Dawn 2 Dusk When Pain Starts Telling the TruthSome days, pain feels like the only honest voice in the room. It says, “This will never end. This is too much. This is all there is.” The apostle Paul gently, but firmly, contradicts that voice. He speaks of our troubles as light and brief, not because they feel that way, but because he measures them against the massive, unending glory God is preparing for His people. Today’s verse reminds us that what hurts most right now is not the last word. God is using even this to forge something solid, beautiful, and everlasting. Your Suffering Is Not the End of the Story Paul writes, “For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). The man who penned those words knew real suffering—beatings, imprisonments, hunger, rejection, fear for his life. Yet he dared to call it “light” and “momentary” because he refused to measure his life by the span of his years on earth. He measured it by eternity, by resurrection, by the face of Christ. Seen that way, even the longest season of pain is a chapter, not the whole book. Your story in Christ does not end with the diagnosis, the betrayal, the loss, or the loneliness. Those things may mark your pages, but they do not write your ending. Scripture says that the glory to be revealed in us is not even worth comparing with our present sufferings (Romans 8:18). In other words, if you could hold all your pain in one hand and all the coming glory in the other, the scale would slam down on the side of glory every single time. God is not wasting what you are walking through. In Christ, nothing surrendered to Him is meaningless. Glory Has Weight: Learning to Feel the Future Paul’s phrase “eternal weight of glory” is striking. Glory is not a vague glow or a spiritual mist. It has weight. It is more solid than your circumstances, more real than what you can see and feel in this moment. Right now, your affliction feels heavy and God’s promises feel light, like ideas floating in the air. But in heaven’s accounting, it’s the opposite: your trial is light and temporary; the glory it is producing is massive and permanent. God is building in you a capacity to know Him, enjoy Him, and reflect Him that you could not gain any other way. Learning to “feel” that coming glory is part of faith. It means letting God’s promises define reality more than your emotions or your news feed. Other passages remind us that trials are being used to mature us, to complete us, to shape a tested, durable faith (James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:6–7). When you choose, in the middle of tears, to say, “Lord, I trust You. Use this,” you are cooperating with Him as He crafts that eternal weight of glory. Every unseen act of trust, obedience, and perseverance will matter forever. Nothing done unto Him slips through His fingers. Living Today in Light of Forever Because this is true, Scripture calls us to fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen; what we see is temporary, what we do not see is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). That doesn’t mean pretending our pain isn’t real; it means refusing to let it be ultimate. We look past what is in front of us to Who is over us. We set our minds on things above, where Christ is seated, not on earthly things that are passing away (Colossians 3:1–2). The more clearly we gaze at Jesus and His promises, the more clearly we see our troubles for what they really are: real, but limited; hard, but unable to cancel God’s purposes. So what does it look like, practically, to live like this today? It may mean choosing worship instead of bitterness, even when you do not feel like singing. It may mean serving someone else in the middle of your own need, trusting that God sees. It may mean opening your Bible when you’d rather scroll, and letting God’s words pull your heart toward eternity. Above all, it means looking to Christ, who endured the cross “for the joy set before Him,” and now sits at the right hand of God (Hebrews 12:2). He walked the path of suffering to glory first, and He walks it with you now. Lord, thank You that my present afflictions are not the end, and that You are producing in me an eternal weight of glory. Help me today to fix my eyes on what is unseen, to trust You in my pain, and to live this day in light of forever. Morning with A.W. Tozer We Travel an Appointed WayNehemiah, the good, rose up from his weeping to do something about a vision God had laid on his heart. Under divine providence, he was soon transported from Shushan to his beloved city, Jerusalem, armed with authority and equipped with materials to rebuild the ruined city. . . . The first device of the "enemy," upon hearing of the undertaking, was to heap ridicule on the whole plan. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem laughed Nehemiah and his helpers to scorn. Undeterred, Nehemiah replied with firm assurance, "The God of heaven, he will prosper us." And the work went on according to plan.
After all other means had failed to hinder the reconstruction, the conspirators tried to arrange for a conference with Nehemiah. The man of God saw in this an evil purpose to do him mischief and divert him from his monumental work. His reply to the would-be mischief-makers is classic, and might well be adopted for the all-time stock reply to all such overtures: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" (Nehemiah 6:3).
