Truth for Life - February 4, 2017

February 4

God's Vast Love for Us

. . . Even as the Lord loves. - Hosea 3:1

Believer, look back through all your experience, and think of the way in which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness, and how He has fed and clothed you every day--how He has suffered your poor behavior--how He has put up with all your murmurings and all your longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt--how He has opened the rock to supply you and fed you with manna that came down from heaven. Think of how His grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles--how His blood has been a pardon to you in all your sins--how His rod and His staff have comforted you.

When you have then reflected upon the love of the Lord, let faith survey His love in the future, for remember that Christ's covenant and blood have something more in them than the past. He who has loved you and pardoned you will never cease to love and pardon. He is Alpha, and He shall be Omega also: He is first, and He shall be last.

Therefore, remember when you pass through the valley of the shadow of death, you need fear no evil, for He is with you. When you stand in the cold floods of Jordan, you need not fear, for death cannot separate you from His love; and when you come into the mysteries of eternity you need not tremble, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."1

Now, soul, is not your love refreshed? Does not this make you love Jesus? Does not a survey of the vastness of God's loving care stir your heart and compel you to delight yourself in the Lord your God? Surely as we meditate on the love of the Lord, our hearts burn within us, and we long to love Him more.

1 Romans 8:38-39

Family Bible reading plan

verse 1 Genesis 37

verse 2 Mark 7

Holiness - It's Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots

J. C Ryle wrote this timeless classic on holiness over a hundred years ago, yet how poignant his words still are for us today. Sadly, we all know how easy it is to appear godly in public, while behind closed doors to continue in our own sin.

This modern English version will challenge a new generation of readers to live a Christ–like life. Ryle’s timeless wisdom reminds us that holiness shouldn’t be cold, distant and unobtainable, but that Christ himself is the root of our godliness. Be exhorted not to simply settle for half–hearted holiness, but to strive to be holy in every area of our lives. Holiness, Ryle argued, was not simply a matter of believing and feeling, but of doing.

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From Morning & Evening revised and edited by Alistair Begg copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.