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 […]
“Then Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac,…I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant…” (Gen 32:9-10). C.H. Spurgeon writes: “I have a dear brother in Christ, Mr. Curme, who is the mirror of […]
H.P. Barker was visiting the doors when he asked a man, “Are you able to say, ‘My sins, which are many, are forgiven?’” ‘Oh no, I don’t think anyone can speak positively on that.” “What place do you attend on Sundays?” He pointed to the parish church. “Why, sir, every Sunday you repeat in that […]
CHRIST our SHEPHERD: “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own” (Jn 10:14). David, who well knew the characteristics of a good shepherd, describes in Psalm 23 the most convincing proof of such: contented sheep! As John Hooper (c. 1495-1555)—executed at the stake for his faith during […]