The enemy wants to keep me from drawing near the Master. Thankfully he’s powerless to stop me. Have I misled you? I just spoke of these Songs of Degrees as being about going up to the house of the Lord to worship. And what does the first one say? “In my distress I cried to the […]
JESUS, whose PRAYER was HEARD: “who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear” (Heb 5:7). But was He saved from death? Here we are helped […]
“And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them…” (Jer 45:5). These are the Lord’s own words through Jeremiah to Baruch. It was a bad time to seek anything of permanent value in a land soon to be ravaged by the Babylonians. The same of our doomed world: everything around us is […]
“What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Cor 4:7). C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity: “Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or your moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given […]
JESUS the HARD WORKER: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (Jn 4:34). No one could deny the prodigious work of William Carey in India, following his Master’s example. Among many other accomplishments, the English cobbler left behind a translation of the Bible in every […]
“O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me!” (Isa 38:14). At its root, the word “undertake” means “to braid.” This is the only reference where the word is so translated. Usually it has the idea of pledge or surety—when someone with resources guarantees a loan for another. Such a person braids their hope and future […]
Edward Studd, after making a fortune in the tea business in India, returned to England to raise his family in a life of lavish excess, living for the world that is soon to be burned. But in 1875, that changed when their father was saved under the preaching of D.L. Moody. The three eldest boys, […]
CHRIST the UNYIELDING LOVER: “…having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). C.H. Spurgeon tells of traveling to visit an elderly farmer. The preacher was surprised to see that the barn had an unusual weather vane. Instead of a bird or an arrow or a ship, […]
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice” (Prov 21:2-3). Perhaps you’ve heard the adage, “When all is said and done, more is said than done.” I’ve found these lines from the Proverbs […]