The Psalmist says of the Lord, his Shepherd, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,” or as the Hebrew has it, “in pastures of tender grass.” What a world of significance there is in this little sentence: “The Lord is my shepherd.”
“He maketh me to lie down.” He doth not compel me. That is not the Lord’s method; he findeth a better way. If He compelled me to lie down, there would be no pleasure in it. When a sheep is compelled to lie down it is in fear; it cannot but dread what is to happen to it. So the Lord doth not compel me. He leadeth me in the pastures of tender grass, and I eat until I am satisfied, and being satisfied with the sweet and luscious pasturage, I lie down, content. While the sheep is hungry, it will not lie down in the pasture; it desireth to eat, but when it hath eaten its fill, it lieth down and resteth and is satisfied. So He feedeth my soul day by day; the good things of His kingdom doth He give unto me. He satisfieth my soul with fatness. My soul desireth nothing more than what He giveth. If I hunger, He hath a supply and He giveth me and that with a generous hand. He knoweth all my needs. He supplieth every one that I may be “fat and flourishing, to show that the Lord is upright.”
There are many enemies about, but “he maketh me to lie down.” I am in quietness. My heart is not afraid. The Shepherd standeth between me and those ravening wolves. The lion and the bear cannot harm me for the Shepherd standeth as my Protector. His eye shall watch while I lie down. His ear shall hearken and shall hear the sound of their footsteps if they come near. I trust the Shepherd, therefore my heart is not afraid, and I shall lie down safely. It is trust that enableth me to lie down. If I were afraid, I could not thus rest. I should be watching and fearing and trembling. Every noise would alarm me. I should forget about the green pastures. I should forget the tender grass. But He is watching. He hath His weapon in His hand. He doth not fear my enemies, and while He is watching I do not fear them, for He is strong and mighty. He is greater than my foes. They know it and are afraid. They tremble at His voice. They flee away but I lie safely.
The “why” of life is found nowhere else. Other books tell us many truths about life, yet its depths and meaning find expression and answer in only one Book. It interprets life, and he who reads the interpretation knows that it is true because it is the story of himself, and in himself is the witness of its truth. Men have sought everywhere the secret of life and the things that pertain thereto, but everywhere, save in the Bible, they find only darkness and obscurity and uncertainty. The Bible, however, speaks in no uncertain terms. It speaks the language of Him who knows, and if we reject its voice we are left in a tangled maze out of which we cannot find our way.
The Bible outlives all its critics and is triumphant when they are forgotten; it has many times been pronounced dead, but still it lives; it has been called “exploded,” but its power is not dissipated; it has seen all antagonistic theories of the past, one by one, destroyed and rejected. But it still stands, in spite of the critic, in spite of its enemies, and those who anchor their faith upon it need not fear what voice is raised against it. Neither need they fear what weapons are brought to bear upon it, for it is truth, and those who fight against it fight against God and are themselves ruined.
It is adapted to all people of every race and clime, to the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant. Of no other book can this be said. It is the Book of books, the Book of God. In it God speaks, and my inmost heart knows that it is the voice of my Beloved and leaps for joy.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#devotionals #devotional #daily devotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod
A soldier, desperately wounded, lay in a trench. The shells were bursting around him; the bullets and shrapnel were whistling through the air; the roar of the guns shook the ground. He was going down into the valley of the shadow of death. Knowing that he must pass over to the other side, he reached into his pocket with his little remaining strength and pulled therefrom a soldier’s Testament. Handing it to a comrade he said, “Read to me.” His comrade opened the book and began to read—“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may be also.” A smile overspread the face of the dying soldier as he listened to the words amid that solemn and terrible scene. He closed his eyes and lay quiet, still smiling, then he murmured, “It is well.” And with a smile still upon his face, he passed across to the other side.
For what book do the dying call? For just any book? What words do they wish to hear in the final hour? There is but one Book for that hour; but one that can throw light into that shadowy valley. That is the Bible. It is the Book of the living and of the dying, the Book of the sorrowing and of the hopeless. It is just such a Book as the loving Father would give to the children whom He loves, and it meets their need in all the details of their lives as only God could meet it, and therefore I can but believe that it is the Book of God.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#devotionals #devotional #daily devotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod
To what book do those in sorrow turn? To Voltaire? To Ingersoll? To Haeckel? Do they turn to science or philosophy or poetry or fiction? There is but one Book that is the Book of comfort. The sad and desolate heart turns to its pages, and as it reads, the consolation of the Holy Spirit, which fills the Book, comes into that heart, and it is comforted. It is as the balm of Gilead; it is as a letter from home to the wanderer; it is as a mother’s voice to the child. Friends may speak words to comfort us, but they cannot comfort us as does the Book; its words seem to enter into our innermost sorrows with a healing touch. God is the God of all comfort, and it is the comforting God in this comforting Book that comforts the soul.
