Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
Our friend sleepeth.—JOHN 11:11.
I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
It came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones . . . and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.—This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.—Witnesses chosen before of God, . . . who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
I Thes. 4:13,14.I Cor. 15:16-18,20.Josh. 4:1,3,7. -Acts 2:32. -Acts 10:41.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“I will accept you with your sweet savour.”
Ezekiel 20:41
The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is an equal fragrance. There was a sweet savour in his active life by which he honoured the law of God, and made every precept to glitter like a precious jewel in the pure setting of his own person. Such, too, was his passive obedience, when he endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and at length sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, and was fastened to the cruel wood, that he might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These two things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of his doing and his dying, his substitutionary sufferings and his vicarious obedience, the Lord our God accepts us. What a preciousness must there be in him to overcome our want of preciousness! What a sweet savour to put away our ill savour! What a cleansing power in his blood to take away sin such as ours! and what glory in his righteousness to make such unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the Beloved! Mark, believer, how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since it is in him! Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You cannot be accepted without Christ; but, when you have received his merit, you cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and sins, Jehovah’s gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though he sees sin in you, in yourself, yet when he looks at you through Christ, he sees no sin. You are always accepted in Christ, are always blessed and dear to the Father’s heart. Therefore lift up a song, and as you see the smoking incense of the merit of the Saviour coming up, this evening, before the sapphire throne, let the incense of your praise go up also.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Exodus 3
3. The Burning Bush
Moses at the Burning Bush
3
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.3Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”4When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”5Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”6He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings,8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”12He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
The Divine Name Revealed
13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”14God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”15God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:
This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations.
16 Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.17I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.’18They will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’19I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.20So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go.21I will bring this people into such favor with the Egyptians that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed;22each woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman living in the neighbor’s house for jewelry of silver and of gold, and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; and so you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
New Testament in Four Years - Romans 11:22-24
11. The Remnant of Israel
22Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.23And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.24For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.Psalm a Day - Psalm 65
65. Psalm 65
Psalm 65
Thanksgiving for Earth’s Bounty
To the leader. A Psalm of David. A Song.
1
Praise is due to you,
O God, in Zion;
and to you shall vows be performed,
2
O you who answer prayer!
To you all flesh shall come.
3
When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,
you forgive our transgressions.
4
Happy are those whom you choose and bring near
to live in your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
your holy temple.
5
By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas.
6
By your strength you established the mountains;
you are girded with might.
7
You silence the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.
8
Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
9
You visit the earth and water it,
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide the people with grain,
for so you have prepared it.
10
You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
11
You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
12
The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
13
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.