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Daily Light's Evening Reading
One thing is needful.—LUKE 10:42.
There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.—O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.
I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Lord, evermore give us this bread.—Mary . . . sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.—One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.
Psa. 4:6,7.Psa. 42:1,2. -Psa. 63:1.John 6:35,34,Luke 10:39. -Psa. 27:4.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“Serve the Lord with gladness.”
Psalm 100:2
Delight in divine service is a token of acceptance. Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do what is unpleasant to them, are not serving him at all; they bring the form of homage, but the life is absent. Our God requires no slaves to grace his throne; he is the Lord of the empire of love, and would have his servants dressed in the livery of joy. The angels of God serve him with songs, not with groans; a murmur or a sigh would be a mutiny in their ranks. That obedience which is not voluntary is disobedience, for the Lord looketh at the heart, and if he seeth that we serve him from force, and not because we love him, he will reject our offering. Service coupled with cheerfulness is heart-service, and therefore true. Take away joyful willingness from the Christian, and you have removed the test of his sincerity. If a man be driven to battle, he is no patriot; but he who marches into the fray with flashing eye and beaming face, singing, “It is sweet for one’s country to die,” proves himself to be sincere in his patriotism. Cheerfulness is the support of our strength; in the joy of the Lord are we strong. It acts as the remover of difficulties. It is to our service what oil is to the wheels of a railway carriage. Without oil the axle soon grows hot, and accidents occur; and if there be not a holy cheerfulness to oil our wheels, our spirits will be clogged with weariness. The man who is cheerful in his service of God, proves that obedience is his element; he can sing,
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“Make me to walk in thy commands, ’Tis a delightful road.” |
Reader, let us put this question—do you serve the Lord with gladness? Let us show to the people of the world, who think our religion to be slavery, that it is to us a delight and a joy! Let our gladness proclaim that we serve a good Master.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Nahum 3
3. Woe to Nineveh
Ruin Imminent and Inevitable
3
Ah! City of bloodshed,
utterly deceitful, full of booty—
no end to the plunder!
2
The crack of whip and rumble of wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3
Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
piles of dead,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4
Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute,
gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery,
who enslaves nations through her debaucheries,
and peoples through her sorcery,
5
I am against you,
says the Lord of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will let nations look on your nakedness
and kingdoms on your shame.
6
I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt,
and make you a spectacle.
7
Then all who see you will shrink from you and say,
“Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?”
Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8
Are you better than Thebes
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
water her wall?
9
Ethiopia was her strength,
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10
Yet she became an exile,
she went into captivity;
even her infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
lots were cast for her nobles,
all her dignitaries were bound in fetters.
11
You also will be drunken,
you will go into hiding;
you will seek
a refuge from the enemy.
12
All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13
Look at your troops:
they are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your foes;
fire has devoured the bars of your gates.
14
Draw water for the siege,
strengthen your forts;
trample the clay,
tread the mortar,
take hold of the brick mold!
15
There the fire will devour you,
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust,
multiply like the grasshopper!
16
You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17
Your guards are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like swarms of locusts
settling on the fences
on a cold day—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they have gone.
18
Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.
19
There is no assuaging your hurt,
your wound is mortal.
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands over you.
For who has ever escaped
your endless cruelty?
New Testament in Four Years - Acts 25:23-27
25. Trial Before Festus
Paul Brought before Agrippa
23 So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then Festus gave the order and Paul was brought in.24And Festus said, “King Agrippa and all here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish community petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.25But I found that he had done nothing deserving death; and when he appealed to his Imperial Majesty, I decided to send him.26But I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that, after we have examined him, I may have something to write—27for it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”
Psalm a Day - Psalm 142
142. Psalm 142
Psalm 142
Prayer for Deliverance from Persecutors
A Maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A Prayer.
1
With my voice I cry to the Lord;
with my voice I make supplication to the Lord.
2
I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.
3
When my spirit is faint,
you know my way.
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
4
Look on my right hand and see—
there is no one who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for me.
5
I cry to you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
6
Give heed to my cry,
for I am brought very low.
Save me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me.
7
Bring me out of prison,
so that I may give thanks to your name.
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.