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Days of Heaven on Earth Devotional for July 30

“If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God and wilt keep all His statutes”

(Exodus 15:26)

Sometimes people fail because they have not confidence in the Physician. The very first requirement of this Doctor is, that you trust Him, and trust Him implicitly, so implicitly that you go forward on His bare word, and act as if you had received His healing the moment you claimed His promise. But no one would expect to be healed by an earthly doctor as soon as they obeyed his directions.

You must do what the Great Physician tells you, if you expect Him to make you whole.

You cannot expect to be healed if you are living in sin, any more than you could expect the best physician to cure you while you lived in a malarial climate and inhaled poison with every breath. So you must get up into the pure air of trust and obedience before Christ can make you whole. And then, if you will trust Him, and attend to His directions, you will find that there is balm in Gilead, and that there is a Great Physician there.

Copyright Statement This material is considered in the public domain.

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Charles Spurgeon's "Faith's Checkbook" Devotional for July 30

“Promise of Future Meeting ”

John 16:22

Surely He will come a second time, and then, when He sees us and we see Him, there will be rejoicings indeed. Oh, for that joyous return! But this promise is being dainty fulfilled in another sense. Our gracious LORD has many "agains" in His dealings with us. He gave us pardon, and He sees us again and repeats the absolving word as fresh sins cause us grief. He has revealed to us our acceptance before God, and when our faith in that blessing grows a little dim, He comes to us again and again and says, "Peace be unto you," and our hearts are glad.

Beloved, all our past mercies are tokens of future mercies. If Jesus has been with us, He will see us again. Look upon no former favor as a dead and buried thing, to be mourned over; but regard it as a seed sown, which will grow, and push its head up from the dust, and cry, "I will see you again." Are the times dark because Jesus is not with us as He used to be? Let us pluck up courage; for He will not be long away. His feet are as those of a roe or young hart, and they will soon bring Him to us. Wherefore let us begin to be joyous, since He saith to us even now, "I will see you again."

Copyright Statement These files are public domain.

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Charles Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening" Devotional for July 30

Morning

“Thou shalt tread upon the lion.”

Daniel 6:4-24

Darius made Daniel the prime minister of his empire, and this excited the envy of those beneath him.

Daniel 6:6 , Daniel 6:7

This would be highly flattering to the king, and it was cunningly framed to entrap him. It would sound so grandly that no prayer was made on earth by the space of one month, save that which was addressed to the great Darius. How often are men snared by their own pride!

Daniel 6:8 , Daniel 6:9

Little dreaming what he had thereby done. It is wise to consider a long time before we set our hands to any writing, otherwise we may soon sign away the inheritance of our children.

Daniel 6:10

He made no alteration, not even in the mode of his worship, lest there should be thought to be any wavering in him. To him life or death was not the question, but loyalty to his Lord was all in all. He would not bate one jot in his adherence to his God, and he took care that his enemies should know this at the very outset.

Daniel 6:15

This rule was an affectation of grandeur, and a very foolish one. Immutability is for God, and not for men.

Daniel 6:18

He was far more wretched in his palace than Daniel in the den. What a grand night the prophet must have spent: no wonder that he afterwards saw visions of terrible beasts, and yet felt no fear.

Daniel 6:21 , Daniel 6:22

Well, kindly and courteously spoken. He did not blame the king, but saluted him right loyally.

Daniel 6:23

God can still shut lions’ mouths. Let us do the right at all hazards, and the Lord will deliver us. Daniel’s God still lives: are we prepared to be Daniels?

The Christian, like his Lord of old,

Must look for foes and trials here;

Yet may the weakest saint be bold,

With such a friend as Jesus near.

The lion’s roar need not alarm,

O Lord, the feeblest of thy sheep;

Nor can the fiercest monster harm,

While thou art nigh to watch and keep.

Therefore I will thy foes defy,

And own thee as my God, my friend;

No fear shall make me e’er deny

The God on whom my hopes depend.

Thus saith God of his Anointed;

He shall let my people go;

‘Tis the work for him appointed,

‘Tis the work that he shall do;

And my city

He shall found, and build it too.

He shall humble all the scorners,

He shall fill his foes with shame;

He shall raise and comfort mourners

By the sweetness of his name;

To the captives

He shall liberty proclaim.

