"God is not ashamed to be with those of humble state."

“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.

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

"...here is the word which tells us that God will make our feet "like hinds' feet."

For who is God, except the LORD?  And who is a rock, except our God?  It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way blameless.  He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and sets me upon my high places.                                                                                                          Psalm 18:31-33

Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food… Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.  The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high places.                                                                                    Habakkuk 3:17-19

        I think of Wordsworth's lines, in which he describes a natural lady, made by Nature herself:

"She shall be sportive as the fawn

That wild with glee across the lawn

Or up the mountain springs."

And it is this buoyancy, this elasticity, this springiness that the Lord is waiting to impart to the souls of His children, so that they may move along the ways of life with the light steps of the fawn.

Some of us move with very heavy feet.  There is little of the fawn about us as we go along the road.  There is reluctance in our obedience.  There is a frown in our homage.  Our benevolence is graceless, and there is no charm in our piety, and no rapture in our praise.  We are the victims of "the spirit of heaviness."  And yet here is the word which tells us that God will make our feet "like hinds' feet."  He will give us exhilaration and spring, enabling us to leap over difficulties, and to have strength and buoyancy for the steepest hills.  Let us seek the inspiration of the Lord.  "It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way blameless."

J.H. JOWETT

My Daily Meditation ~1914

        Let thy faith lead thy heart into the presence of God, as near as thou possibly canst, and say to it, "Behold the Ancient of Days, the Lord Jehovah, whose name is, I AM.  This is He, who made all the worlds with His word, who upholds the earth, who rules the nations, who disposes of all events, who subdues His foes, who controls the swelling waves of the sea, who governs the winds, and causes the sun to run its race, and the stars to know their courses.  This is He who loved thee from everlasting, formed thee in the womb, gave thee this soul, brought thee forth, showed thee the light, and ranked thee with the chief of His earthly creatures; who endued thee with thy understanding, and beautified thee with His gifts, who maintains thy life and all it comforts….

O here is an object worthy love!  Here shouldst thou even pour out thy soul in love!  Here it is impossible for thee to love too much!  This is the Lord who hath blessed thee with His benefits, spread thy table in the sight of thine enemies, and made thy cup overflow!  This is He whom angels and saints praise, and the heavenly host forever magnify!  Thus do thou expatiate on the praises of God, and open His excellencies to thine heart, till the holy fire of love begins to kindle in thy breast.

RICHARD BAXTER ~1615-1601

The Saints Everlasting Rest

"He keeps a whole, tender, responsive heart through all the tumult, and trial, and agony...."

But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.

Genesis 39:21

“And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.  Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household…”    

Genesis 45:7-8

I leave thee never; thou art not alone,

And with thine own and thee, Mine angels dwell:

Possess thy soul in patience; freely give

Me love for love, and all shall yet be well.

The time is short, they that now weep, ere long

Shall be as though they wept not: they that mourn

Be comforted, for I will comfort them;

And sweet shall be their glad thanksgiving song.

Elia from Lyra Mystica

        Harsh experience need not destroy the finest sensibility, the tenderest feelings of the heart.  Here is a man who has had twenty years’ very painful, almost unendurable, treatment; and yet, at the end of that period, he is susceptible of the tenderest influences, responds emotionally, with tears, with unutterable yearning and tenderness of soul, in the presence of his brethren… There is something for us to learn here.  Our harsh experiences often deaden our sensibility, work in us a sourness of heart and feeling which becomes misanthropic, selfish, resentful.  We learn from the history before us that it is possible to be exiled from home, ill-treated by relatives and friends, thrown into the way of pain, sorrow, loss and desolation; yet to come out of the whole process tender, sensitive, responsive to appeals which are made to our nature.  Why, there are some men who cannot overget the very slightest offence.  If they have not their own way in everything, they show their resentfulness in a thousand little ways, ~they become peevish, censorious, distrustful, ungenial.  You never meet them but they give you to understand that they have been insulted, offended, dishonored.  They have had to endure slight, or contempt, or neglect.  How little, how unutterably paltry, such men appear in the presence of the man who, after twenty years of exile, solitude, evil treatment of all kinds, weeps when he sees his brethren, ~keeps his heart through it all, ~has not allowed himself to become soured or misanthropic!  He keeps a whole, tender, responsive heart through all the tumult, and trial, and agony, and bitter sorrow of thirteen years ’vile captivity, and seven years of exaltation…  

JOSEPH PARKER

The Peoples Bible-Genesis   

        Do you know by sad experience what Joseph felt beneath those Syrian skies?  Do the archers shoot at you?  Are you lonesome and depressed, and ready to give up?  Take heart!  see the trampled grass and the snapped twigs; others have gone this way before you. Christ your Lord suffered the same treatment from His own.  Go on doing right, in nothing terrified by your adversaries.  Be pitiful and gentle, forgiving and forbearing…Put down your feet into the footprints of your Savior, who left an example that we should follow Him.  He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: and yet, when He was unjustly reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered beneath underserved contumely and reproach, He did not even remind the perpetrators of the righteous judgment of God, but was silent as a lamb, and threatened not, and committed Himself to Him that judges righteously.

