Rarely are the right choice and the easy choice the same thing. God’s will is never said to be easy. At the pivot point in Ezra’s prayer, he says, “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this?” (Ezra 9:10). Have you ever been in a situation where you know something has to be done […]
CHRIST of the MIGHTY NAME. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). His name was given in JOYFUL PROCLAMATION at His birth: “You shall call His name JESUS” (Mt 1:21). Throughout His life it was used in SHAMEFUL DEGRADATION, as it often is to […]
“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (1 Thess 3:12-13). To be blameless […]
“Our gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance” (1 Thess 1:5). Note three aspects to assurance: “the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ” (Col 2:2); “the full assurance […]
God’s door is open. He knows the whole story. His heart is toward us. He wants to restore us. Are we ready? The prayer of Ezra (Ezra 9:5-15) plumbs the depths of shame and humiliation as he views the ragged landscape of the nation’s “iniquities [that] have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt…grown up to the […]
CHRIST the “CHIEF among ten thousand” (Song 5:10). Dr. A.T. Schofield tells the following: Some years ago I went down to the banks of the Severn to visit a poor girl dying of tuberculosis in a cottage of two rooms on the river’s bank. I found the river in flood, through which I waded, and […]
“I love the Lord, because He has heard My voice and my supplications” (Ps 116:1). Well-known missionary to China, Rosalind Goforth, writes, “One day, when my grandfather was a small boy, he went to visit his cousins in the south of England, their home being situated close to a dense forest. The children, lured by […]
Charles Spurgeon tells the story of an old man who heard a young man preach. When he was asked what he thought of it, he was slow to answer. At last he said, “If I must tell you, I did not like it; there was no Christ in it.” “No,” answered the young man, “because […]
Some of God’s servants seem to have instant success. Others walk right into trouble. But God… Ezra’s task of sorting out the “holy seed” (Ezra 9:2) in the Israelite marriages—where “holy” doesn’t mean sinless, but separated from the nations for God’s purpose—was extremely difficult. It was compounded by the fact that it wasn’t just the common people who had […]
Read More… from April 9, 2025 — The Ministry Of Unscrambling