Bible League: Living His Word "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."There are things that we know and there are things that we don't know. Some of the things that we don't know are relatively easy to find out. Some of the things that we don't know, on the other hand, are difficult to find out. They are the "great and unsearchable things" of Jeremiah. These are the things that no amount of ordinary seeking and searching can discover. The future, for example, is not something you can easily discern using ordinary forms of seeking and searching. The problem with this situation, however, is that sometimes we need to know the great and unsearchable things. Sometimes we need to know what the future holds so that we can do the right thing in the present. The prophet Jeremiah needed to know the future so he could warn the people of his day and tell them what to do. The same thing can apply to us. Situations come up that demand we know things that cannot be discovered through ordinary means. Our verse for today informs us that there is a solution to the problem. God has provided the means to discover what we need to know and you don't have to be a professional prophet like Jeremiah to make use of it. One can ask God. We can ask God in prayer for answers to the unknowns that we need to know. This is not ordinary asking, however. Since the knowledge we seek is out of the ordinary, the asking is out of the ordinary as well. We must not just ask; we must call out to God. Calling out to God is not something you do so you can set up a fortune-telling stand at the fairgrounds. Calling out to God is what the sincere Christian does who needs to make the right decision in the present. It is not meant to give you complete pictures of the future you can sell for a price. It is meant to give you what you need in your time of need. Calling out to God is what Christians do who are in trouble. There are different levels of Christian experience. It may be time to move up to a higher level. It may be time to call out to God. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJoshua 4, 5, 6 Joshua 4 -- Twelve Men Take Memorial Stones from the Jordan NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Joshua 5 -- Israelites Circumcised at Gilgal NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Joshua 6 -- The Walls of Jericho Fall NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Luke 2:1-24 Luke 2 -- Jesus' Birth; Announcement by Angels; Presentation at the Temple; Return to Nazareth; The Boy Jesus Visits the Temple NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion How can a young person stay pure?By obeying your word. Insight We are drowning in a sea of impurity. Everywhere we look we find temptation to lead impure lives. The psalmist asked a question that troubles us all: How do we stay pure in a filthy environment? Challenge We cannot do this on our own, but must have counsel and strength more dynamic than the tempting influences around us. Where can we find that strength and wisdom? By reading God's Word and doing what it says. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?If inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature may soon show us how puny we are. We cannot move the least of all the twinkling stars, or quench so much as one of the beams of the morning. We speak of power, but the heavens laugh us to scorn. When the Pleiades shine forth in spring with vernal joy we cannot restrain their influences, and when Orion reigns aloft, and the year is bound in winter's fetters, we cannot relax the icy bands. The seasons revolve according to the divine appointment, neither can the whole race of men effect a change therein. Lord, what is man? In the spiritual, as in the natural world, man's power is limited on all hands. When the Holy Spirit sheds abroad his delights in the soul, none can disturb; all the cunning and malice of men are ineffectual to stay the genial quickening power of the Comforter. When he deigns to visit a church and revive it, the most inveterate enemies cannot resist the good work; they may ridicule it, but they can no more restrain it than they can push back the spring when the Pleiades rule the hour. God wills it, and so it must be. On the other hand, if the Lord in sovereignty, or in justice, bind up a man so that he is in soul bondage, who can give him liberty? He alone can remove the winter of spiritual death from an individual or a people. He looses the bands of Orion, and none but he. What a blessing it is that he can do it. O that he would perform the wonder tonight. Lord, end my winter, and let my spring begin. I cannot with all my longings raise my soul out of her death and dulness, but all things are possible with thee. I need celestial influences, the clear shinings of thy love, the beams of thy grace, the light of thy countenance; these are the Pleiades to me. I suffer much from sin and temptation; these are my wintry signs, my terrible Orion. Lord, work wonders in me, and for me. Amen. Daily Light on the Daily Path Psalm 77:8 Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever?Psalm 136:23 Who remembered us in our low estate, For His lovingkindness is everlasting, Numbers 14:18 The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.' 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. Titus 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 2 Corinthians 1:3,4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, • who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Hebrews 2:17,15 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. • and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. 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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