Morning, April 12
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Bible League: Living His Word
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

There may be a time when you come to the end of your rope. There may be a time when whatever strength you had for the job at hand ceases to be available to you. You simply run out of gas. You were trying to make something happen in the power of your own strength and now that strength has simply evaporated. The ups and downs of the task have finally gotten to you and the vital resources necessary to take care of business have all dried up.

It's not just the energy, however. Your heart is no longer in it either. You can't make up your mind if your heart is no longer in it because you've run out of gas or if you've run out of gas because your heart is no longer in it. Either way, it doesn't make much difference. Your flesh and your heart have failed and you're ready to pack it in. There's a big problem, though. You can't just walk away. You made it happen and now it's all up to you.

It's at those times when we have given up trying to do things in our own strength and power that the Christian discovers the spiritual resources available that come from beyond. When we finally give up, God can take over. God can take the place He should have had from the beginning. God can give you the heart and strength you need to revitalize the task at hand, or He can show you the way out of the dead end you created into the task He really wanted you to do from the beginning.

It's at those times that we as Christians discover that our portion does not come from ourselves or from this world at all. Our portion comes from above and it is worth more than anything there is on earth. Whatever may happen, whatever jams or dead ends we find ourselves in, we have a portion, a possession, a resource that can help us handle it all. Those who don't know God have their portion here on earth, but our portion is God Himself.

If we have God, there is no need for whatever the world offers us.

Bible in a Year
Old Testament Reading
1 Samuel 10, 11, 12


1 Samuel 10 -- Saul becomes King

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


1 Samuel 11 -- Saul Rescues Jabesh from the Ammonites; Saul Confirmed as King

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


1 Samuel 12 -- Samuel testifies to Israel; God sends Thunder and Israel Repents

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


New Testament Reading
Luke 13:22-35


Luke 13 -- Call to Repent; Healing on the Sabbath; Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast; Enter by the Narrow Door

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library.
Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion
Pride goes before destruction,
        and haughtiness before a fall.
Insight
Proud people take little account of their weaknesses and do not anticipate stumbling blocks. They think they are above the frailties of common people. In this state of mind they are easily tripped up. Ironically, proud people seldom realize that pride is their problem, although everyone around them is well aware of it.
Challenge
Ask someone you trust whether self-satisfaction has blinded you to warning signs. He or she may help you avoid a fall.
Morning and Evening by Spurgeon
Psalm 22:14  My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his God, "Be not far from me," for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father's love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord's countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord's feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.

Daily Light on the Daily Path
Romans 8:3  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

Hebrews 10:1,2  For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. • Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?

Acts 13:39  and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.

Hebrews 2:14-17  Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, • and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. • For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. • 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.

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.

Evening April 11
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