And your time, sufferer, shall come at length, when God shall vindicate your character, and avenge your sorrows.  “Trust in the LORD and do good; He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday”(Psalm 37).

F.B. MEYER

Joseph

~This Devotional is dedicated to Pastor Saeed Abedini, imprisoned for his faith in Jesus Christ

“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” It is sin, then, that grieves Him...

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.  

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Ephesians 4:29-30

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed,

Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!

Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine;

Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began;

Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man.

Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife,

Joyful music leads us sunward in the triumph song of life.

H. VAN DYKE

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

The Apostle has been referring to certain sins, such as falsehood, anger, bitterness, corrupt speech, and after warning his readers against them, he adds, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” It is sin, then, that grieves Him, sin that pains Him; and this is exactly the answer we should have expected, for He is the “Holy Spirit of God,” and all, therefore, that is evil and sinful He hates with a perfect hatred, and is “grieved” by it. The character of a man is always revealed as much by his deepest sorrows as by his highest joys. And the character of God is revealed in all its purity and holiness by the fact that the only thing in human life that grieves Him is sin.

         He is grieved by insincerity and falsehood, for He is the Spirit of truth.—All that is against truth, all that is against justice and honesty, is hateful to Him. He is grieved at all falsehood, in word or in deed. How much is He grieved then at the insincerity of Christians towards one another, when we change our words towards our neighbors to their face and behind their back; when we speak them fair as long as they are before us, but have quite a different story when they are gone and cannot hear our opinion of them; when we make a show of friendship as long as we think they may be useful to us and do us good, but speak roughly as soon as we have nothing more to get from them. Surely there can be few greater griefs to the Spirit of truth and faithfulness than to see those whom He is striving to bring into the ways of truth so hollow in heart, so full of false professions, and unmeaning, untrue words.

         He is grieved by malice and unkindness, for He is the Spirit of love.—How must it grieve Him to see how love is set at nought among Christian people. How must it grieve Him to see how little some people seem to think of cherishing malice and ill-will in their hearts, to see how hard a matter it is to get them to give up a quarrel and really forgive what they suppose is an injury. How must it grieve Him as He accompanies us through the day, watching our dangers, ever anxious to help our weakness, to hear the words of unkindness, of peevishness, of jealousy, which drop from our mouths as the hours wear on, and which we take no care to stop. How must He grieve at the uncharitable suspicions and surmises, at the obstinacy with which we try to put the worst appearance on things and stretch them from the truth to make them seem as bad as possible.

JAMES HASTINGS

The Great Texts of the Bible-Ephesians

~This Devotional is in honor of CeCe Coss

A woman led by the Spirit of God

"The Holy Spirit, then, is emphatically gentle & tender & kind…."

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14:16-17

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Ephesians 4:30

Come, O Creator Spirit blest,

And in our souls take up Thy rest;

Come, with Thy grace and heavenly aid,

To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

Great Comforter, to Thee we cry;

O highest gift of God most High,

O Fount of life, O Fire of love,

And sweet anointing from above!

Rhabanus Maurus ~800AD

St. Paul is charging the Ephesians to be careful not to forget or to despise some of the common duties of everyday life. He is telling them to speak the truth, to beware of foolish talking, to be industrious and honest, kind and charitable, to put away bitterness and evil-speaking, to be slow to take offence, and ready to forgive…. He gives no new commandment, but he tells of a glorious guide. He speaks of a tender love which is watching us anxiously as we go up and down in the business or the pleasures of the day, of a Friend who has marked us out for the “day of redemption,” and is disappointed in us, grieved, distressed when we turn our backs upon Him and treat Him lightly. For such seems to be the meaning of the text—“Do not give pain to One who so loves you. He has come to your rescue, He has sealed you for a blessing; therefore, I beseech you, grieve Him not.”

Scripture does not shrink from speaking of God as being capable of feelings which for us can be represented only under human forms of emotion: God is represented as “being pleased,” as “joying,” as “delighting” in the love and obedience of His people, and He is also represented as “grieved,” “offended,” “angry,” “alienated,” by their sin; and we need not hesitate to follow where the Bible leads us.

The Holy Spirit is always with us, a constant companion, and nothing is hid from Him. In this He witnesses to us the omnipresence of God; He makes God’s existence real to us, wherever we happen to be. Do we speak a word? It falls upon the Spirit’s ear, as well as upon the ear of the person to whom we speak. Do we perform any action, good or bad? The Holy Spirit sees it and records it. Do we even think a thought? That thought is mirrored in the multitudinous mind of the Divine Spirit. We cannot escape from His presence.

…The imagery employed to describe Him and His influence on mankind is of the gentlest possible character. We have, for instance, the dew that descends silently from heaven, the rain that comes down upon the mown grass, the wind that rustles the leaves of the trees, or that sweeps away the clouds from the fair face of the sky; and if, as is once the case, the coming of this supernatural Guest is symbolized by the fire and the tornado, the fire is that which gleams in harmless flame over the thoughtful brows of the first Christian disciples gathered together in the rough upper room; and the tornado is that which overthrows and destroys nothing, but only announces, by an over-powering sound, the presence of God, and bids the people assemble together to listen to His overtures of mercy. The Holy Spirit, then, is emphatically gentle and tender and kind…. And when we know the gentleness of the Spirit in His dealing with us, surely we shall deal gently with others.

