Andrew Murray - The Andrew Murray Daily Reader in Todays Language

The Andrew Murray Daily Reader
Copyright 2005
Bethany House Publishers

Cover design by Eric Walljasper

Ebook edition created 2012

All readings excerpted from Bethany House Publishers editions of the Andrew Murray classics and credit given at end of each selection.

Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified NKJV are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owners.

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ISBN 978-1-4412-1036-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

C ONTENTS

A BIDE A S C HRIST A BIDES IN THE F ATHER

CHRIST TAUGHT His disciples that to abide in Him was to abide in His love. The hour of His suffering is near, and He cannot speak much more to them. No doubt they have many questions to ask Him about His love and their abiding in Him. He anticipates and meets their wishes, and gives them His own life as the best expression of His command.

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.... You will abide in My love, just as I... abide in His love.
J OHN 15:910 ( NKJV )

In His life of humiliation on earth He tasted the blessing and strength of knowing himself to be the object of an infinite love, and He dwelt in it all through His days; from His own example He invites you to learn that in this the secret of your rest and joy can be found. You are one with Him: Yield yourself now to be loved by Him; let your eyes and heart open up to the love that shines and presses in on you on every side.

The believer who studies this life of Christ as the pattern and the promise of what his life can be learns to understand how the verse Without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5 NKJV ) is the forerunner of I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13 NKJV ). Dependence, subjection, and self-sacrifice are for the Christian as they were for Christ: the blessed path of life. Just as Christ lived through and in the Father, even so the believer lives through and in Christ.

Christ was the revelation of the Father on earth. He could be His revelation because the Father loved Him, and He lived in that love. Believers are the revelation of Christ on earth. They can only be this when there is perfect unity. We are His representatives, His revelation to the world that Christ loves us with an infinite love that gives itself and all it has.

Abiding in Christ

B E F ILLED W ITH THE S PIRIT

OTHER WORDS concerning the Holy Spirit are found in Acts 2:4: They were all filled with the Holy Spirit ( NKJV ) and Ephesians 5:18: Be filled with the Spirit. The one text is a narrative, telling us what actually happened. The other is a command, telling us what we should be. If there is any doubt about its being a command, we find it linked to another in the first part of the passage in Ephesians: Do not get drunk on wine.... Instead...

Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose.... No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
A CTS 2:1417

If I were to ask you if you obeyed the command not to be drunk with wine, you would no doubt answer, Of course, as a believer, I obey that command. But what of the other: Be filled with the Spirit? Have you obeyed it as well? Does your life manifest the presence of the Holy Spirit? If not, are you willing to take the command to heart and say, By Gods help I will obey. I will not rest until I am filled with the Spirit?

Now the question comes, What is needed in order to be filled with the Spirit? To find the answer we must allow God to search our lives. We might ask ourselves, Am I in the condition in which God can fill me with His Spirit? Some of you may be able to honestly answer, Thank God, I am ready. If you can say this, you may realize that you have been kept back from this full blessing by lack of knowledge, prejudice, unbelief, or a wrong idea about what being filled with the Spirit is.

Being filled with the Spirit is simply this: The whole personality is yielded to His power. When the soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God himself will fill it.

Absolute Surrender

T HE M ORNING H OUR

FROM THE EARLIEST ages Gods servants have thought of the morning as the time especially suited for the worship of God. It is still regarded by most Christians both as a duty and a privilege to devote some portion of the beginning of the day to seeking seclusion and fellowship with God.

In the morning, O L ORD , you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
P SALM 5:3

In speaking of the extreme importance of this daily time of quiet prayer and meditation on Gods Word, someone has said: Next to receiving Christ as Savior and claiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we know of no act attended with larger good to ourselves or others than the formation of an indisputable resolution to keep the watch and spend the first half hour of the day alone with God. At first glance such a statement may appear too strong. The act of receiving Christ as our Savior is one of such infinite consequence for eternity, and the step of claiming the Holy Spirit is one that is so revolutionary in the Christian life, that such a simple thing as the determination to keep the morning watch hardly appears important enough to be placed alongside them. If, however, we remember how impossible it is to live our life in Christ as our Savior from sin or to maintain a walk in the leading and power of the Holy Spirit without daily, close fellowship with God, we will see the truth of the statement.

The true practice of Christianity strives toward having the character of Christ so formed in us that in our most common activities His temper and disposition will be displayed. Do not be disturbed if the goal appears too high to attain or occupies too much of your time in the hour of private prayer. The time you give it will be richly rewarded.

The Believers Daily Renewal

C LEANSED BY THE B LOOD TO S ERVE THE L IVING G OD

ONE OF THE MOST glorious blessings made possible for us by the power of the blood is that of drawing near to the throne, into the very presence of God. The precious blood of Christ has opened the way for the believer into Gods presence; and fellowship with Him is a deep spiritual reality.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
E PHESIANS 2:13

He who knows the full power of the blood is brought so near that he lives in the immediate presence of God and in the enjoyment of the unspeakable blessings attached to it. Here the child of God has the assurance of Gods love; he experiences and enjoys it. God himself imparts it. As Gods child, he makes known to the Father, with perfect freedom, his thoughts and wishes. In this relationship with God he possesses all that he needs; he lacks no good thing. His soul is kept in perfect rest and peace because God is with him. Gods eye is ever upon him, guiding him. In fellowship with God he is able to hear the softest whispers of the Holy Spirit. He learns to understand the slightest sign of his Fathers will and to follow it. His strength continually increases, for God is his strength and God is ever with him.