Psalm 62:1-2

Having been saved by faith in Christ, we express our love and gratitude through devotion to Him. Regular Bible study and prayer will be an integral part of our daily lives. In addition, our commitment to the Lord will be revealed through a passion to obey, a spirit of humility, and a servant’s heart.

1. Obedience. David sought to obey God all his life. As a shepherd boy, he faithfully tended the animals in his father’s fields. While king, he set aside his desire to build the temple and let Solomon lead the effort, as God had commanded. Although David lived imperfectly, his desire was to do what the Lord asked. We see from Jesus’ words in John 14:15 that obedience should be our high priority as well: He said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
2. Humility. After David killed Goliath, the crowds shouted praise about the young man. However, he did not become prideful. Instead, he remained in King Saul’s service and waited for God to make him the ruler of Israel. Even as king, he remained humble. He knew that what had been accomplished was because of the Lord’s actions and not his own (2 Sam. 7:18).
3. Service. Whether David was a lowly shepherd or a mighty king, his goal was to obey God and serve Him.

This man after God’s own heart was devoted to his Lord. He sought to know Him and longed to carry out His will. David’s actions reflected His humble attitude of servanthood and his longing to please his heavenly Father. Take steps each day to be sure your life expresses commitment to Jesus

 When a book titled Life Together landed on my desk as a college student, the subtitle promising “a discussion of Christian fellowship,” to say the least I was skeptical.  Wary of Christian culture and preferring to remain on the fringes, I saw fellowship primarily as a means of enclosing oneself in self-affirming circles. I was weary of feel-good religion; I was also bothered by the charade of unity carried on in pluralistic crowds. But the book was given to me, and the giver was insistent that its author, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was someone who would turn skepticism and self-affirmation on their heads. 

 Life Together was written in the thick of a mounting Nazi regime during Bonhoeffer’s unique experience with 25 vicars in an underground seminary. It took me only a few pages to realize that he was speaking with weighted words on a topic I had long judged as fluff. Almost immediately I was uncomfortably aware of the skepticism that kept me on the outskirts of community, clutching an impaired image of the Christianity I professed. “Christianity,” Bonhoeffer announced in the first few pages, “means community through Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ.”(1) The two are inseparable.

 In the community of believers, the Christian is said to be encouraged and admonished, uplifted and stretched (a few of the reasons I suspect many try to avoid it). As the priests called out to the crowds in the book of Nehemiah, the Christian is called to attention, called to remember in community the one who unites us: “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting,” said Nehemiah. In community, the Christian is repeatedly shown that Christ has called us to die to ourselves and live in him—together. An invitation to be three.   

 Bonhoeffer thus reminds the cynical not to overlook the opportunity of Christian fellowship. “It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the cross he was utterly alone.”(2) Being in the presence of other believers is indeed a hopeful gift. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus repeatedly cried out to his disciples that they stay awake and keep watch with him.  While in prison, the apostle Paul called for Timothy, his “true child in the faith,” to come and visit. 

 Christian fellowship is vital—though not as an end in itself, but in and of the God we profess. Thus we must not avoid being a part of a believing community, but neither should we believe that gathering is the extent of the call.  Christ’s call to the disciples was a call to community even as it was a call to a common vision to reach the world with the reality of God’s love. Before going to the cross, he asked the Father that “they might be one even as we are one… so that the world may know that you sent me” (John 17:11). Surrounded by a world of belief, the collective praise of the Son is a compelling testimony of God’s presence to a world the Father longs to reach. 

 Consequently, even as Bonhoeffer himself recognized the privilege of living with fellow Christians, he chose to live in the midst of enemies as well. Given the opportunity to move outside of Nazi Germany, he declined. 

 God’s people remain scattered throughout the nations, but held together in Jesus Christ. This is part and parcel of the invitation of Christ. Even as God places people around us that we can learn from and grow with, the reach of a believing community goes beyond physical presence. Hearing a song written by Fernando Ortega recently, “Take heart, my friend, the Lord is able,” I was stirred by words God knew I needed to hear, and moved to worship with the songwriter himself. “Where two or three are gathered in my name,” Jesus told them, “there I am among them.” United to Christ, we are invited to be members of a community beyond our imagination because of the one in our midst. And thus we can be encouraged by the believer beside us or a person we have not met, and heartened at the God who knows us both. A thousand voices tuned to the same instrument are automatically in tune with each other. And so we take heart; Christ is among us as we sing.

 Jill Carattini managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

 (1) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper and Row, 1954), 24.
(2) Ibid., 17.

Morning “With loving kindness have I drawn thee.” – Jeremiah 31:3

 The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to

Christ; but the final victory is effected by loving kindness. The prodigal set

out to his father’s house from a sense of need; but his father saw him a great

way off, and ran to meet him; so that the last steps he took towards his

father’s house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome

still musical in his ears.

