Bible League: Living His Word LORD, your word continues forever in heaven.You are loyal forever and ever. You made the earth, and it still stands. All things continue today because of your laws. Like slaves, they all obey you. God spoke His creative word in the beginning and He has been continuously speaking His providential word ever since. Everything He created depends upon His word for its continuing existence. Everything that happens is a result of what He says, even the weather on earth: "He gives a command to the earth, and it quickly obeys. He makes the snow fall until the ground is as white as wool. He makes sleet blow through the air like dust" (Psalm 147:15-16). Given the dependency of all things on the word of God, it's a good thing that God is loyal. Our God is loyal to what He has made. If He wanted, He could stop speaking at any moment. Instead, His speech continues to flow forth from heaven and the universe continues to exist. The earth, too, still stands. God sees to it that all the conditions that make the earth possible and all the conditions that make life on earth possible continue to hold. Moreover, our verse for today says that God's loyalty to all things goes on forever and ever. There will always be a heaven and an earth obeying the laws He speaks. Seeing the radical dependency of all things, but denying the existence of the God upon which they ultimately depend, the people of the world fret about their fate. Given what they can see, they speculate that the universe may one day cease to exist. And they also speculate that the earth may long precede the universe into nonexistence. They do not understand that the dependency of the universe should point them to God. They do not understand that the dependency of the earth should engender trust in Him, engender trust in His loyalty. It's true that at the second coming of Jesus Christ the heavens and the earth will undergo radical change, but they will not be annihilated. Rather, God will purge them of evil. II Peter 3 tells us that just as the earth was once purified of evil by the waters of the Great Flood, so shall the heavens and the earth be purified by fire. God's loyalty, in other words, will not cease. Indeed, quite the opposite, for it will beneficently transform the old heaven and earth into an even better new heaven and earth (II Peter 3:13). Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingZechariah 13, 14 Zechariah 13 -- The Fountain of Cleansing for Jerusalem; Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Zechariah 14 -- The Destroyers of Jerusalem Destroyed; The Lord shall be king over all the earth NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Revelation 21 Revelation 21 -- The New Heaven and Earth; The New Jerusalem NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.Insight Sometimes it is difficult to forgive those who wrong us. Imagine how hard it would be to forgive everyone, no matter what they had done! Challenge This is what God has done in Jesus. No one, no matter what he or she has done, is beyond forgiveness. All a person has to do is turn from his or her sin, receive Christ's forgiveness, and commit his or her life to him. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon 2 Samuel 2:26 Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?If, O my reader! thou art merely a professor, and not a possessor of the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the following lines are a true ketch of thine end. You are a respectable attendant at a place of worship; you go because others go, not because your heart is right with God. This is your beginning. I will suppose that for the next twenty or thirty years you will be spared to go on as you do now, professing religion by an outward attendance upon the means of grace, but having no heart in the matter. Tread softly, for I must show you the deathbed of such a one as yourself. Let us gaze upon him gently. A clammy sweat is on his brow, and he wakes up crying, "O God, it is hard to die. Did you send for my minister?" "Yes, he is coming." The minister comes. "Sir, I fear that I am dying!" "Have you any hope?" "I cannot say that I have. I fear to stand before my God; oh! pray for me." The prayer is offered for him with sincere earnestness, and the way of salvation is for the ten-thousandth time put before him, but before he has grasped the rope, I see him sink. I may put my finger upon those cold eyelids, for they will never see anything here again. But where is the man, and where are the man's true eyes? It is written, "In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." Ah! why did he not lift up his eyes before? Because he was so accustomed to hear the gospel that his soul slept under it. Alas! if you should lift up your eyes there, how bitter will be your wailings. Let the Saviour's own words reveal the woe: "Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." There is a frightful meaning in those words. May you never have to spell it out by the red light of Jehovah's wrath! Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Samuel 2:9 "He keeps the feet of His godly ones, But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness; For not by might shall a man prevail.1 John 1:6,7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; • but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. John 13:10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." Proverbs 4:11,12,14,15,25-27 I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths. • When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; And if you run, you will not stumble. • Do not enter the path of the wicked And do not proceed in the way of evil men. • Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on. • Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. • Watch the path of your feet And all your ways will be established. • Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil. 2 Timothy 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
Click for Video Devotionals     |