Quote of the Day

I have heard of a town-dweller who raised a pig for some meat of his own. When the time came to slaughter that porker, he sent a note to his butcher which said, “don’t send me any more meat – I’m butchering myself.”

It will not be necessary to wait for communism from without to destroy American-we are butchering ourselves. Give us a little more rope and we’ll do our own hanging. Day and night the foundations of our fathers are being dug up, the principles on which we started are being blasted, and a new order is emerging which is not even a reasonable facsimile of the original. Most Americans are under such heavy sedation that they are not aware of what goes on. The same process goes on in the professing church and any man who speak against either movement is smilingly ignored or outlawed as a disturber of the peace. The country is overrun by cliques and clans in state and church, with their panaceas for bringing in the millennium. Some of us have examined these groups and wouldn’t be caught dead in any of them. All we need is a mighty stirring among old-fashioned Americans and old-fashioned Christians who seem to be bewildered at the moment. We believe there is a sizable number of both still in the land. There are more than seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. There are a few voices that have not been silenced but no leader of sufficient caliber is discernible on the horizon as of now. We would do well to pray that, if our Lord tarries, God might favor us with a John the Baptist in this wilderness. There is no time to lose.

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

Devotion of the Day

Take Hold Of God!

There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.
Isaiah 64:7.

The prophet is not lamenting that there is none that stirreth up himself. There have never been more “rousements” in our religious life than today. We whip our jaded nerves into a St. Vitus’s dance but it is an end in itself; we do not get through to God. The way out of a spiritual stupor is not by getting into s stew. The stirring up of ourselves is a means to an end, to take hold of God. We must rouse ourselves to employ the means of grace, draw nigh to God that He may draw nigh to us.

We must stir up the gift of God. Like sugar in the lemonade, it may be there but it needs to be set in motion. The ashes need to be scraped off the coals in our hearts and the fire rekindled.

A lot of our religious bustle today does not take hold of God. We get excited and strike in all directions and keep the Lord busy putting back ears we lop off in our misdirected zeal, like Peter at the Saviour’s arrest. It is not merely stepping up our activities nor is it an emotional binge; it is arousing ourselves to employ the means God has provided, the Word, prayer, and all other ways of laying hold of Him.

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