Dawn 2 Dusk The Light That Won’t Turn OffThere are days when your heart feels dim—like a room where the bulbs are weak and the corners are full of shadows. John reminds us that in Jesus there is something entirely different: a life so real and powerful that it shines like light into every human story. We don’t generate this light; we receive it. And when that life enters us, it doesn’t merely improve us—it awakens us. Life That Cannot Be Manufactured John tells us, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Life is not a human project; it is a Person. We chase “life” in success, experiences, relationships, and approval, but Scripture says real, eternal life is found only in the Son. “And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11–12). Life is not something we climb up to reach; it is something God gives in Christ. That truth cuts through all the illusions we build. If life is in Jesus alone, then everything else we lean on for meaning is too fragile to carry our souls. It also means you can stop trying to be your own savior. You don’t have to engineer your worth or manufacture joy. You come to Christ empty and receive. “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light” (Psalm 36:9). The fountain is not in you; it is offered to you. Light That Breaks Every Darkness John doesn’t say only that Jesus has light; his very life is light for all people. Light exposes, reveals, and guides. Jesus declared, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Darkness is not just ignorance; it is the confusion, bondage, and blindness of sin. Christ steps into that darkness—your darkness—with a light that cannot be overpowered. This isn’t sentimental language; it is a supernatural invasion. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The same God who spoke physical light into existence now shines into hearts. That means no corner of your life is too tangled, too ashamed, or too long in shadow for the light of Christ to reach and transform. Walking in the Light Today If Jesus’ life is our light, then walking in the light is not mainly about trying harder; it is about staying closer. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). To walk as a child of light means bringing your thoughts, desires, and choices constantly back under His gaze—letting His Word define reality, not your feelings or the culture’s noise. It also means agreeing with His light when it exposes your sin, not hiding from it. We confess, we repent, we step forward, because His light is not meant to shame but to cleanse and lead. Then we carry that light into a dark world—not as people who think we are the light, but as people who know where the light is. His life in you today is meant to be seen in your patience, your purity, your courage, and your words about Him. Lord Jesus, thank You for being my life and my light. Shine into every hidden place in me, and lead me to walk boldly in Your light today. Morning with A.W. Tozer The Transformed LifeMany of the great evangelists who have touched the world for God, including such men as Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney, have declared that the church is being betrayed by those who insist on Christianity being made "too easy." Jesus laid down the terms of Christian discipleship and there are some among us who criticize: "Those words of Jesus sound harsh and cruel." This is where we stand: receiving Jesus Christ into your life means that you have made an attachment to the Person of Christ that is revolutionary, in that it reverses the life and transforms it completely! It is complete in that it leaves no part of the life unaffected. It exempts no area of the life of the total man. By faith and through grace, you have now formed an exclusive relationship with your Savior, Jesus Christ. All of your other relationships are now conditioned and determined by your one relationship to your Savior. To receive Jesus Christ, then, is to attach ourselves in faith to His holy person, to live or die, forever! He must be first and last and all! Music For the Soul The Permanent Life of the ChristianHe that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. - 1 John 2:17 These words imply, not so much dwelling, or persistence, or continuousness, during our earthly career, as, rather, the absolute and unlimited permanence of the obedient life. It will endure when all things else, " the world, and the lust thereof," have slid away into obscurity, and have ceased to be. Now, of course, it is true that Christian men, temples of Christ, are subject to the same law of mutation and decay as all created things are; and it is true, on the other hand, that men whose lives are "cribbed, cabined, and confined" within the limits of the material and visible have these lives as permanent, in a very solemn and awful sense, inasmuch as their fruit continues, though it is fruitless fruit, and inasmuch as they have to bear for ever the responsibility of their past. The lives that run parallel with God’s will last, and when everything that has been against that will, or negligent of it, is summed up, and comes to nought, and is abolished, these lives continue. The life that is in conformity with the will of God lasts in another sense, inasmuch as it persists through all changes, even the supreme change that is wrought by death, in the same direction, and is substantially the same. For the man that was doing God’s will here, down among cotton bales, and ledgers, and retorts, and dictionaries, will do God’s will yonder, amidst the glories; and it will be the same life, with the same guiding principles, with the same root for its activities. So it will last for ever. If we grasp the throne of God, we shall be co-eternal with the throne that we grasp. We cannot die, nor our work pass and be utterly abolished, as long as He lives. Some trees that, like sturdy Scotch firs, have strong trunks, and obstinate branches, and unfading foliage, looking as if they would defy any blast or decay, run their roots along the surface, and down they go before the storm; others, far more slender in appearance, strike theirs deep down, and they stand whatever winds blow. So strike your roots into God and Christ. "He that doeth the will of God abideth forever." And, "In My Father’s house are many abiding-places." They that have here dwelt in Christ, persistently seeking to have His truth dwelling in them and wrought out by them, will pass into the permanences of the heavenly home. