“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps 51:10). What a practical two-pronged request! Lord, get me back on track, and then help me to keep going on it! This petition is crucial, for, as H.A. Ironside says: “This is the secret of so many unanswered prayers. […]
“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom 5:20). About the year 1900, evangelist Peter Bilhorn received a song, “The Bird with the Broken Wing.” Using the idea that “The bird with the broken pinion Never soars as high again,” it warned that a “life that sin had stricken, Never soared as high again.” […]
God had done everything to isolate His people from the nations. Now He had scattered them there! “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia…” (Ezra 1:1). Right away we realize something dramatic has happened. Since the book of Joshua, the focus of the historical record has been the Promised Land, and, since David, […]
Read More… from February 25, 2025 — Ezra’s Place In The Bible
CHRIST our SYMPATHIZER: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses” (Heb 4:15). Blessed double negative! Yes, He can, and does, sympathize with His struggling people. Never is this seen more clearly than in the words, “Jesus wept.” L.W.G. Alexander writes: More wonderful words than these are nowhere found […]
“Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies” (Ps 119:22). Reproach means to be disgraced; contempt, to be disrespected. In a world that emphasizes perception rather than reality, and reputation more than character, it should be the desire of the believer to ruthlessly avoid anything that would bring dishonor on the […]
John Stott writes: “Note the recognizable sequence in the Gospels. When Jesus saw someone in need He had compassion, and when He had compassion He invariably acted. His compassion was aroused by the sight of need, and always issued in the alleviation of need. What His eye saw, His heart felt; and what His heart […]
Have you ever touched a live wire before? Quite shocking, isn’t it? Did you know, Christian, that there’s a live wire within you? Find out what it is… […]
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can,…to all the people you can….” —John Wesley Ezra continues the history of the Jewish people after the fall of Judah’s monarchy, but he is actually in the middle of a chain reaction of sorts. First in line is Jeremiah who, unlike the other […]