Tuesday, July 7, 2026
1 Corinthians 13
13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Friday, July 3, 2026
"He has put a new song in my mouth!" Psalm 40:3
Miller's Year Book—a Year's Daily Readings
J. R. Miller, 1895
"He has put a new song in my mouth!" Psalm 40:3
The ancient statue of Memnon was fabled to become musical, when the sun rose and the beams of morning light fell upon it. Just so, when the light of the gospel falls upon a darkened heart, it begins to sing. No wonder salvation gives joy! Only think of what we are saved from—the horrible pit of sin; and of what we are saved to—childship in God's family. Can we but rejoice, if we realize our full deliverance?
Every Christian should be a singer. If we cannot acquire the vocal art, we should at least sing and make melody in our heart unto the Lord. God wants to put a song into the mouth of every child of his. Our song should be one that nothing can check. Paul sang in prison with his feet fast in the stocks, and his back gashed with stripes. No trouble or pain should have power to hush the song in a Christian's heart.
Then, our lives themselves should be songs. We cannot all be poets, to write glad hymns of praise for others to sing; or singers, to thrill hearts by the sweetness of our voice; but we can live hymns and songs, and that is just as pleasing to God!
Thursday, July 2, 2026
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, that fluttereth over her young. Deu 32:11
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, that fluttereth over her young. Deu 32:11
Three references are made to the eagle in this passage.
She stirs up her nest. - When her fledglings are old enough to fly, but linger around the few bits of stick, dignified as a nest, the mother-bird breaks it up, and scatters them. How much better this, than that they should miss the luxury of flight on outspread pinions in the blue vault, and of basking in the eye of the sun. So when the Father sees His children clinging to earth's bare rocks, captured and held by the poor sticks they have gathered, and missing the ascension-glory, He breaks up the nest. The fortune is dispersed, the home broken up, the aspect of the life changed. We are then able to enjoy the bliss of life in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus.
She flutters aver her young. - They stand scared and wretched on the edge of the rock, but she careers gently above them, now edging around, now mounting, then dropping far below to rise again. So would she allure them to follow her example. Here again we have an emblem of God's efforts to make us imitators of Himself, to teach us the possibilities that await us in Jesus.
She spreads forth her wings and takes them. - Incited by the mother's endeavors, the eaglet may venture on the untried air, and lo! the unaccustomed wings fail beneath its weight. It falls, but not far, for the mother swoops beneath, and bears it up and away.
Trembling soul, God is beneath thee. If thy faith fails, and thou art falling, like another Peter, into a bottomless abyss, He will catch thee, and bear thee up, and teach thee the mystery of the more abundant life.
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
At the Crossroads
At the Crossroads
by T. Austin-Sparks
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Sep-Oct 1964, Vol. 42-5.
"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16).
At some point - not quite easy to fix - a false current had entered the stream of the life of the Lord's people. Small at first, it had gathered momentum, until it had taken control and was carrying everything before it.
The effect was the almost total loss of a central and controlling, integrating authority; a loss of one uniting vision and objective. Out of this there arose confusion; no one knowing what was right or wrong. This confusion and uncertainty became wearing and wearisome, and futility took the heart out of them. The inevitable result of all this was division.
Some wearily accepted the situation and sought to neutralize it by compromise. Some, numbed and bewildered, stood with hand on hips (metaphorically) hoping that something would come round the corner and things would improve. Others were fearful and anxious as to where it would all lead to.
To this situation God spoke in the words quoted above. It was a pointer as to the way, and a challenge to courage, faithfulness, and humility.
"Stand in the ways and see", said the Lord.
The ways were the crossroads; the place of alternatives. Go back to where you made the wrong choice, took the wrong turning, and got off the way of blessing. In the light of the unhappy present, reconsider your decisions. Ask yourselves whether 'the old paths', with all their difficulties and conflicts, were not better than this present.
"Stand". Pause, reflect, consider, relax, break the spell.
The case with Israel seems definitely to come down on the side of "the old paths". There was then an authoritative voice; a throne overhead, a vision and purpose uniting, co-ordinating; a distinctive objective, and an impact upon peoples near and far. Those days of David and Solomon were such 'old paths'. They were days when Heaven was in evidence.