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening 1 Corinthians 10:12 Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. It is a curious fact, that there is such a thing as being proud of grace. A man says, "I have great faith, I shall not fall; poor little faith may, but I never shall." "I have fervent love," says another, "I can stand, there is no danger of my going astray." He who boasts of grace has little grace to boast of. Some who do this imagine that their graces can keep them, knowing not that the stream must flow constantly from the fountain head, or else the brook will soon be dry. If a continuous stream of oil comes not to the lamp, though it burn brightly today, it will smoke to-morrow, and noxious will be its scent. Take heed that thou gloriest not in thy graces, but let all thy glorying and confidence be in Christ and his strength, for only so canst thou be kept from falling. Be much more in prayer. Spend longer time in holy adoration. Read the Scriptures more earnestly and constantly. Watch your lives more carefully. Live nearer to God. Take the best examples for your pattern. Let your conversation be redolent of heaven. Let your hearts be perfumed with affection for men's souls. So live that men may take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus, and have learned of him; and when that happy day shall come, when he whom you love shall say, "Come up higher," may it be your happiness to hear him say, "Thou hast fought a good fight, thou hast finished thy course, and henceforth there is laid up for thee a crown of righteousness which fadeth not away." On, Christian, with care and caution! On, with holy fear and trembling! On, with faith and confidence in Jesus alone, and let your constant petition be, "Uphold me according to thy word." He is able, and he alone, "To keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Tender ComfortA mother’s comfort! Ah, this is tenderness itself. How she enters into her child’s grief! How she presses him to her bosom and tries to take all his sorrow into her own heart! He can tell her all, and she will sympathize as nobody else can. Of all comforters the child loves best his mother, and even full-grown men have found it so. Does Jehovah condescend to act the mother’s part? This is goodness indeed. We readily perceive how He is a father; but will He be as a mother also? Does not this invite us to holy familiarity, to unreserved confidence, to sacred rest? When God Himself becomes "the Comforter," no anguish can long abide. Let us tell out our trouble, even though sobs and sighs should become our readiest utterance. He will not despise us for our tears; our mother did not. He will consider our weakness as she did, and He will put away our faults, only in a surer, safer way than our mother could do. We will not try to bear our grief alone; that would be unkind to one so gentle and so kind. Let us begin the day with our loving God, and wherefore should we not finish it in the same company, since mothers weary not of their children? The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer Lord, What Is Man!BY nature he is an enemy to God, in open rebellion against Him, and justly condemned by Him. He is in love with sin, a slave to lust, a servant of Satan. He is blind to his best interest, deaf to the call of God, and dead in trespasses and sins. He is an open sepulchre, a mass of wretchedness and disease, abominable and filthy beyond description. And can such a creature be the object of Jehovah’s love, the purchase of a Saviour’s blood and the habitation of the Holy Spirit? Yes: as such, they were chosen to salvation; as such, Jesus was sent into the world to redeem them; as such, the Holy Spirit came to quicken, cleanse, justify, and save them! O amazing grace! Astonishing mercy! And will God in very deed dwell with such creatures upon earth? Yes: "To this man will I look, and with him will I dwell, even that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word." Well may the patriarch exclaim, "What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify him? and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him?’ O what is feeble, dying man, Or any of his race, That God should make it His concern To visit him with grace! That God, who darts His lightnings down, Who shakes the worlds above, And mountains tremble at His frown, How wondrous is His love! Bible League: Living His Word "When the Son of Man comes, it will be the same as what happened during Noah's time."