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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Monday, January 28, 2008
MORNING:
"Perfect in Christ Jesus."
-- Colossians 1:28
Do you not feel in your own soul that perfection is not in you? Does
not every day teach you that? Every tear which trickles from your eye,
weeps "imperfection"; every harsh word which proceeds from your lip,
mutters "imperfection." You have too frequently had a view of your own
heart to dream for a moment of any perfection in yourself. But amidst
this sad consciousness of imperfection, here is comfort for you-you are
"perfect in Christ Jesus." In God's sight, you are "complete in him;"
even now you are "accepted in the Beloved." But there is a second
perfection, yet to be realized, which is sure to all the seed. Is it
not delightful to look forward to the time when every stain of sin
shall be removed from the believer, and he shall be presented faultless
before the throne, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing? The
Church of Christ then will be so pure, that not even the eye of
Omniscience will see a spot or blemish in her; so holy and so glorious,
that Hart did not go beyond the truth when he said-
"With my Saviour's garments on,
Holy as the Holy One."
Then shall we know, and taste, and feel the happiness of this vast but
short sentence, "Complete in Christ." Not till then shall we fully
comprehend the heights and depths of the salvation of Jesus. Doth not
thy heart leap for joy at the thought of it? Black as thou art, thou
shalt be white one day; filthy as thou art, thou shalt be clean. Oh, it
is a marvellous salvation this! Christ takes a worm and transforms it
into an angel; Christ takes a black and deformed thing and makes it
clean and matchless in his glory, peerless in his beauty, and fit to be
the companion of seraphs. O my soul, stand and admire this blessed
truth of perfection in Christ.
EVENING:
"And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for
all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told
unto them."
-- Luke 2:20
What was the subject of their praise? They praised God for what they
had heard-for the good tidings of great joy that a Saviour was born
unto them. Let us copy them; let us also raise a song of thanksgiving
that we have heard of Jesus and his salvation. They also praised God
for what they had seen. There is the sweetest music-what we have
experienced, what we have felt within, what we have made our own-"the
things which we have made touching the King." It is not enough to hear
about Jesus: mere hearing may tune the harp, but the fingers of living
faith must create the music. If you have seen Jesus with the God-giving
sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among the harp strings, but
loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and harp.
One point for which they praised God was the agreement between what
they had heard and what they had seen. Observe the last sentence-"As it
was told unto them." Have you not found the gospel to be in yourselves
just what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said he would give you
rest-have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in him? He said you should
have joy, and comfort, and life through believing in him-have you not
received all these? Are not his ways ways of pleasantness, and his
paths paths of peace? Surely you can say with the queen of Sheba, "The
half has not been told me." I have found Christ more sweet than his
servants ever said he was. I looked upon his likeness as they painted
it, but it was a mere daub compared with himself; for the King in his
beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness. Surely what we have "seen"
keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds, what we have "heard." Let us, then,
glorify and praise God for a Saviour so precious, and so satisfying.
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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,
the leading Christian living e-zine on the Web. Visit HEARTLIGHT
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