Wednesday, January 31, 2018 "Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi." Today's Devotional Reading 2 Samuel 18:23 Running is not everything, there is much in the way which we select: a swift foot over hill and down dale will not keep pace with a slower traveler upon level ground. How is it with my spiritual journey, am I labouring up the hill of my o...
Keep ReadingTuesday, January 30, 2018 "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance." Today's Devotional Reading Ephesians 1:11 When Jesus gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and privileges which went with himself; so that now, although as eternal God, he has essential rights to which no creature may venture to pretend, yet as Jesus, the Mediator, the federal head of th...
Keep ReadingMonday, January 29, 2018 "The dove came in to him in the evening." Today's Devotional Reading Genesis 8:11 Blessed be the Lord for another day of mercy, even though I am now weary with its toils. Unto the preserver of men lift I my song of gratitude. The dove found no rest out of the ark, and therefore returned to it; and my soul has learned yet more fully than ever, t...
Keep ReadingSunday, January 28, 2018 "And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them." Today's Devotional Reading Luke 2:20 What was the subject of their praise? They praised God for what they had heard - for the good tidings of great joy that a Saviour was born unto them. Let us copy them; let us a...
Keep ReadingSaturday, January 27, 2018 "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Today's Devotional Reading Luke 2:19 There was an exercise, on the part of this blessed woman, of three powers of her being: her memory - she kept all these things; her affections - she kept them in her heart; her intellect - she pondered them; so that memory, affection, and un...
Keep ReadingFriday, January 26, 2018 "All they that heard it wondered at those things." Today's Devotional Reading Luke 2:18 We must not cease to wonder at the great marvels of our God. It would be very difficult to draw a line between holy wonder and real worship; for when the soul is overwhelmed with the majesty of God's glory, though it may not express itself in song, or even u...
Keep ReadingWednesday, January 24, 2018 "Martha was cumbered about much serving." Today's Devotional Reading Luke 10:40 Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. "I serve," should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had "much serving." We cannot do too much. Let us do all tha...
Keep ReadingTuesday, January 23, 2018 "We will remember thy love more than wine." Today's Devotional Reading Song of Solomon 1:4 Jesus will not let his people forget his love. If all the love they have enjoyed should be forgotten, he will visit them with fresh love. "Do you forget my cross?" says he, "I will cause you to remember it; for at my table I will manifest myself anew to ...
Keep ReadingMonday, January 22, 2018 "Doth Job fear God for nought? Today's Devotional Reading Job 1:9 This was the wicked question of Satan concerning that upright man of old, but there are many in the present day concerning whom it might be asked with justice, for they love God after a fashion because he prospers them; but if things went ill with them, they would give up all the...
Keep ReadingSunday, January 21, 2018 "He was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst?" Today's Devotional Reading Judges 15:18 Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was totally different from any which the hero had met before. Merely to get thirst assuaged is n...
Keep ReadingSaturday, January 20, 2018 "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way." Today's Devotional Reading Psalm 119:36 There are divers kinds of vanity. The cap and bells of the fool, the mirth of the world, the dance, the lyre, and the cup of the dissolute, all these men know to be vanities; they wear upon their forefront their proper name and...
Keep ReadingFriday, January 19, 2018 "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." Today's Devotional Reading Luke 24:25 He whom we viewed last evening as opening Scripture, we here perceive opening the understanding. In the first work he has many fellow-labourers, but in the second he stands alone; many can bring the Scriptures to the mind, but...
Keep ReadingThursday, January 18, 2018 "He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." Today's Devotional Reading Luke 24:27 The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had a most profitable journey. Their companion and teacher was the best of tutors; the interpreter one of a thousand, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord Je...
Keep ReadingWednesday, January 17, 2018 "And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house." Today's Devotional Reading 2 Samuel 11:2 At that hour David saw Bathsheba. We are never out of the reach of temptation. Both at home and abroad we are liable to meet with allurements to evil; the morning opens with peril,...
Keep ReadingTuesday, January 16, 2018 "The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself." Today's Devotional Reading Daniel 9:26 Blessed be his name, there was no cause of death in him. Neither original nor actual sin had defiled him, and therefore death had no claim upon him. No man could have taken his life from him justly, for he had done no man wrong, and no man could even ha...
Keep ReadingMonday, January 15, 2018 "But I give myself unto prayer." Today's Devotional Reading Psalm 109:4 Lying tongues were busy against the reputation of David, but he did not defend himself; he moved the case into a higher court, and pleaded before the great King himself. Prayer is the safest method of replying to words of hatred. The Psalmist prayed in no cold-hearted manne...
Keep ReadingSunday, January 14, 2018 "Beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me." Today's Devotional Reading Matthew 14:30 Sinking times are praying times with the Lord's servants. Peter neglected prayer at starting upon his venturous journey, but when he began to sink his danger made him a suppliant, and his cry though late was not too late. In our hours of bodily pain a...
Keep ReadingSaturday, January 13, 2018 "The iron did swim." Today's Devotional Reading 2 Kings 6:9 The axe-head seemed hopelessly lost, and as it was borrowed, the honour of the prophetic band was likely to be imperiled, and so the name of their God to be compromised. Contrary to all expectation, the iron was made to mount from the depth of the stream and to swim; for things impos...
Keep ReadingFriday, January 12, 2018 "I have yet to speak on God's behalf." Today's Devotional Reading Job 36:2 We ought not to court publicity for our virtue, or notoriety for our zeal; but, at the same time, it is a sin to be always seeking to hide that which God has bestowed upon us for the good of others. A Christian is not to be a village in a valley, but "a city set upon a h...
Keep ReadingThursday, January 11, 2018 "I have prayed for thee." Today's Devotional Reading Luke 22:32 How encouraging is the thought of the Redeemer's never-ceasing intercession for us. When we pray, he pleads for us; and when we are not praying, he is advocating our cause, and by his supplications shielding us from unseen dangers. Notice the word of comfort addressed to Peter - ...
Keep ReadingWednesday, January 10, 2018 "In my flesh shall I see God." Today's Devotional Reading Job 19:26 Mark the subject of Job's devout anticipation "I shall see God." He does not say, "I shall see the saints" - though doubtless that will be untold felicity - but, "I shall see God." It is not - "I shall see the pearly gates, I shall behold the walls of jasper, I shall gaze up...
Keep ReadingTuesday, January 9, 2018 "Serve the Lord with gladness." Today's Devotional Reading Psalm 100:2 Delight in divine service is a token of acceptance. Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do what is unpleasant to them, are not serving him at all; they bring the form of homage, but the life is absent. Our God requires no slaves to grace his throne; he i...
Keep ReadingMonday, January 8, 2018 "Thy love is better than wine." Today's Devotional Reading Song of Solomon 1:2 Nothing gives the believer so much joy as fellowship with Christ. He has enjoyment as others have in the common mercies of life, he can be glad both in God's gifts and God's works; but in all these separately, yea, and in all of them added together, he doth not find s...
Keep ReadingSunday, January 7, 2018 "My sister, my spouse." Today's Devotional Reading Song of Solomon 4:12 Observe the sweet titles with which the heavenly Solomon with intense affection addresses his bride the church. "My sister, one near to me by ties of nature, partaker of the same sympathies. My spouse, nearest and dearest, united to me by the tenderest bands of love; my swee...
Keep ReadingSaturday, January 6, 2018 "Now the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening." Today's Devotional Reading Ezekiel 33:22 In the way of judgment this may be the case, and, if so, be it mine to consider the reason of such a visitation, and bear the rod and him that hath appointed it. I am not the only one who is chastened in the night season; let me cheerfully submit to...
Keep ReadingFriday, January 5, 2018 "And God saw the light." Today's Devotional Reading Genesis 1:4 We have noticed the goodness of the light, and the Lord's dividing it from the darkness, we now note the special eye which the Lord had for the light. "God saw the light" - he looked at it with complacency, gazed upon it with pleasure, saw that it "was good." If the Lord has given y...
Keep ReadingThursday, January 4, 2018 "And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him." Today's Devotional Reading Genesis 42:8 Our desires went forth for growth in our acquaintance with the Lord Jesus; it may be well now to consider a kindred topic, namely, our heavenly Joseph's knowledge of us. This was most blessedly perfect long before we had the slightest knowledge of hi...
Keep ReadingWednesday, January 3, 2018 "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Today's Devotional Reading Luke 3:4 The voice crying in the wilderness demanded a way for the Lord, a way prepared, and a way prepared in the wilderness. I would be attentive to the Master's proclamation, and give him a road into my heart, c...
Keep ReadingTuesday, January 2, 2018 "Let the people renew their strength." Today's Devotional Reading Isaiah 41:1 All things on earth need to be renewed. No created thing continueth by itself. "Thou renewest the face of the year," was the Psalmist's utterance. Even the trees, which wear not themselves with care, nor shorten their lives with labour, must drink of the rain of heave...
Keep ReadingNew Year's Day 2018 "We will be glad and rejoice in thee." Today's Devotional Reading Song of Solomon 1:4 We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will not open the gates of the year to the dolorous notes of the sackbut, but to the sweet strains of the harp of joy, and the high-sounding cymbals of gladness. "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise ...
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