June 30
An Impossible Promise
Ah, Lord God! It is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. - Jeremiah 32:17
At the very time when the Chaldeans surrounded Jerusalem, and when the sword, famine, and pestilence had desolated the land, Jeremiah was commanded by God to purchase a field and have the deed of transfer legally sealed and witnessed. This was a strange purchase for a rational man to make. Caution could not justify it, for it was buying with hardly a probability that the purchaser would ever enjoy the possession. But it was enough for Jeremiah that his God had instructed him, for he knew with certainty that God will be justified of all His children. He reasoned thus: "Lord God, You can make this plot of ground useful to me; You can rid this land of these oppressors; You can make me sit under my vine and my fig-tree in the heritage that I have bought; for You made the heavens and the earth, and there is nothing too hard for You." There was a majesty in the early saints, who dared to do at God's command things that human reason would condemn.
Whether it be a Noah who is to build a ship on dry land, an Abraham who is to offer up his only son, a Moses who is to despise the treasures of Egypt, or a Joshua who is to besiege Jericho for seven days, using no weapons but the blasts of trumpets, they all act upon God's command, contrary to the dictates of human reason; and the Lord gives them a rich reward as the result of their obedient faith. Would to God we had in contemporary Christianity a more potent infusion of this heroic faith in God. If we would venture more upon the naked promise of God, we would enter a world of wonders to which as yet we are strangers. May Jeremiah's place of confidence become ours—nothing is too hard for the God that created the heavens and the earth.
Family Bible reading plan
verse 1 Isaiah 62
verse 2 Matthew 10
Held in Honor
Held in Honor is a rich collection of 50 insightful quotes on marriage, carefully selected from church history dating all the way back to the first century. Each quote is accompanied by a Scripture-based devotional designed to encourage married couples or couples contemplating marriage.
The historical quotations in Held in Honor provide a collection of wisdom from the ages. Although the union of a man and woman my look different in any given time or place, there are common challenges that transcend culture, age, ethnicity, and context. This devotional invites couples to the common experience by drawing upon wisdom from the past.
Held in Honor brings together voices from Ignatius of Antioch to Elisabeth Elliott to Charles Spurgeon. Regardless of where couples are in the journey of marriage, these insights from the past are designed to draw couples closer to God and to remind couples of the roles God intended for both husbands and wives. (Available in soft cover or as an e-book)
Click here to learn more about Truth For Life
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.
