Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
En-hakkore. (Or, The well of him that cried.)—JUDG. 15:19.
If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.—If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.
Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.—If ye, . . . being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?—Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find.
Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.—Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
John 4:10. -John 7:37,39.Mal. 3:10. -Luke 11:13. -Luke 11:9.Gal. 4:6. -Rom. 8:15.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“And they follow me.”
John 10:27
We should follow our Lord as unhesitatingly as sheep follow their shepherd, for he has a right to lead us wherever he pleases. We are not our own, we are bought with a price—let us recognize the rights of the redeeming blood. The soldier follows his captain, the servant obeys his master, much more must we follow our Redeemer, to whom we are a purchased possession. We are not true to our profession of being Christians, if we question the bidding of our Leader and Commander. Submission is our duty, cavilling is our folly. Often might our Lord say to us as to Peter, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” Wherever Jesus may lead us, he goes before us. If we know not where we go, we know with whom we go. With such a companion, who will dread the perils of the road? The journey may be long, but his everlasting arms will carry us to the end. The presence of Jesus is the assurance of eternal salvation, because he lives, we shall live also. We should follow Christ in simplicity and faith, because the paths in which he leads us all end in glory and immortality. It is true they may not be smooth paths—they may be covered with sharp flinty trials, but they lead to the “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant.” Let us put full trust in our Leader, since we know that, come prosperity or adversity, sickness or health, popularity or contempt, his purpose shall be worked out, and that purpose shall be pure, unmingled good to every heir of mercy. We shall find it sweet to go up the bleak side of the hill with Christ; and when rain and snow blow into our faces, his dear love will make us far more blest than those who sit at home and warm their hands at the world’s fire. To the top of Amana, to the dens of lions, or to the hills of leopards, we will follow our Beloved. Precious Jesus, draw us, and we will run after thee.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Judges 15
15. Samson's Vengeance
Samson Defeats the Philistines
15
After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, “I want to go into my wife’s room.” But her father would not allow him to go in.2Her father said, “I was sure that you had rejected her; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister prettier than she? Why not take her instead?”3Samson said to them, “This time, when I do mischief to the Philistines, I will be without blame.”4So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took some torches; and he turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.5When he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.6Then the Philistines asked, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father.7Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you.”8He struck them down hip and thigh with great slaughter; and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and made a raid on Lehi.10The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.”11Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then have you done to us?” He replied, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”12They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” Samson answered them, “Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me.”13They said to him, “No, we will only bind you and give you into their hands; we will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.15Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men.16And Samson said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men.”
17 When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and that place was called Ramath-lehi.
18 By then he was very thirsty, and he called on the Lord, saying, “You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Am I now to die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”19So God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore it was named En-hakkore, which is at Lehi to this day.20And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
New Testament in Four Years - Galatians 5:19-26
5. Freedom in Christ
19Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,21envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.The Fruit of the Spirit
22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.26Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 56
56. Psalm 56
Psalm 56
Trust in God under Persecution
To the leader: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. Of David. A Miktam, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.
1
Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me;
all day long foes oppress me;
2
my enemies trample on me all day long,
for many fight against me.
O Most High,3when I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
4
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I am not afraid;
what can flesh do to me?
5
All day long they seek to injure my cause;
all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6
They stir up strife, they lurk,
they watch my steps.
As they hoped to have my life,
7
so repay them for their crime;
in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8
You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your record?
9
Then my enemies will retreat
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
10
In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise,
11
in God I trust; I am not afraid.
What can a mere mortal do to me?
12
My vows to you I must perform, O God;
I will render thank offerings to you.
13
For you have delivered my soul from death,
and my feet from falling,
so that I may walk before God
in the light of life.