Category: Devotion of the Day

Daily

And they, continuing daily…And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Acts 2:46, 47

The New Testament does not abound in instruction as to what we now call “personal work” and “soul-winning.” The epistles indoctrinate and exhort as to Christian growth, and it seems to be assumed that a normal Christian will by life and lip win others.

Nowadays we drive and plan and put on courses galore trying to get Christians to do what should be their natural practice, not only with regard to reaching the lost, but with regard to church attendance, tithing, missions, and all other phases of service. All of this should be the spontaneous expression of our love for Christ and others.

The Early Church continued daily in fellowship and faithfulness, and the Lord added daily in fruitfulness. What we labor and sweat to produce is a natural consequence in the Scriptures. It is high time we majored on the conditions that produce the results we seek. A church in faith and fellowship will be faithful and fruitful. Which brings it, of course, to the door of each of us. If we follow Him daily He will make us fishers of men daily.

“Strengthen They Stakes

Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.
Isaiah 54:2

If we are going to lengthen our cords we had better strengthen our stakes. The church today is intent on expanding borders and taking in more territory. That is good if along with it we strengthen what we have. Otherwise, we gain width at the expense of depth and become shallow. The Christian and the church need an intensive as well as an extensive ministry. Vast ingatherings of believers bring peril if we do not teach, indoctrinate, build up in the faith. To use A.J. Gordon’s illustration, the average church is often life a congested lung with only a few cells doing the breathing. There is usually a faithful nucleus surrounded by a mass of nominal Christians.

While we extend the borders of our tent, we had better check the center pole. We must fix the point of our compass properly before we describe our circles. We are in tremendous need of a ministry to strengthen our stakes that we may go further as we go deeper.