November 21 - Morning"Grieve not the Holy Spirit." — Ephesians 4:30
All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely
through the channel of the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus
flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of
you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the
sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in
you, yet it lies dormant except He worketh in you to will and to do of His
own good pleasure.
Do you desire to speak for Jesus — how can you
unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue? Do you desire to pray? Alas!
what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you! Do you
desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your
Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? Are
you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardour for
the Master's cause? You cannot without the Spirit — "Without me ye can
do nothing." O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the
sap!
O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the life which
God gives thee through His Spirit! Then let us not grieve Him or provoke
Him to anger by our sin. Let us not quench Him in one of His faintest
motions in our soul; let us foster every suggestion, and be ready to obey
every prompting. If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt
nothing without Him; let us begin no project, and carry on no enterprise,
and conclude no transaction, without imploring His blessing. Let us do
Him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from Him, and
then depending alone upon Him, having this for our prayer, "Open Thou
my heart and my whole being to Thine incoming, and uphold me with Thy
free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward parts." November 21 - Evening"Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him." — John 12:2
He is to be envied. It was well to be Martha and serve, but better to be
Lazarus and commune. There are times for each purpose, and each is
comely in its season, but none of the trees of the garden yield such clusters
as the vine of fellowship. To sit with Jesus, to hear His words, to mark
His acts, and receive His smiles, was such a favour as must have made
Lazarus as happy as the angels. When it has been our happy lot to feast
with our Beloved in His banqueting-hall, we would not have given half a
sigh for all the kingdoms of the world, if so much breath could have bought
them.
He is to be imitated. It would have been a strange thing if Lazarus had not
been at the table where Jesus was, for he had been dead, and Jesus had
raised him. For the risen one to be absent when the Lord who gave him life
was at his house, would have been ungrateful indeed. We too were once
dead, yea, and like Lazarus stinking in the grave of sin; Jesus raised us, and
by His life we live — can we be content to live at a distance from Him? Do
we omit to remember Him at His table, where He deigns to feast with His
brethren? Oh, this is cruel! It behoves us to repent, and do as He has
bidden us, for His least wish should be law to us.
To have lived without
constant intercourse with one of whom the Jews said, "Behold how He
loved him," would have been disgraceful to Lazarus, is it excusable in us
whom Jesus has loved with an everlasting love? To have been cold to Him
who wept over his lifeless corpse, would have argued great brutishness in
Lazarus. What does it argue in us over whom the Saviour has not only
wept, but bled? Come, brethren, who read this portion, let us return unto
our heavenly Bridegroom, and ask for His Spirit that we may be on terms
of closer intimacy with Him, and henceforth sit at the table with Him. November 21 |