Daniel – Amos

— Read and listen to the Bible being read at the same time; also, A. R. Wells, 1908, shares a (self-application) “tiny meditation” on each chapter.

. Click for a brief easy English summary of the book of Daniel.

Suggestions:
1) Read the “tiny meditation” before and/or after you read the Bible chapter to help make a self-appllication of the scriptures read.
2) Want to use both your eye gate and ear gate in taking in the Word? Just click the “Read” chapter to get started.

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Click to Read Daniel 1—My Fare

Let my food be pulse and water, O God of temperance and power! I would be strong in will to resist the temptations of the senses, that I may be strong in body to do Thy will. Grant Thy help for this, my Father.

Read Daniel 2—My Insight

Things which man’s wisdom cannot understand, Thou wilt reveal to the simple. It is not in the minds Thou hast created to pierce the mysteries of the universe, but it is in them to receive Thy revelation of all mysteries. Oh, let me do Thy will, that I may know Thy doctrine!

Read Daniel 3—My Furnace

When I bow down to God, and will not bow down to mammon, a furnace is kindled for me, and hot anger rages against me. It is a real furnace, and no mirage. It is a genuine peril, and no fancy. But from the midst of the fire moves the God of the fire, and stands by my side! Whom or what shall I ever fear?

Read Daniel 4—My Seeming

I do not go upon hands and knees and eat grass with the brutes, but often my soul goes upon all fours and wallows in the sty. What to me that I look like a man if inwardly I am a beast?

Read Daniel 5—My Warning

I have a kingdom. Though it is small, it is all mine. Though it is poor, I am rich in it. I did not earn it or deserve it, but it was given me, and without my desert. Ah, let me see no warning over against it, no writing on the wall! I will acknowledge the Lord at all times, and His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Read Daniel 6—My Lions

There are lions in the way of doing God’s will. They howl against me. They gnash their teeth upon my resolutions. They snarl upon my prayers. But I will continue to pray. And I will continue in the path. For I will remember how the lions slink away before God’s sons advancing, and how they fawn about his feet who does God’s will.

Read Daniel 7—My Fate

Shall I be one of the saints, the judges of all the earth? Or one of the evil beings that are judged? Am I to sit on a throne, or lie at the bottom of a pit? Which is to be my fate, of glory or shame, of misery or blessedness? Ah, my fate is in my own hands this day.

Read Daniel 8—My Sorrow

When I hear of the woes of the world, do I faint like Daniel? Am I sick, as he was? When I perceive evil tendencies in the times, is my heat grieved as at a personal loss? How far, in reality, is the Kingdom of God my kingdom, and God’s cause my cause?

Read Daniel 9—My Confession

If I should begin my confessions, and carry them through to the end, where should I begin and where should I make an end? For they must be as many as my days and as long as my years. I confess myself a sinner before Thee, O God who dost know all my sins. Yea, Thou dost know them better than I know them myself.

Read Daniel 10—My Strength

When I consider with whom I have to do, then my heart faints within me. When I remember whom I have offended, against whom I am in rebellion, who it is that stands before me as a judge, my tongue is stricken and my spirit falls to dust. What strength have I in Thy presence, O my God, unless it be given me by Thyself?

Read Daniel 11—My Exploits

God has great deeds for me to do. I do not know what they are, because I do not know Him closely; but I do know Him, and that He has great plans for me. Oh, let me come to know Him better, that I may enter into His great plans for me, and, in His strength, carry them out!

Read Daniel 12—My Shining

I wish to shine on earth, in these fleeting years of time. Ah, what folly to disregard the everlasting brilliance! I must be wise in the wisdom of God. In that wisdom I must turn men to God. That is the secret, the twofold blessed secret, of eternal shining.
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Click for a brief summary of the book of Hosea.

Read Hosea 1—My Name

Is my name Ammi, or Lo-ammi, God’s, or not God’s? Not, What do men call me? But What does God call me? What is the new name, the character-name, the name of revealing, that will be conferred upon me in the land of open vision and frank naming?

Read Hosea 2—My Door of Hope

Dark though my life has been, it need no longer be dark. Hopeless though my future seem, it need no longer be hopeless. No, not an instant longer. The door of hope is at hand. Its knob is only a step before me. It is not locked. It is open. Someone stands there, beckoning to me.

Read Hosea 3—My Respite

I need not fear; I shall have all chances for repentance. God will even hold me from my sinning by force at times, that when released I may not return to it. Oh, the patient planning of my Teacher! How doubly sinful to disappoint Him!

Read Hosea 4—My Permission

If I am thoroughly joined to my idols, the Lord will leave me alone. I am allowed to sin to the full, to heap up the measure of the divine wrath. Oh, fearful opportunity! Oh, terrible license!

Read Hosea 5—My Search

Though I go with flocks and herds to seek the Lord, and though I plan altars full of sacrifices, if my will is not sacrifice, if my heart goes not with me, then shall I seek the Lord in vain. Alas, to seek Him in vain who never turns from any sincere approach!

