Fri, 15 May 2026 01:38:43 -0700WeeblyThu, 14 May 2026 11:31:39 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/joint-heirs-with-christ-romans-817​The boundless realms of His Father's universe are Christ's by prescriptive right. As "heir of all things," He is the sole proprietor of the vast creation of God, and He has admitted us to claim the whole as ours, by virtue of that deed of joint-heirship which the Lord hath ratified with His chosen people. The golden streets of paradise, the pearly gates, the river of life, the transcendent bliss, and the unutterable glory, are, by our blessed Lord, made over to us for our everlasting possession. All that He has He shares with His people. The crown royal He has placed upon the head of His Church, appointing her a kingdom, and calling her sons a royal priesthood, a generation of priests and kings. He uncrowned Himself that we might have a coronation of glory; He would not sit upon His own throne until He had procured a place upon it for all who overcome by His blood. Crown the head and the whole body shares the honour. Behold here the reward of every Christian conqueror! Christ's throne, crown, sceptre, palace, treasure, robes, heritage, are yours. Far superior to the jealousy, selfishness, and greed, which admit of no participation of their advantages, Christ deems His happiness completed by His people sharing it. "The glory which thou gavest me have I given them." "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." The smiles of His Father are all the sweeter to Him, because His people share them. The honours of His kingdom are more pleasing, because His people appear with Him in glory. More valuable to Him are His conquests, since they have taught His people to overcome. He delights in His throne, because on it there is a place for them. He rejoices in His royal robes, since over them His skirts are spread. He delights the more in His joy, because He calls them to enter into it.]]>Wed, 13 May 2026 11:44:00 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/c-h-spurgeonsmorning-readingmay-13thChristian! If thou art in a night of trial, think of the morrow; cheer up thy heart with the thought of the coming of thy Lord. Be patient, for

"Lo! He comes with clouds descending."

Be patient! The Husbandman waits until He reaps His harvest. Be patient; for you know who has said, "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be." If you are never so wretched now, remember

"A few more rolling suns, at most,
Will land thee on fair Canaan's coast."

Thy head may be crowned with thorny troubles now, but it shall wear a starry crown ere long; thy hand may be filled with cares, it shall sweep the strings of the harp of heaven soon. Thy garments may be soiled with dust now; they shall be white by-and-by. Could you wait a little longer? Ah! How despicable our troubles and trials will seem when we look back upon them! Looking at them here in the prospect, they seem immense, but when we get to heaven, we shall then

"With transporting joys recount,
The labors of our feet."
​
Our trials will then seem light and momentary afflictions. Let us go on boldly; if the night be never so dark, the morning cometh, which is more than they can say who are shut up in the darkness of hell. Do you know what it is to live on the future, to live on expectation, to antedate heaven? Happy believer, to have so sure, so comforting a hope. It may be all dark now, but it will soon be light; it may be all trial now, but it will soon be all happiness. What matters it, though "weeping may endure for a night," when "joy cometh in the morning?"

]]>Mon, 11 May 2026 11:31:38 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/monday-muse-he-shall-lose-nothing“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” — John 6:37 (KJV)

What a morning to begin the week beneath the canopy of sovereign grace! John 6 is one of the most glorious chapters in all of Holy Scripture, and it thunders with the majesty of God’s electing love.
Notice the iron certainty of Christ’s words: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” Not may come. Not might come. Shall come. John Gill, that faithful expositor of sovereign grace, rightly observed that “the whole body of the elect are here meant, who, when they were chosen by God the Father, were given and put into the hands of Christ” — and that this act is unchangeable. There is no slipping through the fingers of divine purpose.

Then come those soul-steadying words of verse 44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.”  Here, our Lord strips away every ground of human boasting. We did not find Christ; the Father drew us to Him. Salvation from first to last is the sovereign work of God.

And what is the Father’s will in all of this? Verse 39 answers plainly: “of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”  Dear saints, your perseverance is guaranteed not by the strength of your grip, but by the faithfulness of His.

