DAY 365    Read Psalms 145 through 150.

Today's reading:  This group of six psalms brings the collection to a triumphant end in a burst of praise to God.

Memory gem:  "While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being"  (Psalm 146:2).

Thought for today:
Thankfulness is the very heart of the gospel.  It is the heart of the Bible.  It is the heart of Christian life.

Jeremy Taylor, of the Church of England, once said, "Every furrow in the book of Psalms is sown with the seed of thanksgiving."

Thanksgiving is a universal solvent for the troubles and worries of the heart.  Thanksgiving is the divine catalyst that makes the miracle of a Christian life a reality.

Even though you may be suffering, even though you may have disappointments and sorrows, you can still thank God for the blessings you enjoy.  You can even thank God for the things that have troubled you, for they have helped to develop your character, helped to prepare you for a place in God's service here and for a place in His kingdom of glory to come.

George Matheson, one of Scotland's preachers, finally came to the place where he could even thank God for his blindness.  He said, "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn.  I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorn.  I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross, as itself, a present glory.  Teach me the glory of my cross.  Teach me the value of my thorn.  Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain.  Show me that my tears have made my rainbow."

And we can never forget the words of his song:
          O joy that seekest me through pain,
            I cannot close my heart to Thee;
          I trace the rainbow through the rain,
            And feel the promise is not vain
           That morn shall tearless be!

So let us say with the great apostle, "In every think give thanks"  (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  And above all, and through it all, and forever, let us be thankful for God's greatest gift, the Lord Jesus Christ, the assurance of God's love for us.

DAY 364    Read Psalms 65 through 68; 135 and 136.

Today's reading:  Whether you read these last two assignments at Thanksgiving time or as the final readings in the series, the theme is the same--praise to God for His goodness and mercy.

Memory gem:  "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever"  (Psalm 136:1).

Thought for today:
The fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving Day, and I am in favor of it.  It began with the very beginning of the settlement of our country by the Pilgrim Fathers, who came to this land seeking a refuge from religious intolerance and persecution.

        What sought they thus afar?
      Bright jewels of the mine?
    The wealth of the seas? the spoils of war?
        They sought a faith's pure shrine!
          Aye, call it holy ground,
      The soil where first they trod:
    They have left unstained what there they found--
          Freedom to worship God!
                             ----Felicia Hemans.

Our first national Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by George Washington in 1789.  He recommended to the people of the United States, on the request of both houses of Congress, that they set aside a day of public thanksgiving and prayer on Thursday, the twenty-sixth of November, "to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."

He also suggested that humble prayer be offered to God, not only thanking Him for the great blessings that the nation was enjoying, but seeking God's help that our national government might be a blessing to all the people by constantly and faithfully executed and obeyed.  What better wish could we have for our nation and our people today?

DAY 363    Read Revelation 21 and 22.

Today's reading:  "The great controversy is ended.  Sin and sinners are no more.  The entire universe is clean.  One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation....All things...declare that God is love."--The Great Controversy, p. 678.

Memory gem:  "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God"  (Revelation 21:3).

Thought for today:
This earth will be renewed.  It will be an eternal witness to the love of God.  God's people will not be pilgrims wandering about a sin-cursed world which Satan claims as his own.  They will be coming back home again, back to the garden from which they were driven.  Eden lost will be Eden restored.  The tree of life, while was here on earth once before, will be brought back from the heavenly land.

This is man's long-lost home.  It was lost through sin; it is regained through grace.  It is the "first dominion"  (Micah 4:8), restored to the human family when God makes all things new.  It is the "restitution of all things"  (Acts 3:21).  The New Jerusalem will descend "from God out of heaven"  and be the capital of the restored kingdom (see Revelation 21:2).

Look at the measurements of the city: 1,500 miles--some say on each side, some say the distance around.  In either case, it is the greatest city the world has ever known.  There will be room in it for everybody.  Should it have been possible for all the people who have ever lived in the earth to be saved, there would still be room for them.  There is always room for you, for anyone.  "Whosoever will" may "take the water of life freely," we read right here in the same chapter where it speaks of the wonder world of tomorrow.