Then came that false current in the nature of tiring of the heavenly, they stooped to the earthly, the tangible, the present, the popular and less ostracized. So the realm and level began to change, until the situation in Jeremiah's time was the general. But people were weary of soul.
If it is thought that the diagnosis which we have given is strained or a mistake, look at the inclusive answer in chapter 17, verse twelve:
"A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".
The rule of the heavenly is the sanctuary; the refuge and rest. It was the way of the opened Heaven, which is the way of God's satisfaction. Says the Lord: "And ye shall find rest for your souls". We seem to have heard words like those before.
The reconsideration at the crossroads must lead to action. Having stood, asked, and seen - "walk therein". Repent, return, decide, do! "Walk therein".
The open mind and heart. The submissive and humble will. The honest and courageous resolve and committal.
"Stand". "Ask". "Walk". "Find rest".
In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.
"The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." 2 Samuel 23:2
"The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." 2 Samuel 23:2
We read that "no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation;" that is to say, it is the public property of the whole family of Jehovah; and "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;" the Holy Ghost so influencing and working upon their minds as to make them bring forth out of their hearts that which should be suitable to the whole family of God.
For instance, we read in Psalm 51, David's confession of sin; but David's confession of sin applies to every soul that is condemned on account of sin. When Job, too, poured out his piteous complaints, he was speaking; though he might know it not, for the children of God to the remotest time. So when the Lord said to Joshua, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," it was a promise specially given to Joshua; it seemed to be confined to that individual; it appeared to be of private interpretation, as though Joshua, and Joshua alone, was entitled to that promise. But we find the apostle Paul bringing forward this promise as the general property of the whole Church of God: "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5). "He hath said?" to whom? To Joshua; but in saying it to Joshua, he said it to the Church of God; in giving Joshua the promise, he gave that promise to every soul that needed with Joshua his help, that feared with Joshua to be forsaken, that wanted with Joshua his sustaining hand; and therefore this private promise to Joshua was not of private interpretation, but, when applied by the blessed Spirit, suits every living soul that is placed in similar circumstances with the individual to whom that promise was addressed.
The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy God. Deu 30:6
The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy God. Deu 30:6
Circumcision is the sign of separation. It was enjoined on Abraham and his children that they might be God's peculiar people, chosen from all the nations of the earth. Similarly, the circumcision of Christ, which is made without hands, of which the Apostle speaks, is a putting off, a separation from the sins of the flesh, a participation in the grave and burial of Christ (Col 2:12).
We must be separated from the spirit and temper of the world. Between us and its sins, ambitions, methods, there must be not only an outward, but a heart severance. We were separated in the purpose of God when Jesus was cast without the camp to die. But we must be separate in our personal behavior. Wouldst thou have this? Then claim that this promise should be fulfilled, and ask that God would circumcise thine heart - the seat of thine affections, the hearth of thy soul-life.
Then thou wilt love the Lord with all thine, heart. This is why we love God so little. The force of our love is spread over too wide a sur-face-it is like the river Orinoco, which is lost in swamps as it approaches the sea. If only we were really separated from all that is alien to God, and. given up to Him wholly, we should find all the capacity of our hearts becoming filled with His love. We should love all things and people with a tenderness and glow which were steeped in colors obtained from His.
You will never succeed in overthrowing the strongholds of Satan, Christian worker, till God has taken away your self-reliance, and has brought you down into the dust of death: then, when the sentence of death is in yourself you will begin to experience the energy of the Divine life, the glory of the Divine victory.
Monday, June 29, 2026
"He dwelleth with you and shall be in you" (John xiv. 17).
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"He dwelleth with you and shall be in you" (John xiv. 17).
Do not fail to mark these two stages in Christian life. The one is the Spirit's work in us, the other is the Spirit's personal coming to abide within us.
All true Christians know the first, but few, it is to be feared, understand and receive the second. There is a great difference between my building a house and my going to reside in that house and make it my home.
And there is a great difference between the Holy Spirit's work in regenerating a soul--the building of a house, and His coming to reside, abide and control in our innermost spirit and our whole life and being.
