the Third Week after Easter
Click here to join the effort!
Daily Devotionals
Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee: in whose heart are the ways of them.- Psalms 84:5.
When hearts are united in love there is a mutual complacency and delight in each other. Presence increaseth pleasure, absence begets uneasiness, jealousy of displeasing and fear of offending mutually subsist in each party. In some sense this holds good between the beloved soul and the loving Lord. All love is from him; and as rivers from the sea return back to the great ocean, so the love which comes from God naturally flows back in complacency and affection of soul to him. To know God is to love him; both for what he is in himself, and what he is to us in Christ Jesus. The poor sinner who knows that he is in himself "without strength," rejoiceth at his very soul to know that the omnipotent Jesus is his strength; that all his might and power to strive against sin, to resist Satan, to overcome the world, is from above; it is treasured up in Jesus, and out of his fulness he is strengthened by the power of the Spirit through faith.
But is the converted heart a mere vacuum, like an empty vessel? No, truly; Jesus dwells there by faith. It is a fit habitation for the Spirit, and the love of the Father is shed abroad in it. "The ways of them," even Father, Son, and Spirit dwell in the heart. Then the way of everlasting love and eternal election is delighted in; the way of free grace and complete salvation by Jesus is gloried in; the way of atonement by his precious blood, the way of justification and clothing of poor sinners by his perfect righteousness are wholly trusted to and rejoiced in. The gifts and graces of the
Holy Spirit, as flowing from Jesus’ finished work, in making the soul inwardly holy, and outwardly obedient to the Lord; in comforting and rejoicing the heart by the testimony of Jesus, are more and more sought after; and the hopes and views of glory in this sovereign, free, gracious WAY, are longed for and expected. Blessed, O man, art thou indeed! Blessed of thy God! Blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus! Blessed, not for days, months, and years; but loved from eternity, and blessed to eternity! Thy Lord hath blessed thee and he will not reverse it. Real godliness consists not merely in a system of notions in the head, but in the indwelling presence of Jehovah in the heart. Is this thy happiness, O sinner? What love hath the great God to vile man! He dwelt in flesh FOR us. He saith also, "I will dwell IN them, and walk IN them."- 2 Corinthians 6:16.
How well thy blessed truths agree!
How wise and holy thy commands!
Thy promises how firm they be!
How firm our hope and comfort stands!
Should all the forms that men devise,
Assault my faith with treach’rous art,
I’d call them vanity and lies,
And bind the gospel to my heart.
Worthy is the LAMB. Revelation 5:12.
This the song, this the glory of angels and redeemed sinners heaven. To know, believe in, love, and follow this Lamb, constitutes our heaven upon earth. Sin is our hell. But this Lamb of God taketh away our sin. Then heaven is in our souls. O that ever we should be ashamed of this Lamb, who is heaven’s wonder and heaven’s glory! Is not this thought of being ashamed of God’s Lamb, like a dagger to our heart? Lamb of God, have mercy upon us! Why is our dear Saviour called a Lamb? (1st.) Because of his immaculate purity. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners: without a spot of sin, or stain of impurity. (2d.) He was meek and inoffensive like a lamb. A lamb has no weapon of hostility. It never hurts any one. It cannot defend itself against assaults. It becomes an easy prey. All this Christ was in his life. Therefore, (3d.) like a lamb, he was taken and slain. He was the very paschal Lamb, to take away our sin, by his blood. (4th.) A slain lamb, is precious for food, and useful for clothing. So is Jesus. His flesh is meat indeed: his blood is drink indeed. His righteousness is the smiling of our souls. We live by feeding on his flesh and blood. We are justified in his righteousness. Our sins are washed away in his precious blood. Our souls are perfect before God, in his glorious righteousness. Can you say from your inmost soul, Worthy is the Lamb? Then you have the grace of heaven in your hearts. Proclaim it aloud, as they do in glory, with your lips; and shew it forth in your life. Study to walk worthy of the Lamb. Look at your sins. Humble yourself before the Lamb. Honour him by believing, that he has atoned for them, and took them all away from before God, by his blood. Look at yourself as a sinner, whose nature is black as hell, and deformed as a devil. Glorify the Lamb, for redeeming you to God by his blood- presenting you before God in his righteousness, and making you one with God, by his grace. Look constantly on yourself, as a saved sinner, by the Lamb. Have nothing to do with any other name under heaven, for salvation from sin, death, and hell. Of all the faith of your heart, the love of your soul, and glory of your life, Worthy is the Lamb-And, O let it be the daily joy and rejoicing of your spirit, that you, a vile sinner, shall soon join the redeemed around his throne, incessantly and eternally to shout his praise, who hath washed us from our sins in his own blood.
O for an heart to love and praise
The Lamb who dy’d for sin,
Who loves and keeps us all our days,
And sanctifies within.
More of thy comforts shed abroad,
O God the Holy Ghost!
That we may love our dying Lord,
And crucify each lust.