DAY 362    Read Revelation 19 and 20.

Today's reading:  First we hear all heaven astir in preparation for the marriage supper of the Lamb.  Then we view the fearful events at the beginning and at the end of what we call the millennium.

Memory gem:  "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb"  (Revelation 19:9).

Thought for today:
If we think of the Holy City as the bride, then we know that the city is ready.  But it remains for the inhabitants of the glorious city--for you and me as Christians--to be ready, for soon the Bridegroom will ride forth in all His glory and authority as a conqueror to claim His own.

He comes forth as King of kings and Lord of lords.  No wonder the unprepared inhabitants of earth flee to the rocks and the mountains, begging to be hidden, buried, "from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb"  (Revelation 6:16).

In contrast to this are the wedding guests--the waiting church.  The promise is: "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb"  (Revelation 19:9).


When the Bridegroom comes, He leads His people back to the kingdom of His Father, to partake of the marriage supper.  Jesus spoke of this coming event when He told His disciples that they would "eat and drink at my table in my kingdom"  (Luke 22:30).

The waiting ones are the bride for whom He comes.  The kingdom and subjects of the kingdom are all one.  As guests they go into the wedding feast; as the bride they share the wedding gift bestowed by the Father as a token of His affection when "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven" are given to the saints.  "The time came that the saints possessed the kingdom"  (Daniel 7:22, 27).  Beautiful day, wonderful possession, glorious kingdom, heavenly marriage!

Let me ask you the question, Are you preparing for a place in the marriage supper of the Lamb?  "Blessed and holy" are such as do it.  Through God's grace, and in His due time, may that blessedness and holiness be yours and mine.

DAY 361    Read Revelation 16 through 18.

Today's reading:  The seven angels, one at a time, pour out the mixture they have been holding; fearful results follow.  Then John sees the final end of mystical Babylon.

Memory gem:  "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty ''  (Psalm 91:1).

Thought for today:
The word "Armageddon" appears only once in the Bible, and that is in the sixteenth chapter of Revelation.  It occurs in the story of the seven last plagues which are to fall upon the earth just  before the coming of the Lord in glory and power.  Armageddon is evidently a picture of what happens under the sixth of these seven plagues.

According to this prophecy, at Armageddon the kings of the earth will be gathered for the battle of that great day of God Almighty.  What is the outcome of this battle?  The answer is in verse 17: "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done."

In other words, "It is finished."  This is the end of the age, the close of the human history of the world.  God's voice proclaims, "It is done."  So it is clear that the battle of Armageddon is at the very end of time, as pictured in Scripture prophecy.  It will bring the final great division of mankind.  It will make manifest the destiny of every human soul.  It brings the end of the great controversy between good and evil that began when sin entered the mind of Lucifer in heaven.  Before this mighty battle and its immediate effects are over, the earth will be cleansed of all its sin and prepared to be the glorious home of God's redeemed.

This conflict has its spiritual and literal phases.  It is a battle, a war, named after a location or a place.  But it is also in its spiritual aspect the devil's final struggle against God's kingdom.

The signboards along the highway of time say to us: "Jesus is coming.  Get ready.  Prepare to meet thy God!"

Whatever you do, do not say, "I will wait until I see those armies gathering to Armageddon; then I will give my heart to God."  No man knows beforehand the exact order of events or how they will occur.  The climax will come suddenly.  Now is your day.  Now is your hour and mine.  Is your decision made?

DAY 360    Read Revelation 12 through 15.

Today's reading:  What tremendous visions!  The woman clothed with the sun, strange beasts, angel voices sounding from the sky, Christ descending on a cloud, angels holding vessels full of a potent mixture--powerful symbols indeed!

Memory gem:  "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters"  (Revelation 14:7).

