Morning, June 25
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Bible League: Living His Word
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
    bind them around your neck;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success
    in the sight of God and man.

Who is it that finds favor with God? According to Isaiah, the people who find favor with God are the people who "are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word" (Isaiah 66:2). This does not mean that favor is something that can be earned by performing righteous deeds. Rather, it means that favor comes to those whose hearts are right before God. After all, it was Isaiah who also said that "all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6). If favor with God depended upon perfect obedience to God's will and ways, then none of us would have very much favor with Him at all.

The person whose heart is right before God is a person who desires to walk in steadfast love. "Steadfast love," in our verses for today, refers to our relationship to God and to other people. Deuteronomy 6:5 tells us that "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" and Leviticus 19:18 says "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." When our hearts are right before God our desire will be to love Him and His people. We may not always love as we should, but it will be the desire of our hearts. The person who has a heart for love receives God's favor – and the favor of people as well.

Further, the person whose heart is right before God will be a person who desires to walk in faithfulness. "Faithfulness" also refers to our relationship to God and to other people. The faithful person stands firm when others give up. They do not quit on God or other people. When our hearts are right before God our desire will be to remain faithful to Him and to His people. We may not always be as faithful as we should, but it will be the desire of our hearts. The person who has a heart for faithfulness receives God's favor – and the favor of people as well.

Let steadfast love and faithfulness rule the course of your life. People will look upon you with favor – and so will God.

Bible in a Year
Old Testament Reading
Job 4, 5, 6


Job 4 -- Eliphaz Reproves Job

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Job 5 -- Eliphaz Shows that God Is Just

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Job 6 -- Job's Reproves His Friends of Their Unkindness

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


New Testament Reading
Acts 7:20-43


Acts 7 -- Stephen's Speech, Stoning and Death

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library.
Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
Insight
Many people spend all their energy seeking pleasure. Jesus said, however, that a world of pleasure centered on possessions, position, or power is ultimately worthless.
Challenge
Whatever you have on earth is only temporary; it cannot be exchanged for your soul. If you work hard at getting what you want, you might eventually have a “pleasurable” life, but in the end you will find it hollow and empty. Are you willing to make the pursuit of God more important than the selfish pursuit of pleasure? Follow Jesus, and you will know what it means to live abundantly now and to have eternal life as well.
Morning and Evening by Spurgeon
Isaiah 40:9  Get thee up into the high mountain.

Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little: the mountain itself appears to be but one-half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens beneath your feet. Go higher, and you see the country for four or five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect. Mount still, and the scene enlarges; till at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest in some distant county, perhaps two hundred miles away, and here the sea, and there a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a manufacturing town, or the masts of the ships in a busy port. All these things please and delight you, and you say, "I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation." Now, the Christian life is of the same order. When we first believe in Christ we see but little of him. The higher we climb the more we discover of his beauties. But who has ever gained the summit? Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, "I know whom I have believed," for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like ascending another summit, and his death seemed like gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of him to whom he had committed his soul. Get thee up, dear friend, into the high mountain.

Daily Light on the Daily Path
1 John 3:2  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

John 1:12  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

2 Peter 1:4  For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Isaiah 64:4  For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.

1 Corinthians 13:12  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Philippians 3:20,21  For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; • who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Psalm 17:15  As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.

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 June 24
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