May Devotional: "He pursues the thankless with offers of grace..."

 Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.  Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.

Ecclesiastes 11:1-2

Something, my God, for Thee,

Something for Thee:

That each day’s setting sun may bring

Some penitential offering;

In Thy dear name some kindness done;

In Thy dear love some wanderer won;

Some trial meekly borne for Thee,

Dear Lord, for Thee.

 Something, my God, for Thee,

Something for Thee:

That to Thy gracious throne may rise

Sweet incense from some sacrifice–

Uplifted eyes undimmed by tears,

Uplifted faith unstained by fears,

Hailing each joy as light from Thee,

Dear Lord, from Thee.

 Something, my God, for Thee,

Something for Thee:

For the great love that Thou hast given,

For the great hope of Thee and heaven.

My soul! her first allegiance brings,

And upward plumes her heavenward wings,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee.

SYLVANUS PHELPS

         I  believe that no Church can expect to prosper, or to get God’s blessing, that does not try to do good to bless unbelievers. There is still another reason, personal to myself and therefore somewhat selfish, a desire to keep myself in work, and not get rusty in the quiet of a country parish. With some spare time on my hands why not employ it in doing some little good in God’s world, even though it should entail labour and trouble and botheration. One day or other the world will slip through our fingers, and all we hold dearest in it. Only the good we have done will remain. That cannot pass away. It is written down in the memory of God, registered in the books of His Divine Retribution.  We will need it all when we come to give in our account of our service and go to get our wages—our love, and kindliness and faith, and unselfishness, and well-doing—we will need it all and more than all when God puts the question to us: ‘Of what use have you been in My world? What have you done with the talents and the time I gave you?’

REV. JAMES MACGREGOR

Life and Letters

But let us remember how God’s work and gifts are unappreciated. The multitude crowds into the music-hall and gazes with rapture on some vulgar stage scenery painted in glaring ochres, whilst God’s bright landscapes full of perfect beauty solicit their eye in vain. There is a great crush in the public gardens to witness an exhibition of fire-works—small tricks in saltpetre; but the eager crowd turns its back on the moon walking in brightness and God’s heaven sown with stars. And men treat God’s government and grace as they do His handiwork, ignoring Him who is wonderful in counsel, excellent in working. Yet for all this He does not suspend His beneficent action; He continues His glorious and generous administration, whatever may be the response of His creatures. He makes His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, His rain to descend upon the just and the unjust, despite the thanklessness of the far greater portion of those who are so richly and undeservedly blessed. How largely the sublime work of the Lord Jesus is unrecognized! “Where are the nine?” is a mournful question still on our Master’s lips. But He does not fail, neither is He discouraged because of the blindness and heartlessness of those whom He suffered to redeem; He pursues the thankless with offers of grace and blessing. We are far too anxious about acknowledgments and congratulations. It is natural, perhaps, that we should suffer some sense of disappointment, but have we not considerations and motives to lift us far above such discontent? It is rather the gratitude than the apathy of men that should leave us mourning. Let us work in the spirit of a noble faith and consecration, knowing that what we give and suffer will be lightly esteemed among men.

There is no labour lost

Though it seem tossed

Into the deepest sea.

In dark and dreary nights,

’Mid stormy flash of lights,

It cometh back to thee.

Fear not to labour, then,

Nor say, “I threw my time away!”

It is for God, not men,

To count the cost and pay.

J. HAMILTON

JAMES HASTINGS

Ecclesiastes

Easter Devotional ~"Christ the Lord is risen, our Joy that hath no end."

“Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”          

 Revelation 1:18

'Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.  For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.'

Song of Solomon 2:10-12

Now let the heavens be joyful!

Let earth the song begin!

Let the round world keep triumph,

And all that is therein!

Let all things seen and unseen,

Their notes of gladness blend,

For Christ the Lord is risen,

Our Joy that hath no end.

 John of Damascus A.D. 760

     "The time of the singing of birds is come,"--the time when nature calls aloud to us and bids us awaken out of the deadness of personal grief, and rejoice in the new manifestation of His beauty that God is making to the world.  "Behold, I am alive for evermore, and the dead live to Me."  Was not this the secret saying which the new verdure was writing all over the hills, and which the young pattering leaves and singing-birds were repeating in music?  It must be well to have ears to hear and a heart that could respond with a little flutter of returning joy and thankfulness.

 ANNIE KEARY

 (1825-1879)

The Lord of all, Himself through all diffused,

Sustains and is the life of all that lives.

Nature is but a name for an effect,

Whose cause is God…

One spirit, His

Who wore the platted thorns with bleeding brows,

Rules universal nature. Not a flower

But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain,

Of His unrivall'd pencil.  He inspires

Their balmy odours, and imparts their hues,

And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes,

In grains as countless as the seaside sands,

The forms with which He sprinkles all the earth.

