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Created in God's image we know the way in which we must walk, namely, in love toward Him. However, in Adam we went away, walking in Satan's way, not God's. But being born again by God's Spirit we can walk in His way, doing what is pleasing in His sight.
We need, however, to be taught the details. Therefore the psalmist in Psalm 86:11 prays, "Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name."
The truth wherein we must walk is that He is God. Every sin that we commit is saying by that deed that He is not God, and cannot tell us what to do, and that we do not exist for His glory. Our calling then is to know in our hearts, not merely in our minds, what pleases Him. Our hearts must be united in fear, that is, reverence and respect for His name. The devil knows with his mind that Jehovah is God; but he does not know that with his heart. Hence the prayer here: Unite my heart to fear Thy name.
Unless our hearts say that we must and we want to walk in His way, the way He has set before us by His act of creating us, we will not walk in the truth, but in the lie that He is not God.
Every day we must pray that we may know the truth in our hearts, so that we want to walk in it. Walking in the lie is walking in Satan's way. We must know what Christ knew and did. And when God teaches us what Christ did for us, we will want to walk in that which pleases God. We will want to walk in thankfulness before God. Christ is the way, because He is the truth and the life. Our prayer is therefore that we may walk as Christ walked. He died for our sins to earn the way for our righteous walk.
Make this your prayer every day. And be thankful that Christ is the way whereby we can do this. He prepared the way and is the way that makes it possible for us to walk in truth with a heart that loves God.
Read: Psalm
86
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
Acts
7:51-60
Acts
8:1-13
Psalm
129:1-8
Proverbs
17:1
****
Quote for
Reflection:
Of one thing our children must never be
in any doubt; of one thing they must be sure, absolutely sure--our love for
them. Assurance of the parents' love for them as covenant children of God
gives a sturdy security; a healthy self-love and sense of worth, in Christ; and
a right knowledge of the Father in heaven. --D. J. Engelsma, "As a Father
Pitieth his Children"
What you hear is going to affect you. We must be thankful for that gift of hearing. Hearing the phone ring we know that someone wants to talk to us. And hearing God speak is a most wonderful experience. For He declares to His people, "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" ( Luke 2:11 ). That is what we must bear in mind when in Psalm 89:15 we read, "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance."
That is a most joyful sound! A more precious gift could not be given us. Having been given to Christ, we find the door open for us to receive all the benefits of salvation. Indeed, blessed is the people that know that joyful sound. It speaks of God's love, mercy, and grace. It assures us that all is well, and that we may and will some day enter God's house of many mansions to live with Him in holiness and in indescribably great blessedness.
Yes, and another blessing in that joyful sound of the gospel is that we are made capable of walking in the light, and that the darkness of punishment is forever far behind us. God's countenance does not simply mean that we will be with Him and see Him and enjoy sweet communion with Him. It means that we will love Him and live holy lives, never committing one sin. What a joyful sound to hear such perfection given to us.
Do you consider that to be a blessing? Do you agree with the psalmist that, in hearing that, we will be hearing a joyful sound? Is salvation a wonderful thing for which you eagerly look forward? Is that a most precious gift in your judgment? Then you are a blessed person. You are a child of God. You are headed for a blessedness that is richer than our human language can express.
This truth makes possible the next thing that the psalmist says: "In thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted."
Read: Psalm
89:1-18
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 9
1
Kings 10:1-29
Acts
8:14-40
Psalm
130:1-8
Proverbs
17:2-3
****
Quote for
Reflection:
"In the infinite
wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact precision into
its proper place in the unfolding of His divine plan. Nothing, however small,
however strange, occurs without His ordering, or without its particular fitness
for its place in the working out of His purpose; and the end of all shall be the
manifestation of His GLORY, and the
In Psalm 89 the author, as used by God, speaks of David; and what he writes about him, as a child of God, is very beautiful. He begins the Psalm by declaring that he will sing of God's mercies and faithfulness. Yesterday we noted that he wrote that they who hear the joyful sound are blessed. In verse 28 he writes of that blessedness: "My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him." Plainly he is speaking here of David, whom he had mentioned in verse 20.
Take hold of this wonderful truth. It is true not only for David, but for every elect child of God. God's mercy will be kept for everyone for whom Christ died. He does not say that God will keep His mercy from us, but keep it for us. "From" is quite different from "for." He will never, no never, keep His mercy from us, but ever and forever deal with us in that mercy.
