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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009
MORNING:
"I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there
shall be showers of blessing."
-- Ezekiel 34:26
Here is sovereign mercy-"I will give them the shower in its season." Is
it not sovereign, divine mercy?-for who can say, "I will give them
showers," except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the
clouds, and bid them beget the rain. Who sendeth down the rain upon the
earth? Who scattereth the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the
Lord? So grace is the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. It
is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may
break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without
the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing. In vain you
labour, until God the plenteous shower bestows, and sends salvation
down. Then, it is plenteous grace. "I will send them showers." It does
not say, "I will send them drops," but "showers." So it is with grace.
If God gives a blessing, he usually gives it in such a measure that
there is not room enough to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we want
plenteous grace to keep us humble, to make us prayerful, to make us
holy; plenteous grace to make us zealous, to preserve us through this
life, and at last to land us in heaven. We cannot do without saturating
showers of grace. Again, it is seasonable grace. "I will cause the
shower to come down in his season." What is thy season this morning? Is
it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a
season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for
showers. "As thy days so shall thy strength be." And here is a varied
blessing. "I will give thee showers of blessing." The word is in the
plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go
together, like links in a golden chain. If he gives converting grace,
he will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessing."
Look up to-day, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a
heavenly watering.
EVENING:
"O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy upon
Jerusalem? ... And the Lord answered the angel ... with good
words and comfortable words."
-- Zechariah 1:12,13
What a sweet answer to an anxious enquiry! This night let us rejoice in
it. O Zion, there are good things in store for thee; thy time of
travail shall soon be over; thy children shall be brought forth; thy
captivity shall end. Bear patiently the rod for a season, and under the
darkness still trust in God, for his love burneth towards thee. God
loves the church with a love too deep for human imagination: he loves
her with all his infinite heart. Therefore let her sons be of good
courage; she cannot be far from prosperity to whom God speaketh "good
words and comfortable words." What these comfortable words are the
prophet goes on to tell us: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion
with a great jealousy." The Lord loves his church so much that he
cannot bear that she should go astray to others; and when she has done
so, he cannot endure that she should suffer too much or too heavily. He
will not have his enemies afflict her: he is displeased with them
because they increase her misery. When God seems most to leave his
church, his heart is warm towards her. History shows that whenever God
uses a rod to chasten his servants, he always breaks it afterwards, as
if he loathed the rod which gave his children pain. "Like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." God hath
not forgotten us because he smites-his blows are no evidences of want
of love. If this is true of his church collectively, it is of necessity
true also of each individual member. You may fear that the Lord has
passed you by, but it is not so: he who counts the stars, and calls
them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He
knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever
made, or the only saint he ever loved. Approach him and be at peace.
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SURPRISED BY HOPE: RETHINKING HEAVEN, THE RESURRECTION, AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH, by N. T. Wright
Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death
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MORNING & EVENING from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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