Happy who walks with Him! whom what he finds

Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flower,

Or what he views of beautiful or grand

In nature, from the broad majestic oak

To the green blade that twinkles in the sun,

Prompts with remembrance of a present God.

His presence, Who made all so fair, perceived,

Makes all still fairer.  As with Him no scene

Is dreary, so with Him all seasons please.

WILLIAM COWPER

The Task

Good Friday Devotional ~Oh, sad hearts and suffering! Look to the cross of Christ.

He is despised and rejected by men,

​​A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…

 ​ ​​Surely He has borne our griefs

​​And carried away our sorrows…

​​ ​​But He was wounded for our transgressions,

​​He was crushed for our iniquities;

​​The chastening for our peace fell upon Him,

​​And by His stripes we are healed.

ISAIAH 53: 3,4,5

O, Jesus, You know our deepest trials,

You bore the grief of our fallen world.

Your Body was pierced, Your heart full of sorrow;

Our sins fell upon You, so we can be restored.

I am a wind-blown reed, weakened and bruised;

You'll not break me, nor quench my flickering flame.

You were crushed and wounded to make me new;

Jesus, my heart overflows for Your Cross of grace.

C.A. Taylor

Oh, sad hearts and suffering!  Anxious and weary ones!  Look to the cross of Christ.  There hung your King!  The King of sorrowing souls, and more, the King of Sorrows.  Ay, pain and grief, tyranny and desertion, death and hell—He has faced them one and all, and tried their strength, and taught them His, and conquered them right royally.  And since He hung upon that torturing cross, sorrow is divine, godlike, as joy itself.  All that mans fallen nature dreads and despises, God honoured on the cross, and took unto Himself, and blest and consecrated forever. And now blessed are the poor, if they are poor in heart as well as purse; for Jesus was poor, and theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are the hungry, if they hunger for righteousness as well as food; for Jesus hungered, and they shall be filled.  Blessed are those who mourn, if they mourn not only for their sorrows, but for their sins; for Jesus mourned for our sins, and on the cross He was made sin for us, who knew no sin; and they shall be comforted.  Blessed are those who are ashamed of themselves, and hate themselves, and humble themselves before God, for on the cross Jesus humbled Himself; and they shall be exalted.  Blessed are the forsaken and despised; did not all men forsake Jesus in His hour of need?  And why not thee, too, thou poor deserted one?  No.  Every one that is perfect must be as his Master.

CHARLES KINGSLEY

Continually at every heart He is knocking, asking to be taken in as the supreme object of love.  "Will you have Me," He says to the believer, "to be yours?  Will you follow Me into suffering and loneliness and ask for no reward but My smile of approval and My word of praise?  Will you be content with pleasing Me, and Me only? May I have My way with you in all things?  Will you accept Me for your heavenly Bridegroom and leave all others to cleave only unto Me?"

H.W. SMITH

God is Enough

"Whatever any of us desire to have of God, we are sure to get."

 ​​The LORD upholds all who fall,

​​And raises up all who are bowed down.

 ​​The eyes of all look expectantly to You,

​​And You give them their food in due season.

 ​​You open Your hand

​​And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

​

 ​​ ​​The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,

​​To all who call upon Him in truth.

 ​​He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;

​​He also will hear their cry and save them.

Psalm 145:14-16, 18-19

The Lord upholdeth all that fall,

The bow’d with sorrow riven;

While on Thee wait the eyes of all,

Their bread is duly given.

Thou openest Thy hand of grace,

And Thou dost satisfy,

The wants of all in every place,

Who for Thy mercy cry.

The strong desire He will fulfill,

Of them that fear His name:

He hears their cry, and He will still,

Save them from harm and shame.

THOMAS MACKELLER

Shall we consider the fowls of the air, again a myriad form: the eagle soaring in its height, the birds that fill the woods and valleys with their song, the great hosts of seafowl? Who can think of their numbers?

“From Cannara Francis went farther south, and east to Bevagna. Brother Leo was his companion, and the sympathy between them, the beauty of the ways bordered with flowers—amongst them the delicate blue and white love-in-a-mist, which fringes the hedgerows in June, blue cornflowers, rose-colored vetches, purple loose-strife, scarlet poppies, gay larkspurs and sheets of feathery bedstraw—the twitter of birds upon the trees, the fields ripe to the harvest, refreshed and uplifted his heart, so that his joy welled over in song. Where the birds gathered he paused, and, unalarmed, they clustered about his feet and on the branches overhead. In an ecstasy of tenderness for his “little brothers” he spoke to them of their Creator, whose care for them deserved their love and praise. “For He has made you,” he said, “the noblest of His creatures; He has given you the pure air for a home: you need neither to sow nor to reap, for He cares for you, He protects you, He leads you whither you should go.” And the birds rejoiced at his words, opening their wings and fluttering and chirping as if to thank him for rating them so precious in God’s sight. Then moving amongst them, he blessed them and went on his way. (A. M. Stoddart, Francis of Assisi)

Now look from nature to nature’s God—“Thou opens Thy hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing.” God satisfies the desires of every living thing. Our desires both lift us up and set us down. Our desires mark us off from all other living creatures. Where others have needs only, ours is this dignity—we desire.

