Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
by C. H. Spurgeon
Wednesday Morning, November 17
To whom be glory for ever. Amen
Romans 11:36
To whom be glory for ever. This should be the single desire of the Christian. All other wishes must be subservient and tributary to this one. The Christian may wish for prosperity in his business, but only so far as it may help him to promote this--To him be glory for ever. He may desire to attain more gifts and more graces, but it should only be that To him may be glory for ever. You are not acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than a single eye to your Lord's glory. As a Christian, you are of God, and through God, then live to God. Let nothing ever set your heart beating so mightily as love to him. Let this ambition fire your soul; be this the foundation of every enterprise upon which you enter, and this your sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow chill; make God your only object. Depend upon it, where self begins sorrow begins; but if God be my supreme delight and only object,
Let your desire for God's glory be a growing desire. You blessed him in your youth, do not be content with such praises as you gave him then. Has God prospered you in business? Give him more as he has given you more. Has God given you experience? Praise him by stronger faith than you exercised at first. Does your knowledge grow? Then sing more sweetly. Do you enjoy happier times than you once had? Have you been restored from sickness, and has your sorrow been turned into peace and joy? Then give him more music; put more coals and more sweet frankincense into the censer of your praise. Practically in your life give him honour, putting the Amen to this doxology to your great and gracious Lord, by your own individual service and increasing holiness.
Evening, November 17
He that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.
Ecclesiastes 10:9
Oppressors may get their will of poor and needy men as easily as they can split logs of wood, but they had better mind, for it is a dangerous business, and a splinter from a tree has often killed the woodman. Jesus is persecuted in every injured saint, and he is mighty to avenge his beloved ones. Success in treading down the poor and needy is a thing to be trembled at: if there be no danger to persecutors here there will be great danger hereafter.
To cleave wood is a common every-day business, and yet it has its dangers; so then, reader, there are dangers connected with your calling and daily life which it will be well for you to be aware of. We refer not to hazards by flood and field, or by disease and sudden death, but to perils of a spiritual sort. Your occupation may be as humble as log splitting, and yet the devil can tempt you in it. You may be a domestic servant, a farm labourer, or a mechanic, and you may be greatly screened from temptations to the grosser vices, and yet some secret sin may do you damage. Those who dwell at home, and mingle not with the rough world, may yet be endangered by their very seclusion. Nowhere is he safe who thinks himself so. Pride may enter a poor man's heart; avarice may reign in a cottager's bosom; uncleanness may venture into the quietest home; and anger, and envy, and malice may insinuate themselves into the most rural abode. Even in speaking a few words to a servant we may sin; a little purchase at a shop may be the first link in a chain of temptations; the mere looking out of a window may be the beginning of evil. O Lord, how exposed we are! How shall we be secured! To keep ourselves is work too hard for us: only thou thyself art able to preserve us in such a world of evils. Spread thy wings over us, and we, like little chickens, will cower down beneath thee, and feel ourselves safe!
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http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/blogs/cj-mahaney/post/2010/10/27/06-The-Love-of-God.aspx
This post is taken from C.J.'s chapter in the new book For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper. C.J.'s chapter is titled "The Pastor and the Trinity," and we've posted it in 11 parts.
After praying that the Corinthian church will experience the grace of Christ, Paul prays that they will experience "the love of God." It is a simple phrase, easy to rush past. But I appeal to you to slow down, to ponder this prayer, to ask what Paul means when he says, "The love of God . . . be with you all." How should the model Paul provides here shape our pastoral ministry?
In the Trinitarian structure of this benediction, "God" specifically refers to the Father, the first person of the Trinity. And it is clear that Paul has in mind God's love for us, not our love for God.
Paul's closing benediction demonstrates what our prayer should be for those we love and serve: that through our ministry they might encounter the love of God the Father. True pastoral ministry seeks to convince Christians of the love of God the Father for them, a love that is specific, personal, and passionate.
And many Christians need convincing. Over the years I have spoken with many genuine Christians who are not certain of God's love for them. They tend to think of God as merely tolerating them, often frustrated with them, eager to punish them. Countless genuine Christians are suspicious of God.
How are we to convince these believers of God's love for them? I believe J. I. Packer gives us wise guidance. In his outstanding book Knowing God, Packer writes, "The New Testament gives us two yardsticks for measuring God's love. The first is the cross (see Rom 5:8; 1 Jn 4:8–10); the second is the gift of sonship [1 John 3:1]."[1] We convince God's people of his love for them by leading them to the cross and by reminding them of their adoption as sons of God.
Let us acknowledge right here that to fully measure God's love is an unending and impossible (and joyous) task. Who can mark off the height and breadth and length and depth of God's love for us? Elsewhere Paul prays for the Ephesians that they will "know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Eph. 3:19). When we survey the love of God for us, we are plumbing the unfathomable, measuring the immeasurable. But let us use these two yardsticks, the cross and the gift of sonship, to attempt to do just that.
This blog post is part of an 11-part series, The Pastor and the Trinity, a reprint of C.J. Mahaney's chapter "The Pastor and the Trinity" in For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper, edited by Sam Storms and Justin Taylor, ©2010. Used by permission of Crossway. For other posts in this series, see the index here.
[1] J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1973), 214.
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