Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
Our friend sleepeth.—JOHN 11:11.
I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
It came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones . . . and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.—This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.—Witnesses chosen before of God, . . . who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
I Thes. 4:13,14.I Cor. 15:16-18,20.Josh. 4:1,3,7. -Acts 2:32. -Acts 10:41.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“I will accept you with your sweet savour.”
Ezekiel 20:41
The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is an equal fragrance. There was a sweet savour in his active life by which he honoured the law of God, and made every precept to glitter like a precious jewel in the pure setting of his own person. Such, too, was his passive obedience, when he endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and at length sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, and was fastened to the cruel wood, that he might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These two things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of his doing and his dying, his substitutionary sufferings and his vicarious obedience, the Lord our God accepts us. What a preciousness must there be in him to overcome our want of preciousness! What a sweet savour to put away our ill savour! What a cleansing power in his blood to take away sin such as ours! and what glory in his righteousness to make such unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the Beloved! Mark, believer, how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since it is in him! Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You cannot be accepted without Christ; but, when you have received his merit, you cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and sins, Jehovah’s gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though he sees sin in you, in yourself, yet when he looks at you through Christ, he sees no sin. You are always accepted in Christ, are always blessed and dear to the Father’s heart. Therefore lift up a song, and as you see the smoking incense of the merit of the Saviour coming up, this evening, before the sapphire throne, let the incense of your praise go up also.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Genesis 2
2. Adam and Eve
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib Or part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs Or took part of the man’s side and then closed up the place with flesh. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam Or the man no suitable helper was found. 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. Possibly southeast Mesopotamia 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin Or good; pearls and onyx are also there.) 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 7 Then the LORD God formed a man The Hebrew for man (adam) sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for ground (adamah); it is also the name Adam (see verse 20). from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
6 but streams Or mist came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth Or land; also in verse 6 and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Adam and Eve
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
New Testament in Four Years - Mark 4:1-12
4. Parables of Jesus
1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that,
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ Isaiah 6:9,10”
Psalm a Day - Psalm 62
62. Psalm 62
1 Truly my soul finds rest in God;my salvation comes from him.
2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
3 How long will you assault me?
Would all of you throw me down—
this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
4 Surely they intend to topple me
from my lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their hearts they curse. The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 8.
5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.
6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God Or / God Most High is my salvation and my honor;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
8 Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.
9 Surely the lowborn are but a breath,
the highborn are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
together they are only a breath.
10 Do not trust in extortion
or put vain hope in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.
11 One thing God has spoken,
two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,
12 and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
according to what they have done.”