Have we received Him Himself not as our Guest, but as the Owner, Proprietor and Keeper of the temple He has built to be "an habitation of God through the Spirit"?
This is my wonderful story,
Christ to my heart has come,
Jesus the King of glory,
Finds in my heart a home.
I am so glad I received Him,
Jesus, my heart's dear King,
I, who so often have grieved
The Living God
The Living God
"O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee" (Dan. 6:20).
How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, and yet it is just this very thing that we are so prone to lose sight of. We know it is written "the living God"; but in our daily life there is scarcely anything we practically so much lose sight of as the fact that God is the living God; that He is now whatever He was three or four thousand years since; that He has the same sovereign power, the same saving love towards those who love and serve Him as ever He had and that He will do for them now what He did for others two, three, four thousand years ago, simply because He is the living God, the unchanging One. Oh, how therefore we should confide in Him, and in our darkest moments never lose sight of the fact that He is still and ever will be the living God!
Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him and expect help from Him, He will never fail you. An older brother who has known the Lord for forty-four years, who writes this, says to you for your encouragement that He has never failed him. In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but because I was enabled by His grace to trust Him He has always appeared for my help. I delight in speaking well of His name. --George Mueller
Luther was once found at a moment of peril and fear, when he had need to grasp unseen strength, sitting in an abstracted mood tracing on the table with his finger the words, "Vivit! vivit!" ("He lives! He lives!"). It is our hope for ourselves, and for His truth, and for mankind. Men come and go; leaders, teachers, thinkers speak and work for a season, and then fall silent and impotent. He abides. They die, but He lives. They are lights kindled, and, therefore, sooner or later quenched; but He is the true light from which they draw all their brightness, and He shines for evermore. --Alexander Maclaren
"One day I came to know Dr. John Douglas Adam," writes C. G. Trumbull. "I learned from him that what he counted his greatest spiritual asset was his unvarying consciousness of the actual presence of Jesus. Nothing bore him up so, he said, as the realization that Jesus was always with him in actual presence; and that this was so independent of his own feelings, independent of his deserts, and independent of his own notions as to how Jesus would manifest His presence.
"Moreover, he said that Christ was the home of his thoughts. Whenever his mind was free from other matters it would turn to Christ; and he would talk aloud to Christ when he was alone--on the street, anywhere--as easily and naturally as to a human friend. So real to him was Jesus' actual presence.
Saturday, June 27, 2026
Because thou servedest not the Lord with joyfulness and with gladness. Deu 28:47-48
Because thou servedest not the Lord with joyfulness and with gladness. Deu 28:47-48
We must serve. It is our nature. Our Lord never suggested a third course as an alternative to the service of God or mammon, as though it were possible to escape all service whatsoever. We either yield ourselves servants of righteousness unto holiness, or of iniquity unto iniquity; and to whom we yield ourselves servants to obey, his we are.
It is a solemn thought: if we are not serving God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, we are serving things which are our worst enemies. A man has no worse foe than himself when he lives to serve his own whims and desires. These habits, and appetites, and fashions, are luxurious and pleasant just now; but their silken cords will become iron bands.
On the other hand, if we would be secure from the service which hurts us, let us give ourselves to the Lord to serve Him with joyfulness and gladness. Do you ask the source of these? Remember, He will put gladness into thy heart; joy is the fruit of His Spirit. When thou art in a healthy state, joyfulness and gladness rise spontaneously in the soul, as music from song-birds. When the sacrifice begins, then will the song of the Lord begin.
The heart finds the well-spring of perennial blessedness when it has yielded itself absolutely and unconditionally to the Lord Jesus Christ. If He is Alpha and Omega; if our faith, however feebly, looks up to Him; if we press on to know Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship Of His sufferings; if we count all things but loss for the excellency of His knowledge - we may possess ourselves in peace amid the mysteries of life, and we shall have learned the blessed secret of serving the Lord "with joyfulness and with gladness of heart".
