Verse of the day — Colossians 2:7
having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
Colossians 2:7(NASB)
Open Windows by T. Austin-Sparks
The Faithful Steward
Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you. (2 Timothy 1:14 NLT)
How much have you to dispense? Are you sure that you are dispensing what you have? The Lord did not lead you through that trial, through that darkness, through that strange experience, just for your own sake. The Lord has not dealt with you as He has, in order that you should be shut up to yourself, to enjoy the result alone. He has done that to constitute you a steward. If you and I will only allow that fact to govern us in the days of difficulty and trial, it will help us through. We should hold fast to the fact that the trial is to mean enrichment for the Lord's people, and an increase of equipment and qualification for stewardship.... Ask the Lord to release you into your stewardship within your measure. We are not speaking of an official, organized service for God, where you have to be continually ministering to others, whether you have the resources with which to do it or not. That is all false, and puts strain upon you; you may well revolt against that kind of thing. We simply have in mind the way in which the Lord creates living contacts. Children of God may cross your path in dire need, and may all the time be looking for the person who can help them. They have been crying to the Lord to meet the need, and have been watching to see how the Lord would answer. They may cross your path, and you talk upon all sorts of ordinary things; they pass on their way, and you have failed in your stewardship. They have not received that for which they have been asking, and the steward has disappointed the Lord, and those who were looking to the Lord. Let us ask the Lord to give us release from our tied-up state, to fulfill this stewardship.
The Lord's Word is: "...it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful," not eloquent, intellectual, or with a strong personality, none of those things. What is your mental conception of a steward? One who has a great facility of speech, who finds no difficulty in talking? No! "...it is required in stewards, that a man be found FAITHFUL."
Morning Daily Light by Samuel Bagster
He removes it by His rough wind in the day of the east wind.
Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great. § “I am with you,” says the Lord, “to save you. I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished.” § He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities … For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. § I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. § Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail.
You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
Isa. 27:8; 2 Sam. 24:14; Jer. 30:11; Ps. 103:9,10, 14; Mal. 3:17; 1 Cor. 10:13; Luke 22:31,32; Isa. 25:4
Evening Daily Light by Samuel Bagster
I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me.
The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. § We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. My speech and my preaching were … in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God … But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
Your eyes will see the King in His beauty. § We shall see Him as He is. § In my flesh I shall see God. § I shall be satisfied.
1 Kings 10:7; Matt. 12:42; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 2:4,5; 1 Cor. 2:9,10; Isa. 33:17; 1 John 3:2; Job 19:26; Ps. 17:15
None but the Hungry Heart by Miles Stanford
Height Advantage "
But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the Blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:13).
To know the Lord Jesus is to love Him; and to love Him is to insist on being with Him; to "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).
"Our growth is wrought out in our lives down here; but it is formed up there in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, where our affections and minds get into the condition to be manifested down here." -J.N.D.
"Every blessing is now connected with the Lord Jesus at the right hand of the Father. Hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ' (Eph. 1:3). It is a great thing to have the consciousness that we are bound up with Him there in heavenly glory, and to know that we are with Him in that sphere of ascension to participate in all that constitutes His life in that blessed circle of love and glory where He lives unto the Father. If we apprehend this we shall not be deceived and intoxicated by what goes on upon the earth." -C.A.C.
"Most do not go beyond His resurrection; they do not extend to His ascension. They do not know the Lord Jesus in glory. They are occupied with Him in relation to their own side. He was at my side and glorified the Father perfectly in His walk here, and in death; but He is now at His own side, and it is there I intelligently realize the vastness of my life in Him, for He is my life.
"His death, resurrection and ascension translated the believer from his own side to His side, so that as He is so are we in this world; and according as we are at full rest about ourselves, we are occupied with Him who has set us free for fellowship." -J.B.S.
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus" (Heb. 10:19)
Devotional Studies by Elizabeth Haworth
Spiritual Readiness
Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
Hebrews 6:1-6
Reading Readiness
You can’t teach a child to read unless he’s ready. A child must be “ready to read”. No pressure, pushing, punishment or rewards can speed “reading readiness” So often principles in the natural world, spill over into the life of the spiritual. Unless a child of God is “ready to grow” he’ll never reach “spiritual maturity.”
Word of Truth
All the truth of God is laid out in the word of God for all the children of God. But growth is based on hearing it, understanding it, and appropriating its truth. And in the life of a believer, it’s rarely reached without there being a need. So much of our learning in the Christian walk is birthed through our need. Unless a believer is aware that he is to grow spiritually, he will remain a babe. Even one that’s started to make spiritual progress can regress back to babyhood.
Elementary Stage
The writer to the Hebrews makes this plain as we read in the Amplified Bible: Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward ….. the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of
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Knowing Jesus Devotional by Elizabeth Haworth
The Bedrock of Truth
Invasive Inquiry
When I was a little girl my older brother asked me “have you ever told a lie?” “No!” I smugly replied, believing in my heart that I was telling the perfect truth! I was a wonderful example of a little Christian girl!! – kind and gentle.. I had gone ‘forward’ at a Billy Graham crusade, despite believing in Jesus before. I was liked by everyone. I sang of Jesus to old ladies that were housebound. I was a ‘saintly’ girl! and could decisively answer, ‘No’ to my brother's invasive inquiry – nothing but the truth fell from my lips!!!
Moral Ground
What a rude awakening when he jeered, "you accuse yourself by your own mouth!!/ But it was a lesson I never forgot and a lesson I am still learning…. Truth today has lost the moral ground upon which it stood, even in my youth.
Pilate's Question
"What is TRUTH?" That was the piercing question that fell from the lips of Pilate. That is the inner, penetrative searching, deep within the hearts of humanity. Building our lives on anything other than the Truth.. is to stand on shifting sand. Only Truth will endure, while lies, part-truths and distorted truth will be swept away.
Walking in Truth
Knowledge of the Truth is no insignificant advantage as it affects every facet of life. Believing the Truth affects the eternal soul of man, through time and eternity, "for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid – which is Jesus Christ.” 1Corinthians 3:11 How it pleased the heart of the apostle John who was able to say of Gaius, for I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.” 3John 1:3
Distorted Truth
Often, in the heart damaged by life’s traumas- truth becomes distorted.. even the Truth of God can become twisted and perverted. The Father-heart of God -Who loves with His infinite love – can be distorted, and the Truth of His Father-heart of
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