Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Morning Reading
Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.—COL. 3:3.
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?—I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.—He died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.—If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
We are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ.—As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.—Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.—Because I live, ye shall live also.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and wilt give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
Rom. 6:2. -Gal. 2:20. -II Cor. 5:15. -II Cor. 5:17.I John 5:20. -John 17:21. -I Cor. 12:27. -John 14:19.Rev. 2:17.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“He shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory.”
Zechariah 6:13
Christ himself is the builder of his spiritual temple, and he has built it on the mountains of his unchangeable affection, his omnipotent grace, and his infallible truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon’s temple, so in this; the materials need making ready. There are the “Cedars of Lebanon,” but they are not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into those planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad the courts of the Lord’s house in Paradise. There are also the rough stones still in the quarry, they must be hewn thence, and squared. All this is Christ’s own work. Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ’s own hand performs the preparation-work. Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they are used by him to this end. Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashioneth our hearts aright.
As in the building of Solomon’s temple, “there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house,” because all was brought perfectly ready for the exact spot it was to occupy—so is it with the temple which Jesus builds; the making ready is all done on earth. When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no planing us with suffering. No, we must be made meet here—all that Christ will do beforehand; and when he has done it, we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.
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“Beneath his eye and care, The edifice shall rise, Majestic, strong, and fair, And shine above the skies.” |
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Numbers 21
21. The Bronze Snake
The Bronze Serpent
21
When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.2Then Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed give this people into our hands, then we will utterly destroy their towns.”3The Lord listened to the voice of Israel, and handed over the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their towns; so the place was called Hormah.
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.5The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”6Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.7The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.8And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”9So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
The Journey to Moab
10 The Israelites set out, and camped in Oboth.11They set out from Oboth, and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness bordering Moab toward the sunrise.12From there they set out, and camped in the Wadi Zered.13From there they set out, and camped on the other side of the Arnon, in the wilderness that extends from the boundary of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.14Wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,
“Waheb in Suphah and the wadis.
The Arnon15and the slopes of the wadis
that extend to the seat of Ar,
and lie along the border of Moab.”
16 From there they continued to Beer; that is the well of which the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”17Then Israel sang this song:
“Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—
18
the well that the leaders sank,
that the nobles of the people dug,
with the scepter, with the staff.”
From the wilderness to Mattanah,19from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth,20and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that overlooks the wasteland.
King Sihon Defeated
21 Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, saying,22“Let me pass through your land; we will not turn aside into field or vineyard; we will not drink the water of any well; we will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”23But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel to the wilderness; he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel.24Israel put him to the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites; for the boundary of the Ammonites was strong.25Israel took all these towns, and Israel settled in all the towns of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.26For Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and captured all his land as far as the Arnon.27Therefore the ballad singers say,
“Come to Heshbon, let it be built;
let the city of Sihon be established.
28
For fire came out from Heshbon,
flame from the city of Sihon.
It devoured Ar of Moab,
and swallowed up the heights of the Arnon.
29
Woe to you, O Moab!
You are undone, O people of Chemosh!
He has made his sons fugitives,
and his daughters captives,
to an Amorite king, Sihon.
30
So their posterity perished
from Heshbon to Dibon,
and we laid waste until fire spread to Medeba.”
31 Thus Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.32Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they captured its villages, and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.
King Og Defeated
33 Then they turned and went up the road to Bashan; and King Og of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.34But the Lord said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of him; for I have given him into your hand, with all his people, and all his land. You shall do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.”35So they killed him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of his land.
New Testament in Four Years - 1 Corinthians 14:18-25
14. Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues
18I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you;19nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.20 Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.21In the law it is written,
“By people of strange tongues
and by the lips of foreigners
I will speak to this people;
yet even then they will not listen to me,”
says the Lord.22Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.23If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?24But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all.25After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, “God is really among you.”
Psalm a Day - Psalm 124
124. Psalm 124
Psalm 124
Thanksgiving for Israel’s Deliverance
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
1
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side
—let Israel now say—
2
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
3
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
4
then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
5
then over us would have gone
the raging waters.
6
Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth.
7
We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped.
8
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.