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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
http://www.heartlight.org/
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Friday, June 20, 2008
MORNING:
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel
among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet
shall not the least grain fall upon the earth."
-- Amos 9:9
Every sifting comes by divine command and permission. Satan must ask
leave before he can lay a finger upon Job. Nay, more, in some sense our
siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text says, "I will
sift the house of Israel." Satan, like a drudge, may hold the sieve,
hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the Master is
accomplishing the purity of the grain by the very process which the
enemy intended to be destructive. Precious, but much sifted corn of the
Lord's floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth
both flail and sieve to his own glory, and to thine eternal profit.
The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan which is in his hand, and will
divide the precious from the vile. All are not Israel that are of
Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender, and hence
the winnowing process must be performed. In the sieve true weight alone
has power. Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before
the wind, and only solid corn will remain.
Observe the complete safety of the Lord's wheat; even the least grain
has a promise of preservation. God himself sifts, and therefore it is
stern and terrible work; he sifts them in all places, "among all
nations"; he sifts them in the most effectual manner, "like as corn is
sifted in a sieve"; and yet for all this, not the smallest, lightest,
or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground. Every
individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd
would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one
child, nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of
his redeemed people. However little we may be, if we are the Lord's, we
may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus.
EVENING:
"Straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him."
-- Mark 1:18
When they heard the call of Jesus, Simon and Andrew obeyed at once
without demur. If we would always, punctually and with resolute zeal,
put in practice what we hear upon the spot, or at the first fit
occasion, our attendance at the means of grace, and our reading of good
books, could not fail to enrich us spiritually. He will not lose his
loaf who has taken care at once to eat it, neither can he be deprived
of the benefit of the doctrine who has already acted upon it. Most
readers and hearers become moved so far as to purpose to amend; but,
alas! the proposal is a blossom which has not been knit, and therefore
no fruit comes of it; they wait, they waver, and then they forget,
till, like the ponds in nights of frost, when the sun shines by day,
they are only thawed in time to be frozen again. That fatal to-morrow
is blood-red with the murder of fair resolutions; it is the
slaughter-house of the innocents. We are very concerned that our little
book of "Evening Readings" should not be fruitless, and therefore we
pray that readers may not be readers only, but doers, of the word. The
practice of truth is the most profitable reading of it. Should the
reader be impressed with any duty while perusing these pages, let him
hasten to fulfil it before the holy glow has departed from his soul,
and let him leave his nets, and all that he has, sooner than be found
rebellious to the Master's call. Do not give place to the devil by
delay! Haste while opportunity and quickening are in happy conjunction.
Do not be caught in your own nets, but break the meshes of worldliness,
and away where glory calls you. Happy is the writer who shall meet with
readers resolved to carry out his teachings: his harvest shall be a
hundredfold, and his Master shall have great honour. Would to God that
such might be our reward upon these brief meditations and hurried
hints. Grant it, O Lord, unto thy servant!
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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
on the web for even more devotionals, plus music, articles and more
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