Bible League: Living His Word All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.The Apostle John tells us in our verse for today that the victorious will inherit the blessings mentioned previously in the chapter. These blessings include the right to dwell with God in the New Jerusalem that is located on the new earth with the new heaven above. This will be a place where there is no more death, or crying, or pain. And we will have the right there to drink from the springs of the water of life. These blessings are no doubt not an exhaustive accounting of everything that could be said about the new situation, but they are enough to let us know that everything will be fundamentally transformed and everything will be good. Who are the victorious? The idea of a spiritual battle taking place in the present dispensation is a common theme in John's writings and the New Testament as a whole. The victorious are all those who have "won your battle with the evil one" (I John 2:13) and all those who have defeated "this evil world" (I John 1:4). They have overcome the evil one and his evil regime "by the blood of the lamb and by their testimony" (Revelation 12:11). They have overcome the evil one and his evil regime, in other words, by their faith in Jesus Christ and their testimony to that effect (I John 5:4). In this fundamentally transformed heaven and earth God will be our God. This does not mean, of course, that God was not our God before this time. God has been God for all eternity and has been God over all creation and over all people since He made them. It means that our relationship to God as God and, specifically in this context, to God as our father, will have come to its complete fulfillment. We will no longer be alienated from God in any way, shape, or form. Further, as the people of God we are already God's children, but the elimination of everything that separates us from our father God means that our relationship to Him as children will also have come to its complete fulfillment. We will never again act as if we were not God's children. Our struggles against the evil one and his evil regime are not done without purpose or reward. Our victory gains us the perfect world of Revelation 21. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJob 10, 11, 12 Job 10 -- Job Complains to God, Craves a Little Ease Before Death NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Job 11 -- Zophar Rebukes Job for Justifying Himself; God's Wisdom Is Unsearchable NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Job 12 -- Job Maintains Himself against His Friends; Acknowledges God's Omnipotence NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Acts 8:1-25 Acts 8 -- Saul Persecutes the Church; Philip in Samaria; Simon the Sorcerer; the Ethiopian NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven't done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”Insight What does your money mean to you? Although Jesus wanted this man to sell everything and give his money to the poor, this does not mean that all believers should sell all their possessions. Most of his followers did not sell everything, although they used their possessions to serve others. Instead, this story shows us that we must not let anything we have or desire keep us from following Jesus. We must remove all barriers to serving him fully. Challenge If Jesus asked, could you give up your house? Your car? Your level of income? Your position on the ladder of promotion? Your reaction may show your attitude toward money—whether it is your servant or your master. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Exodus 8:28 Only ye shall not go very far away.This is a crafty word from the lip of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. If the poor bondaged Israelites must needs go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them that it shall not be very far away; not too far for them to escape the terror of his arms, and the observation of his spies. After the same fashion, the world loves not the non-conformity of nonconformity, or the dissidence of dissent; it would have us be more charitable and not carry matters with too severe a hand. Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and hence the ordinance which sets them forth is almost universally neglected, and even condemned. Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise, and talks of "moderation." According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we are warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but error is not to be severely denounced. "Yes," says the world, "be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny yourself a little gay society, an occasional ball, and a Christmas visit to a theatre. What's the good of crying down a thing when it is so fashionable, and everybody does it?" Multitudes of professors yield to this cunning advice, to their own eternal ruin. If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far away to the place where the Lord calls his sanctified ones. When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man cannot be too far from its haunts. The further from a viper the better, and the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the trumpet-call be sounded, "Come ye out from among them, be ye separate." Daily Light on the Daily Path Revelation 6:17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"Malachi 3:2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. Revelation 7:9,14-17 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; • I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. • "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. • "They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; • for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes." Romans 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. 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     |