Evening, January 8
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Bible League: Living His Word
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.

When was the last time you spoke to a fellow Christian using a psalm, a hymn, or a spiritual song? If you're honest, you'll probably have to admit that something like that doesn't happen very often in your life. Maybe the great heroes of the faith did things like that, maybe the Apostle Paul did things like that, but the rest of us seem to function at a lower standard operating level of spiritual joy.

The Bible, however, seems to teach that a spirit filled with joy is available to the average Christian. We have the fruit of the Spirit, one of which is joy (Galatians 5:22). Jesus told us that "no one will take away our joy" (John 16:22), and that we will have the full measure of His joy (John 17:13). Peter said that because we believe in Jesus we are "filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy" (1 Peter 1:8). Maybe the resources of joy necessary to start speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are there after all.

On the other hand, there are things that can quench our joy. Getting drunk, Paul seems to be saying in our verse for today, is diametrically opposed to being filled with the Spirit and overflowing in song. No doubt we could all think of things to add to a list of joy-quenchers. No doubt, anything in our walk of life that stands opposed to the Spirit-filled life tends to steal joy.

The key, then, to a spirit full of song is to turn from the joy-quenchers like getting drunk and do what Paul says---get filled with the Spirit. Do all the things we know from experience build us up in the Spirit: reading the Bible, worship, prayer, going to church, listening to Christian music, etc.

Who knows? Perhaps the next time a fellow believer walks by, you'll sense a song welling up from deep within.

Bible in a Year
Old Testament Reading
Genesis 20, 21, 22


Genesis 20 -- Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Genesis 21 -- Isaac Born; Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away; Treaty at Beersheba

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Genesis 22 -- The Offering of Isaac; Nahor's sons

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


New Testament Reading
Matthew 7


Matthew 7 -- Do Not Judge; Ask; Seek; Knock; Golden Rule; Narrow Gate; Good Fruit; Foundation on Rock

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library.
Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion
But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became.
Insight
The Egyptians tried to wear down the Hebrew people by forcing them into slavery and mistreating them. Instead, the Hebrews multiplied and grew stronger.
Challenge
When we are burdened or mistreated, we may feel defeated. But our burdens can make us stronger and can develop qualities in us that will prepare us for the future. We cannot be overcomers without troubles to overcome. Be true to God in the hard times because even the worst situations can make us better people.
Morning and Evening by Spurgeon
Songs 1:2  Thy love is better than wine.

Nothing gives the believer so much joy as fellowship with Christ. He has enjoyment as others have in the common mercies of life, he can be glad both in God's gifts and God's works; but in all these separately, yea, and in all of them added together, he doth not find such substantial delight as in the matchless person of his Lord Jesus. He has wine which no vineyard on earth ever yielded; he has bread which all the corn-fields of Egypt could never bring forth. Where can such sweetness be found as we have tasted in communion with our Beloved? In our esteem, the joys of earth are little better than husks for swine compared with Jesus, the heavenly manna. We would rather have one mouthful of Christ's love, and a sip of his fellowship, than a whole world full of carnal delights. What is the chaff to the wheat? What is the sparkling paste to the true diamond? What is a dream to the glorious reality? What is time's mirth, in its best trim, compared to our Lord Jesus in his most despised estate? If you know anything of the inner life, you will confess that our highest, purest, and most enduring joys must be the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. No spring yields such sweet water as that well of God which was digged with the soldier's spear. All earthly bliss is of the earth earthy, but the comforts of Christ's presence are like himself, heavenly. We can review our communion with Jesus, and find no regrets of emptiness therein; there are no dregs in this wine, no dead flies in this ointment. The joy of the Lord is solid and enduring. Vanity hath not looked upon it, but discretion and prudence testify that it abideth the test of years, and is in time and in eternity worthy to be called "the only true delight." For nourishment, consolation, exhilaration, and refreshment, no wine can rival the love of Jesus. Let us drink to the full this evening.

Daily Light on the Daily Path
Revelation 14:5  And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.

Jeremiah 50:20  'In those days and at that time,' declares the LORD, 'search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.'

Micah 7:18,19  Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love. • He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea.

Ephesians 1:6  to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Colossians 1:22  yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--

Jude 1:24,25  Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, • to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. 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.

Morning January 8
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