Devotional: Fully Cooked

[I have enjoyed the Morning and Evening devotionals of the late 1800’s Particular Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, but find them a bit archaic in presentation. So I have re-written them in more modern fashion for modern ears, in some cases even modifying them.

Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over. (Hosea 7:8)

A loaf not turned is uncooked on one side; and so Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace. Though there was some partial obedience, there was very much rebellion left. My soul, I charge you, see whether this is your case. Are you thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very center of your being so as to be felt in its divine operations in all your powers, your actions, your words, and your thoughts? To be sanctified, spirit, soul, and body, should be your aim and prayer; and although sanctification may not be perfect in you anywhere in degree, yet it must be universal in its action; there must not be the appearance of holiness in one place and reigning sin in another, else you, too, will be a loaf not turned.

A loaf not turned is soon burnt on the side nearest the fire, and although no man can have too much religion, there are some who seem burnt black with bigoted zeal for that part of truth which they have received, or are charred to a cinder with a vainglorious Pharisaic ostentation of those religious performances which suit their humor. The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness. The saint in public is a devil in private. He deals in flour by day and in soot by night. The loaf which is burned on one side, is dough on the other.

If it is so with me, O Lord, turn me! Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of your love and let it feel the sacred glow, and let my burnt side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and lack of heat when I am removed from your heavenly flame. Let me not be found a double-minded man, but one entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace. For well I know if I am left like a cake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of your grace, I must be consumed forever amid everlasting burnings.