Thought for today:
The more we study nature, the more we see the evidence and marks of a Master Workman.  No mere apprentice started the constellations in their majestic march across the midnight sky or kindled the myriad blazing suns in the Milky Way!  No novice planned the atomic arraignment in the molecule, the whirl of electrons, or the laws of chemical reaction.

The indelible signature of the Master Workman is everywhere: in the vibrations of light and sound, in the eye of an insect, in the ear of man, in the color of a sunset, in the bright shimmer of stars.  He made them; He sustains them.

The power and divinity of Jesus Christ need to be proclaimed today.  The so-called modernism in the church today and the evolutionary doubt expressed in many a pulpit have sadly reduced some preachers to mere animated question marks.

In this age of evolutionary skepticism, the world and the church need a strong message as an antidote to the anti-scriptural naturalism which dominates modern thinking.  In the fourteenth chapter of Revelation we have just such a worldwide message described.  In fact, we read there the main parts of the message itself and find that it announces God's call back to creationism and away from evolution.

This mighty message declares that this is a moral universe because men must face the judgment hour; and it calls upon all men to worship the living God, whose creative power is proclaimed by every part of the universe.  These words in Revelation 14:7 are quoted almost verbatim from the fourth commandment, where the Sabbath which Christ made at creation and honored in His flesh, is described.  Surely, such a prophetic forecast of a world message which exalts Christ as Creator and Redeemer should claim our earnest attention.

DAY 359    Read Revelation 8 through 11.

Today's reading:  After chapter 7 makes a pause in the opening of the seals, chapter 8 returns to the process.  Then it immediately introduces a new sequence--the seven trumpets with another parenthetical element.

Memory gem:  "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory"  (Matthew 25:31).

Thought for today:
Silence in heaven?  Yes, silence in heaven!

This is the end of the sevenfold history of redemption, the completion of God's plan for men in the Christian dispensation.  It is the end of the story, when God puts a period to history.  It is the "divine event, to which the whole creation moves."  It is the return of Jesus in power and great glory.

Heaven is emptied of its throng.  The songs of many angels round about the throne are stilled, because the singers are not there.  They are with Jesus on the gladdest mission of all their blessed ministry for the heirs of salvation.

When our Lord returns in His glory, He will have "all the holy angels with him"  (Matthew 24:31).  Not one will be left behind.  Heaven will be emptied of its angel throng as they accompany Him to earth to gather together His elect.  Earth's sky will be all aglow with radiant forms.  Think of the music here--songs such as human ears have never heard since shepherds watched their flocks on the starlit hills of Judea!  Heaven is silent, but earth is not.  When the righteous return with Christ and the holy angels to the Father's home above, heaven will be no longer silent.  At the coronation of the King the whole universe will rejoice in glorious song!

Friend, you and I may have a part in that song--the song of the redeemed as they praise the Lamb for His victory.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Revelation 9:11.  "Abaddon"--a Hebrew word meaning "destruction."
Revelation 9:11.  "Apollyon"--from a Greek word meaning "a destroyer."
Revelation 11:7.  "Beast"--a different word from the "beasts" of Revelation 4:6.  This wild beast symbolizes an anti-God power.

DAY 358    Read Revelation 4 through 7.

Today's reading:  As John views the glories around the throne of God, his attention is called to a book "sealed with seven seals."  The opening of each seal produces an impressive scene.

Thought for today:
We are living down in the latter days of the sixth seal.  Soon will come the trump of God, the shout of our Redeemer, the voice of the archangel which awakens the dead.  Those of us who are asleep in death will be raised to glorious immortality, and those who are living will "be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye"  (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52).  Then we shall all go home, "and so shall we ever be with the Lord"  (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Remember, we are now living just before the mountains begin to tremble, the islands to move; just before the heavens depart as a scroll when it is rolled together; just before the great prayer meeting when unbelievers pray to rocks and mountains to hide them.  Now, in this wonderful hour, it is our privilege to give our hearts to Christ, to give Him our lives, and to serve Him faithfully.  Now is the time to walk with Him every day.  Now is the time to pray that God will make preachers out of some of the young men who are studying His Word today--great preachers, greater than the world has ever yet heard.  If we are but willing, He will take men from the bench, from the office, from the trucks, from the fields, from everywhere--and women too.  He will make us all into workers for Him and use us where we are in the worldwide preaching of the gospel such as the world has never seen.