Begin this week resting in that promise. You are given to Christ. You are drawn by the Father. You are kept to the last day. Go forward in confidence, not in yourself, but in the sovereign God who saves to the uttermost.
Soli Deo Gloria
— Pastor Michael]]>Wed, 06 May 2026 13:25:08 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/we-dwell-in-him-1-john-413"We dwell in Him." — 1 John 4:13

Do you want a house for your soul? Do you ask, "What is the purchase?" It is something less than proud human nature would like to give. It is without money and without price. Ah! You would like to pay a respectable rent! You would love to do something to win Christ? Then you cannot have the house, for it is "without price." Will you take my Master's house on a lease for all eternity, with nothing to pay for it, nothing but the ground-rent of loving and serving Him forever? Will you take Jesus and "dwell in Him"? See, this house is furnished with everything you want; it is filled with riches more than you will spend in your lifetime. Here you can have intimate communion with Christ and feast on His love; here are tables well-stored with food for you to live on forever; in it, when weary, you can find rest with Jesus; and from it you can look out and see heaven itself. Will you have the house? Ah! If you are houseless, you will say, "I should like to have the house; but may I have it?" Yes, there is the key—the key is, "Come to Jesus." "But," you say, "I am too shabby for such a house." Never mind; there are garments inside. If you feel guilty and condemned, come, and though the house is too good for you, Christ will make you good enough for the house by-and-by. He will wash you and cleanse you, and you will yet be able to sing, "We dwell in Him." Believer: thrice happy art thou to have such a dwelling-place! Greatly privileged thou art, for thou hast a "strong habitation" in which thou art ever safe. And "dwelling in Him," thou hast not only a perfect and secure house, but an everlasting one. When this world shall have melted like a dream, our house shall live, and stand more imperishable than marble, more solid than granite, self-existent as God, for it is God Himself—"We dwell in Him."
]]>Mon, 04 May 2026 20:30:57 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/monday-muse-may-4-2026“The LORD’s mercies are new every morning.” — Lamentations 3:23 (KJV)

The saints of God do not face Monday as the world does — with dread and groaning — but with the fresh assurance that the same God who sustained us through the Lord’s Day has not slumbered through the night. His covenant mercies are not exhausted. They are new this morning, as sure as the sunrise He appointed.
Jeremiah wrote Lamentations from the ruins of Jerusalem. Yet even in ashes, he could say, “Great is thy faithfulness” (Lam. 3:23). Your Monday may feel like ruins: the weight of the week ahead, the trials still unresolved from last. But grace is not rationed. The well does not run dry.
Go into this week not in your own strength, but leaning hard upon the everlasting arms (Deut. 33:27). The God of the Sabbath rest is also the God of Monday’s labor. Work, then, as those who are kept, not as those who must keep themselves.
A word from Spurgeon: “Every morning mercy is renewed; every evening it wraps thee round.”

“It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”
— Lamentations 3:22 (KJV)]]>Fri, 01 May 2026 03:46:04 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/friday-fuel-fueled-by-the-fire-of-gods-calllord-let-me-finish-my-work-spare-me-long-enough-to-put-thy-saving-word-into-the-hands-of-a-perishing-people-adoniram-judsonFew men in the history of Christian missions burned with a steadier, quieter flame than Adoniram Judson (1788–1850). He went to Burma with the gospel and found not open arms, but chains — literal ones. He was imprisoned, tortured, and watched those he loved most taken by disease and death. Yet the fire never went out.
What kept him burning?
Not comfort. Not success. Not feelings. But the call of God.
In one of the most convicting passages from his writings on prayer and devotion, Judson wrote:

“Begin the day by rising after midnight and devoting some time, amid the silence and darkness of the night, to this sacred work. Let the hour of opening dawn find thee at the same work; let the hours of nine, twelve, three, six, and nine at night witness the same. Be resolute in this course… Consider that thy time is short, and that business and company must not be allowed to rob thee of thy God.”

That is not the counsel of a man on fire with ambition — it is the counsel of a man on fire with God. Judson understood what many of us forget on a Friday afternoon when the week has worn us thin: our God cannot be neglected, and our souls cannot be starved.
He chose Ephesians 3:17–19 as the great verse of his life — that Christ would dwell in our hearts by faith, rooted and grounded in love, filled up to all the fullness of God (KJV).  That was the fuel. Not a strategy. Not systems. The fullness of God dwelling within.

