Daily Light for September 8
Morning
“You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.”
The LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.—“For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”—“The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”—Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?”—But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being.—You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing.
Dan. 5:27; 1 Sam. 2:3; Luke 16:15; 1 Sam. 16:7; Gal. 6:7, 8; Matt. 16:26; Phil. 3:7; Ps. 51:6; Ps. 17:3
Evening
Christ the firstfruits.
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”—If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.—But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.—For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.—The Lord Jesus Christ . . . will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
The firstborn from the dead.—If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”
1 Cor. 15:23; John 12:24; Rom. 11:16; 1 Cor. 15:20; Rom. 6:5; Phil. 3:20, 21; Col. 1:18; Rom. 8:11; John 11:25
Excerpted from Daily Light on the Daily Path ©2002 Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.