He shall gather those that wander’d;

When they hear the trumpet’s sound,

They shall join his sacred standard,

They shall come and flock around:

He shall save them;

They shall be with glory crown’d.

Praise ye the Lord; ‘tis good to raise

Our hearts and voices in his praise:

His nature and his works invite

To make this duty our delight.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem,

And gathers nations to his name:

His mercy melts the stubborn soul,

And makes the broken spirit whole.

His church is precious in his sight;

He makes her glory his delight,

His treasures on her head are pour’d;

O Zion’s children, praise the Lord.

There is a fountain fill’d with blood,

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins:

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power,

Till all the ransom’d church of God

Be saved to sin no more.

E’er since by faith I saw the stream

Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme,

And shall be till I die.

Many times since days of youth,

May Israel truly say,

Foes devoid of love and truth

Afflict me day by day;

Yet they never can prevail,

God defends his people still;

Jesus’ power can never fail

To save from all that’s ill.

God hath Zion set apart

For his abiding place;

Sons of wrath and guileful art

He’ll banish from his face:

God for Israel doth fight;

Israel, on thy God depend;

Christ shall keep thee day and night,

Till all thy troubles end.

Evening

“He shall let go my captives.”

Ezra 1

Babylon had overthrown Judah, and now in its turn it was vanquished by Cyrus: this was greatly for the good of the Jews, for the Persian king became their friend and patron, according to ancient prophecies. Thus the Lord’s purposes were fulfilled. When his time is come, all things work together to accomplish his designs.

Ezra 1:1 , Ezra 1:2

It is delightful to hear such an acknowledgment from so great a king, and to see him so cheerfully take up his allotted work. We also have received all that we have from God, and should be prompt to do his bidding.

Ezra 1:6

The king’s word and example excited a good feeling towards the Jews, so that they went out of Babylon as aforetime they had gone out of Egypt, laden with silver and gold.

Ezra 1:7 , Ezra 1:8

These vessels were the lawful spoil of Cyrus when he captured the city of Babylon and its temples: a generous spirit prompted him to restore them to their ancient use. God knows how to provide for his own temple; Cyrus restored the vessels, but the Lord’s hand was in the matter.

Ezra 2:64 , Ezra 2:65 , Ezra 2:68 , Ezra 2:69

Encouraged by the Persian king, a considerable number returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, though not such a company as might have been expected when affairs were so favourable.

Ezra 2:64 , Ezra 2:65 , Ezra 2:68 , Ezra 2:69

They had brought generous hearts with them, and at the sight of the sacred site they laid down their voluntary offerings that the Lord’s house might be restored. God’s house should be considered before our own house.

Copyright Statement This resource was produced before 1923 and therefore is considered in the "Public Domain".

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Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer Devotional for July 30

Tozer in the Morning The Cross is a Radical Thing

The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men.

The cross of the Roman times knew no compromise; it never made concessions. It won all its arguments by killing its opponent and silencing him for good. It spared not Christ, by slew Him the same as the rest. He was alive when they hung Him on that cross and completely dead when they took him down six hours later. That was the cross the first time it appeared in Christian history.

After Christ was risen from the dead the apostles went out to preach His message, and what they preached was the cross. And wherever they went into the wide world they carried the cross, and the same revolutionary power went with them. The radical message of the cross transformed Saul of Tarsus and changed him from a persecutor of Christians to a tender believer and an apostle of the faith. Its power changed bad men into good ones. It shook off the long bondage of paganism and altered completely the whole moral and mental outlook of the Western world.

All this it did and continued to do as long as it was permitted to remain what it had been originally, a cross. Its power departed when it was changed from a thing of death to a thing of beauty. When men made of it a symbol, hung it around their necks as an ornament or made its outline before their faces as a magic sign to ward off evil, then it became at best a weak emblem, at worst a positive fetish. As such it is revered today by millions who know absolutely nothing about its power.

The cross effects its ends by destroying one established pattern, the victim's, and creating another pattern, its own. Thus it always has its way. It wins by defeating its opponent and imposing its will upon him. It always dominates. It never compromises, never dickers nor confers, never surrenders a point for the sake of peace. It cares not for peace; it cares only to end its opposition as fast as possible.

