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December 31: From Beginning to End Lamentations 4:1–5:22 ; Romans 16:1–27 ; Proverbs 31:10–31 Endings are always difficult. But when they’re new beginnings, they’re revitalizing. At the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we not only see Paul the apostle, but Paul the empathetic and concerned pastor. Paul knows that if dissension or temptation rules over the Roman church, they will fail in their ministry, so he warns them (Rom 16:17–19) and offers them a word of hope: “And in a short time the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Rom 16:20). Here, Paul is echoing God’s words to Adam, Eve, and the serpent after the fall, when, instead of carrying out God’s request to bring order to creation (as He had done in the beginning), humanity turned from Him, defacing His image (Gen 1:1–2, 27–28; 3:14–20). But while Gen 3:15 merely depicts Satan biting the heel of humanity and being struck on the head in return (Gen 3:15), Paul de...

Morning, December 31                    Go To Evening Reading “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” —John 7:37 Patience had her perfect work in the Lord Jesus, and until the last day of the feast he pleaded with the Jews, even as on this last day of the year he pleads with us, and waits to be gracious to us. Admirable indeed is the longsuffering of the Saviour in bearing with some of us year after year, notwithstanding our provocations, rebellions, and resistance of his Holy Spirit. Wonder of wonders that we are still in the land of mercy! Pity expressed herself most plainly , for Jesus cried , which implies not only the loudness of his voice, but the tenderness of his tones. He entreats us to be reconciled. “We pray you,” says the Apostle, “as though God did beseech you by us.” What earnest, pathetic terms are these! How deep ...

December 31 Which hope we have as an anchor to the soul Heb. 6:19 Anchor to the throne of God, and then shorten the rope! Selected  Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour . Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.

December 31st Yesterday The God of Israel will be your rereward. Isaiah 52:12. Security from Yesterday. “God requireth that which is past.” At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present. Security for To-morrow. “For the Lord will go before you.” This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward. God’s hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for conscience. Security for To-day. “For ye s...

December 30: The Proverbs 31 Woman Lamentations 3:1–66; Romans 15:22–33; Proverbs 31:1–19 A Proverbs 31 woman is hard to find, but it isn’t for lack of effort. She’s been the topic of more than a few Bible studies. She can be recognized by her many positive traits—strong, courageous, and trustworthy. She is hardworking, discerning, giving, dignified, business savvy, wise, and kind. If we’re looking for a vice or an Achilles heel, we’ll have to turn to another passage in the ot (we’re sure to find more failures than achievers within its pages). As we look through the list of qualities, though, it’s hard to check them all off, even for Type-A personalities. But the key to understanding the list of characteristics isn’t found in what we can attain. It’s found in the last verse—the crux of the poem. The crown of the woman’s wisdom isn’t her charm or her beauty or even her ability to “get things done.” It is her fear of Yahweh. This relationship with God guides all of her actions. ...

Morning, December 30                    Go To Evening Reading “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” —Ecclesiastes 7:8 Look at David’s Lord and Master; see his beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at his Father’s right hand, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. “As he is, so are we also in this world.” You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” See that creeping worm, how contemptible its appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect with gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the flower bells, full of happiness and life; that is the end thereof. That caterpillar is yourself, until you are wrapped ...

December 30 Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord Gen. 6:8 Noah found grace in the same way that Paul obtained mercy (1 Tim. 1:16), namely, by mercy’s taking hold of him. Selected  Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour . Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.

December 30th “And every virtue we possess” All my fresh springs shall be in Thee. Psalm 87:7 (P.B.V.). Our Lord never patches up our natural virtues, He remakes the whole man on the inside. “Put on the new man”—see that your natural human life puts on the garb that is in keeping with the new life. The life God plants in us develops its own virtues, not the virtues of Adam but of Jesus Christ. Watch how God will wither up your confidence in natural virtues after sanctification, and in any power you have, until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through a drying-up experience! The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ which can never ...

December 29 She [Hannah] … prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore … she, spake in her heart 1 Sam. 1:10, 13 For real business at the mercy-seat give me a home-made prayer, a prayer that comes out of the depths of my heart, not because I invented it, but because God the Holy Ghost put it there, and gave it such living force that I could not help letting it out. Though your words are broken, and your sentences disconnected, if your desires are earnest, if they are like coals of juniper, burning with a vehement flame, God will not mind how they find expression. If you have no words, perhaps you will pray better without them than with them. There are prayers that break the backs of words; they are too heavy for any human language to carry. Spurgeon  Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour . Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.

December 29th Deserter or disciple? From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. John 6:66. When God gives a vision by His Spirit through His word of what He wants, and your mind and soul thrill to it, if you do not walk in the light of that vision, you will sink into servitude to a point of view which Our Lord never had. Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ. Do not look at someone else and say—‘Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why cannot I?’ You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you and not compare yourself with others or judge them, that is between them and God. When you find that a point of view in which you have been delighting clashes with the heavenly vision and you debate, certain things will begin to develop in you—a sense of property and a sense of personal right, things of which Jesus Christ made nothing. He was alway...

God’s Intention Is an Unfolding Mystery Excerpt The mystery is neither inscrutable nor obvious; it can be known, but only by  revelation  ( 3:3 )*  by the Spirit  (v.  5 ), and requiring special  insight  (v.  4 ). The term  revelation  is important to our understanding of the inspiration of Scripture. (See  notes .) The terminology in verses  3–5  shows something of the process by which God communicates his truth. Not everything God reveals becomes Scripture, but in this case, it has, by divine inspiration. Through  revelation,  God conveys to humans that which they could not know otherwise. Reciprocally, the recipient is given  the insight  to understand the disclosure.  Liefeld, Walter L.  Ephesians . Vol. 10. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997. Print. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series.

December 15   Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love         1 Cor. 13:13 ( R.V. ) Love is the greatest thing that God can give us: for Himself is Love; and it is the greatest thing we can give to God: for it will give ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours. Jeremy Taylor Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour. Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.

December 15th Approved unto God Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Tim. 2:15 . If you cannot express yourself on any subject, struggle until you can. If you do not, someone will be the poorer all the days of his life. Struggle to re-express some truth of God to yourself, and God will use that expression to someone else. Go through the wine-press of God where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle to get expression experimentally, then there will come a time when that expression will become the very wine of strengthening to someone else; but if you say lazily— ‘I am not going to struggle to express this thing for myself, I will borrow what I say,’ the expression will not only be of no use to you, but of no use to anyone. Try to re-state to yourself what you implicitly feel to be God’s truth, and you give God a chance to pass it on to someone else through you. Always make a pract...

Morning, December 15                                                    Go To Evening Reading           “Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.”          — Ruth 1:14 Both of them had an affection for Naomi, and therefore set out with her upon her return to the land of Judah. But the hour of test came; Naomi most unselfishly set before each of them the trials which awaited them, and bade them if they cared for ease and comfort to return to their Moabitish friends. At first both of them declared that they would cast in their lot with the Lord’s people; but upon still further consideration Orpah with much grief and a respectful kiss left her mother in law, and her people, and her God, and went back to her idolatrous friends, while Ruth with all her heart gave herself up to the God...

December 15: After the Storm Jeremiah 29:1–30:24; Romans 6:1–14; Proverbs 20:13–30 As we blink and squint in the light that emerges after a storm, we marvel that the sun was there all along and we just couldn’t see it. The same is true during times of difficulty. When we’re in pain or worried, it seems impossible to find God, but in retrospect, it always seems obvious: God was there all along. Jeremiah prophesied to God’s people about their unraveling. The people heard words from Jeremiah’s mouth that must have seemed hopeless and full of despair. But in Jeremiah 29, we catch a glimpse of the light that comes after: “Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and father sons and daughters … and multiply there, and you must not be few” (Jer 29:5–6). Even in exile, God will continue to guide His people. Because of their sins, they have endured (and lost) war and have been driven away from the land that God gave them; but God remains with th...

Bethlehem Luke 2:4 Excerpt The great importance of Bethlehem for Christians throughout the centuries is that the Gospels record the birth of Jesus as having taken place there, in fulfillment of a prophecy of Micah (Mic.  5:2 ; Matt.  2 ; Luke  2 ; John  7:42 ). The traditional site of the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid (Luke  2:7 ) is a cave under the great Church of the Nativity, the place of the manger being marked by a star with the Latin inscription  Hic De Virgine Maria Jesus Christus Natus Est,  ‘Here Jesus Christ Was Born of the Virgin Mary.’ A bitter dispute between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics about this star (1847-53) was one of the causes of the Crimean War (1853-56). The tombs of Jerome (d. 420) and his friends Paula (d. 404) and Eusebius of Cremona (d. ca. 423) are in neighboring grottoes.  Achtemeier, Paul J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. Harper’s Bible dictionary  1985 : 107. ...

Angelic Announcement Excerpt As Zechariah offers up the incense and prayer,  an angel  appears. Angelic visitations to announce births of major figures are common in the Old Testament ( Gen  16:10–11 ; 17:15–19 ;  18:10–15 ;  25:23 ;  Judg 13:3–21 ). This announcement is unusual, however, in that the father rather than the mother receives the message. The angel’s arrival produces fear in the priest. He senses the presence of God’s agent ( Lk  1:29–30 ;  1:65 ;  2:9 ;  5:8–10 ,  26 ;  7:16 ;  8:37 ;  9:34 ) and is taken back by this surprising development.  ore Bock, Darrell L.  Luke . Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994. Print. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series.

Spiritual Life for Nathanael Excerpt “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” This is one of the great cryptic statements of the New Testament. For centuries men have tried to decipher the symbolism of the fig tree. In some Scripture passages, it is a symbol for peace. In many others, it is a symbol of a home. Or it could be taken literally and just mean a fig tree. Exactly what it represents is not terribly important, but we will consider it as a fig tree. What is important is that Nathanael had a religious experience that no one but Jesus knew about. Maybe Nathanael had been reading the story of Jacob’s ladder. Maybe he had been contemplating being baptized by John the Baptist. Maybe he was thinking about the Messiah. Maybe he had prayed that the Messiah would reveal himself to him. The point is, Nathanael had had a spiritual experience under a fig tree and Jesus was saying, “I know about the experience you had that you shared...