The great task to which God had called Nehemiah was so important that every other consideration must be waived. Would that we might have such an overpowering sense of being about our Father's business and be so impressed with the grandeur of our task that we would reject every suggestion of the evil one that would bid us take up some lesser pursuit. Let us rout him with the words that date back to 445 B.C., and which cannot be improved upon: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down." Music For the Soul The Power of the FleshThus saith the Lord, Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. - Jeremiah 17:5 The "flesh" is ever apt to make "sacraments" out of "ordinances" and to blend in disastrous union a faith in Jesus Christ and a faith in them. It cannot be done. It must be the one thing or the other. The reliance on the sacraments will in the long run kill the faith in Christ, or the faith in Christ drive out the reliance on the sacraments. Little as it may seem so at first, all experience has proved that Paul spoke with unerring instinct when he declared to the Galatians that if they yielded to the teaching of the Judaisers, and submitted to circumcision as necessary, they would get no good from Christ. He must be all or nothing. This was the earliest corruption of Christianity. It subsists perennially through the generations; it crops up ever and anon when we thought it was cut down. It is all about us in England to-day, devastating the Churches; and its roots are in each of us. Nothing but Christ’s Cross, and nothing as bringing the power of that Cross into my life but my simple faith - that is what Paul preached; and if he could have stood to-day, and seen men running after sacraments and ritual and outward forms and the aesthetics of worship, and turning the preacher of a Gospel into the priest of a sacrament, his voice would have rung out in as earnest and as surprised remonstrance: " Oh, foolish! who hath bewitched you?" But we are all in danger from other fascinations and seducers, such as worldly cares, occupation, treasures. "As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone," said the negligent soldier, to account for the escape of the prisoner in his charge. That is exactly the history of the way in which a great many men’s Christianity trickles out of them without their knowing it. They are too busy to look after it, or even to notice its escape, and so drop, drop, drop, slow and unnoticed through the leak it slips, until there is none left; and the man fancies the vessel is full, till he comes to need to draw on it, and then! How many of us, I wonder, are like the elm trees that have sent their top roots down to a layer of innutritious earth, and are standing magnificent stems, but hollow inside, ready to be blown over in the first gale of wind? Oh! how much Christian life is murdered every year! How much devotion dies in the air of the business street! How hard it is for you that have to go away every Monday morning, and keep at it all the week long, to keep up the fervour of your faith and the simplicity of your piety! Brother! there is only one way to do it, and that is to keep near to the Master, whose strength will hold you up. The attrition of worldly cares eats away the impression upon our hearts. As the soft south wind gradually eats away the inscriptions off the temples that may front it, so the writing upon our hearts is blurred by the constant, soft, moist breath of earth’s business and cares impinging upon it. And the fascinations that slay most of us are all summed up in the solemn old words: " The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." These bewitch you, before whose eyes Christ was set forth. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Mark 3:13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. Here was sovereignty. Impatient spirits may fret and fume, because they are not called to the highest places in the ministry; but reader be it thine to rejoice that Jesus calleth whom he wills. If he shall leave me to be a doorkeeper in his house, I will cheerfully bless him for his grace in permitting me to do anything in his service. The call of Christ's servants comes from above. Jesus stands on the mountain, evermore above the world in holiness, earnestness, love and power. Those whom he calls must go up the mountain to him, they must seek to rise to his level by living in constant communion with him. They may not be able to mount to classic honors, or attain scholastic eminence, but they must like Moses go up into the mount of God and have familiar intercourse with the unseen God, or they will never be fitted to proclaim the gospel of peace. Jesus went apart to hold high fellowship with the Father, and we must enter into the same divine companionship if we would bless our fellowmen. No wonder that the apostles were clothed with power when they came down fresh from the mountain where Jesus was. This morning we must endeavour to ascend the mount of communion, that there we may be ordained to the lifework for which we are set apart. Let us not see the face of man today till we have seen Jesus. Time spent with him is laid out at blessed interest. We too shall cast out devils and work wonders if we go down into the world girded with that divine energy which Christ alone can give. It is of no use going to the Lord's battle till we are armed with heavenly weapons. We must see Jesus, this is essential. At the mercy-seat we will linger till he shall manifest himself unto us as he doth not unto the world, and until we can truthfully say, "We were with him in the Holy Mount." Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Coming In; Going OutThe blessings of the law are not canceled. Jesus confirmed the promise when He bore the penalty. If I keep the commands of my LORD, I may appropriate this promise without question. This day I will come in to my house without fear of evil tidings, and I will come in to my closet expecting to hear good news from my LORD. I will not be afraid to come in unto myself by self-examination, nor to come in to my affairs by a diligent inspection of my business. I have a good deal of work to do indoors, within my own soul; oh, for a blessing upon it all, the blessing of the LORD Jesus, who has promised to abide with me. I must also go out. Timidity makes me wish that I could stay within doors and never go into the sinful world again. But I must go out in my calling, and I must go out that I may be helpful to my brethren and useful to the ungodly. I must be a defender of the faith and an assailant of evil. Oh, for a blessing upon my going out this day! LORD, let me go where Thou leadest, on Thy errands, under Thy command, and in the power of Thy Spirit. LORD Jesus, turn in with me and be my guest; and then walk out with me and cause my heart to burn while You speak with me by the way. The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer To Comfort All That MournTHE Lord’s people are all mourners; grace sets and keeps them mourning over sin committed, depravity discovered, evidences needed, comforts forfeited and lost, apparent uselessness, the sins of others, the state of the church, or for the salvation of relatives and friends. We mourn after Jesus when we do not enjoy His love, and over Him as suffering when we do. But He has declared, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Jesus Himself is anointed and appointed to be our Comforter; He has given Him the tongue of the learned, that He may speak a word in season to them that are weary. He comforts us by pardoning our sins, subduing our iniquities, restoring the joys of our salvation, employing us in His service, and making us successful. He comforts us by His word, His servants, and His spirit. Admire the wisdom of God in the person appointed; the love of God in the work to which He is appointed; and the faithfulness of God in the perpetuity of His office. He ever lives, and lives to comfort us. Sweet view of Jesus, let us dwell upon it. Now in the Lord will I be glad, And glory in His love; In Him I’ll joy, who will the God Of my salvation prove: My Saviour will my comfort be, And set my soul from trouble free. Bible League: Living His Word "But I have a few things against you."— Revelation 2:14 ERV The Apostle John's third letter to the seven churches follows the letters to the loveless church in Ephesus and the persecuted church in Smyrna. In whole, the seven letters represent a historical snapshot of the Church in that day and as many scholars believe, a view of the Church in our present and future days. John's third letter is to the church in Pergamum (Pergamos). A leading city in the political and cultural arena known for its passion in seeking knowledge, it was also a pagan city, worshipping many different gods. From John's letter, Jesus is rebuking the church for being a compromising church. Historically, the Church in Pergamos represents the church in the post-persecution era (approximately AD 325 to AD 570). It is the era of the first state sponsored church when state religion is suddenly placed on people who were not believers, which led to compromising values, compromising religious practices, and compromising beliefs. The Lord begins by commending the church in Pergamos for their good works in the midst of a city filled with paganism. He says, I know your works, even where Satan has set up shop, but you are holding up the name of Jesus and keeping to your faith (verse 13). But like most of the other seven letters, Jesus speaks rebuke to the church in Pergamos saying "I have a few things against you." The rebuke, followed by His correction, is aimed at those who joined the church and brought with them strange doctrines and practices, false worship and offerings to idols, and church leaders lording over the flock. The church's acceptance was its compromise. Much like today where we see so much practice and acceptance of worldly moral values and sin in the church. The church is to be the example to the world of God's holiness and purity. As Christians we are to be such examples as well to the world. But when we compromise godly standards of holiness and purity, we are actually putting up stumbling blocks for others to fail in their faith or not really have true faith to begin with. The correction to comprise is to "repent" the Lord says (verse 16), and the remedy is to go forward walking