Psalm of the Day: Psalm 119:9-16
Wisdom of the Day: Job 33:17-33
Scripture Reading: Luke 9:23-27
We see the unspeakable value of the soul. A question is asked, which admits of only one answer, "For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" The possession of the whole world would never make a man happy. Its pleasures are false and deceptive. Its riches, rank, and honors have no power to satisfy the heart. So long as we possess them, they glitter, and sparkle, and seem desirable. The moment we have them we find that they are empty bubbles, and cannot make us content.
And, worst of all, when we possess this world's good things, we cannot keep them. Death comes in and separates us from all our property forever. Naked we came upon earth and naked we go forth. Of all our possessions, we can carry nothing with us beyond the grave.
The loss of the soul is the heaviest loss that can befall a man. All other losses are bearable, but the loss of the soul is for evermore. It is to lose God, and Christ, and Heaven, and glory, and happiness to all eternity. It is to be cast away forever helpless and hopeless in Hell!
What are we doing ourselves? Are we losing our souls? Are we, by willful neglect, or by open sin by sheer carelessness and idleness or deliberate breach of Gods law securing our own destruction? These questions demand an answer. The plain account of many professing Christians is this that they are daily sinning against the sixth commandment. They are murdering their own souls!
Prayer for the Day: Dear Lord, help me not to sell out to the useless things of this world that have no eternal value.
Action Plan: Take an inventory of the things you value most in life. Which ones have eternal value?
This devotional was taken from The Gospel of Luke by J.C. Ryle published in 1858
and adapted by Pastor Tim Lewis of New England Shores Baptist Church.
