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Daily Light's Morning Reading
Fear not; for I have redeemed thee.—ISA. 43:1.
Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.—I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.—With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause.—My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Isa. 54:4,5-Isa. 44:22. -I Pet. 1:19.Jer. 50:34. -John 10:29.Gal. 1:3-5.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.”
Luke 23:27
Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to his doom, there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and lamentations—fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul can, in imagination, see the Saviour bearing his cross to Calvary, she joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief—cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought. They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried “Crucify him! crucify him!” and laid the cross upon his gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity: but my having been his murderer, is more, infinitely more, grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.
Why those women loved and wept it were not hard to guess: but they could not have had greater reasons for love and grief than my heart has. Nain’s widow saw her son restored—but I myself have been raised to newness of life. Peter’s wife’s mother was cured of the fever—but I of the greater plague of sin. Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast—but a whole legion out of me. Mary and Martha were favoured with visits—but he dwells with me. His mother bare his body—but he is formed in me the hope of glory. In nothing behind the holy women in debt, let me not be behind them in gratitude or sorrow.
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“Love and grief my heart dividing, With my tears his feet I'll lave— Constant still in heart abiding, Weep for him who died to save.” |
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Esther 2
2. Esther Made Queen
Esther Becomes Queen
2
After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.2Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king.3And let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in the citadel of Susa under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; let their cosmetic treatments be given them.4And let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.
5 Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite.6Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away.7Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the girl was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter.8So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women.9The girl pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food, and with seven chosen maids from the king’s palace, and advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem.10Esther did not reveal her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell.11Every day Mordecai would walk around in front of the court of the harem, to learn how Esther was and how she fared.
12 The turn came for each girl to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their cosmetic treatment, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics for women.13When the girl went in to the king she was given whatever she asked for to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace.14In the evening she went in; then in the morning she came back to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines; she did not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
15 When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was admired by all who saw her.16When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign,17the king loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins she won his favor and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.18Then the king gave a great banquet to all his officials and ministers—“Esther’s banquet.” He also granted a holiday to the provinces, and gave gifts with royal liberality.
Mordecai Discovers a Plot
19 When the virgins were being gathered together, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate.20Now Esther had not revealed her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had charged her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him.21In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus.22But the matter came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai.23When the affair was investigated and found to be so, both the men were hanged on the gallows. It was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.
New Testament in Four Years - James 1:16-18
1. Trials and Temptations
16Do not be deceived, my beloved.17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 73
73. Psalm 73
BOOK III
(Psalms 73–89)
Psalm 73
Plea for Relief from Oppressors
A Psalm of Asaph.
1
Truly God is good to the upright,
to those who are pure in heart.
2
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;
my steps had nearly slipped.
3
For I was envious of the arrogant;
I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4
For they have no pain;
their bodies are sound and sleek.
5
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not plagued like other people.
6
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them like a garment.
7
Their eyes swell out with fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9
They set their mouths against heaven,
and their tongues range over the earth.
10
Therefore the people turn and praise them,
and find no fault in them.
11
And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12
Such are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13
All in vain I have kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14
For all day long I have been plagued,
and am punished every morning.
15
If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,”
I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
16
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I perceived their end.
18
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20
They are like a dream when one awakes;
on awaking you despise their phantoms.
21
When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22
I was stupid and ignorant;
I was like a brute beast toward you.
23
Nevertheless I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me with honor.
25
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
26
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27
Indeed, those who are far from you will perish;
you put an end to those who are false to you.
28
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
to tell of all your works.