It may at times look as though God withdrew His mercy, or forgot what He promised. Diseases and bereavements, afflictions and miseries, may cause us to question His mercy. But, as Paul wrote in II Corinthians 4:17 , "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." This is true because His mercy faileth never.
When presently the Antichrist is here, and we cannot buy or sell, and thus will have no food, and so will begin to starve to death because we will not take the mark of the beast on our right hand or forehead, remember that God's mercy will be kept upon us forever. His covenant stands, and no one can make Him change the smallest part of its promise.
His Son suffered terrible agony on His cross; but it brought us heavenly blessedness. Even as we do not question God's mercy when we see His Son on the cross for our salvation, we should not question it when He sends us the afflictions that work for us that far more exceeding glory.
Read: Psalm
136
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 11
1
Kings 12:1-19
Acts
9:1-25
Psalm
131:1-3
Proverbs
17:4-5
****
Quote for
Reflection:
If edification of the church proceeds from
Christ alone, he has surely a right to prescribe in what manner it shall be
edified. But Paul expressly states, that, according to the command of Christ, no
real union or perfection is attained, but by the outward preaching. We must
allow ourselves to be ruled and taught by men. This is the universal rule, which
extends equally to the highest and to the lowest. The church is the common
mother of all the godly, which bears, nourishes, and brings up children to God,
kings and peasants alike; and this is done by the ministry. Those who neglect or
despise this order choose to be wiser than Christ. Woe to the pride of such men!
It is, no doubt, a thing in itself possible that divine influence alone should
make us perfect without human assistance. But the present inquiry is not what
the power of God can accomplish, but what is the will of God and the appointment
of Christ. In employing human instruments for accomplishing their salvation, God
has conferred on men no ordinary favor. Nor can any exercise be found better
adapted to promote unity than to gather around the common doctrine — the
standard of our General.
— John Calvin, on Ephesians 4:12
Of one thing we can be sure. Because Jehovah is the I AM Who changes not, all His promises to us will be fulfilled.
He, Who never lies, Himself tells us in Psalm 89:34 , "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing gone out of my lips." Remember that His covenant is the relationship of friendship which He established with us in Christ. In Psalm 25:4 we read, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant."
We have here what is called a Hebrew parallelism, that is, the same truth presented in two ways, in order to bring out fully its blessedness. The secret of the Lord with us is His covenant being fully realized. And the word secret, in the Hebrew language, means literally a divan or couch, and thus a loveseat where we will sit with God, and have sweet communion with Him. That is the blessedness of the covenant He establishes in Christ with us.
That covenant God will never break. He began giving that fellowship to fallen Adam and Eve, and told Satan that He would do this. Although Satan got Christ to be crucified, this did not ruin that covenant, but gave us the right to enjoy all its blessedness. Christ's heel was crushed, but Satan's head is going to be crushed with all his followers.
Rest assured, then, that what God promised us will be ours. It may take longer to bring us there than we can understand. But remember that Christ cannot come back till the last elect is born and reborn. God will not break the smallest part of His covenant promises. Every word that came out of His lips He will cause to happen. Every elect shall be saved fully.
Put all your trust then in Him, no matter what happens here on this earth. Not only will He keep His word, but He is every minute keeping His promises. Heavenly glory is ahead.
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 12:20-33
1
Kings 13:1-34
Acts
9:26-43
Psalm
132:1-18
Proverbs
17:6
****
Quote for
Reflection:
It is a sad loss all round: a loss to
the austere parent, who loses the cream of domestic joy in thus shutting out
from his bosom the young prattler, who should make the sweetness of love spring,
like honey, out of the rock itself; and a deeper, sadder loss to the child, who
is every day cheated of its birth-right. It is the climax of parental
tact, when the faculty is possessed of letting one's self down into the very
heart of childhood, in fresh and genial sympathy with all it finds there.
Such a parent governs easily and well, and governs almost without curb or
rein.
--B.M. Palmer, "The Family"
Although we may have graduated from high school, college, or university, we, from a spiritual point of view, are still in need of much education. That is why Moses presents to us in Psalm 90:12 this prayer: "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom."
He does not write this to little children. He is not exhorting a few people here and there. Notice that he uses the pronouns "we" and "our." Plainly then he includes himself. We all need to number our days and set our hearts on wisdom.