Friday, June 26, 2026
Added, Not Mixed
By Theodore Epp
Galatians 3:15-25
The passage before us says that the Law "was added" (Gal. 3:19). It was added to something already existing. John the Baptist introduced our Lord to the public and said of Him, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
The Law had a definite beginning. It began not with Adam but with Moses. There was not a God-given Law in all those 2500 years or more between Adam and Moses, but there was sin, and because there was sin there was death.
Adam had some very definite instructions from God as to what he was to do or not to do, and he disobeyed. For this he died.
But those who lived between Adam's day and the day of Moses died also, not because they had sinned exactly as Adam sinned but because they were sinners.
The Gospel is good news to all, past, present and future. But the Law was never good news. It was bad news. It was added to the good news, but it did not take the place of grace.
Neither was it mixed with grace. And it did not supplant grace. Grace was the good news, but the Law was not. The word translated "added" means "to place alongside of." The Law's being placed alongside of grace does not mean grace was removed.
This is wonderful to see, and yet it is all-important. Grace was there so that man could flee to it when the Law had done its work. When man saw himself condemned and cursed by the Law, he could turn to God's grace and find salvation.
"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Rom. 3:28).
Setting Our Sails in the Will of God
Setting Our Sails in the Will of God
By A.W. Tozer
In the kingdom of God what we will is accepted as what we are. If any man will, said our Lord, let him. God does not desire to destroy our wills, but to sanctify them. In that terrible, wonderful moment of surrender it may be that we feel that our will has been forever broken, but such is not the case.
In His conquest of the soul God does not destroy any of its normal powers. He purges the will and brings it into union with His own, but He never breaks it. In the diaries of some of God's greatest saints will be found vows and solemn pledges made in moments of great grace when the presence of God was so real and so wonderful that the reverent worshiper felt he dared to say anything, to make any promise, with the full assurance that God would enable him to carry out his holy intention.
The self-confident and irresponsible boast of a Peter is one thing and is not to be confused with the hushed and trustful vow of a David or a Daniel. Neither should Peter's embarrassing debacle dissuade us from making vows of our own. The heart gives character to our pledges, and God knows the difference between an impulsive promise and a reverent declaration of intention.
Let us, then, set our sails in the will of God. If we do this we will certainly find ourselves moving in the right direction, no matter which way the wind blows.
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Thou shall not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Deu 25:4
Thou shall not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Deu 25:4
"God taketh care of oxen," is Paul's comment on this text; and so God did. These pages are filled with tokens of His thought - for the ass that might not be overtaxed by being set to plough with an ox; for the ass or ox which were to be helped up if they had sunk on the road overpowered with their burdens; or for the bird sitting on her nest. Here the ox, as it went around the monotonous tread of the mill, was to be allowed to take a chance mouthful of corn.
The care for dumb creatures is part of our religious duty. It is one of the elements of religion to think for the dumb creatures, who are not able to speak for themselves, but suffer so patiently the accumulated wrongs heaped on them by man. "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." Oh, when will the travail of creation cease! Man's sin has indeed worked woe for the lower orders of creation.
The Apostle used this injunction to remind his converts of the necessity of caring for their spiritual teachers. Some are called to plough, others to thresh; but "he that plougheth should plough in hope; and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope" (1Co 9:10). They that serve the altar should live by the altar; and those who proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel.
But there is sweet encouragement here for those who are anxious about their daily bread. God takes care for oxen; will He not for you? Shall the oxen browse on the wolds and pasture-lands, and be nourished to fatness, and will He leave to starve the soul that really trusts and serves Him?
Thou shall rejoice in all the good the Lord thy God hath given unto thee. Deu 26:11(R. V.).
Do not be afraid of joy! There are some who only sip of the sweet draughts which God puts to their lips, afraid of drinking long and deeply. When good things come into their lives, they are always thinking of some bitter make-weight, possibly some impending trouble. This is a mistake. We must be prepared to learn the lessons of dark hours when God sends them; but we need not hesitate to learn those of bright and happy ones, when they, too, are meted out to us. As we give ourselves up to sorrow, we should give ourselves up to joy! As the soul descends into the grave, it should have great joy in its resurrection and ascension! If the soul-planet must travel to a wintry distance, let us hail those halcyon hours when it returns to stand in the summer spheres of joy! In the life of consecration our joy is considerably enhanced by sharing it with our Lord. Just as our burden of care is lightened by rolling it upon Him, in the same proportion our joy will be increased when He is permitted to partake of it.
