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Overview
We see again what He can do. We see again who we can be.
From Robert J. Morgan (100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart, Then Sings My Soul) comes All to Jesus, a choice sampling of the Bible’s most “all”-encompassing statements, surrounded each day by inspiring stories, personal reflections, and the encouraging assurance that you are cared for in ways you never imagined.
Derived from the pages of real life and a pastor’s heart, each daily reading meets you in an ever-deeper place, revealing God’s immeasurable power and keen attention to the smallest detail. Truly, He is all you need. All year long.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781433678028 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | B&H Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 400 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
| Age Range: | 3 Months to 18 Years |
About the Author
Robert J. Morgan is a best-selling, Gold Medallion Award-winning author whose books include Then Sings My Soul, The Red Sea Rules, and The Children’s Daily Devotional Bible. He has also served as pastor of The Donelson Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee, for three decades. Morgan and his wife have three daughters and ten grandchildren.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Day 1
2 Corinthians 9:6–11
God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8 (kjv)
Missionary Amy Carmichael attended a meeting featuring the renowned preacher Dr. Andrew Bonar. "He was very old and could not speak very plainly or strongly," she recalled. "The hall was full, and I was near the back. I could not catch a single word he said, except this word all. He read 2 Corinthians 9:8 and he put every bit of strength he had into it, so that the one word rang out — all — always — all — all. I have forgotten thousands of great sermons, but that 'all' I have never forgotten, and it has helped me countless times."
The context of this verse involves giving to the Lord's work, yet the promise is larger than its context. The words God is able represent a recurring divine promise:
• He is able to establish us (Rom. 16:25).
• He is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or think (Eph. 3:20).
• He is able to keep what we have committed to Him (2 Tim. 1:12).
• He is able to aid us in temptation (Heb. 2:18).
• He is able to keep us from falling (Jude 24).
• He is able to deliver us (Dan. 3:17).
• And He is able to make all grace abound to us in all ways at all times for all things.
Our God is able! He isn't going to impart some grace or some sufficiency in some things for some good works. It's all — all — all — all!
Day 2
Proverbs 3:1–5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5
Many times I've preached this verse to myself, repeating over and over: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, ... Trust in the Lord with all your heart, ..." Recently I dug a little deeper into that word trust. According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the original term here in Proverbs 3:5 is batucha, which literally means to "trust in, feel safe, be confident, careless."
Careless — care-less, as in carefree.
The TWOT goes on to explain that this word expresses the sense of well-being and security that results from having something or someone in whom to place confidence. The basic idea behind "trust" goes beyond intellectual belief; it emphasizes an attitude or emotion of feeling safe and secure, unconcerned — being confident to the point of being care-less or carefree.
That doesn't preclude a healthy concern for things we've entrusted to the Lord. It does mean that the Proverbs 3:5-variety of trust liberates us from toxic anxiety, fear, worry, and crippling concern. The old French mystic, Jean Nicolas Grou, said, "Give yourself to Him, trust Him, fix your eye upon Him, listen to His voice, and then go on bravely and cheerfully."
Don't trust Him with some of your heart, which taps into some of His peace. Abide with total trust. That's His desire and His command for you today: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart."
Day 3
Proverbs 3:5–10
Think about Him in all] your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.
Proverbs 3:6
One time I spoke to students of Bryan College in Tennessee about God's guidance over matters large and small in our lives. Afterward I was bombarded with questions. Another speaker had suggested that God establishes certain parameters for our lives but doesn't involve Himself in specifics, that He doesn't specifically know or ordain our steps. But I believe God's guidance is detailed, daily, personal, unfailing, and preplanned, as Psalm 139:16 says: "All my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began."
If He has planned all my days, I should acknowledge Him in all my ways. That means developing the habit of deliberately pausing to ask God's will before making a purchase, giving an answer, writing a letter, making a decision, or taking an action. Acknowledge Him as Lord of that matter.
This was Nehemiah's habit, as we see in chapter 2 of his book: "Then the king asked me, 'What is your request?' So I prayed to the God of heaven and answered the king." In the royal palace in Susa that day, no one noticed the slight pause in the conversation. But during that strategic second of silence, Nehemiah shot an arrow of prayer heavenward and consulted God, quietly asking: "Lord, give me wisdom and grant me favor!"
Strategic pauses like that throughout the day would save us from many mistakes.
Day 4
John 21:15–19
Lord, You know all] things.
John 21:17 (nkjv)
One day while perusing A. W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy, I came across a peculiar idea. Tozer asserted that God has never learned anything. He cannot learn; it is impossible. Imagine the lifted eyebrows if a pastor started Sunday's sermon with that declaration. But Tozer was right. Because God is omniscient, He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. There isn't a scrap of information, a byte of data, or a spark of genius that He hasn't known from eternity past. He compasses and surpasses all facts; He comprehends and transcends all reality; and in Him are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
That means all truth is God's truth, and true science will never contradict the realities of Scripture. It means He knows the future as well as the past, and He is guiding His creation toward pre-appointed ends. Yet it means more. As Peter acknowledged in John 21, Jesus also knows the world within us.
He knows my strengths, so He can use me for His purpose. He knows my weaknesses, so He can perfect what concerns me. He knows my anxieties, so He can reassure me with His promises. He knows my hurts, so He can apply His salve. He knows my sins, so He can cleanse my soul. He knows my failures, so He can work all things for my good. He knows my past, so He can lead me toward maturity. And He knows my future, so He can lead me all the way.
All wise, all good, almighty Lord, Jesus, by highest Heav'n adored.
— Charles Wesley, 1745
Day 5
Psalm 5
Let all] who take refuge in You rejoice; let them shout for joy forever.
Psalm 5:11
During two periods of my life I've suffered bouts of depression, so I know something of its perils. According to the World Health Organization, major depression is the fourth-leading cause of disability in the world, and it's on its way to becoming the second-leading cause, just behind heart disease.
It's a complex illness, and I don't want to oversimplify it. Yet our depression, anxiety, anger, or fear is often the by-product of discounting the unfailing promises of God. Israel's King David suffered periodic depression, as revealed in some of his psalms. He often brought his heavy heart to the Lord and replenished his emotions in the endless reservoirs of God's grace. In so doing, he developed this formula in Psalm 5:11 —
Relying on the Lord Rejoicing in the Lord.
That's simple enough for a wall plaque, yet it's one of the most profound equations for emotional health ever discovered: "Let all those rejoice who put their trust in You" (nkjv). The word all signifies that this truth is applicable to everyone on earth. We can all learn to rely, and thereby to rejoice.
My daughter Grace once gave me a figurine of a lazy frog with his hands behind his head, resting on a rock, legs folded leisurely. Knowing my penchant for worry, she thought it a good reminder of the acronym FROG: Fully Rely On God. It's hard to be depressed when there's a frog on your desk; and it's hard not to rejoice when you're fully relying on Him.
Day 6
Matthew 6:25–34
After all] these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all] these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all] these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:32–33 (nkjv)
England's Queen Elizabeth I once asked a British merchant to undertake a mission for the crown. "But your Highness," said the man, "such a long absence will be fatal to my business." To which the queen replied: "You take care of my business, and I will take care of yours." When the man returned, he found that the queen's patronage had enlarged his company immeasurably.
*
Alice Taylor was a missionary to China whose four children were captured by the Japanese and interned in a concentration camp during World War II. Alice suffered galloping anxiety. But she recalled her pastor once putting Matthew 6:33 like this: "If you take care of the things that are dear to God, He will take care of the things that are dear to you." Alice forced herself to focus on the Lord's work while trusting Him with her cares. In time her children came home safely to the glory of God.
*
What's our greatest need today? Whatever it is — financial, relational, physical, or emotional — it's included in that universal all. Jesus said, "All these things ... all these things ... all these things."
Day 7
Genesis 6:13–22
Thus Noah did; according to all] that God commanded him, so he did.
Genesis 6:22 (nkjv)
Total trust results in total obedience. Hebrews 11:7 says, "By faith Noah, after being warned about what was not yet seen, in reverence built an ark."
By faith Noah obeyed.
Some scholars believe no rain had fallen to Earth prior to that time. Genesis 1:7 speaks of the waters above the expanse of the sky, perhaps indicating that a vast thermal shield of vapor encased Earth and maintained a greenhouse effect. This blanket of moisture filtered the sun's destructive rays and may have contributed to the long life spans listed in Genesis. When the vapor canopy collapsed, torrential rains lasted forty days and nights. So in an age in which people knew nothing of rain, God told Noah to build an enormous ship, and Noah obeyed completely, down to the last nail.
To measure your faith, pull out the dipstick of obedience. Does God tell us to build up others with our words? To be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another? To do the work of an evangelist? To avoid sexual immorality? To keep our eyes from vanity? To meditate on Scripture?
Scottish novelist George MacDonald said, "You can begin at once to be a disciple of the Living One — by obeying Him in the first thing you can think of in which you are not obeying Him. We must learn to obey Him in everything, and so must begin somewhere. Let it be at once, and in the very next thing that lies at the door of our conscience."
Day 8
Matthew 5:17–20
Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all] is fulfilled.
Matthew 5:18 (nkjv)
A jot is the Hebrew letter yodh, the tiniest of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, about the size of an English apostrophe. Charles Ryrie said, "Though it is the smallest of the Hebrew letters it is as important as any other letter, for letters spell words, and words compose sentences, and sentences make promises. ... Every promise will be fulfilled just as it was spelled out."
A tittle is even smaller than a jot. It's a slight pen stroke that comprises part of a letter. Jesus claimed that the Word of God is inspired, accurate, authoritative, infallible, unerring, and trustworthy down to its smallest elements.
Years ago in Palm Beach, Florida, my wife Katrina was mentored by a woman named Antoinette Johnson, a devoted Christian and Bible student. Katrina eventually moved away, but the two women stayed in touch periodically. Last year while in Florida, we tracked down Mrs. J.
She was ninety-one, alert, and sporting bright oversized glasses. During our visit she told us that her diminished vision has yielded an unexpected blessing. "I use a magnifying glass now to study the Bible," she said. "I can only read one word at a time, so I put the glass on each word and study out that word before going to the next. It's taught me afresh that every single word in the Bible is precious."
Read the Bible slowly and treasure every word; not one jot or tittle will fail.
Day 9
1 Samuel 12:19–25
Above all], fear the Lord and worship Him faithfully with all] your heart, considering the great things He has done for you.
1 Samuel 12:24
Above all ... with all. ...
What a slogan for life! This verse comes at the close of one of the greatest speeches in recorded history, the farewell message of Samuel, who was bowing out after a lifetime as Israel's leader. His farewell address is the whole of 1 Samuel 12, and at one point he even called down thunder and rain from heaven — talk about visuals! — warning the people that everything depended on their serving God with all their hearts.
Someone once said that partial obedience is total disobedience. Too many of us have an unspoken idea that the stresses of life justify a little fudging of the rules. Life is hard, so we deserve a break — a little sinning here and there provides relief from the pressures we bear.
But little sins can cause big problems. After all, germs are little things, yet deadly. A spark is a little thing, but it can consume a forest. The Bible warns about the little foxes that spoil the vines, and Paul wrote that a little yeast leavens the whole lump.
On the other hand, obedience in little things is a big thing.
Is there a little sin in your heart that needs to be confessed and corrected? Some seemingly small area of obedience that should be embraced? "Above all, fear the Lord and worship Him faithfully with all your heart, considering the great things He has done for you."
Day 10
Isaiah 40:1–5
The glory of the Lord will appear, and all] humanity will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 40:5
With these words Isaiah assured the Jews of the dispersion that their warfare was over, their iniquities were pardoned, and they had a divine mission: "Prepare the way of the Lord ... make a straight highway for our God. ... Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; ... And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity will see it."
When John the Baptist arrived on the scene, he chose this as his primary text.
In 1671, German hymnist Johannes Olearius rendered Isaiah 40 into resplendent verse: "Make ye straight what long was crooked, Make the rougher places plain: / Let your hearts be true and humble, as befits His holy reign."
In 1741, George Frederick Handel chose this passage to open his oratorio, Messiah.
In 1963, Martin Luther King pealed out these words at the Lincoln Memorial: "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
For all that, the promise of Isaiah 40 has yet to be totally fulfilled. A day is coming when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Day 11
Genesis 12:1–3
All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Genesis 12:3
The transition between Genesis 11 and 12 is the Continental Divide of Scripture, even greater than the division between the Old and New Testaments. In the first eleven chapters of the Bible, God dealt with the world en masse; but in Genesis 12, He launched a far-reaching plan of redemption by choosing a man whose descendants would become a mighty nation. From that nation would come the Messiah from whom would come the church that, in turn, would take the gospel back to the whole world. This was outlined in advance in Genesis 12, given to Abraham and his "seed" or "offspring" (22:18).
(Continues…)
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Copyright © 2012 Robert J. Morgan.
Excerpted by permission of B&H Publishing Group.
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