 Desire—it is a dainty word. It were much that He should satisfy the need, the want; but He goes far beyond that. Pity is moved to meet our need; duty may sometimes look after our wants; but to satisfy the desire implies a tender watchfulness, a sweet and gracious knowledge of us, an eagerness to bless. God is never satisfied until He has satisfied our desires.

What is the object of desire to a man who loves God? God. What is the object of desire to a righteous man? Righteousness. And these are the desires which God is sure to fulfill to us. Therefore there is only one region in which it is safe and wise to cherish longings, and it is the region of the spiritual life where God imparts Himself. Everywhere else there will be disappointments—thank Him for them. Nowhere else is it absolutely true that He will fulfill our desires. But in this region it is. Whatever any of us desire to have of God, we are sure to get. We open our mouths and He fills them. In the Christian life desire is the measure of possession, and to long is to have. And there is nowhere else where it is absolutely, unconditionally and universally true that to wish is to possess, and to ask is to have. There is, however, an eternal element in all desire, which, ultimately, will find its fruition in the love of God.

“The desire after God does not begin on our part. God has not hidden Himself from man for the purpose that He might allow His creature, His lost child, to cry after Him. We love God because He first loved us. If we desire God, it is because God hath first desired us. God asks for our heart as His tabernacle; He surrounds us night and day with tender, pathetic appeals: He says, “If any man love Me, I will come in, and make my abode in his heart.” He plies us, as mother never plied her prodigal child, to come home again; and there is not one word of grace, or pathos, or tender entreaty, which He has withheld from His argument, if haply He might find His way, with our glad consent, into our heart of hearts. Do you desire God? It is because God first desired you. Do you feel kindlings of love towards Him? Your love is of yesterday. His love comes up from unbeginning time, and goes on to unending eternity!”( Joseph Parker)

And the amazing thing is that God more than satisfies our desires. His bounty is so great that many are unwilling to take His greatest gifts. For He has given His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, and how many refuse Him! How foolish it is to take God’s lesser gifts and refuse the greatest of all!

JAMES HASTINGS

Psalms

The hand of grace is never closed while the sinner lives.

SPURGEON

"Oh, when shall we learn the sweet trust in God?"

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

2 Thessalonians 3:16

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:6-7

I look to Thee in every need,

And never look in vain;

I feel Thy touch, Eternal Love!

And all is well again.

The thought of Thee is mightier far

 Than sin and pain and sorrow are.

Discouraged in the work of life,

Disheartened by its load,

Shamed by its failures or its fears,

I sink beside the road, —

But let me only think of Thee,

 And then new heart springs up in me.

Thy calmness bends serene above,

My restlessness to still;

Around me flows Thy quickening life,

To nerve my faltering will:

Thy presence fills my solitude,

Thy providence turns all to good.

Embosomed deep in Thy dear love,

Held in Thy Word, I stand;

Thy hand in all things I behold,

And all things in Thy hand;

Thou leadest me by unsought ways,

 And turn’st my mourning into praise.

SAMUEL LONGFELLOW

Looking Unto God

         God has not so created the creatures that after creating He abandons them. He loves them, delights in them, is with them; moves and sustains each creature according to its kind. We Christians know that with God creating and sustaining are one thing.

LUTHER

         What a vast proportion of our lives is spent in anxious and useless forebodings concerning the future, —either our own or those of our dear ones.  Present joys, present blessings, slip by, and we miss half their sweet flavor, and all for want of faith in Him who provides for the tiniest insect in the sunbeam. Oh, when shall we learn the sweet trust in God that our little children teach us every day by their confiding faith in us? We, who are so mutable, so faulty, so irritable, so unjust; and He, who is so watchful, so pitiful, so loving, so forgiving? Why cannot we, slipping our hand into His each day, walk trustingly over that day’s appointed path, thorny or flowery, crooked or straight, knowing that evening will bring us sleep, peace, and home?

PHILLIPS BROOKS

     When we confide our cares upon our Heavenly Father, we honor Him; we declare our faith in God's powerful hands that love,  cherish and uphold His precious children. 

