My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.
— James 2:1
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun ? one that grows and does not diminish. And it is all the more dangerous because it is done without evil aforethought but, as it were, carelessly and without wrong intent. It is the evil of giving to them that have and withholding from them that have not. It is the evil of blessing with a loud voice them that are already blessed and letting the unblessed and the outcast lie forgotten. Let a man appear in a local Christian fellowship and let him be one whose fame is bruited abroad, whose presence will add something to the one who entertains him, and immediately a score of homes will be thrown open and every eager hospitality will be extended to him. But the obscure and the unknown must be content to sit on the fringes of the Christian circle and not once be invited into any home.
This is a great evil and an iniquity that awaits the judgment of the great day. And it is so widespread that scarcely any of us can claim to be free from it. So we condemn it only with utter humility and with acknowledgment that we too have been in some measure guilty.
thought
Our openness to other people may be determined by class favoritism or by lack of comfort with those of another culture, language, ethnic or racial group, or status whether higher or lower than ours. But whatever triggers favoritism violates brotherly/sisterly love.
prayer
Make me a humbler receiver of all Your people, Lord, not an importance measurer of them.
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
— John 17:3
Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem and saw not the king's face, though the king was his own father. Are there not many in the kingdom of God who have no awareness of God, who seem not to know that they have the right to sit at the King's table and commune with the King? This is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is a hard and grievous burden. To know God, this is eternal life; this is the purpose for which we are and were created. The destruction of our God-awareness was the master blow struck by Satan in the dark day of our transgression. To give God back to us was the chief work of Christ in redemption.
To impart Himself to us in personal experience is the first purpose of God in salvation. To bring acute God-awareness is the best help the Spirit brings in sanctification. All other steps in grace lead up to this. Were we allowed but one request, we might gain at a stroke all things else by praying one all-embracing prayer: Thyself, Lord! Give me Thyself and I can want no more.
thought
The foremost quality of eternal life is to know, experientially know God. We can fully know Him in Christ in whom God gives us Himself.
prayer
O God, I can know You, experientially know You in Christ. In Him You have given me Yourself. Hallelujah!
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
— Colossians 2:9-10
God's gifts are many; His best gift is one. It is the gift of Himself. Above all gifts, God desires most to give Himself to His people. Our nature being what it is, we are the best fitted of all creatures to know and enjoy God. "For Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee" (from The Confessions of St. Augustine). When God told Aaron, "You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites," He in fact promised a portion infinitely above all the real estate in Palestine and all the earth thrown in (Numbers 18:20).
To possess God ? this is the inheritance ultimate and supreme. There is a sense in which God never gives any gift except he gives Himself with it. The love of God, what is it but God giving Himself in love? The mercy of God is but God giving Himself in mercy, and so with all other blessings and benefits so freely showered upon the children of atonement. Deep within all divine blessing is the Divine One Himself dwelling as in a sanctuary.
thought
As A. B. Simpson sang it: "All in all forever, Jesus will I sing. Everything in Jesus and Jesus everything." There remains only for us to fully identify with Him.
prayer
Christ, in You I have everything. May Your Spirit fill me as I open myself wholly to You.
Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.
— Proverbs 28:14
We have all seen the person who begins all arguments with the unassailable proposition that he is right and reasons from there. We have received a few letters which purported to settle all questions, not by bringing forth reasons, but by establishing the writer's qualifications to pronounce judgment. "How dare you question my actions," he says. "I am the foremost leader in my field. I have written this many books and spoken to this many people over a long period of this many years." Ergo, I am not to be trifled with, nor are my opinions to be questioned.
If I do it, it is right. Ispe dixit. He has said it. This kind of thing would be comical if it were not tragic. We mention it only to point up the truth under present consideration and to show by horrible example what long continued self-assurance will do to a human character. Let the public accept a man as unusual, and he is soon tempted to accept himself as being above reproof. Soon a hard shell of impenitence covers his heart and chokes his spiritual life almost out of existence. The cure, if there is to be a cure, would be simple, of course. Let him look to his past and to the cross where Jesus died. If he can still defend himself after that, then let him look into his own heart and tell what he finds there. If after that he can still boast, close the coffin lid. We might point out a danger here (for there will always be perils in the way of spiritual progress): it is that we become morbidly introspective and lose the legitimate happy cheer from our souls.
This we must never do, and we can avoid it by permitting Christ to engage our attention, rather than our own souls. The safe rule is, whenever we look at ourselves, be penitent; when we look at Christ, be joyous. And look at Christ most of the time, looking inward only to correct our faults and grieve for our imperfections.
thought
Hardening our hearts places us in extreme danger. Failure to fully receive God's forgiveness or forgive ourselves is also threatening. Fixing our gaze upon Christ reveals our weaknesses and our strength.
prayer
O Lord, may my heart be tender and fixed upon You ? not upon my misconceived strength or my human weakness. In Jesus' name.
. . . let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus . . .
— Hebrews 12:1b-2a
The rapidity with which improvement is made in the life will depend altogether upon the degree of self-criticism we bring to our prayers and to the school of daily living. Let a man fall under the delusion that he has arrived, and all progress is stopped until he has seen his error and forsaken it. Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" (Philippians 3:12). Some Christians hope in a vague kind of way that time will help them to grow better. They look to the passing of the years to mellow them and make them more Christlike.
