Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, March 28th, 2024
Maundy Thursday
There are 3 days til Easter!
Attention!

Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Devotional: February 18th

Resource Toolbox
Morning Devotional

Ready to perish. - Isaiah 27:13.

HERE we have the condition of those to whom the gospel is addressed. “Outcasts,” and “ready to perish.” This is the figure; and what is the fact? “Remember,” says Paul, “that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” It speaks of them as “sitting in darkness,” as being “in the region of the shadow of death.” One thing is allowed on all hands:-“Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Happiness does not result from the excellence of the object possessed, but from its adaptation to the feelings of the persons possessing it.

Nothing will make us happy which does not relieve our wants, and fulfil our hopes, and satisfy our desires. Oh, say some, we are not heathens: but let these turn to Scripture, and they will find that they are “all by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” “In us,” says the apostle, “that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” We are cursed because we have not “continued in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” “There is but a step between us and death.” Is a sheep ready to perish in the midst of wolves? Is a diseased man ready to perish, who from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is covered with wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores? Is a traveller ready to perish who is fast asleep on the edge of one of the highest cliffs of Dover? Is a criminal ready to perish on whom the judge has pronounced sentence, and who is left for execution to-morrow? Is an infant ready to perish that is cast out into the open field on the day that it is born, and whom there is no eye to pity, none to have compassion?

But none of these are so ready to perish as sinners under the gospel are; the destruction of none of these is so great as their perdition, and from this state they are by no means able to help themselves. No hope of relief can be found but in the boundless grace of God. And why should they be ashamed that their state should be known? It is desirable that they should know it; to this, their condition, the whole gospel refers, and on this the whole of it is founded. It is also necessary that they should know it, else the gospel will be a repulsive system to them.

It will be like offering alms to the wealthy, or announcing liberty to those who are free, or entering a house to couch the eye of a man who can see,-unless they choose to strip the gospel of its fine character, as suited to sinners; unless, as some have done, they would reduce the gospel to a system of moral ethics. But is such a meagre representation the gospel? Does it come up to this representation?-“The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Or does it come up to this language? -“God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Evening Devotional

That it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. - Isaiah 55:10.

WHAT would our world be without the snow and the rain from heaven? If God were to make the heavens over us to be as brass, the earth would soon be beneath us as iron. But now see the consequences of these influences-how his paths drop fatness, and how the valleys are made to stand thick with corn; and let us observe how, when these showers come down, the earth brings forth and bears, and gives “seed to the sower and bread to the eater;” that is, furnishes a supply both for present provision and future propagation. Let us see how easily this may be applied to the gospel.

What would any country, town, village, or individual be without the Scriptures? Perishing for lack of knowledge. But when the gospel comes, it brings along with it the living bread, the staff of Spiritual and eternal life. In other words, it brings pardon, friendship with God, the renovation of our natures, all the fruits of the Spirit-which are “joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” And as the husbandman is a sower as well as an eater, so is the Christian. He enjoys the blessings of the gospel himself, but then he is to convey them to others; and the gospel has been preserved and maintained in our world in the same way as the corn-not by miracle but by propagation. The one is by making it the duty of all who have received it to extend and diffuse it, and the other is by making it a privilege to do it; and it does this by producing in them a disposition for it, so that their duty becomes their delight. If we drop a single grain of wheat into the ground, it will yield a number of similar grains. If we sow them also, they will produce many more, so that from one single grain of corn there will be a sufficiency with which to disseminate a furlong, a field, a district, a province, a country, yea, and the globe itself.

Once all Christianity was centered in the Saviour. He imparted it to twelve apostles, and then to seventy disciples, and they to thousands. God says, “I will sow them in the earth:” that is, they shall be the means of producing their like; they shall multiply. “I will cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” “I will bless them, and they shall be a blessing.”‘

Subscribe …
Get the latest devotional delivered straight to your inbox every week by signing up for the "Mornings and Evenings with Jesus" subscription list. Simply provide your email address below, click on "Subscribe!", and you'll receive a confirmation email from us. Follow the instructions in the email to confirm your subscription to this list.
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile