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Reading
January 2
First Lesson
Isaiah 63:15-64:1
15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy
holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength,
the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are
they restrained?
16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant
of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father,
our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.
17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened
our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes
of thine inheritance.
18 The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little
while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
19 We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were
not called by thy name.
1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest
come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.
QUESTIONS - Isaiah 63:15-64:1. At times in my life, do I ever have a "kinship" with the writer of this passage? RESOLVE.
Second Lesson
Hebrews 4:1-13
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering
into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them:
but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with
faith in them that heard it.
3 For
we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this
wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because
of unbelief:
7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day,
after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his
voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward
have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased
from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For
the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any
twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but
all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom
we have to do.
QUESTIONS - Hebrews 4:1-13. Have I entered into rest (V. 3)? Verse 12 speaks of the word of God. Do I believe that verse, and how is that played out in my life? If verse 13 is true, what does that say about what I did today, in the eyes of God? RESOLVE.