We cannot always be on the strain. It is not possible to live on one side of our nature without impairing the health of all. David must bring his harp, and play in the presence of the soul, when its fits of depression return. There is necessity that we should cultivate tracks of our soul that lie toward a southern aspect, filling them with flowers, and fruits, and beehives, and things that children love.
Open your heart to joy, when it comes in the morning with jocund voice; by the back-door weeping will steal away. She only came to sojourn for a night. OUR DAILY HOMILY
"Who leadeth us in triumph" (II. Cor. ii. 14).
"Who leadeth us in triumph" (II. Cor. ii. 14).
Every victor must first be a self-conqueror. But the method of Joshua's victory was the uplifted arm of Moses on the Mount.
As he held up his hands Joshua prevailed, as he lowered them Amalek prevailed. It was to be a battle of faith and not of human strength, and the banner that was to wave over the discomfited foe, "Jehovah-nissi." This, too, is the secret of our spiritual triumph. "If we are led of the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." "Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace."
Have we thus begun the battle and in the strength of Christ planted our feet on our own necks, and thus victorious over the enemy in the citadel of the heart been set at liberty for the battle of the Lord and the service of others? It was the lack of this that hindered the life of Saul and it has wrecked many a promising career.
One enemy in the heart is stronger than ten thousand in the field. May the Lord lead us all into Joshua's first triumph, and show us the secret of self-crucifixion through the greater Joshua, who alone can lead us on to holiness and victory!
Truth that Seeks Lost People
By A.W. Tozer
Our Lord said, I am the Truth, and again He said, The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Truth therefore is not hard to find for the very reason that it is seeking us. Truth is not a thing for which we must search, but a Person to whom we must hearken. This is taught or taken for granted in the record of Gods dealings with men throughout the Sacred Scriptures.
After the sin in Eden it was not Adam who cried O God, where art Thou? but God who cried Where art thou? as He sought for Adam among the trees of the Garden. Abraham heard God speak and responded, but it was God who was the aggressor. God appeared unto Jacob before Jacob came to appear before God. And in the burning bush God revealed Himself to Moses.
Again and again did God take the initiative. He sought for Gideon and found him on the threshing floor of Ophrah. He showed Himself to Isaiah when there is no evidence that Isaiah was seeking Him. Before Jeremiah was born God laid His hand upon him, and He opened heaven to let the discouraged priest Ezekiel see a vision and hear a voice. Amos said he was not a prophet neither a prophets son, but the Lord took him as he followed the flock. Again God was the aggressor.
In the New Testament things are not otherwise. True, multitudes came to Christ for physical help, but only rarely did one seek Him out to learn the truth; and even that rare one usually turned away when the truth was told him.
The whole picture in the Gospels is one of a seeking Savior, not one of seeking men. The truth was hunting for those who would receive it, and relatively few did. Many are called, but few are chosen.
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Old Yet Ever New
By Theodore Epp
Old Yet Ever New
1 John 2:7-11
The statements concerning the old and the new commandment sound paradoxical. They can be readily reconciled, however. The Apostle John wrote here, as 1 John 2:9-11 shows, about our love for one another.
In a sense this is not a new commandment; it is an old one that goes back to the time when God made man in His own image. Since man was made in the image of God, love was part of the expression of his life. It is old also in the sense that the Old Testament Law was summarized in the commands to love God and love our neighbor.
From all of this one might conclude that there is nothing new about this commandment at all, and yet there is an aspect that is new. We are given the clue to this in the expression, "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth" (v. 8). Here again the present tense was used, and the translation could read: "The darkness is passing, and the true light is now shining."
Under the Old Testament Law, people were commanded to love, but the Law did not provide them with the ability to obey. Only as the Holy Spirit could get control of individual hearts was this possible.
"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12).
