Morning , June 23, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Ephraim is a cake not turned.” -KJV

“Ephraim, he mixes himself among the nations. Ephraim is a pancake not turned over.” -NHEB, Hosea 7:8

A pancake not turned is uncooked on one side; and so the tribe of Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace: though there was some partial obedience, there was very much rebellion left. My friend, I encourage you to see whether this is your case. Are you thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very center of your whole being so as to be felt in its God-driven operations in all your powers, your actions, your words, and your thoughts? To be sanctified, to be set aside to holiness, spirit, soul, and body, should be your aim and prayer; and although sanctification may not be perfected in you in any specific area, 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 pancake not turned.

A pancake not turned is soon burned on the side nearest the heat, and although no man can have too much religion, there are some who seem burned black with narrowly focused enthusiasm for that part of truth which they have received, or are charred to a cinder with a self-important Pharisaic pretentious  display of those religious performances which suit their state of mind. The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness. The Christian in public is a devil in private. He deals in pure white flour by day and in ashes by night. The pancake which is burned on one side, is cold 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 burned side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and the chill 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 pancake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of your grace, I must be consumed forever amid everlasting fire.