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Day 1
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Unlock the Storehouse
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Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Eph.3:8
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In the Word of God there are rich mines of truth that we may spend our whole lifetime in exploring, and yet we shall find that we have only begun to view their precious stores ... There are unsearchable riches for us. It will take us all eternity to comprehend the riches of the glory of God and of Jesus Christ ...
Christ has said: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" ( John 7:37). Have you exhausted the fountain? No, for it is inexhaustible. Just as soon as you feel your need, you may drink, and drink again. The fountain is always full. And when you have once drunk of that fountain you will not be seeking to quench your thirst from the broken cisterns of this world; you will not be drinking from the stream which makes glad the city of God. Then your joy will be full, for Christ will be in you.
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He "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge", in whom dwells "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:3, 9) - to be brought into sympathy with Him, to know Him, to possess Him, as the heart opens more and more to receive His attributes; to know His love and power, to possess the unsearchable riches of Christ, to comprehend more and more "what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:18,19) - "this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord" (Isaiah. 54:17).
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There is no need for us to hunger, there is no need for us to thirst, while the storehouse of heaven is open for us and the key is given into our possession. What is the key? Faith, which is the gift of God. Unlock the storehouse; take of its rich treasures.
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Day 2
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Where Wisdom Begins
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Prov. 9:10
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There is a wide difference between what God has given men capacity to become, and the degree of excellence to which they actually attain.
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The Word of God presents the most potent means of education, as well as the most valuable source of knowledge, within the reach of man. The understanding adapts itself to the dimensions of the subjects with which it is required to deal. If occupied with trivial, commonplace matters only, never summoned to earnest effort to comprehend great and eternal truths, it becomes dwarfed and enfeebled. Hence the value of the Scriptures, as a means of intellectual culture ... they lead directly to the contemplation of the most exalted, the most ennobling, and the most stupendous truths that are presented to the mind of man. They direct our thoughts to the infinite Author of things. We see revealed the character of the Eternal, and listen to His voice as He communes with patriarchs and prophets. We see explained the mysteries of His providence, the great problems which have engaged the attention of every thoughtful mind, but which, without the aid of revelation, human intellect seeks in vain to solve. They open to our understanding a simple yet sublime system of theology, presenting truths which a child may grasp, but which are yet so far reaching as to baffle the powers of the strongest mind.
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The more closely God's Word is searched, and the better understood, the more vividly will the student realize that there is, beyond infinite wisdom, knowledge, and power ...
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If the youth will but learn of the heavenly Teacher, as did Daniel, they will know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those who consecrate themselves to God, and who have the protection of His grace and the quickening influence of His Spirit, will manifest keener intellectual power than the mere worldling. They will be able to reach the highest, noblest exercise of every faculty.
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Day 3
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Who May Know God?
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Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Job 11:7
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We cannot by searching find out God, but He has revealed Himself in His Son, who is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person. If we desire a knowledge of God we must be Christlike ... living a pure life through faith in Christ as a personal Saviour will bring to the believer a clearer, higher conception of God ...
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Eternal life is the reward that will be given to all who obey the two great principals of God's Law - love to God and love to man. The first four commandments define and enjoin love to God; the last six, love to our fellow men. Obedience to these commands is the only evidence man can give that he possesses a genuine, saving knowledge of God. Love for God is demonstrated by love for those for whom Christ has died. While enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, Christ gave directions regarding this love. Distinctly and clearly He laid down the principles of heaven as rules that His chosen people were to observe in their dealings one with another. These principles Christ lived out in His life of humanity. In His teaching He presented the motives that should govern the lives of His followers ...
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Those who partake of God's love through a reception of the truth will give evidence of this by making earnest, self-sacrificing efforts to give the message of God's love to others. Thus they become laborers together with Christ. Love for God and for one another unites them with Christ by golden links. Their life is bound up with His life in sanctified, elevated union ... This union causes rich currents of Christ's love to flow continually into the heart, and then flow forth again in love for others.
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The qualities that it is essential for all to possess in order to know God are those that mark the completeness of Christ's character - His love, His patience, His unselfishness. These attributes are cultivated by doing kind actions with a kindly heart.
