Grace Community Church, Milwaukee, WI

Here is some excellent teaching from Scripture and Charles Spurgeon:

‘But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And  they that understand among the people shall instruct many.’ Daniel 11:32–33

Suggested Further Reading:  Ezra 7:1–10

“Search the Scriptures. Do not merely read them—search them; look out the parallel passages; collate them; try to get the meaning of the Spirit upon any one truth by looking to all the texts which refer to it. Read the Bible  consecutively: do not merely read a verse here and there—that is not fair.  You would never know anything about John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress  if  you opened it every morning and read six lines in any part and then shut it up  again; you must read it all through if you want to know anything about it. Get  those books, say Mark or John; read Mark right through from beginning to  end; do not stop with two or three verses, or a chapter, but try to know what  Mark is aiming at. It is not fair to Paul to take his epistle to the Romans and  read one chapter: we are obliged to do it in public service; but if you want to  get at Paul’s meaning, read the whole epistle through as you would another  letter. Read the Bible in a commonsense way. Pray after you have read it as  much as you like. When you are reading it, if you come to a knotty point, do  not skip it. You all have some Christian friend who knows more than you do;  go to him and try to get the thing explained. Above all, when you have read  any passage, and do understand it, act it out, and ask the Spirit of God to  burn the meaning into your conscience till it is written on the fleshy tables of  your heart.”

For thought and action: Daily readings should supplement Bible study, not replace  it. Have you ever tried to read the Bible in a year? Try the reading schedule the Elders have chosen to help you. It may be hard work, especially the first time, but many have been so blessed that they have resolved to read the whole Bible every year.  But beware of it becoming an academic exercise. Note Ezra’s example—his  desire was to study God’s word, to do it and to teach it—in that order (Ezra 7: 10). His aim was not to practice what he preached, but to preach what he practiced!

Grace and Peace,
Elder Dale

A timely devotional from the pulpit of C.H. Spurgeon, edited by Terence Peter Crosby:

‘Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.’ John 17:20–21
Suggested Further Reading: Ephesians 4:4–16

“If you would promote the unity of Christ’s church, look after his lost sheep, seek out wandering souls. If you ask what is to be your word, the answer is in the text—it is to be concerning Christ. They are to believe in him. Every soul that believes in Christ is built into the great gospel unity in its measure, and you will never see the church as a whole while there is one soul left unsaved for whom the Saviour shed his precious blood. Go out and teach his Word! Tell out the doctrines of grace as he has given you ability. Hold up Christ before the eyes of men, and you will be the means in God’s hand of bringing them to believe in him, and so the church shall be built up and made one.  Here is work for the beginning of the year; here is work till the end of the year. Do not sit down and scheme and plot and plan how this denomination may melt into the other; you leave that alone. Your business is to go and ‘tell to sinners round what a dear Saviour you have found’, for that is God’s way of using you to complete the unity of his Church. Unless these be saved, the Church is not perfect. That is a wonderful text, ‘That they without us should not be made perfect.’ That is to say, saints in heaven cannot be perfect unless we get there. What! the blessed saints in heaven not perfect except the rest of believers come there? So the Scripture tells us, for they would be a part of  the body and not a whole body; they cannot be perfect as a flock unless the rest of the sheep come there.”

For meditation: God’s instrument for furthering and completing true unity is spiritual—the ongoing addition of souls to his kingdom through the proclamation of Christ crucified. Man’s instrument for promoting organisational unity is political and carnal. Unity, just like the new birth, is ‘not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1:13).

Sermon no. 668, 7 January (1866), Metropolitan Tabernacle

Grace and Peace,
Elder Dale