Devotion of the Day

So Long Time – And Yet

Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
John 14:9

Poor, dull, matter-of-fact Philip! Three years with Jesus, His preaching, His teaching, His miracles, Himself – and yet! “Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us.” And for three years he had been looking right at the supreme revelation of the Father! “So long time – and yet!”

But we have no business feeling embarrassed and ashamed of Philip. For two thousand years we have had His presence, His church, the Spirit, the Word – and look at us! And some of us are well over life’s hill and He has been with us all the way – so long time and yet! How poorly we know Him, how slow of heart to believe, how little like Him!

No, I will blush for Philip, I will blush for myself. Is there a duller disciple anywhere? Forgive me, Lord. I need shed no tears for Philip, I should weep for myself.

“So long time…and yet!”

Quote of the Day

Jeremiah said, “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns” (4:3). Some Bible teaching is like sowing seed in a briar patch: the heart has not been prepared. Too much of our religious instruction is like a swimming lesson on dry land: teaching all things commanded is not enough. We must teach men to observe all things commanded. God’s Word is a lamp and a light, but the light is not only to be looked at; it must be walked in. Stare at the mid-day sun and you will go blind. It is impossible to be blinded by an excess of light. If we are hearers only, and not doers of the Word, we deceive ourselves. I never hear that part of James 1:22 quoted: “…deceiving your own selves.” Look at the light an you will be blinded. Walk in the light and you will be blessed.