“In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps 16:11). “Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.…Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one […]
“When he is judged, let him be found guilty, and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few, and let another take his office” (Ps 109:7-8). What a strange phrase: “Let his prayer become sin.” This passage is applied to Judas, whose longings led directly to the betrayal of the Innocent One. Beware […]
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). If New Testament Christianity is to reappear today with its power and joy and courage, men must recapture the basic conviction that this is a Visited Planet. It is not enough to express formal belief in the “Incarnation” or in “the divinity of Christ”; the […]
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson Of all the losses Job suffered, surely it was the losses in his family that pained him most. The death of his ten children must have been dreadful. My great-grandmother lost four children in […]
“Oh, do not forsake me utterly!” (Ps 119:8). Once a week we will visit the longest psalm to consider one of 52 God-inspired prayer requests recorded there. Imagine claiming as our own these Spirit-led prayers that we know exactly match the will of God! This one emphasizes what we may call the Grace Gap—the unmeasured […]
“‘Is not my word like fire,’ declares the Lord, ‘and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’” (Jer 23:29). In Who Says, Fritz Ridenour makes the following observation: “Mighty potentates have raged against this Book, and sought to destroy and uproot it—Alexander the Great and princes of Egypt and Babylon, the monarchs of […]
It’s vital to note that Job advocated for his friends while still in the ash heap; blessing follows faith. It’s interesting that Job’s path to blessing involved advocacy. An advocate is one who pleads another’s cause, speaking to their advantage. “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends” (Job 42:10). A glorious example […]
“Elijah…prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (Jas 5:17-18). Water doesn’t usually gush from the well on the first move of the pump handle. Vance Havner writes: “Elijah lives in confidence that there will be rain at the proper time. He is in contrition, his head between his knees. […]
A helpful guide to the effective use of biblical evidence is the Emmaus Study Course, Ready to Give an Answer by David Reid. He writes: “God asks us to defend and confirm the gospel (Phil 1:17). When the apostle Paul wrote, ‘I am appointed for the defense of the gospel’ (Phil 1:17), he was a […]