DAY 293    Read Matthew 19:3-30; Mark 10:2-31; Luke 18:1-30.

Today's reading:  For the last time Jesus leaves His beloved Galilee and sets out for Jerusalem, knowing full well the fate that awaits Him there.  Tucked in among other teachings, we find a story about two men and their prayers.

Memory gem:  "The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner"  (Luke 18:13).

Thought for today:
Do you find that your prayers fall short of what you really want to say?  Do you ever feel a deep heart longing to speak to God, but just can't find the words?  It has always comforted me to know that God has made provision for us even in this.  Sometimes we do not know what to pray for as we ought to, and we may say things that God knows are not the things we meant to say.  And there is His good Word: "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God"  (Romans 8:26, 27).

Think of it!  Our poor, stammering, human prayers are translated by the Spirit into the very language of heaven and presented according to the will of God!  Prayers are heard that come up before the Lord according to His will.  Oh, how we need the wonderful ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives every day!  We all should feel as earnest about our need as did Isaac Watts when he wrote his great hymn:
        Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove
          With all Thy quickening powers;
            Kindle a flame of sacred love
              In these cold hearts of ours.

God loves us.  John 3:16 proves it.  Christ loves us.  The Holy Spirit loves (see Romans 15:30).  Why should we not respond to this triple love and give our hearts to the Lord?

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Difficult or obscure words:
Luke 18:3.  "Avenge me"--better: Do me justice.

DAY 292    Read Luke 17:1-10; John 11; Luke 17:11-37.

Today's reading:  Without doubt the greatest single miracle performed by Jesus was that of restoring to life a man who had been dead four days.  The story gives us confidence in His promise to raise all who die with their hope anchored in Him.

Memory gem:  "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him"  (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

Thought for today:
Jesus Christ called death a sleep, but His disciples could not understand this.  They believed that there was no hope once a person had died, but they were to learn that in Jesus Christ there is hope beyond the tomb.

Previous to this raising of Lazarus from the dead, it was hard for the followers of Jesus to realize what He meant when He said, "I am the resurrection, and the life."  Death is a cessation of life.  Humanly speaking, there is no hope after death.  But the great hope of the Christian is the resurrection.  Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life.

This change will take place at the second coming of Christ.  Those who have faith in Him; those who believe in His death, burial, and resurrection; those who receive His power in their life day by day will be a part of that resurrection.

It is with this hope that we can face with confidence and courage the few years of life here on this earth.  This is really the only hope that you or I have--hope in Christ, hope in His second coming, hope in the resurrection.

You can have the assurance of life beyond the grave.  You can have the assurance of meeting your loved ones again.  What a privilege, what a joy, to be sons of God and children of the resurrection!

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Difficult or obscure words:
Luke 17:6.  "Sycamine"--the black mulberry.
Luke 17:7.  "By and by"--at once.
Luke 17:37.  "Eagles"--rather: vultures.  Jesus here quoted a Jewish proverb common at that time.

DAY 291    Read Luke 15 and 16.

Today's reading:  Three parables represent three kinds of lost sinners: the lost sheep--knowing it is lost but not knowing how to return; the lost coin--totally unaware of its situation; the lost son--fully conscious of his condition and painfully aware of his own responsibility.

Memory gem:  "When he came to himself, he said,...I will arise and go to my father"  (Luke 15:17, 18).

Thought for today:
The universal struggle in which people in all walks of life find themselves involved is the struggle to be somebody, to achieve a sense of personal significance.

One of the interesting Bible narratives tells about a young man in an Eastern country who was dissatisfied with his lot in life.  He wanted to leave home and become somebody.

Here was a young man who had the means with which to enjoy the good things of life.  He was all by himself now, with no one to curtail his movements or actions.  But the influence of godless companions soon deprived him of his substance, and he found himself without either friends or money.

Friend, if you want to be a "somebody," you must first realize that without God you are a "nobody," for whoever attempts to live apart from Him is a nobody.  If you have chosen such a life, you are spending money for that which is not bread, and labor for that which satisfieth not  (see Isaiah 55:2).


The story of the prodigal son is a story of you, a story of me.  As we have strayed away from the Father, we have wanted to live life on our own terms.  We have wanted to make our own goals.  We have wanted to leave God out of our reckoning.  Then finally, in desperation, we have turned to Him.  There the Lord is waiting for us, Just as the father was waiting for his prodigal son to return.

Are you willing to return to the Lord Jesus?  It means complete surrender.  That's the price of the Christian life.  It may not always be the easiest life, but it will always be the happiest one.  Life will take on a new meaning.  My prayer is that you will open your heart's door to the loving Saviour, realizing your great need of forgiveness, your great need of a new life, a new goal, a new outlook.  You may have all this today.  Yes, you can be changed from a nobody to a somebody.