Day 4
Superficial Knowledge Not Enough
“to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27.
There are many mysteries in the word of God that we do not comprehend, and many of us are content to stop our investigation when we have just begun to receive a little knowledge concerning Christ. When there begins to be a little unfolding of the divine purposes to the mind, and we begin to obtain a slight knowledge of the character of God, we become satisfied and think that we have received all the light that there is for us in the word of God. But the truth of God is infinite. With painstaking effort we should work in the mines of truth, discovering the precious jewels that have been hidden.... Jesus meant just what he said when he directed his disciples to “search the Scriptures” (John 5:39). Searching means to compare Scripture with Scripture, and spiritual things with spiritual. We should not be satisfied with a superficial knowledge.
We do not have to realize what the Lord is willing to do for his people.... our petitions, mingled with faith and contrition, should go up to God for an understanding of the mysteries that God would make known to his saints..... An angel's pen could not portray all the glory of the revealed plan of redemption. The Bible tells how Christ bore our sins and carried our sorrows. Here is revealed how mercy and truth have met together at the cross of Calvary, how righteousness and peace have kissed each other, how the righteousness of Christ may be imparted to fallen man. There infinite wisdom, infinite justice, infinite mercy, and infinite love are displayed. Depths, heights, lengths, and breadths of love and wisdom, all passing knowledge, are made known in the plan of salvation.
He who desires the truth in his heart, who longs for the working of its power upon the life in character, will be sure to have it. Says the Savior. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled“ (Matthew 5:6)
Day 5
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Christ the Eternal Word
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“in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made”. John 1:1-3
Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father - one in nature, in character, in purpose – the only being that could enter into all the councils and purposes of God. “His name shall be called wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, Prince of peace. “His goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.“ And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: “the Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting.....When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him“ (Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2; Prov. 8:22-30).
The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings. By Him were all things created,... whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him (Col. 1:16). Angels are God's ministers, radiant with the light ever flowing from His presence, and speeding on rapid wing to execute His will. But the Son, the anointed of God, the “express image of His person,“ “the brightness of His glory,“ “upholding all things by the word of his power,“ holds supremacy over them all.
(Hebrews 1:3).
Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense....The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of Heaven. He was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the adoring homage of the angels was received by Him as His right....
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was one with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory.
Day 6
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The Great I Am
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"Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say onto you, before Abraham was, I am". John 8:58
I Am means an eternal presence; the past, present, and future are alike with God. He sees the most remote events of past history and the far distant future with as clear vision as we do those things which are transpiring daily. We know not what is before us, and if we did, it would not contribute to our eternal welfare. God gives us an opportunity to exercise faith and trust in the great I Am.... our saviour says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). Fifteen hundred years before Christ laid off his royal robe, His kingly crown, and left His position of honour in the heavenly courts, assumed humanity, and walked a man among the children of men, Abraham saw His day, and was glad. “Then said the Jews onto him, thou are not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (verses 57, 58)...
Christ was using the great name of God that was given to Moses to express the idea of the eternal presence. [see Ex. 3:14] Isaiah also saw Christ, and his prophetic words are full of significance. He says, “for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace“ (Isa. 9:6). Speaking through him, the Lord says, “I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel, thy Savior..... fear not: for I am with thee ....Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was I am he.... I am the Lord, your holy one, the creator of Israel, your king“ (Isa. 43:3-15)... when Jesus came to our world, he proclaimed himself, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me“ (John 14:6)...
The Lord must be believed and served as the great “I am,“ and we must trust implicitly in Him.
Day 7
Coworkers in Creation
"And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness.... so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he them; male and female created he them". Gen. 1:26,27.
After the earth was created, and the beasts upon it, the Father and Son carried out their purpose, which was designed before the fall of Satan, to make men in their own image. They had wrought together in the creation of the earth and every living thing upon it. And now God said to his Son, “let us make man in our image.“
Adam and Eve came forth from the hand of their Creator in the perfection of every physical, mental, and spiritual endowment. God planted for them a garden and surrounded them with everything lovely and attractive to the eye, and that which their physical necessities required....
