December 17 - Morning"I remember thee." — Jeremiah 2:2
Let us note that Christ delights to think upon His Church, and to look
upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the
wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the
object of its choice. We cannot look too often upon that face which we
love; we desire always to have our precious things in our sight. It is even
so with our Lord Jesus. From all eternity "His delights were with the sons
of men"; His thoughts rolled onward to the time when His elect should be
born into the world; He viewed them in the mirror of His foreknowledge.
"In Thy book," He says, "all my members were written, which in
continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them" (Ps.
139:16). When the world was set upon its pillars, He was there, and He
set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of
Israel. Many a time before His incarnation, He descended to this lower
earth in the similitude of a man; on the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18), by the
brook of Jabbok (Gen. 32:24-30), beneath the walls of Jericho (Josh. 5:13),
and in the fiery furnace of Babylon (Dan. 3:19, 25), the Son of Man visited
His people.
Because His soul delighted in them, He could not rest away
from them, for His heart longed after them. Never were they absent from
His heart, for He had written their names upon His hands, and graven them
upon His side. As the breastplate containing the names of the tribes of
Israel was the most brilliant ornament worn by the high priest, so the
names of Christ's elect were His most precious jewels, and glittered on His
heart. We may often forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord,
but He never ceases to remember us. Let us chide ourselves for past
forgetfulness, and pray for grace ever to bear Him in fondest remembrance.
Lord, paint upon the eyeballs of my soul the image of Thy Son. December 17 - Evening"I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." — John 10:9
Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true church, and the way of
access to God Himself. He gives to the man who comes to God by Him
four choice privileges.
1. He shall be saved. The fugitive manslayer passed the gate of the city of
refuge, and was safe. Noah entered the door of the ark, and was secure.
None can be lost who take Jesus as the door of faith to their souls.
Entrance through Jesus into peace is the guarantee of entrance by the same
door into heaven. Jesus is the only door, an open door, a wide door, a safe
door; and blessed is he who rests all his hope of admission to glory upon
the crucified Redeemer.
2. He shall go in. He shall be privileged to go in among the divine family,
sharing the children's bread, and participating in all their honours and
enjoyments. He shall go in to the chambers of communion, to the banquets
of love, to the treasures of the covenant, to the storehouses of the
promises. He shall go in unto the King of kings in the power of the Holy
Spirit, and the secret of the Lord shall be with him.
3. He shall go out. This blessing is much forgotten. We go out into the
world to labour and suffer, but what a mercy to go in the name and power
of Jesus! We are called to bear witness to the truth, to cheer the
disconsolate, to warn the careless, to win souls, and to glorify God; and as
the angel said to Gideon, "Go in this thy might," even thus the Lord would
have us proceed as His messengers in His name and strength.
4. He shall find pasture. He who knows Jesus shall never want. Going in
and out shall be alike helpful to him: in fellowship with God he shall grow,
and in watering others he shall be watered. Having made Jesus his all, he
shall find all in Jesus. His soul shall be as a watered garden, and as a well of
water whose waters fail not. December 17 |