CHRIST the FOUNTAIN: “With You is the fountain of life” (Ps 36:9). Peter Cartright (1785-1872) is a remarkable example of the muscular Christianity that plowed up the fallow ground of the American frontier. Born to a poor, ungodly veteran of the Revolutionary War, he was converted at a gospel meeting a few miles from his […]
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You” (Jn 17:1). We know from our daily lives that there are two distinct ideas about time: the passage of time and a point in time. The Greeks had the same idea. Chronos gave its name to chronological time, and kairos […]
I was standing with some Christians in a small antiquities shop hard by the ancient pool of Siloam. The clerk, a Muslim, had been spoken to about the Lord Jesus, and in defense had launched into his own “personal testimony” of his conversion to Islam, a borrowed rendition from previous Christians who had witnessed to […]
CHRIST MANIFESTED: “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory” (Jn 2:11), that is, began to unveil His blessed character as revealing the Father. “The life was manifested,” life as God intended it to be, “and we…declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was […]
“My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they all were written” (Ps 139:15-16). How well do people around us really know us? How well do we know […]
How do you respond to someone who says: “I’d like to be a Christian but I don’t think I can live that kind of life”? Robert J. Little responds, “Christians are not expected to live the Christian life in their own strength. No one could do this. Part of the experience of conversion to Christ […]
“All things are mortal but the Jew…What is the secret of his immortality?” —Mark Twain The first theme of Psalm 118 (vv 5-21) either describes a person, or Israel personified, being rescued by the Lord. Why would we think it’s the nation being featured? First, the call is to Israel to be thankful (v 2). […]
CHRIST the LOVER of WHOEVER: “Whosoever believes in Him should not perish” (Jn 3:15): Mary McLeod, 15th of 17 children, was the daughter of ex-slaves so poor the children pulled the plows. When a mission school opened nearby, Sam McLeod asked God to help him select one child to go, all he could afford. Mary […]
“Now while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept very bitterly” (Ezra 10:1). This hardly seems the path to popularity! Confessing? Don’t you lose your status and […]