DAILY FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD by ANDREW MURRAY.

'Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.' 1 John 1.3 1. The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God. The Divine life within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent upon Him. As I need every moment afresh the air to breathe, as the sun every moment afresh sends down its light, so it is only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be strong. The manna of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every day have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting upon God Himself. Begin each day by tarrying before God, and letting Him touch you. Take time to meet God. 2. To this end, let your first act in your devotions be a setting yourself still before God. In prayer, or worship, everything depends upon faith and adoration, speaking thus within my heart: "God is. God is near. God is love, longing to communicate Himself to me. God the Almighty One, Who worketh all in all, is even now waiting to work in me, and make Himself known." Take time, till you know God is very near. 3. When you have given God His place of honor, glory, and power, take your place of deepest lowliness, and seek to be filled with the Spirit of humility. As a creature, it is your blessedness to be nothing, that God may be all in you. As a sinner, you are not worthy to look up to God ; bow in self-abasement. As a saint, let God's love overwhelm you, and bow you still lower down. Sink down before Him in humility, meekness, patience, and surrender to His goodness and mercy. He will exalt you. Oh! take time, to get very low before God. 4. Then accept and value your place in Christ Jesus. God delights in nothing but His beloved Son, and can be satisfied with nothing else in those who draw nigh to Him. Enter deep into God's holy presence in the boldness which the blood gives, and in the assurance that in Christ you are most wellpleasing. In Christ you are within the veil. You have access into the very heart and love of the Father. This is the great object of fellowship with God, that I may have more of God in my life, and that God may see Christ formed in me. Be silent before God and let Him bless you. 5. This Christ is a living Person. He loves you with a personal love, and He looks every day for the personal response of your love. Look into His face with trust, till His love really shines into your heart. Make His heart glad by telling Him that you do love Him. He offers Himself to you as a personal Saviour and Keeper from the power of sin. Do not ask, can I be kept from sinning, if I keep close to Him? but ask, can I be kept from sinning, if He always keeps close to me? and you see at once how safe it is to trust Him. 6. We have not only Christ's life in us as a power, and His presence with us as a person, but we have His likeness to be wrought into us. He is to be formed in us, so that His form or figure, His likeness, can be seen in us. Bow before God until you get some sense of the greatness and blessedness of the work to be carried on by God in you this day. Say to God, "Father, here am I for Thee to give as much in me of Christ's likeness as I can receive." And wait to hear Him say, "My child, I give thee as much of Christ as thy heart is open to receive." The God who revealed Jesus in the flesh and perfected Him, will reveal Him in thee and perfect thee in Him. The Father loves the Son, and delights to work out His image and likeness in thee. Count upon it that this blessed work will be done in thee as thou waitest on thy God, and boldest fellowship with Him. 7. The likeness to Christ consists chiefly in two things—the likeness of His death and resurrection, (Rom. 6: 5). The death of Christ was the consummation of His humility and obedience, the entire giving up of His life to God. In Him we are dead to sin. As we sink down in humility and dependence and entire surrender to God, the power of His death works in us, and we are made conformable to His death. And so we know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the victory over sin, and all the joy and power of the risen life. Therefore every morning, "present yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead." He will maintain the life He gave, and bestow the grace to live as risen ones. 8. All this can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you. Count upon Him to glorify Christ in you. Count upon Christ to increase in you the inflowing of His Spirit. As you wait before God to realize His presence, remember that the Spirit is in you to reveal the things of God. Seek in God's presence to have the anointing of the Spirit of Christ so truly that your whole life may every moment be spiritual. 9. As you meditate on this wondrous salvation and seek full fellowship with the great and holy God, and wait on Him to reveal Christ in you, you will feel how needful the giving up of all is to receive Him. Seek grace to know what it means to live as wholly for God as Christ did. Only the Holy Spirit Himself can teach you what an entire yielding of the whole life to God can mean. Wait on God to show you in this what you do not know. Let every approach to God, and every request for fellowship with Him be accompanied by a new, very definite, and entire surrender to Him to work in you. 10. "By faith" must here, as through all Scripture, and all the spiritual life, be the keynote. As you tarry before God, let it be in a deep quiet faith in Him, the Invisible One, who is so near, so holy, so mighty, so loving. In a deep, restful faith too, that all the blessings and powers of the heavenly life are around you, and in you. Just yield yourself in the faith of a perfect trust to the Ever Blessed Holy Trinity, to work out all God's purpose in you. Begin each day thus in fellowship with God, and God will be all in all to you.

THE INCOMPARABLE CHRIST

More than 2000 years ago there was a man born contrary to the laws of nature. He laid aside his purple robe for a peasant’s tunic. He was rich, yet for our sake he became poor. This man lived in poverty and was raised in obscurity. He received no formal education and never possessed wealth or widespread influence. He never traveled extensively. He seldom crossed the boundary of the country in which he lived. But this man’s life has changed the course of history. In infancy he startled a king. In childhood he amazed religious scholars. In manhood he ruled the course of nature—walked on stormy waves and hushed the raging sea to sleep. He healed multitudes without medicine and made no charge for his services. He never practiced psychiatry. Yet he has healed more broken hearts than all the doctors far and near. He never wrote a book. Yet his life has inspired more books than any other man. He never wrote a song. Yet he has furnished the theme for more songs than all songwriters combined. He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students. He never marshaled an army. He never drafted a soldier or fired a gun. Yet no leader ever had more rebels surrender to him without a shot fired. Herod could not kill him. Satan could not seduce him. His enemies could not destroy him. The grave could not hold him. After three days he rose from the dead, alive forevermore! He is the ever-perfect One. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. This man stands forth upon the highest pinnacle of heavenly glory, proclaimed by God, acknowledged by angels, adored by his people, and feared by demons as the risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What the Bible says about the incomparable Christ… All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all…he hath poured out his soul unto death…and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:6, 12 Christ Jesus…being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but…took upon him the form of a servant…and, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father. Philippians 2:5-11 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:9-10

A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE

Sometimes we lose focus in our daily lives, and due to the cares and troubles that come to us, we are tempted to lose sight of our goal in life. We then struggle on to get by in our own strength with no clear aim in view. Scripture is full of great exhortations reminding us to run the race before us and fix our eyes on Christ. In a similar vein, the hymn writer Charles Wesley encouraged himself and others through his many hymns. Here in a couple of verses, he encapsulates what we as Christian believers are about, our raison d'être, if you will, what through His grace we seek to achieve with our lives. May these words encourage us to keep our focus and motivate our actions. 'A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify, A never-dying soul to save, And fit it for the sky. To serve the present age, My calling to fulfill; Oh, may it all my powers engage To do my Master's will!' Andrew