DAY 290    Read Luke 12:35 through chapter 14.

Today's reading:  Excuses, excuses! People invited to a "great supper" offered lame excuses for not attending.  Another of our Lord's parables examines our attitudes toward spiritual values.

Memory gem:  "[He] sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready"  (Luke 14:17).

Thought for today:
These men spoken of in Luke were not invited to a funeral or even to hear a lecture.  They were not asked to visit a hospital or a prison.  They were to go to a feast.  The holy gospel of Jesus Christ is represented as a feast.  It was to take place in the evening.  The Bible speaks of the "marriage supper" of God's Son: "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb"  (Revelation 19:9).

Oh, my friends, we don't want to miss that feast, that appointment with God; and yet, according to this story Jesus told, these people wanted to be excused.

More than nineteen hundred years have rolled away since Jesus told this story.  Some tell us that the world has grown wiser, though we do not often hear them say it has grown better.  Wiser, they say.  But tell me this, Have men any better excuses today than they had in Christ's time?


Suppose you take your pen and write out your excuse:
    "Just now (or yesterday, or last week, or whatever it was) I received an earnest invitation from one of Your servants to be present at the marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  Please have me excused because------" and sign your name to it.  How would it sound to the King of heaven?

Let us write out another answer:
    "While reading these words (or listening to a gospel sermon, or whenever it was) I received an invitation from one of Your messengers to be present at the marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and I hasten to reply.  By the grace of God I will be present."

Will you sign that?  May the Lord help you to make that decision today.  You must accept it or reject it.  To make no decision is itself a decision not to accept the loving request of the heavenly Father and remember--God does not accept excuses.

DAY 289    Read Luke 10:25-42; John 10:32-42; Luke 11:1-13, 33-54; 12:1-34.

Today's reading:  Among Jesus' teachings, warnings, and parables, the lesson of the rich fool stands out as particularly applicable to modern materialists.

Memory gem:  "Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death"  (Proverbs 11:4).

Thought for today:
"God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"  (Luke 12:20).

That's the big question, isn't it?  Whose will they be?  This man was wise in the ways of business.  There's nothing wrong about that.  Not one word is said against him as a businessman.  There is no suggestion that he was dishonest.  The trouble was, he was covetous.  He worshiped his possessions.  He worshiped things.  There are millions today who worship things.  They want more things--better automobiles, finer houses.  But Jesus says, "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."

So it was with this rich man.  He was getting ready to enlarge things.  He had big visions, big ideas.  He was successful, but he craved greater success.  But God said to him, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee."

You see, he valued things above his soul.  Instead of regarding this life as offering him the opportunity to prepare for the next, as a kindergarten to the great university of the beyond, as the day of salvation to get ready for the day of glory, as the time for doing good and finding true goodness, he focused his interest on things.  He put his money in the wrong bank.

NOTE:  The "feast of the dedication" (John 10:22), also known as the "festival of lights," is called "Hanukkah" by devout Jews.  It occurs in our November or December.

DAY 288    Read John 9:1 through 10:31; Matthew 19:1, 2; Mark 10:1; Luke 9:51 through 10:24.

Today's reading:  After Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath, He again encountered the bitter prejudice of the religious bigots.  Again He defended Himself with deeply spiritual teaching.

Memory gem:  "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine"  (John 10:14).

Thought for today:
"In a beautiful pastoral picture He [Jesus] represents His relation to those that believe on Him.  No picture was more familiar to His hearers than this, and Christ's words linked it forever with Himself.  Never could the disciples look on the shepherds tending their flocks without recalling the Saviour's lesson.  They would see Christ in each faithful shepherd.  They would see themselves in each helpless and dependent flock.

"This figure the prophet Isaiah had applied to the Messiah's mission in the comforting words, 'O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!...He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.'  Isaiah 40:9-11...

"Christ applied these prophecies to Himself, and He showed the contrast between His own character and that of the leaders in Israel.  The Pharisees had just driven one from the fold, because he dared to bear witness to the power of Christ.  They had cut off a soul whom the True Shepherd was drawing to Himself.  In this they had shown themselves ignorant of the work committed to them, and unworthy of their trust as shepherds of the flock.  Jesus now set before them the contrast between them and the Good Shepherd, and He pointed to Himself as the real keeper of the Lord's flock....

"Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if he were the only one for whom the Saviour died.  The distress of every one touches His heart.  The cry for aid reaches His ear.  He also knows who gladly hear His call, and are ready to come under His pastoral care.  He says, 'My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.'  He cares for each one as if there were not another on the face of the earth."--The Desire of Ages, pp. 476-480.

DAY 287    Read John 7:2 through chapter 8.

Today's reading:  Throughout His ministry, Jesus had frequent clashes with religious leaders.  Some of His most important teachings came from His remarks on these occasions.

