the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor un-circumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Galatians 5:6. Circumcision is nothing, and un-circumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. 1 Corinthians 7:19. Thou hast faith, shew me thy faith without thy works. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:18-20.
Living faith plants Christ, the Tree of Life, in the heart; by faith the Tree is firmly grounded and rooted and bears fruit unto eternal life. Where there are no fruits, there is no good tree, no matter how much talk there is about it. Sooner will you be able to separate the light from the sun and the warmth from the fire, than you shall separate love and the works of love from true faith. Faith without work is a sun without light, a fire without heat. Of what use to you is a righteousness which leaves you without righteousness, without righteous works? Of what use to you is a Christ who lived, suffered and died nineteen hundred years ago. who allows you to remain destitute and dead in sin? Of what use to you is a garment which you do not wear on your body? If Christ by faith have bestowed upon you the robe of His righteousness, the bridal costume, then where is it? Show it; put it on; walk in it; otherwise you will not be admitted to the bridal supper; you will be cast out if you have entered the room. If God be ours, if Christ be ours. He must be in us. A God, a Christ, who is not in me, is not my God, not my Christ. That which is not blended together with my being is not mine, does not belong to me and I do not belong to it. I cannot count it mine when I do not appropriate it to myself, nor receive it into my mind, my heart, and my spirit. That which lives in me is my life. He who does not possess the Spirit of Christ is none of His. He who does not possess the righteousness of Christ, to him it does not belong. What do you gain if, when someone has given you a check for a large sum of money, you do not cash it and use the amount denoted on the check? When God gives you something. He gives it that you may enjoy and possess it. Examine yourselves, then, whether you possess that in which you believe, whether Christ is really to you that which God has intended Him to be to you (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Happy only in Thy love,
Poor, unfriended, or unknown,
Fix my thoughts on things above;
Stay my heart on Thee alone.
