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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Saturday, June 14, 2008
MORNING:
"Delight thyself also in the Lord."
-- Psalms 37:4
The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are
strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only
the inculcation of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here
described as a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great
fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly
persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing;
to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or
delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may
gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought
of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in
their language stand further apart than "holiness" and "delight." But
believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so
blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate
them. They who love God with all their hearts, find that his ways are
ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace. Such joys, such
brimful delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints
discover in their Lord, that so far from serving him from custom, they
would follow him though all the world cast out his name as evil. We
fear not God because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our
profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to
duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our
duty is our delight.
Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as
indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious
jewels glittering side by side in a setting of gold.
"'Tis when we taste thy love,
Our joys divinely grow,
Unspeakable like those above,
And heaven begins below."
EVENING:
"O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face ... because we have
sinned against thee."
-- Daniel 9:8
A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the
punishment which it deserves, should make us lie low before the throne.
We have sinned as Christians. Alas! that it should be so. Favoured as
we have been, we have yet been ungrateful: privileged beyond most, we
have not brought forth fruit in proportion. Who is there, although he
may long have been engaged in the Christian warfare, that will not
blush when he looks back upon the past? As for our days before we were
regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though
we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and
against love-light which has really penetrated our minds, and love in
which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul!
An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God's
own elect ones, who has had communion with Christ and leaned his head
upon Jesus' bosom. Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray
you look at his repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of
them moans out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall
upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the
softened music of his harp! We have erred: let us, therefore, seek the
spirit of penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter's
denying his Master. Remember, it is written, "He wept bitterly." Have
we no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears? Alas! these sins
of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of
inextinguishable fire if it were not for the sovereign mercy which has
made us to differ, snatching us like brands from the burning. My soul,
bow down under a sense of thy natural sinfulness, and worship thy God.
Admire the grace which saves thee-the mercy which spares thee-the love
which pardons thee!
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LOOK GREAT, FEEL GREAT: 12 KEYS TO ENJOYING A HEALTHY LIFE NOW, by Joyce Meyer
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every issue over to God gives us the strength to make lasting changes.
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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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