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
"The just shall live by faith." Romans 1:17
"The just shall live by faith." Romans 1:17
A life of faith in Christ is as necessary to our present and experimental salvation as his death upon the cross was to our past and actual salvation.
If you are alive to what you are as a poor fallen sinner, you see yourself surrounded by enemies, temptations, sins, and snares; and you feel yourself utterly defenceless, as weak as water, without any strength to stand against them. Pressed down by the weight of unbelief, you see a mountain of difficulty before your eyes, sometimes in providence and sometimes in grace. You find, too, that your heart is a cage of unclean birds, and that in you, that is, in your flesh, there dwelleth no good thing; neither will nor power have you in yourself to fight or flee.
How then shall this mountain become a plain? How shall you escape the snares and temptations spread in your path? How shall you get the better of all your enemies, external, internal, infernal, and reach heaven's gate safe at last?
If you say, "By the salvation already accomplished," are you sure that that salvation belongs to you? Where is the evidence of it if you have no present faith in Christ? How can that past salvation profit you for present troubles unless there be an application of it?
It is this application and manifestation of salvation which is being saved by his life (Rom. 5:10). See how it works; and what a suitability is in it.
You are all weakness, and he is and has all strength, which he makes perfect in your weakness. You are all helplessness against sin, temptation, and a thousand foes. But help is laid upon Christ as one that is mighty; he therefore sends you help from the sanctuary and strengthens you out of Zion (Psalm 20:2), that these sins and enemies may not get the better of you.
Not Imitation but Incarnation
By Theodore Epp
Romans 12:1-5
Christ wants to live His life through us. He wants to use our eyes to behold the world situation as it is today. He wants to use our ears to hear the cry of the unsaved and the cry of those who are in need. He wants to use our lips to tell others the Gospel. He wants to use our hearts to express compassion and love to everyone. He wants to use our minds to think through situations and to have something to say to the people involved. He wants to use our hands to do His work and our feet to get to the places He wants to go to help others through us. The body also includes the soul, which is the seat of the intellect, the emotions and the will. God not only wants the physical aspect of our bodies, but He also wants our intellect, emotions and Christ wants to think His thoughts through us, and He wants to bring our minds under His control.
Second Corinthians 10:4,5 says, "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
Jesus Christ also wants our emotions so He might express Himself through us to a lost and dying world. The Lord Jesus Christ also wants our wills through which to make decisions that will honor Him.
"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27).
If there were an ant at the door of your granary
If there were an ant at the door of your granary
(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)
Psalm 46:1, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble."
"Do not be afraid . . . for I Myself will help you!" Isaiah 41:14
Today, let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: "I Myself will help you! It is but a small thing for Me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have done already.
What! not help you? Why, before the world began, I chose you to be My treasured possession.
What! not help you? Why, I laid aside My glory and became a man for you.
What! not help you? Why, I bought you with My sin-atoning blood.
What! not help you? Why, I have died for you! And if I have done the greater, then will I not do the lesser? I gave up My life for you! And if I have done all this for you, then I will surely help you now. If you had need of a thousand times as much help, then I would give it to you. You require little, compared with what I am ready to give. It is much for you to need--but it is nothing for Me to bestow.
What! not help you? Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of your granary asking for help--it would not ruin you to give him a handful of your wheat! Just so, you are nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency!"
"I Myself will help you!" O my soul, is not this enough?
Bring your empty pitcher here! Surely this well will fill it.
Hasten! gather up your needs, and bring them all here--your emptiness, your woes, your troubles. Behold, this river of God is full for your supply. What more can you desire? The Eternal God is your helper!
"The Lord is with me; He is my helper!" Psalm 118:7
"My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth." Psalm 121:2
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
Monday, June 22, 2026
The Rich Fool
George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons
The Rich Fool
And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me .... And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth--(Luk 12:13-15)
What Jesus Did When He Was Interrupted
Jesus was often interrupted in His teaching, and some of the choicest sayings in the Gospel spring from these interruptions of the Lord. When we are interrupted at our work or play, you know how cross we generally are. But Jesus, in His perfect trust and wisdom, turned even His interruptions to account. He had to stop preaching at Capernaum once when the paralytic was lowered through the roof. But instead of fretting, He so used the moment that the crowd in the cottage glorified God. And here, too, as He is teaching, He is brought to a halt by an unlooked-for question. Yet He so answers it, and uses it, and preaches such a memorable sermon on it, that I am sure there was not a disciple but thanked God for the unseemly interruption. Christ felt that not one man could interrupt Him, without the permission of His heavenly Father. It was that present and perfect trust in God that kept Him in His unutterable calm.
