Bible League: Living His Word The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.— Isaiah 9:2 NLT Apart from Christ, people walk in darkness. The sun, of course, still shines and the things of life can still be seen. The darkness in question is not physical darkness, but spiritual darkness. It's the kind of darkness in which you see things clearly, but without understanding their true meaning and purpose. For example, you view God's creation, but you don't see it as God's creation. You see sin and evil, but you don't see them as sin and evil. You see goodness and grace, but you don't see them as such. Your physical sight is 20/20, but your spiritual sight is far less. People who live in a land of deep darkness don't know who they are and what they stand for. They live in God's world, they're indebted to His will and ways, but they don't realize it or act like it. As a result, they sin against God by going their own way. They pay a heavy price for this. Indeed, they pay the heaviest of prices. The Apostle Paul says of them, "But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." (Romans 2:5) The good news is that there's a spiritual light available. There's a spiritual light that can shine into the land of spiritual darkness and light it up. Jesus is the light. He's the light because His teachings explain the world as it really is, and His life models the way we should go in the world. The Apostle John said, "... his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." (John 1:4-5) You don't have to make use of the spiritual light, you can stay in the darkness if you want, but you can never keep it from shining. Today, then, make use of the light, accept it for what it is. If you do, you will start to see things as they really are, and you will start to act like you really should act. Your transformation will be radical—like night to day. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingExodus 16, 17, 18 Exodus 16 -- Manna, Quail and the Sabbath NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Exodus 17 -- Water from the Rock; the Defeat of the Amalekites NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Exodus 18 -- Jethro Visits and Counsels Moses NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 19:16-30 Matthew 19 -- Divorce; Jesus and the Little Children; the Rich Young Ruler NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion If I have sinned, what have I done to you,O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? Am I a burden to you? Insight Job referred to God as a watcher or observer of humanity. He was expressing the feeling that God seemed like an enemy to him—someone who mercilessly watched him squirm in his misery. We know that God does watch over everything that happens to us. Challenge We must never forget that he sees us with compassion, not merely with critical scrutiny. His eyes are eyes of love. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Luke 2:20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.What was the subject of their praise? They praised God for what they had heard--for the good tidings of great joy that a Saviour was born unto them. Let us copy them; let us also raise a song of thanksgiving that we have heard of Jesus and his salvation. They also praised God for what they had seen. There is the sweetest music--what we have experienced, what we have felt within, what we have made our own--"the things which we have made touching the King." It is not enough to hear about Jesus: mere hearing may tune the harp, but the fingers of living faith must create the music. If you have seen Jesus with the God-giving sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among the harp strings, but loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and harp. One point for which they praised God was the agreement between what they had heard and what they had seen. Observe the last sentence--"As it was told unto them." Have you not found the gospel to be in yourselves just what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said he would give you rest--have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in him? He said you should have joy, and comfort, and life through believing in him--have you not received all these? Are not his ways ways of pleasantness, and his paths paths of peace? Surely you can say with the queen of Sheba, "The half has not been told me." I have found Christ more sweet than his servants ever said he was. I looked upon his likeness as they painted it, but it was a mere daub compared with himself; for the King in his beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness. Surely what we have "seen" keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds, what we have "heard." Let us, then, glorify and praise God for a Saviour so precious, and so satisfying. Daily Light on the Daily Path Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Isaiah 27:8 You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind. Psalm 103:13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. • For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, • while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Hebrews 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 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. 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