— Matthew 24:37 ERV During my high school days, I used to run long distances on the track and road races. I enjoyed running the 1500 kilometers because we'd go three and a quarter laps around the track. While running (if you were not counting), you'd hear the bell ringing and the field judge saying, "Final lap!" Then the pace would drastically pick up. Those who want to win will outrun those who enjoy a slow pace! It is similar to the times the church is in, we are on the final lap of the coming of Jesus the Messiah! The believers are to be in tune with what the Holy Spirit is telling us regarding our eager waiting for the Messiah. Galatians 5:5 says, "But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us!" What a faithful runner we ought to be! Knowing that God is faithful and will reward all of the faithful runners (1 Corinthians 9:24). The church is running the last lap to win souls, to stand on righteousness, to remain holy and keep up with the deeds of faith in Christ until He returns. That is the difference between slow-paced runners and high-paced runners. Some are running for fitness while others run to win! Hebrews 12:1 encourages us to get rid of the sin that gets us tangled up, making us to run less effectively and lose the race. A person who is running a race ought to be light and fit with running gear and running shoes. When a believer is living a holy lifestyle, every obstacle of darkness is a walkover, the Holy Spirit empowers him to win any battle the enemy gives him. Today's verse warns everyone that when Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One, comes back to take the His church, it will be similar to the days of Noah. Noah was a devout, godly man in a generation that was corrupt and violent. He became light in the dark world of sin; in the New Testament he is called a herald of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5; Genesis 6:9). The two questions that we are to ask and respond to are these. 1) How were the days of Noah? During Noah's time, sin increased (Genesis 6:1-6) and God was grieved by the corruption. 2) What should each one do before the advent of Christ? The answer is in 2 Peter 3:11, "Everything will be destroyed in this way. So, what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and devoted to God." In those days, people disregarded God, and even Noah's warning about the flood. In our day, sin replicates to the degree of deadening the godly conscience in people. Hence morality and the fear of God no longer exist. Jesus informs us even after the Gospel is preached, some will remain hardened. That should not discourage us from ministering the salvation of Christ to all people. We are all called to be witnesses for Jesus so that we can account for what we have done since coming to Christ. Are you telling people about Jesus? Are you living a holy and righteous life to be an example to others? Judgment comes after grace has been offered. The Gospel shall be proclaimed then judgment will follow afterwards (Matthew 24:14). My beloved, choosing immoral life and wickedness leads to condemnation in the lake of fire. Choose Christ and live eternally! By Christopher Thetswe, Bible League International staff, South Africa Daily Light on the Daily Path Titus 2:10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.Philippians 1:27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 1 Thessalonians 5:22 abstain from every form of evil. 1 Peter 4:14,15 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. • Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; 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, Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Proverbs 3:3,4 Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart. • So you will find favor and good repute In the sight of God and man. Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 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. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion With God's help we will do mighty things,for he will trample down our foes. Insight Do our prayers end with requests for help to make it through stressful situations? David prayed not merely for rescue, but for victory. With God's help we can claim more than mere survival—we can claim victory! Challenge Look for ways God can use your distress as an opportunity to show his mighty power. Devotional Hours Within the Bible The Desires of Your Heart“Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart!” The young people who have read “The Arabian Nights” will remember the strange story of ‘ Aladdin’, who possessed a magic lamp which commanded the services of certain genie. By rubbing the lamp, Aladdin got whatever he wished and grew rich and great. But that is only an impossible story of fantasy. Yet in this Psalm, we have a promise which seems to tell us of a way in which we can get anything we wish. “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart!” It is not by rubbing a magic lamp, however, that we can get what we desire. True religion is not magic. Yet some people seem almost to think that it is. Simon Magus thought so, and tried to buy the secret. A man who has lived a wicked life, never giving God a thought, when thinking that he is about to die is greatly alarmed, sends for a minister, thinking that thus he can have heaven opened for his soul. It is not in this way that a desire for heavenly blessedness can be gratified. What is it to delight ourselves in the Lord? It means to love God to love to be with Him, to love to please Him, to love His ways, to love His service . We know what it is to delight ourselves in a friend. You love your friend so much that when you are with him, you are perfectly happy. You have no wish ungratified; you need nothing else to complete your contentment; your soul finds its home in him. This is the ideal in marriage that the two who wed shall delight in each other. They should meet each other’s desires and yearnings. They should be one in interest, in purpose, in the aims of life. Yesterday I had a letter from the Pacific Coast, from one I have never seen but whom I have sought to help. She is considering the question of marriage and she writes of the young man: “I love him very dearly and yet I hesitate to give my life into his keeping. He is noble