Advent Devotional '24 "God is not ashamed to be with those of humble state." -Bonhoeffer

 

"My soul exalts the Lord,

And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

 For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave;

For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.

For the Mighty One has done great things for me;

And holy is His name…

He has brought down rulers from their thrones,

And has exalted those who were humble.”

Luke 1:46-49, 52

 

For thus says the High and Lofty One

Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

“I dwell in the high and holy place,

And with him who has a contrite and humble spirit…”

Isaiah 57:15

 

 

 

Lord! thou hast told us that there be

Two dwellings that belong to Thee;

And those two — that's the wonder —

Are far asunder.

 

The one the highest heaven is,

The mansions of eternal bliss;

The other's the contrite

And humble sprite.

 

Not like the princes of the earth,

Who think it much below their birth

To come within the door

Of people poor.

 

No, such is Thy humility,

That though Thy dwelling be on high,

Thou dost Thyself abase

To the lowest place.

 

 

Thus Thou wilt him with honor crown

Who in himself is first cast down,

And humbled for his sins,

That Thy love wins.

 

 

O God! since Thou delight'st to rest

Within the humble, contrite breast,

First make me so to be;

Then dwell with me.

~THOMAS WASHBOURNE

 

God is not ashamed to be with those of humble state. He goes into the midst of it all, chooses one person to be His instrument, and does His miracle there, where one least expects it. He loves the lost, the forgotten, the insignificant, the outcasts, the weak, and the broken. Where men say, “lost,” He says “found;” where men say, “condemned,” He says “redeemed;” where men say “no,” He says “yes.” Where men look with indifference or superiority, He looks with burning love, such as nowhere else is to be found.

 

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER 

Sermon on Advent III, 1933

 

         It is not from the insignificance of man that God’s dwelling within him is so strange. It is as much the glory of God to bend His attention on an atom as to uphold the universe. But the marvel is that the habitation which He has chosen for Himself is an impure one. And when He came down from His magnificence to make this world His home, still the same character of condescension was shown through all the life of Christ. Our God selected the society of the outcasts of earth, those whom none else would speak to.

 

F.W. ROBERSTON

Sermons, 3^rd series

 

 

Thanksgiving Devotional '24 "We are to thank God in all things..."

 

And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing.

Psalm 107:22

By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.                                                                                            Hebrews 13:15

Our restless spirits yearn for Thee,

Wherever our changeful lot is cast;

Glad when Thy gracious smile we see,

Blessed when our faith can hold Thee fast.

O Jesus, ever with us stay,

Make all our moments calm and bright;

Chase the dark night of sin away,

Shed over the world Thy holy light.

BERNARD of CLAIRVAUX

Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts

God's definite will for the believer is that he shall be a fountain of praise and that his life shall be in thanksgiving to God at all times and in all circumstances.  The Lord God, who is the Author of all our blessings, appreciates, desires, and even seeks our praise and thanksgiving.  "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me" (Psalm 50:23).  And the Psalmist also said, "Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever" (Psalm 145:2).

      We are to thank God in all things; the Lord knows what is best for us, and He is ordering the course of our life, bringing the details to pass in the time and manner of His desire.  He has never made a mistake, and what He allows to come into the life of His child is for the good of that child and for the glory of God.  Any chastisement that ever reaches us comes for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness (Heb. 12:10).

DONALD GREY BARNHOUSE

To be out of harmony with the things, acts, and events, which God in His providence has seen fit to array around us— that is to say, not to meet them in a humble, believing, and thankful spirit— is to turn from God.  And, on the other hand, to see in them the developments of God's presence, and of the Divine Will, and to accept that Will, is to turn in the opposite direction, and to be in union with Him.

THOMAS  UPHAM

Late Summer Devotional '24 "Open your heart to the love of the Lord Jesus"

 

“And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.”

2 Thess. 3:5

 

“If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

1 John 4:12

 

More love to Thee, O Christ,
More love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make
On bended knee;
This is my earnest plea:
More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee,
More love to Thee!