This is such a tender and pathetic thought that one hesitates to expose its essential error. But we had better know the facts now while we can do something about them rather than go on moist-eyed and dreamily hopeful ? and wholly wrong. A crooked tree does not straighten with age; neither does a crooked Christian. All this is to say that a growing Christian must have at his roots the life-giving waters of penitence. The cultivation of a penitential spirit is absolutely essential to spiritual progress. The lives of great saints teach us that self-distrust is vital to godliness. Even while the obedient soul lies prostrate before God, or goes on in reverent obedience convinced that he is carrying out the will of God with a perfect conscience, he will yet feel a sense of utter brokenness and a deep consciousness that he is still far from being what he ought to be. This is one of the many paradoxical situations in which the humble man will find himself as he follows on to know the Lord.
thought
Let's run the life race with perseverance and our eyes fixed on Jesus, throwing off that sin that so easily entangles us and throwing aside various hindrances. The throwing off calls for honest self-criticism without which we won't make much progress.
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for the utter stupidity of trying to run the race while weighed down with that special sin that trips me up and the hindrances that slow me down.
But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.
— First Corinthians 11:31
All things else being equal, a Christian will make spiritual progress exactly in proportion to his ability to criticize himself. Paul said, "But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment" (1 Corinthians 11:31). We escape the critical judgment of God by exercising critical self-judgment. It is as simple as that. We often hear the axiom "Practice makes perfect." The fact is that practice, far from making perfect, actually confirms us in our faults unless it is carried on in a humble, self-critical spirit. The whole philosophy of instruction rests upon the idea that the learner is wrong and is seeking to be made right. No teacher can correct his pupil unless the pupil comes to him in humility. The only proper attitude for the learner is one of humble self-distrust. "I am ignorant," he says, "and am willing to be taught. I am wrong and am willing to be corrected." In this childlike spirit, the mind is made capable of improvement.
thought
Isn't it better to judge ourselves before somebody else does it? The criticism of others is not always accurate but God sometimes criticizes us through other people.
prayer
Lord, may I be more sensitive to the Spirit as You seek to expose my sin and weakness through Your Word and people.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
— Colossians 3:16
Sometimes our hearts are strangely stubborn and will not soften or grow tender no matter how much praying we do. At such times, it is often found that the reading or singing of a good hymn will melt the ice jam and start the inward affections flowing. That is one of the uses of the hymnbook. Human emotions are curious and difficult to arouse, and there is always a danger that they may be aroused by the wrong means and for the wrong reasons. The human heart is like an orchestra, and it is important that when the soul starts to sound its melodies, a David or a Bernard or a Watts or a Wesley should be on the podium.
Constant devotion to the hymnbook will guarantee this happy event and will, conversely protect the heart from being led by evil conductors. Every Christian should have lying beside his Bible a copy of some standard hymn book. He should read out of one and sing out of the other, and he will be surprised and delighted to discover how much they are alike. Gifted Christian poets have in many of our great hymns set truth to music. Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley (possibly above all others) were able to marry the harp of David to the Epistles of Paul and to give us singing doctrine, ecstatic theology that delights while it enlightens.
thought
Amazing Grace; Be Still My Soul; Great is Thy Faithfulness; I am His, and He is Mine; Jesus, Lover of My Soul; Life a River Glorious; Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus; When He Shall Come. Just a few of the great hymns that ignite and lift the heart in worship and reflection. Sing them!
prayer
How often You have spoken to me through hymns, Father, teaching, admonishing and encouraging me. Thank You!
. . . Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— Ephesians 5:19b-20
One of the serious weaknesses of present-day evangelicalism is the mechanical quality of its thinking. A utilitarian Christ has taken the place of the radiant Savior of other and happier times. This Christ is able to save, it is true, but He is thought to do so in a practical across-the-counter manner, paying our debt and tearing off the receipt like a court clerk acknowledging a paid-up fine. A bank-teller psychology characterizes much of the religious thinking in our little gospel circle. The tragedy of it is that it is truth without being all the truth. If modern Christians are to approach the spiritual greatness of Bible saints or know the inward delights of the saints of post-biblical times, they must correct this imperfect view and cultivate the beauties of the Lord our God in sweet, personal experience.
In achieving such a happy state, a good hymnbook will help more than any other book in the world except the Bible itself. A great hymn embodies the purest concentrated thoughts of some lofty saint who may have long ago gone from the earth and left little or nothing behind him except that hymn. To read or sing a true hymn is to join in the act of worship with a great and gifted soul in his moments of intimate devotion. It is to hear a lover of Christ explaining to his Savior why he loves Him; it is to listen in without embarrassment on the softest whisperings of undying love between the bride and the heavenly Bridegroom.
thought
Great hymns form footprints of past saints who have walked through the valleys and on the mountain-tops of the Christian life. They assure us of God's grace and love. They aid us in verbalizing our praise, worship and prayer.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for access to the heart expressions in word and music of those who have walked with You in the past. Their songs teach me of You.
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. . . .
— Ephesians 5:19a
In order to express myself more freely on a matter that lies very near to my heart, I shall waive the rather stilted editorial we and speak in the first person. The matter I have in mind is the place of the hymnbook in the devotional life of the Christian. For purposes of inward devotion, there is only one book to be placed before the hymnal, and that of course is the Bible. I say without qualification, after the Sacred Scriptures, the next best companion for the soul is a good hymnal.
For the child of God, the Bible is the book of all books, to be reverenced, loved, pored over endlessly and feasted upon as living bread and manna for the soul. It is the first-best book, the only indispensable book. To ignore it or neglect it is to doom our minds to error and our hearts to starvation. After the Bible, the hymn book is next. And remember, I do not say a songbook or a book of gospel songs, but a real hymnal containing the cream of the great Christian hymns left to us by the ages.
thought
Have you used a hymnal lately ? in church or at home? A good hymnal contains the musical heart-expressions that have survived the years and express the experience of believers through the centuries.
prayer
You have reminded me, Lord, of the devotional treasure nestled in the hymnal. Therein are songs to live by.