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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Friday, October 5, 2007
MORNING:
"He arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of
that meat forty days and forty nights."
-- 1 Kings 19:8
All the strength supplied to us by our gracious God is meant for
service, not for wantonness or boasting. When the prophet Elijah found
the cake baked on the coals, and the cruse of water placed at his head,
as he lay under the juniper tree, he was no gentleman to be gratified
with dainty fare that he might stretch himself at his ease; far
otherwise, he was commissioned to go forty days and forty nights in the
strength of it, journeying towards Horeb, the mount of God. When the
Master invited the disciples to "Come and dine" with him, after the
feast was concluded he said to Peter, "Feed my sheep"; further adding,
"Follow me." Even thus it is with us; we eat the bread of heaven, that
we may expend our strength in the Master's service. We come to the
passover, and eat of the paschal lamb with loins girt, and staff in
hand, so as to start off at once when we have satisfied our hunger.
Some Christians are for living on Christ, but are not so anxious to
live for Christ. Earth should be a preparation for heaven; and heaven
is the place where saints feast most and work most. They sit down at
the table of our Lord, and they serve him day and night in his temple.
They eat of heavenly food and render perfect service. Believer, in the
strength you daily gain from Christ labour for him. Some of us have yet
to learn much concerning the design of our Lord in giving us his grace.
We are not to retain the precious grains of truth as the Egyptian mummy
held the wheat for ages, without giving it an opportunity to grow: we
must sow it and water it. Why does the Lord send down the rain upon the
thirsty earth, and give the genial sunshine? Is it not that these may
all help the fruits of the earth to yield food for man? Even so the
Lord feeds and refreshes our souls that we may afterwards use our
renewed strength in the promotion of his glory.
EVENING:
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
-- Mark 16:16
Mr. MacDonald asked the inhabitants of the island of St. Kilda how a
man must be saved. An old man replied, "We shall be saved if we repent,
and forsake our sins, and turn to God." "Yes," said a middle-aged
female, "and with a true heart too." "Aye," rejoined a third, "and with
prayer"; and, added a fourth, "It must be the prayer of the heart."
"And we must be diligent too," said a fifth, "in keeping the
commandments." Thus, each having contributed his mite, feeling that a
very decent creed had been made up, they all looked and listened for
the preacher's approbation, but they had aroused his deepest pity. The
carnal mind always maps out for itself a way in which self can work and
become great, but the Lord's way is quite the reverse. Believing and
being baptized are no matters of merit to be gloried in-they are so
simple that boasting is excluded, and free grace bears the palm. It may
be that the reader is unsaved-what is the reason? Do you think the way
of salvation as laid down in the text to be dubious? How can that be
when God has pledged his own word for its certainty? Do you think it
too easy? Why, then, do you not attend to it? Its ease leaves those
without excuse who neglect it. To believe is simply to trust, to
depend, to rely upon Christ Jesus. To be baptized is to submit to the
ordinance which our Lord fulfilled at Jordan, to which the converted
ones submitted at Pentecost, to which the jailer yielded obedience the
very night of his conversion. The outward sign saves not, but it sets
forth to us our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus, and, like
the Lord's Supper, is not to be neglected. Reader, do you believe in
Jesus? Then, dear friend, dismiss your fears, you shall be saved. Are
you still an unbeliever, then remember there is but one door, and if
you will not enter by it you will perish in your sins.
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MORNING & EVENING from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
and preacher Charles Spurgeon. It's part of HEARTLIGHT Magazine,
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