As you close out this week and prepare your heart for the Lord’s Day, ask yourself what Judson asked in the woods of Burma on his knees:

“More than all else, I long to please Thee, my Lord. What wilt Thou have me to do?”

The weekend is not a retreat from God — it is a runway into worship. Let this Friday be the ignition, not the wind-down. Judson spent seven years in Burma before seeing his first convert.  He was not fueled by results. He was fueled by the Rock.
Go into this Lord’s Day fueled — not by what you accomplished this week, but by Who called you before the week began.
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” — Psalm 90:12 (KJV)]]>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:57:40 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/thursday-theology-keep-your-eyes-on-the-hill“This hill, though high, I covet to ascend; the difficulty will not me offend, for I perceive the way of life lies here. Come, pluck up, heart; let’s neither faint nor fear.”
— John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress

John Bunyan, the Bedford tinker who penned one of the greatest works in Christian literature from a prison cell, knew something about hard roads. Imprisoned for preaching the gospel, he did not write from the comfort of a study but from the cold reality of suffering, and yet his pen dripped with hope.
In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian does not travel an easy path to the Celestial City. He stumbles into the Slough of Despond, faces the giant Apollyon, and is locked in Doubting Castle. Bunyan was not writing fiction; he was writing his own soul’s biography, and perhaps yours as well.
The great comfort Bunyan offers us is this: the fire of grace in the believer’s heart is not maintained by the believer alone. In the Interpreter’s House, Christian sees a fire burning against a wall while a man continually pours water on it — yet the flame never dies. The secret? Behind the wall, another man quietly pours oil to keep it burning. That hidden man is Christ. The oil is His Spirit. Your perseverance is His work.
Bunyan captured what Paul declared in Philippians 1:6 — “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” The God who saved you on the King’s Highway will not abandon you in the Valley of the Shadow. He maintains the flame.
Pilgrim, pluck up your heart this Thursday. The hill is high, but the way of life lies there. Fix your eyes not on how steep the road is, but on the City whose Builder and Maker is God. Bunyan pressed on, and so, by sovereign grace, shall you.
— Press on, dear pilgrim. The crown is incorruptible.]]>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:30:22 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/wednesday-word-april-29-2026“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” — Galatians 5:1 (KJV)

Midweek is a fitting moment to remember that the Christian life is not about striving to earn God’s favor, but about​ resting in the finished work of Christ. The redeemed soul is not under the law as a covenant of works but walks in the freedom of grace — not license, but liberty rooted in love for God and His commandments.
As the Puritans well understood, true liberty is not freedom from God but freedom in God. John Bunyan’s pilgrim pressed on through the Valley of Humiliation not because he had to earn his way, but because he had already been freed from his burden at the cross. Walk in that freedom today, resisting both the chains of legalism and the ditch of antinomianism.
 Pastor Michael.]]>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 13:51:32 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/tuesday-truth“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”— John 5:39 (KJV)​

Our Lord Jesus did not say, search your feelings, nor search the traditions of men — He said, search the scriptures. This is the great charter of the Christian’s daily duty. The Word of God is not a museum piece to be admired from a distance but a living testimony to be searched with diligent, believing hands.
Notice what Christ says the scriptures do — they testify of Him. Every page, every promise, every type and shadow, every law and prophecy points its trembling finger toward the Lord Jesus Christ. To read your Bible and not find Christ is to walk through a garden and miss the Rose of Sharon altogether.
The Puritans called this Scripture meditation — not a casual skim, but a reverent, hungry mining of the Word. John Bunyan said he would rather be poor and know his Bible than be rich and be a stranger to it. Dear friend, open your Bible today not merely as a religious exercise, but as one who presses through the crowd just to touch the hem of His garment — for the scriptures will always bring you to Jesus.
Search. Find. Worship.

