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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Friday, October 19, 2007
MORNING:
"Babes in Christ."
-- 1 Corinthians 3:1
Are you mourning, believer, because you are so weak in the divine life:
because your faith is so little, your love so feeble? Cheer up, for you
have cause for gratitude. Remember that in some things you are equal to
the greatest and most full-grown Christian. You are as much bought with
blood as he is. You are as much an adopted child of God as any other
believer. An infant is as truly a child of its parents as is the
full-grown man. You are as completely justified, for your justification
is not a thing of degrees: your little faith has made you clean every
whit. You have as much right to the precious things of the covenant as
the most advanced believers, for your right to covenant mercies lies
not in your growth, but in the covenant itself; and your faith in Jesus
is not the measure, but the token of your inheritance in him. You are
as rich as the richest, if not in enjoyment, yet in real possession.
The smallest star that gleams is set in heaven; the faintest ray of
light has affinity with the great orb of day. In the family register of
glory the small and the great are written with the same pen. You are as
dear to your Father's heart as the greatest in the family. Jesus is
very tender over you. You are like the smoking flax; a rougher spirit
would say, "put out that smoking flax, it fills the room with an
offensive odour!" but the smoking flax he will not quench. You are like
a bruised reed; and any less tender hand than that of the Chief
Musician would tread upon you or throw you away, but he will never
break the bruised reed. Instead of being downcast by reason of what you
are, you should triumph in Christ. Am I but little in Israel? Yet in
Christ I am made to sit in heavenly places. Am I poor in faith? Still
in Jesus I am heir of all things. Though "less than nothing I can
boast, and vanity confess." yet, if the root of the matter be in me I
will rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the God of my salvation.
EVENING:
"God, my maker, who giveth songs in the night."
-- Job 35:10
Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws
inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man
can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded
argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the
winds blow-the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is
stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight;
but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read
by-who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of
himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night
must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs,
fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my
path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith
shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a
crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear,
and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise: silence my
tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant
God's high praises, unless he himself give me the song? No, it is not
in man's power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall
touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the
night he said, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the
fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold,
and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the
Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Then, since our Maker
gives songs in the night, let us wait upon him for the music. O thou
chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon
us, but tune thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.
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THE SECRET MESSAGE OF JESUS: UNCOVERING THE TRUTH THAT COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING, by Brian McLaren
Unafraid of controversy or the uncomfortable gray areas of life,
McLaren's quest is to find the essential message of Jesus' life - even
if it overturns our conventional ideas, priorities, and practices.
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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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