DAILY?READINGS: Deut. 1; Eccl. 1 to 2:11; Luke 6:1-19
The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. Nehemiah 1:3
When Paul saw the overwhelming idolatry of Athens, he was provoked with the zeal of an evangelist (Acts 17:16). Centuries earlier, Nehemiah’s reaction to the state of Jerusalem, a city he had never seen, was much the same. We are told that he wept, mourned, fasted and prayed (v. 4). Consumed with grief for his people, he was moved to respond. His actions are exemplary. First he prayed. Then he planned. After that, he left his comfort zone, leaving the palace to take a construction job. May God cause the state of our cities to move us to such evangelistic action! —Norman Craig Funston
Others. Lord, yes, others, let this my motto be:
Help me live for others, that I may live like Thee. —C. D. Meigs