<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="heb+12:14-29">Hebrews 12:14-29</span></span></p><p>George MacDonald writes: "Nothing is inexorable but love  For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving, it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more; it strives for perfection even that itself may be perfected - not in itself but in the object. Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed. Our God is a consuming fire." Powerful words. The nature of God is so terribly pure that it destroys everything that is not as pure as fire. God desires us to worship Him in "the beauty of holiness." This means that He wants the purity in us to match the purity in Him. We cannot arrive at this purity by self-effort, of course, but the more we draw nigh to Him the more the fire of His purity will burn out the dross within us. "It is not the fire will burn us up if we do not worship," said George MacDonald, "but the fire will burn us up until we worship." And the fire will go on burning within us after everything that is foreign to it has been consumed, no longer with pain and a sense of something unwanted being consumed, but as the highest consciousness of life. God is a consuming fire. He always was, and always will be - world without end.</p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">O God, I long with all my heart that my worship might be all You want it to be. May Your consuming fire burn out all the dross within me until everything that is foreign to Your nature is part of me no more. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="ps+97:1-5">Psalm 97:1-5</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="isa+66:15">Isaiah 66:15</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="1co+3:12-14">1 Corinthians 3:12-14</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What does the psalmist say about fire?</li><li>What will the fire do?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

" our 'God is a consuming fire.' " (v. 29)

<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="ps+24:1-10">Psalm 24:1-10</span></span></p><p>We spend one more day meditating on the words: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." The concluding words of this Beatitude are often misunderstood. Many believe them to have reference to the saints' eternal reward in heaven. Tennyson expressed this thought in his famous lines: "I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar." The thought contained in this phrase, however, is not so much related to seeing God in heaven, but to seeing God now. Seeing God means seeing God in everything. Let me put it another way: not to see God is to fail to find the meaning of life and to see no purpose in anything. Such a condition, one must admit, produces an emotional overload on the personality that leads inevitably to despair. Some who fall prey to this mood can end up committing suicide. As one person commented: "Those who can't see the why have little energy to cope with the what." Seeing God is being acquainted with Him, sensing His acceptance, comprehending what it means to be forgiven and made anew. Raymond Cramer puts it beautifully when he says: "To the pure in heart, seeing God is viewing a stained glass window from the inside rather than the outside. The pure in heart are aware of a reality which most people miss. They are sure of God." Seeing God must be connected with purity of heart, for we must see and sense God first in our own inner being before we can see Him and sense Him elsewhere. See Him within and you will not fail to see Him without. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">Gracious and loving Father, I recognise that an uncleansed heart causes more ill health and more unhappiness than anything else. Help me take the prescription You have given me with a thankful heart. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="isa+6:1-8">Isaiah 6:1-8</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="ps+99:9">Psalm 99:9</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="heb+12:14">Hebrews 12:14</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="re+15:4">Revelation 15:4</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What was Isaiah's experience?</li><li>What is a prerequisite for seeing the Lord?</li></ul></div></div>

"Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?" (v. 3)

<p>The words chastening, chasteneth, chastisement and chastened occur seven times in the first 11 verses of <span class="scriptRef" ref="heb+12:1-29">Hebrews 12:1-29</span>. As a result it is easy for the casual reader to get a wrong impression. He might easily picture God as an angry Father who is forever whipping His children. This misconception arises from thinking of chastening as nothing but punishment.</p><p>It is a great relief to learn that chastening in the New Testament has a much broader meaning than that. It really means child-training, and includes all parental activity that is involved in raising a child. Kittel defines it as "the upbringing and handling of the child which is growing up to maturity and which needs direction, teaching, instruction and a certain measure of compulsion in the form of discipline or even chastisement."</p><p>The Christians to whom the book of Hebrews was written were suffering persecution. The writer speaks of this persecution as part of the chastening of the Lord. Does this mean that God had sent the persecution? Certainly not! It was inspired by enemies of the gospel. Was God punishing the Christians because of their sins? No, the persecution was probably brought on because of their faithful witness for Him. In what sense then could persecution be said to be the chastening of the Lord? In the sense that God allowed it to take place, and then used it as part of His educative program in the lives of His people. In other words, He used the persecution to refine, mature and conform His children to the image of His Son.</p><p>It goes without saying that this type of chastening is not pleasant at the time. The chisel deals roughly with the marble. The furnace subjects the gold to intense heat. But it is all worthwhile when the face of the man appears in the marble and when the gold is purified from dross.</p><p>It is self-defeating to despise the chastening of the Lord or to faint under it. The only proper attitude is to remember that God is using it as a training device, then to try to get the maximum benefit from it. That is what the writer means when he says that "it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" (<span class="scriptRef" ref="heb+12:11">Hebrews 12:11</span> b). </p><p> </p>

With reverence, humor and skill, William MacDonald wove a daily devotional tapestry that challenges the reader to think deeply and Biblically, and apply God's Word to their lives.

Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time

"If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" (Hebrews 12:7)

<p>Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. § There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles. § There is no spot in you.<br><br>You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. § As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. §  Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and … put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. § He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.</p>

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Morning Daily Light

 Holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. 

<p>Pursue … holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. § God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. § But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. § By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified.<br><br>This is the law of the temple: The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy. § Holiness adorns Your house, O Lord, forever.<br><br>For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. § Seeing  … that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us … come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.</p>

 You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD. 

<p>Not everyone who says … , “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. § Pursue … holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. § Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.<br><br>By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.</p>

 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. 

<p>Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. § Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you. § Pursue … holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.<br><br>I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. § Our Savior Jesus Christ … has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.<br><br>The way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. § He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. § The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.<br><br>Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. § You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.</p>

Evening Daily Light

 A new and living way. 

<p><h3>Warning and Encouragement</h3></p><p><span class="bible-text "> <sup class="verse-num ">14 </sup>Make every effort to live in peace with everyone   and to be holy;   without holiness no one will see the Lord.   </span></p>

Hebrews 12:14

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone<cr>1</cr>  and to be holy;<cr>2</cr>  without holiness no one will see the Lord.<cr>3</cr> 

 14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone   and to be holy;   without holiness no one will see the Lord.  

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

<p><span class="bible-text ">Make every effort to live in peace with everyone   and to be holy;   without holiness no one will see the Lord.   </span></p>

 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone   and to be holy;   without holiness no one will see the Lord.  

Bible Verse of the Day

May 5, 1888

Hebrews 12:14 NIV

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