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Morning Devotional "Grow up into Him in all things." Ephesians 4:15 Many Christians remain stunted and dwarfed in spiritual things, so as to present the same appearance year after year. No up-springing of advanced and refined feeling is manifest in them. They exist but do not 'grow up into Him in all things.' But should we rest content with being in the 'green blade,' when we might advance to 'the ear,' and eventually ripen into the 'full corn in the ear?' Should we be satisfied to believe in Christ, and to say, 'I am safe,' without wishing to know in...

Morning Devotional "Babes in Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:1 Are you mourning, believer, because you are so weak in the divine life: because your faith is so little, your love so feeble? Cheer up, for you have cause for gratitude. Remember that in some things you are equal to the greatest and most full-grown Christian. You are as much bought with blood as he is. You are as much an adopted child of God as any other believer. An infant is as truly a child of its parents as is the full-grown man. You are as completely justified, for your justification...

Morning Devotional "Thy paths drop fatness." Psalm 65:11 Many are 'the paths of the Lord' which 'drop fatness,' but an especial one is the path of prayer. No believer, who is much in the closet, will have need to cry, 'My leanness, my leanness; woe unto me.' Starving souls live at a distance from the mercy- seat, and become like the parched fields in times of drought. Prevalence with God in wrestling prayer is sure to make the believer strong-if not happy. The nearest place to the gate of heaven is the throne of the heavenly grace. Much alone, and...

Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening for October 17 Morning Devotional "And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul." 1 Samuel 27:1 The thought of David's heart at this time was a false thought, because he certainly had no ground for thinking that God's anointing him by Samuel was intended to be left as an empty unmeaning act. On no one occasion had the Lord deserted His servant; he had been placed in perilous positions very often, but not one instance had occurred in which divine interposition had not delivered him. The trials...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 16 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine." - John 21:12 In these words the believer is invited to a holy nearness to Jesus. "Come and dine," implies the same table, the same meat; aye, and sometimes it means to sit side by side, and lean our head upon the Saviour's bosom. It is being brought into the banqueting-house, where waves the banner of redeeming love. "Come and dine," gives us a vision of union with Jesus, because the only food that we can feast upon when we dine with Jesus...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 15 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "But who may abide the day of his coming?" - Malachi 3:2 His first coming was without external pomp or show of power, and yet in truth there were few who could abide its testing might. Herod and all Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of the wondrous birth. Those who supposed themselves to be waiting for him, showed the fallacy of their professions by rejecting him when he came. His life on earth was a winnowing fan, which tried the great heap of religious profession, and few...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 14 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." - Philippians 3:8 Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person's acquaintance with him. No, I must know him myself; I must know him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge-I must know him, not as the visionary dreams of him, but as the Word reveals him. I must know his natures, divine and human. I must know his offices-his attributes-his works-his...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 13 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Godly sorrow worketh repentance." - 2 Corinthians 7:10 Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature's garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature's thorns never produced a single fig. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh. " True repentance has a...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 12 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "I will meditate in thy precepts." - Psalm 119:15 There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on his Word spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it;...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 10 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Faultless before the presence of his glory." - Jude 24 Revolve in your mind that wondrous word, "faultless!" We are far off from it now; but as our Lord never stops short of perfection in his work of love, we shall reach it one day. The Saviour who will keep his people to the end, will also present them at last to himself, as "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish." All the jewels in the Saviour's crown are of...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 9 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Able to keep you from falling." - Jude 24 In some sense the path to heaven is very safe, but in other respects there is no road so dangerous. It is beset with difficulties. One false step (and how easy it is to take that if grace be absent), and down we go. What a slippery path is that which some of us have to tread! How many times have we to exclaim with the Psalmist, "My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped." If we were...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 8 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." - Luke 5:4 We learn from this narrative, the necessity of human agency. The draught of fishes was miraculous, yet neither the fisherman nor his boat, nor his fishing tackle were ignored; but all were used to take the fishes. So in the saving of souls, God worketh by means; and while the present economy of grace shall stand, God will be pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. When God worketh without...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 7 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?" - Numbers 11:11 Our heavenly Father sends us frequent troubles to try our faith. If our faith be worth anything, it will stand the test. Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not: the paste gem dreads to be touched by the diamond, but the true jewel fears no test. It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable; but that is true faith which holds by the Lord's...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 6 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." - John 4:14 He who is a believer in Jesus finds enough in his Lord to satisfy him now, and to content him for evermore. The believer is not the man whose days are weary for want of comfort, and whose nights are long from absence of heart-cheering thought, for he finds in religion such a spring of joy, such a fountain of consolation, that he is content and happy. Put him in a dungeon and he...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 5 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "He arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights." - 1 Kings 19:8 All the strength supplied to us by our gracious God is meant for service, not for wantonness or boasting. When the prophet Elijah found the cake baked on the coals, and the cruse of water placed at his head, as he lay under the juniper tree, he was no gentleman to be gratified with dainty fare that he might stretch himself at his ease; far otherwise,...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 4 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "At evening time it shall be light." - Zechariah 14:7 Oftentimes we look forward with forebodings to the time of old age, forgetful that at eventide it shall be light. To many saints, old age is the choicest season in their lives. A balmier air fans the mariner's cheek as he nears the shore of immortality, fewer waves ruffle his sea, quiet reigns, deep, still and solemn. From the altar of age the flashes of the fire of youth are gone, but the more real flame of earnest feeling remains....

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 3 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" - Hebrews 1:14 Angels are the unseen attendants of the saints of God; they bear us up in their hands, lest we dash our foot against a stone. Loyalty to their Lord leads them to take a deep interest in the children of his love; they rejoice over the return of the prodigal to his father's house below, and they welcome the advent of the believer to the King's palace above. In...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 2 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "The hope which is laid up for you in heaven." - Colossians 1:5 Our hope in Christ for the future is the mainspring and the mainstay of our joy here. It will animate our hearts to think often of heaven, for all that we can desire is promised there. Here we are weary and toilworn, but yonder is the land of rest where the sweat of labour shall no more bedew the worker's brow, and fatigue shall be for ever banished. To those who are weary and spent, the word...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - October 1 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved." - Song of Solomon 7:13 The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has "all manner of pleasant fruits," both "old and new," and they are laid up for our Beloved. At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us survey our stores. We have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, new gratitude; we wish to make new resolves and carry them out by new labours;...

Let me point out that I do believe and profess both statements; however, the latter does not fully nor accurately define the former. The sad reality is that many, if not most people in the United States (and probably globally – more so in the West) believe that a belief in God simply and wholly defines what and who a Christian is. I believe it is not only a condemnation of those who state this – of their ignorance or laziness – but of the Church as a whole, in our ignorance and laziness. A partial explanation of it is...