Will you not let God have your heart now?  Will you not let Him use you in some way to spread the gospel message of hope and blessing to earth's remotest bounds, thereby hastening the glorious coming of Christ to take us home?  May God help us all to be ready for the wonderful days just ahead.

DAY 357    Read Revelation 1 through 3.

Today's reading:  The generally accepted view dates the Revelation at about A.D. 96.  John, exiled to Patmos by the persecution of Emperor Domitian, received a vision of glorious assurance that his Lord was far greater than any earthly ruler.

Memory gem:  "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand"  (Revelation 1:3).

Thought for today:
The book of Revelation, the last book of the Holy Bible, is especially important to the people living in the last age of the world.  But many Christians have neglected this wonderful book of prophecy, and some even have the idea that it was sealed; but its very name, Revelation, means just the opposite.  And in its first chapter we find a blessing for those who read and hear the words of this book--our memory gem for today.

Notice, this book of New Testament prophecy is not the revelation of John.  Rather, it is "the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angels unto his servant John"  (Revelation 1:1).

Everything in this great book of prophetic symbols has been revealed by Christ, and because of that it ought to be of the deepest interest to all Christians.  Not only so, but it reveals Christ's plans for His people and for the world.

The apostle John was an old man, exiled from other Christians on the lonely island of Patmos, when the vision of Revelation came to him.  His enemies could shut him away from friends and fellow believers, but they could not keep the gates of heaven closed or hide him from the face of his Saviour.

In the midst of his exile the apostle John was permitted to see a vision of tomorrow.  On the Lord's day, when the Lord's people were meeting for divine worship and Christian fellowship, which John on his lonely island prison could not share, suddenly the heavens were opened, and he saw visions of God.

NOTE:  "Revelation"  (Greek apokalupsis) means "an unveiling."  "Asia" was the Roman name for a province in the western part of Asia Minor, now part of modern Turkey.

DAY 356     Read 1 John 5 and 2 and 3 John.

Today's reading:  The aged apostle said a great deal about love and about sinless living.  He expressed a concern about physical wellbeing also.

Memory gem:  "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth"  (3 John 2).

Thought for today:
Dr. Adam Clarke, the great Methodist commentator, reminds us that three things are pointed out in this inspired passage--three things of great importance: (1) health of body; (2) health of soul; (3) prosperity in secular affairs.

If you want these three things, seek for them in prayer and sensible living.  Health is an extremely important asset; next to our soul's salvation, the most important thing in life is health.  No one can enjoy life without a certain amount of health.

Millions of people who are not in the so-called poverty class are not properly nourished and as a result do not have good health.  One reason for this is plain ignorance.  They do not know what the body needs, they do not know the first principles of nutrition, they do not eat and drink properly.

Anyone who continually breaks the laws of physical living will suffer the penalty.  Millions do not drink enough good, pure water.  They forget that the body is largely made of water.  A human body is something like an electrolytic battery.  Another neglect is exercise.  People ride where they ought to walk.  If they need to get a spool of thread or a quart of milk at the corner store, they'll drive two or three blocks to get it instead of walking.

Another significant lack in the lives of millions is trust in God.  As a result they do not have peace of mind and are under continual tension and worry.  Minds are seething with dissatisfaction and fear of tomorrow.  No wonder we see so much ill health.

It is well for us to remember that God loves mankind.  He desires the optimum well-being of the human race.  God is the Creator of the world and of all things.  He is the Creator and Redeemer of mankind.  He loved the world so much that He gave His own Son to redeem sinful men.  This proves His concern for us.  His concern includes physical things too.