JESUS the SUPREME COMMUNICATOR: “No man ever spoke like this Man!” (Jn 7:46). So said the mesmerized officers who had been sent to arrest Him. “So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth” (Lk 4:22). This the testimony of Christ’s fellow townsmen. What of the […]
“Let my prayer be set before You as incense” (Ps 141:2). William Cowper wrote: What various hindrances we meet in coming to the Mercy Seat! Yet who that knows the worth of prayer but wishes to be often there? Prayer makes the darken’d cloud withdraw; prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw, Gives exercise to faith […]
Complete faith in Christ is not only the gateway to Life but also the pathway of Living. “The just shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17). Russell Kelso Carter, author of “Standing on the Promises,” made a profession of faith in Christ at age 15, but in his words, “I made a common mistake; I didn’t […]
CHRIST our CONSOLATION: “Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation” (Lk 2:29-30). Old Simeon, who prayed this prayer, was waiting for “the Consolation of Israel.” This is parakletos, the encourager, one who adds courage. In the days of the Scottish Covenanters, John Brown […]
“Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Ps 85:6). Maria Monsen, a Norwegian missionary in North China, began praying for revival. She sought a prayer partner who would join her in claiming the promise “that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will […]
Ravi Zacharias writes: “In the 1950s, Encyclopedia Britannica published its fifty-five-volume set, The Great Books of the Western World. One of the gifted minds behind the series was Mortimer Adler. The opening volume is a compilation of the great themes addressed by seminal thinkers during the last two millennia. Fascinatingly, the longest essay is on […]
You cannot betray a friend without, in the end, finding that you have stabbed your own heart. As with the last psalm, so with Psalm 55—David finds it soothing to have his thoughts accompanied by the strings section of the orchestra, especially when his nerves could be jangling because of those who “bring down trouble” on him […]
CHRIST the MESSIANIC HOPE: “We have found the Messiah” (Jn 1:41). How did Andrew know? The portrait of the Christ was so detailed and the Lord Jesus would match it at every point. He was the “seed” of the woman (Gen 3:15; Isa 7:14), born of the virgin Mary; from the tribe of Judah and […]
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jas 5:16). It is not admired prayers we need, but availing ones; not expansive, but effective. We can do without the fancy kind, but not without the fervent kind. William Law writes: “It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; nor […]