Read Hosea 6—My Following

I cannot know the Lord unless I follow on to know Him. Not in an hour or a day am I to know Him whom all angels in all eternity can study without fully learning. It is an everlasting pursuit, this knowing God. How good that my God cannot be known in a day!

Read Hosea 7—My Beleaguers

I am beset. I am surrounded. Turn one way, and enemies face me. Turn another way, and I am walled in by foes. Ah, it is my own doings that thus beset me about. Ah, it is my own miserable past that thus imprisons my present.

Read Hosea 8—My Reaping

I, who have sown the wind, do I think to reap other than the whirlwind? The seeds that lie in the furrows are even now peering above the soil. Has soil a transforming power? Will it change wind to sunshine?

Read Hosea 9—My Bread

Have I so used my possessions that I cannot use them for God? Have my flocks been for my maw, so that they cannot lie upon the altar? Has my bread been for my appetite, so that it cannot be devoted to My God? Are my goods so selfishly mine that they can no longer serve my highest uses?

  Read Hosea 10—My Time

Verily it is time for me to seek the Lord. Long time have I sought other gods. Long time have I learned what they can do for me–what they cannot do for me. The time of punishment has come. The time of disillusion has come. The time of death draws near. Surely, it is time, sad and shameful time, to seek the Lord.

Read Hosea 11—My Bands

Well might the Lord have led me with the cords of a wild beast, but He has drawn me ever with the cords of a man. Well might He have bound me with bands of terror, but He has constrained me with the bands of love. And yet, ah, wretch that I am! I rebel against His gracious guidance!

Read Hosea 12—My Memorial

Be my memorial the Lord, as He was the memorial of Israel! Let my life be so joined with His designs, my honor so associated with His glory, that there may be no separation of the two. I would merge my memory in the history of the Kingdom of God.

Read Hosea 13—My Grave

What place can be a grave for me? What death can have terror for me? Where is the sting of death and where its victory? There is no grave to him who lives with the Ever-Living; and there is no defeat, even by death, for him who dwells with God.

Read Hosea 14—My Return

With words, for they are all that I have. With sacrifices of my lips, for I possess no other flocks. With humility and repentance and with fitting speech I will return to my God. For I am a prodigal, and I have spent all else in the far country.
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Click for a brief summary of the book of Joel.

Read Joel 1—My Famine

When I am without Thee, O God, I am without all things. I have no food without Thee, and all my fields are bare. I have no flock without Thee, and all my folds are empty. It is desolation without Thee, and yet I go running after the pestilence, and consort with the plague!

Read Joel 2—My Visions

Why have I eyes, but to see more than is visible? Why am I on the earth, but to peer beyond the earth? Why am I in this life, but to know further than this life? O Lord, open Thou mine eyes! O God, enlighten my understanding!

Read Joel 3—My Valley

“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!” And I there among them. I with my evil past. I with my gloomy future. I with my tainted present. Ah, but my Savior is there, too. And therefore Hope is there.
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Click for a brief summary of the book of Amos.

Read Amos 1—My Transgressions

They are three, yea, four! They have been heaped up so long that God will not turn away the punishment. It will burn as a fire. It will weigh as a chain. It will devour the palaces of my peace. But God is in that fire.

Read Amos 2—My Flight

Am I swift? Flight shall perish from me. In the day of the Lord’s wrath, of little avail are feet or wings. Though I took the wings of the morning, though my retreat were beyond the sea, it would be as if I moved not.

Read Amos 3—My Prophecies

I would not speak my own words in any speech. I would wait till God has spoken, and then repeat His words after Him. For my words are emptiness, and all their syllables are vain.

Read Amos 4—My Preparation

I am preparing my food for the morrow and my clothing for the next season. I am preparing my work ahead of me, and the work I shall set others to doing. I am preparing to meet men, and show them my works and myself. But there is one preparation I am forgetting to make. Prepare to meet thy God, O my soul!

Read Amos 5—My Enjoyment

The houses I have built, shall I live in them? The vineyards I have planted, shall I eat of them? The work I have done, shall I reap the rewards? Yes, if it was the Lord’s work; but only in the Lord’s time and only in the Lord’s place. Would I have it in any other time or place?

Read Amos 6—My Ease

I have a bed, but woe to me if I lie on it! Couches have I, but woe to me if I use them! There is no time for rest. There is only time for work. In work shall be my rest and my ease, all the days of my life!

Read Amos 7—My Opponents

When men rise up against me, let me remember that they are only men. When they bid me be silent, let me inquire only what God would have me speak. When they threaten death, let me not forget that God offers life.

Read Amos 8—My Famine

I am hungry, and I do not understand what food I want. I am thirsty, and I forget what fountain will quench my thirst. I feed upon air, I drink the wind, I spurn bread and abhor water. The famine is in my soul; it is not in God’s world around me.

Read Amos 9—My Sifting

God is sifting my life, as in a sieve. He shakes it back and forth, passions and powers and possession, hopes and fears, ambitions and failures, what I am and what I might be. Back and forth He shakes it all, and not one grain of true wheat is allowed to fall to the ground.