DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR MONDAY MAY 30:
WORD OF WISDOM
We can worship anywhere but we can't be fed everywhere.
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MEMORY SCRIPTURE FOR WEEK OF MAY 30/
Song Of Solomon 2:4/
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
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DAILY DEVOTION
Importunity
"And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto
him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a
friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set
before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the
door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give
thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is
his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many
as he needeth."
Luke 11:5-8
Speaking on the importance of not giving up in prayer, R. A. Torrey said, "I
prayed fifteen long years for the conversion of my oldest brother. When he
seemed to be getting farther and farther away from any hope of conversion, I
prayed on. My first winter in Chicago, after fifteen years of praying, never
missing a single day, one morning God said to me as I knelt, 'I have heard
your prayer.' Within two weeks he was in my home, shut in with sickness
which made it impossible for him to leave my home for two weeks. Then the
day he left he accepted Christ over in the Bible Institute in Mr. Moody's
office, where he and I went to talk and pray together."
The Lord could answer our prayers that are in line with His will
immediately, and sometimes He does just that. But often we must pray over
and over, sometimes even for years, before the answer arrives. This is not
because God does not love us, but because He knows our need for character
and consistency. When we continue to trust Him and pray faithfully even
though we do not see Him at work, it strengthens our walk and our
relationship with Him.
Many of our prayers are not answered simply because we give up before the
answer comes.
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Job 28-30Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
The Value of Wisdom
28 "There are mines where people get silver
and places where people melt gold to make it pure.
2
Iron is dug out of the ground,
and copper is melted out of the rocks.
3
Miners carry lights deep into caves
to search for these rocks in the deepest darkness.
4
Far from where people live, they dig deep into the ground,
down where no one else has been before.
There they work all alone, hanging from ropes.
5
Food grows on the ground above.
But underground it is different,
as if everything were melted by fire.
6
In the rocks there are sapphires
and grains of pure gold.
7
Wild birds know nothing about the way to these places.
No falcon[a] has ever seen it.
8
Wild animals have never been there.
Lions have not traveled that way.
9
Miners dig the hardest rocks.
They dig away at the mountains and make them bare.
10
They cut tunnels through the rocks
and see all the treasures they hold.
11
They even find places where rivers begin.
They bring to light what once was hidden.
12
"But where can anyone find wisdom?
Where can we get understanding?
13
People don't know where wisdom is.
It cannot be found by anyone on earth.
14
The deep ocean says, 'It's not here with me.'
The sea says, 'It's not here with me.'
15
You cannot buy wisdom with even the purest gold.
There's not enough silver in the world to pay for it.
16
You cannot buy it with gold from Ophir
or with precious onyx or sapphires.
17
Wisdom is worth more than gold or crystal.
It cannot be bought with expensive jewels set in gold.
18
It is far more valuable than coral and jasper,
more precious than rubies.
19
The topaz from Ethiopia cannot match its value,
which is greater than the purest gold.
20
"So where does wisdom come from?
Where can we find understanding?
21
Wisdom is hidden from every living thing on earth.
Even birds in the sky cannot see it.
22
Death and destruction[b] say,
'We have never seen wisdom;
we have only heard rumors about it.'
23
"Only God knows the way to wisdom.
Only he knows where wisdom is.
24
He can see to the very ends of the earth.
He sees everything under the sky.
25
God gave the wind its power.
He decided how big to make the oceans.
26
He decided where to send the rain
and where the thunderstorms should go.
27
He looked at wisdom and discussed it.
He examined it and saw how much it is worth.
28
Then he said to humans,
'To fear and respect the Lord is wisdom.
To turn away from evil is understanding.'"
Job Continues His Speech
29 Job continued to speak:
2
"I wish my life could be the same as it was a few months ago,
when God watched over me and cared for me.
3
God's light shined above me,
so I could walk through the darkness.
4
I wish for the days when I was successful,
when I enjoyed God's friendship and blessing in my home.
5
God All-Powerful was still with me then,
and my children were all around me.
6
Life was so good that I washed my feet in cream
and had plenty of the finest oils.[c]
7
"Those were the days when I went to the city gate
and sat in the public meeting of the elders.
8
When the young men saw me coming, they stepped out of my way.
And the old men stood up to show they respected me.
9
The leaders of the people stopped talking
and put their hands over their mouths.
10
Even the most important leaders were quiet,
as if their tongues were stuck to the roof of their mouths.