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” — Psalm 119:105 (KJV)]]>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:51:20 GMThttps://www.emmanuel-florence.org/devotional/the-face-you-meet-first-this-is-the-day-which-the-lord-hath-made-we-will-rejoice-and-be-glad-in-it-psalm-11824Monday has a reputation. It arrives uninvited, heavy with the memory of yesterday’s rest and the weight of the week’s demands. The alarm sounds, the list grows, and before our feet touch the cold floor, the mind is already running ahead — to the work unfinished, the problems unsolved, the burdens unresolved. Monday, for many, feels less like a gift and more like a sentence.
But beloved, Monday belongs to the Lord.
The Face You Choose First
Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “It is a good rule never to look into the face of a man in the morning till you have looked into the face of God.” What a word for the beginning of a new week. We are creatures of habit, and nothing shapes the habit of a day more powerfully than where we look first. Before the telephone, before the mirror, before the news of the world rushes in like a flood — there is a Face to seek, a throne to approach, a Father to greet.
The Psalmist understood this well. “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psalm 5:3). Notice that word — look up. The posture of Monday morning is not a downcast gaze at the week’s troubles, but an upward look toward the God who has already ordained every hour of it.
Do not let Monday steal the morning. Give the morning to God, and Monday will find its proper place — as a servant, not a master.
Your Emptiness Is Not an Accident
Maybe you'll come to this Monday feeling dry. The Lord’s Day was full, and now the well seems low. You poured out — in worship, in fellowship, in service — and now the week calls for more, and you wonder where it will come from.
Spurgeon speaks tenderly to this very soul: “Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.” Your felt weakness this Monday morning is not a sign of spiritual failure. It is a hollow vessel, ready for fresh filling. The Lord does not send His people into a new week and then withhold His grace. He who called you to this day has already stored up sufficient mercy for every hour of it.
The Apostle Paul knew this rhythm. “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthened me” (Philippians 4:13). Not through yesterday’s strength, not through last week’s reserves — but through Christ, who is the same on Monday as He is on the Lord’s Day. His grace is not a Sunday commodity. It is daily bread.
Ordinary Days, Sacred Ground
One of the great lies the world tells us is that only certain days are sacred — only the grand moments, the high occasions, the Sunday services. But the Puritan fathers understood something gloriously different. They believed the entirety of life, when lived unto God, is holy. As Spurgeon himself put it, “The shop, the barn, the kitchen, and the workbench become temples when men and women do all to the glory of God.”
Your Monday, dear friend, is holy ground. The kitchen where you make breakfast for your children — holy ground. The drive to work, the conversation with a neighbor, the honest labor of your hands — holy ground. God is not absent from your ordinary week. He inhabits it. He fills it. He governs it with sovereign care.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). This was written not for ministers alone, but for servants, for tradesmen, for mothers and fathers and children — for all who bear the name of Christ in the common flow of life. Every Monday, task done heartily unto the Lord is an act of worship as real as any sung in the assembly.
He Made This Day
Return once more to the text: “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
The Psalmist does not say, “This is a pleasant day,” or “This is an easy day.” He says it is a day the Lord has made. Crafted. Appointed. Purposed. This Monday was not an accident. It did not escape God’s notice or slip past His sovereign hand. He made it — and He made it for you, for His glory, for your growth, for the good of those around you.
Therefore, rejoice. Not because Monday is easy, but because the God who made it is good. Not because the week ahead is light, but because the One who walks through it with you is strong. The joy here is not a feeling worked up by the flesh — it is a settled confidence of the soul that says, “My God is in this day, and therefore I will not fear it.”
Go Into the Week Looking Up
Beloved, lift your eyes. The week that lies before you is not a wilderness to be survived — it is a stewardship to be lived. Every conversation is an opportunity for grace. Every trial is an instrument of sanctification. Every mercy that meets you on the road — and there will be many — is a tender reminder that your Father’s eye is upon you.
Look into the right Face first. 
Go to Him before you go to the world. Let the Throne Room be your first appointment this Monday morning, and all other appointments will fall into their proper order.
“The LORD’S mercies… are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23).
New this morning. New this Monday. New for you.
Go, and rejoice in it.
---
— Your Pastor]]>