“All Your commandments are faithful; they persecute me wrongfully. Help me!” (Ps 119:86). They say death and taxes are the only sure things in life. But here are two things we can count on, too. One is that God’s Word will always speak what is right to me. The other is that some people will […]
Nineteenth century evangelist William Taylor tells the story of a prisoner awaiting his execution. Various Christians visited him in his death row cell, but all they said seemed only to make him harder and more resistent to the gospel. Then, writes Taylor, the townspeople requested a man “known of all men for his holiness and […]
CHRIST REVEALED: “It pleased God…to reveal His Son in me” (Gal 1:15-16). Andrew Murray writes, “In all our study and worship of Christ, we find our thoughts gathering round five points: the incarnate Christ, the crucified Christ, the enthroned Christ, the indwelling Christ, and Christ coming in glory. If the first is the seed, the […]
Caesar Augustus, founder of the Roman Empire, famously boasted, “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” The Carrara marble quarries on the north coast of Italy had opened just before he came to power, and he set himself to beautify his capital. But the glory of Rome has […]
“We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14). The word forgiveness in its primary sense means to send away or to abandon. Forgiveness is agreeing to pay the damages done by another, and then never bringing up the account again—sending them away, much like the scapegoat, the azazel. As far as […]
CHRIST the BEGINNING and the END: “I am…the Beginning and the End” (Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). In Gen 1:1, the heavens and the earth were created; in Rev 21:1, they pass away, to be replaced. In Gen 1:5, the bounds of night are established; in Rev 22:5, we see there will be no night there. […]
“The children of Israel cried out to the Lord” (Ex 14:10). There may have been close to 2,500,000 Israelites. This describes their spontaneous prayer meeting as the Egyptian army approached! I don’t imagine it sounded to God the way I hear it when my little grandchildren all clamor for my attention at once, but this […]
“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Mt 6:6). It’s getting harder all the time to find a quiet place and time to pray. Part […]
Job shifts the topic from external influences to internal ones. What happens when hope dies? Job describes a series of scenarios involving hope. For example, “a servant who earnestly desires the shade” hopes for a break now and again (Job 7:1-2). “And like a hired man…eagerly looks for his wages,” is it too much to hope for his pay […]