11
All who heard me said good things about me.
Those who saw what I did praised me,
12
because I helped the poor when they cried out.
I helped the orphans who had no one to care for them.
13
People who were dying asked God to bless me.
My help brought joy to widows in need.
14
Right living was my clothing.
Fairness was my robe and turban.
15
I was like eyes for the blind,
like feet for the crippled.
16
I was like a father to the poor.
I helped people I didn't even know win their case in court.
17
I stopped evil people from abusing their power
and saved innocent people from them.[d]
18
"I always thought I would live a long life,
growing old with my family around me.
19
I was like a healthy plant with roots that have plenty of water
and branches that are wet with dew.
20
I thought each new day would bring more honor
and be full of new possibilities.[e]
21
"In the past people listened to me.
They waited quietly for my advice.
22
When I finished speaking, they had nothing more to say.
My words fell gently on their ears.
23
They waited for my words as they would for rain.
They drank them in like rain in the springtime.
24
I smiled at them, and they could hardly believe it.
My smile made them feel better.
25
I was their leader and made decisions about their future.
I was like a king among his troops, comforting those who were sad.
30 "But now men younger than I make fun of me-
men whose fathers were too worthless to put with my sheep dogs.
2
Their fathers are still too weak to be of any use to me.
All their strength is gone.
3
They are starving with nothing to eat,
so they chew on the dry, ruined land.
4
They pull up salt plants in the desert
and eat the roots from the broom tree.
5
They are forced away from other people,
who shout at them as if they were thieves.
6
They must live in the dry riverbeds,
hillside caves, and holes in the ground.
7
They howl in the bushes
and huddle together under thornbushes.
8
They are a bunch of worthless people without names,
who were forced to leave their country.
9
"Now their sons sing songs to make fun of me.
My name has become a bad word to them.
10
They hate me and stay far away from me,
except when they come to spit in my face!
11
God has taken the string from my bow and made me weak,
so they feel free to do whatever they want to me.
12
They attack me on my right side.
They knock my feet out from under me.
They build ramps to attack and destroy me like a city.
13
They guard the road so that I cannot escape.
They succeed in destroying me, without help from anyone.
14
They break a hole in the wall and come rushing through it,
and the crashing rocks fall on me.
15
I am shaking with fear.
They chased my honor away like dust in the wind.
My safety disappears like a cloud.
16
"Now my life is almost gone, and soon I will die.
Days of suffering have grabbed me.
17
All my bones ache at night.
Pain never stops chewing on me.
18
God grabbed the collar of my coat
and twisted my clothes out of shape.
19
He threw me into the mud,
and I became like dust and ashes.
20
"God, I cry out to you for help, but you don't answer.
I stand up and pray, but you don't pay attention to me.
21
You have become cruel to me;
you use your power to hurt me.
22
You let the strong wind blow me away.
You throw me around in the storm.
23
I know you will lead me to my death,
to that place where all the living must go.
24
"Surely no one would attack a man who is already ruined,
when he is hurt and crying for help.
25
God, you know that I cried for those who were in trouble.
You know that I mourned for the poor.
26
But when I hoped for good, trouble came instead.
When I looked for light, darkness came.
27
I constantly feel upset.
And my suffering has only just begun.
28
I am always sad and depressed, without any relief.
I stand up in the public meeting and cry for help,
29
making sad sounds like the wild dogs,
like the ostriches in the desert.
30
My skin is burned and peeling away.
My body is hot with fever.
31
My harp is tuned to play songs of sorrow.
My flute makes sad sounds like someone crying.
Footnotes:
a.Job 28:7 falcon A kind of bird, like a hawk.
b.Job 28:22 Death and destruction Or "Abaddon," a Hebrew name meaning
"death" or "destruction." See Rev. 9:11.
c.Job 29:6 had plenty of the finest oils Literally, "Around the anointed
rock near me were streams of oil." This probably means Job had so much olive
oil that there were streams of oil running down the altar from the part Job
gave as a gift to God.
d.Job 29:17 Literally, "I shattered the teeth of the crooked and snatched
the victims from their teeth."
e.Job 29:20 Literally, "My glory is new with me and my bow in my hand
renewed." The words "glory" and "bow" might both refer to a rainbow-the
promise of good weather after a storm. Or this might be understood as, "My
soul feels new every day, my hand always strong enough to shoot a new bow."
Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Copyright C 2006 by Bible League International
