Bible League: Living His Word I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace as you trust in Him. Then you will have more and more hope, and it will flow out of you by the power of the Holy Spirit.— Romans 15?13 ERV Life is a gift from the Lord; it is wonderful, but, at the same time, holds so many challenges and difficulties, sufferings and unanswered questions. It is also true that life itself is meaningless if a person has no personal relationship with God. The Word of God shows us many truths and also how to live. It says that God is the One who gives hope. Hope is something that comes only from our Lord Jesus Christ. We live now in a world where so many things are confusing, we have so much bad and sad news, where so many people are in panic, and so many people have no hope for the future. Armenia is in a very strategic area in the world, where so many things have their influences. Politicians, famous leaders of big countries, and the so-called international community smile and give promises, but the reality is very sad and bad. In front of this international "civilized" community, in 2014, ISIS committed the genocide of thousands Yezidi Kurds and no one responded. In 2016 and then in 2020, we Armenians had wars (which were the continuation of genocide), in which thousands of people died, and no one responded. And now, when thousands of Armenians in Artsakh are in a blockade, again no one responds. Among these terrible situations and challenges, only Jesus can bring peace and hope into our hearts. And those people who come to our Lord Jesus Christ, they really understand and claim this hope. We Armenians experience what it is to have hopeless a future and the danger of war. However, we also experience what the Gospel can do among Armenians and the Yezidies in Armenia. We see how people receive hope when they start follow Jesus, our Lord. Because of that, Armenian Christians are eager to take the Gospel of Salvation, the Word of God to our otherwise hopeless people. By Artur Ispiryan, Bible League International partner, Armenia Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingIsaiah 22, 23 Isaiah 22 -- Prophecy about Jerusalem: The Valley of Vision NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 23 -- The Burden of Tyre NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Ephesians 3 Ephesians 3 -- Paul's Hopes and Prayers for the Ephesians NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love. Insight As the Corinthians awaited Paul's next visit, they were directed to (1) be on their guard against spiritual dangers, (2) stand firm in the faith, (3) behave courageously, (4) be strong, and (5) do everything with kindness and in love. Challenge Today, as we wait for the return of Christ, we should follow the same instructions. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Songs 7:13 Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has "all manner of pleasant fruits," both "old and new," and they are laid up for our Beloved. At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us survey our stores. We have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, new gratitude; we wish to make new resolves and carry them out by new labors; our heart blossoms with new prayers, and our soul is pledging herself to new efforts. But we have some old fruits too. There is our first love: a choice fruit that! and Jesus delights in it. There is our first faith: that simple faith by which, having nothing, we became possessors of all things. There is our joy when first we knew the Lord: let us revive it. We have our old remembrances of the promises. How faithful has God been! In sickness, how softly did he make our bed! In deep waters, how placidly did he buoy us up! In the flaming furnace, how graciously did he deliver us. Old fruits, indeed! We have many of them, for his mercies have been more than the hairs of our head. Old sins we must regret, but then we have had repentances which he has given us, by which we have wept our way to the cross, and learned the merit of his blood. We have fruits, this morning, both new and old; but here is the point--they are all laid up for Jesus. Truly, those are the best and most acceptable services in which Jesus is the solitary aim of the soul, and his glory, without any admixture whatever, the end of all our efforts. Let our many fruits be laid up only for our Beloved; let us display them when he is with us, and not hold them up before the gaze of men. Jesus, we will turn the key in our garden door, and none shall enter to rob thee of one good fruit from the soil which thou hast watered with thy bloody sweat. Our all shall be thine, thine only, O Jesus, our Beloved! Daily Light on the Daily Path Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,1 Corinthians 9:25-27 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. • Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; • but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. • For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. • But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. Titus 2:12,13 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, • looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 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. |