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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Saturday, January 26, 2008
MORNING:
"Your heavenly Father."
-- Matthew 6:26
God's people are doubly his children, they are his offspring by
creation, and they are his sons by adoption in Christ. Hence they are
privileged to call him, "Our Father which art in heaven." Father! Oh,
what precious word is that. Here is authority: "If I be a Father, where
is mine honour?" If ye be sons, where is your obedience? Here is
affection mingled with authority; an authority which does not provoke
rebellion; an obedience demanded which is most cheerfully
rendered-which would not be withheld even if it might. The obedience
which God's children yield to him must be loving obedience. Do not go
about the service of God as slaves to their taskmaster's toil, but run
in the way of his commands because it is your Father's way. Yield your
bodies as instruments of righteousness, because righteousness is your
Father's will, and his will should be the will of his child.
Father!-Here is a kingly attribute so sweetly veiled in love, that the
King's crown is forgotten in the King's face, and his sceptre becomes,
not a rod of iron, but a silver sceptre of mercy-the sceptre indeed
seems to be forgotten in the tender hand of him who wields it.
Father!-Here is honour and love. How great is a Father's love to his
children! That which friendship cannot do, and mere benevolence will
not attempt, a father's heart and hand must do for his sons. They are
his offspring, he must bless them; they are his children, he must show
himself strong in their defence. If an earthly father watches over his
children with unceasing love and care, how much more does our heavenly
Father? Abba, Father! He who can say this, hath uttered better music
than cherubim or seraphim can reach. There is heaven in the depth of
that word-Father! There is all I can ask; all my necessities can
demand; all my wishes can desire. I have all in all to all eternity
when I can say, "Father."
EVENING:
"All they that heard it wondered at those things."
-- Luke 2:18
We must not cease to wonder at the great marvels of our God. It would
be very difficult to draw a line between holy wonder and real worship;
for when the soul is overwhelmed with the majesty of God's glory,
though it may not express itself in song, or even utter its voice with
bowed head in humble prayer, yet it silently adores. Our incarnate God
is to be worshipped as "the Wonderful." That God should consider his
fallen creature, man, and instead of sweeping him away with the besom
of destruction, should himself undertake to be man's Redeemer, and to
pay his ransom price, is, indeed marvellous! But to each believer
redemption is most marvellous as he views it in relation to himself. It
is a miracle of grace indeed, that Jesus should forsake the thrones and
royalties above, to suffer ignominiously below for you. Let your soul
lose itself in wonder, for wonder is in this way a very practical
emotion. Holy wonder will lead you to grateful worship and heartfelt
thanksgiving. It will cause within you godly watchfulness; you will be
afraid to sin against such a love as this. Feeling the presence of the
mighty God in the gift of his dear Son, you will put off your shoes
from off your feet, because the place whereon you stand is holy ground.
You will be moved at the same time to glorious hope. If Jesus has done
such marvellous things on your behalf, you will feel that heaven itself
is not too great for your expectation. Who can be astonished at
anything, when he has once been astonished at the manger and the cross?
What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Saviour? Dear
reader, it may be that from the quietness and solitariness of your
life, you are scarcely able to imitate the shepherds of Bethlehem, who
told what they had seen and heard, but you can, at least, fill up the
circle of the worshippers before the throne, by wondering at what God
has done.
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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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