William MacDonald writes: We teach our children to accumulate; Christ calls them to forsake all (Lk 14:33). We teach them that it is not respectable to be poor: Jesus said, “Blessed be ye poor” (Lk 6:20). We tell them to stay home and make good; the Lord tells them to “go…into all the world and […]
Have you ever promised to pray for someone but then forgot? Here’s an encouraging story just for you. […]
“Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord” (Ps 119:1, NLT). It’s remarkable how far Josiah, governed by conscience and reverence for God, was able to bring spiritual change to the land. Obviously you don’t need a Bible verse to be convinced that witchcraft, idolatry, and offering children to Moloch are wrong. […]
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 […]