the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
November 14—Morning—Isaiah 35:7
"And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water."—Isaiah 35:7.
Oh how refreshing is this promise to my poor, dry, barren, thirsty soul! Surely every poor sinner, like me, that knows his own leanness and poverty, will feel the blessedness of it; for whether it be in the sapless state of unawakened nature, or whether in a scorched or languishing state from the want of the renewings of grace, nothing can be more refreshing than such a promise. Precious Jesus, do thou revive the languishing frame of thy people; do thou "pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." Oh what a fulness, blessed Lord, there is in thyself to supply all. Surely thou art, as the church said, "A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." Do thou then, Oh Lord, send forth this day, this blessed day, such copious streams from thyself, as may cleanse, revive, comfort, satisfy, and strengthen all thy churches. Lord, cause me to drink of the rivers of thy pleasure; for with thee is the fountain of life.
November 14—Evening—1 John 5:6
"This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood."—1 John 5:6.
My soul, ponder this weighty scripture well. There is much in it. When the soldier pierced the sacred side of Jesus, John recorded the act and its effects, as most significant and important. That it penetrated the heart, is most evident, because from no other part of the body could blood and water, in a full stream, flow together: and as both, in the purposes of redemption, strikingly set forth the great object of Christ’s mission; so John is here impressing the great truth on the minds of the church, as a matter most essentially necessary to be regarded. He repeats it, that it might not be overlooked or forgotten. It was not by water only, that Christ came, but by water and blood. Both represented the necessity of that redemption our nature universally required for the purpose of salvation, and therefore Christ came by both. The water administered by the various washings under the law, and the blood shed in the innumerable sacrifices; as Jesus came to sum up and fulfil all in one, it was needful that he should come with both. And hence, as by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, the Lord accomplisheth that which the typical representations of the law set forth; so by his blood he completes that also in the full price of redemption which the numberless sacrifices on the Jewish altar were uniformly intended to shadow. Behold, my soul, the vast and infinite importance of the thing itself, and look, this evening, with an eye of faith unto Jesus, who thus came, until by faith thou also not only enter into a full apprehension of the great design of his coming, but art perfectly assured that thou hast a personal interest therein, and that Jesus hath presented thee, among his redeemed, to himself, a glorious church, "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that thou shouldest be without blame before him in love."