Sheep in the Figurative Sense Romans 8:36 Excerpt Throughout the  nt  the sheep is used in a figurative sense for human beings. Jesus compared Israel to sheep lost (Matt. 10:6 ; cf. Isa.  53:6 ) and without a shepherd (Matt.  9:36 ). Sheep also play a role in several parables of Jesus (Matt.  12:11 ; 18:12 ;  25:33 ) and the Gospel of John pictures Jesus as a protecting shepherd, willing to give his life for his sheep ( 10:7-9 ; cf. Ezek.  37:24 ; Ps.  23:1 ; Heb.  13:20 ). The people whom Jesus fed he compared to sheep without a shepherd (Mark  6:34 ) and he is himself compared to a sheep led to slaughter (Acts  8:32 ; cf. Isa.  53:7 ).  Achtemeier, Paul J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. Harper’s Bible dictionary  1985 : 938. Print.

December 14   Having therefore these promises         2 Cor. 7:1 The forests in summer days are full of birds’ nests. They are hidden among the leaves. The little birds know where they are; and when a storm arises, or when night draws on, they fly, each to his own nest. So the promises of God are hidden in the Bible, like nests in the great forests; and thither we should fly in any danger or alarm, hiding there in our soul’s nest until the storm be over-past. There are no castles in this world so impregnable as the words of Christ. J. R. Miller Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour. Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.

December 14th The great life Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.… Let not your heart be troubled. John 14:27 . Whenever a thing becomes difficult in personal experience, we are in danger of blaming God, but it is we who are in the wrong, not God, there is some perversity somewhere that we will not let go. Immediately we do, everything becomes as clear as daylight. As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. When once we get there, there is nothing easier than living the saintly life; difficulty comes in when we want to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own ends. Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or find out the reason why it does not. If you are acting on an impulse, or from a sense of the heroic, the...

Morning, December 14                                                   Go To Evening Reading           “They go from strength to strength.”          — Psalm 84:7 They go from strength to strength. There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress. Our own good translation of the authorized version is enough for us this morning. “They go from strength to strength.” That is, they grow stronger and stronger. Usually, if we are walking, we go from strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but by-and-by the road is rough, and the sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside, and then again painfully pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim having obtained fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel and stru...

December 14: Patient Endurance Jeremiah 27:1–28:17; Romans 5:1–21; Proverbs 20:1–12 In theory, it’s easy to provide answers to difficult faith questions. But when we face real trials, everything changes. We gain a new perspective on the Bible passages we’ve memorized; the Christian maxims we’ve passed on to others reverse and hit us full force. We don’t have the option to talk in hypothetical s. Trials require heartfelt faith and total reliance on God. Suffering and trials are not punishment or neglect on God’s part. In fact, they’re quite the opposite. Paul describes how God works through trials to build us up in faith. And His work is not a quick fix or an easy answer. It’s a process, as Paul describes in his letter to the Roman church: “And not only this, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces patient endurance, and patient endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God ...

The House of God Excerpt All that the writer has said about the Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus is recalled here. Believers have not only a positive spirit but also a competent advocate. He is continually available, completely aware of our present situation, and vitally involved with us in working all things together for good. His great concern is the welfare of each member of the household of God, and “we are his house,” as the writer has told us unmistakably in  3:6 .  Stedman, Ray C.  Hebrews . Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992. Print. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series.

Live Like Children of God Excerpt Although  2:28–29  is transitional, it also naturally links with  3:1–3  and its emphasis on the identity (and confidence) of the children of God. Those who are born of God have both an identity and responsibility that is consistent with their privileges as God’s children. Six times John notes the believer’s status as God’s children ( 2:28 ;  3:1 ,  2 ,  7 ,  10a , b). Three times he highlights their spiritual birth, which is the basis for this position as children ( 2:29 ;  3:9a , b). It is possible to see a shift in subject at  3:4 .312 A dual emphasis on Christ’s appearances (the second time to make us like him [ 3:2 ] and the first time to deal with sin [ 3:5 ]), however, may indicate again that a hard and fast division is unnecessary. The two sections ( 2:28–3:3  and  3:4–10 ) clearly complement each other.  Akin, Daniel L.  1, 2, 3 John . Vol. 38. Nashville: Broadman ...

Paul’s Experience Explained (3:1–16) Excerpt Some commentators suggest that in this section Paul addressed his opponents. They say that he consciously countered a perfectionistic group, sometimes called “divine men,” who claimed their own completeness. Others suggest that Paul produced this section because of the Jewish opponents of  3:2  taught that perfection could be achieved by keeping the law. Still, others see Paul continuing the logic of  3:4–11 , issuing a warning because of a tendency to misunderstand his teaching. His introduction of  3:15  with the words “all of us who are mature,” (lit., “perfect” ), however, suggests that there may have been some irony in his tone. The context does not require an opponent, and it is unlikely that he envisioned one. A group within the church may have misunderstood his teaching on justification and taken it to their own “logical” conclusions, which were theologically unacceptable. Melick, Richard...