when he has done it, we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.

"Beneath his eye and care,

The edifice shall rise,

Majestic, strong, and fair,

And shine above the skies."

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

Verse of the Day !!!

Verse of the Day

“God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. 

He guards you when you leave and when you return, 

he guards you now, he guards you always.” 

Psalm 121:7-8 MSG

Thank You for our daily bread !!!

"Thou art fairer than the children of men."

"Thou art fairer than the children of men."Psalm 45:2

The entire person of Jesus is but as one gem, and his life is all along but one impression of the seal. 

He is altogether complete; not only in his several parts, but as a gracious all-glorious whole. His character is not a mass of fair colours mixed confusedly, nor a heap of precious stones laid carelessly one upon another; he is a picture of beauty and a breastplate of glory. 

In him, all the "things of good repute" are in their proper places, and assist in adorning each other. Not one feature in his glorious person attracts attention at the expense of others; but he is perfectly and altogether lovely.

Oh, Jesus! thy power, thy grace, thy justice, thy tenderness, thy truth, thy majesty, and thine immutability make up such a man, or rather such a God-man, as neither heaven nor earth hath seen elsewhere. 

Thy infancy, thy eternity, thy sufferings, thy triumphs, thy death, and thine immortality, are all woven in one gorgeous tapestry, without seam or rent. Thou art music without discord; thou art many, and yet not divided; thou art all things, and yet not diverse. As all the colours blend into one resplendent rainbow, so all the glories of heaven and earth meet in thee, and unite so wondrously, that there is none like thee in all things; nay, if all the virtues of the most excellent were bound in one bundle, they could not rival thee, thou mirror of all perfection. 

Thou hast been anointed with the holy oil of myrrh and cassia, which thy God hath reserved for thee alone; and as for thy fragrance, it is as the holy perfume, the like of which none other can ever mingle, even with the art of the apothecary; each spice is fragrant, but the compound is divine.

"Oh, sacred symmetry! oh, rare connection

Of many perfects, to make one perfection!

Oh, heavenly music, where all parts do meet

In one sweet strain, to make one perfect sweet!"

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

If we do not know how to pray !!!!

Romans 8:28

The Message (MSG)

      Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations...

"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."Amos 9:9

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.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."

Thank You for our daily bread !!!

One day spent in your house !!!

Psalm 84:11

The Message (MSG)

       One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
      beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
   I'd rather scrub floors in the house of my God
      than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
   All sunshine and sovereign is God,
      generous in gifts and glory.
   He doesn't scrimp with his traveling companions.
      It's smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost."

"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost."

Acts 2:4

Rich were the blessings of this day if all of us were filled with the Holy Ghost. 

The consequences of this sacred filling of the soul it would be impossible to overestimate. Life, comfort, light, purity, power, peace; and many other precious blessings are inseparable from the Spirit's benign presence. As sacred oil, he anoints the head of the believer, sets him apart to the priesthood of saints, and gives him grace to execute his office aright. 

As the only truly purifying water he cleanses us from the power of sin and sanctifies us unto holiness, working in us to will and to do of the Lord's good pleasure. As the light, he manifested to us at first our lost estate, and now he reveals the Lord Jesus to us and in us, and guides us in the way of righteousness. Enlightened by his pure celestial ray, we are no more darkness but light in the Lord. As fire, he both purges us from dross, and sets our consecrated nature on a blaze. 

He is the sacrificial flame by which we are enabled to offer our whole souls as a living sacrifice unto God. As heavenly dew, he removes our barrenness and fertilizes our lives. O that he would drop from above upon us at this early hour! Such morning dew would be a sweet commencement for the day. As the dove, with wings of peaceful love he broods over his Church and over the souls of believers, and as a Comforter he dispels the cares and doubts which mar the peace of his beloved. 

He descends upon the chosen as upon the Lord in Jordan, and bears witness to their sonship by working in them a filial spirit by which they cry Abba, Father. As the wind, he brings the breath of life to men; blowing where he listeth he performs the quickening operations by which the spiritual creation is animated and sustained.

 Would to God, that we might feel his presence this day and every day.

Today's reading taken from Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening."