Truth For Life Program
Alistair Begg Devotional
C. H. Spurgeon Devotional
One-Year Bible Reading Plan
Despite increased persecution, the early church expanded greatly! Is growth like that still possible? What’s our role, and what’s God’s? On Truth For Life, Alistair Begg explores the answers and explains why every Christian church is a missionary church.
From the Sermon
Jesus Lifts Us Up
There is no one whom Jesus cannot help.
In Mark 9, we read about Jesus’ interaction with a child who had long been possessed by an unclean spirit. The boy’s predicament had been his lot since he was young. He could neither speak nor hear. When the demon took him, it threw him down, causing him to foam at the mouth, grind his teeth, and become rigid (Mark 9:18). This young man was caught in a dreadful circumstance, essentially trapped inside his body, unable to hear any words of comfort that may have come to him from his father, family, or friends, unable to give voice to his pain and fear. His life was marred by the attempted distortion and destruction of the image of God that he bore.
In the face of such a hopeless situation, Jesus intervened, giving a divine word of rebuke to the evil spirit. Through such a powerful rebuke, Christ drew out the enemy’s powerless rage, and the evil spirit, having done its worst, left the boy as though dead. And then Jesus raised him up.
This is what Jesus does. He takes people whose lives are decimated—those who are en route to destruction—and He does what only He can do: He enters that life, takes the person by the hand, lifts them up… and they stand.
Jesus is the only one who can truly say, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). He is the only one who can take someone who seems absolutely helpless and completely unable to effect change in themselves, and give them new life.
So today, Jesus comes to you and says, Why don’t you just bring your burdens to Me? You can’t educate yourself out of pain and sorrows. Therapy won’t give you lasting answers for all your hurt and confusion. Truly, it’s good that you know you can’t do this on your own. Bring your burdens to Me.
Not only that, but He can come to others through you. There is no one you will meet today who does not need Jesus’ help, and no one whom Jesus cannot help. However bright someone’s life looks, there is normally regret and anxiety under the surface, and there is always the sin that is slowly dragging each of us to destruction—unless and until Jesus intervenes. When you learn to see those around you in this way, you long to share Christ with them; for there is no one whom Jesus cannot help.
How is God calling me to think differently?
How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?
What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?
Jesus and Zacchaeus
1He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, 2022, The Good Book Company.
A Hard Forehead and Stubborn Heart
All the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.
Are there no exceptions? No, not one. Even God's chosen are described in this way. If the best are so bad, then what must the worst be like? Come, my heart, consider to what extent you share in this universal accusation; as you think, prepare to be ashamed of those things of which you are guilty.
The first charge is impudence, or hardness of forehead, an absence of holy shame, an unholy boldness in evil. Before my conversion, I could sin and feel no regret, hear of my guilt and remain unhumbled, and even confess my iniquity without any accompanying humiliation. When a sinner goes to God's house and pretends to pray to Him and praise Him, he displays a brazen-facedness of the worst kind! Sadly, since the day of my new birth I have doubted my Lord to His face, murmured unblushingly in His presence, worshiped Him in a slovenly manner, and sinned without bewailing myself on account of it. If my forehead were not like a diamond, harder than flint, I would display more holy fear and a far deeper contrition of spirit. Woe is me, for I am one of the impudent house of Israel.
The second charge is hard-heartedness, and I dare not attempt to plead innocent here. Once I had nothing but a heart of stone, and although through grace I now have a new and fleshy heart, much of my former stubbornness remains. I am not affected by the death of Jesus as I ought to be; neither am I moved as I should be by the lostness of my fellowmen, the wickedness of the times, the chastisement of my heavenly Father, and my own failures. O that my heart would melt at the recital of my Savior's sufferings and death. Would to God I were rid of this dreadful burden within me, this hateful body of death.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, the disease is not incurable; the Savior's precious blood is the universal remedy, and it will effectually soften me, even me, until my heart melts as wax before the fire.
Devotional material is taken from Morning and Evening, written by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright © 2003, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org. Used by Truth For Life with written permission.
Daily Bible Reading for April 29
The Nazirite Vow
1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite,1 to separate himself to the Lord, 3he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. 4All the days of his separation2 he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.
5“All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.
6“All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body. 7Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. 8All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.
9“And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. 10On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting, 11and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day 12and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled.
13“And this is the law for the Nazirite, when the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, 14and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering, 15and a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offerings. 16And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering, 17and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its grain offering and its drink offering. 18And the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. 19And the priest shall take the shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration, 20and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. They are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.
21“This is the law of the Nazirite. But if he vows an offering to the Lord above his Nazirite vow, as he can afford, in exact accordance with the vow that he takes, then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazirite.”
Aaron's Blessing
22The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
24The Lord bless you and keep you;
25the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26the Lord lift up his countenance3 upon you and give you peace.
27“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Psalm 40
My Help and My Deliverer
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
4Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
5You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.
6In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.1
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
7Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
8I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
9I have told the glad news of deliverance2
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O Lord.
10I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
11As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
ever preserve me!
12For evils have encompassed me
beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
my heart fails me.
13Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
14Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt!
15Let those be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
16But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
17As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!
Psalm 41
O Lord, Be Gracious to Me
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1Blessed is the one who considers the poor!1
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
2the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
3The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.2
4As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me,3 for I have sinned against you!”
5My enemies say of me in malice,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers iniquity;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
7All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.4
8They say, “A deadly thing is poured out5 on him;
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
9Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them!
11By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
12But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.
13Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
Solomon Admires His Bride's Beauty
He
1Behold, you are beautiful, my love,
behold, you are beautiful!
Your eyes are doves
behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
2Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
that have come up from the washing,
all of which bear twins,
and not one among them has lost its young.
3Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
and your mouth is lovely.
Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil.
4Your neck is like the tower of David,
built in rows of stone;1
on it hang a thousand shields,
all of them shields of warriors.
5Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle,
that graze among the lilies.
6Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
I will go away to the mountain of myrrh
and the hill of frankincense.
7You are altogether beautiful, my love;
there is no flaw in you.
8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;
come with me from Lebanon.
Depart2 from the peak of Amana,
from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
from the dens of lions,
from the mountains of leopards.
9You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
10How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
11Your lips drip nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
12A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a spring locked, a fountain sealed.
13Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates
with all choicest fruits,
henna with nard,
14nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes,
with all choice spices—
15a garden fountain, a well of living water,
and flowing streams from Lebanon.
16Awake, O north wind,
and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden,
let its spices flow.
Together in the Garden of Love
She
Let my beloved come to his garden,
and eat its choicest fruits.
1Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.1 3For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5And again in this passage he said,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
6Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8For if Joshua had given them rest, God2 would not have spoken of another day later on. 9So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Jesus the Great High Priest
14Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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