in truth and love without compromise. The brilliant author and theologian G.K. Chesterton once quipped, "Compromise used to mean that half a loaf of bread was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it seems to now mean that half a loaf of bread is better than a whole loaf." Dearest beloved of Christ, compromise is never the way forward for the truth and love of God. As one follows the progression of John's seven letters to the churches, we see a pattern where in the first letter "lovelessness" seems to invite persecution upon the church. The very nature of persecution invites compromise to relieve suffering. Reading forward, compromise will lead to corruption and the corrupt church in Thyatira which leads to the dead church as people flee in the letter to the church in Sardis. Let you and I not be found by our Lord to be party with compromising faith and compromising hearts. Rather, let us be found shining brightly in the uncompromised truth and uncompromising love of Jesus Christ. Let us be His children no longer "tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head - Christ" (Ephesians 4:14-15). By Davide Massie, Bible League International staff, California USA Daily Light on the Daily Path Jeremiah 32:39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.Ezekiel 36:26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Psalm 25:8-10 Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. • He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way. • All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. John 17:21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. Ephesians 4:1-6 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, • with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, • being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. • There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; • one Lord, one faith, one baptism, • one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. 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 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.Insight We often feel that life is a failure unless we're getting a lot out of it: recognition, fun, money, success. But Paul considered life worth nothing unless he used it for God's work. Challenge What he put into life was far more important than what he got out. Which is more important to you—what you get out of life, or what you put into it? Devotional Hours Within the Bible How Christ ComfortsThe words of the fourteenth chapter of John were spoken by the Master to His friends in a time of deep grief which seemed inconsolable. Yet He said, “Let not your heart be troubled.” This seemed a strange thing to say to those men that night. How could they keep their hearts from being troubled in such circumstances? To think of all that Jesus had grown to be to them! For three years they had been members of His personal family, enjoying the most intimate relations with Him. How much a friend can be to us, depends on the friend. If he has a rich character, a noble personality, power to love deeply, capacity for friendship, the spirit of pure unselfishness; if he is able to inspire us to heroism and to worthy living what he can be to us is immeasurable. Think what Jesus Christ, with His marvelous manhood, must have been as a friend to His disciples, and you can understand something of what His going from them meant to them. Then He was more than a friend to them. They had believed in Him as the Messiah, who was to redeem them and lead them to honor and glory. Great hope rested in Him. His death was, as it seemed to them the defeat and failure of all their hopes. The announcement that He was to leave them, swept away, as they thought, all that made life worthwhile. There are human friends whose death seems to leave only desolation in the hearts and lives of those who have loved them and leaned on them. But the death of Christ was to His personal friends and followers the blotting out of every star of hope and promise. Their sorrow was overwhelming. Yet Jesus looked into their faces and said, “Let not your heart be troubled.” It is worth our while to think of the grounds on which Jesus could reasonably say this to His disciples, when they were entering into such great and real sorrow. The first thing He bade them do, was to believe. “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me.” Thus far they had believed in God. Jesus had taught them a new name for God. They were to call Him Father. He had not been known by this name before but Jesus used no other name for Him. The word Father is a great treasure-house of love-thoughts. It told the disciples of personal thought, love and care, extending to all the events of their lives. The very hairs of their heads were all numbered. It told them of goodness which never failed. It was a great lesson they had been learning, as they came to think of God as their Father. In the shock of the last terrible days; however, the danger was that they would lose their faith in God. But Jesus said to them: “Believe in God. Let nothing take this faith out of your heart. Let nothing take from you what you have been learning from Me about God.” “Believe also in Me.” They had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. You remember