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Daily Light's Evening Reading

Consolation in Christ, . . . comfort of love, . . . fellowship of the Spirit.PHI. 2:1.

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.—My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

The Father . . . shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever: the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.—Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Job 14:1,2. -Psa. 73:26.John 14:16,26. -II Cor. 1:3,4.I Thes. 4:14,17,18.

Spurgeon's Evening Reading

“God, my maker, who giveth songs in the night.”

Job 35:10

Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow—the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by—who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God’s praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God’s high praises, unless he himself give me the song? No, it is not in man’s power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon him for the music. O thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.

Old Testament Chapter a Day - Joshua 19

Joshua 19

19. Rest of Land Divided

1 The second lot came out for the tribe of Simeon according to its clans. Their inheritance lay within the territory of Judah. 2 It included:

   Beersheba (or Sheba), Or Beersheba, Sheba; 1 Chron. 4:28 does not have Sheba. Moladah, 3 Hazar Shual, Balah, Ezem, 4 Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah, 5 Ziklag, Beth Markaboth, Hazar Susah, 6 Beth Lebaoth and Sharuhen—thirteen towns and their villages;

    7 Ain, Rimmon, Ether and Ashan—four towns and their villages— 8 and all the villages around these towns as far as Baalath Beer (Ramah in the Negev).

   This was the inheritance of the tribe of the Simeonites, according to its clans. 9 The inheritance of the Simeonites was taken from the share of Judah, because Judah’s portion was more than they needed. So the Simeonites received their inheritance within the territory of Judah.

Allotment for Zebulun

    10 The third lot came up for Zebulun according to its clans:

   The boundary of their inheritance went as far as Sarid. 11 Going west it ran to Maralah, touched Dabbesheth, and extended to the ravine near Jokneam. 12 It turned east from Sarid toward the sunrise to the territory of Kisloth Tabor and went on to Daberath and up to Japhia. 13 Then it continued eastward to Gath Hepher and Eth Kazin; it came out at Rimmon and turned toward Neah. 14 There the boundary went around on the north to Hannathon and ended at the Valley of Iphtah El. 15 Included were Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah and Bethlehem. There were twelve towns and their villages.

    16 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of Zebulun, according to its clans.

Allotment for Issachar

    17 The fourth lot came out for Issachar according to its clans. 18 Their territory included:

   Jezreel, Kesulloth, Shunem, 19 Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath, 20 Rabbith, Kishion, Ebez, 21 Remeth, En Gannim, En Haddah and Beth Pazzez. 22 The boundary touched Tabor, Shahazumah and Beth Shemesh, and ended at the Jordan. There were sixteen towns and their villages.

    23 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Issachar, according to its clans.

Allotment for Asher

    24 The fifth lot came out for the tribe of Asher according to its clans. 25 Their territory included:

   Helkath, Hali, Beten, Akshaph, 26 Allammelek, Amad and Mishal. On the west the boundary touched Carmel and Shihor Libnath. 27 It then turned east toward Beth Dagon, touched Zebulun and the Valley of Iphtah El, and went north to Beth Emek and Neiel, passing Kabul on the left. 28 It went to Abdon, Some Hebrew manuscripts (see also 21:30); most Hebrew manuscripts Ebron Rehob, Hammon and Kanah, as far as Greater Sidon. 29 The boundary then turned back toward Ramah and went to the fortified city of Tyre, turned toward Hosah and came out at the Mediterranean Sea in the region of Akzib, 30 Ummah, Aphek and Rehob. There were twenty-two towns and their villages.

    31 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Asher, according to its clans.

Allotment for Naphtali

    32 The sixth lot came out for Naphtali according to its clans:

    33 Their boundary went from Heleph and the large tree in Zaanannim, passing Adami Nekeb and Jabneel to Lakkum and ending at the Jordan. 34 The boundary ran west through Aznoth Tabor and came out at Hukkok. It touched Zebulun on the south, Asher on the west and the Jordan Septuagint; Hebrew west, and Judah, the Jordan, on the east. 35 The fortified towns were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Kinnereth, 36 Adamah, Ramah, Hazor, 37 Kedesh, Edrei, En Hazor, 38 Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath and Beth Shemesh. There were nineteen towns and their villages.