JAMES HASTINGS

The Great Texts of the Bible

"...And be thankful."

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

 ~Colossians 3:15-16

Some people seem born with a sullen and feverish temper, and it is very difficult for them to brighten into smiles and songs. But whatever our natural disposition may be, if we belong to Christ it is our bounden duty to cultivate a thankful heart. A melancholy person has a bad effect upon others. It is miserable to have to work with or live under a confirmed pessimist. Nothing is right, nothing pleases, and there is no word of praise or encouragement. If, instead of finding fault with our employees or children we would look out for things for which we could commend and thank them, we should probably find a miraculous change in their attitude.

The advantage of joy and gladness is that it is a source of strength to the individual soul, and to all others who come within its range, and commends our Christianity! Sidney Smith says: "I once gave a lady two and twenty recipes against melancholy; one was a bright fire; another, to remember all the pleasant things said to her; another, to keep a box of sugar-plums on the chimney-piece, and a kettle simmering on the stove. I thought this mere trifling at the moment, but have in after life discovered how true it is, that these little pleasures often banish melancholy better than more exalted objects." We may interpret the advice of this humorist and essayist by turning into joyous praise all the incidents of our daily life, arising with gratitude and thankfulness from every good and perfect gift to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world is sad, and has to pay her jesters and entertainers; it is a mystery to her that the face of the Christian should be bright and smiling, although the fig-tree does not blossom, and there is no fruit in the vine. Let us count up our treasures and blessings, and we shall find that even in the saddest and loneliest life there is something to turn our sorrow into singing. (2 Corinth.6:10)

F.B. MEYER

“Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.” Alexander Maclaren

Do we, as well, hide our faces from the Man of Sorrows?

He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Isaiah 53:3

The verse probably contains but one topic—the contempt, or rather aversion, with which men regarded the Servant of the Lord…. Keble says, “He was to be a man of sorrows, and because of His sorrows, He was to be despised. Such is the pride and bitterness of our sinful nature, ever since the fall of our first parents; which began with the lust of the eyes, Eve indulging herself with the sight of the forbidden fruit; and which has gone on ever since, men refusing in general so much as to look at the afflicted, ‘hiding, as it were, their faces’ from them, because such sights interrupt their enjoyment and satisfaction.”

He is despised and rejected of men still, both Jews and Gentiles, and the words of that hymn are no less plain than sadly true, which says—

Our Lord is now rejected,

And by the world disowned,

By the many still neglected,

And by the few enthroned,

But soon He’ll come in glory,

The hour is drawing nigh,

For the crowning day is coming by and by.

We hide our faces from “the Man of Sorrows” when we wish to make this world a paradise of rest, when we neglect the duty of knowing and acquainting ourselves with the burdens which are borne by men, and begin to plan for this world as if it were a place for happiness and repose.  There is no rest here; woe to the man who attempts to make it a place of rest. Oh! there is a false view of things which we get when we try to shut out the thought of suffering. Think of the young man and the young woman who make gaiety their home day after day and night after night, and think of Christ with the sick and maimed around Him; think of one who surrounds himself with the entertainment of this world, and think of one whose day is spent in passing from one sick chamber to another.

We reject Christ when we refuse to relieve suffering. There is an evil which is done in this world by the “want of thought”; that is the sin of those who go through life, not suspecting, and not caring to inquire, how much there is of human desolation. And there is an evil which is done in this world by “the want of heart’; that is the sin of those who are familiar with all that you can tell them of misery, and still go on feasting, and dressing, and amusing themselves, and doling out with a grudge the driblets of their income in the sacred cause of benevolence.

If ever you feel disposed in his manner to turn away from the afflicted, you will do well to check yourself with the question, “Am I not, in fact, behaving as the Jews did when they turned away from our Saviour?” “He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” and, therefore, “they hid as it were their faces from Him.” Surely if we hide our face, peevishly or contemptuously, from any one of His afflicted and poor people; if we are impatient and displeased with everything, except what encourages our mirth or what helps us in our day’s work; we have every reason to think that we too should have hidden our faces from our Saviour, had we known Him in the flesh: we should have been impatient and displeased at being called on to look off our business or our diversion towards a person so lowly and little esteemed, so very full of infirmities and sufferings.

It was a most distinguishing feature of the life of Jesus, the compassion which He felt for the degraded, neglected, unbefriended poor. And He sympathized with bodily anguish. He was walking almost all His life through the wards of a vast hospital. The hospital was the world; the sick, the dying, and the mad were lying on their beds, on both sides of Him. At evening “they brought unto Him many that were sick”; and, it is written again and again, “He was moved with compassion.”

JAMES HASTINGS

The Great Texts of the Bible ~Isaiah