“Your prayers…have come up for a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4). Some say God only hears “the sinner’s prayer” from unbelievers; Cornelius knew better. Take the story of Johnny who came from Italy to find a better life in America. Day after day he looked for a job. Then someone told him an Italian preacher, […]
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” (Lk 15:4). A blind woman once came to me and said, “Do you think that my blindness will hinder me from […]
“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Mt 6:13). Whatever does this mean? Is God in the habit of leading us into temptation? Doesn’t Scripture say, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does […]
Sir Robert Anderson, head of Scotland Yard from 1888-1901, was one of England’s premiere legal minds. He tells of his encounter with God after hearing a sermon by a preacher named John Hall. Anderson wrote of being captivated by his message of “forgiveness of sins, and eternal life as God’s gift of grace, unreserved and […]
“Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Lk 11:3-4). Hmmm…Give us and forgive us. Here are two daily requirements, neither to be taken for granted. One is the recognition that, no matter how well-educated or well-employed we are, not […]
Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician, was the author of Why I am Not a Christian. Katherine Tait, Russell’s daughter, wrote: “I would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him […]
“To be united to Christ by faith is to throw off the thraldom of hostile powers…Christ’s victory is ours.” —F.F. Bruce Job 41:13-17 describes Leviathan as an impenetrable fortress. “Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle?” (v 13). There’s no way for a mere human to strip him of his […]
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:9-10). With such economy of words, our Lord gives an inspired checklist of elements to include in our petitions. Immediately He states that we are to address “our Father” from whom comes […]
Charles Stanley (1821-1890), when given the opportunity to speak to a large crowd of Roman Catholics, said: “I want to prove that the doctrine of the Church of Rome, in the year 60, is the only true doctrine.” He showed them “that we are not in any uncertainty as to which was the true church […]