How desperate do some people need to be before they cry out to the Lord? Really desperate, it seems. We begin Book V of the Psalter with a thriller! It’s the tale of four rescues. God is the ultimate EMT. The byline reads, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand […]
CHRIST in the KNOW: “His disciples said to Him, ‘See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God’” (Jn 16:29-30). What was it that […]
“We remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise’” (Mt 27:63). “When He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered…” (Jn 2:22). His enemies remembered after He died, but His disciples didn’t remember until after He rose! J.K. Johnston tells a story about a town that […]
Historian Arnold Toynbee, in an essay titled Christianity and Civilization, presented at Oxford University, said: “Democracy is another leaf from the book of Christianity, which has also, I fear, been torn out and, while perhaps not misread, has certainly been half emptied of meaning by being divorced from its Christian context and secularized; and we […]
I’ve got it, but I still don’t get it. What have I got? Salvation from all my sins — past, present, and future. (Acts 13:38-39) A home in heaven when I die. (John 14:2-3) Jesus as my traveling companion through life. (Hebrews 13:5-6) All the riches God has, free for the asking. (Romans 8:32) Membership […]
God’s forgiveness actually changes the past—from shameful tragedies into glorious triumphs of grace. “Hallelujah!” So begins the last of the 17 psalms in Book IV of the Psalter. It may surprise you, since Psalm 106 features Israel’s failures, that the psalm also ends with “Hallelujah!” (v 48). How is this possible? As Paul writes, “where sin abounded, grace abounded […]
WHAT the SON was “MADE” (ginomai) or BECAME in His RESURRECTION and EXALTATION (Part 3): “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). “Being made so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they” (Heb 1:4). As well, “By so […]
“I have done justice and righteousness; do not leave me to my oppressors. Be surety for Your servant for good; do not let the proud oppress me” (Ps 119:121-122). David is unabashed in laying out his concerns to the Lord. (Would I like my prayers published in the world’s all-time best seller?) David is under […]
H.A. Ironside tells of open-air meetings in Albuquerque, NM. A gambler who had moved there for his tuberculosis had been convicted of sin, but was unsure there was mercy for him. When Ironside visited him, “he said, ‘I’m praying; I’ve made up my mind that if I have to go to hell, I’ll go praying.’” […]