Month: November 2012

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Standing As High Priest

A Classic Devotional from C.H. Spurgeon

“Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord.”  Zechariah 3:1

In Joshua the high priest we see a picture of each and every child of God, who has been made nigh by the blood of Christ, and has been taught to minister in holy things, and enter into that which is within the veil.  Jesus has made us priests and kings unto God, and een her upon earth we exercise the priesthood of consecrated living and hallowed service.  But this high priest is said to be “standing before the angel of the Lord,” that is, standing to minister.  This should be the perpetual position of true believer.  [Is this your position?]

Every place is now God’s temple, and his people can as truly serve him in their daily employments as in his house. They are to be always “ministering,” offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, and presenting themselves a “living sacrifice.”  [Are you ministering as a priest?]

But notice where it is that Joshua stands to minister, it is before the angel of Jehovah.  It is only through a mediator that we poor defiled ones can ever become priests unto God.  I present what I have before the messenger, the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus; and through him my prayers find acceptance wrapped up in his prayers; my praises become sweet as they are bound up with bundles of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia from Christ’s own garden.  If I can bring him nothing but my tears, he will put them with his own tears in his own bottle for he once wept; if I can bring him nothing but my groans and sighs, he will accept these as an acceptable sacrifice, for he once was broken in heart, and sighed heavily in spirit. I myself, standing in him, am accepted in the Beloved; and all my polluted works, though in themselves only objects of divine abhorrence, are so received, that God smelleth a sweet savour.  He is content and I am blessed [beyond measure].  See, then, the position of the Christian — “a priest standing before the angel of the Lord.”

Are you standing in your rightful position?

O Lord, help us to stand as your high priests and kings today.  Use us as an instrument of love unto good works to glorify your kingdom.  Amen

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Thanksgiving

 “Earth should be a temple filled with the songs of grateful saints, and every day should be a smoking censor with the sweet incense of thanksgiving.”  C.H. Spurgeon

As you prepare for feasting and fellowship with family and friends, let us not forget those whose sacred circles have been disrupted.  Those columns of home, health, safety, and family which anchor our hearts and minds, for some have been blown apart by nature, poor decisions, or the insensitivity of man.    Pray for those who are feeling lost, abandoned, rejected, alone.  Ask God to strengthen their hearts and minds, and out of His endless supply of love grant them hope, peace and blessed assurance He knows all, see all, and is still there.   Then offer up songs of praise, and thanksgiving to our Great God for His amazing love, His mercy and His grace.   God has done so much for us.  We owe it to ourselves to spend some time in His garden of grace expressing our appreciation for His mercy and great love.

May the God of all mercy and grace be with you and your family this holiday.

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So walk ye in him

A Devotional by C.H. Spurgeon

“So walk ye in him.” Colossians 2:6

If we have received Christ himself in our inmost hearts, our new life will manifest its intimate acquaintance with him by a walk of faith in him. Walking implies action. Our religion is not to be confined to our closet; we must carry out into practical effect that which we believe. If a man walks in Christ, then he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in him, his hope, his love, his joy, his life, he is the reflex of the image of Jesus; and men say of that man, “He is like his Master; he lives like Jesus Christ.” Walking signifies progress. “So walk ye in him;” proceed from grace to grace, run forward until you reach the uttermost degree of knowledge that a man can attain concerning our Beloved.

Walking implies continuance. There must be a perpetual abiding in Christ. How many Christians think that in the morning and evening they ought to come into the company of Jesus, and may then give their hearts to the world all the day: but this is poor living; we should always be with him, treading in his steps and doing his will. 

Walking implies habit. When we speak of a man’s walk and conversation, we mean his habits, the constant tenor of his life.  Now, if we sometimes enjoy Christ, and then forget him; sometimes call him ours, and anon lose our hold, that is not a habit; we do not walk in him.  We must keep to him, cling to him, never let him go, but live and have our being in him. “As ye have received Chrsit Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him;” persevere in the same way in which ye have begun, and, as at the first Christ Jesus was the trust of your faith, the source of your life, the principle of your action, and the joy of your spirit, so let him be the same till life’s end; the same when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and enter into the joy and the rest which remains for the people of God.  O Holy Spirit, enable us to obey this heavenly precept.   Amen.

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Is There A Church In Your House?

“The church in thy house.”  Philemon 2

C.H. Spurgeon

Is there a church in this [your] house? Are parents, children, friends, servants, all members of it? or are some still unconverted?

Let us pause here and let the question go round–Am I a member of the Church in this house?  How would father’s heart leap for joy, and mother’s eyes fill with holy tears if from the eldest to the youngest all were saved!  Let us pray for this great mercy until the Lord shall grant it to us. Probably it head been the dearest object of Philemon’s desires to have all his household saved; but it was not at first granted him in its fulness. He had a wicked servant, Onesimus, who, having wronged him, ran away from his service. HIs master’s prayers followed him, and at last, as God would have it, Onesimus was led to hear Paul preached; his heart was touched, and he returned to Philemon, not only to be a faithful servant, but a brother beloved, adding another member to the Church in Philemon’s house.  Is there an unconverted servant or child absent this morning? Make special supplication that such may, on their return to their home, gladden all hearts with good news of what grace has done! Is there one present? Let him partake in this same earnest entreaty.

If there be such a Church in our house, let us order it well, and let all act as in the sight of God.  Let us move in the common affairs of life with studied holiness, diligence, kindness, and integrity.  More is expected of a Church than of an ordinary household; family worship must, in such a case, be more devout and hearty; internal love must be more warm and unbroken, and external conduct must be more sanctified and Christlike. We need not fear that the smallness of our number will put us out of the list of Churches, for the Holy Spirit has enrolled a family-church in the inspired book of remembrance.  As a Church let us now draw night to the great head of the one Church universal, and let us beseech him to give us grace to shine before men to the glory of his name.

[Is there a church in your house?]

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