Quote of the Day

I have read of a dilapidated little shop whose owner was about to go out of business. The floor was unswept, the windows unwashed, the goods in disorder, the proprietor careless and untidy. One day the king came by, saw the wretched condition of the place, and said to the shopkeeper, “If you will do as I say, I will let you put over the door the sign APPROVED BY THE KING.” The proprietor gladly consented. Everything was changed-the floors swept, the windows washed, the goods put in order, the keeper himself cleaned up. Soon customers began to come and money rang in the till because over the door was written the approval of the king.

Have you ever let the King take over? Has your prayer ever been:

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to live in my soul.
Break down every idol, cast out every foe;
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let the King take over the little shop of your life and there will be customers! You will be a blessing to others and a work-man approved unto Him.

The daily devotions are from Pepper ‘n Salt by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1966.

Devotion of the Day

The Word or the World

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
John 17:14.

If you stand on the Word you do not stand in with the world. McLaren says, “The measure of our discord with the world is the measure of our accord with our Saviour.” Our Lord said the world hated Him and would hate us. “If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18-19).

“The world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (I John 3:1). What has happened to all this today? The average church member courts the world’s favor and rejoices in being hail-fellow-well-met and shows off the world’s prizes and rewards. If to love the world is to be the enemy of God, we have some strange contradictions among us!

What some think is the world becoming more Christian is just Christians becoming more worldly. We can have the word or the world but not both. There is no concord between Christ and Belial. Read John 17; II Corinthians 6:14-7:1; James 4:4; I John 2:15-17. We are strangers here. Don’t make yourself at home.

The daily devotions are from Day by Day by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953.