Bible League: Living His Word "God's thundering voice is amazing! He does great things that we cannot understand."— Job 37:5 ERV As our verses for today proclaim, God's thundering voice is amazing. It is the voice of the Lord that lies behind the whole created order. In the beginning, "God said, 'Let there be light!' And light began to shine" (Genesis 1:3). When God speaks, things come into being and things happen. That's why the psalmist says, "The LORD spoke the command, and the world was made. The breath from his mouth created everything in the heavens" (Psalm 33:6). How does God do it? How did He create all things, and How does He providentially control all things? We have no idea. We simply do not understand. Do we believe that He created and controls all things because we have some sort of audible experience of His voice? No. Thunder may seem like the voice of God, but no one ever heard God say to the snow, "Fall on the earth!" or heard Him say to the rain, "Pour down on the earth!" Do we believe it because science tells us that He does? No. We believe it by faith. God tells us in the Bible that He creates and controls all things, and we believe what He says. We believe by faith that God's thundering voice is the ultimate cause of everything. Scientists can give us theories of why the snow and rain fall on the earth, but their "natural" explanations are not the full story. For the Bible tells us that God causes the snow to fall and the rain to pour down. God's voice works through the natural order of things to bring about the results that He desires, that we experience. Although His voice can be likened to thunder, it is the inaudible, behind-the-scenes cause of everything that happens. Although we have no idea how God does what He does, although we do not understand the nature of His creative and providential control, we can see its results everywhere. God is always showing us what He can do. And sometimes, He forces us to stop what we're doing just so we can marvel at all of it. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingGenesis 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. |
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