With perfect knowledge of all this Christ said:

Luke 9:23 (NIV) "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

So the cross not only brings Christ's life to an end, it ends also the first life, the old life, of every one of His true followers. It destroys the old pattern, the Adam pattern, in the believer's life, and brings it to an end. Then the God who raised Christ from the dead raises the believer and a new life begins.

This, and nothing less, is true Christianity, though we cannot but recognize the sharp divergence of this conception from that held by the rank and file of evangelicals today. But we dare not qualify our position. The cross stands high above the opinions of men and to that cross all opinions must come at last for judgment. A shallow and worldly leadership would modify the cross to please the entertainment-mad saintlings who will have their fun even within the very sanctuary; but to do so is to court spiritual disaster and risk the anger of the Lamb turned Lion.

We must do something about the cross, and one of two things only we can do--flee it or die upon it. And if we should be so foolhardy as to flee we shall by that act put away the faith of our fathers and make of Christianity something other than it is. Then we shall have left only the empty language of salvation; the power will depart with our departure from the true cross.

If we are wise we will do what Jesus did: endure the cross and despise its shame for the joy that is set before us. To do this is to submit the whole pattern of our lives to be destroyed and built again in the power of an endless life. And we shall find that it is more than poetry, more than sweet hymnody and elevated feeling. The cross will cut into where it hurts worst, sparing neither us nor our carefully cultivated reputations. It will defeat us and bring our selfish lives to an end. Only then can we rise in fullness of life to establish a pattern of living wholly new and free and full of good works.

The changed attitude toward the cross that we see in modern orthodoxy proves not that God has changed, nor that Christ has eased up on His demand that we carry the cross; it means rather that current Christianity has moved away from the standards of the New Testament. So far have we moved indeed that it may take nothing short of a new reformation to restore the cross to its right place in the theology and life of the Church.

Tozer in the Evening Faith and Fiction

Credulity and faith are like toadstools and mushrooms respectively, near enough in appearance to be mistaken for each other, but so wholly unlike that their effects are exactly opposite.

The true man of faith is seldom credulous, and the credulous man seldom has real faith. Faith belongs to the simple-hearted, credulity to the simple-minded. They are worlds apart. The one honors God by believing His promises against all evidence; the other is a child of superstition and honors nobody. Rather, he reveals untidy mental habits and lack of spiritual insight.

It is astonishing what some people will believe when they get going. They properly hold it a sin to doubt the Bible, so they refuse to doubt anything that is served up along with the Bible, however ridiculous and unscriptural it may be. If the story has a flavor of wonder about it, these uncritical friends will accept it without question and repeat it in an awed voice with much solemn shaking of the bowed head. Multiply such people in any given church, and you have a perfect soil for the growth of every kind of false teaching and fanatical excess.

Copyright Statement This material is considered in the public domain.

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Wayside Chapel Daily Devotional 30th July 2025

7/30 1 Corinthians 14:27-28

27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.

For some strange reason, many churches today completely ignore or explain away this verse. The gift of tongues can become quite a divisive issue. If the church followed Paul's simple, inspired guideline, it would not be such a problem. Instead, you can walk into some churches today and hear a roar of almost everyone praying aloud in tongues. Paul clearly warns that this will sound like a group of foreigners to anyone who happens to attend. It doesn't build up the body of believers, which is the purpose of the gifts when we are together (1 Corinthians 14:4, 6-12).

Notice how the word "if" begins our verse today. Tongues are not necessary to a worship service. But if there are people who feel they must exercise that gift, limit the tongues to two or three persons, one at a time, and then only if someone can interpret. Otherwise, they can silently exercise that gift between themselves and God.

There is a variety of beliefs in the church regarding this gift. Some think the gifts are no longer functioning since we have the Bible. Others think everyone should have this gift. The Scriptures seem to indicate it can be the miraculous gift of speaking another's language (Acts 2:8). Another expression of the same gift is a heavenly language that is between your spirit and God in prayer (1 Corinthians 14:2). Paul's concern was that we be aware of how our gifts affect others. With the exception of a prayer language, all gifts should edify the believers (1 Corinthians 12:7).

Consider: When someone claims to have a gift of the Spirit but is being divisive and not edifying to the body of believers, the elders of the church should confront the person in love, using the Scriptures. Everything should be done decently and orderly (1 Corinthians 14:33). What is your gift? How are you helping to build up the believers where you worship?