Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Morning Reading
Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.—EPH. 5:25,26.
Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.—Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.—Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.—Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.—Thy word hath quickened me.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Eph. 5:2.I Pet. 1:23. -John 17:17. -John 3:5. -Tit. 3:5. -Psa. 119:50.Psa. 19:7,8.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“The branch cannot bear fruit of itself.”
John 15:4
How did you begin to bear fruit? It was when you came to Jesus and cast yourselves on his great atonement, and rested on his finished righteousness. Ah! what fruit you had then! Do you remember those early days? Then indeed the vine flourished, the tender grape appeared, the pomegranates budded forth, and the beds of spices gave forth their smell. Have you declined since then? If you have, we charge you to remember that time of love, and repent, and do thy first works. Be most in those engagements which you have experimentally proved to draw you nearest to Christ, because it is from him that all your fruits proceed. Any holy exercise which will bring you to him will help you to bear fruit. The sun is, no doubt, a great worker in fruit-creating among the trees of the orchard: and Jesus is still more so among the trees of his garden of grace. When have you been the most fruitless? Has not it been when you have lived farthest from the Lord Jesus Christ, when you have slackened in prayer, when you have departed from the simplicity of your faith, when your graces have engrossed your attention instead of your Lord, when you have said, “My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved”; and have forgotten where your strength dwells—has not it been then that your fruit has ceased? Some of us have been taught that we have nothing out of Christ, by terrible abasements of heart before the Lord; and when we have seen the utter barrenness and death of all creature power, we have cried in anguish, “From him all my fruit must be found, for no fruit can ever come from me.” We are taught, by past experience, that the more simply we depend upon the grace of God in Christ, and wait upon the Holy Spirit, the more we shall bring forth fruit unto God. Oh! to trust Jesus for fruit as well as for life.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Jeremiah 51
51. Message About Babylon
51
Thus says the Lord:
I am going to stir up a destructive wind
against Babylon
and against the inhabitants of Leb-qamai;
2
and I will send winnowers to Babylon,
and they shall winnow her.
They shall empty her land
when they come against her from every side
on the day of trouble.
3
Let not the archer bend his bow,
and let him not array himself in his coat of mail.
Do not spare her young men;
utterly destroy her entire army.
4
They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
and wounded in her streets.
5
Israel and Judah have not been forsaken
by their God, the Lord of hosts,
though their land is full of guilt
before the Holy One of Israel.
6
Flee from the midst of Babylon,
save your lives, each of you!
Do not perish because of her guilt,
for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
he is repaying her what is due.
7
Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
making all the earth drunken;
the nations drank of her wine,
and so the nations went mad.
8
Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is shattered;
wail for her!
Bring balm for her wound;
perhaps she may be healed.
9
We tried to heal Babylon,
but she could not be healed.
Forsake her, and let each of us go
to our own country;
for her judgment has reached up to heaven
and has been lifted up even to the skies.
10
The Lord has brought forth our vindication;
come, let us declare in Zion
the work of the Lord our God.
11
Sharpen the arrows!
Fill the quivers!
The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the Lord, vengeance for his temple.
12
Raise a standard against the walls of Babylon;
make the watch strong;
post sentinels;
prepare the ambushes;
for the Lord has both planned and done
what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13
You who live by mighty waters,
rich in treasures,
your end has come,
the thread of your life is cut.
14
The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself:
Surely I will fill you with troops like a swarm of locusts,
and they shall raise a shout of victory over you.
15
It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
16
When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightnings for the rain,
and he brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17
Everyone is stupid and without knowledge;
goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols;
for their images are false,
and there is no breath in them.
18
They are worthless, a work of delusion;
at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
19
Not like these is the Lord, the portion of Jacob,
for he is the one who formed all things,
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
the Lord of hosts is his name.
Israel the Creator’s Instrument
20
You are my war club, my weapon of battle:
with you I smash nations;
with you I destroy kingdoms;
21
with you I smash the horse and its rider;
with you I smash the chariot and the charioteer;
22
with you I smash man and woman;
with you I smash the old man and the boy;
with you I smash the young man and the girl;
23
with you I smash shepherds and their flocks;
with you I smash farmers and their teams;
with you I smash governors and deputies.
The Doom of Babylon
24 I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the wrong that they have done in Zion, says the Lord.
25
I am against you, O destroying mountain,
says the Lord,
that destroys the whole earth;
I will stretch out my hand against you,
and roll you down from the crags,
and make you a burned-out mountain.
26
No stone shall be taken from you for a corner
and no stone for a foundation,
but you shall be a perpetual waste,
says the Lord.