 

ELIZABETH PRENTISS

 

 

 

The Love of the things that perish can only be driven out by the strength of superior love. Love is the pure and perfect discipline. He who is perfected in love, the love of the divinely beautiful and good, is perfect in life. He who loves finds sacrifice holy, battle joyous, toil easy; pain has even a sweetness when love imposes it, and tender touches purge all the anguish away. Commence your self-discipline by that which alone can complete it. Open your heart to the love of the Lord Jesus. Loving Him, all lovely things fall into their just proportion, their true relation to your being; while all unlovely things fall into their true contempt and shame. It is the one regnant principle of the free creation. It will make such order in your nature as reigns in the bright universe around you. It shines resplendent as the essential glory in the saints and angels who bow before the eternal throne.

 

J. BALDWIN BROWN

 

 

       The only preservative from this withering of the heart is love. Love is its own perennial fount of strength. The strength of affection is a proof, not of the worthiness of the object, but of the largeness of the soul which loves.

 

F.W. ROBERTSON

Good Friday Devotional '24 "...to despise no one, despair of no one, because Christ despises none and despairs of none..."

 

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:

“Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;

who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.  For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 2:21-25

 

When the tempest comes; when affliction, fear, anxiety, shame come, then the Cross of Christ begins to mean something to us. For then in our misery and confusion we look up to heaven and ask, “Is there any One in heaven who understands all this? Does God understand my trouble?” Then, does the Cross of Christ bring a message to our heart such as no other thing or being on earth can bring. For it says to us, God does understand thee utterly; for Christ understands thee. Christ feels for thee; Christ feels with thee; Christ has suffered for thee, and suffered with thee. Thou canst go through nothing which Christ has not gone through. He, the Son of God, endured poverty, fear, shame, agony, death for thee, that He might be touched with the feeling of thine infirmity and help thee to endure, and bring thee safe through all to victory and peace. 

On the torturing Cross Christ prayed for His murderers, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And this is the character many a man may get in the dark deep. To feel for all, to feel with all; to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep, to understand people’s trials and make allowances for their temptations; to put oneself in their place till we see with their eyes, and feel with their hearts, till we judge no man, and have hope for all; to be fair and patient and tender with everyone we meet; to despise no one, despair of no one, because Christ despises none and despairs of none; to look on every one we meet with love, because they too may have been down into the deep….

 

CHARLES KINGLSEY

Good News of God ~1883

 

Midwinter Lenten Devotional '24 ~The Cross of Christ

 

On a hill far away, stood an old rugged Cross
The emblem of suffering and shame
And I love that old Cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain

 

Oh, that old rugged Cross so despised by the world
Has a wondrous attraction for me
For the dear Lamb of God, left His Glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary

 

In the old rugged Cross, stained with blood so divine
A wondrous beauty I see
For the dear Lamb of God, left His Glory above
To pardon and sanctify me

 

So I'll cherish the old rugged Cross
Till my trophies, at last, I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown

George Bennard

 

 

 

Whatever may be the mysteries of life and death, there is one mystery which the Cross of Christ reveals to us, and that is the infinite and absolute goodness of God. Let all the rest remain a mystery so long as the mystery of the Cross of Christ gives us faith for all the rest. Faith I say; for God Himself has taken upon Himself the task of solving it; and Christ has proved by His own act, that if there be evil in the world, it is none of His, for He hates it, fights against it, and He fought against it to the death. The Cross says, Have faith in God. Ask no more of Him, “Why hast Thou made me thus?” Ask no more, “Why do the wicked prosper on the earth?” Ask no more, “Whence pain and death, war and famine, earthquake and tempest, and all the ills to which flesh is heir?” All fruitless questioning, all peevish repinings are precluded henceforth by the death and passion of Christ.