and kind and worthy but in some respects he is far from being the man I have always had in mind in thinking of marriage. There is something lacking. There is a need in my life which is not met in his the perfect union in consecration to God.” There may be true love there but there is not yet full, undisturbed delight in the friend. There is not complete accord, there is not perfect confidence, there is not absolute trust. All these elements are essential in delight in a friend. To delight in God, also implies the qualities of love, trust, confidence, accord of will. There is a cluster of counsels in this Psalm which belong together: “ Trust in the Lord.” “ Delight yourself also in the Lord.” “ Commit your way unto the Lord.” “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him.” “ Trust in the Lord.” You cannot delight yourself in God if you do not trust Him. Trust implies confidence. John leaned upon his Master’s bosom that dark night of the betrayal. The distress of the disciples was terrible. They could not understand. It looked as if all their hopes were in ruin. Yet see John leaning on Jesus’ bosom calm, quiet, unafraid. You remember, too, what Jesus said to His disciples that night, as He comforted them: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” They could not understand, and He could not explain the mystery of their sorrow, so that they could understand. Then He asked them to trust in the darkness, just to believe that nothing was going wrong. We must trust God if we would delight in Him. If there is not absolute trust, there cannot be delight. “ Delight yourself also in the Lord.” Delight means joy, and if there is the slightest fear, there will be pain, a feeling of insecurity, a dread of something going wrong, or that something will go wrong. Trust in the Lord is necessary, to delight in Him. “ Commit your way unto the Lord.” There will come hours of uncertainty in every life, Hours when we shall not know what to do, which way to take, where to find help. Then it is, that we should learn that Christ is not only our Savior from sin but the Lord also who orders all our ways. There seem to be a great many people who can trust God for the salvation of their souls but who have not learned to trust Him with the choosing of their ways, the direction of their affairs, the care of their lives. They fret and worry continually. We have not learned the full meaning of trust until we have formed the habit of committing all our way unto the Lord . The reason for worrying, which is so common a habit, even among Christians, is that people do not roll their way upon God. If they only knew this blessed secret they would not worry any more. Only think what it would mean to worrying people, if they understood this and instead of being anxious about every little thing would take it to the Lord in prayer and let the peace of God keep their hearts and their thoughts in holy quiet. Instead of trying to manage our own affairs, let us begin to commit them to God. Then there will be no blunders made. We will not any longer spoil the web by ignoring the pattern and weaving our own way. If we learn to commit our way unto the Lord, down to the minutest matters it will help us to delight in the Lord. It will add immeasurably to our feeling of safety to believe that God is taking care of us! Another of the words of trust grouped here in this old Psalm is, “ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him.” One of the marginal renderings is, “Be silent to the Lord.” Never answer the Lord in the way of protesting against His guidance, or questioning His providence. Never ask in the day of cross-bearing or pain or trial, “Why?” Some of us are not silent to God when He leads us in ways that are rough and steep. The words mean full and complete submission to the will of God. Silence to God is taught by our Lord Himself. It is woven into the daily prayer He gave us. “May Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” How is God’s will done in heaven? Silently, songfully, sweetly. As in heaven, so on earth. These are suggestions of the meaning of the words, “Delight yourself in the Lord.” It means trusting in the Lord. It means committing our way unto Him. It means resting in Him, being silent to Him. It means having our home in God. “Lord, you have been our home.” The ideal home is a place of perfect love, of perfect accord, of perfect confidence and trust. There is no strife, no doubt, no fear, no bitterness. The ideal home is a place of delight. Men are telling us these days that we should get and keep our lives in tune with God. This means that we fall in line with God in everything. We are not to demand that God shall bring His way down to suit our whims and frailties; rather and always we are to bring all our thoughts, plans, feelings, desires, and ambitions into harmony with His will. Someone tells of entering a church one Sunday as the congregation were just beginning to sing. At first it seemed as if no two of the hundreds of voices were in accord. But the visitor noticed one clear, sweet, true voice singing, not loud but calm and undisturbed, amid the discords. As stanza after stanza was sung all the other voices came into accord with this true voice and the last part of the Psalm was sung in perfect accord. This is the way the will of God should rule in our lives. It finds us rebellious, discordant, out of tune with God, complaining, fretful, discontented, murmuring, even bitter against Him. But as we devote ourselves to God, to follow Jesus Christ, learn of Him, let His Spirit into our life then little by little at first, then more and more, do the discords give way, do the murmurings and rebellings yield to submission, and does the music come into harmony, until our