Ithaca Devotions

Saturday December 13, 2025

Close your eyes for a moment to the scenes of misery and woe, degradation and sorrow that yet prevail on account of sin, and picture before your mental vision the glory of the perfect earth. Not a stain of sin mars the harmony and peace of a perfect society; not a bitter thought, not an unkind look or word; love, welling up from every heart, meets a kindred response in every other heart, and benevolence marks every act. There sickness shall be no more; not an ache nor a pain, nor any evidence of decay – not even the fear of such things. Think of all the pictures of comparative health and beauty of human form and feature that you have ever seen, and know that perfect humanity will be of still surpassing loveliness. The inward purity and mental and moral perfection will stamp and glorify every radiant countenance. Such will earth's society be; and weeping bereaved ones will have their tears all wiped away, when thus they realize the resurrection work complete. Rev. 21:4

Exceeding Great & Precious Promise

My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure: ...yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. Isa. 46:10,11

What was it that held them (the Lord and the Apostles) so firmly and gave them such rest of mind while they suffered? It was their faith – their faith in the love, power and wisdom of God. They believed that what God had promised He was able also to perform, that His righteous and benevolent Plan could know no failure; for by the mouth of His prophets He had declared, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure....Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it." "The Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?" On the assurances of God they rested. In Him their faith was anchored, and it mattered not how fiercely the storms raged or how they were tossed by the tempests of life while their anchor still held fast to the throne of God. R1834,c2,p7

Daily Heavenly Manna (December 13)

Lay not this sin to their charge. Acts 7:60

HOW great a blessing it would be for all spiritual Israelites to learn well this lesson; viz., that if we accept the results of any matter as being good, and if we realized that we were guided to those results by divine providence, we should think and feel most generously, most kindly, toward those who were the instruments used by providence, notwithstanding the fact that they might have been unwilling instructors, or, like Joseph's brethren, have verily intended opposite results. Those who are enabled to take such a view of affairs and forces operating in their daily lives are enabled "always to triumph through the Lord," as the apostle expresses it. And such find no room for bitterness or railing, either against Satan or against any of his servants. `Z. '01-331` R2896:1

Weekly Manna (December 11)

My son, give Me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe My ways. Proverbs 23:26

THE heart, the will, thus given over to God, seeks to know the divine will, to catch the divine thought and to obey it in word and in act; and in proportion as this condition of the new mind is attained, in that same proportion will there begin to be a newness of life in every respect – in ambitions, hopes, sentiments and efforts. It is for this reason that the revelation of the divine will and plan is furnished to believers – that by growing in the knowledge of it, by thinking on these things, by filling the mind with the divine plan and will, the transforming influence may extend into every avenue of life. `Z. '01-324` R2891:1