Meditate
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Daily Light's Evening Reading
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.—II COR 9:15.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.—For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
He . . . spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.—Having yet . . . one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him.
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!—Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Psa. 100:1,2,4. -Isa. 9:6.Rom. 8:32. -Mark 12:6.Psa. 107:21. -Psa. 103:1.Luke 1:46,47.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.”
Job 1:5
What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself ere he rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household gatherings it is easy to slide into sinful levities, and to forget our avowed character as Christians. It ought not to be so, but so it is, that our days of feasting are very seldom days of sanctified enjoyment, but too frequently degenerate into unhallowed mirth. There is a way of joy as pure and sanctifying as though one bathed in the rivers of Eden: holy gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas! for our poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. Come, believer, in what have you sinned today? Have you been forgetful of your high calling? Have you been even as others in idle words and loose speeches? Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The sacrifice sanctifies. The precious blood of the Lamb slain removes the guilt, and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance and carelessness. This is the best ending of a Christmas-day—to wash anew in the cleansing fountain. Believer, come to this sacrifice continually; if it be so good tonight, it is good every night. To live at the altar is the privilege of the royal priesthood; to them sin, great as it is, is nevertheless no cause for despair, since they draw near yet again to the sin-atoning victim, and their conscience is purged from dead works.
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Gladly I close this festive day, Grasping the altar’s hallow'd horn; My slips and faults are washed away, The Lamb has all my trespass borne. |
Old Testament Chapter a Day - 2 Kings 11
11. Athaliah and Joash
Athaliah Reigns over Judah
11
Now when Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she set about to destroy all the royal family.2But Jehosheba, King Joram’s daughter, Ahaziah’s sister, took Joash son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s children who were about to be killed; she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus she hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not killed;3he remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah reigned over the land.
Jehoiada Anoints the Child Joash
4 But in the seventh year Jehoiada summoned the captains of the Carites and of the guards and had them come to him in the house of the Lord. He made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the Lord; then he showed them the king’s son.5He commanded them, “This is what you are to do: one-third of you, those who go off duty on the sabbath and guard the king’s house6(another third being at the gate Sur and a third at the gate behind the guards), shall guard the palace;7and your two divisions that come on duty in force on the sabbath and guard the house of the Lord8shall surround the king, each with weapons in hand; and whoever approaches the ranks is to be killed. Be with the king in his comings and goings.”
9 The captains did according to all that the priest Jehoiada commanded; each brought his men who were to go off duty on the sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the sabbath, and came to the priest Jehoiada.10The priest delivered to the captains the spears and shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of the Lord;11the guards stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house, to guard the king on every side.12Then he brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant; they proclaimed him king, and anointed him; they clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!”
Death of Athaliah
13 When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the Lord to the people;14when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to custom, with the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”15Then the priest Jehoiada commanded the captains who were set over the army, “Bring her out between the ranks, and kill with the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest said, “Let her not be killed in the house of the Lord.”16So they laid hands on her; she went through the horses’ entrance to the king’s house, and there she was put to death.
17 Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people, that they should be the Lord’s people; also between the king and the people.18Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. The priest posted guards over the house of the Lord.19He took the captains, the Carites, the guards, and all the people of the land; then they brought the king down from the house of the Lord, marching through the gate of the guards to the king’s house. He took his seat on the throne of the kings.20So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been killed with the sword at the king’s house.
21 Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.
New Testament in Four Years - 2 Thessalonians 2:5-8
2. The Man of Lawlessness
5Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you?6And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed when his time comes.7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed.8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming.Psalm a Day - Psalm 127
127. Psalm 127
Psalm 127
God’s Blessings in the Home
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
1
Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord guards the city,
the guard keeps watch in vain.
2
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives sleep to his beloved.
3
Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the sons of one’s youth.
5
Happy is the man who has
his quiver full of them.
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.