Quoting Martyn Lloyd-Jones #6

One of the devotionals I am using this year is Walking with God Day by Day by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I thought I would share some of my favorite passages month-by-month. (January, February, March, April, May)

From June 1

If the Lord Jesus Christ is not crucial, central, vital, and occupying the very center of our meditation and our living, thinking, and praying, we have no right to look for revival. And yet, if you go and talk to many people, even in the church, about religion, you will find that they will talk to you at great length without ever mentioning the Lord Jesus Christ. I am never tired of putting it like this, because it is something that I am so familiar with in my experience as a pastor. People come and talk to me about these things, and I put my question to them. I say, “If you had to die tonight, how would you feel?” “Oh,” they say, “I believe in God.” “All right,” I reply, “what will you say when you stand in the presence of God? What are you relying on?” “Well,” they say, “I have always tried to live a good life, I have done my best, I have tried to do good.” “But nevertheless you have sinned, haven’t you?” “Oh yes, I have sinned.” “So,” I ask, “what do you do about your sin? What will you say to God, in the presence of God, about your sin?” “Well,” they say, “I believe God is a God of love.” “And how does that help you?” “Well,” they say, “I believe that if I acknowledge my sin to God and then ask Him to forgive me, He does forgive me, and I am relying upon that.” The point I am making is that they do not even mention the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They seem to think that they can go to God directly without the Lord Jesus Christ at all. There is a great deal of so-called Christianity that is quite Christ-less.

From June 20

Moses was not content with a mere knowledge of the fact that he was accepted by God and that he was in God’s care. He knew that, but he was not content with it; he wanted more. “That I may know thee,” said Moses. He wanted a personal knowledge of God. He wanted a direct knowledge of God. And here is something that you will find in the lives of all the great saints of God in the Church throughout the ages. The first thing that happens to them is that they themselves feel this desire for a deeper knowledge of God. They begin to feel a hunger and thirst for something bigger and something deeper. They are no longer content with what I may call the ordinary condition of the Church. They want something extraordinary, something unusual. Let me give you some lines from a hymn that seem to me to put it very well indeed. Speak, I pray thee, gentle Jesus; Oh, how passing sweet, thy words, Breathing o’er my troubled spirit, Peace, which never earth affords. And then it goes on to say: Tell me thou art mine, O Savior; Grant me an assurance clear.... WILLIAM WILLIAMS That is the thing. He knows that the Savior loves him. But you see what he wants: Tell me thou art mine, O Savior. Only the man who knows the Savior’s love asks Him for that. Here is a man asking for something special, something unusual, something additional.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible