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Daily Devotionals
Bowen's Daily Meditations
Devotional: December 24th

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"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." - Acts 7:59.

Christ, on the cross, out of the deep gulf of woe into which, by the sins of the world, he found himself sinking, cried out in anguish, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and, receiving strength in his soul, he soon exclaimed with expiring breath, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." He tasted death; tasted far more of it than the believer is called to do; and knew the blessedness of having one to look to in his expiring hour. Well knows he therefore how precious it is to have an almighty friend in the darkness of such an hour. The believer may look with unwavering confidence, as always, so in his last earthly moments, to him who knows so well what death is.

Imagine a company of men pursuing another, reviling him, stoning him, and driving him towards a frightful cavern. Amidst their imprecations he enters it; and as a stone is rolled upon the mouth of the cave, his enemies rejoice greatly in their victory. You shudder as you think of the wretched lot of that castaway. But know that in the very moment when that stone was rolled upon the cavern’s mouth, a marvellous transformation took place. The cavern became a palace; a multitude of happy and radiant beings flocked around your persecuted friend, and leading him up flights of noble stairways conducted him to a throne and crowned him with a diadem. The crowd without are congratulating themselves upon having driven the object of their hatred into everlasting night and solitude; how surprised will they be hereafter, should the stone and the rock flee away and the hated one be seen upon a throne surrounded by a troop of exalted friends.

God is constructing paradise out of the rejected elements of this world. Christ first; then they that believe in him and suffer with him. They are in the estimation of men, the refuse of humanity. Not only when Stephen died, but on a thousand occasions since, the rejoicings of men in the death of the saints have been heard on the one side, and on the other side the glad acclamations of the angelic host welcoming them to glory, honor, and immortality.

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