The television performer watches his ratings, the politician his votes, the public speaker his applause, but the prophet who speaks for God is not governed by such responses. He delivers his message though it may fall on deaf ears and gain him only scorn and maybe a prison cell. Amos did not rate with the big-wigs of Bethel, nor did John the Baptist win applause in the courts of Herod. The forerunner had crowds but he stepped aside and left the center of the stage to One greater than himself. We live in a day when men will not endure sound doctrine but look instead for pleasant ticklers of itching ears. Is there not somewhere a coming prophet who will forget comfort and security and status and retirement benefits for the loneliness of a Jeremiah, the perils of a Savonarola, the conflicts of a Luther, to speak for God in these last days? Barclay says that the settled ministry has always resented wandering prophets who disturb their congregations. So the wilderness voice is not welcome either at home or abroad. But his reward is in the approval of God and the verdict of history.
Devotion of the Day
IF ANY MAN SIN
If any man sin…
I John 2:1
If we confess our sins…
I John 1:9
If we walk in the light…
I John 1:7
We should not sin, but if we do sin we have an Advocate with the Father. We have a prosecutor, and an accuser, the devil; but we also have a lawyer to plead our case, Jesus Christ the righteous.
If we confess our sins the Father will forgive and cleanse. There must be genuine repentance and confession, but we need not wallow in remorse. God is our Father, if we believe and we are His children. And like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.
“If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Provision has been made for victory over sin. God’s plan is to keep us from sin, not to keep us in sin. There is no ground for complacent living in iniquity just because we are “under the blood.” “It is not that we are not able to sin but that we are able not to sin.” But He also has made provision if we do sin, forgiveness and cleansing if we confess.