Evening, August 31
<< Evening, August 31 >>
So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”
        He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know.”
Insight
Like other Jews, the disciples chafed under their Roman rulers. They wanted Jesus to free Israel from Roman power and then become their king. Jesus replied that God the Father sets the timetable for all events--worldwide, national, and personal.
Challenge
If you want changes that God isn't making immediately, don't become impatient. Instead, trust God's timetable.
1 John 1:7  If we walk in the light, as he is in the light.

As he is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as he is whom we call "Our Father," of whom it is written, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all?" Certainly, this is the model which is set before us, for the Saviour himself said, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;" and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to his image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, "We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality." We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God in his holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.


Luke 19:13  "And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, 'Do business with this until I come back.'

Mark 13:34  "It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert.

Matthew 25:15  "To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.

John 9:4  "We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.

Luke 2:49  And He said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?"

1 Peter 2:21  For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,

2 Timothy 4:2  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

1 Corinthians 3:13  each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.

1 Corinthians 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

New American Standard Bible Copyright ? 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

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