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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Friday, March 28, 2008
MORNING:
"The love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
-- Ephesians 3:19
The love of Christ in its sweetness, its fulness, its greatness, its
faithfulness, passeth all human comprehension. Where shall language be
found which shall describe his matchless, his unparalleled love towards
the children of men? It is so vast and boundless that, as the swallow
but skimmeth the water, and diveth not into its depths, so all
descriptive words but touch the surface, while depths immeasurable lie
beneath. Well might the poet say,
"O love, thou fathomless abyss!"
for this love of Christ is indeed measureless and fathomless; none can
attain unto it. Before we can have any right idea of the love of Jesus,
we must understand his previous glory in its height of majesty, and his
incarnation upon the earth in all its depths of shame. But who can tell
us the majesty of Christ? When he was enthroned in the highest heavens
he was very God of very God; by him were the heavens made, and all the
hosts thereof. His own almighty arm upheld the spheres; the praises of
cherubim and seraphim perpetually surrounded him; the full chorus of
the hallelujahs of the universe unceasingly flowed to the foot of his
throne: he reigned supreme above all his creatures, God over all,
blessed for ever. Who can tell his height of glory then? And who, on
the other hand, can tell how low he descended? To be a man was
something, to be a man of sorrows was far more; to bleed, and die, and
suffer, these were much for him who was the Son of God; but to suffer
such unparalleled agony-to endure a death of shame and desertion by his
Father, this is a depth of condescending love which the most inspired
mind must utterly fail to fathom. Herein is love! and truly it is love
that "passeth knowledge." O let this love fill our hearts with adoring
gratitude, and lead us to practical manifestations of its power.
EVENING:
"I will accept you with your sweet savour."
-- Ezekiel 20:41
The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High.
Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ,
there is an equal fragrance. There was a sweet savour in his active
life by which he honoured the law of God, and made every precept to
glitter like a precious jewel in the pure setting of his own person.
Such, too, was his passive obedience, when he endured with unmurmuring
submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and at length sweat
great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave his back to the smiters, and
his cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, and was fastened to the
cruel wood, that he might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These
two things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of his
doing and his dying, his substitutionary sufferings and his vicarious
obedience, the Lord our God accepts us. What a preciousness must there
be in him to overcome our want of preciousness! What a sweet savour to
put away our ill savour! What a cleansing power in his blood to take
away sin such as ours! and what glory in his righteousness to make such
unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the Beloved! Mark, believer,
how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since it is in him!
Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You cannot be
accepted without Christ; but, when you have received his merit, you
cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and
sins, Jehovah's gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though he
sees sin in you, in yourself, yet when he looks at you through Christ,
he sees no sin. You are always accepted in Christ, are always blessed
and dear to the Father's heart. Therefore lift up a song, and as you
see the smoking incense of the merit of the Saviour coming up, this
evening, before the sapphire throne, let the incense of your praise go
up also.
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=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
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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