The holy pair looked upon nature as a picture of unsurpassed loveliness. The brown earth was clothed with a carpet of living green, diversified with an endless variety of self- propagating, self- perpetuating flowers. Shrubs, flowers, and trailing vines regaled the senses with their beauty and fragrance. The many varieties of lofty trees were laden with fruit of every kind and of delicious flavor...
Adam and Eve could trace the skill and glory of God in every spire of grass and in every shrub and flower. The natural loveliness which surrounded them, like a mirror reflected the wisdom, excellence, and love of their heavenly Father. And their songs of affection and praise rose sweetly and reverentially to heaven, harmonizing with the songs of the exulted angels, and with the happy birds who were carolling fourth their music without a care. There was no disease, decay, nor death anywhere. Life, life was in everything the eye rested upon. The atmosphere was impregnated with life....
Adam could reflect that he was created in the image of God, to be like him in righteousness and holiness. His mind was capable of continual cultivation , expansion, refinement and noble elevation, for God was his teacher, and angels were his companions.
Day 8
A Sad Day for the Universe
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death past upon all men, for that all have sinned”. Romans 5:12
When our first parents were placed in the beautiful Garden of Eden, they were tested in regard to their loyalty to God. They were free to choose the service of God, or by disobedience to ally themselves with the enemy of God and man.... if they disregarded God‘s commands, and listened to the voice of Satan, as he spoke through the serpent, they would not only forfeit their claim to Eden, but to life itself.
The first great moral lesson given Adam was that of self denial. The reins of self government were placed in his hands. Judgment, reason, and conscience were to bear sway....
Adam and Eve were permitted to partake of every tree in the garden save one. There was only a single prohibition. The forbidden tree was as attractive and lovely as any of the trees in the garden. It was called the tree of knowledge, because in partaking of that tree, of which God had said, “thou shall not eat of it“ (Genesis 2:17), they would have a knowledge of sin, an experience in disobedience.
With what intense interest the whole universe watched the conflict that was to decide the position of Adam and eve. How actively the angels listened to the words of Satan, the originator of sin, as he.... sought to make of non-effect the law of God through his deceptive reasoning! How anxiously they waited to see if the holy pair would be deluded by the tempter, and yield to his arts! They asked themselves, will the holy Pair transfer their faith and love from the father and son to Satan? Will they accept his falsehoods as truth?
Adam and Eve persuaded themselves that in so small a matter as eating of the forbidden fruit, there could not result such terrible consequences as God had declared. But this small matter was sin, the transgression of God’s immutable and holy law, and it opened the floodgates of death and untold woe upon our world... Let us not esteem sin as a trivial thing.
Day 9
The Mystery of Sin
“Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee”. Ezekiel 28:14, 15.
It is impossible to explain the origin of sin so as to give a reason for its existence. Yet enough may be understood concerning both the origin and the final disposition of sin, to make fully manifest the justice and benevolence of God in all his dealings with evil. Nothing is more plainly thought in Scripture than that God was in no wise responsible for the entrance of sin.... Sin is an intruder, for whose presence no reason can be given. It is mysterious, unaccountable; to excuse it, is to defend it. Could excuse for it be found, or cause be shown for its existence, it would cease to be sin. Our only definition of sin is that given in the word of God; it is the “transgression of the law“ (John 3:4), it is the outworking of a principle at war with the great law of love which is the foundation of the divine government.
Sin originated in self seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself.... thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness.... thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God, and the night of woe settled down upon the world.
Sin appeared in a perfect universe.... The reason of its inception or development was never explained and never Canby, even at the last great day with the judgement shall sit in the books be opened.... at that day it will be evident to all that there is not, and never was, any cars for sin. At the final condemnation of Satan and his angels and of all men who have finally identified themselves with him as transgressors of God’s law, every mouth will be stopped. When the hosts of rebellion, from the first great rebel to the last transgressor, are asked why they have broken the law of God, they will be speechless. There will be no answer to give.
Day 10
Divine Enmity in the Soul
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15
Adam and Eve stood as criminals before their God, awaiting the sentence which transgression had incurred. But before they hear of the thorn and the thistle, the sorrow and anguish which should be their portion, and the dust to which they should return, they listen to words which must have inspired them with hope. Though they must suffer.... they might look forward to ultimate victory.
God declares, “I will put enmity.“ This enmity is supernaturally put, and not naturally entertained. When man sinned, his nature became evil, and he was in harmony, and not at variance, with Satan. The lofty usurper, having succeeded in seducing our first parents as he had seduced angels, counted on securing their allegiance and cooperation in all his enterprises against the government of heaven.... but when Satan heard that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, he knew that though he had succeeded in depraving human nature.... yet by some mysterious process God would restore man to his lost power, and enable him to resist and overcome his conqueror.
It is the grace that Christ implants in the soul that creates the enmity against Satan. Without this grace, man would continue the captive of Satan, a servant ever ready to do his bidding. The new principal in the soul creates conflict where hitherto had been peace. The power which Christ imparts, enables man to resist the tyrant and usurper. Whenever a man is seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, when he resists and conquers those passions that have held sway within, there is seeing the operation of a principal wholly from above. The Holy Spirit must be constantly imparted to man, or he has no disposition to contend against the powers of darkness.
Shall we not accept the enmity which Christ has placed between man and the serpent? ... We have a right to say, In the strength of Jesus Christ I will be a conqueror.
Day 11
A Star of Hope
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29
To Fallen man was revealed the plan of infinite sacrifice through which salvation was to be provided. Nothing but the death of God’s dear Son could expiate man’s sin, and Adam marvelled at the goodness of God in providing such a ransom for the sinner. Through the love of God, a star of hope illumined a terrible future that spreads before the transgressor. Through the institution of the typical system of sacrifice and offering, the death of Christ was ever to be kept before guilty man, that he might better comprehend the nature of sin, the results of transgression, and the merit of the divine offering. Had there been no sin, Man would never have known death. But in the innocent offering slain by his own hand he beheld the fruits of sin - The death of the Son of God in his behalf. He sees the immutable character of the law he has transgressed, and confesses his sin; he relies upon the merits of the Lamb of God....
In becoming man’s substitute, in bearing the curse which should fall upon man, Christ has pledged Himself in behalf of the race to maintain the sacred and exalted honour of his Father’s law... God has given the world into the hands of Christ, that he may completely vindicate the binding claims of the law and make manifest the holiness of every principle.
The sacrifice of beasts shadowed forth the sinless offering of God's dear Son, and pointed forward to His death upon the cross. But at the crucifixion type met antitype, and the typical system there ceased....
The Son of God is the centre of the great plan of redemption which covers all dispensations. He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world“ (Rev. 13:8). He is the redeemer of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam in all ages of human probation. “Neither is their salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved“ (Acts 4:12).
Day 12
God‘s Character Revealed
But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.
The fall of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent. Redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam, but an eternal purpose, suffered to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this Atom of a world, but for the good of all the worlds that God had created....
When man sinned, all heaven was filled with sorrow... Out of harmony with the nature of God, unyielding to the claims of His law, naught but destruction was before the human race. Since the divine law is as changeless as the character of God, there could be no hope for man unless someway could be devised whereby his transgression might be pardoned, his nature renewed, and his spirit restored to reflect the image of God. Divine love had conceived such a plan...
In the work of creation Christ was with God. He was one with God, equal with Him... He alone, the Creator of man, could be his Savior. No angel of heaven could reveal the Father to the sinner, and win him back to allegiance to God. But Christ could manifest the Father’s love, for God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Christ could be the "daysman” between a holy God and lost humanity, one who could “lay his hand upon us both“ (Job 9:33)... He proposed to take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin - Sin so offensive in the sight of God that it would necessitate separation from His Father. Christ proposed to reach to the depths of man’s degradation and woe, and restore the repenting, believing soul to harmony with God. Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, offered Himself as a sacrifice and substitute for the fallen sons of Adam.
Through creation and redemption, through nature and through Christ, the glories of the divine character are revealed. By the marvellous display of His love and giving “his only begotten Son,“... The character of God is revealed to the intelligences of the universe.