 

Dost thou suffer? Thou canst not suffer more than the Son of God. Dost thou sympathise with thy fellow-sufferers? Thou canst not sympathise more than the Son of God. Dost thou long to right them, to deliver them, even at the price of thine own blood? Thou canst not long more ardently than the Son of God, who carried His longing into act, and died for them and thee. What if the end be not yet? What if evil still endure? What if the medicine have not yet conquered the disease? Have patience, have faith, have hope, as thou standest at the foot of Christ’s Cross, and holdest fast to it, as the Anchor of thy soul and reason, as well as of thy heart. For however ill the world may go, or seem to go, the Cross is the everlasting token that God so loved the world, that He spared not His only begotten Son, but freely gave Him for it. Whatsoever else is doubtful this as least is sure, that God must conquer, because God is good; that Evil must perish, because God hates Evil, even to the death. 

  

CHARLES KINGSLEY

Westminster Sermons ~1883

Christmas Devotional '23 "But this was the Lord of glory. This was not the beginning of His life."

     

    So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn….                                                                                                                                           And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them. -Luke 2:6-7, 16, 20

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Sleep! Holy Babe! 

Upon Thy mother’s breast;

Great Lord of earth and sea and sky,

How sweet it is to see Thee lie

In such a place of rest.

Sleep! Holy Babe! 

Thine angels watch around,

All bending low with folded wings,

Before th’ Incarnate King of kings,

In reverent awe profound.

Sleep! Holy Babe! 

While I with Mary gaze

In joy upon that face awhile,

Upon the loving infant smile

Which there divinely plays.

Sleep! Holy Babe! 

Ah! take Thy brief repose;

Too quickly will Thy slumbers break,

And Thou to lengthened pains awake

That death alone shall close.

EDWARD CASWALL

~ Sleep! Holy Babe

How wonderful this was!  We must remember who it was that was thus born.  The birth of another child in this world was nothing strange, for thousands of children are born every day.  But this was the Lord of glory.  This was not the beginning of His life.  He had lived from all eternity in heaven.  His hands made the universe.  All glory was His.  All the crowns of power flashed upon His brow.  All mighty angels called Him Lord.  We must remember this if we would understand how great was His condescension….   

      Christ’s glory was folded away under robes of human flesh.  He never ceased to be the Son of God; and yet He assumed all the conditions of humanity.  He veiled His power, and became a helpless infant, unable to walk, to speak… lying feeble and dependent in His mother’s bosom… He laid aside His sovereignty, His majesty. What condescension!  And it was all for our sake, that He might lift us up to glory.  It was as a Saviour that He came into this world.  He became Son of man that He might make us sons of God.   He came down to earth and lived among men, entering into their experiences of humiliation, that He might lift them up to glory to share His exaltation.               

J.R. MILLER~

Come Ye Apart

        How gentle the coming!  Who would have had sufficient daring of imagination to conceive that God Almighty would have appeared among men as a little child?  We should have conceived something sensational, phenomenal, catastrophic, appalling!  The most awful of the natural elements would have formed His retinue, and men would be chilled and frozen with fear.  But He came as a little child.  The great God “emptied Himself”; He let in the light as our eyes were able to bear it.

J.H. JOWETT~

My Daily Meditation

Thanksgiving Devotional '23 "The Lord knows what is best for us..."

 

 

        And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing. 

Psalm 107:22

        By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.

Hebrews 13:15

 

 

        God's definite will for the believer is that he shall be a fountain of praise and that his life shall be in thanksgiving to God at all times and in all circumstances.  The Lord God, who is the Author of all our blessings, appreciates, desires, and even seeks our praise and thanksgiving.  "Whosoever offers praise glorifies Me" (Ps. 50:23).  And the Psalmist also said, 

"Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name 

for ever and ever" (Ps. 145:2).

 

        We are to thank God in all things; the Lord knows what is best for us, and He is ordering the course of our life, bringing the details to pass in the time and manner of His desire.  He has never made a mistake, and what He allows to come into the life of His child is for the good of that child and for the glory of God.  Any chastisement that ever reaches us comes for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness (Heb. 12:10).

Donald Barnhouse 

                                                                                                                          

        To be out of harmony with the things, acts, and events, which God in His providence has seen fit to array around us —that is to say, not to meet them in a humble, believing, and thankful spirit—is to turn from God.  And, on the other hand, to see in them the developments of God's presence, and of the Divine Will, and to accept that Will, is to turn in the opposite direction, and to be in union with Him.

Thomas C. Upham