New Year's Devotional: "To Him who loves us & released us from our sins by His blood"

Grace to you and peace…from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 1:5-6

…for now our salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Romans 13:11

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free

From our fears and sins release us

Let us find our rest in Thee

Israel's strength and consolation

Hope of all the earth Thou art

Dear Desire of every nation

Joy of every longing heart

Born Thy people to deliver

Born a child and yet a King

Born to reign in us forever

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone

By Thine all sufficient merit

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

CHARLES WESLEY

         The position they assigned to Him was superlative. They said with one voice, “To Him be the glory and the dominion until the ages of the ages.” An age of days is long, an age of years incomputable, but an age of ages is eternity; and it was their desire and belief that through uncounted eons, every star would shine, every jewel would flash, every wave break, every voice sing, and every creature live to promote the everlasting radiance of His crown, that it should embrace all beings, in all spheres, for all ages, without rival or successor; that the Man of Nazareth and Calvary should be the only Ruler; that the Lamb should be seated in the supreme place of authority—such was the confident expectation and the desire of the church as reflected here. But on what ground did the early believers base their estimate of our Savior’s superlative claims?  Whatever else might have been urged, this was their supreme consideration, that “He had loosed them from their sins by His own blood” (vs.5) This was His greatest contribution to the world’s need; and it was for this that they ascribed to Him, “blessings and honors and glory and might, unto the ages of the ages.”(Rev.7:12)

         Now is our salvation nearer then when we believed. Jesus is about to appear the second time unto salvation. The bodies of the saints are to be set free from the power of death, and raised in the likeness of the body of Christ’s glory: The creature is to be emancipated from the bondage of corruption; the last remains of Satan’s rule over our world are to be destroyed. The golden ages are to return. From the watchers and holy ones the song of redemption is yet to ascend: “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”(Rev. 7:10)

F.B. MEYER

1847-1929

          

Christmas Eve Devotional "Awake ! my heart, and lift thine eyes!"

“…for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

                         Luke 2:10-12

     From heaven high I wing my flight.

To bring new tidings of glad delight ;

Or tidings good so much I bring,

Thereof I'll speak, and thereof I'll sing.

For unto you a Child, this morn,

Is of a chosen virgin born;

A Child so blest, and fair to see,

He shall your joy and your comfort be.

Salvation 'mong you will He share,

Which God the Father did prepare,

That in the heavenly kingdom ye

Might dwell both now and eternally.

Then mark ye well the sign He chose,

The crib and lowly swaddling clothes;

There shall ye find the Infant lain

That earth and all things doth sustain.

Let us rejoice, then, every one,

And with the shepherds wander on,

To see what gift the God of heaven

To us, e'en His dear Son, hath given.

Awake ! my heart, and lift thine eyes!

Behold what in yon manger lies!

What is this beauteous Babe so mild?

It is the lovely Jesus child.

      O Jesus, whom my heart holds dear,

Make thee a warm soft cradle here;

Within my breast a dweller be,

That I may ever remember Thee.

        Glory to God on highest throne,

Who sent to us His only Son ;

Therefore rejoice, ye angel throng,

Of this new year to sing the song.

MARTIN LUTHER

Tr: Henry William Dulcken

        The sun sets on the twenty-fourth of December on the low roofs of Bethlehem, and the gleams with wan gold on the steep of its stony ridge.  The stars come out one by one.  Time itself, as if sentient, seems to get eager, as though the hand of its angel shook as it draws on towards midnight.  Bethlehem is at that moment the veritable centre of God's creation.  How silently the stars drift down the steep of the midnight sky!  Yet a few moments, and the Eternal Word will come.

F.W. FABER

        He, that, as Job saith, taketh the vast body of the sea, turns it to and fro as a little child, and rolls it about with the swaddling-bands of darkness; He to lie there, the Lord of glory, without all glory!  Instead of a palace, a poor stable; of a cradle of state, a beast's cratch; no pillow but a lock of hay; no hangings but dust and cobweb!  Christ, though as yet He cannot speak, yet out of His crib, as a pulpit, this day preaches to us, and His theme is, "Learn of Me, for I am humble."  This is the praecepe of praesepe, as I may call it, the lesson of Christ's manger.

BISHOP ANDREWS

        When therefore the first spark of a desire after God arises in thy soul, cherish it with all thy care, give all thy heart into it; it is nothing less than a touch of the divine loadstone, that is to draw thee out of the vanity of time, into the riches of eternity.  Get up therefore, and follow it as gladly as the wise men of the east followed the star from heaven that appeared to them.  It will do for thee as the star did for them, it will lead thee to the birth of Jesus, not in a stable at Bethlehem in Judea, but to the birth of Jesus in the dark centre of thine own soul.

WILLIAM LAW