Evening, January 26
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Bible League: Living His Word
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them."

There are a lot of stories in the Bible. Added together, they form one grand narrative. This narrative is not fictional, but true. If you were asked what the grand narrative is all about, you would have to say that at bottom it is all about God and His relationship to His creation. In effect, it is the story of everything, because there is nothing other than God and His creation. It begins in Genesis 1 with the story of God's creation of heaven and earth and it ends here in Revelation 21 with the story of a new heaven and a new earth.

At the beginning of the grand narrative there is the Garden of Eden, but here at the end of the narrative there is a city, the new Jerusalem. The grand sweep of the narrative moves from a simple garden situation to a complex city. Genesis tells us that God's manifest presence, his actual appearance, was there in the garden with Adam and Eve. He used to walk about in the garden (Genesis 3:8). Sin, of course, changed all that. Although God is omnipresent, after sin entered the earth His manifest presence was exclusively to be found in His dwelling in heaven. Revelation, in contrast, tells us at the end of the grand narrative that God's manifest presence will return to earth with the new Jerusalem.

The reason for God's change of dwelling is that the sin problem will have been resolved. Through the work of Jesus Christ in his first and second comings, sin will have been totally removed from the earth.

At that time, we will be able to fellowship with God face to face (Revelation 22:4), just as Adam and Eve once did.

Bible in a Year
Old Testament Reading
Exodus 11, 12


Exodus 11 -- The Plague on the Firstborn

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Exodus 12 -- Passover; Feast; Memorial; Pharaoh Urges Exodus

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


New Testament Reading
Matthew 18:21-35


Matthew 18 -- Greatest and Least in the Kingdom; Parables of the Lost Sheep, Brother who sins, Unmerciful Servant

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library.
Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion
He said, “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid! Don't be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God's.”
Insight
We may not fight an enemy army, but every day we battle temptation, pressure, and Satan, who wants us to rebel against God.
Challenge
Remember, as believers, we have God's Spirit in us. If we ask for God's help when we face struggles, God will fight for us. And God always triumphs.
Morning and Evening by Spurgeon
Luke 2:18  All they that heard it wondered at those things.

We must not cease to wonder at the great marvels of our God. It would be very difficult to draw a line between holy wonder and real worship; for when the soul is overwhelmed with the majesty of God's glory, though it may not express itself in song, or even utter its voice with bowed head in humble prayer, yet it silently adores. Our incarnate God is to be worshipped as "the Wonderful." That God should consider his fallen creature, man, and instead of sweeping him away with the besom of destruction, should himself undertake to be man's Redeemer, and to pay his ransom price, is, indeed marvellous! But to each believer redemption is most marvellous as he views it in relation to himself. It is a miracle of grace indeed, that Jesus should forsake the thrones and royalties above, to suffer ignominiously below for you. Let your soul lose itself in wonder, for wonder is in this way a very practical emotion. Holy wonder will lead you to grateful worship and heartfelt thanksgiving. It will cause within you godly watchfulness; you will be afraid to sin against such a love as this. Feeling the presence of the mighty God in the gift of his dear Son, you will put off your shoes from off your feet, because the place whereon you stand is holy ground. You will be moved at the same time to glorious hope. If Jesus has done such marvellous things on your behalf, you will feel that heaven itself is not too great for your expectation. Who can be astonished at anything, when he has once been astonished at the manger and the cross? What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Saviour? Dear reader, it may be that from the quietness and solitariness of your life, you are scarcely able to imitate the shepherds of Bethlehem, who told what they had seen and heard, but you can, at least, fill up the circle of the worshippers before the throne, by wondering at what God has done.

Daily Light on the Daily Path
Philippians 3:20,21  For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; • who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Ezekiel 1:26-28  Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. • Then I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him. • As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.

2 Corinthians 3:18  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

1 John 3:2  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Revelation 7:16  "They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat;

Revelation 15:3  And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!

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 26
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