Where Was This Man's Treasure?
While He was speaking, then, of heavenly things--of forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Ghost--and when He paused, perhaps, for an instant to see if Peter and John had understood Him, there came a grating voice upon His ear, "Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me." Now, whether this man was really wronged or not, it is of course impossible to say. And it was not that which stirred the wrath of Jesus--it was the betrayal of the speaker's heart. A single sentence may be enough to reveal us. A single request may open our inmost soul. And here was a man who had listened to peerless preaching, and might have been carried heavenward on the wings of it, but the moment Jesus stops, he blurts out his petition, and his whole grievance is about his possessions. Does not that show what he was thinking of? Cannot you follow back the workings of his mind through these magnificent teachings that precede? It was that earthly mind that stirred Christ's anger. It was that which led Him on to preach on greed. There was life eternal in the words of Christ; but this man, in the very hearing of them, could think of nothing but the family gold.
An Anxious, Selfish Fool
Then Jesus told the story of the rich fool, and as He told it His mind went back to Nabal (1Sa 25:1-44). For "Nabal" just means a foolish man, and as his name was, so was he. Like Nabal, too, this churl was not a badman. He had not stolen the wealth that was to wreck him. It was God's rain that had fallen on his seed. It was God's sunshine that had ripened his harvest. It was God's gentleness that made him great. But for all that, his riches ruined him. He gave his heart to them: he gave his soul. Then suddenly, when he was laying his plans, and dreaming his golden dreams about tomorrow, God whispered, "Senseless! This night they want thy soul!" Who the they is--for so it reads in the original--we cannot say. They may be the angels of death; they may be robbers. In any case they are God's instruments, and the rich man must say goodbye to everything. O folly, never to think of that! He had thought of everything except his God. "And so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, if he is not rich towards God."
Now there are three things we must notice about this man; and the first is how very anxious he was. When we are young we think that to be rich means to be free from anxiety altogether. We can understand a pauper being anxious, but not a man who has great heaps of gold. But this rich man was just as full of cares as the beggar without a sixpence in the world. He could not sleep for thinking of his crops. That question of the harvest haunted him. It shut out God from him, and every thought of heaven, just as that family inheritance we spoke of silenced the music of Jesus for the questioner. Who is the man who we sometimes call a fool? It is the man with the bee in his bonnet, as we say. But better sometimes to have a bee in the bonnet than to have nothing but barns upon the brain. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.
See next how very selfish the man was. Do we hear one whisper of a harvest-thanksgiving? Is there any word of gratitude to God? You would think the man had fashioned the corn himself, and burnished and filled the ears with his own hand, he is so fond of talking of my corn. Do you remember what we learned in the Lord's Prayer. It is never my there, it is always our. And the Lord's fool is at opposite poles from the Lord's Prayer, for he is always babbling about my. And then were there no poor folk in his glen? Was there no Naomi in yon cottage in the town? Did not one single Ruth come out to glean when the tidings traveled of that amazing harvest? If the bosoms of the poor had been his barns, he would have been welcomed at the Throne that night. O selfish and ungrateful!--but halt, have I been selfish this last week? There are few follies in the world like the folly of the selfish man.
Then, lastly, think--and we have partly traveled on this ground already--think how very foolish the man was. Had he said, "Body, take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry!" there might have been some shadow of reason in it. But to think that a soul that hungers after God was ever to be satisfied with food--is there any folly that can equal that? "The world itself," says James Renwick, "could not fill the heart, for the heart has three corners and the world is round!" Let us so live, then, that when our soul is summoned, we shall say, "Yea, Lord! It has long been wanting home." And to this end let us seek first the kingdom. For where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.