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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Tuesday, February 3, 2009
MORNING:
"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors."
-- Romans 8:12
As God's creatures, we are all debtors to him: to obey him with all our
body, and soul, and strength. Having broken his commandments, as we all
have, we are debtors to his justice, and we owe to him a vast amount
which we are not able to pay. But of the Christian it can be said that
he does not owe God's justice anything, for Christ has paid the debt
his people owed; for this reason the believer owes the more to love. I
am a debtor to God's grace and forgiving mercy; but I am no debtor to
his justice, for he will never accuse me of a debt already paid. Christ
said, "It is finished!" and by that he meant, that whatever his people
owed was wiped away for ever from the book of remembrance. Christ, to
the uttermost, has satisfied divine justice; the account is settled;
the handwriting is nailed to the cross; the receipt is given, and we
are debtors to God's justice no longer. But then, because we are not
debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become ten times more debtors to
God than we should have been otherwise. Christian, pause and ponder for
a moment. What a debtor thou art to divine sovereignty! How much thou
owest to his disinterested love, for he gave his own Son that he might
die for thee. Consider how much you owe to his forgiving grace, that
after ten thousand affronts he loves you as infinitely as ever.
Consider what you owe to his power; how he has raised you from your
death in sin; how he has preserved your spiritual life; how he has kept
you from falling; and how, though a thousand enemies have beset your
path, you have been able to hold on your way. Consider what you owe to
his immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, he has not
changed once. Thou art as deep in debt as thou canst be to every
attribute of God. To God thou owest thyself, and all thou hast-yield
thyself as a living sacrifice, it is but thy reasonable service.
EVENING:
"Tell me ... where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock
to rest at noon."
-- Song of Solomon 1:7
These words express the desire of the believer after Christ, and his
longing for present communion with him. Where doest thou feed thy
flock? In thy house? I will go, if I may find thee there. In private
prayer? Then I will pray without ceasing. In the Word? Then I will read
it diligently. In thine ordinances? Then I will walk in them with all
my heart. Tell me where thou feedest, for wherever thou standest as the
Shepherd, there will I lie down as a sheep; for none but thyself can
supply my need. I cannot be satisfied to be apart from thee. My soul
hungers and thirsts for the refreshment of thy presence. "Where dost
thou make thy flock to rest at noon?" for whether at dawn or at noon,
my only rest must be where thou art and thy beloved flock. My soul's
rest must be a grace-given rest, and can only be found in thee. Where
is the shadow of that rock? Why should I not repose beneath it? "Why
should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?"
Thou hast companions-why should I not be one? Satan tells me I am
unworthy; but I always was unworthy, and yet thou hast long loved me;
and therefore my unworthiness cannot be a bar to my having fellowship
with thee now. It is true I am weak in faith, and prone to fall, but my
very feebleness is the reason why I should always be where thou feedest
thy flock, that I may be strengthened, and preserved in safety beside
the still waters. Why should I turn aside? There is no reason why I
should, but there are a thousand reasons why I should not, for Jesus
beckons me to come. If he withdrew himself a little, it is but to make
me prize his presence more. Now that I am grieved and distressed at
being away from him, he will lead me yet again to that sheltered nook
where the lambs of his fold are sheltered from the burning sun.
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=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
THE DREAM GIVER: FOLLOWING YOUR GOD-GIVEN DESTINY, by Bruce Wilkinson
In this study of Exodus, Wilkinson exhorts Christians to leave our
comfort zones, brave wilderness trials, confront "border bullies," and
enter the "Promised Land" of God's will.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?257
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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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