For Reading and Meditation:      Proverbs 12:11-28There are people in our world who, even though they are not Christians, catch sight of the fact that the universe is made for wisdom and that to live effectively on this earth one has to search for wisdom and cultivate it. Through rational thought and intuition these people come to the conclusion that without diligence, life is more a cage than a challenge. Victor Frankl is one such person. Frankl is a Jew who was put into a concentration camp in the Second World War and survived the Holocaust. In fact, the only reason why he was not murdered with the other Jews was because he was appointed personal physician to several of the Nazi SS officers. Throughout the years in concentration camp he gave himself to the task of finding out why it was that despite tremendous odds some survived while others gave up the will to live. He discovered that the reason why people gave up so easily was because they had no sense of meaning. Those who had a meaning or purpose to live for, such as the hope of seeing a loved one again, kept going despite the greatest odds, while those who had no meaning or purpose simply gave up. Frankl discovered by empirical means what another Jew discovered by revelation - that in order to persist, one needs hope. That Jew was the apostle Paul and he took things a stage further than Frankl when he said, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Christ with us is one thing; Christ in us - now that's another. O Father, how can I sufficiently thank You for the joy of having Christ within? His presence within gives me a hope that provides meaning in the deepest and darkest moments of my life. Thank You, Father. I am eternally grateful. Amen.<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>Galatians 6:1-9</li><li>Hebrews 12:1</li><li>James 5:11</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What must we not become weary in?</li><li>How are we to run?</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

"Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor." (v. 24)

For Reading and Meditation:      Hebrews 12:1-13We ended yesterday by saying that some things in life, such as the desire to have money, can be legitimate concerns but they must be looked upon as desires and never become goals. Permit me to differentiate between the two. A goal is a purpose to which a person is unalterably committed and something for which he or she assumes unconditional responsibility. A desire is something wanted and which cannot be obtained without the co-operation of another human being. A desire must never become the motivating purpose behind our behaviour, for if it does, then it becomes a goal - and a goal that is likely to be blocked, causing negative emotions to arise. Remember the man we talked about yesterday? His goal, we said, was to make money. Once he changed his goal to pleasing the Lord and then saw his concern to make money as merely a desire, he found instant release. Keep in mind that what causes emotional problems to arise is invariably a blocked goal. Take another illustration that might help to mark the difference between goals and desires more clearly. Have you ever found yourself talking to another Christian who seems to have difficulty in applying what seems to you a simple biblical principle? You point out the need to do as God says, but your friend fails to see the truth that to you is as clear as daylight. If you get frustrated, the chances are that you are allowing a desire to become a goal. To want your friend to listen is a legitimate desire, but to get frustrated over it means you are determined to make him listen - and that becomes a goal.Gracious Father, I come to You again to help me sort out this important issue of desires versus goals. I see that if I can resolve this problem, then a new chapter in my life is about to be written. Help me, dear Lord. In Jesus' Name. Amen.<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>Psalm 37:1-11</li><li>Psalm 21:2</li><li>Psalm 73:25</li><li>Proverbs 10:24</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 the psalmist's desire?</li><li>What happens when we delight ourselves in the Lord?</li></ul></div></div>

"' who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame '" (v. 2) 

Many people have a view of the Christian life that is excessively idealistic. They think it should be one uninterrupted series of mountaintop experiences. They read Christian books and magazines and hear personal testimonies of dramatic events and conclude that this is all of life. In their dream-world, there are no problems, heartaches, trials and perplexities. There is no hard work, no daily routine, no monotony. All is Cloud 9. When they don't find their life fitting this pattern, they feel discouraged, disillusioned and deprived.The true facts are these. Most of the Christian life is what G. Campbell Morgan calls "the way of plodding perseverance in the doing of apparently small things." This is the way I have found it. There has been a full share of menial tasks, of long hours of disciplined study, of service without apparent results. At times the question has arisen, "Is anything really being accomplished?" Just then the Lord would drop some token of encouragement, some wonderful answer to prayer, some clear word of guidance. And I would be strengthened to go on for a while longer.The Christian life is a long-distance race, not a 50 yard dash, and we need endurance to run it. It is important to start well but what really counts is the endurance that enables us to finish in a blaze of glory.Enoch will always have an honored place in the annals of endurance. He walked with God - think of it - for 300 years (Genesis 5:22). But we need not think that those were years of undiluted glamor or uninterrupted thrill. In a world like ours, it was inevitable that he should have his share of trials, perplexities and even persecutions. But he did not grow weary in well doing. He endured to the end.If you are ever tempted to quit, remember the words of Hebrews 10:36 NEB, "You need endurance if you are to do God's will and win what He has promised."A noble life is not a blazeOf sudden glory won,But just an adding up of daysIn which God's will is done.

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

"…and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1, NASB)

The words chastening, chasteneth, chastisement and chastened occur seven times in the first 11 verses of Hebrews 12:1-29. 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.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."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.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.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" (Hebrews 12:11 b).

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

Father, I desire that they … whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me. § I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. § He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. § Lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.

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

 But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind … I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. § Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. § Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness. Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. § Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. § Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.

 Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. 

It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. § In the world you will have tribulation. § Because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none. § At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. § Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 The fellowship of His sufferings. 

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. § If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. § I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. § Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind.

 A disciple is not above his teacher. 

Get wisdom! Get understanding! § The wisdom that is from above. § The deep says, “It is not in me”; and the sea says, “It is not with me.” § We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. § [God] made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. § Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility.

 Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth;” who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return … but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. § Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

 Always pursue what is good. 

The lazy man says, “There is a lion outside!” § Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. I press toward the goal. § I run thus: not with uncertainty… I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. The form of this world is passing away. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent. § Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Evening Daily Light

 Run in such a way that you may obtain [the prize]. 

Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap … Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin … Do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind … Your Father knows that you need these things. Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

 Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. § Now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. § An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. All things are yours: whether … the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. § “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. § Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

 He who overcomes shall inherit all things. 

So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest …. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.” In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven … For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. § Having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 I would not live forever. 

O Lord, we have waited for You; the desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. § Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. § I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. § Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. § Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. § Having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. § Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

 We wish to see Jesus. 

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run<cr>1</cr> with perseverance<cr>2</cr> the race marked out for us,

Hebrews 12:1

 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run   with perseverance   the race marked out for us,

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

 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run   with perseverance   the race marked out for us,

Bible Verse of the Day

August 16, 2023

Hebrews 12:1 NIV

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