The reason why we must count our days is that, after they are ended, we go to God's house and dwell with Him in covenant fellowship; or we go to hell to be with Satan and his host in everlasting punishment. Therefore we must count our days so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
Now wisdom is more than knowledge. We may know that we will soon go the way of all flesh, and yet walk unwisely. To act wisely is to choose the best means to reach the highest possible goal. And the best means is trust in Christ, believing that He earned a place for us in heavenly glory. By all means we must consider such dwelling with God to be the most wonderful blessedness for man.
In wisdom then we must be seeking that kingdom. In wisdom we must strive to live as its citizens in all we say and do. It will be wise for us to read and study God's Word. Wisdom will move our hearts to go to God's house every Lord's day to hear His word proclaimed about this kingdom and the way which He prepared for us to enter.
Wisdom will cause us to reject sin, and fight to keep it out of our lives. Wisdom will cause us to put all our trust in what Christ did, and will cause our hearts to beat with thankfulness to God for having prepared the way for us to enter. Wisdom will put our trust in God.
Read: Psalm
90
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 14
1
Kings 15:1-24
Acts
10:1-23
Psalm
133:1-3
Proverbs
17:7-8
****
Quote for
Reflection:
By a faithful oabservance of
Family-Worship, you will be employing a daily means towards the eternal
salvation of your household. No prayers, indeed, considered as so much
work wrought, will effectually save those souls; but we know no means which tend
more directly to this end, than domestic worship, and the duties to which it
leads. Are you willing to hazard so great a neglect?
....Family-prayer is a duty of every householder, binding on him every day of
his life.... Fly at once, with your household, to the throne of
grace! Cease to consider it as a matter of indifference, or an affair of
variable custom. The neglect is most serious. It is your loss,and
the loss of your offspring.
--James W. Alexander, "Thoughts on Family
Worship"
It may seem strange that James states in the first chapter of his epistle, and in verses 2 and 3, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience." We so often take the word temptation to mean allurement, coaxing into sin, enticement to commit sin.
However, the word "tempt" here basically means to "try" in the sense of test and purify. When James tells us to count it all joy to fall into temptation, the idea is "to be where we will be purified and become spiritually stronger" - even as gold or silver is tried by fire, and in that way purified. Temptations which Satan presents, God uses to make us spiritually stronger. In temptations sent by our God, our spiritual muscles are strengthened, evil is pushed farther away from us.
James is writing here about a process of purification and strengthening of our faith. And it ought to fill us with joy to know that our God purifies us as silver is purified by fire. Satan tempts us, because he wants to destroy our faith, and to kill us spiritually. But our God works patience in us. His purpose is to make us spiritually stronger.
Surely we are today confronted with many more, and far more crafty temptations than were the saints in the day when James wrote these words. We can be sure that the temptations are going to be even stronger in the days that lie ahead, when the Antichrist is here on this earth.
Do not, however, complain or find fault with God for this. The Antichrist is coming. And when he does come, we should take a firm hold of these words of God through James. Our God will strengthen His people in the faith through the trials the Antichrist brings upon them.
Count it all joy, then, that our God will use Satan and all his host to strengthen, not take away, our faith. Our God has a good purpose in all that which He sends upon His church.
Read: James
1
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 15:25-34
1
Kings 17:1-24
Acts
10:24-48
Psalm
134:1-3
Proverbs
17:9-11
****
Quote for
Reflection:
“All were filled! The entire gathering; the whole Church!
And all were filled. For the Holy
Spirit always lays hold of the entire man, filling him according to his
capacity, his mind and will and his desires, dwelling in his inmost
heart…
(--Herman
Hoeksema, on Acts 2:1-4)
Do you have patience? Patience is forbearance, having a longsuffering attitude. James speaks of this patience in his epistle, chapter 1:3, 4. There he writes, "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
Here, instead of the word "temptation," he uses the word "trying," or, if you will, the "proving" of our faith. That is what temptations do. They prove that we have faith, or are not living by faith. Our God reveals to us our faith through temptations. He purifies us, even as pointed out yesterday, as silver is purified by fire.
That is how we should evaluate and understand the temptations that according to God's counsel come upon us. No, God does not tempt us in the sense that Satan and his host do. Satan tries to get us to sin. Our God uses temptations to strengthen us in our faith and enable us to flee from sin. All our temptations were eternally decreed by God. Nothing happens that is not in His eternal counsel. But, as James writes, the trying of our faith worketh patience. Temptations by God's grace strengthen us in our faith, as He gives us the ability to refuse to do what we are tempted by Satan to do.
