Today's Soul Food — April 4
 

GOLDEN WORDS



I used to wander off until you disciplined me; but now I closely follow your word.

Psalm 119:67 NLT  


Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Thy word.

Psalm 119:67  NASB


Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.

 Psalm 119:67  NIV

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Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. It is different from most other Psalms in its length and content. It was written as an acrostic. It may have been written to read, rather than to be sung. The main focus of the entire 176 verses is God's word. There 22 stanzas, each devoted to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

In today's verse we see the benefit of discipline in one's life. The stanza 65-72 show the goodness of God. God is good at all times. Even in affliction and discipline God is good. Discipline will give us knowledge and good judgment from the word of God.

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By afflictions God is spoiling us of what otherwise might have spoiled us. -- When he makes the world too hot for us to hold, we let it go.

Sir John Powell.

 

Daily Meditations by  Pat Nordman ©

 


April 4

"...Jesus himself came up and walked along with them" Luke 24:15.

Jesus consecrates for us our heartbreaking walks and our aching journeys. How significant and wonderful that Jesus came to Cleophas and his friend. What tenderness of heart that Jesus comes to us! Cleopas and his unnamed companion were talking about their sorrow. No one but God knows who these two men were. One wasn't even accorded the distinction of a name. But Jesus quietly entered into their discouraged lives and conversation and comforted them. None can dare say or think that Jesus doesn't care about the pedestrian person! Love, with pierced feet, walks ahead to give all hope. "He seeks the society of struggling spirits, He gives His presence to sorrowing souls." A. Raleigh.

"They asked each other, `Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?'" Luke 24:32. Our human puzzles are not solved by reason or by what seem to be rational human theories, but by what God tells us. Life can be enormously unreasonable. Every person who has any sensibilities at all has cried out a "Why?" to some unwarranted (or so it seems) work or word. When it happens, our beloved Jesus walks on our Emmaus road with us and reasons with us. He gives us a holy explanation which is wholly safe and sound. So we ask Him, "`Stay with us'...so He [comes] in to stay with [us]" Luke 24:29. What comfort He gives. Jesus not only grants our request but becomes our Intimate, too.

Certain of God's saints had moments of discouragment: Moses (Numbers 11:15), Joshua (Joshua 7:7), Elijah (1 Kings 19:4), Job (Job 10:1), David (Psalms 42:6, 69:2, 73:16, 137:1), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:10), and these two disciples who thought there was no hope left. But! "He lifted me out...of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand" Psalm 40:2.

Pat Nordman ©

 


Today's Bible Question ?



      What Canaanite city was burned down by the men of Dan?

Previous question and Answer:

What husband, the victim of David's adulterous scheming, was made drunk by the king?

Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba — 2 Samuel 11:13

 

 

Excerpts from today's Spurgeon's Devotions

Spurgeon's Morning for April 4

Spurgeon's Evening for April 4

birds in winter

"Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord."

-  Isaiah 2:3

 

 

 

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

-  John 19:16

It is exceedingly beneficial to our souls to mount above this present evil world to something nobler and better. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are apt to choke everything good within us, and we grow fretful, desponding, perhaps proud and carnal.

With thy Saviour's garment on, thou art holy as the Holy one.


   

 

 

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 April 4  Judges 6:1 - 7:25

365 days of Bible Readings Linked to Bible Gaitway TM 

 


 


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Like Grass

 

The doctrine of the resurrection is full of joy to the bereaved. It clothes the grave with flowers and wreathes the tomb with unfading laurel. The sepulcher shines with a light brighter than the sun, and death grows fair, as we say, in full assurance of faith, "I know that my brother shall rise again." Torn from the degrading shell the pearl is gone to deck the crown of the Prince of Peace; buried beneath the sod the seed is preparing to bloom in the King's garden. Altering a word or two of Beattie's verse we may even now find ourselves singing, 

'Tis night and the landscape is lovely no more; 
Yet ye beautiful woodlands I mourn not for you. 
For morn is approaching your charms to restore, 
Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew. 
Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn; 
Kind nature the embryo blossom will save. 
The spring shall yet visit the moldering urn; 
The day shall yet dawn on the night of the grave. 

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon

 

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Today's  Devotion
 

Boasting

 

"Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

I Corinthians 1: 31

A bishop from Uganda came to our town last week. After a number of days, he expressed to his hostess, "I don’t understand it. Christians come up to me and tell me there’s a wonderful pill, Advil, that can take away my headache, and that there are new stores popping up over the hill with many amenities. Why aren’t you Christians going up to people and telling them your excitement about Jesus?"

It’s piercing to gain a perspective from someone in another culture. We tend to console ourselves with each other and numb our consciences with our shared pride in affluence, discovery, and technology. Can we hear the concern of this dear man? Jesus is much greater to offer someone than our latest advancement. Let us awaken to what we are boasting in, and "let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.".

© Cathy Vinson
Jesus is much greater to offer someone than our latest advancement.

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