Category: Devotion of the Day

EATING THE COOK BOOK

Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
John 6:53

Many dear people have a lovely doctrine or theory of the victorious life or the indwelling Christ or the Spirit-filled life, and they try to live on their theory, but thy do not feed on Christ. They are like a man trying to live on a cook book instead of food, chewing on a seed catalogue instead of on vegetables. They may be very orthodox Bible students, but they do not chew and digest the words which are spirit and life.

It is tragic to go through our days making Christ the subject of our study but not the sustenance of our souls. It is not the Word hid in the head but in the heart that keeps from sin. To appropriate Christ Himself, the Bread of Life, is to live by faith and grow. You can starve reading books on bread. You can search the Scriptures and not come to Him for life.

HEAT AND LIGHT

He was a burning and a shining light.
John 5:35

So spake our Lord of John the Baptist. The Forerunner had both heat and light. It is a combination not always found in one personality. Some saints have heat aplenty, but they need light, wisdom, guidance. Some have light, but it is cold; there is no fire, no warmth. Someone has said, “Youth has fire without light and age has light without fire.”

It is hard to tell which has done most harm, hotheaded ignorance or cold-hearted knowledge. The wild street preacher, screaming and tearing his hair, needs to burn less and shine more. The cold, intellectual preacher in stiff Sunday-morning formalism needs to shine less and burn more.

John the Baptist burned and shone. “Stir up the gift of God…” “Let your light so shine…” Give us more witnesses with both heat and light!