In verse 13 James tells us that God does not tempt us; but the point here is that God uses temptations by the devil and ungodly to make us stronger in our faith by fighting against these temptations.
Consider once that if Satan had not tempted Adam, we would be in a very beautiful creation. But we would not be in that more blessed kingdom which Christ by His cross earned for us. We need temptations so that we may become more perfect and stronger in our faith.
Read: Psalm
66
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 18:1-46
Acts
11:1-30
Psalm
135:1-21
Proverbs
17:12-13
****
Quote for
Reflection:
"This work of
conversion is most beautifully and accurately described in the Canons of
Dordrecht, III, IV, 10-12, part of which we already quoted before. In Article 10
we read: "But that others who are called by the gospel, obey the call, and are
converted, is not to be ascribed to the proper exercise of free will, whereby
one distinguishes himself above others, equally furnished with grace sufficient
for faith and conversations, as the proud heresy of Pelagius maintains; but it
must be wholly ascribed to God, who as he has chosen his own from eternity in
Christ, so he confers upon them faith and repentance, rescues them from the
power of darkness, and translates them in to the kingdom of his own Son, that
they may show forth the praises of him, who hath called them out of darkness
into his marvelous light; and may glory not in themselves, but in the Lord,
according to the testimony of the apostles in various places." We may note here
that the article ascribes the whole of conversation to God. There is nothing of
man in it. To say that conversion is the work of man, or partly the work of man,
is Pelagianism. We may note that while the article emphatically speaks of
conversion as the work of God, nevertheless also speaks of the fruit of that
work in us, the fruit being the same as the purpose for which God works
conversion in His people, namely, that they may show forth the praises of Him
who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light, and may glory not
in themselves, but in the Lord. Further, it is also evident from this article
that this work of conversion by God is rooted in, or based upon, eternal
election. God chose them whom He converts. And none but the elect are ever
converted. It is a work of God's sovereign grace, bestowed only upon those whom
He has chosen in Christ. It consists in this, that God bestows upon His elect
both faith and repentance, and that He translates them from the power of
darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.
There is a very good question presented to us, because of what the apostle James wrote in his epistle. In chapter 1:5 he wrote, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."
The question is, then, whether we lack wisdom, and whether we believe what James wrote in this verse and in the preceding verses. If temptations do not seem necessary to us, if we think that it is better for us not to be tempted, we plainly do lack wisdom. In the measure that we question the need of temptations, we reveal a lack of wisdom.
Did not God send Christ into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? Christ went there lacking no wisdom. He went there, and was sent there, to teach us what we must do in temptations. We must take hold of what is written in God's Word. Christ quoted that to Satan; and so must we to our own souls.
By all means, when tempted, ask God for help so that you may remain faithful. Ask Him for strength so that you will be able to walk where He wants you to walk. Ask for help to walk in Christ's footsteps. Pray for help so that you may do what pleases Him, not what appeals to your flesh.
We need temptations so that we can exercise our spiritual muscles, those of our souls. And we need to pray for more and more wisdom, so that we understand why God does not keep these temptations from us.
Our God will give that wisdom to us. Of that we can be sure. And that wisdom is precious, while the things we can get by falling in the temptation are evil, and call for our everlasting punishment.
If you lack wisdom, and think the sinful acts which you are tempted to do are for your good, you have great need of asking God to give you wisdom. That wisdom will show you the folly and enable you to walk in love to God.
Read: Luke
11:1-10
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 19:1-21
Acts
12:1-23
Psalm
136:1-26
Proverbs
17:14-15
****
Quote for
Reflection:
William Hendrikson on Colossians 1:20:
"Harmony, accordingly, has been restored. Peace was made. Through Christ and
his cross the universe is brought back or restored to its proper relationship to
God in the sense that as a just reward for his obedience Christ was exalted to
the Father’s right hand, from which position of authority and power He rules the
entire universe in the interest of the church and to the glory of God."
One of the most important good works that the child of God must perform, while in this ungodly world, is to believe in God. If we do not have faith in Him, there is not one good work that we can perform. Did Paul not write in Ephesians 2:8 , "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God"?
This explains why James wrote in chapter 1:6, "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."