the splendid confession made by Peter, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” In this confession, all the disciples had joined. They believed that He had come to be the world’s Savior. Now, in the announcement that Jesus was to die at the hands of wicked men, there was danger that they should lose their faith in Him. But to save them from their loss of faith He exhorted them to continue to believe. Not one of their hopes had perished. “You believe in God, believe also in Me.” We are always in danger of losing faith in time of sorrow or any sore trouble. Many times people are heard asking such questions as, “How can God be a God of love, and allow me to be so bereft, so stripped of good things? Where are now the promises of blessing which are made in the Scriptures over and over again? Has God forgotten to be gracious?” To those questions of doubt and fear the answer is, “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me.” Let nothing disturb your faith. Though it seems that God’s love has failed, that God has not forgotten you, that Christ is no longer your friend still continue to believe; believe in God, believe also in Christ. Sorrow is full of mystery. We go everywhere asking, “Why?” “This is not love,” we say. “This is not goodness. This is not salvation.” We cannot answer the WHY. Should we expect to know why God does this or that? How could we, with our narrow vision and our small knowledge, understand the plans and purpose of God? God does not plan to give us an easy time in this world He wants to make something of us, and often the way to do this is to give us pain, loss, and suffering. A German writer speaks of the “hardness of God’s love.” Love must be hard sometimes. A writer tells of keeping the cocoon of an emperor moth for nearly a year, to watch the process of development. A narrow opening is left in the neck of the flask, through which the insect forces its way. The opening is so small that it seems impossible for the moth to pass through it. This writer watched the efforts of the imprisoned moth to escape. It did not appear to make any progress. At last he grew impatient. He pitied the little creature and, in a weak kindness to it, decided to help it. Taking his scissors, he snipped the confining threads to make the struggle easier. In a moment the moth was free, dragging out a great swollen body and little shriveled wings. He watched to see the beauty unfold but he watched in vain. “It never was anything but a stunted abortion, crawling painfully about, instead of flying through the air on rainbow wings.” Nature’s way that is, God’s way with moths is the only true way, although it is a way of pain, struggle, and suffering. Human pity may make an easier way but the end will be destructive . God’s love never makes this mistake, either in nature or in dealing with human lives. God lets us suffer if by suffering we will best grow into perfect beauty. When the mystery of pain or hardness comes into our life let us not doubt. Let us suffer and wait. The disciples thought all their hopes were gone but in the end they learned that no hope had perished or failed. Blessing and good came out of what seemed irretrievable disaster. “You believe in God, believe also in me,” is always the word of faith and comfort. Trust God. Nothing is going wrong. You cannot understand but He understands. The disciples were in great distress because their Master was going away from them. They were dismayed as they thought of their loss. They thought they could not live without Him. But He explained that He was going away for their sake. They thought they would not have His help anymore, and He explained that He would still be active in their behalf. “In my Father’s house are many mansions… I am going to prepare a place for you.” He told them where He was going to His Father’s house. These are precious words. They tell us that heaven is home. On this earth there is no place so sweet, so sacred, so heart-satisfying as the true home. It is a place of love, purest, gentlest, most unselfish love. It is a place of confidence. We are always sure of home’s loved ones. We do not have to be on our guard when we enter our home doors. We do not have to wear masks there, hiding or disguising our real selves. Home is a refuge into which we flee from the danger, the enmity, the suspicion, the unkindness, the injustice of the world . Home is the place where hungry hearts feed on love’s bread . Mrs. Craik in one of her books had this fine picture: Oh, conceive the happiness to know that some one person dearer to you than your own self, some one heart into which you can pour every thought, every grief, every joy; one person who, if all the rest of the world were to calumniate or forsake you would never wrong you by a harsh thought or an unjust word; who would cling to you the closer in sickness, in poverty, in care; who would sacrifice all things to you, and for whom you would sacrifice all; from whom, except by death, night or day, you never can be divided; whose smile is ever at your hearth. Such is marriage, if they who marry have hearts and souls to feel that there is no bond on earth so tender and so sublime. This is a glimpse of what a true home is. The picture is sometimes realized on the earth. There are