Bible League: Living His Word Simon answered, “Master, we worked hard all night trying to catch fish and caught nothing. But you say I should put the nets into the water, so I will.”— Luke 5:5 ERV Get ready for a miracle from God. In Luke 5, Jesus used Peter's boat to teach the people from the shore. When His sermon was finished, He told Peter to go and cast his nets into the deep, and he would catch a great quantity of fish. Peter was a professional fisherman; he had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. But when he heard the Word of Jesus, he did not discuss it. Peter decided to obey and went back out and tried again. The result was surprising for Peter and everyone else. He caught so many fish that his nets began to break. “They called to their friends in the other boat to come and help them. The friends came, and both boats were filled so full of fish that they were almost sinking.” (Luke 5:7). Peter was blessed because he obeyed the Word of Jesus. Because he obeyed, he had favor. But notice, the favor didn't stop there. He had so many fish that his colleagues, who were connected to him and happened to be there at that moment, took the overflow. When you are associated with someone who is blessed, someone who is favored, as they grow, you will grow. God has already lined up the people you need for the new thing. Be ready to obey and open to see, accept and benefit from the anointing of God's anointed. It may not happen the way you expect, but I want to encourage you: God's way will be better, greater, more rewarding, more fulfilling. Don't limit what's coming in the future to what you've seen in the past. God will do something wonderful in your future. God never does His greatest works in your yesterdays; they are always in your tomorrows. By Pastor Sabri Kasemi, Bible League International partner, Albania Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingEzra 6, 7, 8 Ezra 6 -- Decree of Darius; Temple Work Resumed; Dedication of the Temple; Passover Observed NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Ezra 7 -- Ezra Journeys to Jerusalem, Commissed by Artaxerxes NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Ezra 8 -- The Companions of Ezra; Treasure Delivered to the Temple NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading John 21 John 21 -- The Miraculous Catch at the Sea of Galilee; "Feed my Sheep" NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.Insight Jesus performed some miracles as signs of his identity. He used other miracles to teach important truths. But here we read that he healed people because he “had compassion on them.” Jesus was, and is, a loving, caring, and feeling person. Challenge When you are suffering, remember that Jesus hurts with you. He has compassion on you. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the Lord.The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the inculcation of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described as a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand further apart than "holiness" and "delight." But believers who know Christ understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them. They who love God with all their hearts, find that his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so far from serving him from custom, they would follow him though all the world cast out his name as evil. We fear not God because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our delight. Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels glittering side by side in a setting of gold. "'Tis when we taste thy love, Our joys divinely grow, Unspeakable like those above, And heaven begins below." Daily Light on the Daily Path 2 Corinthians 1:5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 1 Peter 4:13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. 2 Timothy 2:11 It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; Romans 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Hebrews 6:17,18 In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, • so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, • comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. 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. |
    |