CHRIST our TREASURE: “To you who believe He is precious” (1 Pet 2:7). The word “precious” is not an adjective but a noun. Hence the RV translates it, “For you therefore who believe He is the preciousness.” He is the essence and sum of all preciousness! Cyrus is reported to have said to Croesus, “The […]
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). As Robert Cleaver Chapman explained this: “Turn everything in life into something to talk to God about.” To use the typology of Leviticus 6:13, “A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.” Charles Wesley expressed this well in this hymn: “O Thou, whose […]
“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables…but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Pet 1:16). Amy Orr-Ewing writes: “Sceptics would be surprised by the number of extra-biblical writings which refer to events and places mentioned by the writers of the Bible. These writings come from a variety of perspectives and backgrounds, demonstrating that at […]
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Mt 16:25). One of the great secrets in life is that you only get to keep what you give away; love, joy, truth—they act like boomerangs that always return to us whenever we pass […]
“Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?” —Isaac Watts Psalm 22 is Messianic, the fourth in the Psalter. It is the most often quoted psalm in the New Testament. It would seem that crucifixion was invented by the Persians between 300-400 BC, in other words, 600-700 years after David penned […]
CHRIST the CONQUEROR: “When a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor” (Lk 11:22). Both from the case of the Gadarene demoniac and the one in the synagogue of Capernaum we learn that, great as was the sway of Satan over the bodies and souls of […]
“As your life was valued much this day in my eyes, so let my life be valued much in the eyes of the Lord, and let Him deliver me out of all tribulation” (1 Sam 26:24). Much can be gained in Bible study by asking: How did I expect this to conclude? Your life… valued […]
“The Lord is near to all who call upon Him” (Ps 145:18). William James Taylor, alias Bill Hennessy, alias Ed Lynch, learned he couldn’t hide from God. At the age of three, at his father’s San Francisco bar he grew to like the taste of liquor by dipping his fingers into the used glasses. By […]
“Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest…I myself should become disqualified” (1 Cor 9:26-27). The world is full of gifted failures. What marked the patriarchs and prophets, conquerors of Canaan and the early Church, […]