Memory gem:  "Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink"  (John 7:37).

Thought for today:
Every Christian ought to search his own life, dig deep in the Word of God, and find new strength in prayer.  Jesus said that every true believer in Him was to be like a living well, an artesian well, overflowing with spiritual help to other people.

If we profess to believe in Him but do not help others, it is because our lives are spiritually dry and desolate.  It is because we do not really have the love of God in our hearts and are destitute of the Holy Spirit.  What terrible harm a professing Christian can do when in such a condition!  He is like a dry well in the desert.

About thirty miles south of Tacna, Arizona, almost on the Mexican border, there is a place called Tinajas Altas, which means "High Tanks."  It is a series of basins on the desert hillside which catch and hold rainwater.  Sometimes they are full; often they are entirely dry.  In the early days this was a favorite watering place for the pioneers.

On the slopes above Tinajas Altas are many graves.  Most of them are hard to identify now, but about thirty years ago Ike Proebstal, a well-known desert man, counted 160 graves, and every one was the grave of a man who had died of thirst.  Men had staggered across the hot desert with one last hope, of finding water in the "High Tanks."  They had hoped, but hope failed them.  They found no water, and they died.

But what about the man who is hoping against hope that he will find faith in your life? purity in your heart?  He is famished for the water of life, and he finds the well dry, the waters drained away in the desert of selfishness!

Friend, in this crisis hour of this world a solemn call from God comes to each of us.  Will you give your heart to Christ today and take the steps you know you ought to take to keep your spiritual life charged with the water of life?

May God give us grace to live right and be ready to help those who look to us as examples of living faith.

DAY 286    Read Matthew 17:1-27; Mark 9:2-29; Luke 9:28-42.

Today's reading describes one of the high points of Christ's ministry--the transfiguration.

Memory gem:  "There came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him"  (Luke 9:35).

Thought for today:
Christ on the mount of transfiguration had received the testimony of Moses and Elijah.  But there was one more voice needed, the voice of God, and now it spoke.  The voice from heaven came not in testimony to any fact, but to a person, for Jesus was God's beloved Son.

Hear Him!  His words will be in harmony with the law and the prophets.  The sacrifices and offerings of the law pointed forward to Him.  The predictions of the prophets of the Old Testament, like searchlights, penetrated the gloom of the future, revealing the cross and the crown--our Saviour's first advent to die for a lost world, and His second coming in glory which is still future in our day.  The voice from the cloud commanded: "Hear Him!  Hear Him reverently.  Hear Him implicitly.  Hear Him alone."

Friends, are we in sympathy with heaven about Christ?  Do we hear Him?  Is His Word law to us?  Do we like it when He speaks sharp things as well as smooth things?  Does His Word prevail with us against everything else?  Surely it would help us if we would stop and think that whenever Christ speaks to us the Father is standing by, saying in our ears as it were, "Hear that!"

The transfiguration of our Saviour is of great interest and importance to us, not only because it actually occurred in the past and encourages us now in the present, but for what it teaches us of the future.  For all ages, it is like the vision of the burning bush in which was the presence of God.  The transfiguration promised Christ's disciples then, and His followers now, that there is a glory yet to come.  The glory kindled on the mount of transfiguration shines through the darkness of this world and points to the resurrection day when Christ will come in glory and gather His people--not three only, but all His people of all ages--and they will be with Him forevermore.

DAY 285    Read Matthew 18; Mark 8:27 through 9:1 and verses 30-50; Luke 9:18-27, 43-50.

Today's reading:  Jesus tried over and over to teach His followers the true nature of His mission and the way to salvation.  They had difficulty in learning these lessons.

Memory gem:  "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them"  (Hebrews 7:25).

Thought for today:
A young man had been living a free and easy life, unmindful of any serious claims his God might have upon him.  Then the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart, and he came under deep conviction.  Realizing his lost condition and his great need, he hurried to his pastor for counsel.  He said, "Pastor, I am a lost man."

The minister's startling reply was, "Well, that's fine!"

The young man, desperate and in anguish of soul, said, "But sir, you don't understand.  I tell you that I am a lost man, and you say it's fine.  I am lost!"

"Well, that's good," said the minister.  "Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost."

Young people, I want you to know that the Lord is seeking for those who, like this young man, realize that they are lost and in need of a Saviour.  Just come to Jesus as you are.  Confess your sins to Him; pour out your heart to Him.  He is full of compassion, and He understands.

If something has been holding you back from accepting this wonderful Christ, just bow your head now and ask God to forgive your sins.  Begin a program of daily Bible study.  Get acquainted with the Prince of Peace, the One who can give you peace of mind, the One who has promised to come again.  Then, on that glorious day, we shall all be able to say: "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation"  (Isaiah 25:9).