    39 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Naphtali, according to its clans.

Allotment for Dan

    40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of Dan according to its clans. 41 The territory of their inheritance included:

   Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir Shemesh, 42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, 43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 46 Me Jarkon and Rakkon, with the area facing Joppa.

    47 (When the territory of the Danites was lost to them, they went up and attacked Leshem, took it, put it to the sword and occupied it. They settled in Leshem and named it Dan after their ancestor.)

    48 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Dan, according to its clans.

Allotment for Joshua

    49 When they had finished dividing the land into its allotted portions, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance among them, 50 as the LORD had commanded. They gave him the town he asked for—Timnath Serah Also known as Timnath Heres (see Judges 2:9) in the hill country of Ephraim. And he built up the town and settled there.

    51 These are the territories that Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the tribal clans of Israel assigned by lot at Shiloh in the presence of the LORD at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And so they finished dividing the land.

New Testament in Four Years - Luke 16:10-12

Luke 16:10-12

16. Additional Teachings

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

   

Psalm a Day - Psalm 78:1-72

Psalm 78:1-72

78. Psalm 78

1 My people, hear my teaching;
   listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable;
   I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
3 things we have heard and known,
   things our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
   we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
   his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
   and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
   to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
   even the children yet to be born,
   and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
   and would not forget his deeds
   but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their ancestors—
   a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
   whose spirits were not faithful to him.

    9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
   turned back on the day of battle;
10 they did not keep God’s covenant
   and refused to live by his law.
11 They forgot what he had done,
   the wonders he had shown them.
12 He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors
   in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and led them through;
   he made the water stand up like a wall.
14 He guided them with the cloud by day
   and with light from the fire all night.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness
   and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag
   and made water flow down like rivers.

    17 But they continued to sin against him,
   rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.
18 They willfully put God to the test
   by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God;
   they said, “Can God really
   spread a table in the wilderness?
20 True, he struck the rock,
   and water gushed out,
   streams flowed abundantly,
but can he also give us bread?
   Can he supply meat for his people?”
21 When the LORD heard them, he was furious;
   his fire broke out against Jacob,
   and his wrath rose against Israel,
22 for they did not believe in God
   or trust in his deliverance.
23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above
   and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 he rained down manna for the people to eat,
   he gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Human beings ate the bread of angels;
   he sent them all the food they could eat.
26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens
   and by his power made the south wind blow.
27 He rained meat down on them like dust,
   birds like sand on the seashore.
28 He made them come down inside their camp,
   all around their tents.
29 They ate till they were gorged—
   he had given them what they craved.
30 But before they turned from what they craved,
   even while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger rose against them;
   he put to death the sturdiest among them,
   cutting down the young men of Israel.

    32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
   in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he ended their days in futility
   and their years in terror.
34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
   they eagerly turned to him again.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,
   that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
   lying to him with their tongues;
37 their hearts were not loyal to him,
   they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful;
   he forgave their iniquities
   and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
   and did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
   a passing breeze that does not return.

    40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
   and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test;
   they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power—
   the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
   his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44 He turned their river into blood;
   they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
   and frogs that devastated them.
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
   their produce to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
   and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
   their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,
   his wrath, indignation and hostility—
   a band of destroying angels.
50 He prepared a path for his anger;
   he did not spare them from death
   but gave them over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
   the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock;
   he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
   but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
   to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them
   and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
   he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

    56 But they put God to the test
   and rebelled against the Most High;
   they did not keep his statutes.
57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
   as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places;
   they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard them, he was furious;
   he rejected Israel completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
   the tent he had set up among humans.
61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
   his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62 He gave his people over to the sword;
   he was furious with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
   and their young women had no wedding songs;
64 their priests were put to the sword,
   and their widows could not weep.

    65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
   as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back his enemies;
   he put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
   he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
   Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
   like the earth that he established forever.
70 He chose David his servant
   and took him from the sheep pens;
71 from tending the sheep he brought him
   to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
   of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
   with skillful hands he led them.

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