whole life becomes delight in God’s will. That should be the ideal of every Christian life perfect accord with God. A godly man said, “It takes a long time to learn to be kind.” SELF lives so persistently in our hearts, we are so full of the old spirit of resentment, unforgiveness, uncharitableness, we are so touchy, so bitter in our prejudices, so prone to see the evil in others and not to see the good that it does indeed take a long time to learn to be kind. It takes so long, that not many people ever really learn it. There are not many kind people that is, who are always kind, kind to everyone, to disagreeable people as well as to those who are agreeable, to enemies as well as to friends, to bad as well as to good and that is what it means in the New Testament sense to be kind. It takes a great while to learn to be kind. The same is true of every phase of the will of God. It takes a great while to learn to be patient, to learn to trust God, to learn to be absolutely true, to be rejoicing followers of Christ, to be helpers of others. It is a long lesson to delight oneself in God. Nevertheless, this is the lesson; it will take all your life to learn it well. But to learn it is better than all riches, all power, all fame! “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” So this is the secret we have set out to find. This may seem a rather unusual promise. But the Bible is full of similar promises. The Lord said to Solomon as he began his reign, “Ask what I shall give you.” Anything Solomon would choose for his life portion God would give him. A young man says, “I wish God would give me a choice like that.” He does! He says to every young person, “Ask what I shall give you. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Remember, first of all, that you are delighting yourself in the Lord. You love Him supremely. You have committed your way to Him. All your desires are holy. One of the things that pleased God in Solomon’s choice, was that it was unselfish. He had not asked for the death of his enemies. His choice was only that he might be a good king, might be a blessing to his people. If we delight ourselves in God, if He is our soul’s home, if our wills are in full accord with His we will not have unholy desires, selfish desires. We will desire only the things that God approves. We will not desire the hurt or harm of any human being. Our desires will all be for the honoring of God and the blessing of others. If we delight ourselves in God we will love to do His will. Desires turned toward God are prayers. Some people suppose they are praying only when they are on their knees, or in some reverent attitude of devotion. They think they pray only when they speak in words. But many of the most real and most acceptable prayers are never voiced in words. They are only breathings of the soul, longings of the heart, yearnings and aspirations, which cannot be put into language. In one of Paul’s epistles we are told that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask and think. We can ask much in words, and then what a great field there is where our thoughts can go beyond our words. Thoughts, feelings, and yearnings are prayers if they are turned toward God. If we truly delight ourselves in God all our desires will be sent up on faith’s wings to God. Any longing of ours which is not fit to be a prayer is not fit to be in our heart at all. One of our Lord’s Beatitudes is for those who long. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” Hungers and thirstings after godliness, desires to be better, longings for more holiness, wishes for closer communion with God and growing likeness to God are prayers, and prayers which God loves to answer. The true spiritual life is full of longings. In the Psalms, the writer’s soul has intense cravings not the cries for forgiveness but the burning, passionate thirst for God Himself. We should cultivate spiritual longing. A holy longing, makes us holy for the moment. Longing for Christ, brings us into Christ’s presence for the time. Longing for righteousness, makes us righteous. But the same is true of evil desires. If we let sinful wishes occupy our minds we will grow corrupt in heart. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” If you cherish wrong desires, impure feelings, unholy imaginations, you will get your desires, and your life will be vile. That is the secret of much of the world’s evil. Let the evil desires stay in your mind and you will soon be a mass of vileness. Keep your thoughts clean and white. Keep your desires fixed upon holy things, right things, on wholesome and true things, on pure and lovely things. Then God will give you the desires of your heart; and they will build up your life in the beauty of holiness. “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.” This is a thousand times better than any Aladdin’s lamp. Delight yourself in the Lord, abide in Christ, let Christ’s words abide in you and no desire of yours will be unsatisfied. All life will then be a song. Fullness of blessing here on earth then eternal blessedness in heaven! Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingDeuteronomy 23, 24, 25 Deuteronomy 23 -- List of Those Excluded from the Assembly NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Deuteronomy 24 -- Law of Divorce, Leprosy, Justice and Charity NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Deuteronomy 25 -- Laws of Stripes, Oxen, Seed, Modesty, Weights and Measures NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Mark 14:51-72 Mark 14 -- Jesus Anointed; Last Supper; Gethsemane; Judas Betrays Jesus; Jesus before the Sanhedrin, disowned by Peter NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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