Walking with God Day by Day E-Book

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Be devoted to God with your heart and your mind. Do you look to devotional books for guidance as you seek to focus your heart on the Lord each day? If you do, you know that too often devotional material fails to engage the mind in addition to the heart. Touching stories replace the very source of lasting encouragement and strength we need each day-the truth of the Word of God. But this is never true of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones's writing. Walking with God Day by Day offers brief daily devotionals that engage the mind and the heart. You will not just find spiritual nourishment in its pages; you will learn about God and the great themes of the Bible. Robert Backhouse has compiled excerpts from choice passages in the writings of Dr. Lloyd-Jones according to monthly themes. By reading this devotional, you will grow in your understanding of God and learn to apply the truth of His Word day by day.

Leseprobe

WALKING WITH GOD D

OTHER CROSSWAY BOOKS BY MARTYN LLOYD-JONES

Alive in Christ The Cross The Kingdom of God My Soul Magnifies the Lord Out of the Depths RevivalTrue Happiness Truth Unchanged, Unchanging Why Does God Allow War? (originally Why Does God Allow Suffering?) GREAT DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE Volume 1: God the Father, God the Son Volume 2: God the Holy Spirit Volume 3: The Church and Last Things (also available in one volume: Great Doctrines of the Bible) LIFE IN CHRIST: STUDIES IN 1 JOHN Volume 1: Fellowship with God Volume 2: Walking with God Volume 3: Children of God Volume 4: The Love of God Volume 5: Life in God (also available in one volume: Life in Christ) STUDIES IN THE BOOK OF ACTS Volume 1: Authentic Christianity Volume 2: Courageous Christianity Volume 3: Victorious Christianity STUDIES IN JOHN 17 Volume 1:

Walking with God Day by Day

Copyright © 2003 by Good News Publishers

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Cover design: David LaPlaca

Cover photo: Getty Images

First printing, 2003

Printed in the United States of America

Note: Why Does God Allow War? has also been published as Why Does God Allow Suffering?

All Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn.      Walking with God day by day : 365 daily devotional selections / Martyn Lloyd-Jones ; Robert Backhouse, editor.          p. cm.       ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-516-2 (alk. paper)       ISBN 10: 1-58134-516-X       1.Devotional calendars. I. Backhouse, Robert. II. Title. BV4811.L56       2003 242'.2—dc21                                           2003006384

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

LB     18    17    16    15    14    13   12    11    10    09 15     14    13    12     11    10    9    8    7    6     5     4

CONTENTS

PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD

JANUARY New Life in the Spirit (from God the Holy Spirit)

FEBRUARY Our Great Salvation (from Saved in Eternity)

MARCH Jesus’ Prayer for Us (from Safe in the World and Sanctified Through the Truth)

APRIL The Cross of Christ (from The Cross)

MAY The Gospel of Jesus Christ (from The Heart of the Gospel and Truth Unchanged, Truth Unchanging)

JUNE When God Moves in Revival (from Revival)

JULY The Kingdom of God (from The Kingdom of God and Why Does God Allow War?)

AUGUST Knowing and Serving God (from God the Father, God the Son)

SEPTEMBER Life in Christ (from God the Father, God the Son and Fellowship with God)

OCTOBER Walking with God (from Walking with God and Children of God)

NOVEMBER Tests of Truth and Love (from The Love of God)

DECEMBER

PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD

It is impossible to grow spiritually without spending time in God’s Word, the Holy Bible. Hearing Scripture on Sundays and occasionally in between is not enough—we need to feed on it regularly for ourselves.

Godly pastors and authors can greatly assist us in such an endeavor. One of these, Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981), minister of Westminster Chapel in London for thirty years, was one of the twentieth century’s leading voices in evangelical doctrine and preaching. His numerous books (many of them published after his homegoing) have brought profound spiritual encouragement to literally millions of readers around the world over the years.

Lloyd-Jones had been perhaps the most distinguished medical doctor in all of England. Early in his career, however, he left the medical profession to pursue a “higher calling,” namely, the “cure of souls.” He is noted for his penetrating diagnosis of the human condition and his persuasive proclamation of the Gospel as the only sufficient answer. This present volume is a valuable continuation of that ministry.

