July 23 Daily Devotional

Monthly Theme:

By God’s Word and Spirit the world was made, and he uses the same tools to rebuild the creaking cosmos. God does not save some souls from the wreckage of the planet; instead, the whole groaning creation must be delivered from bondage by the love and power of God.

Bible Reading:

Isaiah 6:1–5

Bible Text:

"I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty" ((Isa. 6:5).

Devotional:

People who live with God must be clean and holy because God is holy. Using many laws, God taught the people of the Old Covenant how to distinguish between clean and unclean, between what the LORD accepts and what the LORD rejects. First the Israelites had to learn to be ritually clean. That is, they had to observe the proper procedures for approaching God, the proper washings, the acceptable offerings, and the right place and time for the sacrifice.

On a deeper level, however, they had to learn to be morally clean and holy. "Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?" asks the psalmist. The answer is, "He who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Ps. 24:3–4). "Clean hands" means more than fingers dipped in a bowl of water for ritual cleansing. Clean hands are those that do good and are steered by a person with a "pure heart."

God is holy. Therein lies the great difference between God and us and our sin-soaked world. As soon as human beings awake to the reality of God, we are overcome by our own moral pollution. God's holiness is a flash of lightning that reveals and threatens our sinful existence. We cannot see God and live. "I am unclean," we cry.

Yet the holy life is precisely the life for which God's love prepares us. God intends us to share fully in his holiness.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published in 1994. This edition is copyright by Faith Alive Christian Resources, from whom may be ordered Daylight, the predecessor of Twilight.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this edition of Twilight are from the New International Version

Be sure to read the "Preface" and the "Acknowledgments" by the author.