Devotional - Wednesday 10/26/11 - "devotion"

[lightsoutcalls]

1 Corinthians 10:31
New Life Version (NLV)

31 So if you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything to honor God.

I have a confession to make.  God has prompted me to examine the depth of my interaction with Him lately.  This morning I was searching for some verses about prayer to include in today's devotional.  You know, some of those "oldies but goodies" that everyone would be familiar with and could relate to.  Little did I know that God was about to lay the lumber to my forehead...  In searching, I found the following from a gentleman by the name of E M Bounds.  More about him after the text:

The very essence of prayer is the spirit of devotion. Without devotion prayer is an empty form, a vain round of words. Sad to say, much of this kind of prayer prevails, today, in the church. This is a busy age, bustling and active, and this bustling spirit has invaded the church of God. Its religious performances are many. The church works at religion with the order, precision and force of real machinery. But too often it works with the heartlessness of the machine. There is much of the treadmill movement in our ceaseless round and routine of religious doings. We pray without praying. We sing without singing with the Spirit. We have music without the praise of God being in it. We go to church by habit, and come home all too gladly when the benediction is pronounced. We read our accustomed chapter in the Bible, and feel quite relieved when the task is done. We say our prayers by rote, as a schoolboy recites his lesson, and are not sorry when the Amen is uttered. Christianity has to do with everything but our hearts. It engages our hands and feet; it takes hold of our voices; it lays its hands on our money; it affects even the postures of our bodies, but it does not take hold of our affections, our desires, our zeal, and make us serious, desperately in earnest, and cause us to be quiet and worshipful in the presence of God.

Why all these sad defects in our piety? Why this modern perversion of the true nature of the religion of Jesus Christ? Why is the modern type of Christianity so much like a jewel-case with the precious jewels gone? The great lack of the modern Church is the spirit of devotion. We hear sermons in the same spirit with which we listen to a lecture or hear a speech. We visit the house of God just as if it were a common place, on a level with the theater, the lecture-room or the forum. We handle sacred things just as if they were the things of the world. We need to put the spirit of devotion into Monday's business, as well as in Sunday's worship. We need the spirit of devotion to remind us of the presence of God, to be always doing the will of God, to direct all things always to the glory of God.

The spirit of devotion puts God in all things. It puts God not merely in our praying and church-going, but in all the concerns of life. "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." The spirit of devotion makes the common things of earth sacred and the little things great. With this spirit of devotion, we go to business on Monday directed by the very same influence and inspired by the same influences by which we went to church on Sunday. The spirit of devotion makes a Sabbath out of Saturday, and transforms the shop and the office into a temple of God.

The spirit of devotion prevents Christianity from being a thin veneer and puts it into the very life and being of our souls. It ceases to be doing a mere work, and becomes a heart, sending its rich blood through every artery and beating with the pulsations of vigorous and radiant life. The ardor of devotion is in prayer. In the fourth chapter of Revelation, verse eight, we read: "And they rest not day nor night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." The inspiration and center of their rapturous devotion is the holiness of God. That holiness of God claims their attention, inflames their devotion. There is nothing cold, nothing dull, nothing wearisome about them or their heavenly worship. "They rest not day nor night." What zeal! What unfainting ardor and ceaseless rapture! The ministry of prayer, if it be anything worthy of the name, is a ministry of ardor, a ministry of unwearied and intense longing after God and after his holiness.

    WOW!  Uh, God, I was looking for something light... you know, something that wouldn't cause me to have to examine myself... something I could just agree with and go on with my day as planned.  (sound of screeching brakes) 

    So, are you familiar with E M Bounds?  I had heard the name, but was not familiar with him.  Think he's a pentecostal preacher from the South?  Maybe a tele-vangelist on cable?  How about a Methodist preacher from the Civil War era... BINGO... This message is approximately 150 years old.  Re-read that first paragraph of his message.  That is SO today!  This portion of his message goes to show that God and the message of God does not change with the "times". 

    This message has hit me square between the eyes this morning.  I plan on reading it a few more times throughout the day to let it soak in.  Thanks, God for deploying the lumber...

For more on E M Bounds - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_McKendree_Bounds

If you have interests and time, the above link has internal links to be able to read some of his books in PDF format for free.

[BOFF]

Thanks Wendell for the accountability, and the further  messages by Bounds.



God Bless,
David B.

[Duke0002]

Thanks, Wendell.  How easily we forget to do all to the glory of God.