“Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean” (Lk 5:12). Bruce Olson was raised in a Lutheran family in Minneapolis. He heard sermons on the need for change, but never about the power to change. One night at age 14, he prayed, “Lord, everything is messed up around me. And its messed up […]
Olympic athletes train for years to be awarded a gold medal. But the woman sitting in the front row — greatly damaged by sin — had her sights set on a far higher prize. […]
“He who is least among you all will be great” (Lk 9:48). Samuel Rogers wrote: “That very law which moulds a tear, And bids it trickle from its source, That law preserves the earth a sphere, And guides the planets in their course.” Paul understood this. The smallest movement of a believer ripples out into […]
Our battles aren’t fought against flesh and blood, but they won’t be won by our flesh, either. We are now introduced to Reuben’s neighbors on the east side of the Jordan River. While it was ideal land for cattle ranches, the area was fraught with danger. World-bordering, no matter how temporally beneficial, is always a perilous place to live. […]
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me…and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (Jn 14:21). The call of Christ is clear, comprehensive and compelling. He gave His life for me and now offers to live His life in and through me. I owe Him everything. […]
“Revive me according to Your lovingkindness, so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth” (Ps 119:88). We have already looked at this prayer for personal revival in verses 25, 37, and 40 of this amazing psalm. And we’ll see it again in verses 107, 149, 154, 156, and 159. NINE times David requests […]
Chuck Colson, one-time “hatchet man” for President Nixon, was being interviewed by an Australian radio host. With just 20 seconds left, the host asked, “Mr. Colson,…the goals most people strive their whole lives for, you have achieved—only to see it collapse as you fell from the White House to prison. But now you’re out, leading […]
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.… For each one shall bear his own burden” (Gal 6:2, 5). Alexander Smellie, chronicler of the Scottish Covenanters, tells of one of Christ’s noblemen imprisoned by Claverhouse on lonely Bass Rock. The motto on his coat of arms read, Sub pondere cresco: “I grow […]
Dr. Gerald McKibben comments on the current argument that the degree of similarity between the DNA of men and chimpanzees supposedly proves the evolutionary link between humans and apes: “God used DNA and RNA as the backbone of His genetic blueprints for all organisms, from one-celled ones to the great blue whale. He did not […]