There seems to be something wrong with the equation of life. Isn’t it obedience = blessing? Our general outline of Psalm 73 is simple: Asaph’s Dilemma (vv 1-12) and Asaph’s Deliverance (vv 13-28). Asaph could have begun the psalm with the words, “Don’t panic! There’s definitely a problem here, but there’s a solution as well. So keep reading.” Instead, […]
CHRIST the CONFIDENCE-BUILDER: We have confidence in His unchanging PURPOSE: “According to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him” (Eph 3:11-12). We have confidence in His unchanging PROMISE: “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent […]
“…making mention of you in my prayers: that…the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working […]
When William Featherston wrote, “For Thee all the follies of sin I resign,” he reminded us of what Paul confessed regarding his days as a brilliant but lost Jewish zealot: “being exceedingly mad” (Acts 26:11). Sin is a waste, defiling, disappointing, a self-inflicted death wound. G.C. Berkouwer observes about sin’s fundamental senselessness: “Therefore, since every […]
CHRIST our INTERCESSOR (Heb 7:25): To make intercession (en-toong-khan’-o) for someone is to first meet and converse, then to petition or plead on that person’s behalf. How encouraging is this! If we fail to pray for ourselves as we should, or fail to ask for what we desperately need, Someone Else is praying for us! […]
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 Jn 4:4). Nine times in his first epistle John uses the term “little children.” It is the diminutive form of the word teknon and has been translated by some […]
Is Christianity a crutch? It was Karl Marx who famously said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” There is truth in that statement, because millions have blindly followed their blind religious leaders, as the Lord Jesus described. But true Christianity is no mere religion, and certainly not a drug; it is a living relationship […]
CHRIST the MASTER DESIGNER: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well” (Ps 139:14). “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (Jn 1:3). It is generally accepted that an adult body consists of […]
“And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace” (Jer 29:7). Are we the first believers who have seen troubled times? Of course not. Every believer in one sense is a “resident […]