Morning, February 3
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Bible League: Living His Word
Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!

While Paul and Silas were on a missionary journey, Paul had a dream one night of a man from Macedonia begging him to "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" (Acts 16:9). Subsequent to their arrival there, the owners of a female slave had them thrown into prison for casting out an evil spirit that enabled her to predict the future, thus bringing an end to a lucrative enterprise.

It is interesting to note what Paul and Silas did in prison. Rather than suffering in silence, rather than complaining about their plight, they prayed and sang hymns to God. It would have been easy for them to question God. After all, it was God who called them to Macedonia in the first place. Why call them to a place where they would only end up in jail? Instead, they prayed and sang songs of praise and worship before God. "Suddenly," the Bible tells us, there was an earthquake and the prison doors flew open and their chains fell off.

You may be in a prison of some sort today and, as a consequence, you have a choice to make. You can suffer in silence, or complain about your plight, or question God, or you can do what Paul and Silas did---pray to God and sing to Him with praise and worship. Unlocking the doors of your prison may well depend upon the attitude you bring to the situation.

It seems obvious that God responded to Paul and Silas because of their worshipful attitude. This is not to say that any negative situation can be immediately resolved simply by prayer and songs of praise and worship. These things are not magic methods to control God. Nevertheless, the story of Paul and Silas gives us an example of the attitude we should take in such circumstances and the response from God it can elicit.

With prayer, praise and worship, there may be a "Suddenly" in your future as well.

Bible in a Year
Old Testament Reading
Exodus 31, 32, 33


Exodus 31 -- Craftsmen Bezaleel and Aholiah; the Sabbath Explained

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Exodus 32 -- The Golden Calf and Moses' Anger

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Exodus 33 -- Moses Resumes the Journey and Intercedes for the Israelites

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


New Testament Reading
Matthew 22:23-46


Matthew 22 -- Parable of the Wedding Banquet; Render to Caesar; the Greatest Commandment; Sadducees Question Jesus

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library.
Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion
End the evil of those who are wicked,
        and defend the righteous.
        For you look deep within the mind and heart,
        O righteous God.
Insight
Nothing is hidden from God—this can be either terrifying or comforting. Our thoughts are an open book to him. Because he knows even our motives, we have no place to hide, no way to pretend we can get away with sin. But that very knowledge also gives us great comfort.
Challenge
We don't have to impress God or put up a false front. Instead, we can trust God to help us work through our weaknesses in order to serve him as he has planned. When we truly follow God, he rewards our effort.
Morning and Evening by Spurgeon
Romans 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors.

As God's creatures, we are all debtors to him: to obey him with all our body, and soul, and strength. Having broken his commandments, as we all have, we are debtors to his justice, and we owe to him a vast amount which we are not able to pay. But of the Christian it can be said that he does not owe God's justice anything, for Christ has paid the debt his people owed; for this reason the believer owes the more to love. I am a debtor to God's grace and forgiving mercy; but I am no debtor to his justice, for he will never accuse me of a debt already paid. Christ said, "It is finished!" and by that he meant, that whatever his people owed was wiped away forever from the book of remembrance. Christ, to the uttermost, has satisfied divine justice; the account is settled; the handwriting is nailed to the cross; the receipt is given, and we are debtors to God's justice no longer. But then, because we are not debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become ten times more debtors to God than we should have been otherwise. Christian, pause and ponder for a moment. What a debtor thou art to divine sovereignty! How much thou owest to his disinterested love, for he gave his own Son that he might die for thee. Consider how much you owe to his forgiving grace, that after ten thousand affronts he loves you as infinitely as ever. Consider what you owe to his power; how he has raised you from your death in sin; how he has preserved your spiritual life; how he has kept you from falling; and how, though a thousand enemies have beset your path, you have been able to hold on your way. Consider what you owe to his immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, he has not changed once. Thou art as deep in debt as thou canst be to every attribute of God. To God thou owest thyself, and all thou hast--yield thyself as a living sacrifice, it is but thy reasonable service.

Daily Light on the Daily Path
Haggai 2:4  'But now take courage, Zerubbabel,' declares the LORD, 'take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,' declares the LORD, 'and work; for I am with you,' declares the LORD of hosts.

John 15:5  "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Philippians 4:13  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Ephesians 6:10  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Nehemiah 8:10  Then he said to them, "Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

Zechariah 8:9  "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days to these words from the mouth of the prophets, those who spoke in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, to the end that the temple might be built.

Isaiah 35:3,4  Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. • Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you."

Judges 6:14  The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?"

Romans 8:31  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

2 Corinthians 4:1  Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart,

Galatians 6:9  Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

1 Corinthians 15:57  but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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.

Evening February 2
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