Category: Uncategorised

DAILY?READINGS: Ezra 5; Daniel 6; Revelation 2:1-17

 

But we will give ourselves continually to prayer.      Acts 6:4
Epaphras … always labouring fervently for you in prayers.
Colossians 4:12
Night and day praying exceedingly.    1 Thessalonians 3:10

 

In the days of the early church, prayer was taken seriously by God’s people! How much more would be accomplished in our testimonies, individually and collectively, if we gave ourselves wholeheartedly to prayer? It takes time, commitment and focused effort to intercede for one another and the lost. “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
—Pete Smith

 

O Thou by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way!
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray! —J. Montgomery

 

DAILY?READINGS: Ezra 3-4; Daniel 5; Revelation 1

 

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.     Isaiah 53:3

 

What a change! He came in lowliness, our souls to save, and we who despised and rejected Him are now His worshippers. We did not esteem Him, and now there is no one we esteem more. Gladly we come before His throne, full of thanksgiving. We worship and praise the Lamb. He is esteemed and adored in our hearts and our gatherings. Lord, haste the day when it will be face to face!    —Carl Knott

 

I worship Thee, most gracious God,
And all Thy ways adore;
And every day I live, I seem,
To love Thee more and more. — F. W. Faber

DAILY?READINGS: Ezra 1-2; Daniel 4; 3 John

 

Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets.    Luke 6:26

 

The Bible indicates that humanity is more likely to believe a lie than what God says. Consequently, most of God’s messengers, including His Son, were rejected and suffered for delivering God’s messages. If the Church is to awake from her complacent condition, believers must be faithful to know and convey God’s Word graciously to others. May the Lord give us both discernment and courage to speak up for the Lord.     —W. A. H.

 

Speak for Jesus, blessed Saviour! Tell of mercies, sweet and true;
Pleading, on His throne of glory, He is speaking now for you.
—E. E. Hewitt

DAILY?READINGS: 2 Chronicles 36; Daniel 3; 2 John

 

Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God, and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight.    1 Chronicles 19:13

 

Jeremiah speaks of the potter remaking a vessel “as seemed good to the potter” (Jer. 18:4) The Lord Jesus committed Himself to the Father, “Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matt. 11:26; Luke 10:21). Surely we as New Testament believers should recognize the sovereign workings of God in our lives and resign ourselves to His will in all of the circumstances of life. We need the “Not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42) mentality. He will choose the best for those who will leave the choice with Him.    —William Gustafson

 

I dare not choose my lot, I would not if I might;
Choose thou for me, my God, so shall I walk aright. —H. Bonar

 

DAILY?READINGS: 2 Chronicles 35; Daniel 2:24-49; 1 John 5

 

Be still and know that I am God.    Psalm 46:10

 

We live in such a busy world. We hardly catch our breath before we are off to the next thing. We so need to stop and look unto Jesus, to be still and listen to our Lord. Too many days we read, we pray, and then we run. We do need to read His precious Word and we do need to pray. But we also need to stop and be still and listen. Today take even a little time to be still and hear what He has to say to you. Tell Him, Lord, I am here; speak to me. He will bring His Scriptures to your heart.
—V. Gaynier

 

O, give me Samuel’s ear, the open ear,
O Lord, alive and quick to hear.
Like him to answer at Thy call,
And to obey Thee first of all. —J. D. Burns

DAILY?READINGS: 2 Chronicles 34; Daniel 2:1-23; 1 John 4

 

And I John, saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship.    Revelation 22:8

 

The purpose of things revealed to us from God’s Word, is not to puff us up with pride, but to lay us low with gratitude and adoration. As it was with John, the Christian also has these holy moments. When alone with the Lord, a circumstance of life drives us to His Word, and He speaks to our need beyond what we had hoped for. This humbling yet uplifting experience awaits you at His feet today. Will you go?
—Rick Morse

 

Into the heart of Jesus, deeper and deeper I go,
Seeking to know the reason; why He should love me so,
Why He should stoop to lift me, up from the miry clay,
Saving my soul, making me whole, though I had wandered away.
—Oswald Jeffrey Smith

DAILY?READINGS: 2 Chronicles 33; Daniel 1; 1 John 3

 

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.    Job 19:25-26

 

What an incredible declaration! What a faith-affirming proclamation—that trials and sufferings and tragedies don’t determine our destiny. God does! In the midst of the most trying circumstances the converted soul can exclaim, “My Redeemer liveth!” What a testimony to those looking on. May we cultivate such a relationship with God that our hope in Him defines our outlook on life—past, present and for the life to come!    —Deborah Manera

 

Jesus, my Redeemer, lives; I, too, unto life shall waken.
Endless joy my Saviour gives; shall my courage, then, be shaken?
Shall I fear, or could the Head, rise and leave His members dead?
— Luise Hen­ri­et­te of Bran­den­burg

DAILY?READINGS: 2 Chronicles 32; Ezekiel 48; 1 John 2:12-29

 

The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.    Jeremiah 31:3

 

All human love must have a beginning and an end, but not the love of God. Just like the ring given to the prodigal son, it has no beginning or end. It is everlasting. Before the world was created, before you were born, God thought of you. He foresaw the sins which you would commit, and which should have kept you forever out of heaven. In spite of it all, He planned a way of escape and salvation through the death and resurrection of His Son. He longs for you to draw near to Him today. Will you come?    —Jim Pizzulli

He can save; He can keep; He can cleanse and He will.
God can do anything but fail! —Ira Stanphill

DAILY?READINGS: 2 Chronicles 31; Ezekiel 47; 1 John 1 to 2:11

 

The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
John 3:35

 

From eternity past, God the Father loved the Son. This love is the standard by which all other loves are measured. It is also the demonstration of divine generosity towards sinful man. Christ is uniquely “the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13, NKJV). John 3:16 points out the breadth and depth of this love, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” Romans 8:32 agrees: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” God’s grace to saints is secured and defined by the worth of the Son to the Father.    —Keith Keyser

God wrought by weight and measure, and I was with Him then:
Myself the Father’s pleasure, and mine, the sons of men.
—W. Cowper

DAILY?READINGS: 2 Chronicles 30; Ezekiel 46; John 21

 

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof.    1 John 2:17

 

The simplest and best definition of worldiness I have come across is: “the love for passing things.” Another has defined it as “sharing the spirit of the age in which one lives.” By this standard the Church today is worldly. If we desire the worldly fashions, styles, toys and trinkets of the times, our spiritual reason eventually wavers, judgement is distorted, and modesty is abandoned. In contrast, “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 2:17).    —W. Ross Rainey

 

Take the world, but give me Jesus,
All its joys are but a name;
But His love abideth ever,
Thro’ eternal years the same.
—Fanny J. Crosby