Bible League: Living His Word LORD, your word continues forever in heaven.You are loyal forever and ever. You made the earth, and it still stands. All things continue today because of your laws. Like slaves, they all obey you. God spoke His creative word in the beginning and He has been continuously speaking His providential word ever since. Everything He created depends upon His word for its continuing existence. Everything that happens is a result of what He says, even the weather on earth: "He gives a command to the earth, and it quickly obeys. He makes the snow fall until the ground is as white as wool. He makes sleet blow through the air like dust" (Psalm 147:15-16). Given the dependency of all things on the word of God, it's a good thing that God is loyal. Our God is loyal to what He has made. If He wanted, He could stop speaking at any moment. Instead, His speech continues to flow forth from heaven and the universe continues to exist. The earth, too, still stands. God sees to it that all the conditions that make the earth possible and all the conditions that make life on earth possible continue to hold. Moreover, our verse for today says that God's loyalty to all things goes on forever and ever. There will always be a heaven and an earth obeying the laws He speaks. Seeing the radical dependency of all things, but denying the existence of the God upon which they ultimately depend, the people of the world fret about their fate. Given what they can see, they speculate that the universe may one day cease to exist. And they also speculate that the earth may long precede the universe into nonexistence. They do not understand that the dependency of the universe should point them to God. They do not understand that the dependency of the earth should engender trust in Him, engender trust in His loyalty. It's true that at the second coming of Jesus Christ the heavens and the earth will undergo radical change, but they will not be annihilated. Rather, God will purge them of evil. II Peter 3 tells us that just as the earth was once purified of evil by the waters of the Great Flood, so shall the heavens and the earth be purified by fire. God's loyalty, in other words, will not cease. Indeed, quite the opposite, for it will beneficently transform the old heaven and earth into an even better new heaven and earth (II Peter 3:13). Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingZechariah 13, 14 Zechariah 13 -- The Fountain of Cleansing for Jerusalem; Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Zechariah 14 -- The Destroyers of Jerusalem Destroyed; The Lord shall be king over all the earth NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Revelation 21 Revelation 21 -- The New Heaven and Earth; The New Jerusalem NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.Insight Sometimes it is difficult to forgive those who wrong us. Imagine how hard it would be to forgive everyone, no matter what they had done! Challenge This is what God has done in Jesus. No one, no matter what he or she has done, is beyond forgiveness. All a person has to do is turn from his or her sin, receive Christ's forgiveness, and commit his or her life to him. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Ecclesiastes 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.Look at David's Lord and Master; see his beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at his Father's right hand, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. "As he is, so are we also in this world." You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." See that creeping worm, how contemptible its appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect with gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the flower bells, full of happiness and life; that is the end thereof. That caterpillar is yourself, until you are wrapped up in the chrysalis of death; but when Christ shall appear you shall be like him, for you shall see him as he is. Be content to be like him, a worm and no man, that like him you may be satisfied when you wake up in his likeness. That rough-looking diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on all sides. It loses much--much that seemed costly to itself. The king is crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch's head with trumpet's joyful sound. A glittering ray flashes from that coronet, and it beams from that very diamond which was just now so sorely vexed by the lapidary. You may venture to compare yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God's people; and this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from you. "They shall be mine," saith the Lord, "in the day when I make up my jewels." "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Corinthians 1:8 who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.Colossians 1:21-23 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, • 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-- • if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. Philippians 2:15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, 2 Peter 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, Philippians 1:10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 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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