Walking with God Day by Day is a daily devotional sharing short excerpts from many of Dr. Lloyd-Jones’s books. The selections are encouraging, enlightening, and challenging. All who use this volume will acquire a greater grasp of biblical truth (concerning salvation, the Gospel, revival, the kingdom of God, knowing God, the victory of faith, and much more) and will learn how to grow closer to Christ with increasing faith.

It is our prayer that these brief readings from the works of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones will nurture and equip you in your walk with Christ.

The Publisher

January 1

NAMES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me. ISAIAH 61:1

The best way to approach the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is to notice the names or the descriptive titles given to this blessed Person.

First of all, there are the many names that relate Him to the Father. Let me enumerate some of them: “the Spirit of God” (Genesis 1:2); “the Spirit of the Lord” (Luke 4:18); “the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Another is “the Spirit of the Lord GOD,” which is in Isaiah 61:1. Our Lord speaks, in Matthew 10:20, of “the Spirit of your Father,” while Paul refers to “the Spirit of the living God” (2 Corinthians 3:3). “My Spirit,” says God in Genesis 6:3, and the psalmist asks, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit?” (Psalm 139:7). He is referred to as His Spirit—God’s Spirit—in Numbers 11:29; and Paul, in Romans 8:11, uses the phrase “the Spirit of him [God the Father] that raised up Jesus from the dead.” All these are descriptive titles referring to the Holy Spirit in terms of His relationship to the Father.

In the second group are the titles that relate the Holy Spirit to the Son. First, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9), which is a most important phrase. The word “Spirit” here refers to the Holy Spirit. In Philippians 1:19, Paul speaks about “the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” and in Galatians 4:6 he says, “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son.” Finally He is referred to as “the Spirit of the Lord” (Acts 5:9).

The third group comprises the direct or personal titles, and first and foremost here, of course, is the name Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. Some people are confused by those two terms, but they mean exactly the same thing. The English language is a hybrid that has borrowed from other languages, and “Ghost” is an old Anglo-Saxon word, while “Spirit” is derived from the Latin spiritus.

Notice the names or the descriptive titles given to the Holy Spirit.

January 2

WHY IS THE HOLY SPIRITCALLED HOLY?

But ye have an unction from the Holy One. 1 JOHN 2:20

Why is the Holy Spirit called holy? Surely, the explanation is that it is His special work to produce holiness and order in all that He does in the application of Christ’s work of salvation. His objective is to produce holiness, and He does that in nature and creation, as well as in human beings. But His ultimate work is to make us a holy people, holy as the children of God. It is also probable that He is described as the Holy Spirit in order to differentiate Him from the other spirits—the evil spirits. That is why we are told to test the spirits and to prove them and to know whether they are of God or not (1 John 4:1).

Then the next great question is the personality or the personhood of the Spirit. The personhood of the Holy Spirit is not only forgotten by those whom we describe as liberals or modernists in their theology, but we ourselves are often guilty of precisely the same thing. I have heard most orthodox people referring to the Holy Spirit and His work as “it” and “its” influence and so on, as if the Holy Spirit were nothing but an influence or a power. And hymns, too, frequently make the same mistake. There is a confusion about the Holy Spirit, and I am sure there is a sense in which many of us find it a little more difficult to conceive of the third person in the blessed Holy Trinity than to conceive of the Father or the Son.

Why is there this tendency to think of Him as a force or an influence or an emanation? There are a number of answers to that question, but they are not good reasons. His work seems to be impersonal because it is a kind of mystical and secret work. He produces graces and fruits; He gives us gifts, and He gives us various powers. And because of that, we tend to think of Him as if He were some influence. I am sure that this is a great part of the explanation.

His special work is to produce holiness.

January 3

THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost . . . 2 CORINTHIANS 13:14

The Holy Spirit is identified with the Father and the Son in such a way as to indicate personality.

There are two great arguments here. The first is the baptismal formula: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:19). Here He is associated with the Father and the Son in a way that of necessity points to His personality.

The second argument is based on the apostolic benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost . . . Obviously the Holy Spirit is a person in line with the person of the Father and of the Son.