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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Saturday, August 16, 2008
MORNING:
"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name."
-- Psalms 29:2
God's glory is the result of his nature and acts. He is glorious in his
character, for there is such a store of everything that is holy, and
good, and lovely in God, that he must be glorious. The actions which
flow from his character are also glorious; but while he intends that
they should manifest to his creatures his goodness, and mercy, and
justice, he is equally concerned that the glory associated with them
should be given only to himself. Nor is there aught in ourselves in
which we may glory; for who maketh us to differ from another? And what
have we that we did not receive from the God of all grace? Then how
careful ought we to be to walk humbly before the Lord! The moment we
glorify ourselves, since there is room for one glory only in the
universe, we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High. Shall the
insect of an hour glorify itself against the sun which warmed it into
life? Shall the potsherd exalt itself above the man who fashioned it
upon the wheel? Shall the dust of the desert strive with the whirlwind?
Or the drops of the ocean struggle with the tempest? Give unto the
Lord, all ye righteous, give unto the Lord glory and strength; give
unto him the honour that is due unto his name. Yet it is, perhaps, one
of the hardest struggles of the Christian life to learn this
sentence-"Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory." It is
a lesson which God is ever teaching us, and teaching us sometimes by
most painful discipline. Let a Christian begin to boast, "I can do all
things," without adding "through Christ which strengtheneth me," and
before long he will have to groan, "I can do nothing," and bemoan
himself in the dust. When we do anything for the Lord, and he is
pleased to accept of our doings, let us lay our crown at his feet, and
exclaim, "Not I, but the grace of God which was with me!"
EVENING:
"Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit."
-- Romans 8:23
Present possession is declared. At this present moment we have the
first fruits of the Spirit. We have repentance, that gem of the first
water; faith, that priceless pearl; hope, the heavenly emerald; and
love, the glorious ruby. We are already made "new creatures in Christ
Jesus," by the effectual working of God the Holy Ghost. This is called
the firstfruit because it comes first. As the wave-sheaf was the first
of the harvest, so the spiritual life, and all the graces which adorn
that life, are the first operations of the Spirit of God in our souls.
The firstfruits were the pledge of the harvest. As soon as the
Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe ears, he looked forward
with glad anticipation to the time when the wain should creak beneath
the sheaves. So, brethren, when God gives us things which are pure,
lovely, and of good report, as the work of the Holy Spirit, these are
to us the prognostics of the coming glory. The firstfruits were always
holy to the Lord, and our new nature, with all its powers, is a
consecrated thing. The new life is not ours that we should ascribe its
excellence to our own merit; it is Christ's image and creation, and is
ordained for his glory. But the firstfruits were not the harvest, and
the works of the Spirit in us at this moment are not the
consummation-the perfection is yet to come. We must not boast that we
have attained, and so reckon the wave-sheaf to be all the produce of
the year: we must hunger and thirst after righteousness, and pant for
the day of full redemption. Dear reader, this evening open your mouth
wide, and God will fill it. Let the boon in present possession excite
in you a sacred avarice for more grace. Groan within yourself for
higher degrees of consecration, and your Lord will grant them to you,
for he is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even
think.
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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