 “Law and terrors do but harden

All the while they work alone;

But a sense of blood-bought pardon

Will dissolve a heart of stone.”

 The Master came one night to the door, and knocked with the iron hand of the

law; the door shook and trembled upon its hinges; but the man piled every piece

of furniture which he could find against the door, for he said, “I will not

admit the man.” The Master turned away, but by-and-bye he came back, and with

his own soft hand, using most that part where the nail had penetrated, he

knocked again–oh, so softly and tenderly. This time the door did not shake,

but, strange to say, it opened, and there upon his knees the once unwilling host

was found rejoicing to receive his guest. “Come in, come in; thou hast so

knocked that my bowels are moved for thee. I could not think of thy pierced hand

leaving its blood-mark on my door, and of thy going away houseless, Thy head

filled with dew, and thy locks with the drops of the night.’ I yield, I yield,

thy love has won my heart.” So in every case: lovingkindness wins the day. What

Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with his pierced

hand. Such is the doctrine of effectual calling. Do I understand it

experimentally? Can I say, “He drew me, and I followed on, glad to confess the

voice divine?” If so, may he continue to draw me, till at last I shall sit down

at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

 

Evening “Now we have received … the spirit which is of God; that we might know the

things that are freely given to us of God.” – 1 Corinthians 2:12

 Dear reader, have you received the spirit which is of God, wrought by the Holy

Ghost in your soul? The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart

may be clearly seen from this fact, that all which has been done by God the

Father, and by God the Son, must be ineffectual to us, unless the Spirit shall

reveal these things to our souls. What effect does the doctrine of election have

upon any man until the Spirit of God enters into him? Election is a dead letter

in my consciousness until the Spirit of God calls me out of darkness into

marvellous light. Then through my calling, I see my election, and knowing myself

to be called of God, I know myself to have been chosen in the eternal purpose. A

covenant was made with the Lord Jesus Christ, by his Father; but what avails

that covenant to us until the Holy Spirit brings us its blessings, and opens our

hearts to receive them? There hang the blessings on the nail–Christ Jesus; but

being short of stature, we cannot reach them; the Spirit of God takes them down

and hands them to us, and thus they become actually ours. Covenant blessings in

themselves are like the manna in the skies, far out of mortal reach, but the

Spirit of God opens the windows of heaven and scatters the living bread around

the camp of the spiritual Israel. Christ’s finished work is like wine stored in

the wine-vat; through unbelief we can neither draw nor drink. The Holy Spirit

dips our vessel into this precious wine, and then we drink; but without the

Spirit we are as truly dead in sin as though the Father never had elected, and

though the Son had never bought us with his blood. The Holy Spirit is absolutely

necessary to our well-being. Let us walk lovingly towards him and tremble at the

thought of grieving him.

…In their distress earnestly seek me.   Hosea 5:15 

Losses and adversities are frequently the means that the Great Shepherd uses to bring home His wandering sheep; like fierce dogs they worry the wanderers back to the fold. Well-fed lions defy our attempts to tame them; they must be brought down from their great strength, and their stomachs must be lowered, and then they will submit to the tamer’s hand. How often have we seen the Christian rendered obedient to the Lord’s will by the absence of bread and the presence of difficulty. When rich and increased in goods, many professors carry their heads much too loftily and speak exceeding boastfully. Like David, they flatter themselves: “My mountain stands firm; I shall never be moved.”1

When the Christian grows wealthy, is in good repute, or has good health and a happy family, he too often admits Mr. Carnal-Security2 to feast at his table, and then if he is a true child of God there is a rod preparing for him. Wait awhile, and perhaps you will see his substance melt away as a dream. There goes a portion of his estate—how soon the acres change hands. That debt, that dishonored bill—how fast his losses roll in; where will they end? It is a blessed sign of divine life if, when these embarrassments occur one after another, he begins to be distressed about his backslidings and turns afresh to God. Blessed are the waves that wash the mariner upon the rock of salvation!

Losses in business are often sanctified to our soul’s enriching. If the chosen soul will not come to the Lord full-handed, it shall come empty. If God, in His grace, finds no other means of making us honor Him among men, He will cast us into the deep; if we fail to honor Him on the pinnacle of riches, He will bring us into the valley of poverty. Yet do not faint, heir of sorrow, when you are rebuked in this fashion; rather, recognize the loving hand that chastens and say, “I will arise and go to my Father.”3

1See Psalm 30:6-7 2The Holy War (John Bunyan) 3Luke 15:18

Family Reading Plan Jeremiah 21 Mark 7