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Daily Light's Evening Reading
Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.—LUKE 10:41.
Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap. Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not. Seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
Having food and raiment let us be therewith content . . . They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
The cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face ... because we have sinned against thee.”
Daniel 9:8
A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the punishment which it deserves, should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as Christians. Alas! that it should be so. Favoured as we have been, we have yet been ungrateful: privileged beyond most, we have not brought forth fruit in proportion. Who is there, although he may long have been engaged in the Christian warfare, that will not blush when he looks back upon the past? As for our days before we were regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against love—light which has really penetrated our minds, and love in which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God’s own elect ones, who has had communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus’ bosom. Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look at his repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp! We have erred: let us, therefore, seek the spirit of penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter’s denying his Master. Remember, it is written, “He wept bitterly.” Have we no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears? Alas! these sins of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for the sovereign mercy which has made us to differ, snatching us like brands from the burning. My soul, bow down under a sense of thy natural sinfulness, and worship thy God. Admire the grace which saves thee—the mercy which spares thee—the love which pardons thee!
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Numbers 13
13. Exploring Canaan
Spies Sent into Canaan
13
The Lord said to Moses,2“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them leading men among the Israelites.4These were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;6from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;7from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;8from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;10from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;11from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi son of Susi;12from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;14from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;15from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.16These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country,18and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many,19and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified,20and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now it was the season of the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.22They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)23And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs.24That place was called the Wadi Eshcol, because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there.
The Report of the Spies
25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.26And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.27And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.28Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.29The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”31Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.”32So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size.33There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
New Testament in Four Years - 1 Corinthians 12:12-20
12. Spiritual Gifts
One Body with Many Members
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.15If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.16And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.19If all were a single member, where would the body be?20As it is, there are many members, yet one body.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 119:113-128
119. Psalm 119
113
I hate the double-minded,
but I love your law.
114
You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in your word.
115
Go away from me, you evildoers,
that I may keep the commandments of my God.
116
Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,
and let me not be put to shame in my hope.
117
Hold me up, that I may be safe
and have regard for your statutes continually.
118
You spurn all who go astray from your statutes;
for their cunning is in vain.
119
All the wicked of the earth you count as dross;
therefore I love your decrees.
120
My flesh trembles for fear of you,
and I am afraid of your judgments.
121
I have done what is just and right;
do not leave me to my oppressors.
122
Guarantee your servant’s well-being;
do not let the godless oppress me.
123
My eyes fail from watching for your salvation,
and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.
124
Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love,
and teach me your statutes.
125
I am your servant; give me understanding,
so that I may know your decrees.
126
It is time for the Lord to act,
for your law has been broken.
127
Truly I love your commandments
more than gold, more than fine gold.
128
Truly I direct my steps by all your precepts;
I hate every false way.