It is also the Book of hope. Sometimes man despairs, and he looks here and there for hope, finding none, but there is one Book in which hope may always be found. It always has something to offer him to inspire hope with new courage. Therefore it is the hope of the hopeless, since in the troubled soul it brings a calm—brightening dull eyes and causing them to look beyond. It lifts up the bowed head, strengthens the feeble knees, renews the courage and takes the sadness out of the voice; it is therefore truly the Book of hope.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#devotionals #devotional #daily devotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod
My deepest emotions and longings, my highest thoughts and hopes are mirrored there, and the more settled inner workings of conscience are there recorded. It speaks to me of my secret ambitions, of my dearest hopes, of my fears, of the love that burns within me. My desires are pictured in the Book just as I find them working in my heart. Whatever picture it draws of the human soul I find within myself, and whatever I find within myself I find within its pages, and thus I know that it is true. No man can know me as the Bible knows me nor picture out my inner self as the Bible pictures me, and since no work of man could correspond with my inner self as the Bible corresponds with me, I know that it did not come from man.
It is as a mirror into which every man, when he looks, sees himself. It speaks to his conscience, not as a man speaks, yet with a potency unknown to any other book. It is preeminently the Book of the conscience. Other books appeal to men’s consciences, but not with the appeal of this Book. Other books mirror men, but not like the Bible. In the silent watches of the night, in the lonely depths of the forest, upon the expanse of the sea, or wherever man may be, how frequently is it the case that this Book speaks into his conscience in a silent yet thundering voice, and before it he is awed and silenced and oftentimes terror-stricken. It speaks to the conscience as only God can speak ,and therefore it must be God’s Book.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#devotionals #devotional #daily devotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod
Though so bitterly assailed through all the ages, the Bible has withstood the assaults of all its enemies and stands victorious still. The Greek philosophers, with all their skill, were vanquished. The greatest intellects of modern times find themselves given pause before it. The sharpest arrows that unbelief could forge have not pierced it; the assaults made upon it have resulted only in the destruction of the weapons used. All through the ages countless theories—religious, philosophic, scientific or other—have been used against the Bible, only to fall in ruins at last before it and to be rejected even by those who once advocated them. The Bible endures an amount of criticism that no other book could endure, and instead of being destroyed it is only brightened and made better known. Could such a thing be truly said of error? Could error endure what the Bible has endured and live? It is the law of nature that error is self-destructive but that truth cannot be destroyed, and according to this law, the Bible must be true because of its indestructibility.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#devotionals #devotional #daily devotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod
Not only is it the best-loved Book, but it is also the most-hated Book. No other book has had so many nor such bitter enemies. I suppose more books have been written against the Bible than against all others combined. Men do not hate Shakespeare nor Milton nor Longfellow; they do not hate works on science nor philosophy; they do not hate books of travel or adventure or fiction; they do not hate the other sacred books of the world; they hate only the Bible. Why this hatred? It can be only because they find in the Bible something that they find nowhere else. What they find there is a true picture of themselves, and the picture is not pleasant to look upon, so they turn away their faces and will have nothing to do with it except to vilify and condemn it. They deliberately misrepresent it and write falsehoods about it; they satirize and ridicule it, using all sorts of weapons and all sorts of methods to combat it, and for only the one reason—that its truth pricks them in their consciences, and they can by no other means escape from it. It is judged by a standard far more stringent than any other book, not excepting the other sacred books. No critic would think of treating any other book as he treats the Bible nor of requiring of any other book what he requires of the Bible. The more men hate God, the more they hate His Word, and this has a deep, underlying reason, and that reason, I believe, is that the Bible is God’s Book and that in it there is so much of God himself.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#devotionals #devotional #daily devotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job 23:12
Wherever the Bible goes people learn to love and to treasure it above all other books combined. It is the one book that people love; it is the treasure that people hold fast, even at the risk of their lives. In past ages, when wicked rulers tried to keep it from the people they could not. At the peril of their lives, people would have it. They underwent dangers and tortures, and shrank not from anything that they might possess this wonderful Book. It is not for what it claims to be—though it claims much—not for what men claim for it but for what it is to the individual himself that it is so dearly loved. There is that in the Bible which endears itself to the human heart, and no other book has that quality. Other books are enjoyed and admired and praised and valued, but the Bible, in this respect, stands in a class by itself.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#devotionals #devotional #daily devotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod
