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Daily Light's Morning Reading
What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.—ROM. 8:3.
The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered?—By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Forasmuch . . . as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his God, “Be not far from me,” for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father’s love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord’s countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord’s feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Exodus 18
18. Jethro Visits Moses
Jethro’s Advice
18
Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.2After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro took her back,3along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been an alien in a foreign land”),4and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”).5Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came into the wilderness where Moses was encamped at the mountain of God, bringing Moses’ sons and wife to him.6He sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, with your wife and her two sons.”7Moses went out to meet his father-in-law; he bowed down and kissed him; each asked after the other’s welfare, and they went into the tent.8Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had beset them on the way, and how the Lord had delivered them.9Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in delivering them from the Egyptians.
10 Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh.11Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because he delivered the people from the Egyptians, when they dealt arrogantly with them.”12And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.
13 The next day Moses sat as judge for the people, while the people stood around him from morning until evening.14When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”15Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.16When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make known to them the statutes and instructions of God.”17Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.18You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.19Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You should represent the people before God, and you should bring their cases before God;20teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do.21You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.22Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you, but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.23If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace.”
24 So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said.25Moses chose able men from all Israel and appointed them as heads over the people, as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.26And they judged the people at all times; hard cases they brought to Moses, but any minor case they decided themselves.27Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went off to his own country.
New Testament in Four Years - Romans 14:9-12
14. The Weak and the Strong
9For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.11For it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.”
12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 78:1-16
78. Psalm 78
Psalm 78
God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude
A Maskil of Asaph.
1
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3
things that we have heard and known,
that our ancestors have told us.
4
We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
5
He established a decree in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach to their children;
6
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and rise up and tell them to their children,
7
so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
8
and that they should not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9
The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.
10
They did not keep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
11
They forgot what he had done,
and the miracles that he had shown them.
12
In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13
He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
14
In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all night long with a fiery light.
15
He split rocks open in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16
He made streams come out of the rock,
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.