Today's quiet time....

Title: Do All Things For Jesus' Sake
Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength

Do All Things For Jesus' Sake by Mary Wilder Tileston

Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
COLOSSIANS 3:17

YEA, through life, death, through sorrow and through sinning,
He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed:
Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning;
Christ the beginning for the end is Christ.

F. W. H. MYERS

LET this be thy whole endeavor, this thy prayer, this thy desire,--that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only.

THOMAS À. KEMPIS

Do what is pleasing to Jesus Christ, and neglect nothing which pleases Him.

LORENZO SCUPOLI

To "do all things in the name of Jesus" is the lesson of a life; do not be angry with yourselves, nor despair of ever learning it, because thou art slow to learn the first few syllables. When thou hast learned to do all things to Jesus, it will shed pleasure over all dull things, softness over all hard things, peace over all trial and woe and suspense. Then will life be glad, when thou livest to Jesus; and how sweet death, to die in Jesus; with Him, and to Him, and in Him, to live for evermore.

E. B. PUSEY

Monday, December 31, 2001
Read: 2 Corinthians 1:18-22; 5:1-17

He . . . put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22

A furniture store was having a going-out-of-business sale. A woman walked in, looking for a simple coffee table, but a mission-style, cherry wood dining set caught her eye instead. A salesperson hurried over to quote her the discounted price and to urge her to put down money soon–things were selling fast. She hesitated, wanting to think it over. When she came back the next day, prepared to buy, the dining set was gone. “Sorry,” said the salesperson. “I couldn’t keep it for you: You didn’t put down a deposit.”

Deposits guarantee ownership. They indicate seriousness of intent to purchase fully. They signal that the depositor will return at a later date with more money to claim the purchase.

God gives us these guarantees through the indwelling of His Spirit. The deposit of the Spirit is a sign of God’s faithfulness, a fulfillment of God’s promises being “Yes” in Christ. It fulfills the promise made in Joel 2, as Peter noted in his Pentecost sermon: “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.” It also fulfills the promise Jesus made to His disciples, that they would receive power from on high (Luke 24:49). The deposit of the Spirit in us reminds us that God’s promises remain sure through time.

The gift of the Spirit is also a down payment of our future inheritance. We are like banks for Spirit-gold--the precious deposit we have now guarantees the coming of an even greater treasure than God-in-us.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 suggests what this treasure might be. If the initial deposit is the dwelling of God’s very life and Spirit in mortal creatures, the full inheritance is Life itself swallowing up our mortality (v. 4). Try to imagine such a state of being: the life of God in us now becoming the overwhelming fact of our experience. Clothed with immortality, we will be fully what we are only now becoming–new creations in Christ (v. 17).

This too will be a promise of God that is “Yes” in Christ. For Jesus said that he came to give life abundant (John 10:10). Though we groan in our bodies, we already are offered--now--a foretaste of abundant life in the deposit of the Spirit who “guarantees what is to come.”


God’s spiritual deposit in each believer is unique. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, He doesn’t give same gifts to all.

What gifts do you know God has given you for edifying the church? How are you capitalizing on the deposit of the Spirit in you? Are you developing your spiritual gifts or growing in the fruits of the Spirit?

Choose one gift, one fruit, that you know God has given you but which may have grown rusty. Purpose to use and grow that gift as you wait for the fullness of God’s kingdom to come.

Title: Rooted in the Rock of God
Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength



Rooted in the Rock of God by Mary Wilder Tileston


As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even forever.
PSALMS 125:2

HOPE it may be the happiest year of your life, as I think each succeeding year of everybody's life should be, if only everybody were wise enough to see things as they are; for it is certain that there really exists, laid up and ready to hand, for those who will just lay hands upon it, enough for every one and enough forever. I am quite sure that the central mistake of all lives that are mistaken is the not taking this simple unchangeable fact for granted, not seeing that it is so, and cannot but be so, and will remain so "though we believe not." I think I can trace every scrap of sorrow in my own life to this simple unbelief. How could I be anything but quite happy if I believed always that all the past is forgiven, and all the present furnished with power, and all the future bright with hope, because of the same abiding facts, which don't change with my mood, do not crumble, because I totter and stagger at the promise through unbelief, but stand firm and clear with their peaks of pearl cleaving the air of Eternity, and the bases of their hills rooted unfathomably in the Rock of God?
JAMES SMETHAM

Title: The Divine Shepherd Hears His Sheep
Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength

The Divine Shepherd Hears His Sheep by Mary Wilder Tileston


He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when He shall hear it, He will answer thee.
ISAIAH 30:19

THAT Was the Shepherd of the flock; He knew
The distant voice of one poor sheep astray;
It had forsaken Him, but He was true,
And listened for its bleating night and day.

And thou, fallen soul, afraid to live or die
In the deep pit that will not set thee free,
Lift up to Him the helpless homeward cry,
For all that tender love is seeking thee.
ANNA L. WARING

OUR Divine Shepherd followed after His lost sheep for three and thirty years, in a way so painful and so thorny that He spilt His heart's blood and left His life there. The poor sheep now follows Him through obedience to His commands, or through a desire (though at times but faint) to obey Him, calling upon Him and beseeching Him earnestly for help; is it possible that He should now refuse to turn upon it His life-giving look? Will He not give ear to it, and lay it upon His divine shoulders, rejoicing over it with all His friends and with the angels of Heaven? For if our Lord ceased not to search most diligently and lovingly for the blind and deaf sinner, the lost drachma of the Gospel, till He found it, how is it possible that He should abandon him who, as a lost sheep, cries and calls upon his Shepherd?
LORENZO SCUPOLI

Daily Thoughts

A Time to Think:
Peace is not a season... it is a way of life. When the spirit of Peace becomes a part of our lives, everyday will be Christmas and every night will hold the promise of dawn. -Anonymous

To Act:
Express your gratitude for something good that has come your way.

To Pray:
Help me Lord to be a faithful steward of all the life that surrounds me.

Title: God's Peace for Our Anxieties
Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength

God's Peace for Our Anxieties by Mary Wilder Tileston


In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
PHILIPPIANS 4:6,7 (RV)

JUST think of having His wonderful peace guarding one's heart and one's thoughts all day long. But it is only on condition that we fulfil the sixth verse, "In nothing be anxious,"--this is a distinct command, and, if we fail to fulfil it, we shall not get the blessing. Sorrow even is anxiety, and should be laid upon our blessed Lord. Then in prayer and supplication we must not forget that thanksgiving is also distinctly commanded; we must praise God for His dealings with us, even though we cannot make them out at times. Pray God to make you cease from anxiety about yourself and your plans; just be willing to do the work our dear Father gives you at the time.
JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE

Oh, how great peace and quietness would he possess who should cut off all vain anxiety and place all his confidence in God.
THOMAS À KEMPIS