Morning by Morning

There are a few books of compiled devotions by Charles Spurgeon that I love and have quoted here on occasion.   One is called "Morning by Morning" and the other "Morning and Evening".  He uses Isaiah 1:4 and Psalm 63:5 & 6 as his references for the books.  However, as I read Ezekiel recently, I came upon this: "And you shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the LORD daily; morning by morning you shall provide it.  Also you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour, a grain offering to the LORD continually by a perpetual ordinance.  Thus they shall provide the lamb, the grain offering and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering."  Ezekiel 46:13-15

Spurgeon's premise for his devotions is our need to seek, listen, meditate and be satisfied with God daily.  God is worthy to be worshipped!  Daily, moment by moment, morning by morning we must be about the business of seeking Him and adoring Him!  It is our "offering" and must be a "perpetual ordinance".  And the Lamb has been provided.  He provided Himself.  Let us offer Him the praise He deserves thus making out of us the man to be used for the work ahead:  changing the world.

Filthy Rags

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”   This came to me this morning as I contemplated a verse in Ezekiel.  In chapter forty-five, God continues to walk Ezekiel through all that is to come in the millennial kingdom.  In verse eighteen, it states: “Thus says the Lord GOD” and continues with the details of a sacrifice and specifies what to do with the blood.  And in verse twenty, it says, “Thus you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who goes astray or is naïve”.    I looked up the adjective, naïve: showing lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment; innocent.

Our going astray, whatever that means for each of us, should be confessed each day and brought up each morning that God will give us the power to avoid.  But naïve…well, that’s more abstract.  I remember as a kid when men in the church prayed aloud, “Lord forgive our sins of omission and commission.” Naïve would be the “omission”, something that has been left out or failure to do.   They are also those sins we do that we don’t realize are sins.  And I’ll not try to go any further giving examples…not enough room here!   Naïve sins are still sins whether we think about it or not. 

Let us not be judgmental and appalled at the sins of the world!  You know what I mean: “What’s this world coming to?”  Let us be aware of our own “naïve sins”.  They are there and we may not know the specific but we can still be repentant.  God is serious about all sin.  And we may think our works are righteous, but only God gives the righteousness and empowers it!  Let us throw ourselves at the Feet of His wonderful mercy!!

Slapping Yourself

A relative of mine went on a trip with a friend recently.  They didn't get very much sleep on their fun-filled weekend and then had to drive home.  My acquaintance, who was not the driver, told me he looked up to see the car veering off the road and then the driver began slapping himself in order to "wake-up".  (We all know the feeling.)  Thankfully, they made it home safe and it's now a funny mental picture.

As I contemplated the story today, I thought it a great picture of what we must do to keep from sinning.  Then the verse, "I beat my body and make it my slave..." came to mind.  (1 Corinthians 9:27, NIV)  The driver of the car wanted to stay alive.  We, too, must be that serious about avoiding sin.

Late Rains

The endless bounty of God's word is so incredibly amazing to me!  Yes, I know that I am extremely redundant!  But I just can't speak enough about it.   I'll be reading a passage for one reason when POW! out of the blue, I'll be prompted by the Holy Spirit about a word, a phrase, a sentence or a whole chapter, that is about something else entirely.

This happened to me last week as I went to the book of James, chapter five, verses seven and eight.  I went there to read a quick verse about patience when God gave me some encouragement.  We all have people in our lives who press on our hearts moment by moment in regard to their spiritual understanding.  One such person in my life whom I was not thinking about at the time immediately came to my mind as I read verse seven:  "Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.  The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains."

My person, whom I love and desire for them to see their need for Christ, received early rain.   But just because they have not come to the place where they see their need MUST NOT cause me despair.  The verse tells me: be patient, the coming of the Lord is not here right now, it's still coming.  Again that one verse gives another admonition toward patience with an example of "the farmer" who "waits"for both the early and late rains!   Late rains!!  I will, by the strength of the Spirit wait for that "precious produce" after the late rains come!  Praise God for the richness of His word.

Behold

Behold has been a recurring word in Ezekiel.  I know what it means but decided to look it up and think through the definitions: see, observe;  look, watch, survey, witness, gaze upon, regard, contemplate, inspect.  The bottom line is to do all this, our eyes have to be opened, which is a definite spiritual prerequisite.

And speaking of "eyes opened", which in the spiritual realm is what God must do for everyone who believes, I was struck by the beginning of chapter 40 of Ezekiel.  In verse one, "the hand of the LORD was upon me; He brought me".  Verse two, "He brought me and set me...".  Verse three, "He brought me there and Behold..."  God did the doing!  We seek, wait, pray, wait and wait.  He will do His will!

And what did Ezekiel "behold"?  Verse four says an angel of the Lord was in place to give Ezekiel further instructions and the instructions are pretty clear:  "See with your eyes, hear with your ears, and give attention to all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here in order to show it to you.  Declare to the house of Israel all that you see."

Our declaration of all that we see, hear, and give attention to is done in many ways.  Our life choices, responses and activities reveal much to a watching world.  May I declare faithfully all that God has brought me to behold about a revealed Christ.

Details Revisited

A few weeks ago I posted "Divinely Determined Details".  Well, I have a bit more to say about Divine Details from a slightly different angle.  The first post talks about God's orchestrating details and the magnitude of that divine ability.   This one, however, focuses more on the importance of details to God.

As I head toward the finish of Ezekiel, I thought I hit a wall.  Chapter forty deals with the details of the future temple and its construction.  An architect or a builder may be very interested in all the measurements and layouts noted but I thought, "what can I get out of this?"  As has been my practice on this major prophet road, I'll read, be glazed over, pray and then be blown away at what a second or third reading reveals.  The Holy Spirit has guided and grown me much in this time of study, and I am passionately grateful for His patience with my whinings and mental blocks! ("Blockhead" is more like it!) But today, I really thought He'd be challenged with me.  NOT!  So here's my first of a few postings from chapter forty:  I've read the chapter at least five times over the course of about four days.  Today it hit me, rather He opened my eyes to the intricate, precise and meticulous process that goes into the construction of the temple.  I've studied the temple many times and had many wonderful realizations of the comparison to Christ.  But what I got today was that we as believers MUST be about the glory of God.  And the details of our lives are very important to God!  First Corinthians 3:16 tells us that we are the temple of God and the Holy Spirit lives in us (which is why I got anything out of this passage!)  Our details matter to Him and they better matter to us.  Let us grow to new heights with this understanding that every association, act, appearance, etc. reveal a life sold out to excellence for the glory of the Triune God!

Blessings

I use the word bless and its derivatives over and over in prayer!  Most of the time, it is to be blessed or for God to bless someone else.  This morning, out of the blue, an old hymn came to mind.  It's not really a hymn I especially liked that much but the words came to me vividly.  This is my prayer today.  And I share it with you!

"Out in the highways and byways of life, many are weary and sad; Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife, making the sorrowing glad.  Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love, tell of His power to forgive; others will trust Him if only you prove true, every moment you live.  Give as 'twas given to you in your need.  Love as the Master loved you; be to the helpless a helper indeed, unto your mission be true.  [chorus] Make me a blessing, out of my life may Jesus shine; make me a blessing, O Savior, I pray, make me a blessing to someone today."