Category: Devotion of the Day

FRIENDS OF GOD

And he was called the friend of God.
James 2:23

Of all the preachers and teachers and religious folk of our day, how few impress us that they know God! Able and successful, earnest and aggressive, we find in them much that is good. But can we not count on our fingers those who have gone far into the deeper things of the Spirit, who have learned those precious secrets of intimacy with God? To how few could we go in an hour of deepest trouble, to how few dare we tell our inmost problems!

This age of Phenobarbital and psychoses does not lend itself to a closer walk with God. The price is great nowadays, and he who chooses to be God’s friend may be overlooked in the worship of celebrities. But in our better and needier moments we turn from heroes to seek some lowly soul who has learned those rare lessons of the school of Enoch who walked with God. Our efficient American Christianity is too busy putting things over to be interested in the quiet, slow saints who take time to be holy instead of just singing about it.

Give us more friends of God!

LIVING BUT DEAD

I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Revelation 3:1

The prodigal was dead but came alive (Lk. 15:24). So it is with all who believe (Rom. 6:13). The Sardis church was alive but dead. It had a name to live, but Jesus had another name for it. The name we have for ourselves is not always what our Lord calls us. You say you have eternal life. Does God say so? Not every one who calls Him Lord, Lord, is known of Him. Some Christians seem active enough, but it is not the vitality of the spirit, it is only the vivacity of religious flesh. And how many busy churches are called live churches, while the Lord looks on and says, “Thou art dead.” Does Jesus say that yours is a live church? How does it look to Him? Mere activity does not deceive Him.

“She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” She may be animated and really get around, but God says “dead.” And a lot of go-getter Christians and churches draw no better word from Him who looks on the heart.

Are you one who was once dead and now lives, or do you seem to live but are dead?