27
Raise a standard in the land,
blow the trumpet among the nations;
prepare the nations for war against her,
summon against her the kingdoms,
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
appoint a marshal against her,
bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28
Prepare the nations for war against her,
the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,
and every land under their dominion.
29
The land trembles and writhes,
for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation,
without inhabitant.
30
The warriors of Babylon have given up fighting,
they remain in their strongholds;
their strength has failed,
they have become women;
her buildings are set on fire,
her bars are broken.
31
One runner runs to meet another,
and one messenger to meet another,
to tell the king of Babylon
that his city is taken from end to end:
32
the fords have been seized,
the marshes have been burned with fire,
and the soldiers are in panic.
33
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time when it is trodden;
yet a little while
and the time of her harvest will come.
34
“King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me,
he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel,
he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his belly with my delicacies,
he has spewed me out.
35
May my torn flesh be avenged on Babylon,”
the inhabitants of Zion shall say.
“May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Jerusalem shall say.
36
Therefore thus says the Lord:
I am going to defend your cause
and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
and make her fountain dry;
37
and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
a den of jackals,
an object of horror and of hissing,
without inhabitant.
38
Like lions they shall roar together;
they shall growl like lions’ whelps.
39
When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink
and make them drunk, until they become merry
and then sleep a perpetual sleep
and never wake, says the Lord.
40
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats.
41
How Sheshach is taken,
the pride of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
an object of horror among the nations!
42
The sea has risen over Babylon;
she has been covered by its tumultuous waves.
43
Her cities have become an object of horror,
a land of drought and a desert,
a land in which no one lives,
and through which no mortal passes.
44
I will punish Bel in Babylon,
and make him disgorge what he has swallowed.
The nations shall no longer stream to him;
the wall of Babylon has fallen.
45
Come out of her, my people!
Save your lives, each of you,
from the fierce anger of the Lord!
46
Do not be fainthearted or fearful
at the rumors heard in the land—
one year one rumor comes,
the next year another,
rumors of violence in the land
and of ruler against ruler.
47
Assuredly, the days are coming
when I will punish the images of Babylon;
her whole land shall be put to shame,
and all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48
Then the heavens and the earth,
and all that is in them,
shall shout for joy over Babylon;
for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
says the Lord.
49
Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
50
You survivors of the sword,
go, do not linger!
Remember the Lord in a distant land,
and let Jerusalem come into your mind:
51
We are put to shame, for we have heard insults;
dishonor has covered our face,
for aliens have come
into the holy places of the Lord’s house.
52
Therefore the time is surely coming, says the Lord,
when I will punish her idols,
and through all her land
the wounded shall groan.
53
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,
and though she should fortify her strong height,
from me destroyers would come upon her,
says the Lord.
54
Listen!—a cry from Babylon!
A great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans!
55
For the Lord is laying Babylon waste,
and stilling her loud clamor.
Their waves roar like mighty waters,
the sound of their clamor resounds;
56
for a destroyer has come against her,
against Babylon;
her warriors are taken,
their bows are broken;
for the Lord is a God of recompense,
he will repay in full.
57
I will make her officials and her sages drunk,
also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors;
they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake,
says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
58
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
The broad wall of Babylon
shall be leveled to the ground,
and her high gates
shall be burned with fire.
The peoples exhaust themselves for nothing,
and the nations weary themselves only for fire.
Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah
59 The word that the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.60Jeremiah wrote in a scroll all the disasters that would come on Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,62and say, ‘O Lord, you yourself threatened to destroy this place so that neither human beings nor animals shall live in it, and it shall be desolate forever.’63When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it, and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,64and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disasters that I am bringing on her.’ ”
Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
New Testament in Four Years - Matthew 10:21-25
10. Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;22and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.24 “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
Psalm a Day - Psalm 102:12-28
102. Psalm 102
12
But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever;
your name endures to all generations.
13
You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,
for it is time to favor it;
the appointed time has come.
14
For your servants hold its stones dear,
and have pity on its dust.
15
The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth your glory.
16
For the Lord will build up Zion;
he will appear in his glory.
17
He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
and will not despise their prayer.
18
Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:
19
that he looked down from his holy height,
from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
20
to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die;
21
so that the name of the Lord may be declared in Zion,
and his praise in Jerusalem,
22
when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.
23
He has broken my strength in midcourse;
he has shortened my days.
24
“O my God,” I say, “do not take me away
at the midpoint of my life,
you whose years endure
throughout all generations.”
25
Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26
They will perish, but you endure;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You change them like clothing, and they pass away;
27
but you are the same, and your years have no end.
28
The children of your servants shall live secure;
their offspring shall be established in your presence.