homes which are well-near perfect. But the home sought, will be realized full in heaven. The Bible paints heaven in colors of dazzling splendor, its gates and streets and gardens and streams and fruits, all of the utmost brilliance; but no other description means so much to our hearts as that which the Master gives in these three words, “My Father’s house” home! “My Father’s house.” That is the place to which we are going! That is the place where those we have lost awhile from our earthly homes, falling asleep in Jesus, are gathering. That is the place to which the angels have carried the godly dead. What a vision will burst upon our eyes when, some quiet day or night, we shall fall asleep to awake no more on earth but to awake in heaven, in our Father’s house! You have read of men coming over the sea as immigrants, and landing in a strange city as utter strangers throngs all about them but not one familiar face, no welcome in any eye, no greeting. But it will not be this way with you when you leave this world and enter heaven. Loved ones will meet you and receive you with joy. Jesus said also to His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” They thought His dying was an interruption of His work. The Messiah they had conceived of was to live and be a glorious King, conquering the world. Suddenly they were told that soon they should not see Him He would be gone. They were bitterly disappointed. All their homes were now to perish. Jesus comforts them by telling them that the reason He was going away was to prepare a place for them. Nothing was going wrong with His Messiahship. They had misunderstood it that was all. He could easily have escaped from the plots of the rulers, the betrayal of Judas, the arrest by the temple officers. But hat would have been to fail in part of His work. The reason He was going away was that He might continue and complete His work in heaven. “I go to prepare a place for you.” The thought is very beautiful. How does Christ prepare places for us? We need not understand but it is a sweet thought to know that He thinks of us as you think of a dear guest who is coming to visit you lovingly, and prepares for your coming. You good women, when you are expecting a friend you love very much, make the guest room just as tidy and beautiful as you can. You think of the friend’s tastes, and prepare the room with this in mind. You put up a picture you think will please him. You lay on the table the books you know he will like. You gather his favorite flowers and place them on the dressing bureau. You do everything you can to make the room beautiful, so that he will feel at home in it the moment he enters it. Christ is preparing a room for you! There is something else here. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” This is more of the work Jesus went away to do for His friends. First, He would make ready for them, build a home for the, prepare a place. Then, when all things were ready, He would come for them and take them home. That is what He does when we leave this world. Men call it dying but dying is a gloomy, forbidding word. Jesus said, “Whoever lives and believes on Me shall never die.” What we call dying is really only Jesus coming to receive us unto Himself. Why, then, should anyone dread to leave this world? It is the Master coming to tell you that your place in the Father’s house is ready for you and that He has come to take you to it! When Stephen was being stoned to death he had a beautiful vision. He saw the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. As the mob stoned him, Stephen was calling upon Jesus Christ and praying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” (see Acts 7:58-60). It was the Savior coming for His servant. The place was ready for him. His work here had been short but it was all that had been allotted to him. His departure was tragic he died at the hands of a religious mob; but it mattered not how he was taken away really it was Jesus who took him away receiving His spirit into strong, gentle and secure hands. The comfort to us in our sorrows and bereavements, is that nothing has gone wrong, that God’s purpose is going on in all the wrecks of human hopes. Your friend passed away the other night. You thought he would have been with you for many years. You had plans covering a long future of happiness. You were appalled when the doctor said that your friend could not live. Life to you would be dreary, lonely and empty without this one who had become so dear to you. You say: “My friend stayed so brief a time! I could almost wish that I had not let my heart fasten its tendrils about this dear life, since so soon it was torn away from me!” Say it not! It is worthwhile to love and to let your heart pour out all its sweetness in loving, though it be for but a day and then to have the bliss give way to grief. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingProverbs 17, 18 Proverbs 17 -- Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Proverbs 18 -- An unfriendly man pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading 2 Corinthians 2 2 Corinthians 2 -- Reaffirm Your Love for the Sinner; We speak in Christ NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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