Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.—II SAM. 23:5.
I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover whom be did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“I know their sorrows.”
Exodus 3:7
The child is cheered as he sings, “This my father knows;” and shall not we be comforted as we discern that our dear Friend and tender soul-husband knows all about us?
1. He is the Physician, and if he knows all, there is no need that the patient should know. Hush, thou silly, fluttering heart, prying, peeping, and suspecting! What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter, and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved Physician, knows thy soul in adversities. Why need the patient analyze all the medicine, or estimate all the symptoms? This is the Physician’s work, not mine; it is my business to trust, and his to prescribe. If he shall write his prescription in uncouth characters which I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that account, but rely upon his unfailing skill to make all plain in the result, however mysterious in the working.
2. He is the Master, and his knowledge is to serve us instead of our own; we are to obey, not to judge: “The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.” Shall the architect explain his plans to every hodman on the works? If he knows his own intent, is it not enough? The vessel on the wheel cannot guess to what pattern it shall be conformed, but if the potter understands his art, what matters the ignorance of the clay? My Lord must not be cross-questioned any more by one so ignorant as I am.
3. He is the Head. All understanding centres there. What judgment has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the power to know lies in the head. Why should the member have a brain of its own when the head fulfils for it every intellectual office? Here, then, must the believer rest his comfort in sickness, not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus knows all. Sweet Lord, be thou forever eye, and soul, and head for us, and let us be content to know only what thou choosest to reveal.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Joshua 4
4. Crossing the Jordan
Twelve Stones Set Up at Gilgal
4
When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua:2“Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe,3and command them, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.’ ”4Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe.5Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites,6so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’7then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial forever.”
8 The Israelites did as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord told Joshua, carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there.9(Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.)
10 The priests who bore the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people crossed over in haste.11As soon as all the people had finished crossing over, the ark of the Lord, and the priests, crossed over in front of the people.12The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the Israelites, as Moses had ordered them.13About forty thousand armed for war crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for battle.
14 On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.
15 The Lord said to Joshua,16“Command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, to come up out of the Jordan.”17Joshua therefore commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”18When the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.
19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.20Those twelve stones, which they had taken out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal,21saying to the Israelites, “When your children ask their parents in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’22then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground.’23For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we crossed over,24so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, and so that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
New Testament in Four Years - 2 Corinthians 11:24-33
11. Paul and False Apostles
24Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.25Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea;26on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters;27in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked.28And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he forever!) knows that I do not lie.32In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me,33but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 24
24. Psalm 24
Psalm 24
Entrance into the Temple
Of David. A Psalm.
1
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
2
for he has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
3
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
4
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
5
They will receive blessing from the Lord,
and vindication from the God of their salvation.
6
Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.Selah
7
Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
8
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle.
9
Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
10
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory.Selah