Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Morning Reading
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.—MATT. 12:34.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.—Death and life are in the power of the tongue. —The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart: none of his steps shall slide.—Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.—I believed, therefore have I spoken.
Whosoever . . . shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.—With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Col. 3:16.Prov. 4:23. -Prov. 18:21. -Psa. 37:30,31. -Eph. 4:29.Acts 4:20. -Psa. 116:10.Matt. 10:32. -Rom. 10:10.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.”
Exodus 20:25
God’s altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labour might be seen upon it. Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; instead, however, of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all. All alterations and amendments of the Lord’s own Word are defilements and pollutions. The proud heart of man is very anxious to have a hand in the justification of the soul before God; preparations for Christ are dreamed of, humblings and repentings are trusted in, good works are cried up, natural ability is much vaunted, and by all means the attempt is made to lift up human tools upon the divine altar. It were well if sinners would remember that so far from perfecting the Saviour’s work, their carnal confidences only pollute and dishonour it. The Lord alone must be exalted in the work of atonement, and not a single mark of man’s chisel or hammer will be endured. There is an inherent blasphemy in seeking to add to what Christ Jesus in His dying moments declared to be finished, or to improve that in which the Lord Jehovah finds perfect satisfaction. Trembling sinner, away with thy tools, and fall upon thy knees in humble supplication; and accept the Lord Jesus to be the altar of thine atonement, and rest in him alone.
Many professors may take warning from this morning’s text as to the doctrines which they believe. There is among Christians far too much inclination to square and reconcile the truths of revelation; this is a form of irreverence and unbelief, let us strive against it, and receive truth as we find it; rejoicing that the doctrines of the Word are unhewn stones, and so are all the more fit to build an altar for the Lord.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Deuteronomy 7
7. Driving Out the Nations
A Chosen People
7
When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you—2and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.3Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,4for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.5But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire.6For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7 It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples.8It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.9Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,10and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him.11Therefore, observe diligently the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today.
Blessings for Obedience
12 If you heed these ordinances, by diligently observing them, the Lord your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors;13he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you.14You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your livestock.15The Lord will turn away from you every illness; all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, he will not inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.16You shall devour all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving over to you, showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
17 If you say to yourself, “These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?”18do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,19the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.20Moreover, the Lord your God will send the pestilence against them, until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed.21Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.22The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.23But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great panic, until they are destroyed.24He will hand their kings over to you and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them.25The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.26Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.
New Testament in Four Years - 2 Corinthians 3:1-6
3. Glory of the New Covenant
Ministers of the New Covenant
3
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we?2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all;3and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.5Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God,6who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 146
146. Psalm 146
Psalm 146
Praise for God’s Help
1
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
3
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
5
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
6
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
7
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10
The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!