November 23 - Morning"Fellowship with Him." — 1 John 1:6
When we were united by faith to Christ, we were brought into such
complete fellowship with Him, that we were made one with Him, and His
interests and ours became mutual and identical. We have fellowship with
Christ in His love. What He loves we love. He loves the saints — so do
we. He loves sinners — so do we. He loves the poor perishing race of man,
and pants to see earth's deserts transformed into the garden of the Lord —
so do we.
We have fellowship with Him in His desires. He desires the
glory of God — we also labour for the same. He desires that the saints
may be with Him where He is — we desire to be with Him there too. He
desires to drive out sin — behold we fight under His banner. He desires
that His Father's name may be loved and adored by all His creatures — we
pray daily, "Let Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done on earth, even
as it is in heaven." We have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings. We
are not nailed to the cross, nor do we die a cruel death, but when He is
reproached, we are reproached; and a very sweet thing it is to be blamed
for His sake, to be despised for following the Master, to have the world
against us.
The disciple should not be above His Lord. In our measure we
commune with Him in His labours, ministering to men by the word of
truth and by deeds of love. Our meat and our drink, like His, is to do the
will of Him who hath sent us and to finish His work. We have also
fellowship with Christ in His joys. We are happy in His happiness, we
rejoice in His exaltation. Have you ever tasted that joy, believer? There is
no purer or more thrilling delight to be known this side heaven than that of
having Christ's joy fulfilled in us, that our joy may be full. His glory
awaits us to complete our fellowship, for His Church shall sit with him
upon His throne, as His well-beloved bride and queen. November 23 - Evening"Get thee up into the high mountain." — Isaiah 40:9
Each believer should be thirsting for God, for the living God, and longing to
climb the hill of the Lord, and see Him face to face. We ought not to rest
content in the mists of the valley when the summit of Tabor awaits us.
My soul thirsteth to drink deep of the cup which is reserved for those
who reach the mountain's brow, and bathe their brows in heaven. How
pure are the dews of the hills, how fresh is the mountain air, how rich the
fare of the dwellers aloft, whose windows look into the New Jerusalem!
Many saints are content to live like men in coal mines, who see not the
sun; they eat dust like the serpent when they might taste the ambrosial
meat of angels; they are content to wear the miner's garb when they might
put on king's robes; tears mar their faces when they might anoint them
with celestial oil.
Satisfied I am that many a believer pines in a dungeon
when he might walk on the palace roof, and view the goodly land and
Lebanon. Rouse thee, O believer, from thy low condition! Cast away thy
sloth, thy lethargy, thy coldness, or whatever interferes with thy chaste
and pure love to Christ, thy soul's Husband. Make Him the source, the
centre, and the circumference of all thy soul's range of delight. What
enchants thee into such folly as to remain in a pit when thou mayst sit on
a throne? Live not in the lowlands of bondage now that mountain liberty is
conferred upon thee. Rest no longer satisfied with thy dwarfish attainments,
but press forward to things more sublime and heavenly. Aspire to a higher,
a nobler, a fuller life. Upward to heaven! Nearer to God! "When wilt Thou come unto me, Lord? November 23 |