To be holy simply means to be wholly the Lord’s. God is all in on the project of us; He wants us all in as well. Jesus said to the Jews of His day, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (Jn 5:39). […]
CHRIST BEGOTTEN: “The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You’” (Ps 2:7). This is the first occasion where our Lord is spoken of as begotten of the Father. Christ’s “begottenness” is a matter for serious thought, but some modern translations are clearly wrong when they translate the last […]
“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb 13:5). In our verse, discontentment is seen in a glaring light. The things we “have” obviously include the One who is everything we could ever need and […]
It was Blaise Pascal who said: “Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ; we do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ.” At the Cross we find both revealed. God’s love, mercy and justice respond to the sinner and his sin. Look at what Christ did to reconcile us to […]
The students had listened to the evolutionary hypothesis for their whole high school experience. So they asked their teacher to give one opportunity for their fellow students to hear the other side. When he reluctantly said, “Yes,” he had no idea how life-transforming it would be. […]
“I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes” (Ps 119:15-16). We know why there are 22 sections of verses in Psalm 119, because the sections represent the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. But why eight verses in each section? Numbers have significance in all areas of […]
JESUS the PATIENT FARMER: “Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors” (Jn 4:38). Almost every Christian has heard about Hudson Taylor, who blazed a trail for God through China. China Inland Mission brought over 800 missionaries to the country. But few have heard of Karl Gützlaff. Born to a German tailor, his […]
“Please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now,…and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You” (Neh 1:6). One mark of spiritual maturity is to shoulder the failures of your people. Adrian […]
George Whitfield (1714-1770), who was used by God to spread the Great Awakening, became perhaps the best-known preacher in Britain and America in the 18th century. In May of 1750, after hearing Whitfield preach, John Thorpe and three friends attended a local “Hell-Fire Club,” an atheists’ gathering. To amuse his friends, with amazing accuracy Thorpe […]