Friday, July 11, 2014
Evening, Jul 11
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
— Joel 1:3
In this simple way, by God’s grace, a living testimony for truth is always to be kept alive in the land—the beloved of the Lord are to hand down their witness for the gospel, and the covenant to their heirs, and these again to their next descendants. This is our first duty, we are to begin at the family hearth: he is a bad preacher who does not commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the Lord’s arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday school teachers, or other friendly aids; these can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation; proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this case: mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God, and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the Most High. Parental teaching is a natural duty—who so fit to look to the child’s well-being as those who are the authors of his actual being? To neglect the instruction of our offspring is worse than brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots Popery is covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means for resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the instruction of children in the faith. Would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter. It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it has often proved to be an accepted work, for God has saved the children through the parents’ prayers and admonitions. May every house into which this volume shall come honour the Lord and receive his smile.
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May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. (NLT) -Matthew 6:10
How do you respond when someone you are encouraging doesn't respond in the way you want them to? We often get our hopes and expectations up and are let down when they can't meet them. It's a worse feeling on the other side to be the person who fails to live up to your expectations. Release them of expectations and simply provide encouragement without the pressure to perform. Work on an attitude of planting seeds where some flourish and others may not at this time. Expect God to carry out His will, just focus on planting seeds.
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Morning, Jul 11
After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
— 1 Peter 5:10
You have seen the arch of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are its colours, and rare its hues. It is beautiful, but, alas, it passes away, and lo, it is not. The fair colours give way to the fleecy clouds, and the sky is no longer brilliant with the tints of heaven. It is not established. How can it be? A glorious show made up of transitory sun-beams and passing rain-drops, how can it abide? The graces of the Christian character must not resemble the rainbow in its transitory beauty, but, on the contrary, must be stablished, settled, abiding. Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no “baseless fabric of a vision,” but may it be builded of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of earth shall never be able to remove you. But notice how this blessing of being “stablished in the faith” is gained. The apostle’s words point us to suffering as the means employed—“After that ye have suffered awhile.” It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough winds pass over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak tree, and those strange twistings of the branches, all tell of the many storms that have swept over it, and they are also indicators of the depth into which the roots have forced their way. So the Christian is made strong, and firmly rooted by all the trials and storms of life. Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial, but take comfort, believing that by their rough discipline God is fulfilling this benediction to you.
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Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! (NLT) -Psalm 32:2
How is it possible for God to clear us of guilt if we aren't honest about our guiltiness? Many times we hide our sins from ourselves by failing to recognize them or we hide them from others when we aren't transparent. This verse tells us we can find joy in our honesty and God will clear us of our brokenness. Please don't use this to condemn yourself of guilt. Instead, use it to positively embrace transparency in your life. Work towards transparency by sharing your struggles with others. They in turn will see Jesus is your strength.
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