Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
Draw me, we will run after thee.—SONG 1:4.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.—I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.—I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.—Behold the Lamb of God.—As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.—We love him, because he first loved us.
My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Jer. 31:3. -Hos. 11:4. -John 12:32. -John 1:36. -John 3:14,15.Psa. 73:25. -I John 4:19.Song 2:10-13.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“We would see Jesus.”
John 12:21
Evermore the worldling’s cry is, “Who will show us any good?” He seeks satisfaction in earthly comforts, enjoyments, and riches. But the quickened sinner knows of only one good. “O that I knew where I might find Him !” When he is truly awakened to feel his guilt, if you could pour the gold of India at his feet, he would say, “Take it away: I want to find Him.” It is a blessed thing for a man, when he has brought his desires into a focus, so that they all centre in one object. When he has fifty different desires, his heart resembles a mire of stagnant water, spread out into a marsh, breeding miasma and pestilence; but when all his desires are brought into one channel, his heart becomes like a river of pure water, running swiftly to fertilize the fields. Happy is he who hath one desire, if that one desire be set on Christ, though it may not yet have been realized. If Jesus be a soul’s desire, it is a blessed sign of divine work within. Such a man will never be content with mere ordinances. He will say, “I want Christ; I must have him—mere ordinances are of no use to me; I want himself; do not offer me these; you offer me the empty pitcher, while I am dying of thirst; give me water, or I die. Jesus is my soul’s desire. I would see Jesus!”
Is this thy condition, my reader, at this moment? Hast thou but one desire, and is that after Christ? Then thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven. Hast thou but one wish in thy heart, and that one wish that thou mayst be washed from all thy sins in Jesus’ blood? Canst thou really say, “I would give all I have to be a Christian; I would give up everything I have and hope for, if I might but feel that I have an interest in Christ?” Then, despite all thy fears, be of good cheer, the Lord loveth thee, and thou shalt come out into daylight soon, and rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ makes men free.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Exodus 23
23. Justice, Sabbath, Festivals
Justice for All
23
You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness.2You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice;3nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit.
4 When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.
5 When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.
6 You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits.7Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and those in the right, for I will not acquit the guilty.8You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.
9 You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Sabbatical Year and Sabbath
10 For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield;11but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
12 Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.13Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.
The Annual Festivals
14 Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me.15You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt.
No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
16 You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.17Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.
18 You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my festival remain until the morning.
19 The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.
You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
The Conquest of Canaan Promised
20 I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.21Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him.
22 But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.
23 When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out,24you shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces.25You shall worship the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from among you.26No one shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.27I will send my terror in front of you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.28And I will send the pestilence in front of you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, or the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply against you.30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.31I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates; for I will hand over to you the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out before you.32You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.33They shall not live in your land, or they will make you sin against me; for if you worship their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
New Testament in Four Years - Romans 15:9-13
15. Ministry to the Gentiles
9and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,“Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles,
and sing praises to your name”;
10 and again he says,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”;
11 and again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
and let all the peoples praise him”;
12 and again Isaiah says,
“The root of Jesse shall come,
the one who rises to rule the Gentiles;
in him the Gentiles shall hope.”
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 79
79. Psalm 79
Psalm 79
Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem
A Psalm of Asaph.
1
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2
They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the air for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.
3
They have poured out their blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.
4
We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
mocked and derided by those around us.
5
How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
6
Pour out your anger on the nations
that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
that do not call on your name.
7
For they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste his habitation.
8
Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors;
let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low.
9
Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and forgive our sins,
for your name’s sake.
10
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes.
11
Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.
12
Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors
the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!
13
Then we your people, the flock of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.