James wrote this after exhorting us to ask God for wisdom, so that we would not fall into sin when we are tempted. Falling into sin is falling away from God and becoming worthy of hell fire!
To enjoy God's love, and to be brought through death to live with Him, you need wisdom to enable you to walk in the way God commands, not in the way Satan tempts you to go. If we doubt God's goodness, we are not walking by faith, and we reveal a lack of wisdom.
If a man doubts that his surgeon can successfully remove the cancer that is threatening his life in months to come, he will not submit to a surgery that may cause death the day it is performed. Likewise, if we doubt that any work of God is good for us, we are not going to pray for it. We must believe that God has all things completely in His hand, and that what He sends us is good. Ask Him then, believing that He has the power to save you from sin, and will fulfill His promise to keep you from Satan's sinful intentions for you.
God is not so busy that He cannot give us wisdom, and that He will forget what He promised us. Believe that He will keep His word, and that He has a love that never wavers. Let not the sea of sin toss you away from faith.
Read: Romans
8:22-39
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 20
1
Kings 21:1-29
Acts
12
Acts
13:1-15
Psalm
137:1-9
Proverbs
17:16
****
Quote for
Reflection:
Herman Bavinck: "Scripture knows no
independent creatures ... God cares for all his creatures: for animals (Gen
1:30; 6:19; 7:2; 9:10; Job 38:41; Pss. 36:7; 104:27; 147:9; Joel 1:20; Matt.
6:26, etc.), and particularly for humans. He sees them all (Job 34:21; Ps.
33:13, 14; Prov. 15:3); fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their
deeds (Ps. 33:15; Prov. 5:21); they are all the works of his hands (Job 34:19),
the rich as well as the poor (Prov. 22:2). He determines the boundaries of their
habitation (Deut. 32:8; Acts 17:26), inclines the hearts of all (Prov. 21:1),
directs the steps of all (Prov. 3:21; 16:9; 19:21; Jer. 10:23, etc.), and deals
according to his will with the host of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth
(Dan. 4:35). They are in his hands as clay in the hands of a potter, and as a
saw in the hand of one who pulls it (Isa. 29:16; 45:9; Jer. 18:5; Rom. 9:21,
21)" (In the Beginning, p.
230).
You cannot heat a pot of water and freeze it at the same time. You cannot walk eastward and westward at the same time. You cannot climb up a flight of steps and walk down it at the same time. Yet there are times when we claim to be walking by faith, and are performing works of unbelief. We say that we are looking up to God in heaven, while we are looking down upon that after which our sinful nature lusts.
That is why James in chapter 1:8 wrote, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." That double-minded man will be getting himself into trouble. Being unstable he will fall into trouble and not be climbing up to a better life. He will be going down the steps to ruin.
Those who go to church on Sunday, and then on Monday through Saturday go with the world in its evil ways, are going to quit that Sabbath worship. That is the sad truth about us so often. We have the new man in Christ, who wants to walk in love to God; but we also have yet within us that old man of sin wherewith we were born, and which we got from fallen Adam. The many temptations that confront us are sent by Satan in his attempt to turn us away from Christ and make us antichrists. For that Greek pronoun "anti" means "against." We are against Christ and thus are antichristian.
Therefore James exhorts us, when we find temptations confronting us, and our new man in Christ has one thing in mind and the old man of sin has the opposite in mind, to ask God to strengthen our faith, so that we stand firm in those temptations, not going with Satan, but walking in love toward God.
We need faith, but we also need the strengthening of that faith. We need to believe that, and not claim to be such strong believers. If we pray for faith and stand fast in it, those temptations will not hurt us but serve the strengthening of that faith, and enable us to walk in love to God, when even stronger temptations come against us.
Read: James
4:1-10
Through the
Bible in One Year
Read today:
1
Kings 22:1-53
Acts
13:16-41
Psalm
138:1-8
Proverbs
17:17-18
****
Quote for
Reflection:
“Once more the sword of the world-power
shall be turned against the saints of Christ. They shall be killed. And besides, they shall be allowed no
room in that empire of Antichrist.
Social and economic outcasts they shall be. In the literal sense of the word they
shall be cast out. For they shall not be allowed to buy or sell unless they
worship the beast and his image.
All this will literally be realized in the period of the Antichristian
dominion. No one can escape this
persecution. And hence, there will
be great tribulation, such as the world has never seen before.
Herman
Hoeksema
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