CHRIST our MESSAGE: “…that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Cor 4:10). Whatever outward forms it takes, Christian service fundamentally is transmitting Christ. Some years ago, in an old church in an English village, an elderly preacher was almost at the end of a very ordinary sermon, when he […]
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Lk 18:25). Microminiature sculptor Nikolai Syadristy has actually placed three gold camels inside the eye of a needle! Of course, the masterpiece misses the point. When Matthew and Mark tell […]
“Reach your finger here, and behold My hands” (Jn 20:27). H.A. Ironside recounts the story of a Roman Catholic woman who was lying very ill in hospital and in great distress because of the weight of her sins. A nun was called to the bedside, and promised to call the priest. In the meantime, a […]
CHRIST our SANCTIFICATION: “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us…sanctification” (1 Cor 1:30). “Sanctification” comes from the same root meaning of holiness, hagiazo. It means to be set apart, then to be wholly for God, and finally the process by which those declared right (justified) shall be made […]
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude vv 20-21). Here are the four legs to a Christian’s stability. In a world buffeted by contrary circumstances, human […]
John Polkinghorne, theologian and Professor of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University, comments on the difference between the biblical account of creation and Mesopotamian texts on the same subject: “…Though the accounts are clearly influenced to a degree by neighboring Near Eastern cosmogonies, they differ in a most marked and important way from those other creation […]
CHRIST the SPOILER of principalities and powers (Col. 2:15). To the eye of reason, the cross is the center of sorrow and the lowest depth of shame. In the midst of mockery, jest, scorn, and blasphemy, He dies. Earth rejects Him, and heaven affords Him no light, but darkens the midday sun in the hour […]
“And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” (Lk 18:13). What a prayer to offer! It opens Heaven to every undeserving sinner. It could be rightly translated, “God, be to me, the sinner, as […]
“The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into a furnace of fire; there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:41-42). Count the frail and fragrant blossoms spring has scattered through […]